SKYRIM SCENERY
Windhelm Docks & Entrance
love how the octopi on ancient vases always look like theyre ready to party :)
please don't give me responsibilities when there's a huge stack of unread books beside me. have some morals.
Pippin: I can explain.
Gandalf: Can you?
Pippin: If you give me thirty seconds to think of a lie.
Anonymous asked:
I just started reading your works and I like them but your smut is so much different and less descriptive than other writers. have you thought about trying to write like that to make it more ~~spicy~~? I think it would help your stories get more notes.
something-tofightfor answered:
I’m tired.
Anon, while I agree that the way I write smut is different than a lot of the other content out there … it’s by choice.
I actively challenge myself to use different phrasing and to make word choices for smut that don’t include the ‘standard’ ones (cock, cunt, slit, clit, folds, tits, cum, etc) because I feel like this helps my work to not sound repetitive and gives me a chance to explore other options for setting and phrasing and description.
(I would use these if the situation called for it, though - like with GoT universe Oberyn because it makes sense in the context of the time period.)
I read fic with these words and phrases included. I enjoy them, and I will continue to do so - but I don’t choose to write in the same style. I assumed people wanted variety. Am I wrong? Maybe, at least according to you.
Is it disheartening to see my work get fewer notes than other pieces? Of course, especially when I spend hours writing and editing a lengthy piece or on a multi-chapter story that gets overlooked and only a handful of notes. But as I’ve said since the beginning, I’d rather have a smaller number of genuine interactions than anything else.
I’m not going to compromise the way I want to write - and the work I want to create - for the potential of more interaction.
.... I have never resonated with a response so fully. As a writer of softer smut, I feel this all in my bones.
I love you for sticking to your guns. I love love love your smut, and even more, I love your stories, which is what I’m here for.
What a beautiful clubhouse we have... *pours you some tea*
Not to be a huge bitch, anon, but why don’t YOU try writing some ~spicier smut~ and leave people who are providing FREE CONTENT for you alone. Better yet, maybe send something encouraging instead of whatever this
And I’m saying this as someone who leans heavily toward hardcore smut—there are hundreds of people who write the content you appear to be looking for. It dominates fic. It is deeply strange to me that you would come to someone who chooses to write differently and ask them for something you can get absolutely anywhere.
And re: notes—were you asked? Was your opinion sought? Did anyone come to you and say “How can I get more notes on my fic?” No, you were not. And not everyone is here to get a million notes on their fics. This is not a popularity contest, for gods’ sake. Some of us are here to make friends and share stories that may or may not include smut that may or may not be explicit.
You could have done anything at all with your time, and you chose to send this, a thinly veiled passive aggressive non-constructive critique that you were too chicken shit to sign your name to. Do us all a favor and make better choices.
I've talked about this particular workplace incident before so bear with me but
seeing a post that only uses the word "queer" in the most loving possible contexts get tagged as "q slur" feels pretty much exactly like the time I met a new student employee in my office by finding her pawing through the supply of buttons we make and hand out. she asked if our director was around because she had a concern about one of the designs, because the button said "dyke" on it and did we know that word is sometimes used in a pejorative way?
and I said yeah, we're extremely aware, but my dyke friends wouldn't stop asking me to make dyke buttons because they love letting everyone know that they're dykes, so that's definitely not a pejorative in this particular case. it's a statement of love, pride, support for the dykes in our community.
context matters, you fucking goobers.
I’m here I’m queer and I fucking hate when automated systems censor my declaration of identity.
One of the ballsiest things Tolkien ever did was write 473k words about some hobbits called frodo, sam, merry, and pippin and then write in the appendices that their names are actually maura, ban, kali, and razal.
This just in: Eowyn and Eomer’s names actually start with the letter “L.” [source for other nerds]
#wait so they have hobbitish names and common names?
No, they have Westron names and English names.
What you’ve got to understand is that everything Tolkien wrote was him pretending to merely translate ancient documents. He was writing as if the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were actually been written by Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam (or Bilba, Maura, and Ban) and he was just some random contemporary academic translating it all into English for us.
There are many languages in his books, but generally speaking, everything written in English in the books is a translation of the language “Westron.” Therefore any names that come from Westron, he translated. Names coming from other languages, like Sindarin, he left as they were. Why? IDK. Maybe because the stories are from a hobbit perspective and hobbits speak Westron, so he wanted the Westron parts to sound familiar and the other languages/names to remain foreign?
“But Mirkwoodest!” you cry, “The word ‘hobbit’ isn’t an English word! And the names Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin Took, and Meriadoc Brandybuck” all sounds super weird and not like English at all!”
Psych! They are in English! (Or Old English, German, or Norse.) Once again you underestimate what a nerd Tolkien was. Let me break it down:
In Westron, hobbits are actually called “kuduk,” which means “hole-dweller,” so for an English translation, Tolkien called them “hobbits” which is a modernization of the Old English word “holbytla” which comes from “Hol” (hole) and “Bytla”(builder).
“Maura” is a Westron name which means “Wise.” Weirdly enough, “Frodo” is an actual Proto-Germanic name that actual people used to have and it means the same thing.
“Banazîr” is Westron for “half-wise, or simple.” In Proto Germanic, the prefix “Sam” means half, and wise is obviously a word we still use.
“Razanur” means “Traveler” or “Stranger” which is also the meaning of the word “Peregrin(e)” This one is a twofer because “Razar” means “a small red apple” and in English so does “Pippin.”
“Kalimac” apparently is a meaningless name in Westron, but the shortened form “Kali” means “happy,” so Jirt decided his nickname would be “Merry” and chose the really obscure ancient Celtic name “Meriodoc” to match.
Jirt chose to leave “Bilba” almost exactly the same in English, but he changed the ending to an “O” because in Westron names ending in “a” are masculine.
I’m not going to go on and talk about the last names but those all have special meanings too (except Tûk, which is too iconic to change more than the spelling of, apparently).
The Rohirrim were also Westron speakers first and foremost, so their names are also “translations” into Old English and Proto-Germanic words, i.e. “Eowyn” is a combination of “Eoh” (horse) and “Wynn” (joy/bliss).
“Rohirrim/Rohan” are Sindarin words, but in the books, they call themselves the “Éothéod” which is an Old English/Norse combo that means “horse people.” Tolkien tells us in the “Peoples of Middle Earth” that the actual Westron for “Éothéod” is Lohtûr, which means that Eowyn and Eomer’s names, which come from the same root word, must also start with the letter L.
The names of all the elves, dwarves, Dunedain, and men from Gondor are not English translations, since they come from root words other than Westron.
The takeaway from this is that when a guy whose first real job was researching the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter “W” writes a book, you can expect this kind of tomfoolery.
Notes: Sorry I said “Razal” instead of “Razar” in my original post I’m a fraud.
Further Reading:
I’m having a stroke
Tolkien was the most extra son of a bitch my goodness
This is why C.S. Lewis wanted to punch Tolkien in the face sometimes.
In the great hierarchy of nerds, Tolkien remains at the very top.
No one can top Tolkien.
pretend? pretend to translate????
… who is Jirt?
