site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1367 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 5, 2026

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.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Astral Codex Ten 2026 Book Review Contest submissions thread

My top 10:

Honorable mentions:

I used to really love World War Z, but upon returning to it last year, I think it really has not aged well, especially after the last 20 years. In hindsight it seems obvious that certain characters/storylines were included to push Max's political hobby horses. A couple I found especially jarring were the cripple neighborhood watch member, the billionaire pharmaceutical CEO hiding out in the arctic, and the ending. However, it's still charming in its own way. It's almost quaint in how it handles its politics. Were the book written today, I have no doubt that there would be at least a couple of chapters devoted to the usual culture war topics.

To me it's a fun read. The core story is still compelling, but it really shows its age. Part of me thinks that maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have memories of it being such a great book. I honestly wish I could read it for the first time again today so I didn't have my judgement clouded by my previous expectations. Maybe if I was reading it for the first time today, it wouldn't show its age as much. Overall I'd still recommend it, but nowhere near as heartily as I would have in 2010.

World War Z was released on the upswing of Peak Zombie, and now we're well into the downslop. I loved zombie apocalypse content around high school in 2010 or so, but by the time The Walking Dead was big and the World War Z movie came out, it was just so beaten to death and cliche that I was sick of it all.

As an aside, I believe that is what is preventing GRRM from ever finishing The Winds of Winter, he probably had ideas for how to really play with and subvert tropes around zombies in fantasy/horror...and then a hundred other major zombie properties came out between when he started the series and when he got to TWOW, and a thousand more have come out while he's working on TWOW. My personal theory: Jon Snow is meant to assume the role of the Night King to lead the Others and the Zombies away from the human lands to the South, this has been theorycrafted well in advance. The problem for GRRM is that this is also the ending to the Arthas raid in World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King, so it's no longer cool and creative and subverting tropes in the genre, it's merely regurgitating another story. The irony being that both the Scourge's first appearance in Warcraft III and the ending of WotLK were probably inspired by GRRM and ASOIAF. GRRM's subversiveness has been torpedoed by his own success before he could finish his work.

Pretty good theory, makes sense on why GRRM has writer's block. He will probably pass of natural causes before he finishes ASOIAF unfortunately, being obese and physically inactive.

It's a literary debate grenade I throw out every few months when someone brings up Game of Thrones, how GRRM set out consciously with the goal of critiquing or debating or surpassing Tolkien, and ultimately failed because he was unable to write an ending.

Anyone out there is going to have one tell of a time in attempting to surpass Tolkien. The mythology of Middle Earth went well beyond what most people found in LOTR alone, and it wasn’t simply the range but the depth of fantasy he went into.

I don't think it's really possible.

My wife is reading LOTR for the first time right now, and asked me how much of modern fantasy Tolkien invented. And I said that it's not so much that he invented a lot of things, almost everything in LOTR had some precedent either in prior sword and sandals fantasy universes or in myths both ancient and modern. ((Among other things, I think Tolkien scholars make a concerted effort to connect Numenor primarily to Plato's Atlantis and skip over the various Aryanist fantasies around Atlantis and Lemuria you see more clearly in R.E. Howard's stories.))

But Tolkien is fantasy's Most Recent Common Ancestor on essentially all questions. He settled a lot of different versions of what Elves, Orcs, Goblins, Dwarves were. Before Tolkien they could be a lot of things, after Tolkien they're mainly just the one thing, or if you change it you are in conscious conversation with Tolkien's tradition in changing it.

You just can't get that kind of juice today. The only thing comparable in influence is D&D, which will never get the same credibility.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats