Read It Now Reviews #33 – The Destruction of the Self, Don’t Laugh At Me!, Highway Robbery, Since When Were You So Playful?, The Trouble with Genealogy · 3:19am Jun 5th, 2015
With the writeoff over, it is time to get back into the swing of reviews!
Today’s excuse to promote The Destruction of the Self stories:
The Destruction of the Self by Cold in Gardez
Don’t Laugh At Me by Starlit Omega
Highway Robbery by cleverpun
Since When Were You So Playful? by Jondor
The Trouble with Genealogy by Arroz
The Destruction of the Self
by Cold in Gardez
Slice of Life
5,388 wordsThere is a village where everypony can be the same.
You may have read some nasty things about it. Rumors of stolen cutie marks and power-mad unicorns. Tall tales about forced smiles and frightened glances.
It's all lies. All except the part about us wanting to escape. That's true.
It's why we came here in the first place.
Why I added it: It won the last writeoff.
Review
This story is obviously heavily inspired by Starlight Glimmer’s town, and was very likely also inspired by The Lottery in Babylon. Each day, every pony in town goes to get their job assignment and do their job, however adept or poor at it they might be. Every day, every pony gets a home to go home to. There might be a wife and husband there, there might be a foal there waiting for their parents to come home… and for that day, they are the wife or husband, and the parent to that foal.
Broken up into three parts, it shows us the point of view of three different characters, and we come to learn why they have come to this town – to forget, to escape their previous lives, to avoid danger and loss. Buckwheat is a farmer who lost his wife and kid, and who now has an infinite supply of replacements no matter what happens to anyone. Spring Heath lost her husband, but she has realized she has now lost her foal as well to the village life. It is only in the last of the three do we really see someone doing reasonably well in the village.
Buckwheat and Spring Heath are trying to lose themselves, but the trouble is that it is impossible - they’re still people, the same ponies that they always were, and however much they might claim to be the same as everypony else, they’re not. The story constantly explores this contradiction, the contrast between their ideal of all being interchangeable, and the reality of none of them being truly interchangeable, and what it means to try to lose themselves in this town, as well as the reality that none of them truly can, and why it is that they’re failing. Indeed, ironically, their attempts to erase themselves in the present is only making their pasts all the more prominent, because they can never move on from them because they have nothing new to replace them with.
The story’s title is very clever, as it has a triple meaning – the village itself tries to destroy the differences between ponies by pretending that they are all the same, while the villagers are trying to lose themselves in the village life by becoming generic ponies. But all of this is ultimately self-destructive.
The central idea is really great and makes the story quite an interesting read; I really liked this in the write-off, and I think it is well worth your time.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Don’t Laugh At Me
by Starlit Omega
Romance
2,516 words"It's no secret that Applejack and I are really cool friends, but nopony really knows how I feel about her. Her awesome blonde hair, those powerful legs that won't quit, that amazing smile, all wrapped up underneath her trademark cowpony hat.
Urgh! I've had it! I've just gotta tell her how she makes me feel!
I just hope she takes me seriously for once..."
Why I added it: It was featured, features AppleDash, and the chapter was titled “It’s not a prank!”
Review
This was my favorite bit:
The evening sun hung low in the sky, warning everyone of the coming night. Rainbow cut through the wind like Rarity's scissors cut through fabric. The good pair of scissors that Rainbow wasn't allowed to use.
What kind of weirdo has different scissors for cutting different things, anyway?
Unfortunately, I was less than thrilled by the rest of it. Rainbow Dash gets Applejack’s favorite muffins from Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash sits around listening to Applejack, Rainbow Dash finally spits it out, Applejack thinks it is a prank but stops Rainbow Dash from running away crying, they talk a little, and decide to date.
It wasn’t terrible, but I just never really got into it. Rainbow Dash and Applejack didn’t leap out of the story at me, and Rainbow Dash sitting around while Applejack was talking about her long, boring day without comment on the action struck me as strange. The whole story was kind of subdued, and it felt kind of underplayed. I wasn’t excited for them dating at the end, nor did I really feel much of a sense of tension over Rainbow Dash’s emotions – indeed, I didn’t even really feel like the relationship was presented in a very compelling way.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Highway Robbery
by cleverpun
Dark, Comedy
1,266 wordsPonies say that if you wait at a crossroads with darkness in your heart, you can trade your soul away for power.
Trixie thinks this sounds like a good deal. Surely her soul is worth much more than the average one. Certainly enough to afford revenge against that life-ruining Twilight Sparkle.
Or maybe exchange rates for souls are not as favorable as she expected.
Why I added it: Cleverpun is a good writer, and the summary amused me.
Review
Trixie tries to sell her soul to the devil (well, a devil at any rate; judging by the conclusion of the story, Trixie doesn’t rate the actual devil, either) but is told she is rather worthless.
This is a funny little story, and I liked it on the whole; it was short and a little bit silly, and felt like something that might be entered in a minific write-off.
That being said, I felt like the ending wasn’t as funny as it should have been; there wasn’t a real punchline at the end, and the final paragraph was fairly weak. The ending just wasn’t punchy enough for my tastes.
Mostly, this story is worth reading if you want to read about Trixie trying to sell her soul, but unfortunately, the joke is kind of in the description; it is what it is, but it doesn’t really end up feeling like it went very far with it.
Recommendation: Worth reading if knowing the joke isn’t the end of the world for you.
Since When Were You So Playful?
by Jondor
Sex, Romance
3,684 wordsTwilight finds it a bit difficult to reconcile Celestia's playful new manner with the regal teacher she knew for so long.
Once she does, however, the benefits are plain to see.
Why I added it: I follow Jondor, and because of Twilestia.
Review
Twilight gets the hots for Celestia at the gala as Celestia lets her hair down (well, as much as someone with ethereal hair that flows on the solar wind can) and gives her a kiss, then has an awkward conversation with her before realizing that Celestia reciprocates.
Honestly, I was not very enamored with this story; the whole thing felt awkward to me. The story spends an enormous amount of time on exposition at the start, trying to set up for the kiss, but it just kind of felt like stuff we already knew, and which could have been expressed better via dialogue or some other means, rather than just telling the audience about Twilight’s history with Celestia and that Twilight has always known that Celestia was playful, and that Celestia is getting more so now that she has less responsibility.
That kind of soured me on the rest of the story, which felt fairly standard as far as such stories go; I’ve read the kiss-then-awkward-conversation thing before, and this never really went anywhere all that interesting with it.
It also with the whole non-monogamy thing, which is just not a thing for me, and doesn’t really strike me as being the style of most of the ponies on the show – certainly not without justification, which is pretty thin on the ground here. It also had RariDash thrown in there for good measure, with the pair getting caught in the act, and having apparently been Twilight’s lovers in the past, without much behind it.
All of this crowded into a story under 4,000 words just made it feel like someone wanted some ponies to kiss (and do other things) without really bringing me along for the ride.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
The Trouble with Genealogy
by Arroz
Comedy, Random, Slice of Life
3,263 wordsLuna's return was met with significant fanfare, though with all the fuss dying down, and with the formal re-establishment of the night court months away, Luna seems to have had little to do other than lounging around.
Or so Celestia thinks.
When she finds Luna entering the Ministry of Records unannounced, she wonders just what is her little sister up to.
Why I added it: It was featured.
Review
Luna finds out that about a third of Equestria is descended from her (rather prolific) son.
This story is labelled a comedy, but honestly it never made me laugh, and really, on the whole, the story didn’t really feel like it went anywhere all that interesting. It was a fairly straightforward telling of the tale, we get a justification for how it was possible, and then… it just kind of ends without really going anywhere beyond the premise. Why is this important? How does this effect Luna? We just don’t get much vision on its importance, or how it affects the characters of Luna and Celestia.
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Summary
The Destruction of the Self by Cold in Gardez
Highly Recommended
Don’t Laugh At Me by Starlit Omega
Not Recommended
Highway Robbery by cleverpun
Worth Reading
Since When Were You So Playful? by Jondor
Not Recommended
The Trouble with Genealogy by Arroz
Not Recommended
The Destruction of the Self is an excellent story that you should all read, and it is always nice to see something like that in a review set.
Incidentally, if there were any really good stories that were released in the month of May, please let me know; as I noted previously, I sort of vanished from the site for about a month, and I really haven’t been keeping up on new releases, so I’m sure I missed some good stuff.
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later – Important: 65
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later – High Priority: 257
Number of stories listed as Read It Later: 1591
I can't disagree with your analysis. It was a short nothing fic I wrote in a few hours, so I didn't put any thought into the ending. At least it was entertaining for what it was, though.
Thanks for the review, either way
I always appreciate reading comments/critique with some substance, even if they are directed at something that doesn't have much.
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You're welcome! I'm glad that I enjoyed it.
I have a soft spot for deals with deals with good old Lucy.
It gives me a sense of legitimacy when a person who does reviews has opinions that match my own.
For that I shall follow you, you who make me feel good about myself for no good reason.
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Good to know I can even appease the mighty Sauron.
Though to some extent, it is useful to find reviewers who have a similar mind to your own, because they're the people who are most likely to point you towards other things you'd enjoy.
Remember, stories about ponies are stories about people!
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It's true!
Incidentally, the cover art for that thing looks like the cover of a book that might have been printed in the 1950s or 1960s.
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Excellent Point. I might have to go back and read your earlier reviews, you might have some stuff for me to put on my always increasing Read-it-Later list.
3125170 it made me think more of the 30s or 40s, almost like BioShock. Which brings up an interesting point that the city of Rapture in that game runs on the exact opposite principle of that of "Our Town": Rapture is where people go to the more exceptional then society would let them be. Our town is where ponies go to escape exceptionalism
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