I could tell this comment was written by a guy, so what? Do you honestly think your perspective is somehow above bias? Everyone has a bias; yours has been over-represented for too long. Lots of people are ready for differents takes.

Now watch all the people giving all the fucks just to spite you.

Of course Minajs was talking about her. But Swift was wrong to take it personally, because Minaj was talking about her victory as illustrative of a systemic issue. She wouldn't have a problem with Swift in isolation; she doesn't have a problem with Swift on a personal level. Glad they managed to clear that up.

And the teacher couldn't tell you, even if you asked? Or come up with some educated guesses at least? (Since the "real" meaning of literature tends to be somewhat elusive…)

Can't know that you're a non-actor until you've tried. School is quite a bit about making people try out things they might end up having no talent for, but the point is most people are not born with the knowledge of what they can and can't do. The process of finding out is not always fun, but kinda necessary, no?

protégé

Yeah, that was phrased badly. "Deserve"'s got little to do with it.

It's always more fun to imagine grand gestures with no real world applications than doing the unglamorous job of paying attention and making compromises.

Going from "my concerns are not worth mentioning in every conceivable context" to "I'm better off dead in comparision to human progress" seems indeed symptomatic of a certain martyr complex, but maybe that's more about your depression than the general discourse?

Mostly, you probably just shouldn't take these things so personally.

As to the cook/college prof discrepancy - whenever friends have told me about such constellations not working out _for them_, it has _never_ been about the material aspect, but rather about the fact that there were not enough shared interests to sustain conversation past a certain point. As long as you're somewhat…

My worst break-up was with a friend in school, in the Unterstufe, when I was 13. I tend to part fairly easily - travellers must not be stopped - and would probably have taken it well enough, if she hadn't gone out of her way to be nasty about it.

Probably more interesting than the entirety of my sex life, in my case.

You could pull that once you've donated a kidney to me, I guess. But otherwise I'm not such a polarizing figure that you would have a lot of occasion to demonstrate your loyality by jumping into the fray to defend my honor/interests.

Stories are stories. Dismissing an entire branch of the art merely on the basis of the medium employed seems a bit style over substance to me. Stories don't need to be wordy to be weighty.

The idea is not that you can't portray rape, violence, etc.; the idea is that you're supposed to do it in a manner to make some larger point beyond cheap thrills, which I no longer expect the series to do. I might be surprised yet. I'm just no longer counting on it.

Haskins has earned my undying love since target woman. Really hope this one works out.

Classics are classics for a reason. Also goes for debate topics. It's not like that particular debate _started_ in the nineties…

'twas ever thus; that's the entire premise of the comic books guy joke on the Simpsons. Has never stopped anyone before.

Mostly agree, but don't quite see how Tolkien's worldbuilding holds up to that much more scrutiny. Wouldn't look too deeply into the workings of Middle Earth's economy, for instance.