All Comments on 'Library of Laughter Ch. 01'

I always have the same complaint with all your stories! They end!! lol Absolutely love your writing!

The comment is essentially the title, but of course I can't expect archaeological procedure to be well known outside Archaeological circles. That would be stupid.

As always the stories are well written.

The archaeologist is described as having wide hips or did I misunderstand something?

A story set in the modern day is a pleasant surprise, coming from you. How does this relate to your usual setting?

I'm curious as to what exactly Tass is. Unfortunately my knowledge of Celtic myth is nonexistent.

A unique story. *5 Thanks:)

Definitely unique. 5*

Haha, I'm sure I'll be getting a lot of angry comments from archaeologists and experts on Celtic culture alike. As one turns their brain off to watch an Indiana Jones movie, so must one turn their brain off to enjoy the Library of Laughter series. ;)

And yes, Rufus has fairly wide hips for a masc dude.

I got a few paragraphs in, then gave up.

First off, for those wondering, Rufus asks for a 'phone accusation' and then replies to the mime with 'to be'.

I know you point out that it's out of the ordinary, but you start out with *the* most blatant list of inaccurate Irish stereotypes imaginable. Like if you were writing a story about modern Native Americans which started off with a description of tipis, feather headdresses and smoke signals. It's just... no.

(And whilst I know that in America, everyone's in a rush to say they're 'Irish', which is pretty different from how ye treat Native Americans, there are several places and times that are not 'modern America'.)

Yeah, that's pretty much why this is a story about a fantasy Irish village, and not a fantasy Native American village. :)

There is not a single place in Ireland where people *only* speak Irish. There are a few where people speak it as a first language, but exclusively? No. Because over several centuries of rule, the English did an impressively thorough job of wiping it out, and of fecking up anyone who tried speaking it near them. Also, we have schools. Which is a little bit of a sore spot too, actually, because the English didn't let us have those. Which is where the stereotype that the Irish are stupid comes from (and yeah, plenty of people still use that one today).

It doesn't end there. We eat potatoes because the English decided to control our diet. Which led to a famine that killed more than a million people. The Irish were never slaves in the way black people were, but thousands of us *were* transported against our will to the Americas, and forced to work on plantations (we were, at least, still treated as people). And thousands more chose to sell *themselves* into indentured servitude in order to get to America, which says something about what the alternative was like. Irish people were imprisoned without charge, tortured, denied work, displaced from their homes en mass, had their native culture destroyed... But that's all ancient history, right? Despite the fact that English rule over Ireland ended less than a century ago.

Except that the Troubles only ended in 1994, and quite apart from the brutal violence (often against civilians) that involved, it also involved thing like a major national newspaper saying that the Irish should be banned from major sporting events, and fined for the things done by the IRA. Pubs that played Irish music were threatened with terrorist attacks. Being Irish meant being associated with the IRA in much the same way that being Muslim means being associated with ISIS today. Hell, for some groups in the UK, it still does. And even today, Protestants in NI have a festival where they write 'Kill All Irish' on the Irish flag, then burn it. Tensions are so high that streets are painted to distinguish the Loyalist areas from the Republican ones, and calling Slash City 'Derry' in the wrong place can be a very bad idea.

I've honestly barely scratched the surface here, and I've only really mentioned the serious stuff, not all the random anti-Irish jokes about how we're always drunk and shit (did you know that the popular image of a leprechaun was originally just a racist caricature of an Irishman? Because a *lot* of Irish people do.). But in short, the Irish have a very painful history, and a lot of it is recent enough for people to actually remember. And in several places today (mostly in the UK), we have a fairly unpleasant present too.

Please consider this fact before you imply that lazy Irish stereotypes are fine in a way that lazy Native American stereotypes aren't.

I'm familiar with Irish history, and trust me, I don't think much of the British. But I stand by what I said. We could go into how the Irish were systemically de-racialized to focus on black and brown people, but really, what's the point? I just don't see racism against the Irish being a serious problem nowadays. Maybe it's because I'm American and it flat-out no longer exists here in any meaningful systemic capacity, but there y'go. This story was originally going to be about the Aztecs, and I said no to the commissioner, because I felt that would be offensive in a way a completely fantastical Irish village would not.

Also, this is a fantasy valley, so I'm pretty fine bending the rules on the language thing. It's just a story, and a smutty one at that.

I'm sorry, but the 'fantasy' excuse doesn't fly if you'd be uncomfortable doing the same thing to Native Americans.

What you say about the Irish is true *in America*. It's not so true elsewhere. European racism is more nuanced because we simply don't *have* that many black/brown people. The UK is 85% white, and it's reasonably mixed by European standards.

The Troubles ended in 1994, many people alive today lived through them, many might have been injured or lost a relative. For those people, I hope you understand that 'it's all in the past' is not really much comfort.

And tensions still run *very* high in some places. Because, again, however much peace was declared, people remember what the other side did. Being 'too Irish' in the wrong place can be actively dangerous. Again, there is a festival every year where Loyalists write 'kill all Irish' on the Irish flag and burn it. As well as effigies of Nationalist leaders. That is *definitely* racism, and the paramilitary groups involved do not make it much better.

And then there are the marches by the far Right in the UK that are supposedly anti-IRA, but which somehow manage to include anyone who looks even slightly Irish (https://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/generationemigration/2012/07/17/return-of-anti-irish-racism-in-britain/?via=mr has some stuff about that, as well as other anti-Irish stuff in the UK).

Again, America does not have this issue, so I don't blame you for this, but you're playing into some rather nasty stereotypes which, in some places, aren't nearly as dead as they should be.

Not taking away from the anonymous who was offended by the story because it created an honest reaction in him/her and we are all entitled to give such feedback for future understanding.

I thought the story was superbly written! Historical references aside, since I neither know much of the history between Irish and British nor is it an important aspect for me on this site when reading a story. The flow of the story was great and the increasing instances of tickling and foot fetish as the story went on was perfect. I could feel Rufus' pain of being torn between fear/avoidance/shame and extreme arousal. I can't wait to read the next installment, thank you!

Everyone is going on about no one speaking only Irish and the fact that the British wiped out the Irish identity and then American Indians get involved.....

What the fuck it’s a fantasy story and the author sets the scene, no one else. This story is not in the historical drama section after all.

All that aside, THIS STORY IS FUCKING CRAP.

So we have all read chapter 1, what’s happened? What do we no? Well he’s a hack, in Ireland, can’t speak the language, finds two English speakers, gets pushed into a hole.

How is that a story? This is the worst thing to read and it makes no sense. Oh and nothing happened. Wouldn’t he have asked miss English speaker why everyone freaked over the medallion and wanted him to cross the bridge so much? Nope he just let that go...

What a crap story 1 Star, only because they don’t have 0.1 stars.

I'm hoping that stone carving is a sign of things to "come" for Rufus XD

Yep I think this should be in a subsection of fantasy under fetish.

Really enjoying this, and my very strong Irish Catholic sensibilities aren't the slightest bit bothered. Ch 2, til est ho! - Ted