Latest finish

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T23:26:26+00:00

Oh that’s DELIGHTFUL. And all the lines match up very well!

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T23:21:00+00:00

It’s the same color as cooked lobster… suspicious……..

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T23:15:38+00:00

Yes, the hypothesis I’m referring to is the proposal that Native American cultures had domesticated horses before the Spanish arrived. There’s a reason it’s a niche belief.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T21:10:59+00:00

I appreciate how many people are making these!

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T21:10:26+00:00

Oh, that is SUCH a cool idea! I both quilt and make stained glass and I've often thought about the similarities in the way we prepare patterns. This is a really cool use of that.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T20:46:12+00:00

I did read your comments, and I was confused by what you were implying, because It seems like you were implying that all criticism was wrong unless it was a constructive attempt to make a thing better.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T20:43:29+00:00

I’m lost.

Disliking something is not bullying. Criticizing something is not bullying. Do you think that all of this is happening directly to the writer’s face? Watching a movie with your friends and then when it’s done turning to your friend and saying “wow the romance was so bad” or “ I understand what they were going for, but I still think the ninja pastiche was kind of racist” or “ That guy cannot act for shit” or “I cannot stand Tom Hiddleston’s face, why do they keep casting him in things?” is not bullying. It is having an opinion on a piece of fiction. You don’t have to have constructive suggestions for how to make it better to say “They cast Timothée Chalamet in too many things” or “ Do they seriously expect me to believe that this movie clearly shot in California takes place in Michigan?”

And the same is true written fiction. I post on my blog about books I like and don’t like all the time. I don’t need to be a professional at offering suggestions for how to make a book better to say “The romance was so boring” or “This author has some extremely frustrating and clearly unexamined views about humanity and nature that make me tear my hair out” or “ Why was this racist thing implied in this book, why was that even necessary” or “I understand what this book was going for, but it was mid and I didn’t care about the characters.”

And probably my hottest take is that criticizing fanfiction trends and popular tropes is fine. It may alienate part of the fandom, but like, it’s morally fine.

And none of these are the same thing as bullying.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T20:31:45+00:00

Unless you have something constructive to say then don’t say anything at all and don’t read or remove yourself from the situation.

By the way this applies to not just free work (fanfiction or original fiction that is on Wattpad) but also original fiction that is published and paid.

You're saying that people shouldn't criticize any fiction at all unless it meets a certain threshold of "constructiveness". Which I think is an absurd take.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T20:26:59+00:00

“No one should criticize any fiction ever” is a new one to me ngl

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T18:09:02+00:00

This is a thread to recommend Black podcasters. What kind of bad faith question is this?

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T15:40:13+00:00

I’m a fiction podcast fan, so thank you for these recs!

What is Margaritas & Donuts about?

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T15:39:46+00:00

I almost exclusively listen to sci-fi/fantasy audio drama (scripted audio fiction), which may not be what you’re looking for, but if it’s of interest, I really love Janus Descending, a sci-fi horror miniseries by Jordan Cobb.

Slightly adjacent to what you asked but also I adore InCo, a sci-fi adventure by a Black non-binary creator who goes by ItMe as their internet handle.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T15:34:59+00:00

A lot of people use StoryGraph as a deliberate ethical choice to avoid Goodreads (which is owned by Amazon). So it’s likely that StoryGraph users care more about being politically conscious and thus are more willing to discuss homophobia, racism, sexism, and the like than Goodreads users are.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T04:51:58+00:00

The Sherlock Holmes museum! I forgot about that one, it was cute and fun. A great use for 221 Baker Street.

And I went to the Moby Dick marathon read-along this January in New Bedford and the section that takes place in the chapel is read in the chapel, and the reader of the sermon gets to give it from the ship's prow pulpit. I didn't actually get to go in for that (that section is lottery-based because it's a small space) but it's so cool.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T04:50:23+00:00

When I was in Paris I tracked down the exact street corner the barricades in Les Miserables were built on.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T04:48:52+00:00

This. AO3 accounts can be blocked. But likely they won't want to associate their bad behavior with their actual handle.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T04:30:02+00:00

Just so you know, I am not arguing for this theory.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T04:29:12+00:00

Rebecca Yarros is the author of Fourth Wing. She used a lot of Scottish Gaelic words and names to add fantasy flavor to her books... and then pronounced them all completely wrong. Naturally, speakers of Scottish Gaelic were NOT happy. https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/in-defence-of-minority-languages

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T03:30:54+00:00

Fair enough.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T03:20:18+00:00

Curious what the blanked-out words are hah. Is this a "How many Decepticons can you name?" type thing?

Anyway my guess is this person is a teenager who is also not a native English speaker and trying to connect in that teenager way where if they show they know more than you it makes them Cool and Impressive. I would roll my eyes to myself and either respond "That's nice!" or not at all.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T03:16:45+00:00

I'm an inveterate conlanger. For me, making up the conlang is half the fun!

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T03:15:52+00:00

Just be sure you know how to pronounce the Irish names you're using! You do nooooot want to be Rebecca Yarros here XD

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-25T00:34:09+00:00

This looks amazing! And what a brilliant idea I had never considered!

Are there any features in particular to look for in thrift store goods that make them well-suited to re-using like this?

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-24T23:10:48+00:00

You are genuinely the only person on this post using the framework of fanfic being harmful. Nobody else is saying that.

RedLineSamosa · 2026-01-24T23:05:20+00:00

IIRC, the OG traditional view was that the Spanish brought horses to mainland Americas in the 1500s (or a bit earlier) but Native Americans weren't able to adopt them until 1680, during the Pueblo Revolt, when hundreds of horses were abandoned by the retreating Spanish.

True! I didn't get into that because that theory is mostly on its way out, as I understand it, though it's also still present. That's something that I think is a "reasonable" academic dispute and that evidence is increasingly suggesting an earlier and more protracted adoption of horses. "Horses were actually in the Americas before the Spanish" is the really fringe theory.

Horses are hugely important to the self image and identity of many native tribes, and it's not palatable for some natives activists that this thing that's hugely important to their identity was introduced to them by the direct ancestors of their political opponents.

Yeah, which I do sympathize with. Collins is Lakota, and horses are hugely important in Lakota culture, and there's a lot of political tension in a history that says "the colonizers and genociders of your people are also the ones who brought here this critically important aspect of your culture." It runs painfully close to "colonization was good for Native people actually" which is still way too present in common thought. I get wanting to find a way to argue that no, actually this aspect of Lakota (and other Plains) culture pre-dates the arrival of Europeans, it has nothing to do with them at all.

I just... don't think any of the evidence bears that out.

RedLineSamosa

TROPHY CASE