>>So what happened to all the rough drafts that Annatar and Celebrimbor flung all over the forge? <<
The world being crafting castoffs would explain a lot. Also, what if there is an Island of Misfit Toys-esque world for all the odd projects that failed to make the cut or just plain failed?
>>And his program becomes sapient, whereupon it ravages society because humans actually HATE the truth.<<
This part has been done. See the early scifi story A Logic Named Joe, by Murray Leinster (Which also predicted the invention of personal computers, internet...and some of the issues with those things.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Logic_Named_Joe
Come to think of it, you could also look at Fae, truth spells, and moral obligations of truthspeaking.
>>This show is a lot about self-awareness, because the powers are basically expressions of your inner self. And it's mostly handled with a fairly serious take on meditation, martial arts practice, etc.<<
This sort of thing could be played as a Disability Superpower. Like:
- someone who has massive mood swings can regulate their emotions in a mood-sensitive Fisher-King Otherworld better than a normie.
- Ditto for the person that gets possessed by a demon who tries to corrupt them - but fails, because dealing with obsessive thoughts is the same skillset whether it is OCD or an irritating demon joyriding your brain.
- And someone with shapeshifting powers might be unexpectedly good at operating multiple very different brains if they are used to having different mental-state personas.
>>The stories just make me want to drown every adult in Wizarding Britain.<<
A lot of that could be explained by cultural differences...so now I want to see a HP fanfic where there is a Culture Clash between the Elizabethan Divine Right of Kings wizards who consider public executions to be family fun and workhouses to be dangerously innovative with the Muggles who have laws against animal cruelty (and cruelty against children), state-funded healthcare, and health-and-building codes.
While I have seen fanfics that incorporate bits of this, I don't think I've seen one where it was the main focus.
Also, even if Dumbledore's logic was "Welp, the Dursleys are better than a workhouse/Dickensian orphanage," that still doesn't mean I think his decision was right.
>>Erik Lensherr and Steve Rogers meet, secretly, in coffeeshops to reminisce over a time that few others remember.<<
Somewhere there's a good genderbent fic where Stephanie Rogers (among her other activities) befriends an elderly WWII veteran in the present day, because they both understand their shared experience in a way most other people alive cannot.
>>Let's have some fanservice! I want to see a blowoff of a male character...<<
Not an anime, but I did read something once whare the guy got himself morphlocked in a way that resulted in him wearing being stuck fanservice-y clothing that was basically strategically-placed fabric and jewelry. Then the whole situation was basically used as an Aesop about how sexual harassment is bad...and insisting that people being harassed have to be nice about it is, mildly put, inadvisable.
>>We've all seen "modern person (often self-insert) gets dropped into historic/fantasy setting" AU stories.<<
...very few of which illustrate the difficulty folks would have with all sorts of things: language barriers, different tech (skinning game and cooking it over a fire, for one example), dealing with problems (improvising menstrual products or losing adaptive equipment), being unaware of hazards (don't pet the fart squirrels, cobras /do/ spit poison), etc, etc.
(For some reason they do seem to love to play with the "Socialized to a different culture -> get attacked by the current likely-superstitious culture.")
>>Is there another linguist in the house? We need your language's alphabet in order of frequency."<<
Speaking of inventing linguistic stuff, I wonder if it would be possible to invent a writing system for a tactile-modality language. (Current tactile writing encodes verbal languages, and while people have experimented with visual-modality writing, I don't think there is one in particular that has caught overwhelming popularity yet.)
>>"WTF no, I am not spending the rest of my life writing with a goose feather.<<
Why does no-one in these settings ever seem to complin about the quality of rushlight vs candlelight, or have trouble with using the quill-pen, and so on?
>>Foreign language learning: Suzette Haden Elgin once observed that "Writers will put their characters through any horrible experience, except learning a foreign language."<<
Well, you need a scenario where it makes sense, and furthers the story. Also, if using something that doesn't go through Google Translate, any foreign dialogue takes longer to write because you have to translate it manually, and that assumes it is even a language that can be written down.
Seriously, try writing sign-language dialogue that is being observed by a non-signing focal character. If you want to do anything more complicated that "..and with that, Bob shooed them out of the room with a teasing grin," you need to know enough about the individual signs, and sign language grammar, and be good at descriptions. Even then, you might mess up if you are using a sign language you are not fluent in!
That said, there are a handful of good stories that use this concept, and there are also a handful of tricks that can be used to play with languages in a way that is both realistic and interesting to readers.
This might be an interesting topic to write a post on, if you are interested in doing so.
>>For bonus points, include a thumbnail sample of the alien language, how it does at least one thing that no (known, surviving) human language does, and how the characters melt down trying to cope with that.<<
Meltdown frequency would likely be affected by other languages known, prior experience in language-learning, general communication skills, and the record-breaking-ness of the alien language on human brains.
>>The game engine must fit on one sheet of 8.5x11" paper (can be printed on both sides).<<
I could cheat by using a mini-notebook. Art skills for the win!
>>Any additional tools must also fit into a typical pocket (a real masculine pocket, not a fake ladypocket or one you can't fit your damn hand into),...<<
Maybe this could be Extreme Mode?
Seriously, there's a reason I keep altering my pants to have actual, sensibly-sized and working pockets...
>>Describe a set of at least 10 asanas or mudras for a nonhuman species who does not possess the same number and orientation of limbs, digits, etc. as a standard human but who desperately wants to do yoga with human friends.<<
That sounds interesting...if I knew the yoga poses and didn't have do desinn the aliens.
I did try coming up with body languague for beings with different bodyplans once. That was fun!
>>If you're into high school or college tropes, the motivation is ready-made young people want to do what their friends are doing; for adults you might need to stretch a bit further.<<
Social bonding or curiosity might still get someone to try at least a single session. Their coming back might depend on additional incentives (like "humans who do yoga have such relaxing auras" or something).
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2024-01-09 03:26 am (UTC)The world being crafting castoffs would explain a lot. Also, what if there is an Island of Misfit Toys-esque world for all the odd projects that failed to make the cut or just plain failed?
>>And his program becomes sapient, whereupon it ravages society because humans actually HATE the truth.<<
This part has been done. See the early scifi story A Logic Named Joe, by Murray Leinster (Which also predicted the invention of personal computers, internet...and some of the issues with those things.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Logic_Named_Joe
Come to think of it, you could also look at Fae, truth spells, and moral obligations of truthspeaking.
>>This show is a lot about self-awareness, because the powers are basically expressions of your inner self. And it's mostly handled with a fairly serious take on meditation, martial arts practice, etc.<<
This sort of thing could be played as a Disability Superpower. Like:
- someone who has massive mood swings can regulate their emotions in a mood-sensitive Fisher-King Otherworld better than a normie.
- Ditto for the person that gets possessed by a demon who tries to corrupt them - but fails, because dealing with obsessive thoughts is the same skillset whether it is OCD or an irritating demon joyriding your brain.
- And someone with shapeshifting powers might be unexpectedly good at operating multiple very different brains if they are used to having different mental-state personas.
>>The stories just make me want to drown every adult in Wizarding Britain.<<
A lot of that could be explained by cultural differences...so now I want to see a HP fanfic where there is a Culture Clash between the Elizabethan Divine Right of Kings wizards who consider public executions to be family fun and workhouses to be dangerously innovative with the Muggles who have laws against animal cruelty (and cruelty against children), state-funded healthcare, and health-and-building codes.
While I have seen fanfics that incorporate bits of this, I don't think I've seen one where it was the main focus.
Also, even if Dumbledore's logic was "Welp, the Dursleys are better than a workhouse/Dickensian orphanage," that still doesn't mean I think his decision was right.
>>Erik Lensherr and Steve Rogers meet, secretly, in coffeeshops to reminisce over a time that few others remember.<<
Somewhere there's a good genderbent fic where Stephanie Rogers (among her other activities) befriends an elderly WWII veteran in the present day, because they both understand their shared experience in a way most other people alive cannot.
>>Let's have some fanservice! I want to see a blowoff of a male character...<<
Not an anime, but I did read something once whare the guy got himself morphlocked in a way that resulted in him wearing being stuck fanservice-y clothing that was basically strategically-placed fabric and jewelry. Then the whole situation was basically used as an Aesop about how sexual harassment is bad...and insisting that people being harassed have to be nice about it is, mildly put, inadvisable.
>>We've all seen "modern person (often self-insert) gets dropped into historic/fantasy setting" AU stories.<<
...very few of which illustrate the difficulty folks would have with all sorts of things: language barriers, different tech (skinning game and cooking it over a fire, for one example), dealing with problems (improvising menstrual products or losing adaptive equipment), being unaware of hazards (don't pet the fart squirrels, cobras /do/ spit poison), etc, etc.
(For some reason they do seem to love to play with the "Socialized to a different culture -> get attacked by the current likely-superstitious culture.")
>>Is there another linguist in the house? We need your language's alphabet in order of frequency."<<
Speaking of inventing linguistic stuff, I wonder if it would be possible to invent a writing system for a tactile-modality language. (Current tactile writing encodes verbal languages, and while people have experimented with visual-modality writing, I don't think there is one in particular that has caught overwhelming popularity yet.)
>>"WTF no, I am not spending the rest of my life writing with a goose feather.<<
Why does no-one in these settings ever seem to complin about the quality of rushlight vs candlelight, or have trouble with using the quill-pen, and so on?
>>Foreign language learning: Suzette Haden Elgin once observed that "Writers will put their characters through any horrible experience, except learning a foreign language."<<
Well, you need a scenario where it makes sense, and furthers the story. Also, if using something that doesn't go through Google Translate, any foreign dialogue takes longer to write because you have to translate it manually, and that assumes it is even a language that can be written down.
Seriously, try writing sign-language dialogue that is being observed by a non-signing focal character. If you want to do anything more complicated that "..and with that, Bob shooed them out of the room with a teasing grin," you need to know enough about the individual signs, and sign language grammar, and be good at descriptions. Even then, you might mess up if you are using a sign language you are not fluent in!
That said, there are a handful of good stories that use this concept, and there are also a handful of tricks that can be used to play with languages in a way that is both realistic and interesting to readers.
This might be an interesting topic to write a post on, if you are interested in doing so.
>>For bonus points, include a thumbnail sample of the alien language, how it does at least one thing that no (known, surviving) human language does, and how the characters melt down trying to cope with that.<<
Meltdown frequency would likely be affected by other languages known, prior experience in language-learning, general communication skills, and the record-breaking-ness of the alien language on human brains.
>>The game engine must fit on one sheet of 8.5x11" paper (can be printed on both sides).<<
I could cheat by using a mini-notebook. Art skills for the win!
>>Any additional tools must also fit into a typical pocket (a real masculine pocket, not a fake ladypocket or one you can't fit your damn hand into),...<<
Maybe this could be Extreme Mode?
Seriously, there's a reason I keep altering my pants to have actual, sensibly-sized and working pockets...
>>Describe a set of at least 10 asanas or mudras for a nonhuman species who does not possess the same number and orientation of limbs, digits, etc. as a standard human but who desperately wants to do yoga with human friends.<<
That sounds interesting...if I knew the yoga poses and didn't have do desinn the aliens.
I did try coming up with body languague for beings with different bodyplans once. That was fun!
>>If you're into high school or college tropes, the motivation is ready-made young people want to do what their friends are doing; for adults you might need to stretch a bit further.<<
Social bonding or curiosity might still get someone to try at least a single session. Their coming back might depend on additional incentives (like "humans who do yoga have such relaxing auras" or something).