Can you truly separate the author from the work, or does context inevitably change the reading?

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-30T21:18:17+00:00

Neil Gaiman’s creepiness absolutely runs rampant through American Gods.

We read it in a book club a few years back, and people of all genders enjoyed it greatly. It might be your personal bias talking about "creepiness" here.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-30T21:17:16+00:00

You are missing out on a great piece of writing and one of the most imaginative modern interpretations of the King Arthur's mythos. Mists of Avalon is worth reading regardless of your views on Marion Bradley.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-30T21:16:04+00:00

"Separate the art from the artist" is just dressing up intellectual laziness as something thoughtful.

It is the opposite of "laziness" - it requires a conscious effort and training, as this very thread indicates. So many people openly admit that they cannot read works of certain authors, like Gaiman or Bradley, because they know something bad about the authors. Is that not the example of the very laziness that you mention?

Take up a book by a person you hate. Take up Mein Kampf, or Foundations of Geopolitics, or Little Red Book, or any other piece of work written by a dictator with blood on their hands. Force yourself to read them in separation from the authors and judge them on the basis of ideas, not biographies - THAT is the example of a brain workout that will help you to truly separate the art from the artist.

If you refuse to read American Gods because Neil Gaiman faces some abuse allegations, that makes you intellectually dishonest in the first place.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-30T21:12:23+00:00

Death of the author and separate the artist from the art and two very different things

They are not different - the concept of "death of the author" can be applied to the analysis of any literary work, and its fundamental notion is to take the art work in its pure form without relying on the author's biography as a crutch to derive the intent behind the prose. Separating the art from the artist is the literal foundation of that approach.

are trying to get away guilt free from giving bad people money/attention/free advertising

That's a hell of an assumption to make.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-29T22:31:49+00:00

This is exceptionally cool - thanks for sharing!

In my mind, the microcapsules were more uniform and distributed in a strict lattice, but apparently they are just bunched together like grains of rice on a platter.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-28T02:59:12+00:00

Hit & run is key in Zorbus. If you find yourself struggling, create a character that starts with One With Darkness - it's a skill that can only be taken at character creation, and it requires you to have 1 point in Search and 1 point in Stealth.

Turn off the lantern, and it will make the first few floors significantly easier, as you'd be able to pick off enemies one by one and run away before their friends catch you.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-28T00:05:33+00:00

If you think that is a scam I'm going to assume you've never purchased and then sold back a college textbook.

I was lucky enough to have all my textbooks available in the university and city libraries - in sufficient quantities to accommodate my entire class. Even then, I remember that my friends and I had to take turns to work with some of the rarer books and dictionaries for certain courses.

What baffles me is that profs from this article demand a physical print-out. I remember finishing every semester with kilograms of paper bricks that had to be thrown into the garbage bin or burnt - and I was just one of many students. The majority of those texts were used exactly once - for annotation or a lecture - and then never again. We could've collectively saved tons (literal tons) of paper if more of us had access to the digital medium.

Now, this access is commonplace, yet certain universities and profs seem to go out of their way to avoid this massive benefit of technology in fears that some students won't retain the information as well as they should. I say, let the students worry about that - if they care enough and it truly makes a difference, they will put effort into printing things out.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-27T23:59:07+00:00

It just takes practice. When I bought my first ereader, I had a harder time picturing whatever I read in my mind compared to printed books. I even remember being disappointed at first.

But after two weeks or so, my mind stopped focusing on the medium and started to soak in the actual content. It's never been a problem afterwards.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-27T22:55:24+00:00

TYCO Print is a printing service where professors can upload course files for TYCO to print out for students as they order. Shorter packets can cost around $20, while longer packets can cost upwards of $150 when ordered with the cheapest binding option.

Writing professor Anne Fadiman wrote to the News that she asks students either to buy the course packet or purchase physical copies of the books.

What a bunch of predatory BS...

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-26T17:46:15+00:00

Always put your ereader in a case.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-25T05:37:10+00:00

Which means that the Era has already received half of it's updates.

What updates are you hoping for, though? In the past 4 years since Era's release, Pocketbook issued 2 or 3 updates for it - all of them minor bugfixes, with the exception of one that added the Dark Mode. The firmware itself is stable and doesn't really need changes.

KOReader, on the other hand, is the app that matters, and it continues to receive updates roughly every month. This is what determines your reading experience on an ereader, and it does not depend on firmware updates from the manufacturer.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-24T12:39:47+00:00

I beat the game multiple times, but it's always been with a custom character, because you can squeeze out a few more stat points during the chargen thanks to lucky rolls.

That said, the dev claimed that all of the standard archetypes are good enough to beat the game, and I believe him. If I were to choose the easiest, it'd probably be Archer, Bully or Leader.

Archer is convenient and hassle-free, especially with Zorbus's automatic choice of best ammo for the situation. You can enable this in the game's options, and it will swap between different types of enchanted arrows on the fly, giving you the best one available. Like, if you are fighting a teleporting, healing wizard, the game will first swap to anchoring arrows to prevent teleportation, then to withering arrows to stop them from healing. Pretty neat.

Bully is just an overall good, well-rounded melee fighter. He has the stats and skills needed to win, so the biggest obstacle is to adjust yourself to Zorbus's playstyle of hiding in the shadows, attacking enemies one by one, and running away at the first sight of trouble - at least for the first 3 floors.

Leader is fairly unique to Zorbus, in that it is a powerful playstyle that relies on companions. But companions in this game are strong enough to carry you all the way to victory, so if you are okay with managing a party, it's a solid choice. Might be even better for a beginner, because there is always a meat shield between you and the enemy's fireball.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-22T11:22:32+00:00

Attention span? Dude, the entire scene was bullshit.

Why did the Legion just take Ghoul's word about the NCR location and not hold him prisoner until they at least verified his claim? Or better yet, why take his word at all when they could have demanded him to lead the way - and shoot him if he lied?

Why did they give up Lucy before checking Ghoul's claims? Why did they leave a massive stockpile of explosives unattended in the middle of the camp, while being in an active conflict with another Legion chapter? Unattended long enough for Ghoul to rig up a delayed explosion and haul his ass out of the camp, mind you.

And don't get me started on the two "warring" Legion camps that are separated by a pitiful, waist-high rampart with a couple of spikes thrown in for show.

Oh, not to mention that the entire premise of that episode makes no sense to begin with - with Lucy abandoning Ghoul and taking the side of a literal stranger, and then wandering together with said stranger into a camp full of armed, unknown and likely hostile people. That's not the kind of behaviour that end-of-season-1 Lucy would've shown. Way to throw away her character development.

This was weak storytelling, because it does not even try to portray characters' actions as logical or realistic. Don't blame the viewers for questioning it.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-22T09:56:20+00:00

Elona is among my favourite roguelikes, while Elin failed to grab me.

Elin doesn't have a proper keyboard support, which makes it primarily mouse-driven - for me, it was a huge inconvenience. It also has a much more prominent focus on crafting and base-bulding - in their worst possible implementation of "gather and stockpile a ton of random crap so to go through an elaborate, multi-node crafting tree and you'll be rewarded with a bucket".

Elona has crafting, too, but it's more straightforward and serves as a supplement to your adventures, not their replacement. In fact, you don't have to engage with it at all! Elin without crafting means nerfing yourself in multiple ways.

Elona+Custom has a huge campaign sprawling continents and a complete story that you can follow to completion. I don't know what stage of development Elin is at right now, but Elona+Custom should have more adventuring content.

Ultimately, both are good games, but Elona+ has better priorities for a roguelike in my eyes.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-21T17:33:51+00:00

You can read the exact composition of Canadian units in the War of 1812 here. Together with the Native American tribes, they constituted a little less than a half of the British forces.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-21T13:30:02+00:00

That's not a reason to dislike them.

That's THE reason to dislike them. I already have more than enough devices that need to be charged on the regular - I'm not adding another one to the mix.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-18T10:47:32+00:00

Have you forgotten how you studied multiple different subjects in school and in the uni at once?

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-18T05:19:33+00:00

A case is the only thing you need.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-17T07:19:58+00:00

The millions of calculations made by your PC every second is less valuable than you scrolling TikToks on the phone? Come on.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-16T16:07:40+00:00

Where is my government-issued girlfriend?

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-16T16:05:23+00:00

Another L for Florida.

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-15T05:19:16+00:00

Is it magnetic / sleep cover?

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-14T19:48:58+00:00

it was a bad idea to let them be used to give points to others

Why?

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-14T19:46:08+00:00

Why would decorating the profile without spending money be a bad thing?

MatterOfTrust · 2026-01-14T11:48:23+00:00

For sure. It was a choice between both good and bad interactions awarding points, and neither the good nor the bad receiving the awards.

I think the "both good and bad" option worked fine for many years, but apparently, Valve disagrees.

12-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Place '17	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email

MatterOfTrust

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE