[ SECRET POST #3391 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3391 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.














Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 076 secrets from Secret Submission Post #485.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 3 - random memes ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

IA so much with this comment. I wish there was more fantasy that captured that sense of wonder I got as a child.

As a writer, it feels like there is a lot of pressure to have a perfectly well-thought-out magical "system" that's a way of explaining every. single. detail. of the world. And if you don't have every. single. detail. perfectly explained in a pseudo-scientific manner, then clearly your world is crap and you should stop trying.

I think this is missing the point. Not even Tolkien approached his worldbuilding that way.

I wonder how much of this overlaps with nerd culture - I've found geeks and nerds have an annoying habit of nitpicking small details in works instead of focusing on the overarching story itself. (I say this as a nerd myself... but yeah, readers of SF/F tend to overlap with readers of comic books, in the worst way possible.)

[(Anonymous)]

If we wanted to be armchair psychologists about it, there is an argument that wanting everything properly thought-out and explainable right now is part of a general climate prioritising individual control. A combination of age-of-enlightenment 'reason' plus capitalist individualism, the need to personally be able to control whatever comes your way, plus recent dislike of unexpected-forces-from-nowhere for RL reasons. To recall yesterday's comics conversation, it's the same reason favour has swung back Batman's way instead of Superman's, because right now people want individual people, men, who can beat and control gods by way of force and reason and technology and the rule of law, rather than gods who offer kindness and benevolence for essentially their own reasons. Because right now people don't think gods or chance can be benevolent, and they don't want to have to rely on the favour of manners to control outside forces without means to personally back it up. The world is turtling at the minute.

If, you know, we wanted armchair philosophy on the subject.

[(Anonymous)]

The reason we no longer believe in the benevolence of gods is because the current messengers of the gods are everything except benevolent and kind. That and our current political leaders might as well be gods, they have access to resources and surveillance capabilities that no tyrant king of old could ever match. They are as unreachable and implacable as gods when it comes to common folk, and more cruel and selfish than even the worst of them.

No wonder we don't believe those with power can be kind, or persuaded to do anything without first being overpowered or legally outmaneuvered first.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

I've heard similar things about the popularity of vampires and zombies in fiction as well.

However, couldn't you also make the argument that in times of trouble people will want more positive stories?

[(Anonymous)]

They have to believe positive outcomes are possible first. When times pass a certain level of bleakness then that ceases to be seen as possible.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, a thing doesn't necessarily have to by cynical to be explainable. So long as there's an underlying current of reason and control, things can be relatively light or dark on top of it.

[(Anonymous)]

"I wish there was more fantasy that captured that sense of wonder I got as a child."

That's a tall and maybe impossible order, though, because a lot of that sense of wonder was simply being a kid and the fact that so much more of the world (and literature) was brand new to you then. Children don't make as many demands upon world building, they tend to be more willing to let plot holes lie (or not see them in the first place), suspend disbelief and generally live in the story as its told without deep analysis.

Most adults don't and can't do that anymore.