Motes Played edits, Marsh typesetting

motes-played/content/001.tex

@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ Dry Grass laughed. \emph{``You had me at maccy-chee. Shall I come over now?''}
 
 No sooner had the message completed than Dry Grass blinked into being on the default arrival point over by the front door.
 
-Motes finished shoving the tray of salad ingredients up onto the counter and zipped over to her cross-tree cocladist, all but launching herself into her arms. Dry Grass caught her, letting her momentum swing both human and skunk around in a circle. ``Hey little one! Way to go almost knocking me over.''
+Motes finished shoving the tray of salad ingredients up onto the counter and zipped over to her cross-tree cocladist, all but launching herself into her arms. Dry Grass caught her, letting her momentum swing both human and skunk around in a circle. ``Hey, little one! Way to go almost knocking me over.''
 
 ``I am not sorry!'' Motes said and just as quickly dashed away and back to the kitchen. ``Help me cut up everything. I am going to nick a claw, I know it.''
 

motes-played/content/003.tex

@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ It giggled and pushed its paws up over her face. ``Motes Motes Motes! Look at yo
 
 ``Absolutely not.''
 
-Motes smirked. ``No, I was asking what you are working on in general. What are you working on these days?''
+Motes smirked. ``No, I was asking what you are doing in general. What are you working on these days?''
 
 ``Oh!'' They sat up cross-legged, letting Motes do the same. ``I got a letter from both of the LVs, and--''
 

motes-played/content/thoughts-on-motes.tex

@@ -69,12 +69,14 @@ First, one must consider the role of art. There are three general ways of interp
 \item
   \textbf{Instructive:} art should be used to instruct the audience how to interact with the world. This goes beyond simply teaching them how to do this or that, too: it can be that a piece of art is intended to be an example that one should follow.
 \end{itemize}
+\vspace{-0.5em}
 
 These are not hard and fast categories, of course, and a work of art need not fill only one of them. I think it is this last one that a lot of folks get hung up on, in cases like this. It is, of course, only a gesture that I provide my intentions in an artist's statement, but there is very little about the book that is intended to be instructive: it starts as children's books do because Motes presents as a kid, and it ends as children's books do because, hey presto, Motes presents as a kid.
 
 Instead, I provide a piece of writing which I intend to be escapist—I have mentioned the joys above—as well as representative. There are littles in the world. It is just a fact! People of all sorts engage with ageplay in all sorts of different ways. If Post-Self is to be a complete take on a future world, then I do not see why it should not include (thoughtful, sensitive, appropriate) takes on complete aspects of the world.
 
 But even if it were instructive, what are the lessons to be taken away from the story?
+\vspace{-0.5em}
 
 \begin{itemize}
 \tightlist
@@ -114,7 +116,7 @@ I resent that I need to be rightfully anxious. I resent that, by creating someth
 
 I resent that, if I claim that \href{https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReallySevenHundredYearsOld}{Motes is nearly 300 years old} at the time of this story, I will be accused of trying to weasel my way out of grooming accusations, regardless of the fact that dealing with grooming is part of her character and the plot. I resent that if I claim that the headmate upon which Motes is based is actually 38 at time of writing, just like this wretched body,\footnote{Remember that mention of sciatica? Yeeeah\ldots} and has simply leaned into feelings of kidcore, a portion of my identity will be declared wicked and manipulative. I resent that, no matter how loudly I say that I am aware of the broader context of CSA in the wider world, how abhorrent I think that is, none of that will matter in the face of that same imagined wicked and manipulative aspect. I resent that, no matter how nuanced my arguments on consent are\footnote{Many of those who \emph{do} engage with interests and kinks often considered problematic think about consent and those potentially problematic aspects \emph{far} more than most, even those who dislike them, I guarantee you.}—even within this very work!—the work itself will be declared, yes, wicked and manipulative.
 
-I resent that one way I could avoid such readings are to make Motes miserable, to deny her happiness in her identity, do take from her her pride in herself and her growth. I resent that I might well be lauded for changing the ending of the book to have Motes give up, have her follow Hammered Silver's suggestion to put away childish things\footnote{The Odists are famously Jews; why is she quoting 1 Corinthians? But then, I suppose Paul was famously a Jew, too\ldots} and become other than she had been. I resent that a `solution' in my straw-reader's mind would be to replace joy with shame.
+I resent that one way I could avoid such readings are to make Motes miserable, to deny her happiness in her identity, to take from her her pride in herself and her growth. I resent that I might well be lauded for changing the ending of the book to have Motes give up, have her follow Hammered Silver's suggestion to put away childish things\footnote{The Odists are famously Jews; why is she quoting 1 Corinthians? But then, I suppose Paul was famously a Jew, too\ldots} and become other than she had been. I resent that a `solution' in my straw-reader's mind would be to replace joy with shame.
 
 It is, as Motes puts it, annihilation. It is the opposite of reclamation. Rather than taking the bad and finding a way to reclaim the good in it, it is taking a thing that is good and making it not just bad, but reprehensible. It is taking things that one enjoys and not making them less enjoyable, but making them shameful.
 
@@ -132,6 +134,6 @@ I have come to love Motes, and I hope you do too.
 
 \begin{flushright}
 \itshape
-— Madison Scott-Clary\\
+— Madison Rye Progress\\
 April 29, 2024
 \end{flushright}