#21stc

[1966loveminuszeronolimit]

what era are we in besides holocene .. i think i heard digital dark age once, not terrifically fond of it but it does fit in some ways … are there other descriptors that u have heard of or used to describe this period of time we are living in ?

[alarmalade]

How to Tell My Dad that I Kissed a Man

Blame your drag queen roommate—Lamar by day, Mahogany by night—and then blame his sequined dresses—all slit high, up to his balls Explain that dusk smells so different in Spain—musky cherry- tight tangerine burst—sage mixed with lavender Tell him you were under the influence of bees or bats— the spin and swirl of doves Tell him you were half asleep—about to leave to the dunes just west of Madrid—better yet say fores—he knows that crazy shit happens in a forest Tell him no tongue but his mouth—wax-like and wet Tell him timing Tell him ease Tell him sweat and sweat Tell him lips Tell him the juice—yeah saffron juice Tell him flat-chested Tell him, "crook"—I mean, "creek" Tell him tales—lies—tears—water—weakness—churros— chocolate—hot—heat—heave— Hush Hush Hush Tell him anything you want—then tell him You did it again

"How to Tell My Dad that I Kissed a Man" by F. Douglas Brown, from Zero to Three (2014)

[greenerteacups]

Hey GT! Lionheart is my favorite; I haven't stopped raving about it in weeks. Just wondering what pronouns you use? 🦁🤎

hey what's good, thank you friend! I use she/her IRL, but I don't mind they/them, either. so if someone mentions me in passing, "they" is totally fine.

[seagull-astrology]

1933, Cold Fractions & Yellowstone's Record Low

Astrometerology has a cool sounding name, but has been very hard for astrologers to peg down. https://www.celestiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/astrometerology-in-yellowstonemp3.mp3 Continue reading Untitled

[werewolfetone]

Too long have we discoursed about what Henry Joy McCracken's stance on Sinn Féin would be when what we should be asking is what Sinn Féin's stance on being wiped out almost to a man by dysentery in 1795 would be

Arguing about which modern politicians historical figures would support if they were brought to the 21st century: boring, tired, silly, can get worryingly ahistorical

Arguing about which preventable diseases modern politicians would die of if they were brought to the 18th century: new, fun, exciting, sexy, GUARANTEE this will make you more popular at parties

[suzannahnatters]

I read this (Matthew Aldrich Says Netflix Rejected His Vision to "Update" Narnia Series) and now I'm MIFFED

Respectfully submit that Narnia does NOT have bad worldbuilding - it has precisely the worldbuilding Lewis intentionally used to create adventure and excitement in a world that is also FAMILIAR and SAFE ("lol Narnia has Turkish Delight but no Turkey" ok bro first of all this is a portal fantasy world populated ENTIRELY by people who originated on planet Earth, so calm down a hot minute)

in this day of secondary world fantasies not being considered worth their salt unless they are extensively worldbuilt complete with detailed hard magic systems, I can see how a lot of middle aged men would look at Narnia and deem it lesser

but they would be WRONGGG

Narnia was never meant to function like a 21stC secondary world fantasy. it has soft worldbuilding the way it has a soft magic system, & both of those are valid!

if you find that a barrier to adaptation you are, honestly, not the man for the job

the key to adapting Narnia would be to lean into what the books are meant to be FOR and not try to make them be something they're not, and so I have a large-sized hunch that Aldrich's departure was probably an excellent thing for the eventual adaptations

[tcr55]

Eveleigh Railway Workshops were built in the late 19th and early 20thC to maintain Sydney and NSW trains.

I haven’t been to visit in years, and I was surprised by the developments.

The integrity of the place has been maintained, but added to it is 21stC touches, esp food outlets.

[cmrosens]

Fantasy Castle Thoughts

Wandering around castle ruins on the weekend while thinking about my fantasy WIP had me thinking about more worldbuilding stuff in fantasy (the obvious ones being covered by others, such as, where does the shit go? How do they get water? How do they not poison themselves while answering Qu 1?):

That film where they erased the entire town and the castle was sat there for no reason (meant to be Rochester) - look, even if your castle is a strategic fortress in the back of beyond, it will have some kind of nearby settlement. Because: who is building it and how long does it take and where do they all live while they're constructing it? Where do they go afterwards? How do the garrison get food (easier to grow crops and raise livestock nearby than have vulnerable wagons bringing it in and being ambushed).

A lot of castles were not built by locals, because you can't trust the fucking locals, that's (usually) why the castle is THERE. If you don't need a defensive structure you build a manor or a stately home. If you're building a castle, it's usually to subdue the population or to defend against the neighbours, but either way, what often happens is that the king or whoever will round up people from his patrimony he knows he's already whipped into shape and can trust, then force-marches them across country and re-settles them in the area the castle is meant to be. They are the ones who then farm and raise livestock, and push out the locals to do so. Over time, you get some intermingling and after a few gens it's a very different demographic, but you have a story of settlement going on with tensions bubbling under the surface. See also: William Rufus wanting to subdue the North of England, forcibly uprooting his tenants in the South of England and making them build and settle in Carlisle, where he built his castle (11thC); the Earl of Lincoln dragging a load of Yorkshire and Lancashire and Lincolnshire men to re-settle his newly bestowed North Welsh lordships, pushing the Welsh into the uplands while the settlers took over the lowlands (12th-13thC).

The settlers around castles bring their own forms of folk religion, superstition, folklore, dialect, and naming patterns, which are specific to their original region. These may be very similar to the ones where they've been settled. What does that look like? Is the culture of particular villages and settlements a little bit different or maybe strikingly so the closer you get to the castles in your world because of this? What are the issues faced by settlers and by local people, how do they get resolved (or do they)? You'd imagine settlers are favoured in court disputes, but depending on the politics, they may actually be overlooked in efforts to appease the locals, leading to some lords really upsetting the very people they took for granted that they could trust. What's going on with all this local level stuff? By the way:: 21stC "my religion is better than yours" is so fucking boring and overdone imo from Western fantasy. Not every fantasy people has to have a US Evangelical approach to faith. Maybe they just don't care, or as soon as they hear something new they're like oooh this is interesting let's incorporate that! And they do. And it's fine. And that's a normal attitude to have. That might be a lot more fun, because then you get multiple variations on a theme, which create lots of little layers and nuance to your world, rather than a very one-dimensional impression of "homogeneity" with the danger of slipping into ye olde "X Bad, Y Good" dichotomy.

Technology and adapting tech: building castles requires tech, and once you know how long something took to build, you know what the tech was and can work out how it may have developed since then. Also think about how it can be adapted. If you've got a world where castles are required because fighting happens, you have a world full of disabled people. War causes disability. Even tournaments were EXCEEDINGLY dangerous. Henry VIII got permanent brain damage at one. Other knights were left paralysed, many died, some were amputees as a result. People get their legs hacked off due to gangrene from wounds. People get arrows lodged in their spines. People get sick from malnutrition and develop conditions like osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, etc. Picture this: your lord gets severely injured and may never walk again just by falling from his horse (common). Unfortunately, the castle steps are DESIGNED to be difficult to get up and down, because it's a defensive structure, and you DO NOT want to make it easy for enemies to just stroll up to the upper levels which are the most defensible. Bear in mind that the majority of a castle is empty space: the ward. The domestic quarters are built into the walls, usually the inner walls of a concentric castle. Your lord had an upper floor room. In a castle, space is at a premium. You need all the space on the ground floor and it's already occupied. What do you do? Well - you remember that pulley system for heaving big tons of dressed stone up to the top of the scaffolding when constructing the tower? Yeah. Yeah you're going to use that. And if your lord is now permanently disabled and cannot use the stairs, you can work out how to refine that. But right now, you need to get him into bed so the physician can look him over, because if he dies right now this would be terribly politically inconvenient . Even if this hasn't happened in your current story right now, if this was the case for the lord or two BEFORE, the equipment may all still be there, and still be in place.

Anyway if you like this, you might like my newsletter and podcast, and the books I write.

[inky-duchess]

Hi Duchess, can you help please? Setting is Modern Era-ish, certainly early 21stC, fictional small North-Central European liberal monarchy, mostly constitutional but the ruling King has some few actual active powers (not sure it is relevant, but I don't know). What would happen if the late teens / early 20s heir to crown came out as trans? Would she be allowed to call herself a Princess or would he be forced to remain a Prince? Or would she be forced to abdicate in favor of a non-lgbt sibling? Thanks.

I am unsure, this has never happened so there's no example to draw on but I would say yes, it would be allowed since most monarchies have done away with gender preference for succession so it doesn't really matter in that way. I think the worst obstacle would be public opinion and how it might divide support for the monarchy. This of course depends on the values of the culture and the public.

[voysubplots]

Tom obsesses over 21stC meme culture. The only person who will discuss it with him is Harry. They begin using memes in conversation, disrupting ship operations just a little. Some of the Maquis get caught strategizing with their Alpha Quadrant counterparts over subspace.

[indelicateink]

you know the pic. that one.

@smokiedokie is asking who's done this yet. an awesome question. I want to add to whatever iwtv/That Twelfth Night Photo art is out there (Two Cakes). but my god help me decide the order??

From left to right: The famous Audra McDonald (Olivia)/Anne Hathaway (Viola|Cesario)/Raul Esparza (Duke Orsino) Twelfth Night pic from the photoshoot from the play in Central Park (2009)--

would love to hear your opinions in the notes.

bonus pic (not pertaining to this poll; just nice):

[alarmalade]

Perfect Porn Poem

Sad eyes Concerned eyes Watching men be vulnerable on film Something unsaid showing in the eyes At least three feelings washing across the face unspoken Saying um or hi or hey but with much emotion Small smile that flashes across the face Expectant face right after vanished smile Sad face, realizing small smile wasn’t understood Shirt that is tight in the chest or shoulders or arms Face that registers the way the shirt pulls

"Perfect Porn Poem" - Laura Cronk - Iterant issue #12

[elimgarakdemocrat]

The fact that picards family canonically died in a fire feels extremely underdiscussed and a massive checkovs gun we never hear about again. Like fires are rare even now in the 21stC, wouldn't it be super suspicious in the 24th?

[seagull-astrology]

2017, January L'Aquila Quake

[communista-cymraeg]

What is going on in America is horrifying. People are actually wanting to put a convicted criminal in control of their country, who not only almost destroyed it once before, but tried to lead a 21stC putch against democracy when kicked out office!!

When you see the news about all of the heinous Supreme Court decisions that were just made please remember that every single one is a direct result of the fact that Donald Trump was the president from 2016-2020 and Hillary Clinton was not. And there are two conservative justices who will likely retire as soon as a second Trump term begins so he can appoint younger people and enshrine conservatism on the court for another 50+ years. So. Please vote. It will at least give us a fighting chance to get our rights back sooner

[tcr55]

This part of Darling Harbour with these bits of public art and Macquarie Bank HQ was the last piece of 21stC development. Behind me now are the South Barangaroo towers, construction of the centre zone (who knows what corruption will deliver us there) and then Barangaroo Reserve.

Sydney seems to not learn about what makes a great city greater.