#A digression within a digression

[dolphin1812]

This chapter is primarily Hugo’s Opinions, but some of them are interesting, so I want to try to comment on them.

The chapter as a whole is a criticism of corruption/a focus on status in the Catholic Church (which the bishop is outside of and is, consequently, unpopular with many other churchmen). This section summarizes much of his critique:

“The priest is nowadays the only man who can become a king in a regular manner; and what a king! the supreme king. Then what a nursery of aspirations is a seminary! How many blushing choristers, how many youthful abbés bear on their heads Perrette’s pot of milk! Who knows how easy it is for ambition to call itself vocation? in good faith, perchance, and deceiving itself, devotee that it is.”

On the one hand, Hugo recognizes that the Church can seem to be the only legitimate avenue of social advancement, as anyone can theoretically rise to prominence within it. (Of course, given the emphasis that Hugo places on priests in court, those from a wealthy background were probably more likely to succeed in this; I don’t know a lot about the Church in this time, but I’d imagine that “advancement” is less likely to be “peasant to pope” and more “minor noble or well-off bourgeois to pope”). At the same time, entering a profession like the priesthood – which is supposed to be about serving God – for these reasons is inherently suspect, as it trains one’s focus on the material over the spiritual. As many churchmen retain this focus, it isn’t something initiates learn to reject, but rather something that’s encouraged as they learn to flatter others for better positions.

However, Hugo expands his criticism to a broader social phenomenon: equating success (high social status) with merit.

“Be it said in passing, that success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.”

Success does not inherently equal merit, but Hugo points out a more insidious aspect of this equation:

“Prosperity argues capacity. Win in the lottery, and behold! you are a clever man. He who triumphs is venerated. Be born with a silver spoon in your mouth! everything lies in that.”

While it’s true that an ordinary person can become “successful” (i.e. wealthy) through a stroke of luck (the lottery), the luck that determines success typically happens much earlier: at birth. Someone born with that “silver spoon” will already have a respected position (whether as a noble, a merchant, etc), but will also have the resources to change their position (for example, leisure time to study, a social network that fosters business connections, and so on). Even without doing so, they’re respected, because they’ve already inherited their wealth/title. Thus, praising one’s “success” could merely be admiring material things that one has possessed since birth, not through anything innate to them.

[a-caterpillars-world]

The Chariot and his entourage

[I] [II] [III] [IV] [V] [VI] [VII]

[edwinisms]

banging my head against the wall every time I see someone reblogging a post of mine with tags mentioning the ‘unrequited confession’. we have been OVER this it is NOT a case of unrequited romantic love it is completely canonically up in the air as a possibility. listen to jayden revri himself and be enlightened i am begging you

[your-ace-cousin-clover]

"In hindsight, Max thinks, they perfectly Checo-ed him."

-

In the middle of the 2024 Formula One Season, Checo announces that he's joining the newest team on the track, Expensify APX-GP.

Behold, the Chestappen in the weird F1-RPF movie fic.

Tagging @formulanni as requested! 🫡

Thank you for your wonderful Inspo of Joshua fanart!per

[skitskatdacat63]

In the Pre-Quali show, Will Buxton and James Hinchcliffe discussed the team orders controversy from today's sprint. I agreed with some of what they were saying, but at the same time I felt they were being a bit too harsh in the way the talked about it. Commentators are allowed too be opinionated, of course, but I was curious to see if anyone else was a bit put off by this, or if I'm just being irrational/oversensitive(sry in advance for it being four mins lol)

[merriclo]

i should tell you about the cishet aa server NDJSNSKS. the cishet aa server is a server run by this 1 mutual circle or whatever (i used to be mutuals with them but um. not anymore) and iirc the premise was that they had this joke au where everyone in ace attorney was cishet and they decided to run a server around it. i wasn't in there for long but Wow it was a uh. place. /neg. owner of the server was 18 and most of the other mods were 17 or 18 and they had a whole channel dedicated to mocking this 15 year old fanartist???? who they made the most ableist jokes about??? their anatomy (spinal specifically) tended to be odd so they'd constantly make scoliosis jokes????? there was a huge falling out and controversy in the friendgroup after the 18 year old blog runner harassed a 15 year old which turned into 2 members of the server who lived in the same country mutually cyberstalking one another and finding info like home and school addresses etc.

this wasn't the only unsavory behavior directed towards minors in the server i personally got some Weird behavior as well but WOW it was. Weird! really Weird!

∑(;°Д°) HELP AHAKSKLSLW WHAT THE FUCK where. do i even begin to react

leave the kid alone holy shit (T⌓T) that’s actually so weird to be kinda grown and still bully the hell out of a 15 year old. i know the age gap isn’t that big but the maturity difference is so insane.. like guys grow up and leave them alone??????? they’re a young artist????????? also mona lore i have scoliosis and hate most of those scoliosis jokes because it’s so hard to make people take it seriously bc it sounds so unserious. like how do i say “guys :( my bad posture.. it’s serious stop being silly” without sounding like a whiney little bitch. stop it guysss my back hurts :(((

ALSO THE MUTUAL CYBERSTALKING is that a common thing because i’ve seen that happen too in several servers. some people just get weird i swear

anyways. discord is a hellhole and cishet ace attorney au will haunt me in my nightmares

[necrotic-nephilim]

What are your opinions on Casstim?

i LOVE CassTim. i've actually written a CassTim fic that's mostly just fluff and smut, but i have a lot of ideas/thoughts about them that play with the more complicated aspects of them.

i'm of the opinion that Tim and Cass were a potential romance that DC left the door open for before Tim got adopted by Bruce. (and tbh, even after he got adopted there were certain interactions in Red Robin (2009) that felt romantically implied) a lot of their interactions have implied feelings on both sides so of all Batcest ships, i think this one has a *lot* of genuine canon backing despite it being one of the most underrated ships of the fandom.

the dynamic between Cass and Tim is really interesting to me because Tim doesn't want to be Batman in any capacity and thinks that goal is actually incredibly unhealthy and unachievable, whereas to Cass it's the thing she strives for the most and if anything she wants to be even more than that. (Batgirl (2000) #59 actually has a really interesting discussion about that and that whole post-War Games arc is fun for understanding how Tim and Cass feel about each other) so a lot of their interactions clash because of that and they can't always see eye to eye on what vigilante justice and Batman's vision should look like. their relationship with each other is always going to be dependant on their relationship with Bruce first, as well as the Batman mantle as a whole. so for them to love each other (which, they do without a doubt, romantic or not) they have to accept where they don't agree with each other.

there's such a gentleness to CassTim, i think? not because i think Cass (or Tim tbh) is gentle, but i think for the exact opposite reason. there is this fullness and drivenness in the way she loves and her undying devotion to them. she would do anything to protect her loved ones. and when you combine that with Tim, who's pretty self-sacrificial at his worst, you have some interesting conflict because they're both too-willing to die for the other. their lives are defined by violence, *especially* Cass', so for her to finally let herself be loved and protected by someone else as much as she loves others is something that simply makes me feral.

they've both been trained by Shiva, which i don't think gets explored enough because it's fun for exploring the way they fight and think in a fight being potentially similar. Cass is *far* smarter than anyone gives her credit for being, and has detective skills on par with Tim, in my opinion. they balance each other out in a lot of ways. they're two people who have *chosen* this fight more than a lot of the rest of the Batfamily. being Batgirl is so important to Cass and it's something she chose because of her desperate want to be good. and Tim chose to be Robin because he knew Gotham and Bruce needed that. while they don't always agree on it, i would argue Cass and Tim understand the nuances of the Batman mantle and what it represents deeper than almost anyone else. because of that i'm particularly interested in a future CassTim, where Cass becomes Batman and Tim is in a weird limbo where he wants to stop being a vigilante but can't seem to quite let go of the life and how they end up meeting in the middle of that. i think it could be really fun with a lot of complicated arguments between them that end in a slow burn romance.

idk man this is baseless rambling, but tldr i love them so dearly and there's so much that can be explored between them. also, i think TimKonCass should be a thing. i like KonCass more than most people do (why do y'all hate this ship it's so good pls hear me out-) and i think as a complicated weird throuple they'd be fun.

[swordalt]

Update on Wilbur situation

because surprisingly while a lot of people are talking about supporting her not a lot of them are actually sharing what she said.

A cosplayer name Alice has made a public statement accusing Wilbur of date rape.

Her statement was concise, straight to the point and detailed. She also shows images in relation to her and wilbur in the end of her Instagram she even shows a picture of Wilbur biting her finger, a lot more than shubble had.

But there's the question of the fact, shubble stated Wilbur hadn't dated anyone for 5 years but Its still possible Wilbur cheated.

When she first came out of other statement, I gave her so much enough of a doubt.

I fully wanted to believe that she might be telling the truth but still a didn't fully believe it because I'm insistent about evidence.

Her evidence was limited but it was a start so I was giving her a huge benefit of a doubt..

However

After the very recent situation in which someone tried to accuse Tubbo of date rape by just randomly making up a story.

I'm having a hard time believing it. One of my reason for giving her doubt was it would be hard to lie about something like this...

but it's not.. it's not hard at all. People will say absolutely anything to tea down a creator they don't like. They will ride on other victims backs make it look like that they're doing it because they felt supported by the victims then lie through their fucking teeth.

So you'll forgive me if I doubt the statements made.

[dirtbra1n]

I don’t know. I feel like maybe I can get so much mileage out of Weird in ssmyverse because I know that harusono’s got the chops for that sort of thing. just look at butai ni sake

you know

[icarus-suraki]

I love giving my psychiatrist pause when I tell her that, no, I don't have a five year plan. I don't even have a one year plan. Hell, I barely have a one month plan.

[fellhellion]

I’m not trying to be a prick but there’s a lot of video essays in which the analytical work would, imo, benefit from examining the economical writing style and clarity of something like Dan Olson’s body of work.

[one-winged-dreams]

PINTEREST SNIPING ME WITH KING and GOD unhinged looks good on him

[king-calycanthus]

Top Five Songs at the Moment

Thank u for tagging me @domsaysstuff <333

Never The Heroes by Judas Priest

Powerslave by Iron Maiden

Hellfire by The Mechanisms

Playing With The Boys by Kenny Loggins

Can’t Stand The Night by Accept

I feel like this list is kinda all over the place. We’re going thru a weird era I guess.

And I’m tagging @steviesnailbat @spicysix @mogami13 and anyone else who feels like sharing their music (because I’m a nosy bastard who likes seeing what y’all are listening to). No pressure, ofc, just if you feel like it 👍

[crescentfool]

thinking long and hard about the ballpoint nouveau kit has been making me go through every emotion humanly possible i want to know what it is so badly...

[caulfect]

max & amanda, an overview :

to put it simply, amanda is … perfect. she is someone who isn’t held together by strings of chewing gum or elmer’s glue, but rather this whole entity who has put the pieces back together ( who has completed that messy, blurred puzzle piece box of trauma ) and hasn’t cracked once since.

there are other things -- like how amanda isn’t boring despite the healing, how she remains spunky, sassy, still brimming with a rockstar pull that max has always been so brittle against, and she’s an activist, and kind, and … she’s still everything interesting, she just happens to be more confident in herself than most. more knowing. some part of max envies that, this sense of pure unfiltered self, of understanding the vast canvas you hone inside your body, your fucked up mind, and being able to chart the crevices as you go ; unafraid and undeterred, facing flaws and unhealthy habits with empathy, with compassion, and running your fingers along those wounds like a best friend to kiss them better, to say we’ll spruce you right up, you’ll see. max doesn’t think she could ever be so comfortable inside herself, that she’s capable of such self-examination. she’s aware of her problems but only in the way that one tucks dirty laundry under the bed when guests come over, nervous and hiding, disapproving of the mess her needy, ruinous body leaves and the filth her haunted mind stews in, but unable to do anything else except stuff it into corners, baskets, hide between furniture, hoping and praying to beach gods that nobody will see even a hair of max caulfield’s stormy disarray. aware, always so aware, but never brave enough to venture -- eternally afraid of touching, prodding, because there is more piles to tend to and washing one means washing them all, and sometimes there’s too many old, ratty memories you need to avoid.

max is hesitant about amanda for an odd month or two, subconsciously aware of the girl’s attention ; breathless and awkward beneath it, those prying questions, that particular dance of queer women with crushes who are more than intimidated by one another, swept up in clueless, innane attraction. it almost seems … too good to be true? that sounds dramatic, emo levels of loathing which make her cringe ( 2013 much, max? ), but after spending years dodging intimacy that doesn’t involve sheets or alleyways or the squashed corner of dimly lit bars that smell so, so shitty, crushing and being crushed on seems childish, alien, something everyone else is allowed to do but her. feeling barred from entry amongst lovers and their sickly sighs is one thing, it’s another thing entirely to have an invitation and still abstain. it’d be easier if max didn’t want to, if that old section of her heart was broken beyond repair and ghastly, widowed to blue hair and potty mouth without any hope of whirring up again ; sworn bruised-skin on dirty, stained bathroom tile floor and never destined to get up again, devoted to the kneeling, that heartache, hands too young fisted into those dirty clothes she keeps hiding, slipping from cloth when they tremble, shake, like someone else’s hands. like his. but life is never so kind and max sees amanda in all her space bun glory, with her hands perched on one hip at an angle like a total mom, and something soft stirs somewhere. if max had to pick a partner after years of nothing, she’d like for amanda to be who leads her. she would be kind about it, max knows, or thinks she knows, but that inclination feels true so she sticks to her guns. amanda is beyond sweet -- always asks max how she’s doing, places her order before her as if it’s precious china rather than standard all-american glasses, jokes for ages with pupils that light and expand, and she’s curious but never dares prying. sees her flimsy, fragile boundaries that max can’t word because having them is weird and respects them without being told to. she’d be perfect, the right choice, the only one.

( and, uh, her hands are soft and super nice … which might be some secret of the universe, some ancient divine tell that max has stumbled upon, wobbly and uncertain. once upon a time they both reached for her glass -- max, hastily trying to help, and amanda, just doing her job … hands brushed, the tender side of them, a clumsy bump of knuckles and nails and amanda’s were cut short and so was max’s, which, yeah, she noticed! and her face did that rashy, bashful thing around women so out of her league but all she could think was a jerky chorus of : wow, that’s soft. it felt like bumping into a pillow on a lazy, dreary morning when you’re kicking restless limbs and seeking comfort. it felt like a tender pastry that’s more artsy than tasty, and while amanda bustled away there was a distinct raised brow and puckered lip look from safi which read her to filth. gay, was the unspoken joke between them. it is pure irony amanda would say the same thing later, baffled but preening, a little flustered by max’s weird comment instead of freaking )

still. she is cautious in the face of peer pressure … fumbles through an uncertain rejection when safi pushes ( “not my type,” a lie, kind of, though massive crush is too strong for her taste, embarrassing, sends her skittering back into deep woods ) but knows it wouldn’t hurt to befriend amanda more seriously. gives it a go and when faced with a question so bold she freezes all doe-eyed in headlights, there is little else max can do but go all in. yes, she says, she wants this to be a date thing. yes, she quietly admits without moving twisting lips, caledon’s resident hermit and big time mystery would like giving this a go. they make idle plans for concerts, they flirt, it’s so terrifyingly mundane and natural -- the certified human experience. things play out as they do in-game after that … max is a bundle of excited nerves that are raw things, exposed writhering innards she’s stuffing back inside herself, fascinated by how fast she’ll check her phone and how the disappointment is a swift blow when it isn’t amanda’s name or her absolutely adorable comedy account. all so new and old, like she’s reaching deep inside herself to find a light switch, to see those old parts of her that ogled at boys with hoodies or flushed beneath girls who were too pretty for her. but then … safi … she’s gone, and max naively thinks she can still keep amanda, that she’s allowed that right, but instead the holy gates of the friendzone greet her and it suddenly feels cold and uncomfortable. her protests mean nothing to amanda and they’re put on ice and -- what an apt term for it, she guesses. it sure feels that way. there is a tiring mantra of she’s right and but i need her … some part of max was expectant, hopeful, that there would be somewhere she could cling. that there would be a person she’d love above all at the end of this endless grieving cycle. some sort of love, the kind one can drown in, abuse, until every other matter seems trivial against such profound connection. she was still excited about harmless dates and silly wooing in her foreseeable future, and amanda didn’t take that from her completely to be fair, the door remained ajar and welcoming, a ‘next time!’ printed on the matt, but it still felt final. maybe she’s being dramatic … yet there’s a pinprick of something weird against her clammy skin when they decide to take a break. it’s an omen, a prophecy, another doe blessed vision of storms and tumbling towers : amanda is perfect and healthy, has a nine to five and extends an ear to wayward travelers and goes to therapy each month, visits family, and ( most importantly ) she’s too good for max caulfield. too perched up high to make a descent down, unless she’s looking to tumble thirty something steps. it hurts more than it should, flares like chronic pain down her right wrist, that dejection, that unwantedness, but max is busy with timelines and safi and amanda begins paling in comparison, thankfully.

they don’t talk and they don’t see each other. max flutters between a never ending rotation of lucas, gwen, vinh, and finds herself a bit enamored by the latter. she’ll kiss him later before a fake date with amanda and when she closes painted eyes and exposes her mouth, max ( who wanted this more than anything previously, who missed it, mourned it ) will falter before declining -- a babbling mess of excuses, of half-truths, lips still oddly warm from vinh and she feels his mouth with every word she utters. she can be healthy too, can decide that kissing amanda after she poured her heart out about anxious attachments isn’t right or fair when she was locking lips with someone else earlier, in front of her, or some version of her. they part ways and max shows her remorse in soft looks and pitying ‘sorry’s … it’s only a ‘maybe later’ and the door is still cracked when max checks, so she tries not feeling too bad about it. by the time safi’s gone in a flurry of snow and owl wings, after max withdraws to let the ruination of the storm settle … things are still confused and clouded, though her heart is a bit clear despite the growing pains of ache. they do not work out in the end. max falters beneath the very stability she was attracted to like a ship towards light. it goes from safety to lesser, she is lesser than, not good enough, too broken and scary for someone like amanda. and max always feels that way to some degree, inferior to her lovers, her crushes, someone too tacky and untalented for the likes of people so endearing … but it’s different here, feels more true and less like an insecurity, feels believed. max, burned by the experience, by amanda’s relief that things didn’t work out, doesn’t attempt something between them again. she is hurt. almost weakly offended. knows amanda’s right but is still too sensitive, too weathered and full of loss, to do anything except bruise under such harsh verdict. her crush fades into something small and insignificant, some shameful thing she kicks under the bed and gets over with time. she still seeks friendship with amanda after, in the midst of their awkward but not quite ‘didn’t work out’ flame, although things are rather conflicted on both their ends for a while. amanda thinks they’re better off that way, and after some time ( when she’s shallowed her weight in regretful bile, has put together her own pieces a bit ) max agrees.

tldr : max has attachment issues and, while genuinely being into amanda, she almost definitely was also attempting to use her as a means of feeling stable and normal. similarly, amanda has her own unresolved issues and has a tendency to prioritize herself to an extreme that inherently blames max for things she cannot help nor control … they are extremely incompatible at this point in time despite an attempt being made, and i have many, many thoughts on the matter but this will do for now.

* this meta follows the choices of : telling safi that amanda isn’t your type, clarifying to amanda that you’d like for your hangout to be a date thing, and kissing vinh only to then reject amanda’s kiss in spin.

[arctic-hands]

I'm seeing a lot of environmentalism pushback on collecting seashells, something I have done many times since living near the oceans (however, I have long since stopped buying commercially harvested seashells because it usually results in the deaths of the animals using the shells), because we're allegedly taking too many shells off the beaches en masse for animals like hermit crabs to use.

I'm just wondering, is that solely a cause for concern for intact spiral shells? Most of my shells are clam/oyster shells, some intact (as in, the shell is intact, not that it was a whole matching clam specimen), some broken, and I only have broken spiral shells. Is it okay to take those, or do abandoned (most of them sunbleached if they ever had color) bivalve shells and broken shells still have a use for native wildlife?