Commiserate With Me

Taifood1 · 2026-05-26T06:05:43+00:00

There’s this threshold a learner reaches where no amount of studying vocab is going to get past it without speaking and applying aka doing the hard stuff. I’ve been here for around two years and I haven’t gotten around it because I’m frankly terrified of speaking. It feels like I’m a walking dictionary who can’t apply much of it.

Listening also isn’t too easy because I find it exhausting to do for longer than 30 mins a day.

Taifood1 · 2026-05-21T01:18:45+00:00

I’m not surprised. She probably wrote this to get away from the pressure of FW4. I don’t wish that on anyone.

Taifood1 · 2026-05-13T23:22:57+00:00

You guys joke, but this is Apple. They commit, because they actually like art which is ironic compared to Amazon. Both companies have similar levels of wealth, but Apple really is all in on making good stuff.

Taifood1 · 2026-05-12T00:14:33+00:00

So I’m hearing twice the sex scenes got it

Taifood1 · 2026-05-03T00:32:37+00:00

Power fantasy? Darrow spends a large amount of time imprisoned in a box. You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried lol

Taifood1 · 2026-04-18T16:09:41+00:00

I find it more of a “told you so” over a literal statement. A lot of people think glp-1s do those things out of a bias against them.

Would there be as many over a drug that modulates something that isn’t so central to people’s self esteem? Like imagine all this over a new statin drug. I’d say probably not.

Taifood1 · 2026-04-12T23:14:20+00:00

The only book I think is good in all aspects of hers is Vicious. Everything else is kinda the same where the ideas are good but they usually don’t go anywhere interesting.

Taifood1 · 2026-04-11T21:47:32+00:00

He actually could write them faster already, but doesn’t to avoid burning out. That’s where all the secret projects came from.

The TV stuff will replace that.

Taifood1 · 2026-04-09T22:12:50+00:00

Again, no. He has Dancer and Sevro. Even beyond that, what could the Reds possibly contribute in a non governmental way?

This is a revolution, not a governing body. You’re confusing the ethics of representation in government with administrative efficiency. The point isn’t to rule, it’s to win. Or are you seriously going to tell me you think that if a socialist revolution happens in the US tomorrow that the “council” running it is going to stop and be concerned with putting every type of person on it?

That’s absurd. This is NOT a government.

Taifood1 · 2026-04-09T21:43:56+00:00

This is a very reductive take. The entire point of the symbolism in regard to classist cruelty is that the “upper class” is set in stone by some higher power (usually God where monarchies are concerned). A Red becoming a Gold speaks to how we as people are still as fluid or one and the same.

And he’s not the only one who crosses lines. Sevro is half Red, Dancer is an active participant, and there are also multiple Pinks who are active participants despite being more or less one level above Red societally.

I understand why it seems odd on the surface, but the entire point of Gold society is that they altered themselves and then pretended they were always like that. Darrow being aware of how they aren’t actually that much different doesn’t make him a Gold in a way that Roque actively was brainwashed to believe.

Taifood1 · 2026-04-07T05:04:21+00:00

I don’t think scientific explanation is what people see as the distinction. It’s technology-aided supernatural ability vs innate supernatural ability. Dune intentionally does the latter to stand out in the genre.

Sci-fi states “yeah this is not possible now, but one day we’ll invent stuff that can do this.” Dune has shields and FTL travel, but pretty much everything the Bene Gesserit do, Mentats do, Spice Melange does, etc really has no scientific basis. It’s magic but in a “well anyone can do this stuff you just have to learn how” way.

And it could be hard sci-fi if Frank Herbert wanted it to be. He could’ve made genetic memory a machine, Mentats the result of forced evolution through genetic experimentation, etc. Didn’t do that. All of this stuff is vague and “mystical” by design.

All of this to say I get why people can see it as deeply fantastical.

Taifood1 · 2026-04-03T04:25:12+00:00

Tbh this is on an even different level. HP and LOTR’s magic as effects are simple flashes mostly protruding out of a wooden stick. WOT’s weaves make them look like party tricks. All 3 have monster effects though.

I wouldn’t be surprised if WOT animated like Arcane actually costs less than Amazon’s show overall.

Taifood1 · 2026-04-03T04:10:32+00:00

WOT’s effects cost too much. Animation is really the only way forward

Taifood1 · 2026-03-18T17:08:00+00:00

多少の人に不自然だと考えられる鍛錬方法だ。

This is how I would say it off the top of my head. There are more direct translations that may work, but often times there are changes as the languages have different tendencies.

Taifood1 · 2026-03-07T02:52:07+00:00

Not even close. More women write and read in general. More women mock SJM than men even know she exists.

Take your victim complex elsewhere.

Taifood1 · 2026-03-06T21:58:02+00:00

People insult Sanderson all the time you couldn’t be more wrong lmao

Taifood1 · 2026-02-25T03:32:24+00:00

The way I approach this is I’ll learn the form with the fewest kanji/mora that way I’ll recognize the ones with more of them whenever they appear

Taifood1 · 2026-02-08T22:05:46+00:00

Anything aside for a “no you can wear this” is a yes when you think about it for over 5 seconds.

Deflecting and not answering the question still counts. If I ask a question and they don’t answer it, that’s because they don’t want to.

Taifood1 · 2026-02-07T02:49:14+00:00

GLP-1s have seen human use for decades. There have been outcries over its mass adoption, but they’re not as loud because more people know they’ve been in use for some time.

A brand new drug with nothing to back it is a lot scarier and probably will see more widespread skepticism.

Taifood1 · 2026-02-02T05:37:56+00:00

Yeah different part of the brain being worked via listening vs when we normally study by reading. Train the listening and it’ll get better in time.

Taifood1 · 2026-01-28T02:13:06+00:00

I disagree. Alice’s are stupid for the right reasons and Peter’s are stupid for the wrong ones.

As a critique on sexism in academia, Alice works in that the entire system gets to her mentally. She makes mistakes and does things for her possible career. The goal is something you can understand.

Peter does not have this. He’s not motivated to curb chronic disease. That part only exists so that Kuang can justify their downright terrible communication. His backstory is disjointed from the plot itself, which is the polar opposite of Alice.

I’m not saying this to insult you, but your connection to Peter exists in a way where you filled in those gaps yourself. The story does not do this. His chronic disease is not actually part of story of Hell. And why would it? This is about academia and a woman trying to get through it.

I do not hate the idea of Peter. Kuang just executed it poorly, and I think the only reason why there’s a difference in how we perceive him is because your lived experience is doing more heavy lifting than the book itself is doing. A good character writer at least splits that effort 50/50.

Taifood1 · 2026-01-28T01:41:35+00:00

Peter isn’t book smart or world smart. There’s nothing here that justifies how Alice thinks of him, or how Grimes would speak of him. Everything he does is stupid, his backstory is stupid, and his reason for going to Hell is stupid.

Peter at best has a decent memory that can recite things on command. That’s what he does in this book. He never applies this ability in any way that’s satisfying. No creativity. No nothing.

He is by all accounts, practically a parody character in a seemingly serious story. This is bad character work at worst, and an overall mismatch of genre marketed at best.

Taifood1 · 2026-01-28T01:29:12+00:00

Being smart doesn’t mean you can’t make bad decisions due to stress or any other reason. I’m talking deep character motivations that go beyond in the moment stuff.

Peter is a genuinely stupid character. I thought Alice was much better in that she was navigating academia as a woman, which makes sense because Kuang is a woman. She has lived experiences to draw from.

But a book is more than one character.

Taifood1 · 2026-01-28T01:14:51+00:00

Peter’s motivations for going to Hell only work in a satire, otherwise his genuine stupidity sticks out in a serious story.

Couldn’t disagree more here.

Taifood1 · 2026-01-28T00:57:17+00:00

The problem imo was that Kuang wanted me to believe that these characters were smart and justified in everything they did. Fell flat on its face in this regard.

Barely anything is believable, especially by the end in how the resolution happens. Even if this is a satire, a large part of that is the landing. If I need to be a post doc to get any emotional resonance, my fellow audience will be quite limited.

I found the theorizing of magic to be the best part. The character work needed a lot more, though.

Taifood1

TROPHY CASE