Suchian Musings And Ramblings About General Designs Involving Notable Estuaries

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-24 04:02:25

When you hate the story and everybody responds to that by telling you about the merits of the story, it does not console. When the storytellers say the sweet words the public wants to hear, it does not console. When your people tell you that they don't mind it, and that it even brings some of them some good, it does not console. They deserve better, and you know it. You can't stop knowing it, even when it alienates you from them.

Yeah, we'll never get the vindication we want. Storytellers are immune to justice. Communities know to pick their battles, to maintain allies by knowing which fights they can't afford to start, and to avoid escalating the conflicts which the long-term interests say ought not be escalated. Sometimes, that means leaving some of the younger, angrier, more belligerent members disappointed.

Yes, there are reasons. Good reasons. But reason doesn't console. Reason persuades the head, but the flame within is of the heart.

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-24 04:13:11

So, no, I don't want to be "allies" with anyone who wants to cancel a good media/story-work because of its creators. Alliances are a thing of reason, of considered situational awareness and long-term strategy. An ally would tell you not to see things in black and white, to let it go, to not drag me into this. An ally would expect you to join their fight when your heart isn't in it but the cold calculus says it ought to be done.

Nah, what I'm talking about is co-belligerents. If I weren't trying to be a pacifist in these culture wars, I'd be co-belligerents with any lonely idealistic fool whose heart burns for vengeance on story-makers.

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-24 04:29:13

I think the problem isn't the conflicts we have, but our failure to satisfactorily resolve them.

Imagine if the different ideologies could pick champions such that all involved agree on each champion picked, and then the champions would get in a kicking match to first blood, and then all the people could go home knowing that honor's demands had been met.

But there's no kicking in our discourse, and no resolution. This supposedly "thoughtful, civilized, nonviolent" way of peacefully disagreeing leaves everyone seething and resentful, bottling it up until either no reconciliation is possible and the enmity gets passed on to the next generation, or something snaps and it all goes to heck.

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-24 04:40:44

Either way, those who feed off of conflict eat well. Satirists, demagogues, arms dealers, commentators.

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-24 04:55:38

You know, what got me to become accepting of LGBTQ+ wasn't any reasoned debate, emotional plea, or ethical explanation. It was no collection of words intended to accomplish such, nothing that could be reprinted or copy-pasted, not at all. It was friendship.

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-24 05:12:35

I couldn't tell you when, there's no discrete point of change. I can't guide another along the path I must have taken, I do not know it myself. From no other axioms does it derive, but it is of itself axiomatic, self-evident.

Friendship is a platonic love that allows one to become aware of another's divine nature. It is a clean air through which that light, truth, may shine. And by that light, we may see.

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-24 05:14:16

"'I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

~C.S. Lewis

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-27 04:11:04

I’m going to commit crimes at the Gotham City petting zoo. If Batman is really Bruce Wayne, he won’t be able to get me because you need your parents’ signatures on a permission slip to enter. This will also work if Batman is a non-Bruce-Wayne orphan.

Princess Alice · 2024-01-27 04:37:44

I smiled.

Ali_Roz · 2024-01-27 05:15:31

Okay, so it turns out that permission slips never expire, and that Thomas and Martha Wayne and John and Mary Grayson both signed such things years ago, so Batman didn’t even have to show up.

Also Bruce Wayne hits like a truck and doesn’t think freeing my kin from the petting zoo and taking them to the haberdashery is morally justifiable.

Also also Dick Grayson kicks like a freight train and doesn’t think that having the baby gazelles as the main course of this unscheduled family reunion is morally justifiable.

Also also also I forgot to get my parents’ signatures on a permission slip.

Now I’m banned for life from the Gotham City petting zoo.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-10 19:46:45

"They didn't laugh at me when I told them my idea for a death ray. I really appreciated that, so I never felt the need to use my death ray on anyone. Thank you for showing an interest."
-Eccentric-but-not-upset scientist from the polite timeline.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-23 18:14:14

Crusader Kings II is not good in terms of actually being fun to play (it takes way too long to do anything, most interesting ideas require cheats, and the loading times are far too long), well-made (in some specific ways... I mean that stuff that should be in the F2P base game is in DLCs which would be a scam at two dollars but are actually more like fifteen dollars, that the filesizes are massive and the game makes computers wheeze and suffer, and that the game in general feels jittery and twitchy rather than smooth or responsive), entirely historically accurate (though that's mostly due to having all these different places at all these different times and yet trying to have the same basic game represent all of them, or due to needing game balance more than historical accuracy, or things in which accuracy would "feel" wrong to the intended audience*), and yet I find myself enjoying it, getting invested in my dynasties, and spending way too many hours typing in hundreds and hundreds of lines of cheats just so I can make everything just so.

*Reality is Unrealistic. Even the distribution of farmland vs forests or plains will feel "wrong" to a lot of people if it matches history rather than the patterns of the last three or four hundred years. People will say that it's "inaccurate" to have more farmland in Ireland than in England, or more farmland in Egypt than Greece, regardless of whether or not that's the case for the time in question. And that's not even getting into more nuanced or subjective stuff.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-23 18:25:48

The borders have to be neat, you know, and the feudal subdivisions logical and clean. Patterns, once established, must be maintained.

All women of the player dynasty must marry matrilineally, all men of such must marry patrilineally, and nobody can marry anyone with whom they share any ancestor or if the age gap is more than four years (two years if they are marrying at an age less than thirty). This usually means debutante/soldier/holy-man/noble or using cheats to move people with good stats/traits from far away into the player court. No remarrying unless celibate.

And so on and so on, with each generation more patterns arise, until I want to restart again but do all the patterns from the start.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-23 18:36:37

I dunno why you think you can own land in MAH empire if you ain't got the Kind and Just traits. I don't know why you think you can be more than a baron/baronness if you ain't got both of those and Diligent, Charitable, and Temperate. A critical mass of these traits eventually becomes somewhat self-sustaining as the only people allowed to be assigned as guardians are Brawny Brilliant Strategists with all those traits and the Brave Trait AND YES THOSE PEOPLE ONLY EXIST BECAUSE OF MY INCESSANT USE OF CHEAT CODES SHUT UP.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-23 19:01:29

And having all those traits in common helps all the people in the court like one another, which minimizes scumbaggery. The fact that these traits raise the AI honor setting for the characters also minimizes scumbaggery.

Only kind and just people allowed. Unkind and unjust people will have their titles revoked under claim c_eggplantland ("since you have a claim to this title, your vassals won't care if you revoke it"), be imprisoned without trial under imprison 2675thisdoofus, then be executed in obscurity ("since this person is so unimportant, no one will care") or banished.

Peace and prosperity are MANDATORY.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-23 19:10:35

Taxes will be set at minimum or none, and public infrastructure funded by mister cash 99999999. My good friends Mrs. event 900 2642thisdoofuschaplain, Mrs. clr_moved_capital, and Mrs. event 55000 will ensure that every county has the same religion and culture, keeping local rebellion chance to a maximum of zero percent.

Collaboration between Mrs. clr_moved_capital and Mr. event RIP.11705 will give each county seven holding slots, of which three will be castles, three temples, and one will be a city. Mr. destroy_settlement b_grapefruitberg will be employed, as necessary, to allow such symmetry.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-23 19:33:29

Ms. allow_laws will provide the ideal succession setting of Absolute-Cognatic Ultimogeniture. This way, every child gets to be the heir, at least for a little while.

The first five generations go like this

Emperor/Emperess > Monarchs. All children of the original Emperor/Empress get different kingdoms, one each. The empire may need to be expanded for this, but after a century, the de jure borders will change to reflect this.

Monarchs > Dukes/Duchesses. All grandchildren of the original emperor/empress get different duchies, one each. These duchies make up the parent kingdom. Kingdoms may need to be expanded to allow this, but the de jure borders will change to reflect this.

Duke/Duchesses > Counts/Countesses. All great-grandchildren of the original emperor/empress get different counties, one each. These counties make up the parent duchies. Since duchies cannot be expanded, mr add_trait_celibate 264thisperson will ensure that the numbers match up.

If I was insanely dedicated, I'd make it go one more generation and have make sure great-grandchild has no more than three children, so they could all be barons.

If I was even more insanely dedicated, I'd make sure that for the five generations after that, each one had one and only one child, and only married courtiers from the debutante/soldier/holy-man/noble decision, until all these landowners were no closer than fourth cousins to each other, and otherwise unrelated to anyone else.

Then I'd sit back with ms. observe and see how long it all lasts, and which branch comes out on top (or if they all fail, which is the last one to fail).

The point is to painstakingly build something and then watch it fall apart. Like a longer, more tedious, more compulsive version of deleting the ladder in the swimming pool of a sim.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-24 19:02:23

Recommendation: a 20-year moratorium on using the words "character", "script", "writing", "plot", "dialogue", or "story" in criticism of non-print media. This may need to be extended, if that time is not sufficient for a renewed appreciation of everything else to develop.

Further Recommendation: The removal of the "character tropes" namespace on TvTropes and its replacement with a "location tropes" namespace where all the tropes about places can be.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-24 20:25:32

To big-budget extravaganza movies: Give me more establishing shots and fewer shots focused on faces. A good close-up can do a lot, and making it the standard shot minimizes its impact. Furthermore, the main visual appeal of going to see a movie of Dune or Lord of the Rings is the "realization" of a fantastical world, and you can aid that by actually letting the audience see the background even if they're paying attention to foreground elements like people.

Not everything has to be jaw-dropping for the movie to be a spectacle (even Fantasia let the audience rest their eyes with Dean Taylor's introductions), but don't be afraid to push the envelope.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-29 00:55:58

Unrelated: I wouldn't vote for a member of my own faith, or someone who is neurodivergent, to be president of the United States of America. The presidency is a nexus of hate; I do not think that it is worth it to elevate one person of a group and make Acceptable Targets out of so many. The presidency is not a treasure trove of cultural/social cachet, it is an expenditure, an enormous one.

Far safer to get the positions in congress, as secretaries of crucial departments, and most of all as Supreme Court justices, and slowly work influence in less obvious ways. This is likely how the more sinister forces go after power when they don't want to risk a backlash just yet.

Ali_Roz · 2024-02-29 01:13:22

Gosh, the concept of Acceptable Targets is absolutely terrifying to me. It almost makes me feel that hatred of authority I had in elementary school, that fear of being powerless against people bigger than me, that surefire knowledge that nobody will understand or believe what I'm trying to say because I don't have whatever it is that other people have that makes them understand each other so well.

Except these authorities have no book of rules they must follow, no written code explaining how to avoid incurring their ire (this must be learned the hard way, or by observation), and are bound by no oath. Also, unlike in elementary school, they're not actually good people just trying to help.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-02 00:39:29

So, books are set in locations, and often include place-names. Big old print atlases exist in real life with wonderful maps full of neat place-names. The internet features scans of public-domain archival information.

The potential for massive nerdery is untapped.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-02 01:26:35

I mean, everyone knows that Atlas Shrugged sucks, but did YOU know that it sucks for mentioning Midland, Utah as being five and a half miles from Elgin, Utah when there never was such a place as Midland, Utah, much less one five and a half miles from Elgin and connected by rail to Salt Lake?

The Utah Midland Rail Company and the Colorado Midland Rail Company totally existed and they did attempt to connect Salt Lake to Colorado Springs but never managed it.

Also it sucks because in the same paragraph has a direct rail line exist going north from Flagstaff to Elgin despite THE GRAND FREAKING CANYON being in the way of any route that could be called both "direct" and "north".

(Don't worry, I didn't read Atlas Shrugged, I just CTRL-F searched an online text of it for my state's name to look for mentions).

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-04 02:19:45

Between my own biases and the fact that I often perceive "familiar/unfamiliar" as "good/not-good", I feel like I ought to enjoy more current media than I do, given how many people are disappointed by the prevalence of nostalgia-based-stuff and remakes.

I also don't seem to care about good writing or bad writing in non-print media nearly as much as a lot of people evidently do (and certainly not as much as I used to), but that should make me able to enjoy MORE things, not fewer, since my enjoyment would be less hampered by concerns relating to such stuff.

Oh well, it's not like I don't have a sufficient supply of things I like to keep me entertained for the rest of my life,

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-04 23:49:28

I think part of the appeal of science fiction is that it isn't constrained by science (or, at least, by current scientific knowledge).

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-04 23:55:06

I despise fiction intended to be speculative. It's the insertion of "realism" into stuff of which the appeal comes from the imagination. It gives banality to the fantastical, instead of giving wonder to the mundane. Worse, it gives us that cursed genre, dystopia.

EDIT: Apparently the term "speculative fiction" refers to a different thing than I thought it did.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-05 00:24:58

There are a few good ones, but those are mostly remembered for their imaginative elements rather than anything else (The invisible Man is remembered for having a man who is invisible, not for what it says or implies about the psychological and social role of perception in a society).

Had Paris In The Twentieth Century been published in the 1860s as Jules Verne wanted, we'd probably have a very different sci-fi literary tradition, and a much worse one in my opinion.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-05 02:33:05

I have a new addition to the list of Towns Of Which I Think Are Cool: Sierra Mojada, Coahuila.

May all satirists end as did Ambrose Bierce.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-07 00:23:58

It took a lot to make it happen, but we did it.

Dasein remembered its roots!

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-07 01:12:06

I try not to talk about matters of religion all the time. I don't have the thing-I-lack-words-for to do a good job of it most of the time, and it's too important to me to risk doing a bad job in so many cases. I've never persuaded anyone of anything, and this is a place where I can just BE without having to justify or defend. That's all I need, and all I really want.

But sometimes, it's hard not to envy the LGBT how comfortable they can be (or present themselves as being) in their own skin online, how unapologetically and fearlessly they embrace that part of themselves (in the communities they have made for that purpose).

I'll take "being nervous about expressing an essential part of my identity when I try to join a new community online" over "being nervous about expressing an essential part of my identity when I try to join a new community in real life" any day, no question, it's not even comparable, and there are a thousand other ways I'm privileged besides.

It's just always hard not to want what other people have that you don't.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-07 02:18:38

Ali_Roz said:
It's just always hard not to want what other people have that you don't.

This does not apply to diseases.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-09 04:38:17

Well, since nobody ever reads or responds to this thread, I guess it’s time to post the insane and secret ramblings that go on within my skull with even less concern for whether or not I ought to.

I feel like the lack of the letter A in LGBT means that aces aren't really part of it in the same way the others are. I know I’m representative of no group which includes me, but I for one feel a bit resentful about that.

Odradek · 2024-03-09 14:16:18

I read I just sometimes don't know what to say.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-11 23:37:50

On the one hand, I have some strong ill-feelings towards Democracy, but, on the other hand, I don't want to sound like one of those intellectuals who (1) keep saying that Democracy is doomed and doesn't work, and (2) have been saying so for at least a century.

My irritation with Democracy is that it was clearly designed for people who are able to persuade other people of things or who share concerns with other people. It's hard not to be frustrated with a system specifically built to prevent you from ruining it.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-11 23:58:23

You don't care about the things I care about. I don't care about the things you care about. Given that there exist people who share your concerns, and there do not exist other people who share mine*, the fact that I feel aggravated at the results just means that the system works. I like the system working. Vexation and a feeling of alienation and powerlessness are miniscule prices to pay for the rule of law.

*No. No you don't. I know the urge to tell me I'm wrong is strong, but please, please refrain from it this time.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-12 03:47:32

GHIOPWA

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-12 22:30:15

I swear, if Joe Biden asks me for money one more time through my computer-box, I'm getting a restraining order on him.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-13 03:33:17

Once, just once, I'd like to be able to play as a character of my faith in a video or computer game.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-13 03:36:44

I'd also appreciate it if the popular Disney show set in Salt Lake City contained upwards of zero characters of my faith or upwards of zero references to my faith (a show set in the Vatican would certainly mention Catholicism, a show set in Mecca would certainly reference Islam).

I mean, it was evidently a priority to have a self-described "gay mexican theater kid" in that show, for representation purposes.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-13 03:37:10

Then again, considering the fictional portrayals I'm familiar with, it's probably better to be erased.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-14 23:48:27

"What's a Sec'tree?"

"The short answer is that Seccaturies are equivalent to Minstras, and their deparmins their equivalent to Minstrees."

"Thus, the shared 'tree' and 'min' roots, I assume."

"Yes, of course. Even the idea of "roots" is phytological symbolism."

"That would explain the 'branches of governingmint'."

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-15 00:28:22

"The long answer, according to Facegrab of Ollasall, is that Seccaturies were a solution to the problem of overly powerful families in the last half of the fourth prefabricate era."

"But the records clearly agree that the Seccaturies were all siblings until Second Polyester. That would indicate strong dynasties, even if nominally subordinated as a part of a larger a'minstration."

"They were legally siblings. This prevents marriage between them."

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-16 01:44:54

It's annoying that people are so obsessed with dialogue, and claim to hate exposition.

Give me exposition any day.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-16 20:42:31

In the interests of fairness, I must point out one of the good points of dialogue and monologue.

While an omniscient narrator can directly give the audience information for the audience to accept and understand, dialogue/monologue both directly gives information and indirectly conveys a sort of meta-information. It introduces an element of "Why is the one-saying-this saying this? What unspoken messages and intents are this one trying for?", an element of "What does the one-hearing-this take from this? What unspoken experiences and perceptions will define how this one interprets this?", and an element of "What's the author getting at here? Why put this through a layer, maybe two, of character perception?".

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-16 20:52:05

There is a massive difference between

There is a phrase "truth will out", which is more true than people realize. Every lie is an attempt to delay the inevitable consequences. This is why immortals almost never lie.

And

"There is phrase 'truth will out', which is more true than people realize. Every lie is an attempt to delay the inevitable consequences. This is why immortals almost never lie.".

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-21 21:20:04

Dear Reasonable People: If you're going to attempt to use set-association as an argument, at least have the decency to acknowledge that's what you're doing and allow me the same privilege. Together we can be free of Logos' tyranny, at least for a short while, and perhaps restore Pathos to its rightful place for a moment.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-21 21:31:06

Dear Reasonable People: "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" assumes that I don't want history to repeat, that the past is always inherently worse than the present which is inherently worse than the future, and that the only value of learning about the past is for the sake of the present. It is not, in fact, a statement indicating respect for history.

Let us consider a possible opposite statement: "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed not to repeat it". This is also not a statement indicating respect for history, because the third assumption is maintained.

Aliroz · 2024-03-21 21:44:15

Dear Ali_Roz,

Beginning a message with "Dear ___________ People:" shows contempt and is unbelievably smug.

Beginning a message with "Dear " followed by a name and a comma shows fondness and is polite.

Sincerely,

Aliroz.

AlirozTheConfused · 2024-03-21 22:00:29

@Aliroz and @Ali_Roz: Conversations are based on a strange assumption of relevance. 9*24=216.

Ali_Roz · 2024-03-25 23:10:30

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Suchian Musings And Ramblings About General Designs Involving Notable Estuaries

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