As I said on Monday, some people can get confused on what a hero should do for fame or infamy. They think full on murder is noble while refusing to steal from the needy is a sign of weakness. Let’s look at a few examples to get an idea of how to go in either direction:
Someone has accidentally bumped into you and caused you to spill your drink:
Fame– Ask for an apology and move on even if you don’t get one.
Infamy– Carve out their liver with the broken glass and mail it to their parents.
A well-known thief, who has never hurt anyone, trips and gets his leg impaled on a fence stake while trying to get away.
Fame– Get them down, bandage their wound, and restrain them for capture.
Infamy– Get popcorn and a chair to watch them bleed to death while live-streaming it for YouTube hits.
A gang kidnaps your loved ones.
Fame– Rescue them and use the same amount of force, if not a little more, than what they are packing. Only knock out and bind those who surrender.
Infamy– Kidnap the loved ones of the kidnappers, offer a trade, and then kill them with their families to avoid vengeance after the swap.
An old lady tried to cross the road at a red light, but it turned green and now she’s holding up traffic.
Fame– Swoop in to safely carry her to correct side of the road.
Infamy– Fireball grandma!
The new fiancée of your former flame is gloating that he had sex with your open-relationship girlfriend in order to get you to fight him.
Fame– Ignore him, but look for an opportunity to give him some non-lethal humility.
Infamy– Butcher him in cold-blood and leave his corpse in the open for your friends and family to see.
The orphanage is on fire!
Fame– Save everyone inside and put out the flames.
Infamy– Save everyone inside, put out the flames, and kill whoever you think is responsible for the fire.
Your significant other cheated on you.
Fame– Suffer a broken heart and work towards finding the strength to move on without them.
Infamy– Kill their lover, mind control them into still loving you, cheat on them multiple times, and frame them for the initial murder.
After a long adventure, you come to the evil villain who has done horrible things for power and wealth. There is no forgiveness.
Fame– Kill them in battle and return to a peaceful life.
Infamy– Nothing because the hero just killed you and returned to a peaceful life . . . That or you killed the villain to take their place.
This is one of the earlier War of Nytefall: Ravenousteasers. This is an all action scene, which made it difficult to find a good cliffhanger/stopping point that wasn’t a sudden jerk. Have fun.
The meme is a little extreme, but it gets the point across. Thought I made a post about this long ago, but it looks like I’ve merely mentioned this in passing. People seem to get this wrong either by accident or on purpose. Guess there’s the mentality that any attention is good attention, but the truth is:
Fame and infamy are NOT the same thing.
Fame is when you are well-known and respected. Your deeds are good and you are seen in a positive light. There is a little gray here, but only because people will use fame for good and bad today. I’ve seen people say Beyoncé is famous and she is. I’ve also seen people say Jeffrey Dahmer is famous . . . Kind of. He’s definitely well-known. Though, he wasn’t a good person or known for good things.
That is why I think the word ‘infamy’ exists and should be used more often. It differentiates the good from the bad. Infamy is when a person is well-known, but they are either feared or hated. They did bad and horrible things, which is why they don’t get respect or positive attention. We tend to think of only high-level monsters being in this category, but it can be on a smaller scale. For example, bullies in high school would be infamous. The kids who are popular for helping others would be famous.
I feel this relates to writing in two ways:
The first is in regards to characters and how they act. I’ve run into a lot of readers who demand that a hero commit slaughter and murder for the slightest issue. All solutions are solved by killing regardless of character personality. For example, a handful wanted Luke Callindor to kill a man who was verbally goading him into a fight. Just flat out murder this asshole as if there wouldn’t be consequences. They still considered him a hero, but he would be a weak one if he simply walked away. Authors do this too where they have a hero who speaks of being a pillar of good, but will kill at every opportunity. If it isn’t done for hypocritical irony, it’s just sloppy characterization. The act of taking a life shouldn’t be so easily committed, especially by heroes who depend on their reputation. Would you go to a hero for help with a minor issue if you’ve seen them murder jaywalkers and litterers?
The second is the author themselves who might go along with ‘all attention is good attention’. Now, a negative review can drive people away, but not as much as an author publicly attacking the reader. Some will undermine other authors who they see as potential rivals and threats. In the eyes of an infamous author, they are in a battle to maintain their seat and audience. Others let their fame go to their heads and feel that they can get away with anything, so they will start attacking various groups they don’t like for a variety of reasons. They justify all of their actions as either a way to solidify their fame or a benefit, which really turns their reputation into one of infamy. Most readers won’t witness these interactions though and this can cause an author to grow bolder and bolder until their antics can no longer be hidden. This is when you get people trying to decide on if they should separate the art from the artist.
So, fame and infamy are basically the opposite sides of the same coin. It’s fairly easy to slip from the former into the latter, but harder to get back. I’d say it falls into the same category as trust. You would need to earn forgiveness and work hard to make up for whatever put you into the infamy category. Even then, it isn’t up to the person to determine their reputation, but those around them. This makes the two categories more difficult to both define and achieve. Maybe it’s best to simply not be known and stay in obscurity?
Whatever I scheduled for today disappeared on me with no trace of what it was supposed to be. I was going to research an animal to make up for it, but it’s really cold. Even in the house, my fingers feel tingly. Probably a side-effect of my body temp not being able to get over 97, but usually staying in the 96’s. Joy. So, enjoy the memes and hope everyone is warmer than I am.
I didn’t get as much writing done this week as I had hoped. Have only myself to blame since I only got 1.75 chapters of Darwin & the Demon Game edited. I thought I would have more time during the week, so I indulged in more of the Pokemon Go event than I should have. I got some great catches, fresh air, exercise, and a new dislike of arctic winds, but it meant I only did editing during my lunch breaks and evening. Guess my time management wasn’t great here.
To be honest, I should have seen it coming. I had to sacrifice Saturday evening to cooking and baking for two Thanksgiving events. It was penne with vodka sauce for a Tuesday celebration at work with the other TAs and 3 ice cream breads for the Life Skills Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday. By the time I finished all of that, I was exhausted and couldn’t edit more than 2 pages. Monday evening was when I cooked dinner for the family and then helped my son with schoolwork. In other words, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen.
Some surprise training wiped out some editing time at work on Tuesday. Probably could have squeezed a bit in after training and the lunch, but I couldn’t figure out a place to go for solitude. Wednesday evening was originally going to be for editing, but I finally pushed away my anxiety and bought a new laptop. It’s a Lenovo Ideapad, which is working really well. Spent the entire evening setting it up, transferring files, installing necessary programs, and then just trying to figure out all of the new stuff. The volume controls are different and now I have Windows 11, so I’m still trying to get used to all of that. Not a fan of how the new version of Word insists on only autosaving to OneDrive and not my Dropbox. Hoping to figure out how to change that before I get back to full writing.
Add a major storm during Thanksgiving and family coming over yesterday to create an exhausted me. I hit last night with my eyelids feeling heavy around 9 PM, which is when I started writing this post. Thinking back, all of the appointments that go on during the week certainly don’t help. With any luck, a weekend focused solely on hanging out with my son to play video games and relax will help. Got 3 full weeks of school before 2 weeks of break, so it’s going to be a rough slog. My hope is to still get the last 3.25 chapters edited before the break. Fingers crossed there.
Oh yeah, there was the other issue that turned up around Monday night. At least I think that’s when it happened. I woke up with a 94.6 body temp and my heartrate going over 100 bpm. The temperature did drop, but this created a really rough night where I began shivering soon after I fell asleep. My body temp eventually got up to 96.6, but that was 5 minutes before my alarm went off. Thinking back, I’ve been sporting a 96.7-97.3 body temp ever since I had Covid in the spring. It occasionally gets higher or drops lower, but that’s the area it tends to stay. Means I can have some really bad nights, which don’t turn up on my CPAP readings. Tossed an extra blanket on to prevent it from happening again, but it’s hard to get around the house. My hands get cold fast even when typing and my energy drains by the end of the day. Had issues with the winter before, but now it’s downright terrible.
This week is going to be shaky in terms of editing time. I believe I can get through the rest of chapter 14 and maybe into 15 before next weekend. There are a few appointments where I’ll just be sitting in the waiting room. My usual Friday one will finish early as well, so I can edit while doing laundry that night. Next weekend has a 2-5 Pokemon Go event each day, but I don’t have to be there for the whole thing. Just go out long enough to complete what I have to and come home. I’m getting back to the exercise bike as well since I can’t go walking around much. Parks close around 5 PM and I don’t get free most days until 4/4:30. Really hate aspects of my weekly schedule.
So, what are the goals of the week?
Stay warm!
Finish chapter 14 and move into 15 of Darwin & the Demon Game.
Deal with blitzkrieg of appointments.
Finish watching ‘Legend of Vox Machina’. Maybe start ‘Arcane’.
Bundle up to do some Pokemon Go each day. Fresh air does help stave off the brain fog.
Brave the mall for a little present shopping.
Continue getting used to new laptop.
Schedule a few February posts if time allows.
Stay warm!
Sleep.
Here’s a few Pokemon Go pictures from last weekend. The event revolved around these really strong Pokemon and various shinies. A shiny Pokemon is one that is an alternate, harder to find coloration of each Pokemon. Not sure if anyone will fully understand, but some are rare and powerful:
I was surprised when I stumbled onto this holiday because I had never heard of it before now. In 2009, the Friday after Thanksgiving has been designated as ‘Native American Heritage Day’. This is different than ‘Indigenous People Day’, which celebrates all of the unique Native Americans who exist today. This holiday is supposed to be more for the ancestors.
Not really sure where to go with this post because the more I read about the holiday, the more controversy I found. Native Americans are apparently not happy with the placement because Thanksgiving is a national day of mourning for them. So, it’s seen as horribly insulting, especially since Thanksgiving overshadows it. Doesn’t help that Black Friday is the same day, so people are just running out to maul their fellow Americans for a discount on last year’s television set. The more I read, the more I feel like this holiday was created with absolutely no sense of timing and care.
So, I’m curious about what other people think. Not only about Native American Heritage Day’s placement and how most people don’t know about it. What do people think about when these special holidays are made to honor groups and they clearly didn’t have members of that group involved? Where would you put this holiday if you could move it to another day?
Legends of Windemere 