VinesNFluff

Right?

With hindsight, now being more or less the target audience (a 30+ year old disillusioned with life) -- A lot of the books they pushed on us (I'm in Brazil, so of course they pushed the Brazilian canon of Literature) were objectively super good?

But y'know

When you're 15 years old, and have to read a book that is not only very old (thus has a vocabulary you are already struggling with, just because OLD), but is written by grown-ups for grown-ups (ergo, a lot of the fun leans on heightened versions of life experiences adults have all either lived or seen someone live through) -- AND you have to do it in a hurry (because you've got like 4 other assignments for that week, and the deadline looms) -- AND you are expected to not only get into the nitty-gritty of its themes and such, but to do so in a way that your teacher approves of?

Like how can you not hate reading after that? I was lucky I'd been exposed to literature I liked prior to that, so instead of thinking "I hate books", I just thought "wow all these books suck".

They didn't suck. But they just... Were very much not for me?

Like. Senhora, by José de Alencar, is a deeply enjoyable book if you're a grown up. Two rich people who married for money and hate each other's guts, playing the perfect husband and wife to society while shooting subtle barbs at each other whenever they get the chance? AND then they end up fond of each other after years of this? Inject that into my 30-year-old historical-romance junkie EYEBALLS please. But at age 15? I hated it.

Humans being gluttonous motherfuckers who will consume stuff until we're wrecked is indeed older than dirt. Some of the oldest records we HAVE of humanity involve people committing excesses of the sort.

-- Having a bunch of organisations driven by profit independently come to the conclusion they can exploit this flaw in human persons to maximise their profits, leading to a systemic vicious circle where we consume more, so they create more artificial needs for us to consume, so we consume more, so (...) -- Is, in fact, a product of capitalism.

That's just capitalism

You're describing capitalism

And pretty much everyone knows that's how it works, the disagreement is that some (very odd) people think this is a good thing.

The way literature is taught in school is designed deliberately to make people hate reading + studying the subtext and paratext.

By forcing kids to read books that aren't just old, but were written by 40 year olds for other 40 year olds, and then mandating them write reports about the symbolism of a book they didn't even want to read in the first place, you ensure that like 80% of people will inherently associate reading and interpreting media with every negative emotion at once.

Meanwhile you look at fandom dorks on every site and you see how invested on themes and subtext they are, and you realise people kinda naturally want to overthink media... Provided they like that media.

But people who can read subtext and understand it are less susceptible to propaganda. So.

Thoughts of making art

Thou art exceptional company. Do not attend church this Sunday.

AI bros are a lot like seagulls

They will steal your shit

They will scream at you like it's your fault that they are stealing

They are generally insufferable

Unfinished art of my fursona by my artist friend

Those are all just

Like

Your opinion

Man

(Whereas wotc being a terrible company that mistreats its players is straight up fact)

Okay but as long as we are complaining about shit we see on RPG forums

"I wish I could do $thing in DnD"

"$otherSystem has a very cool subsystem for $thing"

"Omg how dare you"

Had this conversation enough times to make it a pet peeve of mine

Anyway the only thing about 5e that does suck is Wizards of the Coast. Otherwise it's fine. It's just fine. You can have fun with it.

I'm more of a Pathfinder 2e guy tho.

(And pf2 is basically a more advanced take on what 5e was doing so....)

I'm going to 1450 and giving the natives guns before the Spaniards and the Portuguese arrive.

Without them, anglos probably won't bother either.

Salad 🌿