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PaperclipPerfector  16hr ago (text post)   507 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Lazy answer first:

Most fiction actually has a positive vision, to the point where it’s taken for granted. If it’s not actively nihilistic, the characters are probably gonna succeed within their system and be praised for it. Go watch a sports movie or something.

Marginally less lazy:

Your story has to have conflict, right? Criticizing the setting is a popular way to get that. Look for fiction where the conflict comes from man vs. nature instead. Planetary romances with steely-eyed princes fighting off aliens. Rugged individualists making their way in the Old West. There’s plenty of fiction where people just get into adventures and present a personal vision.

I may draw a lot of flak for this, but I’ll slot a bunch of Brandon Sanderson in that category. He plops down a setting conceit, spins out a bunch of consequences, then has his characters struggle and grow within those systems. He doesn’t really do antiheroes. Stormlight Archive is a central example: superpowers are literally fueled by paladin oaths.

Now, if you’re specifically looking for a positive societal vision, rather than personal ones:

Rationalfic. Transhumanist stories like To The Stars. Weirder glowfic and dath ilan: aviation is really remarkably safe. All sorts of other stuff.

For published fiction, I wouldn’t count Ancillary Justice, but Too Like the Lightning probably makes the cut. The Dark Forest made its utopia really stupid, but it certainly didn’t apologize for it.

There’s also an endless supply of uncritical HFY thrillers out there for your reading pleasure. I’ll leave you with a pseudo-recommendation for Tom Clancy. America is always right, government force is always justified, and a shadowy parallel intelligence community which funds itself through insider trading is apparently a good thing. It’s a window into a different world.

Glowfic: Aviation Is Really Remarkably Safe

I forgot how much I hated this stupid story format. Here's a reformatted version, if anyone wants it.

You know, I'd completely forgotten that spy thrillers were a genre. I don't think I've read one in over two decades. Maybe I should revisit them.

Hunt for Red October was gold. All the weirdness comes across as a stylistic choice.

I may draw a lot of flak for this, but I’ll slot a bunch of Brandon Sanderson in that category.

No, I owe a lot to Brandon Sanderson. As a very withdrawn teenager, Mistborn's message of

'Trust people, even when you can't prove they deserve that trust. Sometimes it works out.'

was exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it.

In general Sanderson was part of a wave of stuff (mostly Japanese) that made me realise how absolutely infested my usual media was with irony and nihilism, and I appreciate that a lot.

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