Ruby Granger #18 Still no deal with Waterstones but half her food was mailed from home

[meweme]

I don't want to stop anyone talking about her Oxford interview (seriously not, this is all entertainment on here), but to me personally I would be willing to write it off as a unfortunate mismatch between her skillset and preparation and the requirements of the situation. Of course the information how to prepare was probably there and other people were clever enough to use it properly, but sometimes that's just what happens when you're young and learning. You try your way that was taught to you, that you perfected, that you think will work, and then sometimes it just doesn't anymore. Others might have been able to adapt to the new situation faster or more successfully, but you just didn't. And (to me) this is nothing incredibly stupid or villainous, it is just a part of being young and everybody growing at different speeds, managing different things each at their own time. So I wouldn't hold her failing at her Oxford interview at 18 against her. That's just natural.

The thing that stands out to me that after all those years she didn't learn from it and doesn't progress. She just gets deeper and deeper in her restrictive ways, limiting herself immensely. Her level of avoidance and unwillingness to confront her troubles is what stands out to me more than that she failed at this one big thing at age 18.

 

[queencarmen]

I think its pretty obvious why her interview wasn't successful. Her social skills just really aren't up to par unfortunately, I can totally imagine her misinterpreting questions or not sensing whether she's going on a tangent etc

 

[DEFALT]

I'm surprised no one (from what I can tell, sorry if anyone has I couldn't see anything) has mentioned Martha's new video.

Main takeaways are this:
- Marfa is emassing a rather impressive collection of questionable tattoos.
- Marfa has dyed her hair (and forehead) again.
-Marfa has genuinely put more effort into editing this very basic tattoo video then I think Ruby ever has.
- Marfa states that her parents wanted to called her bleeping 'Strawberry', which just feeds into the theory that her parents don't have a clue what they are doing.
- Marfa has gotten a tattoo of Haku from spirited away, which is for Ruby apparently (?), and in the same chain of thought we essentially get Marfa calling Ruby out for looking like a 12 year old (in relation to the character Haku).
-Marfa states one of sister's friends did a stick and poke tattoo on her, I am honestly shocked Ruby would have a friend willing to do so, unless there is another sister that the Bones have locked in the dusty attic.

TL;DR Marfa said Ruby looks like a 12 year old, and can edit better than Ruby, whilst being miles more entertaining than Ruby.

 

[gossip_guy]

But...and I imagine I will part company with most on this thread here... I suspect Ruby is probably very good at original thought, and that explains most her high grades, including the high marks for the philosophy exam that she advised people to memorize quotes for. There must have been some killer original thought to make up for that, and I'm not buying that it is down to Exeter having low standards or Ruby sucking up to tutors. We just don't see the original thought ever in evidence because i) Ruby isn't very articulate and doesn't put the effort into preparing remarks to impress us like she does for her seminars, and ii) Ruby has long promoted the first year Hermione image of herself to us and her viewers, memorizing and regurgitating facts. And unfortunately she may still believe that's what intelligence looks like.

Personally I'd say it's the exact opposite. I think she's borderline incapable of original, critical thought. I don't think there's a single example online of her coming up with an original, insightful opinion on anything, let alone a coherent one. I don't think she's saving it all for essays, I think she's just gotten very good at gaming the essay system.

Up to now, she's made no secret of being heavily reliant on secondary material to build her essays and form thoughts for her (even reading critical essays and Sparknotes summaries before reading the main text in many cases).

Sucking up to tutors won't get her far, but she has been monopolising their time with all the meetings they'll allow her to book (and then some) and coaxing thoughts and answers out of them with lengthy emails full of leading questions, which will give her an idea of what to say to tell them what they want to hear in an essay.

Not to mention how obsessive she's been about making sure Blakeney shares all her Notion notes and meets with her at all times to discuss the texts.

Combined, she's been able to reverse-engineer high-grade essays from other people's thoughts and critical opinions by finding critical material she likes the sound of, gauging the tutor's wavelength for where they lie and starting from there.

That might work well when you're given a few pre-defined essay questions to work from to limit the scope of what she needs to research, but now she has to come up with a dissertation topic for herself, she's completely floundering, which I think really speaks to the extent of her critical ability and her capacity for original thought.

I think its pretty obvious why her interview wasn't successful. Her social skills just really aren't up to par unfortunately, I can totally imagine her misinterpreting questions or not sensing whether she's going on a tangent etc

Plus a smug, superior tone and attitude might convince twelve year olds that she's speaking intelligently, but her inventing and mispronouncing words to sound smarter than she is wouldn't fly with seasoned interviewers at Oxford, especially when every thought she's trying to articulate with her made-up language is complete, superficial drivel.

 

[CatCafe234]

I'm surprised no one (from what I can tell, sorry if anyone has I couldn't see anything) has mentioned Martha's new video.

Main takeaways are this:
- Marfa is emassing a rather impressive collection of questionable tattoos.
- Marfa has dyed her hair (and forehead) again.
-Marfa has genuinely put more effort into editing this very basic tattoo video then I think Ruby ever has.
- Marfa states that her parents wanted to called her bleeping 'Strawberry', which just feeds into the theory that her parents don't have a clue what they are doing.
- Marfa has gotten a tattoo of Haku from spirited away, which is for Ruby apparently (?), and in the same chain of thought we essentially get Marfa calling Ruby out for looking like a 12 year old (in relation to the character Haku).
-Marfa states one of sister's friends did a stick and poke tattoo on her, I am honestly shocked Ruby would have a friend willing to do so, unless there is another sister that the Bones have locked in the dusty attic.

TL;DR Marfa said Ruby looks like a 12 year old, and can edit better than Ruby, whilst being miles more entertaining than Ruby.

Ahh, that makes things make sense now - when Marfa went to get her Betty Boop tattoo her mum went along and got a tattoo of a strawberry, which she said was for Marfa. I had always thought it was a nickname and wondered how they got ‘Strawberry’ from Marfa, since Ma Granger said she was going to get another tattoo of a bee, for Ruby (and I can see how you can get ‘Bee’ as a nickname from Ruby). Hearing that her parents wanted to call her Strawberry makes that make sense now, but wow, Marfa dodged a bullet with that one! Apologies if there are any Strawberries reading, but what a name to go though life with.

 

[Ilaariaa]

Ahh, that makes things make sense now - when Marfa went to get her Betty Boop tattoo her mum went along and got a tattoo of a strawberry, which she said was for Marfa. I had always thought it was a nickname and wondered how they got ‘Strawberry’ from Marfa, since Ma Granger said she was going to get another tattoo of a bee, for Ruby (and I can see how you can get ‘Bee’ as a nickname from Ruby). Hearing that her parents wanted to call her Strawberry makes that make sense now, but wow, Marfa dodged a bullet with that one! Apologies if there are any Strawberries reading, but what a name to go though life with.

Strawberry Bones sounds like a killer band name tho

 

[Griftwood]

Strawberry Bones sounds like a killer band name tho

There’s already a band called Ruby Bones

 

[MGB01]

Ahh, that makes things make sense now - when Marfa went to get her Betty Boop tattoo her mum went along and got a tattoo of a strawberry, which she said was for Marfa. I had always thought it was a nickname and wondered how they got ‘Strawberry’ from Marfa, since Ma Granger said she was going to get another tattoo of a bee, for Ruby (and I can see how you can get ‘Bee’ as a nickname from Ruby). Hearing that her parents wanted to call her Strawberry makes that make sense now, but wow, Marfa dodged a bullet with that one! Apologies if there are any Strawberries reading, but what a name to go though life with.

all the strawberries reading this thread rn

 

[GoinDowntown]

Right?!

The whole point of the video was to set up a pretend q&a with viewers who just so happened to have the exact same ”problems” as Ruby, and so be able to reassure herself that her behaviour is completely normal and that she’s right to 1) only do things she enjoys, 2) only go out of her comfort zone enough to make one friend so she can have a ”support system” at uni and 3) run home to mummy and daddy at every opportunity.

The thing about the "support system" struck me as odd as well. It's like she doesn't really value people for themselves, but for what they can do for her.

Right, she's found some friends so she can have a support system, so now she can stop making friends. She's got what she wanted, which is to not have 0 friends and not have to live alone. Any other people after that requirement has been filled are superfluous.

She gives me the impression that she regards hanging out with people as "unproductive" and a waste of time. But she wants to have the "support system" just in case she needs something from them.

 

[Lasagnacreamcone]

Plus a smug, superior tone and attitude might convince twelve year olds that she's speaking intelligently, but her inventing and mispronouncing words to sound smarter than she is wouldn't fly with seasoned interviewers at Oxford, especially when every thought she's trying to articulate with her made-up language is complete, superficial drivel.

Totally agree! The "I'm always writing a book" always bothered me because... Like, I've been writing since I know how to write, always wanted to be a writer, I've won writing competitions and stuff, I know how to write ok, it's far from being amazing but I know how to write, it's the one thing I'm good at. And someone who writes for like an hour everyday, book after book, is not a writer, at least in my opinion.
There's two types of "good writing" (if you ask me, wich no one did, but oh well) : the fake good writing and the heartfell good writing. Having your text making sense, using beautiful complicated words, it's the fake one. I know because I used it a lot in essays I was not invested in, in high school. Teachers (maybe not at uni tho) are gonna be impressed by you being able to make words work together, people in general, and especially kids, don't know how to do that. It's very impersonal. It's pretty easy if you read a lot and have good grammar.
Some people are just, not made to be writers. And maybe she just isn't. "Being a writer is not writing 80% of the time" don't remember who said that but that's pretty accurate.
If your books are written in constant flow, they are probably (maybe they are ok don't come at my throat) not that good.
I have a very artsy-queer social circle, and I see of lot of people trying to write using as much fancy and beautiful words as possible, and it's so forced, it's not good. Could I do better? Probably not. But I can see it's not good. Not bad, but not something you'll remember.
Her not feeding her brain properly doesn't help.

 

[GoinDowntown]

Some people are just, not made to be writers.

Not sure what you mean by this...?

Sure, some people are naturally more talented, but can't everyone improve by practicing if they have something interesting to say?

 

[marcelprout]

Poll time! Is Roobee returning home once and for all or is she begrudgingly visiting Marfa in Sheffield after reading too much on here and deciding to prove us all wrong?

 

[xoxoxo13]

Not sure what you mean by this...?

Sure, some people are naturally more talented, but can't everyone improve by practicing if they have something interesting to say?

But Ruby doesn't practice nor does she have anything interesting to say. Saying she's 'always writing a book' is another way for her to seem productive and give her young fans unrealistic expectations.

 

[emmer_moans]

Poll time! Is Roobee returning home once and for all or is she begrudgingly visiting Marfa in Sheffield after reading too much on here and deciding to prove us all wrong?

Surely she isn't going home again?

Her next story is this.

 

[GoinDowntown]

But Ruby doesn't practice nor does she have anything interesting to say. Saying she's 'always writing a book' is another way for her to seem productive and give her young fans unrealistic expectations.

I wasn't referring to Ruby in particular, but to the statement "some people just aren't meant to be writers".

 

[marcelprout]

Surely she isn't going home again?

She also just posted a story about the relativity of purpose and how it's "not succeeding at something or achieving something" so I honestly wouldn't hold my breath

 

[xoxoxo13]

She also just posted a story about the relativity of purpose and how it's "not succeeding at something or achieving something" so I honestly wouldn't hold my breath...

if this is her teasing she's dropped out, she's the worst at it. not as if her fans would criticize anything she does though.

 

[3calico3]

Poll time! Is Roobee returning home once and for all or is she begrudgingly visiting Marfa in Sheffield after reading too much on here and deciding to prove us all wrong?

Hmmm... hard to say. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if she's heading home though.

Anyone recognise the train upholstery? Might be a clue as to the train company and where she might be going.

 

[Lola123]

It looks like a London midlands train…. So I don’t think it’s going home? She seems incapable of getting the train home or too uni, her parents seem to just come and get her or be “close by” whenever she fancies

 

[howaboutnot]

Hmmm... hard to say. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if she's heading home though.

Anyone recognise the train upholstery? Might be a clue as to the train company and where she might be going.

It looks like GWR (oh how I remember those grey on grey diamonds): https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inside_GWR_Mark_3_TS_48104_(table_and_seats).JPG