The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.

PatrThom

PatrThom

I think that depends on how you view "Death." A god(des?) "of Death" would be a deity who represents the cessation of life, and would therefore not only be about human death, but also the death of plants, flies, bacteria, fungi, and potentially celestial bodies. This is different from a god(des?) "of the Dead," which would be more about any afterlife, shepherding entities towards redemption/reincarnation/redistribution.

--Patrick
 
mikerc

mikerc

Some mythologies treat a god's role as more of a job than something intrinsic to their nature. Could be entertaining to read a story where the local God of Death reacts to the latest war or plague with annoyance because of all the extra paperwork they have to fill out when they just want to clock off & relax with a nice cup of Ambrosia.
 
mikerc

mikerc

PatrThom said:
Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series has some of that.

--Patrick
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I dont think I've read any Piers Anthony since back when I was still in my teens.

Isn't a lot of his stuff rather...problematical, shall we say? As in he likes to have adult males in relationships with underage girls, but he thinks it's alright because he writes it so that the girl is the one doing the seducing. Or am I thinking of someone else?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I'm ...not sure? PA has written (or co-written) a LOT of stuff, and while I don't specifically remember anything like what you describe, it's almost impossible to find an author without "issues" of some kind, and that's even if you leave out Heinlein.

--Patrick
 
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

Some of Anthony’s later Xanth stuff falls into that catagory, but he wrote some good stories in lots of genres. The Incarnations books have some interesting looks at the whole thing. I liked Death and War in he most out of the whole series.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

Xanth was crawling with stuff like that. I don't know his other writings well, because after reading the Xanth series in college, it was enough to make me not want to read more.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Celt Z said:
Xanth was crawling with stuff like that. I don't know his other writings well, because after reading the Xanth series in college, it was enough to make me not want to read more.
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The plot of the first one was that the hero fell in love with a girl because she was everything. She was cursed so that she went through phases. First she was ugly but brilliant, then plain in every way, then beautiful but dumb. He thought she was three different people and loved each of them in their own way, but hten he found out she was all three and made just for him! Oh, and there's a book in the series called, "The Color of Her Panties".
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

Dave said:
The plot of the first one was that the hero fell in love with a girl because she was everything. She was cursed so that she went through phases. First she was ugly but brilliant, then plain in every way, then beautiful but dumb. He thought she was three different people and loved each of them in their own way, but hten he found out she was all three and made just for him! Oh, and there's a book in the series called, "The Color of Her Panties".
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Yeah, I remember all of that, and more. Like @PatrThom said, subtle he was not. I had a friend of mine (who was both gay and a little naive, so maybe why a lot of this flew over his head?) lend me his copies of the series, because it shared a crossover character from my favorite series, ElfQuest. So I ended up reading the first 22 Xanth books. It did NOT get better.

Still not as angry about it as I am at my ex who made me read the 10 Amber books WITH IT MILLIONS OF HANGING PLOT THREADS. FUCK YOUR DRUG AND ALCOHOL-SODDEN BRAIN, ZELAZNY.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

PatrThom said:
Are you going to get the new hardcovers?
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I've been debating it. I have the original full color TPBs that they don't make anymore, but unfortunately, because they're over 30 years old, they're very delicate and some of the pages are starting to come loose. But I have Volume 1 signed by the Pinis, so that will have to be pried from my cold, dead hands!

It'll depend if Li'l Z is interested. I'd feel better if he was dog-earing the newer copies then the old, fragile ones.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Anthony's Geodyssey series has lots of sexual situations with underage girls, though it's couched in the context of "this is what people did in these ancient times".

But I remember one scene where there's a dude and a teenage girl, and the dude's like, "my daughter is fourteen", and the girl's like "what a coincidence, I'm fourteen too", and then the two of them end up having sex.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
You guys are just talking about Piers Anthony's fiction, there's another level of creep when it comes to his non-fiction accounts of his correspondence with young fans. Even his own accounts include him writing to a young female fan, and including erotic writing with a note to only have her parents read this. How creepy that is depends on your interpretation, but I think there's a strong grooming vibe.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Tinwhistler said:
I'm glad that article mentions Firefly. It was on the tip of my tongue yesterday, but I couldn't remember the name of it. It's got a particularly graphic sex scene with an adult an a 5 year old girl, but hey...it's ok. She seduced him. (eyeroll)
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... I'm sorry, what? Are we sure this wasn't written by Humbert Humbert?
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Ravenpoe said:
... I'm sorry, what? Are we sure this wasn't written by Humbert Humbert?
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My memories of the book are not off, sadly

litreactor.com

Themes of Pedophilia in the Works of Piers Anthony

litreactor.com litreactor.com

Check out this Amazon review of Firefly

Too pedophile-friendly for my taste
www.amazon.com
www.goodreads.com

Suz's review of Firefly

1/5: I know that going back and rating long-ago-read books is probably a little silly, but this book was seared into my brain as an adolescent. I picked it up because I was in high school and loving much of Anthony's work (Cluster series, Incarnations of Immortality, Apprentice Adept, etc.. -...
www.goodreads.com
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

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PatrThom

PatrThom

Do you mean slot-head screws? Because I feel ya there. My assumption is that they still exist because they have greater head strength due to less of the head being made up of void.

--Patrick
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

PatrThom said:
Do you mean slot-head screws? Because I feel ya there. My assumption is that they still exist because they have greater head strength due to less of the head being made up of void.

--Patrick
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No I mean flat head. ;)

I don't see these used in situations that require high screw head strength. I have snapped screws below the head more than stripping the head. Give me a star/torx or square head any day.

I took down some wire shelving in a closet this weekend and it was all slotted/ flat head screws and was super slow going. If was Phillips, I would have been done in 10 min vs an hour fiddling with those silly things.
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Slotted: High torque properties for tightening, flexibility in adverse conditions for removing.

Flat head: flush face
 
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Dave

Dave

Staff member
Tried making a map for an upcoming tabletop game that I'm running. Went to several sites and came up with nothing. So I went to Fiverr. Paid a guy a lot more money than I should have. My requirements:

The world is a Pangaea (single continent) with polar caps at both the north and south borders. Places and names do not matter as long as they are not offensive or could be changed. Scale of the world should be pretty massive with a single ocean on the east & west sides. Any questions, please reach out.
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Got it today. It's about the size of a pencil. The name of the world is "Pangaea".

 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Just play a game of Civ of your choice, then copy the full game map, adjust city names as needed. It'll even do a decent job of creating sensible locations for rival empires etc depending on your play style and choice if enemies.
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Dave said:
Tried making a map for an upcoming tabletop game that I'm running. Went to several sites and came up with nothing. So I went to Fiverr. Paid a guy a lot more money than I should have. My requirements:



Got it today. It's about the size of a pencil. The name of the world is "Pangaea".

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I can make you one, or let you have one of my existing.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Dave said:
Tried making a map for an upcoming tabletop game that I'm running. Went to several sites and came up with nothing. So I went to Fiverr. Paid a guy a lot more money than I should have. My requirements:



Got it today. It's about the size of a pencil. The name of the world is "Pangaea".

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I plugged your description into an AI image generator and I shit you not this is what it spat out.

1733453177385.jpeg
 
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