Discussions
Explore the latest discussions related to this domain.
Bounties, Failed Missions, Vanity
Main Post:
Why does quitting out of a team deciding to do another bounty create a Failed Mission?
I'm not sure all of my rewards have been accurate because of this. I don't get Mission Completed Screens for the bounties I've done when someone decides on doing a successive bounty and I want to quit. And it's killing my vanity stats on mission completes. I used to have zero mission fails until I started doing bounties. :(
Is this even on DE's wishlist of fixing things?
Top Comment:
Your rewards should be saved since the save after each bounty phase.
Bathroom LED Light Not Working - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Main Post: Bathroom LED Light Not Working - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
I just read Vanity Fair and…
Main Post:
WOW. That was possibly the best book I’ve ever read! I’m honestly struggling to get interested in any of my other books at the moment. I picked it up in June, but I stopped around page 100 as I was busy with readings for a summer class, but I just sped through the last 700 pages in a few days! I’ll admit, I had pretty high expectations as I’m a sucker for classics, and especially those written during the Victorian Era! but this book definitely exceeded them. The preface said the book had claims to be the best work written in the English language and it just might be (in my opinion).
I was astounded at how relevant it remains today. Thackeray’s voice as narrator was incredibly funny, ironic, and charming throughout, and I fell in love with every character (even Becky!) I was so conflicted, and still am, about Thackeray’s characters. Sometimes they felt like a caricature (like Jos for instance), but they each also had moments where they felt immensely more complex and like dear friends. I related a lot to Amelia, and I swear I was grinning when I read some of her dialogue with Dobbin, wanting to scream at her, “You love him, you fool!”
And while I thought it was immensely enjoyable, it wasn’t until the very end that it was solidified as such a masterpiece to me. Never have I read a book with what I think to be such a perfect, bittersweet ending—
“Emmy scurrying off on the arm of George (now grown a dashing young gentleman) and the Colonel seizing up his little Janey, of whom he is fonder than of anything in the world— fonder even than of his History of the Punjaub.
‘Fonder than he is of me,’ Emmy thinks with a sigh. But he never said a word to Amelia that was not kind and gentle, or thought of a want of hers that he did not try to gratify.
Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?”
—Ah! I’m still mulling over the ending, days later! Amelia, even with the happy, perfect family that she has always wanted, still must find a flaw within her own life. It always astonishes me how I can read something that seems so obvious (of course we’re all always dissatisfied! of course we all want what we can’t have!) but I can still take away so much.
Top Comment:
Vanity Fair is one of my top 2-3 novels. Brilliant, ruthless, wickedly funny, and it carries lessons about life and society that are just as fresh today. Plus it might be one of the most perfect plots in literature. I used to return to it every couple of years. Now you've prompted me to pick it up once again.
And, whatever you do, do not see the film adaptation with Reese Witherspoon. It was so far removed from the book that I felt like suing someone when I left the theater. Michael Palin's ten-part miniseries was far closer to the spirit of Thackeray.
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray is such fascinating, satisfying and frustrating read
Main Post:
Vanity Fair is victorian novel, which tells story about lives of middle and upper class society, highs and lows of its people - description which suits to most books of its period, yet that book stands out most of its contemporaries due to moral ambiguity of its characters. At the beginings Thackeray declares that it is a novel without a hero, statement to which story lives up perfectly. Thackeray's pessimistic, cynical, sardonic, borderline misanthropic outlook on society and human nature made the book for me. He is paints a big picture of vast majority of different characters, gives them sympathetic motives and stories, yet he makes sure that affection to them didn't last long. Whether character is strong, ambitions, extravagant or weak, fragile, meek, humble doesn't matter, cause author will show how all of that traits bring out worst from people. Which i really liked, it was facinating to see how even virtuous, become so stick their righteousness to the point when virtue become toxic, doesn't matter if it's unintentionally.
Book is very long, about 700 pages, but style makes it very easy and captivating to read, though it can be about 40-50 pages shorter, yet it was very interesting, enjoyable read to me. Sad that such interesting works doesn't get mention as much as works of other writers of its era, such as Dickens', Austen's, Bronte's
Top Comment:
Thackeray's choice to write about about how the strong dominate and trample over the weak remains a remarkably bold choice, and really gives the book a lot of bite as a parody of more idealistic writers like Dickens and Balzac.
In light of that, I'm really glad Thackeray decided to give the story such a satisfying ending, to restore some sense of justice. Although Thackeray did say he was writing a novel without a hero, I did feel that Dobbin was in many ways something of a hero throughout, even if he was detached from Becky's character arc
Thoughts on Vanity Fair?
Main Post:
Hi all, I'm a French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars buff and have been considering picking up Vanity Fair. Just curious about general opinions from people who have read it.
I love Tolstoy, Austen, and pretty much the whole gamut of 19th Century French authors. Never read any Thackeray, though!
Thanks!
Top Comment:
It feels like a very modern read. It's self-aware and satirical, the characters are openly flawed, it jumps around different interconnected stories...
And Becky Sharp is one of the best characters in literature. She's completely self-serving -- and the best parts of the book all involve her.
The downside to the book is that it's big, loose, and messy. It was serially published and definitely can give off the disconnected feel that comes with that.
But overall: worth it.
An Interview With the Vanity Fair Writer Whose Cormac McCarthy Scoop Went Viral for All the Wrong Reasons
Main Post: An Interview With the Vanity Fair Writer Whose Cormac McCarthy Scoop Went Viral for All the Wrong Reasons
Top Comment:
A fascinating response. In addition to digging down and casting himself as the big bad Internet villain, he straight-up confirms that he has a crush on Augusta Britt which is just..... why would you go out there and say that?
According to this interview McCarthy apparently had no interest in Gnosticism or Foucault, so there's that.
Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.”
Main Post: Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.”
Top Comment:
It was 1976, not the middle ages. We knew better. He knew better. He knew enough to take her to Mexico until she was 18. At the same time, it's a fascinating story because it's her story and she's telling it. She's allowed to frame it however she wants, to deal with it however she wants, without us playing therapist and dismissing her as a victim. But that doesn't mean we have to accept or justify what he did, either. He could have "rescued" her without taking advantage of her. Imagine you heard this same story, but the man was a lousy writer.
Speaking of which, I think the article itself is overwritten and kind of smarmy. He's practically ogling her at several points, which seems especially inappropriate, given the subject matter.
Vanity Fair: Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.”
Main Post: Vanity Fair: Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.”
Top Comment:
Her comment wow: "Santa Fe killed the Cormac I knew. He gained fame, wealth, and fancy superficial friends. He turned his back on his old friends like Jimmy Long (J-Bone) and Billy Kidwell. They were left to die, forgotten and alone. He lost much of his compassion and kindness. As the Institute crowd claimed more of his time, he struggled to write. Couldn’t write. How could he? He’d stifled or killed that which inspired him. The advance for The Passenger was spent. He was obligated. These last many years he has taken up drinking again. Living in majestic splendor but enjoying none of it. Surrounded by junk and the clutter of a lifetime. Haunted."
She doesn't seem far off either. Sad that he abandoned his friends.
On the Vanity Fair article and its response
Main Post:
Vanity Fair published this article today, which was posted and discussed on the subreddit here. The article is likely to have a lot of long-lasting fallout, in part because the author, Vincenzo Barney, is writing a book on the story, so we will probably hear more details at a later date.
But another reason this topic is likely to persist is that its claims contain a range of verifiability. Some findings are thoroughly backed by evidence, supported by multiple sources, and recounted by firsthand witnesses like Michael Cameron (such as the claim that McCarthy and Britt were in a relationship). Other claims, however, are near impossible to verify, are dubiously supported, and/or rely on only one person’s report of specific moments from decades ago (such as Britt’s claim that McCarthy named John Grady Cole after a stuffed animal she had of the same name in 1976, despite that McCarthy worked with a John Cole on a TV production in 1946).
There are two common mistakes readers will have in response to this range of verifiability. First, one might see the undeniable evidence for certain facts and conclude that every statement in the story, including those reported in dialogue, is wholly accurate. The second and equally problematic mistake would be to recognize the dubious claims and thereby conclude that the whole story can be dismissed. Neither approach is likely to discover the truth, which probably resides in the messy area between extremes.
That messy area between absolute conviction and absolute doubt permits of a third kind of mistake. Acknowledge the messiness. Accept uncertainty, because we will not and cannot know everything. This is not to say you cannot find enough evidence or substantiation to hold a particular view, but we should understand that such a view is built upon contingencies, any of which might strengthen or falter or change as we learn more. Context exists, and to exclude it or simplify it might make a story or judgment easier, but it does so at the cost of understanding the richness and complexity of the truth. Let us not call what is gray either black or white.
That comfort with ambiguity notwithstanding, I want to make a few moderation stances unambiguously clear:
- Statutory rape is both criminal and wrong. An adult engaging in sexual activity with a minor, with or without force, is statutory rape. Special cases for individuals with close ages exist but are not especially relevant for the purposes of this article. Whether McCarthy did or did not commit statutory rape is determined by governing age of consent laws at the time and place in question.
- Grooming — that is, an adult enticing, persuading, or otherwise coercing a minor into current or future sexual activity — is of complex legal status and is wrong. Minors cannot consent to sexual activity.
- Artists are not their art, and art is not its artist. Works of art of virtually any mode can be insightful, meaningful, and beautiful independent from their creator. Art can be good and do good in the world regardless of how much it aligns with its creator. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to attribute some amount of responsibility to an artist for the impact and value of their art.
- Generally bad people sometimes do good things; generally good people sometimes do bad things. That a bad person might do something good does not excuse the bad they have done, nor does their badness invalidate the good. That a good person might do something bad does not invalidate the good they have done, nor does their goodness excuse the bad.
Posts or comments promoting or defending sexual abuse — including rape, statutory rape, and grooming — are prohibited and will be removed under Rules 1-3.
Top Comment:
He’s my favorite author. For me that means that his books are in my top favorites. The top 3 are his.
From what I’ve always heard, he was a weird, old eccentric and strange man.
None of the above has changed any after reading the article.
Zendaya, Glen Powell, Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Sydney Sweeney, Josh O’Connor, Danielle Deadwyler, Jonathan Bailey, Lisa, Ncuti Gatwa and Bill Skarsgård for Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue photographed by Gordon Von Steiner
Main Post: Zendaya, Glen Powell, Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Sydney Sweeney, Josh O’Connor, Danielle Deadwyler, Jonathan Bailey, Lisa, Ncuti Gatwa and Bill Skarsgård for Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue photographed by Gordon Von Steiner
Top Comment:
Everyone is so FOINE
Vanity Fair 2024 Hollywood Issue with Josh O'Connor, Jonathan Bailey, Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Zendaya, Zoe Saldaña, Glen Powell, Danielle Deadwyler, Sydney Sweeney, Lisa, Ncuti Gatwa, and Bill Skarsgård
Main Post: Vanity Fair 2024 Hollywood Issue with Josh O'Connor, Jonathan Bailey, Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Zendaya, Zoe Saldaña, Glen Powell, Danielle Deadwyler, Sydney Sweeney, Lisa, Ncuti Gatwa, and Bill Skarsgård
Top Comment:
I don't know why visual trickery works like this but Jonathan Bailey and Josh O'Connor consistently give off the look of men who are shorter than they are. It was only recently that I learned that Bailey is 5' 11 so to see O' Connor kind of towering over him was surprising to me. I looked it up and O' Connor is apparently 6' 1. I expected both of them to be around 5' 8 or 5' 9!