rants – MORIAH JOVAN https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham Never underestimate the commercial value of mental illness. Tue, 24 Feb 2026 21:12:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.3 There’s a new rule in town https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/new-rule-in-town/ https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/new-rule-in-town/#respond Sun, 09 Nov 2025 19:13:26 +0000 https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/?p=22533
@evhanddThere’s one dead giveaway your content was written by ChatGPT. It’s […] the em dash.

There’s one dead giveaway your content was written by ChatGPT. It’s not the tone, it’s not the phrasing, it’s the em dash.

No normal, non-seasoned writer writes like that.

Sure, there are people who definitely use it. But 99.9999% of the population has never even heard of an em dash before. Let alone use it in their content.

Go die in a fire.

]]> https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/new-rule-in-town/feed/ 0 On being civilized https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/being-civilized/ https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/being-civilized/#respond Wed, 17 Sep 2025 17:50:01 +0000 https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/?p=19528

“What does it matter what I think as long as I’m polite and kind to the person?”

“Because it’s not real. It’s not genuine. It’s performative.”

Yes, I was being judgy. I reserve the right to be judgy. We’re all judgy. You can call it “discerning,” “discriminating,” “pattern recognition,” “resentment,” “outrage,” or “vile mean girl,” but we all do it. We may or may not relay our opinions to anyone, but we have them—about things, people, thoughts, beliefs, matters of taste, and behavior. The only difference between your judgment and my judgment is that you don’t agree with me. Humans being humans, you feel you have the moral high ground because of course you do. I guarantee if we agreed, we’d be sitting on the couch gleefully reinforcing our mutual opinion and possibly spilling hot tea.

So I looked at this person who objected to my judgment, completely confused.

“Politeness is performative. That is its entire point.”

The discussion had to end there for external reasons, we never got back to it, and then life intruded in a way that made it irrelevant, but the only real requirement in life is to be kind. If you can’t manage that, be polite. If you can’t manage that, walk away.

But if you are pushed to engagement, go big or go home.

]]> https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/being-civilized/feed/ 0 Book Review: The Actor and the Housewife https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/book-review-the-actor-and-the-housewife/ https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/book-review-the-actor-and-the-housewife/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:42:29 +0000 http://moriahjovan.com/mojo/?p=1698 Cover of Shannon Hale’s THE ACTOR AND THE HOUSEWIFE. On a blue background is a headless woman in an apron holding a pie. Below the yellow title block, a headless man in a tuxedo.The Actor and the Housewife
by Shannon Hale
Published by Bloomsbury USA

I feel like I just got jerked around in an extremely passive-aggressive manner by a narcissistic fuckwad.

I can’t tell you how pissed off I am at this moment.

No review. No more crit. You can see previous entries here and here. It’s completely irrelevant.

Tell you what. I’ll read Stephenie Meyer again before I’ll read anything else this author’s ever written. I can’t imagine Breaking Dawn is a worse betrayal by an author than this.

ETA:

I’ve gotten a bunch of emails about what actually happened, so here you go. Spoiler warning.

Spoiler
Okay, here was the deal:

All the way through this book, Felix is in love with Becky. Almost painfully so. Obviously so (which is its own irritation that nobody picks up on this). He’s a very nice guy and fairly fleshed out and he’s only an ass for maybe 5 pages of the whole book.

Okay.

Her husband dies at the 2/3 mark. So, for 2/3 of the book she’s all about Felix when her husband’s around. Then, for the last 1/3, she’s all mourning her husband for two years, and Felix is there, wanting to marry her, tells her he’s been in love with her (and oh, this comes as a complete shock to her, right? Pfffttt), and now she’s all about her husband. So for pages and pages and pages and pages she’s all, “NO I’M STILL MARRIED TO MIKE!!!” (this is after 2 years of widowhood, remember) and breaking Felix’s heart, then she finally decides, yeah, okay, I can marry him. He’s my best friend after all. I’m 45 and my kids are way grown (youngest is 13 or something and oldest 2 are gone) and Felix and I can grow old together, so yeah, I think maybe I’ll think about marrying him after all.

And then they go away for a while so they can kiss uninterrupted. So they do.

And it is (I quote), “a belly-flop” of a kiss. No passion. So that’s it. They go their separate ways, I guess still being best pals on the phone or whatever.

Cuz they aren’t made for each other after all.

Because they didn’t get horny when they kissed for the first time.

Happy happy joy joy.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? AFTER ALL THAT FUCKING ANGST? HOW DO YOU NOT GET HORNY ABOUT THE PERSON YOU’VE BEEN IN LOVE WITH FOR ELEVEN YEARS???

She spends the first 2/3 thirds of the book w/her husband being all about Felix and the last 1/3 with Felix being all about her husband.

I have no way to reconcile any of this to any reality, writerly or Mormonly or humanly. None. It makes no sense on any level.

]]> https://moriahjovan.com/talesofdunham/blog/book-review-the-actor-and-the-housewife/feed/ 26