#thinking critically

The only place where it is possible to separate them from their offspring is in fan work where their work is transformed, reimagined and, in some cases, so altered as to be unrecognisable as part of the original work, but even then we are working from concepts and characters the author created

As a tool for enjoying the original work whilst ignoring an author's belief it fundamentally fails, because the original work is steeped in the worldview of its creator, you can tell that C.S. Lewis was deeply Christian from Narnia, that Stephanie Meyer is Mormon from twilight and how deeply Tolkien was affected by war from all his work but especially The Lord of the Rings

The worldview and values of authors bleeds through their work even when it is not overt

Fiction can only be created by one person at that point in their life because it is so shaped by who they were when they made it

To try and ignore who they are so you can enjoy their work without remorse is folly

And this is before you add money into the mix

Yes, I believe that fanfic is the most divorceable from a work's original creator but it is still showing an interest for the creator, you are still proving that there is a market to be sold to and by extension supporting them momentarily and giving them the platform to espouse their beliefs

This is obviously different for dead authors, who cannot financially gain from your enjoyment of their work, but you still have to be careful to think critically about what your imbibing

like. idk. i think soulmates as a concept is rooted in amatonormativity and not-great conceptions of love and relying on a single person to be your other half, but also. sometimes soulmate fics can be a reassurance of unconditional love or explore trauma about love or even just be something soft to cheer someone up. and people who enjoy reading or writing soulmate fiction aren't necessarily aphobic or something

or like autistic folks here love to talk about how shitty and stereotypical characters like sheldon cooper are (and i also really don't like the big bang theory) but i also know of people who love the show because they felt represented by sheldon, because they related to him, and that's also perfectly fine

Before I discovered John and Hank’s videos, all I knew about life was what I experienced in my every day school life. Growing up in a small town in Northern BC, what I experienced was a lot of straight, white, cis, men who worked in the oil patch and had straight, white, cis wives who stayed at home and raised the children.

This in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but my world view was extremely limited. The first Vlogbrothers video I ever watched was John’s rant about pennies, and although I didn’t know it at the time, it started me thinking about....just....stuff.

Pennies were a thing I had always taken for granted and never gave a second thought about, but now I was questioning them, wondering about their affect on our planet and the people in it. And that started me thinking critically about other things too.

I watched as many of their videos as I could. At the time, I was involved in an extremely unhealthy relationship between two guys who I considered my friends. Guy 1 had been my very close friend for several years, when Guy 2 came into our lives, Guy 1 fell in love with Guy 2, I was in love with Guy 1, Guy 2 was in love with both of us but treated us (mostly me) like his possessions. It was very complicated and damaging to me, but I was young and didn’t see what I was letting him do to me. But like I said, John and Hank were making me question things; making me think about life and people and myself.

Without them, I would never have realized that I didn’t deserve to be treated the way I was being treated. Guy 2 would put me down for liking something or thinking a certain way, and then I watched John’s video about “The venn diagram of guys who think you’re too smart and guys you don’t want to date is a circle” and I realized that I didn’t deserve to be made to feel ashamed of what I liked!

Watching this grown up man, who was so openly enthusiastic about life and nerdy stuff and fun stuff, answering a question from a girl like me, and being completely open, honest, no-bullshit, no-apologies about it......well, it gave me the strength to get out of there.

It made me feel safe, just knowing that somewhere outside of this oil patch town, there were people like John and Hank who made the world feel so much bigger and brighter than I had ever imagined it could be.

Through the Vlogbrothers, I found more YouTubers from all over the world, I found Tumblr, I found communities, and I found kind people.

That’s the most important thing they’ve changed about my life, is they brought kindness back. The idea that being nice is cool. The idea that negativity is damaging and it doesn’t make you better than everyone else when you dislike something.

You’re allowed to like stuff, and the kind people will encourage you in that, and those people are the people deserving of your time. Not the people who put you down.

So ya, long post, but thank you so much for letting me say all this.

Thank you, Nerdfighteria!

What Wiktionary says 'critical thinking' means: The application of logical principles, rigorous standards of evidence, and careful reasoning to the analysis and discussion of claims, beliefs, and issues.

What Oxford says 'critical thinking' means: The objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.