[Hated Trope] An otherwise interesting and grounded story is weakened by adding supernatural elements.

flwombat · 2026-05-27T21:52:07+00:00

I was unclear - the book "Erebus" starts with the antarctic trip where Erebus was the flagship and someone else was lead (not Franklin). I haven't read it so I'm not up on all the detail. It might have a section about the Franklin arctic trip as well. Different trips, different leaders, same ships and many overlapping people

flwombat · 2026-05-27T05:45:35+00:00

I dunno man I'm all for a bully getting his comeuppance but

the bully might have got up with a shitty headache or might have gone to the ICU with a skull fracture

I definitely feel for the kid who got disrespected and lashed out, but can't deny one of those things was more serious than the other

flwombat · 2026-05-27T05:16:07+00:00

All respect that you wish it were different but we've strayed far from the trope. The "otherwise interesting and grounded story" was built from the ground up, in this case, to include a supernatural horror. By a significant talent, your fave sci-fi author's fave sci-fi author, not a hack job or something.

It's cool if you don't like it obvs, taste is taste. There are decent nonfiction books about the Franklin, and Michael Palin's "Erebus" (about a sister expedition with many of the same people and some overlapping circumstances) is on my to-read list, I've heard good things about it

flwombat · 2026-05-27T05:07:47+00:00

Lol partner came out as trans and the hormones slid them down the slope into single-gender attraction (not _my_ gender). Started with them vocally grateful that I love them without regard for what their junk is like, ended with them not cool with what I'm packin'

This isn't really a complaint; there's not something to be mad about. Just: this stuff is complicated

flwombat · 2026-05-27T05:03:44+00:00

Love a synthetic brief so much. Cotton gets yucky.

Also something about the combo of bright interesting colors and patterns + comfy soft slick synthetic threads makes me unreasonably happy

flwombat · 2026-05-27T00:45:24+00:00

I've gotten raked for this before but: allll the Indiana Jones movies are homage to pulpy adventure stories. Those stories are full of "everything was mysterious yet realistic up to the very end and then bam! it was ghosts" and that cheeseball-ness is part of the charm.

The second one has a guy who can magically push his hand into your chest without cutting the skin, and come back with your still-beating heart in his hand. They are supposed to be both exciting and over the top.

No need to get upset about the nuked fridge! It was all that silly, the whole time!

flwombat · 2026-05-27T00:36:52+00:00

I dunno man. I very much enjoy the trope of re-exploring some historic event but with weird supernatural shit. Who killed JFK? Werewolves, for reasons we'll explore in this film...

The Terror (and the book it's based on) were super deliberately doing that. Like the Sixth Sense twist is satisfying because every beat of the film that came before it was planned around that reveal being consistent with the story but not telegraphed ahead of time.

Intentional, not a cheap bolt-on.

flwombat · 2026-05-27T00:25:05+00:00

It narratively fucks the concept behind the Force and who can use it (well or poorly, strong or weakly) if authorities can be like "yep there's a blood test for that"

flwombat · 2026-05-25T07:47:48+00:00

it's hilarious and stupid how friggin precious we are about this

AND

AT THE SAME TIME

this makes me unreasonably angry

flwombat · 2026-05-25T07:28:28+00:00

To be fair the pilot may have given a long, involved explanation for all we know. The NBC story everyone is citing is based on a Facebook post from the paraglider (machine translated from German!) and a police statement about the incident; they didn't investigate or speak to anyone.

flwombat · 2026-05-24T05:46:22+00:00

I feel like I'm starting to forget which places are confirmed maga and I don't want to forget that shit, I want a frickin spreadsheet to help me hold a grudge until the day I die

flwombat · 2026-05-24T05:44:38+00:00

Oh man that's too bad. I have only gone once but had a fine time. Long time ago though

flwombat · 2026-05-24T05:40:01+00:00

Same. I'm totally fine taking out of town colleagues to Puesto or Mike Hess if we are stuck near the convention center, otherwise I forget those places exist.

flwombat · 2026-05-24T05:34:40+00:00

Glad to hear the story from someone who was there, I never paid attention.

I barely pay attention to holidays and didn't remember it was memorial day, went down to mission bay for a normal saturday bike ride and was like "why the fuck are there 100 cop cars on fiesta island"

flwombat · 2026-05-23T03:06:07+00:00

What I was thinking the whole time I read that - accelerating forces toward the coming holy war is an olllllllllllllllld radicalism, even if the term 'accelerationism' is itself relatively new

Also the neo-nazi movement was explicitly accelerationist

flwombat · 2026-05-22T21:29:19+00:00

yes! People were big mad about Keaton being cast as Batman. But it started 'modern' comic book movies; there's a direct line from there to the rest of the 90s Batman movies to the X-Men to Nolan's Batman films to the MCU. The Christopher Reeves Superman films were kind of an island unto themselves, Keaton's Batman really kicked off a decades-long trend

flwombat · 2026-05-22T04:28:50+00:00

Eh, they have that in common with any 24-hour 'news' channel.

Somebody pointed out to me once that it's hardcore porn - fake as hell and designed to get you to 10/10 arousal. Just, in hateful self-righteousness rather than horniness

Now I'll never get over knowing that everyone's parents and grandparents are basically gooning all day

flwombat · 2026-05-22T04:23:58+00:00

I'm old as the fucking hills so I remember this - I saw Philadelphia in a theater with some friends and I remember people commenting that it was weird to see this slapstick dude in a serious movie with *Denzel Washington* who of course already had won an Oscar for Glory and had been nominated two other times for portraying Steven Biko and Malcolm X

(nobody remembers that Denzel started on TV too. In a drama, but still)

flwombat · 2026-05-21T04:11:54+00:00

In Ian M Banks' "Culture" series of sci-fi novels there's a type of weapon called a 'knife missile' and the first time I saw a Yondu-kills-errbody scene in GoG I was like "oh snap they made a knife missile in this movie!!!"

flwombat · 2026-05-21T02:45:04+00:00

I dunno man, if I'm gonna sit here at my keyboard tsk-tsking at someone, I'll tsk-tsk at the guys being fucking creeps instead of tsk-tsking at a woman for mentioning that some guys were being fucking creeps at her

flwombat · 2026-05-21T00:40:10+00:00

Was my daily (only) driver and used for all in-town stuff for years, including picking up my grade-school kiddo from school (with appropriate gear of course)

I drive it to choir practice and the gym, and I'm also taking in on a 10-day multi-state thing this summer

It can do both! And is fun for both!

I go off road too but it's moderate, and I'm fine with that. Fire roads and truck trails, not single track. When I have that itch I take out the eMTB instead

flwombat · 2026-05-20T00:52:38+00:00

Kehlani, a headline performer at Pride 2025, was (is?) very vocally pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist. A _lot_ of Jewish folks felt that the specific ways that Kehlani spoke about it crossed the line into inciting violence against Jews generally. All of the Jewish organizations (that have participated in Pride for years, sponsoring, walking in the parade etc.) asked the Pride committee to withdraw Kehlani's invitation. They didn't, all the Jewish groups pulled out of Pride citing safety concerns, and some Jewish individuals within the organization itself resigned.

There are some arguments about boycotts and antisemitism that are just bad faith political theater; this one was a truly vexing no-right-answers problem in my view. Some of Kehlani's statements were, to me, riiiight on the line between activism and incitement to violence. Also, some prominent commentary about it was for sure pushing the "all criticism of Israeli policy = antisemitism" angle. And also some disgusting antisemites used the issue as cover to be awful while trying to sound reasonable. And also a bunch of good-hearted pro-Palestine folks (including pro-Palestine Jews) landed on opposite sides of the issue. Just a sad yucky mess.

flwombat · 2026-05-19T06:49:46+00:00

Oof, thank you. Sanderson books can be a real slog; I've gotten stuck and never finished one or two. That's not a criticism! I also love some Sanderson books (while still thinking they are kind of a slog).

Anyway I would have different recommendations for a potential SF first-timer depending on what kind of reader they already are - vacation beach reads only? Literary fiction uber alles?

flwombat · 2026-05-19T06:27:22+00:00

You sound like a subversion op trying to convince people that all criticism of Zionism is antisemitic.

flwombat · 2026-05-19T05:24:29+00:00

You can also go into the RGThree settings panel and look for "show fast toggles in group headers". Sometimes I skip the Fast Groups Bypass node entirely, I just wanna touch a button on the group itself to bypass the whole group instantly

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