The Gaming Den

Alex Ross made a shitty day just a little bit better.

edit: Spoilered for size.

Vader would win. Or maybe not. Unicron definitely would.

Plus: some people just really want the truth to be known.

Check out the FAQ.

Edit: I didn't know there was a thread like this one for websites, hence why the link is here. One that doesn't link to any pretty pictures. In an image macro thread. I am a idoit. I'm also too lazy to move it.

So, there you have it. A letter opener. Nothing new, but then, what is?

Your head?

shhh!

image doesn't work, Avor.

Rehosted.

Reviving this Page 45 thing: "How is the boy!"

-Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds.

I have no idea.

Rest of the album is here- http://imgur.com/a/K4wsg

...I want to put this into a game now...

I found out that Sir Terry Pratchett was granted an official coat of arms.

The motto is "Don't Fear the Reaper", in official Latin. And if you've ever read Feet of Clay, well, you should recognize other elements.

Prak_Anima wrote:

...I want to put this into a game now...

I would be okay with this showing up in Sailor Luna.

Maxus wrote:I found out that Sir Terry Pratchett was granted an official coat of arms.

That alone is awesome. That it suits him so perfectly, using elements from his books, is double awesome.

On the same note, here's a tumblr of someone going through the books page by page and highlighting their flaws: http://50shadesofsuck.tumblr.com/page/25

What is our society coming to when shit like this is considered "bestselling"? I remember when trash like this could only be found in the magazine/book sections of convenience stores, gas stations, and Dumpsters.

Perhaps more people are reading for leisure so standards are reaching the lowest common denominator. Or the reverse.

Shrapnel wrote:What is our society coming to when shit like this is considered "bestselling"? I remember when trash like this could only be found in the magazine/book sections of convenience stores, gas stations, and Dumpsters.

When it sells a fuck-ton of books.

It's Harry Potter's fault, I think. Not that there's anything wrong with Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling on its own merits.

Harry Potter made being a reader more socially acceptable. I've had girls try to make fun of me for having a book open at the highschool lunch table. Of course, I could be a snide little shit in highschool, so this did not always work their way. Harry Potter changed that some. It just wasn't unusual to see someone reading Harry Potter at school.

A few years later, along comes Twilight. Which is an old-school romance novel plastered over with vampires , and purple prose that tries to be beautiful.

And now, a few years after that, comes Fifty Shades of Gray. Which was originally a Twilight fanfiction with Edward as a BDSM freak.

I expect that every few years now, we can hear about a new megaseries which will make so much money the author has to switch banks because the first one filled up.

Now both Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray are romance novels (a genre I have respect for. We can go into it later). Romance novels are one of the best-selling areas of books, consistently. Well, I take that back. They're the best-selling area of genre fiction.

And while reading is getting more mainstream, there's still a lot of people out there who've never been exposed to anything really different, like Dune or Neuromancer or Terry Pratchett's crazier books. So they're at the "Gee whillickers!" stage of genre savvy when it's all new to them. A lot of them won't take it much further, but some will figure out this reading junk is fun, and try something else. And then something else. And then something else.

So I don't mind Fifty Shades of Gray selling a fuckton of books. I think finding someone who likes it rationally and can give an actual account of its merits would be interesting.

Well, remember, even Shakespeare played to the plebes. The lower classes may not have a lot of money, but they're huge, so if something appeals to them, it'll sell a lot.

The other thing is that romance novels, especially ones like 50 Shades of Grey, or at least ones that don't have covers like these, are basically porn that is socially acceptable to read in public, and socially acceptable for women to read in public. A guy sitting around in a park reading a Hustler is going to be thought of as an absolute creep, even if he's seriously just reading the articles there. A woman reading Hustler anywhere is going to be considered a trashy slut, but all the more so if it's in public. But a woman reading 50 Shades of Grey in public won't be given a second look. The guy will only be thought of as gay.

The fact that these 50 Shades books are terrible dross is not in anyway surprising. What's interesting to me is the response from some actual BDSM aficionados who criticize it as being an abusive relationship masquerading as a BDSM one.

In the same way that Twilight is an abusive relationship masquerading as a vanilla one. It doesn't bother me when women just straight up get off on stories of rape and abuse, because I enjoy video games that cast me as a ruthless mass murderer all the time and I don't care. There's a nice solid border between fantasy and reality there. What does bother me is when women point to a story that is clearly about an abusive relationship and saying that men should be like that.

Chamomile wrote:In the same way that Twilight is an abusive relationship masquerading as a vanilla one. It doesn't bother me when women just straight up get off on stories of rape and abuse, because I enjoy video games that cast me as a ruthless mass murderer all the time and I don't care. There's a nice solid border between fantasy and reality there. What does bother me is when women point to a story that is clearly about an abusive relationship and saying that men should be like that.

I wouldn't call Twilight abusive. It is, however, an unhealthy relationship between two very dependent people.

Seriously, Sparkles comes in and begins fixating entirely on her. And Suetiful ends up in an "ideal" relationship--that is, one where she has no demands placed on her, is accepted totally and without reservation, and has no duties or responsibilities except to love and be loved in return. And then when she's cut off from Sparkles, she takes it so hard she goes all obsessive and suicidal.

That's stasis. It isn't something to be sought out.

But it turns out that's what a lot of people want--someone to come in, See Them For "Who They Really Are", Love Them For "Who They Really Are", and then take care of all the problems and make them go away. A knight in shining armor.

I don't object to the fantasy. I object to folks getting whiny when it doesn't happen.

Now, I've read the first couple Twilight books. I can give an actual yea/nay on that. I haven't read Fifty Shades of Gray, and the couple of pages the clerks at the bookstore showed me I'm unlikely to be able to make it through it. So can't say if it's an abusive relationship or not.

But I will say it really really sounds like one.

Edward disables Bella's car to stop her from seeing her friends. Pretty sure he crossed a line into abusive at that point.

Chamomile wrote:Edward disables Bella's car to stop her from seeing her friends. Pretty sure he crossed a line into abusive at that point.

...Totally forgot about that one.

One difference is that Hustler has real people in it. 50 Shades and Twisparkle are fiction. I could be wrong, but neither of those books are autobiographical, but Hustler has actual photos of living people, and lots of them. That may be why you'd get dirty looks reading Hustler but not the others.

Another reason might be that 50 Shades is widely known as Mommy porn, and the Mommies are probably the ones who'd be giving you the dirty looks while you read the articles in Hustler in front of their kids in the neighborhood park. Yes, it's a double-standard.

npc310 wrote:One difference is that Hustler has real people in it. 50 Shades and Twisparkle are fiction. I could be wrong, but neither of those books are autobiographical, but Hustler has actual photos of living people, and lots of them. That may be why you'd get dirty looks reading Hustler but not the others.

Another reason might be that 50 Shades is widely known as Mommy porn, and the Mommies are probably the ones who'd be giving you the dirty looks while you read the articles in Hustler in front of their kids in the neighborhood park. Yes, it's a double-standard.

Ok, then substitute Hustler with any of the many volumes of Penthouse letters that get published in actual book form, with no pictures (so far as I know) and possibly no more veracity then 50 Shades or Twilight.