#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)

[ascendandt]

kingcrimson and moodyblues exist on opposite ends of a scale and most prog bands are on a scale btween their vibes. also they are opposite colours :}

[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

[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.

[expo63]

In which my reblog gets reblogged by a Clive apologist ... trying to present as not-really-a-Clive-apologist. Is there no end to this nonsense?

#factcheck:

1) Alec is not ‘barely literate’. Working-class men of his generation could, uh, read and write and copiously did. Even book!Clive calls Alec ‘decidedly intelligent’. (How many times do I have to type that into the intellectual bypass that is 21stC classism?)

2) Alec is not ‘dirt poor’. His family run small businesses and he’s able, hard-working and ambitious. And smart.

3) Accurate tags might read:

#lets be real you’d rather shack up with a fading old money barrister whose house is leaking who refuses to have. sex. with. you. ever right?

#no wonder ppl who don’t care whether maurice is happy or not fantasise about maurice living in clive’s cold rundown leaky mansion alongside edwardian england's no. 1 chastity couple

#hmmm

#pro tip: maybe maurice doesn’t give up his wealth and quality of life?

#more like maurice’s wealth gives him the privilege of finding ways to have the quality of life he wants – with alec

#pro tip: it’s called investment income and does NOT have to entail maurice doing a 9-to-5 job in the city

#pro tip: google edward carpenter

[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.

[olderthannetfic]

Do you need to be a PoC to recognize and draw attention to orientalism and racist stereotypes in published media?

There's this media series that I was looking forward to but cautious of when I saw the promotional material. Turns out I was right to be cautious. Other people have commented on it but I'm not sure if anyone specifically from the setting has. Some people are refraining from giving an opinion specifically because they're white or or another race not from the setting and don't feel like they can determine whether or not it's offensive.

--

I find it hilarious that you are asking this of me, a total WASP.

But for what it's worth, I think it's fine to be like "This seems suspect and here's why". You don't have to just agree with the very first member of the group in question that comes along either, but it's helpful to have read enough by multiple people from that group and on the general type of issue at hand to be able to know how authoritatively to speak.

Being able to spot golliwog art is one thing. "All people I think look white bellydancing are appropriating" is another.

It's easy to be a blundering white person (or majority culture person—mainland Chinese classmates, I'm looking at you) talking over others, but I don't think it's particularly valuable to opt out of ever going "Hey, this seems fucked up" and to leave it all to some numerical minority who may not feel like painting a target on their own backs either.

Like... as a white American who's fond of Native art from my country... yeah, there are Native people in fandom. Some of them even turn up on my tumblr. But how many of them are there relative to the quantity of blatantly cringeworthy Native stereotypes in American media that any fool with a particle of knowledge can spot? I'm not going to give some authoritative review of Reservation Dogs beyond saying it seems pretty good because what do I know? But I can certainly go "Wow, the 'wife killed by indians' tragic backstory in a 21stC Western? Really?"

If you want to enter these waters, you've got to be open to people showing up and going "LOL, you know nothing jon snow" and neither instantly grovel to them nor ignore that they could be right. (TBH, instantly agreeing and groveling is actually quite insulting if the person is there for real discussion of serious issues and not for clout chasing. You're not treating them as an intellectual peer worthy of being heard out but as an emblem of their identity and probably too pure to live to boot. Actual listening does not involve agreeing without thought.)

Basically, yeah, raise the issue, but be chill. Hubris and One Right Way-ism help no one in these conversations.

[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.

[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

[ascendandt]

songs with saxophones that want you dead and buried

[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):

[seagull-astrology]

2017, January L'Aquila Quake

[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.