#where are your servants

[tossawary]

I'm thinking about smells a lot right now because it's something that I want to work on when writing descriptions. Not just including smells more often, at least in passing, but naming specific ones. Scent is not something that I consciously notice a lot of the time personally, but it is a very present part of reality, and like any other sense, it can therefore be used to invoke atmosphere.

Temperature is also something that I could include more. I am constantly aware of it, whether I like it or not. Wind and humidity are also things that I do regularly notice when I'm out and about.

Bugs! Insects! I want to include more of them in general. And birds, I suppose, but it's easier to remember to include them with how loud they are. When I go out in the summertime, insects are unavoidable; a few months ago, for example, I couldn't go down a path because there were just too many ladybugs flying around. They kept smacking into my jacket and crawling over my glasses, I was one step away from getting one up my nose or in my mouth, and I didn't want to crush any of them by accident. I could stand to include more flies and butterflies and beetles and bees and wasps and spiders and all sorts of crawlies in stories, I think.

#tossawary reading #insects #bugs #where are your servants #might as well serve as a worldbuilding and writing tag for now

[tossawary]

That post I made about being annoyed whenever historical fantasy fiction starring "upper class" character leaves out even mentioning the existence of the "lower class" characters who would have been doing the necessary daily labor... I thought it was going to get maybe a couple dozen notes? At most?

I was being very general because I've seen an absence of servants across all sorts of time periods and countries depicted in media, and in fantasy worlds with no relation to our own, with "servant" situations in stories that range from "supposedly equal rights but severe wealth disparities" to "dude, that's enslavement". I've seen it in books and movies and shows and comics made by people in many different countries. And I was trying to be quick and snappy and funny about a mild frustration rather than go on a bunch of different tangents, while covering enough of my bases so that I wouldn't get someone immediately hopping onto my post to misinterpret me, like, "You WANT people to have serfs?! You think feudalism is okay in real life???" (Uh, I don't, no.)

And it's been fun seeing all of the different responses to that post, the additions and elaborations and corrections, the resources, the different pieces of media people recommend and the stories they've judged for missing such a basic part of worldbuilding. That's been really cool!

But man, I did not miss what having a mildly popular post does to your notifications page, even if that post only has a few thousand notes at the moment. I think it's the most popular post I've had on this blog? So, I might end up turning off reblogs on that post sooner or later, so I can go back to focusing on my personal fandom stuff in my own little corner. I don't want to delete it, and I don't want to mute notifications and not know what's going on over there at all, but I also don't really want my house to be the spot of the party...? Not because I'm against partying! But because it's starting to get a little out of hand for me and my little house to deal with, now that it's outside of my general circle, and also I don't want to wait for someone outside of my general circle to inevitably wildly misinterpret anything I was saying or what anyone else is saying. I would prefer if people start their own little parties now, please, so that the SVSSS book club can squeeze back in here.

I'm turning reblogs off on this post too from the get-go to make it harder for the irony demons to get me. They'll probably manage anyway somehow...

#where are your servants #tossawary reading #tossawary watching #tossawary fandom

[tossawary]

The absence of servants (where logically there MUST be servants) in historical fiction bothers me for many reasons, ranging from quite serious to extremely petty, and one of the pettiest reasons may be that the story is now denying me personally the opportunity to enjoy background servants going through face journeys whenever their "superiors" are up to some really stupid dramatic shit.

#tossawary reading #tossawary watching #tossawary fandom #where are your servants