#mb posts

[mockingbird-dc]

I got to meet all the animals of Robin. That was my first time petting a cat. It was very pleasant.

[multiversal-bridge]

So there's been a big discussion lately about the pacing in the works of Wildbow (creator of bespoke internet fiction), particularly in his latest work, Pale, which has become longer than the others in just a couple of years of writing. I have thoughts about this and I can't get them out of my head so I'll just post.

I think the framing of this discussion leaves something out? Because I genuinely think Pale is Wildbow's best paced work.

Sounds super weird to say that when it's so long, right?

But I think there's a difference between length and quality of pacing, and I think the key to understanding what Wildbow's doing is this:

Pale is paced like a television show.

To explain a bit more what I mean by this:

Movies and television shows are forms of storytelling that are both valid in different ways, and allow you to do different things. The advantage of a television show is that you get to add layers of nuance to character's psychology as well as explore a number of different characters over the full runtime of the show. (Bear in mind I'm trying to imply a TV show that everyone agrees is good throughout its run, like the Sopranos or something.) There's advantages to doing this sort of thing, at least if you do it well.

Wildbow is a big fan of TV and talks a lot about shows he watches. So it's not surprising that his pacing is like TV. You bring on a character for an episode, and you may not see them again in the next season, but their mini-arc informed the larger arc that was going on with the protagonists at that point in the story. A chapter is basically written like an episode. 2-3 arcs roughly corresponds to a season of the show, with certain arcs ending in a major change in the status quo.

And Wildbow has a very good sense of those larger arcs. I was talking with a friend recently about what a contrast Pale is with the later A Song of Ice and Fire books. Where Martin is creating an ever-expanding list of characters going off in ever expanding directions, in Pale Wildbow keeps his characters from straying too far by tying new ideas back to the main plot. We have an arc where we meet a bunch of new magical creatures, but it's also about gaining allies and figuring out which of them are being used as pawns by the conspirators behind the main mystery. And yeah, recently, we got in theory like 18 new characters, but in practice we've only really focused on like three of them, and they're ultimately extensions of the final villain(s) in a plot that seems to be chugging toward the last station.

And I like this better than the pacing in Ward, or Pact, or Twig, or the latter half of Worm! In all of those works, there were moments where I thought oh, come on, this is stretched out way more than it needs to be. In contrast, despite its length, I've never really felt that with Pale. And I was initially skeptical about some of the plot developments!

It's true that Wildbow's chapters have gotten longer, but it feels to me like that's more about embracing an episode structure with multiple scenes in it, whereas in other works I often felt a bit cut off by one-scene chapters. Wildbow may also be playing to his strengths, as Pale focuses much more on psychological dialogues instead if action scenes. And character psychology has always been at the heart of what makes Wildbow works good.

Your milage may vary. I might just be weirdly into psychological dialogue scenes. And I freely confess that there may be a difference in experiencing the story chapter by chapter over the last two years, as I have, and maybe it might not read as well binged all at once. But I've seen writing that's badly paced before (including in other long-form web fiction), and this doesn't trip that trigger for me.

Obviously no one should feel obligated to read Pale. But may be more helpful to think of Pale as a good thing that's continued in its same good vein for a long time than something that's suffering from the sin of excess. At the very least, there are reasons why those of us who are reading it are having such a fun time.

[evanstandefensesquad-blog]

Helloooooo Squadlings!

I know, I know, it’s been a fucking AGE since we’ve been around. All of us have had some major shit going on in our lives. 

However! At least one, MAYBE two of us are back for the most part and as such, the blog’s activity will be picking up.

Please be patient with us as we do this. Also, we most likely will be cleaning our likes and drafts and that means a lot of older posts from people will be showing up. Which is cool because that means we get to revisit content! :)

Please send us stuff!! Things we’d like from you:

1. Blog recommendations that have heavy Seb and Chris content

2. Fic recs to reblog

3. Promotion for us!

If you are new here, and obviously haven't seen us post much, please note:

WE DO NOT ENGAGE IN DRAMA OR GOSSIP ABOUT OUR BOYS. EVER.

That’s the entire reason we founded this blog, getting away from that crap and showing pure love for our boys. Anyone sending us that stuff  will be blocked. We have a strict no tolerance policy.

We will always credit any creator we post. If we don’t know who it is, we will ask and note.

We strive to keep this place PG-13 and will tag if otherwise.

Thanks and we hope to hear from you soon!

(Credit to whoever did this amazing manip of our drunk bois.)

[mockingbird-dc]

What job options are there in Gotham? I am broke and hero work does not pay bills.

[mockingbird-dc]

(Anyone can answer)

Hello, citizens! Since tomorrow is Gotham Academy’s Homecoming, show me your outfits/anything else. I will post my teammates outfits soon (per their request).

Creator Note: (You can show anyway you want. Drawing, image, real photo… all work!)

[multiversal-bridge]

just got my heart torn out all over again by the finale of the his dark materials show, and it got me thinking about why pullman wrote the ending of the amber spyglass That Way (spoilers below):

it could be accidental, but lyra and will being forced to stay in separate worlds plays really interestingly with the series’ ideas about death.

pullman’s arguing against traditional religious rhetoric, of course, hdm being the anti-narnia. the religious argument is usually that life after death would be better than oblivion. the amber spyglass turns that on its head and says: okay, but not necessarily. if the afterlife is horrible, that’s worse, actually? indeed, the ghosts come to see dissolution as a liberation preferable to eternal existence. death is their happy ending.

“death is better” feels like a big contrast to modern transhumanist atheist arguments, where the argument is "death is inherently bad," but the show takes pains to emphasize its dissolution is a positive, almost pantheistic thing wherein one becomes part of everything, in contrast to metatron’s abyss which is just nonexistence.

ultimately, i think pullman’s a pragmatist: his project isn’t to build a transhumanist immortality (though maybe his work could be an inspiration for one) but to get people to see things as they are. i suspect he would say something along the lines of “we have to acknowledge the reality of death instead of living in a fantasy (as he might put it) of eternal life.”

and that sucks! that’s really hard, that’s really painful, to think that those you love are just gone! i think pullman knows how painful that is, to really look unavoidable death in the eye and not turn away.

so he has lyra and will go through the same thing. the universe is structured in such an unfair way as to cause them inescapable grief.

they could have tried to ignore it—they could have left a portal just for themselves—but that would mean taking away what they did to free the dead. death and this loss are linked.

so pullman’s saying: the mature thing, the responsible thing, is to bear the truth of your grief honestly, instead of deferring it into religious ideas. honor those who are gone, but don’t run away from the truth of loss, either. hard as it is, we have to bear it.

i don’t know, i could be way off base, but it seems like a plausible reading.

[multiversal-bridge]

Allways new. And peaceful too. On a turnandtoss of bedding. Humming fan.

—How'z life?

—Taking forever.

—Let'S dance?

—And take forever with US?

—Yes.

—Let'S go.

—We're so poor.

—We'll work it out.

—I want you just this way. To never have to go away.

From you. From US. Allways kissing, adored.

The rest. And smiling. To hold you when we're happy, we're lazy. Sad. When you're stubborn. When you're brave. When you're mad. When you're scorned. But allways beside me and my moods.

—That's too easy.

—Then be difficult.

—Hailey & Sam, Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski

[evanstandefensesquad-blog]

Hey, hey everyone!

So, I've finally gotten a little time and I'm trying to resurrect this here page!

At any rate, you'll probably see the posts pick back up.

We comin' back!