The "I don't want to talk about AI" thread, and the new topic is: something that rhymes with "clicks"

[ElectricBlue]

I'll bet you read the Star Wars fan-fiction twice, just to make sure you don't like it

Good man .

 

[Z_TheWriter]

I was going to say, in my original provocapost, that folk will try to convince me that LOTR is great literature. You lot need to read more, frankly .

LOTR is great world building and excellent storytelling. I will totally give you that it has too many too long descriptions of nothing happening, and the section(s) with Sam, Frodo and Gollum in the wilderness is glacial.

 

[TheLobster]

View attachment 2581227

IT'S A TRAP!!!

Nice, but what about A New Hoe and Return of the J-Cup?

 

[YmaOHyd]

I was going to say, in my original provocapost, that folk will try to convince me that LOTR is great literature, next. You lot need to read more, frankly .

 

[NuclearFairy]

View attachment 2581285

I sat here waiting for it to load properly for a bit before squinting at the text and realizing that it's not my crappy internet's fault. XD

 

[StillStunned]

LOTR is great world building and excellent storytelling. I will totally give you that it has too many too long descriptions of nothing happening, and the section(s) with Sam, Frodo and Gollum in the wilderness is glacial.

I recently listened to the whole thing on audiobook, narrated by Andy Serkis. It's actually very, very good writing.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

I recently listened to the whole thing on audiobook, narrated by Andy Serkis. It's actually very, very good writing.

I love Lord of the Rings, don't get me wrong. My dislike of Tolkien's long winded descriptions doesn't mean I think they're badly written, just too long too often.
In fairness though it has been over a decade since I last read it.

 

[StillStunned]

I love Lord of the Rings, don't get me wrong. My dislike of Tolkien's long winded descriptions doesn't mean I think they're badly written, just too long too often.
In fairness though it has been over a decade since I last read it.

My experience with the audiobook was that it barely dragged at all. I think it helps to see the conflict in the story as (at least in part) nature versus industry. From that perspective, the scenery becomes another set of characters: some good, some evil.

 

[ColtonWrites]

My experience with the audiobook was that it barely dragged at all. I think it helps to see the conflict in the story as (at least in part) nature versus industry. From that perspective, the scenery becomes another set of characters: some good, some evil.

I wonder if it's a bit like Shakespeare- its meant to be performed, not read? Or at least better when performed.
I remember finding Tolkien very difficult to read until I'd seen the movies - I gave it an attempt, had given up a bit into book 3, but restarted after the movies and enjoyed them all that time.
Like how A Midsummer Night's Dream was incomprehensible to me until I saw it performed, and then it made perfect sense.

 

[StillStunned]

I wonder if it's a bit like Shakespeare- its meant to be performed, not read? Or at least better when performed.
I remember finding Tolkien very difficult to read until I'd seen the movies - I gave it an attempt, had given up a bit into book 3, but restarted after the movies and enjoyed them all that time.
Like how A Midsummer Night's Dream was incomprehensible to me until I saw it performed, and then it made perfect sense.

What struck me was the rhythm of his sentences. It's something that I go on about here a lot, and I think it comes from the same place: alliterative poetry (not that I'm on JRRT's level, but I did spend quite a lot of time at uni studying Old English and Middle English).

I think English writing really benefits from treating it like it's going to be read aloud. Using sounds and rhythm to emphasise the story, and draw the reader's attention to particular details, and I recognised a lot of that in the audiobook. It helps, of course, if you have someone like Andy Serkis doing the narrating.

 

[TheRedLantern]

And (pretty sure of this, but my brain is feeling a bit fried so I can't think of concrete examples) in literature having a hand or arm chopped off is symbolic of castration/unmanning (it's a bit more subtle than "wounded in the thigh", which is just about as explicit as you can get).

At first I thought of this as an amusing fact, and then I was plotting a scene and I needed a swift, violent act that would signal that the protagonist had ended all possibility of physical threat from an antagonist but without killing him. I was like, "hand's gotta come off." The pattern's there for a reason.

 

[StillStunned]

At first I thought of this as an amusing fact, and then I was plotting a scene and I needed a swift, violent act that would signal that the protagonist had ended all possibility of physical threat from an antagonist but without killing him. I was like, "hand's gotta come off." The pattern's there for a reason.

And getting a prosthetic hand fitted is the second part of the sequence, from Nuada of Irish mythology to Luke Skywalker to Jaime Lannister.

Blinding is another literary euphemism for castration.

 

[TheLobster]

Blinding is another literary euphemism for castration.

At this rate, flossing and trimming nails are gonna be another such euphemisms.

 

[TheRedLantern]

Today I learned how much of literature turns out to be dudes talking about the status of their dongs. I kinda don't feel so bad for writing erotica now.

 

[TheRedLantern]

At this rate, flossing and trimming nails are gonna be another such euphemisms.

Flossing and trimming are symbolic of Big Dong Energy, so you are close

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Today I learned how much of literature turns out to be dudes talking about the status of their dongs. I kinda don't feel so bad for writing erotica now.

Dudes talking about their dongs, or you know flowers being vaginas. Always the damn flowers.

 

[cw5523729]

Dudes talking about their dongs, or you know flowers being vaginas. Always the damn flowers.

What's wrong with flowers?


Flowerphobe.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

What's wrong with flowers?


Flowerphobe.

The problem with flowers is the teacher in every single damn Danish class in school ever always going on and on about the sexual symbolism of these flowers in the background of a short story where nothing happens! Why can't we read anything else Birthe? WHY!?

I may have a little bit of unresolved anger at what passes for Danish literature in classrooms...

 

[StillStunned]

Today I learned how much of literature turns out to be dudes talking about the status of their dongs. I kinda don't feel so bad for writing erotica now.

Or maybe Literature professors are just obsessed with them.

The problem with flowers is the teacher in every single damn Danish class in school ever always going on and on about the sexual symbolism of these flowers in the background of a short story where nothing happens! Why can't we read anything else Birthe? WHY!?

I may have a little bit of unresolved anger at what passes for Danish literature in classrooms...

See?

 

[cw5523729]

The problem with flowers is the teacher in every single damn Danish class in school ever always going on and on about the sexual symbolism of these flowers in the background of a short story where nothing happens! Why can't we read anything else Birthe? WHY!?

I may have a little bit of unresolved anger at what passes for Danish literature in classrooms...

So what you are saying is that more porn needs to include actual flowers or that more flowers need to be accompanied by naked people?

Either way, I see big marketing opportunities for florists everywhere!

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Or maybe Literature professors are just obsessed with them.

See?

YES! THANK YOU!
-----------------------------

So what you are saying is that more porn needs to include actual flowers or that more flowers need to be accompanied by naked people?

Either way, I see big marketing opportunities for florists everywhere!

Hey good for florists, they probably need it.

What I'm actually saying though is that language/literature teachers up through high school need to either step off or step up their game! Way too many people have their perception of the entirety of literature ruined because they're schematically dragged through the same analyses of the same boring stories year after year. Do something interesting, or leave me alone to read my fantasy novels in class.

 

[cw5523729]

Hey good for florists, they probably need it.

I personally find the erotic floral arrangement industry sorely lacking

What I'm actually saying though is that language/literature teachers up through high school need to either step off or step up their game! Way too many people have their perception of the entirety of literature ruined because they're schematically dragged through the same analyses of the same boring stories year after year. Do something interesting, or leave me alone to read my fantasy novels in class.

Well, while I agree that literature teachers pushing Literotica on students to keep them engaged in the material sounds intriguing, at least here in the US I feel like it could be problematic in schools...

 

[TheLobster]

I personally find the erotica floral arrangement industry sorely lacking

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Well, while I agree that literature teachers pushing Literotica on students to keep them engaged in the material sounds intriguing, at least here in the US I feel like it could be problematic in schools...

It occurs to me that you may have just hit the nail on the head - albeit not the nail you were aiming for.

I hadn't considered it before, but maybe the problem actually derives from literature teachers being incredibly obsessed with sex. But since students are by and large underage, they need to find something where they can harp on about the symbolism of sex. Actual sexual content would be inappropriate. These stories then tend to be ones where nothing happens, possibly because if something else also happens, then students would grab onto that instead of allowing the teacher to live in their sexual symbolism fantasy world.

Maybe... Or maybe I'm just still bitter about them ruining entire genres for me forever.

 

[ColtonWrites]

Maybe... Or maybe I'm just still bitter about them ruining entire genres for me forever.

I cant stand most historical fiction for exactly this reason.

We spent SIX WEEKS on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In Honors English! It took sooo long and they analyzed all the enjoyment out of what should have been a really fun book.
Same with The Great Gatsby. It took my wife's love for the book to even get me to watch the movie, which got me back to the book. but when I gave it a chance without analyzing it to death, I enjoyed it.