wolfinthewoods

Is this a book whose message I agree with or want to explore right now? ...Do I really want to read for 300+ pages.... Do I really want to read for 200 pages? ....Should I go with something high concept, or settle for trope-y genre fiction? ....Let's look at reviews on goodreads...the average is 4 stars, but this person says this book is a GIANT waste of time, do I want to chance it? ....I really like 's books, but am I tired of hearing the same voice and themes explored? ...I'm reading too much fiction, I need to read some non-fiction. ....Non-fiction is just some author spending 300 pages trying to sway me to a particular point of view, or their just explaining on concept verbosely and repetitively for 300+ pages.... Maybe I'll just read a comic, eh all these series are just spins on older, better drawn and written ones.... I'll just grab ten different books from the library, one of them has to be good, right? ....All ten of these books look like they're just a damn waste of time! Why do I need to muse on the history and sociological implications of the toothbrush for 400 pages?! ....Maybe books are just overrated, why do I think I need to read anyways? ....What am I really getting from all of this reading? Is someone awarding me a prize at the end? Is this like those old book competitions in school where I win a pizza party after reading 200 hundred books? Aaaaaaaaagggggghhhh!!!

Funnily enough I just read the original Black Hammer series recently. Pretty good while it lasted. There were some moments that were confusing, but I was able to keep track of what was going on for the most part. I think it was easier to focus on the interpersonal stuff in Black Hammer and gloss over the underlying explanation. With DoT even the character relationships are hard to follow, if and when there is any. There are a lot of side stories that tend to take front and center. Honestly, the main character is not very interesting and forgettable. I couldn't even tell you his name right now. Ironically the conceptual stuff is both what makes the series good, and also it's Achilles heel.

Read the most recent issue of Department of Truth. The series has an excellent premise and a lot of incredibly interesting ideas it explores, but I think it's plot gets lost in the conceptual framework it's created. I completely devoured the first 20+ issues with zest. However, the last few issues have got more bogged down with exposition and digressions that I am losing track of what the hell is even going on amymore. I'll keep reading, not with as much anticipation as before though.

Been watching the Legion tv show which has rekindled my interest in X-Men. It got me to revisit the beginning of the modern X-Men with Claremont's legendary run. I haven't read these in decades, so I am looking forward to see how well they hold up. My library was able to get the Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Volume 1 on Interlibrary Loan which has something like the first 20-30 issues of the run. Looking forward to it. It's amazing how much Claremont created and how it's basically the X-Men bible going forward. One of these days I'd like to jump into the original run up until the Claremont era since I have read very little from the original run. I'm especially interested in the 70s stuff with Neal Adams that led into Uncanny, which always seemed like a prototype for the Claremont stuff, at least from what I've seen of them.

Well, I appreciate the primer you linked in this thread. I was already reading Blackshirts and Reds, but now have some other material to read in conjunction with it. Take care, friend <3

That's actually a great strategy. It is perplexing to me to see the incivility of common conservative discourse online with other people they percieve as being "left wing" that others who read such exchanges could see anything other than it being childish and crude, especially when the other party is participating in a respectful manner. For myself, I don't resort to using incivilty against incivility but end up concluding that it's a waste of my emotional stamina to continue a discussion where one side insults and denigrates me as a matter of course. I'll keep your idea in mind next time I encounter such a time. Keep doing the hard work ;)

I never used it myself, but I appreciated that it existed nonetheless.

Bravo on showing such respectful and good-natured civility towards someone who is undoubtedly a troll. I applaud your restraint. However, I think you entertained their obvious bad faith arguing for far too long. It's quite clear that they are hostile towards communism and are being deliberately combative and insulting to try and get a reaction out of someone. Unfortunately, as the Reddit floodgates begin to burst, I am sure many more trolls and hostile reactionaries whilr be flooding Lemmy for the forseeable future. Stay strong, comrade <3

There's a difference between support and pointing out blatant US propaganda. Like I said above, many people across the fediverse don't get the nuance of being critical of US narratives does not equal supporting the regimes that are on the recieving end of that propaganda. If you really spent any amount of time on .ml you'd see there is plenty of criticism of Russia/China, just not to the extent where everyone unquestioningly takes any criticism by US sources at face value.

Wherever it stems from it's getting annoying to deal with the influx of "enlightened centrists" that have the idea that anyone left of Biden/Harris is a secret Russian/Chinese disinfo agent :/

Ah, I see. Good to know.

Hmm, that make sense. I suppose due to the quality of the tv you'd get dimishing returns the higher the fidelity of the set. I honestly have only been slightly curious about RGB, but never enough to go for it. Somehow I always suspected that it wasn't quite worth the effort.

On the Android app?

For sure! Such a trip it made it on the DS, with a level editor even.