Ruby Granger #15 Dustcore

[pbjellie]

also this is nitpicky but she pours the oats from the cardboard box into a kilner jar and then when she's making granola it's miraculously back in the cardboard box?? just goes to show how little attention she pays to any semblance of continuity.

 

[gossip_guy]

Seriously, does she not know any other words?

She does, but the only problem is that nobody else in the history of language knows what those words mean.

 

[yayadumpling]

I’m not a native speaker so I have no qualms about pointing out Roobee’s various shortcomings But you’re right, I wouldn’t do it to a non-native speaker either, or even a native speaker who didn’t make a big deal of being an Eng Lit student, writing novels, short stories and ”poetry” in their spare time, and hoping to work in publishing or being an author when they’re out of university. Ruby is constantly setting herself up as a scholar who excels in such undertakings, so I’m going to hold her to a higher standard.

Good! I'm an esl/efl teacher so I am qualified to say your English is fantastic!!! You're completely right! If she (or anyone) was studying anything other than EngLit or related degree I don't think people would be as harsh, but as you said she is contradicting her academic persona with her constant misspellings and grammatical errors! Also, it's common for EFL individuals to pick out grammatical mistakes native speaks wouldn't as you learn about grammar differently to native speakers, so go for it!!!!!!!! lol

 

[konemy]

I have no doubt those clothes are comfy but there's no way I'd take a picture of myself wearing that and posting it on social media calling it an outfit of the day. (Maybe to nip to the cornershop but even then I would think twice about it!)

The green thing she's got on underneath could be nice depending on the cut, I like the colour and it suits her. But that granny cardie. No.

At this point it almost seems she's trying deliberately to make dressing in an unfashionable way a personality trait.

I think even the cardigan could look alright if she just styled it more like a person her age. Tucking the green top into some high-waisted pants would make a significant difference imo.

 

[Griftwood]

I was just randomly reminded of Roobee’s courgette porridge five minutes ago… as I went to clean the kittens’ litter box. I use instant oats (they’re the cheapest lol) while they’re still having the occasional little taste as they do their business, and when the oats clump up, the texture is precisely as gluey and gross as Roobee’s breakfast looks. If she put raisins or other little surprise nuggets in hers, they would be identical. (Also I’m pretty sure my kittens eat more than she does )

 

[LarmeKeiLover]

I've been vegan for many years and "can vegans eat honey" is a huge argument that comes up every few months, to the point most groups outright ban the topic.

Other ones that come up are backyard eggs, and oysters. Oh and "is wearing/using things like leather okay if you had it before you were vegan or bought it second hand/was given it as a gift?"

 

[WeepingCassandra]

The outfit videos are concerning me. They’re just body checks. Come on Ruby, we can all see you’re losing a lot of weight, don’t push that onto your followers who might be struggling with it too

 

[Ilaariaa]

Huh I’m so confused, she got a first for second year? But from the info I glean from these threads, she’s really not high-70s standard??

Does Exeter grade differently or something

Her grades confuse me so much. The way she comes across in her videos sounds like lack of intelligence or ignorance rather than lack of effort. Yet she always gets good grades. I don't even know anymore

 

[Rubber Duck]

Tbh I think it's better to have mostly plant-based diet and have a spoon of honey once in a while as an exception rather than thinking that you are either a 1000% vegan or eat everything. Even if someone has 1 vegan meal a day, it helps reduce the harm. Imagine if everyone did this!

Some peope do not go vegan 100%, but are like 99% or even 90% vegan with some little exceptions, and having many such people is more helpful for the environment than having this all or nothing thinking. So I think it's fine if she's not a "perfect" vegan, it's still a good example and encourages people to make better choices.

Agreed! People (mostly vegans) on the internet can often be really critical of 90-something% "vegans" ("So you're okay with animal abuse, just 2% of the time???"). Which is understandable, because there are also people expecting vegan praise for their baby steps, like "meatfree mondays" or "pesco-ovo-vegan 3 days a week".

Regardless of that, I don't think we should be too harsh on Ruby's "vegan slip-ups", assuming she is trying to recover from an ED which could be intertwined with the whole vegan thing as well. Like, ordering something with honey in it instead of ordering nothing at all may be a 'good sign' in that sense.

"This was not my matcha, I just coincidentally happened to take the photo just as a passer-by placed their matcha down next to my muffin, and then my camera stopped working so I couldn't retake the photo.

I always make sure to order the super-ultra-mega-vegan matcha and on the way home, I rehomed six displaced beehives and stopped off at the bank to co-sign a loan for a local family of badgers so that they can start their own bakery business. "

I just hope she doesn't say something like this when people inevitably point it out, lol.

 

[Scapier88]

Clean then pack your school bag
Shows two different bags

 

[gossip_guy]

Not just you. Her content is so repetitive. The porridge looks so disgusting. She is reading a book that she has misnamed so many times. Its Picnic at Hanging Rock. NOT 'Picnic on Hanging Rock'. Is she even really reading it? If so, why does she keep saying the title wrong, even writing it wrong on Insta post captions. Lots of old footage too.

Yup, it's not even fun cringe content anymore since it's just the same thing over and over with even less effort than the time before.

She skims books at most, so it's unsurprising that she never remembers even the titles (like Stephen King's "The Shankshaw Redaction" or whatever she kept calling it). I'm sure she just saw "Picnic" in the title and Victorian schoolgirls on the cover and thought it'd be a fun cottagecore romp to pretend to read.

 

[Magpie02]

She also goes out of her way to use endless amounts of paper just for blotting ink, typing random bullshit on a typewriter, and for her numerous redundant planners when she has multiple digital options for writing, planning and note taking available and uses them all for the same purpose anyway.

She proudly buys a bunch of disposable pens immediately after supposedly buying fountain pens to avoid wasteful writing tools.

This entire video is yet more proof that she has no clue what sustainability means and doesn't really care about being insanely wasteful, she just says whatever random shit she thinks will fit her manufactured personality without backing it up with actions. She's the poster child for entitled, braindead stupidity.

Exactly!! The sheer excess of her possessions -- clothes, pens, books, kranken rucksacks, gifted things that somehow end up on Depop -- is the polar opposite of sustainability. Yet again, Ruby throws in a word she doesn't know the proper meaning of, just because it's trendy and will attract viewers. Classic clickbait.

 

[3calico3]

To get a mortgage though, regardless of the deposit, she would need to prove at least two years of steady and significant income. If she put down the minimum deposit, that still means she’s borrowing £450000 and that’s a huge mortgage which would require SERIOUS dosh. I just don’t buy it.

It actually sold for £325,000 but according to some investment websites, it's lost value since the purchase.

 

[Saskia69]

I have to admit I never liked the Famous Five - I didn’t mid Blyton’s school stories or things like the Wishing Chair, but the ‘whizzo, ginger beer for tea’ adventure stories never did anything for me. I also think that Blyton is a really problematic author and a lot of her books aren’t that great (sorry …) Re-reading them now you just see the racism, classism and sexism and whilst they’re good as period pieces I don’t think they stand up today. As an adult I also really, really hate most of her school stories. They’re not good examples of the genre, by any means, and it amazes me that ‘anti-bullying Ruby’ loves Malory Towers that much. A lot of what goes in in those books is downright nasty, from a bullying perspective. The recent BBC adaptation left me cold as it was all Cath Kidston dormitories and diversity - that was NOT Blyton at all and I don’t think she should have been done that courtesy, as it’s misleading. There’s a long history in children’s stories of using things like disability and race as a trope for moral inferiority and Blyton was a big part of that. I think she’s one of those authors that should now be read for historical context and not for entertainment.

I second this, I personally never got into Blyton and found them quite dated. What gets me though is that she has given a book 2 stars, but doesn’t seem to have given any written review? I’d love to see why she gave it what she did!

 

[missmina]

I really wonder how does she imagine working in publishing lol. She has zero chances for that.

 

[Lola123]

Hang on, is she actually suggesting people should use candles instead of electricity?? I love having a couple of scented candles around for the vibes, but I don’t use them as a light source…

It’s also terrible for your eye sight to do this! You should have properly lit space if you’re reading or even watching tv

 

[strawberrylemonade514]

In her defense, I think Back to School is a fine way of wording things as it encompasses college/university students and high school students. I'm from the US and that's usually how school/college supplies are marketed. "Getting ready for the new academic terms" seems a bit too wordy.

I'm not a fan of the overused b-roll, though.

 

[pwned]

loads of booktubers will say "this book has a dark academia vibe' nowadays! reading books such as song of achillies and the secret history fit into the vibe/aesthetic!

It's kind of painful to see books recommended on this basis, but what can you do? I read (and reread) TSH before uni and adored it; the prose, topics, and unreliable narrator fit my tastes.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and deliberately not refresh my understanding of what the dark academia aesthetic allegedly is. Instead, I will recommend a couple books with the same darker, melancholic, introspective, scholarly or pseudoscholarly feel to them. Finally: Harry Potter doesn't belong to this aesthetic imho. Even if I don't truly believe in the "aesthetic," HP has no real place in it. (How d'ya like them apples, Ruby? jk I'm just playing)

Elizabeth Hand, Waking the Moon - very well researched on the anthropological side

I'm a huge Nabokov fan and think most of his work can fit this "aesthetic." The same goes with Proust.

An atypical recommendation: Steven Millhauser, Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright. I'm not sure if fits the aesthetic at all, heh, but it's good.

I have to cut this short - I'll make another post later with more and also include a bit more explanation.

Ok. I will make a very bold statement. Whoever would say SoA has a Dark Academia vibe is actually perpetuating the purely superficial idea of „academia“. It‘s like claiming you are into classical music but are listening only to Pop - because some use classical motives or even melodies in the background.
SoA is basically fanfic exploring a same sex variation of an already written story. I am not bashing fanfic here. There is a reason it’s out there and many enjoy it. Some are very original and good. SoA is not. It’s pretty basic in its pursuit of telling „another version of the events“. Circe is a much much better attempt. But I cannot get over using a completely build world for your success. It severely lacks in originality. And that’s all the author has shown for now. That’s what distinguishes a good author from a brilliant one. It will make her money but it will not put her on the classics shelf. Which is fine, but I really don’t get how a pretty elitist subculture (the whole classic/Arts/history/philosophy/Oxbridge culture is feeding on elitist ideas. I don’t dislike it but I get why someone would) would think that’s part of the canon or a good example?

Quick reply, have to pick up the dog from the vet, but
1. Nothing wrong with using a preexisting world!
2. I haven't read SoA so cannot comment (yet)
3. Circe is great, agreed!
4. If one has experience with Homer (at all - no need to be an expert), Derek Walcott's epic Omeros is marvelous. It's not for everyone, but even when I wasn't completely sure if I liked epic poetry, I loved this work.

 

[howaboutnot]

I must admit that my own knowledge of Lawrence is very limited. I've only ever read Lady Chatterley and I didn't know he wrote that which, I agree is appalling. I don't like that he wrote that and I can understand why his opinions on "natural" orgasms would be an outdated and anachronistic view in these times. I loved Lady Chatterley and as with so many writers both modern and not, I think it is important to love their work with the caveat of the context of the times they lived. I loved LC because I thought the characters and plot were beautiful and important. That's enough. I don't go into reading a book necessarily knowing anything about the writer. The writer themselves isn't important; their skill at telling a story is. DH Lawrence was a flawed human being who could write a bloody good story. For me, that's all I need. For Ruby, I think that is what she needs to open her mind to. She has a very limited, very childlike view of the world and it needs to be exposed to the more grown up and adult half of her life.

I do agree that Ruby would benefit from opening her mind to a wider range of literature (and views about the world). Even if she intends to do an MA in Children's Lit it would do her no end of good to explore and engage with other texts.

As to your points about Lady Chatterley. I agree to an extent: it is important to view texts through the lens of the time they were writing. In its historical context, it's an important book. As to it being a good story.. had DH Lawrence not dehumanised Sir Clifford over the course of the novel and said that he essentially deserved what he got on account of his paraplegia, I wouldn't have felt it necessary to read up on his view of euthanasia and eugenics. When an author's politics shines through with so bigoted a light I find it hard to see the story as a good/ enjoyable one.

I know this is a massive tangent from talking about Ruby, so thanks for taking time to share opinions. I often think there are more interesting discussions about literature on this thread than on Ruby's GR page.

 

[fairyholics]

A lot of her comments just talk about how she is 'so much like Hermione! She even has the same voice as Emma Watson!' as if Ruby isn't partially doing that on purpose and as if 'Granger' is her actual name ahahha
I did actually used to not realise it wasn't her name, though, I just thought oh wow what a coincidence