Tropical Beach EditionFAQ:>What is worldbuilding?Worldbuilding is the process of creating entire fictional worlds from scratch, all while considering the logistics of these worlds to make them as believable as possible. Worldbuilding asks questions about the setting of a world, and then answers them, often in great detail. Most people use it as a means of creating a setting or the scenery for a story.>"Isn't there a Worldbuilding general in >>>/tg/ already?"Yes, there is. However, that general is focused on the creation of fictional worlds for the intended purpose of playing TTRPG campaigns. Here you can discuss worldbuilding projects that are not meant to be used for a roleplaying setting, but for novels, videogames, or any other kind of creative project.>"Can I discuss the setting of my campaign here, though?"If you want to, but it would probably be better to discuss it on >>>/tg/ . We don't allow the discussion of TTRPG mechanics, however. If you want to discuss stats or which D&D edition is best, this is not the place.>"Can I talk about an existing fictional setting that is not mine?"Yes, of course you can!>"Does worldbuilding need to be about fantasy and elves?"Worldbuilding, as already stated above, and contrary to what many believe, does not inherently imply blatantly copying Tolkien. In fact, there are many science-fiction setting out there, and even entire alternative history settings which do not possess supernatural elements at all. Any kind of science fiction book has an implied setting at least, which involves a certain degree of worldbuilding put into it.Old Thread: >>24667235
>>24765697>Bakkerfag thinks he's going to trick me by playing dumb Nice try but I'm wise to your tricks now
>>24753456Giga based.
>>24764741Don't. Doing things that you don't want to will make you burn out and drop your project. Anyway people who complain about this type of shit are rarely taken seriously, even on twitter. They might get zero or a few likes depending on the popularity, but the headlines will make you think like it's the majority of the audience.
>>24764741>>24766576Just don't directly reference skin colour and leave people to their own inferences. There are faggots on Twitter who draw white characters as coal black, yellow eyed Africans, simply because the author made an off hand comment about them having a tan.
>>24766608Even if the author explicitly says they're pale blond white people, tumblrinas will still draw them as the most vanta black bantu to ever exist
Is this actually true?
>>24766209Yes, unless you're actually talented. I would think this is obvious.
>>24766437>>24766447The theme is what happens when a person's dream dies and she's forced to confront a reality she never saw. It's all her perfect picturesque dream, a charming prince, rich, relaxed, and her own personal utopia, but what happens to a person when it all shatters?Later in the story, her father dies, her lover dies, her kingdom is threatened, her friend Priscilla's kingdom is conquered, and all she ever dreamed about is gone. Now she must thrust herself into a political realm where she buries her enemies alive, seduces emperors to give her armies, demand tribute, secure a religion, trade, and cast aside her childish dreams and plans and force herself into a different life. so there's more to it.
>>24766437oh i like the word riddle there. Good choice. Thanks for the help
I only have fun if I'm writing erotica, and that's only if I have time to focus on it.
>>24766611Talented at writing vs talented at "writing" are two very different things and not all writers possess both.
damn, that was hot
>>24764876>>24764380Read that around the time the uncut Stand Edition was released. The Garbage man in the Stand gets Sodomized. .I know right.Also too in an Anthology series one of the stories was about a guy who, when he was ten, was in an old library, a huge old library where a zombie ghoul security officer could have killed him but opted to sodomize him instead. IT, however, proved to be the chef's kiss, I was 14/15 and I reread that scene quite a bit. Come on ride that train, I imagined my turn in the cold dark kissing her neck all tender like. Over 30 years later and I'm still Verkclempt--- somebody post the scene!!!
>>24764876Why do you want people to post CP?Jesus
>>24766407It's literature, you impetuous hall monitor; literally words on paper.
she peaked here
>>24766624
Icebreaker: what are your favourite commentaries/secondary sources for understanding Plato?Robin Waterfield's The First Philosophers is something I find myself going back to every time a really get into a dialogue. Even though Plato is never really the focus of the book at any point, its really good for contextualising his philosophy alongside what had gone before. Not only does it help one distinguish what might be original ideas from mere developments or rearticulations of already existing ones, but its also useful for clarifying some of the more esoteric references. Take Phaedo for instance, the dialogue ends with the hemlock working its way through Socrates: >[the man administering Socrates the poison] felt it himself and said that when the cold reached his heart he would be goneAccording to Philolaus:>there are four sources of a rational creature - brain, heart, navel and genitals […] Head for thought, heart for soul…Therefore, there implication by Plato here is that Socrates' soul left his body at the point the cold reached his heartPrevious Thread: >>24705276 Recent Plato-related threads: >>24746113 (Will studying Plato give me wisdom on the nature of the soul?)>>24745236 (Academic consensus on Plato's metaphysics/epistemology?)>>24732342 (how does the physical world relate to the world of Forms?)>>24728045 (why did Medieval Christians prefer Aristotle over Plato?)
Then nothing should be more sternly laid down than that the inhabitants of your fair city should by all means learn geometry.It's the thing most sternly said in republic so why is everyone ignorant about it?
>>24766060In the Protagoras there is a section where Plato makes fun of Prodicus. In 341a there is a whole section in which Prodicus is asked what the meaning of a word is, leading him into error, only to later claim that Prodicus's error was intentional and he was just playing with them. Also, in the same dialogue, in 358e Prodicus is casually dismissed, almost as if the distinction he makes were trivial or unimportant.>Well, I said, there is a certain thing called fear or terror; and here, Prodicus, I should particularly like to know whether you would agree with me in defining this fear or terror as expectation of evil.>Protagoras and Hippias agreed, but Prodicus said that this was fear and not terror.>Never mind, Prodicus, I said;In another dialogue, I don't remember which one exactly, Socrates claims to be the disciple of a musician, who, according to the information available, was a terrible teacher and musician. It's likely that when Socrates claims to be someone's disciple, he says it mostly ironically, thinking primarily that if it were true that he was someone's disciple, he wouldn't say he knew anything, or that he was capable of learning, or that the teacher was bad.Also Plato's opinion of the Sophists was that they were, at best, rich-boy hunters and, at worst, ironic poseurs. There may have been some value in Prodicus's linguistic analysis, but it would be too much to assume that Prodicus himself was seriously engaged in this and not simply in teaching how to win arguments through sophisms.So in the Protagaras, it seems ironic the following paragraph:>Prodicus added: That, Critias, seems to me to be well said, for those who are present at such discussions ought to be impartial hearers of both the speakers; remembering, however, that impartiality is not the same as equality, for both sides should be impartially heard, and yet an equal meed should not be assigned to both of them; but to the wiser a higher meed should be given, and a lower to the less wise. And I as well as Critias would beg you, Protagoras and Socrates, to grant our request, which is, that you will argue with one another and not wrangle; for friends argue with friends out of good-will, but only adversaries and enemies wrangle. And then our meeting will be delightful; for in this way you, who are the speakers, will be most likely to win esteem, and not praise only, among us who are your audience; for esteem is a sincere conviction of the hearers' souls, but praise is often an insincere expression of men uttering falsehoods contrary to their conviction. And thus we who are the hearers will be gratified and not pleased; for gratification is of the mind when receiving wisdom and knowledge, but pleasure is of the body when eating or experiencing some other bodily delight. Thus spoke Prodicus, and many of the company applauded his words.
>create a hypothetical time warp world "thinker" prison where everyone from ancient greek philosophers to 21st century jordan peterson are inmatesWho would come out as shotcaller?
>>24766476Very astute reading, anon. If I may add, the dialogue Cratylus opens with a joke somewhat at Prodicus' expense. Socrates is appealed to by his friend Hermogenes to settle a dispute between him and Cratylus over the correctness of names, to which Socrates gives this funny rundown of his expertise, something like, "Did you guys know that Prodicus offers a 50 drachma course ALL ABOUT this topic, from top to bottom? Unfortunately I could only afford his 2 drachma remedial course. Let's get started!"Now, this said, I am tempted to say with that other anon that of the sophists, Prodicus comes out receiving the best treatment, really just given some gentle ribbing over his extreme hair-splitting. And there's passages in other dialogues where Socrates says or suggests he sends some potential students looking for a teacher to Prodicus (Laches, and I think Theaetetus and Apology?); that seems like a good measure of the degree to which he was felt to be, at least among the sophists, an ultimately decent and harmless one.If you're the same anon who above speculated that Prodicus could've been a stand-in for Aristotle, while I like the mischeviousness of the suggestion, I think that's far too doubtful. (I've seen similar takes on the Aristoteles of the Parmenides, but I think a different point is being alluded to more in line with what the Republic warns about the teaching of dialectic.)But, and I want to emphasize, I do like seeing it when anons really try to grapple with those points of the dialogues that usually get skimmed over, and trying to see the relations of passages between them. Keep that up.
>>24766567Thanks anon. I honestly don't believe that Prodicus is a parody of Aristotle. But I do believe that it parodies the kind of linguistic inquiry that must attribute to each word a portion of reality, as if each word's meaning didn't vary depending on how it is used.I believe that Plato did value the analysis of language, not as a direct means of arriving at Ideas or Forms, but rather as a kind of reflection of them. Just as in the Republic it is said that the sun can be appreciated through its reflection in water, I believe that Ideas can be appreciated to the extent that one is aware of how water or language deforms what it reflects.Now, I do believe that in Parmenides, in some sense, he alludes to Aristotle, because, at least in the Nicomachean Ethics, we can see that many conclusions identical to Plato's are shared (for example, that only for the good man do things appear as they truly are), but philosophy lacks any belief in Ideas or Forms. In this way, it seems that Aristotle's thought is something like Plato without the theory of forms, and in this way what Parmenides says is fulfilled:>And yet, Socrates, said Parmenides, if a man, fixing his attention on these and the like difficulties, does away with ideas of things and will not admit that every individual thing has its own determinate idea which is always one and the same, he will have nothing on which his mind can rest; and so he will utterly destroy the power of reasoning, as you seem to me to have particularly noted.Since in Nicomachean Ethics, it is denied that there is an idea of good, but nevertheless, it is said that there are different goods, and some are better than others, and for man, the highest good is politics, as Protagoras could have said.
Any books on this phenomenon? I've noticed increasingly that the traditional incel theories on chads dominating the sexual marketplace are obsolete. The dating market seems now to be further oriented in women's favour. All men who 20 years ago you would consider "jocks" or "chads" drowning in pussy I meet these days seem to be struggling getting women as much as average men. Social media has given women so many options that even jocks now have to resort to simping for months or even years for a crumb of pussy. Social media has given women the satisfaction of validation without ever having to put out-even for chad. Why fuck one chad and become beholden to him when I can have 50 simping for me and I don't even have to leave the house for my validation? Incels seem behind on this. So any literature on this? All I can find is the old fashioned pick-up artist and incel stuff about "alpha males" who it appears are a dying breed.
>24766599>this fictional media product proves—SHUT UP
>>24766617yeah, you go on being poorer and still a loser. It's not like there's turning back for you anyway.
>>24766628If there are several movies and books about something then it's on you to disprove it doesn't exist. I mean it's just hilarious that you even argue with this on 4chan. You know, the site that has had child porn and gore porn posted on it for 20+ years? The site where you can switch over to various boards full of violent porn in a single click? Or maybe you started posting here in 2016 like the rest of the riff raff? I've been here since 2005. I know what scum walks this earth.
>24766640>If there are several movies and books about something then it's on you to disprove it doesn't exist....
>>24766654Evola was autistic.
Christianity's all children's book morals and a personal sky daddy that keeps you trapped in dualistic thinking. You're either saved or damned, God is totally other, your ego stays boss of your life. But Buddhism actually kills nihilism by embracing emptiness as the ground of everything and breaking the self down to let real compassion flow. It doesn't plug another metaphysical band‑aid over Western ego trip, instead it nukes the whole ego, dissolves the subject/object split, and reveals the organic, interpenetrating nature of reality. No more Cartesian zombies, no more being stuck in affirmation/negation hell: form is emptiness, emptiness is form. You get impersonal personality, zero‑self rooted in dependent co‑origination, and from that place a genuine, self‑less love for all beings. Christianity just can't compete, it's too mired in theism, guilt, and this backward Western obsession with linear history, whereas Buddhism gives you a timeless, life‑affirming path out of Western culture's existential abyss.
>>24766173The website you post from is a great resource for the translated suttas, but I have to point out that Thanissaro Bhikkhu's views are sometimes very inconsistent with Buddhism. Look at what he writes here> If death is annihilation, then there are no heavens, no hells, no Brahmā worlds and no nibbāna. And if this is true, then the Buddha was even stupider than we are, because pleasure in the present life is something everyone knows enough to search forHe's saying the only reason to follow Buddhism is for a future reward in some kind of better rebirth or heaven. Hence you are forgoing current pleasure (leading this life of ascetism) just so you can get a reward of better and greater pleasures later. When in reality, the Buddha only ever talked about solving the problem of suffering in this life, in this world, and always refused to answer about what happens after death. When you have such a distorted vision of Buddhism (do it for the rewards in the afterlife or another life), then your commentary in general has to be suspect. But I give him a lot of credit for putting up the translations of the suttas and it is one of the best resources out there for translated texts.
Christianity has had the greatest impact on raising humanity’s standard of living. It pioneered schools, fought to end slavery, and spread universal morality and ethics across societies that were once defined by cruelty ritual killings, human sacrifice, and the abuse of the innocent. The work of Christian saints and philosophers remains one of the strongest civilizing forces in history. Buddhism is, in many ways, similar. Ideally, it offers deep wisdom, but in practice it often leaves gaps in guidance for how frail and ego-driven humans should act in daily society. That’s why Christianity emphasizes “children’s book morals” because most humans behave like children: ignorant, impulsive, and egotistical. Clear, simple stories were the only way to reach the masses and restrain their worst instincts. Both Christianity and Buddhism emerged in eras of brutality and uncharitable beliefs. They are not rivals but allies, pointing in the same moral direction. If personified, they would stand side by side, recognizing that their mission is not to compete but to rescue humanity from self-destruction.Atheism, however, offers no such moral foundation. It dismantles the systems that work, replacing them with empty relativism and ego-flattering beliefs that corrode society. What you call “critique” is often just intellectual hypocrisy dressed up as progress.So instead of mocking the “cleaners” of human civilization for using different techniques, pick up a broom yourself. Christianity and Buddhism are both sweeping away barbarism; atheism merely laughs from the corner while the floor rots. That posture is not wisdom it is degeneration of a fool.
>>24766598Wrong, european humanism did that and christianity tried really hard for none of that to happen
>>24766620>european humanismYour hubris is astounding.
Is there anything more insufferable than the trendy white kid pop orientalist pseudo religious hipster? The kind of fag who says (wrongly) that Buddhism is somehow not a religion?
*dethrones Zizek as the most influential living philosopher*
>>24766528Ironically, Moldbug freaked out when Roe v. Wade got overturned, so he's clearly pro-choice, and legal abortion has been a disaster for White birth rates. It's the "christcucks" who would be healthier for White people since they support large families.
>>24766600the abortion thing, his hypochondriac covid stances, his penchant for art hoes, his admission that his primary concern is for power, really just shows its more of an effort of an over-produced elite trying to cycle into power than anything philosophical
>>24766605Yeah, you're almost certainly right. He's clearly very smart, and I confess some of his thinking is interesting, but at the end of the day it's all very self-serving and you can't pretend it isn't. I'm amused and intrigued by him but I certainly don't trust him to do the country good long-term.
>>24766600>legal abortion has been a disaster for White birth ratesnot particularly. It was holding back nigger birth rates to a greater degree which is why it was great. Now white people will just pay to travel to other places to have abortions, and niggers will continue to breed like rats. The more they pop out, the more money they get from the government anyway.
>>24766638This is why the next step is to implement the other Catholic teachings: criminalizing birth control and criminalizing no-fault divorce.Everybody should have just listened to Paul VI from the start, but better late than never.
TRVKE
>>24766609Most "classics" took several years to write though...
>>24766609>"but most people I know..."And there's the problem. Opinion disregarded.
When I read books like Beowulf, the Odyssey, Journey to the West, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Gulliver’s Travels and the Divine Comedy, I can’t help think that fantasy was more imaginative, fantastic and interesting before it was self-consciously regarded as the genre of fantasy. After the genre was established it’s become utter dogshit, not withstanding a few examples that tend to draw more from the classics like Cugel’s Saga. I feel like there is nothing dreamlike in it
>>24766129>thoughtfulYeah buddy, I'm sorry you wasted your life reading a dozen dead end autist franchises believing there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I breezed through HP in a couple of months and went back to literature
>>24762983>I can’t help think that fantasy was more imaginative, fantastic and interesting before it was self-consciously regarded as the genre of fantasyOf course, but what you're describing isn't 'fantasy'. 'Fantasy' is just otherworldly imagination wrapped in scare quotes, and accordingly limited.
>>24764202It's funny how much hedging there is in this post.>Not a masterpiece>It is not literary, but>JK Rowling's world doesn't make any sense>her shortcomings, of which there are manyIt's like you already know her books are utter shit but you still feel some need to sheepishly defend them, maybe out of nostalgia or some other sentimental attachment.It's ok to say a book is just lowbrow slop and not real literature, and still enjoy it anyway. Just don't pretend like you actually know anything about fantasy, post-Tolkien or otherwise.
>>24766381Kek I spend the whole post explaining the one thing she does well and the spergs still can't understand it
>>24763484I don't think people ever thought of Beowulf as a true story.
Have you ever read a book off a gaming system?
>>24765300Yeah, The Lusty Argonian
>>24765300I read excerpts from Carroll, Shakespeare and Browning in a Japanese RPGMaker porn game, does that count?
I read books on my old3ds
>>24765950Test
>>24765428midwit post, rap is about entertaining the crowd, or person listening to the record, poetry as it stood, was produced on the page and for the most part utterly cucked by the English public standards of the time, so that they were limited to coming up with radically creative meter because the subject matter was always the most mind-killingly mundane expression of life you could ever imagine. Rap has lots of other limitations, for example, the neccessity to hide behind symbols of bravado. DJ Premier being, for example, completely musically illiterate and forced to steal other people's music to create a beat. The idea that someone on 4chan willingly reads meter for fun without telling anyone before or afterwards is laughable.
>>24765953>and for the most part utterly cucked by the English public standards of the time, so that they were limited to coming up with radically creative meter because the subject matter was always the most mind-killingly mundane expression of life you could ever imagine.The most renowned English poet of the 19th century died in battle as part of a Homeric larp while most of his poetry reflects a combination of that with bawdy comic interludes.
>>24765976England is famous for having philistines in the majority and eccentric genius treated like somekind of everpresent Van Gogh-ism in the world, the reality is that this place is infertile and barren and that the England that people "love" consists of about 100 people.
>>24750497
Holy Kino
>>24762061Stop projecting troon.
>>24761861Sh'yeah... it's pretty gud
I like this collection – it's definitive.
>>24762061This ain't reddit
>>24761861HQLY. BVSED.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LANHWwEjOAU&list=RDLANHWwEjOAU&start_radio=1
Science kills faith because it slowly robs the world of the conditions where belief could even make sense. Once you start seeing the universe not as a stage for divine providence but as a system of impersonal forces and mathematical regularities the old framework collapses. The Christian promise of a purposeful cosmos overseen by a personal God gets hollowed out until it's just poetry without substance. What's left is this mechanistic machine-world indifferent to our existence where "meaning" is no longer baked into the structure of reality. That's why atheism and nihilism inevitably grow in the soil of scientific rationalism, it strips away the illusions that kept people anchored in hope. Nietzsche saw it clearly, the same devotion to truth that Christianity demanded ends up killing Christianity because science takes that demand to its logical conclusion. And when you stand in that stripped-down landscape you don't find God, you find a void. The more science advances the wider that void becomes until faith looks less like a foundation and more like a coping mechanism that can't survive its own children.
>>24758817And where did these "mathematical regularities" come from?
>>24758817It's the opposite, really. The more one gets into science and mathematics, and truly studies the fundamental nature of matter and the universe, it becomes apparent there's some logic higher than the material, which drives the universe.Even if it isn't a Christian outlook, every real math and science professor I've studied under has had a genuine reverence that approaches mysticism about math and about science. To them, it isn't a way of becoming God through technological progress like the bureaucrats who get their hands on the fruits of their labors, but rather of finding and understanding God (and when I say God here, I mean the supreme fundamental principle of the universe), much the same as a philosopher does.That the universe can be likened to a machine implies the existence of a machinist who designated it for some purpose. That scientific endeavors can understand the world at all through reason implies a rational basis for the world. The more science advances, the less one can separate physics and metaphysics, and thus the less one can deny that either of the two exists.>personal godIf the supreme Being isn't personal, is He really supreme? If personhood is a higher form of being than non-personhood, just as life is a higher form of being than non-life, then a force is less than a person. God as some vague mystical force, some universal unconscious energy field, then, doesn't make sense. Perhaps God isn't a person in the way we would understand it, but that's only because He exists in a form that is more than a person, rather than less.
>>24761980>atheists still absurdly believe in moralsNothing absurd about morals. Humans are tribal creatures, and every tribe has its rules. That's all that morals are.
>>24766210>the universe tends toward orderAnd why do you suppose that is?
>>24759512If that were true, scientists as a class would've remained overwhelmingly Christian.
What's your favourite novel by the greatest living writer /lit/?
>>24765831nah they're great you fucking psud
>>24765831I always heard from 4chan that Murakami was a milf guy, while this thread says he’s obsessed with schoolgirls.
Man Kafka on the Shore had incredibly dull prose and the story seemed kind of stitched together and vague while hinting at peaks of intrigue that never came to fruition. Shorelines, music, moonlight, war, literature, riddles, amnesia, mystery girls, put together it all strikes as ultimately performative.
>>24763792Im only about 100 pages in but there are some things about it that remind me of Colorless, Norwegian Wood and South/West. Mostly the abrupt loss of communication, the letters and trying to move on from childhood friends/love/childhood in general. Which seems mostly superficial but read over and over it can be tiresome. Im very happy I hadn’t read City right after Hardboiled, since I had both, because I’d have been made dizzy by it.
>>24764879It and pinball are perfect for this time of year too. Really more for August/September but still good. Just really comfy reads, high on vibes.
>Easiest shit in the world to understand >Westoids continuously "don't get it" and as a result, seethe and cope about it constantly You're a fucking retard if you don't understand this book.
>>24762901Bao Be Ling
“Resistance is futile” Lao Tzu
>>24763607>Retards will worship anything from planets to anceint trees.What's wrong with that, kike
>>24763108>>24763186>>24763212>>24763614>oh my HECKIN' scienceFaggot.
>>24766087You literally think the universe operates on "science", don't talk down to anyone.
