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canis minor posted:Keith Thompson doesn't belong in this thread. I'd like to read more of his stuff (especially about the necromancer with a machine womb or that kingdom where angels are machines), but afaik he does only illustrations and these synopses are just companions for his art (hopefully somebody will correct me on that) Eh, his writing doesn't do a lot for me. It's a little like how online fantasy roleplayers look for random illustrations as inspiration for their characters, going as far as to incorporate specific details from the art in their backstory, except done first hand by the artist himself - but no less cringeworthy. Only blurb I remember liking is the one for the Europe 1914 map e: and on reread, it's very stilted hackbunny has a new favorite as of 20:54 on Jan 3, 2018 |
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Jan 3, 2018 20:49
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When I was picking up textbooks for the new semester, I noticed something interesting on their "Local and University-affiliated Authors" shelf, involving space dragons.quote:The adopted daughter of a distinguished starship commander, young Celine is a brilliant student, a promising cadet – and a secret witch. When a psychotic criminal, bent on revenge against her father, teleports Celine randomly out into the cosmos, she finds herself stranded on the forbidden planet Nibiru, in the lair of Fianna – last princess of a dying race of noble dragons. Fianna and Celine face dire perils and overwhelming odds in their quest for the key to the Dragon race’s survival, and the lives of everyone Celine holds most dear. https://www.amazon.ca/Dragons-Nibiru-Lorna-Carleton-ebook/dp/B0754NVQZN I wasn't quite up to paying $20 for a book about a space dragon princess but $3.75 for a Kindle edition? Sure thing. Give me some trash to wade through when I need a break from my English major classes. On the first page, it's Earth in the year 24 000 BC, a spaceship comes and drops off a lot of people explicitly described as white and wipes their memories. Then I remember that the "people also bought" was a book about Escaping Scientology. I am so excited and scared.
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Jan 3, 2018 20:50
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hackbunny posted:
Based on the rules set by a book about magic
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Jan 3, 2018 21:07
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"book" is a very generous way to describe Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality "fanfic" is much closer, yet still somehow more generous than it deserves
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Jan 3, 2018 21:18
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hackbunny posted:
200 pages of mundane description of the protagonist going through their regular daily routine. Then on the last page they are unceremoniously nuked as the antagonist's plan comes to fruition, because the two of them running into each other beforehand would be a *scoffs* irrational contrivance.
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Jan 3, 2018 21:30
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Update on the Space Dragon Princess book: The protagonist learned magic by reading clues hidden in popular fiction. She learned witchcraft from Harry Potter, basically. She's also being telepathically guided by literal angels. Humans are prime candidates for alien soul transfer, which was mentioned and has yet to be explained, and plagues of infertility have led to the Galactic Omniplanetary Democratum (or, as it's known, G.O.D.) laying down a million incredibly stringent rules about unsanctioned breeding. Some sort of evil reptile alien just said "How the Xenu should I know?" This isn't just a Space Dragon Princess book. It really is a Space Dragon Princess Scientology book.
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Jan 3, 2018 21:32
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Djeser posted:"book" is a very generous way to describe Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality I mean, dude tried to start a fanfiction cult and didn’t even cause one murder-suicide. poo poo is weak.
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Jan 3, 2018 21:34
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RoboRodent posted:This isn't just a Space Dragon Princess book. It really is a Space Dragon Princess Scientology book. Neither are explicitly Scientological as far as I know so it's fair that I would not have expected that exact strain.
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Jan 3, 2018 22:09
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I take it "Nibiru" didn't tip you off? Sadly, Wiki only has the dude who made the first ancient astronaut theory rather than my favorite totally batshit "Nibiru is in Earth's orbit but exactly six months behind so it's always hidden by the sun" theory. Yeah, my bad, didn't think of the Scientology connection, just thought of Babylon and the planet in Earth's orbit thing, which I agree, it's batshit and amazing. I'm gonna read this. Possibly not fast, between four English classes. But I'm gonna read it and get my $3.75's worth.
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Jan 3, 2018 22:16
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Slime posted:In theory this would mean characters act like people and things don't happen at random and there's a bit more nuance to the villains than them just being generic bad guys. In practice, the protagonist will be an autistic robot who cruises through life because ~rational actor~ and the villains will be bad because they think the protagonist is a shitcock. Everyone else will fellate the protagonist because he's so rational and smart. There's a rational naruto RPG which of course is highly rational because every character action has to be written out in pseudocode, because that's what rationality is, only doing things that are explicitly spelled out like a beep boop robot. https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/marked-for-death-a-rational-naruto-quest.24481/
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Jan 3, 2018 22:26
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hackbunny posted:
It's been over a decade since my last college class, but I'm pretty sure rationalism is an aspect of literary criticism and not a goddamn genre.
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Jan 3, 2018 23:00
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It just reminds me of New Grub Street, where Harold Biffen's completely realistic novel, Mr. Bailey: Grocer, is such a total flop that he winds up committing suicide. Not spoilering a 120-year-old book.
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Jan 3, 2018 23:23
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I take it "Nibiru" didn't tip you off? Sadly, Wiki only has the dude who made the first ancient astronaut theory rather than my favorite totally batshit "Nibiru is in Earth's orbit but exactly six months behind so it's always hidden by the sun" theory. I mean I know about Nibiru and stitchins craziness, but I didn't know there was a scientology link there. Doesn't say so in the wikipedia link either.
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Jan 3, 2018 23:36
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I'll be honest, I was pretty fixated on "space dragon princess."
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Jan 4, 2018 00:58
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AlbieQuirky posted:It just reminds me of New Grub Street, where Harold Biffen's completely realistic novel, Mr. Bailey: Grocer, is such a total flop that he winds up committing suicide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtQNULEudss
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Jan 4, 2018 01:06
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hackbunny posted:
Taken on their own, those just sound like rules for good writing. In practice, I'm sure it's insufferable poo poo finger-vomited by the kind of people who jack off to "Everything Wrong With" videos.
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Jan 4, 2018 01:13
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I would love to read (or write even) a book about an autistic private eye, who gets by perfectly well because 99% of his work is just watching people cheat on their spouses or go rock climbing while on disability. The plot could come into where he has to deal with situations beyond his usual work. Like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, only an adult.
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Jan 4, 2018 01:31
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Senior Woodchuck posted:Taken on their own, those just sound like rules for good writing. On paper they're pretty similar to rules for fair play mysteries, but those are implicitly intellectual exercises for the reader to have fun with and still rely on an understanding of human emotions and motivations.
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Jan 4, 2018 02:08
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I mean, I read a My Little Pony rationalist fanfic and it was mostly very boring explanations about pixel magic, talking head exposition about how liberal arts degrees are worthless, and pony sex cheevos. the cheevos 
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Jan 4, 2018 02:34
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ryonguy posted:I would love to read (or write even) a book about an autistic private eye, who gets by perfectly well because 99% of his work is just watching people cheat on their spouses or go rock climbing while on disability. The plot could come into where he has to deal with situations beyond his usual work. Gun, With Occasional Music pulls this off pretty well.
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Jan 4, 2018 02:44
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"Rational fiction" sounds like something a mid-century author like Heinlein, Laumer, or Anvil would come up with for the bad guys in a story about how future society is too concerned about coddling people and thus bans all forms of Adventure.
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Jan 4, 2018 02:45
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Djeser posted:I mean, I read a My Little Pony rationalist fanfic and it was mostly very boring explanations about pixel magic, talking head exposition about how liberal arts degrees are worthless, and pony sex cheevos. Friendship is Optimal? I remember one of the mock threads went through it years ago and it was, uhh... Yeah, sums it up pretty well.
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Jan 4, 2018 02:48
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Speaking of ebooks, this one was free at Lulu. I cannot begin to describe it.
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Jan 4, 2018 10:45
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Speaking of ebooks, this one was free at Lulu. ... wat. 
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Jan 4, 2018 10:55
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Speaking of ebooks, this one was free at Lulu. the_impossible.pdf posted:" he is angry snarl" and so am I. Why are all the names in parenthesis, and how can you make mistakes with every kind of punctuation? I kind of want to hear a dramatic reading of it. the_impossible.pdf posted:"Big-man:-polygraph my rear end , this poo poo easy to fool , but fists with bones , he will never lie again."
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Jan 4, 2018 11:59
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Friendship is Optimal? I remember one of the mock threads went through it years ago and it was, uhh... ... links please? Edit: found it, and ewww, no, oh holy poo poo no no no, it's not even funny, it's just absolutely awful. indeed
font color sea has a new favorite as of 13:54 on Jan 4, 2018 |
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Jan 4, 2018 12:49
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I take it "Nibiru" didn't tip you off? Sadly, Wiki only has the dude who made the first ancient astronaut theory rather than my favorite totally batshit "Nibiru is in Earth's orbit but exactly six months behind so it's always hidden by the sun" theory. Counter-Earth has been around a while. Marvel Comics used it.
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Jan 4, 2018 13:04
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Inescapable Duck posted:Counter-Earth has been around a while. Marvel Comics used it. Gor is a Counter-Earth too....
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Jan 4, 2018 13:46
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Darth Walrus posted:I mean, dude tried to start a fanfiction cult and didn’t even cause one murder-suicide. poo poo is weak. He's acquired the sort of fans who try. Look up Eric Bruylant, founder of the Accelerator Project to create a Rationalist intentional living community. This is about him.
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Jan 4, 2018 14:47
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Tunicate posted:There's a rational naruto RPG which of course is highly rational because every character action has to be written out in pseudocode, because that's what rationality is, only doing things that are explicitly spelled out like a beep boop robot. Ambiguity means never being able to determine who would win between Goku and Superman Tunicate posted:https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/marked-for-death-a-rational-naruto-quest.24481/ At first I was like quote:Page 1 of 3061 But then I was like quote:Page 3061 of 3061
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Jan 4, 2018 16:08
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Friendship is Optimal? I remember one of the mock threads went through it years ago and it was, uhh... 4.29 stars on Goodreads e: quote:
quote:Even cooler, it came with a whopping 30,000 epiphany bit payout. Between that and his earlier epiphany this week about how the “select object” subspell worked, he was going to make it into the top ten on the weekly intellectual leaderboards easily. quote:Hassan looked back on his life. He had been too young to fight when the Soviets invaded in 1979. He remembered the civil wars and the rise of the Taliban. He remembered when the Americans invaded his country to oust the Taliban. He remembered when the Americans left and things got even worse. I have not, will not read this level 5 cognitohazard, but mining it for blood-chilling quotes is almost trivial hackbunny has a new favorite as of 16:22 on Jan 4, 2018 |
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Jan 4, 2018 16:12
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I came into this thread to be like "I'm actually a fan of the sporadic 'rationalfic.' Some are acceptable, by my low standards at least." But holy poo poo that MLP story
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Jan 4, 2018 17:46
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hackbunny posted:I have not, will not read this level 5 cognitohazard, but mining it for blood-chilling quotes is almost trivial I had a whale of a time with the Rationalist Fiction thread over on Sufficient Velocity. I think I came in around page 63. But the rest is good too. My Little Pony: Friendship is The Basilisk is a Rational Fiction take, not on MLP the show, but on the ConversionBureau trope (warning:  ). Dare you enter my magical realm??
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Jan 4, 2018 17:46
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Yeah if anyone here wants to expose themselves to secondhand Friendship is Optimal I did a Let's Read style thing back in one of the LessWrong threads. Starts here.
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Jan 4, 2018 18:15
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Jan 4, 2018 18:37
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Djeser posted:Yeah if anyone here wants to expose themselves to secondhand Friendship is Optimal I did a Let's Read style thing back in one of the LessWrong threads. Starts here. That was such a good thread. Thanks for posting, it was just as horrifying the second time.
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Jan 4, 2018 20:30
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Djeser posted:Yeah if anyone here wants to expose themselves to secondhand Friendship is Optimal I did a Let's Read style thing back in one of the LessWrong threads. Starts here. That was exactly the mock thread and read along I was thinking of. Can’t wait to at it a second time, thank you.
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Jan 4, 2018 22:56
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I've realized what Friendship Is Optimal reminds me of. The author has clearly read Accelerando by Charles Stross, missed the message, and mimicked the structure, plot, and like, half of one of the themes.
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Jan 5, 2018 04:36
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CommissarMega posted:Thing is, IIRC the original picture's quality was so bad, it would have been possible to mistake them for small pastries, maybe a strange, large kind of bean (or maybe my eyes are just that bad). However, the poster doubled down, and said something like 'shrimp are an uncommon food, how would you expect a normal person to know what those are?!' and things went on from there. The biggest problem was that I legitimately didn't know that shrimp and prawns were the same thing. I thought they were two separate species of small edible But I started a wonderful running joke and got a snazzy avatar, so I have no regrets. 
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Jan 6, 2018 22:23
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The_White_Crane posted:The biggest problem was that I legitimately didn't know that shrimp and prawns were the same thing. I thought they were two separate species of small edible They aren't? There but for the grace of God I go....
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Jan 6, 2018 22:28
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