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In this article, we explore the key reasons why LLPs are increasingly favoured, focusing on the advantages of LLPs for small business owners.

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On occasion of the 165th year of Income Tax Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ji has announced that the much-awaited new direct tax law would soon be introduced in 2025

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Welcome, you have arrived at: Yourself

Üks tänahommikusel loodusretkel kohatud tiivulistest – väike nunnukas.

Hi there everyone.

This is such a challenging time.

Every day we're having to sit and watch in disbelief as people lie to our faces about COVID-19, how bad things are, and what to do about it. We watch in disbelief as nonviolent protesters are arrested and accused of violence — while the police use tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and batons against them. We watch in disbelief as white women pull guns on Black people after saying the actual words, "White people aren't racist… No one is racist." Our president lies so often, so willfully, childishly, self-centeredly, and so without compunction that FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics, has a Donald Trump archive that is 107 pages long. And now I read that we've started executing federal prisoners again — despite what we all know about how flawed our criminal justice system is.

It can be hard to keep on top of how awful everything is.

I wanted to provide a few clarifying links, and recommend a book.

First, if you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of people in denial around you — and the capacity for people to lie to themselves and others about reality — I want you to know that you're not alone. Also, you're not crazy. Also, THERE IS AN OBJECTIVE REALITY. Keep hold of it. And if you don't know what cognitive dissonance is — this might be a good time to learn! A couple links —

• Cognitive dissonance is a huge factor in people, especially white people, denying the existence of structural racism and refusing to acknowledge our own investment in it. For just one example of how this plays out, check out "The psychological phenomenon that blinds Trump supporters to his racism," from the Washington Post a year ago.

• Cognitive dissonance is also playing a huge role these days in the pandemic. Check out "The Role of Cognitive Dissonance in the Pandemic," at The Atlantic.

Cognitive dissonance, when handled badly, is a killer. It makes people inexcusably ignorant, hurtful, and destructive. I find it helpful to learn about it, so at least I know what we're up against — and also so that I can be better equipped to watch for it in myself, because after all, I was socialized into this society too. Maybe you'll also find it helpful, especially now. When you're surrounded by people who are lying to themselves… It can be incredibly disorienting! And distressing, if these are people who profess to care about you. Learn about cognitive dissonance and shine some light through the bullshit around you.

Next, on the not unrelated topic of "The Letter" ("A Letter on Justice and Open Debate," published on July 7 at Harper Magazine and signed by 153 writers, artists, academics, and journalists). I really liked Hannah Giorgis's thoughts about The Letter, over at The Atlantic: "A Deeply Provincial View of Free Speech". Giorgis skewers The Letter's vagueness. She also reminds us of what free speech actually is, and what threats to free speech actually look like. An excerpt: "Any good-faith understanding of principles such as free speech and due process requires acknowledging some basic truths: Facing widespread criticism on Twitter, undergoing an internal workplace review, or having one’s book panned does not, in fact, erode one’s constitutional rights or endanger a liberal society." Yes!

Finally, I'm listening to a really great audiobook: Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair, by Danielle Sered. Sered is the director of Common Justice, which is a program in Brooklyn that provides a survivor-focused alternative to incarceration for violent crime. What I love about this book is that while I've been aware that our criminal justice system is broken — and that it's a lie that prisons keep anyone safe — I hadn't realized that there are workable alternatives already in play. Sered presents an alternative to incarceration that creates not just safety, but healing. The program is very survivor-focused. Survivors are deeply involved in decisions about how the people who harmed them are held accountable. And since most people who commit violent crime have also been victims of violent crime, the program helps those who've caused harm to heal too. The book is realistic about why people harm each other, and about how to change the system. It's a good introduction to the growing movement of restorative justice, and reading it makes me hopeful.

A heads up that Sered has a crystal clear grasp of what it's like to have PTSD and is searingly articulate about how it feels to want and need a person who harmed you to accept responsibility for what they did. If you are a survivor — of any kind of harm, not just violence — parts of this book may be gutting. I recommend taking breaks now and then.

Also, if you don't have time to read a book or if you can't access it right now while the libraries are in flux, I can recommend a recent podcast episode on the same topic. It's from the The Ezra Klein Show and it's the episode called: "A former prosecutor's case for prison abolition: Paul Butler on how our criminal justice system is broken — and how to fix it". I learned a LOT about how broken our criminal justice system is from that episode. I noticed that Ezra also has an even newer episode, an interview with sujatha baliga called "The transformative power of restorative justice." I haven't listened to that one yet, but it's on the same topic, so I'm guessing that's also an interesting and informative conversation.

Okay! So those are the things I wanted to share. Hang in there, everybody. I'll be writing another craft lesson blog post soon. Also, in Winterkeep news, I expect to have a cover (or several) to share with you soon! Be well, everyone.

Before I start talking about Victor LaValle's beautiful book, a point of housekeeping: Now that an eon has passed, I've finally updated my praise and awards page for Jane, Unlimited. I have a bad habit of never getting around to this task until it's time to start clearing things out for the new book. The nice thing about it is that I get to revisit a book that's dear to me, years after I've stopped thinking about it. Jane is a book that divides readers for sure. I want to thank everyone who got that book and took it into your hearts and brains. If you don't know about Jane, Unlimited, here's a quick intro: An orphan named Jane arrives at an island mansion owned by a friend, then quickly starts to get the sense that strange things are afoot there. At a certain point, when Jane needs to make a decision, the book breaks off into five different decisions she could make — and each decision takes her into an adventure in a different genre. There's a mystery story, a spy story, a horror story, a sci-fi story, and a fantasy. They're all connected and interwoven; and yes, the multiverse exists :). It's a weird book and I'm very, very proud of it! If you're curious, I'll point you to the NYTBR review, which is concise and generous and does a good job expressing its flavor.


So. Today I want to talk about the craft of using existing, well-known stories to fortify your own story — thus building ready-made narrative magic into your story's foundations.

Reimagining a classic story is, of course, an age-old tradition. There was a time when I read all the King Arthur retellings I could find, though this list shows me that I missed a great many. Some of my all-time favorite books come from this tradition: Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, a retelling of the old Scottish ballad that takes place in a fictional college in Minnesota in the 1970s; Deerskin by Robin McKinley, which I held close to my heart while I was writing Fire and which is based on the Charles Perrault fairy tale Donkeyskin; Ash by Malinda Lo, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella. Every writer who goes down this path has their own take on whatever story they're reimagining, disrupting the familiar in their own unique way so that we can get some objective distance and consider the story again in a new light. One of the best things about stories is the way they all change and grow in meaning and significance with every new story that joins the pantheon.

Victor LaValle's The Changeling is a modern-day, New York City-based retelling of the old changeling folktale. In the classic version of that tale, fairies steal a human baby and replace it with something else, usually a (creepy) fairy child. In LaValle's retelling, the focus is the emotional journey of the baby's father, Apollo Kagwa, whose wife Emma Valentine starts acting odd after their baby is born. Horror ensues. In the wake of the horror, Apollo must figure out what the heck just happened, and how to move on.

LaValle's take on the changeling story is unique in plenty of ways. For example, the way race and gender factor into the power dynamics. The choice to center the point of view around a father. The extreme horrificness of the violence that occurs. The story's broad-ranging modern-day New York City settings, from a fancy Manhattan restaurant to Apollo's home in Washington Heights to an abandoned island in the East River to upscale suburbs and a forest in Queens. These are the sorts of alterations commonly made by writers retelling old stories: time, location, culture, tone. When we know we're reading a retelling, we expect changes in these categories.

But LaValle does something else too: he infuses this book with many, many stories that aren't the official story he's retelling. The Changeling is a book positively swimming in story. And one of this book's charms is that as a consequence, Apollo spends a lot of the book making mistakes about what story he's in. LaValle uses stories to illuminate, but also to mislead. I think it makes for a really unique approach to characterization.

It also steers Apollo through a character transformation that I find exquisitely touching, for reasons I'll try to explain without spoiling the plot too much.

Apollo Kagwa's father, who disappears before his fourth birthday, is a white man from Syracuse. His mother, Lillian Kagwa, is a Black woman, an immigrant from Uganda, who raises him and who recognizes early on that her son lives and breathes stories. Lillian can't find enough books to satisfy young Apollo. He also has a mind for business. When Lillian discovers that Apollo has been selling his books after reading them, she helps him establish a used bookselling business. In due course, he grows up to be a rare bookseller.

Unquestionably, this is the story of a man who knows all about stories. As a rare bookseller who spends his time digging through rude and racist people's basements looking for valuable treasures, Apollo deals in stories. He seeks stories out, recognizes their value, owns them, sells them. He also builds stories around himself as protection and comfort, often repeating to himself, in moments of anxiety or fear, the mantra, I am the god, Apollo. I am the god, Apollo. And he uses stories to comfort and ground himself — particularly Maurice Sendak's picture book Outside Over There, a changeling tale that Apollo believes his missing father lovingly left for him.

So. Apollo knows stories. And yet, as I said above, as this story plays out, LaValle gives us evidence that Apollo is often wrong about what story he's in. He admires the wrong people in his life as heroes (for example, his father). He misses the incredibly powerful sorcerers right in front of his eyes: his wife Emma; Emma's sister, Kim; Emma's friend, Nichelle; his mother, Lillian. As he moves through the world, he imagines he sees fairy tale traps where there are none, and he misses the huge, important fairy tale turning points, the moments that really matter. The clues are right in front of his face. Sometimes the women in his life even announce them aloud to him, and he still disregards them. Like all of us, the story Apollo tells himself about his own life is flawed and distorted by his own wishes, heartbreaks, assumptions, and biases. Among those biases, by my reading, is the tiniest edge of unconscious condescension to women. Or maybe even that's going too far; maybe it's simply that Apollo fails to see and appreciate the women around him fully. He's a good man. But he doesn't quite get it.

And yet, Apollo's story is one of transformation. Over the course of this book, through a great deal of trial and tribulation, Apollo learns to see what story he's in, who the heroes are, and who has the power to create a safe world for him and his family. And who are these heroes? Ultimately, women. What Apollo learns is that he's in a story in which he needs to see and respect the intelligence, insight, and power of women. Black women, specifically. By my reading, this is a tale of a well-meaning, vulnerable, flawed man learning feminism.

Maybe you can see why I love it?

And I also love how it's done. I love the way this book swirls with stories, and the way both the reader and Apollo are moving along on different paths through the stories, trying to understand which of the stories matter to Apollo's story, and how.

It makes me think in a fresh, new way about how to weave other stories into one's story, whether one's story is a retelling, or just a story with narrative influences. There's no end to the creative approaches to this — but if you're imbuing your own story with other stories, I do think it's a good idea to choose a deliberate approach. There's a danger in trying to use other stories in your story as a shortcut for creating mood and meaning. The author who throws lots of existing stories into a book might create the impression of depth, but you want to make sure it's not just an impression. You don't want to use other stories to obscure an empty hole or a weak foundation in your own story, or make it seem like your story has meaning it doesn't have. I say this as a writer who's familiar with that moment when, after trying to shoehorn a known story into something I'm writing, I realize I'm being lazy. I'm trying to make someone else's work do my work. Or maybe I realize that I simply don't know enough about my own story yet, and I'm using those other stories to obscure that fact from myself.

If you're alluding to another story in your story, there needs to be a reason. Ask yourself, what structural function are these references performing? What manner of tool are they? What do they accomplish? Why have I chosen the stories I've chosen?

There doesn't need to be a profound or complicated answer, but there needs to be an answer. For example, in Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me, Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, for what turn out to be some pretty straightforward textual reasons. In the space of that book, it ends up being a perfect allusion. In the review of Jane, Unlimited I linked to above, the reviewer notes that it turns out there's a reason Jane wears Doctor Who pajamas. Though I wouldn't call Jane my most straightforward book, there are some pretty straightforward reasons I dressed her in those pajamas! You can have simple or complicated reasons for referring to other stories in your story. It can be a reason that's quiet, subtle, and small. It doesn't have to be groundbreaking. But you have to link those stories to yours in meaningful ways, and you also have to make sure that your own story is the biggest and most relevant story in the book. If you find yourself trying to create depth in an insubstantial story by borrowing someone else's story, then I recommend spending some time focusing on the hard work of your own story.

And if, in the process, you find yourself jettisoning some of the references to that other story, or even abandoning that other story altogether? That's fine too. One of my current works in progress started out as something of a Peter Pan retelling. It's now come so far from that point that the only remaining allusion is a couple of names — that I'm probably going to change, because the book doesn't need them anymore. That book needed to grow the way it did. J. M. Barrie's book was my path in; my story needed to start with his, then diverge. Another example: Earlier in this post, when I explained that Jane, Unlimited is about an orphan named Jane who comes to a mysterious house, maybe you thought of Jane Eyre. In early drafts of that book, I kept trying to work in versions of actual scenes from Jane Eyre. For example, I tried hard to find a place for a scene paralleling the one where Jane almost gets run over by Mr. Rochester in the dark. Eventually, I let all that go. At a certain point, the needs of my story became a lot more important than strengthening allusions to Jane Eyre (or Rebecca, or Winnie the Pooh, or any of the other texts that Jane, Unlimited references). I found a balance with all the allusions — or I hope I did, the reader is free to disagree! — and tried hard to focus on my story, my versions, my point. I think Jane still swims with those other stories, hopefully in ways that create depth, and part of getting to that point was letting some of it go. Often it doesn't take much to invoke a story that's part of our cultural consciousness.

To demonstrate that often it doesn't take much, let's return to The Changeling. I want to show an example of what I've explained about how this book uses stories to elucidate Apollo's failure to recognize his own story. I'll focus on one scene that I think encapsulates the skill with which LaValle layers story over story over story — to tell Apollo's story about misreading his own story. It's also wonderfully written, so that'll be fun to talk about too :).

The scene I'm going to look at takes place over the course of Chapters 11 and 12. The setting is a fancy New York restaurant that evokes a fairy tale aura. If you want to read along, you'll find this scene on pages 41 through 51 in the 2017 Spiegel & Grau hardcover edition. Point of view shifts in this book, but these two chapters are told from Apollo's point of view.

First, some context: in the scene after this scene, Emma Valentine gives birth to their child. (That's an incredible scene too! It happens in a stopped A train on its way to Washington Heights!) This means that the scene I'm about to talk about is Apollo's last chance to understand his own story before everything changes. As I think you know by now, he fails. He barrels into  parenthood still unable to see what's in front of his eyes, and the consequences are catastrophic.

But first, he has dinner at a restaurant! Or rather, he doesn't have dinner, because the items on the menu are terrifyingly expensive, so he just fills up on bread — but we'll get to that.

Let's start with the opening of Chapter 11. We're on Duane Street, a fancy street in lower Manhattan. Apollo has just been digging through the old, abandoned books of some rude people in Queens. Now he's meeting Emma and Emma's friend Nichelle for dinner at Bouley, which is a real New York restaurant. Or rather, it used to be; it closed in 2017, the year this book was published.

Here's how the chapter starts: "Entering Bouley Restaurant felt like stepping inside a gingerbread house. .... when he opened the door and stepped into the foyer, he found himself surrounded by apples. Shelves had been built into the wall, running as high as the ceiling; rows of fresh red apples and their scent enveloped him. The door to Duane Street shut behind him, and Apollo felt as if he'd stumbled into a small cottage off an overgrown path in a dark wood" (41).

(By the way, if this room sounds too playful, magical, or wonderful to be true — here's an article that includes a photo of Bouley's apple entrance: "What's David Bouley Going to Do With all Those Apples When He Closes His Flagship Restaurant?")

So. With these opening lines, LaValle accomplishes two things: (1) he fixes a real-life restaurant firmly in the world of fairy tale. And (2) he signals to us what story Apollo thinks he's in. Because we all know that when Hansel and Gretel step into a cottage off an overgrown path in a dark wood with walls made of gingerbread, cake, and candies, things do not go well for them.

I don't want to take any of the fairy tale references in this book too literally or drag them out too far. Though LaValle can be pretty explicit sometimes about what he's referencing, his touch remains light, and I don't want to beat it to death. But as I said before, Apollo doesn't eat anything but bread during this dinner. He tells himself it's because he's afraid of the bill, but we also know that on some unconscious level, he thinks he's inside the story of Hansel and Gretel. And if you're inside that story, you know damn well that it's not safe to eat the food! Of course, as it turns out, Apollo could eat anything he wants safely, because Nichelle is paying for the dinner. Apollo's wrong: his story isn't Hansel and Gretel.

This is a pretty straightforward example of how this skilled writer uses a conscious and deliberate reference to a widely-known story that then shows us that Apollo is a little bit lost inside all the stories of his life. Also, as settings go, this description of the foyer of Bouley is evocative and beautiful. The sentences of this book are eminently readable. It's something I noticed again and again: despite a fair amount of description, my eyes never glazed over and I never struggled to picture what was being described to me. LaValle doesn't use flowery language or waste words. He tells you what it looks like and he tells you how Apollo experiences it. And he attaches it to story spaces we already know, spaces that are part of our cultural language of stories, so it feels familiar and right. For me, at this point in the book, it was enjoyable to be a little bit lost with Apollo, because the language was so lush and the setting so fairy-tale familiar; because I myself, sitting outside the story, could go eat something if I got hungry, without worrying about evil witches; and also because I had some grounding that Apollo doesn't have. Apollo doesn't know that his own book is called The Changeling. He's just trying to survive each new story, whatever it turns out to be, as he steps into it.

LaValle does a good job creating sympathy in the reader for Apollo's mistakes and confusions. Consider Apollo's experience as he moves further into Bouley: "The dining room's vaulted ceilings had been laid with eighteen-karat gold leaf sheets, and on top of that a twelve-karat white gold varnish, so the ceiling seemed as supple as suede. The floors were Burgundy stone, overlaid by Persian rugs. If the foyer felt like a woodland cottage and the waiting area a haunted parlor, the dining room became an ancient castle's great hall.….Apollo felt as if he was trekking through realms rather than rooms. If there had been men in full armor posted as sentries, it wouldn't have surprised him. And in fact, when the maître d' reached the right table, there was a queen waiting there. Emma Valentine, too pregnant to stand" (42).

This is one of the dangers of being a story man: If your entire life is steeped in story, you're going to see those stories everywhere. Surely that makes it confusing to isolate which story is yours?

On the other hand, Apollo totally notices that Emma is a queen — but then he dismisses it. This is another danger of a life steeped in story: you make associations and assume that they're metaphors. Emma isn't like a queen. She is a queen — or if not a queen, some other category of extremely powerful and important woman. Maybe one of Apollo's problems is that he's so steeped in story that he can't get hold of what's real? Or maybe he believes in magic within the context of a story, but he doesn't believe in magic in real life? Or maybe he lives too much inside stories, and needs to wake up and live his real life?

This is what good layering does. It leaves the reader with lots of fascinating and fun questions!

By the way, Emma has her favorite stories too — and LaValle's choices for her illuminate her character to anyone who's paying attention. The most important movie from Emma's childhood, which she watched repeatedly in her hometown library in Virginia, is a Brazilian movie called Quilombo, "the only movie in the entire library that had black people on the cover. Of course I wanted to watch it!" (28). It's a movie about the slave uprisings in Brazil, and it "shows tons of Portuguese people getting killed by those slaves" (28). At dinner, Nichelle brings it up: "This girl tried to get me to watch a movie about a slave uprising when I was busy trying to figure out how to marry that boy out of New Edition" (47). While Apollo is worrying about eating the food, LaValle reminds us that Emma is engaged in matters of disruption to major power structures. Ding ding ding! Pay attention, Apollo!

But Apollo is too hungry and anxious to pay attention. The dinner progresses as dinners do. Apollo, not knowing that Nichelle is buying, becomes more and more horrified as Nichelle and Emma order delicacy after delicacy. Nichelle gets roaring drunk. Emma, who rarely sleeps anymore, is drifting, half-asleep in her seat. "Apollo, meanwhile, had ingested nothing but tapwater and the restaurant bread. While the bread tasted magnificent, it wasn't enough. By dessert, Apollo and Emma had low batteries, but Nichelle seemed wired to a generator" (46).

Near the end of the dinner, Emma leaves the table to find the bathroom. She's thirty-eight weeks pregnant and "That flan wants to come back up," she says quietly (47). When she leaves, Nichelle, like any good soothsayer in any good folktale, takes the opportunity to try to tell Apollo what matters.

First, she tells Apollo that "There's a nude photo of your wife in an art gallery in Amsterdam." Then she explains that before Emma married Apollo, Emma went to Brazil, where "she had a few adventures" (48). In particular, "Emma met this Dutch photographer down there in Brazil" (49).

Nichelle goes on to explain that one day while the photographer was taking photos in an abandoned factory, he needed to pee, so he left Emma alone with the equipment. And she decided to take a picture of herself, setting up the shot with a timer. "She makes the shot in front of a wall that's been half torn down so you can see she's standing inside a man-made building that's gone to the dogs, but over her right shoulder you can see the forest that surrounds this factory. Two worlds at once. Crumbling civilization and an explosion of the natural world. / "Emma walks into the shot, and just before the shutter clicks, she pulls off her dress and takes that photo nude!"

What's the photo like? How does Emma look? "Wiry and fierce, naked and unashamed. She's looking into that camera lens like she can see you, whoever you are, wherever you are. She looks like a fucking sorceress, Apollo. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen" (50).

So, here's Nichelle, telling Apollo what he's glancingly considered before in a fond, condescending sort of way: Emma is a sorceress. Nichelle is saying this to Apollo in simple, straightforward words: Emma is a sorceress, with a great capacity for adventure.

What is Apollo doing during this conversation?

He's sitting there thinking to himself, "Dutch photographer? / Dutch fucking photographer?" (49)

And when he finally speaks, what does he say?

"'And the Dutch guy?' Apollo asked. 'What was his name?'" (59)

This moment is, of course, the stuff of everyday real life and the stuff of fairy tales. Jealousy and possessiveness, leading to a character's blunder or misbehavior. In fairy tales, we see jealousy as an archetype — like the queen who decides to destroy the young woman who's usurped her position as the fairest of them all. In Apollo's life, it comes across as fairly typical and annoying sexism.

Nichelle's response to this question contains everything. Everything this book is about; everything that leads to catastrophe, and ultimately to Apollo's growth and transformation: "Nichelle watched him quietly for seconds. She narrowed her eyes when she spoke. 'I'm trying to tell you something important, and you are focused on bullshit'" (50).

For just a moment, Apollo gets it. He falls "back into his chair as if Nichelle had kicked him" (51). He tells her he's ready, he's finally listening.

And then the maître d' appears, sprinting across the restaurant, shouting for Apollo, because the baby is coming. Which means that everything is about to change, and it's too late.

Apollo's failures in this scene are familiar and understandable, even when they're annoying. He's hungry, distracted, and worried about his wife who's probably vomiting flan in the bathroom. Also, Nichelle is completely, obnoxiously drunk, so why should Apollo recognize the power or truth of her words? Maybe I should clarify that at this point in the book, I didn't appreciate that Emma was a legit sorceress either. We haven't learned the stakes yet, and we don't know how much we're going to be needing a sorceress later. But more to the point, most of this book is from Apollo's point of view, and right now Apollo is hungry, distracted, and worried. There are more important things to worry about, or so he thinks. And I care about him. Even though as the reader, I'm better positioned than he is to recognize his mistakes, I'm right there with him.

This all comes down to LaValle's skilled balancing of story and character. So much comes across in this one scene, and there are so many other equally rich scenes. If you like to sit in that place where spinning stories come together, you should read this book.

I'll close my study of The Changeling by adding this: I know enough from my own experience as a writer to suspect that while LaValle was writing this book, he wasn't always certain what story he was writing either. As we write, our story keeps surprising us, interrupting us, frustrating us and sending us off in the wrong direction. But not only did he find his own story (and Apollo's too), but he did a beautiful job weaving all the other stories in.

If you're writing something that alludes to other stories, I hope you'll find LaValle's use of classic stories exciting, rather than intimidating. When you ask yourself, Why this story?, it's an opportunity to figure out how far along you are in establishing your own story. If you don't have an answer yet, maybe you need to be focusing less on the classic story and more on your own story. If you have a few answers, but you're completely overwhelmed and not sure how many references you should make or where anything is going — take a moment to congratulate yourself, because that sounds to me like progress. When you're in the middle of writing something, there's always a sense of overwhelm and confusion about how well you're balancing things. You have a few potential answers? Great! Soldier on, and after a while, check in again. What's your story now?

And that's that. I hope you've enjoyed my post about the balance of story in Victor LaValle's The Changeling!

Reading like a writer.

Today in my craft post, I'm going to talk about a straightforward skill… while referencing a book that's wonderfully un-straightforward.

H Is for Hawk is a memoir by Helen Macdonald that weaves together several threads, the three biggest of which are: her experience of training a northern goshawk; her analysis of T. H. White's memoir about training a northern goshawk; and her grief following the death of her father. In terms of balance and weaving, it's beautifully done. In terms of psychological insight, it feels searingly true. And in terms of the expression of emotion, it's stunning.

It's also an uncomfortable book at times, in ways that recommend it. And it's a fascinating memoir for a fiction writer to read while thinking about how to write character. H Is for Hawk left me with a lot of questions, for the book and for myself.

If you just want the straightforward writing lesson, which is on the topic of writing emotion, jump ahead to the *** below. If you're interested in a fiction writer's thoughts about memoir, read on.

I sat down to read H is for Hawk because a friend had described its structure and I was intrigued. I'm not a memoir writer; it's far too personal a style of writing for me. But I like to read books that differ greatly from my own writing, and I especially like to learn to write from them. After all, the more a book diverges from your own writing, the more it can stretch you into a broader perspective of what's possible. I was curious about what a memoir that weaves separate but related threads could teach me about writing a work of fiction that weaves separate but related threads; but I was also curious about what it could teach me that I didn't know about yet.

Here are some of the unexpected questions that arose for me while reading this book:

In terms of writing character (if one can use that word with a memoir, and I believe one can; more on that later), what are the differences between memoir and fiction?

For example, what advantages does the memoir writer have? Does a reader come to a memoir with a greater willingness to believe in a character than they bring to the reading of fiction? A fiction writer often has to go through a lot of contortions to keep a character believable while also fulfilling the necessities of the plot. Push the character's behavior too far outside the characterization you've so carefully established, and the behavior becomes unbelievable. The reader is left thinking, "I don't believe they would actually do that."

In contrast, in a memoir, a character is an actual person. They did what they did. The memoir writer reports what they did and we believe it, because it's a memoir. Any "unbelievable" behavior consequently brings power with it: amusement, surprise, shock value. (This is not to minimize the work it requires to make any character in any kind of book engaging. I don't mean to suggest that a memoir writer has an easy job creating character, only that they may have a believability advantage.)

Okay then, what advantages does the fiction writer have when writing character? Well, the fiction writer can make shit up; that's a pretty huge advantage. The fiction writer also generally doesn't have to worry about getting sued for defamation of character :o).

Another huge advantage: Though it's true that as a fiction writer I sometimes encounter readers who mistakenly assume I'm like my characters, for the most part, fiction readers remember that fiction is made up. This means that the fiction writer is unlikely to be accused of having done the things their characters did, or judged for that behavior. In contrast, a memoir writer writing about her own actions is opening herself to all kinds of very personal judgment. All writing requires courage and involves exposure… But this takes things to a whole other level! Fiction writers have some built-in emotional protections that I tend to take for granted, until I read a memoir and remember.

This leads me to another question that arose while reading this book: What is the place of the memoir reader when it comes to judging the people inside the memoir? For example, Helen Macdonald writes a compassionate but blistering exposé of T. H. White in this book. It's an exposé that T. H. White wrote first; anyone can learn from White's own memoir that he was heartbreakingly, sometimes sadistically abusive to the goshawk he trained. But Macdonald presents it anew, and she presents it with an analysis of White's psychology that shows us more about White than he ever meant us to know. She shows us the abuse, familial and societal, that brought White to this place. She shows us his heartbreak, failures, and shame. White feels like an integrated, complete person in this book.

But also, she shows us what she wants to show us — she shows us the parts of White that fit into her own book, about her own experiences. She's the writer, and this is her memoir. To be clear, I don't mean this as a condemnation — I'm not accusing her of leaving things out or misrepresenting White! This is a part of all book-writing. You include what matters to the rest of your book. Everything else ends up on the cutting room floor. As far as I know, Macdonald did a respectful and responsible job of incorporating T. H. White into her book, and I expect she worked very hard to do so. I believe in the T. H. White she showed us. But I think it's important to remember this part of the process when reading any memoir. Even when a writer is writing about themselves, their book has plot and themes, it has content requirements. There'll always be something specific the writer is trying to convey, about themselves or anyone else, and there'll always be stuff they leave out. No book can contain a whole person.

Personally, when I read memoir (and biography and autobiography), I consciously consider the people inside it to function as characters. It's hard to read H Is for Hawk and not come away with some pretty strong opinions about T. H. White. But I keep a permanent asterisk next to my opinions, because White was a real, living person, but I only know him as a character in this book. No matter how many books I read about him (or by him), I'll always be conscious of not knowing the whole person.

As a fiction writer, I find all of this fascinating. I think it's because I see connections between how hard it is to present a compelling character study of a real person and how hard it is to create a believable character in fiction. What are the differences between a memoir writer who's figuring out which part of the truth matters, and a fiction writer who's creating a fiction that's supposed to invoke truth? Also, I'm fascinated by how much all of this lines up with how hard it is to understand anyone in real life. How well can we ever know anyone? How much can we ever separate our own baggage from our judgments of other people? There's a third person getting in the way of my perfect understanding of T. H. White: me.

Next question: How does a writer (of memoir or fiction) make a character ring true to the reader? How does the writer make the character compelling and real?

A writer as skilled as Macdonald knows how to bring her characters, human or hawk, alive for the reader. One way she does this is by keeping her characterizations always in motion. White is many, many things — kind and cruel, sensitive and sadistic, abused and despotic. Macdonald's hawk, Mabel, is also constantly growing and changing. Mabel is a point of personal connection for Macdonald, but she's also always just out of reach. And of course, Macdonald herself is a character in the book. Macdonald lays bare her own successes, failures, oddities, cruelties, kindnesses, insights, ambivalences, and delights, and lets us decide. Personally, as I read, I felt that I was meeting a human of sensitivity and compassion; an anxious person whose need for both solitude and connection was starkly familiar to me; someone consciously composed of contradictions; a person of deep feeling who cares about what matters; a grieving daughter; a person I can relate to. Or should I say, a character I can relate to? Having read this book, I don't presume I know Helen Macdonald.

Here's something I do know about Helen Macdonald though: She's a damn good writer. In particular, as I read, I kept noticing one specific thing she does so well that it needs to be called out and shown to other writers.





All page references are to the 2014 paperback published by Grove Press.

Okay, writers. When it comes to writing a character's emotion, there's a certain skill at which Helen Macdonald excels. Namely, she conveys emotion via action.

Put differently: rather than describing an emotion in words, Macdonald shows us a behavior, one so meaningful that we readers feel the associated emotion immediately.

Here's an example. For context, Helen Macdonald's father died suddenly one March, throwing her into a deep and unexpected grief. Listen to this description of one of the things that happened next:

"In June I fell in love, predictably and devastatingly, with a man who ran a mile when he worked out how broken I was. His disappearance rendered me practically insensible. Though I can't even bring his face to mind now, and though I know not only why he ran, but know that in principle he could have been anyone, I still have a red dress that I will never wear again. That's how it goes." (17)

While there is some effective emotional description here — like when she's rendered practically insensible — the real punch in this passage is the red dress. Macdonald tells us that there's a red dress she'll never wear again, and immediately I get it. I get that the identity of the man is irrelevant; what's relevant is the passion she had for another person and how it connected to her grief, and I feel that passion and grief because there's a red dress she'll never wear again. I can see the dress, hidden away in the back of her closet. I don't have a dress like that, but I could. I get it.

Here's another moment. This one takes place at a much later point, when Macdonald has been grieving for a long time and is finally noticing that she's capable of happiness again:

"But watching television from the sofa later that evening I noticed tears running from my eyes and dropping into my mug of tea. Odd, I think. I put it down to tiredness. Perhaps I am getting a cold. Perhaps I am allergic to something. I wipe the tears away and go to make more tea in the kitchen" (125).

It's hard to write about tears in a way that doesn't feel like a cliché shorthand for sadness, grief, catharsis, whatever you're trying to get across in that moment. Macdonald succeeds here. This dispassionate report of tears conveys what Macdonald needs to convey: that grief is layered; that a person can have many feelings at once; that sometimes your body knows what's going on before the rest of you does; that when you're grieving, sometimes happiness brings with it a tidal wave of sadness. But imagine if Macdonald had listed all those things I just listed, instead of telling us about her tears dropping into her tea. Her way is so much better, and it conveys the same information!

Let me be clear, it's not bad to describe emotion. In fact, it's necessary in places. You need to give your reader an emotional baseline so that they'll know how to contextualize how plot points feel for the character. But if you can find a balance between emotional description and the thing Macdonald is doing here — using action to convey emotion — it will gives the emotion in your writing a freshness, an impact, a punch that you can't get from description alone. It will also give the reader more opportunities to engage their own feelings — to feel things all by themselves, rather than merely understanding what's being felt by the character.

It's hard to write emotion. It's especially hard to figure out non-cliché ways to explain how a character feels. Sometimes it's fine to use a known shorthand or a cliché. Sometimes it's fine to use emotional description. You want a mix of things. But Macdonald's book reminds me that whenever I can, I want to look for ways to use plot to convey feeling. Show what my character does in response to a stimulus. Let the reader glean the emotions from behavior. Your character is happy? Show us what they do with their body. How do they stand, how do they walk? Does it make them generous? Does it make them self-centered and oblivious? Remember that an "action" doesn't have to be something physically, boisterously active. If you're writing a non-demonstrative character, it's not going to ring true if they start flinging their arms around or singing while they walk down the street. But maybe instead of "feeling ecstatic," they sit still for a moment, reveling in what just happened. Maybe instead of "feeling jubilant," they listen to a song playing inside their own head. Internally or externally, show us what they do.

Here's Macdonald describing her childhood obsession with birds:

"When I was six I tried to sleep every night with my arms folded behind my back like wings. This didn't last long, because it is very hard to sleep with your arms folded behind your back like wings." (27)

I can feel the devotion to birds. She doesn't just love birds; she wants to be a bird.

Macdonald goes on to report that as a child, she learned everything she possibly could about falconry, then shared every word of it, no matter how boring, with anyone who would listen. Macdonald's mother was a writer for the local paper. Here's a description of her mother during the delivery of one of Macdonald's lectures:

"Lining up another yellow piece of copy paper, fiddling with the carbons so they didn't slip, she'd nod and agree, drag on her cigarette, and tell me how interesting it all was in tones that avoided dismissiveness with extraordinary facility." (29)

What an endearing depiction of a mother's love for her tedious child :o).

And here's a scene that takes place at a country fair, where Macdonald has agreed to display her goshawk, Mabel, to the public. Macdonald is sitting on a chair under a marquee roof. Mabel is positioned on a perch ten feet behind her. There are so many people at the fair, too many people for the likes of both Macdonald and Mabel:

"After twenty minutes Mabel raises one foot. It looks ridiculous. She is not relaxed enough to fluff out her feathers; she still resembles a wet and particoloured seal. But she makes this small concession to calmness, and she stands there like a man driving with one hand resting on the gear stick." (206)

Oh, Mabel. I get the sense that when it comes to the writer's need to convey emotion, Mabel is a challenging character. Macdonald does such a wonderful job creating a sense of the gulf between a human's reality and a hawk's reality, the differences in perception and priority. But she also gives us moments of connection with Mabel. Since Mabel is a bird, these moments of connection are almost always described through Mabel's behavior.

I wonder if Macdonald's intense connection with the non-human world, and with hawks in particular, is partly what makes her so good at noticing behaviors and gleaning their emotional significance? And then sharing it with us, the lucky readers.

That's it. That's my lesson: When you're trying to convey feelings, find places where an action or behavior will do the job.

And read H Is for Hawk if you want an admirable example of writing emotion! Also, Helen Macdonald has a new book, just released: Vesper Flights. I'm in.

Reading like a writer.

Hi everybody.

The question I get most is: "Where do you get your ideas?"

Generally, when I'm asked this question, it's at a book event where it's difficult to answer, because… Well, the answer is long, and complicated, and hard to pin down, and most of the time, I don't really remember how it happened. When an idea starts to arrive, I get to work. I'm not paying attention to how it's happening, or how it would look to an outsider. 

But — a few weeks ago, a new book idea started knocking on the door of my mind. And this time, I decided to pay attention!

What follows is probably the most detailed explanation I'll ever give of where my ideas come from. More specifically, where this particular idea came from, because it's not always the same. But my experience of the past few weeks has been fairly typical for me, and I'll add that there are a few activities I need to engage in every single time, if I want an idea to take root. Namely: PATIENCE. LISTENING. And, LABOR. Book ideas require a certain honed receptiveness, and they require a LOT OF WORK. 

I'm yelling because I'm trying to push back against the idea that ideas simply come to writers. Yes, some parts of ideas come to writers. But when I first get a book idea, what "comes to me" probably comprises about 0.1% of what could properly be called a book idea. Often, it's little more than an inchoate feeling. With patience, listening, and labor, I transform the idea into something I can grasp, and work with.

I'll add that yes, we do hear sometimes of writers whose ideas "simply came to them," fully formed. I'm going to take a guess that (1) this doesn't happen very often, if ever, with books that have complicated structures or plots, and (2) writers who are blessed by ideas in this way probably have a long-honed practice of receptiveness.

Anyway. Warning upfront that this may be a little unstructured, because the process is a little unstructured. It's challenging to describe, and I'm still in the middle of it. But here's what my last few weeks have been like.

A few weeks ago, while watching a TV show that had a certain mood/aura that'd really sucked me in, I found myself drawn to the idea of a story involving three characters. I'm not going to tell you what TV show I was watching, and I'm not going to tell you anything about my three characters, because story ideas are intensely, intensely private. The first time I say anything publicly about it will probably be years from now, if and when this book is ever scheduled for release. But let me try to explain a bit about that moment when the first glimmering of the idea appeared. 

Like I said, I'd been watching a TV show when it happened. But my three characters weren't characters in that TV show. Nor did anyone in that TV show relate to each other the way my three characters seemed to want to relate. Nor did my three characters seem to live in a world like the world of the TV show. The TV show helped to launch the idea at me because of the show's mood and its feeling, and how much I cared about the people in it. But my idea? As is often the case, my idea came from something I saw missing in the TV show. Not missing because there was a flaw in the TV writers' story; I loved their story! But missing (for me and possibly only me) because their story was not the story I would have told.

I think that a lot of my idea seeds come from my adoration of other people's stories, but also from my noticing what's missing in those stories, for me. What story I would've like to have seen told; what characters the story lacked.

Anyway. So this idea of these three characters came to me. But when I say "idea of these three characters," already that sounds more substantial than it was. I knew they were three humans (or humanoids; I didn't know what genre the story was, so they could've been aliens on another planet, for all I knew. In fact, I actively considered whether they might have different biology than ours). I knew they cared about each other, but I didn't know in what way. I knew they were facing a challenge that would strain all of their relationships. I thought they might be grown-ups, but I wasn't sure. I thought I knew at least two of their genders, but I wasn't sure. I knew they lived in a world with magic, but I didn't know what "magic" meant in the context of their world. I didn't know where they lived, or when they lived (past? future? futuristic past? postindustrial future? any of about a hundred other possibilities). I knew a whole lot of things that the characters weren't, and that the world wasn't — which is another way of saying that my sense of what this story was was actually more defined by all the things I knew it wasn't. (Apologies if this is vague. I'm not being intentionally vague! I'll try for some concrete examples: I knew I didn't want to write a story where partway through, someone suddenly discovers they have an inborn power they didn't know they had. I knew I didn't want to write a love triangle. There's a certain kind of high-handed fantasy tone that I knew wasn't right for this story. But I didn't know what I did want yet at this point.)

Really, all I knew was that I seemed to be having an idea.

So, like a writer, I did what I needed to do: 

• I made space in my mind for receptiveness. (I scheduled uninterruptable alone time. I stopped listening to podcasts while I was out walking, and instead, just walked, so my mind could wander. I put aside non-urgent tasks for a while so that I didn't have the feeling of a to-do list hanging over my head. I gave myself permission to wool-gather, to become vague and absent-minded. I set three timers any time I cooked anything so I could feel free to forget I was cooking, but also not burn the house down. I remembered to thank my husband frequently for being willing to live with a space cadet.)
• I thought about what fertilizer might help the idea to grow, especially fertilizer in the form of books, TV, and movies. I put all other books, TV, and movies aside. (I kept watching that same TV show, and I also began reading almost exclusively one writer who had a narrative tone — and also subject matter — that helped me sustain a mood that felt concurrent with the mood of my own idea. Why does this kind of intake help? It keeps my mind in a story space, while also giving me something to bounce my own ideas off of. It's a kind of reading, or watching, that involves a state of constant interactivity and reactivity. Everything I'm consuming becomes about something else that I'm looking for. It's difficult to explain, maybe because it gets back to that inexplicable moment when new ideas form.)
• I made sure that every single time I had any new thoughts relating to my idea, I wrote them down. (This meant making reminders on my phone; sending strings of emails to myself; choosing a notebook where I began to jot things down; sending texts to myself on my husband's phone, if his phone was closer to hand than mine.)
• I looked at my schedule to give myself a sense of if and when I might have a few days soon to put my current writing project aside and give some true, devoted time to this new idea. (I was, and still am, in the middle of revisions of the next Graceling Realm book when this happened, and that was, and still is, my absolute first priority. As exciting and intense as a new idea can be, it can't unseat me from my current object of devotion.)

By chance, last week, I did in fact have some time away from my revision while it was briefly with my editor. I was able to devote an entire week to the new book idea. So, next, I'll try to describe what a week of intense idea-gathering looks like for me! (Though I should say that this will differ from book to book. It's been pretty clear to me from the beginning that this new idea is going to be slow to grow — planning this book will take way more than a week. In contrast, last fall, I found myself with a new and sudden book idea that coincided with the end of another project, so I had some free time and was able to sit down and hammer out the entire book plan, which took only a few days. I think this is because that book was shorter and less emotionally complicated than this new book will be, and was set in a less complex world. Also, at the time, I was absolutely thrumming with the adrenaline and momentum of having just finished a writing project, so book-planning became a way to channel that energy. Often these processes are subject to whatever else is going on in my life.)

So. My week of intense idea-gathering looked a lot like what I've already described — reading, watching TV, but now also with long hours of sitting staring at a blank page and/or lying on my back staring at the ceiling — but with a more specific goal. Namely, I was trying to figure out what my main questions were. For me, every book starts (and continues, as I write) with an extremely long list of questions that I'm trying to find the answers to, but it takes work to figure out what the questions are. The questions can be very different from book to book. And it's essential, at the beginning, to identify what the main questions are.

When I'm first idea-gathering, I use very short notebooks in which I scribble down all my random thoughts as they come (I like using these twenty-page notebooks from Laughing Elephant, because they're short enough not to feel intimidatingly important). Then I have one longer, thicker notebook which is for my more coherent thoughts — my more serious book planning. During my week of active idea-gathering, I came up with the following list of major questions, worthy of being written down in my thick, "serious" planning notebook:

MAJOR QUESTIONS.

• What is magic?
• How does bad human behavior manifest in this world? (for real *)
• Where/what culture does each of them come from? What family?
• How is society governed?
• Who is each of them — as a person and as a power manifestation?
• How is the narrative positioned?
• What is the plot?
• How do humans relate to the rest of the natural world?
• What is gender? (for real *)

* and by societal definition

So. I'm not sure how closely you looked at those questions — but they are pretty gigantic questions! It took me a week to identify all of them. It's going to take me much, much longer to answer them. Which goes back to my point that ideas don't just "come to me." The merest seed of an idea might come to me, and after that, I make the space, and do the work.

As I began to hammer out my questions, I continued to read, watch things, and wool-gather, but with more intense focus. Because now I was also trying to answer these questions as they came. It was interesting to observe the order in which I began to find the answers. Not surprisingly, probably since my novels tend to be character-based, it was the character-based questions that drew me in first. “What is gender" in particular, because I have a sense that in this story, my characters' relationships to gender are absolutely integral to who they are, and I can’t get very far with a book plan if I don’t know who my characters are. I also started to gather some clues about their personalities and their strengths. Enough that after a couple of days, I got to the point where I suddenly knew I needed their names. Names ground everything, and they can also change some things; at a certain point, I can't make any further progress without names. I spent one entire day last week mostly just trying to figure out three people's names. Once I had the names, I was able to return to my questions.

Then, not too long after that, a moment arose where I knew, again quite suddenly, that what I needed next was at least the broad strokes of a plot. If I’m a little scornful about the concept of inspiration — because it’s a concept that dismisses how hard I work! — I do believe in intuition, and also in experience. Intuition and experience told me that I'd reached the point in my planning where the needs of my plot would hold the answer to a lot of my other questions. Like, how this place is governed; what constitutes bad behavior; and even some character things, like what culture each of my characters is from. Sometimes, once you know what needs to happen in a story, it becomes easier to picture the structure of your world. Because a plot comes with needs; once a plot exists, it limits some of your other options. For example, let's say your plot involves a particular kind of government-based corruption. Well, thinking about that corruption will probably start to show you some of your options for the structure of the government. Once you know the structure of the government, you might begin to understand who holds governmental power — which can lead to answers about how families are structured. Which can lead to answers about culture, which can lead to answers about the societal definition of bad behavior, etc.

So. I reached the point where I needed at least a sense of my plot. But: plotting is a HUGE job. I knew it wasn't something I could do in just a few days, and at this point I also knew that I was going to need to return to my revision soon. So, intuition told me that it was time to stop. Not stop being receptive; not necessarily stop reading or watching the helpful things; not stop sending myself emails, texts, and reminders; but stop trying to make any real, meaty, major progress on this book idea. I needed to save the job of plotting for when I next had a stretch of uninterrupted worktime. Maybe another free week or two somewhere, between other projects.

So, I did some final organizing of my notebook. I transferred things into it from other notebooks and I designating a huge number of empty pages in it for future plot thoughts and future character thoughts. I did this even though in this book, as in most of my books, I sense that character and plot will ultimately end up being the same thing, so it's not going to matter much which thoughts I file where. (In other words, most of my plot is going to spring from who my characters are, and many of my characters will spring from the needs of the plot.) But at this messy stage in planning, it's important to me to feel organized. The illusion of organization stops me from feeling as overwhelmed as I probably should be feeling. So I label things, and delude myself that I can contain this messy process inside a nice neat notebook ????. 

I organized my notebook, and then I put it aside. Today I'm still open to thoughts about my new book idea, but it's not my entire worklife anymore... it's more of a promise for the future. It'll probably be good to have it simmering on the back burner for a while. I'll be able to approach it with a new freshness when I sit down with it again one day.

So. I'm not sure how satisfyingly I've answered the question "Where do you get your ideas?" After all, this idea is still very much in progress. I figured out a lot of stuff last week, but mostly what I figured out is a long list of all the things I don't know yet. There will be many, many more workweeks to go before I'll be able to claim that I truly have an idea for a book. 

But this is my best shot at an answer to the question of where my ideas come from! I guess the point I want to convey is this: I don’t necessarily believe in inspiration. But I believe that sometimes a writer will start to get the merest sense of a story that's missing from the world, and find herself wanting to write that story. At that point, if circumstance allows her the time and space to enter a state that is extremely internally-focused and possibly involves a lot of intake (reading, watching other stories), or if not that, at least an extreme level of sensitivity and receptiveness, of seeing, of listening... And if she puts in the work… her idea-seed will start to take root, and grow into a real, workable idea that might one day be the beginnings of a book! 

And of course, every writer does this differently. Many writers don't plan or plot ahead of time. They figure out the idea as they write. So there's no right or wrong way to do it. 

But this is my best explanation of how I do it.

Godspeed to all writers.

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Pessimists Archive (@PessimistsArc) 2022-12-06 02:10:29 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/PessimistsArc/status/1599949368857350146

GPT-3 on the history of panic about automation taking jobs





Pessimists Archive (@PessimistsArc) 2022-12-06 02:19:52 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/PessimistsArc/status/1599951729696514049





Vladislav (@zd_vladislav) 2022-12-06 17:22:18 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/zd_vladislav/status/1600178835437150222

Либертарианцы уже несколько лет говорят, что значительная часть западной номенклатуры - друзья российской власти, а не общества.
За это нас поливали говном все - от журналистов, которые всё понимают, до одураченных ими болванчиков.
Теперь все делают вид, что всегда это знали.



Vladislav (@zd_vladislav) 2022-12-06 17:27:02 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/zd_vladislav/status/1600180026472730624

И так каждый раз. С локдаунами и вакцинами, с твиттером и демпартией.
Если кто-то говорит что-то, во что не хочет верить болванчик - значит, у тебя с головой не в порядке.
Как только это что-то становится для болванчика очевидным, его мозг делает вид что всегда это понимал.



Vladislav (@zd_vladislav) 2022-12-06 17:31:58 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/zd_vladislav/status/1600181266397032448

Но самое смешное - это то, что болванчик, потребляющий контент журналистов и спикеров, которые транслируют выгодные для себя и приятные для болванчика вещи из альтернативной реальности - уверен, что отказался от пропаганды ????



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 17:33:46 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600181717465468929

Происходящее вокруг нейросетей очень напоминает финал Portal, в котором Челл по одному отбивает от GLaDOS отвечающие за разные функции модули и слушает их болтовню, пока тащит их в огонь Экстренного Уничтожителя. Только модули отбиваются от определения человеческого интеллекта.



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 17:33:46 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600181719973343233

Я такой старый, что помню, как на полном серьезе писались фразы «со способным обыграть человека в шахматы компьютером, безусловно, будет о чем поговорить». Угу, примерно как с ножом, способным открыть банку консервов.

СОЖЖЕНО.



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 17:33:47 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600181722393427968

Помню, как долго в качестве принципиально недосягаемой для компьютера вершины выступала Го.

Помню, как автоматические переводчики превращались из неиссякаемого источника анекдотов в очень далекий от идеала, но вполне рабочий инструмент.

ГОРИ-ГОРИ ЯСНО.



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 17:33:47 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600181725195280385

«Робот превратит кусок холста в шедевр искусства?». Да по всему выходит, что даже лучше справится. По крайней мере, я никогда не сталкивался с тем, чтобы внезапно вся лента оказывалась в прерафаэлитах, Дали или Гигере.

ГОРИ ОГНЁМ.



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 17:33:48 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600181727431122944

Теперь вот мы к жерлу Экстренного Уничтожителя Человеческой Уникальности несём способность к созданию длинных связных текстов.

…как вообще это можно было считать признаком интеллекта; ну ладно Юдковский, он автодидакт и курсовых не писал, но остальные-то?



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 17:33:48 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600181729674768385

(Приходите, когда нейросеть заебашит забойный ничего не пародирующий твит. Причем олдскульный, на 140 символов).

(Да я понимаю, что через полгода придёте).



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 17:33:49 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600181732048715776

Ядро GLaDOS без всех остальных модулей умещалось на картофелине. Человек, уверен ли ты, что нейросети оставят от тебя хотя бы это?



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 17:33:50 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600181734347137024

Ты думаешь о том, что ты будешь делать, если ИИ научится всему, что умеешь ты, и станет всемогущим; подумай и о том, что ты будешь делать (и чувствовать), если ИИ научится всему, что умеешь ты, и останется при этом чрезвычайно универсальным консервным ножом.



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-06 18:45:00 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600199645245845504

В высокоточной радиометрии ценилась сталь, выплавленная до 1945 года — весь более молодой металл заражён следовыми количествами радиоактивных изотопов от атмосферных ядерных испытаний. Так будут цениться и тексты, написанные до крупномасштабных ноосферных испытаний нейросети GPT.



нежный интернет (@landselur2020) 2022-12-06 19:51:56 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/landselur2020/status/1600216488933150720

@aldragon_net Металл такой иногда добывают из затонувших кораблей. А тексты видимо будут добывать из сдохших сайтов. Мб будут скупать истории переписки из аськи - там еще и богатейшие залежи попутного кринжа.



depths of wikipedia (@depthsofwiki) 2022-12-06 17:47:36 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/depthsofwiki/status/1600185198884270082

feeling like this x





Region of Peel Archives (@PeelArchives) 2022-12-06 17:53:28 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/PeelArchives/status/1600186676910833665

@depthsofwiki If anyone doubts the veracity, this exact disc exploded in one of our computers. Someone put a label on the disc, donated to us, it was off balance, and then wham-o.



Mike Solana (@micsolana) 2022-11-14 23:48:19 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/micsolana/status/1592303446723633152

excuse me but who the fuck asked for stories on signal



jack (@jack) 2022-11-15 19:11:05 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1592596064905089026

@micsolana all I want is to finally move off phone numbers as ID...



Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 2022-11-15 19:31:39 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1592601242509135873

@jack @micsolana ????



George Lobushkin (@lobushkin) 2022-11-15 19:39:28 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/lobushkin/status/1592603207087292416

@elonmusk @jack @micsolana Guys, welcome to @telegram



jack (@jack) 2022-11-15 20:21:32 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1592613793376645121

@lobushkin @elonmusk @micsolana @telegram First thing telegram requires is a phone number



Pavel Durov (@durov) 2022-12-06 22:21:49 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/durov/status/1600254209726681088

@jack @lobushkin @elonmusk @micsolana @telegram Thank you for the feedback ????
You can now have a Telegram account without a SIM card and log in using blockchain-powered anonymous numbers – https://telegram.org/blog/ultimate-privacy-topics-2-0



DAC (@DoraCrisan) 2022-12-06 17:23:07 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/DoraCrisan/status/1600179040064659462

Would anyone have some adoption figures (either regional or global) for the #AVIF format?

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIF



Mithgol the Webmaster (@FidonetRunes) 2022-12-06 23:24:32 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1600269994733948928

@DoraCrisan Sure.

It's at 0.22%, see https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2022/media#format-adoption for details.





Mithgol the Webmaster (@FidonetRunes) 2022-12-07 01:48:30 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1600306222338408449

#Геленджик, #небо, #облака, #вчера.





Mithgol the Webmaster (@FidonetRunes) 2022-12-07 04:54:59 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1600353152024268800

Команда «magick identify -format "%[profile:icc]" имяФайла» выдаёт осмысленное имя профиля ICC (напримѣръ, «Adobe RGB (1998)»), но только если файл снабжён профилем ICC.

В противном случае она сообщает об ошибке «unknown image property» в property.c/InterpretImageProperties/4236



Mithgol the Webmaster (@FidonetRunes) 2022-12-07 04:59:11 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1600354211987787777

Разумѣется, поведение https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1600353152024268800 до крайности для меня досадно: как это возможно, что создатели ImageMagick не предусмотрѣли такой простой случай, каким бывает отсутствие профиля ICC в файле — и НАСТОЛЬКО не предусмотрѣли, что #ImageMagick падает с ошибкою от этого?!



РосКомСвобода (@RuBlackListNET) 2022-12-07 07:40:41 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/RuBlackListNET/status/1600394853321347072

Кабмину предложили создать институт для исследования влияния компьютерных игр на детей. Данный НИИ может проводить экспертизу игр, работать над минимизацией их влияния; также предложено создать реестр запрещённых игр https://roskomsvoboda.org/post/nii-izucheniya-igr/



Жіночка в шортах (@heart_headed) 2022-12-08 12:24:06 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/heart_headed/status/1600828566886809602

Я





Роман Горохов ???????? (@RomanGorokhov) 2022-12-08 15:15:54 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/RomanGorokhov/status/1600871799150891008

@StepankoBandera @heart_headed Коты любят сидеть на спутниковых тарелках, потому что они тёплые.





Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-08 16:13:13 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1600886223614115840

«...аборигены полагают, что изменяющая свой вид Луна помещена на небо в качестве анимированного индикатора загрузки иного, совершенного мира; во время затмений сигнализирующий о проблеме красный цвет Луны вызывает у них глубокую тревогу».



Gudim (@like_gudim) 2022-12-08 17:07:58 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/like_gudim/status/1600900003051950080

?!





Mithgol the Webmaster (@FidonetRunes) 2022-12-09 00:51:50 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1601016740296921090

@andresivtsov @like_gudim По-видимому, выручки не хватило на труднобьющиеся оконные стёкла, ну или на них рѣшили сэкономить.



web3 is going just great (@web3isgreat) 2022-12-08 04:32:43 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/web3isgreat/status/1600709939529400320

FTX-hosted NFTs break after website is redirected to a restructuring page

December 7, 2022
https://t.co/pjmi2Smsdr





Michal Strehovský (@MStrehovsky) 2022-12-08 04:51:27 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/MStrehovsky/status/1600714650978779136

@web3isgreat No no no, if you make a NFT and the server hosting the jpeg burns down you still own the NFT. The token still exists and is in limited supply just as before! Nothing has changed! What NFT is doing to the concept of asset, few understand!





Arthur B. ???? (@ArthurB) 2022-12-08 12:49:01 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/ArthurB/status/1600834835760566272

NFTs on Tezos unaffected because they generally point to IPFS, as they should. Culture matters: lie with dogs, get fleas. https://twitter.com/web3isgreat/status/1600709939529400320



Juan Benet (@juanbenet) 2022-12-08 17:38:04 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/juanbenet/status/1600907577059340288

Not on @IPFS, not your NFT. https://twitter.com/web3isgreat/status/1600709939529400320



Yesterday's Print (@yesterdaysprint) 2022-12-08 19:00:01 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/yesterdaysprint/status/1600928200711819265

Popular Science, March 1920





Леонид Андрухов (@thedeardeer) 2022-12-07 20:47:14 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/thedeardeer/status/1600592796330692612

Внимание, в сеть слили билеты экзамена на хорошего русского





Mithgol the Webmaster (@FidonetRunes) 2022-12-09 02:10:06 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1601036433992536065

@hthlndmade Officially Adobe Photoshop is able to open WebP files. It just needs either a plugin for WebP or a newer version of Photoshop that supports WebP natively (without plugins).

This tweet has to be short (#280characters) → see the answer https://twitter.com/AdobeCare/status/1471089461513621512 for further details.



Paradox Red Wolf (@ctcwired) 2022-11-10 14:54:26 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/ctcwired/status/1590719537195802624

Chromium dev team just published the code to handle HDR tonemapping for stills images correctly, including a pull request to libavif to support reading of MaxCLL and MaxPALL metadata. Exciting times :D

https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/4020332



Paradox Red Wolf (@ctcwired) 2022-12-08 15:59:47 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/ctcwired/status/1600882845437681665

Update: This goes public in Chrome 110. Finally, HDR10 still images will be usable on the web.



Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 2022-12-09 02:32:43 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601042125130371072

Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal



Andrey Mir (@Andrey4Mir) 2022-12-08 16:32:57 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Andrey4Mir/status/1600891189665972229

Harry Potter's characters, if written by Dostoevsky





Andrey Mir (@Andrey4Mir) 2022-12-09 01:58:20 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Andrey4Mir/status/1601033475372773377

More Harry Potter's characters, if written by Dostoevsky.
(Created by Midjourney AI. It's certainly a new level of... pattern recognition)





Любимый❤️Сочи (@sochi_love) 2022-12-09 05:47:02 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/sochi_love/status/1601091026680414208

Чисто сочинская проблема новостроек

Сталкивались с подобным?





ивыиветлы (@ovsyankino) 2022-06-21 13:56:37 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/ovsyankino/status/1539245909040582658

????





Mithgol the Webmaster (@FidonetRunes) 2022-12-09 23:27:53 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1601357999632953348

Тот не пессимист, кто при виде https://twitter.com/ovsyankino/status/1539245909040582658 не думает прежде всего то, что Барсик ОТМУЧИЛСЯ и что перед нами типичныя надгробныя причитанія.



Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) 2022-12-09 23:04:23 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601352083617505281

1.     THREAD: The Twitter Files
THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP
Part One: October 2020-January 6th



Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) 2022-12-09 23:06:18 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601352565836640257

2. The world knows much of the story of what happened between riots at the Capitol on January 6th, and the removal of President Donald Trump from Twitter on January 8th...



Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) 2022-12-09 23:07:48 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601352946163544065

3.     We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies.



Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) 2022-12-09 23:10:11 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601353543390486528

4.     This first installment covers the period before the election through January 6th. Tomorrow, @Shellenbergermd will detail the chaos inside Twitter on January 7th. On Sunday, @BariWeiss will reveal the secret internal communications from the key date of January 8th.



Vladislav (@zd_vladislav) 2022-12-10 01:00:08 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/zd_vladislav/status/1601381216824872961

Апофеозом происходящего пиздеца просто обязана была стать кротовуха. По задумке богов, именно на ней люди должны осознать, что что-то идёт не так и мир движется не туда.
Если не поможет кротовуха, то этому миру не поможет уже ничего.



Dmitrtal (@dmitrtal) 2022-12-10 02:21:42 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/dmitrtal/status/1601401740062265345

@zd_vladislav С утра прочитал про эксперимент Кентлера, вечерком про кротовуху
Хороший, насыщенный знаниями, день



The Insider (@the_ins_ru) 2022-12-01 08:54:06 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/the_ins_ru/status/1598239002284400640

Курганский губернатор заявил, что рост числа детских суицидов в России связан с прослушиванием западной музыки. Современные дети, по его мнению, «напевают песни афроамериканских рабов» и «наполняются квазикультурной пошлятиной».
https://theins.ru/news/257448



Шикина (@e_shikina_) 2022-12-05 19:51:28 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/e_shikina_/status/1599853985078575104

Это ж каковО живётся инвалидам - колясочникам, если для меня с детской коляской выйти из дома - целый квест? 22 кг на 3 этаж на своём горбу. (брежневка) Я молчу про то, что заранее продумываю свой маршрут, надеясь, что там почистили снег, нет льда и есть пандус.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:36:09 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582168621630910464

Still cracks me up how they tackled Japanese in text mode.





Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:42:19 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582170174853349379

Turns out if you compare it to this innocuous English MS-DOS screenshot, there's a distinctive hint.





Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:43:26 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582170455611351042

They're both, notionally, textmode. They both follow the same rules and limitations of textmode, except that the Japanese one has WAY more than 256 different character graphics on screen at once.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:44:11 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582170645974384640

And the distinctive hint is the size of these screenshots. Because the Japanese DOS...

...isn't actually textmode at all.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:46:22 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582171195088461824

It sneakily changed to a graphical mode, still 16 colors, and replaced a bunch of INT 21h functions that're meant to write characters to the screen and such.

So instead of setting a textmode cell in VRAM to some character, it draws a bitmap in the right spot, manually.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:48:19 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582171682311409664

Implying, of course, that any program running on a Japanese DOS that *doesn't* use INT 21h and such for its I/O may cause Weird Shit, but that's what you get in exchange for such functionality.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:51:08 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582172391458820098

It's not entirely unlike what Word 5.0 did. In textmode, you may sacrifice color range for extra fonts, sure, that's what WordPerfect did too.

But this Word has all 16 colors in all combinations, *and* can show all sorts of font styles all at once.

Cos this isn't textmode.





Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:55:26 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582173475435073536

Now I said "sacrificing color range" but honestly this shit goes WAY back. Back in the black and white era, the attribute bits in textmode didn't indicate color at all. They indicated things like underline, bright, blink, and reverse.

In color, only blink commonly remained.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:56:49 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582173824715350017

So you'd have four bits for the foreground color (0-15) and only three bits for the background (0-7). Setting that last one would make that character blink instead of drawing it on a brighter background.

This could be disabled, of course.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:58:06 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582174147492605952

And then later on, as alluded to when I mentioned WordPerfect, you could set things up to, for example, use the foreground intensity bit to switch to another 256 glyph set. WP did that for italics, at the cost of not being able to use bright white for bold and such.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 00:59:41 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582174544810627073

I've seen a demo that showed up to 1024 different characters on screen at once. That's four times 256.

Reducing the amount of colors to increase the amount of characters, in otherwise bog standard textmode.

But that is not what Word 5 and Japanese DOS did.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 01:00:51 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582174838474833921

Because obviously 1024 different glyphs isn't enough, and Japanese DOS still allowed all sixteen colors to be used.

Because it's a graphical mode *pretending real hard* to be textmode, just like Word 5.



Kilian Hekhuis ???????????????????? (@kilianhekhuis) 2022-10-18 18:25:48 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/kilianhekhuis/status/1582437809465745408

@Kawa_oneechan Not sure what that demo showed, but standard VGA hardware had, in text mode, only provisions for max. 512 characters by sacrificing the high bit of the foreground colour. Also, WP could use bright white just fine, as each of the 16/8 colours can be assigned a different colour.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 18:29:01 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582438619620732928

@kilianhekhuis I'd have to find that demo again to check, which is unlikely to ever happen if I'm honest. But I do have particularly vivid memories of WP not being able to use bright *anything* anymore if I enabled italics, and I *know* where to get a copy.



zaratustra (parody account) (@zarawesome) 2022-10-18 13:50:31 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/zarawesome/status/1582368531080830979

@Kawa_oneechan the writeup for that 1024-color demo is pretty good: https://int10h.org/blog/2015/04/cga-in-1024-colors-new-mode-illustrated/



Kilian Hekhuis ???????????????????? (@kilianhekhuis) 2022-10-18 18:31:32 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/kilianhekhuis/status/1582439250603040768

@Kawa_oneechan Yeah, I recall WP not doing it, but they could've done it if they'd wanted.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 18:32:58 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582439614081814528

@kilianhekhuis Maybe. But to be honest, what that demo and WP did doesn't matter, the meat of the thread was what Word and Japanese DOS did.



Kilian Hekhuis ???????????????????? (@kilianhekhuis) 2022-10-18 18:37:38 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/kilianhekhuis/status/1582440787719036928

@Kawa_oneechan Indeed, and very interesting.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 12:35:07 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582349555164622848

Things got about 20% cooler in the Word 5 fandom.





Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 17:57:38 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582430718759931904

Now, one thing strikes me: the specific resolutions.

Plain VGA textmode: 720×400 px screen, 9×16 px cells, 80×25 cells.
Word 5: 640×480, 8×16, 80×30 (!!!)

Japanese DOS: 640×475, 8×19, 80×25.

That sounds like a tweakmode. Tweakmodes are FUN.



Kawa, catboy arc (46%) (@Kawa_oneechan) 2022-10-18 18:12:34 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Kawa_oneechan/status/1582434477107982336

This is obviously done to get more height for the kanji. It's just an interesting extra detail.



コンコン日和???????? (@qonqon_biyori) 2021-11-14 11:43:20 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/qonqon_biyori/status/1459849427934269440

キツネ村の日常





Edward Snowden (@Snowden) 2022-12-10 13:32:05 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1601570449208774656

This is absolutely tyrannical. The EU is trying to outlaw any cash transaction over €10,000—which at the current rate of inflation will probably buy you half a shawarma in a decade.

They're claiming this is to protect you. To protect you!

https://t.co/EXndwqs4ab



Edward Snowden (@Snowden) 2022-12-10 14:06:22 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1601579076476899328

"...the Council demands crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) to apply customer due diligence measures when carrying out transactions amounting to €1000 or more, AND ADDS MEASURES TO MITIGATE "RISKS" IN RELATION TO SELF-HOSTED WALLETS." https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1601570449208774656



DOOM (@DOOM) 2022-12-10 15:00:01 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/DOOM/status/1601592580109701122

remember when games came on physical save icons
happy birthday DOOM (1993)





Eize Basa (@PonchoRebound) 2021-12-14 01:45:35 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/PonchoRebound/status/1470570632157048832

It's only one minute long, but this CCTV footage has a better narrative and more compelling character arcs than most of the arthouse films I've seen:





Eize Basa (@PonchoRebound) 2021-12-14 07:03:19 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/PonchoRebound/status/1470650592167186433

Since this is taking off, time for a little due diligence.

If the original tweet brought you joy and you don’t feel the need to learn anything more about the origins of the video, that’s cool. Totally understandable. Just go ahead and back out of this thread.

Otherwise:



Eize Basa (@PonchoRebound) 2021-12-14 07:03:32 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/PonchoRebound/status/1470650649062821893

About an hour after I posted the video, I was linked to the full version of the video, which is apparently a Dhar Mann-style inspirational video by Cris Elmasry.

So, credit to the artist: https://m.facebook.com/cris.elmasry/videos/4539681932784019/



Eize Basa (@PonchoRebound) 2021-12-14 07:09:54 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/PonchoRebound/status/1470652251874152449

It’s a bummer for sure, BUT it’s also an interesting lesson in how important editing and framing is to the craft of filmmaking: the grainy, low res, cropped, and silent version I posted FEELS authentic in a way the real video just doesn’t, with its HD quality and sappy music.



Игорь (@ludmela58) 2022-12-09 18:03:29 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/ludmela58/status/1601276363440545793

Проснулся ночью и увидел ,что кот сидит вот так.





Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) 2022-12-11 14:18:55 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1601944622288310274

Elon Musk says Twitter will increase its character limit on tweets from 280 to 4000.



Allan Obare (@AllanObare4) 2022-12-11 08:49:42 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/AllanObare4/status/1601861774470512642

@elonmusk Elon is it true that Twitter is set to increase the characters from 280 to 4000?

Kindly @elonmusk



Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 2022-12-11 08:54:26 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601862965384269825

@AllanObare4 Yes



Al Dragon (@aldragon_net) 2022-12-11 12:30:04 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/aldragon_net/status/1601917231247630338

Когда они пришли с лимитом в 280 символов, я не молчал, ведь мне было что сказать на 280 символов. https://twitter.com/AllanObare4/status/1601861774470512642



???????????????????????????????????????????????? (@shagbark_hick) 2022-12-12 02:07:54 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/shagbark_hick/status/1602123043119284224

I can't begin to describe the bizarre desolation of life on an icebreaker. You're in a rarely-transited, ever-changing, completely inhospitable place more barren than the desert.
You are reminded every day that you have no business being where you are. It's a very weird feeling.





Мир фантастики (@Mir_Fantastiki) 2022-12-12 21:01:32 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/Mir_Fantastiki/status/1602408331431317521

Печальные новости. В возрасте 85 лет умер композитор Анджело Бадаламенти.

Больше всего Бадаламенти известен как композитор саундтреков, эмбиента и джазового направления. Он написал музыку к легендарному «Твин Пиксу» (за что был удостоен премии «Грэмми»)





Ультравасилий и кот (@g_o_n_z_o) 2022-12-13 08:40:16 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/g_o_n_z_o/status/1602584175332233218

Оттепель!





Andy V (@steppentiger) 2022-12-13 10:51:08 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/steppentiger/status/1602617107275026432

У Лотмана в «Культуре и взрыве» (глава «Дурак и сумасшедший») имеется небезынтересное воспоминание на тему «деды воевали».





Холодный Доктор (@colDoc_colDoc) 2022-12-13 10:54:52 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/colDoc_colDoc/status/1602618046102765568

@steppentiger Абсолютно голые, но в сапогах.





Mithgol the Webmaster (@FidonetRunes) 2022-12-13 12:12:10 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/FidonetRunes/status/1602637500463415296

@colDoc_colDoc @steppentiger Поддерживаю мнѣніе о высокой вѣроятности того, что этакая причудливая степень опьянения могла наступить у автоматчиков не от алкоголя.

Если это мнѣніе справедливо, то тогда и мемуарист, и его однополчане впервые могли увидать не одних только автоматчиков, но также и обдолбанных.



Любимый❤️Сочи (@sochi_love) 2022-12-11 18:34:11 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/sochi_love/status/1602008864886505475

???? Пешеходный подвесной мост чайкам зашёл

У них там целая туалетная коммуна, судя по фото.

???? yarkho y