domain:shapesinthefog.substack.com
I understand a few people on this site really abhorred RF Kuang's 2023 novel Yellowface. Freddie deBoer has a tremendously bitchy article today taking Kuang to task for her perceived false modesty in her New Yorker profile, which doubles as a very harsh review of Yellowface itself. It's transparently written from a place of envy and spite, deBoer barely pretending to mask how much he covets Kuang her literary success in comparison to his own meagre book sales, but entertaining for all that, and I'm sure that any of you who disliked Yellowface will find much to agree with in his critique.
(Without having read Yellowface I can't comment on its literary merits or lack thereof — but its author is pretty cute and I would.)
sun_the_second
could survive a COD lobby and a gay furry discord server
2hr ago
Yeah, I'll just move it over there.
FtttG
2hr ago
Usually goes in small-scale, although it's arguably a better fit for this thread.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
2hr ago
It was remarkable for Lewis to be devoutly Christian and write a space trilogy specifically as apologetics against those who said that God can't care too much about Earth due to how large the cosmos are.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
2hr ago
Catholics are still writing Science Fiction, but it's generally not getting as popular. I think the age of seeing the world sacramentally/semiotically is in the past. In our materialist age, the Mormon worldview appeals more (not Mormonism specifically, but generally the idea of a God who is more like a superhero than something fundamentally different from a creature. And then the pseudo-scientific philosophy that comes out of that.)
Other Catholic science fiction:
- Elfheim
- The Sparrow
- Lord of the World
- Sun Eater
- Voyage to Alpha Centauri
- The Golden Age
- Toward the Gleam
There's also a lot of Catholic-haunted sci-fi (often written by ex-Catholics or agnostics who are inspired by Catholicism):
- Hyperion Cantos
- Dune (arguably)
- I'm running out of time but I feel like this list should be bigger than the first.
Hieronymus
2hr ago
Society doesn't seem to have the right model for it. "Oh, he's an abusive husband because he yells and throws things, he's using his emotions to control you." I don't think it was that calculated….
I 110% respect your insight here. Modern society is quick to lump unlike things together and label them all abuse.
… (and for the record, he never laid a hand on me).
Given the circumstances, I would encourage you to explicitly communicate your respect for this and to thank him if you haven’t already. I bet it will mean more to him than you think.
FtttG
2hr ago
Hardspace Shipbreaker. Attempting to dissemble a ship as neatly and efficiently as possible with a minimum of waste was enormously absorbing, appealing to the same part of my brain that can't relax until everything in my apartment is in its right place.
I agree with the comments below that older boys and men can rarely give unfiltered expressions of emotion, particularly anger and particularly to women, without their being misconstrued. Often swallowing one’s emotions is the right answer. The teen years are the right time to learn this, but if your son is on the autism spectrum he’s going to have trouble.
I would try to get his dad’s input if you can, even – perhaps particularly – given his dad’s struggles. You might also consider asking a male teacher for his perspective; if he has a male teacher who hasn’t called you I would consider him first.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
2hr ago
I would posit the GM share ownership was as a result of a huge exigent circumstances, which Intel is not facing.
I also think this makes the Dems more likely to do it, as Trump is moving the Overton window towards doing this whenever you feel like it and towards companies that aren't on the verge of total collapse (although maybe Intel is, lol).
How would you feel if the Dems started buying equity shares in solar panel manufacturers because "the climate is an urgent crisis we must address"?
But overall I am a fan of your comment and mostly agree with you. Thanks for sharing!
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
2hr ago
My rules are also "no government control of companies."
I'm pretty equitable, I think the motivations and intellectual caliber of both the left and right are stupid as fuck. Americans are of course, as with many things, at the cutting edge of this trend.
I find your response quite fascinating. It strikes me that both American parties in a multi-turn prisoners dilemma game where the payoff for "defect" is a temporary gain in political power, which is then offset by the other side doing the same thing, and american governance/institutions/leadership being overall degraded as a result. Both sides are so myopic they seem to only have the capacity to smash the "defect" button over and over again, as American institutions rot, economic and military dominance over the world wanes, and the government gets worse and worse at doing... anything.
And your response to this is "yes! Smash the defect button before they do! Smash it!!!"
I know you don't want to be the first one to cooperate while the other side defects and gets a leg up, but damn, you must all realize this isn't going to end well for your children right?
JTarrou
2hr ago
There's only two international ones, Islam and globohomo. Everything else is politically captured religion, ethnic division and nationalisms.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
3hr ago
Thank you so much for putting this into words better than I could
hydroacetylene
3hr ago
Let’s also add EMTALA- hospitals get left on the hook for care for genuinely uninsured patients.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
3hr ago
Her two friends called me a pervert and accused me of groping her, then left, abandoning her to her fate.
Wow. This is one of those stories you don't believe if you read it on facebook, but I trust you. Terrible behavior.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
3hr ago
Grant_us_eyes
3hr ago
Looks at his current play-count for saved worlds
Well, as of late, I'd have to say Vintage Story. As for why? It's hard to place down on one single element. There's just something weirdly appealing about making wine and baking pies in a post-apocalyptic lovecraftian eldritch horror setting were your overall goal is to make it to producing steel. Oh, and possibly figuring out the entire reason for all that post-apocalyptic lovecraftian eldritch horror.
Mechanics-wise, it also has a wide plethora of emergent gameplay. Not requiring containers to store things and just being able to put your tools down on the ground or leaning up against a nearby wall has a charm all of it's own.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
3hr ago
Subsidies don't have to lose money if they have a positive multiplier.
I'm not entirely sure what treasury ownership you're referring to? Social security?
Because in that case, that's the government owning a Treasury issued by the government. The interest paid is real it's paid by the way everything else is, taxes or debt.
I fully agree social security is a shitshow nightmare from numerous perspectives. I think they should move to the "Canadian model" a la CPP, where investments are managed by an extremely competent and largely independent team.
I would like to reiterate that the executive branch borderline randomly scooping up equity stakes in flavor of the month companies is not this. Also, it's likely a transfer of welfare from taxpayers to equity holders AND it will definitely fuck heavily with equity price discovery, leading to a less efficient market overall.
Throwaway05
3hr ago
I know this isn't popular but I quite disagree, I think Floyd was exactly as bad a martyr as everyone else, he just stuck a lot better because of the circumstances and that makes it harder for people to have awareness of that.
Amadan
Enjoying my short-lived victory
3hr ago
I agree and disagree. I think Trek's fandom has always been predominantly male, with a substantial distaff side. The boys like geeking about the Warp specifications and photon torpedo load-outs of the various versions of the Enterprise and playing Starfleet Battles -- the girls like cosplaying as Orions and shipping Kirk and Spock.
The quasi-military structure of Starfleet was always a bit of thematic dissonance; Roddenberry was really envisioning a post-religious, post-military, globalist society, but framing a crew of explorers who also sometimes have to fight Klingons (Chinese/Soviet analogs) as anything other than a military vessel would not have made sense to a 60s audience. Making them a space navy was an easy way to get the normie audience oriented, but the show itself was, as has often been noted, actually Wagon Train in space.
You'll notice the officer/enlisted distinction in Starfleet is practically non-existent and getting promoted rarely has much to do with command as opposed to just being good at your job (like in a civilian job).
I think this cognitive dissonance has continued through various iterations of Trek; sometimes they try to lean away from the military themes and more into political or social ones, and sometimes they lean into it and tell a war story (DS9, the best Trek), but lately, it's just kind of incoherent as Trek parodies itself. That said, Trek has also always been a commentary on contemporary issues, told through the medium of sci-fi, so it's not surprising that as woke spread, Trek became more woke.
The fundamental problem with Trek is largely the same one as Star Wars (and to a lesser extent the MCU) - it's running on fumes. It's got a huge fanbase of aging nerds who loved it when they were 12, but a franchise can only live so long on nostalgia, and both Trek and Star Wars are having trouble pulling in the next generation. I think this is something we are starting to see with cape movies as well. How many Zoomers are invested in 60 years of Superman or X-Men lore? Will alphas even read comic books at all?
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
3hr ago
Yeah I just played recently on a private server. Was fun, accelerated xp so you don’t waste your entire life leveling hah.
A new one is coming out for cataclysm soon and I want to try that.
On Halloween I was coming home from the pub at maybe 10 or 11 pm when I happened on a girl who'd passed out on the street after having too much to drink. I immediately realised she needed to get to a hospital to have her stomach pumped, so I called an ambulance and put her on her side in case she was sick. Her two friends called me a pervert and accused me of groping her, then left, abandoning her to her fate. Because of the occasion, I had to wait somewhere in the region of three hours for an ambulance to arrive. At least some other passers-by stopped to help, including two nurses in training. A day or two later the girl texted me to thank me and said she was cutting ties with the two friends who'd abandoned her.
In July I went into my local cornershop, in which a customer was accusing the staff of short-changing him (I assume he was mistaken). He attempted to climb over the counter to assault them, whereupon I stepped in to put him in a half-nelson and drag him out of the shop. He feebly attempted to attack me before being dissuaded by his (I assume extremely embarrassed) girlfriend and slouching off in defeat. The staff were very grateful and made a point to thank me when I came into the shop over the following few days. Another patron came up to me immediately afterwards and quipped that I was in the wrong line of work and ought to become a bouncer.
A few weeks ago, my parents were flying back from Australia, and I offered to drive them home from the airport as I knew they'd be jet-lagged. When we got to the car, my mother, God love her, offered to drive. I very gently pointed out that the sole reason I was there was to save her the trouble of having to drive.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
3hr ago
Yeah a shared group identity is pretty crucial. Which do you think are still the most potent in the current era?
Moving this from the friday fun thread:
I'm hooked on this Russian blog of (mostly funny) stories of a nuclear submarine officer. Y'all should put it through Grok or Deepseek or whatever, it might still be funny in machine translation.
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