gauntmanor

[gauntmanor]

Hello very much :)

I thought about making a video on this topic but I decided to just write it out in a post instead. Either way, I'd like to speak a bit more specifically about a drunk rant I made on a separate account the other day that was not as well put together as I'd like to stand as my viewpoints on the subject.

tl:dr, I just feel as though there's a lack of sincerity in the world these days. I speak from personal experience as an artist putting things out into the world, yes, but also as a human being interacting with other human beings on the regular, and I have had my sentiments echoed by many other friends of mine over the past year or so, both artists and non-artists alike. Most of this will be framed through the consumption of art, because that's my own personal passion in this life of mine, but also the way we interface with each other and process the world around us. Now, don't get me wrong, I love to laugh. I love a good joke, and I love lightheartedness as much as the next person. But I saw someone this morning put it very succinctly in response to my rant, something along the lines of "don't let the joke about it overtake the source material." It feels as though it's a common occurrence these days to take a pinch of something with a lot more weight to it, often a humorous bit, and then run with it. Everyone then gathers around the pinch to ooh and ahh and consume it as a whole. Context is immediately lost, the legacy of that body of work becomes its own caricature, and anyone discovering that body of work via said caricature may forgo a piece of art they would otherwise love because "there's nothing there". And don't think this is me griping at those making jokes at the expense of my art. I make jokes about my own art. But when the joke dies, yet continues to grow, and spread, and finds its way back to me both on the internet and off for months (or, God forbid, years) to come, I can't help but say to myself; what the fuck is happening. Artists have fled the public and all their outlets for personality and expression outside the medium because they feel ridiculed. It's not even just their art. Katya comes to mind, speaking on how she went on youtube live a few years back in literal tears talking about police brutality and the injustices marginalized communities were facing at the hands of the government. Meanwhile, the entire comment section "yass" and "mother"ed her in barrages, not paying attention to anything she had to say. I get asked about when I'm dropping Preacher's Daughter vinyl en masse in response to my Palestine fundraiser links. It's everywhere and it's inescapable. No one can be serious for even two seconds.

This may all sound obnoxious; so be it. I tie strings from this central problem to many other complaints I have heard repeated ad nauseam the past few years. For example; the death of subculture. Goth, punk, whatever, you name it. People who built an underground counterculture movement with a rich history based on a love of art, community, and otherwise misunderstood worldviews and experiences deemed foul or inappropriate. Now we see bits taken from it, the terms and the looks, without any of the meat, spread thin across society as a whole. Words mean nothing anymore. One can rest on history and say they were a part of it when in fact, they did nothing. No appreciation or understanding to be had for the love and passion that built it. No serious interaction with the culture's very real confines and boundaries, just mindless co-opting. This has just as much to do with late stage capitalism as it does with excessive humor in lieu of sincerity, but it's certainly both. Again, this may sound like a silly complaint, but I don't care. The collective ennui we're all experiencing has a very real reason, whether we're ready to acknowledge or not.

In a twisted thread, it's even tied to our lack of care to change the world around us. People cheer on the idea of communism, but who among us is ready to give up the convenience of society as it stands? Amazon prime, doordash, fresh fruit out of season as I saw someone mention in a similar post last week; the marvels of modern technology. Do we really think these things can last in a society that isn't actively destroying the planet? We talk about the idea of something all day long but have very little to do with the actuality of what we're talking about. And don't think I consider myself exempt from this problem. I couldn't even try to claim to be. It seems nearly silly to be complaining, then, about the way people consume the art around them these days as we creep towards what feels like the end of days. But as long as I still draw breath, I must complain.

I miss genuine passion. As an autistic individual, when I'm alone, sometimes I cannot contain myself with how things make me feel. The music I listen to, the video games I play, the books I read. I almost feel the need to run through the house and scream in everyone's face how I'm feeling. It feels good to love intensely. Now, I won't pretend like autistic people haven't been bullied for this since the dawn of time, but there is surely a noticeable lack of passion in everything these days. Everyone can feel it, everyone is talking about it. Everything now is "cringe", or "doing too much", or "not that serious". Actually, it is that serious. Insecurity in one's own deeper feelings may not be a new thing, but a culture that seems to promote this eschewing of them does seem to be a new evil. The tone of the internet has completely shifted. I spent most of my time here when I first discovered it a little over a decade ago on Zelda forums and other chat-based websites, talking about how much I loved whatever fandom I was in at the time and having genuine and memorable interactions with like-minded individuals who felt the same way I do. Now, you have two options; if you hate media, you rip it to shreds, and if you love it, you word-salad it to death and parrot a joke about it that someone else said. I'm not saying people don't still talk seriously in a heartfelt way about the things they love, but it does not seem to be the initial reaction anymore. Do I have a solution to this problem? Of course not. I'm a 26 year old girl posting on a tumblr blog. If I had a solution, this is not where I would be dropping it. But conversation is God to man, and I believe in the ability to change things from the inside out. We make the rules, and we can change them.

Before I go, I'd like to just clarify that I am very grateful for my career, grateful to anyone who has ever given me and my art the time of day, grateful to anyone who has ever come up to me and connected with me over my work, and grateful for a life where someone making too many jokes is the worst part of my day. I do not think I am better nor smarter than anyone on or off the internet. I am simply a girl with big feelings and I enjoy talking about them with other people with big feelings, and it makes me sad when something avoidable or unnecessary gets in the way of that.

All in all, I love to love, and I love all of you, I love my life, I love this record, and mi amore vo- i mean.... oh, whatever.

(Feel free to sound off in the comments and please be nice to each other)

[gauntmanor]

so when i say i ship stannis and cersei, i don’t mean it in a tee hee funny, point and laugh as the marriage falls apart kind of way

i mean i SHIP them

as in somehow happily married with 3 kids, reluctant childhood friends to lovers type beat (or in a modern AU, met in college)

one of their kids is indeed shireen

and i would also add myrcella, but i like the thought of her and shireen being cousins so in my ideal world myrcella is the only child of jaime and brienne

one day i will actually make a post explaining my logic for the stannis x cersei ship dynamic but that day is not today

thank you and good night

[gauntmanor]

i really don’t like book!renly at all i’m sorry. other than being occasionally funny, he’s genuinely my biggest opp and loras deserved better.

he makes fun of shireen, he betrayed his brothers, he’s petulant and entitled.

call me a stannis glazer idc, but i cannot imagine spending a year with your child brother taking care of him with no parents while you starve and try to save him and the rest of your men from starvation as enemies feast outside your walls, in your view, mocking you.

only to have that same brother turn around and betray you, turning that very castle and all its forces against you, to ally with those same enemies that taunted and traumatized you all those years ago.

and after all of that, stannis still mourns him, and will go to his grave thinking of him, still loves him.

i can’t.

[gauntmanor]

this is my ideal ending ✨

are there any good fics on shireen turning into a beautiful smart strategist like her father and then queen of westeros 💔

[gauntmanor]

i didn’t know it was possible to fit so much autism-coding into less than 30 pages but then i am reminded that the A Clash of Kings prologue exists

[gauntmanor]

imagine catelyn stark in a hooters

like, robert forcing ned, cat, renly, stannis, and cersei out to a hooters

yep…

[gauntmanor]

guys i promise you this is NOT CASUAL (i don’t need longer arms when i’m already reaching this far)

[gauntmanor]

and for my next trick, i will say that cersei and stannis not being a married couple in love is plot armour for all the other characters bc if they were they’d simply be too powerful together

[gauntmanor]

i have cuteness aggression towards stannis bro i just want to pick him up and rattle the bald man

[gauntmanor]

real and true!

I’m incapable of getting into asoiaf discourse bc I lowkey don’t care about any of the important stuff,, I live in whatever the fandom equivalent of the Neck is. It’s just me and the bog. Who the hell is Daenerys Targaryen? Never heard of her. A Jonsa? Is that a species of lizard lion?

[gauntmanor]

dear diary, today i learned that taylor swift partially wrote reputation inspired by game of thrones, specifically arya, daenerys, sansa, and cersei

in other words, i NEED those rep TV vaults NOW!!!

[gauntmanor]

following up on my previous post but i’ve made the server! it’s super small atm but we’re open to suggestions :) tagging w some of our faves if any of you guys like them too & would wanna join our little community — we’re also ND run (adhd & autism respectively) and wanted to make this a safe space as well

[gauntmanor]

lowkey every asoiaf discord server i've joined has been full of or run by extremely strange people like extremely bigoted people and generally just offensive weirdos

does anyone know of any servers that aren't like this or have any recommendations?? if not, my friend and i have been working on one if there's any interest in that!

EDIT: I have a follow up post with the link to join!!

[gauntmanor]

yeah, i'm the silly guy who showed up to my 8am lecture this morning forgetting it was moved to pre-recorded online this week bc my prof is in FINLAND FOR A CONFERENCE

[gauntmanor]

squad up tf

[gauntmanor]

solo stans in asoiaf scare me

like it’s this huge ensemble cast of amazing characters and interesting houses and you’re really only gonna throw down for one of them?

put a 🔫 to my head and make me choose between stannis, cersei, sansa, catelyn, theon, tyrion, brienne, melisandre, jaime, the hound, davos, tywin, and more and it would go off fr

to a lesser degree i’ll also act a fool over varys, ned, show!jorah, book!jon, robert, renly, margaery, arya, etc. but yk it really depends on the vibe of the day! (i’m unwell)

[gauntmanor]

“diva down!” i scream, and i’m talking about stannis baratheon