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Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 24, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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There's Saya no Uta, the visual novel. It's an anti-Crime and Punishment where the protag is pushed into doing evil through external circumstances, but instead of succumbing to guilt he slowly embraces the status of a monster -- partly because he has no choice, but partly because once the walls of normalcy have collapsed it's an oddly comfortable and liberating way to live -- though it could end violently at any time, and almost definitely will. The acute periods of violence are interspersed with a level of freedom and calm we never really get in our lives, being beyond the purview of all laws except those of nature. What's impressive is I'm not confident this was a deliberate aim of the writers. Because typically for us to take a theme away from a story, the writers will make a clear and deliberate effort early on to draw our attention, regardless of where the story's at; they'll bend the plot or characters to this end too. But here is an uncommon case where a theme emerges naturally, and the hand of the writer is never felt. I really admire this kind of story more than any other, because it has the highest likelihood of teaching us.