“Socrates said, “The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.” He wasn’t talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.
A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”
Sinomegaceros was another genus of recently extinct giant deer, this one found in Asia, including Tajikistan and Japan. The species shown here, S. pachyosteus, lived in China until about 12,000 years ago.
How can we write a story about dwarven mining operations if we don’t study Cornish pasties?
How can we study Cornish pasties if we don’t try to make some ourselves?!
And we can’t study Cornish pasties without studying the effects elevation has on the recipe, which is why some pasties made in countries with Cornish diaspora populations have slightly different recipes due to the way that affects pastry/baking, and thus we must also consider such things when world-building our dwarf story, right @netherworldpost?
This also proves that atty is sensible, since all good worldbuilding should enjoy thinking about delicious practicalities.
(When my mum’s best friend emigrated to Canada in the late ‘80s, her 150+y/o family pasty recipe would not work. There had to be a lot of testing before it was right.)
I realise it’s 100% predictable of me to be enamoured with metatextual wankery, but I really appreciate the textual conceit in Nobilis whereby the game is ostensibly an in-universe document (i.e., the tabletop RPG Nobilis exists in the setting of Nobilis), particularly in light of the 3rd Edition’s revelation that author’s fictionalised self-insert is a human thrall of the generic Excrucian Deceiver who keeps popping up in the game’s examples of play, with its concomitant implication that the game’s systems of play are in-universe Excrucian propaganda. Like, forget about unreliable narrators – this one has unreliable rules!
the neurotypical invents the neurodivergent. neuro(non)normativity is a constant negotiation of social conditions + relation to capital + carceral frameworks of legal, educational, medical systems. “neurotype” is not an ontological status. it is a mirror held to the world in which it exists.
i’d just like to take some time, now that this has def breached containment, to point out some tags on this post - i recognize that the language i use might be unfamiliar or challenging. my goal isn’t simplicity, it’s creativity and precision. when coming across words you’re not familiar with or can’t remember (like ontological, which relates to the philosophy of ‘being/existence’!) i encourage everyone (esp my undergrad students in their first theoretical courses) to embrace complexity and not-knowing as part of the path to learning more about themselves and others.
the fact is that “disability theory” as such is not always, or even often, reducible to simple language. we invent complex terms for the same reasons queer and trans people invent new identities: “plain language” has never held space for us. i believe in jargon as a vital tool toward self expression, and a vital challenge to demands that we confine, simplify, and make ourselves transparent and interpretable.
i make posts for the people who are open to receiving them, and do so using the language necessary to make my points. my accessibility goal is not to remove complexity or challenge, but to make sure everyone - regardless of their relationship to exclusionary academic institutions - has the opportunity to participate. “theory” and “jargon” not only saved & changed my life, but are at this moment words applied to our terms simply because disability theory as such is new.
my wish is that everyone who encounters any kind of “theory” that seems intimidating or dense takes it as an opportunity and a pleasure to decode. maybe you’ll think it’s worthless, maybe you’ll love it. but part of learning is encountering friction. access doesn’t always equate to ease.
Sorcery & Storytelling by a (Crippled) Bearded Frothing Madman. Elder Millennial old enough to remember when you didn't tell the internet your age.
++Nazis Are Distinctly Unwelcome++
Sorcery & Storytelling by a (Crippled) Bearded Frothing Madman. Elder Millennial old enough to remember when you didn't tell the internet your age.