[mewse]

I can't stop thinking about this throwaway parenthetical at the start of the blog post:

> [...] for many writers, writing a book is about the last thing they should do (unless they feel a book bursting out of them, much like a facehugger).

Now, as we all know, the aliens that burst out of people in the Aliens franchise are called 'chestbursters'. "Facehuggers", by comparison, are hatched from alien eggs.

So in this metaphor, since we're told that novels are facehuggers, the writers must be the eggs. And by process of elimination, we can deduce that the innocent starship crewmembers being attacked by facehuggers (novels) are innocent readers.

The metaphor actually contradicts the author's main thesis, since every egg (writer) does in fact contain a facehugger (novel). But contrariwise, all the human characters (the rest of us) would be much better off if those novels just stayed inside the writers and didn't insist on being written or read.

Metaphors are like scissors; they're twice as much fun when you run with them!

[smikhanov]

Considering how tooth-achingly boring the original post is, this is the best kind of feedback for it.

[joenot443]

I found it super readable. I think it helps a lot if you’re familiar with the other authors Gwern is referencing.

[pc86]

First Gwern post I see.

[pessimizer]

What I think happened is that he said "facehugger" when he meant "chestbuster," likely because 1) the word "chestbuster" almost repeats the word "bursting," and 2) everyone knows that a chestbuster is the only notable symptom (aside from hunger and sudden indigestion) of having been attacked by a facehugger.

You've introduced eggmorphing (the transformation of people and other animals into eggs), which is not canon because the scene was cut.

https://collider.com/alien-eggmorph-deleted-scene-explained/

[gwern]

"Facehugger" is a lot more familiar a term, and yeah, I didn't even realize there was a difference because a facehugger leads to bursting-chests, at least in what I remember of the 3 Alien movies I watched. (I also keep thinking of 'facehuggers' thanks to the AI startup Hugging Face. Every time I see their logo+name, I think again to myself, 'what a bizarre brand, it looks like _Alien_, like the poor emoji guy is about have his chest burst from the face-hugging alien'.)

But since the term is apparently not technically correct (which as we all know, is the best - indeed, only - kind of correctness), I have changed it.

[water-data-dude]

Are you saying everyone would be better off not reading my Starship Troopers fan fiction where they get it on with the Arachnids?

[newqer]

Where is this fanfiction located? So you know.. I can avoid it at all costs of course.

[michaelanckaert]

I'm sure there's a market for your creation ;-)

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Everyone should read my science fiction novel, where a team of intrepid heroes travels in time to assassinate Marx and Engels, but returns to a future where things are worse because they should've focused on Hegel.

[slowmovintarget]

But if you open up in preparation for launching that facehugger, you may trigger Ripley's response with a flamethrower, then no eggs are happy.

[sandworm101]

And they are most fun when their author actually understands the subject. Don't make a trek reference unless you know your Kirks from your Spocks.

[gwern]

This is a strange comparison. It is a humorous throwaway line about SF, where the actual 'subject' is not SF at all. (It's nonfiction writing.) That aside, your Kirk/Spock comparison is also wrong: the difference between Kirk and Spock is not a minor terminological quibble over a monster's name (which was not even the most important monster of that movie). The relationship of Kirk/Spock is the heart of _Star Trek_, the dramatic core, as they oppose and support each other. Even I, a non-Star Trek fan, know that!

[BiteCode_dev]

No he just made a mistake.

As usual, readers reading too much into something.

[feetsoup]

I bet you're fun at parties.