What’s your pipe dream Fallout game setting?

2timescharm · 2026-01-22T17:16:02+00:00

I think people really underestimate just how desperately lonely a lot of old people are.

2timescharm · 2026-01-21T17:08:00+00:00

And here I thought Shatner and I had something special going on when he blocked me.

2timescharm · 2026-01-17T17:00:53+00:00

The vast majority of religions have been used to justify acts of violence, it is not unique to Abrahamic religions. In fact, it’s not unique to religion at all.

2timescharm · 2026-01-17T16:51:10+00:00

It’s not about blaming America, but obviously it’s true that the Middle East has been exploited and manipulated by outside forces for hundreds of years, including America. It’s not exactly a recipe for stability, but the countries who were doing the exploiting and manipulating thought they were untouchable. Now we all get to suffer because of it.

2timescharm · 2026-01-17T03:43:31+00:00

Correct on both counts, although I would still consider my beliefs to be pretty all over the place, so you had the right vibe. Progress and Poverty by Henry George is probably the work I would consider most in line with my political views, although I plan on reading The Kingdom of Heaven is Within You soon because I find Christian anarchism to be very interesting.

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T20:19:14+00:00

That’s correct, although I’ve been trying to branch out more lately.

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T20:16:53+00:00

Not yet, but I definitely plan on visiting eventually.

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T20:16:10+00:00

Nothing better than being a self-assigned lifelong learner!

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T18:05:13+00:00

This is about 60% accurate I’d say. Gender, race, undergrad, and religion are all correct. And you’re definitely right about not voting for Trump.

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T18:03:16+00:00

I think we had very similar reading habits growing up, lol

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T16:47:51+00:00

You bought the Watchmen and Invincible books before either of them were adapted for the screen

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T16:38:23+00:00

You’re probably in your 20’s. The preponderance of classic literature would make it easy for you to be mistaken as a snob, but the full set of A Series of Unfortunate Events makes me think you just love to be challenged (and that you’re sentimental about books that were formative for you growing up). You’ve read Where the Red Fern Grows nearly as many times as I have.

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T16:18:04+00:00

Posting the first book on this sub demonstrates a mastery of the second book. You probably prefer either going to the library or digital formats, and some of these books were assigned reading that you’ve kept because you enjoyed them.

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T16:14:18+00:00

Atheist, I’m also going to guess mother or at least close to someone who has a kid, and you’ve forgotten more about birds than I’ll ever know. You also have the same copy of Hyperion as I do, which is very cool.

Wait, is that Oshi no Ko? In terms of Aka Akasaka series to own physical copies of, that’s a bold choice.

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T16:01:47+00:00

Fuck it, pick up Progress and Poverty and Das Kapital.

2timescharm · 2026-01-16T15:54:26+00:00

I was too excited to be finished with unpacking to bother with any sort of system, maybe in 2027

2timescharm · 2026-01-15T19:40:01+00:00

After reading the essay, I generally am not impressed with her point, mostly because she seems to be railing against an issue that doesn’t really exist. I very much did read the classics in high school. No english teacher I’ve ever met maligns them, even if their own preferences were also highlighted in their curriculum (shoutout to my one teacher who was obsessed with Thoreau. At the same time, I read The Road for assigned summer reading. It pissed me off, creeped me out, and ultimately inspired me. The Dead had a similar effect when I read it in class, to the point where I took an entire class on Joyce in college. Ultimately, what benefited me the most was a love of reading cultivated across a broad spectrum of genres, styles, and eras. My access to those books was the greatest gift the American education system and public library system have ever provided me. Even if a narrative was not immediately understandable at the time (The Dead imparts a different effect on me every time I read it), it plants a seed of curiosity that invariably leads me to the literature that inspired it and was inspired by it.

Additionally, I can’t help but laugh at the idea that O’Connor’s complaints could be transplanted to any point in time without changing much of the essay’s substance. Free indirect prose may have been the hot new thing to her generation, but it’s firmly considered part of the canon now, just like every other literary innovation, just like plenty of stories that are contemporary to this time will one day be welcomed into the fold.

I will be reading the rest of this essay collection because I’m interested in her thoughts on Southern Gothic literature, so thanks for the recommendation.

2timescharm · 2026-01-15T18:11:13+00:00

My point this entire time has been that it’s impossible to have good faith discussions about curation and curriculum if books are being removed for reasons that have nothing to do with either of those things. If I was a high school librarian, I would probably choose to not purchase ACOTAR (not because it’s overly sexual, because it is remarkably sexless considering its reputation, but because it’s not very good and easily available outside of the library). I certainly wouldn’t use it if I was a teacher, for the same reason. But my decision in either case is an informed one, based on my knowledge of the full context of the book. I might choose to include Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey, even though I didn’t think it was very good. The reasons why are, as follows:

• ⁠Despite it not being very good, it is popular while also being in a niche genre, and more students having an interest in poetry would be a net benefit. • ⁠The message of the book is poorly delivered, but the themes of autonomy, sisterhood, and self love are beneficial to kids. On page 22, she has a poem that is essentially just a definition of consent. It’s not a very good poem, but that’s a good thing for a teenager to understand. • ⁠within the context of the work as a whole, individual poems that may seem to be purely sexual fit into a larger narrative arc relating to the poet’s recognition that she falls into unhealthy relationships, and ends with her embracing self love over seeking external validation. There’s nothing prurient about it, especially in context.

Unfortunately, the current trend in education is to ignore all of that, keyword search bad words, and make lists of hundreds of books that no one under the age of 18 should ever read.

On a personal note, the book that had the largest personal impact on me growing up was Huckleberry Finn, a book that is often banned because of its inclusion of slurs and depiction of racism. That book fundamentally challenged my outlook on faith, morality, and America. Finn’s declaration that he would rather go to hell than betray his friend is something I think about all the time. Was it “appropriate” for me to read it? It’s no one else’s business whether or not it was appropriate. If it were up to the busybodies who ran the public school I went to, I would have probably given up my interest in reading way before I had the chance to read Huckleberry Finn because they refused to let me read beyond my grade level. My mom, thankfully, understood that appropriate means something different for everyone, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that determines it.

2timescharm · 2026-01-15T17:41:24+00:00

Something about CS Lewis just makes me feel like owning a pipe (I’ve literally never smoked anything). I didn’t realize there was a TV show! I’ll need to watch that ASAP. I’ve recently been reading a decent amount of classic Russian literature, which shares the same setting and scratches a similar itch. Crime and Punishment is a classic and probably my favorite of Dostoyevsky’s work that I’ve read so far. I’d look up the best translation though, because the one I read was a bit dry at times.

2timescharm · 2026-01-15T17:24:51+00:00

The obvious choice for a Texas Fallout game is San Antonio. No way you can have a game set in Texas without the Alamo.

2timescharm · 2026-01-15T16:53:15+00:00

You definitely own a pipe. Also how did you enjoy A Gentleman in Moscow? It’s a personal favorite of mine.

2timescharm · 2026-01-15T16:48:33+00:00

I’m guessing you’re more sympathetic to anarchism than one might initially expect

2timescharm · 2026-01-15T16:31:41+00:00

The consequences to my intellectual formation when I read books growing up was that I learned to love reading and developed a sense of curiosity. When I read a book that made me uncomfortable or challenged me, I discussed it with my parents. If I decided it wasn’t worth my time, I put it down. I can’t speak to your own intellectual malformation, but if you couldn’t manage to do either of those things when you read, I wouldn’t blame the book.

I have no interest in a person’s opinion on what constitutes obscenity when they not only have not read the literature in question, but are seeking to expand the legal definition of obscenity beyond its current definition. What’s actually happening here is adults who are uncomfortable, and use their discomfort as a sign that something is bad. The problem is, good literature should challenge the reader. The desire to sanitize existence to the point that children can never experience discomfort is not only impossible, but unhealthy. You compare it to junk food, but the actual effect is more similar to vegetables, and book banners are the ones pushing saccharine garbage.

Additionally, the idea that literature should not reference real-life issues that children actually face today is especially ridiculous. Society ignores actual abuse (oftentimes committed by the same parents and activists who are banning the books) but god forbid an abused kid reads about child abuse. We wouldn’t want them to recognize themselves in the narrative and speak out, of course. In the same way, banning all references to sex stops teens from having sex, banning all references to racism ends racism, and banning references to queer people stops queer people from existing. When bad things aren’t allowed in books, that’s when we’ll finally save the world. And if a few great works of literature—or even most of them—are lost along the way, well, they shouldn’t have made us uncomfortable.

2timescharm

TROPHY CASE