The City of Love

Librarian, lit nerd, writer, gamer. ♡ I'd like to be Mylène Farmer, but I'd settle for having her hair and wardrobe. Opinions are my own & do not reflect those of present/future employers.

[belvedia]

Prologue: Lucky Lou 6 sections - 14,034 words

https://archiveofourown.org/works/72420361

AO3 account is necessary to read. If that's not doable for you, DM me. Feedback is welcome.

[yellow-cat]

i have wild sentences roaming through me at all times

[overclassy]

[petaltexturedskies]

I wish we could spend July by the sea, browning ourselves and feeling water-weighted hair flow behind us from a dive. I wish our gravest concerns were the summer gnats. I wish we were hungry for hot dogs and dopes, and it would be nice to smell the starch of summer linens and the faint odor of talc in blistering summer bath houses... We could lie in long citoneuse beams of the five o'clock sun on the plage at Juan-les-Pins and hear the sound of the drum and piano being scooped out to sea by the waves.

Zelda Fitzgerald, Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

[casceth]

dont retreat emotionally. people like you and want you around. they like to talk to you, and you genuinely matter. you have to trust this through the hard times so you can get to the better times without sabotaging yourself. you are worth loving

[tracle0]

If you see this post, back up your writing

[skeletonsofstars]

they should invent a writing that is easy

[aphel1on]

never stop being obnoxious about fictional character online. you will find like-minded people and it will literally save you

[so-many-ocs]

hey, don't cry. fictional character in dire & perilous situations. ok?

[shaftking]

So can we be so fucking serious about the literacy crisis yet or are y’all still pretending that it’s just exaggeration that there’s a massive systemic issue where parents and educators have catastrophically failed a generation by passing them through school when they literally can’t do basic reading and math.

[the1920sinpictures]

1920 c. Four young women posing in evening wraps and shawls. From Pinterest.

[bruzum]

[lastvalyrian]

This is literally what people are talking about when they say AI will be used to mainstream widely held bigotry. LLMs are trained on frequency and probability -> straight relationships are more well represented in the dataset -> straight pronouns and terms become the "correct" normal.

This is a form of backdoor bigotry from both normative facts (there are more straight than gay relationships) and well represented bigoted beliefs (men are superior to women).

Combine this with the mass of people inclined to believe (and being encouraged to believe) that if AI says and does something it must be correct

[belvedia]

I have a male character who is a healer. Every goddamn time I have an AI LLM on in a word processor, I will know because that fucking thing always tries to make Aza a woman.

It's a nice way to know there's hidden AI but also... fucking gender essentialist bullshit. There is no reason for it to think he is a woman other than the fact that he has healing magic. None.

AI is not the solution to any problem you have with your own writing. It never will be.

[beardedmrbean]

[nondelphic]

writing isn’t hard it’s just emotionally devastating and time-consuming and requires full body possession by an idea

[bethanyactually]

I used to read a hundred books a year or more, easy. And then a few years ago, I just…stopped. I spent three or four years reading almost nothing but fanfic and meta, partly thanks to depression and partly thanks to life circumstances, but also just because FANFIC IS AMAZING and it’s FREE. 

Eventually I did start reading books again, and I’m happy about it, but honestly? Who cares if what I was reading for a long time wasn’t published by a paid author? Reading fanfic brings me joy, a very specific kind of joy that I can’t always get from books, and allows me to share that joy directly with the authors! That’s amazing, and something you rarely get with books. All of which is to say:

If you’re the kind of person who used to read so many books and now you read nothing but fanfic, you should feel ZERO shame about this.

If you’re only reading poetry, or only short stories, or only fanfic, you’re still reading stories. Even if all you’re reading is twitter or tumblr, you’re still reading stories.

Even if you’re reading nothing at all, I still don’t think you should be ashamed. 

You love stories, and you will read more when you have the spoons to do so. And in the meantime, stories come in other forms, and right now maybe you’re getting your stories from TV or movies—enjoying them, thinking about them, dissecting them with like-minded fans, writing meta about them—or maybe you’re writing your own stories in your head. Those are all good and valid ways of experiencing stories! And when you find that you need more than that, maybe you will read books again eventually. 

In the meantime, it’s totally okay that you’re not reading books, for whatever reason. It’s not shameful. <3

[bethanyactually]

I’d like to add: if you only read graphic novels or kid lit or cheap paperback romances or vintage travel memoirs, you’re still reading, and that’s great! Don’t let anyone shame you into thinking you’re not ~really~ reading unless it’s all weighty biographies and dense classic novels.

Is it good for your brain to be challenged by something new or different or thinky once in a while? Absolutely, and if you feel up to a challenge, go for it! Enjoy expanding your mind, and take pride in every page you read. Read with a friend for extra encouragement, maybe! If you’re reading what feels like the literary equivalent of meal replacement shakes or fast food now—you’re still reading. You can absolutely think critically about whatever you’re reading now. You might be amazed at what you can discover by just thinking deeply or talking with friends about the media you consume, even if it seems shallow or easy.

You cannot shame yourself into reading ‘better’ books. That’s not how shame works. Just focus on enjoying the things you do read. Maybe someday that will open up new pathways in your brain so that you’ll want to read other things. But it’s not shameful if you don’t. <3

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

There are lots of reasons why fandom is "quieter" now than it used to be. Some theories are more compelling to me than others, and they all have a different scale of impact. We'll never know for sure, of course, but I like to think about it. Thus, this poll.

Of the list below, which reason do you find most compelling or do you think had the biggest impact?

New entrants to fandom don't know the old ways

fandom olds didn't teach the newcomers how to fandom

covid/surge in fandom due to quarantine and lockdowns

"antis" and other harassment campaigns against creators

creators posting complaints about comments (people worry about commenting wrong)

rise of discord popularity - fandom is walled off from each other

tumblr porn ban and other reasons people left the site

capitalism turning fandom into a passive "view and move on" commodity

rules from social media impacting fan culture (eg. don't comment on old posts)

general state of the world / burnout

social anxieties in an increasingly complex online culture

"surveillance state" worries and not wanting to be perceived

Voting ended onJun 17

This is an incomplete list, so if your most compelling reason isn't listed, feel free to add it in the notes.

[otemporanerys]

#i chose the discord option but i think the actual culprit isn't listed#i've been writing fanfics since 2001#when smart phones started to become more of a thing comments started to decrease#i figured it was because it's a pain in the ass to type on phones#the younger and younger average age of receiving a cellphone becomes the fewer comments seem to happen#which makes sense since they're doing more things on the phone than a computer#and then i started getting fics with 0 comments#i mean i know that people text all the time and do discord on their phones and stuff#but it seems like taking the time to enter a comment on a website isn't as accessible so it's just not done as much

[kazzzistired]

Feeling inspired... Might put off writing and think about it the whole time