Oh :(
This is such a shock. I'm so sorry, dear friend. Sending so much love xxo

I've been wanting to read The Saint of Bright Doors for SUCH a long time, but the library hasn't had copies. They now have the audiobook, which I've started! But I've a feeling I'll stop this and wait for the words-book; already there are descriptions I want to see on the page and re-read.

You DID IT! 🥳

I’m really, really looking forward to this one! It’s on my list.

Ohh yes, I love that :O
Part of me wants wenzhou, collectively, to be Tommy Le Homme; WKX's overenthusiastic poetry mixed with ZZS's long-distance space brain. But then, another part of me wants them to be PISS and FUCK and for Ye Baiyi and Shen Shen to steal their jackets.

Great way to put it! This is exactly what it feels like 😩

"I do understand: you want permission" feels so very apt here. I get the distinct impression she wants to continue using it without social consequence and subsequent guilt.

Thank you for writing the rude letter!

Spot on! She did use genAI -- she admits it late in the piece, and expounds in the comments. She also says she spent hours editing it, which... is concerning... because it sure could use an edit.

“What do we do now that industry tools like MS Word are rife with the shit” is a question we should ask, definitely, but not with an agenda of shifting the line of acceptable use!

It’s baffling!
All I get out of it is that she wants to feel better about using it. I looked her up here on Bluesky and she was picking exactly the same fight about a video game that had an award stripped due to genAI use.

Underwood’s bio sure is telling:

I don't think she meaningfully reflected on anything that happened to or around her. I was so starved for character introspection. Fuck. Any other character in this book would've made a more compelling protagonist.

The great thing about mediocre books, though: they end.

The book is so... confusing. The MC spent the whole time observing things, then dismissing them, because the plot relied so heavily on her ignorance. She was awesomely stupid for 90% of it, yet had a magical transformation to extremely competent and clever at the end.

All I'm hearing is MORE TREATS 🖤🖤🖤

Your words, your words, YOUR WORDS. You know that forever-problem with some candies where you want to savour them and suck them slowly until they dissolve on your tongue, but always end up crunching them quickly like a beast because they're so good? My dilemma with your words. Such good treats xxo

Yay to arbitrary goals that make us do things!

Xie’er is the smoker on the balcony.

It is such an excellent, strange, fever dream of a game.

As soon as I get home, I’m going to do it!