Silence, some Skywriterly notes, and a surprise · 4:11am Jul 22nd, 2013
Hello my readers, magnificent and kind.
So. Um. I've been really quite silent lately, haven't I? I'm really, terribly, sorry about that. I've been busy as all hell, and, on a purely personal level, this has been a very rough few weeks for me[1]. Not much of an excuse, but there you go. I promise stories are coming, I've three I've already written, and two of those have been edited, too. I just need to edit the third, and write yet a fourth, and I can publish that collection like I should. Then I continue work on my Miss Rarity Investigates project. I'm sorry you have to wait.
Right. Regarding Skywriter (I did promise Skywriterly notes, didn't I?) -- he recently wrote a story named Sun Princess[2]. Now, it is a good story, and, yes, it is a sad story. Everyone seems in agreement about that point. What I think is worth talking about, if only briefly, is why.
NOTE: SPOILERS MOST TERRIBLE PAST THIS POINT[3].
Most people seem to relate the story to a lost pet of some description and find that's why it is so affective. Now, I've never had a pet[4], so this doesn't really work on me. I mean, yes, I empathize with the idea, but Applejack is a no-nonsense sort of pony and I don't doubt she knows how dogs live. She'll be sad, but she'll make it to the other side fine. And Winona is dying, the poor thing, but, well, she's lived as good a life as she could have, and now she must die. All things do, sooner or later. It's melancholy, but it's not something-just-punched-me-in-the-soul sad.
There's also the Twilight/Celestia analogy, and that's poignant, but it's not sad, as such, not really. The parallels aren't perfect, and there have been so many Celestia dies/Twilight dies/Everypony dies fics--the concept has quite lost its sting. They don't make me sad, these days, so much as peeved.
The saddest aspect of it, for me, is that we are in Winona's head, and we get to see just how noble and loyal she is, after her own fashion, and just how limited her perceptions are. A loyal heart, a faithful soul, but absolutely no apprehension of her own death, no idea what follows, no idea what the pony in the center of her life is, and no idea that not even ponies are forever. It's this helpless fear, an unknown future hurtling towards you in a world you do not understand, with all your trust put into something that, really, you shouldn't be putting your trust into at all that really gets to me. There's a lot of Winona in what we like to call 'the human condition,' isn't there?
Of course, I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.
SPOILERS MOST TERRIBLE END HERE
Okay. That was fairly bleak. How about something cheery?
The Civil Service stories now have their own TvTropes page!
It's tiny, of course, but that's not important because OMIGOSH I'M ON TVTROPES! BEST! POSSIBLE! THING![5] Of course, if any of you nice people were to add to the page, that would be an EVEN! BETTER! THING![6]
:)
The page's been worked on by a few people, according to the logs, but I happen to know that the fellow who started it all is a chap by the name of Westbrook87 who is, consequently, made of win.
[1] Won't go into details--not what this blog is for, after all--but I will give you a GhostOfHeraclitus Top Tip (TM). Ahem: Acquire brilliant infinitely patient friends who are made of awesome. Several if possible. They make everything better.
[2] And if you haven't read it--what are you waiting for? It's by Skywriter. You don't really need any recommendations past that point.
[3] But, seriously, how did you reach this point without reading it first. It's Skywriter for Pete's sake.
[4] I like animals just fine. It's just that I'm allergic to anything with fur. Or feathers. I'm probably allergic to scales, too.
[5] I quite like TvTropes. Can you tell?
[6] Why, yes, I am utterly shameless.
There goes my night. This was posted as I was ALREADY stuck in tvtropes, now I'm gonna have to read through your page and then it's going to spiral even more out of control than it is already.
THANKS.
I'll tell you how I've gone this long without reading it.
I've been in the mines all day.
And I know how you feel about going quiet. I feel like I've just disappeared from Fimfiction suddenly. I'm doing a heck of a lot of fic-related stuff, but not interacting with my friends here. It's... weird. I'm glad I'm doing it, but I really need to find a balance before everyone gets bored with me and stops caring what I write.
Available if you still have a position open.
True, but I just got past a nasty bit of depression myself, and I am somewhat avoiding stories that involve character death in such a way. The fact it is by such a good author actually makes it worse, since that means it would severely affect me.
1226082
Anytime!
1226096
Mines? The fanfic mines? Or is your vacation-thing over already?
And, gosh, yes, if you continue as you have done, I will have stopped caring about what you write by...lesseee...carry the one...August the 17th.... 40 885 CE. Or thereabouts. So do hurry up. You've only 38 872 years (or so) left.
But I do miss you. Well, not just me, I'm sure. And if the EqD won't give you back, well then, by Celestia's varicolored mane, we're going to get you back.
1226142
Adventure metafiction!
Well GoH, we can't actually add to it until we have some more material to add. So, y'know, you'd have to write more Dotty stories.
*coughcoughhinthintcough*
uwuuu
1226168
I'd read it.
It's all good man, life is life and that's gotta come first. I mean, I have daily withdrawal symptoms while waiting for more of your stories, but what does that matter! We'll be (suffering) patient chaps
Anyway, that's an interesting analysis of Sun Princess, and I hadn't thought of it that way. It's certainly true that people are always trusting things they shouldn't be, and often times it's a shame. This makes me curious though--and this may be a question too hefty to answer here and now--what is it that you deem worthy of putting your trust in, if anything? Please, you won't offend with your beliefs here, though if the question is uncomfortable--if only by talking about it on a pony website-- then no biggie, just, I don't know, ignore me or something
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Astounding! Let us be utterly shameless together!
1226168
...oooh that's tempting, that is.
1226244
Nonsense, nonsense, I'm, uh, I'm not publishing anything because I'm....that's right, I'm giving you time to catch up on TvTropes. Yeah. That's just the kind of considerate fellow I am.
1226307
Actually, I was just referring to the fact that humans, in general, put their trust in all sorts of things as greater and more enduring than themselves. Art, knowledge, various and varied deities, ideologies, &c &c &c. It's all, at least in part, a reaction to our need for there to be something in this silly universe that will last forever and will give some sort of meaning to the things we did and didn't do.
Winona is doing the same thing, but the conceit of the story is that we know that she is wrong, unlike our own beliefs where uncertainty rules supreme. That's the throat-catching bit. Winona is all of us, paradoxically made easier to see by being made smaller.
Or so goes my take on it.
Now if you are asking me about my personal beliefs... that's a complicated question with a fittingly complicated answer[1]. Suffice it to say that, no matter what the creed, my beliefs are heterodox in the extreme.
[1] Bradel once asked me the same question and the resulting conversation took...what do you think, Bradel? Fifteen thousand words? Twenty?
1226333 totes holding the tropes hostage until our Dotty demands are met!
Winona's innocent selflessness is the thing I find the saddest about that story, so I think you and I are I the same boat (though I do own dogs, and drew pretty heavily on the death of my old herding-type Basil for the emotional nuts and bolts of that story.)
Congrats on getting a troper, and thanks for the feedback on my story!
Firstly, I think you're spot on with your analysis there. I can't argue with any of it.
I read Sun Princess, and I could tell it was sad. I could tell that somewhere I was feeling sad too, but it was faint, like it was happening far away or burred under thick cotton wool. I've just been feeling very numb lately about everything. I guess that's why the fics I always find the most precious are the ones that make me feel.
Anyway, hope the work clears up so that you are back to being only your usual horrendously busy self. If you need help editing, you know where to find me.
1226333
Heterodox, eh? That's an interesting term I've never heard used before, but a quick google shows me it's more common than I expected. Fifteen to twenty thousand words is certainly a lot haha, but not too much; I don't think it's possible to talk too much about philosophy, religion and worldviews. They're too important. Though I know many would disagree.
Anyway, perhaps someday I'll get to read those fifteen to twenty thousands words, since I'm always interested in seeing how others view the world we live in. Plus, it's how my own beliefs are tried and tested; nothing puts them through the wringer like other people who have differing views, especially if they're passionate.
As for the story, you've made me think: yes, Winona was wrong about who and what Applejack really was, but does that really make her trust in AJ wrong, or misplaced? I mean, I don't have an answer, but I suppose it would be wrong if there was actually something better for her to trust in and be faithful towards. If there was, then she was wrong and it's sad, but if not, then perhaps she wasn't so mistaken after all (other than in her own perception), and it's not so sad, other than, as you have pointed out, its relation to humanity (since we know many people die having trusted the wrong thing, as there can only be one set of true, or correct, beliefs. We can't all be right).
Thy Servant, a Dog
It is a trifling thing, full of sentiment and saccharine. Like most love songs when viewed from outside.