mangopy

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

You seem to be laboring under the misconception that I am responsible for internet teenagers’ poor choices. I’m not. Neither is any content creator. Do you spend your free time going after the adult film industry and asking whether they’re ready to “take responsibility” for teenagers that deliberately ignore the 18+ notification and click through to their weird diaper fetish porn?

I was a teenager on the internet once (I’m not going to say back in the day because I have followers that were on Usenet and that’s REALLY back in the day). We didn’t used to have any kind of content warnings at all. I say this jokingly a lot but seriously, back in my day, you could trip over xeno tentacle non-con in the middle of a fic that didn’t look like it was going in that direction, and it wasn’t labeled at all. Ever! You know what was labeled and warned for, left right and center? “This story has slash in it! That’s GAY KISSING!!!” 

Seriously though, there used to be a time when the fandom and fic-writing atmosphere was so toxic to same-sex relationships that the content was usually hidden behind a splash screen with an obnoxious warning in cyan comic sans. Sometimes there were “secret instructions” on the disclaimer page - people would hide how to get into their website (“if you read the disclaimer you’ll know to click on the ^_^ face in the bottom left corner of the page to get to the site!” and such nonsense). I grew up in a time on the internet when it was easier to find graphic torture porn and rape-as-woobifying-backstory than it was to find fluffy hand-holding fic with my gay OTP.

And all I can hear when y’all roll up all “THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!” is all the people who forced slash and femslash fans out of their archives, away from their internet space, and into the loosely-organized circle of Geocities webrings that defined fandom in the early 90s. Eventually we all started to congregate on LJ, where content could be locked behind a friends-only filter and people could gather in closed communities where we could be free from harassment by homophobic morons. When the Great Purge of FF.net happened and NC-17 was officially added to their rules as banned content, guess who was most reported to the moderators and most impacted by the policy change? Slash fans. And when Strikethrough happened, it disproportionately effected slash fans. Again.

You know what happened?

Nothing much. Sometimes I’d read something that made me feel weird and gross. Sometimes I’d close out of the window and clear the cache and stay off the computer and do something else for a day or two.

It says a lot, I think that I don’t actually remember the content of most of the fic in question. I remember the feeling, but from years later, I honestly couldn’t tell you most of the actual content that made me feel squicked and gross.

(I know the very first one I Noped out of when I was 11, because it was just, like. Ridiculously tame. But Hermione started to give Draco Malfoy a backrub, and I decided this was Inappropriate For Me. So I stopped reading it.)

I didn’t die.

It didn’t contribute to any of my myriad mental health issues - those are all either hereditary or a result of the actions of actual, real life people.

I didn’t “copy behavior” - the idea is laughable. I was a nerdy teenager with no IRL friends, you really think I was running out to … what, exactly? Manipulate or torture people with Unforgivable Curses/dark magic/alien brain slugs/insert-setting-appropriate-evil-thing-here? Have an orgy?

I’ve made bad choices at different times in my life, but none of them were a result of fictional characters modelling bad behavior. (Mostly they involved me not knowing how to handle something, or not being very good at boundaries.)

No other product out there requires the creators to take direct responsibility for the ways third parties misuse their product.  Firearm and ammunition producers aren’t considered directly responsible for mass shootings, wars, massacres; car manufacturers aren’t held directly responsible for car crashes or ram raids; brewers and distillers aren’t held responsible for alcohol-fuelled violence.  Tobacco product manufacturers aren’t held directly responsible for deaths from tobacco-caused cancers.  I could go on with examples.  All of these things exist in the world, and all of them are capable of being misused in ways which are harmful to others.  But none of their producers are held responsible for those harms in the ways fanfiction authors are being held responsible for the ways other people are potentially using their fiction.

Certainly fanfiction is being held to higher standards of moral righteousness than any other form of narrative fictional entertainment out there - published original fiction certainly isn’t facing the same sort of fannish inquisition that fanfiction has been put through over the past few years.  Neither are motion pictures, video games, television serials, soap operas, newspapers, television news, and the list goes on.  It’s only fanfiction which faces this particular requirement.

If you chose to click, that is literally on you. Nobody threatened your family and made you read Bakudeku fic or else. If you’re upset about coming across the summaries or descriptions alone, that’s on you, and it’s irrational. The world is not made for you alone. You’re going to see things both online and off that were meant for someone else. Put it in the ‘Not My Cuppa Tea’ box and step away. You’ll be an adult soon and that’s how to deal, so best get practicing.

Seeing teenagers glom onto adults who say the right words to them (all the fandom anti dogwhistles) is terrifying.

Seeing teenagers parrot fascist/TERF ideals and seeing others dismiss it as “just fandom wank” is terrifying.

Right now there are antis attacking Sunrise because they don’t like a canonical ship in Hanyou no Yashahime. They’re moving past fanwork and going after creators now.

These little abusers are going to get into places of power someday and they’ll be passing censorship stuff that will hurt marginalized creators more than they’re already being hurt.

It has to stop.

Messy, immoral and shocking content is going to exist and no amount of screaming is going to make it go away, nor is it going to help actual real children who are being hurt by predators while other children clog up limited resources with someone’s pairing art or fanfics.

Btw I think their babyish behavior is a weird ploy to appear too innocent to say and do the vile things fandom antis are known to do. As if being a minor absolves them of all wrong when we all know that’s not true.

He took a pay cut. I’m not doing all of that. Ima just pay my people well and give top notch benefits.

He sold stock, houses, and changed his spending and as a result, his employees were overall happier and the way they worked improved. They all bought more shit and had more kids and did all the consumption people want for us while also enjoying their work and their boss enough to band together and buy him a fucking Tesla as a thank you.

And you know what he realized after taking his pay cut? He didn’t need the champagne or the girls or the “lifestyle” of being a billionaire. He feels fulfilled in his work and with the people he’s surrounded himself with and he feels that he’s made a step in the right direction that other businessmen and billionaires should follow.

He was only ever a fraction of a Bezos.

Feeling a writing slump approaching you and your story? Get ready for some tips by guest writer Aamna to help get you focused and ready to continue your writing goals.

So writing slumps. Wow! Isn’t that a big can of worms? This little curse can descend upon a writer, no matter a beginner or published when they least expect it. And for several reasons. The most common instance can be when you are right in the middle of a story or a first draft. So here are some methods that I have come across in my writing journey, and have seen work really well for either myself or others.  

1) Take a break from your current project. Let your subconscious do the processing.

Sometimes you’re just not feeling your current project. How do get your heart back into it again? Drop it and do something else. What I would recommend doing in this situation is, write a short story. Or a poem. Or fanfic. It doesn’t have to be related to your WIP. It will get your conscious mind out of a rut, but it’ll still be processing in the back of your brain, and later when you come to your novel, Voila! You have a fresh set of eyes and renewed vigor for your story. 

2) There’s a reason NaNoWriMo has pep talks.

By far, the thing that has worked for me the most is listening to other writers speak. Even if it is just a writing buddy and not a published author, there is something truly magical about listening to a storyteller gush about their story with the passion of a hero ready to save the world. The incessant urge to create something just as beautiful or being on that high of imagination that washes over me as I listen to them has worked for me several times when I feel myself falling into a slump.

Go through the NaNoWriMo pep talks, listen to author interviews or podcasts, or find a writing buddy. Remind yourself how fun it is to write. 

3) Go back to the synopsis of your story to see what made you excited to write that in the first place. Rejuvenate the love! 

I have personally seen that doing this little can trick can give you that dose of motivation you need to get back into a story. It takes you back to that place when you loved that idea and gets you excited to work on it again. 

My ideas come to me in the form of something like a Goodreads synopsis, so whenever I want to get back to working on it again after a break (maybe because of upcoming exams or tests), I have seen that going through the “hook”, helps to re-ignite that love and excitement about the idea. 

4) Make a mood board or playlist for your characters or setting.

A writing slump may not necessarily be a complete turn-off from working on a story. It can also be that you are just in a position that you are not able to get the words out, but that doesn’t mean the only way to effectively work is ‘words.’

Creating aesthetics and playlists can be a very fun, entertaining exercise to do, and make the writing process seem less like a chore. 

5) Allow yourself the break. Don’t push yourself back into writing full-length novels or projects. 

Every time you take a break from writing does not have to be called a writing slump. Sometimes it’s way better to take a mental health break, or just put a pause for no other reason that you don’t want to, and you’d rather work on something else. 

You should know when to shelve a story or let a project go. It’s completely okay to stop in the middle of a WIP and delve into a new idea instead of forcing yourself to brainstorm and drag yourself through a story that you are not interested in anymore. A lot of the time that’s exactly what pushes you into a slump in the first place. 

6) Remove the pressure. Don’t let perfectionism hold you back.

Editing as you write is not the most advisable course of action, especially when you’re a new writer. And fretting about things like sentence structure, word choice, or minute grammar errors shouldn’t be the focus while you’re writing. The first draft of anything is a mess. This is when you should turn off your inner editor, and let your perfectionist inner-self take a back seat. Little things like these, even though you may not realize it, do a lot to demotivate you and take the away joy of writing because you feel that nothing you write is ever good enough. Don’t compare yourself to published authors. Their books have gone through developmental edits, copy edits, beta readers, and whatnot. 

Constantly expecting and beating yourself up for not being as good as someone else can push you into a slump faster than a boring story. 

Aamna (she/her) is a young devourer of books, stories, and any other form of words you can give her. More often than not, you can find her either reading, daydreaming about her seemingly never-ending WIP, or working on her blog. She likes to say that words are her superpower, and has a weird obsession with Marvel, ice cream, really bad art journaling, and Scrabble. She lives in India and is currently working on a Turkish-inspired fantasy novel. You can also follow her on IG.

“Meet the Shame-faced Crab”

Thank you, I will!

basically they all stem from a massive eruption of a volcano on the island of santorini off the coast of greece. the ash then floated over to egypt which kickstarted the plagues

1) blood: the ash carried the mineral cinnabar, which has the capability of turning water red

2) frogs: the ash also had many toxic and acidic substances so naturally, all the frogs are gonna flee the river

3) lice: given what was going on insects would have burrowed into dead animals/peoples skin and laid eggs, which then hatched

4) beasts: everything is getting poisoned from the ash and toxins, causing animals to freak the fuck out/die

5) pestilence: toxins again

6) boils: the ash would have caused storms that carried acid rain which when it fell, would irritate peoples skin causing boils

7) hail: the storm again

8) locusts: again with the insects and the amount of dead bodies and such which attract more insects. a lotta insects basically.

9) darkness: the ash covered the sky, blocking out the sun

10) slaying of the first born: given that children’s bodies were found in higher numbers than others, some archeologists think they may have been sacrificed to stop all the destruction, but they aren’t 100% sure about that. this is just me but I would say another possibility is that babies/kids are a lot more susceptible to toxins and shit, so while an adult may have been fine or gotten a bit sick, it might have been very dangerous/deadly for kids or babies

the volcano would also attest for the parting of the sea weirdly enough. the red sea was in fact the ‘reed’ sea, and was very shallow, probably waist deep or so. given the amount of shit dumped into the ocean from the volcano, this wouldve caused a tsunami to head towards egypt. the water would get sucked out from the reed sea right before the tsunami hit, letting people pass it easily, then the actual tsunami would hit, fuckin up anyone who tried to follow.

another theory is that the red water was caused by algae, which would cause the frogs and stuff to jump out as well. the algae also carried substances toxic to animals so if they ingested any they’d get sick and die, so more insects. in this theory there was a sand storm coincidentally that caused the rest

The tsunamis from the Theran eruption devastated Crete, weakening the then-powerful Minoan civilization, leaving them open to being invaded by the Mycenaeans.

The volcanic winter it created devastated crops in China leading to the fall of the Xia Dynasty.