The Very Hungry Caterpillar is, on a the surface, merely a sweet story about a very hungry caterpillar and his journey of consumption and metamorphosis.

The author had an entirely different meaning in mind.

TVHC is a story about the author's struggle with their sexual and gender identity, preceded by years of substance abuse and high-risk sexual encounters.

The story begins with the caterpillar hatching from an egg. The Egg is both vaginal and penile, resulting from the combination of ovum and sperm. Within the author, they realized their own sense of vagina and peepee, causing a cognitive dissonance in their own identity.

TVHC's insatiable hunger for food can be seen as a metaphor for a deep longing to explore and understand one's own identity. It reflects the desire to consume knowledge about gender and self-discovery.

TVHC starts by eating through one red apple. This symbolizes the early stages of puberty, menstrual blood, and singular s*x (masturbation). The fact that future foods continue to grow in number and frequency shows the author's increasing libido, but also a shame cycle that is both calmed and exacerbated by continued high-risk exploration.

When TVHC eats through two pears, this symbolizes their first sexual encounter with two people. The green color of the pears symbolizes marijuana abuse, as well as the color of young, supple growth of a plant and the loss of the author's innocence. Since this is the second day of TVHC's life, it can be inferred that this sexual encounter occurred early in life, most likely in abuse as a minor, setting the stage for a life of sexual confusion and impulsiveness.

As the numbers of food increase, so too do the sexual partners. As visualized in the artwork, the penetration of TVHC through food symbolizes the penetration the author experienced as the sexually receiving partner, and the resulting holes in the food represent the continued diminishing of their psyche and worth.

After the numerical scaling of partners achieves maximum, TVHC binges in many different singular foods, much like the author's series of promiscuous encounters. The pace of the text is at a crescendo, the sexual encounters frequent and fleeting.

The Cocoon is not a transformative moment, but one of death and burial. Death of the Soul. Death of the Vagina. Death of the Peepee. Death of the Self.

The emergence of The Butterfly is the emergence of Denialism. Unable to face the damage to his body and soul from illicit drugs and STDs, the author adopted a new persona in order to dissociate from their true self. It is too late however, and so a short-lived life of denialism is all that is possible, until TVHC lays a new egg for the cycle of abuse to continue.

!bookworms but its whatever

my heart is telling me To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers

my heart is telling me @Aevann can you pls

!bookworms

@nuclearshill lost USAID funding for xer gender-affirming surgery and sadly ended xer life. I will run the weekly for the next few weeks

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

@Aevann can you pls

To discuss the 5th chapter of our bookclub current pick, "Petersburg" by Andrey Bely.

!bookworms

Nikolai Apollonovich and a glowie go to a bar, hilarity ensues. The footnotes mentioned that Bely referenced Dostoevsky and it shows, Pavel Yakovlevich conversation with Nikolai parallels that of Profiry Petrovich from C&P with Rodion Raskolnikov.

Foundation's Edge (1982) is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. It was written more than thirty years after the stories of the original Foundation trilogy, due to years of pressure by fans and editors on Asimov to write another,[2] and, according to Asimov himself, the amount of the payment offered by the publisher.

This doesn't sound particularly promising.

!bookworms

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

@Aevann can you pls

!bookworms to discuss the 4th chapter of our book club choice Petersburg. I'm delayed and still in the middle of chapter 4 so I'll post on the following days or catch up by the next thread like I did last week.

Do you guys think Nikolai Apollonovich is like that because of inceldom?

There's a sub entirely dedicated to that book btw

https://old.reddit.com/r/InfiniteJest/

https://old.reddit.com/r/InfiniteJest/comments/1iqjz8e/the_best_way_to_read_infinite_jestbut_only_if/

!bookworms !poll_voters how do you classify Infinity Jest?

Masterpiece - 17 votes

- 23 votes

- 15 votes

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

!bookworms

I'm reading "Petersburg" as part of our book club, but because it's a one chapter per week basis I started "Brothers Karamazov" this week as I never read it before and I recently got a wonderful edition by Editora 34 (the only Dostoevsky book I had read was C&P).

So far I wonder if terrible fathers are just a recurrent theme on Dostoevsky's works.

@Aevann can you pls

Received a Bigotry Infraction today for some chapters I wrote like… 8 months ago? Even had mods and whatnot on when I posted them. Don't know what caused this super delayed infraction but whatever.

SB has, in its infinite wisdom, seen fit to give protected status to fictional peoples I made up for a fictional fan-made story in a fictional setting that has lots of fictional discrimination baked into its fictional DNA and Bones.

Despite using Dictionary Definitions of terms like 'G*psy' and ensuring that the Grass Sea Peoples situation was handled exceptionally well for the setting (BTech's first response is usually outright genocide via Flamer), I have been slapped with a Bigotry warning. Even showing the crimes in the narrative via MIIO intel reports, the glimpses of their haughtiness and unwillingness to work with the Lord of their new planet, the peoples proudly commuting their crimes against the populace because farmers couldn't do anything about their multi-ton farming equipment…etc wasn't enough.

I have decided that SB is no longer a platform that I can write in at all if this level of two-faced, two-tier rules enforcement is going to be warranted.

Have two underaged 14 queer teens making out and groping each other 'on screen'? Getting fricking fanart made of said kisses and shit? Go ahead. No problem. Two heterosexual 17 year olds kissing 'on screen'? Nah, fam, needs to fade to black. Take an infraction.

It's quite clear that if as long as you agree with a certain agenda, you can bend the rules as much as you wish, and no one will do anything to stop it.

I haven't updated this story in months and yet they saw fit to slap me with an infraction for last year's, three chapter long plot thread. Specifically used to show just how fricking stubborn and unreasonable people could be in the Battletech Universe. The people who nuke their own cities and chemically gas their own worlds, and massacre billions of people to avenge the death of one man… THAT is the people we're dealing with in the setting. The 'bigotry' of the setting is always off the charts, and while bigotry is always allowed to be showed in lots of stories, for some reason it is not allowed here. The 40K stories have TONs of fictional bigotry and Exterminatus with actual on-screen genocide, but this is worth an infraction? Okay. lol

But whatever, I'm not here to argue or appeal. The mods will just slap me with something else, I'm sure. So no, I'm done. Will just forever lurk and follow the stories I like.

I'm here to let everyone know that I will no longer be writing for this story here on SB.

Nor will I be porting over any of my other 3+ million words from QQ (Questionable Questing) to SB. Of course most of it is lewd in nature and wouldn't be accepted anyway, but I do have a few stories that would have been able to fit in here as long as I scrubbed some content and got it squeaky clean.

That won't be happening anymore.

If you want to read any more (if my muse comes back for it) you can find it on my QQ, and you'll likely get to see what little lewds I have for it.

Much love, everyone, thanks for your support, and maybe I'll see you on the other side.

Sufficient Velocity has an even harsher stance on bigotry than SB, so having the main character subject a fictional group of a real world persecuted minority to forced relocation and having it portrayed as a good thing would likely be poorly received.

I don't know, I don't post on SV, but apparently it looks like telling a story in a dystopian nightmare universe just shouldn't be allowed. Makes me wonder how WH40k stories don't get banned all the time.

Though the forced relocation is the best scenario out of all of the other horrible options. The MC being an SI is sympathetic to the GSP but recognizes that co-existence with them is impossible and has them relocated so he doesn't have to kill them all. It's not even being nuanced, it's literally "this is the best of the bad situation, but nobody around me even understands why I don't want to do this but they didn't leave me with any other choice".

But I guess I should have expected it.

I promise you though, had I made one of the characters gay and then had the Leaders of the GSP disapprove of their 'unnatural relationship' vehemently… there wouldn't have been a single complaint about those 'bigots getting kicked off world for their backwards, uneducated homophobia'. LOL In fact, MC likely would have been applauded for his courageous decision.

It's just how transparent these people are.

But that's about all I'll say on it. My time as an author here on SB is well and truly done. I tried to come back, but it just wasn't meant to be. It's not me, it's them, and I'm not going to pretend it's not.

MODS ADDRESS THE DRAMA:

!bookworms !chuds

!bookworms to discuss chapter 3 of Andrei Bely's "Petersburg".

I loled at this passages. Despite being a commie himself Bely could take a joke and make fun of his own movement. Despite the rather complex language this book is quite satirical.

Aleksandr Ivanovich is sort of a charming neurodivergent for a terrorist. Nikolai Apollonovich is a whiny cute twink and his dad is right about him.

Sofia Petrovna needs better friends and would seriously benefit of owning a dildo, but unfortunately she's a weeb in 1900s Russia.

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

!bookworms

@Kongvann can you pls

Seven authors have pulled out of the competition, citing free speech concerns.

Cancel culture—the practice of ruining someone's career for not sufficiently adhering to Leftist principles—appears to be dying after decades of victimizing innocent people. In what seems to be the first attempted cancelation of the new Trump administration, Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) announced on Wednesday that it was removing author Devon Eriksen's book from consideration for an award. The SPSFC said that it made the decision because Eriksen violated the competition's code of conduct—which had been published to X the day before this announcement.

SPSFC Twitter "We apologize for the extended delay and radio silence. Devon Eriksen has been removed from the SPSFC effective immediately for violation of our code of conduct," the SPSFC posted on X.

We apologize for the extended delay and radio silence. Devon Eriksen has been removed from the SPSFC effective immediately for violation of our code of conduct.

— The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (@theSPSFC) February 4, 2025

Eriksen is the author of "Theft of Fire: Orbital Space #1," a popular self-published book that has received glowing reviews, including one from the creator of Doom. He didn't even enter the book into the competition; his wife did, thinking she might surprise him if he won. After seeing that he had been booted from the competition, he published a fictional account of learning that he had been entered into a competition without his knowledge and had somehow violated that competition's code of conduct, which he never agreed to.

Read the whole thing

I was walking down the sidewalk the other day, relishing how warm weather comes early in Tennessee, when a weird little goblin with big eyes and floppy green ears jumped out of the bushes in front of me.

"You're banned from the competition!" he proclaimed, with a self-satisfied… https://t.co/lRyhWclpXh pic.twitter.com/sgya1ote7I

— Devon Eriksen (@Devon_Eriksen_) February 4, 2025

Well, this morning the goblins came back.

I was frying up some bacon and eggs when the doorbell rang, and there he was again, sitting on shoulders of another goblin, who was standing on a rickety wooden crate, which, judging by the state of their clothing, they perhaps had… https://t.co/84be2wLD2s pic.twitter.com/QPz4N5zGJh

— Devon Eriksen (@Devon_Eriksen_) February 5, 2025

That code of conduct stated that contestants could not harass judges or other authors, which Devon didn't do—and couldn't do—since he didn't even know he was entered. But one of the judges posted on Bluesky, in a message provided to The Daily Wire, that even though Eriksen "didn't directly contact judges or other authors," his posts were "driving away judges, authors, and prospective contestants/members in huge numbers."

The SPSFC competition has been around for a few years and is currently in its fourth iteration. Nearly 200 books from independent authors are submitted and divided among various reviewers, each reviewing around 30 books. Each group then selects around four books as quarterfinalists, reads those four books, and selects two semi-finalists. Eventually, the list is narrowed down, and a winner is selected. There is no cash prize, but it allows the authors to collect reviews and publicity.

According to Christine, Eriksen's book had been selected as a quarterfinalist and was the only author to receive a "strong yes" in his batch. After dozens of authors had been cut, at least one began complaining about Eriksen's inclusion in the competition based on his numerous blog posts and tweets, which contain comments about immigration and transgenderism that frequently offend the Left. Dozens of people on Bluesky and the SPSFC groomercord started calling Eriksen a "nazi" for his posts and published some screenshots of them on Reddit along with a summary of the situation at the SPSFC. Following the prolonged outcry, the SPSFC put together a code of conduct and then used it to boot Eriksen from the competition.

But the code of conduct claims that its "goal is not to eradicate these 'bad' opinions" and that they are "not here to police people's opinions," they do just that after claiming Eriksen's posts amount to "hate speech" and "backwards attitudes."

Eriksen was not the only author targeted. E.J. Fisch, author of "Dakiti: Ziva Payvan Book 1," who wasn't even part of the SPSFC competition, spoke out against the handling of Eriksen and quickly saw her book dropped out of a promotion that is reportedly being run by one of the authors involved in the mob against Eriksen.

lol welp pic.twitter.com/2FBwiZgQFP

— EJ Fisch (@EJFisch) February 6, 2025

The announcement that Eriksen was booted from the competition was met with immediate backlash, with many other authors pulling their books from the competition. Moe Lane, whose book "Ghosts of an Alien Wind" was in the competition, asked the organizers to remove his book from consideration, though his reasoning is unclear. His announcement was posted on the Groomercord for the competition and was shared with The Daily Wire.

Other authors were more explicit about why they asked for their books to be removed from the competition. Gregory Michael, author of "Chloe's Kingdom," asked for his book to be removed because "free speech is crucial."

Removal of @Devon_Eriksen_ over politics is upsetting. Theft of Fire was likely the best book in the competition … I don’t agree with everything Devon tweets, but free speech is crucial. Please remove Chloe’s Kingdom @theSPSFC

Heist novels need to stick together 🚀💰 https://t.co/kVnKpMeJ6R

— Gregory Michael (@_GregoryMichael) February 4, 2025

G.S. Jennsen, author of "The Thief," posted a lengthy letter on X outlining why she wanted her book removed from the competition as well.

In light of recent events, I am withdrawing THE THIEF, which is currently a Quarterfinalist in @theSPSFC , from further consideration in the competition. More below.#SPSFC https://t.co/Hm1NEXTwPl pic.twitter.com/qMtYUjgHwq

— G. S. Jennsen (@GSJennsen) February 5, 2025

C.R. Walton, author of "Wilderness Five," also noted that Eriksen's removal had nothing to do with his actions relating to the competition, writing that the decision to drop him was "very clearly just caving to a hateful mob that hates the guy."

As some other authors, I'm distancing myself from @theSPSFC for its aggressive termination of @Devon_Eriksen_ for thoughts expressed on his own media channels completely unrelated to the competition.

No specifics of the violation are even given. It is very clearly just caving… https://t.co/XZkeHlzzup

— C. R. Walton (Scientist & Author) (@lithologuy) February 5, 2025

Zachary Forbes requested his book, "Slipspace: Terra Nullius" be removed from the competition as well, also writing a lengthy X post about how the SPSFC's recently introduced code of conduct "was done hastily and sloppily, left intentionally vague, for the sole purpose of banning one particular contestant."

Personal announcement in regards to SPSFC

The left image below is an objective analysis of the their new ‘code of conduct’, written 2 (two) days ago…

It’s clear from any lens that this was done hastily and sloppily, left intentionally vague, for the sole purpose of banning one… https://t.co/pF7NVucixb pic.twitter.com/vnnbY3hDfV

— Zach Forbes (@ZachForbesBro) February 5, 2025

Steve Gavin also requested his book "Cosmic Strife Assault" be removed from competition, writing a short post on X calling the situation involving Eriksen a "mess."

Thank you to the @theSPSFC judges and reviewers. I have watched the mess from afar and the disqual of @Devon_Eriksen_ and the CoC. This is not a political statement. Please remove my book from consideration in this contest. I wish everyone else the best of luck. pic.twitter.com/Bcf6zj8T6j

— Steve Gavin (@stevegavin09) February 5, 2025

Grace Walker publicly distanced herself from the SPSFC, seeking to have her book, "ASH (Rogues: Legends Book 1)," removed from the competition as well.

https://x.com/gwalkerauthor/status/1622877587983173632

Danielle Ste. Just also cut ties with the SPSFC, although her book, "The Disk Mirror Solution (Galaxia Mortem Book 1)," had already been cut from the competition.

Watching the #SPSFC controversy over the past couple days has been disheartening.

As a science fiction author, I want to concentrate on writing science fiction people will fall in love with, not on passing a purity test whose requirements are only known to the gatekeepers.
1/4

— Danielle Ste. Just (@DanielleSteJust) February 6, 2025

Haldane B. Doyle, author of "Our Vitreous Womb," announced he was also withdrawing from the competition, thanking the volunteer judges but saying he only wants "to participate in indie sci fi competitions that judge the books and not the authors, regardless of the criteria applied."

I am officially withdrawing "Our Vitreous Womb" from the #SPSFC competition. I'm deeply appreciative of the volunteer judges @theSPSFC , but I only want to participate in indie sci fi competitions that judge the books and not the authors, regardless of the criteria applied.

— zeroinputagriculture (@zeroinputag) February 6, 2025

Even one of the competition's judging teams decided to pull out of the competition—not because they agreed with what Eriksen had said—but because of how SPSFC handled the situation. The eight authors—other than Ste. Just—who have so far withdrawn from the competition were quarterfinalists, meaning they had already advanced over about 30 other competitors in each of their respective judging groups.

Eric Kay, author of "Above Dark Waters," wrote on X that his book had already been cut, but questioned why the people behind the competition couldn't just cut Eriksen and write a nice review for his book, as they had done for Kay's book.

I was in the competition and was already cut. Why couldn't they simply cut Devon at the Quarterfinals and write a nice review like below?

Because they wanted to make an example and keep purity and 'do something' above sense. pic.twitter.com/Nl1XjTathb

— Eric Kay (Hard Sci-Fi) (@Eric_K_PNW) February 7, 2025

The idea that fellow competitors would drop out of a competition in solidarity with one of their own is almost unheard of when it comes to these types of cancelations and shows the ideology of "cancel culture" may no longer be tolerated. Christine Eriksen wrote on X that "cancelations are canceled" and pointed out that her husband's book has had one of its best sales days to date.

Cancelations are ✨C A N C E L E D✨

A big thank you to everyone who's shown support for @Devon_Eriksen_'s unfair treatment in this. I was excited to submit Theft of Fire to a fun little competition, but when they created a CoC explicity to appease a mob and kick him out? 😭 https://t.co/jp57ZK5lMw pic.twitter.com/QIg4uANEXD

— Christine Eriksen (@AnEriksenWife) February 5, 2025

Other authors who dropped out of the competition said they had seen an increase in sales. Michael, who was the first to withdraw from the competition, noted that "Chloe's Kingdom" was now #1 on Amazon, "not from winning a competition – but for standing up for free speech. Doing the right thing feels good."

CHLOE'S KINGDOM is #1 on Amazon! 🚀 Not from winning a competition—but for standing up for free speech. Doing the right thing feels good.

To my new readers, I can't wait for your thoughts & reviews! Oh, and did I mention there’s a raccoon? 🦝 pic.twitter.com/SPS0YGhdjw

— Gregory Michael (@_GregoryMichael) February 6, 2025

In a post shared with The Daily Wire, John A. Douglas, author of "The Black Crown," commented that the SPSFC doesn't "fully understand the schism kicking Devon out has caused in the indie author spaces." "DevonGate is a seismic shift in the indie landscape," Douglas added. "And he didn't even DO anything!"

Holy shit what a bum

I have one of his books. It's supposed to be aight.

Anyways I went right back to buying everything that caught my eye of course. Excited for Strindberg the most, especially "a dream play". Borges gassed up strindberg pretty hard so high hopes when i eventually read it in 2030 or something.

Holy shit it is bleak. There are three Harry Potter books in there and two Hunger Games books in there in the top 10 best books.

Then you compare it to the best books of the 20th century ( still one harry potter book in there in top 10 but they are still doing way better than the 21st century.

How did the quality of the "greatest" works fall down so quickly. It is like humanity has forgotten how to write anything with any depth anymore and it is all at the level of quality of teenage story writing.

Is it simply over for the writing genre as a whole or is it that the best quality writing is actually no longer being recognized as the best because it didn't sell enough copies nor got enough appreciation from writing critics, or is it that there is a complete disconnect between what the average person considers enjoyable writing and what is considered actually good high brow writing?

I think it is a shift in medium where all the people looking for depth and high quality in their literary works moved on to movies and video games instead and all who are still hanging around the writing genre are those who will pick a random niche and the general books based on lowest common denominator which is teenage angst or teenage wonderment slop.

What this means is that the writing genre is going to keep going further down in quality over time and we need to look at the possible extinction of reading one day if everything turns out to be possible to be done by video because people are clearly getting worse at appreciating literature while getting a whole lot better at their expectations and appreciation of better video entertainment content.

Conclusion:

In terms of ease of entry into the writing department this is the easiest time period. In terms of making money from it, likely one of the harder time periods. We can expect the quality of writing meant for general audiences to have reached the lowest floor and never rise above it again this generation. The Zoom zooms are too r-slurred when it comes to quality writing in just a book.

Also if you still read Harry Potter books, READ ANOTHER BOOK!