#solutions and other problems

[gennsoup]

I don't believe in karma, but I do believe there are things that can happen that very specifically force you to understand what an asshole you were.

Allie Brosh, Solutions and Other Problems

#Allie Brosh #Solutions and Other Problems #karma #funny quotes #American literature #quotes #quotes blog #literary quotes #literature quotes #literature #book quotes

[lucybellwood]

This is representation in media

#allie brosh #solutions and other problems #ship facts #boat stuff #it me

[gnpwdrnwhiskey]

I started reading this on lunch today and laughed myself absolutely stupid- to the point of tears and being unable to catch my breath and I wish I could send all you weirdos a copy lol

#solutions and other problems #allie brosh #personal randomness

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: Nonfiction Round-Up (May-December 2022)

Waking the Tiger by Peter A. Levine (1997): a self-help book with a somatic approach to dealing with trauma symptoms. It contained some advice that was useful at my old job. Unfortunately, I was too traumatized from said job to concentrate properly on the audiobook, so I was kind of in a Catch-22.

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman (2022): A deliciously disconcerting series of essays about the fractured last decade of the twentieth century. It wins the coveted "book I'm most determined to lend to my mom" award.

Yes, I'm Hot in This by Huda Fahmy (2018): a cute collection of comics from Fahmy's Instagram, covering subjects from strangers being stupid about her hijab (hence the title) to lighthearted scenes of domestic life. I found it in a Little Library.

Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson (2022): an exploration of the life and writing career of Beatrice Sparks, author of multiple "real" diaries by troubled teens, through-and-through grifter, and coiner of the immortal phrase "freak wharf." This fucked, y'all. Emerson seamlessly delves into multiple topics of interest--Sparks's hardscrabble youth, the discovery of LSD, the Satanic Panic--with plenty of compassion and humor.

The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber (2013): the true-crime account of Charles Cullen, a Pennsylvania/New Jersey nurse who murdered possibly hundreds of patients by poisoning their IV bags in the late 1980s to early 2000s. The subject matter is shocking, and it's horrifying how the indifference of the large medical systems he worked for kept him from facing consequences other than getting fired for years. The style/organization of the book is kind of pedestrian, though.

Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow (2019): an account of Farrow's efforts to write a story for NBC about the decades-long sexual predation of producer Harvey Weinstein, including NBC's sideways attempts to get him to back off. Farrow's a solid narrative writer, not great, and the book gets less interesting when he strays beyond the inner workings of NBC.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion (1968): In her first collection of essays, Didion talks about murder, movies, mental distress, and Sacramento. It's incredibly fresh in some ways (the essay where she talks about raising her daughter away from her extended family) and incredibly dated in others (her incredulity at people who ascribe artistic vision to Meet Me in St. Louis). I genuinely appreciate her ability to make me go "girl, what are you even talking about."

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh (2020): an illustrated memoir/series of comics, focusing on coping with mental illness and the unexpected loss of a loved one. There are some very funny passages (particularly one involving a troublesome dog), some devastating ones (Brosh's montage of memories of her late younger sister), and some aimless ones.

Monkey Mind by Daniel Smith (2012): part memoir and part general information about anxiety (the science of it, how different people have written about it through history, etc.). It's more interesting as a memoir. I remember that it had some good advice at the end for managing anxiety, but I don't know for the life of me what it was. Still, I feel like I should give him credit for it.

#little book review #waking the tiger #peter a. levine #the nineties #chuck klosterman #yes i'm hot in this #huda fahmy #unmask alice #rick emerson #the good nurse #charles graeber #catch and kill #ronan farrow #slouching towards bethlehem #joan didion #solutions and other problems #allie brosh #monkey mind #daniel smith

[straydog733]

Reading Resolution: “Solutions and Other Problems” by Allie Brosh

11. A biography or memoir: Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

List Progress: 16/30

TW: Suicide.

-/-

Memoirs have a fine line to walk. Every person is unique and has a particular and nuanced story to tell, but audiences read memoirs to find something relatable and true about human nature as a whole. This line becomes even more narrow with a comedy memoir. Allie Brosh came to online prominence through her blog Hyperbole and a Half, telling wild personal stories interspersed with intentionally-chaotic drawings. This was spun off into her first book, also called Hyperbole and a Half, which was published in 2013. She then proceeded to go on hiatus online, and no real updates came out until she published Solutions and Other Problems in 2020. In the intervening years, Brosh lost a sister, ended a marriage, suffered major health issues and had several mental health spirals. Her comics always had an edge of darkness, but there is no way to keep things truly light while writing about that string of life events. And through some of the deep dives into her own psyche, Brosh is so far beyond the pale of what most people live with that she is no longer relatable; it is her book and she has the right to share her raw, unfiltered truth, but it does make for a somewhat rocky ride for the audience.

The tiniest bit below the surface, under the funny drawings and stories about dogs, Solutions and Other Problems is about how to survive while truly and completely immersed in nihilism. If Brosh’s words are to be taken at face value, she believes that nothing has any meaning or inherent value and that all actions and decisions are intrinsically random. If someone believes that, then they also have to come up with some reason for bothering to stay alive, despite all of the difficulties of human life, and continuing to move forward. Especially after her sister’s death by suicide in 2013, Brosh thought about all of these questions and worked through them on the page. She takes some strange detours to get there, but she does ultimately come to conclusions about why to keep going: essentially, finding both solutions and the other problems that come from them. It is a bracing and immersive read, but not always the most enjoyable one.

At points, Brosh feels constrained by her own established format: while some of the artwork is incredibly evocative and some of it is quite funny, a lot of the illustrations feel begrudging, like she’s including them because that is the Allie Brosh Style. And some of the stories are so odd that you have to wonder how her actions ever seemed like good choices: it’s difficult to think of someone else whose response to “I want to learn to live without fear” would be “I will watch a bunch of horror movies, take a lot of drugs, and get myself intentionally lost in the woods”. Almost no one else’s mind works like that, the audience has to sit back in befuddlement.

These issues sound like bigger deal breakers than they are. There are parts of Solutions and Other Problems that knock you back on your heels with how powerful they are. But like life (and by the sound of it, especially Allie Brosh’s life), it is a mixed bag with a fair amount of randomness thrown in.

Would I Recommend It: Soft yes.

#straydog's reading resolution #solutions and other problems #allie brosh #hyperbole and a half

[readordiebyemilyt]

2022 is winding down, and I’m not planning to do much but read for the rest of the year.

#greenglass house #solutions and other problems #the tea dragon tapestry #what if? 2 #books #i’ll be traveling for christmas #but when i’m not at work #i want to read and relax

[darklingichor]

Solutions and other problems, by Allie Broch

This is the follow up to Hyperbole and a Half

And it was amazing! All at once funny, sad and thoughtful, I very much enjoyed it.

The stories range from being a weird kid, to loss to the absurdities in life. I think the title is perfect because so many of the stories involve trying to find solutions only for the solutions to lead to more problems.

I think my favorites story, funny wise is the ine about the guy in the grocery store. As a whole, the best one was the chapter on her sister and her sister's childhood best friend.

I hope to see more books from this author in the future.

#Solutions and other problems #Allie Broch #book #books #book blogging 2024

[librofm]

Short story collections I like: Part 2

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez

Magical realism but a lot like Life Ceremony, it’s mostly about people surviving in a world that behaves differently than ours. What did I like? The ways people cared or didn’t care about each other. What didn’t I like? Two separate diarrhea events.

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

I love Allie Brosh. Her silly little comics about deep hard shit have gotten me through some of my hard shit. Are these “short stories” or graphic essays? I don’t care, I’m not a publisher, I’m just some guy

#Short stories #audiobooks #librofm #The Dangers of Smoking in Bed #Mariana Enriquez #Solutions and other problems #Allie Brosh

[nebbywebula]

I love it when solving a problem just adds to other problems. It’s like giving them an attack boost.

#solutions and other problems #paradox #? #maybe?

[libraryofbaxobab]

May 27, 2022:

Oh my. This was too much all at once. The advantage of the blog format is getting breaks between doses so your abs can heal from laughing. But this gets very heavy, VERY suddenly and that really casts a pall over the rest of the jokes. I didn't expect that. #WhatsKenyaReading

#WhatsKenyaReading #twitter #pastposting #books #reading #humor #comics #tw #family death / #solutions and other problems

[jewreallythinkthat]

Something I really don't understand is this obsession the anti-Israel crowd (in the West) have with death and martyrdom. All they care about is dying, and often killing for their cause; I see nothing about building a better future that isn't based on the murder of 9 million Israelis.

It's easy to die for a cause. The challenge is living to make a better tomorrow.

#jumblr #antisemitism #i/p #killing yourself and others does nothing to promote peace. frankly killing others is just terrorism in this scenario #if you want peace then you should be workng with jews and israelis #deal with antisemitism islamophobia and the rot in the knesset to move towards a two state solution #anything other than a two state solution is discrimination and death #dying for your cause is not cute or progressive. its lazy because you didnt want to put in the effort to do real work moving forwards #jews are 0.2 of the worlds population. if you refuse to engage with them you are the problem #majority voice doesnt mean correct. it just means loud #if your voice is leading to people killing themselves then you need to take a long hard look in a mirror

[gennsoup]

Anger is not a graceful emotion. I've never gotten mad and been like, I'm glad I behaved like that!

Allie Brosh, Solutions and Other Problems

#Allie Brosh #Solutions and Other Problems #anger #emotion #American literature #quotes #quotes blog #literary quotes #literature quotes #literature

[hajihiko]

a long time ago I was like "I bet there are a lot of characters that are both touch-starved and touch-averse" so. Thinks

Impostor explanation: has been around the whole scale as various identities, has a hard time understanding themselves and their own true preference. Tends to just adjust to whoever they're around.

#not an art #sdr2 #super danganronpa 2 #I used to be that combination team! Not anymore. Now I'm just touch starved lol #Akane and Nekomaru are doing so good im proud. I think they both get affection from each other- #-and are also just healthy enough to seek out what they need. Akane had loving siblings and Nekomaru knows the benefits of human touch #Nagito is touch starved but some of it is his own fault. Refuses to seek a solution to this problem (same with Fuyuhiko) #Peko is more touch starved than she thinks but she's so used to pushing her wants aside that she doesn't realize it yet #Kaz actually gets a lot of physical affection because he seeks it out so often! He just also always needs more. #OK thats it bye

[bbygirl-obi]

Anakin: *teaches Ahsoka to act on impulse, to be independent to the point of acting without waiting or accepting help from others, and to ignore the council when he thinks it's best, and also models all of those things for her*

Ahsoka during the Wrong Jedi Arc: *digs herself into a deep ass hole and blows up her entire life by acting on impulse, being independent to the point of acting without waiting or accepting help from others, and ignoring the council*

Anakin:

#like my guy why are YOU surprised #she has no faith in others to help her because YOU taught her that #she thinks shes always got the best solution to any problem bc YOU reinforced that and modeled that #shes acting on impulse because YOU taught her to #all of this served her (and you) very well in war but it damns her outside of that context!! #just like how it eventually damns anakin!! #felony i will never forgive you for overruling george lucas when he wanted ahsoka to return to the jedi just so she wouldn't die in o66 #ahsoka tano #ahsoka #anakin skywalker #anakin #anakin and ahsoka #star wars #sw #the clone wars #tcw #meta #tcw meta #sw meta #wrong jedi #wrong jedi arc

[aroaceleovaldez]

i still think a lot about how technically, it's implied Anubis and Walt started dating each other before they asked out Sadie, and if Sadie had said she wasn't interested they would have gone "Entirely fair have a nice day" and proceed to just go continue to date each other.

Cause like, that was the entire thing. They decided that themselves. That things would work best if they were together (as in both physically sharing a body and also relationship-wise). The "asking Sadie about it" part was secondary. If she had said no, they would have stayed together, because among other things Walt would kind of die if they didn't. Walt and Anubis are technically the first gay couple in the Riordanverse. AND they're in a polyamorous relationship with Sadie. Why does no one talk about them ever.

#tkc #the kane chronicles #riordanverse #walt stone #anubis tkc #sadie kane #saltnubis #< great ship name btw #and for anyone who says ''i dont think Rick intended that'' mind you this book was released like #six months before HoH came out (and. subsequently also. Nico.) #like. Rick was not ignorant of queer stuff at that time. he was actively writing it into HoO/HoH while writing both simultaneously #if Sadie had said no they wouldn't have just gone ''okay Sadie pick one of us and the other will cease to exist on the mortal plane'' #they would have gone ''okay well good luck we have a coffee date scheduled so we're gonna go do that'' #saltnubis is still probably the most entertaining solution to a love triangle in middle grade media i have ever encountered #even some YA media. just ''yeah so we solved both our major problems by dating but like. we know you like both of us sooooo...?'' #also hilarious that meanwhile Carter's romance arc is ''so turns out my first girlfriend was a clone made of pottery'' #''and the actual girl has never met me and this is kinda awkward''

[soracities]

if we should protect children because they are vunerable, this means you would protect cruel children who bullies people who different than them then. the children who responsible to trauma for someone else's entire years

You're assuming that "protecting" children is the same as absolving them of responsibility and that's not what I said. All children are vulnerable, because all children are children; they don't come out of the womb with a perfectly working moral compass anymore than they come out of it waiting to hurt people--they're vulnerable because their understanding of the world is entirely at the mercy of what we, as adults, consistently tell them and show them. Children behaving cruelly aren't exempt from that--they learn that cruelty from somewhere, or someone. Your job, as the adult, is to make sure they understand that it's unacceptable so it will not happen again--but your job is also to ask why someone that young is behaving this way to begin with, so you can ensure they become better.

"Protecting" kids is not ignoring when they hurt or torment others, it's not refusing to teach them consequences or right from wrong, it's not "zero tolerance" policies in schools that treat a child being bullied and the child bullying them as equal instigators, and it's certainly not protecting them from recognizing, and atoning for, the pain they have caused someone else. You don't have to make peace with the now-adults who hurt you when you both were kids, but you cannot let the horrors of your own childhood impact how you treat or respond to the children living theirs around you right now, either.

You don't protect kids so they can get a free pass for bullying or tormenting another child. You protect them because kids are impulsive, emotionally reactive, and profoundly social (which means deeply impressionable) human beings who are still learning & processing insane amounts of information every day about what it means to be alive, to be alive as yourself, to be alive as yourself with other people. Protecting them is realising that you can't isolate the responsibility of a 10 year old from the bigger responsibility of the literal grown adults around them, adults who are in charge of teaching them about the world and how to behave in it. Whether you have children of your own in the future or not is completely irrelevant to this; we all become those adults eventually--no matter what happened to us as kids.

#ask #Anonymous #i dont want to keep repeating myself on this but we're all carrying fucked up and traumatizing childhoods to some extent and if you want to #spare another child going through the same thing the solution is not to hate on children bc they didnt ask to be born any more than the res #of us did. but they're here now and what are you going to tell them while they are? #what kind of an adult and what kind of a compass are you going to become for them during the time they're learning about being alive? #and if you decide its not your problem the minute this child says or does something fucked up and that they're a lost cause at the age of 8 #bc their impulse control is shitty and their empathy & understanding is still buffering then that is part of the problem. they learn what #they're doing is okay and then they keep doing it--to other kids and years later other adults. our world is fucked up and makes fucked up #people and if you have it in your ability to limit that damage at its most formative and dangerous point then why wouldn't you? #notes from elsewhere