Top 3 Offenders
Dr Strange: Sounds like he's over emphasizes certain inflections on softer A sounds on words can't handle what
Power of the Dog: I'm not sure if he was going for a modern regional Montana accent or trying to go more southern cowboy. Either way complete miss
Black Mass: I suppose Boston has a notoriously difficult accent to nail but it was a bad enough attempt that they should've just hired another actor. He didn't have a lot of dialogue but what lines he did have he kinda mumbled through them
Hi, everyone! I’m Benedict Jacka, author of the Alex Verus series, a sequence of urban fantasy novels set in London. The first, Fated, came out in 2012, and the twelfth and last in the series, Risen, just released this month. After 10+ years, 12 books, and a bit over a million words, the series is finally complete!
I finished writing Risen in January 2021, then wrote a short novella called Favours in the spring. For most of this year, though, I’ve been working on the project that’ll replace my Alex Verus books: a new urban fantasy series. It won’t be a sequel to Alex Verus and it won’t use the same setting or magic system: this will be a completely different world. (If you’d like to know why I chose to start a new series rather than continuing the Alex Verus story or doing a spin-off, I wrote about the decision here). Right now the first book in the series is about 80% done, and I’m hoping to have the first draft finished by around the end of January. You can ask about it, but the book’s not finalised enough for me to give out too many details about it just yet, so expect a lot of “you’ll have to wait and see” answers – sorry!
Other than writing, my life’s pretty quiet. In my free time I skate, lift weights, and play strategy games (my current favourites are Slay the Spire and the LW2 version of XCOM). I read a lot (though less than I once did) and watch the odd TV series – the three biggest things that I’ve been reading/watching lately are Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings, the Expanse TV show, and the Wheel of Time TV show. (One of those three has been great, the other two have been disappointments.)
Right now it’s (almost) midday in London. I generally let these AMAs run for 24 hours to make sure everyone gets a chance to get their questions in no matter what time zone they’re from, so I’ll keep answering questions throughout the rest of today and next morning, then aim to finish up around 12 noon GMT tomorrow.
Post your questions below!
Edit (11.15): Okay, it's been almost 24 hours at this point, so I think it's time to start to bring this to a close. I'll keep answering questions for the next few hours, then call it a day. Thanks to everyone who's taken part, this was a lot of fun and even busier than last year (which until today was my biggest AMA ever). See you all next time!
Helsinki…
I've noticed that when discussions on racism in Finland come up there's a lot of gaslighting/deflection/dismissal of people's experiences (which in itself shows the general attitude in Finland). Just wanted to share a few observations and hear other people's stories.
One major deflection that I see on every racism discussion is "we're not racist! Look at how racist the U.S. is, we're nothing like that!" Of course there are many areas in the U.S. that are racist, but Finland is also quite racist. The one big difference is that Finland isn't usually publicly violent racist. People don't usually yell the "N" word or "refugee" at people (thought it does happen occasionally). The racist statements and opinions are usually made behind closed doors/online. The common racism and discrimination that foreigners will face is being unable to find a job/apartment, microagressions etc.
There's also a lack of integration. Even if you grow up in Finland and speak fluent Finnish but are visibly not Finnish and have a foreign last name you will receive this kind of discrimination. Unfortunately the group that receives the worst treatment and blatant racism is children. Many children get relentlessly bullied and harassed at school if they are a different nationality, especially African children, Muslim children and Romani children. The sentiments expressed by these children are backed by the ignorance of their parents.
Finland is a beautiful country. There are overwhelmingly more positives than negatives about living here. But it's important to acknowledge these kinds of things so that changes can take place. I have faith that over a few decades Finland will become more inclusive.
Edit: I reached out to the mods to ask why the comments were locked, they said it was to assist in moderation. I request that even if your comments were downvoted, please keep them up. They contribute to the conversation.
Here is the new thread continuing the conversation:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/comments/rrznjr/what_are_the_unspoken_social_rules_of_finland/
