Benkei

Just a curious observation but quite a few stories have characters that are never named and are often just described "the man", "bad-ass" etc. Is that...

Interesting read. I need to think about this one.

No. Even so, her commentary is definitely missed.

What? That's ridiculous.

It's well written, better than I can write but I can't identify with anything, leaving me unsatisfied. The spirit is too big and too alien, the smalle...

Your story in the first competition was littered with ebonics too. It was a dead give away... :grimace:

Strangely enough, plenty of owners and managers manage to contravene the rules for at will employment by giving discriminatory reasons. At least, if t...

You can't, since you're not allowed to inform about a person's sexual orientation. Once hired you're not allowed to fire them because of it. Sex and s...

I can't for the life of me understand why this got a majority of down votes. It doesn't deserve that. Very cool how it shifts personalities and ways o...

I think the discussion played out awhile ago (at least for me). There's a difference of weight given to reasons for the war. I just don't see actual p...

Yes, old school racists. If you're not actively anti-racist, you're still a racist. Biden, Trump, Gingrich, the whole lot of white dinosaurs are racis...

Diversity without inclusivity doesn't work, for sure. If it did, the US would be a much better place to live in. Here's an example of a diversity divi...

Interesting. It's not that big a book either so maybe I'll give it a try. I have to admit I never finished American Psycho because I don't like violen...

I'm left with the impression the couple are in cahoots together and they're two psychopaths getting off, literally, on murdering people and roleplayin...

Reminded me of Sword Art Online as well. Having read tons of fantasy, this was pretty good but a bit derivative for my taste.

That will obviously be overturned yes. What's morally wrong is the assumption people have the right to benefit from past wrongs, that people should no...

Paragraphs maybe? I have no clue what I just read. A duel as an analogy for what I just read doesn't bring any understanding.

While I don't have @"Hanover"'s obsession with facts, the lack of detail, especially near the ending felt like the story was rushed. Reads like a sket...

I prefer empty threats anyway. Unfortunately my daughter figured that out too.

The bar, the writer and Martita are three characters to me. Add a touch of surrealism, sexual tension, danger, what's not to like? The flow is not alw...

I'm sure that, despite physical law rejecting it, your story will both suck and blow at the same time.

I will ban anyone saying negative things about my story. :naughty:

Starts of strong but turns into a newspaper article description to then end again in a very lovely, evocative last paragraph to then be murdered again...

Reads like a breeze. Not sure what to make of it yet so I'm holding off on voting and commenting. There's a couple of instances of "what's the Lord tr...

Fantastic, now we're also pretending capitalism would reward virtue. :rofl:

I think from a writing style perspective it was very well written. I think it could've won a lot from it being challenging for the protagonist (isn't ...

Well, you're obviously more sensitive towards people's idiolects because I have no clue. Have you considered working for the FBI as a profiler?

Who are the entrants? So we can play the guessing came again. I think I spotted a story that could be Tobias'.

That's because you're apparently living under a rock. Zuckerberg - privacy, Koch - environment, Musk - labour rules. The first two directly affect you...

Yes, the world revolves around you. Which is why you are and remain an idiot.

Koch, Musk, Zuckerberg.

Oh, my bad, it's the "lock downs are fascism" bullshit again coming from the guy who will happily roll over to get shafted by oligarchs because he thi...

Maybe pick up a book and figure out what fascism is. Universal healthcare isn't it.

That's already established policy in the US (the pivot to Asia). The only thing I can hope for is both China and the US screw each other to the extent...

Not the subject of the thread but as far as I'm concerned having a de facto dictatorship and a fascist state masquerading as a democracy join forces s...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932022_China%E2%80%93India_skirmishes That's ongoing. And there was the Sino-Vietnamese war in 1979, curren...

Historically, China has waged war almost continuously in what are now China's borders. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_wars_and_bat...

How many entries this time?

I would rather have feedback than a vote.

That's because Turkey is strategically too important to kick out of NATO, which is really what should've happened a decade ago.

I'm going to miss your excellent commentary - I really appreciated the time and effort you put into it in the previous 2 friendly contests but totally...

If it's silent on the point, all the more reason not to use it as a basis for literal interpretation, which is the error Anglo-Saxon lawyers keep maki...

SCOTUS are a couple of navel staring constitutional cunts. There are human right treaties and natural rights theories (particularly bodily integrity) ...

It's not as if we'll survive global warming either so it's kind of moot. :razz:

I sincerely hope American empire will implode in my life time if its politics and judiciary continues to be this regressive.

Putnam's BIVs are about meaning and not a suggestion about how a simulation would look like or even suggestive of that as a possibility. I think the q...

Can't stop yourself to make it personal can you? @"Isaac" as a psychologist, what do you make of his vacillating between aggressor and victim in the s...

I'm amazed to read people have processes for writing. Notes? Wow. I need an idea or a dream otherwise nothing happens. Jealous of people who can write...

Does your OP assume that the simulation has to simulate everything? Can't it just simulate parts of it, making it seem as if the whole thing is simula...

Well, I'm totally stuck with my two stories, so I have two halves that unfortunately don't make a whole.