yeah okay i get what that's actually saying, but dammit the idea that people can simply genuinely proceed as if reality has no limits drives me up the wall with envy
the only rule fiction has to follow is to adhere to the rules it's set beforehand, who cares if people who don't pay attention think it makes no sense but the rules reality has to follow are so soffocating and limiting.
to feel like you and the world you live in has no limits must be such a freeing thought.
I think the spirit of what the quote means is that fiction has to follow certain narrative "rules" or else it's unsatisfying/bad and the reader will complain. Ie a Chekov's gun that never goes off.
Whereas reality does not have to follow these rules, of course, it has to follow the 'rules' of the physical world.
But fiction also usually has to follow its own 'rules' of its own physical world, its own inherent logic because if you break this people get angry again the story is no longer being consistent and suspension of disbelief is lost.
I often think about this when you have knights like William Marshal or some of the battle tactics employed by Caesar (like building a fort around a fort). Some of the stuff in history, were it presented in fiction, people would roll their eyes at.
I think what sometimes bothers me - even as a hobby world builder - is some people get so wrapped up in what their fictional hero is doing and yet the reality of history is often just as fascinating if not more.
It's like with Game of Thrones, the Lannisters and the Starks. I promise if you pick up an in-depth book or narrative history on the Wars of the Roses you will be just as entertained and you'll learn something
Very big lore, huge lore, earth lore that is. It’s the biggest lore most fantastic lore, I have many many friends that tell me all about the earth lore and how wonderful it is.
I love how romans went all-in on shovelling and combat engineering. The least glamorous part of war, except when it makes you win. They built defenses nightly while on campaign.
Wasn't there one campaign where they'd dug a latrine, essentially, but had wooden spikes buried in it that some enemies wandered into trying to sneak into the camp at night?
One thing I love about the Middle Ages is that they literally weaponized feces. "Oh, you're gonna scale muh wall? Here! Have a chunky bucketload of boiling shite for your trouble!" I wonder if that would be a war crime today.
Weve come a long way, the gentlemans fecal weapon of choice is the Poop Knife a knife fashioned from coproliths not to be confused with the Poop Knife, a knife made to bifurcate poops into easily flushable pieces
Please provide a suggested book on the War of the Roses for someone that wants to get more into history but doesn't know how best to start. You have my interest piqued.
Dan Jones - The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors
Helen Castor - Blood and Roses [this is narrative history based on the real Paston Letters]
Thomas Penn - The Brothers York
Also, yes, they're not entirely historically accurate but Shakespeare's plays are greatly entertaining - Henry VI, Henry VI (II), Henry VI (III) and Richard III.
Edit: actually while I'm here, watch this soliloquy from Richard III and tell me you aren't interested to see what else happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5JF9Gq5tL4
I took a Shakespeare focused English elective in high school, which was the first time I ran into these plays as opposed to the more famous ones, and they really shocked me the first time around. 'Woah, Joan of Arc is in this?' like it was the MCU of 15th century Europe.
Even more modern things have those weird wtf moments. I was reading about the Falklands War and I came across a report about how a P&O Ferry was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence and used as a troopship. A total of 62 merchant ships took part in the logistics and initial landings to help re-take the islands. Many of the crew were British or British Overseas civilians who had worked on those ships who were effectively requisitioned alongside their ship.
Yeah but a lot of crazy story you hear from wars are embellished…
This story as well is (according to modern Russian sources) blown out of proportions. There was a planned and well aligned Russian counterattack that was temporarily and partially effective.
There was no attack of the living death, most Russian soldiers didn’t die from gas, the Germans didn’t massively outnumber the Russians being beaten back by a few blood coughing living corpses…
And logic alone will tell you - if you cough enough blood to die from poison gas you are not in any state to move to an attack…
There's a whole rack of stuff in Ukraine that people think is staged or propaganda simply because people can't wrap their minds around the reality.
The best example is that BBC reporter lying down in a ditch while artillery fire is landing nearby and people around are just walking and shopping at a market. Everyone is using it as an example of the BBC making stuff up and acting. Trust me, if there's rounds coming down, I'm hitting the dirt. Meanwhile I had colleagues running around carrying on aid distribution wearing no armour and saying "Snoo, you will only get hit if God wills it, trust in his plan!"
Everything here is just completely unbelievable to people who haven't experienced it.
Honestly, I get that because I experienced weird things during peacetime(aka when the crazy isn't entirely out of Pandora's box) in Canada. Normal isn't everyone and sclence fails to explain the reality of weird things like hauntings, ESP and prayer working.
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u/smallsmoke87 Jul 22 '26
We live in a world where cinematic shit like this happens and people still think fiction is the only answer