/lit/ - Literature

The Weekend Novelist is really helping me, specially with plotting. I'm doing its exercises every night and it's really showing. In the beginning I had only vague ideas of what I wanted my novel to be about, but now I can have entire scenes are characters planned. Thanks for the recommendation, guys.

The humble aluminium can is the most impressive piece of technology currently in the world. Don't believe me? Believe me? Either way, I'll tell you why.
Think about drink containers before the industrial revolution. They were either crudely made, often misshapen cups or even bowls made simply to serve the purpose, or grandoise, ornate goblets and the like, made as a luxury item to show off wealth. There was a clear divide in drink containers between the rich and the poor. But look at this can. This marvel of modern engineering and business, that demonstrates society's power- they wanted a cheap, light, sturdy container and they made one.
It's not only impressive in the fact that it's a culmination of all the technology that has come before it, but in that it is objectively impressive. This simple container has been worked on by so many people in order to gain the optimum price to functionality ratio, that its plain looking exterior hides facts about it that one wouldn't expect. Did you know that the metal is so uniformly thick that it's regularly used as precision shims by machinists? Its humble appearance hides the work of many great minds.