|
I pretty much stuck through it entirely because I thought that somewhere people would challenge these incredibly shortsighted and racist kool-aid drinking views the main characters had; some parts of it were so loving gritty and sad, you know? Surely it was character voice. Anyway it just kept being that way. I guess wildbow achieved a true piece of superhero fiction in that fashion.
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 07:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 05:27 |
|
|
Remember the time all the supervillains met at the diner, and Brian sat with the nazi assholes and joined them in making fun of the only visibly black villain at the meeting? Like, I get that it's really hard to spot your own biases creeping into your work, but I would've thought that someone at some point would've gone "...uh, yo WB, this is kinda hosed up innit?"
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 07:58
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 08:02
|
|
|
Remember the time Warlord Skitter makes the mistake of hiring some asians and then a day later they start trying to rape and mutilate the white women so Skitter gets rid of them and the narration makes sure to describe their eyes as narrow? There's also a weird as hell line at some point that jumped out at me where a sword some ABB member is wielding in described as "surprisingly not Japanese". What? It was such a bizarre thing to say that it was what made me assume Taylor's casual racism had to be a deliberate character voice thing that would be addressed later, rather than something the author would sincerely write, but... Does Worm even have any named asian characters other than ABB's three capes? For a city that supposedly has a huge asian population, Worm sure seems pretty white. Lottery of Babylon fucked around with this message at 08:35 on Feb 10, 2021 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 08:10
|
|
|
Yamada and Foil.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 08:12
|
|
|
Worm: "Here is a black character in the background. You need to know this black character is in a drug dealer. In fact, all black characters are in gangs." Also Worm: "There are two gangs in the city. Neither of them accepts black members." Flesnolk posted:Yamada and Foil. I don't think I met either of them before I stopped reading, guess they showed up later. I... guess that's something?
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 08:15
|
|
|
Also, remember how Bakuda wired up every single Asian person in the city with bombs in their brains and no one noticed?
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 08:26
|
|
|
Lottery of Babylon posted:Worm: "Here is a black character in the background. You need to know this black character is in a drug dealer. In fact, all black characters are in gangs." i suppose that implicitly that means the merchants are the only ones that accept black members now think about how the merchants are portrayed
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 08:41
|
|
|
Jazerus posted:i suppose that implicitly that means the merchants are the only ones that accept black members I’m sorry you missed all the nuance in the portrayal of “Skidmark”, such as his struggle with addiction to methamphetamines, bad teeth, low intelligence and, uh, dark skin. Sure, the nazi characters are all handsome, ambitious business leaders, but they’re also evil, which shows that Wildbow understands that white supremacy is bad. Oh, except the ones that stop being evil because the other ones are even more evil, and still don’t like non white people, but are generally okay. At least they’re not like the Merchants. Or ABBs. Velius fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Feb 10, 2021 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 15:41
|
|
|
Normally, I don't see cultural appropriation as a legitimate thing to complain about, but even I think a former Neo-Nazi using Jewish culture to rebrand themselves as really dumb.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 16:14
|
|
|
IShallRiseAgain posted:Normally, I don't see cultural appropriation as a legitimate thing to complain about, but even I think a former Neo-Nazi using Jewish culture to rebrand themselves as really dumb.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 16:37
|
|
|
Man how do you people even read this poo poo
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 18:00
|
|
|
to be fair,
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 18:31
|
|
|
TWI: oof, that shriekblade stuff about chanting "kill yourself" hits uncomfortably close to home 
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 18:37
|
|
|
Sham bam bamina! posted:Man how do you people even read this poo poo I mean, SA is all about mocking things. Worm isn't great, but it's not nearly as bad as it sounds when goons pick a few parts out of 1.7m words to make fun of. Putting it another way, even the people mocking it here still liked it enough to finish what amounts to a 12ish book series. Bremen fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Feb 10, 2021 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 18:51
|
|
|
Bremen posted:I mean, SA is all about mocking things. Worm isn't great, but it's not nearly as bad as it sounds when goons pick a few parts out of 1.7m words to make fun of. gotta shovel more words into my eyes at all times
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 18:56
|
|
|
Bremen posted:I mean, SA is all about mocking things. Worm isn't great, but it's not nearly as bad as it sounds when goons pick a few parts out of 1.7m words to make fun of. Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Feb 10, 2021 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 19:11
|
|
|
Sham bam bamina! posted:I've had a look at it and other web serials myself, and it's all been pretty fuckin' bad. Reading this thread or the comments on Royal Road is like being in a cafeteria where everyone's eating bowls of sand. It's genuinely bewildering to me that anyone has the time for this. Look we read your posts. More seriously, a lot of modern life is hurry up and wait and rather than phone games or dubious posting there are web serials. Many of them bad. Give your bowl of artistically flavored sand a chance. You might like it better than whatever Skinner box you have from the App Store or whatever freshhell the Facebook algorithm finds you.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 19:18
|
|
|
What makes you think I have the slightest interest in that poo poo either?
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 19:21
|
|
|
Sham bam bamina! posted:I've had a look at it and other web serials myself, and it's all been pretty fuckin' bad. Reading this thread or the comments on Royal Road is like being in a cafeteria where everyone's eating bowls of sand. But it's free sand! Yeah, I dunno why I read so much web fiction these days either. I've always been a big reader, I guess maybe the format is just different enough to be fresh compared to buying more novels.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 19:26
|
|
|
Sham bam bamina! posted:I've had a look at it and other web serials myself, and it's all been pretty fuckin' bad. Reading this thread or the comments on Royal Road is like being in a cafeteria where everyone's eating bowls of sand. It's genuinely bewildering to me that anyone has the time for this. Looking at top web fiction beyond the usual good stories there’s a few stories of misogynist tripe by Mooderino, Wildbow’s stuff which we’ve been discussing, but mostly it’s good or at least defensible stuff in the top twenty or thirty entries. Below that though, there’s an enormous amount of forgettable stuff and tons of horrible stuff, as you’d expect for a field where anyone can put up whatever they want. I enjoy the stories I like, but I’m certainly not going out and soliciting new random web fiction without someone here referencing it. Velius fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Feb 10, 2021 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 19:32
|
|
|
Velius posted:Looking at top web fiction beyond the usual good stories there’s a few stories of misogynist tripe by Mooderino, Wildbow’s stuff which we’ve been discussing, but mostly it’s good or at least defensible stuff in the top twenty or thirty entries. Below that though, there’s an enormous number of forgettable stuff and tons of horrible stuff, as you’d expect for a field where anyone can put up whatever they want. I enjoy the stories I like, but I’m certainly not going out and soliciting new random web fiction without someone here referencing it. That is actually one advantage webfiction has. If I go out and buy a new book and it's horrible, I feel bad for wasting the money. If I put something off RR on my Kindle and hate it, it just takes a few seconds to hit delete. And while there's a lot more horrible webfiction out there, it's not like professional novels don't have their share of tire fires too.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 19:56
|
|
|
Worm is The Turner Diaries for Garth Ennis fans and I will not hear a word in its defence
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 20:10
|
|
|
There's obviously more poo poo on Royal Road and co than regular books, but there's plenty of solid, entertaining reads as well. Web serials definitely trend a certain way that doesn't appeal to everyone. E.g. "isekai" being extremely common rather than an occasional trope. Part of the fun imo is discussing the serial as it's ongoing week to week. That's a structural advantage they have over regular books, lots of people like to geek out with other fans.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 21:03
|
|
|
Sham bam bamina! posted:I've had a look at it and other web serials myself, and it's all been pretty fuckin' bad. Reading this thread or the comments on Royal Road is like being in a cafeteria where everyone's eating bowls of sand. It's genuinely bewildering to me that anyone has the time for this. Maybe people find enjoyment from different things than you? Your comparison with a bowl of sand is incorrect: there isn't some food pyramid of reading you should abide by to avoid health problems or something, because stories aren't food. Maybe that's how it feels for you but clearly that's not universal.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 21:06
|
|
|
Flesnolk posted:Worm is The Turner Diaries for Garth Ennis fans and I will not hear a word in its defence
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 21:25
|
|
|
I'm enjoying Weirkey, but wow the Planet of Hats vibe is VERY strong here.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 21:45
|
|
|
Rosalie_A posted:Maybe people find enjoyment from different things than you? Your comparison with a bowl of sand is incorrect: there isn't some food pyramid of reading you should abide by to avoid health problems or something, because stories aren't food. Maybe that's how it feels for you but clearly that's not universal.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 21:48
|
|
|
Sham bam bamina! posted:What makes you think I have the slightest interest in that poo poo either? You are posting here instead of of growing your own vegetables, doing yoga or learning a new language.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 21:49
|
|
|
Boy do I feel like a chump for, uh, communicating with other human beings.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 21:58
|
|
|
Like, between the extremes of constant strenuous self-improvement and the absolute bottom of the barrel of cynical, disposable Content, there's a middle ground that covers most things a person can occupy themselves with, including this site.
Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Feb 10, 2021 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 22:04
|
|
|
Web serials have no gatekeepers, that's why there's so much proliferation of unreadable garbage. Honestly it's not really worth the effort to sift through gigantic piles of poo poo to get to the diamonds. Even with the popular stuff there is no guarantee that your going to get anything readable.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 22:05
|
|
|
yeah, the barrier of entry is lower than ever, and (separately) formulaic structures and strict adherence to genre are stronger than ever neither of these are inherently good or bad, but combined it's a bit like bleach and ammonia there's good stuff in there, somewhere, but if you want to find it you better hold your breath
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 22:09
|
|
|
Worm, and any other story by Wildbow, is absolute garbage. But there are other web serials that have long, engaging, and well written stories. Plus I'm a speed reader and I need more words to shove into my brain.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2021 23:53
|
|
|
Peachfart posted:Plus I'm a speed reader and I need more words to shove into my brain. Basically there need to be more authors with pirateaba’s insane level of output.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2021 02:33
|
|
|
I don't think that level of output is very healthy
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2021 02:40
|
|
|
.Z. posted:Basically there need to be more authors with pirateaba’s insane level of output. i know pirateaba makes writing the longest work of english language fiction look relatively easy, but...
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2021 03:07
|
|
|
Cicero posted:I don't think that level of output is very healthy depends on what the rest of your life looks like binge writing is real
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2021 03:10
|
|
|
Sham bam bamina! posted:Boy do I feel like a chump for, uh, communicating with other human beings. There's stuff that's good and stuff that's bad. In this thread people will discuss both. Most other people find something they like and move on. If you want to focus on the stuff that's bad and are surprised people disagree with you, that's up to you.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2021 03:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 05:27 |
|
|
Real talk Sham - your posting history looks like a lot of making GBS threads on things other people enjoy and generally getting your jollies off making fun of random internet thing. It feels like you've had a rough patch. Please take some time for self care. Best wishes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2021 03:50
|
|