"Whose", when not referring to a person
english.stackexchange.comCool! Not knowing the appropriate word in these contexts always bothered me. The top answer quotes Shakespeare. In the eternal duel between grammar Nazis and Shakespeare, Shakespeare always wins.
42 is NOT the meaning of life!
So don’t go around pretending it is.
42 is ”The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”, as computed by Deep Thought. - not the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, but the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. We didn’t know what the question was though, so we created Earth to find out what it was, and The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything… is 6x9, according to the Earth. Unfortunately, that’s not the right question, because the Earth’s input data was corrupted when it was invaded during prehistoric times, and so with the wrong input, naturally henceforth came the wrong output.
Read the books!
A Friendly PSA for Writers: Apostrophes
Incorrect apostrophe use can kick me straight out of the flow of a story, but it’s a problem I see frequently, even in writing by very good authors. This is a simple reference guide to their use.
- Generally, in English, an apostrophe means that some letters are missing, as in “Cap’n Hook” or “gettin’ laid.” So in a contraction, e.g. “they are -> they’re”, you use an apostrophe to indicate the missing letters.
- Confusingly, and for debatable reasons, apostrophe-s also evolved into the way of marking genitive/possessive nouns in English, like “the billionaire’s smirk” or “Thor’s hammer.” But this rule only applies to real nouns. Personal pronouns never have an apostrophe, unless they involve a contraction.
- Test #1: Is it a contraction, where you could substitute two words for the one shorter word? Then, just like “don’t,” it has an apostrophe.
- Test #2: Is it a possessive pronoun, where you could substitute “his” or “mine” for the word? Then, just like “hers,” it has no apostrophe.
Let’s have some examples!
Pronoun (possessive word) vs. Contraction (shortened words)
- “He gasped at its size.” vs. “It’s very big.”
- “Their kiss deepened.” vs. “They’re kissing in the kitchen!”
- “That bedroom is theirs.” vs. “There’s a guest room down the hall.”
- “Whose pants are those?” vs. “Who’s leaving laundry on the floor?”
- “Your smut is filthy.” vs. “You’re writing a PWP.”
In illustration, how important is it to be methodical and be very meticulous in getting the process consistant and structured vs being free and open to new ideas and mistakes?
Between you and your (potential) clients, consistency is everything. It’s said that you’re “only as a good as your worst piece in your portfolio.” They need to know that you are capable of delivering a high quality product, all the time, every time.
Consistency in your own process is a different thing. You need to have certain working methods that you’re comfortable with and that you have control over, but there should be opportunities for fun and play within that process so that it doesn’t seem like you’re dragging this thing from point A to point B.
For example, Gary Kelley (who is at the Illustration Academy this week, where I’m currently studying) has several different working methods. From monotypes, to pastels, to oil, etc. he lets the image have a say and utilizes the medium that best conveys his intention for whatever particular piece. Additionally, he’ll leave steps like color studies out of his process, so that when he goes to the final he brings experimentation and play to the finish.
Be methodical in your thinking, and ensure that the structure of the image is sound (design, research, value, color). But have fun in the execution.
Player Stats
In Dungeons and Dragonkin, your social justice warrior’s abilities are measured with five stats. These are:
- Social Justice Cred (SC): This represents your SJW’s status in the social justice community, serving the purpose HP does in other systems. Doing well in fights raises it while doing poorly lowers it. If it reaches zero, your SJW dies.
- Conviction (CON): Shows how much your SJW truly believes in their arguments. Statements such as “My identity as a toaster is real to me and nothing you say will ever change that” would be governed by conviction. It is both an offensive and defensive stat, serving the purpose of stats such as Strength and Constitution.
- Pedantry (PED): Pedantry is a more refined stat, representing your SJW’s ability to pick out the small but significant flaws in opponents’ arguments, possibly avoiding having to confront their larger points by flooding them with minutiae. It is a nimble SJW’s stat, serving as Agility and Dexterity.
- Jargon (JAR): Your SJW’s encyclopedic knowledge of labels, oppression schema, complex and multipurpose pronouns, and the dynamics of privilege that allows them to know exactly where they and others lie on the convoluted oppression matrix. This serves the purpose of stats such as Intelligence and Wisdom.
- Rhetoric (RHE): This is the ability to bring up long-winded and complex arguments that are often too heavy for an opponent to even parse. If you’ve ever seen someone begin a philosophical discussion on the knowability of identity, then you know how RHE functions. A somewhat defensive stat, it takes the place of stats like Charisma and Willpower.
All four of these stats combined will represent the balance and style of your SJW, making them a unique snowflake even among others in similar situations. They are all used in combat in various ways, and each skill or ability has a base stat that it receives bonuses from.
Hopefully from the stats you can visualize the type of social justice warrior you want to play as. You could check the privilege of fiendish trollkin (or Homestuck trollkin) with your powerful and self-righteous conviction, precise and deadly pedantry, awe-inspiring and dizzying jargon, or incomprehensible and draining rhetoric.
Clarification:
The novel Pride and Prejudice is set during the (broadly constructed) Regency era, not during the early Victorian era.
The “regency” that the name of the era refers to is the period between 1811 and 1820, when England was governed by a prince regent, since King George had gone mad and was declared unfit to rule.
More broadly, the term “Regency era” is used to talk about the late Georgian era through to the Victorian era, a span of time which had its own set of fashions and so forth. Constructed this way, “Regency era” is a subset of the “Georgian era” and can mean anytime between 1795 and 1835.
Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813, but Jane Austen started writing it around 1795.
We can say that Pride and Prejudice is set during the Georgian era or the Regency era, but it’s totally wrong to say that it’s set during the Victorian era. The Victorian era began in 1835 with Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne—more than 20 years after Pride and Prejudice was published, and more than 40 years after Austen started writing it. That’s like saying that “The Matrix’ characters are members of the Beat Generation, that cohort famous for their interest in Eastern religion and their black turtleneck wearing fashions.” Um, no.
This pedantic text post has been brought to you by my anal-retentive nature.
PSA
[[I keep seeing people giving their Heavy OCs ridiculously low weights. Everyone coming up with physical stats for a character needs to consult this chart. Really, does this guy look like he can haul a minigun around? The gun itself weighs about a hundred pounds more than he does.]]
