domain:shapesinthefog.substack.com
erwgv3g34
4m ago
C. S. Lewis doesn't count; that was back when everyone was Christian, or maybe Jewish. Even Jerry Pournelle was towards the tail-end of that era. A science fiction author being Christian doesn't really become remarkable until the New Atheism of the 2000's.
crushedoranges
Can Marx explain the used panties market?
4m ago
The best depiction of the heroine's journey is, unironically, the schlocky Princess Diary movie, which plays it so straight that it is practically canonical. A awkward but virtuous heroine discovers her inner beauty and refinement and prevails over circumstances to end up with a good man. She overcomes her own insecurities and the judgements of others to become a princess in heart as well as in fact.
And this is an internal journey, for the most part: complementary to the masculine hero. If you watch media that women genuinely like to consume (like magical girl anime and Disney princess movies) the fighting and bluster is largely secondary to the dramatic arcs of feminine self-realization.
The perversion happens when you combine the superficial aspects of the masculine journey with the contemplating-one-navel nature of the feminine one. If you're a supercompetent girlboss you have no virtues to realize in the feminine sense or to learn in the masculine sense. Stagnancy. The only arc that is possible is 'the world doesn't recognize how awesome I am, and so it must suffer'. This narcissistic plot is utterly repugnant and is rejected by all but the most hidebound ideologues.
Skulldrinker
11m ago
I'm more trying to make a point that stories about women/by women have been written that can be enjoyed by humans of whatever gender, this isn't utterly uncharted territory where artists have to build everything from scratch.
erwgv3g34
13m ago
Mormon cosmology might have something to do with it.
MadMonzer
Pedo! Pedo! Pedo! Out! Out! Out!
20m ago
I also loved those books. (Alan Garner was my favourite contemporary fantasy writer growing up in England, but Cooper was a close second). The Dark is Rising is written by a woman, but it isn't a "girl" story - Will, Bran and Merriman are all standard male heroic archetypes played straight.
MadMonzer
Pedo! Pedo! Pedo! Out! Out! Out!
24m ago
Hunger Games was a hit with a mostly female audience - I think it counts as a "girl" story. I also think it counts as a refreshing new take on the obnoxious romance/girlboss tropeset - see this three part vivisection by the Last Psychiatrist, which I fully endorse on this point.
MadMonzer
Pedo! Pedo! Pedo! Out! Out! Out!
32m ago
Ursula le Guin was a woke feminist, but she wrote stories that didn't feature romances or girlbosses (partly because she did her best work before the girlboss trope crystallised). I'm not sure whether you count her as writing "girl" stories.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
58m ago
Are we pretending government employees are hyper competent now?
Trump obviously thinks HE is.
SubstantialFrivolity
I'm not even supposed to be here today
1hr ago
Painting rooms in fun colors seems like something the kids would enjoy a lot. Though you might want to be careful about making it very clear that them being able to put their mark on the wall is not an every day thing, lol.
Dean
Flairless
1hr ago
Japan has its own demonstrations of the trope. Not as often as the leading main character, since those tend towards being crouching moron-hidden badass tropes. The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is about the only one I can loosely remember that played the 'could actually be incompetent' card... mostly straight?
Still, the 'incompetent but presumed hypercomptent' is a bit more common in supporting cast characters. One of the most famous examples is Hercule Satan from Dragonball Z. An actual legitimate world-class martial arts champion... who is hopeless in the context of the super-human saiyan power scaling. (And yet, is also the only person to survive fighting both of the end-game DBZ arc villains.)
Tanista
1hr ago
The original Mary Sue was a a parody of Star Trek female self-inserts, interestingly enough. Apparently so many people were sending in this sort of work to a Star Trek fan magazine they wrote Mary Sue to parody the phenomenon.
She wrote a vampire romance story where the main characters waited until marriage. In fact the entire story seems to be built on top of resisting the temptation to sleep together before then; Edward's bloodlust an obvious metaphor for actual lust.
The entire vampire baby plotline (where the choice is between aborting a fetus eating the main character from the inside out or...to let that happen and let her give birth and likely die) is basically an extended pro-life parable. It might be the most successful version ever really.
Characters explicitly refuse to call it a fetus and demand their opponents use the b word.
hydroacetylene
2hr ago
Star Trek invented fan fiction. This is, uh, not a male hobby.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
2hr ago
Many elements in the stories do tick the GIRLPOWERR box. (Nearly every female character in the series is excellent superstrong martial arts fighter, justified by magitech).
...And yet, they don't actually crowd out the male characters, who are likewise super-strong martial arts fighters, again justified by magitech, unless they're just magitech wizards or some other variety of superbeing. Klaus Wolfenbach in particular is portrayed from the outset as more or less omnicompetent, universally feared and respected, and a massive threat to the main characters and their plans, escapable only due to the unwieldy nature of his empire. Othar, Gil, the Jaegers generally, all are portrayed as prime hero material, and frequently enjoy genuine spotlight time.
I'd argue it's the advantage of true belief; in the world of Girl Genius, men and women are equal, in every way that counts; muscle and bone mass and psychological proclivities are eclipsed utterly by the power of the Spark.
hydroacetylene
2hr ago
I can't think of parents who have a consistent hard ban on disney, unless it's a generic no screens policy. But I also can't think of parents who allow the new stuff from them. Granted, filter bubble effects- but my filter bubble is probably at least as biased towards including parents vs genpop as it is to being conservative vs genpop.
IGI-111
God was a dream of good government.
2hr ago
Well then you'll get the same outcome as French Dirigisme: a very nice infrastructure and industrial base slowly rotting under the weight of uncertainty as all your competitors catch up and loot it until it can no longer support its own weight.
hydroacetylene
2hr ago
Mormons also actively check up on adherence to minimum religious practice. The Catholic church does this only on an ad hoc basis.
Bartender_Venator
2hr ago
Not terribly often, but sometimes. Just helped a friend move last weekend (though I did get some old books and a sweet radio that I will likely never use any more than he did). I've probably done bigger good deeds than this one but it sticks with me: I was staying at my aunt's place in a third-world country where she rents out flats. Some elderly regulars were visiting, and the man was in very poor health, clearly not going to be around to come back next year. One day I'm walking out of the vestibule as he's walking in, and he suddenly starts to collapse, I'm in arms reach to dart in and prop him up. He's a big, portly guy but I'm strong enough to hold him up, my brother gets in on the other side and we slowly walk him over to a stair where we can sit him down safely. At that age, in that poor health, and with the issues of the local hospitals, a bad fall would likely either have killed him or meant the end of his mobile life. There's also something particularly satisfying about being able to help somebody just by being there and being physically strong/quick, primal male stuff.
hydroacetylene
2hr ago
Mormons also have people checking up on their religious adherence.
hydroacetylene
2hr ago
Obviously the dividends are going to get plowed into social security if intel ever makes a profit.
hydroacetylene
2hr ago
The first thing with any question about how you insure your vehicle is is the vehicle paid off, and if not what are the rules in place on how it is insured from the owner of the loan.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
2hr ago
Because in 4-8 years the blue tribe might start doing it too, and this is a silly road to go down.
Trump doing this doesn't make the Dems more likely to do it. They've already thought of ways to do this on their own (e.g. the government held over 60% of GM as part of Obama's plan in the aftermath of the GFC) anyway. The danger is more that if it appears to succeed (i.e. Intel both does well in the short term and builds more advanced fabs in the US) that a future Republican administration will do more of the same. If, as I think is more likely, it fails (because Intel sucks and this amounts to a further bailout) and future Republicans decide to do more of it anyway, that's mostly on them.
Mantergeistmann
2hr ago
Joan Aiken's Dido Twite books might fit this, as might Patricia Wrede's Mairelon the Magician series.
Unsounded is great. Alderode is a ethnat police state with strict castes, Cresce is a child-sacrificing horror communist monarchy, and Sharteshane is the worst of Dickesian Victorian capitalist apathy.
How can you care for anyone, in such a soul crushing world?
Without spoiling anything, I think Cope answers that question quite well.
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