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Topics - Callan S.

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31
Yatwerian denial,
(click to show/hide)
, or unable to resist giving, rebukes in regards to his children (including if any were subsquently killed by Kellhus that we don't know about)

32
General Misc. / Concious entities: crouching poster, hidden dreamer
« on: November 15, 2013, 06:03:10 am »
Warning: Self indulgent post!

I think I've suddenly realised I blundered by bringing in the idea of indulging some fiction here
http://www.consciousentities.com/?p=1516#comment-209984

I think it's a bit like bringing junk food to a diet group...they've been trying to resist indulging in fiction and here I bring a big old steaming plate of it. I just didn't think! But that's what everyone says, right.

The reply
Quote
Yes, let’s be self indulgents for a moment. Why just a receiver !!? the model can be made much more complex: a full duplex communication system, with on-board control units, auto-pilot, virtual reality scenario generator, etc etc.

One thing that I find particularly difficult to fit in this indulging model, is for what reason if “we are in the ether” our consciousness and memory is so attached and linked to the brain, why can’t we have any experience (or remember) on the other side? (at least for ordinary humans). It seems once linked to the brain all the information has to flow through it.

And you know what I want to say? The worst thing is, I don't even buy into the ether thing. But what I want to say is why don't we experience our bodies lying in bed, when we dream?

The wackyness of regular psychology makes it hard to pin these things.

But I think it'd be bad to say that. But I had to let it out! Even as I've miss stepped! Thanks for indulging me!

33
General Misc. / 'Save the world/save X' movies/stories - the scaling of X
« on: November 08, 2013, 08:56:14 am »
Does anyone have a chart of how many movies are 'save the world' type movies?

I'm wondering if over time what is to be saved has gotten bigger and bigger?

I'm wondering it in regard to the idea of the erosion of meaning. That for something to be a big deal to save, it has to get bigger and bigger to escape the erosion of meaning for anything smaller?

34
General Misc. / Yet another 'Sexist Art?' thread
« on: October 27, 2013, 11:16:49 pm »
Ran across this - the first two images

http://www.gamingaswomen.com/posts/2012/03/dear-wizards-why-you-should-care-about-women-in-the-new-edition/

I'm not sure women (some women, anyway) actually understand the male gaze particularly much. Or don't atleast understand (assuming I'm a reflection of the majority of the male demographic) the majority of the male gaze demographic.

Yeah, there's some side boob there - but that woman if fucking scary!

If you saw either of them in a dark alley, what would you think?

Second image "RUN!"

First image "Oh, a cos player!"

And on the side boob, there's a 'physipole' place down the road from me where women apparently (behind the curtained front) don skimpy outfits - just with other women around. Because they like the glamour (to me it probably follows on from the belly dancing arts tradition, in such a way). Some women, not for the male gaze, like wearing form showing gear. And the woman in the second image - yeah, you might male gaze - and you might end up like a male praying mantis for doing so (with your head chewed off!).

Okay, some men (hopefully not many men, but possibly) just can't see strength in a woman - can't even see it even if a womans hand rested apon a blade punged into that mans chest cavity (some men are just so blinkered/so thick). But those same men wouldn't see strength in the first picture! Hell, even I see it as a cosplayer!

But I've spilt my evaluation before letting ya'll come to your own. So what do you think.

Oh, and I just comment on the first two images because I basically agree on the ones below - just male gaze stuff. What extra pisses me off is that Harleyquin is an anarchist psychopath...but she still shaves her armpits!?!?!? Fuck this shit! Well okay, you know what - it is possible she might care about it. It'd be worth talking with the artists/authors about it. But I'm guessing she has no armpit hair because they just don't draw that. In which case, bullshit on supposed anarchy - can't even have some hair under her f'n arm.

Now, having cast my Saajan summoning circle...I yoke him to this world/thread! >:)

35
General Misc. / Tectonic movement - I want you to compare maps...
« on: October 26, 2013, 04:13:37 am »
I was curious and googled this today.

I want you to look at the map of Earwa, then compare it to the prediction imagine (the second earth image) presented here.
http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/earth_news/2007/01/tectonic_plate_.html

In particular note the internal sea...

Edit: Actually that might explain the eucalyptus...

36
General Earwa / TSA related art and stuff. (II)
« on: October 13, 2013, 01:55:03 am »
That's some art that really lives within the books world!

EDIT [Madness]: Changed thread title.

37
General Misc. / Sapper's Lullaby
« on: October 08, 2013, 12:50:06 am »
I came across this account of a RL diplomat who does part of his work through song. He struck me as a kind of real life Bard. I thought it was inspiring in the sense that in a world of art created for whim and to be consumed at whim, some of the songs he wrote were about people who died and were heard by their families - a while different world from the world of whim. It made me think of art/writing that genuinely does matter. It might help inspire writing.

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/asapperslullaby/default.htm

Transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2012/s3863902.htm






38
My overall prediction is that the genre will literally leap from fantasy to sci-fi.

That the world is actually far future - that various technological societies developed the means to cast a sort of damnation internet not just across a world, no just across many worlds, but across whole milky ways. They thought this mechanism would make everything 'right'. Possibly the one god is a super computer. They set up some sort of hippy-esque low technology life on the planet we know as Earwa, which is actually nestled amongst their frightening cthulu-tech damnation internet.

Then eventually some sort of catasrophe occured where the humans on earwa were nearly wiped out. The remaining ones, out of denial mostly, simply didn't teach new generations about the past. Thus it was forgotten. With the Inchoroi are actually another branch of human beings (originally) - though a quite widely distributed, given how long it took them to find Earwa.

But yeah, not a twist on ye old days, but instead its sci fi, dragged down to the genre of fantasy by the pure force of fictional events and the qualities of forgetting.

I was already surprised about having space aliens in fantasy - with that, this doesn't seem so implausible to me.

39
Writing / Short writing experiment
« on: June 18, 2013, 10:38:17 am »
I'm just trying some patterns and thought I'd test here - probably the real test will be to repeat the pattern. But I thought I'd start here, get things rolling.

~~~

The lost rune of Umbrica - said to open the Stanshion gates to the inner depths plane. Simple enough to make a perilous journey, navigate ancient traps in a twisting maze and nab it...if a mad old sniper circling in a blimp above the runes open pedistal room wasn't pinning you down behind stone block covered with depictions of - to be honest, I'm not sure what those figures are doing? The stone near my head explodes with the sound of a richocheting bullet! He must have circled around - it's hard to tell without sticking your head out. The temptation is to look. Old, old instincts, all luring you to the not so good idea, given a musket weilding maniac hovers fifty feet above!

40
I'm playing this at the moment and just wondering if anyone else has a PS3 and can connect to the web? It's a free download - 1.3 gig. It's a first person shooter, with wide skill tree to slowly fill out from skill points gained in combat (and also you gain 1 skill point every five seconds even when you're not playing)

41
Some sites registration page ask some kind of question in regards to the book they are about.

Is it possible to add questions to the registration page here?

42
General Misc. / So, whut up with male 'privilege'?
« on: May 02, 2013, 03:08:02 am »
I ran across this idea of 'male privilege' recently.

The idea of calling it a 'privilege' handed out to other males (which is a fallacy anyway) that they aren't rape targets seemed utterly false to me. Indeed to call it a 'privilege' seems by common standards to legitimise the sex preditor. As much as regular law is seen as legitimate and regular law hands out privileges, to call who a sex preditor will or wont rape some distribution of 'privilege' seems to legitimise the sex preditor as some governing authority as much as regular law is legitimise.

Got my reply to it deleted in responce, of course. Hopefully the admin on that other board helped rather than hindered female liberty in enacting such intellectual dishonesty.

To me, the post I replied to (I can link if you want) seemed to have women base every activity they do in life, first and foremost, around evading sexual assault. Eg, not having a ladies night because that might be fun, but a ladies night as a kind of wagon circle. Out of fear.

Is that liberty?

Yeah, as a secondary concern women might want to set up defences. But as a secondary concern, that's not making your life revolve around such things.

But when someone treats fear of sexual assault as the normalised first and foremost way a woman should think about her life - is that liberty?

And to call it male privilege - it smacks of 'just world' bias to call it privilege, as if some system is being enacted?

Or what, when I think calling it 'privilege' is legitimising the sad twisted wrecks that the predator is, am I mistaken? Sounds kind of legitimising to me? But then neuropath has the serial killer as the new rock star, so maybe I'm behind in the times?

Anyway, it seems like it's a big word around town and I remember it from the ROH run ins a bit now - so whut up with male 'privilege'? Society, I question you through your fragments!  ;D

43
So I've kind of set myself a few handicaps in working out some writing. I'm keening away from violence as being the thing to get everything revolves around. And let alone focusing on a last unicorn, I don't really want to focus on the dudes who have the special (and uncommon) power (whether it be martial power or magical).

I'm thinking of a world mostly covered in wilderness, with small villages scattered around. The main focus would be those peddlers who travel on foot in between. The world has magic and occasional trans dimensional portals opening randomly. Raptors hunt amongst its forest (they are too tough to fight, and they are actually the smallest of threats, really).

To add more handicaps, I don't really want to fall into the trope of heavy, heavy social interaction focus (probably also cause I'm male!) in villages then gloss over the many hundreds of kilometers of walking in between villages. The traveling aught to be focused on, instead of just a plot device to get to social interaction in so and so village (which is what most journeying stories seem to do).

Basically the focus is on the peddlers who are poor. Traditional stories are about dudes who get swept up into some big dealio because they have some useful resource (skills, items, lineage, etc)

I just don't have it in my heart to so genuinely believe such a miraculous resource story enough to earnestly write it.

So now I ask, and I know all the trope handicaps I've put in will make you think 'sorry, is there anything you are cool with?', what can I have the character doing? Sliding down slopes, shuffling over slippery log bridges, suffering lunge attacks from wolves and starving dogs, swinging across chasms, etc.

The thing is, violence typically has a climax point, potentially an unexpected climax point. Traveling just doesn't build up to a climax, unless you count arriving at a destination and exchanging goods for a few coin (which lacks any unexpectedness as a climax, pretty much).

Thought I'd think out loud on the matter.

44
https://twitter.com/DuvalMagic/status/328576788001349634

This is still pretty ground level, but if you want a sort of semantic apocalypse manipulation scenario, it's like this - they hand out little codes much like a skinner box, wont tell you the reasons because why on earth do they owe someone like you anything. And the reasons are for treating folk as blips to go through the machine.

And the guys got the classic sense (and this is reading him charitably) that he's in some sort of big game, where you can play as ruthlessly as you do in chess and if the other guy don't like it, well then don't play. So he can go with curt little 'If you don't like it, you're welcome to not follow me'. Again, it's a charitable reading that he thinks he's in some large game and that you can sever ties with other people and that'll just be fine. In a board game you can indeed be ruthless with other people (because once you get out of the game, you reestablish the non boardgame ties with other folk who played)

That's how the CEO's will generally rationalise the whole neuro data about conciousness and such - that the CEO is in on the big game (this delusion will be particularly compelling because he happens to be 'winning' the big game). The game will 'be the thing', shunting the personal ramifications of the neuro research away in favour of winning.

But hell, I just signed up for their shift club.


45
Philosophy & Science / Moral Conundrum - Short Changed
« on: April 26, 2013, 12:21:35 am »
Say you're at a pie shop - you're looking at the pies, then you overhear the customer ahead of you claiming he gave the counter person $10, not $5. Both sides speak their claim, in every slightly louder voices.

To you (or heck, lets be honest, to me), the customer seems to genuinely believe his claim. And while you find the lady behind the counter to be kind of bitter, but you think she's the kind who is honest in order to better stab at a world which made her bitter ("See, I am better!"), so is probably even more honest. Or maybe that's a charitable reading.

Customers an old man - he says the ten was the only note in his wallet. Maybe he miss saw.

Then again, if you're down to $10 in your wallet (to the point where you definately know that's all you've gote), why are you buying sugery treats?

For myself, I didn't know what to say - I was stuck in a loop of waiting for more information.

Anyone have anything like this raised in school? I mean, surely it matters somewhat (sure, it doesn't matter to being a more efficient cog in some corporate CEO's empire, but all the same...)

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