AGAIN

Are all the themes in “in other lands” supposed to be a commentary on something? Or do you just like writing sex scenes between minors, age gaps, and reverse misogyny?

Genuine question.

Ohhh, my dear anon, I don't believe this is a genuine question.

But it does bring up something I've been meaning to talk about. So I'll take the bait.

Firstly. Yes, my work contains a commentary on the world around us. I wonder what I could be doing with the child soldiers being sexually active in their teens (people hook up right after battles), and the age gap relationship ending in the younger one being too mature for the elder. What could I possibly have been attempting when I said 'how absurd gender roles are, when projected onto people we haven't been accustomed by our own society to see that way'? I wasn't being subtle, that's for sure.

Secondly. Yes I do enjoy writing! I think I should, it's my life's work. Am I titillated by my own writing, no - though I think it's fine to be. The sex scenes of In Other Lands aren't especially titillating, to be honest. It is interesting to me how often people sneer at women for writing romance and sex scenes, having 'book boyfriends,' insinuating women writers fancy their own characters. Women having too much immoral fun! Whereas men clearly write about sex for high literary purposes.

… I have to say from my experience of women and men's writing, I haven't found that to be true.

I’m not in this to have an internet argument. Mostly people use bad faith takes to poke at others from the other side of a screen for kicks. But I do know some truly internalise the attitude that writing certain things is wrong, that anyone who makes mistakes must be shunned as impure, and that is a deeply Victorian and restrictive attitude that guarantees unhappiness.

I've become increasingly troubled by the very binary and extreme ways of thinking I see arising on the internet. They come naturally from people being in echo chambers, becoming hostile to differing opinions, and the age-old conundrum of wanting to be good, fearing you aren't, and making the futile effort to be free of sin. It makes me think of Tennyson, who when travelling through Ireland at the time of the Great Famine, said nobody should talk about the 'Irish distress' to him and insisted the window shades of his carriage be shut as he went from castle to castle. So he wouldn't see the bodies. But that didn't make the bodies cease to be.

In Les Mis, Victor Hugo explores why someone might steal, what that means about them and their circumstances, and who they might be - and explores why someone else is made terribly unhappy, and endangers others, through their own too rigid adherence to judgement and condemnation without pity. The story understands both Jean Valjean the thief and Javert the policeman. Javert’s way of thinking is the one that inevitably leads to tragedy.

Depiction isn't endorsement. Depiction is discussion.

Many of my loved ones have had widely varying relationships to and experience of sex (including 'none'). They've felt all different types of ways about it. If writing about them is not permissible, I close them out. I'd much rather a dialogue be open than closed.

I do understand the urge to write what seems right to others. I've been brain-poisoned that way myself. I used to worry so much about my female characters doing the wrong things, because then they'd be justly hated! Then I noted which of my writer friends had people love their female characters the most - and it was the one who wrote their female characters as screwing up massively, making rash and sometimes wrong decisions. Who wrote them as people. Because that's what people do. That's what feels true to readers.

I want my characters to feel true to readers. I want my characters to react in messy ways to imperfect situations. I love fantasy, I love wild action and I love deep thought, and I want to engage. That's what In Other Lands is about. That's even more what Long Live Evil is about. That sexy lady who sashays in to have sexy sex with the hero - what is her deal? Someone who tricks and lies to others - why are they doing that, how did they get so skilled at it? What makes one person cruelly judgemental, and another ignore all boundaries? What makes Carmen Maria Machado describe ‘fictional queer villains’ as ‘by far the most interesting characters’? What irritates people about women having a great time? What attracts us to power, to fiction, and to transgression?

I don’t know the answers to all those questions, but I know I want to explore them. And I know one more thing.

If the moral thing to do is shut people out and shut people up? Count me among the villains.

unpopular opinion: the eragon books are unique and creative

like sure, they’re a bit derivative of Tolkien and the first book reads like it was written by a 16 year old, but they also have some absolutely fantastic and unique concepts and scenes that have stuck with me to this day, despite me having read them when I was 14 (okay yeah I’m affected by nostalgia but who cares?!?!) Like hear me out: Angela and her grumpy talking cat??? The little girl who Eragon accidentally curses to feel the pain of others?? Nasuada in the trial of the knives?? Safira crashing through the giant stained glass window?? Murtagh’s lengthy redemption arc??? THE FACT THAT THE ORCS ARE A WELL-DEVELOPED SPECIES and Eragon allies with them eventually?? The Heart of Hearts?? That scene where Eragon forges his sword?? Eragon’s cousin becoming a war general?? The entirety of the dragonriders??? Have I mentioned Nasuada and Murtagh who are still some of my favorite characters from literature??? So. Fucking. Great. And Unique. The Inheritance Cycle doesn’t deserve the hate it gets and I will absolutely fight you over this.

So after spending most of this afternoon and evening having been sucked down the rabbit hole that is TV Tropes, I found this SUPERB description of Jim Butchers Codex Alera series of books:

“Magical Roman Legionnaires straight out of Avatar: The Last Airbender versus the Zerg, wolfmen with Blood Magic, telepathic yetis and white-haired elves. Riding ground sloths and terror birds. Sometimes, the Legionnaires fight each other, too.“

Yup, just as awesome as that sounds ;)

‘boy i sure wish i was asleep,’ i whisper, clicking Next Chapter fourteen fucking times

To be honest the only thing canon about my OTP is the intense eye fucking contact. That’s all.

Person A: Do you have anything to say for yourself?!

Person B: I have a lot of things to say, first of all, BITCH.

friend: so you watch detective conan?

me: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

random aged-up!haikyuu!! au thoughts, where they’re all older but most of them are still playing professional volleyball: social media double dating kuroken wedding

hinata: we’re NOT getting together until you admit that IM A GOOD SPIKER

kageyama: well then i guess we’re NEVER GETTING TOGETHER!!

everyone else is torn between letting this play out because the betting pool is worth truly colossal amounts of money by now, and dying, because the demon duo needs a better outlet for all that sexual tension…bang it out somewhere other than the volleyball courts pls…the refs are watching……..

on the other hand, the news reporters are at the point where they’re willing to pay oikawa to stop talking about his sex life

on an unrelated note, iwaizumi is willing to pay anything to not hear about his sex life in volleyball news

oikawa is torn between letting the world think he’s some kind of sex god and being very lost, because he doesnt know that sex term and at this point its WAY too late to ask

(not pictured: iwaizumi trying to channel the stone for which he was named)

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