articles like these make me think that coding with AI is a little bit like writing Perl code: if you know what you’re doing, you can do brilliant things very quickly, but if you don’t, you can make spaghetti very quickly.
That's a great analogy and is something I experience every second day. Once a week I do a full second pass of a manual review on the generate AI code. Very often I find myself in a situation were I do not really understand the recently AI generated code anymore or find it hard to read, so I either rewrite it manually or tell the LLM to make it more readable. And this is just one part. If you really would like to get a long-term maintainable software product, AI code suddenly isn't that much of a speed boost anymore. Maybe a little bit, but the initial wow effect is very ephemeral.
Is there no room for describing the setting? Must every utterance that sets the atmosphere also advance the plot or reveal character? Is there no room for mood?
describing the setting should (ideally) be done through a character's interaction with the setting.
if you're developing some sort of dystopia where everyone is heavily medicated, better to show a character casually take the medication rather than describe it.
of course, that's not a rule set in stone. you can do whatever the fuck you want.
Some authors rarely describe a place objectively. We see a space through the eyes of the characters - and in doing so, we learn about our characters as we learn about the space they inhabit.
sure, if a character is in some narrative role; however I would argue that no author ever describes a place objectively, especially not a completely fictional place. The question really is if the unobjective description serves a coherent narrative purpose.
He's very efficient with prose and I find it a joy to read (well, given what he's writing about it's not always joy, but still). I'm not sure he's following that rule 100% of the time, but it's close. Depending on the setting, you can often describe it through characters' actions or how it shapes them.
Setting would provide the context for action or characterisation to occur in a meaningful way, or provoke it, so it is necessary part of both (if done for either of those purposes). Given that, the charitable interpretation would be to only provide enough description of the setting for that.
I think the confusion may be in a situation (regardless of culture) where one knows that a loved one’s family has a high regard for courtesy and manners, and you’re willing and eager to please them, sometimes this desire could be mistaken by others for an obsession or “reification” of the specific culture of the family.
I have enjoyed the politeness of the comments from you both and appreciate your courtesy!
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