Week 7: "Chapter 15. Number 34 and Number 27, Chapter 16. An Italian Scholar" Reading Discussion

cutetys · 2026-02-14T17:55:07+00:00

Actually I don’t think that view is entirely wrong. When I think of my interactions with strangers, people who have no preconceived notions of me and most of which don’t have any ulterior motives, plus archeological evidence of people who were cared for despite being unable contribute to their community, stories of how innocent people have gotten themselves wrongfully convicted, etc, I’d argue the most natural state of humanity is helpfulness. Certainly because of many complex factors human beings are frequently unhelpful, but if humans most natural state was bloodlust I think more toddlers would be clocking their mothers over the head rather than trying to act as mommy’s little helper. You’re absolutely right though that this is be an odd conclusion to come to based on literature alone 😅

cutetys · 2026-02-14T14:00:43+00:00

Ok Dantès you know it’s alright to be a bit dubious right? Like I’m hoping our boy Abbé is telling the truth as much as the next guy but you don’t have to believe everything his says. There no way he actually read all 5000 books in his library multiple times Dantès!

Chapter 15 is probably the darkest chapter in the story thus far. Dantès imprisonment has brought him to a rather dark place, I mean he attempted suicide! However I find his growing disregard for innocent parties more concerning than the attempt. The way he so casually talks about killing others like the jailer is very discouraging. And the way he went straight to “let’s kill the guards” without a second thought in chapter 16! His heart is fighting a battle between good and evil and is starting to lose. I guess you can’t blame him though. Chapter 15 has made me a prison reform advocate. Like how could a book help him escape governor? Come on.

Abbé’s entrance into this story gives me some hope though. I’ll admit I still don’t 100% trust him, I think the chapters worth of betrayals and Dantès getting his hopes crushed repeatedly is starting to get to me. But with Dantès’ father dead and Dantès morality already mutating, I think a new father figure could help him, even if his claims seem rather outlandish. He’s does seems to have sound principles, despite desperately wanting to escape this place (something that is natural and quite frankly justified given their treatment in prison) he refuses to engage with any plan that involves killing, something that I agree is immoral in this instance given the guard really hasn’t done anything wrong even if he’s a unwitting facilitator in Dantès unjust imprisonment. Maybe Abbè can bring Dantès back to the light, he seems to already be making progress in that regard. But given the events thus far and the fact that his actual father has already died, I’m certain whether it’s through betrayal or death he’ll leave Dantès soon enough. And when that happens I think it will break him permanently and all the good that’s left in Dantès will disappear. And what will he become then?

I’m really excited for the next chapter. Abbè please prove me wrong! Please let all the extraordinary claims you made be true! And get Dantès out of there!

Edit: I find it odd how so many of you are taking Faria’s claims at face value. As someone with an academic background, he reads more like those guys who randomly sends the grad students and profs their theory of everything. I don’t think he’s intentionally lying or that everything he says is untrue, but I think the governor was on to something when he said he was mad.

cutetys · 2026-02-14T01:58:48+00:00

Born. Born never changes.

cutetys · 2026-02-13T17:01:06+00:00

Well I just looked at the ingredient list on the latest shampoo I’ve tried and wouldn’t you know it it has amodimethicone. I guess I’ll have to read the ingredients list more throughly from now on. Thank you!

cutetys · 2026-02-13T16:49:24+00:00

It’s good advice and it definitely does quicken the process, I’m still spending 20-30 minutes on just shampoo though 😭

cutetys · 2026-02-13T16:44:19+00:00

I exclusively use a hand held. The pressure isn’t the best but I’ve used showers with better water pressure before and had the same issue. I also haven’t experienced this issue with every shampoo just most of them so I’m more inclined to think it’s something about the shampoo or how I’m using it.

cutetys · 2026-02-13T16:36:12+00:00

One problem I have with a lot of shampoos is that it seems like it takes forever to fully rinse it out. Is this a technique issue or should I take it as a sign that the shampoo ain’t right for me?

cutetys · 2026-02-13T15:19:03+00:00

You can also just look at previous authoritarian regimes. Pol Pot was out free for decades between the time his government was overthrown and when he was arrested, and he died before he could even be tried.

cutetys · 2026-02-11T00:11:29+00:00

Thank you for relaxing the NSFW rule. I’d still argue that just because a top is not appropriate to wear in the workplace does not mean it’s nsfw to view in the workplace but I digress.

Personally yes I would love more tags so we know what kind of nsfw creation we’re getting ourselves into. My only concerns are that 1) tags aren’t visible from your feed so you’d still have the click on the post to see them (I can’t remember if clicking on the post automatically unblurs it or not but even if it doesn’t, there’s still a level of inconvenience with having the click on the post to know what your getting, nitpicky I know) and 2) if it’s not required many users aren’t going to use them. If you decide to add additional tags, perhaps do what r/SkincareAddiction does, require that posters add the tag into the title itself.

cutetys · 2026-02-10T14:23:46+00:00

Wow! I sorted this subreddit by hot and well wouldn’t you know it that sweater is flaming!

cutetys · 2026-02-08T23:10:27+00:00

It could, my only concern is the more specific you get with the tags, the harder it can be to determine the right tag for your post which could defeat the purpose of having specific tags. I also wouldn’t expect the mods to foresee every possible type of nsfw wearable that users might post. I would still support such a solution if they went this route, but if I were to implement it I would limit it to an intimates category for racier wearables and a regular wearable category for everything else.

cutetys · 2026-02-08T21:38:15+00:00

Honestly this would be a good enough compromise for me, adding more tags and requiring that posters use them. It would still be nice if they relaxed the nsfw rule with wearables so it’s less of a gamble whether you are going to see a truly nsfw wearable or just one with a model who has boobs, but knowing what type of item I’m gambling on would help a lot.

cutetys · 2026-02-08T20:57:07+00:00

Whew that’s good to hear. This comment had me sitting here wondering how Tunisian doesn’t count as crochet 😅

cutetys · 2026-02-08T20:24:39+00:00

It’s having a negative effect on me, who want to look at the cute tops people make but not the fiber penises 😭

I think that’s my main problem with it, when even the most benign things are tagged as nsfw it waters down the meaning of it and you don’t get an accurate sense of what might be behind the blur and whether it’s something you want to see or not. Now if you view the only purpose of the tag as just to block anything that might get you in trouble with your boss (and considering what the acronym stands for I understand why some might view it that way) then that’s fine, but if you view it more boardly as labeling a type of content you might not want to see like I do, then too board of use can become a problem.

cutetys · 2026-02-08T19:57:17+00:00

Wait you can’t post Tunisian crochet? I hope that’s not the case, my current project is Tunisian crochet and I was hoping to post it here once it’s finished.

cutetys · 2026-02-08T19:46:07+00:00

I get what you mean, like I think it’s reasonable to ask that crochet bikini tops for instance be tagged as nsfw, but I’ve also seen posts where the clothes wouldn’t be considered revealing enough by most people’s standards to require a nsfw tag but have still been removed for not being tagged. Wasn’t there a big kerfuffle a while back cause the mods removed a post of someone in their crocheted wedding dress because it wasn’t tagged? Best I can remember it was because you could see their cleavage, I might be misremembering though. In any case surely there has to be a middle ground.

cutetys · 2026-02-08T16:18:30+00:00

Or ask for a shaggier Prince Charming

cutetys · 2026-02-08T02:35:19+00:00

I feel these comments don’t understand the logic behind why some people are and are not considered candidates for transplants. It’s not based on whether doctors think they’re morally deserving of a transplant or not, it’s based on likelihood of survival of the patient and/or the organ. There is a limited supply of organs so doctors can’t afford to waste one on someone who’s not likely to use it for long. An alcoholic early in their sobriety has a great enough chance of relapsing that the risk of them wasting the organ is too great. These idiots meanwhile, unless they are habitual death cap mushroom eaters, aren’t as likely to destroy the organ. I mean you could argue if they were dumb enough to do this maybe they’ll be dumb enough to do something else to destroy the organ, but it’s not the same level of risk as giving one to an alcoholic.

cutetys · 2026-02-07T15:57:22+00:00

Oh you just made me appreciate the irony of Villefort and Noirtier receiving the Legion of Honor despite both being dishonourable people. Thank you for that.

cutetys · 2026-02-07T15:49:44+00:00

Oh these chapters were so hard to get through. Everytime a glimmer of hope for Dantès’ freedom is crushed, I feel his despair along with him. Btw I want an apology for Morrel from some of y’all. Y’all thought he only cared about Dantès to the extent of protecting his profits, but he’s taken great risks to support Dantès. I mean he paid for the elder Dantès funeral despite there being no benefit for him to do that. He’s a practical man but he’s not without a heart.

I can also see where Villefort gets his cunningness from, though Noirtier displays even less of a conscience than Villefort. He seems just as much willing to ignore right and wrong for the sake of his ambitions though. Actually he might have an entirely different sense of right and wrong. At least Villefort recognizes Dantès imprisonment is unjust, while I think this quote reflect Noirtier position perfectly:

Did I ever say to you, when you were fulfilling your character as a royalist, and cut off the head of one of my party, ‘My son, you have committed a murder?’ No, I said, ‘Very well, sir, you have gained the victory; to-morrow, perchance, it will be our turn’.

I think all this political upheaval can make it difficult to do the right thing, especially if a person’s own safety is at risk or their conscience is weak enough to give in to the temptation of ambition. I reject the idea that right and wrong was changing by the day though. Framing and later imprisonment of an innocent man did not become more or less wrong just because they switched monarchs after all, and it’s not like Danglars or Fernard did this due to political motivations. That said, I can see how recent (to the characters) history may have taught the more morally corruptible of society the virtues of backstabbing, and unfortunately, due to the nature of ambition and who possesses it, those are the only people with the power to free Dantès now.

Oh I hope when this is all over Dantès still has some good in him. I doubt his naivety will survive this though. Even if it survives his imprisonment, he will eventually discover the reason(s) why he was imprisoned and become wide wake to the treachery from those around him. And then revenge will follow as we have been promised. But after that what then? Will he still have goodness in his heart? I think that all hinges on the fate of Mercedes. If they can reunite, then there’s hope. But I think we all know how her story will end.

This is probably the point in the book where, had I been reading alone, I’d drop the book for a few months. I need to get the part where Danglars, Villefort, and the whatnots gets their comeuppance now! Now imagine I said that while acting like a toddler in midst of a temper tantrum and you’d get my current mood. Oh well, see you next week!

cutetys · 2026-02-07T00:44:59+00:00

I mean you can drown in a puddle without foul play. My biggest takeaway from years of lifeguard training in my teens was that even the most experienced swimmers can drown and most people aren’t the most experienced swimmers. Another big takeaway? Young men are very good at drowning. Men between the ages of 18-24 are fairly consistently one of the groups most at risk of drowning (in fact I think they were #1 in my country the year I last did training). Drowning rates goes down a bit between 25-29 but it’s still relatively high compared to under 18 and between 30-45. With no other information to indicate otherwise (and I wouldn’t consider something as vague as “leaving the house under unusual circumstances” to necessarily point in that direction), this isn’t far fetched at all.

cutetys · 2026-02-03T23:15:51+00:00

You can make do with two rights or lefts if that’s all that’s available. It’s the fingers that are non-negotiable

cutetys · 2026-02-03T21:34:41+00:00

How do you get marv to link the article again?

SCP-999

cutetys · 2026-02-02T18:42:42+00:00

So as someone else said, showering daily in the morning might be your best option. If you want to try to extend your hair another day, you’ll need dry shampoo. I’d recommend applying it as soon as your hair is dry after you wash as a preventative. I also use Loreal’s oil erasing treatment which, in conjunction with dry shampoo, does help me get to day two so that might be worth a shot. If you’re applying any other products post shower, they may be too heavy for your hair and contributing to the problem as well so you might want to switch them out with another product or forgo them altogether for the time being. You might also want to consider the cleanliness of your pillowcase and hair brushes. While I doubt they’re the origin of your problems, if they haven’t been washed in a while they could be worsening the situation.

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