crack_van [elmey]

xparrot

It was Illya's turn to write up the mission report, and with usual Russian efficiency he tended to mentally compose those during free moments on the mission itself, typing them up later from memory. So Napoleon wasn't surprised when after a half hour of meditative silence, Illya finally asked, "What is the psychological term for the successful defense mechanism? The transformation of energies towards an alternative goal?"

"Like, say, world domination?" Napoleon eyed his partner suspiciously. "Are you psychoanalyzing THRUSH kingpins again?" Illya had recently been rereading Freud, and applying it to their foes with unsettling conclusions. A THRUSH-man's Oedipal complex was not something Napoleon cared to contemplate in detail, especially not when he had met some of the mothers in question.

"Vytesnenie," Illya muttered to himself. "Displacement? No, that's not quite it. I know there's a word for it..."

"It might come to you faster if you weren't hanging upside down by your ankles."

The effect of Illya's arched eyebrow was scarcely diminished for being inverted. "Napoleon, if I couldn't think hanging upside down, I'd hardly have time to think at all."

metafandom [oulangi]

• zvi: That discussion about discussing fanwork - In the fandom of my dreams, critical discussion is for readers. In the same way that I tl;dr about Glee or Smallville or The X Files, I want to tl;dr about fan stories. I want to compare mpreg stories and tell you which is better and why. I want to deeply examine why I like some stories in the Ladies Choice collection and why some of them leave me cold. -
  
  (tags: reviewing criticism fanworks comments)


• toft: long necks, deep holes - It seems that a lot of all this is lumped together - people who are anti-Archive seem to also be anti-OTW and/or anti-Transformative Works and Cultures (the academic Fan Studies journal) and/or anti-acafan in general, often lumping those things together without any real sense of how they are distinguished from each other, or what they are really against. -
  
  (tags: ao3 otw twc acafen)


• morgandawn: What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate - Part 2 - What social contract do fans owe each other? Some fans feel that there should be laws or at the very least honorable agreements among fans on copying and storing fan fic, linking to websites, talking about fandom and fan fiction in public, and when to honor requests to remove fan fic and vids from public view. Others stare at you blankly when talking about "rules" and then flip you off. -
  
  (tags: fandom community culture)


• cruiscin_lan: What makes YOU squick? - So basically, right now I'm looking for someone who can relate. What squicks you? Have you ever been squicked by a squick you didn't know you had? Have you gotten over squicks? Do you stop reading after hitting a squick, or do you try to skip it and keep going? Will you make exceptions based on author or other factors? -
  
  (tags: squicks)


• thelastgoodname: It occurs to me that an argument could be made.... - What if a person didn't want a future in which fannish activities were recognized as legal? What if said person liked doing things that are morally and legally dubious--what if that were part of the draw? What if the illegitimacy of the act were part of why a person participated? -
  
  (tags: otw fandom culture)

linguaphiles [eastertheatre]

I'd never really noticed the locution "to take a decision" until I started studying British politics. My professor at the time was kind of making fun of Tony Blair for saying it, implying that he was being showy or somehow pretentious by saying "take" instead of "make."  Since then, I've noticed it from time to time in my studies, particularly when I am reading British English written by a non-native speaker. 

I would never say "take a decision" -- only "make a decision." I'm 38, from California. How about you? If the term is familiar to you, does it have any particular connotations as opposed to "make" a decision?