Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on The Sword of Good - Less Wrong

85 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 September 2009 12:53AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 09 January 2011 12:10:49PM 3 points [-]

I don't have permission to view that, says the board. But, just taking a wild guess here, that wouldn't be a Perfect Lionheart fic would it? Because unless the same forumgoers are also lambasting the Bible and David Eddings, one can't help but suspect that it's not the content so much as the writing which triggers the hate.

Comment author: nick012000 09 January 2011 12:33:16PM 1 point [-]

Yeah, you have to register to view the board, and yeah, it's the Perfect Lionheart fic. The reason that thread's gotten so many posts and the story's gotten so much negative feeling about it, though, is because it started off looking good, was well-written (as far as the technical aspects of writing like spelling, grammar, and so on go), and had occasional teases in a scene here and there that it might manage to redeem itself.

If it was simply poorly written it would have been dismissed as just another piece of the sea of shit that makes up 90% of ff.net.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 09 January 2011 01:00:09PM 10 points [-]

So Chuunin Exam Day, then? I've never read it, but I've heard of it.

Considering that I was able to identify the author and possibly the exact fic from the information that the morality was being heavily lambasted, may I suggest that readers noticing nonlampshaded evil doesn't actually happen all that often? TV Tropes is good at noticing Moral Dissonance, but literally nowhere else that I've ever heard of. It took a critic on the order of David Brin to point out that Aragorn wasn't democratically elected.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 12 January 2011 01:20:16AM 2 points [-]

Unfortunately half the examples of Unfortunate Implications on TV Tropes are places where the work's universe has rules that create problems for currently popular systems of ethics (the implication being it's wrong to imply such rules might be true). Or otherwise violating prevailing moral fashions.

Comment author: ciphergoth 09 January 2011 03:13:19PM 1 point [-]

I think people just think of it not being evil to be a dictator as part of the fantasy setting. I'd be more moved by an example in an everyday setting.

Comment author: taryneast 09 January 2011 09:17:48PM 0 points [-]
Comment author: spriteless 10 January 2011 03:25:53AM 0 points [-]

Wah, but... how can people not see that Tyrant Hope Hubris becomes evil?

Gur tubfg bs Qernzre cerqvpgf uvf snyy! Gur glenag uvzfrys cbvagf vg bhg uvzfrys juvyr vapbtavgb! Uvf rfgenatrq jvsr gur fnzr, nsgrejneqf! Cvref Nagubal rira anzrq uvz Ubcr Uhoevf!

Anyways, if you can stand Piers Anthony it is an OK read.

Comment author: taryneast 10 January 2011 12:10:28PM 0 points [-]

Yah agreed. It definitely plays with the theme... which is kinda fun.

I was mainly saying it's an example not in the fantasy setting ;)

It's more along the lines of "If I were king, what would I do... and how would I become king anyways?"

Comment author: ciphergoth 09 January 2011 10:30:03PM 1 point [-]

Nope, sorry!