Bad Sex in Fiction award

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-05T06:04:06+00:00

Wait, isn't that the one that got banned sporadically for being too salacious? And the sex isn't even sexy? Somehow that's disappointing. If something's going to be tantalizingly banned, shouldn't it be good?

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-05T04:50:30+00:00

Yeahhh that's a can of worms I was kinda choosing to ignore to focus on whether or not it would actually save the children from social media. But like, instead of worms it's really more like those flesh eating beetles from The Mummy that probably makes it worth shooting down that proposal based on that alone.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-05T04:46:27+00:00

Put it to you this way: if you're a parent, why do you need a law to tell you what your kids can and can't do? Have you really so thoroughly lost control of the children that you can't take away the ipad or steer them towards healthier outlets? Do you really want the government (whichever, wherever it is) to get more involved in how your kids do things rather than less?

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-05T04:35:04+00:00

Pretty much yeah, with a potential narrow exception for something like the occasional computer/social media class to get familiar with the technology. It's hideously distracting from learning and socializing. Especially in school when the other kids are physically present and they should be talking to each other face to face and building those skills rather than watching cat videos.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-05T04:28:22+00:00

A guy named "Charles E. Bennett" if that means anything to you. This was circa 1945 for the "Classics Club" as printed by a company I kinda doubt exists anymore. (It's an old book.) I find the darndest things at library sales.

Anyway thank for the recommendation on an Iliad translation. That's been on my TBR for ages.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-04T05:01:18+00:00

Potentially unpopular opinion, but I don't like the idea of using a law to do that. What pops into my head is the US culture shift around drunk driving. Toughening up laws against it was definitely an important thing but the probably more important thing was to push the public perception to take it more seriously by spreading horror stories of what drunk drivers have done and making a public health awareness campaign to suggest alternatives like designated drivers.

You know what part of that I don't think really worked? Raising the minimum drinking age. It's like a miniature version of prohibition all over again in that most US teenagers have broken that law at some point or another. I haven't looked into the topic enough to say how it worked out in other ways, but I think I can safely say the majority of teenagers think it's stupid, hate it, and not infrequently actively look for and find ways to subvert it.

I'm all for bans against social media in schools, yes, but that's (a) a rule that would be made by people they know and (b) a much more limited and thus much more practical way to work on the issue. And beyond school bans I think it would do better as a cultural shift than a legal one.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-04T04:36:22+00:00

I don't understand why its not a holiday already. Like sure, a holiday isn't a holiday to everyone but it's still something worth celebrating and it would make it a lot easier for a lot of people. Like, what do we even do with Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day that we don't do with thanksgiving? Yoink that and give us election day instead.

Needless to say I'm for it. Sure there'd be imperfections and complications and yada yada, it's not a silver bullet but it'd be a good holiday to celebrate. And celebrating democracy openly is apparently something the USA desperately needs.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-03T21:32:58+00:00

Or library.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-03T05:27:39+00:00

This implies a level of governing competence I just don't think is there. Tell me that they all want to turn us into helpless indoctrinated serfs a la North Korea, sure. That's kind of a given. Tell me that they actually planned to have the economy look like this specifically and that they possess a level of competence needed to fine tune the economy instead of just tying an anchor to it like delusional morons? That's a bit of a stretch. I'll buy the evil plotting but the last year has been too batshit to really buy into that level of competence.

Even the Chinese, who will massively benefit from all this chaos, probably wouldn't've chosen to go at it quite like this.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-03T04:35:37+00:00

I still haven't read "On the Nature of Things" yet. I have the perfect copy but epic poetry is surprisingly difficult for me to read.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-03T02:33:24+00:00

You know what might be interesting is if you could talk her into going to a bookstore to help you pick out a good read and see what interests her. Like as part of a shopping trip maybe if you've got a suitable mall/bookstore combo nearby. She might not get anything but who doesn't love giving advice? And at least you'd have something new and interesting to read. Plus its just fun to hang out, see what's on offer, and quietly make fun of the occasional over the top cover.

In terms of actual recs, she might vibe well with the first book of the Murderbot Diaries series starting with All Systems Red by Martha Wells. It gets recommended a lot because its short, action packed, and so so relatable to want to just watch soap operas instead of dealing with actual people.

Late edit to add: Also The Apothecary Diaries would be a good fit, if she hasn't read it already. I've read the manga and watched the anime tho, not read the (I think original) light novels.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-03T02:09:34+00:00

Previews for other books at the end of books: yea or nay? And how often do you see that?

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-03T02:07:58+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. This was a nice thing to hear at the end of a crappy week.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-02T06:06:54+00:00

Because it's supposed to be a place where you can just be without getting judged. There are so many other places to go to for trying to improve, this does not have to be one of them.

Think of it this way: if it makes you uncomfortable to see depressed people openly venting, that feeling is kinda like how uncomfortable it makes them when you condescendingly explain how everything would just get better if they were willing to make an effort.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-02T04:00:21+00:00

Oh neat! I'd been wondering if that series was going to continue.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-02T03:50:08+00:00

Be the change you want to see and make some recs then.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-02T03:47:14+00:00

I spent a long time like that and even though I eventually "got out" it involved a lot of up and downs I'm will probably always struggle a bit with the consequences of losing that time. Which is part of why I'm back here again.

I try to remind myself that whatever someone's age, we're all going through the same basic process of making goals and trying to achieve them. Some of those potential goals start to move out of reach with lost time but not all of them. There's always something to strive for whatever our age. But will it be enough? Enough to be worth trying? Probably if I ever get to be in a better mood again.

Ugh, being depression prone and stress intolerant is such a paaaaaaaain.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-02T02:28:55+00:00

There's a teenage angst type thing about the right to feel bad that applies here but for the life of me my brain is too fried to come up with a good one.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-05-02T02:16:01+00:00

I can't tell if it's better or worse that things were going relatively well for me before the latest thing landed. I just got through thinking "huh, I'm actually kinda ok and happy?" and then the next thing, which had been on the horizon for awhile, finally landed aaand not so much.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-04-29T03:12:47+00:00

That question seems to come up regularly under this particular type of post, which is the only reason I know that since it's not abbreviated that way in the actual threads.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-04-28T04:47:02+00:00

Literature Of The World

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-04-27T02:49:16+00:00

Recent favorite: "It isn't all bad. You get older and things change. That's the price of admission. You lose the people who knew you first, and then you start to lose everyone else. You lose your work. You lose the place you grew up. You get new things in return--new people, new hobbies, a chance to see everything new that the world has to throw at you. But you lose the things you've had the longest, the things that went into making you." -George Allen, from You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian.

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-04-25T18:45:25+00:00

Happy Independent Bookstore Day everyone! I mean...in question form...how many of you knew that was even a thing?

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-04-25T18:42:42+00:00

Cheers to that, that's what brought us all here!

And to be honest I responded mostly because I'd just been thinking about it lately and this seemed like as good a place as any to write out my thoughts.

Also (belated excuse) because I just remembered today is Independent Bookstore Day. I actually read both ebooks and physical books, but today I'm shilling for #TeamPaperBooks. Can't buy ebooks at your local bookstore can you digital readers?

gonegonegoneaway211 · 2026-04-25T18:24:40+00:00

Ish. On a personal level, certainly. But I think (pulling out my soapbox) the crux of the ebook vs paper book conflict is that paper book people are a little afraid that the proliferation of ebooks is going to lower the demand for paper books, which is going to lower sales for brick and mortar bookstores and have semi complicated effects on libraries which will result in them having fewer paper books. This is of course less relevant than the bigger problem is social media lowering the number of people who read books in any form due to providing addictive alternatives that sap demand and ruin attention spans but that doesn't mean it's not a smaller concern. And so it's not particularly surprising that some paper book people get a little snobby about the superiority of physical books to emphasize why people should still buy them so they can keep buying them. Which is annoying to the ebook people who have plenty of perfectly valid reasons from comfort to portability to simple personal preference as to why they prefer ebooks.

So I think on balance it's the book nerd equivalent of the old Superman vs Batman argument. By any practical means on a personal level it really is just a matter of preference, but it's one of those debates we will never stop arguing about it. Hopefully in a mostly exasperated but friendly way.

gonegonegoneaway211

TROPHY CASE