#Verisimilitude could not have been the strategy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pelikinesis · 4 years

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ended up typing a lot about JJBA

finally making my way through JJBA Stardust Crusaders. On the one hand, from what I’ve seen of JJBA in general, a lot of shit happens basically for *THE DRAMA*, but due to artistic choices, clever execution, and committing to its own outlandishness, it really does work on a certain level. and if you’re down to meet it at that level, you’ll have a good time probably.

at least, that was my initial takeaway after having watched the first two seasons. But even though the whole point of JJBA is that each series creates its own paradigm (Phantom Blood is basically Great Expectations meets vampires meets sunlight kung fu, and then Battle Tendency replaces the noble and pure-hearted Jonathan with his conniving shonen Tom Sawyer-esque grandson, Joseph), I feel like Stardust Crusaders is easily the biggest change.

not just because of The Stands, but actually because the main cast broadens to including at least 4 characters early on. It’s really the only way a character as stoic and seemingly-unflappable as Jotaro can really work in a story. There always needs to be another character on-scene and similarly invested in his quest to react to all the shenanigans going on, so he can bide his time just glaring impassively at the obstacles in his way before he gives them the ora ora ora and then yare yare da ze at the right moments.

And while Jotaro is starting to grow on me, i imagine i would have been way more into his character when i was in my teens or early twenties. But these days, I’m much too aware of how the story twists and turns so that Jotaro always looks SO FREAKING COOL. Like, i couldn’t manually activate that particular section of my suspension of disbelief even if i tried. if i could do that, believe me, i would, because i can see the appeal of Jotaro at a distance. And maybe by the time Stardust Crusaders is over, that’ll change things.

but as for right now, I equally like Jonathan and Joseph, though since I relate more to Joseph i’d pick him if i had to have a favorite. Phantom Blood is really short, but since Jonathan is such a simultaneously straightforwards but also immensely likable character, it works.

If anything, it’s the other way around: if Phantom Blood were longer, that might be a problem, because Jonathan barely changes at all as a character (because he’s already a precious cinnamon roll too pure for this world) and essentially just learns Hamon as far as development goes.

If it had gone even a few more episodes, Jonathan might have started to get stale. But since he’s taken from Erina and Speedwagon and the rest of the cast (and US) far too soon, his passing is tragic, and all the more fondly remembered for it. That’d be kind of a shitty thing to say about an actual person I think, but since this is fiction I guess that’s alright to say.

and Joseph is just...incredibly entertaining. nonstop. He reaches near Deadpool-levels of zaniness, but since he’s picking up where the almost impossibly noble and heroic Jonathan left off, it feels fresh to begin with, and then Joseph continues to grow and change throughout Battle Tendency.

At first he seems to inherit little of Jonathan’s character, due to his cocky demeanor, but those sparks of brilliance back in Phantom Blood that added a garnish of depth to Jonathan go supernova in Joseph and never look back, because he’s all about outwitting his opponents. So as compelling as the fights get in Phantom Blood, they become absolutely fascinating in Battle Tendency as Joseph pulls gambit after gambit out of his ass while having to fight the Pillar Men who are way above his weight class.

In Stardust Crusaders, they “preserve” Jotaro’s image usually by having Polnareff or Old Joseph fall into the situations that do a number on their bodies, minds, and dignity. I’m not saying Jotaro never struggles or gets worried, it’s just that he shows it a lot less than everyone else, and since (thus far) he always comes out on top a lot quicker or at least more abruptly than the rest of the cast, I find myself being a lot less concerned about his well-being and the possibility of his victory when he’s in danger.

And for what it’s worth, that’s completely telegraphed and likely deliberate. It’s my understanding that he’s the one that faces DIO in the end, so i would imagine there’s a payoff for him being handled relatively ‘safely’ in comparison to the rest of the main cast. I say it’s telegraphed because in the very first episode, characters comment about how powerful his Stand, Star Platinum is, and of course those attributes seem to transfer over, or at least get conflated with its user as well.

This wasn’t originally what i wanted to talk about though, precisely because i’m not yet done with the series. I actually wanted to write a bit about Hol Horse, because he’s just such a great antivillain, but I realized that what really makes JJBA so compelling, aside from its fascinating artistic direction and the fact that it’s very good at doing the main things it wants to do, is that the writers understand drama--and I said it was conspicuously, even overly-dramatic earlier, but right now I’m focusing on each episode’s ability to build and release tension.

No matter how wacky the show gets, it’s unfailingly adept at ramping up the tension. Even when I’m presented with a character so grotesquely, cartoonishly evil and unpleasant that it begs the question of how such a person could exist in the world as is. Even though I know the writers are unsubtly trying to play me so i rejoice when the bad guy gets ORAORAORA’d into the stratosphere. Even though everything at the forefront of the plot often ORAORAORAs whatever verisimilitude the setting has. I still cheer when the bad guys get obliterated. I still worry when the good guys are on the ropes.

And so I have a hard time critiquing the writing of JJBA. Maybe I’m just not qualified to form an opinion more refined than, “I enjoy it and it’s special, but not for everyone.” I guess what I would say, is that the story is extremely compelling to me as I’m watching it. But when I stop to think about it with some distance, the impact of the story beats and the characters’ fates become greatly diminished, and when it comes to other stories the opposite is true.

Because when I think about His Dark Materials, or Final Fantasy 6, or my other all time favorite stories, I feel a lot more strongly about them even if I haven’t read, watched, or played them in years. But on the other hand, maybe nostalgia has a lot to do with it. That’s probably a topic better suited for a back-and-forth discussion than as a stream-of-consciousness post though.

I wanted to return to the topic of Hol Horse for a second though, because by the third time he shows up in the story, he’s the POV character of the episode, and the main cast are positioned within the narrative of the episode as the antagonists. And it’s the weirdest thing, because I don’t know how many stories have managed to pull this off, or even try to do it.

But it works, because Hol Horse has already been established as being an ineffectual villain, but we don’t hate him because it turns out he failed to kill Avdol, and he hasn’t done anything absolutely reprehensible. He’s a bit of an everyman who is way in over his head and doesn’t want to die, and he even kinda sorta helped out the heroes once.

All that makes him sympathetic to a certain extent. And over the course of his episode, the tension comes from the question of will he or won’t he put his trust and faith in Oingo’s prophecies. It actually reminded me of the Biblical stories of Abraham and Isaac, or Job. Any time the character has their faith tested. Hol Horse gets that exact arc, and we see him struggle on whether to trust his own instincts and judgment, or entrust his life to the will of a higher power (I guess. It’s a Stand, so...).

It’s because Stardust Crusaders does stuff like this that it gets away with being structurally formulaic. It’s really just a sequence of them running into enemy Stand users, struggling to survive, figuring out how the Stand works, then coming up with a way to use their own Stands and/or the environment to overcome them.

Except when there are other resolutions, including but not limited to using the enemy Stand’s power against their users, using their enemies’ fear of Dio against them, and Jotaro overcoming the setback of being de-aged back to 7 years old through the strategy of Jotaro being able to kick a grown man’s ass at 7 years old.

In every way, JJBA is just an explosive riot of unfettered creativity, with enough strong consistent elements to give it a unique flavor, and if nothing else, i feel like i should be taking pointers from how it creates dramatic tension.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jjba

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ink-logging · 5 years

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Detective Comics #1000, Chris Conroy & Dave Wielgosz, eds.: I bought this on impulse because it was on the new releases shelf and people were talking about Batman online. It’s a 100-page anthology tribute for the Batman character’s 80th year and the one thousandth issue of “Detective Comics”. I don’t think anyone is ever at their best in a tribute anthology, but that makes them kind of interesting to look at, you know? There are eleven stories, which I will now spoil in their entirety.

1. “Batman’s Longest Case”, Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia, Tom Napolitano: The first of two stories in which Batman is doing something that looks grim, but is actually happy and anniversary-ish - both with similar titles, and both from major Batman writers. This is the better one, because I think Capullo is an interesting artist. He’s comparable to Jae Lee, in that he’s someone who had some work in comics under his belt prior to being ushered into the second ‘generation’ of popular Image artists, and has continued to evolve quite vividly over the years. The Capullo of today dials up the use of shadows and silhouette that used to sort of decorate the folds of Spawn’s flowing cape and such - here, they’re used more to focus attention on storytelling fundamentals: geography; gesture; etc. I also generally like the colorist, FCO Plascencia, who’s done some Varleyesque color-as-mood work on earlier comics with this team, though the story here is subdued... very classy, dressed for the gala.

Hints of ‘90s grotesquerie only pop up once Batman has solved a large number of flamboyantly abstruse riddles and discovered that the titular Longest Case is really an initiation test fronted by wrinkly old Slam Bradley, the original Siegel & Shuster-created star of “Detective Comics” back in 1937, who welcomes Batman to a Guild of Detection. This is clever of the writer, Scott Snyder, because Batman as a basic concept is hugely derivative of earlier pulp, detective and strip hero characters - and, if you’re being honest about paying homage to the character’s origins, you might as well play up lineage as your metaphor.

2. “Manufacture for Use”, Kevin Smith, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair, Todd Klein: In contrast, this story shoots for the quintessential. Smith, of course, is the filmmaker and longtime geek culture celebrity who’s written comics off and on, so maybe it’s his distance from the continuum of superhero writing that has inspired a short story that could have run as a backup in any Batman comic since the 1970s, give or take few cultural references. Matches Malone (Batman, when he is being an undercover cop) descends into the secretive world of true crime memorabilia to buy the gun that killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, which he then melts down to form the metal bat-symbol plate Batman wears on his chest, verily steeling his heart with the memory of this tragedy to fortify him in his neverending battle against crime! NANANANANANANANA BATMAAAAAN! Jim Lee and his usual crew makes everything look like it’s ‘supposed’ to, provided you see this type of statuesque posing as the best sort of superhero art, which many DC comics readers presumably do, given how a lot of these things look.

3. “The Legend of Knute Brody”, Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs, John Kalisz, Steve Wands: Dini has written tons of comics, with not a few of those drawn by Nguyen, but this feels mostly like DC1k (acronym’s resemblance to “DICK” a purely innocuous reference to Nightwing, I assure you) acknowledging the extensive legacy of “Batman: The Animated Series”, on which Dini was a writer and producer. The story takes the form of a biography of an infamously clumsy hired thug for supervillains, whom even the most novice reader will have figured out is a Batman Family asset about halfway down page 4 of 8, leaving a whole lot of laborious and narration-heavy slapstick to wade through. Admittedly, this might work better as an animated cartoon, with voice acting leavening the pace of the gags, but I’m also not sure ‘this would be better in a different art form’ is the impression superhero comics should be giving right now.

4. “The Batman’s Design”, Warren Ellis, Becky Cloonan, Jordie Bellaire, Simon Bowland:

Most of the drawing in DC1k is the kind of stuff you can easily trace to a few popular and fairly narrow traditions of ‘realistic’ superhero art. Becky Cloonan is the only woman to draw an entire comic in here -- Joëlle Jones co-pencils a story with Tony Daniel later on, and Amanda Conner does a pinup, mind -- and her work is the only place in this book where you catch glimpses of a global popular comics beyond the superhero provinces in the Hewlettian wild eyes of the hapless human opponents of her Batman, lunging through velvet layers of cape and smoke, lipless mouth parted on a shōnen ai jaw. It is really very impressive.

The writer, Warren Ellis, does a pathos-of-the-hard-man story, in which Batman explains his combat strategies via narration while carrying them out, occasionally making reference to the medical bills his prey will incur and their timely motivations as terroristic white men who feel ignored by the world, and at the end Batman asks the last guy U WANT TO LIVE IN MY NIGHTMARE, LITTLE BOY and the guy is like n- no dr. batman sir, and gives up because Batman’s is too dangerous and scary a life model. It is made clear from the text that Batman has programmed himself into a system of reactionary violence that he inevitably reinforces, but this message is so heavily sugared with cool action and tough talk that the reader can easily disregard such commentary, if so inclined, which has been a trait of Ellis’ genre comics writing since at least as far back as “The Authority” in the late 1990s. It fits Batman as naturally as the goddamned cowl.

5. “Return to Crime Alley”, Dennis O’Neil, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser, ‘Andworld Design’: I was surprised that there weren’t other writers from across the Atlantic in DC1k, given the extensive contributions of Alan Grant and Grant Morrison to the character. I was maybe not as surprised to see Dennis O’Neil as the lone credited writer to pre-date the blood and thunder revolution of Frank Miller et al. in the mid-1980s, as that commercial shadow is far too long to escape. Of course, O’Neil was one of the architects of superhero comics as a socially relevant proposition and Batman as a once-again ‘serious’ character in the 1970s, and it may be a reflection of his standing as a patriarch that this story contains no sugar whatsoever: on the anniversary of his parents’ death, Batman is confronted by a childhood caregiver who has figured out his dumb secret identity, and castigates him for doing stupid shit like dressing up as an animal and punching the underclass when he could actually do something as a wealthy man to improve the world. Then Batman starts beating the shit out of young masked teens who have stolen a gun, after which Batman, who is also a masked thug, is told that he is, at best, a figure of pity. The end!

What emerges from this story, to my eye, is that Batman is a terrible fucking idea if examined with any sort of serious realism - and Steve Epting draws the story as close to photorealism as anything in this book gets. I also think it is not insignificant that O’Neil, the writer here most unplugged from superhero comics as a commercial vocation, is the one to make these observations; to believe in superhero comics is to understand that there is play at the heart of these paper dolls, and to make your living from these things is to contemplate new avenues for play. Maybe Batman is dark, obsessive! Should he... kill? Sure, Bill Finger made him kill. The Shadow killed lots of dudes. So did Dick Tracy. Ramp up the verisimilitude too much, though, and you’ve got a guy wearing a hood going out by the cover of night to scare the shit out of superstitious cowards who’ve been taking from the good people of society, which, in terms of motivational narratives, is the same origin as the Ku Klux Klan. To play nonetheless, is the craftsman’s burden.

6. “Heretic”, Christopher Priest, Neal Adams, Dave Stewart, Willie Schubert: Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, is veteran Batman artist and frequent Dennis O’Neil collaborator Neal Adams. And while Adams is not credited as the writer on this story, it bears all the hallmarks of his 21st century work at DC: whiplash pacing; uneasy expository dialogue; and eager callbacks to Adams’ earlier work. This is the Batman comic as a continuity-driven adventure, and I found it largely incomprehensible as a story, not unlike Adams’ recent “Deadman” miniseries. I still like his husky Batman, though.

7. “I Know”, Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Josh Reed: Hey, did you know Brian Michael Bendis, writer of approximately ten and one half zillion Marvel comics, is writing comics at DC these days? Here he teams with longtime collaborator Maleev for a story that brings to mind the old line from Grant Morrison’s & Dave McKean’s “Arkham Asylum” about Batman being the real person and the guy under the mask being the mask. The Penguin, of all villains, figures out Batman’s secret identity, but elects not to pursue Bruce Wayne in his private life, because destroying Bruce Wayne would create a pure Batman far too dark and twiztid for anyone to handle. Or, maybe that is all just an image the perfectly sane Batman has deliberately encouraged as part of his umpteenth contingency plan. I would argue that this is a gentle spoof of people taking Batman too seriously, which clicks with what I’ve read of Bendis’ idea of the character in those 100-page comics they sell at Walmart: a globetrotting detective-adventurer, appropriate for all ages. Bear in mind, I’ve read maybe 0.2% of all Brian Bendis comics.

8. “The Last Crime in Gotham”, Geoff Johns, Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen, Rob Leigh: Whoa, now we’re talking! Kelley Jones! Just look at this:

Such totally weird stuff, coming from the artist who drew all those classic ‘90s covers with the huge bat-ears and wildly distorted musculature, the cape this absurd, unreal shroud. It looks like he’s working from photo reference with some of this comic, but also just tearing out these drawings of huge jawlines and shit, this total what-the-fuck-is-going-on haze, which perfectly matches Geoff Johns’ furiously ridiculous story about an elderly Batman and his wife, Catwoman, and their daughter, and Damian, and a dog, who all investigate a mass murder that turns out to be the Joker’s son committing suicide, and then Batman unplugs the Bat-Signal because crime is over in Gotham forever, and then we find out it’s all the birthday wish of Batman, who is blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, in costume, in the Batcave. Is “Doomsday Clock” like this? Should I pirate it??

9. “The Precedent”, James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez-Bueno, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson, Sal Cipriano: Inevitably, we come to the story that argues that Batman is actually a great guy, and his pressing of children into action as vigilantes under the cover of night is an amazingly positive thing. This is what I mean by “play” - it doesn’t literally make sense, we all know that, but if you buy into the superhero idea, you can buy into this universe of metaphor where the Batman Family is a vivification of finding your company of people, and belonging, and being loved. Lots of talk in here about snatching young people out of the darkness and forging them in light, and helping them find a better path - it sounds like Batman is signing these kids up for the Marine Corps, which is one of several organizations that recognizes the power of these arch-romantic impulses.

10. “Batman’s Greatest Case.”, Tom King, Tony S. Daniel, Joëlle Jones, Tomeu Morey, Clayton Cowles: This is just unbearable. Oh god, what absolute treacle. It’s the second story in this book about Batman being serious and mysterious, but it turns out something nice is going on - he really just wants a photo of the whole Batman Family, because he lost his family when his parents got shot, but then he cracked his greatest case by finding a new family, which is the Batman Family!

All of this is communicated via clipped dialogue in which various Batman Family superheroes trade faux-awkward quips and cutesy ‘moments’ that are supposed to embody the endearing traits of the characters, but read as the blunt machinations of art that is absolutely desperate to be liked. This is art that is weeping on my shoulder and insisting I am its friend, and I want to get away from it, immediately. Tom King is the most acclaimed superhero writer of this generation, and I can only presume his better work is elsewhere.

11. “Medieval”, Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron, Rob Leigh:

Finally, we have the obligatory story-that-leads-into-next-issue’s-serial, thereby demonstrating that Batman endures. It’s done as a series of 12 splash pages, depicting Batman in battle with his greatest foes, and it benefits immeasurably from the presence of artist Doug Mahnke (some inks by Jaime Mendoza), whose been a favorite of mine since those early, blood-splattered issues of “The Mask” at Dark Horse decades ago. Broadly speaking, Mahnke is working in a similarly muscular vein as many contributors to DC1k, but his sense of composition, of spectacle -- that boot-in-the-face energy the British call thrill-power -- adds an important extra crackle, and an element of humor; his Batman looks like a hulking maniac dressed in garbage bags, beating the shit out of monster after leering monster. What we are seeing is the fevered imagining of a new villain, the Arkham Knight (a variant of a character introduced in a video game), whom writer Peter J. Tomasi characterizes via the old trick of having the villain narrate to us a bunch of familiar criticisms of the hero, which the hero will presumably react to and overcome, or acknowledge in an interesting way, or something, in future installments. This probably would have worked better if other stories in this book hadn’t already made a lot of the same points in a manner that is not an advertisement for the rebuttal of those points... or if I were even capable of reading a story like this without imagining a final dialogue bubble coming in from off-panel going “SIR, THIS IS A BURGER KING DRIVE-THRU.” But something’s gotta go in issue #1001.

-Jog

#JogList

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lifesobeautiful · 3 years

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Tips on Helping Men Solve Intimacy Issues in a Relationship

Each year, you list down the things you want to change over the next 365 days. You most likely want to address some intimacy issues with your partner such as physical intimacy, sexual intimacy, spiritual intimacy, and so on and so forth.

Forming intimate relationships need intent and there must be harmony and mutual respect for both partners. Follow these tips and coping strategies to smooth-sailing decision-making.

Man has his science down pat, and one of his holy tenets is to overlook emotional intimacy, physical intimacy, mental intimacy, and even spiritual intimacy. The Man’s argument in human relationships is that all will be taken care of by time.

The Man is not a fictional character, of course. The Man is all too real. He’s not just one man, either. He is legion; he goes by many names and comes in many shapes. We men may have some part of him in all of us. And in our heads, this all makes sense. Except anybody will tell you solving intimacy issues is so crucial, it demands capitalization. There is no way you fumble that without courting doom.

Second chances in the face of intimacy issues are so terribly rare, they’re all but mythical. Some intimate relationships make it, and some don’t.

This was my first encounter with the phenomenon known as Intimacy. And I bring The Man up to belabor my point that men can be so inept at it without knowing. I’m male, of course. And there’s no catch to that, no disclaimer.

But what makes this guide different is that, while it mixes in theory and experience for the necessary wiggle room and verisimilitude, it is less a matter of opinion and more a product of research. And as stringent and exhaustive as the data gathering was, it’s caliber and expertise of my resources that boosts its cred: they are all women, pistol-hot, and in the know. Think of me as a mere ghostwriter-slash -conduit, then. And trust me with these tips.

What are Intimacy Issues

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Fear of intimacy can have a significant impact on your life, particularly in close relationships in which fear of intimacy is evident. Research shows that anxiety disorders are risk factors that can negatively affect the quality of relationships.

Fear of intimacy can sabotage relationships and may cause one to withhold affection, have negative attitudes, or put up barriers to emotional or sexual affection. Intimacy begins in our early childhood (childhood experiences) and having intimacy issues has always been a part of life.

Here are some tips that will help Men Solve Intimacy Issues in a Relationship

Seek Professional Help First

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Intimacy issues in a relationship call for a red flag that must address real quick. Seeking therapy and knowing the real cause and getting to the root of it is vital. Seeking a therapist who understands cognitive behavioral therapy and has well-informed professional advice would be a good start, having access to counselors related articles and engaging in talk therapy as a couple are some of the best ways to overcome intimacy issues.

If the need arises, couples could also seek a qualified mental health professional because one cannot exclude the fact that having intimacy issues can be a by-product of a mental illness or other mental health conditions.

Mental health professionals are an expert on diagnosing mental health issues, mental illness like bipolar disorder, intimacy disorders, and other mental health conditions. That is why one must not downplay the role of a mental health professional in some of the intimacy issues and intimacy problems.

The Important Skill

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Intimate relationships come with past painful experiences. Emotional intimacy is not achieved by just a “Skill”. One should be wholly willing to be vulnerable with the other and this comes like sea waves, from accumulated honest and true conversations (or any other way of communication. If you are lucky enough ) involving trust in each other and a listening heart. It is simply true unconditional feeling without judging. Then you feel you are yourself with that person without a mask, you feel yourself free saying your weak points without a single fear from the other either to take it against you or belittle you one day. Then you unintentionally feel yourself “belong” and emotionally intimate in this relation

Intelligent, meaningful conversation with the one you love, is an immensely beautiful sentiment. In fact, that is perhaps what most miss about being in a loving relationship. The deep, emotional, intellectual conversation is one vital and important aspect of a relationship that some marriages crave the most. Intently listening and fully reciprocating in the conversation.

It all begins with being attracted to intelligence. Along with that, honesty, faithfulness, trust, love, and passion all come in second. Intimacy being the beautiful accompaniment that comes with the aforementioned.

Emotional intimacy alongside physical intimacy is crucial for any romantic relationship to survive and thrive. When partners are willing to express their flaws, failures, and insecurities with each other, along with their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments, they are likely to be happier together.

However, Intimacy, wholly coupled with affection is both an all-encompassing beautiful sentiment, going so very far beyond just mere physical contact. Pure intimacy goes infinitely beyond classifying it simply as “sex”. It’s an indescribable feeling of pure love and adoration. It’s having an emotional, mental connection. It’s a feeling of complete comfort and of being totally safe. It’s being who you truly are with the person you utterly adore. True intimacy with the one you love is completely mental, emotional, physical, spiritual. It’s everything we hope for, yet only the lucky truly achieve.

Take a Direct Approach

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I’m a romantic and I should reject and dismiss the notion of intimacy issues and it’s sorting out process. But in many ways it is, a subjecting of two people to various romantic situations to see how human relationships hold up together, test their mettle, their tensile strength.

So when trying to open up the intimacy issues and intimacy problems in an intimate relationship, ditch any pretensions of subtlety. Not only are most women notoriously dense, they actually pull out the density card, whether unwittingly or not, to throw you off the bus. Which is to say you have to make sure they know you’re really want to fix things out.

Comprehension. One’s ability to look at things outside one’s own perspective is also as important. I guess that can fall under comprehension. Respect is one of the most important characteristics of a healthy relationship too. Once the chase is over, some people can forget about tending to their partner’s feelings and needs. In lasting, healthy relationships, partners value each other and take care of their words, actions, and behaviors.

Take the Preliminaries Seriously

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Does your partner talk openly with you or is she having difficulty sharing feelings with you? if yes then she might be experiencing an intimacy disorder. One must first know that having sexual intercourse with your partner isn’t always the answer to your intimacy issues.

Women, unlike men, do not separate sex from the emotional aspects of romantic relationships. In general, women in a healthy relationship always associate sex with physical and emotional closeness, and taking these seriously helps you maintain a good intimacy scale with the other person.

Know your woman

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Problem recon and current status reassessment helps as a way to gauge the odds of reciprocity, and to alleviate intimacy avoidance and partner fears intimacy, hedge bets even. Tread carefully, though, as too much recon makes you come off vaguely and paranoid-ish. Casual recon of your partner will be terribly useful, and whatever intel you gather may be pertinent.

Communication, but also willingness to work through miscommunication. That can be awkward and unpleasant, but so often studies have shown that so many arguments can come from miscommunication, and it can be easily solved by just talking it out. Obviously, not everything comes down to that, but being open-minded and allowing for the possibility sure helps. Curiosity, too.

It’s important to take into account aversions to specific topics like mental health conditions, anxiety disorder, childhood experiences, and physical abuse. All that data should factor in your equation to choose which intimacy issues to talk openly about. This leads us to the next point.

Perception. Knowing subtlety and being able to pick up on things. Sometimes the best communication is silence or some non-verbal cue. But you really have to know and study your partner to do that.

Let Her Lead the Way

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Be her rock. If her career is taking off, it’s clear she can fend for herself. But she can’t give herself the emotional support she craves from you. Asking about her work, as well as giving her advice and support when she needs it is something that men can’t put a price on

Stay Classy, You need to lose the nerves, as awkwardness is never flattering for you and your date. Don’t be a prude but be careful not to be crass either. You can always use the first half-hour to gauge how far you can go in terms of what you can talk about your intimacy issues.

Bring the gentleman inside of you to the conversation, do not apply any defense mechanism and do not avoid intimacy, and always be extra sensitive to the intimate signs of your partner. Chivalry, so to speak, is a magic pill and a turn-on whichever way you cut it. Be careful about becoming too much of a humble person though.

Here’s a Chivalry crash course, in case you need it:

-Be prepared to defend her honor if the situation calls for it

-Talk less, say even less about yourself unless it’s your lapses and mistakes, and learn to listen and listen as you mean it.

-And always be aware of your boundaries. Be a shoulder to cry on if the need arises to comfort her.

Why Sex life is vital?

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There are many ways to building intimacy and one of them is having a healthy relationship with your intimate partners, one of the best ways is to nurture each other’s sexual appetite. For a lack of a better word, do commit to having passionate and intentional sex regularly!

Intimacy. What does this word mean to you? Holding hands or sharing secrets? Making love or making dinner together on Friday night? Is that a feeling or a state? The fact is that it is an essential part of any healthy, thriving relationship.

During sex, the innermost feelings of a couple are at their peak and it reinforces positive emotions with the other person. Having regular sexual contact and being sexually intimate with your partner helps to build a healthy sexual relationship which helps maintain the overall intimacy scale.

Intimate Relationships for Starters

Photo: theintimatecouple.com

Any sex therapist, relationship counselor, and mental health professional will tell you that women don’t get turned on in the same ways men do and women rarely avoid physical intimacy. It’s a long process for her-much longer than you might think. Women want a sense of connection that is experienced far more than an hour approaching the sexual starting line.

Spot for warning signs and physical symptoms of early intimacy issues. If your woman becomes silent and stops complaining this is a red flag. A classic defense mechanism of someone who’s having physical and emotional intimacy issues. When she becomes apathetic, it means she doesn’t care anymore. Other giveaways: less sex and less interest in little things, like telling you about her day or asking about yours.

Intimacy is about listening to the other, really listening deeply through our heart. Intimacy is really the by-product of inner transformation. It isn’t something we do.

Intimacy is something that is revealed from within. As we become more intimate inside our own hearts, so we let go of needing another person to change. That is the magical moment. That is when unconditional love comes into the game.

Turn to Music

Photo: stocksy.com

Music and sex are intertwined like two lovers’ legs. Sure men are the stereotypical record geeks, but music pierces women just as deeply. Every intimate relationship has early days of swooning and squeaking. As the intimacy signs grow out of those first flushes of longing, the role of music in intimate relationships shifts. It becomes a source of ecstasy and identity, of comfort and power, a force as intense and complex and potentially transcendent as sex itself.

Express your deepest feelings without actually having to you know, express your deepest feelings. Before a guy was able to lurk on Facebook after a breakup or bad marriage, he’d sit by the phone, thinking surely she’d dig out your true emotions if you had just opt for the right song to express how you felt. That lost hope and yearning growl would induce the desired state: a thirst for whiskey and the bad decisions it engenders.

The right song, show, dance tune, or riff can bring happy, positive memories and sometimes can arouse her. Men, listen for your cue before initiating physical contact.

Bonding over a shared love of music can be heady. We run a risk when we blur the lines between our women and our music. Sometimes love festers and spoils, and the collateral damages aren’t so much to our hearts or our precious time but to whatever music got dragged into the mess with us.

What came first, the scene or the soundtrack? Thank God you have more music, as useful as it can be in a sparking love or lust, it’s even more capable of totally obliterating avoidant personality disorder and bad memories.

Dirty Talk in Romantic Relationship

Let’s use the term loosely, shall we? Sex is not just physical contact but sex is a language. Talking about sex, however, is one of the most difficult conversations in life. Women generally don’t feel comfortable talking about sex. Most likely, she’s too shy to tell you that the way you’re flicking your tongue against her is not getting her off. Or that she wants more foreplay than you’re giving her.

Women are shy about telling you what they need you to do because they don’t want to hurt your feelings and this sometimes creates an anxiety disorder for some women, partner’s fear and can cause low self-esteem that might create major intimacy problems in the future. As much as possible, try to honor her requests and see these as a healthy intimacy sign and not discredit her when she is confiding in you about these preconditions.

Crazy Good Sex= Emotional Intimacy

Photo: lehmiller.com

Here’s what you need to know intimate connections, having crazy good sex doesn’t equate to fulfilling your insatiable sexual appetite which might in fact lead to sexual abuse. What it means is that your bedroom moves play a key role in your sexual contact and helps in building physical and emotional capacity.

During sexual intercourse with your intimate partners, you almost never list improving the way you do the deed in the bedroom. Still, if you’re going to work toward you, one of the best things you can do for yourself and your relationship is work on your skills in the sack. but like all the other things you intend to accomplish, you’ll need to do your research and put in the work.

Fear of Intimacy: Only When the Need Arise

Photo: gloucestershirelive.co.uk

Gents who are in an adult relationship, when she tells you her day’s been tiring it doesn’t automatically mean that she avoids intimacy nor to be taken as an intimacy avoidance. Considering that she needs to cook dinner, and pick up the laundry as well as finish her pending reports, she’s not saying she doesn’t want to have sex tonight.

Well, she might not be saying anything at all. But if you’re raring to get some action, start the foreplay by volunteering to do the chores while she finishes her work. It doesn’t sound sexy but it helps build emotional connection, but you’ll find out later on that she will store this mental image of you in front of the stove, doing the dishes, or walking through the door with her dry-cleaning in tow, and she’ll thank you for it in ways that only you can imagine.

Walk the Talk

Photo: askmen.com

In a survey, 59 percent of married women aren’t afraid to hash out sexual dissatisfaction with their husbands. Talk it out first, don’t have sex talks where you have sex. Avoid having this talk of dissatisfaction and body image issues in the bedroom. Aim for a relaxed environment. When chatting, focus on the solution, not the issue.

It all comes down to the wording that makes the word intimacy. Instead of saying directly to her face that the position is boring, say that you can’t get over how sexy she looks in that position. Frame it in a positive light that makes talking about sex less threatening.

Do Everything Together Frequently

Photo: relationships.femalefirst.co.uk

Want to know how important you are to her? In a survey, 81 percent of married women deemed having happy intimate relationships more important than their career. That craving for companionship and physical intimacy doesn’t just bloom at the altar either.

Whether you’re married or not, intimate relationships and the satisfaction tied to them are extremely important for increasing men’s and women’s quality of life. Having frequent sex leaves you craving more sex after it’s done.

The act itself triggers the release of healthy brain chemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin, and testosterone. This leaves her feeling closer to you and longing for more.

Leave Her Be

Photo: womenpla.net

Does she say she needs space? Start investing more in your identity. whether it’s going out with the guys or hitting the gym. Giving her this breathing room not only allows her to spend her time how she pleases but also helps your connection in the long run. When you create space, it increases desire and this desire can help the relationship grow.

Men take women for granted in most relationships. Period. We stop paying attention. We stop listening. Eventually, the woman gets fed up, and fighting ensues.

It is at this thorny juncture that you need a reason designed to acknowledge culpability. Just in case makeup sex devolves into acrimony. Keep her comfort and pleasure front and center, but remember to chill. Make her feel that your relationship is all about her. Because eventually, it will be. And don’t give apologies you can’t sustain. It’s always better to be yourself, so goes the cliché. Only be the best you that you can be.

Intimacy is Not Just Sex

Photo: healthywomen.org

Intimacy is not only about the act of being physically intimate, although it is one of its forms. When it comes to sexual intimacy, knowing your partner’s body language is crucial. Both partners are aware of their own physical sensations and able to express their mutual desires.

But real intimacy comes with mutual vulnerability, openness, and the ability to share and care. When you aren’t afraid to be weak and helpless around them because you know- you are safe. You also know that you can always come to them first to share your joy and happiness or to find consolation in the moment of sadness or sorrow.

Intimacy is not who you let touch your genitalia. Intimacy is who you talk to after having sex at 3am about your dreams and fears. Intimacy is giving someone your attention when ten other people are asking for it. Intimacy is the person always in the back of your mind, no matter how distracted you are.

Have Her Join In

Photo: marriage.com

We learn intimacy in everyday life by noticing the smallest details about our partners, taking note of their nonverbal cues, and being good listeners. In the process, we learn to know how their mind works and share the map of our own too.

In a healthy and intimate relationship, you are not afraid to tell your partner about your needs because you communicate openly and honestly. You both are able to keep your outside interests alive because you respect each other as individuals. Communication is very important but a strong desire to have a good relationship is needed. For a married couple, it is important to fall in love with each other regularly and emotions play a very important part.

Intimacy means truly connecting with someone on different levels and maintaining this meaningful connection with each other.

FAQs

Q1. How to tell if a woman has intimacy issues?

Signs of fear of intimacy may include: avoiding physical contact and sexual contact or having an insatiable sexual appetite, difficulty with commitment, history of unstable relationships, low self-esteem, bouts of anger, isolation, difficulty forming close relationships, difficulty sharing feelings, difficulty showing emotion.

Q2. How to help a woman with intimacy issues?

Intimacy issues can put stress on even the best relationships. Taking steps to build emotional intimacy with your partner can help you feel more connected and even improve your sexual relationship too.

Some coping strategies might include talking to your partner about how you’re feeling and what you want your relationship to look like. It might feel uncomfortable at first, but opening up to them allows you to build trust and strengthen your relationship together.

Q3. What are the warning signs that there are growing intimacy issues in your marriage?

Top on the list is the low sex drive, talking about sex is often considered taboo. Since people are reluctant to discuss the details of their sex lives with their partners and their doctors, it’s easy for sexual problems and intimacy issues to go unnoticed for a long time.

The post Tips on Helping Men Solve Intimacy Issues in a Relationship appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

This article was first shared from Dumb Little Man

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baeddel · 6 years

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whitherbro

adding damage based on distance could be explained by suggesting the targets not being prepared to defend themselves as well. if youre standing 5m away from an archer with a nocked arrow, you’re constantly going to have that reminder to take cover behind your shield. if you’re standing 200m away its significantly more likely you’ll just be standing there like a dope as an arrow comes whistling in

whitherbro

sorry that first sentence is garbled. what i mean to say is its not necessarily that the arrow does more damae, but that the unit is more susceptible to attack

right right, thats a good point. There was a period in tabletop game design where people were really falling over themselves trying to come up with a plausible explanation for what hit points represents, and the conclusions seems to have been that it represents something like ‘fighting spirit’ or something otherwise intangible, and not, like, brain activity lol.

Personally my approach to design is to consider only and exclusively what makes the game deeper and more interesting & care nothing at all for verisimilitude, yknow, I like total videogame contrivances in a kinda verfremdungseffekt way, I want to cultivate simulation-destroying ruptures of ludonarrative dissonance, etc. But with rpgs I’m also kind of a big military history nerd lmao and I really just wanna play late antiquity wargames and that dominates my approach; also accuracy as an aesthetic ideal divorced from realism per se is like an interesting thing to explore and gives a fairly high-tension tone - ‘hard fantasy’, yknow. So, the issue.

But yeah I like that idea, its not an issue of physics but one of strategy. Thx!

#this response was way too long for the issue at hand but w/e #long post #lmao

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pa-cha-ran · 7 years

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(solaris fic) 2, 8, 17 :)

for this WIP ask thing game thing

2: Post a line from your WIP with no context.I’m currently suffering a bout of “everything I write is terrible”, so, here’s two lines to mutually apologize for each other until some day when I have the guts to reread what I’ve written for the fic so far.

“A Hunter manages beyond human limits. That’s why I haven’t doubted for a second the choice to send [Kurapika] there or anywhere else equally inhospitable. I knew he could manage it. And he has. A Hunter against nature is in his element, regardless of how perilous that nature can be.”

“Damn, 2.9 billion jenny? You know, you never expect the proverb ‘he who finds a friend finds a treasure’ to take such a literal turn.”

8: What is your biggest challenge?I’m a stickler for a touch more verisimilitude (thank you @sabre-fish for reminding me that word exists) than is truly necessary, which means I sink a lot of hours into researching topics backwards and forwards for the sake of a single scene. I need to accept that sometimes the truth can be fudged. While maybe not too evident in my fanfics, this tendency holds me way way back in writing original work. It’s rearing its head in the solaris fic, though, so I’ve been using the experience of writing the solaris fic to try out strategies to overcome this issue. With a fanfic, I won’t end up judging the end result too harshly.

17: Does your WIP have any themes or motifs?How you perceive things is never an accurate version of what they are. People, places, your own life’s memories…. All of it.

Open-season on the rumored last Kurta alive might could be the inevitable result of taking all other Scarlet Eyes off the market?

I dunno…manipulation of public feeling, “the system ain’t exactly broken, but I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to work like this, though”, and related axes to grind.

But honestly, when it comes to themes, I am just winging it over here.

#patxaran replies #ask meme #WIP asks #spritepipis #readdea i will answer your ask next #don't worry i have it i am just taking forever #hxh #solaris fic

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reportccs · 5 years

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Thinking Like a Craftsman

Dedicated to the ideas of libertarian communism, libcom.org is a website that pursues the “political expression of the ever-present strands of co-operation and solidarity.” In March 2009 a contributor posting under the alias “Kambing” ventures the interesting thought that “the artisan” may qualify as “a rather attractive concept for a post-capitalist subject—it certainly beats the bourgeois star artist or proletarianized designer as a way of organizing creative activity.” However, “Kambing” continues, the concept of the artisan is at the same timedoomed as an attempt to overcome capitalism, as it can be so easily drawn back into capitalist processes of accumulation and dispossession. This is precisely the problem with a lot of autonomist (and anarchist) strategies for resistance or “exodus”—including some forms of anarcho-syndicalism.5This skepticism is only too familiar by now—any candidate put forward for the new revolutionary subject will be quickly rendered inappropriate, deficient, co-optable. The reasons for such pre-emptive skepticism, popular even among the most hard-line autonomists, anarchists, or anarcho-syndicalists, are manifold. However, a central argument for this co-optation is linked to the awe-inspiring malleability and adaptability of capitalism as such, accompanied by post-political renderings of “democracy,” helpful in reducing politics “to the negotiation of private interests,” as Slavoj Žižek puts it in his discussion of what he considers to be a symptomatic proximity between contemporary biopolitical capitalism and the post-operaist productivity of the multitude: “But what if, in a parallax shift, we perceive the capitalist network itself as the true excess over the flow of the productive multitude?”6The Fable of the Hedgehog and the Hare.The structure of the argument has been so thoroughly rehearsed in past decades that it has assumed a somewhat mythical truth. Capitalism is the shape-shifting creature-beast always already ahead and above—regardless of which revolutionary force tries to overthrow or subvert it—as it continually vampirizes any signs of resistance. It may be necessary to deploy the perceptual model of the parallax, as Žižek does, in order to maintain the structurally paranoiac—if absolutely legitimate—belief in capitalism’s shrewdness, which sometimes seems to resemble the clever hedgehog family in the Grimms’ fairytale “The Hare and the Hedgehog.” Its remarkable ability to re-invent itself and stay alive even as the current full-fledged crisis in interlinked systems of state and corporate capitalism turn capitalism-as-such into a transcendent miracle and/or metaphysical force with increasingly violent repercussions on the ground, with its most recent turn being the recruitment of state and legal powers. Referring to Carlo Vercellone’s 2006 book Capitalismo cognitivo, Žižek points to how profit becomes rent in postindustrial capitalism.7 The more capitalism behaves in “de-regulatory, ‘anti-statal,’ nomadic, deterritorializing” fashions, the more it “relies on increasingly authoritarian interventions of the state and its legal and other apparatuses.”8 While the “general intellect” in reality doesn’t appear to be that “general” or shared—with the products of the innumerable and increasingly dispersed multitudes becoming copyrighted, commoditized, and legally encapsulated as part of the accumulation of wealth by way of “rent”—the unity of the proletariat has split into three parts, following Žižek’s Hegelian idea of the future: white-collar “intellectual laborers,” blue-collar “old manual working class,” and the “outcasts (the unemployed, those living in slums and other interstices of public space).”9 Any possibility of solidarity amongst these factions appears to have been foreclosed, and in many respects the separation seems absolute. The liberal-multicultural self-image of the cognitive workforce doesn’t rhyme particularly well with the populist, nationalist position of the “old” working class, and both are further ostracized by the unruliness, illegality, and poverty of the outcasts who alienate white collar workers and blue collar workers alike, as they seem to indicate through their fate how imperiled their remaining privileges of citizenship may be.But Žižek’s Hegelian triad of postindustrial proletarian factions is debatable. The identities (intellectual laborers, working class, outcasts) are much too unstable, much too fluid and transient for a theorization of the (im)possibilities of overcoming capitalism. And it remains doubtful whether their insertion into the discourse provides more than a paralysis characterized by deadlock, tribal oppositions, and endless desolidarity.In fact, these and other identities shift according to (but also against) the self-transformation of capitalist institutions enabled by various neutralizations and recuperations. And these self-transformations entail wars of position, to use Gramsci’s term. As Chantal Mouffe put it a few years ago in pre-9/11, pessimism-of-the-intellect/optimism-of-the-will style: “although it might become worse, it might also become better.”10 Even Žižek—who has always endorsed a strong idea of capitalism, evincing a certain obsession with the task of proving capitalism’s fascinating, horrifying, and stupefying superiority as one that could only be seriously challenged by a return to the Leninist act��is himself looking for other actors and different processes now. Currently, his hope lies with the hopeless, the people fooled and victimized by “the whole drift of history”—in other words, the very “outcasts” from the proletarian triad mentioned above, those who are forced into improvisation, informality, clandestinity, as this is supposedly all they are left with in a “desperate situation.”11To rely on the desperation of others for one’s own idea of a successful insurrection is of course deeply romantic and utopian. Žižek may be right in asserting that waiting for the Revolution to be undertaken by others has been the fundamental error of too many leftists. However, would he count himself or anyone in his vicinity to be “desperate” enough to act, especially in a spirit of voluntarism and experimentation that would effectively dissolve the constraints of “freedom” as it is granted by neoliberalism?The “artisan” evoked by “Kambing,” though immediately disregarded as allegedly “doomed” to fail in the face of capitalism like so many others, may be an interesting figure to reconsider here—less out of interest in revolutionary politics than in envisioning alternate ways of organizing “creative activity” to replace and/or evade capitalist modes of production. As Raqs Media Collective have pointed out in their essay “Stubborn Structures and Insistent Seepage in a Networked World,” the figure of the artisan arrived historically before the worker and the artist, before “the drone and the genius,” while it enabled the “transfiguration of people into skills, of lives into working lives, into variable capital.”12 “The artisan,” Raqs claim, “is the vehicle that carried us all into the contemporary world.” However, after the artisan’s role in “making and trading things and knowledge” had been replaced by those of the worker and the artist, by the ubiquity of the commodity and the rarity of the art object, the artisan now seems to be returning, but in different guises—the migrant imbued with all kinds of tactical knowledges, the electronic pirate, or the neo-luddite, many of whom are immaterial laborers, pursuing processes of “imagining, understanding, and invoking a world, mimesis, projection and verisimilitude as well as the skillful deployment of a combination of reality and representation.”Interestingly (and similarly), “Kambing” distinguishes the “artisan” from the “bourgeois star artist” and the “proletarianized designer.” However, one may also imagine these distinct figures aligning—with each other and with others beyond themselves. These alignments or fusions would depend on an ability and a willingness to recognize and accept difference and diversity not only in one’s own social surroundings, but also within oneself as a subject. To acknowledge the fact that one may simultaneously inhabit more than one identity leads almost inevitably to co-operation with others that would go beyond the model of the homogeneous community.But, in Capital, Marx is highly skeptical of “co-operation” as a way out of capitalism: “Co-operation ever constitutes the fundamental form of the capitalist mode of production.” Its power isdeveloped gratuitously whenever the workmen are placed under given conditions and it is capital that places them under such conditions. Because this power costs capital nothing, and because, on the other hand, the labourer himself does not develop it before his labour belongs to capital, it appears as a power with which capital is endowed by Nature—a productive power that is immanent in capital.13A standardized bumper had been installed at the end of each car stall. It looked sleek, but the lower edge of each bumper was sharp metal, liable to scratch cars or calves. Some bumpers, though, had been turned back, on site, for safety. The irregularity of the turning showed that the job had been done manually, the steel smoothed and rounded wherever it might be unsafe to touch; the craftsman had thought for the architect.14The labor of modifying and repairing the work of others is certainly not groundbreaking in terms of anti-capitalist struggle per se. However, the physical skills, the attitude of care and circumspection, the inscription of a hand that performs “responsible” gestures, and so forth, all engender a shared authorship—in this case a cooperation between the absent architect’s and/or construction company’s work and the subsequent, careful labor of detecting and correcting the building’s design problems. This cooperation is neither contractually negotiated nor socially expected, but instead results from a specific situation in which a problem called for a solution. It is inseparable from local conditions and constraints, and should not be taken as a model for action. Yet, on other hand, it is intriguing, as it displays relationalities within material-social practices that usually remain unnoticed, and whose resourcefulness is thus overlooked.Paris scene with a goldsmith's shop , detail of a miniature from "La Vie de St Denis", 1317. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.In some respects Sennett’s concept of “thinking like craftsmen” resembles a definition of “design” that Bruno Latour introduced the same year The Craftsman was published. Speaking at a conference held by the Design History Society in Cornwall, Latour differentiated “design” from the concepts of building or constructing. The process of designing, according to Latour, is marked by a certain semantic modesty—it is always a retroactive, never foundational, action, always re-design, and hence “post-Promethean.” Furthermore, the concept of design emphasizes the dimension of (manual, technical) abilities, of “skills,” which suggests a more cautious and precautionary (not directly tied to making and producing) engagement with problems on an increasingly larger scale (as with climate change). Then, too, design as a practice that engenders meaning and calls for interpretation thus tends to transform objects into things—irreducible to their status as facts or matter, being instead inhabited by causes, issues, and, more generally, semiotic skills. And finally, following Latour, design is inconceivable without an ethical dimension, without the distinction between good design and bad design—which also always renders design negotiable and controvertible.15 Here, at this site of dispute and negotiation, especially on an occasion in which the activity of design is “the whole fabric of our earthly existence,” Latour finds “a completely new political territory” opening up.16

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tumblunni · 7 years

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Random rambley development for unnamed zombie-fighting super mum simulator! Today’s thoughts- rules and regulations for how the zombies work in this setting.

* On the sliding scale of zombie origins, these ones are far more supernatural than scientific. They’re not really limited by the more strict rules of movie zombies, and judging them by human standards would be a mistake! After all, the mere fact that the dead are alive is already outside the realms of possibility, I don’t understand why ‘scientific’ zombies in fiction are defined by limitation like this. No matter how ‘scientific’ it is, the basic premis is inherantly supernatural! Making it ‘scientific’ should just be like... a genre decision. A way to add verisimilitude if you want a more real life or sci fi setting. It shouldn’t be an excuse to tone down zombies and complain that stuff shouldn’t be possible, because zombies aren’t goddamn possible :P But like.. making people BELIEVE they’re possible is why ‘scientific’ zombie thrillers are good! Making it excessively similar to real life just harms that, it gets people nitpicking details instead of being scared. It gets people closer to the biggest scientific realism- the fact that zombies will never exist. But yeah anyway, my goal isn’t to make people believe zombies are potentially possible, I’m going more for the sadness, character development and philosophy genre of zombie story rather than the pure scary genre.

* Sorry, I went offtopic rambling there. * BACK TO ACTUAL WORLDBUILDING POINTS * These zombies are more supernatural, and capable of things that you’d probably call ‘magic’. It might be better to call this a supernatural corruption instead of a normal virus. Long-lived zombies will eventually evolve into one of many specialized forms, and start shedding their humanoid appearance for something closer to living shadows made of black spores. Their various powers can include more normal stuff like spewing acid or giant claws, or they could have enhanced control of this shadow mist in various ways, or extremely developed ones can even warp reality to some degree. Trapping you in delusions, rending holes through spacetime, contorting in impossible ways... * They’re not quite as rotten as regular zombies, they’re kinda more like the ‘eternally frozen in time’ sort of undead. Not the pretty kind like vampires, but they don’t completely rot away and start stinking. Its more like... I guess... if you had regeneration powers but they were overcharged? They’re in a perpetual state of metamorphosis, their skin blisters and peels and shifts and rots off and grows back. It flakes off like charred ash, and the flesh underneath begins to petrify. Pretty quickly they become cold, at first its just the simple cold of death and soon it’s crystalline bonelike flesh replacing everything that was once human. And cracking open to leak black blood... and then black smoke... until nothing is left. It seems that what we call ‘zombies’ are just the juvenile stage of a demon. A walking crysalis for something else. * Oh, and their complexion is more greyish than green. Mostly just cos big red wounds would look even more horrifying against a monotone colourscheme, and when the blood becomes black too it would be its own kind of horror... I think the shade of stone they become is linked to their skintone though. That’s a thing that always bugged me about certain vampire stories, how they always turn pale in twilight even if they were dark-skinned in life. (Yes, that is a thing in the books. At least the movies threw a bit more diversity in.) And slightly related, its annoying when all zombies turn the same shade of green. I mean its not really the same thing cos its not like anyone’s saying the zombies are desireable and ooo all hot zombies become white, or whatever. It just gets a bit confusing as a sign that the creators just did not think about POC being in this setting. Also its weird because green isn’t really a realistic colour for rotten human bodies, it always feels a bit too cartoony lol. So yeah weird grey stone zombies would not all be the same shade of grey, and this is a minor detail that should have been obvious but regrettably in a lot of stories it isn’t :P

* These zombies are more intelligent than usual zombies, they’re more equivelant to a simplistic prey animal rather than just a lumbering mess. They’re only that slow and helpless at the earliest stages of infection, pretty soon they start adapting and forming hunting strategies, rather than just walking in circles wherever they first died. They can progress far enough to create dens and packs and compete with each other for resources, and normally display about as much natural intelligence as a cat. Their main problem is more like a lack of awareness rather than lack of intelligence, they retain very little memory of their former selves and essentially behave as if they’re learning how to live again from the start. Left to their own devices they just become animalistic, but considering how they DO remember some things, it might be possible to teach one how to be fully aware again...? * The memories they keep of their former life usually lead to them reenacting old routines that hold no meaning anymore. The places they wander between might be places that were important to them in life, they might gather human things like magpies, they might claw wildly at a broom and start smashing it against things, vaguely remembering that at this time on wednesdays they did the chores. This can be used to manipulate zombies if you can observe them and figure out what things would provide a personal distraction. And global things that’re likely to attract every zombie are A LIFESAVER! Malls are the best scavenging spots because even though they’re the most populated by zombies, there are a million methods to misdirect the whole horde at once, and a million useful supplies inside. So much that if you could clear the place out, it might make a really good stronghold against further zombies. I mean, you’d be pretty much guaranteed to have new zombies coming there every day, in numbers small enough to handle... * The big problem is that these vestigal memories of important things can cause zombies to act in unexpected ways, unrelated to their actual degree of intelligence. You might think no zombie is capable of figuring out how to use a gun on its own, but a military person who died holding a gun might! They already have the combat instincts bored into their brain, it was a large part of their life, their last thoughts would have been to keep shooting no matter what. And their zombie self wakes up with this weird metal rifle thing strapped to their chest, banging against them every time they take a step, making it hard to get through doors. They claw at it a little, get curious about it, and those memories are constantly reinforced every day until they come swimming back up. Any zombie that had a useful skill and was in an environment where its easy to remember will most certainly retain it, no matter how low their self-awareness level is. Your only consolation with the rare gun-zombie is that they don’t often remember how to reload, so you only have to dodge one magazine of bullets!

* Miscellaneous thoughts of things! * I haven’t decided exactly what, but there should be certain chemicals that zombies react differently to, compared to humans. That’d make it easier to craft things to help combat them, and to help deal with your tamed zombie. All i know so far is that zombies are immune to poisons and generally have an iron stomach, so when you collect meat for your zombie you don’t have to worry about it spoiling. And there’s probably something that’s like zombie catnip and makes them sleepy, cos that’d be very useful as a gameplay aspect. * I think zombie vision is limited, and they mostly navigate through sound. The degree of limitation depends on what stage they’re at, it goes on a sort of curve with newly infected and very old infected both at the highest end of the scale. Newly infected eyes haven’t started changing yet, though theyre quite dizzy and clumsy at this first stage. Vision quickly starts degrading around the time that their dexterity recovers, so the difference isn’t really that big. Colour vision goes first. It’s complete colour blindness, not just red/green, so they’re even worse at sight than dogs are. (and, in fact, often compete with feral dogs for food) After that, they can only see blurs of light. Moving things or strong light sources will attract them, and they’re almost completely helpless in the darkness. The problem, though, is that later level infected are absolutely adapted to the darkness! After they’ve got used to navigating by sound alone, they spend all their time there. The only way they can perceive light is as heat on their fragile skin, so they hide away in shady places until night falls. So basically, if you see a zombie out in the light you should run to the darkness, and vice versa! And then when the infection starts to reach its final stages, they become able to perceive the world through the shadows they emit. This new form of ‘sight’ is more like a psychic sense, so there are some limits compared to human vision, and some things they can perceive more clearly. But, generally, they’re back to how good their sight used to be, and you should be wary of that. * Zombies are kinda like snakes, lizards or vampire bats. They only feed once in a while, they gorge themselves and then sleep it off for days or weeks afterwards. So not eveyr zombie you meet will actually try to eat you, just break you. And they won’t expend too much effort on it, since there’s not as much benefit to it, even if their instincts tell them that flesh = kill. Generally you just need to avoid letting them know you’re there, or looking like a threat to their territory. And they’ll quickly forget about you once you manage to escape them, they only pursue you to their full extent when its time to feed. So, for example, if you’ve tried scavenging the same place multiple times then enemies might get increasingly aggro! They start to recognise your scent, and they start to notice that things are vanishing from their territory every time you come there. They might start performing more complex behaviours like staking out the place they think you’ll appear, or readying ambushes and rudimentary traps. In comparison, you might actually be able to tame enemy zombies, to some degree. Its not really possible to save every single zombie, its hard enough to be able to restrain and retain this one single zombie daughter, who’s only this responsive to treatment because she knew you in life. But you can make zombies moderately more docile through certain expert techniques~! For example, if you toss them some food every time you scavenge around their nest, then they’ll start to learn to ignore you, and not really notice the stuff that’s dissappearing. They only care about losing food that they can actually eat, so if you focus on canned goods then you can also reduce aggro. And if you move stuff around you can make certain routes harder for them to cross, but it works even better if you also help them move down other routes. That way you don't just delay them finding you, you psychologically encourage them to turn the other way. “Hey, what’s this interesting new path that I’ve never seen before?” Keep switching the paths back and forth and you can trick them into never losing that excitement, zombies have bad short term memory XD And hey, if you make a big noise somewhere every time you enter the nest, you start teaching the zombies to run over there whenever you get there. Expend some time misdirecting them down a long path with a chunk of meat at the end, and eventually you don’t even need to do that, you can just make the noise and they all run down there even if there’s no reward! * Oh, and this idea was mostly just so that feeding your zombie daughter isn’t too difficult. You don’t have to murder a guy every damn day, she can last varying long amounts of time without food. And depending on how big the meal is and how you train her, you can increase or decrease the time. She’s only a baby zomb though, so generally her HELLISH HORROR HUNGER should be relatively manageable ^_^ I’ll have to figure out what would work best, gameplay wise. Once a month? once a week? * Maybe she can still eat human food, to some extent. Its just that only raw flesh and blood sates the monsterous aspect of her, the rest is empty calories. Plus you kinda need to save it all for keeping our human protagonist alive! But you can give zombiekid treats to reward her for good behaviour, or to calm her hunger when she’s gone without food for a long time. A full stomach won’t actually do anything to help, but it’ll keep her docile. And human food is hard for her to digest now, its usually only okay when its a single treat alongside a full meal of human flesh. Too much of it might just make her health worse, but its what you have to do to stop her from lashing out. It can be a bit depressing to have to lie to her and see her wasting away, not knowing why she's feeling so sick...

#zombie sim thing

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williamlwolf89 · 4 years

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57 Literary Devices That’ll Elevate Your Writing (+ Examples)

Where were you when your fourth-grade teacher first introduced you to literary devices?

(Did you learn about the mighty metaphor? Or maybe its simpering cousin, the simile?)

Perhaps you were daydreaming about cheese pizza and wondering what your mom packed you for lunch.

Years later, you’re starting to realize that maybe you should’ve taken better notes back then.

Because you’re a writer now, or trying to be, and it’s kind of embarrassing when your friends (or worse, your kids) come to you and ask: “What’s an onomatopoeia?”

And all you have to say is: “An onomatopoeia? Uh, well, you know it’s a species of a…a…achoo! Darn my dratted allergies!”

Never again.

Not with this handy-dandy list of 57 (count ‘em!) literary devices that will help your writing soar above the clouds… pull ahead of the teeming hordes… shine beyond the most brilliant — uh, you get the idea.

But let’s back up. You probably need a quick refresher first, right? Let’s do a quick Q&A.

Starting with…

What are Literary Devices?

Literary devices are strategies writers use to strengthen ideas, add personality to prose, and ultimately communicate more effectively. Just as chefs use unique ingredients or techniques to create culinary masterpieces (flambéed crêpes, anyone?), skilled writers use literary devices to create life-changing works of art.

So who should care about literary devices?

You, of course. If you want to be a charismatic, powerful writer that readers want to follow (or clients want to hire), that is.

The right literary devices can make your ideas more memorable, your thoughts more clear, and your writing more powerful.

Your knowledge and skillful use of literary devices will catapult you above the hordes of wannabe writers, increasing your self-confidence, and endowing you with the kind of influence that will keep your audience salivating to consume your work.

How are Literary Devices Different From Rhetorical Devices?

Literary devices and rhetorical devices have a good bit of overlap. They’re very similar — so similar, you’ll find a lot of confusing, conflicting information online.

Google “alliteration” and you’ll see it on lists for both rhetorical and literary devices. The same is true with “personification”, “tmesis”, “litotes”, and numerous others.

So what’s the difference?

Here’s an oversimplified TL;DR:

Literary devices are a narrative technique. Rhetorical devices, also known as persuasive devices or stylistic devices, are a persuasion technique.

What are the 10 Most Common Literary Devices?

Alliteration

Anthropomorphism

Dramatic Irony

Euphemism

Flashback

Foreshadowing

Hyperbole

Onomatopoeia

Oxymoron

Point of View

(Yes, we were surprised “anthropomorphism” made the list too.)

Alright, enough questions. It’s time for the main event.

Our Huge List of Literary Devices

You will find some recognizable names in this list. You will also find a few party crashers that (unless you were an English major) you’ve probably never heard of (I’m looking at you, verisimilitude).

But whether it’s a familiar friend or an idiosyncratic interloper, each and every device comes with a lovingly hand-crafted definition and an enlightening example, carefully curated by yours truly.

(Don’t say you haven’t been warned.)

Here’s our list of the 57 must-know literary devices to get you started on the road to writerly stardom:

1. Alliteration

Some super sentences supply stunning samples of alliteration, such as this one. In other words, an alliteration is a literary device that features a series of words in swift succession, all starting with the same letter.

Graceful and clever use of alliteration (not, ahem, like the example above) can create a pleasant musicality to writing.

But note: Alliterations are a special kind of consonance, which means they must use words that start with consonant sounds. Repeated vowel sounds are known as assonance.

Example of Alliteration

Most people think of tongue twisters like “Peter Piper picked a pot of pickled peppers” when they think of alliteration. But did you know many famous writers throughout the ages have used alliteration in their titles?

Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Romance Readers and Ridiculous Rascals… wait. That last one is not actually a thing. But it is alliterative!

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t share this alliterative-filled introduction from V for Vendetta:

2. Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is when a writer gives a non-human animal or object human-like qualities.

Example of Anthropomorphism

In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Lumiere the candlestick, Cogsworth the clock, and the other enchanted residents of the Prince/Beast’s castle talk, walk, sing, and feel emotions just like people do. (Because they technically ARE people… fictional enchanted people, that is.)

3. Dramatic Irony

Audiences love dramatic irony, because they get to be “in the know.” That is, they know something that the characters IN the story do not. Hey, if you buy the book, you get privileges!

Example of Dramatic Irony

In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, two men attempt to escape their responsibilities using the same fake name: Ernest. Only the audience knows the two tricksters’ real names are Jack and Algie. (A far cry from Ernest, for sure!)

4. Euphemism

The prefix “eu-” means “good” or “well,” so it makes sense that a “euphemism” is a “good way to talk about a bad thing.” Or, a “word or expression substituted for something else that is too harsh…”

Like when you say your nephew “just needs a bit of practice” when he plays the violin like a tortured cat.

Example of Euphemism

Because of humanity’s understandable aversion to death, we have come up with quite a few creative ways to describe death and dying:

Pushing up daisies

Going the way of the dinosaur

Kicking the bucket

5. Flashback

Flashbacks are scenes which show an event that happened in a character’s past, providing clues to the present story.

Example of Flashback

In Alfred Hitchcock’s famous movie Vertigo, one key flashback scene was almost cut out of the picture entirely. (SPOILER ALERT: It’s the scene where we find out that the suicidal wife is actually an actress hired to hide the wife’s murder. The actress starts to write a confession letter, then rips it up.)

6. Foreshadowing

The writing on the wall…

A glimpse of a tombstone with your name on it…

Fingernail marks scratched in blood…

Not all foreshadowing is creepy, but they all warn or indicate something is coming in the future. You could say that foreshadowing is like the opposite of a flashback.

Example of Foreshadowing

In the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee foreshadows the last twist in the story in the very first line of the book: “When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.”

(Of course, by the time you get to the end of the book, you’ve probably forgotten all about the first line. But that’s why Lee is a genius and the rest of us can only wonder in awe.)

7. Hyperbole

A hyperbole is an exaggeration that a hearer or reader is not supposed to take seriously.

Example of Hyperbole

The great satirist Mark Twain wrote in Old Times on the Mississippi:

“I…could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.”

8. Onomatopoeia

An onomatopoeia is a word that comes from the sound it represents, such as “achoo!” or “arrgh.”

Example of Onomatopoeia

Young children’s books are the motherlode of onomatopoeia. For example, Doreen Cronin’s Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type has onomatopoeia right in the title. Same with Ross MacDonald’s Achoo! Bang! Crash! And Barry Gott’s Honk! Splat! Vroom!

9. Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a popular literary device where seemingly contradictory words are connected. Fun fact: the word “oxymoron” is itself oxymoronic — it comes from two ancient Greek words meaning “sharp and stupid.”

Example of Oxymoron

Simon and Garfunkel’s famous song “The Sounds of Silence” is a perfect oxymoron.

10. Point of View

Point of view is the perspective a writer chooses when writing. In fiction, you can have a first, second, or third person point of view.

First person uses pronouns like “me” or “I,” second person uses “you,” and third person uses “he/she” and looks at the character and story from the perspective of an outsider.

Note: Third person can be limited. The narrator can either only see inside the head of one character, or they can be omniscient — a Godlike narrator that can see everything that is going on.

Example of Point of View

In The Help, a novel about black maids in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, the story is told from the first-person point of view of three women, looking at similar events from their own perspectives.

11. Allegory

Take a metaphor, put it on steroids, throw in a dash of realism, and you have yourself an allegory: a figure of speech used to represent a large, complex (and often moral) message about real-world events or issues.

Example of Allegory

Nothing screams “hypocritical tyrant” quite like fictional pigs in human clothing, declaring: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others!”

At least, that’s the message George Orwell hoped to convey in Animal Farm, a fictional mirror of communism. Orwell certainly had a way with (dystopian) allegories!

12. Allusion

An allusion is a device that the writer uses to refer, indirectly, to someone or something outside of the situation, such as a person, event, or thing in another (real or imagined) world.

Example of Allusion

In The Big Bang Theory, the names of main characters Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter allude to the real-life TV producer, Sheldon Leonard. (Let’s hope that he did not share his fictional counterparts’ personalities.)

13. Anachronism

Anachronism is the time machine of literary devices. Anachronisms pop up when a writer accidentally (or purposefully) makes an error in the chronology of the writing.

It’s most often seen when writing features slang or technology that should not appear in the timeline of the story.

Example of Anachronism

In the famous “He got me invested in some kind of fruit company” scene from Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump unfolds a thank-you letter sporting Steve Job’s Apple logo.

But the letter in the movie was sent in 1975, while Apple didn’t go public in the real world until 1980. So Forrest Gump couldn’t have invested in the computer company as the movie portrayed it. (We still love you, Forrest!)

14. Anaphora

The anaphora is a literary device that emphasizes a word, word group, or phrase by repeating it at the beginning of a series of clauses or sentences.

Example of Anaphora

One of the longest opening lines by Charles Dickens (which a high school English teacher once directed me to memorize) uses anaphora generously:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the…”

(Thanks a lot, Dickens!)

15. Anastrophe

Anastrophe is a literary device that alters the normal order of English speech. In other words, instead of subject-verb-object (“I like cats”), the sentence order becomes subject-object-verb (“I cats like”).

Poets use anastrophe to make rhyming easier, and prose writers use it to sound… wiser?

Example of Anastrophe

Who can talk about anastrophe without mentioning our favorite intergalactic mentor? That’s right, Yoda’s iconic speeches are fantastic examples of anastrophe:

“Powerful you have become”

“Named must be your fear before banish it you can.”

“The greatest teacher, failure is.”

16. Aphorism

An aphorism is a short, witty saying that delivers wisdom with a punch. But in order for it to be an aphorism, it has to contain a universal truth, packed into a nutshell-sized statement.

Example of Aphorism

Benjamin Franklin was a master of aphorisms. Here is a prime selection from his treasure trove:

Little strokes fell great oaks

Strike while the iron is hot

Fish and visitors smell in three days

17. Archetype

An archetype is the original pattern, the prototype, the ideal model for a certain character or situation.

Example of Archetype

In the epic poem, Beowulf, Grendel is the archetypal monster, a “descendant of Cain,” “creature of darkness,” and “devourer of our human kind.” (Yikes. Would not want to meet him in a dark alley!)

18. Asyndeton

Sometimes, a writer leaves out conjunctions like and, but, or, for, and nor. This is not because s/he is forgetful. It’s because that’s what an asyndeton is: a group of phrases with the conjunctions left out, for rhythmic emphasis.

Example of Asyndeton

Here’s Abraham Lincoln beautifully demonstrating the power of the asyndeton:

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth.”

(Notice the glaring omission of the word “and.”)

19. Chiasmus

The Latin word “chiasm” refers to a “crossing,” so it makes sense that a chiasmus is a literary device where words, grammar constructions, and/or concepts are “crossed,” aka reversed.

Example of Chiasmus

Apparently, early Greeks were quite fond of the chiasmus, or at least Socrates was:

“Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.”

20. Cliffhanger

Cliffhangers get their name from the effect they have on readers: making them feel as if a cruel, cruel writer has left them dangling off the edge of a lonely ledge.

We all know that feeling of reading WAY past our bedtime, because every chapter’s ending has us frantically flipping to find out what happens next. That’s a cliffhanger.

Example of Cliffhanger

Here’s a cliffhanger from Harry Potter:

“Harry crossed to his bedroom on tiptoe, slipped inside… and turned to collapse on his bed. The trouble was, there was already someone sitting on it.”

Want to know what happens next? You’ll have to read the book.

21. Colloquialism

The word “colloquialism” would probably never be a colloquialism itself. That’s because colloquialism is a word, phrase, or expression that is used in daily, informal conversations by common people. Colloquialisms vary, depending on where you live.

Example of Colloquialism

The briefly popular 2012 meme series, “Sh*t X say,” are packed with examples of colloquialisms, such as these, er, jewels (?) from Episode 1 of “Sh*t Girls Say”:

“Twinsies!”

“Shut UP!”

“Like, I’m not even joking right now.”

22. Cumulative Sentence

A cumulative sentence builds on a core idea (an independent clause, if you must know the technical term) by layering on chopped-up partial sentences (dependent clauses) and phrases, like a layer cake!

Example of Cumulative Sentence

“She finished the Game of Thrones marathon, exhausted yet exhilarated, full of grief that it was all over, itching to call her bestie to discuss her impressions, shocked that it was already nearly dawn.”

23. Diction

Diction is a fancy way of saying: “the words a writer chooses when talking to a specific audience.” Diction can be formal or informal, use jargon or regional slang, etc.

Example of Diction

Formal diction:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Informal diction:

Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain’t that a big enough majority in any town?Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

24. Epigraph

An epigraph is a brief quote or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter that is put there to suggest the theme of said book or chapter.

Example of Epigraph

“For Beatrice — My love for you shall live forever. You, however, did not.”

“For Beatrice — When we first met, you were pretty, and I was lonely. Now I am pretty lonely.”

“For Beatrice — I cherished, you perished. The world’s been nightmarished.”

Technically, the poetic homage to the dead Beatrice in Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events is a dedication, not an epigraph. But since Beatrice is fictional (as is, in a sense, the author himself), and these darkly funny quotes set the tone for the Unfortunate Events quite well, one could make the case that these are, in fact, epigraphs.

25. Epistrophe

Not to be confused with alliteration, the epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of a series of clauses or sentences to add rhythm and/or emphasis.

Example of Epistrophe

‘Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it

If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it

Don’t be mad once you see that he want it

If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it Beyonce, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

(My apologies for the ear worm.)

26. Extended Metaphor

An extended metaphor is a metaphor that is extended. Just like I’m about to extend this definition: a metaphor developed in high detail and spread over a large passage of writing, from several lines, to a paragraph, to an entire work. (Done! Whew.)

Example of Extended Metaphor

In 2003, Will Ferrell told graduating Harvard-ians about his alma mater, the “University of Life” where he studied in the “School of Hard Knocks” the school colors were “black and blue,” he had office hours with the “Dean of Bloody Noses” and had to borrow his class notes from “Professor Knuckle Sandwich.”

27. Exposition

An exposition is a literary device used to introduce background information about the story in a matter-of-fact way.

Example of Exposition

Because of the famous fiction writing rule, “show don’t tell,” many authors use dialogue and other tricks to convey need-to-know information. But some very successful writers continue to use plain old straightforward exposition like:

The hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of the Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected.J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

28. Frame Story

A frame story is exactly what it sounds like: A story that frames another story. In other words, it’s a story that introduces another smaller story inside, or the story outside the story within the story… oh, never mind. Just see the example below.

Example of a Frame Story

The best example of a frame story is The Princess Bride, which author William Goldman claims to have “translated” from an old “Florinese” story his father told him.

The movie version also uses a frame story: A grandfather reads his grandson a bedtime story (The Princess Bride, of course!).

29. Humor

If I have to explain what humor is to you, I’m afraid you might need something a bit stronger than 57 literary devices to… Oh, what’s that? (My editor says I still have to give you a definition. Contractual obligations, and all that.)

Fine, fine. Here it is: humor is a literary tool that amuses readers and makes them laugh. (There, happy?)

Example of Humor

I mean, technically this whole entire article is just one big ball of fun, but… what’s that? Okay, alright. Official examples, here we go:

“It’s just a flesh wound!” — The Black Knight, after getting both arms chopped off in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

“‘Greater good?’ I am your wife! I’m the greatest good you’re ever gonna get!” — Frozone’s wife’s in response to Frozone’s desire to bail on dinner to save the world in The Incredibles

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” — Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

30. Hypophora

No, it’s not a fancy name for a Greek hippo. Rather, a hypophora is a literary device where a writer asks a question and then immediately answers it.

Example of Hypophora

Here’s a philosophical example from the timeless children’s novel Charlotte’s Web:

“After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.”

31. Imagery

Imagery is descriptive or figurative language used to evoke near-physical sensations in a reader’s mind. Well-written imagery helps readers almost see, hear, taste, touch, and feel what is going on in the story.

Example of Imagery

Here’s an excerpt from T.S. Eliot’s Preludes, which uses multiple senses:

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o’clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet.

32. Irony

Irony is one of the trickiest literary devices to define, best grasped through absorbing examples. But a workable definition goes something like this:

Irony is using a word or phrase that usually signifies the opposite of what the speaker intends to say, for comedic or emphatic purposes. Irony can also be an event that works out contrary to the expected, and can often be funny.

So enough with dry definitions, let’s see if the examples can explain better:

Example of Irony

There are three kinds of irony, one of which (dramatic irony) we discussed earlier:

Dramatic irony: In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows that Juliet isn’t dead, but asleep. Romeo, who doesn’t know, kills himself.

Situational irony: In the animated film Ratatouille, it’s ironic that a rat (which most people don’t like to see in kitchens) ends up being the master chef in a kitchen.

Verbal irony: When Beauty and the Beast’s Belle is trying to get away from an odious suitor’s proposal, she says, “I just don’t deserve you!”

33. Isocolon

Isocolon refers to a piece of writing that uses a series of clauses, phrases, or sentences that are grammatically equal in length, creating a parallel structure that gives it a sort of pleasant rhythm.

Examples of Isocolon

“Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered).” — Julius Caesar

“You’ve got a lot to live. Pepsi’s got a lot to give.” — Pepsi, circa 1969

“You win some, you lose some.” — Unknown

34. Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is a literary device writers use to place two highly contrasting things together to emphasize the difference.

Example of Juxtaposition

In Pixar’s Up, Carl Fredricksen is an old, curmudgeonly widower, while his unwanted sidekick Russell is a young, naively energetic schoolboy. That’s what makes the movie so much fun: the contrast (read: juxtaposition) between old, jaded Carl and young, innocent Russell.

35. Litotes

Litotes, from a Greek word meaning “simple,” refers to an affirmation where you say something by negating the contrary.

Example of Litotes

In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift prefaces his proposal to cure poverty by eating poor people’s children with a litotes:

“I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

Having been assured by a very knowing American…that a young healthy child well nursed is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food…I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragoust.”

36. Malapropism

A malapropism is when a character (unintentionally and hilariously) mistakes a word in place of a similar-sounding word. The concept comes from a character (Mrs. Malaprop) who liked to use big words incorrectly in a comedic play by English playwright Richard Sheridan.

Example of a Malapropism

The beloved children’s series Amelia Bedelia describes a maid who takes her bosses’ instructions a bit too literally. For example: sketching her bosses’ drapes when asked to “draw the drapes.”

37. Metaphor

Ah, the metaphor! A favorite tool of writers everywhere. The metaphor is a literary device where something is compared to a dissimilar thing without using a comparison word such as “like” or “as.”

Example of a Metaphor

In Pixar’s Inside Out, the emotions Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness live and work in Headquarters, an obvious metaphor comparing the brain to a technological control center.

38. Metonymy

Metonymy is the practice of using part of a thing to represent something related to it. In other words, it’s the use of one word as a stand in for another, bigger concept.

Example of Metonymy

Mark Twain uses metonymy in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

“He said he reckoned a body could reform the ole man with a shotgun.”

Here, a “body” refers not to a corpse, but to a person. A corpse, after all, would probably have a hard time wielding a shotgun.

39. Mood

Mood is the feeling an audience gets from consuming a piece of writing. The words a writer chooses creates an atmosphere that evokes powerful emotions from the reader.

Example of Mood

Children’s writer Roald Dahl is a master of creating whimsical, funny, child-friendly moods in his books via extraordinary situations (a boy wins a golden ticket to a magical chocolate factory) and a silly invented vocabulary:

“Don’t gobblefunk around with words” — The BFG

40. Motif

A motif is a sound, action, figure, image, or other element or symbol that recurs throughout a literary work to help develop the theme.

Example of Motif

The book/movie Ready Player One is stuffed with pop motifs from the 1980s. The entire plot revolves around a virtual 1980s world, which contrasts with the main character’s bleak real-life.

41. Paradox

A paradox seems to make two mutually contradictory things true at the same time.

Example of Paradox

In the tragic revenge story, Hamlet, the title character says something that sounds paradoxical:

“I must be cruel to be kind.”

Meaning, he must kill his stepfather (cruel) in order to avenge his father’s murder (kind).

42. Personification

Personification: giving humanlike characteristics to nonhuman animals or objects. Don’t confuse it with anthropomorphism, which goes farther, making the nonhuman character act and appear human.

Example of Personification

Pixar is a master at using personification. For example, in their 2006 movie Cars, the main characters are all, well, cars — cars who talk, race, date, do community service, and win trophies.

43. Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton is a literary device that uses conjunctions quickly, one right after the other, often without punctuation, in order to play with the rhythm of the writing.

Example of Polysyndeton

In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou uses polysyndeton when she writes:

“Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets…”

44. Repetition

Repetition is the grandaddy of many other devices on this list, such as anaphora, epistrophe, and polysyndeton above.

In other words, repetition is the reiteration of something (word, phrase, sentence, etc.) that has already been said (for emphasis).

Example of Repetition

Repetition is frequently used in song lyrics, such as the iconic Beatles song, Let It Be:

“When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

There will be an answer, let it be…”

45. Satire

Satire uses humor, ridicule, irony, and exaggeration to expose and criticize something ridiculous, stupid, or bad. Satire can be light and funny, or dark and judgmental.

There are three types of satire: Juvenalian (viciously attacking a single target), Menippean (equally harsh, but more general), and Horatian (softer, more humorous).

Example of Satire

The funny-offensive show South Park is a modern-day example of biting satire, riffing on all kinds of sensitive topics in a politically incorrect fashion, from politics to religion to Hollywood.

46. Simile

A simile is like a metaphor, except that it compares dissimilar objects using the words “like” or “as” (whereas metaphors compare directly, without any helping words).

A choice simile can be funny, memorable, surprising, or all three!

Example of Simile

Sometimes the most memorable similes are the strangest ones, like this collection of similes from Song of Solomon in the Bible:

“Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are a flock of sheep just shorn…your lips are like a scarlet ribbon…”

47. Soliloquy

A soliloquy is a speech given by a character in the absence of hearers. Soliloquies are particularly popular in plays, which don’t usually have the luxury of omniscient narration to reveal characters’ inner thoughts.

Example of Soliloquy

Who can talk about soliloquies without mentioning the Bard’s epic romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet?

“Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo!” says Juliet, speaking (or so she thinks) to herself.

48. Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock. Lee Child. Steven King. All are storytellers who create suspense, a feeling of heightened anxiety, uncertainty, and excitement.

Example of Suspense

The famous (or should I say infamous?) shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho kept watchers curling their toes for 45 seconds while the innocent-and-soon-to-be-dead Marion takes a shower with a killer lurking in the background.

49. Symbolism

Symbolism. A favorite device of literature teachers everywhere. Symbolism is, of course, when writers use symbols (images, objects, etc.) to represent bigger, deeper ideas, qualities, and so on.

Example of Symbolism

Harry Potter’s lightning scar, the Ring of Doom from the eponymous Lord of the Rings, the mockingjay from Hunger Games… there are examples of symbolism everywhere you look!

50. Synecdoche

A synecdoche is a literary device where a part stands in for the whole, or vice versa. It is not to be confused with metonymy, which is when something represents a related concept. (See the earlier example for metonymy.)

Example of Synecdoche

In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony asks his “Friends, Romans, countrymen” to “lend [him] their ears.” Thankfully, his audience recognized this metonymy and did not interpret Antony’s words literally. Otherwise, we would have a very different play on our hands.

51. Tautology

A tautology is a literary device often used by accident. It involves saying the same thing twice, but phrasing it differently the second time.

A tautology is something a child might say: “I want it because I want it!”

Example of Tautology

In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, “gently rapping” and “faintly tapping” are redundant:

“But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door”

52. Tmesis

From the Greek word meaning “to cut,” tmesis is a literary device that cuts a word or phrase into two parts by inserting a word in between them.

Example of Tmesis

Here are two silly samples from Pygmalion’s Eliza Doolittle:

“Fan-bloody-tastic!”

“Abso-blooming-lutely”

53. Tone

Tone can be tricky to define. Officially, in writing, tone is the attitude a writer has toward the subject or the audience. It’s the writer’s viewpoint, conveyed through his or her word choice.

Example of Tone

Notice how the choice of emotional words, pacing, and use of other literary elements in this excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart create a guilty, anxious tone:

“I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not…I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations, but the noise steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro…O God! What COULD I do? I foamed — I raved — I swore!”

54. Tragicomedy

A tragicomedy is exactly what it sounds like: a story (play or novel) that is both tragic and comedic.

Example of Tragicomedy

Having mastered both tragedy and comedy, is it such a stretch for Shakespeare to have mastered tragicomedy as well? Think: The Merchant of Venice, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest, which all blend humor and suffering in a reflection of real life.

55. Verisimilitude

Verisimilitude is a fancy-schmancy word for saying something fake looks real. Example: writing about a fictitious person, thing, or event, that seems almost true, even if it’s far-fetched.

Example of Verisimilitude

Fantasy stories are the best fodder for finding verisimilitude. For example, prolific fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson often creates convoluted magic systems based on things like color, strict rules, constraints, and consequences that almost makes them seem possible.

56. Vignette

A vignette is a short scene or episode — a moment-in-the-life description. Unlike a short story, it doesn’t have a narrative arc or all the elements of a plot.

Example of Vignette

In 2009, Pixar put out a series of video vignettes to promote their movie, Wall-E:

“WALL-E meets a football”

“Wall-E cup shuffle”

“Wall-E meets a magnet”

Here, check them out:

57. Zoomorphism

Zoomorphism is when a writer gives animal-like characteristics to something (human, inanimate object, etc.) that is not an animal. It’s basically the animal form of personification.

Example of Zoomorphism

Want a terrific example of zoomorphism? Just check out Spider-Man, Catwoman, Black Panther, and dozens other comic book superheroes.

What to Do With Your Literary Device Knowledge

Whew! That was a doozy. Congratulations on making it through the entire list.

Now, I know what you’re thinking:

“Do I need to memorize all of these literary terms?”

No, no you don’t.

“Do I even have to know them by name?”

Not necessarily.

But tell you what…

Go through the list again and just let everything soak in. Then next time you’re reading a book, blog post, magazine article, or even a tabloid, try to spot any of the literary devices hiding inside.

I promise, they’re there.

And next time you write, see if you can weave in a common literary device or two, for emphasis, for art, or just for grins and giggles.

As you learn to notice and absorb these devices into your craft — the way a kung-fu master absorbs the basic foundations of his form — you will find yourself becoming a more versatile, expressive, skillful writer.

It’s a bit like having a variety of colors to choose from as a painter. Sure, you can draw a decent portrait with just a stick of charcoal, but imagine what you could do if you had an entire palette.

That’s what literary devices can do for you, if you take the time to pick them up.

So take another peek at this list now and then, and practice sneaking lit devices into your own work.

You’ll be amazed how much clearer, stronger, and addicting your writing will become.

Editors will grin and nod as they read through your work.

Bloggers will fight to snap up your guest posts.

Readers will mob you for your skills.

And you will smile like Mona Lisa, master of the secrets of the universe (or at least this list of literary devices).

The post 57 Literary Devices That’ll Elevate Your Writing (+ Examples) appeared first on Smart Blogger.

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years

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The Seven Secrets Of Pure Dumb Luck

“Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair.”

-- The Joker, The Dark Knight

Sandra Newman’s meme has been bouncing around the Internet for a while now, and while many people get it’s point, some fail to realize she’s satirizing not people who fail to achieve success (however one chooses to define “fail” or “success”) but rather the mindset of those who are “born on third base and believe they knocked a home run”.

It’s the mindset of privilege, and while her meme specifically focuses on those with the privilege of wealth, truth be told privilege comes in many shapes / forms / fashions depending on when and where and to what group one is born.

But let’s focus on the wealth-based form she cites.

Chance, as Louis Pasteur observed, favors the prepared mind.

It’s certainly solid advice for everyone to strive to be as mentally / emotionally / physically fit and healthy as possible, to develop productive habits, and to constantly be open to learning new things.

Before they became glorified trade schools, universities’ classical liberal arts degrees didn’t teach students what to think but how to think, the goal being to produce a cohort of graduates who -- regardless of what situation they found themselves in -- would be able to analyze what was needed and figure out how to achieve it.

Nowadays, thanks to libraries and the Internet, it’s possible for anyone to be their own polymath.

All it takes is the will and desire.

But despite being prepared, there is no guarantee chance (or fate, or fortune, or destiny, or God’s will, or plain ol’ dumb luck, or whatever you want to call it) will provide you with an opportunity to succeed.

Indeed, as our friend The Joker observes, chaos is fair.

It will dash you down just as easily as it lifts you up, and sometimes it will lift you up only to dash you down all the harder. (Cue Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana - O Fortuna”.)

You can’t complain about that. As Jimmy Durante observed, dem’s da conditions wot prevails.

Life is neither pure intellect -- such as chess -- nor pure chance -- such as roulette.

Rather, it’s more like Monopoly.

Now, as a game, Monopoly starts off fairly (well, kinda…each player brings their own particular skill set / insight / personal history to the proceedings, and sometimes a player’s background can provide either a distinct edge or disadvantage).

Every player starts with $1,500.

The bank owns all the properties.

Play is determined by a random roll of the dice, and a random distribution of Community Chest / Chance cards when one lands on those spaces.

Player wheel and deal, each trying to force the others into bankruptcy, thus winning the game.

(It’s really a damn tragedy that Monopoly -- which began life as a socialist teaching tool called The Landlord Game -- has become a cultural touchstone for sociopathic success instead of a dire warning for community disaster.)

Now imagine Monopoly played under these conditions:

Of the maximum number of eight players at the start of the game, two only get $100, two only get $500, two get the full $1,500, one gets $2,000, and one gets $5,800.

The two wealthiest players never go to jail, never pay any penalties.

The players with the least money pay double.

The two wealthiest players get their $200 every time they pass Go.

The other players only get $150…or $100…or just $20.

The two wealthiest players can borrow as much as they like, any time they like, and pay back at their leisure with only minimum interest.

The other players can’t borrow enough to meet their needs, and what they do borrow, they need to pay back on a rigid schedule at usurous rates.

The two wealthiest players can purchase properties and houses and hotels whenever they like.

The other players are either limited to what they can buy or denied the chance all together.

It would be bad enough if the unequal benefits were handed out purely at random, but in order to more perfectly model real life, this version of Monopoly would require the owner of the game not only get the most money but be the banker as well, that their best friend takes the #2 position, and that lesser acquaintances fill in the bottom six slots on the roster.

And to make it even more realistic, imagine that the top two players are allowed to keep their winnings and properties from the previous game every time a new game was started.

Now, it is possible for a player starting with only $100 to come out on top and win the game through a combination of shrewd business strategy and uncommonly good luck --

-- but that ain’t the way the smart money bets.

At a certain point, no matter how brilliant one may be regarding financial strategy or computing mathematical odds, the only “winners” will be those pre-ordained to win by the owner of the game.

Every successful person is successful for a combination many different reasons, but unless one admits pure blind luck random chance is one of those reasons, one is lying.

Case in point: My personal history.

Random factor #1: I was born as a male into a white middle class family in the American South in the early 1950s. For most of my life, I had advantages millions of others -- black, white, and female -- were denied.

Random factor #2: Because my father changed jobs a lot, we moved frequently, averaging out one move a year, usually to a different town or at the very least a different school district. As a result, I grew up with no lifelong friends or neighbors or schoolmates.

Random factor #3: Because we were always moving into new schools, I gravitated towards science fiction fandom. It gave me a group of friends and pen-pals who were never further away than my mailbox, and a sense of permanence lacking in real life.

Random factor #4: Because I was involved in fandom, and because I had a creative bent (and because my father once harbored ambitions himself of being a writer -- throw that in as random factor #4b -- and thus could provide me with books and magazines on writing), I started writing science fiction / fantasy / horror stories and reviews / articles / letters of comment to fanzines.

Random factor #5: I was drafted at age 19, and thus missed an opportunity to go to college straight out of high school.

Random factor #6: I met and married my wife while in the Army, and we started a family. This gave me an incentive to stay in for the full 6 year enlistment, as well as an incentive to find employment in my desired field as soon as possible once I was discharged.

Random factor #7: Though the GI Bill got me into USC’s film school, that started in October of 1978 and I was discharged in February of 1978. We came to Los Angeles to find a place to live and hopefully for me, a mail room or driver job in the film or TV business so I could make a little money and get my feet wet in the industry before starting film school.

Random factor #8: After visiting nearly 100 other studios and production companies (no kidding!) in search of a mail room or driver job, I worked my way down to Filmation Studios. By chance I was there during what was called hiatus season (i.e., the lag time between the end of production on the previous season’s shows and start of the next) and Filmation’s live action producer / director Arthur Nadel Jr. was twiddling his thumbs in his office, bored out of his mind, so when the receptionist asked if he wanted to see the guy looking for a job, he said sure, send him back, anything to kill an afternoon.

Arthur took a liking to me. I told him about writing but not selling short stories for sci-fi magazines (see random factor #4 above). Arthur asked if he could see some, and to make a long story short, when October rolled around I was making too much money as a staff writer at Filmation to go to film school that year (see random factor #6), so I decided to put it off until 1979.

Which became 1980…1981…1982…

Random factor #9: Filmation downsized and turned me loose in early 1980; I found a staff position at Ruby-Spears, and there met Steve Gerber and several other people whom I’d work with repeatedly in the ensuing years, becoming dear friends with many of them.

Random factor #10: For various reasons, Steve and I left Ruby-Spears. Steve was hired to story edit Sunbow’s G.I. Joe series.

Now here’s an important point: I was not one of the first round picks for staff positions at Sunbow.

Indeed, I was told even freelancing there would likely be a long shot.

However, Steve knew I’d served in the Army (see random factor #5) and, realizing the stories they were getting lacked a certain sense of verisimilitude, asked if I would look them over and give him some feedback. I did so gratis because we were friends (see random factor #9).

From that feedback, Steve recommended to Sunbow they hire me as a staff writer / technical advisor. That quickly morphed into an assistant story editor position, and from there I went on to story edit the second season of G.I. Joe.

I’m going to break off my narrative there; clearly there were a lot of other random factors that impacted me through the next 35 years of my life.

My point is, had any one of random factors #1 through #10 been changed, the subsequent events of my life and their random factors would have changed as well.

If I hadn’t been drafted and sent to Korea (random factor #5), it’s extremely unlikely I would have ever met Soon-ok (random factor #6).

And while one can argue these random factors carried combinations of good and bad circumstances (and sometimes what seemed bad -- being drafted and sent to Korea, f’r instance -- turned out to be really, really good), had I not been steered into the direction of sci-fi fandom (random factor #2), and / or if my father hadn’t encouraged me (random factor #5), I wouldn’t be posting this, you wouldn’t be reading it.

Would I have been a better / happier / more successful person under different circumstances?

Good question -- and I’d like to think no (at least to the better and happier parts).

But I would certainly have been different.

To return to my central point: I got breaks other people didn’t get because of my random factors. Assuming all the random factors averaged out with good nullifying bad and vice versa, I can feel a certain sense of accomplishment in my career.

But there are others who had far more advantages due to their random factors, and others who faced far more obstacles due to their random factors.

Looking back at our Monopoly game, while there’s nothing wrong with a truly random advantage, there’s also something profoundly unfair about ginning the game to stack the odds in your favor.

#writing #creativity #privilege #success

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biofunmy · 5 years

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Should Board Gamers Play the Roles of Racists, Slavers and Nazis?

In the continuing explosion of tabletop board gaming, there are numerous World War II games in which players get to be Nazis. There are American Civil War games in which players take the role of the Confederacy. Some of these games confront the victims of the Holocaust and enslaved people head on; most don’t, though of course they’re right there if players choose to look.

But even poorly designed games with war themes often get the benefit of the doubt. They are generally created and played by people deeply interested in history. They prize accuracy over fun. Most games in this genre are accompanied by extensive reading lists and explanations; players often treat them as a way to learn that is more engaging than just reading a book.

Scramble for Africa was a new strategy game — what is called a “eurogame,” to contrast the genre with war games and more confrontational luck-based American board games. In it, the player would “take the role of one of six European powers with an eye toward exploring the unknown interior of Africa, discovering land and natural resources,” as the game’s description put it.

And with that, Scramble for Africa became board gaming’s entree into the very particular, sometimes confusing and very of-the-moment culture wars of 2019.

The great message board flame war

As a creative medium, board games are fundamentally different than film, theater or literature. While all great art is deeply engaging, the audience for those media are mostly bystanders. Watching “Schindler’s List” or reading “The Diary of Anne Frank” are different experiences than plotting like a Nazi in a board game.

The real life scramble for Africa was the pillaging of much of the African continent for its resources and its people.

Under Belgium’s King Leopold II, between 1885 and 1908 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, historians estimate that anywhere between a few million and 10 million people died because of starvation, disease, murder and a falling birthrate.

It is largely recognized as one of history’s most bloodthirsty occupations. (“The list of specific massacres on record goes on and on,” Adam Hochschild writes in “King Leopold’s Ghost.” “The territory was awash in corpses, sometimes literally.”)

The Belgian colonizers were unusually barbaric, but the rule of the other European countries that carved up Africa differed only in scale, not in kind, across a wide swath of the continent.

Joe Chacon, the designer of Scramble for Africa, was accused of not treating this situation with appropriate seriousness. In his game, the savagery that was part and parcel of that exploration seems to be dealt with in minor and trivializing ways. The players must put down rebellions, and can slow their opponents by inciting native revolts. Random events include “penalties for atrocities” and rewards for ending slavery. Butchery is gameified.

Soon after the game’s announcement in February, debate played out across thousands of posts on BoardGameGeek, the hub of board gaming on the internet.

“The Holocaust could be a topic for a resource management game, but most people would rightly see that as reprehensible,” one BoardGameGeek user wrote. “The Scramble for Africa, as a historic episode, was marked by exploitation, chattel slavery, and brutalization of a racial group that their oppressors often considered lesser humans.”

“People deciding for you what historical topics you can and cannot play,” another countered. “That is called censorship.”

Some arguments were on topic and persuasive. Most were not. There were rhetorical appeals and quotes — many cited thinkers like George Bernard Shaw, Robert Heinlein and Heinrich Heine, accurately or not. There were frequent invocations of censorship and the First Amendment, and rejoinders that the First Amendment applies only to government actors and this was simply the free market in action.

There were slippery slopes, faulty analogies, straw men galore and the gleeful identifying of said fallacies that is endemic to any message board flame war. There were trolling posts, insulting references to “social justice warriors” and analogies to supposed censorship taking place on YouTube and Facebook.

Eventually, after a thousand posts — hundreds of them deleted — the largest thread on the game was locked. “At this point, the only thing happening is old embers being reignited, and now we’re definitely veering political,” a moderator wrote.

Sprinkled among this debate, however, were novel and provocative questions about who designs games, who plays games, whether games are art, which viewpoints are represented and what responsibility games have to historical verisimilitude.

These ideas have been at the heart of critical examination of literature, music, theater, film and even video games for decades, even centuries, but have only begun to be discussed in board gaming.

Can you cancel a board game?

Gene Billingsley, the owner of GMT Games, the game’s publisher, responded to the criticism by pulling the game, two months after its announcement. “It’s clear to me that the game is out of step with what most eurogame players want from us, in terms of both topic and treatment,” he wrote in an email to GMT customers. (Neither he nor the game’s designer were willing to discuss the game and their experience with The New York Times.)

Most eurogames are designed to maximize the gameplay, or mechanics, with the theme an afterthought. A common criticism of many games is that the theme feels pasted on. With such little attention often paid to the story, the ranks of historically inaccurate or outright racist modern game are lengthy.

In the game Puerto Rico — for a long time ranked the best board game ever by BoardGameGeek users — brown pieces called “colonists” perform the roles that enslaved Taíno people did in Puerto Rico in real life.

In a game called Manitoba, players are Cree clan leaders, yet the game prominently features totem poles, made by Native American and First Nations peoples who lived thousands of miles away. (The Italian game designers of Manitoba have defended the inaccuracies, but also said it was their German publisher who chose the theme.)

And then there is King Phillip’s War, a game about a particularly bloody 17th-century conflict between European colonists and indigenous tribes in what is today New England. After the game was released in 2010, Julianne Jennings, an anthropology professor and member of the Cheroenhaka Nottoway tribe, organized a protest over it.

John Poniske, the middle-school social studies teacher who designed that game, said he doesn’t believe any of the people who objected to the game ever saw a copy of the rules, let alone played it. “I would wake up every morning to more comments from around the world,” he said. “It was fascinating, and it was also kind of scary.”

Mr. Poniske, who has created a number of games about lesser studied battles and wars, said he designed King Phillip’s War because the conflict was so influential, yet so little known. “It led to the foundation of today’s special forces,” he said. “It caused more casualties than any American war per capita at the time. It led directly to colonial protests.”

Despite firmly disagreeing that there is anything offensive about King Phillip’s War, Mr. Poniske said the episode made him think more deeply about the effect of his subsequent game designs. There are themes, he said, that he wouldn’t design a game about, like the Holocaust.

Making sense of the colonizer

One of the best-selling strategy games of the last few years is Eric Reuss’s Spirit Island, in which players take the role of different spirits who cooperate to defend their fictional island against colonizers.

Mr. Reuss said he designed the game in reaction to Puerto Rico and others that celebrate colonialism; in Spirit Island the pieces representing colonizers are white, a choice that inverts the assumption that light colors are good and dark colors are evil.

Mr. Reuss believes Scramble for Africa would have passed without widespread criticism if it had been published years ago, and he is glad people are talking about its shortcomings. “Having a contentious conversation about it is still much better than however many decades ago when there wasn’t even a conversation,” he said.

Most board game reviewers recite a game’s mechanics and how it is played, seeking only to answer the questions of whether it is fun and worth buying. Few critically analyze games or ask what they are attempting to say. The hobby is still small enough that negative reviews are often regarded as personal attacks on designers.

“One of the odd things about the board game world is you don’t have anything like a mature media,” said Cole Wehrle, the designer of a number of well-regarded games about British colonialism. “There isn’t really an infrastructure for this conversation.”

Brenda Romero, the designer of Train, an educational Holocaust board game — called “the board game no one wants to play more than once” — pointed to an evolution in video games. There is still a dearth of mass-market games with art house bona fides, but there is a thriving indie scene with award-nominated games about cancer and the Syrian refugee crisis. Developers now expect their games to be dissected and criticized.

That doesn’t mean change, diversity and criticism were always welcomed with open arms. Female video game designers and critics in particular have been harassed and subjected to death threats, and much of the online discussion surrounding video games is toxic. Many video games and the associated YouTube culture surrounding them remain entry points for disaffected young men who become far-right radicals.

The board game hobby — especially in the United States — is overwhelmingly white and male, though, anecdotally, that seems to be changing. Mr. Wehrle and Mr. Reuss said they see more women and people of color playing games and attending board game conventions.

The ranks of board game designers, however, is changing more slowly. According to one study, 94 percent of the designers for the top 100 ranked games on BoardGameGeek were white men. This perhaps explains the viewpoint many games take. Their designers can more readily identify with the European colonizers, and not the colonized.

As long as Americans and Europeans dominate board gaming, themes of colonialism will likely abound. “You can make a game about anything, but you have to be responsible for the things you make,” said Mr. Wehrle, the designer.

Mr. Wehrle described board games a “little sympathy engines” because players directly embody a role. Designers should question who they have players sympathize with, and why, but he believes they should still make games with difficult themes. “There is value to letting players sympathize with a position that is morally objectionable, as long as it has some larger payoff,” he said.

In his game An Infamous Traffic, about the opium wars in China, Mr. Wehrle believes he achieves the payoff by juxtaposing sobriety with absurdity.

Players act as British merchants colonizing and becoming wealthy from a repugnant business, but they only score points by dominating the London Season, a sort of prestige competition among aristocrats to host balls, win regattas and dress the fanciest. (Mr. Wehrle has a doctorate in the literature of British colonialism, giving him a leg up in navigating this tricky balance. )

He believes Scramble for Africa was a failure because it lacked a similar, or any, payoff. “The story of globalization in the 17th to 19th century, that is the story everyone is already taught in high school, especially the West,” he said. “So when playing a game about that period you are not learning anything about it — you are re-enacting it.”

Meanwhile, in Africa

In most of Africa, strategy board games are not a regular pastime. Kenechukwu Ogbuagu is trying to change that. Mr. Ogbuagu is a board game designer, publisher and organizer of the first board game convention in West Africa. He also runs a board game cafe in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

That one person can do all of those things, that one person needs to do all of those things, speaks to how far board games are from being popularized in Nigeria.

Mr. Ogbuagu wasn’t aware of any board game scene in the Democratic Republic of Congo and none of the tens of thousands of active users on BoardGameGeek say they are from the country, but he did know of board gamers in Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Egypt and Kenya.

While Mr. Ogbuagu imports some games from Europe, his designs incorporate Nigerian themes because Nigerian players find those easier to relate to, he said. His game Irin Ajo features the geography and politics of Nigeria; Safe Journi is about uniquely Nigerian obstacles encountered while traveling.

“We want people to know that we make games too,” Mr. Ogbuagu said. “Even Nigerians and Africans can be in games.”

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hazelvt · 6 years

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abbycat96-blog1 · 6 years

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Best GRE prep Books 2018!

Here at Magoosh, I have reviewed all of the best GRE prep publications through time. Now, I am delighted to announce that I have made some upgrades to our very best GRE Books List! While not every one these books are out of this season (a few are far from it), the listing provides my fair GRE book reviews and recommendations for the ideal GRE book choices available on the industry. My purpose is to prevent you from sorting through the nimiety (that is surplus...a fantastic GRE term) of terrible GRE books on the market.

Happy Studying!

Very Best GRE Novels 2017 -- 2018 It is 2018 and there've been a few modifications on the GRE prep entrance, largely from ETS (the test-maker). Now, along with 2 complimentary, computer-based GRE practice tests you may take, known as PowerPrep, the test-maker provides two extra, fresh GRE practice tests called PowerPrep PLUS. Realistic test-taking practice is essential, and these may be fantastic new tools that will assist you prep for a high score--I will talk a bit more about the best way from the critique below.

In this informative article, I record the very best GRE prep books available on the industry and describe the positives and pitfalls of each. If you are only interested in reading about just one or 2, use the hyperlinks at the Table of Contents to jump to that part of this article.

Finest GRE Prep Books Without further ado, I give you the listing of the best 9 finest GRE prep books/materials (so) and three novels deserving of an honorable mention (in no specific order).

A Few notes before we proceed:

Under many testimonials, clicking on every book cover will take you to Amazon.com, which normally has the best prices. The specific prices provided here are in US dollars and reflect the purchase price of a new variant (unless otherwise noticed) at January 2018. You may nearly always purchase a secondhand version in a discount. A number of these books listed here aren't the latest variants. Most publishers alter hardly any content from 1 variant to another. If I can help save you money by advocating an old version of a fantastic book, then I am likely to do this! Time for the great stuff!

1. Magoosh GRE Novel

Our GRE students and specialists have collaborated to make the very cohesive GRE manual of time. Between the covers, this 468-page publication packs over a hundred clinic queries followed by comprehensive explanations--all pulled straight from our famous online GRE prep merchandise. Not only is it the publication loaded with a lot of helpful info, but every question and response has been checked by business specialists to optimize students' learning. If you are in the market to get a GRE book, we hope you will have a peek at GRE Prep from Magoosh!

2. Free GRE eBooks

Alright, they're not really books because unless you publish them you can not physically hold them and flip through the pages (even though an iPad may add a high degree of verisimilitude to the encounter). Together with the remainder of Magoosh's complimentary GRE tools, they're a fantastic way to begin your own GRE travel, before selecting which book to buy.

If you're able to only buy 1 book, this is it. The tone of this voice might not be as favorable as the other publications available on the marketplace. However, in the event that you're able to bear the content that is dry, you're becoming by far the very best practice because ETS writes the questions for your test.

Throw in four GRE practice tests, and also the very best GRE publication in the marketplace becomes better.

This is a twofer. ETS printed these two new novels in 2014, and boy are we glad that they did (they have been upgraded for 2017). The Verbal publication includes tons of questions that are new, composed by the manufacturers of the GRE. The plans are not anything new (you are able to learn all those from this site), but this novel is really a must-buy, if just for the quality of its practice queries. A word of caution: these new mathematics problems are extremely challenging. They will definitely require a little additional attention, and will assist you your quant game.

ETS Website:

With this stage, you've probably discovered that ETS has a great deal of products that will assist you prepare for the GRE. And they are all excellent.

When you've got plenty of money and time to invest before the exam, this is excellent news! Obviously, when you do not, it begins to get a bit confusing (and also to make it even more perplexing, ETS has repurposed some previous tests!

Let us explain a few things. To begin with, there are just two PowerPreps: the free version (only "PowerPrep") as well as also the paid versions ("PowerPrep PLUS," two evaluations that price $39.99 per).

Regardless of what, it is a fantastic idea to consider at least one, and preferably both, of those free PowerPrep evaluations ahead of your official examination. You will get to work together with the pc format, and you will see questions right from the test-makers.

In case you have the time, the PowerPrep PLUS evaluations do provide good training--that the explanations are a bit short, even though it may be good practice to work out the procedures in your--but at a cost. If you purchase both these exams, you are essentially paying half what it costs to choose the official GRE.

In the conclusion of the afternoon, it can be complicated to locate excellent GRE practice tests, so if you are preparing over a lengthy time period, purchasing at least PowerPrep PLUS evaluation is a fantastic idea. You most likely don't have to create the investment.

This publication isn't ideal, even at its next edition. However, when it comes to sheer content, it's far better compared to Barron's overall GRE guide. Have a look at our overview of this publication here. That which I wrote about the first variant remains true in the moment; in summary, this publication is strong enough in the event that you use it like a matter bank, however, the pacing of these evaluations is so off you shouldn't utilize it to the intended goal (that is, as six practice tests).

Sure this is a variant of the older GRE, and also the older, old GRE at the (the tests had been taken out of 1991, a year a number of you had to enter the planet). However, all these are queries made by the authors of evaluation, therefore the traps are timeless GRE. I would not use this as a basis for my GRE test prep, however, check out the inspection to Find out if it is a Fantastic match for your research: Practicing to Take the GRE, 10th Edition Book Review

The Reading Comprehension passages continue to be tough and create for great practice. And while they have cut on the Antonym and Analogy segments, the antonym questions nevertheless result in good practice (that the analogies comprise many absurd words, like titles of resources and sewing implements).

*Pricing is dependent upon how a lot of the novels you choose to buy.

This series includes eight (mostly excellent) books written by people that have years of instruction experience. This fact actually shines through in the authorial voice that this series utilizes. You feel like there's an extremely intelligent, but enjoyable, laid back coach walking you through this substance.

The six free online evaluations you obtain simply by purchasing any one of those eight novels makes MGRE a no-brainer if you would like expert guidance and fantastic practice. I have got a Complete review here: Manhattan GRE Collection

Not because they are perfect, but since they feature GRE sample essays...something few novels have. They will allow you to craft a nice reaction to a selection of GRE essay subjects (that is if it is possible to ignore the formatting problems that sometimes occur here...again, these novels aren't ideal).

But as ETS provides that the Issue and Argument subject pools beforehand, Vibrant has full of a market gap by giving a breakdown of every prompt and a sample article. Every publication has both problem and Argument essays, so it is probably not worth purchasing both. (If you believe you are going to have the ability to memorize the 120 essays from these novels, a) believe again and b) your own time will probably be far better spent considering the way to process the essays more commonly.)

Not required reading, but useful if you would like to boost your composition score.

This publication is usually substandard, and when after reading my review (see below), you're surprised I'm pairing it with this high 9 list, I owe a fast explanation: the addition of this Princeton Review publication speaks to the typically low grade of GRE prep books on the market.

Nonetheless, I somewhat enjoy this novel for its useful big-picture strategies. These approaches are for the most part absent in the Official Guide (although I share similar approaches from the eBook and about the site).

Nevertheless, two big caveats: Don't use this book if you're searching for a high score. The plans are extremely generic; they employ to the majority of standardized tests, and they will not help you realize the principles or innovative theories in the GRE. Second, don't do the queries, unless you're scoring way under 50 percent and are only starting off on the GRE. From this publication glean some useful tips which you could use on real test questions. This book isn't of much use.

The 2017 Kaplan publication has the very same issues the publication has ever had since 2011. Test prep approaches which are unnecessarily intricate and not that revolutionary, followed by subpar questions. That is, these queries are not like what you will see evaluation day concerning style or difficulty. Do not waste your time on this novel--it manages to be both too intricate and too easy at precisely the exact same moment.

The GRE Official Guide appears to be released by McGraw Hill. But do not think this publication is in anyway associated with the real GRE. The queries are constructed.

1) This report belongs to a series of articles designed to assist you begin your GRE prep. To find the other articles, download the GRE Prep App to get iPhone or Android.

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vileart · 6 years

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Dead Dramaturgy:Daniel Thackeray @ Camden

Scytheplays Ltd presents

The Dead, Live by Daniel Thackeray

Sunday 11th February 3.30pm, The Etcetera Theatre

Manchester-based Scytheplays Ltd, the company previously responsible for fringe theatre genre hits like the stage adaptation of 2000AD’s The Ballad of Halo Jones (“The greatest and most honest interpretation of an Alan Moore comic” – Forbidden Planet) is thrilled to be part of the first-ever London Lovecraft Festival with a one-off performance of The Dead, Live. In development for ten years and initially developed through the Oldham Coliseum Theatre's New Writing programme, the play is a new and unique take on the theatrical ghost story, and has gained much popular acclaim on its previous appearances at fringe festivals around the country (“Intimate chills for fans of postmodern ghost stories” – Starburst Magazine).

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I’ve always loved ghost stories and films based on ghost stories, and I wanted to add my own. But I wanted it to be for the theatre, and I wanted it to be powerfully theatrical.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved theatre and the transporting, imaginative quality of it, and I had an inkling that it might be the ideal medium for a tale of supernatural terror. All theatre has a slightly uncanny quality to it – that sense of being in the same room as, almost able to touch, fictional characters – and I thought if you emphasised this for horrific effect, you could deliver a real thrill for the audience.

Having said that, I started writing the piece a decade ago, and soon stopped – because I saw The Woman in Black! It’s an obvious reference point when you’re talking about stage ghost stories, but I had just never seen the stage version, although I’d read the book. The Woman in Black has kind of come to define what the stage ghost story is, and for a while I just couldn’t see how I could do better than that.

My piece, The Dead, Live, was even structurally kind of similar. So I gave up on it. But, after a long time, I realised that my piece actually had the potential to be something quite different, and to be uncanny and frightening in a different way.

The Dead, Live is a modern-day piece about a popular ‘psychic medium’ called Lawrence Dodds (played by the brilliant Howard Whittock). He’s a very modern figure who does public ‘reading’ shows – a little bit Derek Acorah, Colin Fry. And he’s very much a fake, using plants in the audience to make his psychic abilities look real.

The play begins as he is training up an actor called Rachael (Carly Tarett) who is going to be a plant in the audience watching his latest show, so we get a big discussion – with some tension, as these are two characters who have never met before and are forced to quickly develop a working relationship - about how the fraudulent psychic’s techniques of misdirection and cold reading work. And from that point, we go into the live show itself. And hopefully things don’t develop as expected.

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When I was thinking about what may really lie beneath the surface of the fakery and manipulation of the stage psychic, I took inspiration from a number of writers – Nigel (Quatermass) Kneale, Christopher (Scream and Scream Again) Wicking and HP Lovecraft. The unsettling dread of Lovecraft’s ‘cosmic horror’ was something I felt could really lie beneath the surface of Lawrence’s world. And so I’m very pleased and thrilled that we we’ll be performing at the first ever London Lovecraft Festival!

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

It absolutely is. In the age of social media, ‘public discussion’ seems in large part about people making snap judgements and attacking each other instantly and with great vitriol. But performance allows the speaker more time to set out their stall, to work through their ideas, with no less passion and precision. The discussion happens in the bar afterwards, or on the way home, and it’s possibly a better discussion because good theatre is good art, and therefore a more thoughtful and inspiring way to explore ideas than a soapbox.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I always have been, I can’t really remember how it started. Possibly a love of Roald Dahl at an early age led to a love of writing, and that led to drama through school. But over the years I’ve been lucky enough to see and be inspired and moved by many fine productions in the theatre and in film, television and radio, so for a long time I’ve wanted to study those media and make my own contribution to what seems to me to be a great tradition.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

This particular show caused a great many interesting conversations in the rehearsal room, between the director, Alex Shepley, myself and the actors. Without giving too much away, I think the style we’ve tried to go for is a kind of intimate, semi-interactive naturalism.

Because the main characters in the play are both performers and spend a good chunk of the show ‘in character’, and are at other points required to deal with particularly non-realistic situations, it was a challenge to keep the tone consistent. It involved breaking the fourth wall – Alex and I agreed that it’s fine to do that, so long as in doing so you are making the drama more real, not less real. I don’t want to say any more about it really. Except that I hope we succeeded!

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Pretty much. Scytheplays is all about bringing genre to life on stage. When I say ‘genre’ I mean horror, sci-fi, fantasy. We either adapt for the stage genre material in those genres, or, less frequently, create original works for the stage that are still identifiably genre.

The Dead, Live is the latter. Those are the genres that have always inspired me, and yet they’re rare on stage, possibly because often it takes a kind of verisimilitude to get an audience to an accept a fantastical narrative, and verisimilitude isn’t something you can really do on stage.

But I think that theatre is perfect for flights of the imagination, as long as you lead the audience in the right way. I’m very proud that many of our shows, like The Ballad of Halo Jones or a student production of Nigel Kneale’s The Year of the Sex Olympics, have put things on stage that seemed impossible – often in tiny spaces with almost no set! And in doing so they have transported the audience. The direct feedback we have received from people who have seen our shows over the years has been really wonderful and it usually comments on that sort of thing.

Having said that, The Dead, Live actually is going for a kind of verisimilitude. It’s an experiment, but one that has worked well so far, I think. And we’re always refining and improving what we’re doing.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

The uncanny. A sense that they’re in the same room as something unearthly. A suspense that they’re not sure where they’re being led. And hopefully a sense of having been entertained!

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Again, it was about whether or not we could break the fourth wall – how far we could go in terms of directly addressing the audience, how soon we could do that, whether it would enhance the atmosphere we’re trying to create, or wreck it. Despite the talk about naturalism and verisimilitude, this play does fall into the category of supernatural fiction. If you are dealing with that subject matter, I think there are basically two ways you can go. You can be all style, and hit the audience over the head with artifice, effects, music and so on to bludgeon them into submitting to the narrative. That can work wonderfully well – as a fan, for instance, of the Hammer horror films, I have no problem with that. But the other way you can go is towards minimalism, appealing to the audience’s intelligence and imagination, so that they can be sensitive to that chill insidiously creeping up their spine. I think we probably lean more towards that. Or possibly dive!

Partly inspired by stage predecessors such as Stephen Mallatratt's The Woman in Black and by memorably frightening TV events such as The Stone Tape and Ghostwatch, it nevertheless charts an intriguing course of its own, inviting the audience to participate in a live psychic medium show, in which things may not be quite what they seem.

The Dead, Live is a new departure for a creative team who have in the past been responsible for more light-hearted fare. Oldham playwright Daniel Thackeray previously wrote the highly-praised, based-on-truth 1980s-set comedy drama Together in Electric Dreams, in which Sir Clive Sinclair and the future Lord Sugar wrestled over sushi for the future of the British electronics industry ("A lot of laughs and worth a trip down

memory lane" said the Manchester Evening News). Actor Howard Whittock, who plays Lawrence Dodds, the 'psychic' who knows he is really a fake, and director Alex Shepley previously worked together on the surreal comedy sketch show, The Ray Harryhausen Skeleton Orchestra. And actress Carly Tarett, also from Oldham, is well known for her comedy one-woman shows, such as Sinful and Princess Dee, which she has performed locally and internationally to much acclaim.

Although it features light-hearted

moments, The Dead, Live is something altogether more chilling. Whittock and Thackeray are both fans of horror, having hosted The Lee/Cushing Podcast on classic horror films on YouTube for the last year, and their aim here is to bring that feel to the stage. When the play received a partial preview performance as part of Oldham Library's live@thelibrary programme in February 2017, North West End's reviewer praised it: "Mixing pathos with light humour, and tragedy with the spiritual unknown... this story certainly has, as we say in the profession, legs." Subsequent performances at the Greater Manchester Fringe in 2017 brought universal acclaim from critics and audiences.

“More than a match for any stage… a wonderful performance by all involved” said Quays News. Audience member @deadmanjones commented on Twitter: “…a chilling, sardonic tale that would fit right perfectly into Ghost Stories for Christmas (or inside Inside No 9).” While the Fictionmaker blog asserted that the play was “Quite terrifying.”

Of the piece’s appearance in the first London Lovecraft Festival, writer Daniel Thackeray says, “It was an honour for our show to be selected to appear in this festival. To be associated with the name of HP Lovecraft – the man who, in many ways, redefined the territory of literary supernatural horror, and who is owed a great debt by every writer who has worked in that field since – is no small thing, and to have the title of The Dead, Live appear in the festival listings next to monumental titles like At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a real thrill.

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“I feel like supernatural theatre is on the rise, which wasn’t the case until recently. Apart from the wonderful The Woman in Black, there were so few theatrical ghost stories, despite that intimate sense of the uncanny, that you can only really get in theatre, being so suited to that type of story. The wonderful sense of being in the same room with something otherworldly. But now, more writers and producers of theatre are emboldened to enter that realm, and often their inspiration is Lovecraft. Even though our play has no direct connection to Lovecraft’s works, when I was writing the play, his universe of ‘cosmic horror’ was very much in my mind as something that might lurk behind the veneer of the stage ‘psychic’.

“I wanted to capture the unease present in his stories, adding to it the immediacy of theatre, the feel of the uncanny being in the room. That element is also present, in a different way, in live psychic shows, the kind of thing that Derek Acorah does. It seemed to me that to write something which combined the two could be a real winner. Still, it took a long time to get the balance right – years and years of redrafting and rethinking in fact - but, thanks to a brilliant director and cast, I think we've finally done it. And audiences are in for something really memorable!

“It’s high time there was a fully-fledged Lovecraft Festival. The organisers are clearly doing it out of love for the material, and they’ve put together a really special programme.”

Show taking place at:

The Etcetera Theatre

Camden, NW1

http://ift.tt/2ni3q2Y from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2DGr6sA

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

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weretribble-blog · 7 years

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Greyhawk Initiative

So this is my first Tumblr post and it is about Mike Mearls alternative Initiative for D&D. So check that out first:

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/greyhawk-initiative

This is actually something I have thought about in the last few games I have played, the stagnate feel of initiative. I did my turn and unless a foe interacts with my character I know everyone is going in the same order and I can tune out a bit. As the field will change and I can do some overall planning but I can play some turns on my phone until closer to my turn again to see what I am actually going to do. So the idea of shifting initiative based on actual actions taken or planned is intriguing. I am not sure about the extra dice rolling and I am not sure I like the exact dice for any particular action and wonder how granular you want to get with actions. So yes I see this as needng playtest, being rough and needing an lot of tweaking and testing.

That said what I like about this article as it did get me thinking about initiative and opening up new ideas. So I thought I would run through my thoughts after reading the article, and some ideas about initiative, others about the philosophy of combat.

Before getting into initiative rules specifically, a few thoughts on how combat works from a play viewpoint. Combat is considered to be 6 seconds of time during which a flurry of things happen pretty much at the same time. One of the points of the article is to use this new Initiative to promote more strategic discussion and planning on the part of the players. This idea really is its own discussion about how much communication during combat is really possible. If you just want to promote more planning, at the beginning of round let the players discuss what they would like to have happen in the following round. That does not require an kind of new Initiative to create. And the discussion could could cause initiative to change as players are more likely to ready, or delay if you put it back, based on what others are doing. But as combat is only a few seconds, it also makes sense to say that other than general plans or shouted orders there is little chance once combat has started to actually coordinate anything unless characters actually take a round to duck behind cover and discuss. I have been in games where you did not even get a long period to consider your actions on your turn, you pretty much had to go to keep the feel of frenzied combat. This was nice in that it was best to watch and consider what to do as combat unfolded as you couldn’t drop your phone when your init came up and take a look at the board and take time to consider options.

So the idea of how much strategy and player discussion do you want in your game? You can go the way of this is a tactical game and players discuss as they want, with the idea of the characters are veterans that have fought enough that they know what each is planning and a simple shout or hand wave gives all the information this trained combat unit needs. You can also go with characters have seconds to decide, so everything said is in character and actions must be taken without hesitation when init comes up, or something in between.

I don’t see this Init system as needed for this approach to combat.

This system to me reminds me of systems where actions are declared before the round is played out, conflict decided, and finally resolved. I am thinking of a structure like init rolled, lowest declares actions first up to the highest and then the actions are resolved from highest to lowest. So a low roll means you do not get the benefit of seeing what others are doing when you decide and allows those going later to possibly move or act to foil earlier moves. Another layer could be that the results of actions are not applied until the end of round, simulating that things happen all together. Now whether the DM shows what the monsters are declaring, or rolls every round so different combatants has a chance to have advantage is all points that could be discussed. This again is something that could be added to D&D as well without much change. For late round combatants that have to change, there may be penalties to change declared action, such as disadvantage on rolls, or whatever.

So one aspect of this idea that is interesting is when are actions declared? Should they be decided at beginning of round and then cannot be changed base on changes in combat? Certainly options.

In the Greyhawk Init idea of rolling dice for actions, if you don’t roll the die, you can’t do it. So if you don’t declare the possible option of moving and roll the die you can’t do it. This would be one area that would need consideration. It is fine to go with the idea if someone does something unexpected you may not be able to adjust your planned tactics. You may not think a troll will run so you may indeed be watching its backside as it runs away and you are dumbfounded. But it seems counter-intuitive and lacks verisimilitude that you can’t run after, Maybe you do get to roll the movement die, but you get a penalty, say +2 or +3 as you pause taking in what is going on and are delayed even further in acting. So that is one area I think would need testing. And again this is more a question of what do you want out of this initiative rule? Is it to add choices and risk management, then denying the use of an action not rolled works, but if it is to give more variability in combat, then being able to change tactics may be a good choice.

Now focusing more on the crunch and actual rules for this system. I have a few places that I have some concerns. I am not sure I like the breakdown of actions to die size. This idea is either really complex or not that bad based on how you break down types of actions. Personally I would go with the weapon speed as it is something Players have written down, and it gives potential benefits to smaller weapons verses larger ones at least in how fast attacks can be made. It also goes back to the weapon speed optional rules of Editions Past (tm).

I question that missile attacks somehow are faster. On the battlefield I can see missile weapons come first as they are at range, but that doesn’t mean they are actually faster, they have the advantage of range. An archer is done when a foes closes the distance and is within striking distance. The process of shooting is not actually fast. Now would a loaded crossbow be fast? Yes it would, without aiming, but you would not get this advantage in this system as unless you plan not to reload, you need to roll dice for the reload and that will move the attack later in the round anyway. This is where the flow of a battle is not really the same as small close quarters combat like most D&D combat is, and in combat you may move earlier, foes act, then attack later, but D&D’s turn based system mean is you move and attack at one time. So again archers in a full out war would be able to fire several arrows as attackers take double moves or try to move and defend from volleys until close. But I don’t see why missile weapons would get the bump in speed over the troops running forward. Personally I would make the same as weapon speed, a short bow is faster than a long bow. And movement I would put low, like a d4.

Now talking if weapon speed should be based on damage, you could instead go finesse weapons are 1d4, one handed 1d6 and two handed 1d8. The exact die is a matter of balance but using the weapon attributes rather then pure damage may be a way to go that mimics the speed of weapons better.

One place I don’t feel is broken down enough is spell casting, especially if there is a difference in weapon types. At least there should be a difference between cantrips and regular spells. Cantrips are supposed to be so well known they are done with rote efficiency and speed. For spells you may even use the spell slots as the die, so a cantrip is 1d4, Slots 1 and 2 are 1d6, 3 and 4 are 1d8 and so forth. You could even go a die size for each slot. So the big slots take big penalties for speed, so it suddenly makes both lower level spells have a benefit, but also is strategic if you want to use a higher slot for a spell for more damage, or do you want to do it faster, take out the wounded foe before they can attack?

Bonus actions are another place I think there is a problem with this execution. I run various characters that use the bonus action, and I see it as important in other characters in my group as well. A bonus action to me often signals something that is just a part of another action, an extension of it, or something that takes only a moment, not a full action, and so is extremely fast. A few examples. Dual wielding would be hugely penalized as you would need to roll for both weapons. But really the secondary attack is more an extension of the primary attack, so I don’t see it as something that should be the full weapon die for the second attack. Barbarian raging, this is a momentary focus, not a long process that should need a roll to use. Rogue use of dash as a bonus action, so the rogue is making two moves and so needs to roll dice and be slower? Warlock and Hex, this is a quick spell that should only take a moment to augment other spells or attacks, that is the reason it is a bonus action, it takes just a bit of focus to start and the Warlock can attack in the same round. Expeditious retreat is a bonus action, so you are slowed by something that is supposed to give you greater speed? Personally I would not have the bonus action roll much of a die, and possibly just give a +1 or +2 to the initiative score, regardless of the action it allows. This article already says a Fighter with an Action Surge should not have to roll weapons twice, because Action Surge does not need an action, although it does grant an action. I don’t see there being more of a balance issue with bonus actions. They are just that, bonus.

I was wondering if there really needs to be extra dice rolling instead that actions have different modifiers to Initiative. A couple ideas would be to roll normally, then say you want to move and attack, so say you roll a 12 for Init. Then Moving is -4 and attacking is -6, so you have a 2. Negatives are fine, although you could use it to say you don’t go this round but next round but I am not seeing any way that I like to take into account you are going really early next round. Instead of rolling at all you start with your Dex score, not modifier, and then you subtract from it based on your actions. Again you could keep cycling in that if you go negative you actually go the following round, either actually adding the negative to your init score or resetting and subtract to go a little faster. So if you have a 12 Dex score and do -14 in actions, you go on -2, you do not go this round, but next round you go on 10 as you only had 2 points left to cover. There are lot of variations on this, everyone starts at 20, subtract your actions but add your Dex modifier is one thought. Or for a Str attack you subtract the action cost but add your Str mod to go faster, if you add movement it is move penalty but add Dex, so modifiers have meaning in you go faster with good stats.

#dnd Initiative rules Dragon

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