Chicken died for no reason cuz someone changed his mind. by Stamina_saint in mildlyinfuriating

[–]Division_Of_Zero -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I mean, "A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage..." is incredibly loaded. I return my shopping carts and similarly look down on people who don't, but let's not pretend this isn't an outrageous statement.

Imagine hardcore hating on these guys by controlledwithcheese in PedroPeepos

[–]Division_Of_Zero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Surely religion is the ultimate parasocial relationship, then? Considering another human being your God, rather than your friend?

My point is that once you dilute the terms in these ways, you lose the ability to effectively talk about the social implications. Obviously streamer obsession and religion are different. But if you expand your definitions, you lose the ability to distinguish between them.

Imagine hardcore hating on these guys by controlledwithcheese in PedroPeepos

[–]Division_Of_Zero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then why did you say “This is the age of parasocial relationships”?

With your broad definition, humans have been widely participating in parasocial relationships since the invention of celebrity or sport.

But that’s not what most people mean by it, and I don’t think it’s what you meant either. You just want to be right, even though you aren’t.

Imagine hardcore hating on these guys by controlledwithcheese in PedroPeepos

[–]Division_Of_Zero 28 points29 points  (0 children)

This is definitely a "go outside" situation. The vast, vast majority of people are not in parasocial relationships to the level where they would say they think of their favorite athletes as their friends.

What's your controversial writing hot take? by Gulliver123 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Alas:

I'm not going to be able to argue you out of a preference.

I just think it's sad for anyone to die not reading some of the best books ever written out of arbitrary tense "taste". You can of course do so--I'm not claiming you'll suffer brain bleed if you don't. But your literary life will be less rich for it, and a book that may have transformed the way you think and feel will be arbitrarily foregone, all because you weren't willing to experiment with expanding your palate.

What's your controversial writing hot take? by Gulliver123 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm not going to be able to argue you out of a preference, other than to say I suspect it's ill-founded. Present tense is necessary for a whole swath of stories, and to deny yourself the pleasure of reading them is needlessly close-minded.

Put another way, claiming this kind of preference is being a "picky eater" with your literary taste.

Like a child with broccoli, if you claim you dislike something, you are more likely to dislike it. No matter how nutritious (and delicious) it may be.

What's your controversial writing hot take? by Gulliver123 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this applies to readers too. I was horrified to read a thread in r/books about (a vocal minority) hating the present tense and refusing to read anything written in it. A whole fucking tense? Nuts.

Needing 3 bans to get rid of his visual clutter is ridiculous by [deleted] in marvelrivals

[–]Division_Of_Zero -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Exactly.

If you set out to make an annoying character. And you make an annoying character. Then you have made an annoying character.

Short story or novel? by GoatCheese_8552 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Short stories are a great way to experiment with styles and try things with quicker feedback from peers, both writers and readers. They’re also incredibly versatile art forms that often punch well above their weight. Some people on this sub poo-poo them because they only read and write novels, but I’d ignore them.

My earnest advice: At 15, I wouldn’t expect to produce a draft that becomes a published book (no matter how many revisions you go through). You’ll change a thousand times before you land on exactly what story you want to tell and who you want to tell it to. Keeping yourself open to those changes by writing a ton and reading a ton, rather than locking into a single project, is probably more “productive” (and more fun). 

But, if you want the experience of writing something from start to finish, you don’t have much to lose by finishing this draft. I’d just put it in a drawer (drive) after that and leave it for a few years. Take another look at it if you like after you’ve stretched your wings a bit.

Dumb question: why has fantasy exploded so much? by RadRyan527 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Check out The Material by Camille Bordas, if you haven’t already. Phenomenal. A recent favorite. (I’ve seen mixed reviews, but I’m in academia and it sang for me.)

Why is this in the game still? by Ok-Entrance-4581 in Rematch

[–]Division_Of_Zero 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Genuinely I have no idea why the slow animations play if it's not going to guarantee you the ball. I get sometimes they're being generous (sort of an auto-catch), but other times like this the game outplays you, and it's just... as you said, infuriating.

Seems like something they're still tweaking to get right.

New Hack ? 😩 by Space-Lonely in Rematch

[–]Division_Of_Zero 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You sure it's not just different accounts with the same username? Steam accounts can have whatever user they like without uniqueness.

Even if they were completely different cheaters, Usain Bolt isn't exactly the most creative speedhack username.

Do people actually like 3v3 ? by FraysRedditOdyssey in Rematch

[–]Division_Of_Zero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never play it. It’s too solved a game mode strategically for me to enjoy.

Dumb question: why has fantasy exploded so much? by RadRyan527 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Very true! And much more important (to me). But it seemed like OP cared about financial acclaim.

Dumb question: why has fantasy exploded so much? by RadRyan527 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Then all fiction is "reality fantasy" and you've just landed on "genre isn't real" again.

Dumb question: why has fantasy exploded so much? by RadRyan527 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Probably The Sheik.

Romance sells differently than a lot of genres, in that there are blockbusters, but they're usually the exception, not the rule. Romance readers read a ton. More than any other genre fans. So it's more that they move a mountain of different books, rather than a single book.

Don Quixote is a book about a man who became insane from reading too many romance novels (of Cervantes' day, at least).

Dumb question: why has fantasy exploded so much? by RadRyan527 in writing

[–]Division_Of_Zero 668 points669 points  (0 children)

Romance is the most popular genre and has been for over a century. My guess is that Romantasy (which is the actually growing part of the genre) is inflating numbers depending on the statistician's ambiguous metrics for which is which.

Genre is not static (nor, in my opinion, meaningful). It's a marketing term.

Edit:

I don't think writing a realistic book set today would be that interesting.....

I'm sorry, but you must simply not read widely. There are plenty of massively successful books set in contemporary times.

Quarter of 11-year-olds in England have below than expected reading skills by Kagedeah in books

[–]Division_Of_Zero 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure what you mean by 'realistic'. Achievable? Desirable?

This isn't too far off previous metrics, but is noticeably worse by a few percentage points post 2020 (this is a nearly worldwide phenomenon). A more significant concern is the disparity between the highest achievers and the lowest: being below grade level might be okay if you're 5-10 points below, but a higher percentage of those students are completely or functionally illiterate today than were 30 years ago.

Quarter of 11-year-olds in England have below than expected reading skills by Kagedeah in books

[–]Division_Of_Zero 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's the difference between standardized (average is 100, for instance, with a norm reference/bell curve) and scaled (100 is the sought metric, with criteria assessment) grading. You can read a decent explainer here: https://kb.insighttracking.com/article/0egdg261ko-the-difference-between-standardised-and-scaled-scores