they're just so good

yay for you getting born!

everyone hates Nazis until it’s time to quit Substack

I think a big part of the problem is they're defining it (wholly or in part) as "this book makes me FEEL cozy(/safe/etc)", but that is so idiosyncratic as to be pretty useless? Some readers don't want any reference ever to anything sad or "dark", while others just don't want it onscreen.

Have you read @lytagold.bsky.social 's Dangerous Fictions? It's great & offers, among other useful things, an analysis of & challenge to the "eat yr veggies" attitude

Lots of people took the embrace of pop culture as a legitimate object of critique in the completely wrong direction. Rather than treat something like standup seriously as an object of criticism and study, they treat it as though it was itself serious and it’s practitioners were themselves critics.

the post in that thread about students just not watching or reading *anything* in their free time just about broke me

I've never encountered more students who say they hate reading. Students who want to be teachers, writers, or both. I wonder if "hate" means "I have trouble reading," but I also talk with so many students who write in a genre but refuse to read in it. They can't see themselves in relation to others.

That's such a shame

Even w/o the maneating elves, the new book was just so frustratingly shallow

I've heard that! The Devils was the first time I tried him, and I'm not going to bother again.

I seem to be alone in finding this configuration/set-up repulsive

That configuration of motley heroes vs monstrous singular terror is at the heart of Abercrombie's The Devils, which sees an eclectic band of ne'er-do-wells at work in a world where a race of maneating-ly evil elves have overtaken the Holy Land, repelling several Crusades waged to dislodge them.

Oooh, a point I hadn't considered.

I just think, if the context is right, it can be affectionate -- but I see your point about cheesy overuse

Right?! That really upset me