Read It Later Reviews #17 - Naked Singularity, Walking through Fire, Lady Prismia and the Princess-Goddess, Paper Promises, Off the Edge of the Map · 7:08am Apr 7th, 2015
Back in December, when I first started this set of reviews, I wrote:
It is very easy to try and write reviews of a lot of short stories. It lets you get through large numbers of works in a short period of time… but it also means you’re avoiding many of the longer works, many of which I added to my Read It Later list because they were supposed to be quite good. What is the point of having such stories on your list if you are always going to put off reading them?
There’s no point at all, that’s what. And thus, I assembled a new list: You’re Next. I put five stories on the list that I had been putting off reading for a while now because there was always another short story to read instead. But no longer.
I will likely try and keep that list populated with five stories to keep myself on track with some of these stories, and not spend my time just throwing myself at short works.
It is now April 6th, and I have finally cleared out the original version of that reading list, three months later. In the interim, I have done dozens of review posts, but I have stubbornly insisted that this post – this post would be nothing but the stories on the “You’re Next” list.
And I have finally succeeded.
I am indeed going to try and use the “You’re Next” list to ensure that I read some stories that I have been meaning to read and keep putting off. Maybe I’ll actually stick to it this time.
So, you can probably expect the next one of these in July.
Today's stories:
Naked Singularity by Cold in Gardez
Supposedly a very funny story written by one of the best writers on the site
Walking through Fire by SPark
A Twilestia shipfic which has been recommended to me by numerous people.
Lady Prismia and the Princess-Goddess by Skywriter
The second work in the Cadance of Cloudsdale cycle
Paper Promises by Fervidor
The highest rated story on FIMFiction at the time of my review.
Off the Edge of the Map by Daetrin
“The” FlutterDash shipfic, which isn't actually about FlutterDash.
Naked Singularity
by Cold in Gardez
Sex, Comedy, RandomTwilight Sparkle is a gifted student and scholar. When she attempts to harness her creative side by writing a science-themed sensual romance novel, however, things rapidly get out of hoof. Can her friends stage an intervention before she humiliates herself (and them) at a prestigious literature recital?
No. No, they cannot.
Why I added it: It was recommended to me.
Objectionable Content Warning: This story contains excerpts of terribly misguided attempts at writing steamy sex scenes.
Review
Twilight writes a terrible trashy romance novel.
Rarity and Fluttershy read it and try to let Twilight down gently, encouraging her to write something more personal.
Twilight writes an even worse trashy romance novel, incorporating scientifically-based metaphors into the steamy romance between librarian Evening Glimmer, Prism Slash the pegasus and Uncommon the unicorn. Sending off a copy to her friends, she then decides this needs to be shared with all the world.
Rarity and Fluttershy know this must not happen at all costs. At least Rainbow Dash is a fan…
This is the sort of story which makes you laugh even while you want to punch the person telling it in the shoulder. Everyone is remarkably in (exaggerated) character, and Rarity’s exasperation, Fluttershy’s timidity, Twilight’s confidence, and Rainbow Dash’s general terribleness all come through strongly, with solid, humorous prose and dialogue. Everything involving Twilight is the highlight of this piece, along with excerpts from the romance novel that Twilight wrote and Rainbow Dash’s deep love of the mysterious stallion Prism Slash.
The following excerpts will probably tell you all you need to know about whether or not you’re going to enjoy reading this:
In three hours Twilight had assembled more research into romance novels than any pony in history. She had studied dozens of heaving bosoms, hoof-fuls of throbbing stallionhoods, and enough maidens’ flowers to fill a garden. It was insightful. It was eye-opening. It was probably a little bit unhealthy. Time to take a break.
Rainbow Dash, surprisingly, seemed to be enjoying her section. The fact that she skipped over any paragraph with more than two lines probably helped her along.
“This is actually pretty good, if you ignore the boring parts,” she told the others. “Check this out. ‘Prism Slash reared up to his full height, towering over her like a stallion slightly taller than she was. “No more, Evening Glimmer! For too long you have haunted my dreams like a Jungian archetype for unrequited love! Prepare to be taken!” he cried.’”
Rarity attempted to digest that, failed, then circled back to the name. “Prism... Slash?”
“Yeah, he’s a sky-blue pegasus stallion with a, uh...” She paused to look up the word. “Prismatic mane, and he’s the fastest flyer in all of Equestria! Sounds pretty awesome, huh?”
Rarity and Fluttershy exchanged a glance. “Awesome indeed,” Rarity finally offered. “He seems a bit familiar, don’t you think?”
“Huh? No, never met anypony like him,” Dash said. “Too bad, too. He really gives it to her!” She started reading another passage. “‘Harder,’ she moaned. ‘Give me at least ten newtons of force!’ Their bodies os... oscillated together like a pendulum with a period of 1 over 10 f.”
If you liked these, and enjoy schadenfreude (that is to say, you derive joy from the misfortune of others), you will think this thing is beautiful. If you didn’t enjoy those pieces, or find the idea of Twilight thoroughly embarrassing herself in public terribly uncomfortable, you are probably going to want to stay as far away from this as possible.
If I had to complain about anything… and I do… it would be the fact that the ending feels a bit anticlimactic. The story builds and builds, but the story doesn’t really have a “proper” climax, and the final scene is rather subdued, with the final reading from the story being a little bit too self-aware. Still, it didn’t ruin it for me at all, and I was still smiling all the way through to the end.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended.
Walking Through Fire
by SPark
Romance, Slice of LifeTwilight Sparkle has had a crush on Princess Celestia for a very long time. When Celestia's own advice prompts her to confess her attraction, Twilight discovers a secret that Celestia has hidden for hundreds of years. With the fires of the sun itself separating them, can Twilight find a way for them to come together?
Why I added it: It was recommended to me.
Review
Twilight has a crush on Celestia.
Twilight confesses her crush to Celestia by kissing her.
Celestia nearly sets Twilight on fire accidentally when she loses control over her power, and explains to Twilight that they can never make it work.
So Twilight decides that it is time to learn a bit of fireproofing magic…
Pretty thoroughly uncanoned by this point, this story has a rather silly premise, but it isn’t actually played for comedy – the story is wholly serious. But I can’t take it seriously; this is a story, fundamentally, about someone who invents a new kind of magic so that they can score with Princess Celestia. I did chuckle a bit at the ending, but on the whole this story just didn’t do it for me.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Lady Prismia and the Princess-Goddess
by Skywriter
AdventureFilly Cadence turns her first heart.
Why I added it: Skywriter is a good writer.
Review
A story in the Cadance of Cloudsdale cycle, this is set right at the beginning, when Cadance is a foal who has somehow been magically prevented from aging for some nine-hundred years by a bunch of earth pony nuns. Every day is the same… until the worst day of her life, when she wakes up with a snake trying to eat her heart.
While this is utterly divergent from my own headcanon regarding Cadance’s background, I thought this was an interesting idea on the whole; the idea of the crazy monastic order protecting her was interesting. Cadance thinking about setting out on AN ADVENTURE like an RPG character – can’t leave any important quest items lying around was pretty funny, all the more so because the items were obviously completely useless, and then turned out to be actually useful after all. Indeed, the whole story had the sort of feel of the start of an RPG – the tutorial where the player first gains control and starts wandering around and solving their first quest and gaining their first level, as well as getting some insight into the greater world.
On the other hand, this is also the biggest flaw with the story – it does feel like the start of a roleplaying game. I can totally imagine this sort of thing being how a character’s HEROIC QUEST began, with special emphasis on began – it is part of a greater whole, and not quite as strong as a standalone work as a part of a greater whole.
I also have to admit to not being overly enamored with the ending – while it works for the character, and it was a reasonable enough solution in show-terms, it just didn’t really satisfy me that well. I knew it was going to be something like that – indeed, it shouldn’t have been anything else, in the context of the story – but it still was somehow slightly disappointing to me, though that may be a personal thing, or maybe the result of me being just too old and cynical for that kind of thing.
If you’re interested in reading the Cadance of Cloudsdale cycle, this is worth reading, but I’m not sure if I could recommend reading it and it alone; while it had some neat ideas, and it was cute in places, it is also about 10,000 words long and it wasn’t that amazing. If you’re willing to commit to reading all of them, though, it is more of a worthwhile investment – and the idea of the monastic order is certainly interesting if nothing else.
Recommendation: Worth Reading if you plan to read the rest of the series.
Paper Promises
by Fervidor
Slice of LifeFilthy Rich has a problem. His daughter, Diamond Tiara, keeps breaking her promises to treat her classmates with more respect. In fact, she doesn't even seem to really understand what a promise is. Since punishing her does not seem to have much effect, Mr Rich is forced to consider a more creative parenting method. But how can he make such a spoiled, materialistic little filly as Diamond Tiara see the value of a promise?
With money, of course!
Why I added it: It is the highest rated story on FIMFiction.
Review
Diamond Tiara continues to bully the Cutie Mark Crusaders, despite her promise to Miss Cheerilee and her father, Filthy Rich, not to do so. Filthy Rich realizes that Diamond Tiara doesn’t even understand why breaking a promise is wrong, and what an utter failure of a father he is to have raised such a brat with such a complete lack of understanding about why keeping one’s word is important. There’s not even any point in punishing her, because she doesn’t even understand what she did wrong.
And then, he gets an idea, and decides to pay Diamond Tiara her weekly allowance in griffin money – bills. Diamond Tiara is thrilled – this high-denomination currency must be worth something, right?
This is a story about the fiat system of currency and how money and promises go hand-in-hand.
This story is very understated; while the personalities of the characters come through just fine, the story is not really very gripping. The story isn’t really that exciting, and while I liked the very beginning of it, the rest of it is a little bit dull. Not dull enough to alienate the reader, but not terribly exciting because I already understand the nature of fiat currency and rather quickly cottoned onto what was going on.
That being said, this story does an excellent job of making use of Diamond Tiara's character - and the way that she thinks - to promote character devleopment of her as a person.
If you’re interested in the topic matter of money and promises (or if you don’t know what fiat currency is), this might be worth your while, but if you’re looking for a character growing as a person, you’re better off elsewhere.
Recommendation: Recommended.
Off the Edge of the Map
by Daetrin
Romance, AdventureWhen Rainbow Dash's newest trick backfires spectacularly, she and Fluttershy find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. Together, they'll have to survive and find their way back to Equestria and Ponyville...no matter how far the journey.
Why I added it: It is supposedly “the” FlutterDash shipfic, and is one of the highest rated stories on FIMFiction, and is in the Pony Fiction Vault. Others, however, noted that there wasn’t really much shipping in it at all.
Review
Off the Edge of the Map is a very old story which dates all the way back to season 1 apparently.
As the story summary suggests, this story starts out with Rainbow Dash doing a trick which is described by Present Perfect (quite accurately) as “Rainbow Dash messes up a spell”. The mistake results in Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy (who was watching the stunt) ending up out in the middle of the ocean.
This story fundamentally has six parts. The first part is the initial mishap and the flight over the ocean. The second portion of the story has them exploring a strange island, and dealing with the hazards there. The third part has them travelling through some caves, while the fourth has them crossing the land of the dragons. The fifth has them encountering the ghosts of the dead in an abandoned village in Equestria, while the sixth has them making their way back through the Everfree Forest and getting home.
This story is much more about the world around the characters than about the characters themselves. The antagonist of this piece is the world itself, as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy struggle against the environment to get home.
And I hated it.
Okay, hate is too strong a word. I didn’t hate this story at all. I just didn’t care.
The story had problems which pulled me out of it, but frankly, the main problem was that I just got bored by the story. Every bit of the story was about the ponies exploring and struggling against the environment, and in principle, that can make for an interesting story. They were going through fantastic locations and dealing with fantastic beings…
But the story, while very high in concept, was all about the concept. That was, fundamentally, all that there was. Each part of the story had them struggling against various challenges, but the challenges were, mostly, not all that interesting apart from their strangeness. The means by which most of them were overcome were not terribly exciting. Reading about ponies going through a cave SOUNDS fun, but… it didn’t actually end up exciting me that much. Exploring the weird island was okay, but it wasn’t great, and I got distracted by some issues with the descriptions that probably lessened my enjoyment of it. The only part that I really felt all that good about was the bit with the dragons, and even that wasn’t all that interesting.
The story is all about the feeling that there is a huge, marvelous world out there, waiting to be explored… but I never was really all that sucked into it. Tolkien, when he went crazy with the scenery porn, sucked me into the world, but I always ended up feeling detached from this story whenever it went into the scenery porn. It may have been the flow of the language, or it may have been my disengagement from the story itself, but I just never really ended up caring all that much.
I never really was all that worried about the characters. I didn’t really get much of a sense of tension out of it; maybe I was spoiled by the format, but I just never felt like there was any credible threat to the characters, despite the fact that they were put into dangerous circumstances. Every setback they faced, I knew they were going to handle. The ponies tending to each others’ injuries and tiredness was a constant theme throughout the story, but it also ended up feeling kind of samey, as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took turns being the one to take care of or protect the other. It isn’t really a bad thing, but there are a pretty large number of times which were basically “one pony takes care of the other”, with three “Fluttershy deals with Rainbow Dash when she is in a bad way” sections which felt a bit re-used.
Moreover, despite the whole stories being about the ponies in it bonding, I never really felt a strong sense of character development out of the whole deal. They struggle, they go through stuff… but in the end, I never felt like there was anything all that different at the end between them than there was at the beginning. They cared about each other the whole way through, and I never really felt like it made them all that much closer together. Thus, the sort of shipping that happens in the final few paragraphs feels… thrown in. The story really isn’t a romance in any way, and it could have easily lost the tag and not affected the story at all. Indeed, I’d say the tag is pretty deceptive – the story isn’t about a romantic relationship at all, but a friendship.
My lack of emotional engagement made reading through it into something of a slog; I should have just given up after the first bit of the story didn’t excite me. And make no mistake, this story is pretty long; it clocks in at 35,000 words.
***
For a story that is so heavily recommended to me, this story has a surprising number of editing issues – ungrammatical sentences, use of the passive voice, awkward descriptions, and other such things, and I noticed several instances within the first few paragraphs of the story.
From Fluttershy’s vantage point on top of a nice, safe, fluffy white cloud gave her a view through the tube, to the small circle of blue sky on the other side.
Fluttershy’s voice was frayed by the wind as Rainbow Dash whipped back and forth over the clouds.
She paused a moment in her work to give Fluttershy a broad grin.
Rainbow Dash outdistanced the sound of Fluttershy’s voice before she’d gotten out the second syllable, and the yellow pegasus sat back on her haunches.
The latter two aren’t wrong, but just… felt meh.
It also had some odd missing paragraph breaks which were a bit distracting, as multiple characters have dialogue in the same paragraph:
“It’s okay, Rainbow Dash.” The blue pegasus blinked and looked over at Fluttershy. “It is?”
“Sure it is. No matter where we are, I’m sure you’ll get us back.” Fluttershy gave Rainbow Dash a hopeful look, and the blue pegasus couldn’t help but smile back. “Yeah…yeah, I’m sure it’ll be no problem.”
“I’m just worried about Angel Bunny and my chickens and birds and all my animals. Who will take care of them if we don’t get back soon?” Fluttershy’s ears drooped and Dash trotted over to put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, we’ve got plenty of friends in Ponyville. You know they’ll take care of things while we’re away. Spike’s done it before, remember?”
The story, as you might have noticed from this, also has a bit of LUS to it – you’ll be reminded of the blue pegasus and the yellow pegasus a lot (32 and 23 times in the first chapter, respectively). That being said, it isn’t TOO distracting, generally speaking, though sometimes when they just go with “the pegasus” it is:
Rainbow followed her look and shrugged. “Let’s just go with the wind. West.” The pegasus really didn’t have any idea which was the right one, but Fluttershy was not nearly as strong a flyer as she was. If they were constantly fighting against the wind, they wouldn’t get far.
It also has some telling that sticks out at times:
“Whatever you say, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy’s voice was absolutely trusting, and Rainbow Dash hoped she deserved it. The blue pegasus took a deep breath and took off from the now-diminished cloud, navigating by the sun alone and hoping that they were making progress over the featureless sea.
The sun was nearing the horizon when Fluttershy spoke up. “I…I have to stop. I can’t fly anymore. I’m sorry.” Dash had noticed Fluttershy beginning to flag, but didn’t want to say anything. It wasn’t Fluttershy’s fault they were so out of their depth.
The fifth part of the story also contained an error which made it somewhat harder to read; italicized sections indicated a sort of dream/hallucination sequence, but there was at least one portion where the italics were missed, and a real-world section was consequently italicized. Worst of all, this actually happened the first time it flickered between dream and reality, making it even more confusing.
***
All in all, I was not impressed by this story. I think that it had some big ideas, but I never really engaged with the core of the story. The writing never sucked me in, and the characters never really felt very alive or engaging. It was like reading about someone else’s RPG adventure; there were a bunch of challenges to overcome, but there was no great tension, no real sense that the characters were ever going to fail, and no great character development. It was more like a serial than a single story, with each portion of the story having its own arc, but without a sense of rising tension or engagement as the story went on; indeed, the closer I got to the end, the less tension I felt.
I almost want to compare the story to the final book of The Lord of the Rings; the whole journey is about a trip back home, and the closer they got to Equestria, the more tension got sucked out of the story, until Fluttershy being injured in the storm in the Everfree Forest ended up feeling like a distraction, one last thing before the ponies invariably got home, safe and sound, without anything really having happened.
Some folks really loved this thing, and it is in the Pony Fiction Vault. But I can’t recommend it myself; I was bored by it more than anything else. If you’re looking for a FlutterDash shipfic, this definitely isn’t the place to look. But even if you’re looking for world-building, I have to say I much preferred Cold in Gardez’s Lost Cities, whose descriptions were much more engaging.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Summary
Naked Singularity by Cold in Gardez
Highly Recommended
Walking through Fire by SPark
Not Recommended
Lady Prismia and the Princess-Goddess by Skywriter
Worth Reading
Paper Promises by Fervidor
Worth Reading
Off the Edge of the Map by Daetrin
Not Recommended
Whew.
I’m actually kind of glad that I did this; I had been meaning to read Off the Edge of the Map and Lady Prismia and the Princess-Goddess for ages, and this, at long last, made me do so. Oddly, it was Naked Singularity, a story I added somewhat arbitrarily because it was by Cold in Gardez, that ended up being the real hit for me, while I didn’t end up enjoying Off the Edge of the Map at all, which was rather disappointing.
According to the Big Master Review List, with this set of reviews, I will go from 276 reviews to 281 reviews, meaning that I will have, at long last, surpassed the number of stories reviewed by the venerable JohnPerry, and be in fourth position. Chris, the writer of One Man’s Pony Ramblings, is at 540 reviews.
It will be a bit before I achieve such lofty heights.
So what’s next on my agenda?
Three Nights by Bradel
The story that made me follow Bradel, despite the fact that I never read the third chapter.
A Princess by Any Other Name by Skywriter
The next story in the Cadance of Cloudsdale cycle, which I have enjoyed thus far.
Felt Heart by Tchernobog
Tchernobog recommended this as his best story to me, and I’m interested in reading a long romance story.
The Magician and the Detective by Bad Horse
One of only two stories by Bad Horse that I have not yet read.
The Carnivore’s Prayer by Cold in Gardez
This story’s description caught my attention the moment I saw it, and yet, I never read it. It is supposed to be quite good.But before all that… I’m going to see if I can’t get more of Mistletrapped finished.
Until next time, folks.
Number of stories still listed as "Read It Later – Important": 65. I created this list from the “Read It Later – High Priority” list recently in an attempt to actually narrow down my reading list even further.
Number of stories still listed as "Read It Later – High Priority": From 172 when I started this blog post back in December to 231 on April 6th. I clearly am too indiscriminate in adding to this list.
Number of stories listed as “Read It Later”: Went from 1539 in December to 1557 on April 6th.
Fun fact: If you take the first letters of the recommended ratings of the five stories in this blog post, you get 'HNWWN', which is the sound one makes when trying to stifle a laugh while reading Naked Singularity.
So it actually all works out.
I cry conspiracy.
2955446
The only real problem with my "You're Next" list is that I fear that everyone might have already read many of these stories.
And yes, that is about the sound I made while reading that story. It was wonderful.
2955456
It's possible. But not everything. Also it's still fun to see what you think about them anyway, so no harm there either way. And I'm sure the people who write the stories aren't going to be disappointed that you took the time to read and review them.
Except for the huge mob of people outside your door waving pitchforks and beaver intestines.
Yeah.
Also you really shouldn't keep saying that you read stuff just because people throw them at you. That gives people like ME ideas.
2955465
I do endeavor to be truthful in my reviews. That includes why I read stories.
I think it is useful for folks to know how I came across them.
Of course, it also means they know who to blame for my reviewing their stories at times. Thins out the crowd a bit. Splits them up between two locations, you see.
Though yeah, I'm sure my opinion on Off the Edge of the Map may not be popular. I think I'm literally the only reviewer to pan it out of... four?
Hopefully people will at least understand why.
2955473
Oh you. You can't just let us puppetmasters work quietly behind the scenes, can you?
Writing style and voice aside, I have noticed that you aren't very partial to stories in the dictionary definition of slice of life stories at all, and Off the Edge seems to thematically jump into that category dangerously closely. I do think that you have this sort of... non-engagement with stories that are about base concepts, focusing on moments or trying to share emotional quotient through the text itself rather than through definition of action, if you know what I'm saying. Not that this is a criticism of you at all. Just as a thing I've noticed.
I'm probably not surprised that you maybe wouldn't have LIKED this one probably because of what you exactly mentioned, that there was a bit of the Tolkien stuff going on. Which makes it surprising to me that you LIKE Tolkien. But that's another matter altogether.
I shall continue to observe you.
Nospook.
2955477
To be fair, "Someone recommended this to me" has a pretty decent hit ratio in terms of my liking stories.
2955478
P.S. Damnit, stop editing your posts while I'm already in the middle of writing a reply >=( Now I have to append my previous post. SEE WHAT YOU MAKE ME DO? EDIT MYSELF. How dare you.
2955535
Fixed. Thank you.
And yes, I was glad I enjoyed Naked Singularity as well. Believe it or not, I'd like to be able to HR every story I read.
Sadly, I cannot, because most of them aren't nearly so good.
For Off the Edge of the Map:
It's worth remembering that writing standards just weren't as high back in season one, for a very good reason: most of us weren't as good of writers back then. When I look at my first few stories, also from season one, they're stuffed with errors and LUS and other things that would get me booted from EqD these days.
I am glad you liked Naked Singularity, though. I hope you enjoy Carnivore's Prayer, though I suspect you won't find it as funny.
2955566
I'm always itchy about my older stuff as well. I want to go through and fix them, but that would come at the expense of doing new stuff that is probably more pertinent.
I actually have PLANS to go through and edit the original chapters of Shotgun Wedding (though they aren't in nearly as dire condition as poor Crepes is) because I'm going to finish that story (one day, I swear), but I'm not going to do that until Mistletrapped is complete.
And honestly, while I noted the LUS, I think the main reason that I noticed it was because of the other writing issues; the ungrammatical sentences drew my attention to the writing itself, and thus I ended up seeing these issues throughout the first chapter or so of the text and had it constantly bother me. LUS was honestly the least of his sins, and I think it gets overblown as an issue; it isn't best practice, but I think that if I was going to fix something in the story, that wouldn't be it.
I hope I do too!
2955571
Indeed. One of my motivations in doing this is creating a resource for others to use.
I'm constantly surprised how many of the stories I review have never been reviewed before. Neither Walking Through Fire nor Paper Promises had been reviewed before, and Paper Promises was the highest rated story on the site and Walking Through Fire has over 1,100 upvotes. And this was from a set of stories which were pretty well-regarded and which were recommended to me by various means.
2955600
The master list suggests there have been a bit over 7700 reviews in total, spread across 4907 stories. There are about 122,000 stories on FIMFiction, suggesting that the overall odds of any given story having been reviewed is actually a shockingly high 4%.
2955619
It does not, I'm afraid. My own list does not do so either.
I actually need to post my personal review spreadsheet sometime.
Yup, I'd say that OTEOTM and Apotheosis are both...not as well written as I'd like. They were the first and second stories of worth that I'd ever written! That said I'm still satisfied with good portions of both of them, Characterization, mostly. I still struggle with plotting even now, making it tight and coherent. The comparison to Lost Cities seems a bit odd since they're not actually adventure arcs, just 'there's a stuff that happened,' and while I enjoy them it's not the same thing at all.
Still, thanks for giving it a shot!
2955792
Lost Cities was more about the whole worldbuilding porn than anything else; it has no other resemblance to your story, really.
Anyway, yeah. I'd been putting off reading it for ages and ages for no good reason, so I finally buckled down and read it. I'm kind of sad I didn't end up liking it more than I did.
Ah, well. Ca, c'est la vie.
2955735
Is this helpful?
Gasp! TD liked a story that was meant to be silly fun! The world comes to an end!
Thank you for the heads up on that Twilestia fic. I don't know how I missed it during the Purge. :B
"The Carnivore's Prayer" suffers from an ending that is weak and a title that is misleading.
I love CiG's writing, though, so I still ended up enjoying the story.
2955846
Clearly it had a good home defense system. :V
ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTU0OTE1Nzk2NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjE5NDY0OQ@@._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg
2957085
Haha.
Actually, it's entirely possible I watched the author after the Purge, since I'm not too discerning when mass-adding things. :B
2955566
You can't be sure. This is TD we're talking about.
iruntheinternet.com/lulzdump/images/gifs/Naked-gun-Frank-Drebin-Leslie-Nielsen-laughing-platoon-1382708322r.gif?id=994
2963167
I've always been curious about to what extent you should expect agreement to occur on what stories are liked by folks.
2963464 I'm afraid I was just making a joke. It's a great story, but dark, and I mean genuinely philosophically dark, not just grimdark, and not this goodie-two-shoes Batman shit that passes for dark these days. I think 2956013 is right that the title is misleading; I kept trying and failing to fit the title to the story.
2955608
You also have to consider that I don't even cover a lot of group reviews, or off-site reviews. So it's probable that the percentage is actually 5-6%. And a quick comparison on the list shows that about 1/3rd of the stories you've reviewed have only your review on them. Also, keep in mind that the number of reviews for you there is not 100% accurate, given short story collection entries.
2955619
I keep thinking about adding tags and/or wordcounts to the list, but haven't gotten around to it. Might just have to do that. I mean, it's only two more columns on a list 5000 entries long.
Also, you have in fact reached the furthest left on the big master review list you are likely to reach. Since the first two columns are fixed in place by creator preference. I mean, it's possible you could get one more slot to the left, but that would require beating PresentPerfect's number of reviews.
2964922
I'd be interested in the results, that's for sure. Be aware that not all the stories on the big master list are on FimFiction. Also, if you could hack out a text list of the stories on the list along with their wordcounts and tags, I'd be happy to do the data entry work to put them in. It's mostly just hunting down all the info that's stopping me at this point.
That was intentional, though. I actually like Diamond the way she is, so I don't exactly want her to change all that much. The ending was supposed to be hopeful: I wanted to imply that maybe this would be a step in the right direction for her. It was never meant to be a life-changing event, and I'm not sure what I did to make you think it would be.
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I don't think it was something you did wrong; I think you're 100% right in doing it that way. It just didn't end up being very emotionally satisfying for me, I guess.
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Might be, but for the stories on FimFic, I normally just do a copy/paste for titles and authors. So that should help.
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Obligatory people-are-misusing-slice-of-life-again rant: Slice-of-life is not in the dictionary, but the term is over 100 years old and has a very definite meaning.
Wikipedia says:
The term was invented to describe then-novel French stories and plays that were not conventionally engaging, having no plot, no action, no tension, no conclusion, and (deliberately) no points of interest other than on the meta level, to force viewers to think on the meta level. Waiting for Godot is the most famous slice-of-life story.
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Hi, Bad Horse. please do not mind my overly-formal tone in this comment; I would like to clarify things.
Sorry to confuse. by 'dictionary', I certainly wasn't being literal. I meant exactly that which you described, and both TD and I know that this is excatly how I represent slice of life in its entirety. Most of what I write uses that concept as a fundemental base, even. I was a classical fiction major in university, and 'Waiting for Godot' also happens to be one of my favourite texts, so I'm rather confident in that I am familiar with the concept.
To clarify, I had previously, in another blog, already observed and postulated that TD is not a fan of the essence of slice of life (of the definition you described) from patterns. And no, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with that. This is not a criticism nor a jab at him. I jab at him with far sharper things. Therefore, this post was just a re-assertment of this based on our past definition of the term.
Either way, you can be sure that our understanding of the 'slice of life' genre is very much in tune with yours, and I disagree strongly with the common assumption that all stories that aren't something else immediately falls into that category.
2971788 Oh. I haven't read "Off the Edge"; I thought it was an adventure story.
Is Remembrances of Things Past / Swann's Way slice-of-life? I haven't read that either, but was wondering that when I wrote my reply.
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It is an adventure story. I think what he means is that its focus on mundane action is what drove me away from it. That being said, it isn't very close to slice of life, seeing as it is anything but the everyday that it focuses on.
It is true that lack of engagement is why I don't like most "true" slice of life stories (as opposed to the redefinition of the term which appears to have happened after Seinfeld, as I see some sources claiming Seinfeld is such, or describing it as a slice of life comedy - which is kind of contradictory according to the original definition). There are some "slice of life" things that I do like - Twilight Sparkle Makes a Cup of Tea, The Wrong Fork, and Never So Far Away - but they're all very obvious in their revelation of character via the mundane, and they do have structure to them, and the selection of the time viewed isn't arbitrary at all.
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Yes. Pretty much. It is not slice of life. It just has the echoes of sentiment. More precisely, the bits that TD doesn't like as much, elements found in either.
Now, let's just all sit around and have cheese. It's much more fun.
2974128 singlecutbeer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/wallacegromitcheese.jpg
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I like your style, sir.
I can't help but wonder if I liked this ending more than you in part because I don't see this as being such a strong dichotomy. I have a kind of atheistic/rationalist/game-theory-is-cool worldview, so "economic consequences" seem like a pretty strong foundation for being a good person, once you recognize that they can be expanded to essentially everything. To put that another way, I thought Rich's equalization of the promise implicit in fiat currency and the more socially-oriented sorts of promises he wants Diamond to understand was totally apt. That said, neither I nor anybody else actually bases their gut feelings of right and wrong on thinking "well, it's meta-rationally beneficial for me in the long run if I act in these don't-choose-betray-in-the-prisoner's-dilemma prosocial ways usually described as 'good' blah blah blah" (though it seems like the LessWrong guys and similar are in large part about training themselves to think this way).
I also think it's an interesting contrast with how often the mane cast are inadvertently assholes in spite of their good intentions. In some ways a Diamond Tiara who is successfully sensitive out of pure selfishness would be more pleasant to be around than a Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy rubbing your nose in your worst fears out of a severely misguided desire to help you with them. (Though realistically Diamond's never going to reach that level -- her gut feelings on right and wrong seem to boil down to "i am great" and "want thing", so teaching her to be nice is more about damage control.)
The hyperlink to Lost Cities is broken.
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Fixed. Thanks for letting me know!
This link should work.