(no subject)

This was originally written in response to two posts: one about how goblincore liberates women, and one about how goblincore is anti-Semitic.

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Come to think of it, I’ve seen orcs argued as an anti-black stereotype, and a lot of butch lesbians really love orc girls. Maybe it’s easiest to embrace the opposite of the stereotypes that get thrown at you. If you’re used to being called stupid and ugly, orcs piss you off, but if you’re used to being called weak and helpless, orcs are liberating.

This implies that there would be a lot of resonance in a black icon who’s the opposite of an orc. Not an elf; those are too associated with white racism. But there’s definitely something that can be done with the idea of inherent regality, to contrast orcs’ savagery. Since orcs are stupid, the opposite would be smart. Maybe good with technology? And brave, of course. Someone who’d risk their own life to protect the weak, rather than persecute them as orcs do.

Holy crap; I suddenly understand why so many people loved Black Panther.

Hacking the Stamp Counter

I just figured out why my stories are so depressing. I have one main mode of writing, and it's about deciding whether or not to hack the stamp counter.

For context: http://mindingourway.com/the-stamp-collector/ Our hypothetical figure is a robot who likes to collect stamps. He has a little counter in his brain that tells him how many stamps he's collected, and he gets happier when it goes up. The philosophers in the story locate the stamp counter, and offer him the ability to increment it. He won't actually have any more stamps; he'll just have the same amount of fulfillment as if he had more stamps.

The linked author proposes that the robot refuses. He doesn't want to increment the stamp counter, even though that's where his actions lead. He wants to collect the actual stamps, and it matters to him whether that experience is "authentic" or not. But most of the conflict in my writing relates in some way to that robot's decision, and to the other ways it could point. Over and over, my characters are presented with a choice between existing in their honest stampless state, and hacking the counter to make it feel like they have stamps even though they don't. If they choose to hack it, they're living a lie. If they choose not to, they're giving up the greatest happiness they could ever imagine.

(It's better than anything I currently know how to write, but For the Man Who Has Everything is the best thing I could aspire to write that's like this: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6m9lai)