williams_482's recent activity
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Comment on A new rallying cry for the irony-poisoned right. It took less than twenty-four hours after Trump’s re-election for young men to take up a slogan that could define the coming era of gendered regression in ~society
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Comment on Donald Trump nominates Fox News host and Army National Guard Major Pete Hegseth for US defense secretary in ~society
williams_482 Link ParentThat is essentially what it's designed to do. Our government's sluggishness and unreliability is infuriating when those in power have good ideas, but provides damage control when someone dangerous...That is essentially what it's designed to do. Our government's sluggishness and unreliability is infuriating when those in power have good ideas, but provides damage control when someone dangerous is at the helm.
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Comment on How Star Trek: Picard ruins Star Trek in ~tv
williams_482 Link ParentThat's a good observation, and although I doubt the overall pattern is deliberately designed for that effect, the significance of vigilance against corruption is pretty explicitly harped on at...That's a good observation, and although I doubt the overall pattern is deliberately designed for that effect, the significance of vigilance against corruption is pretty explicitly harped on at various points. The end of TNG's The Drumhead is probably the most notable example:
PICARD: We think we've come so far. The torture of heretics, the burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then, before you can blink an eye, it suddenly threatens to start all over again.
WORF: I believed her. I helped her. I did not see what she was.
PICARD: Mister Worf, villains who wear twirl their moustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged.
WORF: I think after yesterday, people will not be as ready to trust her.
PICARD: Maybe. But she, or someone like her, will always be with us, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish, spreading fear in the name of righteousness. Vigilance, Mister Worf, that is the price we have to continually pay. -
Comment on How Star Trek: Picard ruins Star Trek in ~tv
williams_482 Link Parent"The Institution works and is populated by competent, well-intentioned people" is such a core part of the setting because it's both aspirational and very nearly unique. Nearly every other sci fi..."The Institution works and is populated by competent, well-intentioned people" is such a core part of the setting because it's both aspirational and very nearly unique. Nearly every other sci fi franchise out there is dominated by government institutions which fall somewhere on the spectrum of inept to outright evil, where their circumvention or outright destruction are portrayed as the only viable routes for doing good. As best I can tell this happens not from some universal understanding that institutions are evil, but because it's much harder to write good stories about powerful entities who solve problems instead of creating them. Starfleet/The Federation are (or at least were) the special exception, and dragging them back into the pack of what every other franchise does feels painful.
Also: Is a government that largely works really so wildly outlandish as to earn the "Mary Sue" tag? It's not like nothing ever went wrong in the older shows, only that what did go wrong was recognized and eventually (with effort) dealt with.
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Comment on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S02E09 - "Subspace Rhapsody" Episode Discussion in ~tv
williams_482 Link ParentThe bolded was surely an intentional, considered choice. It's a classic strategy to put whatever you think is your worst/most risky/etc episode in the second to last episode slot, where a dud is...But this... I mean a fucking musical episode in season 2 of a Trek show? The penultimate episode of the entire season? I mean every show jumps the shark eventually, but why is it happening so early. I could even forget it if these were like, 25 episode seasons, but the seasons are 10 episodes and this is one of the episodes they put on the roster right on the heels of a crossover episode which is not something that people are usually amicable to.
The bolded was surely an intentional, considered choice. It's a classic strategy to put whatever you think is your worst/most risky/etc episode in the second to last episode slot, where a dud is least likely to be remembered because it is immediately followed by the much more significant finale. As an example, that's where TNG hid their infamous clip show (and The Inner Light, which apparently the people in charge thought would be terrible). SNW S1 almost did that with The Elysian Kingdom, but put it 8th instead of 9th because Hemmer was present, and Hemmer had to die before the season finale.
Did you know this would be a musical episode coming in? I did, I had extremely low expectations (I am not a fan of musicals in general, and figured it was 50/50 that I'd bail halfway through), and found myself pleasantly surprised. Whatever else you want to say, this cast has some excellent musical talents, and they (the actors) apparently lobbied pretty hard to make this episode happen.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
williams_482 Link ParentChristie I had heard of (who hasn't), but Sayers is a new name to me. I'll definitely check out their works.Christie I had heard of (who hasn't), but Sayers is a new name to me. I'll definitely check out their works.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
williams_482 LinkI'm ~75% of the way through a collection of the original Sherlock Holmes stories (The Complete Sherlock Holmes, volumes I and II, compiled and annotated by Kyle Freeman) and have been loving them....I'm ~75% of the way through a collection of the original Sherlock Holmes stories (The Complete Sherlock Holmes, volumes I and II, compiled and annotated by Kyle Freeman) and have been loving them. Obviously Holmes mysteries are well regarded for the mysteries and for their eccentric protagonist, but I've found considerable joy in the simple fact that they are then-contemporary fiction from 150 years ago, complete with word choices and assumptions about what the audience would understand which would be largely lost on me without Freeman's helpful notations. There's also quite a bit of strikingly unapologetic casual racism, but that's to be expected for the time period. On some level, it highlights Conan Doyle's complete obliviousness to the perceptions of 21st century readers, and thus his willingness to include elements that modern writers of this time period would often shy away from.
I was drawn to Casablanca and The Twilight Zone for essentially the same reason: good stories, (mostly) set, written, and performed in a time closer to today, but still old enough that to me it seems foreign.
Can anyone recommend other examples of then-contemporary pop fiction from 100+ years ago, ideally not American, that are still compelling reads today? My knowledge of the classics is pretty limited, hence the question.
The Anime girl is in the subreddit background on old reddit. Whatever prevents reddit images from loading for you, it isn't the old reddit interface.