amielbjacobs

[amielbjacobs]

I think this is more the case for Tumblr and, perhaps, fandom culture than it is for contemporary online culture in general. Reddit, for example, tends to have a very reified idea of what "good art" is, and (IMO) one of the bigger problems on that platform is disparaging people who fail to meet those standards - even though you often have to fail numerous times before you can succeed. Discords vary, but it's not uncommon to see those spaces dominated by self-published Kindle writers, people hoping to make money.

But it does bug me that fandom spaces nowadays are totally unwilling to consider fanfic as art rather than as, like, a toy. We used to have a certain defensive confidence in ourselves, we used to feel like we needed to defend our art against a society that rejected it. But now society has accepted fanfiction, but only as, like, a silly pursuit, as masturbation fodder, as personal therapy. But that's not the only thing fanfic can be. A long time ago, there was a reckoning in society, and science fiction was judged to be an acceptable form of art, not just a plaything for children. More recently, we've seen the same evaluation for video games and comic books. Why are we, as fanfiction authors, so determined to reject the artistic lens that game devs and comic book artists have fought for?

I keep thinking about how contemporary online culture seems like it's trying to make Henry Dargers out of its writers. Pretty much the whole internet right now is bent towards encouraging people to write stories completely for themselves.

There is one crucial way that writing differs from all other art forms. In music, painting, textiles, etc. etc. having something to communicate is optional. You can produce beautiful things that are simply beautiful and have no particular thought or message behind them.

Writing is the only art form that has communication built into the very material it works with. When you use words, you are by definition communicating. When you write and it is truly, purely for yourself, with absolutely no audience in mind, what you end up with is the work of Henry Darger - structureless, deeply disturbing stories made up of unfiltered psychosexual fantasies, that form a far too detailed psychological portrait of the man who wrote them. Henry Darger is a fascinating artist, but almost nobody wants to read his fiction. Even fans of his don't often attempt to read his novels.

Your stories should be for someone, I don't care who it is. It can be your friends, it can be a fandom, whatever. Trying to remove the communication from writing is like trying to knit without yarn.

[amielbjacobs]

[amielbjacobs]

Heads up, there's a wave of scammers targeting writers/artists/roleplayers on Discord. They'll message you out of the blue asking whether you're a writer or artist - if you say you're an artist, they'll ask to see your art, and if you say you're a writer, they'll show you stolen art and try to sell you on a commission of your characters/world. I've got like five DMs about this in the course of the past month. Don't send them your art.

[amielbjacobs]

Reverse Mulan about a young man who disguises himself as a noblewoman and has to learn how to do passive-agressive politicking at dinner parties.

[amielbjacobs]

(gripping the skink with both hands, pale and feverish, sweating and shaking as I look at myself in the mirror) “killing a character is a valid writing choice that can be a crucial plot mechanic and lend beauty and depth to the story as a whole” (wretches up blood into the sink) “even when it’s my favorite character”

[amielbjacobs]

🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦 Pride march was held in Kyiv, Ukraine for the first time since the beginning of full-scale invasion. It's dangerous for big crowds to gather for a long period of time due to potential russian airstrikes, so the event was smaller and shorter than usual, but still important and powerful.

[amielbjacobs]

“Women don’t have rights in Iran, they are homophobic in Iran!”

A black woman’s dying body was used to incubate a fetus because the state said so and the Supreme Court, regurgitating debunked talking points, ruled that trans kids could be denied gender affirming care that is proven to save lives. Does that justify a foreign power bombing New Jersey indiscriminately? Like some of y’all don’t give a fuck about LGBTQ Iranians or women in that country because I never saw a people get free through just having their shit blown up

[amielbjacobs]

The Old Book Bazaar of Istanbul (read: heaven)

[amielbjacobs]

@godblessthesickos

Haunted Books

[amielbjacobs]

twitter historically sucks but man this is a banger of a tweet

[amielbjacobs]

has anyone else noticed how having romantic feelings for someone is not the most dignified experience ever

[amielbjacobs]

In tankie clownland, it's a complete mystery why this happened (and it's best not to mention it)….

[amielbjacobs]

people are really fucking clueless about generative ai huh? you should absolutely not be using it for any sort of fact checking no matter how convenient. it does not operate in a way that guarantees factual information. its goal is not to deliver you the truth but deliver something coherent based on a given data set which may or may not include factual information. both the idolization of ai and fearmongering of it seem lost on what it is actually capable of doing

[amielbjacobs]

Source

[amielbjacobs]

[amielbjacobs]

my trophy from the 2014 ABO olympics

[amielbjacobs]

I have some news for members of the united states armed forces who feel like they are pawns in a political game and their assignments being unnecessary.