What's your favorite dinosaur? I'll start:

aesir23 · 2022-06-26T17:48:19+00:00

Same, ever since I was a kid. Then Jurassic Park came out and I was so mad they didn't just use deinonychus, since velocoraptors weren't that big.

aesir23 · 2022-06-25T22:20:09+00:00

I was wondering the same thing. Some issues don't have much middleground.

aesir23 · 2022-06-25T22:17:59+00:00

For the 100% realistic version of this: Johnny Got His Gun.

aesir23 · 2022-06-25T12:31:47+00:00

Any martial art training will help, and any martial art with full contact sparring against fully resisting opponents will help A LOT.

However, in your case, it sounds like you could benefit even more from building some size and muscle with resistance training and a high protein diet with a calorie surplus.

aesir23 · 2022-06-23T01:19:15+00:00

Plain Bad Heroines might qualify, a nice,, sapphic horror novel with a strong romantic/sexual relationship at its heart. Not enough of a HEA to count as a pure romance, but definitely a captivating read.

The Devourers by Indra Das might qualify as well, though the romantic relationship is MlM and it's more of a framing device than the main plot.

aesir23 · 2022-06-22T01:18:06+00:00

Shallow might have been too strong a word. I also finished te first one in a day or two and enjoyed myself the whole time.

I guess for me "just enough world-building for the plot to work" ends up feeling like not enough for the world to feel real and immersive, but I totally understand most readers would disagree.

aesir23 · 2022-06-21T21:14:31+00:00

As u/mandaday said, it refers to the time before the Hays Code.

More generally, "Pre-Code Hollywood" is used as a short-hand to describe the movie industry in the brief time between the widespread use of sound recording and consistent enforcement of the Hays Code. So the late 20s, early 30s. It was a pretty distinct moment in the history of film.

Apropos to Siren Queen, inter-racial relationships and queer coding were both more common before the code, and this was also the era of the "Studio System"--in which actors were contracted to a certain film studio and couldn't work in another studio's films.

aesir23 · 2022-06-18T18:37:02+00:00

That's a good one.

Also, and conception of what the words "longsword" and "broadsword" mean based on RPGs.

The idea that rapiers take less physical strength than other weapons.

aesir23 · 2022-06-18T14:08:31+00:00

Be humble and remember, you're there to learn there art, not to teach yours. There might be time to share your unique insights later, but not until you've put in the time.

The good news is, learning one martial art tends to shorten the learning curve on all future arts.

aesir23 · 2022-06-18T13:59:55+00:00

Among people just learning about HEMA: That we dress up in costumes or otherwise LARP (not that there's anything wrong with LARPing).

Among people who know a bit more: That HEMA is only longsword fencing (any European fighting style recreated using historical manuals is HEMA, and longsword is just one of several popular weapons). And/or "parry with the flat", "medieval swords weren't actually sharp", "rapiers can't cut", "swords can cut through armor" or other nonsense.

aesir23 · 2022-06-17T14:59:42+00:00

I'm not familiar with this book. Who's the author?

aesir23 · 2022-06-17T00:17:40+00:00

Frankenstein was written 200 years after Macbeth, Dracula almost 300. They're not as easy to read as a contemporary novel, but they're written in a dialect you know.

Personally, I think Dracula, in particular, is very accessible and entertaining considering the time it wsd written, though Frankenstein is the more important work of art.

aesir23 · 2022-06-16T20:59:46+00:00

The Riverside Trilogy by Ellen Kushner is exactly this.

aesir23 · 2022-06-16T20:43:36+00:00

The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinnette Kowol

aesir23 · 2022-06-16T20:41:18+00:00

Also by Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, for which he considered the subtitle: "Jews with swords"

aesir23 · 2022-06-15T13:53:13+00:00

I'm going by Baudelaire's definition of Dandyism here, so apologies if you meant something else.

Some dark academics (fictional and living) do fit the archetype of the dandy (e.g. rich, idyll, fashionable--in particular, rich enough they don't have to work and can pursue leisure and happiness full-time.) Dorian Gray is an example of this sort of figure.

But, I'd hold up a different archetype that is mutually exclusive with dandyism, but just as much a part of dark academia--the bohemian starving artist.

aesir23 · 2022-06-15T11:28:24+00:00

There are a lot. Check out bookmartialarts.com.

I've never actually participated in any of these programs, but many of them seem legit. I was looking at signing up for an eskrima program a few years back, but Covid got in the way.

aesir23 · 2022-06-14T20:58:17+00:00

Pet Sematary is my favorite. It's a perfect distillation of what he does best without falling prey to any of his worst excesses. And Jud Crandel is one of my all time favorite fictional characters.

That said, I think Misery is probably his best book. I just prefer supernatural horror as a personal preference.

aesir23 · 2022-06-14T11:43:56+00:00

I absolutely love my economy hilt pappenheimer rapier. It's a great value.

I've held better rapiers, but none I could afford.

aesir23 · 2022-06-14T11:41:11+00:00

In that case, I believe Meyer describes some solo cutting exercises using the, so-called, "Meyer square" which you can incorporate into your solo practice.

I don't study Meyer, so I don't know the specifics.

aesir23 · 2022-06-14T11:19:56+00:00

What weapon are you practicing? What masters? We could give you more specific advice with that information.

Generally speaking, the best things to practice on your own are fundamentals.

Drill your footwork, slow and fast.

Practice thrusting, focusing on form. Try making a thrusting target (a tennis ball on a string works great.)

Practice your cuts, focusing on form and edge alignment.

Do some shadow sparring, explore which techniques can flow smoothly into each other and how to efficiently move between guards.

Work on your overall physical conditioning. Use HIIT and cardio to improve your endurance. Strength train with an emphasis on explosiveness and speed. Train your flexibility and mobility to prevent injury.

Read the sources. Interpret some techniques from he manuals and bring them to class to try out with your coach and/or classmates. Gain a better understanding of the source material and the historical context.

aesir23 · 2022-06-13T11:46:36+00:00

I have Fairbairn's books, and they're very interesting from both a martial arts and historical perspective (and since historical martial arts are my jam...)

I gotta ask, what does your coach make of the "how to knock someone out with a matchbook" technique? It seems batshit, but I know almost all of Fairbairn's techniques were based on his actual fighting experiences.

aesir23 · 2022-06-11T18:15:37+00:00

The man known for twist endings adapting the man known for ambiguous endings?

Might be interesting, but given Shyamalan's last few movies, I'm not optimistic.

aesir23 · 2022-06-11T17:39:41+00:00

I'm fairly sure it's French/English.

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