!bookworms, first Blood Meridian thread!

Next week's thread will cover chapter's VI-XI.

Hope you guys are enjoying it!

I finished Blood Meridian in like 3 days last week and now need something new to read enlighten me !bookworms

!bookworms

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers. (NON BOOK-CLUB RELATED ONLY).

Before starting Blood Meridian I forced myself to finish The Grass is Singing. So the depressed female protagonist's undoing started when her husband got ill with malaria, resulting in her running the farm and dealing with the kaffir laborers. She ends up whipping one of them in the face after he begs for water (she didn't know her husband gave them a few minutes rest every one hour ) the native starts looking at her in a menacing way after that. Some point later her husband gets tired of her nonsense, he hires the whipped boy (he doesn't know she did that) as a house servant and she ends up being scared to heck of him, yet she refuses to tell her husband.

The servant boy begins to dominate her to the point he even dresses her and she says things like “thank you” with a terrified face. At some point their neighbor who wants to buy their farm visits them, gets horrified by how “insolent” their native is, tells the husband he'll buy the farm and that he should leave for a few months with his wife to the coast. They are pretty much broke and in poverty so he reluctantly accepts (rich neighbor is trying to help because of some code that whites in Rhodesia shouldn't sink lower than a BIPOC). Just a couple of day before they leave she dismisses the servant boy angrily and during the night before leaving he murders her.

Is a bit more complex than that (she's afraid he'll come to kill her, but awakes in the middle of the night and goes outside where he's waiting for her), but I'm trying to summarize. Lessing writing becomes more engaging in the second part, at least for me, so if you're interested in a well written character study of a woman descent into madness that's the right book for you, and what's interesting is that Mary does it all to herself, she could have lived happily in town, but pressured herself to get married with the first man who proposed her after overhearing her mean “friends” calling her a spinster on party, even after he told her he was poor and lived in the middle of nowhere, there was something terribly wrong about her even before considering her enormous insecurity.

A 50000 words manuscript amounts to around 1667 words per day for 30 days and so I set that amount as my per day word target. I jumped into writing the novel without much of an idea about the story.

What could go wrong?

I started writing a coming of age story about a guy just starting his second last year of high school. I wrote the first chapter day before yesterday and the second one yesterday. The words flowed out pretty well and easy leading to me meeting the word count target easily both days. But the problem is that I'm genuinely stumped about what to do next. I have thought for a lot of time but genuinely can't come up with anything good.

[long boring summary of generic high school scenario about a kid and his crush with absolutely no hook whatsoever]

How can I get over this writing block thing quickly?

I want to go a little easy because this is probably a kid, but if you're bored of your story by day 3, write a different story. You cannot write a coming of age story if you have nothing to say about coming of age, and you cannot write a novel if you don't have ideas for a novel.

If you can jerk off when you're not horny, you can write when you're not inspired.

HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I MASTURBATE TODAY?

If you never feel inspired for a particular story, it's time to ditch it.

You say: “I have many ideas of where the story should go next but none of them are good ones.”

Just write one of those, and eventually it will lead you back to a good idea. Or maybe you'll be surprised at how well it turns out. The whole idea is to keep going, not to make sure every aspect is great on the first try. Good luck!

Day 3 is way too early for sunk cost, how about writing something you actually like?

Some writers write a novel for 2, 5, or within 10 years.

Well I've been procrastinating since 5 years so I'd say my target is 5 years and 30 days

Neighbor write a short story or something goddarn

Why would you want to be a writoid if you never have ideas?

!writecel

Ladies and gentlemen, let me give it to you straight, just like I do in the political arena. "The Three-Body Problem," written by Cixin Liu, it's a tale of intrigue and complexity that's got more layers than a fine Baltimore crab cake.

Plot? Well, my friends, it's about humans and aliens, and let me tell you, when you're dealing with beings from another world, you've got more problems than you can shake a campaign donation at. You've got scientists trying to decipher messages from outer space, conspiracies that run deeper than the pockets of some of my esteemed colleagues, and a virtual reality game that's as unpredictable as a city election.

But the real theme here, the heart of it all, is power. Power and control. Who's got it, who wants it, and what they're willing to do to get it. It's like the political landscape, my friends, where allegiances shift like the wind, and trust is a rare commodity.

So, if you're looking for a read that'll keep you on your toes, that'll make you question the motives of everyone involved, "The Three-Body Problem" is your ticket. It's a political drama of cosmic proportions, and in the end, it's all about who holds the power and who's willing to do whatever it takes to keep it. Sheeeeeeee-it!

Awful pervet injects his weird basic b-word politics into his filth.

Okay sirs of !writecel it is time to shine shit in the streets

Our guru sir @Downie has allowed me to make the first short story prompt for this group of rdrama brahmin . If you haven't seen this thread https://rdrama.net/h/bharat/post/206128/i-found-peak-midwit-foid-fiction

Please be obliged to peruse it, sirs.

You have two weeks and a day to submit a piece of 800 to 1k word flash fic based around the prompt Indian Sci Fi

It has to actually be a story with a beginning, middle and end. There is no consequence for submiting vignettes or similar, I just personally won't read them as they are clearly written by and for dalit.

Sirs, post the submissions in this thread and please do not redeem.

>be me

>hanging out on my friend's boat with a few guys

>sun is low, feels chill and peaceful

>just relaxing, drinking a few beers

>there's one guy I don't know super well

>he's sitting there in some weird meditation pose (?) while the rest of us are chatting

>suddenly he gets this neurodivergent gleam in his eyes

"And this also has been one of the dark places of the earth!"

>

>he seems to be waiting for some show of approval

>look around, everyone else is as confused as I am

>he takes the silence as a yes

>he starts sperging about the Roman Empire (?)

>yes, that meme is true

"I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally..."

>please be an out

"...yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap. It was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience. It seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about me--and into my thoughts. It was sombre enough, too--and pitiful--not extraordinary in any way--not very clear either. No, not very clear. And yet it seemed to throw a kind of light. I had then, as you remember, just returned to London after a lot of Indian Ocean, Pacific, China Seas--a regular dose of the East..."

>he starts rambling about his trip to Africa

>this goes on for HOURS. Every time I try to politely change the subject he gets right back into it. I'm seriously considering swimming for shore

>the sun sets

>all I can hear are the waves and this cute twink's nasally voice as he goes on and on

"Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend. And why not?”

>he keeps complaining about the history of colonialism and racism and shit

>but sometimes he just randomly drops a "BIPOC" and goes on like nothing happened

>the sun has been down for an hour

"...The heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they have fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which was his due? Hadn't he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark--too dark altogether..."

>a long silence

>somebody finally speaks up

"We should head back"

I just wanted to play dominoes...

Hi. It's almost time to start judging the fanfic contest. I don't think I'm going to finish mine because time consuming and I'm very busy lately and it's not fair to everyone else to make them wait for me.

I need a panel of 2-4 r-slurs to read through a selection of them, I will divide them 3-5 ways between us, we will each choose 3 entries from our selection which we will then all read. The panel will then use Ranked Choice Voting™ to determine the winners as objectively as possible.

Post here if you'd like to be on the panel. Feel free to include any pertinent information that you think will increase your chances of being chosen, though I'm not sure what this could possibly be. Maybe your favorite books idfk. You'll get a lanyard giving you an all-access pass to the smoky rDrama Publishing Co backrooms and story selection will be doled in the coming days.

!bookworms

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

I'm about to start Blood Meridian this weekend as part of the bookclub.

I had previously read a simplified english version of it as a kid and have also seen the animated film with Jim Carrey. Still, the story felt as charming as ever .

This is one of those stories where, despite dealing with poverty and suffering, it creates a world that one would prefer to live in, rather than the one we currently occupy. People are poor but there's almost always some form of community to help them find solace. I think the story benefits from not portraying being poor in a more realistic manner. Characters are overworked, lack wealth, live in cramped communities but thankfully we are spared of the shit, filth, disease(outside of Tiny Tim) and other grotesque suffering that was probably commonplace in a poorcels existence back then. It has just enough suffering to make the happy moments feel more cathartic .

Some stuff I didn't like.

1. The Flirting in these stories is a bit cringe. Especially, involving that "plump" girl in the party.

2. Really wish they showed a bit more of the reactions of other characters to Scrooge's change. It felt like that part went by a bit too quickly. The film has these little moments where the characters look shocked and then go on feeling hopeful which makes it more affecting.

These aren't particularly issues with the work itself but stuff I had trouble with. I couldn't get a lot of the references, some vocabulary and jokes considering the novel is from the victorian era. So I was constantly googling shit which was annoying but I came across some interesting trivia as a result. Like this one:

three days after sight of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order,” and so forth, would have become a mere United States' security if there were no days to count by.

Apparently, US securities were seen as extremely risky in Britian. I don't know if this was accurate or if Peepeeens was just making empty potshots at the US.

https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/9600/what-exactly-does-peepeeens-mean-to-say-here

Another interesting one is that a lot of poor people didn't have ovens (or even kitchens) and often relied on Baker Shops' already hot ovens if they wanted to cook certain meals, especially meat based dishes .

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2021/12/cooking-the-cratchits-goose#:~:text=Through the magic of the,good deal of the cooking.

Apparently, some pious christians wanted to close baker shops on weekends and holidays through legislation and this made Peepeeens seethe. Interesting stuff.

Overall this was a pretty fun read .

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lpu9-GFD-UQEWye9oZ2WTu4nehFu4LWt0

Needing some more examples of stereotypical redditor fiction for bait purposes.

So far I've got -

• Brandon Sanderson's entire bibliography. Basically “witty” characters that talk in reddit-tier quips and Mormon-infused repressed sexuality. Brandon Sanderson was grown in a lab to represent the ultimate reddit-teir literature

• The Martian/Andy Weir's work. Again, this is reddit evaporated down into its constitute parts. The protagonist talks about “sciencing the shit” out of a fatal problem, and uses LOGIC and INTELLECT

???

https://altair.pw/pub/lib/Cormac Mccarthy - The Blood Meridian.pdf

!bookworms, Blood Meridian won

We'll held the first discussion thread on Sunday, October 1st.

We're going to read until that V pointed in this pic, so basically 50 pages.

!bookworms, no book reached 50% and our final contestants are

Go out and vote! And tell us why we should vote for your pick! The winner will be the most voted one by 20:00 E.T. Tomorrow.

!bookworms. Another 2 are gone as even if the 3 voters from Rules of Attraction selected Crime and Punishment it wouldn't be enough to pass another round. We are left with 3 options

If one of these reaches 50%+ of the votes by 20:00 E.T. It will be declared as the winner, if all choices fail to reach 50% we'll have another round with the 2 most upmarseyd ones. Once again, choose wisely.

!bookworms, final thoughts on Faust? Did you enjoy it? Did you read it? Did you give up because you hated it?

https://rdrama.net/h/lit/post/196540/rdrama-bookclub-thread-6-marseyreading-faust

https://rdrama.net/h/lit/post/198333/rdrama-bookclub-thread-7-marseyreading-faust

https://rdrama.net/h/lit/post/200063/rdrama-bookclub-discussion-thread-8-marseyreading

https://rdrama.net/post/201688/rdrama-bookclub-discussion-thread-9-marseyreading

https://rdrama.net/h/lit/post/203375/rdrama-bookclub-thread-10-faust-part