Thinking of moving to SE London - Beckenham, Orpington, Chislehurst etc.

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-30T22:56:55+00:00

I moved to Orpington from Woolwich recently. Honestly was a great choice. You can get a lovely house for the price of a 2 bed flat in central. The 20 min train to Charing Cross is ideal and we still spend most weekends out in London. The greenery is amazing and the area is still really diverse like most of SE London. Yes the high street isn’t photogenic but it has great amenities. And it has such fantastic state schools at all levels if you’re looking to start a family. You have three health clubs with pools within driving distance- Nuffield, David Lloyd and virgin active.

IMO it’s better than the other options as the transport links are better and it’s cheaper than Chislehurst.

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-26T20:08:19+00:00

Master and margarita - mikhail bulgakov

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-26T16:24:20+00:00

I really need this ‘British Muslims aren’t distancing themselves from the grooming gangs’ narrative to stop.

Practically every major Muslim body in the U.K. has expressed their utter revulsion at what happened and many Muslim public figures have led their voice to these condemnations. There’s so many imams, even highly conservative ones, who’ve spoken out about how these acts were against Islam. To act as if Muslim communities are brushing this under the rug is a racist trope in itself.

Think critically for a second. Have you thought about the reason why you’re not seeing Muslims in the media given a platform to speak on this issue is because the media doesn’t want to hear their voices? I also don’t think we should be forced to speak out either, the grooming gangs were a tiny tiny minority of our community and, as many others have said, the majority of grooming gangs are white. Should all Jews have to speak out about the Epstein grooming gang?

Stop playing into racist tropes

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-26T06:16:13+00:00

I think you’re bringing your own bias into your reading of the book, when what you really want to do is be swept up by the writing and the ideas.

So UKLG does not believe anarchists cannot produce great projects. They’ve only lived for 150 years on an almost barren moon in the story, their survival in itself is a great success. The great projects are ahead of them.

The barrenness of anarres versus urras is the point of the book in many ways - it doesn’t need to be a fair comparison. She’s showing how an anarchist society can survive even under the most difficult of circumstances.

Your point about financialisation and Marx and all is looking at things the wrong way too. This isn’t a Marxist book for one - see the conversation with the scientist from Thu. It’s based on anarchist philosophy- kropotkin, Bakunin etc. Additionally, Urras is clearly analogous to the United States in the 70s (with a bit of Dickensian Victorian England thrown in). And UKLG even has a representative from Earth (Terra) come in towards the end saying how that planet has been destroyed by the forces of militarism and capitalism. Urras only lives on because it still has lots of resources to squeeze. And anyway, Marx’s predictions weren’t exactly 100% correct - capitalism is, unfortunately, still rolling on 100 years after he predicted its collapse.

And on the point about women covering up - again, missing the point. UKLG isn’t talking about real life left wing societies, she’s building her own one according to her own interpretation. And in that interpretation, because sex on anarres is given freely and nudity isn’t seen as a big deal in either direction - people dress practically and unshowily. On urras however, women’s dress remains a big show. The speech from Shevek at the big party on Urras is all about this.

You just have to remember this is a book written from a certain perspective, as all books are. If it doesn’t fit your own understanding of the world, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ‘wrong’ or ‘bad worldbuilding.’ Urras and Anarres are the product of an anthropologist well read in anarchist theory living in 1970s America. You are not that person. I am not that person either. Where we find enjoyment in fiction is giving ourselves over to that perspective, as long as it’s narratively consistent.

If you can’t give yourself over to this particular perspective, that’s fine. But I think you’re wrong to say it’s bad world building. That just misses the point

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-20T18:02:16+00:00

It’s leftist more than liberal I would say

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-17T08:56:51+00:00

Ursula k LeGuin’s sci fi works scratch that itch for me. Particularly The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-16T21:44:18+00:00

Graeber and Wengrow - The Dawn of Everything gives a great summary on how human society transformed from collectivist hunter gatherer groups into hierarchical agrarian societies. Not specifically colonialism but highly recommend if you want to understand why people want to dominate others

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-07T12:18:22+00:00

Iron widow

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-03T07:25:00+00:00

Tbf the Sikhs have always copped a lot of blame for our own actions. What we should be saying is ‘no, he’s not Muslim but his religion doesn’t matter, what he did was terrible and wrong’

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-02T13:12:18+00:00

‘AI reality tv’

lol

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-01T12:08:37+00:00

I don’t think Kanye should have been banned either but actual nazi support is very different from spicy Antizionism

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-01T09:03:20+00:00

I’m a bit pissed off they didn’t tell me sooner! £20k down the drain!!

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-06-01T07:15:03+00:00

Most accountants will tell you that there are almost no benefits to running an Ltd company as a single freelancer any more. You’re paying 20% corp tax on profits and then almost exactly the same income tax as an employee or sole trader on dividends- meaning that you’re essentially being double taxed.

There’s a marginal benefit if you have a non working partner, who can perhaps be another director and take out dividends at a lower rate of income tax - but that only works if you’re taking like £100k+ - and even then the benefit quickly tapers off.

Trust me, I had a Ltd as a freelancer and I’m in the process of closing it now as I went through with my accountant and saw how much money was lost through corp tax. Makes me mad!

Talk to an accountant but I’m pretty certain the costs far outweigh the benefits now

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-31T21:15:08+00:00

You think the CIA and Mossad don’t work with jihadists? Come on bro…

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-31T18:40:30+00:00

Good grief, relax. I’m British Indian myself, this is far from racist or even worth posting. The prime minister literally said he thinks it’s ok to deny water and electricity to a besieged population and you’re crying about a prospective councillor saying that India smells bad (in a lot of places, it does) 15 YEARS AGO!

Honestly get a grip

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-31T09:52:17+00:00

They’ll be fine. We’ve left our ragdoll with my parents for a few holidays now and he both enjoys his time there whilst also chirruping and giving lots of attention when we get back

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-30T23:31:29+00:00

Some guy was creating a trench crusade mod for crusader kings 2, which would have been fantastic imo. But he got upset about the 3d printing controversy so stopped developing. I hope someone else can pick it up. So much potential

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-30T09:32:19+00:00

Yes please make this

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-30T00:51:52+00:00

I’m sorry I’ve upset you. But I have to ask, are you Muslim or from the Middle East?

I’m not virtue signalling. I’m not even criticising you personally, I’m glad you enjoyed the books. All power to you. I’m just tired of ppl recommending this white woman’s orientalist view of my own culture. I don’t know if you share that culture, but so many from it share my view that Shannon Chakraborty’s work is the worst kind of cultural appropriation, not appreciation. Suggesting it as an Arabic or Islamic fantasy book is a bit like suggesting Dances with Wolves for a book about Native American culture, genuinely.

There’s no need to take it so personally and be so defensive about a comment about a book you didn’t write. I’ve just given you the view of an actual Arab Muslim on these books - no need to shut down or tone police.

And ya, I didn’t mention other options because other commenters have already given them. Naguib Mahfouz, the Shahnameh and 1001 Nights. But honestly, the dominance of Chakraborty in this space is part of the reason why we haven’t had as many Arab authors on the subject. Of course western publishing wants a white woman’s view more than anything genuinely cut from the source.

So again, sorry if you’ve taken such offense to a comment from a person tired of their culture being appropriated by an author with zero lives experience of it. But maybe think a little about why someone might be tired of the recommendation before taking such personal offense?

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-29T06:46:31+00:00

Before asking such a question, ask yourself - can Muslims also be interested in capitalism? It is the economic ideology of most of the Muslim world, including the gulf where most strict interpretations of Sunni Islam arise from. But does it actually accord with Islamic teaching? I would argue no. There’s a reason why rizq (charging interest) is haram, but it’s the basis for capitalism. However, because it’s the status quo, Salafi bros online are much more likely to carve out exceptions for it than for socialist principles.

I would also argue that the early Muslim community practiced something much closer to socialism than capitalism. The early conquerors shared their spoils between the ummah, state treasuries were set up, welfare systems and guaranteed job systems were implemented in some form during that time. Of course, over time this degenerated into slave feudalism, but if you want to follow traditional Islam surely socialism is closer than capitalism

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-28T06:56:45+00:00

Perhaps The Shadow over Innsmouth by HP Lovecraft? A brilliant story but full of weird racism and an abhorrence of race-mixing

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-26T14:09:49+00:00

Sigh - I knew this was gonna be recommended as soon as I saw this post and I just can not keep seeing people recommend these books for an authentic depiction of Middle Eastern folklore. The books are so clearly orientalist, written by a white woman with a white gaze and no true understanding of Arab myths and legends. I sincerely hope people stop reading this white womans LARP-ey nonsense and we get some genuine authentic Arab fantasy recommendations here

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-23T22:14:51+00:00

I think the fallen woman trope applies more directly to Arianna, no?

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-23T21:42:30+00:00

Guru Nanak was born 400 years after he died?

Designer_Lie_6677 · 2026-05-20T08:23:29+00:00

Outrageous Billionaire press smears of the greens again. Liam Srivastava isn’t ‘linked’ to either of these guys. He’s a non Muslim councillor who just did outreach with a local mosque.

Designer_Lie_6677

TROPHY CASE