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QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
the old take i had on this was: if you tell people not to create the Torment Nexus all they'll remember is how cool the Torment Nexus was but i have a new take, which is: actually the guy who wrote Don't Create the Torment Nexus fucking loves the Torment Nexus too
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Visa ✈️ SF (Aug 2-14)
@visakanv
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@QiaochuYuan this lil anecdote hits several of your buttons simultaneously
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QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
(yet another use-case for multi-QTs, i really wanted to QT this thread simultaneously with the above, plus the torment nexus tweet really, which is at least linked below)
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QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
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“focus your energy on what you want to see more of” has some distressing implications for the whole genre of dystopian fiction. it suggests that dystopian fiction doesn’t successfully act as a warning, and if anything makes dystopias look cooler, more familiar, more thinkable
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@aphercotropist
I remember an old OKC question that was like, "would an apocalypse be in some sense exciting?" I think the thing about dystopias is all the weird unactionable double bound cruft is cleared out and things are "worse" but very legible and often actionable
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@aphercotropist
Replying to
@QiaochuYuan
Hmm thinking about it I think there's a difference between apocalyptic (apocalypse good) and dystopian, and with dystopias I think it can go both ways. The 1984 world is awful and I want nothing remotely like that. Though I did thoroughly hate reading the book too so idk
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@aphercotropist
Also interestingly utopias seem almost impossible to write. They end up weird horror due to how the author's shadow twists things
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