shinigamiookamiryuu

Love her or hate her (and my opinions are mixed), I must confess, JK Rowling was a huge influence on why I didn't become a regular author. No shade on people who get what they paid for, but the young reader crowd is just so gimmicky, and not in a good way, and you see that with a lot of works like Percy Jackson and Twilight (but also predominantly with Rowling's work). How do you compete in such a no-rules game?

So then let's talk about one of the cores of the issue. People often have an epiphany when divulging into Harry Potter, and they think "huh, what's the deal with this if that thing is how it is". While noting that conflicts in literary analysis don't always reflect something that doesn't add up and that it could be a hiccup in details/semantics, the questions themselves don't go away. And there's nothing that matches the amount of those having to do with Harry Potter. What example of which strikes you as the most overlooked?

If Rowling herself ever notices that I'm bringing this up, let it be known I do think of her work as a reskinned Brothers Grimm in the universe of The Worst Witch and that I'm collaborating with another author (Samantha Rinne) whose work I would argue deserves Rowling's prestige if Rowling's work deserves it. Thanks (and here is where I run for the hills).

I was watching Neighborhood Wars, which is a program in a "list format" that documents interpersonal stuff that happens in different communities. It seems in every episode there's at least one thing about the community coming together for some cause, such as everyone coming together to defend an immigrant whose lemonade stand got attacked, or everyone coming together to investigate whether a boy actually committed a certain act of assault that he was accused of (haven't a number of us been in that situation). Think back to the original Spiderman movie when the citizens of New York City started throwing stuff at the Green Goblin and saying "you mess with Spidey, you mess with New York!"

While this was on, a Québécois acquaintance that was visiting my home for some casual time lamented "hélas, cela n'arriverait jamais ici" (roughly "if only that happened here"), probably unaware that the community once drove someone out of town who was trying to incite sentiment and came by to give me a hard time personally (someone I am known here as having talked both about and toward before; their clique was last seen giving a "final awareness message" about me). All despite the fact the only reason I myself barely escape having a "weird flatlander" reputation to this very exclusive community is due to my home once belonging to my grandfather, not helped by being a French Polynesian descendant.

Does your hometown community have any moments like this?

I have a radio station I listen to that specializes in this. But there are some games that work better than others. What first comes to your mind?

One could say this counts as a general question. Some of the people here, though, invoke this in ways which I find unique.

To give an idea of what this is about (by flashing back to an old no-context passage), as a certain person here has said...

Donate a thousand dollars to charity and you won't naturally get any memorial. Take two back and you have a criminal record for years. Greatly contribute to justice in a dictatorship, and it's only you who will be praised. Commit a heinous crime, though, and the punishment would be collective on your whole family. Plead guilty to a misdeed and the officers will automatically take your word for it. Admit to a good deed and they'll ask for proof. Spread a damning rumor and it will be the talk of the town. Spread an encouraging rumor and nobody will be talking. Ask if you can get recognition for donated blood, or even just meet the person you're giving to, and you will be treated as haughty. Ask why the news is always about bad things and you'll be treated as idealistic and naive.

This doesn't cover everything though. It's an issue that one can find in a lot of places.

Everywhere I look, I see people down on themselves. Do you know what they're not doing in this land imbued with ideas of freedom of speech? Living to the fullest and unleashing their inner braggart. Why do we have such a bias? A part of why I am who I am is to fight this mindset. Most people don't even question it though. How about you? And what reason do you have?

Was listening to someone from Algeria who mentioned they often have issues with lizards finding their way in homes. And I was like "at that point it sounds more like a free pet than vermin."

Also, what do you do when this happens?

Asking because there's a TV show coming out soon that I'm excited for, but I'm having flashbacks of all the times I've had to wait up to two years for something to come out, often due to delays.