|
What the gently caress is a Worm fic.
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2015 22:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 20:58 |
|
|
Dabir posted:What the gently caress is a Worm fic. I've rambled about this before. Worm by "Wildbow" is a 1.7 million word novel deconstructing superheroes. It also can reasonably claim to be a SF novel that doesn't cheat at providing SF underpinnings for the story mechanics. It has its problems (the pacing is all hosed up) but it's actually great and is my Favourite Thing. This is the thread about Wildbow's web serials (Worm, Pact, Twig). So uh basically all the fiction I've read in the past year or so has been Worm fanfic. Because I am a sad nerd. Still a better love story than HPMOR tho. edit: of course I'm on tumblr. divabot fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Sep 13, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2015 22:35
|
|
|
Worm's explanations of everything pretty much immedately degrade into stupid nonsense the moment they get revealed. The leviathan arc was the last section that actually could cash the checks wildbow was making.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2015 23:37
|
|
|
Tunicate posted:Worm's explanations of everything pretty much immedately degrade into stupid nonsense the moment they get revealed. Remember that time that the Worm powers (Massively stupid spoilers ahead) Were just actually given to everyone by giant alien corpses? Worm is kind of a magical trainwreck in the second half, and experiencing it as it was updating at that point was pretty spectacular. You could watch people become disillusioned with it, week to week.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 00:41
|
|
|
I think you misunderstood that bit. The powers were given by the alien to the human race like they'd been given to countless other races before, for the purposes of gathering data on them that the alien could incorporate into itself as a form of evolution. The dead one was harvested by Cauldron to give powers artificially by the same mechanism. It's really not any better of an explanation, to be fair.  But I liked Worm for the character development and fun power usage and worldbuilding. The background plot wasn't really relevant for me. I do agree that it peaked not long after Leviathan, but I think it was consistently good until the Behemoth bit and the timeskip, where it fell off a lot. Still one of my favorite pieces of literature.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 02:55
|
|
|
Mazzletoff posted:Remember that time that the Worm powers (Massively stupid spoilers ahead) Were just actually given to everyone by giant alien corpses? It was pretty funny yeah. The thing the guy's writing now has been consistently good though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 07:00
|
|
|
Mazzletoff posted:You could watch people become disillusioned with it, week to week. ... you mean, the time period where it was accelerating massively in popularity by every available measure (page hits, webfiction ratings, comments, money thrown at author)? Not that you're wrong on the pacing problems. Basically there's another one to three arcs (YES EVEN MORE) missing in the timeskip.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 09:48
|
|
|
divabot posted:... you mean, the time period where it was accelerating massively in popularity by every available measure (page hits, webfiction ratings, comments, money thrown at author)? I frequented an IRC Chatroom with the author that had been running for months. More people finding it isn't what was interesting - longtime, diehard fans that had been following since Arc 18 becoming aggravated was the far more interesting thing.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 15:29
|
|
|
Mazzletoff posted:I frequented an IRC Chatroom with the author that had been running for months. More people finding it isn't what was interesting - longtime, diehard fans that had been following since Arc 18 becoming aggravated was the far more interesting thing. Basically you took a bath in the tear-filled tub that this channel is. I can understand you are delighted!
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 15:59
|
|
|
Mazzletoff posted:I frequented an IRC Chatroom with the author that had been running for months. More people finding it isn't what was interesting - longtime, diehard fans that had been following since Arc 18 becoming aggravated was the far more interesting thing. "I realise that in the objective measurable world people were actually throwing money at the author, but you have to understand - the chatroom I was in was really upset."
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 18:02
|
|
|
To be fair people throwing money at terrible things isn't exactly uncommon. Then again I haven't read Worm, just Pact, which while it had its own strengths and flaws definitely went downhill towards the end.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 18:42
|
|
|
divabot posted:"I realise that in the objective measurable world people were actually throwing money at the author, but you have to understand - the chatroom I was in was really upset." 
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2015 23:48
|
|
|
For all that this thread is about discussing Harry Potter fanfiction, specifically a really bad one, someone earlier in the thread recommended Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead, and I am super-glad they did. I read it and it was an excellent novel. (Also, this is Harry Potter and the Eagle of Truthiness. People should read it. It's short.)
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 03:06
|
|
|
YggiDee posted:(Also, this is Harry Potter and the Eagle of Truthiness. People should read it. It's short.) Almost as good as the one where Harry was raised by a WWE Superstar.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 20:26
|
|
|
blastron posted:Almost as good as the one where Harry was raised by a WWE Superstar. And I thought the world couldn't get weirder. Did you read it? Is it as funny as the title suggests?
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 23:39
|
|
|
It's great and amazing. Probably the best intentionally-humorous short story I've ever read.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 23:40
|
|
|
The Shortest Path posted:It's great and amazing. Probably the best intentionally-humorous short story I've ever read. Trust this person. That is a pro-click.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 23:46
|
|
|
Chapter 15: Conscientiousness Part Eight quote:
This doesn’t bode well for Hermione, given what we have seen (from Eliezarry’s internal musings) of Eliezer’s spitefulness towards people who outshine him or his author-avatar. quote:
McGonagall had always been portrayed and characterised in this story as a cool, measured, mature adult, so why is she suddenly deliberately goading on her students in their petty rivalry?
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 01:32
|
|
|
It feels more like she's just trying to make them both feel like dumbasses for bickering,but who knows at this point.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 01:38
|
|
|
This chapter is a series of bizarre tone shifts, one after another. This contest and McGonagall's reaction is completely inane. McGonagall maintains no consistency from chapter to chapter.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 05:36
|
|
|
i81icu812 posted:This chapter is a series of bizarre tone shifts, one after another. This contest and McGonagall's reaction is completely inane. The good Professor Maybe next time YOU should try writing the best and most popular Harry Potter fanfiction with lots of accurate science before you sneer again.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 07:08
|
|
|
Chapter 15: Conscientiousness Part Nine quote:
You tell him, Hermione! quote:
Eliezarry conveniently fails to mention that he earned seven of those points with a time machine. quote:
These are the rules of Transfiguration which were disclosed by McGonagall in this chapter:
Non-food / drink items that are Transfigured into food / drinks / gas and consumed / breathed in will return to their original form after consumption and somehow damage your body from within. Sustaining a Transfiguration is a constant drain on the user’s magic which scales with the size of the target form. The goblins have ways of finding people who Transfigure things into other things that look like money. Transfiguration of living subjects (excluding Animagus transformations) will make you very sick and possibly dead, because “even inanimate objects undergo small internal changes over time. There would be no visible changes to your body afterwards, and for the first minute, you would notice nothing wrong. But in an hour you would be sick, and in a day you would be dead" Students are prohibited from Transfiguring anything into a liquid, a gas, anything that looks like food or anything else that goes inside a human body, or anything that is “to be burned” Students are prohibited from Transfiguring any living subject, especially themselves, unless specifically instructed to do so using a specialised Charm or potion. Looking forward to reading about Eliezarry’s experiments to test the limits of these “rules” and/or get around them. For example: (a) Students are prohibited from Transfiguring things into a liquid or a gas, but there is no prohibition against Transfiguring things into a plasma. (b) The goblins have ways of finding people who Transfigure things into other things that look like money, but does this extend to things like gemstones which have high trade /barter value but are not themselves typically considered to be “money”?
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 02:50
|
|
|
Yeah, you'd think that having a constant ongoing drain of magic scaling to the size of an object would be a wonderful way to quantify your magical strength. 'I can turn 4 cubic meters of wood into metal and sustain it for 10 minutes before running out of MP' or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 03:36
|
|
|
Why is reading speed now a measurement of dick size?
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 06:10
|
|
|
SSNeoman posted:Why is reading speed now a measurement of dick size? It's an intellectual contest and intellect is the only trait that measures the worth of a person in Yud's mind. Also, he has a tremendously shallow view of what it means to be intelligent.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 06:13
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:It's an intellectual contest and intellect is the only trait that measures the worth of a person in Yud's mind. That's the same community that tries to maximize their productivity by setting text-to-speech to some insanely high WPM, to get more things read.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 06:22
|
|
|
Tunicate posted:That's the same community that tries to maximize their productivity by setting text-to-speech to some insanely high WPM, to get more things read. These people are idiots.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 06:28
|
|
|
SSNeoman posted:Why is reading speed now a measurement of dick size?
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 12:24
|
|
|
JosephWongKS posted:(b) The goblins have ways of finding people who Transfigure things into other things that look like money, but does this extend to things like gemstones which have high trade /barter value but are not themselves typically considered to be “money”? [/b] Logically, they probably don't. Since Transfiguration is not permanent, counterfeit coins are dangerous because if they were to change back into their original form in a vault no one would know which coins had been counterfeit. The same scenario is much less likely with high value goods.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 12:33
|
|
|
On one hand, I want to say a book reading speed-read-a-thon is just the kind of childish contest two nerdy eleven-year-olds would get up to.anilEhilated posted:If I were to hazard a guess, it's because Yud prides himself on it while skimming through the content. On the other hand, this is exactly it. Yudkowsky does occasionally bring up how he can read 2000 words per minute or something like that.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 13:35
|
|
|
I can read up to 5 Shakespeare Sonnets or mathematical proofs per minute.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 14:29
|
|
|
Hmmm. I assume somebody must have tested this, and actual studies show that speed reading is basically skimming, and reading comprehension declines as reading speed increases.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 14:52
|
|
|
Deptfordx posted:Hmmm. I assume somebody must have tested this, and actual studies show that speed reading is basically skimming, and reading comprehension declines as reading speed increases. Not sure if this was a question or not, but it's exactly right. Speed reading is basically bunk. Reading comprehension has a fairly stiff upper limit and past that point the only way to increase reading speed. Is to omit words viewed. The only actual way to increase useful reading speed is by enlarging your vocabulary; the more familiar a word is to you, the faster you comprehend it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 17:05
|
|
|
Old Kentucky Shark posted:The only actual way to increase useful reading speed is by enlarging your vocabulary; the more familiar a word is to you, the faster you comprehend it. Cause for me, I'd be not especially confident. Deptfordx posted:Hmmm. I assume somebody must have tested this, and actual studies show that speed reading is basically skimming, and reading comprehension declines as reading speed increases.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 21:20
|
|
|
Cingulate posted:I have never looked at the research, but if I asked my friends doing reading research about this claim, how confident are you these professionals would agree with you? Ronald Carver. "Rauding Theory Predictions of Amount Comprehended under Different Purposes and Speed Reading Conditions". Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 19. 1984. Carver, 1984 posted:Rauding Theory makes precise predictions about the amount of passage comprehension; the accuracy of these predictions was investigated under different purpose conditions and differing rates of presentation. Passages at Grade 10 difficulty were presented to 102 college students at rates varying from 62.5 to 100,000 words per minute using motion picture film. The two purpose conditions were: (a) get the "gist," and (b) detect the missing verbs. Four different measurement techniques were sued and all indicated that the amount comprehended was not substantially affected by purpose. Comprehension was generally high at the low rates, but it was approximately zero at 1,000 words per minute and greater.. The amount of comprehension was accurately predicted from rauding theory. The data do not support the idea that individuals can read unfamiliar but relatively easy material at high rates with high accuracy of comprehension...
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 21:56
|
|
|
That is perfectly orthogonal to what I said. Neither does it prove increasing your vocabulary or - a completely different thing - further familiarizing yourself with already known words improves reading speed, nor does it prove there is no other way to increase reading speed.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 22:50
|
|
|
Cingulate posted:That is perfectly orthogonal to what I said. Neither does it prove increasing your vocabulary or - a completely different thing - further familiarizing yourself with already known words improves reading speed, nor does it prove there is no other way to increase reading speed. If I understand what you are saying correctly, that would tie in perfectly to what Yud believes. Since reading speed cannot be trained, only the intelligent can truly read quickly. Reading speed would therefore be the dick measuring contest of intelligence.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 23:35
|
|
|
Cingulate posted:I have never looked at the research, but if I asked my friends doing reading research about this claim, how confident are you these professionals would agree with you? The tl;dr version is that our ability to read is linked within our mind to verbal communication, to the point where all of us, even without realizing it, are engaged in subvocalization when we read; essentially, we sound the words out, whether we know it or not. Many people think subvocalization used to be more pronounced since there are passages in ancient and medieval texts noting the ability to read without whispering or moving one's lips in a way that suggests that this was considered noteworthy and uncommon, but modern teaching methods and increasingly earlier reading ages combined to push subvocalization down to the level where most people don't even know they are doing it. Scientists can still detect subvocalization, however, in the electrical impulses sent to the lips, tongue, and larynx. This turns out to form a sort of hard-cap on your ability to read quickly; if you attempt to read faster than your brain's ability to send the proper electrical impulses to the vocal chords, it, to use a technical term, totally fucks up your reading comprehension. Many speedreading courses claim to be able to eliminate subvocalization, but so far as anyone has ever been able to tell, you simply can't. It's hardwired at the most basic level. One of the only methods to reduce subvocalization time, it turns out, lies through vocabulary; most people linger over words they are less familiar with -- unconsciously "sounding them out" in their heads and mouth -- and so the simplest functional method to increase reading speed without lowering comprehension is to make yourself familiar with more words. But that only takes you so far, and nowhere near the point most speedreaders claim. The gains are fairly modest; a very fast college-level reader is at best twice as fast as a very slow college-level reader of the same approximate reading comprehension. The short version is that Yudkowski is an idiot; it isn't intelligence that makes you a faster reader, it's just practice and familiarity.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2015 23:59
|
|
|
Is there some range with this? I apparently taught myself to read at some point to the point where I never remember not being able to read, and I read pretty quick, if not "ridiculous speed reader fast." Definitely "people occasionally don't believe I actually read that whole book" fast. I'm pretty clever but I'd hardly call myself a genius. Perhaps white noise posting instead of shitposting.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2015 00:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 20:58 |
|
|
There's a rather interesting technology called Spritz that purports to be able to massively improve your reading speed by dramatically changing how words are presented to you. Rather than dragging your eyes back and forth across the page, you keep your eye fixed on a single point and it blasts words directly at you. They claim that the words are positioned within the box so that your eye falls on the "optimal reading position" of the word, which is where your eyes apparently come to rest when you're reading traditionally. The sample on their front page goes up to 700 WPM, which I found to be still comprehensible, if only barely, and you better not blink. That's definitely faster than I can read normally, and I think of myself as a pretty quick reader. Not that I'm saying Yud actually uses this technology, but it does exist.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2015 05:08
|
|