#—shuggy ironies

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

“Being a pirate is all about going your own way.” // “Come with me, Buggy!!”

is this post totally redundant after the similar post i made last week? idk. i guess the main difference is that this time i’m looking at the same topic in an unambiguously romantic light? the shipper goggles, as they say, are on, and i want to talk about these scenes in that context. so, if you’ll forgive me for repeating myself a bit, let’s talk about this again:

as much as i enjoy the heartbreak of “they always thought they’d be together but miscommunication tore them apart” takes on shanks/buggy, the very first flashback we get about them—the first things we learn about them at all, really—tells us this isn’t true.

and i think what we get is more romantic.

Chapter 19, Pages 12-13. i know last time i said they’re at most 12 here, but looking at these lanky-ass teenaged designs that’s nuts. i fully believe oda hadn’t thought through their ages/the timeline at this point, and they were originally supposed to be about luffy’s age when buggy got his devil fruit. which is not relevant to this post in any way, but it’s my post so i get to go off-topic if i want.

Shanks and Buggy have their own goals as pirates, and at this time they understand them to be mutually incompatible. Buggy thinks Shanks’ travel-and-adventure-oriented take on piracy is soft and foolish; Shanks doesn’t care for Buggy’s exclusively treasure-focused take. They’re sometimes friendly, sometimes not, they’ve fought side by side, but they know this time as allies and crewmates is temporary. (Buggy plans on taking his treasure map and the Devil Fruit and leaving the crew immediately.) Maybe they’ll become friendly rivals, ‘fighting to the finish’ when they run into each other like Roger and Whitebeard do, or maybe the next time they see each other they’ll literally fight to the finish. Who knows?

“That’s also what being a pirate is all about.” It’s very sensible behavior. Smart planning for the future.

Which means the contradictory ways they act later—Buggy secretly deciding to follow Shanks, Shanks bluntly asking Buggy to come with him—are not about these characters thoughtlessly clinging to the status quo. They are not in a “we were always together and I never thought that would change” situation. Deciding to stick together is a considered, emotional decision: “I know we don’t make sense together but I don’t care, I want us together anyway.”

Chapter 1082, Pages 8-9. i was cursed the moment i saw these pages with Unable To Stop Thinking About It disease; only time will tell if seeing it animated makes it worse or cures me.

This argument is a codependent breaking point. Buggy’s pinned all his dreams on Shanks, hoisted that poor boy up on a pedestal, and it all falls apart when Shanks reveals thoughts and plans that don’t match Buggy’s perception of him. He can’t bear to be around him now that the false image has been revealed. (Shanks, poor thing, seems to have had no idea any of this was happening.)

But if Shanks hadn’t said no to Laugh Tale in this moment—or maybe if he’d offered a soft no of, idk, “okay, sure, once we’ve got a strong enough crew”—Buggy would have gone with him, still projecting wildly onto Shanks. He’d convinced himself that being a member of the Pirate King’s crew was enough for him, that he didn’t need to be Pirate King himself if Shanks got the title and he was with Shanks.

…but would he have actually liked being a member of that crew?

Like, looking at the things the Red-Haired Pirates do, would Buggy have enjoyed being one of them? Wandering East Blue, hanging out in friendly port towns, collecting treasure here and there but spending a lot of time getting drunk and making friends with the locals? Eventually becoming famous for having a large, weak fleet of subordinate pirate crews Shanks has to sometimes physically step in and protect?

God, no, he’d’ve been miserable. Just seething with thwarted ambition, furious at the perceived disrespect. A real power hungry first officer stereotype, the kind of character that makes you think, Why’s he working for this guy if he hates him so much?

And Buggy must have suspected it would go something like that. But if Shanks hadn’t rejected Laugh Tale, he would’ve gone with him anyway.

(Better to be miserable with you than a loser on my own.)

Or say Buggy agreed to come with Shanks. Obviously his presence wouldn’t change the crew makeup significantly enough to skew the Red-Haired Pirates towards his way of thinking, but for the sake of argument: if he had convinced Shanks to do things his way, would Shanks have enjoyed the kind of piracy Buggy engages in? Taking over and destroying East Blue port towns, ordering your crew killed on a furious whim, single-mindedly hunting down treasure maps and single-mindedly hunting down treasure chests and paying no attention to anything along the journey? Eventually becoming the boss and administrator for a bunch of bounty hunters and mercenaries?

No way; most of that behavior is totally repellant to Shanks. If he let Buggy do that kind of thing under his banner, you’d be left wondering What happened to his morals? Why does he let this guy walk all over him?

And Shanks knew the kind of pirate Buggy was and wanted to be. But he asked Buggy to come with him anyway.

(Better to be miserable with you than have fun apart.)

It’s hard to see a way to make these very different styles of pirating work together. It’s probably doable… with a lot of compromise and honest conversation. The younger Shanks and Buggy had a point, when they said each going their own way was the obvious choice! It was certainly the easier one. Was it the happier one? Who can say.

[an-au-blog]

I've always imagined shuggy like being stuck in a snow storm and holding a flame with bare hands. Can't let it go or else you'll die from the cold, can't keep holding it because you'll burn alive.

The beauty of the irony.

[blog-nstuff2]

At Home with Niall Horan Zane Lowe playlist interview april 8 2020:

Niall talked to Ed Sheeran during the beginning of covid lockdown

Slow Burn Kasey musgraves

Hozier is the nicest guy in the world. Take me to church is in top ten songs of past 20 years. From bray or wicklow Ireland. Touches on serious subjects.

Almost by Hozier

Mentioned working with someone who worked with kings of leon only by the night record, talihina sky documentary.

Be Somebody by Kings of Leon

Zane: if you weren't internationally successful, are you comfortable in your own company

Niall: I'm fine on my own but I've been calling people, parents 89 yr old grandma using facetime and the TMS writing and production crew that Lewis capaldi uses too. Might write with them soon. Spoke to shawn Mendes but he's madly in love elsewhere. So much time alone with your thoughts during this lockdown time. Lots more to write abt and good songs will come out of this

Jolene by ray lamontagne

Z: hozier, damien rice, Kasey, ray lamontagne are all monster writers. How do you critique your own words enough to feel good about letting it go to share it esp when measuring yourself against these great writers?

N: I don't know when to let it go so that's why it takes me so long to do stuff. Overthink a chorus but that happens when you've given yourself a timeline. What's good abt lockdown is there is no timeline. When I'm sitting here I'll just strum around and leave it as a melody voice note and come back to it later on

Z: who do you play stuff to when it's ready? Who's the first person

N: depends on the vibe. TMS, Jamie Scott, up tempo I'll play to julian ryan tedder Greg kurstin. Something acoustic might turn into more. Something different on the ear cuz in pop we tend to be very straight but playing around with groups

In your atmosphere john mayer

Z: your message abt canceling tour cuz o covid was very thoughtful. You have crew to be affected

N: fans bought tickets which is amazing feeling that ppl wanted to come to the shows. I figured I'd pause it and refund ppl but hardest part was email to the crew and band. They live tour by tour and live on a bus to make money so that was hard decision

Z: you talk abt bands like kings of leon, john mayer, stevie nicks, there's a musical connectivity there between you and harry. He made a playlist for us and was diving into old soul bill withers shuggie Otis but I know he's a fan of these kinds of artists cuz his music reflects that. Is that something you guys bonded over during time in 1d? It's like your musical taste is align more than ppl would have recognized in those 5ish years

N: we were both heavily into 70s rock. He more into the british end of things. I was more into the eagles, what was happening in laurel canyon. He into that too but more of a stones guy

Z: the irony of that is harry is now managed by irving azoff and is best friends with stevie nicks. He totally jacked your shit. Hahaha

N: to be fair to him he absolutely loves Fleetwood mac. He got me into things like shuggie Otis. We would pass things back and forth to each other but yeah it's funny that he's like you said.

Edge of seventeen could have been on rumors. Lots of that stuff in laurel canyon era. Joe Walsh said every song should be written around a riff like edge of seventeen catches your attention

Z: what's your go to chord?

N: I play a lot in DADGAG. Had two guitars delivered from my freight and they were in dadgad, or simple stuff based on a C. Fast picky stuff cuz I tend to stick to straighter grooves so I've been trying to do different sounding kicks and pulses.

Zane: congrats on heartbreak weather it's your best body of work and production wise and feel wise it's super cohesive songs are fantastic but you've picked songs with 70s aesthetic and laurel canyon like slow burn like la is rubbing off on you. Quite folky. Is that in your wheelhouse for future?

N: yeah what's probly coming is simple stuff cuz I have just acoustic guitars around right now. I listened to damien rice when I was 10 and never wrote a song the same again. Ed sheeran was raised on damien rice too. What is beautiful is that Ed leaves in little mistakes like damien rice does like vocal scratches. Doesn't have to be perfect

The blowers daughter damien rice

Z: you picked billie eilish and it must've been fascinating watching these past 18 months someone get that kind of attention cuz last time someone got that kind of attention it was 1d so she's the first artist to be out on the world stage with that level of attention including weird pressure. Must've been oddly familiar

N: when I see phenoms like that I just hope she's ok. We see horror stories all the time like justin bieber falking abt his experiences recently which I understood his experiences but I had the other boys in 1d to keep me same. Justin and I talk a lot and have a lot in common with fandemonium. Things can go wrong still even if you have tons of money. Billie and her family seem great I met them st the brits 2020.

Everything I wanted billie eilish the pulse kick and reverb on snare is beautiful

Z: taylor swift with lover shows that she refuses to be boxed in even when ppl want her to do one thing but she did give us what we wanted with lover

N: cant tell ya how much I love this song it's unbelievable. Genius. She's so honest. Ed sheeran Sara aarons Amy Allen Julia Michaels just spit chorus and everything in one go. She's always had a knack for honesty and sweet, but bad side too like bad blood. She's just one of greatest songwriters of her generation. When I'm sitting here writing/playing some chords I think to myself what would taylor do and I've told her that. Few artists here you can think about like that like would she go minor or go major. She deserves everything she gets.

Z: you talked abt taylor in a wonderful way she'll sit on the piano and observe natural human experience and paint that picture. You can imagine what's going on when she writes like capturing a moment forever

N: most successful ppl have been the no beating around the bush ppl like paul Simon, stevie, don Henley, ed taylor swift. Straight down the middle. She just paints the pic and I'm jealous of it sometimes

Z: what happens when you're the subject matter of no holds back writing? Knowing you've been apart of some experience that inspired someone's song and could've been just with your buddies in the band perspective or a relationship. Howard it feel when you're on receiving end of that kind of subject matter when you're a writer too?

N: laughs. You can develop a song based on a story. It can be truthful or you can develop it to make it sexier if original story isn't that interesting. So sometimes I know the truth but I know that that person is a song writer and they can change the narrative. Artistic liscence lol.

Z: without artistic liscence we wouldn't have rumors but we would have teenage dream cuz it's a perfectly constructed robot of a song.

N: I looked up max martin and saw all of what he's worked on. Teenage dream is best pop song of last 20 years. Its genius from the riff to pre chorus middle late double chorus etc. Ahe reminds me that she was the one who put me through on x factor

Z: do you think into future?

N: I do worry that being a musician for the rest of my life won't work out but you can't do that cuz then you've already dug yourself a whole. I'm 26. I've had success with the boys and on my own. I've never been so driven. Idc how much money I get I'll always have that drive. Ed still wants the biggest songs in the world and he'll tell you that. I asked him for a drink recipe that Russell crow gave to him and he replied.

Dancing on my own by Robin is off the charts. This is dream as far as writing pop songs goes.

[wistfulrat]

this tiresome genre of Oedipal essay in which they decry the status of contemporary gay writing as being too serious or not serious enough, too sad or too happy, too focused on trauma or too irreverent, too ironic or too sincere, too much about sex or not enough, not realistic about apps and hook ups or too realistic about apps and hook-ups. Contemporary gay fiction is a place where one can arrive and leave satisfied and by satisfied, I mean, with sufficient cause to be annoyed online and in their little Google docs across media. --- when these people are arguing about gay fiction being humorless or gay fiction being too sad, they are not arguing about, like, a genre of gay fiction that includes my work or the work of someone like Bryan Washington or James Hannaham or Saeed Jones or Robert Jones. Jr, even. They are arguing about depictions of white gays. Cis white gays. And they dress it up in concerns re: what is bourgeois or what is not bourgeois enough, etc. Black people. Blackness. Does not figure into their critique or their arguments, because in their minds, the general case is a white case. this Brandon Taylor essay my god. more excerpts of all time under the cut but cc: everyone on this site

"I got into this in the essay on the trauma plot, but people really do seem very suspicious of responding to the brutal urgencies of life with ambivalence, exhaustion, sadness, terror. Like, sometimes it is okay not to laugh at hard things. As a move, that’s actually kind of played out at this point in history. There’s only so much laughing at catastrophe that a person can do before it’s no longer irony and instead it constitutes an emotional imbalance. Which, again, could be funny. But also, some things are just fucked up. And that’s okay. This allergy to sentiment, to meeting sentiment head-on and trying to bear witness to it, to articulate the exact parameters of the brutal shit life threw your way. I don’t know why we got this idea that if something is serious, you laugh at it. And if it’s not, you take it seriously. Like. I understand that we all had the 90s and the 2000s, hysterical realism, irony, etc. But we live in the world. And irony has gone cold on us. We can’t keep trying to counter-intuit our way into some fresh new sensation. We can’t keep trying to jolt ourselves back to life by taking the unexpected play. The unexpected has become the expected. What’s harder to do now is to face up to shit. And not in the cloak and guise of irreverence. But take shit seriously. That’s what makes the best moments of Girls good. Those moments when there’s no way to funny your way out. When there are no more jokes. When it’s just you and your apartment. And a splinter in your ass. And a ruptured ear drum. And all your friends hate you. When you can’t laugh your way out. Why the fuck are you still laughing?

Gay fiction isn’t humorless. It isn’t overly morbid. Or if it is, it’s always kind of been that way. Gay writers have been weird for a long time. And I can see being irritated that the books selling many many many many copies are not your favorite weird Genet derivatives or whatever, and, like, okay. But that is a frustration with commerce, not art, as my friend Garth likes to tell me.

Also, I feel like when people make arguments like this, what they mean is, I did not enjoy my experience reading Garth Greenwell or Ocean Vuong or Hanya Yanagihara, or, perhaps, now, Douglas Stuart. In McAdory’s words:

The mainstream critical success of books like Shuggie Bain, Cleanness, and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous bespeaks, I think, a discomfort on the part of certain readers with affective complexity. And complexity, or its artful representation, can be a joyful thing.

Like, you’re not annoyed at “gay fiction.” You’re annoyed or disappointed in like, three or four writers, my friend. Maybe you should read more. Or better. Or both. Either way, grow up. I mean that both in the sense of “what a fucking loser” and also in the sense of “mature psychologically, please.” All I feel when I read sentences like this is a discomfort with directness and a discomfort with sentiment. The snappy, snide retreat into irony is such a clear indication of an inability to deal with emotion and feeling in a direct way. And what happens is that a personal discomfort is manufactured into an aesthetic discomfort. That is, your personal problem becomes an aesthetic problem that you project onto everyone else and their work. Because. Well, that’s between you and your therapist."

[narrie]

Zane: You talk about bands like Kings of Leon and your playlist is full of the likes of John Mayer, Stevie Nicks. You know, there's a real musical connectivity there between you and Harry. He made a playlist for us a couple week ago, he was diving into a lot of old soul music, a lot of Bill Withers, a lot of Shuggie Otis, and things like that. But I know he's a big fan of these kind of artists because his music reflects that too. Is that something you guys kind of bonded over when you were actually together in the band? Because your musical taste is way more aligned than anyone probably would've recognized in those 4 or 5 years.

Niall: We're both heavily into 70s Rock and Roll for sure but he more into the British end of things, I was probably more into the Eagles, that kinda of- what was happening in Laurel Canyon, he's into that too but he's definitely more of a Stones guy-

Zane: How's the irony that he's now managed by Irving Azoff and he's best friends with Stevie Nicks. He totally jacked your shit!

Niall: *laughs* I know! To be fair to him, he absolutely loved Fleetwood Mac and we- to be fair, he got me into like things like Shuggie Otis and stuff like that. We would pass, we would kinda...like bounce things back and forth to each other, "Have u heard this, have u heard that", you know, that kinda thing. But yeah, it's funny that he's with Azoff!

[alittlecatastrophe]

"Miseries pile atop each other in all these novels. Occasionally, they tower high enough for someone to reach a state of grace, sometimes through sex, though just as often not. Sexual encounters are regularly abusive — pedophilic, or the result of an older child targeting a younger child, or of a consensual encounter turned sour — or simply humiliating. Regardless, the grace passes, like a cloud one’s briefly stuck one’s head into, and few other tonal diversions break up the bleak stacking — no humor (save the rare, usually vain attempt in Shuggie), or mania, or charm, or sudden dryness, or any of the other possibilities these texts obscure. No, the miseries mount anew, gray and grim, like the novels’ barely distinguishable covers. (When you see gray bodies on a gray background set against white type, you know you’re about to enter the motherfucking zone of total sincerity.)"

[...]

I am neither a psychologist nor Michel Foucault, but I am the writer of this essay and therefore a local — some would say the local — authority on the schema we deploy to understand homo (i.e., human, gay) behavior. I wield my authority not to argue that callous wit has no relation to trauma avoidance. I rather brandish it to say: Do we not grow tired, after so many rounds of this sentimental journey to the weepy, fantastical core of human experience? Might we not celebrate instead a more horizontal outlay of sincerity, mania, irony, horror, meanness, humor, etc., one in which we do not take poetic earnestness to be primary to the other affective modes but allow them to sit beside and astride one another, equally true at different moments, now in conflict, now in commerce, now merely both present and represented and felt at the same time or in succession? In lieu of crying, a writer might try laughing, cackling, madly monologuing to the pool of cum on one’s tummy, coolly observing it, overanalyzing it for effect, playing in it, rejoicing in it, ascribing to it an explanation for society’s infinite ills, even the possibility of repair via socialist buy-in — not my cum, our cum on our collective tummy.

The mainstream critical success of books like Shuggie Bain, Cleanness, and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous bespeaks, I think, a discomfort on the part of certain readers with affective complexity. And complexity, or its artful representation, can be a joyful thing. By joyful I don’t mean happy, per se, which is the subject of Kevin Brazil’s long (fairly sincere) essay for Granta from last year, “Whatever Happened to Queer Happiness.” I mean energizing, refreshing, able to match the pulse of our thoughts to the rhythms and resonances of its lines. Some books that are joyful in this way are gay and old (Jean Genet’s oeuvre, e.g., Our Lady of the Flowers, and Jane Bowles’ Two Serious Ladies, if we’re suddenly extending the category of gay to include lesbians because it is suddenly convenient to do so), some are gay and new (Adam Mars-Jones’s recent work, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends) and some are, alas, mostly straight and merely semi-recent (Marie NDiaye’s My Heart Hemmed In, Percival Everett’s Erasure). Like the Sincerity Gays, these writers often focus their gaze on the pain associated with marginalized identity. But rather than point at a gaping wound that filters all experience, they assemble disturbing and vivifying affective tableaus. They discomfit and enrapture and enrapture by discomfiting. If only more readers had my special gift for being enraptured by my own discomfort, my unique affinity for complexity, my height and age and general appeal.

Breathe a sigh of relief: I do not have a tidy political point to make about sincerity and infantilization and selfishly cultivated blindnesses. This is about so much more than “good” or “bad,” right or wrong or left — it’s about me, and my personal tastes, and the lengths to which I’ll go to see those validated by an internet publication and some portion of its readership. I really mean that, sincerely."

- Paul McAdory, Gay Sincerity is Scary

[strangenewfriends]

Zane Lowe: You talk about bands like Kings of Leon and your playlist is full of the likes of John Mayer, Stevie Nicks. You know there's a real musical connectivity there between you and Harry, you know, he made a playlist for us a couple of weeks ago. He was diving into a lot of old soul music now, a lot of Bill Withers, a lot of Shuggie Otis and things like that. But I know he's a big fan of these kinds of artists because his music reflects that too. I mean is that something that you guys bonded over when you were actually together in the band? It's like your musical taste is way more aligned than anyone probably would have recognized in those four or five years.

Niall: We're both heavily into 70s rock and roll for sure. He, more into the British end of things, I was probably into more The Eagles, that kind of, what was happening in Laurel Canyon. He's into that too, but he's definitely more of a Stones guy, you know?

Zane: Oh the irony that he's now managed by Irving Azoff and he's best friends with Stevie Nicks. He totally jacked your shit! (laughing)

Niall: (laughing) I know he, he absolutely (laughs), no to be fair to him, he absolutely loves Fleetwood Mac, and we, to be fair, he got me into like things like Shuggie Otis and stuff like that, like, we would pass, we would kind of like bounce things back and forth to each other, have you heard this, have you heard that, you know that kinda thing. But yeah it's funny that he's with Azoff now that you said that (laughs).

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

I understand shanks not helping buggy is the most plausible but god I wish he would 😭 I want him to care about buggy like in the past, shanks c’mon…. That’s your bestie

I wonder if he would do something if buggy asked and yeah, there’s also Mihawk. That is also his friend…. I guess he would still not help him no matter what 😭

(context)

yeah, much as i would like to see him take action… shanks isn't really an active kind of guy!

like, he pretty infamously will not make the first move. he appears at marineford to block an attack and act as a mutually assured destruction deterrent to the marines; at wano he very pointedly, non-lethally warns the admiral there against going after the kids while they're recovering.

even when he does take action against someone, like kaidou or kid, it's really a preemptive reaction, either because the consequences of inaction are obvious (kaidou will go after whitebeard while he's focusing on the marines) or because his observational haki literally gives him foresight (kid will wreck his subordinates' ships).

his decision to go after the one piece has been a notable shift in behavior, in-universe and out-! maybe it indicates a shift to more active behavior in general, we won't know until we see shanks again.

but i disagree, i absolutely think he would help buggy if asked, even if it meant going against another friend! i just think buggy would never, ever ask.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

I don’t know if shanks would help if asked if that forced him to go against other friend? That would mean he would have to choose between them and I think he wouldn’t want to do that. What makes you think he would?

well, as a corollary to my whole “shanks will help if buggy asks, but buggy will never ask” theory, i think if buggy ever did ask shanks for help, things would have to be really dire. i believe that shanks would know that, and take the request really seriously as a result.

but also, i don't think shanks would see it as choosing one friend over another? buggy’s his friend… mihawk’s his friend… surely shanks can just wedge himself between them, discouraging further violence, and help them figure out a nonviolent way to solve whatever conflict there is between them!

…right?

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

Is shanks aware of actually how low buggy self esteem is? Does he knows how much this guy thinks of himself? Does he even suspects anything in the slightest???

as kids, no way. young shanks doesn’t doubt buggy. (i think part of his confusion over buggy blaming him for his devil fruit/losing the map is that shanks is pretty sure buggy’d already eaten the fruit the day before? voluntarily? so how is this his fault???) if buggy says he’s great, buggy must think he’s great.

but as adults? maybe, if he gave it some thought. shanks has met all kinds of people in the years since they separated, he might recognize the signs of hidden self-loathing, looking back.

…or he might not! buggy’s always been a pretty decent bullshitter, at least as far as obscuring his feelings goes.