I'm not too sure it's as difficult as you are making it out to be. We see something similar with "black wall street" where black communities were committed to keeping their capital within their communities and black owned companies. We can even see this with the Amish and how they have survived as a community. I'm not completely sure if you can keep 100% of the capital within certain communities; but in a similar sense, we can at least attempt to be more meaningful with how and where we spend our money. The tech community chooses which company they support and do "business" with, similarly with fashion and many other things that aren't completely necessary. I feel like that would at least be a start. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will correcting the public's spending habits. But it has been done and can be done again. There just needs to be the right incentive; to which, I'm not sure what that would be.

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

This is just a freestyle thought, but I think it may be in part to where the fantasy elements are drawn. For example, things like elves and hobbits are humanoids, portraying mainly humanoid traits -- just exaggerated like living a thousand years or having short height with massive feet. Or things that are purely imagination like dragons. Narnia, on the other hand, seems to make real life things betray what we know about them; like a talking lion. We have lions in reality and they don't talk. We don't have hobbits and dragons and elves in reality so we don;t have hard, preconceived notions about how these species should behave like we do with lions which makes us tend toward "realistic but alternate reality" vs "fantasy". This is just a rudimentary thought though.

I’m starting to realize that too. I might be more active on one than the other but it’s nice to have them all because it seems like a fuller experience; I am starting to see how they are complimentary.

I think either mastodon or pixelfed. I’m sure we are due to get a specific crowd — just from the political climate at the moment.

Nice to know! I think lemmy has been meeting my needs pretty well, as there are no limits that I’m aware of here. What would be compelling for something like write.as and writefreely?

Well, I am intrigued! I'll give it a look; thank you!

That is pretty amazing -- do you continue reading a book you don't particularly like? It is hard for me to continue something that doesn't captivate me; especially with fiction. Are you more of a fiction or non-fiction reader? Or both?

I'm the same way... especially with the MMO genre. It's really sad but I just end up playing the same games these days.

Very good point lol, that is a great way to put it -- I might have to steal that from ya next time I'm bickering with some gaming friends.

This is totally valid and understandable. Do you find yourself feeling this way in media as well; like TV shows or movies? BoJack Horseman comes to mind when you mentioned unlikable characters you are supposed to root for. I can't say that I've had that experience within a book but I do find myself in certain shows rooting for some characters that are assholes or unlikable.

I can't say that I have found much humorous works -- though I haven't particularly looked for it. The best I can think of is Christopher Hitchens' "Hitch 22" memoir having some funny moment in there. Do you have any recommendations?

I am the same way with not reading more. It is why I choose super thick books to try to make the experience last longer if I like it. I end up rereading the same things until I might stumble upon something else. Is there a book or some books you find yourself rereading for comfort or extended enjoyment? I imagine this might be more difficult with fiction.

That is interesting, you don't find that world building further engulfs you in the setting; or is it that when world building is overdone? I see this complaint a lot with The Lord of the Rings, and agree that it can be overdone -- however I do feel that verbose world building done right can be extremely immersive. What do you think? Do you prefer simple settings and descriptions? We might differ on vocabulary usage, I find that learning new words in fiction can be a bit fun, though distracting, to your point; but I find overusing normal words can be a dull and banal experience. Do you like sprinkles of strange words in small dosages or do you prefer just normal words with as little honeyed words as possible?

I can agree with you there -- I am not a big fan of Peterson myself, even before becoming a fan of Destiny and Dawkins; but I do find myself more engaged when reading things I disagree with to strengthen my arguments and worldview. Have you ever had this experience?

I agree -- especially after a particularly good book, it can be hard to find something to follow up with!

I'm not a fan of fiction in general; but especially YA fiction; did you ever like YA fiction when you were younger, and have outgrown the genre or has it never really been your thing?

I definitely had to read it again when I first saw it too; its a very weird but fantastic response that I'm going to start saying.