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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   809 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 6, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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mrvanillaskys guide to rural India

I finally stepped foot in the village my mother comes from today. It's an hour away from hier small town in my last weeks update and the problems of the city are not as apparent there as the entire village is one km in radius or two if you are generous, so if you walk for t10 minutes and so without stepping on the animal waste, you will find yourself surrounded by proto bali like crops on slopes that are not super impressive compared to bali but still pretty interesting.

My moms family ran the entire village and a few centuries ago one of our ancestors saw Shiva in a dream, where he was told to go to a tree, uproot it and make a shiva temple with the Shiva Linga found there, he did just that and the most important temple in that small region of a few villages was built on that site. I feel great whenever I go there. The problems of poverty and a lack of resources, general helplessnes plague the people, unlike the city, you dont see rivers of open sewage, the air is cleaner. I felt quite out of place too, I was introduced to some of my distant relatives and it was nice to see that they were studying real things like biology or math in college as the arts here are just bad.

My familys house there has close to 80 something rooms, built more than a century ago, the most important person being my uncle, one of them, the youngest one, though all are older than my mom who was the youngest and the only girl. His wife got a PhD in psychosomatic disorders and has been trying her hardest to make the place go beyond plain agriculture by getting people to open shops up that provide some regular cash. She moved back to the village because of my uncle and renovated parts of our huge house. I felt quite a bit of peace going through the narrow paths that cujt through fields and semi arid forests. You apprecaite and also dislike the large city you live in.

People were quite short, pretty dark and very simple minded. There were some marriages happening, marriages are gneerally happy times in the grim setting that rural India is. People vist the temple my family built and everyone knows everyone. We had giant monekys that have a black face entre the house daily which led to my aunt and uncle using their air gun a bunch of times. What did surprise me was tha availability of ultra procesed food and smartphone addiction. Everyone is 2 feet away from shops that sell soft drinks, potato chips, ice creams and everyones always on thier phones, much less than a city. I wish to visit the place soon, hopefully as a better man.

With a bit of narrative distance and perhaps confidence you could write a novel set in this area. Avoid any AI help, keep the rich detail, maybe throw in a love triangle or violence, or if you prefer, something dystopian. Just a thought.

Can be a decent exercise, I write poorly, something long form should help me get better at writing at the very least.

Some of my favorite movies are the three that make up the Oslo trilogy which focus on lives of people. Two of the three don't involve grand plots of any kind. Slice of life is hard to pull off.

Is that the trilogy containing Oslo 31. August? Great movie IMO. Felt pretty accurate.

Yes, it was the most depressing of the three, I loved reprise because it's described as Trainspotting but with literature instead of heroin. Oslo, 31. August was very painful.

Pretty sure I have reviews of the three up on themotte, highly recommended them, watch the Oslo, 31. August, the worst person in the world and finally reprise so that you end on a higher note.

The worst person on the planet was the weakest of the three, despite being a great movie.

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