Another Word for Myth

e.g. I keep seeing people talk about 'purple prose' when they actually mean 'the writer uses vivid and/or metaphorical descriptive language'. I've seen people who present themselves as educators offer some of the best genre writing in western canon as examples of 'purple prose' because it engages strategically in prose-poetry to evoke mood and I guess that's sheer decadence when you could instead say "it was dark and scary outside". But that's not what purple prose means. Purple means the construction of the prose itself gets in the way of conveying meaning. mid-00s horse RPers know what I'm talking about. Cerulean orbs flash'd fire as they turn'd 'pon rollforth land, yonder horizonways. <= if I had to read this when I was 12, you don't get to call Ray Bradbury's prose 'purple'.

I griped on here recently about the prepossession with fictional characters in fictional narratives behaving 'rationally' and 'realistically' as if the sole purpose of a made-up story is to convince you it could have happened. No wonder the epistolary form is having a tumblr renaissance. One million billion arguments and thought experiments about The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas that almost all evade the point of the story: that you can't wriggle out of it. The narrator is telling you how it was, is and will be, and you must confront the dissonances it evokes and digest your discomfort. 'Realistic' begins on the author's terms, that's what gives them the power to reach into your brain and fiddle about until sparks happen. You kind of have to trust the process a little bit.

This ultra-orthodox attitude to writing shares a lot of common ground with the tight, tight commodification of art in online spaces. And I mean commodification in the truest sense - the reconstruction of the thing to maximise its capacity to interface with markets. Form and function are overwhelmingly privileged over cloudy ideas like meaning, intent and possibility, because you can apply a sliding value scale to the material aspects of a work. But you can't charge extra for 'more challenging conceptual response to the milieu' in a commission drive. So that shit becomes vestigial. It isn't valued, it isn't taught, so eventually it isn't sought out. At best it's mystified as part of a given writer/artist's 'talent', but either way it grows incumbent on the individual to care enough about that kind of skill to cultivate it.

1-Meet with Accord. Warn him of his untimely death in new Delhi. Trade this information in exchange for three things: a million dollars, Blastos contact details, and a sample of Flechette’s dna.

2-Find Blasto. Persuade him to work for you for a while in exchange for a colossal amount of money. Move into an abandoned warehouse-Outside of Boston, that’s too much heat. We’re going to Malden, Massachusetts.

3-Begin mass producing Flechette clones. In New York City, Flechette #1 begins to have dreams of a cold, dark laboratory. Irrelevant. The clones will be confused and won’t have proper memories, making them easier to handle. Once you have about 25, begin the next step

4-Attend the next Endbringer fight: Leviathan, of course. Leave Blasto at home, and avoid the front lines yourself. Deploy the Flechette Clone Army and tell them to aim for the base of the tail. Leviathan is injured, but survives and retreats. 10 of the 25 Flechettes have died, plus original Flechette who was killed in a jealous rage by the clones.

5-Now back home, browbeat the remaining members of the Flechette Clone Army for their perceived failure. In your sleep, get murdered by the leading Flechette for sending them into the meat grinder. Blasto is now their slave.

6-The Flechette Clone Army, now an independent and belligerent force, begins to terrorise Malden. Local heroes and villains are torn apart in random conflicts that quickly escalate into lethal violence. They wander around the city like ronin, picking fights for no reason besides boredom and aimless rage at their awful situation. They stick together due to shared trauma and the charismatic leadership of Flechette #9.

7-Blasto scales up production under constant threats by Flechette Clone Army Leadership. Increasing clashes with Protectorate forces lead them to pursue rapid growth. More clones are produced in an increasingly refined process, and are indoctrinated from creation with the nascent values of the Flechette Clone Army. There are now over 100 Flechettes roaming the city and squatting in buildings in several city blocks that they have staked out and cleared of life. Many of the Flechettes are now fucking each other. It could perhaps be more accurately characterised now as a polycule.

8-Next Endbringer battle comes and goes, and the Flechette Clone Polycule stays at home. They have angrily rejected the ideas of both altruism and a higher purpose, and become increasingly nihilistic ideologically. Few of them are happy. They take more ground and kill more heroes. Malden begins official government evacuation

9-Blasto attempts escape using a homunculi he cooked up. Flechettes catch him before he escapes city boundaries, and kill him. Now incapable of reproduction, the Flechette Clone Polycule is a much more limited threat. However due to a tragically poorly timed decision, the city of Malden is then nuked that same day in order to contain the threat. Humanity now has absolutely no hope of killing Scion or any Endbringers.

She wants to learn photography. Do it stupid. Take a million photos. Don't think about why they're not good. Enjoy the process of taking photos.

Pick out tge ones you like the most and figure out why you like them. Is it because the subject is centered? Is it because you caught them doing something cool? Is it because the light made cool shadows?

But that's the thing. She doesn't exaggerate or grotesqueify or alter people's bodies to fit some standard. (Except insofar as she draws different species differently, and those are exquisitely practiced to ensure they have the same diversity of appearances that humans do.) She just presents people exactly as they are, complexities and oddities and all.