#heatth

[fandomsandfeminism]

As someone who loved the manga as a teen (and haven't read since), I am afraid I would dislike Fruits Basket if I read it nowadays. Not only my tastes changed significantly, I suspect some of the more problematic elements of the story would bother me a lot more now. As such, I am a bit apprehensive with this anime. Do you feel the same way? How long ago was it you watched/read it last?

I haven’t actually read or watched more than the first episode since high school. And yeah, I’m sure that some of the story beats will not have aged well. But I’m still looking forward to it regardless. 

[satans-tiddies]

About Wandering Son. I think the narration issues is less "product of its time" and more to represent Notori's confusion and lack of knowledge and awareness about trans issues. It is not terribly obvious even to herself that she was a girl, so the narration represents that, I think. But with time the narrative make the point clear, she *is* a girl. At any rate, the anime might be a good option, since it doesn't have a 3rd person narration, I don't think.

Actual ask this time: I noticed you using the term GL. Is there a particular reason you use it over yuri?

There are some parts of the manga that aren’t told from Notori’s perspective at all (the omake between chapters come to mind) and thus referring to her by her preferred gender wouldn’t interfere much with the narrative. It seemed to me more of an issue with how to refer to trans people before/if they don’t transition, like how cis people and even some older trans people will say “back when she was a he” or “when she used to be a boy”. I could be wrong, though.

Most people who read the manga weren’t bothered enough by it to dampen their enjoyment of what I hear is a fantastic and touching trans story, but I’m especially sensitive to it. It’s not a terrible faux pas, in the grand scheme of things, but for some reason I let it irritate me greatly.

I’m determined to give it another shot. I just need to find the time, because it’s a series I’m interested in and I want to appreciate it carefully.

About GL: there’s no deep reason I use it, it’s just for bookkeeping! My tag for F/F is “GL” to match the “BL” tag, for aesthetic purposes, but when talking I use GL and yuri interchangeably.

[momestuck]

Do you actually think Hussie is a 'kek someone’s triggered' kinda guy? Even at his edgiest that was never the impression I got from him. The impression I had is more that he likes to push boundaries, but also tries to respect his audience. He did walk back many of his shittier race jokes and, from what I was told, regretted using the R word so much. Which isn't to say he doesn't deserve criticism, of course.

Oh, and btw, apparently that text have been removed already. Maybe it is just a quick backpedal due to the reaction, but some have noted how weak the prose is and wonder if this was a first draft and not meant to be released.

Yeah overall I’m just confused by the whole thing. I don’t really know what Hussie’s like anymore honestly - much of Homestuck seemed to be about walking away from his old edgy ironic shock-value internet persona (represented by the arcs of the Strider bros). He’s certainly made some major missteps (the whole ‘caucasian’ thing is perhaps the most infamous) but if you’d asked me before this affair, I’d have said he seems to have grown a bit (as far as anyone can tell given all the exaggerated persona he hides behind).

fwiw, I’ve not read any of the comments he wrote in the Homestuck books, which is probably the most he’s said publicly in recent years. If you’ve read those, you’ve probably got a better idea of what he’s currently like than I am.

Anyway, I definitely agree that these textfiles read like a bad first draft written in a haze at 3am, the kind of thing you’d think ‘ok wtf was I thinking’ the next morning - but I’ve got to admit, if they didn’t intend to release this, I’m not sure how it got onto a web server with a link buried in the source code of the skaianet page. Inspecting the source code is like, step one for any ARG, and they also hid some other stuff that seems ARG-related like a SBAHJ mpreg comic (apparently?) and a bunch of wizard jpegs.

I’m inclined to guess it is by Hussie, although I don’t know if he intended it to be released. If you scroll the Homestuck tag on here, you’ll find a bunch of people pointing to a line in one of the printed Homestuck volumes where Hussie comments that he wrote something like this but it wasn’t worth reading (which seems to be a correct assessment!), so maybe it was passed around internally, and someone decided to throw it up in the ARG, and then someone higher up reviewed that decision when the backlash hit and was like ‘nope what were you thinking, take this down immediately’? But this is speculation!

Apparently the Hiveswap writers had no idea so I figure they’re currently in damage control mode over at What Pumpkin right now, trying to figure out how to not inflame the situation further. Certainly an inauspicious launch for this ARG, whatever it is.

[what-the-fuck-is-anime]

Bakugou was always talking about being the best, but that was the first time he realized he wasn't quite there yet, even within his age group. That is what he learned, that he can't coast on his own supposed greatness anymore and need to put some actual work even against Midoriya. I mean, you can argue that this is the wrong lesson to learn in this context, but I think it is what the show was going for at any rate.

Who even gives a fuck about the inner turmoil of an attempted murderer, honestly

[canmom]

As a fallow Japanese learner a word of advice: never stop. Always try to keep studying at a pace you find comfortable. I was learning via methods very similar to yours for a while, but ever so often I stopped for months at a time, which really sets you back a lot. And the longer you have been idle, the harder to find motivation to come back. Ultimately I personally had to get into a course just so I felt "forced" to continue in the times of slump. At any rate, good luck!

aw, thanks very much! I’ll do my best to keep it up.

The spaced repetition systems are really good because it feels like a computer game in terms of satisfying that ‘numbers going up’ feeling - but I’m actually learning a skill useful outside the game lol so it’s a lot more satisfying than grinding in an MMO or whatever. That makes it a lot easier to keep coming back.

I think the major hurdle with self-learning is learning to write and speak as well as read and listen. I can try, say, following a guide to pronouncing られるりろ, and other difficult sounds, but there’s no way to test whether I have it correct except listening back my attempts against native speakers’ recordings. And likewise if I write a sentence, I only have my own judgement as to whether it is grammatically correct and idiomatic. But, I guess I will try and find ways to address that down the line, and maybe see if my friend who speaks it has time to listen and advise.

I’m looking forward to starting my job and having enough money to access the paid version of these tools, and maybe see if there’s a course I can attend locally.

Once I feel like I’m in a comfortable rhythm with Japanese I’d also like to learn Korean. My friend who speaks both languages said that while Japanese may be easier to get started with because most of its sounds are similar to English, Korean is comparatively very easy once you get the hang of the sounds, while Japanese takes a lot, lot more work. I want to learn languages that are grammatically quite different from English, and also of course Japan and South Korea both produce an enormous amount of media that I’d like to be able to enjoy!

One day I wanna go to Japan and watch the YoRHa stage play lol. It’s such a dorky reason to learn a language but, whatever gets me to do it I guess...

[nora-reads-homestuck]

From the Fanfest Archives

heatth submitted to nora-reads-homestuck:

Also, since you technically asked for it: Some tentabulge fanart (NSFW)

Okay, far from the grossest thing I could theoretically find, and it is not even really “porn”, but I hope you can forgive me for not wanting to go searching for weird Homestuck smut. =P Also, sorry for making it a separate post. I just kinda wanted to isolate it.

(Skaia) You did ask for it! (It’s not even really anything at all?) I’m not sure where they come up more, fanart or fanfiction. Like a Lovecraftian Mythos, the more confident you are about that answer the lower your sanity level is.

(Nora) Oh… jeez. Ok, you’re right, I did ask for that. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but… huh. (⊙‿⊙);

[toooldforfandom-liveblogs]

If you do liveblog Fate/Zero, just remember it is an adaptation of a prequel of a visual novel. Since it is a prequel, it is accessible enough (hence to success franchise newbies), but it still make tons of references and set some things up that are not paid off in the anime itself. Just a thing to keep in mind. Also, to be clear, it is a prequel to the visual novel, not the 2003 anime. That anime didn't cover 2/3 of the story, so F/Z references things that aren't there.,

So to _really_ enjoy the anime I should play the VN first? Good to know, thanks!

[flyingcatch]

I wouldn't hang too much on the "1 in 10,000" thing, I assume it is just yet another case of authors being shitty at math. He probably didn't even realize he was implying 4 million attempted to reach the test.

Yeah I hear ya, but to me it’s just more fun to take things as they’re presented to me and try to make sense of them as is than to dig too much into possible translation issues or making assumptions about the level of care the author took with the story, unless it becomes a blatant issue. There’s already other information consistent with the idea of Hunting being REALLY important all across the world in this setting, so I don’t think I’m on the wrong track overall with how I’m interpreting the information. But we’ll see!