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penna-nomen · 7 months

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9 Favorite Books

Thanks for the tag @cultofsappho!

It was a pleasure to think about favorites, and it was a challenge. What can I say? English major who devours books, with 36 books marked as comfort reads in the Libby app! My favorites change at least monthly… So I went with some that are favorites because of the memories attached / impact on my life, and some that are favorite examples of a theme I enjoy.

Harold and the Purple Crayon series by Crockett Johnson - These are the first books I remember my Mom reading to me, and they're associated with my first memories of visiting a library. A couple of years ago I picked them up again to see if they were as delightful as I remembered, and they were! The themes of creativity wrapped themselves around my heart.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen - This was the book that shook my world my first year in college, when I'd decided that "literature" meant depressing. It was a shock to realize the book really was SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY. This and books inspired by it are frequent re-reads for me. Runner up is If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, which I read my senior year.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett - My best friend in college recommended this when I mentioned that I was only reading class assignments and I'd gotten out of the habit of pleasure reading. The Discworld series pulled me back into reading for fun, and it inspired me to write again, so it will always have a place in my heart. Plus, Pratchett's style and sense of humor are truly amazing. And in case you're wondering, yes, I love Good Omens, too.

Absolutely, Positively by Jayne Ann Krentz - This represents my post-college romance phase. I picked this one because of the humor, the hints of sci-fi elements, and the fact that JAK's Seattle settings were one of the things that convinced me I'd like living in the Pacific Northwest. Runner up from my romance phase is Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie. I just this summer heard that she has new books out, and I really hope the new ones live up to my memories of snarky humor.

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li - Now we're moving on to themes and tropes I love. As a writer in the White Collar fandom, it's not a big surprise that I love a good heist story, and this one had excellent twists. Runner up is Little Thieves by Margaret Owen, which has a fantasy/fairy tale setting.

Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall - This represents my love of stories about cooking and baking. Extra ingredients include romance, humor, and a well-balanced story about mental health. I've enjoyed several books by Alexis Hall, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

The Twelve Points of Caleb Canto by copperbadge on AO3 - Music, musicians, singers -- love, love love these elements. Plus a sweet love story for a neurodiverse character. Runner up is the Tinkered Starsong series by Gail Carriger -- so far I've read the first two books in the trilogy, and it's a fun combo of pop singers and sci-fi.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells - I adore the whole Murderbot series, but if I had to pick a favorite, this would be it. This fills my need for sci-fi and snarky narrators, and sometimes it's nice to take a break from romances with an aroace lead character. And the audiobooks narrated by Kevin R Free perfectly capture the distinctive voice of Murderbot. These books got me through the time last year when I needed to escape from a toxic job and needed an escape from the pressures of job interviews. And I keep listening to the audiobooks now that I’m in a great job, because they're such perfection.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune - This fills my need for gentle stories with limited conflict, the kind of stories that teachers used to tell me weren't valid. I have so many favorites in this category! Runners up include: A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Legends & Lattes, and Sal & Gabi Break the Universe.

Such a pleasure to think about books I love!

I'll gently tag @edupunkn00b and @silbrith and @thesymphonytrue if you want to participate

#tag game #favorite books #book recommendations

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cakesandfail · 7 months

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I've been on a work trip this week. Here are some things I learned about my coworkers:

One of them is a discworld fan who's trying to convince her 10yo daughter to read the Tiffany Aching books

One of them... might be aroace...? I didn't want to pry but she basically said she doesn't give a shit about relationships and is going to have a kid on her own. Either way, good for her

They are all SO chill about neurodiversity (I suspect it's due to the massive autistic vibes our line of work requires because I can think of at least three of them who are pinging my ND radar)

They are, collectively, a branch of my dog's online fan club

#these people are WAY less normal than the people i used to work with #it's great #there's a lady who uses her spare room as a lego room #i had a lovely conversation about catalan and welsh #and multiple people (including me) brought our craft projects with us

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datsderbunnyblog · 2 years

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I've just read one of your posts where you listed Discworld’s Best Autistic Power Moves and at the end you mentioned that you also wanted to do an ADHD edition. Not sure if you ever did one, if so I haven't found it - but my first thought was, Moist von Lipwig could make it into that list. I don't know that much about neurodiversity though so I can't say for sure if he might have ADHD. But I was recently thinking about Moist, can't even say anymore what exactly it was that I thought of aside of that the phrase "him and his ADHD brain" appeared in it and I found that phrasing quite funny first but it also started to sound really fitting.

The ADHD power moves post never materialised because I have ADHD and I forgot lmao. But yes you're absolutely right, Moist is definitely a candidate, I also have a very long anon ask sitting in my inbox about how Juliet Stollop has ADHD that I haven't reblogged yet purely because I STILL haven't finished Unseen Academicals (I know, it's been like a year now, it's ridiculous).

But if anyone wants to drop suggestions in my inbox please do so, I have my own ideas of course but my weak point here is that my memory of some of the books just isn't good enough so help would certainly be appreciated!

#discworld adhd power moves #gnu terry pratchett

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mr-craig · 1 year

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Me: Becomes fixated on specific writers / performers / filmmakers to the point that I explore their work deeply, often methodically and probably keeping track of my progress in list form. (Hey, wanna see my Discworld lists?) Makes an entire album where all the songs are inspired by my special interests. Has been keeping a spreadsheet of every film I watch since 2012, and every book I read since 2019. Eats the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day for years at a time before suddenly getting sick of those things and switching to something else to have every day for years at a time. Can’t bear when my clothes are even slightly uncomfortable, and will fidget with them if they’re not right. Can’t bear unwanted noise and will use music on headphones to drown it out when it starts to make me feel panicky. Gets anxious about a change in my circumstances even if that change is for the better. Feels uncomfortable making eye contact. Feels uncomfortable letting others see me doing anything I can’t explain or “justify” because what if they perceive me as weird? Has many neurodiverse who I relate to better than neurotypical people.

Also me: Only just realising I’m probably autistic.

(To be fair, another common autistic trait is being slow to process things because we need to examine ALL the data and not jump to unfounded conclusions, so I like to think I’ve just been really autistic about my autism.)

#autism #a touch of the tism #neurodivergence #introspection

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mystic-for-dummies · 7 months

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Meet the Witch

(Saw someone else make a post like this and I thought it looked fun.)

September 2023 Name: Caelan Age: 23 Birthday: October 31st (yes, for real) Pronouns: My pronouns change from day to day. Check my pinned post. Astrological Signs: Scorpio Sun, Leo Moon, Virgo Rising, Sagittarius is the most common sign in my chart. Deities: Apollo, Loki, Lucifer, and Nyarlathotep

Witchy Facts About Me:

The element I feel the strongest connection to is fire.

I usually don't give exact, specific ingredients, words, etc when sharing spells. I feel like it's just going to discourage people who don't have access to certain items, can't perform specific acts, or can't memorize words very well.

I'm very interested in divination, especially astrology, tarot, oracle decks, and scrying.

I actually rarely work with my deities in witchcraft. That's more of a religious thing, and I don't always mix my religion and my craft. I'm more interested in working with my pre-Christian Irish ancestors. Nyarlathotep does give me very useful advice for my craft, though.

I'm not going to hesitate to hex a corrupt politician, an abuser, or anyone who unapologetically makes the world a worse place. No, you're not going to convince me that it's going to come back to me. It never has before, and I don't believe it will in the future.

As a heads-up, if you are a "love and light, never do harm ever" type of witch, this is probably not the blog for you. I don't think that you're any less valid or respectable for being that kind of witch; I just want you to know upfront that I am not that kind of witch and that I will most likely never be that kind of witch.

I try to take potential disabilities into consideration when writing spells, rituals, and other magical activities. It often feels like, when I read witchcraft books, the author will say that you have to do something a specific way. Like, "you have to do a bath ritual for this to work," or "you have to meditate first." And that completely fails to consider that some people aren't objecting to these things because they don't want to do them; they're protesting because they literally cannot do the tasks that the author says that they must do.

My Favorite WC Books

The Crooked Path by Kelden

Besom, Stang, and Sword by Christopher Orapello and Tara-Love Maguire

Of Blood and Bones by Kate Freuler

Weave The Liminal by Laura Tempest Zakroff

Fun Facts About Me

I'm autistic and ADHD, and I have dyscalculia.

My hobbies include reading, writing, video games, drawing, painting, makeup, cooking, worldbuilding, and TTRPGs (D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Tales of Xadia, City of Mist, World of Darkness, Shadowrun).

My interests and things I study besides WC: medical science, biology, zoology, botany, world history, world mythology, literature, cultures both ancient and modern, folklore, psychology, neurodiversity, and LGBTQ+ history, culture, and current issues.

I have Christian religious trauma and now I'm allergic to most things Christian. Also I'm allergic to pollen.

I'm studying Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Irish.

My favorite genre of anything (movies, books, shows, games, etc) is Fantasy.

I'm currently writing a novel.

I hope to someday make an Indie animated series.

I have a dog.

My Favorite Books (in no particular order)

The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb

The Legend of Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles

Stephen King's novels

PJO

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

Neil Gaiman's novels

Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings

The Hot Zone

The Outsiders

My Favorite Video Games

The Legend of Zelda

Pokemon

Kingdom Hearts

Final Fantasy

God of War

Skyrim / The Elder Scrolls

Don't Starve

Darksiders

Fran Bow

My Favorite Shows and Movies

The Owl House

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva Boss

Fullmetal Alchemist

The Dragon Prince

Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil

Annihilation (2018)

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Most Ghibli movies

The Silence of the Lambs

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The entire Jurassic Park movie franchise

John Carpenter's The Thing

Soul Eater

Black Clover

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hollowleggedwolf · 1 year

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I posted 97 times in 2022

That's 63 more posts than 2021!

1 post created (1%)

96 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@toastyglow

@nentuaby

@thechekhov

@kosmonauttihai

@joe-england

I tagged 1 of my posts in 2022

#dnd - 1 post

#d&d - 1 post

#dnd character - 1 post

#dnd dm - 1 post

Longest Tag: 13 characters

#dnd character

My Top Posts in 2022:

D&D what a game

I am running a DnD game online for my friends that live all around the country. Just some details to put these shenanigans in perspective.

1)I am a first time dm to DnD. I have dm other games but not dnd. Most of my players are first time dnd players or first time ttrpg players. All members of this dnd game are neurodiverse. I have OCD, we have mutiple people with adhd, autism, mental health shit going on.

2) I am homebrewing my world, many of the species inlcuding bbeg/player races, monsters, items. I also am making maps for everything because I have one player with Aphantasia so no inner mindscape to do things off of. My game has a fear/madness component due to my homebrew bbeg which add a horrer eliment to the game. I have a very good imagination and love discriping things.

3) My main badies are a homebrew monster called Phobias. These things are made of shadow and black icor, can posses people, can drive people insain and intrap them in their own minds. They feed off of magic and fear.

Ok all that put together makes for a game that needs to stay on focus has tight schedualling and should be viseral/spooky. I am going for some serouse things here. Reallity is nope.

Players cats jumping up into the screen and doing something cute everytime I start to set the mood for horrer. Enough to the point I made a joke about making the cats npcs because they show up so much. Now next arc of story has tabaxi pirate passed off eveyones cats. Horror 0 comedy 1.

Phobia bbeg of first arc killed in a shower of glitter because bard convinced me to let them add glitter effect to atatcks with a crit (also character bassed on liberachie).

Our fighter every time fear/madnes is rolled and they fail roll and gets hit with either feingting or stunned so can move. Fighter has fainting goat condition.

Our forest gnome has used speack with animals very well. In second arc of game the party needed to pull a heist to rescue some people. I ahd planned for many ways for them to get in and out. I never planned for speak with animals to lead to the party using squirrels to figure out the gaurds schedual and then using racoons given firecracers to distract the gaurds. My mutliple plans where defeated by small urban creatures bribed with food and shines. (also my mistake for making creatures on university grounds more intelligent due to radiant magic and idea that bleed over from discworld series)

Highly intelligent racoon demanded payment in gold and reserving books on organizing goverment from local bookshop. Only thing stoping them is language barrier. Squirrels have obbsetion with icecream and need writting instiments in their size. Joke has become give it 10 years and there will be two more sentient player races in my world. Squirrels new jersey, Racoons yakouza.

The idea of phobia and confertations so far have left an imprettion and they do do everything smarter. They don’t just bash in and play big damn heroes. They take time and find tools and do things I love. They play so smart and don’t leave a trail of bodies behind them. I atually have a problem that sometimes I need them to push a button and they are like nope not going there it might be spooky. We laugh so much which makes the times the horrer/phobia are present more viseral, more dangerous.

I am still a new dm and mess up on combat alot, many times I plan for comboat and my player go nope and walk away from the fight. Barbarian intidation rolls have stopped combot even before it started and has actually gained allies.

I adjust them game every week to fit what brain capacity my players have. You having a bad adhd day ok throw out this puzzle lock and throw in a new idea I made up on the spot. Player feeling sick from real life stuff ok throw out this combat and discripe an awesome sceen. You want to be quiet in your character because you have autism in real life but your quiet character does the most amazing things with speak with animals/plants that just skips whole enire issues sure. But they adjust back with me my OCD sometimes doesn’t allow me to add flavor to stuff because I am managing to many things, but they are cool with it. Do I refrence shows and moves directly to discripe a scenn for my player with Aphantasia yes, does it diminish my world no.

I wanted to run this spooky serous game but most of all I wanted to laugh with my friends that I don’t get to see because they all live in diffrent places. I love my little home brew world I love that I get to scare my friends but also laugh with them so much my face hurts. Do I do everything right, no. Do I throw in stuff and allow people to do stuff because it makes them happy yes, rule of cool is present. Rule of smart is the heart of my game. Tell me why and how and we will see if its possible (example damening sound of armor with sacks to not have disadvantage on stealth but keep armor on, yes historic presidnce and using smarts, hell yes you can have that). Use those overly intelligent animals I made up in a second and grabed a random accent for.

I didnt get into dnd for years because eveyone I know who played it where murdohoobs, I didnt like the premade campains, and my firends wheren’t close enough to play at my home. Things change, critical role showed my dnd was a fun game, other ttrpg games helped show me I loved being a dm where I only kinda liked being a player. I want to play other ttrpg games. I cant wait to do the next arc of my current dnd game with pirate cats and get my players to the heart fo where my Phobias come from. I think its going to be a laugh.

0 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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heavymetalchemist · 2 years

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Honestly as much as I like the "throw out Harry Potter for Discworld" on the surface, because Sir Terry Pratchett is fantastic, lowkey it bothers me because they're really not interchangeable.

Harry Potter was important to so many people as a formative middle grade book. For some people it was how they got into reading in the first place. It has several elements that are just really appealing for making OC's/self-inserts, y'know, which house are you, etc. And Discworld is great but it's very much adult satirical fantasy, and not only that, it's... grimy. Gritty. Real.

Children's media, stories aimed at a younger audience, are less complex and more fantastical for a reason, and there's a reason that resonates better as an escapist fantasy than Discworld, which is large and complex and maybe a little too real to get lost in as a self-insert.

Which is why you should try replacing Harry Potter with Rick Riordan's series: Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, Magnus Chase, Kane Chronicles! Do you want superpowers? Do you want actual queer representation? Do you want diverse casts? Do you want neurodiverse casts? Do you want canon genderfluid characters???? Fucking go read you some Riordan!

But wait, there's more! Rick Riordan used his fame to promote YA books from diverse authors! Like Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee (space korean fox spirits!) and Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (modern Navajo legends!) and more!

Go check out these awesome mythological diverse authors! https://rickriordan.com/rick-riordan-presents/

Be free from lazy transphobic homophobic poorly-researched fantasy and embrace learning about diverse mythologies!

Also seriously I can't recommend Dragon Pearl enough it's so good.

#fic rec

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yeoldecryptid · 10 months

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Discworld luggages should be given to every autistic person upon diagnosis as a combo emotional support animal, executive functioning tool, and friend for life. I think it would make life a bit easier. For those not familiar with Discworld, Chester from Don’t Starve would have the same effect.

#discworld #gnu terry pratchett #terry pratchett #autistic spectrum #actually autistic #neurodiversity #dst chester

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pratchettquotes · 2 years

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There are times when it does not pay to declare one's sanity, and Rincewind realized that he'd be mad to do so now. Anyway, he could talk to kangaroos and find cheese and chutney rolls in the desert. There were times when you had to look wobbly facts in the face.

Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

#rincewind #the last continent #discworld #realization #terry pratchett #sanity #insane #facts #relative #neurodiversity #context #one of those times #look wobbly facts in the face

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aquietanarchy · 3 years

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tags

myrkvidr: aesthetic, but dark

a far green country: aesthetic, but cozy

a elbereth gilthoniel: aesthetic, but celestial

are there any aminals in here: well, are there?

god made corvids on purpose: crows, parrots, smart playful bastards in general

hear my snarling if not my song: canids in particular

hope in a clover field: rabbits in particular

sky puppies: bats in particular

all creatures great and small: showing special love to the animals that tend to get overlooked or a bad reputation

the best medicine: posts to produce a sensible chuckle or perhaps even a guffaw

the magical mundane: watching art process videos is such a good visual stim

the treachery of images: art history etc

tanglewood mind: neurodiversity

collect your scars and wear them well: trauma

all across the alien nation: politics etc

be fae do crime: everything queer

imago dei: people are good, actually

the inner light: i love god...

sauntering vaguely downwards: ..but i am also ready to fight god outside a denny's at 2am

resources: useful stuff

reference: useful stuff, but for writing + drawing

yarrow speaks into the void: i'm op, unfortunately (ok to reblog unless stated otherwise)

yarrow adds their two cents: i'm not op, but i'm running my mouth anyways

tumblr is a website: it sure is

akuma matata: miraculous ladybug

amongst us: listen i love these funky lil crewmates

be the leaf: lok

but who was phone: the magnus archives

discovering something that doesnt exist: phineas and ferb

doctor what: you know. doctor which

i found some roses to show you: moomin

leaves from the vine: atla

luxury space communism: star trek

my point is dolphins: good omens

planting camphor trees: miyazaki/studio ghibli

nunc id vides nunc ne vides: discworld

some people do necromancy to cope: the untamed/mdzs

tell me what the rain knows: wolf's rain

that's not how the force works: star war

there are no footprints in the dust behind us: everything ursula k. leguin

you have beautiful eyes: otgw

whats taters precious: tolkien

where the waves grow sweet: narnia

cinnamon topography: miscellaneous film + tv

the wood between worlds: miscellaneous literature

you can have little a mouse movie. as a treat: i am not immune to sometimes thinking a disney film is neat

i lost the game: gaming, and also an attempt to annoy the hell out of my fellow millennials. sorry.

#tagging is a wip and given how much time i waste on this hellsite i probably won't get a lot of older posts tagged but ya know #yarrow speaks into the void #about

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746486945895314343514364841-blog · 7 years

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"3d chess"|"three dimensional chess" "3d photo"|"stereo photo"|"stereo photography"|stereogram|stereoscope|"three dimensional photo" 4d|"fourth dimension" "abductive inference"|"abductive logic"|"abductive reasoning" "abstract game" advaita|vedanta "alan moore" alife|"artificial life" ambigram anaglyph anarchism|anarchy|anarchocommunism|anarchocapitalism "anthropic principle" anticryptography apl "appropriate technology" aspergers|autism|"autistic spectrum" atheism|humanism|"secular humanism"|agnosticism "attention economy" autodidact "avram davidson" "barrington bayley" "beam robotics" beanworld behaviorism bipolar blissymbolics "board game" "board game system" borges buddhism bulletball cabell calliagnosia calvinball "card game" "card game system" "cellular automata" "charles sanders peirce" "chess variant"|"fairy chess" chumby coffee "cognitive ergonomics" "colbert report" combinatorics comics|comix "common lisp" comprehensivism|generalism conlang|"constructed language"|artlang "construction toy" "construction toy system" "constructive living" conworld copyfight|copyleft "cosmic encounter" cosmology crank|kook "creative commons" crossdisciplinary|interdisciplinary cryonics cryptozoology cthulhu "curta calculator" damanhur "dead media" decktet "deep time" "dice life"|"dice living"|dicelife discordian discworld diy dog|puppy "douglas hofstadter" "d-total" ebook emacs "ergodic literature" +eris escher esolang|"esoteric language" esperanto "evolutionary psychology" exobiology|xenobiology exoself "experimental mathematics"|"experimental math" "fanucci deck"|"double fanucci" "faster than light"|ftl "finnegans wake" "flying spaghetti monster"|fsm +fnord "free culture" "free software" furby "game design" games "game systems" gedankenexperiment|"thought experiment" "general semantics" "gene wolfe" "general systems theory" generalism|comprehensivism|omnology geocaching geometry "getting things done" glasperlenspiel|"glass bead game"|gbg "global catastrophic risks" gnosticism gnu gpl "grayling good book" "great books" "greg egan" gtd "hale-evans" "hard problem of consciousness"|"philosophical zombie" "harry stephen keeler" "headless way"|headlessness "hipster pda" "history of science"|"history of mathematics" hypnagogia|hypnagogic icehouse immortalism|longevity "inform 7" "interactive fiction"|"text adventure" "james joyce" "jon stewart"|"daily show" kaizen kennings "king in yellow" k'nex|knex korzybski labyrinth|maze "laws of form"|"spencer brown" lego letterboxing "lewis carroll" "life hack"|lifehack +lincos linux lisp "literate programming" logic "logic alphabet" loglan|lojban "long now" lovecraft|hpl|"cthulhu mythos" "low tech" "lucid dream" ludism ludology madhyamika "maker movement"|"make magazine" manifesto "many valued logic"|"multi valued logic"|"multivalued logic" "many worlds"|"many worlds interpretation" "martin gardner" "math fiction" meditation memes|memetics "memory palace" "mental math"|"mental arithmetic"|"mental mathematics" mentat metagame|metagaming micronation "mind performance hacks"|mindhacker mnemonic "monty python" moopsball "morita therapy" "morton's list" multiverse +murse mythtv|knoppmyth naikan nanofiction necronomicon "neo-american church"|"art kleps" neurodiversity nomic nootropic notation notetaking|annotation npr nxt "olaf stapledon" olpc "omega point" "open source" oulipo|"georges perec" oz panenpsychism "paper craft"|papercraft paradox pataphysics "pattern language" pbs "perennial philosophy" "philosophy of science"|"philosophy of mathematics" +piecepack planiverse|flatland "playing cards" po polyform|polyomino "positive psychology" "positive revolution" posthumanism "public radio" "public television" "quantum immortality"|"quantum suicide" quenya|sindarin|elvish|tengwar "rainbow deck" "r a lafferty" ramagon "raymond smullyan" rebt|"rational emotive behavior therapy"|"albert ellis"|"cognitive behavior therapy"|cbt retrocomputing "robert anton wilson" robotics "rudy rucker" rwhe savant "science fiction" seattle|tacoma "self reference" "sentience quotient" seti "sherlock holmes" "sid sackson" singularity solipsism solresol speedwords spime "stanislaw lem" "stephen colbert"|"colbert report" stoicism "strange loop" superhero synergetics|"buckminster fuller" synesthesia "systems theory" "ted chiang" teilhard "they might be giants"|tmbg tolkien "toy system" transhumanism turing uberstix ubicomp "ubiquitous computing" vipassana "wold newton" writing "zillions of games" zome|zometool

#long

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anautisticdragon-blog · 7 years

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On Conversing with the Unusual

In my last post I talked about how much I liked the McElroys, and why (which is important to read before this), but I'd like to expand on that with why this whole thing bothered me so much. As I said, as a person who endures an invisible prejudice, I've become very sensitive to all kinds of prejudice.

I know it might sound absurd to think that mentally disabled people really do experience so much hatred, but we do. The thing is? There's no skin colour to unify us, no gender, no obvious physical marks of our supposed deficiencies; so we're not a homogenised factor. When you add in the oddly individualistic personalities autistic people can have, and how different two autistic people can be fro one another (far more so than I've observed in neurotypicals)? This all adds up to something ugly.

Usually people need something simple they can grasp to grab ahold of in order to understand the injustices a person is suffering. As I said, this will so often come down to reductivism -- their skin is black, they're old, they're in a wheelchair, et cetera. In fact, people are so used to having that criticism levelled at them that they'll often snap back at anyone whom they think is being reductivist. I remember on the Battleborn community I mentioned how pleased I was with the treatment of a character who had a notable disability. I got a very angry response.

You see, it was assumed I was talking about Kleese. It was reductivist to say that because he had full use of his body and faculties, so his chair was instead more of an old person's aesthetic, the lazy chair, rather than something required for his mobility. This would be a fine argument, of course, were I even actually talking about Kleese. I was, instead, referring to Benedict. When I pointed this out, it actually took a good number of people a while to wrap their brains around this, as to why I viewed Benedict as a disabled character. Not much introspection in the world, these days.

Thumbs up to you if you've already figured this out. If you hadn't rushed off to look up pictures of Benedict, I'll give you this: He lost part of a wing, it's relevant to his character and origin story. It's been replaced by cybernetics, but it doesn't work nearly as well as his original. He can hover and glide, but no longer fly. Yes, he still has the use of all of the limbs a human would consider to be important, but what of his wings? I suspect of those reading, more will have twigged on now to where I'm going with this. Yeah?

Consider a world where flight is an everyday occurrence. Just imagine it. Would it be likely for there to be stairs, lifts (elevators), escalators, and so on? If everyone can fly, the living space would likely be much more vertical with an emphasis on building things in higher places. Birds do this as an instinctive factor, there's less danger above than there is on the ground, so I'd imagine that much as how we've adopted instincts from our simian ancestry, they adopted factors from their avian heritage.

And what if a person in such a world could no longer fly? Certainly, there would be the equivalent of ramps (lifts for disabled people), but it would be seen as something they have to grudgingly use because they've no other choice. Others might look at them funny, start treating them differently, since they're no longer "the same" as the rest of society. It's always the case that neurotypical society rewards homogeneity, the status quo, and an earnest effort to uphold the Zeitgeist.

Often, neurodiverse people are told that in order to survive in a world "owned by neurotypicals," they have to behave, act, and fit in as them. They have to assimilate into neurotypical culture. When your nature is as contrary to homogeneity as an autistic person's is, however? That can be really bloody tricky. And even for those who even care to make that effort in the first place, the body language and smalltalk are so irritatingly tricky to emulate that cracks in the facade will shine through. Which is why many will simply choose to not bother -- opting to be a hermit or merely accepting the inevitable, that they're always going to stand out no matter what.

I noticed that Benedict, that Battleborn character, was unduly obsessed with both flight and his wings. This can happen with someone who finds theirself newly disabled, or discover that they have a disability. There can, for a time, be an unhealthy fixation upon this fact as it separates them from the rest of humanity. They haven't yet come to accept that they're different and that there really isn't a lot they can do about it, so they haven't come to terms with who they are and that perhaps there's nothing they need to do about it in the first place. Some, possibly due to a lack of introspection and self-awareness, may never arrive at this point.

So consider my reaction to a fantasy world.

I like insects. I like snakes. I mean, of course I do. I love wolves. It's probably quite obvious that I like dragons. So, that lich... Is it really a malignant evil or simply a downtrodden individual chased from society for having no choice other than to exist outside of the norm? I mean, consider this. It's a little jovial and facetious because that's my nature when I'm trying to help people understand something, but it's what I want you to think about. It's a very Pratchett-esque perspective. More people should read Discworld.

Anyway... A townsperson spots a gathering of undead, accompanied by moaning, shambling, and strange, fel lights that seem to ebb, flow, and bob around with wanton abandon. The immediate assumption is that this is an undead invasion! The reality, however, is that the spirits of the dead were feeling restless and pestering a nearby lich to raise them so that they could have something of a party. They wanted him to throw together a shindig, since it's nice to get out of one's grave every now and then.

The lich resisted, initially. "You know how they'll react," he bemoans, listlessly. "It'sss alwayss the saaame with them. It'sss an undead horde! It'ss an invaaasion! They're going to eeat our braaainss. Have you ever tassted brains? They're grossss... I don't know of aaany undead that even eeat brainsss. Do you? Didn't think ssso. They'll sssee the lightss, hear all of you chuckleheadsss yukking it up and I'll have another paaarty of blasssted adventurersss on my hands again."

It's an empathetic lich though. It's not nice to be stuck in the ground all the time, especially when you really don't want to be. So he rises the dead, puts together this wild party for them, and everyone's having a great old time. Then the adventurers turn up and what do you think happens next?

Perhaps if this were The Adventure Zone, maybe good things! Sadly, most people aren't like that. And most tales told aren't, either. It's really quite the depressing state of affairs, quite sordid and unfortunate, that we can't envision something that's inhuman as anything other than evil. When I say "we" I do of course mean neurotypicals. I don't have that problem. They seem to have it Universally, though.

"It's aesthetically displeasing. It's evil! KILL IT WITH FIRE!"

And they never really question it, do they? They never stop to think about it. Like I said, there's just a general lack of self-awareness and introspection amongst neurotypicals. Not a whole lot of Theory of Mind to go around, there, I feel. They are sorely, sorely lacking in that department.

So, these gnolls have amassed a small pile of gold by hunting, tanning, and preparing hides to sell to traders who'll then sell them in human cities. "They came from a nomadic group of noble savages, humans, of course. No gnoll merchandise here!"

Then one of the merchants gets a little bit clever, he cooks up a cockamamie cock-and-bull story about how these gnolls jumped him, killed his guards, and robbed his caravan blind. His last stop was at an opulent port city with riches to spare, says he, and his wagons were overflowing with gold. "Oh, I just knew I shouldn't have passed through the fallow glades, but I was trying to make good time to get here before the market! You know how it is..."

A witless, hapless troupe of murderers under the job description of ‘Adventurer’ decide to... investigate this terrible crime. They find a small encampment of gnolls with a marginally sizeable pile of gold. What do you think happens next? Isn't it depressing? And how often do you think you're lied to by quest-givers in video games, had you considered with ho much regularity you could be being manipulated by bandits, thieves, and excessively avarice-laden, filthy rich autocrats?

How often is it that these "monsters" are simply acting in self-defence. Indeed, how often does an adventurer charge in slashing their blades before so much as a by-your-leave. Not even a how-do-you-do? No, you were given a quest by a human and the antagonists of this narrative aren't humans so naturally they're the evil ones, here. No need to even bother with an investigation, why even bother conversing? What use is reason?

And it just feels grotesque.

I mean, it's just another expression of prejudice, isn't it? A normalisation thereof. If a right wing mendicant can't be permitted to slag off real world groups, they can commit murder and genocide against fantasy creatures for the mere sin of what they were born as. I don't like that. I'm sorry, I really don't like that at all. I think that's awful. I think that a good narrative should always dictate good or evil based upon one's personality and what drove a given soul to be who they are and do what they do by that point. It's inexcusable laziness (and worse) to put it down to a species.

And maybe I would like to have a chat with these liches, these dragons, and these gnolls. Whatever sorts of creatures regularly blunder in on and slay without ever really thinking aobut it, honestly. I might find like-minds. It might just be that these creatures consider themselves an abused underclass, seen as sub-people, troglodytes who're just there for "glorious humankind" to besto its "infallible justices" upon.

That dragon stole your prize bull? Did he? Are you sure? See, I bothered to investigate and I found out that actually it was one of your competitors who did the deed before the next farm show. You're apparently edging them out of all their fields and cutting into their profit margins so they wanted to humiliate you a little. It was the "perfect crime," kidnap your bovine under the cover of darkness and then spread rumours of the local dragon having a taste for domesticated beef. Your negligence might've cost that dragon his life. There's always someone out there who'd be happy to have just about any excuse to slay a dragon and steal his hoard.

I don't know. I just find that I empathise and connect with these creatures who constantly seem to be the targets of never-ending persecution. Is there that much of a difference between Jews and fantasy gnolls? Whilst that might sound offensive, it's because it really is. Fantasy racism is just another analogue for what happens in the real world, and I find it... I don't know. I find it oddly distasteful. I don't like it. I don't like neurotypicals, I guess.

And the thing is? That's the norm. I can cite exceptions, anyone can, but they're so few and far between that they're the exceptions that prove the rule. For example: Phantasy Star had an option where you could try and converse with the creatures you'd encounter. And I thought that was incredibly nifty! I could glean useful information from these friendly, giant spiders just by being genial and polite to them. Imagine that! How many games offer that as an option, though?

How many games can you think of that actually give you the chance to converse with inhuman creatures as opposed to just slaying them? I bet you can't go beyond just your fingers with the examples you can actually come up with. I know I can't, and I have a very extensive knowledge of video games, I've played the vast majority of them over the course of the decades I've spent on this planet.

And that's why people like me are fit for derision, because this is an uncomfortable truth about the ugliness of people. An ugliness that I don't possess. As I said in a prior post, I'm quite the quasimodo so I've ugliness to spare, but this particular flavour of it isn't my own. And with this bizarrely homogeneous, almost hive-like way that neurotypicals look at themselves, this reflects badly on every last one of them. So they have to defend despicable actions rather than owning them, which is the "norm."

And another day's lesson on why I don't like neurotypicals very much, nor am I all that fond of the video games made obviously for them. If they were made for me? Empathetic discourse, with a basis in reason, would be a way to solve most problems. I mean, there was New Vegas and that was lovely, but sadly not a huge amount of non-human life in that one. I guess that reason is only okay when it's human and beautiful, right?

You know, those oh so desirable qualities. White... Beautiful... Straight.. Healthy...

Point made? Yeah. I'd hoped so.

So, as I said in my last post? I'm happy that Travis wanted to converse with the voidfish. That's a very non-neurotypical thing to want. I admire that.

#the mcelroy brothers #the mcelroys #the adventure zone #thezonecast #thoughts

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