in the moderate Aristotelian city

kaberett wanted to know:

I'd also adore knowing more about how you approach literary criticism etc - when you're starting out with something new, what makes the critique-goggles slam on? What do you have to do to keep them away? What sorts of themes etc do you notice first?

Okay! Whee. This is probably going to get long because there are a lot of things going on here. But the first thing to say is this: I do a lot of stuff that falls under the lit crit umbrella, but one thing I don't do much of is thinking about how and why I do this stuff. There are certain parts of it that are totally unconscious, so this is using muscles that I am not accustomed to flexing.

So I'm feeling my way around a bit blindly here. The rest is going under a cut, because it'll probably get long.

( Lit crit and how I approach it. )

purplecat asked:

What, for you, is or should be or you wish was (or all three) the spirit of midwinter festivities?

Huh, this isn't a thing I've given a whole lot of thought to.

I'm not religious, so I don't ascribe a particular spiritual meaning to the winter holidays. And I'm not sure how to navigate the whole "spending time with family" thing (that has its good bits and bad bits). So I guess I don't have a good answer to this question.

I think there is value to having a bright spot in the darkest bit of the year, to tide us over until spring. And I think there is community-strengthening value in having things to celebrate and things to share. And I like getting gifts, though one thing that bugs me about the winter holiday season is how commercial it's become. I think there are a lot of things that have value about this season, but I think things can have value without necessarily being the one and only thing that is the spirit of the season.

And I think saying that one singular thing is or should be the spirit of the season in some ways closes us off to the possibility of multiple aspects of it having value. So I'm going to stick with "I have no good answer"!

Meme! Stolen from finch, seen various places.

Pick a date below and give me a topic - it can be anything, from fandom related to life related to art related to whatever you want.

They will probably be brief, or not, depending on the subject.

Also, I reserve the right to decline prompts that I don't feel equipped to meet.

Topics: you can get an idea from my tags/from the stuff I usually ramble about/from things you maybe wish I talked about more but don't.

You can request multiple topics (as long as they're on different days -- one topic per day!!).

December 01 - How soon is too soon for Christmas decorations in a) shops and b) people's houses / gardens, and do you care? (asked by ephemera)
December 02 -
December 03 -
December 04 - What, for you, is or should be or you wish was (or all three) the spirit of midwinter festivities? (asked by purplecat)
December 05 -
December 07 - How you approach literary criticism (asked by kaberett)
December 08 -
December 09 - Welcome to Night Vale -- what you would like to see them do? (asked by thelinesoflearning)
December 10 -
December 11 - Favourite thing to cook when you have no energy but need something tasty. (asked by nou)
December 12 -
December 13 -
December 15 - Role-playing games. (asked by cxcvi)
December 14 -
December 16 -
December 17 -
December 18 - Your favorite band/singer (asked by thelinesoflearning)
December 19 -
December 20 - A guide to finding awesome icons - because you have awesome icons. (asked by purplecat)
December 21- Have you ever stayed up all night to help guide the sun back after the longest night of the year? (asked by consectari)
December 22- Your favorite moment from the past year. (asked by littlebutfierce)
December 23- Your favourite holiday and why (asked by sylvaine)
December 24-
December 25- What (if anything) are you trying to get away from today? (asked by pensnest)
December 26-
December 27-
December 28- On setting boundaries and assertiveness and how - if at all - you feel you have changed over the year (asked by kaberett)
December 29-
December 30-
December 31- New Year's Resolutions. Do you do them/avoid them? Do you follow through if you make any? (asked by zulu)