#‘love’ is just what i’m using as shorthand for that. i mean kindness

[pickingupmymercedes]

Do me - Lewis Hamilton (NSFW)

Part of 1K Jukebox Event

song: Do me - Kim Petras - anon

pairing: Lewis Hamilton x Reader!

genre: smut

wordcount: +2k

As always, I'm open for feedback, come say hi!

EXPLICIT CONTENT UNDER, -18 DO NOT INTERACT

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I can’t even look at him without wanting to throw something. A pillow, a chair—hell, myself. He’s got that smug look on his face, the one that says he knows exactly what he’s doing to me.

The sun dips low over the circuit, but my mind is far from the track. Tuned into every loaded glance Lewis threw my way since breakfast.

And he knows it—how each tease tightens the coil low in my belly, makes me shift in my seat and swallow the urge to wipe that smug smile off his face.

He’s been stoking the fire with every damn look, every graze of his fingers on my waist, and every damn smirk that’s left me biting my lip, counting down until I could get him alone.

Because he knows I’m ovulating. Of course, he knows.

The calendar sits on our bathroom counter, marked in that shorthand way he uses for race weekends and…other things. He takes a special kind of pride in knowing when I’m on the edge.

It’s like a game to him—watching me squirm, knowing I’m ready to drag him into the nearest bathroom, or hell, the backseat of the damn car, if it means he’ll finally stop making me wait.

We only have 30 minutes before someone comes to our hotel room to get us for some sponsor dinner, but honestly, my favorite plate is right before me, right where I want him.

No more of his taunting, those whispers of “not yet” when I tried to slip my hand beneath the waistband of his pants earlier, or the way he brushed my inner thigh when no one was looking, leaning in to murmur something wicked about patience.

Screw patience. I’m done playing his game.

I’m practically dragging him through the hallway of the hotel, his laugh low and cocky in my ear, like he knows exactly what he’s done.

The door to his hotel room clicks shut behind me, and I’m on him before he even manages to shrug off his jacket. I push him back against the edge of the bed, hands fisted in his shirt, the fabric crumpling beneath my fingers as I pull him down to me.

He barely has time to laugh, to let out a breathy, “Really, babe?” before I’m kissing him like I’m starving, like his mouth is the only thing that can quench the heat that’s been simmering in my veins all day.

“Y/n, we don’t have much time,” he warns, his voice rough, but I hear the hitch in his breath. I’ve got him where I want him, and he knows it.

His hands find my hips, guiding me closer until I’m straddling his lap, the hard line of him pressing through our clothing, teasing just like he has been since this morning.

A low growl rumbles in his chest when I grind against him, desperate to feel more, to take back the control he’s kept from me. But even through the haze of lust, he pulls back, breathless, eyes dark and teasing as he glances at the clock over my shoulder.

“You know we’ve only got—”

“Don’t care,” I cut him off, my voice rough as I slip my hand between us, cupping him through the tight fabric, feeling the way he twitches in response. “You’ve been playing with me all day, Lewis. You knew exactly what you were doing, didn’t you?”

His grin falters, his breath catching as my fingers work him over, rougher than I usually am, but I’m too wound up to care. I want him to feel just a fraction of what he’s put me through.

I can feel the urgency in his breathing, but I take my time, savoring every inch of him as I drag his pants and underwear off, loving the way he shudders when I scrape my nails on his thighs, his hips jerking up into my touch.

“Fuck, Y/n, you know I’m—” His words die off as I grab his dick. I don’t wait, don’t bother with the pleasantries, stroking him until his head falls back, lips parting on a sharp exhale.

He always gets like this—sensitive, twitching under my touch—and I love how it makes him lose that smug edge.

I barely give him time to register what I’m doing as I steady myself on his shoulders and straddle him again, guiding his tip to my entrance, sinking down in one smooth motion that has us both gasping.

He fills me up so perfectly, stretching me just right, hitting every spot that has me seeing stars. I don’t even give him a chance to breathe before I start moving, rolling my hips, setting a pace that has him digging his fingers into my waist.

He groans but he lets me have my way, his head falling back against the pillows as I ride him hard, chasing that friction, that heat that’s been building inside me. His breath comes in sharp, ragged bursts, his jaw clenched tight as he fights to hold back, but I can feel the tension in his abs.

“Fuck, Y/n, you’re gonna make me cum” he gasps, his voice rough, desperate, and I know he’s close, so close he’s barely holding on by a thread.

But I can’t slow down. I need him too much, want him too much—want to push him right to that edge and watch him fall over.

“You’re supposed to be the controlled one, remember?” I taunt, biting down on his earlobe, making him shudder beneath me. “Come on, baby, hold on for me.”

“God, you’re so—” His words break off into a groan as I drag my nails under his shirt on his chest, marking him, leaving a trail of heat in my wake. His mouth finds my neck, sucking at the sensitive skin just beneath my ear until I’m whimpering, my legs tightening around his hips.

“Lewis,” I gasp, nails digging in harder, my body arching on top of his. “Don’t stop. Don’t you fucking dare stop—”

He growls, a low, frustrated sound, but he fights to keep his rhythm, matching my strokes even as his breath comes in shorter and shorter gasps. And I know he’s not going to last. Not this time.

“Shit, I—fuck—Y/n, I can’t” And just when I feel that delicious heat building low in me, that tightness that’s about to snap, he chokes out, and before I can respond, he pulls out of me with a hiss, his hands shaking as he wraps one around his own length, his head dropping to my shoulder, breath coming in harsh pants against my skin.

I watch, breathless, as he spills over his own stomach and some of his shirt, his head thrown back, his body shuddering through every spur of release.

He looks so damn good like this, lost in the pleasure, completely undone.

For a second, I almost give in, almost let him catch his breath, but then he shifts, and I feel him twitch against my thigh, sensitive and half-hard and I’m reaching for him again, feeling him twitch beneath my touch.

He curses, trying to jerk away, but I pin him beneath me as I sink back down onto him, feeling him fill me all over again. He’s still sensitive, still twitching from the aftershocks, his head shaking against my shoulder.

“Y/n—fuck—” he gasps, his hands flying to my hips, trying to steady me, but I ignore him, riding him hard, chasing my own release even as he shudders beneath me. “You know I can’t—god, you know I can’t hold back the second time—”

“Kind of counting on that,” I pant, my voice breathless, taunting. I lean down, my lips brushing against his lips, feeling the muscles in his arms tighten. “We’ve only got 10 more minutes, and I really need to cum.”

He curses under his breath, his grip tightening on my hips, but there’s a new edge to his voice, a roughness that tells me I’ve pushed him too far. And I know exactly what’s coming, know how he loses control when I push him like this, but I don’t care.

I want to feel him unravel again, to see the way his careful restraint shatters when I make him come apart a second time.

His thrusts are rougher now, less precise, but it’s exactly what I need. The heat between my legs builds again, even sharper this time, and I clutch at his shoulders, meeting every thrust with my own, desperate and wild.

“You drive me crazy,” he rasps, his voice a growl against my ear, and I can hear the strain in it, feel the way his body trembles beneath my touch, struggling to hold on just a little longer. “Always so fucking greedy, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” I pant, my hands slipping to my ass, spreading it open and urging him deeper “When it comes to you, always.”

It’s all the encouragement he needs. He grits his teeth, his hips slamming into mine with a pace that makes me cry out, the sound echoing in the room.

My body tightens around him, each thrust pushing me closer to the edge until I’m teetering on the brink, gasping his name like a prayer, like a curse.

And then I’m falling, the pleasure crashing in a white-hot wave that leaves me shaking, clinging to him as I ride out every pulse of it, every delicious tremor that leaves me breathless and aching.

He’s right behind me, his own control snapping as my walls squeeze him and he buries himself inside me one last time, his body shuddering with the force of his release.

For a moment, there’s nothing but the sound of our ragged breathing, the rapid thud of his heart against my chest, and the lingering buzz of satisfaction humming through my veins.

He stays inside me, his forehead pressed to mine, and I can feel his smile against my lips as he brushes a kiss there, slow and unhurried.

“You’re lucky I love you,” he mutters, his voice rough but warm, and it makes me laugh breathlessly, threading my fingers through his shirt, holding him close even though I know we don’t have much time left.

“Yeah, I am” I admit, letting my lips brush against his in a soft, lingering kiss that tastes like salt and sweat and something sweeter beneath it all—something that makes my chest ache with how much I want him, always. “But don’t think for a second that I’m done with you. Just wait until we get back from that dinner.”

He chuckles, pulling back enough to look down at me, his eyes bright and playful despite the heat still lingering there. He smooths a hand over my hair, brushing it back from my face, his thumb tracing the curve of my jaw with a tenderness that makes my heart squeeze.

“So, that IUD is still—?” His tone has that edge of concern now, like he’s trying to piece together the last few minutes.

I lean back enough to look at him, raising an eyebrow. “Yes, Lewis. All good there” I reply, a hint of sass still lingering in my voice. “It’s not going anywhere” I lean down, my lips brushing against his as he smiles into the kiss.

“Guess I better be on my best behavior tonight, huh?” he teases, but there’s a promise in the way his eyes linger on mine, in the slow drag of his thumb over my swollen lower lip.

“You better,” I shoot back, sliding my hands down his back, feeling the way his muscles tense beneath my touch, even as I shift off of him, reaching for a towel to clean up the mess we’ve made.

We clean up quickly, trading a few more playful barbs as we scramble to get dressed again, smoothing down new clothes and fixing hair that’s hopelessly tousled. He’s slipping on a crisp dress shirt just as I finish reapplying my lipstick in the bathroom mirror, and I catch his eye in the reflection, giving him a little smirk.

He laughs, a low, rumbling sound as he watches me on the mirror, pressing a kiss to the side of my neck before finally stepping back, checking his watch with a resigned sigh. “We’ve still got two minutes to spare, babe. Think we can manage to walk out of here without looking too guilty?”

I roll my eyes, but there’s a warmth curling in my chest, a quiet contentment beneath the lingering fire between us. “Only if you stop looking at me like you’re ready to drag me back into bed” I tease, turning to him, but there’s a part of me that wishes we had more time, that we could stay here, wrapped up in each other, forgetting about the world outside.

He laughs, low and breathless, his hands sliding up my back to pull me closer. “You’re a menace, babe.”

“And you ... you’re hot, Sir.” I murmur against his lips, feeling the grunt he lets out at the back of his throat as he holds me close.

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[serial-serializednovelreader]

Nova’s Notes - Dracula Daily - May 28

Finally, a letter from our good friend Jonathan Harker! I’m sure nothing bad has happened to him since his last entry. /s

So right off the bat, he tells us his plan for escape using the Szgany people as a means of sending two secret letters home, one to Mina and one to Mr. Hawkins.

“To her I have explained my situation, but without the horrors which I may only surmise. It would shock and frighten her to death were I to expose my heart to her.”

I’ve seen some flack on him from this and that’s valid, but I want to approach this from a different perspective (also, I’m a total Jonathan apologist).

So from what we can see here, he’s “explained the situation” to Mina. I’m going to assume that means “I’m trapped in this castle with no means of escape for the next 32 days, after which I’m not sure what’s going to happen to me. You will receive letters from me saying I’m on my way home, don’t believe them. I am being held here against my will, you and Mr. Hawkins need to find a way to get me out of this.”

Obviously, I’m sure that’s not actually how he said it — he likely said it much more covertly than that — but that’s the gist. While he does say he hasn’t explained the horrors to her, one of the reasons he doesn’t is because, again, he can only speculate about what’s going on here. He doesn’t have hardcore evidence that anyone wants to suck his blood or that the Count wants to murder him. His livelihood is built off of facts and sending a letter that has a ton of speculation without proof in it is pretty much against his moral code at this point.

Also, think about the position it would put Mina in if she received a letter filled with the horrors he has endured. Jonathan is placing her in a position of trust and power by telling his boss to “communicate with her” (to figure out a plan of escape for him). If Mina knows exactly what has gone down in that castle, she likely will be much more frantic in trying to get him out of there (and who can blame her?). But Mr. Hawkins wouldn’t be. He doesn’t know anything about what is going on, and that would then put Mina in the position of likely having to explain everything to Mr. Hawkins and him deciding whether he believes her or not. Sure, she can show him the letter, but I don’t know if he reads shorthand, and if he’s skeptical enough, he might dismiss the entire letter as “not from Jonathan” (this could be an exaggeration, but we also don’t know Mr. Hawkins well enough to know his character).

However, Jonathan being held against his will by an unreasonable client is something a bit more down-to-earth. While Mina might leave off the “after-32-days-who-knows-what-will-happen-to-me” part, she can say that Jonathan has tried to ask the Count to leave and has been refused for various reasons. Mr. Hawkins has likely dealt with this before and knows ways to counteract this. Perhaps he can send a letter to the count requesting his solicitor back for urgent matters, or something of the kind. While this likely wouldn’t have worked (due to, you know, it being *Dracula* we’re dealing with), Jonathan is eager to try anything at this point and this would be playing into Dracula’s illusion of Jonathan simply being a guest who can leave at any time. Plus, Jonathan knows if this tactic doesn’t work, he has more serious grounds to say the Count is holding him against his will.

Another point, he probably doesn’t have an unlimited supply of paper to work with, so he also wants to keep this letter relatively short. He could just read the pages from his diary and include those but that would make for a bulky envelope and it might not even fit.

On the emotional side, if you were in a horrifying situation and had one letter to send home, what would you put in that letter? Would you play up the horror of what you’re going through or simply emphasize the importance of getting out of there and how your loved one can help? While, yes, he should include some of what he’s going through (and, to be fair, he does explain some of the situation to only her which is a step above most protagonists, who likely would either a) not send letters explaining it to anyone or b) just explain it to his male boss). I think most people in his shoes probably wouldn’t want to include the trauma of what they’re going through in order to not stress out their partner, no matter the gender. It’s what a lot of humans do and whether that’s the right call or not depends on the situation.

Finally, another big reason I believe he keeps it a secret is because of the next sentence:

“Should the letters not carry, then the Count shall not yet know my secret or the extent of my knowledge....”

Here’s the thing we have to remember: Jonathan doesn’t know for sure that Dracula doesn’t know shorthand. He’s already proven himself to be smart and knowledgeable, knowing the laws (almost as much as a lawyer in his own right) for a country he’s not even from. Sure, there may have been things the Count has said to suggest that he doesn’t know shorthand (which has given Jonathan that level of security), but we also know he’s a lying liar who lies. So, who knows? Jonathan sure isn’t going to take his chances describing every single weird encounter he’s had since he arrived at this castle, because that would be playing his hand about how much he knows.

Yes, writing these letters is taking a huge chance and is showing a bit of what he knows. But if the Count is able to read the letter in its current form, Jonathan will, at worst, sound like an ungrateful and rude guest with weird ideas (presuming he didn’t say “the count’s murdering me in 32 days” which he probably didn’t). They can still come back from that. Will it be awkward? Yes, very. Dracula might even say “Jonathan, haha! You can leave at anytime, why do you say this?” (LIES).

But if Jonathan detailed every single thing that has happened to him? That would likely get him murdered on the spot. He has broken the rules of this game the Count so enjoys playing by inviting someone else into their confidence (at least to that full extent). It might even put Mina in danger as well.

“‘The Szgany has given me these, of which, though I know not whence they come, I shall, of course, take care.’”

And here we see Count Dracula trying not to lie for one second (impossible). I doubt they gave him the letter of their own free will; I’m almost sure he either used his authority as a nobleman or he used his vampire powers to make them hand over the letters. No matter what, it’s evil and I hate him for it. Of course, he’s going to put the blame on *the Szgany* to make them sound as if they just gave him the letters because there’s nothing Dracula loves more than discrediting those he deems “below him” (which, really, is anyone who ISN’T him when you think about it) and making them seem ignorant. Plus, it’s another abuser tactic to remind Jonathan that no one here is really on his side: he’s already done this with the villagers and the coachmen, so it stands to reason he would do this here. We know that’s not true (look at how the villagers protected Jonathan), but for Jonathan, it’s likely starting to feel true after almost a month of isolation.

“…here he caught sight of the strange symbols as he opened the envelope, and the dark look came into his face, and his eyes blazed wickedly—‘the other is a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality! It is not signed. Well! so it cannot matter to us.’ And he calmly held letter and envelope in the flame of the lamp till they were consumed.”

Back to my earlier point: what if Dracula *could* read shorthand? I’m sorry if that’s a theory everyone already has and I just haven’t seen it yet, but it is something to consider. No matter if he does, he obviously knows it’s from Jonathan and it’s written in some kind of code to a loved one, so he was going to burn this no matter what. But still, the possibility of him being able to actually *read* that letter is scary…

Notice how he says “us” here, trying to rope Jonathan back into a little group with him (presumably away from the Szgany, or even, perhaps, from the outside world). It’s sickening to me that even while he’s burning Jonathan’s only hope (at this point), he’s still trying to build a sense of rapport between them. While Jonathan called him a creature — rather than a man — for the first time after the lizard fashion thing, this is where I’d call him a creature because that’s just horrible. He even has the audacity afterward to say “Your letters are sacred to me” while also admitting he broke the seal and read Mr. Hawkins’ letter as well. It’s an invasion of privacy on so many levels and, of course, there’s nothing Jonathan can do about it. If he even had the heart to complain, Dracula could just lean on the excuse of “I don’t understand English customs” (uhhhh you understand their laws to an alarming degree though???).

As a disclaimer, I don’t think it’s a thing in Transylvania to peek into other people’s mail — I’m sure it’s just as much of a taboo there as it is everywhere else — I’m just saying that’s the excuse Dracula would use to justify his evil behavior. Because he likes lying.

After he locks Jonathan in the study (which, wow!!! He’s really punishing him by just straight up locking him in the study now), what can Jonathan do but sleep? I suppose he was so numb to everything after that he just went to sleep. Or, if we really want to take it there, perhaps Dracula compelled him to sleep, as we theorized he did in the carriage ride on the way to the castle. For what purpose is unclear, but perhaps he wanted to tamper in his room and search for more secret letters or something of the kind and didn’t want Jonathan to be suspicious while he did so.

When, an hour or two after, the Count came quietly into the room, his coming awakened me, for I had gone to sleep on the sofa. He was very courteous and very cheery in his manner, and seeing that I had been sleeping, he said:— [para. break] ‘So, my friend, you are tired? Get to bed.’

I hate the way Dracula acts here. “Awwww are you sleepy 🥺 go to bed 🥺🥺🥺” like how???? You locked him in the study????? Ugh, hate him. It makes you wonder what he’s so cheery about and what he was up to while Jonathan was asleep….again, my best guess was tampering in his room.

I passed to my room and went to bed, and, strange to say, slept without dreaming. Despair has its own calms.

This is so sad. That last sentence really hammers home how much Jonathan is suffering and how *even then* he’s trying to make some positivity out of it. But for the first part, we know weird dreams usually indicate that Dracula is up to something, right? Perhaps he knows he messed with Jonathan so much that he doesn’t need to send him dreams — the mind games he played in real life are enough to satisfy him, at least for today. And that’s truly where the horror comes in.

[ofmermaidstories]

hello, please have this list of sunday evening thoughts & things & questions without any real answers:

1.

“Gaza is basically a man-made hell on earth”, by Jeremy Scahill. A interview with a Toronto surgeon, Yasser Khan, about his latest medical mission into Gaza, and the destruction facing the people and the health-infrastructure there.

I had one young man, about 25 years old, he lost one eye that I took out myself. He spent about five, six, or seven years, basically spent thousands and thousands of dollars in IVF treatment because he got married young and they wanted to have a child and they couldn’t have one. So he spent years on IVF treatment and finally had a baby that was 3 months old. And there was a missile attack by Israel at his home. He lost his entire family, including his baby and his wife and his parents and family. He’s by himself, single guy. I took his one eye out, and he has nobody in this world. He just kind of walks around the tent structures, just kind of walking around with no home and trying to sleep wherever he can.

i genuinely wonder at what a future with israel looks like. not just with the palestinians they’ve displaced, but like, with the rest of the world. israel will be dismantled, eventually, but until then how long is this misery going to be allowed to drag on? the US (and UK) are like—encouraging it. they want it, it’s always been in their joint interest that israel be established. idk. i have no doubt they’ll let that genocidal boot camp of a settlement run rampant like the brain-washed, blood-thirsty nazi wave they are, but all things give—this can’t carry on. the horror our varying governments force on us by watching it will have to boil over, eventually. the question is just—how, when. capitalism has done a bang-up job of separating us in the west from each other. you can’t take down your government if you don’t know your neighbour’s name. :/

2. these comments, on the youtube videos i’ve recently watched.

This first comment was a response to @/mynameismarines book review, ‘is to gaze upon wicked gods a colonizer romance?’. i find colonizer/colonized pairings to be intensely interesting, because they’re so often done so badly LMAO. i am not a person who believes there are topics/things you’re not allowed to write; everything is fair game. but the price of that is that you have to do it well, and by well i mean like—you have to ask yourself the question, “what does this mean for the people involved?” and you have to answer it. and you have to be prepared that at the end of the day the audience you invite might not agree with your answer!!! like, i think people in the romance/YA spheres think of colonizer/colonized as like, shorthand for a power-imbalance trope (which it does involve!) but it’s like, more than you know, some Billionaire/Secretary cliche. it’s literally the question of, ‘can you come to care about someone who is currently perpetuating the misery of your people?’ Like!!! that is a big question!!!!!!!!!! and you have to do the asking of it, the thesis of your book, justice. and that is a hard thing to do!!!!!! most of us tend to like… not like people who hurt the other people we love, LOL. so if you’re going to write that, you have to work overtime with it.

i’m sharing this comment here because it’s particularly addressing molly x. chang’s (the author of to gaze) knee-jerk reaction to (genuine, thoroughly detailed) negative reviews. which on one hand is understandable: molly was one of the targets in the goodreads sock-puppet review bombing, by one of her peers. but her reaction to these genuine reviews (brought to her attention by a third party!) has been an interesting case-study in like, why the lines between fanfic communities and traditional publishing blurring is a bad thing. because @/aclutteredlife is right, we have different rules here in our community that properly published books have, with their readers!!! i think it’s natural, for instance, for readers to be drawn to a proxy (Reader-chan for us) to be put in a position that generates a lot of angst (losing your family to a raid by a band of fantasy barbarians, for example), because that angst creates an opportunity for The Romance (the comfort, the understanding, the regret and then the assimilation into a new life with ur romance at the centre, cherished wife of the Hot Fantasy Barbarian Husband). in a fanfic, if you have issues with how it’s being presented, you might leave a dissatisfied comment—(“why is she forgetting that Hot Fantasy Barbarian Husband murdered her entire family???”)—but the general understanding is that it’s not for you, at that stage!!! like it’s probably some 14 year old kid that’s just recently discovered captivity tropes or something, like sure you can be annoyed or frustrated but if the writer doesn’t want to answer (or be asked!!!) those questions move on, you know? you didn’t spend money on this, you can hit the back button and find a different fic. complain about it to the group chat if you absolutely have to, LOL. but move on.

but when it’s a traditionally published book who’s author was supposedly given an advance for it the size of half a million dollars? half a million dollars that the publisher is going to try and make back by selling it to readers like you, who will part with your hard-earnt money for a copy? yeah. we’re not a community just trying to entertain each other and ourselves anymore, at that stage. you made a transaction. a transaction to then engage with this piece of art, and the transaction part of that exchange means you get to ask those hard, uncomfortable questions—especially if the art in question doesn’t.

this point kinda bleeds into the next one, tho, so i’ll let the screenshot speak for itself:

LOL. yeah….. yeah. yeah. 🥹

the third comment is from the same video as the second (booktok, brainrot, and why it’s okay to be a hater), but i thought the highlighted part was interesting because it like, kinda made me think of the way things work around here on tumblr, in our fanfic corners LOL. like… you know. how we might share little soundbites about ideas, or just a throw away couple of sentences about an AU or character. and we all do it, that’s the culture of our community, i just find it interesting—telling—that it’s such a… quick and almost guaranteed way of like, getting enmeshed into the community, getting followers, etc etc etc.

like i said, these are just some thoughts & things without any real answers to them. i am always happy to hear ur opinions too (unless they are wrong in which case i regret to inform u we will have to knife fight over it 😔😌🫱🏽🔪).

[stardustdiiving]

I love hearing about queer headcanons so I'll probably end up asking about all of them, but how about starting with Sumeru?

(ask in reference to this post)

YES I can do a few sumeru characters to start (heres Wanderer, Cynonari, Collei, and Nahida)

(there’s accidently aroace headcanons in 3/4 of them OOOPS)

Wanderer: talked about his gender (trans guy) here, sexuality wise I see him as gay and probably mostly t4t. I also have a vision where Wanderer has the same relationship with aro + aceness as Collei but in sort of opposite directions. So my idea is Wanderer feels a lot of alienation & detachment regarding romance & sex & shares a lot of similar experiences to aro and/or ace people, but would choose to not ID as either label because after some time he concludes his relationship with both kinds of attraction is very influenced by trauma, and it would be more healthy for him personally to work on building a positive relationship with romantic + sexual attraction since he does actually experience it. So he sits on a plane of not identifying as aro or ace but like he gets it

Collei: Collei on the other hand, in contrast to Wanderer, finds aro + ace labels really helpful for understanding herself, even if she also believes in her relationship with both kinds of attraction overlapping a lot with trauma. Because for her she genuinely just doesn’t really feel she experiences either attraction and that’s sort of a comfortable default/conclusion for her. Specifically I’d give her the demi aro and asexual labels…in my head this goes with my Tighnari & Cyno headcanons where both of them are in an aroace relationship and give her really good advice/feedback on her feelings that make her feel more able to be confident about how she feels regarding attraction. Along with that I think she’s sort of questioning sexuality labels but would refer to herself as sapphic as a shorthand explanation. Gender wise I have a few different headcanons in mind…either transfem, demigirl, or bigender/genderfluid maybe? I see her as having multiple ideas of what sort of gender presentation she wants and going between them

Tighnari + Cyno: Okay so here I need to pitch my demi-aroace Cynonari vision. I think both Cyno and Tighnari would view their own queerness in ways pretty similar to each other, and one facet of this is where they fall on the aroace spectrum. I think it aligns perfectly where they’re both like, yeah I have no interest in romance or relationships the way people usually engage with them but you’re the only one who gets the exact way I feel about it + we get along well so honestly I’m down to be in our own form of a relationship with you specifically. I don’t think they really do labels with a lot of things: both of them are trans + non binary in one way or another, and both use gay/queer as identifying terms, but don’t have a lot of specifications beyond using umbrella labels really. They’re just chilling. As established this ends up being a good fit for their dynamic with Collei bc I think it gives her a lot more confidence about navigating her own queerness seeing Cynonari just kind of hang out and do their own thing

Nahida: she’s baby and does not strike me as someone who is going to think about romance or sexuality until she’s a lot older. I think if you asked Nahida to explain her gender to you she would probably employ a lot of very confusing metaphors you do not understand, all in an attempt to articulate what I’d write as a pretty shared experience between all the Archons in how they view gender. They seem to like…view themselves as genderless but sometimes opting into gender if they feel like it—and tend to intuitively relate it to their element. Which means the most you get from Nahida’s metaphors is she’s telling you her gender is plant and you do not get it but it doesn’t seem wrong so what can you do. I also have this additional thought I think is funny about Wanderer and Nahida having very deep philosophical discussions about immortal gender at 3 in the morning. In the context of the English language at least I think we need to tell Nahida about neopronouns I think she’d be a fan. So in summary she’s kind of baby and is not giving this stuff much thought right now but also being a god in my gender impact dimension kind of inherently makes you ponder the orb (gender)

[lady-fey]

Don’t Name Your Side Characters

Names are one of the hardest things for audiences to remember. As such, you should avoid naming characters unless you absolutely have to because you cannot rely on audiences to remember names.

To illustrate this, let’s play a quick memory game. I’m going to give you a string of numbers and then I’m going to give you a string of words. Read each string, then close your eyes and try to remember what you just read. Then repeat the exercise with the other string. Don’t try to memorize these examples, just read them once and see what you remember.

743432589

I love to eat pie! It’s such a yummy food.

I’m going to make a wild guess and say that you were probably able to remember at least the general gist of the stuff about pie, but the random numbers probably didn't stick at all. Now let’s play that game again, but with two different examples.

123456789

House tall strawberry flake song tight man you cat run

This time, the numbers were probably easy while the words were in one ear and out the other. This is because of the way that our brains process and store information. We like patterns and things that make logical sense. Randomness is a lot harder to make stick and names are largely random. It’s why they're something that people struggle with when they meet real life people and there they have cheats like being able to associate a face with a name. When it comes to literature, names are just words on a page. It takes repetition for them to stick, which is why naming your main character is fine. The audience will hear their name a lot and come to remember it pretty quickly. But if you name a random student “Henry” on page 34 and then bring that student back on page 160, no one is going to remember who “Henry” is. You’re going to have to remind them.

That doesn’t mean that Henry must go nameless. If there’s a good reason to give Henry a name, then go for it! Just don’t rely on the name being an effective shorthand that you can use to jog people’s memories if you only drop the name once. Here's an alternate way to introduce "Henry":

Ms. Hardmon’s eyes scanned the classroom, looking for victims. They finally settled on a red-headed boy in the front row.  “What is the square root of nine?” she demanded. The attention obviously startled him, but he still managed to quickly stutter out, “Three?” Ms. Hardmon frowned and sighed, "That is correct."

You can then go on to later give his name or he can fade into obscurity never to be seen again. You can also avoid calling attention to any one person in a scene like this, thereby also avoiding needing to drop random names.

Ms. Hardmon’s eyes scanned the classroom, looking for victims. Every time they found one, she'd bark out a question. “What is the square root of nine?” "What's four squared?" "What's the cubed root of eight?" And every time, the unfortunate student would blurt out an answer, praying that they'd gotten it right. They all did, much to Ms. Hardmon’s annoyance.

Avoiding random names is especially important at the start of a story. At that point, the audience is learning a lot of new information, so avoiding unimportant information like random names is a kindness and will make your story more readable.

Yes, it does make it easier to guess who the important characters are. In most cases, that's a feature, not a flaw.

Along similar lines, when you introduce a character whose name the audience needs to remember, try to repeat their name a lot to help make it stick. Like there's a good chance that you remember that my fictional teacher is named Ms. Hardmon since I dropped that name four times in rather quick succession.

[shithowdy]

Saw your posts on telling AI art from regular art, as a vision impaired artist I’m a bit worried about getting witch-hunted or accused of doing AI stuff because my own art often has strange details when it comes to perspective and body proportions. Even your post about the whimsigoth bed with the poorly done stars in the background, not everyone puts that much detail on the small bits in the backgrounds of painted pieces

Is there any way this can be avoided before it starts? I’ve already seen others accusing regular artists of using AI generated stuff, and I’m worried that this kind of callout behaviour is about to go down a really ableist path

i'm genuinely not sure how to describe it, but there truly is a sense of strokes being deliberate vs not deliberate. real artists use shorthand all the time regardless of impairments, both in sketches and final pieces-- just look at any impressionist painting, where if you remove a square inch and put it aside all you will have is an inch of unidentifiable paint blobs that absolutely need their context.

these artistic choices remain consistent through the work. generative images do not stay consistent, and because a real sapient choice didn't go into it, the inconsistencies even start manifesting as objects that don't even exist (see: extra limbs, floating objects, the random blob of crap in the top right of the witch room).

what i ask is for people to look at more gripping, highly-rendered pieces and ask themselves why the artist made the choice they did. there is a very clear difference between "squiggle representing a filigree because it's not the focal point in this half-render" and "squiggle representing a filigree because the machine doesn't know what a filigree is beyond twisty gold lines", and i would love to delve deeper into examples of this were i not on mobile.

art is ultimately a means of communication, and machines communicate nothing but their inputs. maybe it is a bit esoteric and vague to say "let the image speak to you", but it's what you have to do.

i promise that your value as a creator will never be diminished by this. and if anyone ever says shit you send em to me.

[canyouhearthevoices]

BOUNCY MV First Reactions

COWBOY COMEBACK!

Thank you KQ for releasing this in the middle of my work day... :/

I have to say, I love that they used a different aspect ratio for the MV - it’s another example of ATEEZ’s unique use of the screen itself (another one being when the robot arms come out of the video in WONDERLAND).

I’m in love with the MV. For starters, Gothic pirate cowboys. And then we have blue-hair Hongjoong making a return. And then we have the funky vibes of the song itself. And, of course, epic ATEEZ choreo. And then there’s the use of film grain, and the increased budget they have, and how they integrate elements from previous MVs (like they always do), and in general, each comeback reminds me of why I ult ATEEZ. This is the kind of stuff I’m into. 

And I hope you’re into it too, if you’re on this blog. 

Oh by the way? You know how ATEEZ were talking about bringing anarchy onto the world in HALAZIA and Guerrilla? Well, now they’ve literally brought anarchy onto the world through one of the world’s (hah) best-known representations of anarchy - the American Wild West. Whoever made this choice is a genius because it’s amazing shorthand for the anarchy and passion they’ve actually created, and brings an expressive world for them to put their music out into. 

Also - fire. Ahem, the fire Hongjoong destroys things with? Don’t forget that Don’t Stop was one of our first teasers of THE WORLD. 

Now, I will say that I don’t condone (and hopefully ATEEZ don’t either) the dangerous and/or illegal activities in this MV (no-rules boxing, driving motorbikes without a helmet, murder, owning illegal weapons, drug dealing). That said, they did make me laugh a lot in this MV. Idols are supposed to have a perfect image and ATEEZ are happily breaking the law everyday. And I found some specific moments oddly quirky and funny which I will dsicuss later. 

But let’s talk about the MV. Full discussion below the line.

Lyrics

Well, they’re what I’d expect from a cowboy ATEEZ comeback. They have the common motifs of bouncing/dancing, playing music, being the coolest, and so on. They also include the mandatory ATEEZ references to burning up, exploding, and so on. And they include the mandatory THE WORLD references to raising your microphone and making your own voice and music in the face of... well, a world that prohibits those things.

But that’s, as I said, to be expected of ATEEZ. Let’s talk about the actual MV.

MV Analysis

So it starts the same way the opening sequence did, but in snapshots - since they know that we’ve already seen it. I do think it’s interesting that they cut out the Wanted posters, since they have been a pretty integral motif for the past few years. 

I’d just like to say that this is the perfect shot to open this MV on. It’s got the warm colours, gritty tone, and fire that are important to this era (THE WORLD), and seen in ATEEZ mvs in general (FEVER). It’s got the fire - another important motif, it establishes the setting which I’ve already mentioned is a representation of anarchy, and thus establishes the tone of the song and comeback. But it also has an interesting camera angle - one which places the audience in a position inferior to ATEEZ, but ATEEZ inferior to the remnants of the government/other institution that has power in this world. 

It’s also a very pretty set, which is always a bonus. 

This is a great followup shot since it again shows how powerful Mingi is - although we don’t know it’s Mingi yet. It also shows that this world isn’t quite as gritty and old-fashioned as we thought - there are electric lights and the floor is actually relatively clean. 

Nice context for the actual face reveal, and, since it plays into Western tropes, it gives us a hint of what will come - a face reveal, dramatics, and a shootout.

I am a massive fan of black wing eyeliner Mingi.

Crazy Hongjoong is back.

Ahh yes goats - the symbol of the Wild West.

Not entirely sure what the red lines are supposed to mean here - other than ATEEZ and lights being big, and red and HALATEEZ.

Ahh yes, best set is the drug-dealing den disguised as a reputable establishment. This also further shows that the Wild West setting of the story doesn’t apply to everything - for instance, it is quite different (yet also surprisingly similar) to this underworld cyberpunk city.

SAAAAAAAAN. And here is our third setting - the boxing arena. All of these settings have the motif of anarchy and conflict, but the Wild West, grungy neon city, and boxing arena do so in different ways - guns, crime, and punches. 

I love the grainy effect here - another visual symbol of ‘the old days’which are seen as being more like anarchy, and, in lots of cases, like a better time. 

I also love how this MV practically made Woosan canon. 

This is definitely the heist Wooyoung from Don’t Stop.

CG motorbiking ATEEZ do not condone riding your motorbike without helmets. Protect your brain - it’s important.

Turbulence tunnel?

Love how he’s doing nothing and is far back but is still subtly checking on San. 

Dude wants his money and a husband.

Very convincing police disguises...

This shot is great because it is way easier to notice the steampunk aspect of the bar and the world. 

JOOOOOOOONG AND HIS SHIPPPPPP.

Mandatory pirate reference.

10/10 choreo - groovy and slightly threatening, but also relates to the story since they cut the chillis in half to reveal the bullets they’re hiding. I f eel like it wouldn’t be a very good way to store bullets but good on them - whatever works to take down the 1984 government.

A fascinating shot and scene - the ornate architecture paints them as gods of some description, while the red is of course, scary, and the glass it’s encliosed in reminds us of the cube in Say My Name. The chandelier is also a motif in their MVs. 

There’s also the contrast of blue and red, and of the grunge of the motorbikes and ornate room around them.

I hope they have a bigger chilli farm than just this one box, because this one ain’t gonna produce a lot.

Yes try to kill Mingi - I’m sure it’ll work out for you.

CHILLLLLLLI.

Moral of the story - Mingi’s on drugs. Maybe this whole MV and era - or even all of ATEEZ’s storyline from the start - was just Mingi on drugs. 

I love the choreo and cinematography of this scene - it’s another example of ATEEZ’s unique use of the camera and alternating jerky and still camera angles. And, of course, it’s used to tell a story and to create hype. 

CG Seonghwa says you should keep your hands on the wheel/handlebars when driving. 

Where to KQ get these extras? They’re great!

This is when I started laughing. It was the canon Woosan, how the water just dribbled out of San’s mouth, how dramatic they were being in an MV, and how serious they seemed when I know the director said çut’and someone rushed over to put more blood on San.

Unsubtle storytelling is here. 

Clearly the only reason San was losing was because he was boxing, not using his martial arts skills. 

I love the freeze frame when he kicks his opponent for emphasis. 

Lmao. Literally smoking the money. Wooyoung has great facial expressions. 

Great combination of lyrics and video to tell a story and to subvert my expectations of what the lyrics would mean (I was thinking of WONDERLAND’s start of a race).

This was another shot that made me laugh. It was the funky camera angles, the weird dance moves, them all being in a line, and how serious Hongjoong was while doing it all. 

My respect for him and his performance grows every day. 

I mean the choreo is pretty snazzy, it just shouldn’t be painted in such a serious light, I think. 

Literal canon Woosan literally being on top of the boxing world. 

ATEEZ the gods of the chilli pepper. 

On a more serious note - the shift to white is a bit unusual, but it leads us into the final verse and to the reveal that comes later.

OMG NOW WE KNOW WHY THEY’VE BEEN DRUG DEALING CHILLIS. 

haha

Hello High Noon Jhin from League of Legends.

Okay, bruv.

Why would you destroy your chilli crop?

Okay, it’s probably a different scene, but still.

That is one nasty bullet. That won’t do any more damage than a regular bullet unless it explodes on impact.

Please imagine that I gasped so hard that I fell off my chair, my jaw detatched, my soul left my body and I revived and became a god. 

My question then is - did this bullet actually kill the Guardian? Was that why it was weird? Is it possible to kill the Guardians?

And by the way this is the ‘white’reveal that I was talking about. Believe it or not - the white earlier probably made it easier for the audience to process this split-second reveal. 

I love the transition from fire to fireworks to champagne/water/whatever it is - it helps the audience understand, makes sense in the given scenes, and is HYPE.

Hey Don’t Stop ~

I love how this is like an old Western poster - and also how it includes buildings we are more familiar with from Guerrilla and HALAZIA - which connect it to the previous albums. 

According to the subtitles, this says ‘so freaking persistent,’which may or may not be censored. 

To which I assume he means the Wanted posters - but which could be the mark on them. Am I unobservant, or have we not seen this mark before? I doubt ATEEZ made it. Did the Guardians make it?

I also find it interesting that Mingi is kind of the main character of this MV. He’s a great choice for it, especially with the Wild West and intimidating theme of the MV, but I wonder if there is also a storyline reason for it. 

And that’s it! That’s the end of the MV! It pretty nicely continues the story from the previous releases, and shows how the world has progressed in the period between albums. They picked some super clever imagery to express this, which is all in service of the storyline and communicating the story as easily as possible in such a short time frame. I heard that some people think that it’s sad that ATEEZ are so dedicated to their storyline, since it means that they create less ballads - something that lots of people like. But not only am I not a fan of ballads, I love how dedicated they are to the storyline because it’s so unique to be this dedicated, and because the story itself is their identity and a key part of their success. They’ve showed dedication to artistry and storytelling over popularity, and that’s great. Not that prioritising popularity is bad - just that I admire ATEZ’s dedication. 

Conclusions

Woosan is now canon, ATEEZ’s directors, set designers, creative directors and so forth are geniuses, their extras are hilarious, and ATEEZ have amazing performances which I want to see more of. The cowboy theme is amazing here - andI probably love it even more since it reminds me of Face The Sun by SEVENTEEN - another stellar comeback and album. 

[groovesnjams]

43 / 50

"Co-Star" by Amaarae

DV:

I've never fully understood my zodiac, much less used the Co-Star app, but I do fully appreciate the way Amaarae uses signs to immediately pass judgment on and make decisions about her romantic partners. You have to understand the world through some kind of lens; might as well make it one that has app support. And might as well make one of the breeziest songs about fucking a lot of people and never being satisfied with any of them. Amaarae delivers it all like it's easy, as easy as it can be if you remember your birth time exactly. No one tell either of us what terrible data privacy standards astrology apps have, please.

MG:

We can all agree that astrology, no matter how specious you find it, has an enduring, perhaps even undying, cultural resilience. But have you ever considered why? Until this year I was fine to accept the usual wisdom that it’s just another limited set of identity boxes to sort yourself into, a shorthand to communicate some superficial traits you might possess, and a set of really lovely symbols for a little aesthetic or decorative touch. That was, until I started watching…ANCIENT ALIENS! Ancient Aliens is a tv show airing on the History channel and hosted by a panel of assorted weirdos (rich weirdos, I’m pretty sure, based on all the episodes where they salivate over colonizing Mars and praise billionaires for getting us there “faster” but let’s not get too mired in the show’s finer points) that posit the origin of our species is…ALIENS! They call this “Ancient Astronaut Theory” and one tentacle supposes that ancient astronauts (aliens) came from various star systems and worked to develop corresponding populations on Earth. This is why some ancient cultures attribute their creation to the Pleiades or Orion and why we still ascribe meaning to our horoscopes. I mean, maybe! Why not? The sad truth that forms the bedrock of everything from belief in godlike aliens to belief in god itself to fear of death is that we just don’t know, we have lost that primal knowledge. And the other sad truth that forms the bedrock of astrology, more specifically, is that we’ve always, always, always loved sorting ourselves into these irrelevant little boxes. So what makes “Co-Star” thrilling, indulgent, and relevant beyond the narrow borders it’s concerned with is the way Amaarae tastes every flavor like she’s Goldilocks, dispensing with the idea that she could be defined the same way by insisting “we will get to mine” but never delivering. The zodiac is a buffet and she is a hedonist. Maybe the only primal knowledge we ever had was our senses.

[bddypsn]

[HELIOS Rising Heroes] 1st Full Album; Drama Track “The Strongest Help” — Translation

[Narrator Jay: The Strongest Help]

Faith: Double cheeseburger with melon soda and one mega onion ring tower? Right away.

Welcome... uh, two people? Excuse me, one moment, please.

(I'm getting so many customers today. Why...? I mean, why am I the only one working today?)

(Where is Billy? Ochibi-chan?)

(Even if neither of them was available, I wouldn't be able to do this by myself...)

(I mean, why am I still working here?)

(Another customer!)

Faith: Welcome...

Keith: Hey!

Faith: Keith?!

Keith: You're working uncharacteristically hard, aren't you?

Faith: What? Are you here to tease me again?

Don't do that today. I'm so busy, I don't have a minute to deal with you.

Keith: Don't worry. I'm not here to make fun of you.

Faith: Eh?

Keith: You're shorthanded, aren't you?

That's why I'm here, to help you, as a part-time worker.

Faith: Eh?

Keith: Don't be surprised, there are other helpers coming.

Powerful helpers.

Jay: Oh! It's a busy place. You've been through a lot on your own, haven't you?

Now that Jay Kidman is here, you can relax.

Oscar: If there's anything I can do for you, please let me know, Mr. Faith.

Faith: Jay and Oscar? What is this all about? I mean, what kind of thing is this?

Keith: Well, don't get hung up on the details. How's that? It's reassuring, isn't it? You can use them all you want.

Jay: Keith, of course you're going to help us with this.

Keith: Uhhh, I'll do what I can!

I'm wasting my time, I'm going in the back to change.

Oscar: All right.

Jay: Lead the way.

Faith: (What's this all about?)

(I'm not sure about this. Well, it's true that we were short on staff.)

(I guess I'll just have to be lenient...)

[…]

Faith: Okay, so let's get right to it...

I'll have you go out and work in the hall.

Oscar: Leave it to me, Mr. Face!

Faith: I like your energy. Keep up the good work, Oscar.

Oscar: Yes!

Jay: Ahaha, take good care of me, Faith. I mean, “senpai”?

Faith: Senpai?

Jay: You're my senpai. Well, it's a new experience for me. I've never worked in customer service before.

Faith: Uh… wait a minute! Did you just say you've never been in customer service?

Oh, we've got a costumer.

Either one of you, show them to their seats for a minute.

Oscar: Yes, sir!

Faith: Eh?

Oscar: Welcome. Three people, right? I'll show you your seats.

Faith: Wha— Oscar!

Wait, wait, wait a minute!

Oscar: What is it, Mr. Face?

Faith: Why are you moving so fast?

You're leaving all the customers behind.

Oscar: I'm sorry. I heard you were busy, so I thought I'd try to save you some time.

Faith: I really appreciate the effort you're putting into this, but you can go a little slower.

Oscar: Yes, I'm sorry.

Faith: Huh? What about Jay? Where did he go?

Jay: You want to know what I recommend from the menu?

Hmmm, let's see...

Faith: (Oh, he is taking orders over there)

Jay: Do they have donuts?

If they do, I'm sure that's what you're looking for!

Faith: What?

Hey Jay, what are you doing asking a customer about the menu?

Jay: Well, actually, I haven't quite memorized the menu yet. As a waiter, it's a shameful thing to do.

Faith: I understand.

First of all, Jay. Please memorize the menu.

Oscar and Keith are here, so I think we’re good.

Since a while ago, I can't see Keith...

Keith: Ohoho.

Ohohohoho, this is great.

I did a good job right away.

Faith: Keith? What are you doing?

Keith: What? I’m refilling drinks, the drink server was empty.

Faith: No, they're all beer, right? If I'm not mistaken, they're all beer!!

Keith: I think we're all happier this way, beer saves the world, love and peace.

Faith: This sucks. You're already drunk.

What is this guy doing here?

Ugh, wait, Oscar!

Oscar: Yes, Mr. Faith?

Faith: No, why are we moving so fast again?

Oscar: I’m sorry, I would like to deliver freshly prepared food as soon as possible. Our customers like it, too…

I'm deeply sorry!!!!

Faith: Stop it! Don't apologize so loudly.

If the customers are happy. That's all that matters now, right?

Oscar: Oh, really?!!

Jay: Hey, Faith, you got a minute?

Faith: W-what?

Jay: What do you mean by the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere after the tornado potato?

Faith: Oh, that.

It's the most complicated and pointless menu in this restaurant, but——

Oscar: Oh, no!

 I'm sorry. I was going too fast and the food couldn't keep up with me. It seems.

Faith: What do you mean? Just forget about it. Clean it up!

Oscar: I'm sorry, I'll go get the cleaning supplies right now.

Faith: Hey, watch it!

What now?

Jay: Oh no! I've destroyed the register!

Faith: Whaaat????

Jay: The customer was waiting for me, so I was going to deal with it

But I didn't know how to open the cash register. I just gave it a yank and it broke.

Faith: No, how much force?

Jay: I'm sorry. It took a little bit of force, and here we are.

Keith: Hahahaha, what the hell are you doing?

If you use your strength incorrectly, will you be a robber, hahahahahaha.

Faith: Keith!

What’s with your pants?! Where's your uniform?!!!

Keith: I took it off! It's more like me, isn't it?

Faith: What are you talking about?! Enough! Shut up, you drunk!!

Enough!

Enough!!!!!!!!!!

[…]

Keith: You startled me. What's the matter with you? I haven't said anything yet.

Faith: Is this... my room?

Was that... a dream?

Keith: What were you dreaming about? It sounds interesting, wanna tell me about it?

Faith: I don't want to see your face right now.

Keith: What? What the hell did I do?

Faith: What do you mean? What are you doing in my room?

Keith: Well, Brad's on his way over here right now, so I was going to tell you about it.

I'm sure you'd complain a lot if you didn't know he was here.

Faith: This is a horrible way to wake me up.

Keith: By the way, Jay and Oscar are coming too.

Faith: Eh?!

Keith: We were just talking about having a drink, the five of us, including Dino.

Faith: It sucks. It really, really sucks.

Thanks for letting me know. I'm going to a club today and won't be back till morning.

Bye now.

Keith: What the hell, man?

Why are you in such a hurry?

Faith: I gotta get the hell out of here.

Keith: Weird...

Notes:

Senpai. Which means a “senior” or “an upperclassman who mentors an underclassman”.

[commodifyme]

i’ve been around a looong fucking time so i remember when everyone on here was spelling trans as trans* (to indicate there’s lots of different kinds of trans people?) and then that stopped for some reason. also there was once a push to get everyone to spell latina/latino/latine as latin@ because the @ looks like an a and an o together lol. that went away eventually too and now most of the people i know have no interest in using latinx either, it’s like nonprofit-employee coded almost. if you go through my blog i’m sure you can find examples of me using all of these because i do ultimately want to affirm people, and when i was younger i had a harder time discerning when the right thing to do was follow other peoples lead vs when i should think for myself. turns out the right thing is always to think for myself though because modifying your language without understanding the principle of why you’re being asked to do that means you’re only making a surface level version of the change asked of you.

fortunately i figured it out early enough and completely skipped over calling people “women and femmes” [meaningless] or insisting that it’s antiblack to use nb as a shorthand for nonbinary [absurd] or declaring using the word lame is ableist [the meaning of words change over time! and if someone is seriously using lame to unfavorably compare the target of their insult to mean disabled people rather than calling them uncool, we have a serious problem on our hands that is gonna require more than just getting them to use different words].

moral of the story is prescriptivist language debates to advance social justice causes is like a sisyphean task because the right language is always going to change as society changes and if your goal is liberation and WINNING then getting mired in what exact word to use all the time is going take up a lot of your valuable time. and i personally only want to associate with winners who love winning. like i’m trying to see some people lose their heads in my lifetime. before im 35 if possible.

[formerheroeswhoquittoolate]

Is Gerry Dugan afraid of polyamory? I’ve never read any of his stuff but I’ve heard some from the guy and he seems pretty chill with the idea

once again haven’t read any of it I’m cuirious what afraid if polyamory means in this context though

excellent question! I was being a little silly when I said that / exaggerating for effect but I do think it's worth noting that he has been handed two unconventional and polyamorous relationships (kid cable and the stepford girls, as per my previous monologue, and also the emma/scott/jean/logan situation) and responded to each of them by reducing them to two-person relationships. I talked about the kid cable/stepford girls earlier, so I won't repeat all that, but it did go from a polyam to just nathan and esme... pretty quickly within gerry duggan's cable series (I haven't reread it within the last couple of months, so I can't tell you exactly when it shifts, but it's even before x of swords happens, i.e. within the first 4 issues.)

emma/scott/jean/logan is definitely less obvious, but duggan definitely solidly moves away from the dynamic hickman established during his tenure creating/running krakoa -- scott and jean are removed from the summers house on the moon to the treehouse (now separate from logan) during his x-men run, and emma gets married to and then falls in love with tony stark in invincible iron man, which duggan is also writing. he pretty solidly reduces it into Pairs. now, I do believe characters' relationships can grow and change. that's kind of what they're supposed to do. and if that were the case I wouldn't have said anything! but duggan never bothered to include or even acknowledge their relationship much. while he has these three characters in his hands (logan is solidly on x-force and having his own series, both of which are being written by benjamin percy) scott and emma rarely if ever interact romantically, even before they're reduced to pairs. the closest they get is when scott is resurrected in x-men #7, and even that read more as "scott's fucking exhausted and needs a friend" then as romantic.

all this to say: I don't know how gerry duggan personally feels about polyamory! but from his work on cable, x-men, and invincible iron man, it seems that he is either incapable of or uninterested in writing it, regardless of whether other authors have been the ones to establish the polyamorous relationship. I used "afraid of polyamory" as a kind of shorthand for a lack of desire to portray it in his writing, both to be a little silly and to allude to the deeper mononormativity that allows for it and is kind of perpetuated by it. hopefully that clears it up?

[serial-serializednovelreader]

Nova’s Notes - DD - May 15 + 16

That’s right! Another combo post again, definitely because I planned it that way and not because I got busy hehe.

“Once more have I seen the Count go out in his lizard fashion.”

An iconic line, perhaps the best way to start a journal entry ever. The reason we have a Lizard Fashion Day in the first place. Thank you for that, Jonathan. I also appreciate how he tracks his movements down to the measurements. This man is on a mission to make sure he sees what the Count is doing when he can and I love it. It also tells me he’s probably been doing a stakeout to see when Dracula is leaving in order to do his next step…

More castle exploring! That’s right, locked doors will not stop our good friend from checking it out anyway. It’s interesting to note that the locks he finds are “comparatively new” to the hall he originally entered through. Which means that either a) Jonathan is not the first prisoner of this castle (likely) or b) Dracula was very prepared for his visit specifically. While we already kind of knew these scenarios were coming, it adds another layer of messed up to me.

Finally, Jonathan is able to find an unlocked door that seems locked at first because it’s resting on the door and the hinges are a bit broken. Why isn’t it locked? We don’t know, but I’d like to think it’s because Dracula is so self-assured Jonathan won’t try very hard to open this door by the time he gets to it. He wants to break Jonathan’s spirit and in his mind, it’s working splendidly, lizard fashion and all.

Here’s his logic:

Why would he need to lock this door when it feels as good as locked? Jonathan probably won’t have the strength to open it by the time he gets to it and he’ll give up if he tries.

This also plays into the fact that Dracula has been a vampire for a long time…he’s forgotten what it feels like to be human and have regular strength. Who knows if he even remembers how much strength it takes for a human to open a door, or how heavy a door has to be to determine whether it’s locked or not. We know he heavily underestimates Jonathan’s determination and strength, simply because he is a human and those are weak and powerless compared to him (in his mind). I also have another theory but I’ll wait until a bit further in to write it.

It does take Jonathan a good amount of effort to open that door but he does it!! Good for him (well…not really but…). He then takes the time to describe the landscape, so you know he’s in a good mood.

“This was evidently the portion of the castle occupied by the ladies in bygone days the for the furniture had more air of comfort than any I had seen.”

I’m not sure if he means comfort in the way of being used or in the feeling, but I’m going to go with the feelings route, so I can say JONATHAN MY BELOVED!!!! He finds comfort in being around women’s furniture? Why is that? Many reasons probably but my guess? MINA 👏 “THE QUEEN” 👏 MURRAY 👏

He may not say it this time…but I just know….this man is going to kill me with his adorable ways. He does go on to say the room still has lonely vibes and makes him nervous (it is nighttime, after all), but it’s better than a room with Dracula.

Then, Jonathan gets in his ✨imagination era✨ picturing a blushing lady writing while he also writes in his journal. True parallels, since we all know you’re writing to Mina, hehe.

“It is nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance. And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere "modernity" cannot kill.”

Another hard line from Harker here. If I’m not mistaken (though I likely am), he’s talking about his diary being in shorthand, and how modern that is compared to the blushing beauty of old. If we go further, perhaps he’s also speaking to his meticulous notes of “all that has happened” on his business trip, vs. the lady that probably wrote very broadly in her letters of love. It speaks to a faster-paced environment Jonathan finds himself in as a solicitor. While shorthand has always been around in some form (yes, I researched this to make a point, hopefully it’s accurate), shorthand towards his time was rapidly becoming the norm in order to capture speeches and increase efficiency; it was a social movement in its own right. So being “nineteenth-century with a vengeance” may sound cool, but I think he’s criticizing how this has turned writing from an art form into something more commercial. While he and Mina have bonded extensively over shorthand and it may very well save his life if he can use it as code…perhaps he longs to be able to write poetry or just be able to slow down and enjoy writing again. This is further proven when he ends it with remarking that ancient practices cannot be killed by the modern. This might be him reassuring himself that there will always be long-form writing (like I’m doing right now :D). Or, if we take it darker, perhaps he’s worrying about his ability to survive with his modern practices against the Count’s ancient “hunter” instincts. Or, perhaps, I’m wrong about all of this and just yapping, it’s unclear!

Anyway, let’s move on to May 16th.

“God preserve my sanity, for to this I am reduced. Safety and the assurance of safety are things of the past. Whilst I live on here there is but one thing to hope for, that I may not go mad, if, indeed, I be not mad already. If I be sane, then surely it is maddening to think that of all the foul things that lurk in this hateful place the Count is the least dreadful to me; that to him alone I can look for safety, even though this be only whilst I can serve his purpose. Great God! merciful God! Let me be calm, for out of that way lies madness indeed.”

Sooooooo, our good friend Jonathan Harker is not doing too well. You know it’s bad when he cites Dracula as the “least dreadful person in the castle” when he was just describing the Count as a “creature” 4 days ago for his Lizard FashionTM. Plus, he’s referencing Hamlet again!!!

Jonathan decided to sleep in the Lady’s Room despite Dracula’s warning because he does not want to listen!!! Unfortunately I would do the exact same!!! Why are we like this, Jonathan???😭😭

“I determined not to return to-night to the gloom-haunted rooms, but to sleep here, where, of old, ladies had sat and sung and lived sweet lives whilst their gentle breasts were sad for their menfolk away in the midst of remorseless wars.”

More poetic writing!!! I love it and his critique of war. I why he touches on this here; perhaps he knew someone who went off to war and the repercussions for the family that he left behind? :(

So here’s where Dracula’s 3 Roommates show up (that’s how I’ll refer to them - not brides, BBC Dracula get out of here with that!!!!!). They’re the reason for my other door unlocked theory: perhaps Dracula keeps it that way to allow them some freedom (or, conversely, they figured out how to unlock it and he didn’t check closely enough).

What I noticed on this read was how neutral Jonathan is at first when describing them. It’s not until we get to their lips that we get a “voluptuous” mention (and not the last, either). Also, the lead one looks…familiar to him? I didn’t notice that before, but I saw a post about why (explained in the comments section - Stoker featured her in his prologue/first draft “Dracula’s Guest”. He may have been wanting to include her in this too and scrapped it.)

“There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips. It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina's eyes and cause her pain; but it is the truth. They whispered together, and then they all three laughed—such a silvery, musical laugh, but as hard as though the sound never could have come through the softness of human lips. It was like the intolerable, tingling sweetness of water-glasses when played on by a cunning hand.”

So, I think we all know this part isn’t really Jonathan. I mean it is but…spoiler alert: vampires have hypnosis in this canon and they definitely seem to use it here. It doesn’t quite work though because he still follows it up with describing their laugh as “intolerable” and obviously, he’s still scared of them. I do think it’s interesting he writes this confession down, because he doesn’t really have to. Perhaps he thinks it’s important to whatever is going on around here (because I’m sure he knows he would never be tempted to kiss/be kissed by someone other than Mina if it wasn’t by some kind of power). But it’s also interesting that he doesn’t put it that way, either: he doesn’t blame the women for putting thoughts in his head, he describes it as his own thoughts/feelings.

Personally, I think it could be one of those “I think this could be one of those things I think is true but don’t have evidence for and don’t want to write it down until I have the facts” so, until he has the facts, it’s going to be written down as his thoughts. And if he did write it down as them “tempting him with their powers” that just wouldn’t be Jonathan’s character to write something like that. Perhaps in another story from another protagonist, but not this guy. But hey, that’s just me. It could also just be they’re very pretty (which I’m sure they are and Jonathan feels some attraction 🤷‍♀️. The main reason I blame hypnosis is the push and pull Jonathan has with his description of them.

Right before the dreaded/anticipated kiss, here comes Dracula!!!!!! And he has some things to say:

“‘How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me.’”

I am once again bringing this meme back because it gets me EVERY TIME. I know I should talk about the possessiveness of Dracula or how he must have already talked to them previously if he forbade them from even CASTING EYES ON HIM, but I’ll be real every time I see this monologue I just see this meme except it’s just “haha Jonathan you are — BELONGS TO ME.” If that doesn’t indicate broken humor, I’m not sure what does.

Let’s talk about the description of how Dracula looks in this moment though.

“…the blue eyes transformed with fury, the white teeth champing with rage, and the fair cheeks blazing red with passion. But the Count! Never did I imagine such wrath and fury, even to the demons of the pit. His eyes were positively blazing. The red light in them was lurid, as if the flames of hell-fire blazed behind them. His face was deathly pale, and the lines of it were hard like drawn wires; the thick eyebrows that met over the nose now seemed like a heaving bar of white-hot metal.”

Looks like those “hunter instincts” are kicking in nicely! I wonder why he’s so protective all of a sudden? Especially after telling Jonathan a few short days ago that he would basically be on his own if he disobeyed him. I saw a post the other day talking about how when Mina was compiling everything together, there are entries she could have chosen to exclude from Jonathan’s account due to either repetition or something too traumatic to include.

What could’ve happened in those three days to make Dracula do a 180? Well, we do know they talk every single night, so what could’ve said in that gap between May 12th and May 15th?

My theories are: a) Jonathan didn’t write it down, b) Mina excluded it for a reason, c) it wasn’t one thing, it was a buildup of many interactions over the course of their time together, which lends itself to d) Dracula was straight up lying when he said he’d leave Jonathan to die if he disobeyed him.

I personally think it was c/d because it makes the most sense, but if it was a or b, it’s just interesting to wonder what was said in that time span. Did he make Dracula laugh with a witty comment? Or say something that reminded him of someone else before the Count turned into a vampire? We do know that Jonathan genuinely enjoys spending time with Dracula, so the rapport must be there. And yes, I am probably am reading waaaaaay too much into it, but it is food for thought.

“‘You yourself never loved; you never love!’ On this the other women joined, and such a mirthless, hard, soulless laughter rang through the room that it almost made me faint to hear; it seemed like the pleasure of fiends. Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper:—

‘Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so?’”

Love, you say? From this vampire? Well, that’s interesting! I do believe Dracula is being sincere when he says this, but the issue is that you don’t want to be the object of Dracula’s love. It’s not like Jon or Mina’s love; it’s possessive, cruel, and demanding. You don’t keep the ones you love a prisoner, and the Count has obviously done that on multiple occasions since he told the women to “tell it from the past”. I feel sad for Dracula because it seems to me like he genuinely finds Jon interesting and wants to keep him around; unfortunately, he expresses this love by trapping him and his other love interests like Pokémon. Perhaps I would feel more sympathetic if he didn’t promise to feed Jon to the girls once he’s done with him!!!!

That’s when Jon realizes there’s a sack with something inside of it that sounds like a child…that Dracula gives to the women…ugh. This is enough to put Jon to fainting.

When he wakes up, Jon is without his clothing, but his diary is still intact.

That is horrifying to me. Why did Dracula need to undress him? I understand it’s to give the illusion that he went to bed, but still. It’s no wonder that Jonathan starts the first paragraph in a wave of panic, even though it’s to display more fear of the women wanting to suck his blood than the Count. I also find it fascinating again how he guesses that the women want to suck his blood when they never made mention of it, perhaps because the lead woman’s breath smelled like blood or because she kept her teeth on his neck? Either way, even in a “dream state” his observation skills are top tier.

I do also wonder why Dracula was originally going to “awaken him to get some work done” and then just…didn’t? Maybe he thought it would be better to just pretend the whole thing was a nightmare for Jonathan. If I was him, I probably would’ve woken him from the couch after he fainted and pretended it was a dream, but hey, that’s my gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss idea of the day and Dracula can’t have it!!!

Overall, this is probably the most telling entry we’ve gotten about Dracula so far. We know that he does indeed “love” (though it’s not a kind or gentle love), those he loves are kept prisoner even once he’s “done” with them (since he says tell it from the past — not the present and the women obviously seemed bitter about his fixation on Jonathan), and while he said he wouldn’t save Jon in a pinch, he did. We’ve seen his first display of fury and how dangerous he can actually be with his supernatural powers and what that can do to the people around him. While no one was injured — yet — it could’ve gone south had the lead woman been human. Even though he probably knew Jonathan was awake for some of this, he still chose to take him back to bed and keep him under the illusion of having slept there peacefully — though some of that was likely for safety reasons. For Jonathan, this was a horribly (and hypnotically horny) traumatic experience for him that makes him realize Dracula is not the only scary thing in this castle.

I also do wish we had gotten more with Dracula’s three roommates because they deserve it!!! They actually seem chill when they’re not trying to — ya know, suck Jon’s blood and all. I also wish we had gotten names!!!! Names would be nice, Stoker.

[talenlee]

Story Pile: GGWP — Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games

What if the prettiest girl in your school who nobody knew well was so aloof, so pure, so perfect, not because she was in fact, transcendentally perfect, but because she was an utter gamer gremlin who didn’t care about anything any other student was doing, since they weren’t pulling off sick combos and trash talking noobs in ranked ladder matches? And you could tell because you were an expert in the same kind of games, and now she wanted to fight you? To fight you? To fight you? To stay up late and fight you?

And you were both girls?

That’s the story of Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, which is a manga series about exactly what I just described. This is a Japanese story about a Japanese sector of life – about the pressures of school and the intensity of hobbies you wind up with if you have to have them in secret. It’s about social pressures on women, it’s about what is or isn’t acceptable for people to do and how an invisible online persona creates a space for people to become what they truly want.

It is also full of some of the sickest reaction panels of a girl power-posing over an opponent who isn’t even in the room I’ve ever seen in manga.

If you want to learn a bit about fighting game lingo, this might be a place to pick it up, but I’m not sure. Part of how the story works is that the playstyles of the characters and their relationships to the games they’re playing is important to how they relate to one another, you see, you see, because the big crybaby who plays by her heart and wants to win because of how it makes her feel, right, she’s not as good a technical player as the much more skilled formally minded one who achieves by dedicating absolute organisation to everything she does, but but but when you’re a technically focused person what do you do when patch notes drop for your character a week before the tournament, and then, then, you see, there’s conflict between them because one of them is trying out new toys she got in the patch notes and the other is trying to reconstruct what she had.

I do not know if they say a damn word that makes sense about fighting games.

I know that there’s a procession through translation that’s going to make the best translators struggle. You need to understand the lingo in Japanese and its relationship to similar lingo in English and I can understand just giving up. It’s also all talking about a pastiche game that I think is meant to invoke Street Fighter, but also…

… it might not.

It could be nothing to do with Street Fighter. It could all be about Tekken or King of FIghters or Sango Fighters for all I know. I did show panels to a friend who knows a lot more about fighting games, and sometimes the manga gave good advice and sometimes it gave bad advice. But I can’t say for sure if that’s the manga being mistaken or if it’s the translation struggling with conveying a topic. Just a misplaced pronoun can really mess up that kind of thing! Doesn’t really matter, though, to me. It’s trying, and that’s interesting, and what it is telling me about the games is being used to tell the story at large. I could bust out the Gina Bloom Gaming the Stage checklist again, if you want.

There’s a real art to translation. Particularly, there are times when a manga has a really interesting title in Japanese that, translated to English, loses something about what it is. There’s this manga, Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete, which is about a pair of delinquent girls re-finding one another after school and realising they’re interested in one another, and the title means something about attacking one another with love and fists. Translating that title could have been something really awkward, but some genius translator came up with Catch These Hands.

I knew Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games by a shorthand title: GGWP, back when it was being translated by fans, and not by professionals, selling the manga in actual book stores. It’s not only gotten an official translation since but it might be getting an anime soon, which is good news since it might make this series more available to more people. It might also dilute the queerness here, the way this story is about girls and their relationships to one another and the intimacy that grows in a slow, organic way and how the fights are about fights (but they’re not just about fights).

Here’s the big secret of if you’re looking for queer media. Queer anime isn’t common. It’s not uncommon, but it’s absolutely not common, and part of how queer anime gets to exist is by not being too far out of bounds of acceptable, deniable value judgments. Basicaly, anime gets to exist as long as the shittiest dude in its production staff is okay with it. Also, that kind of production staff role, the people who make hiring and firing decisions? Well, that’s a senior position and in Japan, seniority of roles aren’t necessarily tied to who in the room has the best ambitious drive or even the richest dad, but instead, tends to land on the oldest people.

That is to say, in the anime industry, where young people join and burn out in one to three years, all the people in positions of power are older. A lot older. Old as balls. And that may be why anime, despite all of its cool traits and its great imaginative concepts advertising all sorts of merchandiseable nonsense, still has a bunch of trends that feel like hey, why would we do that? Why would there be that in there? Isn’t that a bit weird?

Manga, on the other hand, is not so constrained. You know what you need to publish a manga? A pixiv account. Wotakoi, one of my favourite manga and anime ever, started out as a pixiv webcomic. Horimiya, a series with a really promising start that I kinda snoozed through towards the end, started out as a webcomic. The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, one of my favourite yuri series started out on twitter. The point is there are a lot of publishing vectors for manga, and that doesn’t mean everyone who wants to make and share manga are doing it in a way that’s going to get them money but they can get attention and as a result, manga is a space where you’re going to see a lot more wild stuff.

And yes, this does mean you’ll find more filth and weirdness and stuff people ditch on because they get bored. Sure. That’s a possibility. You’re talking about an art space where amateur art gradiates into professional art without any clear distinction and the industry that pumps out the series on schedules people like are essentially a machine that chews on artists and poops out merchandising opportunities, with the manga itself a sort of wafting fumes it expels as an accidental byproduct. Sometimes you’ll find an interesting high concept that disappears because the artist just couldn’t hack the pace they set and they dropped out, sometimes you’ll find something that degenerates over time as the creator’s hobby time changes.

And in this space, you can find queer media.

You can find, straight up, media that is just about gay boys doin’ kisses on one another and yuri that’s all about a particular niche interest and just, no question being asked about a potential market importance, because it’s being made because someone wanted to draw those faces having feelings about those things. And that’s how we get the space in which we wind up here with this, this manga GGWP, a sexless yuri manga about girls who play fighting games in secret and also sleep together and are girlfriends.

It’s a long hauler! It goes places and it covers tournaments and I don’t know if it’s even done because I’ve been reading it entirely legally, officer, I swear. But it’s a very sweet kind of story about girls relating to girls, and if it doesn’t wind up with two of them married, then I’m going to notify the yuri authorities.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Media #StoryPile

[macbethz]

I’m not really a fan of the video essay where I believe a lot of this info is coming from (I also may be completely off and this same idea formed independently in which case i apologize) because of this emphasis it places on everything everywhere all at once which, while a really great movie, is a very effective crystallization of a lot of ideas that have been explored by many postmodern films over the past 40 years. It’s a blockbuster so it brings to the public consciousness a lot of stuff usually reserved for art films, but that doesn’t mean it’s the first to do so. I also think the video doesn’t really understand what postmodernism is but that’s another thing.

Im a huge nerd and love postmodernism so this is long my b LOL

When we talk abt modes of discourse like postmodernism it’s important to note that it has a bunch of different definitions that’s trying to centralize a lot of schools of thought happening around the same time. Lots of different scholars also have different definitions of what "postmodernism" is. For example, I spoke to Henry Jenkins last year who is widely known as a postmodern scholar but told me he HATES the label. What you're identifying as the "objective" of postmodernism I guess most aligns with Jameson's descriptions of postmodernism as this "new depthlessness" and waning of emotion. But even in that he isn't really describing like...individual postmodern works. He's talking about culture in the postmodern era in relation to things like blockbusters and advertising.

 In other words, these labels are, often, in my experience, descriptive rather than prescriptive. When you’re saying this has a lot in common with postmodernism but differs in its “objective,” you’re assigning an objective to the aggregate of a lot of different cultural ideas. (It ESPECIALLY feels weird with postmodern theory which often rejects outright goals).

I think it’s more useful to look the media trends right now and really think is this something NEW? Is this something NOT present in media of the postmodern period. And the answer is…no? There is plenty of postmodern film that is sincere, that fits this kind of mold I see people assigning to metamodernism. Everything everywhere all at once's thesis, from what I can remember, is that yes there is this absence of meaning and endless realities, but there is still joy and love to be found within it, and that is just as real. That isn't incompatible with postmodernism and follows a lot of tenets of absurdism which is closely tied to it. Films like Being John Malkovich, Beetlejuice, or Scott Pilgrim operate in similar emotional nodes and are all clearly identified as postmodern cinema.

I will also say that I think it’s disingenuous to decry all postmodern art (which I here use to describe art intended to be postmodern even though technically stuff like marvel movies are also unintentionally postmodern etc etc) as destructive or nonsustainable, because postmodern art is an extension of late capitalist culture, which is itself destructive and nonsustainable. I also think people often use metamodernism as shorthand for “deep but made me feel happy instead of sad” or “postmodern but not jaded" which feels like both a misinterpretation of postmodernism and a way to kind of ignore the larger societal factors that make up postmodernism. This ties into another reason I tend to dislike metamodernism, which is that it often is used to describe large blockbusters that use postmodern modes like 4th wall breaking etc to make you feel good but don't necessarily engage with the late capitalist critique of a lot of intentionally postmodern art. Which is not necessarily bad! Not every film has to do that! But postmodernism is often an ugly philosophy because late capitalism is ugly. Turning away from that will not make it go away, nor will partitioning out parts of its philosophy to make an easier pill to swallow make for a more sustainable media landscape.

Though again its really hard to aggregate large concepts like this, especially postmodernism which is inherently defined by its lack of coherent meaning LOL

little self indulgent mixed media comic about love and communication styles. oh yeah theoretical frameworks also i guess

i think postmodernism, as a cultural movement, is deeply in love with modernism. Of course, its version of love is pulling modernism apart and building a monument to its image out of its bones, which just kills it faster

To postmodernism, the star wars reference is a declaration of love. To modernism, its an admission of guilt.

[starleska]

the early bird is the worm - some thoughts on Warren the Eagle

i’ve been fixating on Warren from DHMIS a lot (oh lord why did it have to be him 😭💖) and enjoying a lot of the conversation around his character, both positive and negative! so i wanted to get some thoughts down about him and see what other people think. the writers did an amazing job of portraying an instantly unlikable guy, and i want to examine that unlikability, to see what we can learn about him and his mindset: 

a little bit of a recap: when Warren accuses Red Guy and Duck of being bad friends, and the two respond that it’s Yellow Guy’s fault for forgetting the password, Warren doesn’t try to defend Yellow Guy. instead, he goes on a defensive, egotistical tirade about how because he’s not ‘technically affiliated’ with the OK Stop organisation, they don’t think he knows a bad friendship when he sees one. with no prompting, Warren has inserted himself into the interpersonal troubles of another group (that he doesn’t know!!) and made himself out to be the person being attacked. Warren is not a good Samaritan. it’s got nothing to do with Yellow Guy being bullied at all - this is all a vicious ego trip for Warren, who feels persecuted by people he doesn’t even know and projects himself onto other people he perceives to be victims.  it’s fascinating, and why i feel it’s a disingenuous interpretation to assume the ‘Warren the Eagle’ name is some mean-spirited joke towards trans people - as a trans person myself, i was worried too! but i realised that it’s not literally about him not being an eagle because he doesn’t have wings - it’s because Warren is oblivious to who he is and the way he treats other people. he’s a social parasite who dresses up his problems in victim-supporting language, validating his toxic behaviours that leave the people around him exhausted and upset. Warren refuses to take accountability for his behaviour and latches onto Yellow Guy despite not having a genuine interest in him or his wellbeing. Warren just wants to be liked, and he realises that in Yellow Guy’s safe space (his brain), he can be...even if he ends up hurting Yellow Guy in the process. Warren being a worm is visual shorthand. pretty much everyone immediately had a visceral response to him and his uncomfortable, invasive behaviour, and the fact that he views himself as a creature that is so radically different from what he actually is - an eagle instead of a worm - is supposed to communicate to us that his perspective is warped to the point that he cannot (or just refuses to acknowledge) how nasty he is to others. you’ll notice that Yellow Guy’s Brain Friends - who are portrayed as a positive, healthy force - are immediately accepting of Warren’s identity and validate his thoughts without question, because they want to be supportive. they’re doing a nice thing, and it’s not played for laughs! but Warren takes advantage of that kindness, and it doesn’t take long for those friends to grow tired of his behaviour. they do the healthy thing by removing themselves from the equation.  so, yes...i like Warren as a character a lot, because i think he is a great representation of how you can’t just appropriate the language of positive mental health without doing the actual therapeutic work of unlearning your problematic behaviours. he’s equal parts stubborn and ignorant, and it seems he identifies with being an eagle less in a ‘this is a trans allegory’ sense, and more in a ‘i refuse to acknowledge that i’m being an asshole to the people around me because i am the best and everyone should cater to me.’ sense. that being said, i’m very excited to see more lore and meta and character development for Warren from the fandom! i think headcanoning him as trans is awesome - on that note, did you know that earthworms are intersex? i’m also delighted by the rise of the LoveBird ship (Shrignold/Warren) and the potential for both of them to learn to love in a way which works for them both...the dynamic is so neat 😖💖 that being said, what do you think? do you love Warren? are you indifferent? do you want him to die in a fire? i’d love to know! 🥰

[three--rings]

So there’s something I’ve been wanting to point out about the Coppola film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula because of all the disparagement it gets in the dracula daily tag.

And first of all, I’m not here to defend the movie, exactly.  I have a certain nostalgic affection for it because it came out when I was 14 and I saw it in the theater on opening night because I was obsessed with Dracula already.  (And I loved it, but mostly for aesthetic reasons.  I was a baby goth, okay.)

But it’s not a great movie. There’s SO MANY FLAWS, especially the acting and character interpretations.  It’s not a good adaptation of the novel at all, although it was a lot more faithful to the EVENTS of the book than some previous versions like the 1931 and Hammer versions.   These days I can hardly bear to watch it, even though VISUALLY it’s stunning and incredible.  (Look it’s one of my all time favorite costumed movies.  Eiko Ishioka was a master.   And every single one of the effects was practical and done In-Camera, which is astounding.)

But that’s not the point.  The point is that there’s something about the interpretation that the film takes towards the source material that I think a lot of people miss, if you didn’t see it in the context of the time it was made in.

Which is that the film uses vampirism as an allegory for AIDS. 

I didn’t come up with this interpretation.  It was fairly obvious at the time.  I think it was mentioned in several reviews of the film in newspapers.  A quick google shows it’s been the topic of various scholarly articles.

Coppola focuses on the BLOOD, showing the blood transfusions in great detail, showing blood cells on a microscopic level (which was used at the time as visual shorthand when talking about AIDS), focusing on what happens to Lucy as she takes in this foreign blood.  Clean blood trying to push out tainted blood. 

Horror reflects the anxieties of the time in which it was made.  And in 1992, that anxiety was that sex of any kind could lead to death. (And of course, was also associated with IV drug use.  There’s a reason the film has Seward injecting himself with drugs and focuses on the needles of the transfusion.  Hysteria around blood transfusions was high at the time, leading to the terrible restrictions on blood donation we still have today.)

HIV was a death sentence, not the manageable and treatable condition it is today.  It was a slow, lingering death of wasting away, which many people at the time had seen personally.   In 1897 Lucy’s illness conjured up consumption, but in 1992 it carried overtones of another disease. 

Which is WHY the film has Lucy and Mina seek OUT the highly sexualized encounters with Dracula before being contaminated with this disease.  I mean, it’s still a bad look with unfortunate implications.  It carries the stigma that HIV did at the time (and still does for some to this day, unfortunately) that you get it by asking for it.  It’s still sexist and objectifying.  But it’s got layers that I think modern viewers don’t pick up on.

I just don’t think you can talk about the film’s sexual aspects without understanding that it’s dealing with the underlying societal fears of the era it was made.  The horror of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of terrible, deadly consequences for desire and sex, one that an infected person can pass on to their loved ones if care is not taken to stop it.