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Social Hooper McFinney's RPF Bar & Grille 7.0 - "Keeping blind people away from Priuses one step at a time"

Discussion in 'Role Playing Forum' started by Thok, Apr 3, 2010.

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  1. Lukes_Apprentice

    Lukes_Apprentice Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 15, 2008
    Somehow I think I'm completely lost as I have no idea what anyone is talking about in here while i decide if should be the first post in league extraordinary gentlemen as I already have an outline in my head and witty repartee to boot......[face_whistling]8-}

    edit : note: yes that was rather British [face_laugh]
     
  2. BLemelisk

    BLemelisk Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    I'm pretty sure Mass Effect's guiding principle has always been "hit it, quit it, save humanity."
     
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  3. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    Though not necessarily in that order :D :D
     
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  4. Penguinator

    Penguinator Former Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005
    Best word ever? REVENGEANCE.
     
  5. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    [​IMG]
     
  6. Penguinator

    Penguinator Former Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005
    It's like Revenge and Vengeance had a love child and gave it a monomolecular ninja sword to be wielded. Oh, and the love child is a cyborg and also a ninja.
     
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  7. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    [​IMG]
     
  8. BLemelisk

    BLemelisk Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    I listened to the song from the demo's cyberdog boss battle for at least an hour
     
  9. Rilwen_Shadowflame

    Rilwen_Shadowflame Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 27, 2005
    It's Twilight fanfiction with the names changed. Literally.
    And there are tales of spinning straw into gold, but in this case, James appears to have spun muck into even worse muck.
     
  10. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    In my most optimistic moments, I think that the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey is the combined might of Western womendom pulling Western maledom's leg. It must be some sort of immense practical joke by anyone who does not currently have a penis to suggest that this book is popular because women identify with Ana in any measurable way, or that it's popular because Grey is seen as a sort of modern-day Mr. Darcy, the epitome of every modern girl's wants or desires. In which case, come on girls, you've had your fun. Stop voting the book up on goodreads.com so it occupies the #1 position for "Best Romance of All Time".

    In my more pessimistic moments, I think the book's popularity is mainly because it appeals to young middle-class girls and women who've been so sheltered by helicopter parenting they think the conduct of Grey towards Ana, Ana's vulnerability and meekness, and Grey's sheer sadistic tendencies actually represents how a genuine loving relationship actually functions. Either that, in my even more pessimistic moments, I see it as part of the continuing and troubling relationship women seem to have with their self-esteem in the post-feminist world.

    And in my darkest, most rocking-back-and-forth-murmuring "The Horror, the Horror" moments, I think it's because young girls and young women actually think this crap is good writing.
     
  11. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    EDIT: The Horror, The Horror of a double post.
     
  12. Rilwen_Shadowflame

    Rilwen_Shadowflame Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 27, 2005
    Rest assured, there are plenty of us trying to educate the less-apt ones that the content in the book is abuse, not BDSM. Which I think is much of the problem, really. People who know nothing about BDSM except the Hollywood stereotypes just write off any troubling moments as the characters being kinky. But there are chapter-by-chapter breakdowns of the book online by actual BDSM afficionados, pointing out that Ana is gulled and intimidated into this, and is never in any position to give any genuine informed consent. I have read those breakdowns. I'd link to them, but the general reaction of knowledgeable people to the book tends to contain way too much swearing to be okay to link from here.:p
     
  13. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Yes.

    Girls.

    Mr. Darcy is the epitome of girls' wants or desires.

    Hah.

    Yes.

    Girls.

    Yes.

    [​IMG]

    I thought he was dreamy.
     
  14. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    Spock is dreamy, Ramza. Isaac Asimov said so. :D
     
  15. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Oh, well, yeah, that's just...


    :cool:



    ... logical.

     
  16. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    Important clarification: Rils, I didn't intend my post to come out like an anti-BDSM rant. Hell, in a world where Rule 43 exists BDSM looks positively pedestrian by comparison; we've had too many English politicians to chuckle over to get all het up about that stuff.

    To me, if that's what floats your boat, you can find another person to give informed and meaningful consent, and you're not getting children, close relatives, or animals involved, well, it's your convexity/concavity to interface with another person's convexity/concavity and good luck to the two (or more) of you.

    But as you say, Ana's gulled and intimidated into the process. That's not the most sinister element, at least to me, though. It's the characters themselves who are perverted. Ana is put up as the heroine and is portrayed as a doormat with no redeeming features; Grey is an abusive swine who seems to have no redeeming qualities at all other than the "excuse" that he was abused as a kid. These are not fun people to cheer on or put up as examples for young men or women to behave like.
     
  17. Rilwen_Shadowflame

    Rilwen_Shadowflame Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 27, 2005
    Oh, it didn't come across at all like an anti-BDSM rant. But that is a thing some people trot out: that they're doing BDSM stuff so it's all okay. No, no it's not. In order for it to have been BDSM, Ana would have to A, know what's going on, and B, have the mental age of an adult. She doesn't, on either count.
    And Grey is... really scary. This is a guy who'll break into your house to make you take him back if he thinks you're leaving. This is a guy who'll buy out your workplace to control your job. This is a guy who'll give you expensive presents and use that to obligate you to cooperate with him. That's terrifying.
     
  18. Penguinator

    Penguinator Former Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005
    I had friends complain about 50 Shades because it apparently created a double standard - smut directed at a female audience is okay, while male-targeted smut is not. They did not see the irony.
     
  19. Rampani

    Rampani Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2003
    First things first. This whole 50 Shades of Grey talk reminded me of this link:



    And to reply to this:

    I'm just gonna point the finger at the true culprit behind this whole trend. Yep, I'm looking at you Stephenie Meyer. You and your unhealthy tennage romance and your sparkly vampires *shudders*
     
  20. DarkLordoftheFins

    DarkLordoftheFins Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 2, 2007
    Well, I might surprise everybody by this . . . but I think 50 Shades of Grey is very, very underestimated in it´s value and importance. Without a doubt it is rubbish from hte literature/writing point of view. It also became a comment on sexuality through it´s numbers bought books.
     
  21. Rilwen_Shadowflame

    Rilwen_Shadowflame Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 27, 2005
    It only became a comment because newsfools decided to blare out that it was so new, so daring, the first time there'd ever been smut for women, and that raised its notoriety. Note: it is not new, not daring, and definitely not the first female-geared smut. Of course.

    All these people who are calling it hot, I just want to shake them and tell them there are probably a few thousand things they'll like better on the internet.
     
  22. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    I suppose it's a comment on sexuality in that "My god, we're such prudes this is considered steamy eroticism, and yet simultaneously 4chan exists" sort of way.
     
  23. DarkLordoftheFins

    DarkLordoftheFins Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Apr 2, 2007
    It was never considered to be first, but anything spreading so far is a comment. I have no idea how media reacted in the US, but in Europe it was more like ... "Okay, the only quality the book has is it's honesty to admit that brutes are attractive to females. And that's enough to be a Bestseller?" Obviously it was.

    If a crappy book becomes a bestseller that is a powerful statement.
     
  24. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    Well, if so, then what does the popularity of The Da Vinci Code say? The dramatisation of Holy Blood, Holy Grail which has been bobbing around the shelves marked "New Age/Conspiracy Theory" for literally decades, and hasn't sold much at all? Is it saying people still want some mystery in their religion, some feeling that there's more mystique to the church than a bunch of dudes in really old robes walking lonely vigils in Renaissance palaces in the Vatican?

    Popularity in literature's a funny thing. Jane Austen died a pauper. 200 years later, millions of sad single women think Colin Firth is Mr. Darcy. I don't think you can discount the fact that people are lemmings, particularly so when it comes to books that are "in" right now. Me, I tend to take my leads from the stacks in secondhand book stores: I see a lot of E L James, every secondhand shop I go in fact, but I have yet to find a single Hemingway in paperback (the only hardback I found was $66, and a first edition of "For Whom the Bell Tolls". I like Hemingway, but not that much.)
     
  25. DarkLordoftheFins

    DarkLordoftheFins Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 2, 2007
    Well the Church as a secretive evil entity protecting their lies ... what could have attracted modern people to that idea.

    But I think that argument is not entirely correct. Because few believed 50 Shades was a Good Book. So why read it? Seriously, isn't a bit of truth in it, other media avoid?
     
  26. Penguinator

    Penguinator Former Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005
    Or maybe it's just neo-Victorianism raising its head. Seriously though, "brutes are attractive to females?" How the hell is that a quality?
     
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