Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

So I was ruminating the other night about how I might have been a good two-fisted noir detective in some much more interesting timeline.

Tonight I'm looking at myself cut people -- granted, not very nice or clever people -- down for fun on Reddit. And I'm thinking there's some other timeline where I'm one of those scholar-duelist swashbuckler types.

And I cut people down for fun with words *and* blades, and *I'm* not very nice either but I am clever.

I'm not sure how to feel about this.

Yeah. It's become very clear tonight that any residual angst or frustration or fear I feel, heading back to Seattle and leaving Transliminal, can be adequately treated by WRITING A HELL OF A LOT OF PARALLAX.

Going to bed in a great mood. Thanks again to everyone who volunteered to read a draft!

Here, have a sneak preview. Bit of an elevator pitch I wrote up about Parallax. https://awoo.space/media/SneOMQYs4N7uVSjE3nY

til reggie watts has a net worth of roughly 2 million dollars and it's the first time in years i've been even remotely happy with any aspect of capitalism besides "don't have to eat at shitty state-owned milkbars."

Also, is anybody from my own social circle out there really BORED? Would you like a four-page sneak preview of the first Parallax script? I could use a second opinion to see if I'm headed in the right direction.

(Apologies to folks I don't know at least a little from elsewhere -- I'm a teeny bit too uptight about my own writing skill to cast it *too* far from my comfort zone just yet. n.n;;; )

#WriterWorldProblems

Do I go with "ancient Vexalyne codices" because it's more technically correct, or "ancient Vexalyne codexes" because more young readers will recognize that as the plural of the already slightly advanced word "codex?"

I'm leaning somewhat towards "codexes." Clarity > tradition. Any thoughts?

"At, or around this time, Valis made a healthy, informed, democratic decision to get the fuck away from his fellow travelers and resume watching mindless bourgeois sitcoms as soon as possible." -- Equine Welsh, _Trainstriping_

And well, if it happens with Parallax, you've seen me when I feel I've been mistreated or misrepresented. I can take care of myself.

Frankly, some part of me is kinda looking forward to sparring with people over it. Hell, some part of me is looking forward to LOSING, if it's a fair fight.

I don't feel like what's happening to Confederacy is a fair fight. Not unless previews have circulated that I don't know about. >_<

Like I said to this kid I was arguing with on over Birdshit, the DAY Confederacy comes out, if it doesn't come down 100% on the side of the abused, enslaved, and oppressed, you have my blessing to absolutely blast it with criticism -- fair criticism that's actually given the creators a chance to anticipate and respond to people's concerns, instead of this borderline "well, we know YOUR kind" bullshit.

And you know what? When I see people demonizing creators just for "making the wrong thing" -- or worse, being the wrong people to even be ALLOWED to try creating something -- it absolutely guts my desire to even bother trying to make it in the first place. Because I know I can't get it perfect, and I know FROM WATCHING IT HAPPEN that perfection is what some parts of the current Left WILL demand. >_<

And most of all, because I am thinking about actually, gods help me, trying to CREATE something in this shitswamp of a political culture, something that will strike right at the heart of the beast.

And I'm so fucking afraid one of you, maybe even my own friends, will declare me the next Public Enemy -- like that EEEEVIL racist Rebecca Sugar -- for violating some ideological or jargonistic subtlety I didn't even know about.

But because you should at least know what the fuck you're dealing with before you evaluate it. Because I saw this tactic used by fundamentalists over and over and over to suppress dissenting thought. Because I don't want "my side" to become the sort of assholes bashing their equivalent of the Bible and counting the number of "hells" and "damns" in Huck Finn. (Formative real experience from teenaged years-- ask me later.)

And I like it even less when it's "yes, but it will *inspire* bad people to do bad things." You know, same way Beavis & Butthead would surely inspire a spate of arsons.

Not because race doesn't matter. Not because representation doesn't matter. Not because the South's history isn't (a) shameful (b) woefully overexamined in alternate history for (c) reasons of white American collective consciousness that are pretty damn fucked up...

This was all inspired by feuding with a radical furry kid that, god damn it, I LIKED, over that new "Confederacy" show.

I understand & sympathize with many of the concerns. They're POTENTIALLY very valid. But I still have a very serious personal issue with people slagging creators for their work before they even know what it SAYS-- especially when it's based on "Well, you're the wrong demographic so we KNOW it's gonna pure evil."

I'm just a bit weary of radical millennials and the Church of Social Justice tonight. I might just not be one of you; you may just have to deal with it.

Deep down in my heart, I'm a 20th-century British liberal who just happens to really like queers and spends a lot of their time rooting for minorities.

That makes me your ally. It makes me your kind old dotty aunt/uncle. But it doesn't mean I like all your tactics. Or Lenin. >_<

Believe me, there are all sorts of things I would love for you fuckers to start doing for me and for the world.

But all I *really* ask of you is to put up with my own weird choleric habits, and other than that, I hope I'm generally fairly content to let you go on and be your maddening selves. :)

I think I'm gonna just start filtering the phrase "if everybody could just" on Birdsite.

That seems to be a pretty good rule of thumb for identifying Bullshit, up with which I need not Put.

No, everybody could not just alter their entire set of life habits or take on a whole new crusade just to make you feel better about your little symbolic world.

Unless it's littering. Nobody should litter.

oh god i think i just used the phrase "you fucking kids these days" unironically :O

to be fair it was reddit where even the 35-year-olds count as "fuckin' kids"

This is the THIRD time Chelsea Manning's replied to one of my tweets within minutes. Starry eyes aside... if I'd gone through what she did, I wouldn't be able to leave my BED for six months. How the hell is she finding this much energy?

Just watching her be her can dispel my fear in a heartbeat. God, I hope she's the one who gets to stab The Combine right in its beastly heart someday.