Random Questions Thread

Modernism and Postmodernism really aren't hard to understand as they sound, and you definitely don't need a book.

Let me put it in Troper terms: Modernism was like a new trope for the turn of the century. Postmodernism was the Deconstruction. Post-Postmodernism is the Reconstruction. They're all a progression from one to the next.

Is there something specific you want to know about?

edited 23rd Jan '16 5:45:43 PM by AwSamWeston

Award-winning screenwriter. Directed some movies. Trying to earn a Creator page. I do feedback here.

I was looking to how most writers communicate their messages, lessons and ideas through the story. Postmodernism seems interesting to me.

"We are just like Irregular Data. And that applies to you too, Ri CO. And as for you, Player... your job is to correct Irregular Data."

I’ve seen things about how bodies decay in different conditions, but how would human bodies decay in a sterile (until you bring bodily wastes into the equation) environment like a lab? I’m wondering because one of my characters walks into a lab full of bodies that have been decaying for around 2-3 weeks and I’d like to know what condition they’d be in for description reasons.

Seeing as a sterile lab is unlikely to make someone's intestines sterile, I think they'd look like a regular corpse sans the insects and maggots and other animals that frequent corpses.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Anyone here know what "brake" and "accelerator" for cars mean in German?

"Bremse" for the first, I am not well versed in cars enough to know the term for the second.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Thanks

Would silvering vehicle armor to make it more mirror-like help protect it against high powered laser weapons of the typical near future variety? What about just mirrors as armor in general?

Stoned hippie without the stoned. Or the hippie. My AO3 Page, grab a chair and relax.

That sounds like an amazing way to make your tank attract missiles.

Oh really when?

And please don't tell me missiles, artillery, etc have gone extinct in the setting unless there's a good explanation for them.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Alien race newly introduced to the world, all nations together blah blah you know. The design isn't made to fight any terrestrial weapon system.

edited 25th Jan '16 8:13:44 PM by Slysheen

Stoned hippie without the stoned. Or the hippie. My AO3 Page, grab a chair and relax.

Great, then it should be hilariously ineffective.

Oh really when?

The Universal Century timeline found a plausible way to limit the usefulness of missiles (and persumably conventional artillery), through the Trope Namer for Minovsky Physics.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

It was purely a matter of if silvering would affect high power lasers enough to be viable protection, not about missiles or any other weapons system.

Regardless I think I've figured it out. Thanks.

Stoned hippie without the stoned. Or the hippie. My AO3 Page, grab a chair and relax.

You clearly haven't seen the actual anime, considering how many mechas that Amuro and White Base members take out with (albeit very large) conventional weapons.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Conventional artillery still works and so do rockets. It's missile guidance systems that don't.

And even then they have a few models that work.

Oh really when?

In fact, conventional firearms work wonders in that series because the Minovsky Particles forcing the battleground to be more close quartered.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Plus it let things like the Magella Top Cannon exist.

Which is amazing.

Oh really when?

Does this sound like something a seven-year-old would say? She's the one speaking in the first and third paragraphs.

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

I'd say "buy something else", but I don't think it sounds too mature with "pick" either. Also, that was funny

Rejoice!

Agreed on it being funny.

(Cross posting from the Kitchen thread)

A question for a Medieval fantasy story I'm writing.

What are some foods that would be affordable for a relatively rich traveller, kinds that are very easy to carry but also pack a lot of calories?

The ones that I can think of are cheese, unleavened bread, dried fruits, and meat jerkies.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

You could also include stuff like sausages and salt beef. Maybe dried fish if they live close to sea. Also, honey - which if properly stored, never spoils.

---

What kind of imagery comes to mind if someone's clothes were described as "homeless chic"?

A fashion victim who had to hunt for clothes in trash compactors.

Or a really, really disheveled hipster.

Rejoice!

@Gault (# 12937)- I've dealt with that issue in my own novel. It is indeed an exceptionally delicate problem. Examples are hard to give because I basically use the entire novel to deal with it, not individual scenes. What do you need to know?

@peasant: The traditional way to handle that is to make the condition impossible to see except at close distances. Then you could have the POV character get in close for some reason, and suddenly discover the mismatched eyes.

@The Muse: Septimus is right, most of the bacteria that decompose our bodies actually live within us while we are alive. That's why decomposition starts from the inside out, not the reverse.

@Slysheen: Actually, using a mirror isnt a very effective anti-laser defense. The reason is that lasers use mirrors to focus the beam as it is directed toward the target. It's not unusual to see designs that use a ten-meter mirror that focuses the beam down to a few centimeters at long range. Concentrating the beam like that makes it much more intense (that's the purpose of it, in fact). Thus, lasers like that could take out their own mirror, or one just like it, very easily.

It's very easy to make kinetic weapons obsolete within some narrative setting, just make the targeting technology so effective and quick that everything moving more slowly than light gets intercepted.

@Snowyfoxes: Cant speak for everyone but I have an eight year old daughter myself. You arent too far off, except the grammar is a little too advanced (unless your character is intended to be a prodigy). Something like

"“I’m practicing,” she said solemnly. “‘Cause I’m gonna own the store someday. After Philip gets big he’s gonna be my helper. Buy something from me!”

Is a little closer. The punch line is funny.

@dRoy: A resource for you

@DeMarquis: Thanks. But regarding the heterochromia question, the main problem is for the character to come up with an excuse why his eyes are mismatched when others (and hence, the reader) notice.

I suppose I could always go with the "blind in one eye" approach.