Feedback Culture Is Dead, Long Live Feedback Culture!

Writing advice from my uni teachers:

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Before you write your novel, write a page of anything from your characters POV so you can get their voice right. Do this for every main character introduced.

The Theoi are meant to be worshipped. And that means by anyone. If you feel so inclined to worship a deity, do it! Worshipping the gods isn’t like an exclusive club, they were worshipped historically by a vast array of people as just a part of life. So give them some offerings and some prayers and just go from there. We were meant to worship them, so don’t feel insecure about wanting to! The gods are already part of your life whether you know it or not, so just reach out!

Umberto Eco's work on the philosophy of language is fascinating, but my hand doesn't appreciate the constant note taking.

Toph’s Family

Ive been thinking lately about the Tony-deletes-his-brain arc from Iron Man (2008).

Steve is dead, the Registration Act is done, the Skrull invasion has put Osborn in power, and, thanks to Extremis, Tony is carrying the entire Registration database in his head. The logical and very Tony solution is to slowly delete his own brain by traveling the world and plugging into repulsor terminals he has stashed in various places. Each time, he loses chunks of his intellect and his memory and heads closer to total brain death. It’s the culmination of all his angst over Civil War and Steve’s death.

But one thing that really gets me is this scene in issue #17 when Tony is writing an email to Maria Hill:

Tony is thinking about Steve when there’s no particular reason to be thinking about Steve, which is very in character for him. But more importantly, he’s forgotten that Steve is dead.

It’s thing that destroyed him in the aftermath of the Civil War, the one thing he couldn’t live with, and he’s forgotten. There was no reason to put this in the scene, other than to highlight that.

I think this was exactly what Tony wanted, and the real reason why he didn’t just eat a gun or “throw himself into a volcano” as other characters suggested. Tony didn’t want to die. He wanted escape from the guilt and to and dull of his mind and lose his sense of self. And when he reboots, he gets to lose the entire year of memories he couldn’t handle. And it’s so, so in character because those are the same desires that made him alcoholic years earlier.

More than that, I think Tony knew exactly what he was doing when he put the database in his head. If things went wrong, really really wrong, he had a ready made escape. A planned loss of the worst of himself and the worst of his memories. (I’d also like to think that if Steve put these pieces together after he returned and Tony had lost a year, he’d be furious.)

So anyway, that’s my over-10-years-too-late extremely angsty analysis of post-Civil War Tony that no one asked for... carry on

Would you say maladaptive daydreaming about interacting with the Gods would be disrespectful?

No. As far as I’m aware, maladaptive daydreaming is not something you want or control. 

Hi. I like your blog title! And I have a question: What was Isis like in actual Egyptian mythology? What sort of cool things did she do?

Heheheh thank you!

Isis was a pretty badass bitch. Although she was first and foremost a protective goddess associated with mourning, who sustained and protected the deceased, she quickly gained prominence as a goddess of cosmic associations and a powerful user of heka.

Her heka is central to much of Egyptian myth. It was that which restored Osiris to his complete form - sans actual penis, but with a shiny new gold one - and which made it possible to conceive Horus. She and her heka are invoked a lot in medicine. It would also help the deceased in the afterlife, whether commoner or royal. 

Isis was definitely the most powerful of the gods when it came to heka. She’s the only one ever shown as a match for Re - most specifically in the story of Re’s secret name, where she creates a snake from some mud and Re’s own spit, which almost kills him. She did that because she wanted to know his secret name, and basically blackmailed Re to divulge it in exchange for a cure. 

In other mythological traditions she shapeshifted into e.g. an old lady, or a pretty young thing, in order to get what she wanted. For example, when Seth refused to give up the throne of Egypt in favour of Horus, she turned herself into a beautiful young woman and tricked him into admitting that if a man’s son is alive, the son should get his father’s due, rather than anyone else. She is also one of the goddesses who assumes the role of the vengeful Eye of Re.

Basically, Isis takes no prisoners and isn’t above making a pest of herself to get what she needs or wants.

A Bingo’s Coming!

Do you like Steve, Tony, and/or Bucky in all four of their particular combinations? Then do we have an event for you. Starting on Nov 1, you’ll be able to order cards for a four-way bingo - Stuckony, Stucky, WinterIron, Stony. Any of the squares can be filled by any of those four ships! 

Fills open Dec 1 and close June 30, 2021 - so plenty of time to get the creative juices flowing. Badges will be awarded for the traditional reasons (participation, bingo, blackout) but also for some special surprise reasons as well. 

Excited? Us too! Spread the word and we’ll see you back here on Nov 1 with further information.