Worx

All of my IRL friendships are based around activities - we play games together, we volunteer together, etc. When someone moves away and we try to keep the friendship going, it always just sputters out after a few weeks or months. It just seems to devolve into small-talk / catch-ups that neither of us are really interested in (I don't mind small-talk too much, but it can't be 100% of any meaningful relationship).

So: What is the point of a long-distance friendship for two people who have no plans to live locally again? What am I missing?

EDIT: I have close conversations in person that are deep and meaningful, just very rarely over text. Maybe I ought to phone or video call once in a while..

If the remap is better in every way, why wasn't it just made like that in the factory? What am I missing?

Although the TARDIS is technically a time machine, for most episodes the Doctor could rock up in a bus and it wouldn't change anything.

The most obvious answer for me is Blink, with the conversation on the DVD Easter egg. Very cool use of time travel, and seeing it come together is brilliant.

I'll also add Waters of Mars. It's not really got any time travel in, but I feel like the foreknowledge which shapes the plot just about counts.

What are your favourites and why?

Having diverse worlds and representing different types of people is a good thing. For something like skin colour, sexuality or gender it's very easy to just say that your character posseses those qualities because it doesn't necessarily change much about them. However, how do people feel about playing NPCs who are neurodivergent?

The main example I'm thinking of is someone with Down syndrome. I don't have that lived experience to draw from because I don't have Down syndrome, but I also feel that these people (like all people) can be valuable members of society and I don't like to see them excluded. Therefore, I would want to see them in my fantasy worlds too. The problem is, I worry I'd mainly be falling back on stereotypes in a potentially harmful and offensive way.

EDIT: I would especially like other neurodivergent people to chime in, of course. Personally I really like to see representation for my neurodivergence in D&D and other literature, but also it can really upset me when it's done badly and it's worse than nothing at all

I really love sci-fi novels and I read a lot of books. I read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson a while back and that book is particularly interesting to me. Rather than each chapter advancing the narrative of the story, there were occasional breaks where a chapter would have a list of semi-random words which just gave the vibe of what's happening, or some history of a scene, or a recipe for how to build an asteroid.

There's another book that I have heard of but neglected to write the name down, where the reader of the book is a character within the book, and the narrator speaks directly to you (but not a choose-your-adventure style book).

All of this got me interested in finding other books, preferably sci-fi or maybe fantasy, where the concept of being a book is played with and new ideas are tried. Any recommendations?