SleepingSilence

Expedition:Extraterrestrial:Encounter (amorphical X SleepingSilence)

No problem. Will get to you tomorrow.

Edit/Notice: Have a friend over the weekend, but will try to post something soon.

You are the Mon

Ravi

Adventure Log

Moves:

• Swagger: Confuses opponents and raises their normal attack.
• Wrap: Binds opponents like a constrictor and does damage while opponent is constricted.
• Bite: Bitten with viciously sharp fangs. It may make the target flinch.

Health: Full
Status: Well Rested
Ability: (Shed Skin) May heal itself from status conditions by shedding its skin.
Inventory: None
Quest: Make friends and get along despite his intimidating voice and appearance.

---

It was time to share a friendly ride. Ravi learned to get cozy in tight spaces with a smile, as his tail slowly and unwittingly crept around his closest ally. Getting over previous hesitations about being inside the bird’s mouth after he found it pleasantly warm. The two others able to fly gave the rest of them more space for him to think. Somebody needed to come up with the plans right? “Hmm. I suppose I’ll make some proposals after we learn more about the farm and its inhabitants…”

But when they had arrived, he bravely kept quiet and low during the combative conversation, needing to watch over his smaller allies. He couldn’t risk anyone feeling scared or getting in trouble on the team. Fortunately his heroism wasn’t required, and they seemed to be accepted into the fold. Thanks to Wendy's sly negotiation, they had attained real shelter and though they still needed to fend for themselves and gather food, it was a positive first slither! His head popped out to peek at his surroundings and took notice of all the new potential friends they could make. But perhaps it was time to be serious and decide what to do now that they got there. “Two weeks? Sssounds like the rainy weather might not be over anytime soon.”

You are the Mon

@Rune_Alchemist I somehow just noticed you're shifting quests. And they're great. x3

But she's totally cheating, she hasn't stolen a single soul and she's already moved on to the next one. D:

RPGC #23: InGlorious - Discussion

I admit, I may have been overly harsh. But I stand by what I said in my review. I apologise for the fact that I may have gotten overly personal,

@NorthernKraken

So that's the case, I apologize for having to defend myself in such a combative manner. (For lack of a better term.)

but I think instead of shouting back in turn, it would be more helpful to consider the reasons why. In all honesty, I (and others I've spoken to) found the tone you took in your reviews to be a little arrogant. For one, the extensive rewrites of other people's work were somewhat offensive and incredibly unhelpful.

@NorthernKraken

Instead of pointing out the mistakes, I should have considered why you made them? It doesn't really matter why you made those assessments of how I think in a review. It was unwarranted. I did not do the same to anyone else.

How is providing potential writing alternatives offensive as a fellow writer and reviewer? It's only offensive if you entirely ignore my context and aim. I explain why I do most of my edits, if you disagree, all that needs to be done is a shrug. I'll never be offended at someone that edits my work. I'll simply agree or disagree, like the writing process is suppose to be. You don't think publishing a novel is like this? The editor will tell you to cut a thousand words and if you've never had someone give you the advice to make contractions, you might literally have no idea where to start.

And again, you can say that and I can't really tell you if you're right or wrong. Because you don't explain what isn't helpful or not about them...

If I simply said "I don't like this." or "I did like this." does that actually help anyone either? Or is it a shallow pat on the head/knife in the back? (Depending on strong said opinion is.)

Also from what I saw, you bassically applied paint stripper to anything that made the peices interesting or unique. 'Fluff' and 'padding' are often deliberate stylistic choices, oftentimes they make up elements of voice.

@NorthernKraken

But notice how that "unique voice" is done by literally everyone, and all the time. It's a writing crutch to me. Like using 'very' in any sentence. Almost everything I did removed legitimate errors and make people stay consistent with using contractions. If people didn't like what I did, all they needed to do is what Callie did, and I will reply in kind in return.

I never consider my review "the end all be all". I always expect a reply on my positives or negatives. Just like I know, none of my (or anyone's) stories will ever be perfect. Reviews are precisely the same thing. Sometimes I'll be wrong and make mistakes. I can't implore people enough to show me which edits were actually vital to the stories intentions. So I can learn where I went wrong and if it's actually clever writing, I have one more tool in the trade.

Anyway, moving on.

when discussing censorship, I think it's worth remembering that free speech goes both ways, and doesn't make you immune to criticism. I strongly dislike your story, and I feel like the themes contained within were deeply unsettling, but I would absolutely fight for your right to post it. As an individual, not a government, I don't have the ability to censor anyone.

@NorthernKraken

I've never claimed I am immune from criticism. Not in that review, nor anywhere ever. I'm the rare person that will thank you if you point out a mistake in my writing and actually correct it almost immediately if it applies.

But yes the themes were supposed to be unsettling...that's kind of whole thing about censorship. But I don't want to get too deep into it.

Another note, a 'failed' rape is still a sexual assault. It is still traumatising, and it is still illegal.

@NorthernKraken

But that doesn't really change anything I mentioned.

1. Should a writer be allowed to touch upon those subjects? If not, why not? Why is murder any less unsettling (or legal) than someone being shoved into the ground? (I don't think double standards should dictate what I can and can't write.)

2. Does my story correctly portray the act and character doing the act as vile? Do they get punished? And it is important to my story? (Yes, yes and yes.)

I honestly don't have the time or energy to waste addressing each and every point you make, but I think you would benefit from remembering that your work doesn't exist in a vacuum.

@NorthernKraken

That's a shame. Because if I felt that strongly that someone screwed up. I'd take the time. And again, I'm not dumb. I know its a touchy subject. Oddly, when you originally told me my review made you feel like it was even worse than my story. I say "it almost feels sleazy to use this plot point" but it is important to the story and relevant to my aim. I'm not unaware of the double standard that a naked chest is censored on television, but not if its heads been chopped off.

I simply don't agree that anything should be off limits. And I did attempt to make it as minimally graphic as possible. I don't sexualize it. Even if the MC may or may not be crushing on her. She's literally still fully clothed and I don't dwell on the scene any longer than I have to.

Inaccurate portrayals of 'insanity' and 'madness' can and do reinforce real world stigmas against mental illness and disability in general.

@NorthernKraken

I don't make any ties to any real disorder. It's symbolic. I explain that and frankly I don't need to for the average reader to clue in that something's a miss. "Phantom Vision" isn't a real illness to portray. And fiction has mad characters in them. Half the stories here do. And you didn't seem to mind about those ones killing people. So why exactly?

Ideas surrounding female 'purity' and the 'sanctity of virginity' can and do have incredibly harmful effects on sexual assault survivors - both in how they treat themselves, and how they are treated by the world around them.

@NorthernKraken

If we pretended the rules of my story supported advocations of anything, those criminals would be losing a few inches. I'm not exactly watering anything down here.

And again, it's a story in older times where this thing was much more likely to occur, and the actual feelings portrayed in the story about the expressed symbolism are made by the character himself.

If I sound preachy, it's because I am being. These are issues that are incredibly close to my heart for various reasons I don't particularly want to get into here. If you're going to be discussing these issues in your work, I strongly suggest investing a little time into researching ways you can do so without perpetuating harmful stigmas.

@NorthernKraken

I don't necessarily mind the preaching. But the presumption that I don't already do research on topics of any kind. I have. And any harmful stigmas you attribute to the story was committed was by the fictional character. Not me.

RPGC #23: InGlorious - Discussion

You ought to be disqualified. You broke the rules.

@RedVII

Hah. You must be new here. Nobody has been disqualified for breaking the rules before. We literally already had one example. And contestants here have been plenty rude to me in the past. Though I must admit, I’ll almost take it as a biased badge of honor if I’ll once again be the only person ever to be punished for something.

And seriously if you read my review, and thought my heart would break not winning the competition, you’re the one that’s self-important. You’re putting yourself in the middle of somebody else’s discussion on ‘their’ behalf. I’m sure you were asked to, but it doesn’t exactly make it any less necessary.

You're acting self important, like you are above being critiqued

@RedVII

Even in that review, I admit to several points about my story. Like it being cliched. So thanks for just spouting wrong things. Didn’t have enough that already.

After doing something as offensive as rewriting other peoples' stories the way you would have written them and labeling said revisions as better (who does that?! It's like grabbing the Mona Lisa, throwing a mustache on it and telling Da Vinci that that's how it should have looked the whole time).

@RedVII

Yes gasp, how could anyone stand...optional and approachable advice that in at least five or so of the stories where I point out direct spelling and writing mistakes. What exactly do you think a review is supposed to be?

And when someone disagrees with my review corrections. (Like Callie did.) All they need to do is show me and I may even agree with them. Almost as if I have direct proof to counter you and you don’t know anything about me or this conversation. Before you white knighted.

You give other people scathing critiques and you get one back and have the gall to say that even the reviews are wrong.

Get over yourself, bro.

@RedVII

My reviews may have been ‘scathing’ or may not. Depends on how much effort I believe was put into the writing and if that effort paid off. But try to tell me this, give me a single example in my reviews where I make character attacks? You won’t find that anywhere. Because work should be criticized. That’s how everyone improves.

Both of you can pretend the review didn’t insult me in multiple ways. And not only that, but that was literally all that was even there. (Notice that I didn’t try to disqualify them, because I'm an adult.)

Actually, you pretty much never counter that they didn’t say those things to me. You simply think that because I reviewed a thing I didn’t like, It’s fair game to attack the reviewer and basically call them a sympathizer of rape?

Lol, the quotes were to highlight the Fuck Yous that violated Frizans No Shitslinging rule, as well as the Guild's. The last line after the Fuck Yous was to highlight the hypicracy of it all. The Mona Lisa was not a comparison of greatness, but of a recognizable creation that everyone would know. 🙄

@RedVII

I've had people call me every curse word and insult in the English language on this forum for sharing an opinion on a movie. Can't exactly say the forum doesn't have a couple worse incidents. And I've been threatened by another contestant in these contests for pointing out a spelling error. But sure, hasn't stopped anyone before.

*hypocrisy

Come on, basically asking for it...

“Shitslinging” implies that it was done without merit. I didn’t give her those when she called me lazy. Or even a bad writer or reviewer. I said it as a defense to the fact that she made of lies about how I think about the subject of rape. And she lied about my aim to make mentally illness equate to evil.

So here’s the best part. If she “didn’t mean that/didn’t do those things”, those F U’s don’t even apply and then I said absolutely nothing bad to her. (That isn't even a real insult anyway, it's a bad word.) But its strictly a defending counter to an accusation they made first.

If I get disqualified, there’s no way in hell that anyone that made that character attack called a review, doesn’t belong right along with me.

But principals matter more to me than winning anyway. So if I, like always, get screwed by bias. It will just give me another validation to be proud that I did what was right.

Word association Game!

Future

RPGC #23: InGlorious - Discussion

@NorthernKraken

My Reply

I didn’t like this, sorry. And I’m not trying to be petty, I had some very genuine concerns.

I know that I say that too for politeness sake, but you really shouldn’t have to be sorry for not liking something. People have different tastes after all. But I’ll admit (because I believe it will highlight that I have the best of intentions) you got me to sit on this a bit. Because I didn’t write this just to rant my feelings at you.

I hope I can illustrate that this whole things reads more like a bad faith sermon than anything resembling a review. Because all it does is preach to me condescendingly, and the only goal seems to be mocking me without purpose. The many paragraphs you use to nail two specific points, that you tie directly with what you think I think, makes me doubt that you actually understood what I wrote.

It’s also impossible to not see the irony when reading this. So I feel compelled to bluntly critique a response that seems to be the exact thing my story warns about. This whole thing seems like asinine attempt to purposely misinterpret my work. And even if it is an accident, you basically mock the writer and not the art itself through how personally worded you made your ‘critiques.’ While providing no kind words, clear explanation, or even helpful advice to allow me to give you the benefit of doubt.

I’m probably going to be quite harsh, if only because you clearly want in depth critique if the things you mentioned are accurate, and because, if your self-critique is anything to go by, you haven’t taken a very critical view of your own writing, and it’s clearly meant to be a finished product.

This is the part where you can try to tell me I’m wrong. By providing me the answer to “What does this paragraph accomplish?” Is it about my story? Well no, it’s not. So why is it the very first thing I’m reading in a supposed review? It’s a personal attack about me. About how I suck at doing in-depth criticism, and it tries to frame my admittedly sarcastic review as “clearly meant to be a finished product” like I was feigning professionalism when it couldn’t be any more apparent that it wasn’t what it intended to be.

It was meant to be tongue and cheek, but it still provides more useful information and actually does review and negatively criticize the words of the work. Not telling the person who wrote the story about the dangers of censorship that he shouldn’t use and write about what you don’t like.

But more importantly, you mock me for the failure of my in-depth reviewing. But this is absolutely fails to do that. And there’s no excuse for it, because I showed exactly how a review can be done. Here’s everything you’re missing...

• 1. You don’t actually deeply critique any of my writing in a technical aspect.
• 2. You don’t point out typos and grammar mistakes.
• 3. You don’t show or highlight what you didn’t understand. (Which would make me a lot more lenient when replying might I add.)
• 4. You don’t provide an ounce of workable advice.
• 5. You provide no possible corrections to paragraphs.
• 6. You provide no positive or even neutral aspects. Nor do you provide a reason why you don’t.

I feel like you were far to focused on ‘wordplay’ as you call it and trying to sound clever as opposed to actually writing with clarity. A lot of your wording feels clunky, and it did not make for a smooth read. You said a lot of things that didn’t really seem to mean anything beyond you thinking it sounded cool, which then only serve to confuse the reader.

Again this isn’t even focused on calling the story “too difficult to understand”. It’s specifically mocking me calling it “wordplay”. Okay, what would you call it then? Are you going to tell me with a straight face, that the things I called wordplay in all the other stories aren’t? You oddly don’t give this critique to anyone else, or yourself when I granted you the same acknowledgment. And then you’re going to tell me that my wordplay isn’t far better thought out?

The review I made was actually me explaining everything with as much clarification as possible, because I know people don’t often get writing beyond surface level storytelling. And there isn’t anyone who wants actual word for word analysis more than I do. I’d at least be able to discuss the merit of that opinion, if you even provided a single sentence as an example of what you’re speaking about. Or better yet, be in-depth and cover every single thing I did wrong in your eyes and show me how you would make it correct and clearer. I’d actually be able to thank you for something. Maybe even improve, since that’s the intended goal of my reviews. I’m sure there’s a sentence in there somewhere you could make clearer and not butcher and water down my writing. I want writing critique. But instead I got character assassination.

I feel like your story had some rather… unfortunate implications, particularly regarding rape/sexual assault, and mental illness which, I’m going to be honest, really rubbed me the wrong way, something not helped by your self-commentary.

Let’s make something clear I dissect what comes across as borderline concern trolling.

This story is:

• 1. A piece of fiction.
• 2. From the direct written perspective of a madman. (So anything that got the reader’s knickers in a twist is mad at the fictional crazy man.)
• 3. A piece set in medieval times. (Figure the castle/witch-hunting part gave that away.)
• 4. An obviously symbolic story that’s meant to be abstract and not realistic.
• 5. Written by an author with mental illness.
• 6. Written to purposefully criticize the perspectives of the character in the story.
• 7. Written to lambaste dog whistling. “Implications” people make in bad faith. And the people that would want to silence work like this from being made.

Let’s start with the mental illness aspect. So. You made it very clear in our earlier discussion that you were aiming to create a black and white villain. The narrative also makes it fairly clear that your narrator is supposed to be evil toward the end. The main thing driving this villainy however, is what appears to be some form of psychosis (not a psychologist, just somebody bothered by inaccurate and stigmatising portrayals of mental illness in the media.). Based off the incredibly diminutive comments in your self ‘critique’, and the genuinely bizarre symptom presentation, I’m going to assume you’ve done very little research in preparation for this portrayal, which I think really takes a lot away from your story’s quality.

You don’t remotely understand the story or our conversation. But let’s explain what I’m talking about in-depth. My character is one of the only villains of the stories that has the most reasonable explanation and motivation for their bad deeds. Sister attacked by people he goes to war with. Father died from a heart attack at shocking words which makes him censor ‘hate speech’ basically. Losing vision by getting infected blood into his eyes. (One of many examples of this being possible is AIDS, transferred by blood and can cause Cytomegalovirus, which causes blindness.) MC went to war and killed people, potential hidden trauma that also has the potential to f*ck someone up drastically. So it’s really ironic to critique mine for being too obvious in writing, when yours doesn’t explain why your dad did what he did. No one else really explains how their hero made their fall whatsoever. And certainly not in the “show don’t tell” method that I did.

Next, no I’m not trying to portray any kind of real mental illness. This is fiction. It is symbolism meant to portray things in an artful way. It is a fictional story, in a fictional setting. So this attack on me not understanding it or trying to make any kind of statement about mental illness is flat out wrong. It is an obviously and explained symbolic gesture of him getting blinded by blood. Growing his desire for revenge and to kill. It becomes an excuse to dehumanize the ones he wants dead for disagreeing with him. I explain exactly what the phantoms are. They aren’t real. It’s not even supposed to be perceived as real hallucinations. It’s a concept given flesh. Sins. Sins done by man and humans nature to blame it on anything else but themselves. And when you start believing in your own perceived delusions.

I took a little inspiration from Oh,Sleeper’s album, Children Of Fire. (Among other bits of fiction that symbolically aim for similar things.)

Your decision to have your character ‘go mad’ instantly reduces your character’s motivation to one of incredibly inaccurate biology, as opposed to the more complex ideology you seemed to be setting us up for in the beginning. Personally, I’m fascinated by what it is that makes people do bad things. Often the reasoning is complex, built up from years of societal pressures, personality aspects, and upbringing. Even where mental illness is involved (which, in reality, it most often isn’t), other factors most always come into play. By blaming your character’s wrongdoing almost entirely on his psychosis, you miss out on the opportunity to explore the far more interesting ideas at play.

Aside from the poor storytelling, I feel like it should go without saying that equating mental illness with evil is incredibly dubious.

You don’t show, nor prove that it is poor storytelling. Just that you somehow read my story and its long given explanation but still didn’t get the intention of the original work.

This story isn’t meant to be taken at face value. It wasn’t trying to portray real mental illness. I make the fictitious setting pretty clear. It is a story about the dangers of how fast and bad things can escalate when people think it’s a good idea to censor people’s words. You can’t tell me you don’t see the aspect of the obvious parallels of embellished description used for people the character disagrees with. You can also easily argue that the character is not quite all there or is a little disturbed far before the Phantom Vision part is even introduced. You’re just flat wrong that the only thing provided is his psyche. (Or symbolically, a particular political mindset.)
He not only has several reasons given to you in the story, but it does one better by directly showing you his involvement with them.

Fuck you for having the nerve to insinuate I was trying to say people with mental illnesses are evil. Especially when I gave you the precise tools needed to know my intention for the story was about the evils of censorship. And its advocates for it are the ones that are insane, and there tactics are to demonize those they want to imprison and far worse than that.

Now… the… err, the rape subplot -_-

I’ll try my best to vocalize my bluntness with the typed words here.

>clears throat

There. Is. No. Rape. That. Takes. Place. In. This. Fucking. Story.

I was unimpressed, to say the least. In all honesty, I don’t even want to discuss this aspect of your work, because quite frankly it made my stomach turn.

That doesn’t tell me anything but how you “felt”. And you’re offended and disgusted at me for the non-rape in my story. The attempted attacker is called the devil. The woman doesn’t take it lying down and tries to stab him. A vile act where the person who even tried it got his fucking head chopped off. You felt exactly what you’re supposed to feel. My character felt how he was supposed to feel, if not for the right reasons.

Rape (or a failed attempt at such) can and should be portrayed in dark fiction. And you can’t stop it from doing so. And as I will make clear later. This was not simply included for shock value and without symbolic purpose. But it’s transparently clear you missed the sentence “she informed me I made it in time.” And completely missed the point of the guy saying the phantoms did it. Quite literally no, they and he did not.

The damage done by rape is not to a woman’s reputation. It is not to her intrinsic value. It is not to her ‘honour’ or other such medieval nonsense.

You’re either attacking the story set in medieval times, from the clear perspective of a guy from that era that it is “medieval nonsense”. No shit.

OR.

This thing is personal and you’re calling me a rape sympathizer. Through me making some kind of actual judgement of real victims. And if that’s the case. Again, fuck you for making another judgement about me as a person.

Because I really tried to comprehend which angle you were coming from here. And I don’t think I ever once mention “honour, intrinsic value, or reputation” in my story or my review in regards to the FAILED attack.

It is the utter horror of having someone violently rip away that most intimate part of yourself, of having any sense of bodily autonomy, of choice, of strength, stripped away in the barest instant.

Again, what does this have to do with the “In-Depth review” I was promised? Are you my pastor? Am I your therapist? Does my story not clearly portray this as a vile action done by a vile person?

Any modern work using a rape subplot in order to further the development of a character other than the victim? Just… best not. If you don’t have time to treat the subject with the proper care and attention it needs, you’re much better off just not including it. And if you feel the need to fall back on lazy cliches such as ‘white flowers being symbolic of purity’, then really this isn’t a topic you should be touching with a barge pole.

If you want to call my worked cliched? You’re right. It is a very cliche story. But that isn’t really the intent of all this moralizing is it? You’re asking me to censor my work. Not cover this topic because you feel uncomfortable for it even being mentioned. Even if its intentions are beyond the FAILED act itself. And its plot critical to the story about the danger of censorship. You can’t tell me I was lazy how I wrote my sentences. It’s not just white flowers. But lilies which have been symbolically used for virginity in more than my fiction let me tell you. And aside from the flower bed. This isn’t my even direct view. It’s written from the character’s perspective. You can’t tell me that it has no meaning. I gave it as much depth as hundreds of word would allow. And it’s the fucking impetus for driving the character to his downfall.

The implication that a woman who was been raped is no longer ‘pure’... just… no. That’s incredibly offensive to survivors, who frequently struggle with the idea of having been ‘ruined’ or being ‘dirty’ because of their experience. Virginity and rape have nothing to do with each other. Rape is just as traumatic to someone who has had fifty sexual partners as it is to someone who’s had none. Rape is deeply traumatising, and something that at least some of your readers doubtless have personal experience with, yet here you are, using it as a cheap sub plot which is a) quickly forgotten about, and b) seems to serve little narrative purpose.

It is the perspective of the character alone. And that’s precisely why that I included is in there. Because I recognize that it makes those people feel stained or dirty. Virginity and rape being connected is very much a perspective had back in medieval times. The character is the one that makes the connection to the flowers relating it to her attack. My review explaining what it meant, is not to validate my perspective on the topic, its to make you understand what the character meant “by the thoughts of crushed flowers.”

You’re simply wrong.

A. (and B.) The FAILED act itself drives the entire story forward. This is the reason he goes to war. His desire to get his sister to smile and speak to him again. He believes the father died because of the man’s spoken lie. Somebody essentially dies because of a false accusation of a rape that never actually occurred. It doesn’t matter that at worst she was shoved down at worst. The father had a heart attack, destroyed at the thought, someone did that to his daughter. The brother goes to war for her. (And subsequently the father as well for dying because of this action.) It’s so deeply traumatising, that apparently it’s not a realistic reason for my character to be pissed off…?

And let me additionally call out this double standard. Why is portraying attempted sexual acts in a strictly negative light worse than the character decapitating people exactly? Surely people have had family members that have died. Maybe even murdered, what gives me or anyone the right to write fiction about that? How about war? Why do you have the right to write a story about alcoholism and imply that all drunk people are man-children and villains that compare to people that go on murder sprees?!?! That’s pretty dubious if you ask me.

Sound absurd? Sound like I’m just putting words in your mouth? Sound like complete nonsense to attribute what you feel about drunk people as a whole because of fictional character in a short fiction novel? Well now you know an ounce of what I went through when reading this for the first time.

Also, how do you know what I or other people have gone through in life? You don’t. So maybe stick to pointing out the sentences you thought could use improvements and don’t make judgement about me as a person through a short story. And don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t be about to write about…

You could’ve shown me the same respect I did in your review, by sticking to the substance and not make character attacks, but you didn’t do that...so here we are.

And I don’t exactly expect to be kindly received, but I’ll have you know I edited this down quite a bit for language and the sarcasm that wasn’t used to illustrate a point. Put yourself in my shoes and tell me you wouldn’t say the same after several accusations were just spewed at you.

I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you were genuinely unaware of these implications. But still, I feel like your work would greatly benefit from even the barest amount of research if you are going to be touching upon such delicate subjects as these. If you are putting your work up to be seen, you need to be wary of the fact that your readers will have had different life experiences to you, and may find portrayals such as these to be quite upsetting, and not in a good way.

I honestly can’t wait for the white knight defense for this one. Because if you seriously were trying to do anything but piss me off. You’ll have to inform me what was else offered in this. Seriously, why exactly was your ‘in-depth’ review any better than mine?

You indirectly called me all of this in the most preachy and condescending manner possible.

• 1. A lazy writer
• 2. A bad reviewer
• 3. Stupid (Because clearly I’m too dumb to grasp wordplay and what that is. Or you somehow sincerely think I don’t know people live different lives?)
• 4. That I think people with mental illnesses are evil. (So I think I’m the worst.)
• 5. A rape sympathizer (Or just believe I somehow don’t care about victims of rape.)

So yes. Please, call this assessment unfair. I want to hear how bad I am some more, and how this isn’t a justified reaction and response. About how I got bitched at by a stranger whose never spoke to me in person before for portraying my medieval perspectives in medieval fiction. And why my fiction/symbolic disease isn’t realistic enough. And to be so reckless to claim my clearly stated intentions were to vilify the mentally ill and not just a critique on censorship and how its implemented by mankind. And also tell a writer how he shouldn’t write what he wrote. I bet everyone here would love to hear that said to them.

I finished writing and editing this without any residue anger or grudge held against you personally. I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I’m correcting the record that you’re concerned anger and various statements about me personally are entirely misplaced and unwarranted. I’d say this to anyone who so badly misrepresented my feelings and my writing that I have a passion for. And I’ll gladly apologize for your undeserved attack, when I get the same kindness extended to me in return. Hopefully you’ll have the respect to read the exact same harshness that I spent time trying to articulately counter...

You are the Mon

All good here. Feel free.