Storytelling is an Art

This is my blog for discussing various works of fiction (both appreciation and criticism), as well as related topics such as technology and intellectual property/copyleft. (She/her)

[longsufferingcritic]

Casual and totally spontaneous reminder that this blog does not tolerate transphobia or racism or other bigotry. If I can tell from a glance at your blog that you are a hateful extremist, you will be blocked.

[taylortut]

the “sexy lamp test” but for disabled folks: if you can replace your disabled character with a beloved pet dog that needs an expensive surgery to survive then you have to throw out your manuscript 

[rouge-wall-enthusiast]

“The Family Dog” by Deaf artist Susan Dupor, 1991

[cheaphalloweencostume]

all movies are for children because the moving image is inherently juvenile. to be entertained by it even moreso

[cadet-abysmal]

Random tumblr blog roleplays as a philosopher. Shocks the masses by using big words just to say they think theyre better than you because you watch movies. WHHAAAAT?

[cheaphalloweencostume]

thats right

[cheaphalloweencostume]

the biggest word in this post is “entertained”

[winterhartarts]

Anyway photography, silent films, and “talkies” (moving pictures with sound) were all invented and made by adults and mostly for adults as the audience

[cheaphalloweencostume]

last time i checked its basically just Boss Baby out there. not entertaining to a high-earning professional. he’s not even actually the boss he’s a baby

[lamaenthel]

you forgot kung fu panda

[cheaphalloweencostume]

[possessedpasm]

Something I learned is if you don't step out of your artistic comfort zone a little, you're gonna be even more exhausted with making art. Your mind is a caged tiger and it needs to attack something new from time to time. Your mind is pacing in its enclosure 🐅

If you don't like drawing figures and poses because they're frustrating, draw figures and poses and get frustrated! Draw them! With anger! Swear and curse at them!

If you don't like drawing traditionally because there's too much room to make mistakes, draw traditionally and make mistakes! Scream while doing it! Put on scary music! Make it silly!

This goes for any kind of craft or skill

You stand to lose nothing in the end (Except maybe your own patience and sanity but that's temporary). But you do gain at least a little bit more knowledge and skill to feed your mind tiger

[ihopesocomic]

Happy Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Thank you! 'Tis the season. <33

We hope you all have a happy and safe Pride Month yourselves! c: - RJ

[nekoning]

the use of AI lately has made me feel so hopeless, i translated pages of an unfinished fanzine of mine so i can remember why i love art...i hope it can resonate with anyone feeling the same way

[an-ruraiocht]

there's a lot of talk about reading comprehension and one thing i think is the biggest barrier to people on this site getting better at it is simply... rushing. rushing to share something you haven't understood, rushing to have an opinion without taking the time to think about it, rushing to declare that you don't understand something

take these tags, on somebody else's post (condolences pip)

the thing is. this is what i would call an inside thought. nobody would have known you didn't get it if you didn't tell them that. if you recognised that it was important but didn't have the headspace to process it, you can reblog without commentary for others, or to come back to later. or you can save it somewhere and wait until you DO have the capacity to read it over a few more times, ponder it, consider what it might mean, figure out how to understand it, and THEN reblog it

but no. rushing to reblog while it is still opaque. rushing to admit to ignorance rather than spend the time to achieve understanding. perhaps hoping that somebody will break it down for you more simply, though to my mind it was quite simply phrased in the first place. never stopping to take the time first

comprehension is not always instant! sometimes it takes a bit of time for something to percolate after you read it; sometimes you need to read it a few times; sometimes you realise you don't have the context for it and either go and get the context or accept that it's not for you right now

please just simply slow down. you don't always have to respond to everything within a second or two. it is okay if it is not an instantaneous understanding. we all need to get more comfortable with thinking more slowly and more deeply and more carefully, and not letting our instant split second responses drive us all the time, because they are a barrier to genuine reflection

[razzek]

Firefox users! Go to about:config and search for "telemetry". Set everything to "false" and if you see any urls edit those to be blank. It's so fast now with all the hidden bullshit turned off!

[ralfmaximus]

In case anyone is wondering: "telemetry" in this context is data collected about how you use a product, that gets transmitted back to a server for collection & measurement. It's how developers gauge all sorts of things, from performance to what features people use and how they use them.

[longsufferingcritic]

#is this possible to access on mobile?#if so - how?

Not the about:config page, to my knowledge, but you can still turn off telemetry:

Open Firefox and tap the ⋮ menu button

Open settings

Scroll to "Privacy and security" and tap on "Data collection"

Toggle off "send technical and interaction data" and "daily usage ping"

The same options are also available as a toggle in the basic desktop settings, in case anyone is nervous about using the configurations editor.

[theunfairfolk]

i do actually get tired sometimes of having the same basic decency discussions around native culture. stop using the term spirit animal. don't use the skin word for shapeshifters. i saw a plushie kickstarter with the W word for a small skull deer plushie and it had already met it's goal. people just blithely repeating terms with no connection to their culture. actively profiting off of it.

[subversivecynic]

Ok, so I'm down but a sentence here gave me confused and I'm hoping you have spoons to help me clarify my brain.

"don't use the skin word for shapeshifters"

I know that the We---- word is a closed cultural word, and I'm careful to not say it because I don't want to be an asshole

Is 'skin wa-----' offensive as well?

[theunfairfolk]

yes! though "offensive" is a bit reductive; it's not a swear or a slur, it's just a concept that the navajo would prefer non-navajo not to talk about, both because of their belief about how using it's name invokes/summons the being in some way and because of the ongoing appropriation and erasure of native culture.

[theunfairfolk]

so apparently netflix is coming out with another season of the tv series "Skin--- Ranch".

reminder that the original name of the ranch was Sherman Ranch and you can refer to it as such. secondary reminder this is all being driven by the white mormon ranch owner as a PR piece for his shitass UFO publicity.

[gatheringbones]

[“When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away—even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaningless of modern life still have to drink water from time to time. One of my students wrote a story about a nun who got a piece of dental floss stuck between her lower left molars, and who couldn’t get it out all day long. I thought that was wonderful. The story dealt with issues a lot more important than dental floss, but what kept readers going was anxiety about when the dental floss would finally be removed. Nobody could read that story without fishing around in his mouth with a finger. Now, there’s an admirable practical joke for you. When you exclude plot, when you exclude anyone’s wanting anything, you exclude the reader, which is a mean-spirited thing to do.”]

kurt vonnegut

[fleefyleaf]

started this on valentine's but didn't have time to finish till today :P

anyways!! have a doodle of my two favorite gays from my favorite webcomic. love these girls so much,, i could talk for hours about i hope so, but just go check out the comic for yourself!!! read it here!!!!: @ihopesocomic

also now seeing the pose i picked for hope makes it look like her back half is levitating and it's okay she just does that sometimes

[ihopesocomic]

LOOK AT OUR GIRLS! They look so stinkin' cute! And I think you actually did such a great job with the posing here, front views are hard! And the paint-ery lesbian sunset is also such a nice touch! Thank you so much for taking the time to do some awesome art for us and my apologies for not seeing it sooner! - RJ

[trans-girl-nausicaa]

Adolescence of Utena is gonna be in theaters in the US & Canada during Pride Month. This is not a drill.

Adolescence of Utena - GKIDS Films

Adolescence of Utena - GKIDS Films

[mels-678]

You all know this classic fantasy trope that dragons love sleeping on gold. But Toothless sleeps on runes 😝

I truly enjoyed the process of drawing without lineart, doing almost everything in a single layer. It reminds me of working with gouache. Feels so painterly 🎨

[razzek]

Firefox users! Go to about:config and search for "telemetry". Set everything to "false" and if you see any urls edit those to be blank. It's so fast now with all the hidden bullshit turned off!

[ralfmaximus]

In case anyone is wondering: "telemetry" in this context is data collected about how you use a product, that gets transmitted back to a server for collection & measurement. It's how developers gauge all sorts of things, from performance to what features people use and how they use them.

[cheaphalloweencostume]

i know this has been said plenty of times before but i love when people are like “film snobs will seriously make fun of you because you’d rather watch Captain America than, i dunno, *proceeds to make up a movie that sounds fucking awesome and reveals that they just completely lack curiosity about the world around them*”

[sidecast-text]

incredibly elaborate bit me and @iclimbtreestofeelalive came up with while i was playing pokemon Y iii couldn't pick if i should put this on the art blog but whateverr hello if you scrolled down this far sorry for the long post okay i love you

[arxhafleu]

can you believe hiccup and toothless soulbonded so hard, they complete each other. that they are two halves of the same whole. toothless is hiccup’s wings and hiccup is toothless’ tail, and they need each other to fly — but more than that, they need each other to be, to exist as fully as they were meant to. on their own, they’re capable, yes, but always incomplete — always missing something vital. it’s only when they’re together that everything clicks into place and matters and makes everything worth it.