Author of The Perils of Sasha Reed and The Venus Spectacular. Safetyism in art is evil and must never be tolerated.
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I’ve enjoyed the exchanges with people around the world here, but lately, I was reminded of an evil trend that still stalks this site: the harassment of Japanese creatives by self-righteous social justice moralists.
If any Japanese people (especially creatives) are reading this, understand that these harassers are not representative of international fans and can be safely blocked or ignored. Do not cede anything to them, because they are dishonest and obsessed with control.
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Several people have asked: why does ‘diverse’ content spark backlash now when it didn’t before?
I think it comes down to one thing: removal.
In the past, inclusionary moves didn’t try to clear out the previously enjoyed things. Kim Possible did not replace James Bond, she was just another secret agent you could watch alongside James Bond. In video games, serious action girls existed alongside miniskirted vixens, and everyone was fine with that. Avatar: The Last Airbender existed alongside Teen Titans. The Hunger Games existed alongside Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.
But now, the priority seems to be not addition, but subtraction.
It’s not enough to have a new Jedi; you have to remove the old ones. It’s not enough to have a female super-spy; you have to remove James Bond. It’s not enough to have serious action girls in your video game; you have to cover up or delete the vixens. It’s not enough to have new video games with modern sensibilities; you have to remove the old ones, or censor them in re-releases. It’s not enough to have new novels that fit modern ideological priorities; you have to censor the old ones.
That’s the chief difference between then and now when it comes to inclusionary work. New Thing was treated as something cool you could watch, in addition to what you already liked; there was no sense that Old Thing was bad and had to be erased from existence.
And thus, inclusionary work has an unfair stigma attached to it. Because works with badass female protags have been used to replace or denounce well-liked male heroes, or characters get race- and/or gender-swapped to get rid of the “problematic” old version, having any female protag, or any non-white protag becomes an uphill battle that doesn’t need to happen. The cultural context has shifted due to all the attacks on classic works in the name of inclusion.
Which sucks, because I enjoy writing female characters — not because of some inclusionary mission, but because of taste. It did not need to be this way, and there is very little I can do to change that. All I could do is find people who can appreciate what I do, even if it’s not a broad audience.
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It also throws the viewer for a loop. Upon hearing the term “fascist,” you’ll typically think of right-wing culture issues. You won’t expect fascist economic or industrial policy, since “fascism” in the wider culture is never discussed in those terms.
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Recently I saw a YouTube video that disdained “fairytale endings”. It made me think: modern mainstream storytelling is a demoralization machine. All the heroes are bitter, and all the old folks are failures, all to destroy any sense of confidence you may have. (cc @J0hnADouglas)
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I can’t hold my tongue about this any longer. This idea that boys should read what they’re told to read instead of what they’d want to read is toxic and should go away.
Some time earlier, I saw a mutual of mine arguing with someone about boys and reading — namely, why fewer and fewer boys are reading. My mutual quite reasonably said that it’s because the fiction books put out by major publishers are mostly written by and edited by women. The other person answered with the idea that boys should read the books being offered from the major publishers because then they’ll learn “empathy.”
That, right there, is a toxic attitude to have.
Whenever the subject of boys and reading comes up, the discussion is always about what boys *should* read, never about what they’d *want* to read. The very idea of giving boys what they want is seen as a kind of social backwardness, an embrace of a toxic mindset. Boys’ tastes are inherently problematic and should be shunned, goes the thinking.
It never occurs to any of these people to cater to boys’ fantasies instead of disdaining them.
If you’re in a position to change this (most indie authors are not), forget ‘should.’ If you’re worried that boys aren’t reading enough, try pushing something they’d actually want to read. Not what you feel is good for them, but what they’d *want* to read.
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Looks like ignoring the reboots may be a viable strategy after all. (h/t @DavidVStewart’s YouTube channel.)
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I have a theory about Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It’s not sourced by anything, it’s just a hunch.
The historical disrespect has nothing to do with Japanese audiences at all. Instead, the entire game was meant as an attack on American anime fans.
Anime fans in the US are perceived as right-wing. This is because since 2014, right-wing viewers flocked to anime to get away from the aggressive social messaging that a lot of American- and British-made popular culture was engaging in. They appreciated professional-grade entertainment that avoided the ideological strictness of Western creatives.
This provoked anger among left-leaning pop culture fans, as well as nearly all professional Western creatives of note (few of these are right-wing.) Their own products came to include a lot of anti-Right messages. You see small acts of sabotage such as bad translations of Japanese-made media, intended to spite this right-leaning crowd that they knew was watching. The entire Western video game industry was geared towards spite.
So when it came time for Ubisoft to make a game set in Japan, they had a golden opportunity to craft the biggest, most lavish middle finger to the right-leaning anime fandom that they could, since this fandom was also fascinated by Japan as a country.
But they were so enamored at sticking it to anime fans that they forgot Japan was not a fictional creation they can edit at will, but a real country with a real history.
Hence what you’re seeing now.
I would like to reiterate that this is a hunch and not proven fact. I’m just proposing what could have led to the creative decisions in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
My local source confirms:
The Itate Hyozu Jinja shrine in Japan has filed a formal request to Ubisoft, asking them to remove the entire religious site from Assassin's Creed Shadows.
My source tells me the temple leaders are very upset at the use of their shrine and the ability to destroy the interior.
The temple joins a long list of Japan gaffes that have plagued the game, such as the unauthorized use of the Sekigahara Rifle Corp banner in the Art Book concept art.
Assassin's Creed Shadows loudly touted the sensitivity and research that went into the game, hiring several...shall we say...questionable historians to consult on the title. It has been an unmitigated disaster so far and Japan is not happy.
@Ubisoft @assassinscreed
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It’s all about sticking it to the “chuds” and Gamergate and the like. They make all characters ugly because they want to keep the “wrong” people from playing and enjoying their game. They also want to fight so-called objectification. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.
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Note that Singapore is famously clean and pleasant because Lee Kwan Yew cracked down on *all* of this behavior. Ironically, he was inspired by the Britain he knew in the 1950s and wanted to make Singapore the same way. Now the positions are reversed. (cc @thebencheah)
THIRD WORLDISMS - A GUIDE
A Masterthread of posts about ‘Third Worldisms’ - Behaviours or Customs typically seen in the Third World that in recent years are becoming increasingly common in the First World because of both migration trends and declining social trust 🧵
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It’s not that it’s new, it’s that it was suppressed in the mainstream; even Dead or Alive fell victim to it. Spicy women were relegated to cheap shovelware titles, and Stellar Blade is the first AAA game in a while to put a spicy female protag front and center.
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I do not know when this idea emerged that all entertainment products must be for all people. The concept of a “target audience” is being eroded; everything made by professionals is *required* to be made acceptable for everyone.
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I say this a lot: if you lived in Nazi Germany, you won’t be the hero that hides Jews or fights the Gestapo, you’ll be saluting with everyone else. You’ll want to keep your job and your social relations, and avoid legal jeopardy. And you will rationalize all the atrocities away.
A lot of young people today think they'd be against Nazism had they lived in WWII-era Germany, but that's highly unlikely.
The most horrific part of all fascist and communist regimes is how they turn normal people evil. Anyone is capable of being corrupted or indoctrinated.
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One could argue that it was grandmothered in since Bayonetta is now considered “acceptable.” But it’s not the norm, especially for new IPs like Stellar Blade.
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Under scientific materialism, undirected physical forces on a pale blue dot have no morality. Therefore all morality is dreamed up by powerful groups of human beings; therefore, might makes right is the whole of the law, because only the mighty can do as they will.
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Starting to see a new tactic among those who favor ideological control of gaming: accusing those opposed to this of “culture warring” while ignoring the same on the other side.
To appeal to people’s weariness with political polarization, the pro-censorship side accuses the anti-censorship side of stirring up conflicts, suggesting that if they just kept quiet about the mandated ugliness, the ‘remasters’ that take content away or revise it out of existence, purposefully bad translations, and other things done out of spite, things would be calm and peaceful. Why are you complaining so much about *everything* — just let people enjoy things, this dishonest argument goes.
In truth, they just want you to shut up and consume. They want you to accept whatever slop is thrown your way, accept so-called ‘remasters’ that vandalize the originals, accept ugly aesthetics and ideological policing mandated by major game publishers, and accept bad translations made out of spite. It’s not “culture warring” when those with actual authority over the industry do these things, only when gamers call it out.
Don’t fall for it.
Liking pretty videogame women and noticing that things seem rather one sided when comparing east vs. west designs in the last decade, apparently makes you a culture warrior now.
Fine, doesn't stop people from noticing and pointing it out though :)
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CONSERVATIVES: I’m a REAL MAN who does a REAL JOB. I don’t waste my time with childish stuff like comics and video games — that’s immature. Bootstraps!
ALSO CONSERVATIVES: whErE iS thE gOoD moViEs? whY iS thE tV shOWs sUck? wHy aRe tHE yoUnG foLks leFt-wiNg?
She’s right. The format itself is just a nostalgic call-back to childhood, no matter how “adult” the subject matter. Why the attachment to this particular inferior form? Read books, watch films with real people, listen to music made by human hands and voices.
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They HAVE Disney without Walt.
They HAVE Tolkien without Tolkien.
They HAVE DnD without Gygax.
They HAVE Star Wars without Lucas.
They HAVE Minecraft without Notch.
Harry Potter without Rowling is the only thing they DON’T have.
They want Disney without Walt.
They want Tolkien without Tolkien.
They want DnD without Gygax.
They want Star Wars without Lucas.
They want Harry Potter without Rowling.
They even want Minecraft without Notch.
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They take pride in the double standard. It’s okay when *they* do it, because “when you’re used to privilege, equality feels like oppression” — the far-left’s all-purpose excuse for acting like hateful jerks.
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The hypocrisy is a flex, a way to say that they can lie to you and you can’t do anything about it.
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It’s also the idea that all humanity hasn’t met some secular idea of perfection (which changes like the wind), so humans don’t deserve to be happy. That’s the mindset behind all these insistences on bad endings.
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Happy #FourthofJuly, all! To celebrate, here’s Kamen America, a character by Timothy Lim (@POTUSThump) for your viewing pleasure! (Art by Knuxyy) newgrounds.com/art/view/knux…
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You make a good, and important, point. Appealing to male tastes is seen as bad, and indeed many men pile on when it comes to denouncing things aimed at men.
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Modern TV writers cannot write good social commentary because everything has to be super-obvious propaganda lest they get cancelled for their stories having the “wrong” implications. If it’s *not* propaganda, it’s bigotry and the creatives must be Held Accountable™.
One of the most unfounded criticisms I’ve heard about Mad Men is that the show doesn’t do its black characters justice.
But the show is about rich white characters during the 1960s and how they view the world. Their lack of thought around race is entirely the point.
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The entertainment industry also doesn’t want males watching movies/TV, playing video games, reading comic books, and so on. Note that modern professional creatives treat the “male gaze” as a flaw — to them, if you appeal to men directly, you’re doing it wrong. (cc @wastelandJD)
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The two graphs showing loyalty to family, neighbor, and nation (attributed to the Right, but on the left of this image) vs. loyalty to more distant people (attributed to the Left, but on the right of this image). To be fair the distant loyalty one is inclusive of the inner rings.
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If you believe sexy female characters should be relegated to porn and shut out of everything else, you only care about control and domination, not art and creativity.
“No one’s against sexy female characters.”
But when you put “sexy female characters” (without quotes) into X’s search bar, you will get *plenty* of people slamming the idea of such characters in video games. Even people who are otherwise against censorship favor banning this.
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A: “I’m not like those knuckle-dragging fascists who ban and burn books. I rewrite them instead.”
B: “Can I read the originals?”
A: “No, they’re problematic! I’ll just…let all existing copies disappear one by one.”
B: “But how’s that different?”
A: “I own the rights!”
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In modern D&D, there is only one race: humans. Any intelligent monster is required to behave *just like* a human or it is BadThink.
“But humans are Lawful Evil because history! CHECKMATE, BIGOTS!”
My response: 1/
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You *are* heir to a great heritage, whatever that heritage may be. The blood of tenacious men and women who survived plague, disaster, and war courses through your veins. You are a human being, not a “random ape” with no right to pride in your forebears. No ethnicity is evil.
You are not the heir to a great empire. The blood of a noble race does not course through your veins. You're just some random ape who showed up here and started looking for reasons to feel superior to your fellow apes. Give it up and go pet a rabbit.
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Women are not inherent killjoys. However, editorial roles in big publishing are dominated by women with extreme feminist attitudes, and they have the strongest disdain for anything that a straight male might enjoy.
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This Critical Drinker video explains why canon is important to series. Again, @razorfist is vindicated, just as he is with copyright. piped.video/mAmJ52dtQl0
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They argue out of both sides of their mouth. Either classic IPs were always woke, or they needed to be changed to remove all the problematic racist misogynist fascism. Heads they win, tails you lose.
The double mind of leftist media critics, illustrated with two comics (not created by me.) See quoted tweet.
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Twitter frens: “If you’re gonna write, you should read stuff from before 1980. I mean, a LOT of stuff. TV and vidya don’t cut it.”
Me: “Why does that matter?”
*Thinks about how soft and samey mainstream work is, and about how weak my prose is.*
Me: “Okay, you have a point.”
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This lines up well with @Noahpinion’s ideas on how liberal societies don’t *appear* tough, but are quite tough when needed, whereas authoritarian societies signal toughness to scare people when in truth they don’t measure up.
There is a widespread assumption that liberal cultures are kinda sassy while authoritarian ones are tough and virile
I think it is exactly the other way around
The US stroke me as the most exaggeratedly, almost cartoonishly masculine values based society I have ever seen
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That’s why I think a lot of this is spite-driven stuff aimed at weebs. Normally, they’re sensitive about things like this, but because Japanese stuff is valued by their domestic political enemies, they fail to consider what actual Japanese people would think.
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I prefer to see it another way. The most iconic characters in fiction — Superman, James Bond, Batman, Goku, Conan, etc. — didn’t go on Hero’s Journeys. Instead, they’re flat-arc characters who can always be counted on to be who they are. You can be that, anon — reliable.
You want your life to be a Hero's Journey.
It probably won't be.
But it might be something better.
Read on to find out.👇
You know the drill.
Joseph Campbell.
Hero with a thousand faces.
Always three acts.
Unprepared upstart leaves ordinary world...
Faces tests in the extraordinary world...
And comes back a changed person.
Over and over, same story, across all fiction and myth, for thousands of years.
Because this is the story we all crave. We watch it, read it, stream it, download it, play it, LARP it...
And want it for ourselves, too. For our own lives.
We all long to be Heroes on a Journey.
But something my wife said the first time I showed her the Star Wars Prequels changed everything for me.
You know the scene when Qui-Gonn Neeson and Ewan Kenobi face their horny foe in Phantom Menace?
Watching the flick with her... right before that... right as the Duel of the Fates begins with brass and opera and lightsaber sfx, my wife goes:
"Where's the bathroom? Did they go to the bathroom first?"
I lol'ed and told her just watch the movie this is my favorite part I saw this like 8 times in theaters.
But the wifely commentary stayed with me.
Why DIDN'T they go to the bathroom?
(This question is not about bathrooms.)
I mean really...
Why don't we see the hero from the ordinary world doing, you know... ordinary things?
And why don't ordinary things happen TO them, too?
In real life, sometimes the hero misses what was supposed to be the defining moment because lunch's sushi sat out too long. Or they had too much coffee. Or too little.
Maybe the hero gets cancer. Dies before leaving home to meet the guide, get the gold, kill the dragon. So there is no Unexpected Journey. Just the sharp knife of a short life.
And you know those nameless, faceless grunts and baddies the 1-dimensional badass bossbabe who hashtag slays queen?
In real life, that's somebody's dad. Hubs. Boss. He's 3x the size of Mary Sue but she graces him in two with a sword heavier than she is. Dead as a dump as the Main Theme keeps time with the jumpcuts.
Was that man not a hero on his own journey?
OK no, but maybe... anti-hero? At least villain. Those guys have their own story arcs.
But that's life sometimes, innit? You're doing your job, remembering to feed your kid's new dog because of course he forgot he said I promise dad I promise to take care of him and then he went and didn't. That's kids.
And then wham bam thank you blue-haired ma'am you're dead. Patriarchy smashed. Fido goes hungry tonight.
All that to say...
In real life, bad but ordinary things happen. Sometimes they happen to bad people. Often the good people, too. And there's no rhyme, reason, or reprise.
No plot twist the dashing hero will turn their way out of to victory. Just... a dead end.
In real life, Bruce Waynes don't become nighttime vigilantes. They're naked but for the paper medical gown when the doctor comes in and says, "Actually, it's not the flu after all. It's stage 4. I'm so sorry."
In real life, Harry doesn't get magic envelopes from an owl army. He opens a form letter from the university of his dreams which reads, "We regret to inform you..."
That's not good enough for us. The humdrum and routine and habits and hobbies and bills to pay and appointments to keep and vitamins to remember to take... We need more than that.
So from time to time, we check in with our heroic meta-selves.
"What's it all mean? Am I on the right path? Who is my guide? What am I missing?"
Then we try to shoehorn our lives and arcs into the Hero template.
Actually, that terrible thing you didn't deserve as a kid... OMG, that was literally the Inciting Incident. And that accident which took away your best days... Woah, that was actually the Big Twist!
You are a Hero and this is Journey. Obviously.
Right?
...
Right?
See, some call this "reaching" that we do, quasi-superstitious as it is, The Meaning Crisis.
You might have heard that before.
The Meaning Crisis is a struggle to find Metaphysical Worth amid the Physical Weeks that pass us by...
As we try to keep our bank accounts looking not scary, the grass cut and snow shoveled, keep flees off the cat, remember to buy tickets for the festival during the early bird 15% off...
None of which is heroic or journeylike.
All resistance to this realization is cope.
It is, to ironically use yet another story metaphor...
It's Sailing No More.
Remember when Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story knew just knew he was a space ranger who could fly not fall with style?
He seizes the day to make all doubt go away.
Buzz leaps into the air!
And falls.
Crash break splat.
"I will go sailing no more," sings Randy Newman.
You and I?
We are Buzz Lightyear.
That's us. Leaping. Sailing.
No more.
We think we're Heroes on a Journey.
We're not.
Real life is not Myth; it's math.
In The Phantom Menace movie, there are 128 on-screen talking roles. Many hundreds more extras, both across and computer-generated. Thousands even.
What is the chance any one of them is the Chosen One?
Low.
Now make it 8.045 billion.
What are the odds for you?
Are you the Chosen One?
A space ranger?
Do you protect the galaxy from the threat of invasion and from the evil Emperor Zurg, sworn enemy of the Galactic Alliance?
Or are you and I more like Mr. Potato Head and Rex, who after hearing that very speech from Buzz earlier in the movie say:
"Oh, really? I'm from Playskool." "And I'm from Mattel. Well, I'm not really from Mattel. I'm actually from a smaller company that was purchased by Mattel in a leveraged buyout."
What are the odds, anon?
Most of us go around thinking and maybe talking a big game. Like Buzz. Pre-fall.
Some of us? We're Buzz after the fall.
We went a little mad.
Because we've had our own "Matrix" moment.
The Hero's Journey isn't real life.
Because where's the bathroom? Did you go to the bathroom first?
Maybe you'll pick up your broken arm of a dream where you're the main character.
Because you and I are less of an Anakin Skywalker.
And more like Spectator #3 (Uncredited).
Good.
That means you're what?
You're free.
To be what?
The best toy you can be.
Most space rangers remain NPCs, like we saw in Toy Story 2 when Buzz bumped into another Buzz.
Most people you'll meet in the places you'll go never went Sailing No More.
But you've been around awhile now. You're not naive. Life just got in the way, you know? You've got responsibilities. Yeah, you stacked some wins. Money in the bank. Good people say good things about you. Adds up.
"I want something more."
Yeah, man, we all do. Meaning crisis amirite.
All you can do is be the best toy you can be.
"Joshua what are you saying"
Exactly.
In every Hero's Journey, you get a satisfying wrap-up where it's all tied together with a knot, a bow, and a nod to the next adventure.
In real life?
Things just...
End.
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This series of pictures proved my previous tweet correct. To get the best images from #StableDiffusion #img2img, give the sketch a simple shape. Instead of using the detailed sketch from before, I made a pixel art sketch.
The results were AMAZING. 1/
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Two lessons here:
(1) Astroturfed books don’t sell. Gaming the stores or the algorithms to push your book in everyone’s face will not end well for you.
(2) Contrary to popular belief, people *do* read physical books.
(cc @TheBizarchives @BrianNiemeier)
tedgioia.substack.com/p/what…
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Note the pattern here: it’s always a work from the mid-20th century because those are still under copyright, allowing publishers to sell censored versions without someone undermining them by selling the original. The publishers want us to only read woke ideology and nothing else.
Safetyism in art is evil because it renders all artistic creation pointless. Also, a partial refutation of @razorfist’s otherwise excellent video on copyright. (THREAD) cc @wastelandJD @JoshuaLisec @cirsova @BrianNiemeier @WorderFarmer
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Safetyists often say all art is political. But have you noticed that when presented with works that show hard-hitting sociopolitical issues, the safetyists shrink from them? Depicting social evil, even if to condemn it, angers them. (cc @JoshuaLisec, @KasimirUrbanski mini-thread)
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Agreed; it’s why I wrote the character of Sasha Reed the way I did. But ordinary people should indeed rise to become something more, not regress into miserable failures.
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A note for worldbuilders: naming places isn’t that hard (you would appreciate the simple practicality of this, @MishaBurnett).
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The hypocrisy is a show of strength. “Yes, we’re violating our own principles; what are YOU gonna do about it, manbaby?”
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It’s like she just looked in a Japanese-English dictionary, spotted the words for “magic” and “place”, then rammed them together. But the fact that the coverage area includes *both* Koreas…yikes. And I sure as hell hope it wasn’t founded pre-WWII.
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This is a common misconception about the current media landscape. Sexualization *as a whole* isn’t considered bad, sexualization *aimed at straight males* is. Spicy content aimed at women, or aimed at non-straight people, receives far less scrutiny from progressives. 1/
For a generation that’s permitted far more sexual freedom than our forebears, it’s weird how many Western game devs are retroactively toning character sexiness down
If the content is for adults there’s no need to disallow fan service. This is the OnlyFans generation after all.
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Wait wait wait. He’s getting mad at indies promoting themselves when no one else will promote them? What does he expect us to do, say nothing about our own work? Get outta town. (cc @cirsova @BrianNiemeier @MrBCWalker @ironagemedia @DeclanFinnBooks @wastelandJD @Fiannawolf2)
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I’m sorry, but no. This notion that evil fantasy races should never be written limits the imagination in a huge way. As applied to human ethnic groups, yes it is bad. However, avoiding the concept of “evil races” limits us to writing reskinned humans. 1/ (cc @KasimirUrbanski)
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I think that’s a big motivation here. People want to make original projects, but are being forced to work on existing IP because it’s less risky. Thus they turn the existing IP *into* their original project.
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This is why Cobra Kai works — it brings the 80s theatricality into the 21st century, instead of trying to be gritty and realistic.
I looked around modern mass media, and was left wanting.
Modern action and martial arts movies (with exceptions like John Wick) are just strung together gritty setpieces with fight scenes in them, etc.
At that point, I realized I have to make the stuff I'm itching for.
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The double mind of leftist media critics, illustrated with two comics (not created by me.) See quoted tweet.
You see this all the time. “Comics/games/etc. were *always* woke, chud. But we need to change Beloved IP because the old version you like was SEXIST FASCISM. Get with the times, bigot.”
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Safetyism is poison to storytelling because it subjects the boundless vistas of imagination to the petty, pedantic rules of small-minded bureaucrats. (cc @wastelandJD @cirsova @CiderHype @Mirrorswordsman)
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I believe that this is the main reason for the whole “fantasy races must act like humans” thing in modern D&D. Because everything must be a self-insert, all of the races must be reduced to mere fashion statements so that lore doesn’t get in the way of the desired fantasy.
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The sorts described here are incapable of making entertainment for boys. Their idea of “entertainment for boys” is whatever they feel boys *should* want, not what they *do* want. Battle shōnen anime are popular because they give boys what they *do* want.
the writers wanted boys to stop liking Ben and learn to like Steven because they hated boys.
It was very direct. They knew the assignment. And Rebecca Sugar wanted boys to be submissive nonviolent beany babies who has girls fight their battles.
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Woke isn’t dead — that’s naïve, as you pointed out. What is dead is the illusion that they have majority support, and that disagreeing with woke is some fringe position. When they come at you, you can be secure in the knowledge that they reflect only the opinion of a bubble.
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Modern AAA games are commissioned works by rich people who hate gamers. “The market” and “consumer tastes” have nothing to do with it.
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They talk down to boys rather than entertain them. Think about it for a moment — merely saying “this is aimed at boys/men” will likely get you derided as toxic by these sorts.
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“pOp cUltuRe iS tOo wOkE!11!!”
So what are you doing about it? I only see complaining, and not action.
“Oh yeah, what are YOU doing about it?”
Writing. My efforts won’t affect culture much on their own, but doing something is better than doing nothing. So let’s see some doing.
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Apparently, you’re only allowed to write about medieval Europe or lands inspired by it…
…as long as they look like major US cities.
If you write about elsewhere, you’re doing a Racism™.
Here’s the truth: YOU DON’T NEED TO LISTEN TO THESE JACKWAGONS.
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My view on this is simpler:
Creative works are under no obligation to reflect your worldview back at you. Speculative fiction is just that: speculative. You can show people doing bad things, or show societies with ethics different from those of a 21st-century liberal democracy.
Anime is created from a Japanese perspective, they don't hold the same neurotic views toward certain concepts that people are browbeaten with in the West. Storytelling the world over doesn't have to adhere to one standard of acceptability.
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Wouldn’t it be better if the old hero became well-respected and left a powerful legacy instead? To these folks, “getting old” must mean “becoming a bitter, broken failure.” All that awaits you in your old age is a lifetime of regrets, in their mind. (cc @J0hnADouglas)
Lucasfilm might just be the only major Hollywood studio right now consistently telling stories of what it's like to grow old, confronting our beloved heroes' failure to live up to their former ideals.
In an industry obsessed with youth, we really shouldn't take this for granted.
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When folks say “Twitter isn’t real life,” it’s not because what you say on Twitter can’t affect your livelihood (it can.)
It’s because the takes you see are not a representative sample of how people in your area or country think.
Twitter having so many unhinged people can occasionally gaslight you into thinking that there’s something wrong with you for having completely milquetoast normie takes.
“Shoplifting is bad,” for example, is something 99% of people IRL agree with. Here? Yeah, uh, not so much.
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“Sensitivity readers” are a protection racket that doesn’t even protect.
I'm not representing "communities." My characters are individual people with individual experiences and personalities, not members of monolithic groups.
I know gay writers who wrote gay characters, and sensitivity readers told them they'd done it wrong.
So, no. Kiss my ass.
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This is why fantasy settings must be Seattle with Elves. This is why medieval London must look like modern London. This is why you can’t show a redeemed racist. This is why old books are censored. And this is why they throw fits over *Berserk.*
Safetyism in art is evil. /END
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I have two theories about original IP:
(1) It’s not that hard to get people excited about new IP. What *is* hard is getting people excited about prose novels.
(2) Original IP with a strong visual component, such as comics and video games, have an easier time of it.
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It also explains their hostility to the Christian worldview that informed early D&D. The very idea of human grace and redemption sickens them. Likewise, the idea of creatures that *are not* just humans with horns and tails shows an impoverished imagination. 4/
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The “go watch porn” response is telling; it implies that all professional entertainment must either be puritanism or pornography, with nothing in between. There is nothing wrong with sexy ladies *outside* the porn context.
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“Pissing off the chuds” has been their main marketing strategy since at least 2016 with that one Ghostbusters film.
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Another good point, but I think that the erasure is where most of the contention comes from.
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Regarding Jesse Kelly’s comment, the Boomer fear is as follows: “If I don’t kick him out at 18, he’ll just work part time and play video games all day. On *my* dime! He’ll become a squish, and he won’t be able to handle a challenge.”
How do you answer that, Twitter mutuals?
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You see this all the time. “Comics/games/etc. were *always* woke, chud. But we need to change Beloved IP because the old version you like was SEXIST FASCISM. Get with the times, bigot.”
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I have thought about it some more, and I see what you mean. While the study talks about the extent of one’s moral circle (implying inclusion), as a practical matter it’s difficult to hold the outer rings and the inner rings in equal regard. Loyalties must be narrow to matter.
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Why is there so much fighting among indie creatives? A lack of readers. If they had readers beyond other artists or writers, they wouldn’t have time for arguments because they’d have readers to satisfy (I also think this is a big reason why creative people act like jerks online.)
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Simulation Theory is God-belief for nerds. If you believe “the universe is a simulation”, you believe in a God or gods.
You're not witnessing evidence of "Simulation Theory".
It's not a "glitch in the matrix".
It's all just postmodern cope for the slow-dawning realization that our world was created.
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It’s revealing that those who argue against monster alignment say that humans are inherently Lawful Evil. It shows that they see their fellow human beings as irredeemable creatures worthy only of hostility. They hate you because they hate *people.* 3/
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Here’s why the Shakespeare thing (and attacks on older literature more generally) get to me:
I see myself as part of the long and illustrious tradition of English-language literature. Though my works will never reach the heights of a Shakespeare or a Fleming or a Tolkien, I nonetheless see myself as part of that tradition, that chain that passes from decade to decade, century to century, speaking to the issues of their time yet having much to say to those who come after. I stand on the shoulders of giants, and I respect those giants’ strength.
Destroying that heritage, trying to scrub it from the public mind by poisoning people’s view of it so they never think to read it and look down upon those who enjoy it, diminishes not only my work, but the work of everyone writing today, from the teenage fanfic writer to the bestselling author with a movie deal. It says that our roots cannot go back further than 1990, and that only work produced since that year is worthy of anything approaching respect. It impoverishes what we’re doing, reducing writing to mere unit sales and fleeting popularity — and I say this as someone who doesn’t object to literature as a commercial endeavor.
I can hear your objections now — “Rawle, you’re so delusional that you think you’ll be the next Shakespeare. You won’t even be the next Rowling! Your work will sink into obscurity with every other hopeful who thinks he’ll change the world.”
And I will say that you are correct. Statistically, that is the most likely outcome. The bestsellers of 100 years ago are historical footnotes today.
However, whatever the fate of my work, I am still part of that tradition. In some small way, the greats who came before me amplify my work. They are not people I have to remove to get my chance at greatness. Any greatness my work may get will be in part because it adds to a literary tradition that is already great.
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To the Fandom Menace: While the woke takeover of popular culture disappoints me as much as it does you, understand that the studios were *never in a million years* going to listen to you. 1/
I'm deeply saddened. So we have Cancel Culture in The Fandom Menace? Really? Hate Snyder, heap abuse on his idiot head, YES, but if you skip watching this movie WB made giving in to OUR demands, you turn a victory for TFM into a defeat, & they will never listen to us again.
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Safetyism in art is evil because it renders all artistic creation pointless. Also, a partial refutation of @razorfist’s otherwise excellent video on copyright. (THREAD) cc @wastelandJD @JoshuaLisec @cirsova @BrianNiemeier @WorderFarmer
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The Golden Age of Gaming was the 90s — but not because of the quality of the games. Stinkers existed in that halcyon decade, and in modern times there are plenty of excellent games that stack up with the greats of yesteryear.
No, it was a golden age because of the rapid development of video game technology in that time. Games went from pixels in 1990 to full 3D in 1999 — the pace of change was that fast. 2000 to 2009 saw refinement of 3D and the rise of online play — another advance, but not as epochal as in the 90s. 2010-2019 is when stagnation sets in, because the graphics are as good as they’re going to get, and digital downloads are now the default way to distribute a game.
Games are still fun today, but the Golden Age of Gaming will never come back.
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They take the speculation out of speculative fiction and replace it with Party-mandated slop. The vistas of imagination must line up with the exact social values of 2020s Portland, or it must be purged from every bookshelf and e-reader. Reject propaganda, embrace fantasy. /end
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Humans are capable of redemption, and history is replete with examples of humans doing good. The whole point of fantasy races is to think about intelligent species that *don’t* have humanlike natures, and are fundamentally at odds with humans because of it. 2/
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Too frank a depiction of racism or slavery in any context destroys safetyist minds; see how they treated *The Black Witch*, *Blood Heir*, or D&D lore. To them “political stories” involve cartoon strawmen getting humiliated by the designated Good Guys. 2/
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If a spicy scene or character or what have you is aimed at women or LGBT, the only objections will come from people who oppose LGBT stuff altogether. But if it’s aimed at straight men, you will hear about “objectification” and “harm” and the need to “grow up” all day long. /END
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I’m not a fan of Warhammer 40K; the hard-edged ultra-masculine space marine vibe never appealed to me. However, its fandom is now having their beloved IP destroyed out of spite. Warhammer has long been derided as fascist, so those changing it want to rub salt in the wounds of its alleged fascist fanbase.
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The GoFundMe has been fully funded. Thanks for helping me out, everyone. gofund.me/b04c7fad
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If you don’t see why assisted suicide is barbaric, let me paint a picture for you: You know how cancel campaigns pressure people into resigning from their jobs? Under a liberal assisted suicide regime, that person can be pressured into resigning from life. (cc @JoshuaLisec)
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