andotherbiases - Tumblr blog

[andotherbiases]

Sylvia Plath, from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

[andotherbiases]

I used to work for a trade book reviewer where I got payed to review people's books, and one of the rules of that review company is one that I think is just super useful to media analysis as a whole, and that is, we were told never to critique media for what it didn't do but only for what it did.

So, for instance, I couldn't say "this book didn't give its characters strong agency or goals". I instead had to say, "the characters in this book acted in ways that often felt misaligned with their characterization as if they were being pulled by the plot."

I think this is really important because a lot of "critiques" people give, if subverted to address what the book does instead of what it doesn't do, actually read pretty nonsensical. For instance, "none of the characters were unique" becomes "all of the characters read like other characters that exist in other media", which like... okay? That's not really a critique. It's just how fiction works. Or "none of the characters were likeable" becomes "all of the characters, at some point or another, did things that I found disagreeable or annoying" which is literally how every book works?

It also keeps you from holding a book to a standard it never sought to meet. "The world building in this book simply wasn't complex enough" becomes "The world building in this book was very simple", which, yes, good, that can actually be a good thing. Many books aspire to this. It's not actually a negative critique. Or "The stakes weren't very high and the climax didn't really offer any major plot twists or turns" becomes "The stakes were low and and the ending was quite predictable", which, if this is a cute romcom is exactly what I'm looking for.

Not to mention, I think this really helps to deconstruct a lot of the biases we carry into fiction. Characters not having strong agency isn't inherently bad. Characters who react to their surroundings can make a good story, so saying "the characters didn't have enough agency" is kind of weak, but when you flip it to say "the characters acted misaligned from their characterization" we can now see that the *real* problem here isn't that they lacked agency but that this lack of agency is inconsistent with the type of character that they are. a character this strong-willed *should* have more agency even if a weak-willed character might not.

So it's just a really simple way of framing the way I critique books that I think has really helped to show the difference between "this book is bad" and "this book didn't meet my personal preferences", but also, as someone talking about books, I think it helps give other people a clearer idea of what the book actually looks like so they can decide for themselves if it's worth their time.

[andotherbiases]

I think there’s something to be said for fanfiction that loves canon in a way that’s rude. Like thank you for this wonderful thematic tragedy made out of this character’s entire arc ending in death, it was emotionally and intellectually moving, but also fuck you fuck you fuck you they live, this time and every time they live, they never died, their flaws are not their undoing, actually they have no flaws, actually they save everyone, actually who cares about a story, any story, where this one dies, actually i cared about that story so much i made a new one, actually i cared so much i unmade the old one, you gave me morals and i left them for the mortal, but they’re mine now and i will never let them die, actually thank you, actually fuck you, strongly worded letter to follow

A kiss for canon and spit in its face all at once, it’s great

[andotherbiases]

some fucking resources for all ur writing fuckin needs

* body language masterlist

* a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

* a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

* 550 words to say instead of fuckin said

* 638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

* some more body language help

(hope this helps some ppl)

[andotherbiases]

idk if you have migrated here from Twitter, hello!

not sure what this space holds in the future, but it’s good to be here :)

[andotherbiases]

CHOI WOO SHIK and KIM DA MI as CHOI WOONG and GOOK YEON SOO OUR BELOVED SUMMER (2021) dir. Kim Yoon Jin — Night and Day; Cole Porter

[andotherbiases]

How can I explain this? Am I really cursed? Or has this ridiculous trip bewitched me? Or maybe… I knew all along… that this would happen from the very moment we met again.

OUR BELOVED SUMMER (2021) dir. Kim Yoon Jin

[andotherbiases]

We've been enjoying S2 of Bridgerton, so a bit of fun for a Sunday! Put your story in the tags

[andotherbiases]

Since the beginning, the feeling is mutual.

sunghoon x youngseo parallel [ A Business Proposal EP 7]

[andotherbiases]

SEOL IN AH & KIM MIN KYU as JIN YOUNG SEO & CHA SUNG HOON A BUSINESS PROPOSAL (2022) dir. Park Seon Ho; E08 — Let’s go home. Young Seo, you lied about being hurt, didn’t you?

[andotherbiases]

SEOL IN AH & KIM MIN KYU as JIN YOUNG SEO & CHA SUNG HOON A BUSINESS PROPOSAL (2022) dir. Park Seon Ho; E08 — Let’s go to the hospital first, and then… And then?

[andotherbiases]

And from now on, I’ll make sure that you never forget.

[andotherbiases]

cleaning out my photos and forgot I wrote this.

[andotherbiases]

So the atlas six is gonna be a TV show

what’s your fancast?!!!

[andotherbiases]

help

[andotherbiases]

doesnt my job understand i have a blooming fanfiction writing career to work on

[andotherbiases]

Some of you have never shipped a rare pair and it shows.