berryholy

[berryholy]

Terry Pratchett started his career as a crypto-monarchist and ended up the most consistently humane writer of his generation.  He never entirely lost his affection for benevolent dictatorship, and made a few classic colonial missteps along the way, but in the end you’d be hard pressed to find a more staunchly feminist, anti-racist, anti-classist, unsentimental and clear-sighted writer of Old White British Fantasy.  

The thing I love about Terry’s writing is that he loved - loved - civil society.  He loved the correct functioning of the social contract.  He loved technology, loved innovation, but also loved nature and the ways of living that work with and through it.   He loved Britain, but hated empire (see “Jingo”) - he was a ruralist who hated provincialism, a capitalist who hated wealth, an urbanist who reveled in stories of pollution, crime and decay.  He was above all a man who loved systems, of nature, of thought, of tradition and of culture.  He believed in the best of humanity and knew that we could be even better if we just thought a little more.

As a writer: how skillful, how prolific, how consistent.  The yearly event of a new Discworld book has been a part of my life for more than two decades, and in that barrage of material there have been so few disappointments, so many surprises… to come out with a book as fresh and inspired as “Monstrous Regiment” as the 31st novel in your big fantasy series?  Ludicrous.  He was just full of treasure.  What a thing to have had, what a thing to have lost.

In the end, he set a higher standard, as a writer and as a person.  He got better as he learned, and he kept learning, and there was no “too late” or “too hard” or “I can’t be bothered to do the research.”  He just did the work.  I think in his memory the best thing we can do is to roll up our sleeves and do the same.

[berryholy]

Hm i wonder why i feel so disconnected? *watches from afar* *watches from afar* *watches from afar* *watches from afar* *watches from afa

[berryholy]

this is not a drag on fanfiction but if you find yourself consistently saying “wow fic is better than most published stuff!! and it’s free!!” it might be a sign that your brain is ready for and craving more complicated literature than the books you are used to gravitating towards

[berryholy]

any and all english language fandom purity culture discourse becomes absolutely pointless the second you start reading chinese fic. some of you spend your days yelling about what kink should and shouldn't be allowed on ao3 and meanwhile in the same amount of time some fujoshi girlie minding her business halfway across the world and accessing ao3 via vpn has already gleefully posted multiple fics that are twice as filthy as the smuttiest fic strawman example you could possibly come up with for your petty arguing. and none of the tropes are tagged. you would not survive the winter

[berryholy]

nate: here's our hitter, eliot spencer. he's the best of the best at combat and weaponry

nate: no one is better than him at disarming large numbers of enemies without going down

nate: he can identify weaponry by sound and organizations by fighting style, hair cut, and shoes

nate: we use him for honeypots

[berryholy]

BREAKING NEWS: softest material in the world has been discovered, scientists calling it "kitty tummy fur"

[berryholy]

"u better not be coquettish grima wormtongue when i get there"

me:

[berryholy]

Personality hire

Working Cats

[berryholy]

I’m functioning. But like… in a haunted house kind of way.

[berryholy]

I love themes of repression in horror

[berryholy]

Wait so is the mandate of heaven and the divine right of kings the same kind of concept, or have I massively misunderstood one or the other?

[berryholy]

occasionally I am struck dumb by the sublime beauty of the world in the small moments, you know?

egg

[berryholy]

When you've been a writer for long enough, commas become more of a spiritual practice than a grammatical one.

Could I explain the actual rules of how they’re used? Absolutely not.

Do I rely on sensing a tremor in the force to tell me where to use them? Yes and this has never failed me even once.

[berryholy]

Being a bi guy quite possibly the funniest sexuality like dammmnnnn I know who John Waters is and jerk it to twinks in panties but I got a coffee date with Hetero Jessica from work at 3 thats her name heteroooo jessica thats her name folks thats what we call her hertero jessica

[berryholy]

your only job on this earth is to be so intrinsically yourself that the right people gravitate toward you and the wrong people move out of your way

[berryholy]

[berryholy]

huge fan of the depth of a good purple but another area that draws me is definitely around aquamarine/turquoise/seafoam. you can not go wrong once the green starts getting just a tinge more blue. a gal could certainly do worse than to pull over there and stay a while