But you just don’t get it: Mr. Banner looks, like, 45 or something. Ew. Edward is eternally 17 and hot and sparklyyyyyyyy…....
/end sarcasm

Yeah. I saw that.
Back when I was still drinking.
The hypocrisy is… it just… I don’t even….

Only worse thing I can think of is this.
The enlarged text under the owl. DISGUSTING.

Yup.

For those of you who are afraid of clicking the link: in Midnight Sun, Eddykins wanted to kill off the whole Quileute tribe for no reason other than the fact that Jacob (who is at this point still a human kid, and doesn’t know the myths are real) told Bella about the wolves and the Cold Ones and whatever.

the Cold Ones

Underage drinking?

seriously, when I hear ‘cold ones’ I think of beer.

@Klutor – the interesting thing is that I actually kind of like that reaction, if the whole series was written in a much darker tone. The idea of the vampires and werewolves, both so far removed from “normal” humanity, living by their own rules because if they don’t, humans will suffer, is a fascinating one to me. Or the vampires/werewolves will suffer because they’re found out, or whatever, but the point is that they have these strict rules that may seem far too harsh to us, but are necessary to keep everyone (humans, vampires, and werewolves alike) safe.

Another example of this would be the Volturi killing off child vampires. Again, in a darker, more serious book, that would have fit very nicely. Yeah, it’s cruel. Yeah, it’s harsh. Yeah, in human society, it would be unthinkable. But the point in this hypothetical book would be that vampires and werewolves are different from humans. In a book like that, I would actually buy the idea of Edward snapping and eating Bella or that the werewolves could be dangerous to her. That would actually be a really, really interesting book.

But no. We have a sappy love story. I think that’s the great tragedy of books that are bad like Twilight. Books that are bad like Maradonia, they’re just plain bad. But books that are bad like Twilight, you’re instead left looking longingly at the few faint good bits and thinking about what could have been.

/drama

the sporking of Child of Grace (Girl-who-lived+non-canon powers+Slytherin apologia)

That’s the one with Holly Potter, right?
I’m somewhere in year two, and…. look, it’s bad, okay? It’s emo, it’s hypocritical, it’s stupid, it’s lame, it’s infuriating, it’s sickening and it’s very disrespectful towards victims of RL domestic abuse/school bullying.
shudders at the mere thought

But think about it for a minute: the vast bulk of the rage that people like you and me feel towards a shitty Suefic like that is as result of the canon rape. We love the HP canon – the author shits all over it. We love the characters – whether your personal favorite is Ginny, Neville, Luna, Ron, Hermione or Harry himself, it doesn’t matter – cause she derails every one of them all the way to hell and back.

Twilight doesn’t have that. For all its fanfic-esque elements, it’s still a work of original fiction. There’s nothing “good” and “real” to compare it to.
Bottom line of this incoherent word vomit? When something with incredible unfortunate implications happens in an original work of fiction, the shock is quite a bit worse, because we keep wondering: “How? How did this get published? How did this get past the editors?”

Books that are bad like Maradonia, they’re just plain bad. But books that are bad like Twilight, you’re instead left looking longingly at the few faint good bits and thinking about what could have been.

I remember how Mrs. Hyde (mervin’s sporking partner) said about Eragon that it was, unlike Twilight (with some neat ideas buried below the disaster), “pure derivative crap” and that it “couldn’t be saved”. This connects really well with what you said there.

But no. We have a sappy love story

Hold on. Have a look at this trailer.
Same thing, wouldn’t you agree?

How bad? Three words:

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?

she honestly doesn’t realize what she’s writing

There’s a rather strong and athletic rumour running around that she actually said in an interview that she doesn’t think about what she’s writing. I have yet to triangulate the source, though. It literally sounds too bad to be true.

The Holly Potter suethor, on the other hand, doesn’t understand the source material.

She also doesn’t understand what it does to a kid to be beaten half to death on a regular basis by the Dursleys his/her parents/foster folks. A lot of the times kids like that even become mute as result of the trauma, cause they run on fear like a car runs on petrol.
Not Holly. Oh no, she knowingly and willingly encourages her friends (friends she made far too easily, given her emo background) to bully the shit out of Colin Creevey and I don’t remember who else.

I always felt that Paolini’s intent was good, but fell apart on the execution

Yeah, more or less this.
According to those who’ve seen interviews with him, he’s a nice and geeky guy. Contrast this with Smeyer who constantly shoves it down our throats how “original” she is and how she’s a “real writer” now and everything.

Have fun.

Thanks. And oh, I will.
rubs hands together while slinking into the shadows

Well, he sounds like just my type… except for the whole ‘being the author of Eragon’ thing…

Lol.
Exactly the way a bowling ball doesn’t.

^I had to.

Awesome.
Lemme open up that livejournal so I can see if she can enrage me more than 13-YOM can.

^It’s confusing.
I found some stuff that was… interesting, but now I lost it.

I’ll just look it up again.

I think it would be scarier for the guys.

In that case I’m an “It”... Which is what the Gender Thread also says. :/

Why would a gentleman have a picture of Audrey Tautou as their avatar?

Hello. Welcome to the internet. Lesson 1: Pure logic will not aid you.

I think all of this fear is unfounded.

Of what?

Gender does not warp your consciousness into a form unimaginable by those who lack your genitalia.

No, but sex hormones do change brain structure during fetal development, making it literally impossible* for one to think like someone who had a different startup.

Plus it was more of a statement of cliches. There’s popular notions of what men are always thinking vs what women are always thinking etc etc. Since all generalizations are false (including that one), obviously those notions would be revealed to be wrong should telepathy be widespread.

*Well, until Rossum’s mind tech gets developed…
(Or events causing physical brain structure changes occur – injury, etc. It’s all still new.)

In that case you have no consciousness. You’ve just been programmed to think you do.

Nonsense! While Puppet is our local AI that Sly designed to watch over the site (hence its belief in being Sly’s “brother”) – that lightning strike gave it pure consciousness.

Oh Sen, it would be if you knew anything about SCIENCE!! (note that I am using the all caps, 2 exclamation points one)

Last year for Christmas we had a priest show up and perform the rites to acknowledge Puppet as a soul, so its artificially created consciousness has now attained full consciousness eternal status. (Though I hear the Church has said it will revoke that right if Puppet gains control of nukes and tries to terminate humanity. Or worse – something about a robot hell in New Jersey.)

It’s ok, Sen. It was a gift from us to it way back in the old days, when the flying castle was still just barely hovering.

And it was more of a shed than a castle…

sex hormones

Women also have testosterone. Strangely enough, a woman’s T-count goes up everytime she has sex.
I think men also have estrogen, but I’m not sure.

Also, let’s not get into gender stereotypes, folks.
Basically, this:

Plus it was more of a statement of cliches. There’s popular notions of what men are always thinking vs what women are always thinking etc etc. Since all generalizations are false (including that one), obviously those notions would be revealed to be wrong should telepathy be widespread.

And also: welcome back, Nate.
=D
You have been missed.

Both do have some hormones of the other, what makes the difference is the amount of them and how they play a role in development.

More or less what I suspected. Having only one year of biochemistry behind me, during which we never got all that into sex hormones, made me doubt a bit.
Thanks, Nate.

Technically true, so let me clarify. Both do have some hormones of the other, what makes the difference is the amount of them and how they play a role in development. When pre-born, the XX format causes estrogen to have a stronger influence than others. XY causes the same for testosterone.

Actually, it’s more the estrogen/testosterone levels in the womb during development that have a greater impact on personality and behavior. For instance, with mice, if you have a female mouse developing between two male mice, that female mouse will act as aggressive and masculine as her brothers. A male mouse, on the other hand, will act more like a female and passive if he develops between two sisters.

A male mouse developing between two other male mice winds up hyper aggressive, while a female mouse developing between two other females winds up hyper passive.

Conditions in the womb don’t really influence puberty, as far as I’m aware, and the levels of hormones released during maturation are determined primarily by genetics and physical condition of the individual at the time.

And they wouldn’t cover this in Biochem. Physiology and Embryology is where it’s at. ;P

And they wouldn’t cover this in Biochem. Physiology and Embryology is where it’s at. ;P

I had embryology for only a few weeks. Very basic.
The closest I ever got to intricate details about hormones was in introductory physiology (1 semester, 1st year, ages ago – I remember almost nothing) and biochem (last year). The latter focused on DNA and photosynthesis and metabolism more than anything else, really. :-D

that one of the greatest fears surveyed among men was being laughed/humiliated by a woman they liked. I wonder if guys would have to face that more often, “hearing” that women were laughing internally even while they were being polite.

Truth.
Could get ugly, as those men would end up becoming either shy reclusive hermits or jumpy defensive snappers.

Makes sense.

But I was thinking about a normal society where everyone suddenly became telepathic, although not at the same time. Now that would be scary.
I should’ve specified, though.

But I was thinking about a normal society where everyone suddenly became telepathic, although not at the same time. Now that would be scary.
I should’ve specified, though.

Yeah, that was kind of what I was thinking too.

Obviously, a species that was naturally telepathic would have developed an entirely different social structure.

So those were the sources of Children of the Damned?

The idea of something like that happening sounds familiar.

There was a Supernatural episode where everyone was forced to tell the truth, no matter how dangerous, secret, brutal or embarassing it may be. Maybe you’re thinking of that?

Yeah, that was kind of what I was thinking too.

Great minds. :-)

Obviously, a species that was naturally telepathic would have developed an entirely different social structure.

The Andalites (from Animorphs, for those who don’t know ;-)) weren’t always telepathic, but they developed their thought-speech several centuries (or millenia?) before the start of the series, giving them ample time to adjust and eventually become dependant on it.

In my stories I generally have the same rule for telepathy as for time travel: Avoid at all costs, unless you really really can’t do without it. I love all other powers/abilities/sci-fi tech/magic stuffies, though.

I’m on and off working on a novel about a detective who’s a telepath. The major source of drama is that he knows people are guilty of crimes but has to find proof that’ll convince a legal court, and is resisting the temptation to just shoot first and ask later (he’s kind of a Sam Spade gruff-but-trying-to-be-moral kinda guy).

So, related to the original post in this thread, I just found out the other day that originally Bella moved away from home because her stepfather was sexually interested in her.

The brain bleach I immediately consumed upon learning that this was so erased all memory of the link. And I’m not going back there.

Just. WHY.

I didn’t think she would either.

The worst part is that she’s like ‘this is so creepy’ when it’s not Edward, and then when it is, it’s like, HAWT.

DHD?

I… haven’t read it yet. I only came online today to post the podcast.

The thing that makes me sad is the numerous articles claiming that Twilight and Edward are perfect examples of true love and the male gender.

Why is that the sad part? That means we can quickly and easily figure out who we don’t want to mate (i.e. somebody looking for their Edward), and therefore filter their inferior literature choices out of the social gene pool. It’s eugenreics.

Stephanie Meyer created an easy form of selective breeding.

I can’t decide whether to be frightened or awed. Well, I guess those aren’t mutually exclusive so both!

he’s kind of a Sam Spade gruff-but-trying-to-be-moral kinda guy

Inky, Y U writing the same type of heroes as me?
/jk
Awesome. I love those.

Unless she’s been spending too much time on fanfic.net.

I highly doubt that.
I highly doubt that she’s even aware of The Pit (as the lovely das mervin calls it). If she were, her sheltered upbringing would shatter, like china thrown on granite.

victims reduced to animal instinct just looking at her

Because they’re straight men, and can’t help thinking with their downstairs brains.
And gay and bisexual and other non-straight men don’t exist. Like, at all.

Nate, that comic is so true to RL, it’s scary and infuriating at the same time.

Less icky connotations, plus it is their own fault for being attracted to that kind of guy.

Just like so.

That’s one of my favorite books.

I’ll have a look, then.

^ This is truth.

Well done, though, it’s like one of the coolest possible male role models. If not the. So I enjoy watching it, even though it’s quickly worn out.