[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 3 points 2 months ago

Nabokov's Lolita really shouldn't be pigeonholed as merely that, but I guess the movies are another story.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Dolores in Lolita was like twelve though, at least in the book.

edit: also I don't think Yud recommending The Softcore Adventures Of A Six-year-old In A Thirteen-year-old's Body as a Very Normal Book to his considerable audience fits this particular discourse.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 3 points 6 months ago

He wasn't usually. Another difference with siskind was that with TLP you mostly knew where you stood, or at least I don't remember any near-end-of-text jumpscares where it's revealed the whole thing was meant as really convoluted IQ apologetics, or some naive reframing of the latest EA embarrassment.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 4 points 6 months ago

He seems very aware of how writing works at least, and unlike EY some of his fiction is serviceable.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 2 points 9 months ago

That's the trouble with talking about thoroughly disingenuous people, you get bogged down with defining if they meant to mean what they wrote. It's all optics.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 5 points 11 months ago

Something like a weekly general topic thread would work great for this I think.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 4 points 1 year ago

If books could kill is so much fun.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

edit: accidentally removed the quote i was commenting on when editing in Stross' comment, here it is again:

a belief in psi powers implicitly supports an ideology of racial supremacy, and indeed, that's about the only explanation I can see for Campbell's publication of the weirder stories of A. E. Van Vogt.

Maybe it's me but I don't think that is so self evident a claim to be posited without further explanation.

Best I can come up is he means the necessary implication of having superabled people in a fictional setting is that you have a de facto racial elite, even if the concept rarely breaches the surface of the text, like in the unfortunate sequel to the Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.

Edit: he addresses it in the comments (can't find a way to direct link from phone, its comment #14) I wasn't far off:

If you're a glutton for punishment, (re-)read Slan by A. E. Van Vogt.

Secret superrace with super-mind powers! It's totally a meme in vintage SF (goes back at least as far as Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race in the 19th century) and you rapidly end up with eugenics and breeding for desired traits (eg. psi powers).

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's supposed to be from the book the moneyball guy wrote about him that was recently released, according to several seconds of googling 'SBF on Shakespear'.

[-] Architeuthis@awful.systems 4 points 1 year ago

If they open their APIs so I can coordinate different brands without downloading a bazillion different apps and as long as I can do it without my data leaving the house, I'll think about it.

view more: ‹ prev next ›

Architeuthis

joined 2 years ago