Nerd Queen Extraordinaire

berdly is like, incredibly abrasive right? frankly comedic levels of abrasive, especially to certain kinds of players. that’s his role in the story, to be a little shithead who’s so pathetic it’s funny. a walking punchline. but really, like queen said, there’s nothing wrong with him, at least nothing that it isn’t normal for a teenager to have “wrong” about them. he’s just annoying.

but being annoying is one of the most dangerous things a fictional character can be.

so many times i’ve watched someone play chapter 2 and very quickly wonder out loud, semi-jokingly, if they can kill berdly, usually not long after he’s introduced in the dark world, often going as far to say they would be willing to abandon the pacifist route to do so.

if you've ever watched a movie with your film buff friend and chatted about it afterwards, that friend might have pulled hours more of conversation out of the same 90 minutes of screentime, and wondered how the fuck they did that - it's not raw intelligence, it's a skill that's been honed. And I learned a lot about film from talking to friends who knew about film, and reading critique by film scholars

literature works exactly the same. so if you want to get more out of your reading, there are things you can do to train that. Find a book or short story you think you've got a pretty good grasp on, preferably from a widely read & respected author like Ursula K Le Guin or Ray Bradbury (if you're new at this don't swing for the Toni Morrison or the Samuel Beckett yet unless you feel very comfortable with the complexity of the text - the point is to develop a complicated new skill on good foundations). Then go to JSTOR, create a free account, and look up criticism on the story you've chosen. Find something that looks readable to you and at least somewhat interesting. Read that article, and look at what that writer got out of the same story you've read that you didn't get. Do you see the critic's points? Did they teach you something about the text? Go reread that story and see if the criticism has changed how you read it. Are you seeing more? Are you thinking about the implications of a line that you hadn't noticed before? Does the story feel richer now?

you don't have to read more deeply if you don't want to (but i'd recommend it, i genuinely think it makes you a better person)

if you want to learn to read more deeply, the resources are out there. try to find critical literature (that is, academic writing that analyzes the text) on works your familiar with so you can get a sense for how to do that analysis too

learning to deep read literature can help you deep read many areas of your life

As we want to encourage maximum participation and welcome all B/R fans, regardless of what sort of fannish activities they enjoy, we have come up with multiple ways to participate! Come and share the Briley love! Plain text version below the cut.

Be sure to contact the mod through tumblr with any questions!

god it's hard to tell because of the lighting here, but her expression when she thanks Kris for walking her home is so loving it hurts.

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.