#ALSO I MADE THE POST NOT THE FICTIONAL FRENCH MAN

[thatbarricadebitch]

(Post so people will hopefully stop bothering me abt my enjolras voting doodle/lh)

Guys I am aware the Enjolras would absolutely despise the current state of US politics!!! (and thus wouldn’t be stoked about voting)

I just wanted to make a lighthearted post to distract myself from a very stressful day as an American.

I am always interested in hearing people’s political discussions/interpretations when it comes to Les mis (I’m just not very eloquent on the matter myself). Just don’t be patronizing about it please!!! (It makes me sad)

Additional itty bitty Enj for morale

Stay safe guys

[blueiight]

ldpdl, ethnicity, and the false monolith of blackness

there's this false tendency to think amc louis being made black is pandering, or a means of removing louis from his oh-so-detailed /sarcasm/ background in the books. i also find that people tend to not even understand what show louis's ethnic background is, despite rolin jones the showrunner and even the fictional louis both coalescing around this multigenerational explanation of the gens de couleur in new orleans, and how jim crow disempowered them.

I came around to his ethnicity a sort of interesting way which is through Lestat. [ … ] I was like lets give him a legitimate a third attempt at figuring how to be with somebody for the rest of his life and how to not repeat your mistakes. [ … ] I started from there so it had to be someone with some money cause he had to be with his own folks and I thought he wanted someone who could fight back and who could be a challenge and would force him to restrain himself. And nobody at AMC was interested in 7 seasons of the regretful plantation owner, so we made Louis come from a lineage that did have a plantation and did own slaves.

rolin jones in the s1 post-finale episode of the podcast names how he came to this understanding of louis's character. lestat, after failing to make a bride of his mother, and a concubine of nicki, was seeking for someone of a similar background, or the most approximate equivalent. he would not have been interested in louis if louis was an anglophone baptist black man descended from upper-south arrivals into new orleans, nor would he have been interested in louis if louis was a poor black creole honestly s1 does not give a good reading of claudia's ethnic bg in new orleans, but since she cannot understand french, we can presume shes either a poor creole removed from her cultural background with her vampiric adoption narrative in mind, or was also of an anglophone baptist black background like claudia was. louis coming from this fallen sort of gentry, the free gens de couleur, similar to that of the tvl lestat who came from this barren aristocracy dating back to the crusades, was key to lestat's long-term goals with louis.

Capital accrued from plantations of sugar and the blood of men who looked like my great grandfather but did not have his standing. But then decades of Jim Crow and the electrified light of a new century had vanquished any idea of a free man of color. - AMC IWTV 1x01

louis was of the first generations of the gens de couleur to be born, raised into, and face the institutional and personal ramifications of being viewed as black in america. this fuels much of the character's rage as he moves through storyville, trying to continue the similar modality of exploitation to the contrary of pretty baby with brooke shields, majority of the brothel circuit was statistically black girls + women being sexually pawned off to white men but ultimately failing to do so bc of the anglophone white american class that now rules over him. [tom anderson, alderman fenwick, finn o’shea starting out as louis’s subordinate then ending w/ him entering whiteness by having a sporting house throwing torches at louis’s brothel in s1e3]

By 1850, the free population of color, beset by the hostility of white supremacy, was economically diminished and residentially segregated. The Americanization of Louisiana, and in particular New Orleans, was completed before the state became the sixth to secede from the Union in 1861 in the struggle over the perpetuation of slavery. [link] The Democratic redeemers who came to power in 1877 lost no time in redefining the Negro's "place" in Louisiana life. They immediately restored the color line in the New Orleans public schools and offered silent support to de facto segregation practices in places of public accommodation. With the assistance of two landmark decisions by the United States Supreme Court, the redeemers soon dismantled the egalitarian legal apparatus put together piece by piece under the Radicals. Finally in 1890 they began to write their "final solution" into Louisiana law with a series of "separate but equal" statutes. Soon New Orleans Negroes were again segregated in virtually every public pursuit. [link]

[ladamedusoif]

Tempered in the Fire (Blacksmith!Din Djarin AU) - Masterlist

With his hammer in his hand/He looked right clever… (‘The Blacksmith’, British or Irish folk song from the early nineteenth century)

Series Summary:

Ireland, almost a decade after the rebellion of 1798 was brutally suppressed. In this seemingly quiet part of the country, the people work the land and stay quiet about the recent past. You are an unusual woman in this little world: married, but living alone; a widow, with no certainty that her husband is dead. You have made your own life since he vanished into thin air, managing the smallholding you live on and making some extra money through your skills as a seamstress.

This is a time when the local blacksmith is at the heart of any rural community. One such smith is a man of few words, whose uncertain origins and dark complexion make him stand out among the locals, but whose skills with hammer and anvil have rendered him indispensable. When your local blacksmith is badly injured in an accident and unable to work, you have no choice but to travel on to this man’s forge - and are immediately intrigued by this mysterious, taciturn figure…

Pairing: Blacksmith!Din Djarin x F!Reader

Rating: Mature (series); Explicit (eventual chapters)

Content: Blacksmith!Din AU; historical setting; references to violence; references to domestic abuse; period-appropriate terminology and misogyny; anti-Travelling people discrimination; alcohol; strong language; explicit smut (eventually); technical infidelity; almost certainly incorrect depictions of blacksmithing; some slightly dodgy history (I literally took advanced seminars in this topic but come on, it’s fic); most likely some not quite correct Irish language content (again, I studied it for years so forgive me and move on).

Cross-posted to AO3.

Author’s Note: I spotted a sign at Disneyland for ‘Rose’s Forge’ and @julesonrecord and @lunapascal were immediately on the “which P boy would be a blacksmith?” train. And there’s only one answer, isn’t there? It’s Din.

This is intended as a short series of around four chapters - essentially a chance for me to scratch the blacksmith!Din itch, while also indulging in some historical fiction set in my homeland. In part, it’s inspired by the image of the blacksmith in eighteenth and nineteenth century popular culture and their role in supplying rebel weaponry in the 1798 uprising against British rule.

And it’s also inspired by the image of Din sweaty and beautiful at an anvil, because why the hell not?

The image I’ve used for the header image, by the way, is a wonderful engraving from about 1833 by the French artist Eugène Delacroix, who’s one of my absolute favourites. It’s called ‘Un Forgeron’ (A Blacksmith) and you can see it in all its glory here. (Yes, it’s hot as fuck.)

Chapter List:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

[persephoneflouwers]

Hey! I’m wondering if you have any more favourite Larry fanfics? I read every single one you’ve recommended and they’re amazing! Also highly suggest you read My Saddle’s Waiting by RealityBetterThanFiction on AO3 if you haven’t already. It’s one of a kind! Another thing I made a tumblr so I can reach you lol. Thank you for posting the fanfiction, you’re doing gods work!

Read recently(in no specific order):

Wings to break your fall (102K) by karamelised: classic, iconic, the blueprint of a genre. I read it like 10 times lmao this author is probably my favourite ever. I read everything from them. They wrote another all time favourite for me <3 anyway. This is THE stripper AU. THE Angel Harry with wings. I love love love love it’s such a cute fic omfg

It’s you or no one else (20K) by softfonds ( @softfonds , actually one of my favourite authors here): a cute little ABO fic that revolves around a qui pro quo. Omega Harry and Alpha Louis meet on a cruise while they’re pretending to be respectively Mrs Zayn Payne and a stranger, definitely not a private detective hired by Mr Liam Payne to follow his husband on a unrealistic secret love affair. Very light, very fun! TAGS: Historical fic - 1940s, Fluff, detective Louis, club singer Harry, mentions of pregnancy, false identity

Rise up like the sun (41K) by Star_Henderson ( @tommosgun ) : Louis is a doctor on his way to UCLA for an interview. Harry is an actor who Louis vaguely recognises. He attempts to take a sneaky photo, to send to his friend to help identify him but leaves the flash on. They bond over stupid mistakes, french toast and motorbike rides to the ocean.

Eyes on the horizon (12K) by yeah_alright ( @uhoh-but-yeah-alright ): This was such a fun read. This author never disappoints. I want to quote a line of the fic that got me hooked: «This frankly devastating man with a scruff-dusted face that had Harry’s thoughts drifting to impure places faster than they ever had and a bright, raspy voice that could convince the angel on his shoulder to fall in line with the devil on his other in less than a sentence.» TAGS: age difference, older Harry (he’s forty), younger Louis (he’s in his 20s), bisexual Harry, so much humor in the writing I had so much fun!

All I want for Christmas is (not) you! By unbrxokenhabits (12K): Harry and Louis kind of hate each other. Harry is definitely not happy when Louis barges in on his holiday trip with his family. TAGS: no smut, childhood friends, friends to enemies to lovers, oh there’s only one bed

Everybody wants a taste (2K) by shiptattou : this was soooo cool. TAGS: girl direction, established relationship, public sex

Let me add my two fics here, just because I can <3

Tuca Tuca (IlikeyouIlikeyouIlikeyou) by persephoneflouwers (4.9K): the San Francisco getaway AU where Harry is needy and Louis has a flight in a few hours. TAGS: canon compliant, established relationship, smut and fluff, harry dances in the kitchen and louis plays a guitar

De amore ex tempore (101K) by persephoneflouwers: the middle ages AU / Time travel AU with Philosopher Harry and Painter Louis. Feature Zayn as Maestro Verrocchio, Liam as Lorenzo de’ Medici and Niall… well Niall as a Father. TAGS: historical fiction, period related homophobia, Florence - Italy, louis has long hair at some point, horseback riding, murder attempts, philosophical talks, some sex in front of the fireplace, with almond oil as lube, under a sky full of stars in a brook.

[buttercupyellow]

wonka's city

idk man i just find it interesting knowing stuff about the setting so, some observations i made of the city in wonka (i made another post about the actual filming locations, which are mostly bath, oxford and lyme regis, but this is talking abt the fictional city).

the first visible bit of the city is this hilltop and a bigass mountain to the left.

port seems to be p green with lots of house looking buildings heading up the mountain.

big breakwater/harbour wall that curves round. city gets posher the higher up the hill u get, and that looks like a castle on the hilltop we saw earlier.

fancy old gate on the main road into town, and a load of fuck off big mountains in the back.

the port's lighthouse is at the end of the breakwater (fun fact, this doesn't exist irl).

map of the main square with all its restaurants. willy knew brandino's and la parisienne without being able to read, so supposedly their p famous (willy later poses as a waiter at Cafe Heinrich). they're also the two restaurants closest to st benedict's cathedral. theres two big arches either side of the main square, one has a clocktower bell with two statues (one banging the other on the head with a frying pan) that come out cuckoo clock style. the left arch or street seems to be called sichelbrucke (translate says this means sickle bridge?) and the street to the right says "straßenbahn haltestelle" meaning "tram stop" i think.

in the middle you've got the fountain, and opposite st benedict's is the galerie gourmet: slugworth's shop is in the top right, with fickelgruber on his left and prodnose on the right. willy's shop is bottom left corner.

irl this is on the edge of a park, so i assume it's the same for this city. a big row of columns holding up the road above it next to a river. there's a lot of rivers in this part of the city (scrubitt and bleacher's territory, and probably the poor sector of the city).

scrubitt's is right next to a river and looks mostly residential.

the galerie gourmet is just barely visible from scrubitt's.

map of the zoo that i can barely see ↑ i think the black, vaguely L shaped building on the left is where the giraffe house is?

the zoo seems to be p far away from the galerie gourmet, even further than scrubitt's.

there's also the library but that's got nothing connecting it to any other part of the city really so..

the languages also seems a bit odd as i can't place which is it's main written one? there's a lot of german (entritt, giraffenhaus, straßenbahn haltestelle, etc) and a mix of italian and french. not a lot of english despite it being based on an english book, with a 90% english cast, filmed almost exclusively in england? not a criticism, just a curiosity - where is this meant to set, if it's the same country that the very english abacus crunch lives in? my gut says england but theres so much german and the only part of england i've been to that had multiple languages was wales, and can you believe it, the other language was welsh.

my best guess is that it's a (fictional) city in northern england that has a large german speaking population.

basically its a big (northern english?) city with massive mountains behind it & a cool port & a large german population.

[indecentpause]

Super Rad! A Sheraton Academy Playlist for Ezra Yazdi

the clown buttons are from an etsy shop here! support a small creator and buy some buttons, whether from this shop or another one

Ezra hasn't been in any of my longform fiction, but they are Danny's youngest child far into the future! I love them they are hilarious and clever and bullheaded and sweet

“Garrett identifies as both a man and a woman. Sometimes one or the other, sometimes both at the same time. He identifies as genderfluid. Some people don’t identify as anything. Or both at once, none at other times. Gender is really complex, Ezra, and if you don’t feel like a boy or a girl, that’s okay! We can do some reading together and find out what term suits you best.” “Really?” Ezra was sitting up straight now, eyebrows hiked high into his hairline. His freckles crinkled in his cheeks at his wide smile. “Do you want us to call you Ezra, or do you want another name?” Akasha asked. “I like my name,” Ezra said. He fiddled with his skirt and bit his lip. “Do you want us to call you ‘he?’” He shook his head. “’She?’” He shook his head again. “They?” Ezra’s head shot up. “You can do that?” Danny laughed. “You sure can, kiddo.” “They,” Ezra whispered, trying out the word on his – their – tongue. “Where’s Ezra? They went to the park with Roxie. They can’t go out, they have homework. What’s their favorite color? Purple. Did you know they’re allergic to string beans?” “You are not allergic to string beans,” Akasha admonished. “You just don’t want to eat them.”

-from this short Sheraton Academy story (cw: accidental misgendering)

the narcissist cookbook - gendering teddy // she/her/hers - gender is boring // smash mouth - i just wanna see // mika - lollipop // kate micucci - the happy song // the aquabats! - the shark fighter! // bowling for soup - today is gonna be a great day // aurelio voltaire - raised by bats // liam lynch - happy // you suck at cooking - french fries // weird al yankovic - hardware store // kitsch club - 12 foot home depot skeleton // relient k - the pirates who don't do anything // ninja sex party - release the kraken // the offspring feat. redman - original prankster // the aquabats! - super rad! // daniel thrasher - shiny object syndrome // weird al yankovic - i love rocky road // jonas brothers - year 3000 // be your own pet - food fight! // tegan and sara & the lonely island - everything is awesome!!! // miss papaya - pink dinosaur // tainted flavor - believe in yourself // jason steele - i am a millipede // pain - jabberjaw running under water // keyes. - me want bite // don't stop or we'll die - don't wake the ghost // katrina & the waves - walking on sunshine (2004 ver) // bug hunter - a bedtime story

listen here

Ezra tag

Sheraton Academy tag

when going to the tag to link I realized my last Ezra post was also this playlist, but I wrote all this out and made a new moodboard so you get it again anyway lol

Current taglist: @abalonetea @only-book-lovers-left-alive @poore-choice-of-words @leadhelmetcosmonaut @jasperygrace

@drippingmoon @theoddcryptid @magic-is-something-we-create @winterandwords

@revenantlore @mr-orion @idreamonpaper @thelaughingstag

[bugsonthemind]

Since it's been a while, I thought I'd repost this old meme I made from reddit to tumblr. Because I think it's still funny. I also added a four new entries, just for the value add.

WHAT YOUR FAVORITE WORM SHIP SAYS ABOUT YOU

Annette x Danny - You used to be a swinger, but these days you’re totally devoted to your spouse, who can do no wrong in your eyes. You read Worm on a lark after accidentally finding it in a search for a place where you could buy garden worms. You really fell in love with it, and Danny became a point of fascination after you read the Word of God about his potential powers.

Taylor x Greg - You consider yourself a geek, generally speaking, and you enjoy writing but not sharing fanfiction. You always tell your friends that you’ve got a “gamer-fic” coming that will really “shake things up” on Spacebattles, but really it’s just a measly two paragraphs. You know a few words in a notable conlang, but you don’t have the dedication to learn a grammar other than that of English.

Taylor x Emma - You are a 20-something sapphic woman with many, many things unresolved from highschool.

Taylor x Sophia - You’ve never read Worm.

Taylor x Brian - You’re a strict canonist. You don’t buy Taylor in a sapphic ship and you never will, given the Word of God on the matter. You also really like Brian as a character, and feel more than a little disappointed that he got shafted in terms of character development.

Taylor x Lisa - You’re into astrology and you have a fairly active Instagram where you frequently post images of people who you’re attracted to - usually those that are taller and more physically capable, or somewhat frazzled and “natural” looking - with repeated heart emojis.

Taylor x Rachel - You’re an avid reader of lesbian fiction - your favorite classic is Stone Butch Blues by Feinberg - and you genuinely thought that this was the romantic direction that Worm was going when you were reading it back in 2013, just after it had finished. You are, if not a dog person, an animal person in general.

Taylor x Alec - You speak French and frequently brag about it, and you’re a little too open about your interest in BDSM, which reflects all the more poorly on your choice of ship. You still doubt that Bill Cosby actually did anything wrong.

Taylor x Dennis - You are an even stricter canonist. You eagerly await the PHO post every Sunday, and you love staying in character.

Taylor x Amy - You are either a thirty-year old straight single man or a teenaged single lesbian, with no outliers. Either way, both womanhood and cleanliness are alien to you. Clean your room. Take a shower. Make better choices next time.

Taylor x Theo - You're a bit of an off-the wall kind of person, preferring to take a third option whenever available. You think of it as being quirky. You're art school, and picked up Worm in 2016 on a recommendation from a friend on Discord.

Lisa x Faultline - You like women in positions of power, but have no interest in conventional power structures. This paradox was what initially led you to Worm, but you kinda only continued on momentum after Taylor became a Ward. You sometimes like to pretend to be a libertarian.

Rachel x Brian - You think that Taylor is a piece of shit, and that everyone in the Undersiders deserves better than her. You’re really into tomboys.

Rachel x Alec - You have a complex of sexual fetishes, mental illnesses and gender hang-ups previously only thought possible under the rare conditions found in the center of distant stars, the Large Hadron Collider or a person from Florida.

Rachel x Biter - You prefer relationships that are kept on the down-low. You don’t have any social media, really, and you think that’s for the better. You are an ardent believer that quiet is good for the soul and that you shouldn’t say anything if it won’t add anything.

Alec x Aisha - You don’t know what an age gap is, and you’ve never cared.

Sabah x Lily - You adore Sanrio - maybe a bit too much for your age. You have a thing for athletes and jocks, and you really enjoy the whole “cottagecore” trend, regardless of your orientation.

Lily x May - You like knives, and have a collection of them in your closet. Sometimes you think about paying a prostitute extra so that you get an occasion to use them outside of your kitchen. Whether it's you on them, or them on you, you don't really care; you just want to see the blood.

Aisha x Missy - You figure this must have happened at some point, right? Based off of the few lines we get about her love-life it has to be right, right? You really like Mitski, and you’re kind of disappointed in the directions that Ward went, so you’re grasping at straws for a good ship.

Lisa x Victoria - You live somewhere in the Northeast megalopolis. You hate gentrification, and you feel guilty every time you visit a Starbucks - and secretly you like DDs better anyways, but your friends always want to go to Starbucks. You’re not out as bisexual because you feel like you’d be taking up too much room in other people’s lives to jut come out to them.

Amy x Bianca - You’ve tasted so much of boot and cunt and yet you still can’t decide which you like better.

Amy x Siberian - You've engaged with this as part of your general coquettecore, editing-images-of-Hello-Kitty-to-add-gore, hazy images of midwestern American homes and hotels with old decor or no furniture at all, traumacore, Nicole Dollanganger and Lingua Ignota styled online presence. How serious you are about all this is unclear, but you're really into the whole eating fingers thing.

Victoria x Bianca - You think you're really onto something with this. You're working in a new and innovative field of clone-fucking: fucking a woman who is your narrative foil and designed to resemble you in every fashion not by anything in universe but by the author.

Amy x Dean - You seriously thought this was how it was going to go down until Dean died, and that that was her secret. It’s been stuck in the back of your mind as ever since.

Amy x Lisa - You’re a strong believer in picking up a replacement goldfish whenever you exit a relationship.

Carol x Mark - You’re older than the average Worm fan, and severely depressed, but find solace in reading and perhaps a singular hobby. You’ve slowly been releasing a fic that you work on in your free time over the course of the last couple of years. It doesn’t get much attention but the little attention it does get feels all the sweeter.

Carol x Neil - You’ve had a pregnancy scare once or twice with your current partner, who is cheating on their spouse with you. You get why people don’t like cheaters, sure, but at the same time you find little space in your heart to blame them. That’s how you justify it.

Victoria x Dean - You wanted to marry your highschool prom date, and maybe you did. Your favorite show is Brooklyn 99.

Victoria x Ashley - You’re probably gay. You *used* to like Ward, and you were rooting for this ship for the entire run. You really didn’t like the ending but now you’re into Pale, which is a lot better for you, but still frustrating in many ways. You, also, hate Starbucks, and avoid them at all costs, instead opting for smaller, local coffee shops.

Victoria x Sveta - The line between friend and lover is tenuously thin for you, and you worry sometimes about that. In general, you are a very nervous person; when the world gets to be too much for you, you jump into learning a new skill or hobby instead of facing it head on. You’re currently trying to learn Swahili.

Victoria x Fragile One - You enjoy xenofiction and romance. You’re a stickler for canon, and enjoy having a solid knowledge of franchises so that you can help people when they ask for clarification on a part of a work. Secretly, you also enjoy writing smut.

Victoria x Etna - I know it’s you, Marco. Keep up the good work.

Victoria x Ethan - You’re interested in self-improvement. You listen to audiobooks on philosophy while exercising, then relisten once you’re less distracted. You always go down first.

Victoria x Moose - You pretend you're unironically into the whole "women/men who can beat the shit out of you" thing, but deep down you want somebody to bridal carry you. You just don't have the ability to be that vulnerable, so instead you pretend it's a manifestation of hyperviolent sexuality.

Sveta x Weld - You were really sad that they didn’t work out. You think Weld is kind of a pussy and should have stuck it through.

Byron x Missy - Whenever you see a couple in public, you get a little giddy feeling in your chest. You’re not even sure why you like it so much, or why you like this ship, besides the fact that it feels right. Your own love-life, on the other hand, is a mess worthy of its own story.

Byron x Moonsong - You’re homophobic, but you don’t want to be, and so you sympathize.

Byron x Furcate - You’re sweet. You really want the best for people and your goal in life is to do the best for people. You’re very vocal about trans rights, and you probably have at least one trans flag somewhere in your socials, even if you aren’t trans yourself.

Tristan x Venarum - You read Siken. You feel really, really tired of the way gay men are depicted in media, even with mainstream acceptance. You were really hoping this one would be different.

Tristan x Rain - You’re from down South. You’re a quiet type, too, and you keep to yourself when you can. Your favorite book is a well-worn copy of The Picture of Dorian Grey that one of your uncles sent you, before you even had it figured out. You got into Worm because of the powers, but by the end you were really in it for the characters.

Rain x Chastity - You listen to Cult of Dionysus by The Orion Experience on repeat, but when you’re working you prefer to listen to the soundtrack for Hotline Miami. You find a special joy in wordplay, puns and innuendo. You tried a lot of drugs in highschool, but they weren’t for you.

Kenzie x Candy - You never did get over that crush in middle school, did you?

Kenzie x Chris - You’re weird, and I don’t like you. Never go near children.

Darlene x Aiden - You’re an odd duck; you’re fascinated by how children develop senses of love and affection in imitation of adults. You may be a child psychologist, or a rather overbearing parent.

Dragon x Colin - You’re a straight white man from Central Canada who writes web serials for a living.

Assault x Battery - You really, really like enemies-to-lovers fics. You think that Worm should have had more romances like AxB and you’re absolutely wrong.

Miss Militia x Battery - You fantasize of seducing your neighbor away from her husband. She just seems so sad all the time.

Miss Milita x Chevalier - You’ve played through every Metal Gear Solid game, including Revengeance, and liked all of them, but your friends say you didn’t really understand them. You strongly believe in the case for Kurdish independence, but you also really like cops and you’re very pro-American interventionism.

Bakuda x Lung - When you’re not listening to true crime podcasts, you’re listening to Joe Rogan. You’ve experimented many times with a variety of uppers, downers, and hallucinogens. Weapons also fascinate you, so you regularly check in on Forgotten Weapons for a spell to admire their mechanics. Secretly, you think that the Unabomber was transgender, and the MKULTRA conditioning she was subjected to cheated her of a safe transition.

Leet x Uber: You've made some... less than appropriate fanfiction about lets players. Let's all be glad that you've found a new outlet.

Squealer x Skidmark - You consider yourself a party person, but the only reason you’re invited to parties is because you’re the hookup. You hate to admit you like web serials because you think it makes you look less tough.

Sidepiece x Disjoint - You've made small, voyeuristic and mean-spirited thrill-seeking into a full-time job; you regularly visit LiveLeak to get your kicks, and normal porn has started to bore you. Sometimes you make burner accounts online just to make inflammatory comments on your friend's social media. You think that it's a pretty funny prank.

Prancer x Moose x Velvet - You stand by the slogan “Be gay, do crimes,” perhaps a bit too much. You didn't like the Titan arc. You either live in the Pacific Northwest or want to.

Kaiser x Purity - You don’t get why people are so upset about the Proud Boys. They’re just keeping the suburbs safe. You regularly write E88-centric fics.

Night x Fog - You are, beneath everything, rotten - and it gratifies you to finally see someone so much like you on the page. It makes you feel normal.

Shamrock x Gregor - You're not so much a monsterfucker as a monsterlover. Your favorite show used to be Supernatural until you picked up Hannibal. You think Void from Berserk is actually kinda sexy.

Eden x Zion - You listen to Tool.

Eden x Abaddon - As above, but you also have a cuckolding fetish.

Apollyon x Eden x Zion - You’re into hard vore.

Shatterbird x Jack Slash - You’re an artist in a field that requires precision - portrait painting, weaving, diplomacy, or clinical psychology. You have a keen sense of smell, and enjoy fine dining when you can. You find Shatterbird’s hidden want for Jack cute - and you identify yourself with the latter, even if his murders are rather gauche.

Siberian x Jack Slash - You unironically find the words “mommy milkers” arousing and you regularly browse /r/guro.

Crawler x Siberian - You are a masochist because you believe yourself to be a monster. Nothing else can be read from this.

Contessa x Eidolon - You pay exorbitant sums to well-endowed Twitch streamers.

Contessa x Alexandria - You’re a well-put-together, organized person and you want someone in your life who matches that, something you live vicariously through this ship.

Accord x Citrine - You’ve like odd couples, especially those where one is a lot more odd than the other. Where you fall in that equation is 50/50. Your first celebrity crush was on Angelica Huston, 1991, in The Addams Family.

Number Man x Citrine - You’re a corporate climber who read Worm after reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which you read because you thought getting into fanfiction would be a quaint, quirky idea. You frequently theorize about power synergies on Spacebattles during your allotted ten minute coffee break.

Contessa x Number Man - You’re just curious as to what mathematically perfect sex would look like. Would they use toys? Bondage? Could they just-

[ekebolou]

ok, look, I didn't want to do this, but I'm going to watch the Interview with the Vampire show because I keep reading and seeing things of Louis that makes it seem like they have somehow made him less of a sad wet cat while keeping his sad wet cat pathos and I am intrigued. It's been a loooooooooooooong time since I had anything to do with Anne Rice's work so this is a real 'oh my god please don't make me re-read the books' thing. I imagine the tone of this post is very aggrieved and I want you to know that it is aggrieved (affectionate(you losers, also affectionate, for I am loser and this takes me back to my golden age of loserdom))

please don't get me involved in this fandom, I don't want to be involved, once was enough thanks, I'm just here for for the frisson of adaptation

Additional thoughts of no import and probably disproportionate hostility below the cut

So much of what I understand to be Louis' problem (of many, he has many problems) is that his attitude is so quintessentially Romantic (fuckin' Young Wether motherfucker), it is what makes him work for me as a narrator, so I'm really eager to see what they've done with that with all the changed context.

Lestat is a bitch. And he's the kind of bitch that can string you a long such you think he's really smart until some straight himbo dumbassery happens and you realize you've been done over by needy asshole Kronk and not Hannibal Lecter and you should be ashamed Louis. Cats are supposed to be smart, even sad wet ones. He's just 30-50 feral hogs in French ruffles, all of you should be shot. Claudia knows it. Claudia is Hannibal. only, like... moderately more sane. or not.

And I've seen they've done Armand, which is interesting, too. The fact that Lestat dunks on Armand, and that Armand hitches his wagon to Louis, makes him possibly the dumbest motherfucker in this entire fictional universe but honestly dude had it hard and I wasn't ready for his book and like...... just make better choices man. You're like that friend who keeps joining cults and eventually tries meth 'just once' because someone you don't even like had it at a party and recommended it. It makes sense but jesus. If only you were mortal you could've died on a skidoo or been taken out in a tragic four-wheeler accident at a tragically-young-but-at-least-the-meth-didn't-get-him-first age, as god intended.

[strawberrynightmere]

I have made this post simply to vent about three characters from Philomel the Fake / There is no place for the fake princess.

Warnings include: an ungodly amount of complaining, child abuse, the effects it has, and spoilers for the manhwa/novel (but I'll try to be as vague as possible, or you could do the sensiblething and not read this post if you don't wanna get spoiled) and so much swearing that it would make Vivian Medrano say "tone it down" (hyperbole, also a lot of that too).

How can one hate fictional characters to the point of just wanting to punch them in the face whenever one sees them? Now, there were a few instances where I was like, "Yeah, understandable," but that was only one character pre fandome, but three? In one fandom? (Technically more, but most are unimportant to me as they get what's coming to them), and all three of them are the protagonists' parents?

Now, let's start with the least worse because this one is tame compared to the other two.

French Gumm Wizard. You pulled the short end of the stick in the Manhwa Shitty Naming Poll (tm), and I pity you, but only a little beraly existent bit. The sole reason for you having 4 different fucking kids with 4 different fucking women (in the most biblical possible way) just for the purpose of a god fucking dammed experiment is mind-boggling to me and the fact that you forgot about the fourth child because once that pregnant woman was out of sight she was also out of mind for you.

Now, anyone who knows his character knows he's a fucking phycopath, and this is not a hyperbole, he genuinely is a phycopath.

He is a terrible parent because of the 3 kids he was aware of existed think of him as an anoying-ass colleague who, if they saw walking their direction, they would immediately teleport to their ass to the othe side of the rode just not to be in his close vicinity. And if they had the power, they would choke him to death, but murder is illegal, and they would be the prime suspects.

The moment you met the daughter you forgot about, you asked if she needed money? Like, alright, it's not like there were people coming to you for that, but for fuck sake, that's a fifteen-year-old that ran away from the imperial castle, she might've stole something from there so she could be well off.

But good for you for feeling bad for the first time in your fucked up life and trying to atone to her, and wanting her to move in the tower with you and the sons even though she didn't have magic. However, you need to draw a line somewhere when it comes to murder. It's one thing to kill someone who planned to harm/kill Philomel, but it's another thing wanting to kill someone who Philomel has been on good terms with.

Now, this bastard, the reason Philomel had to mask her personality during her childhood, that the mask ended up being a part of her in her teenage years. Eustis, it's the name of a terrible man who abuses a dog with anxiety, and the only reason he's married is because his wife pitied him (ifykyk).

There is a lot to unbox about his character, but none of that can excuse what a burning pile of trash he was to Philomel.

Oh, he was just a child when his half siblings wanted to kill him for a decorative piece of metal that indicates that you're a monarch of a country.

That doesn't excuse the way he treated his assumed daughter.

Oh, but he was sad his wife died. Besides, Philomel didn't look like either of them.

But did she deserve the kind of treatment since she was a newborn? And did anyone hear of recessive genes? Oh, right, this is a fucking fictional world so recessive genes are a non existent thing.

But what about the things he did for Philomel?

Philomel doesn't remember the limited times that he wasn't a gaping asshole to her, and she has a photographic memory or used to have because when she discovered that he fait was gonna be at the guillotine was the moment she realized nobody actually cared about her or even loved her for who she was.

But Philomel committed crimes!

Look at this child!

Look at this nine-year-old who just discovered her own future just because of a baby swap that she was not guilty of. And tell me that she deserved it! Tell me that she deserved getting punished just because she was being a child!

Eustis knew she was at the door of his office when he said he wanted her to be quiet like a dead rat! And yet he was surprised when those exact words came to bite him in the ass at full force?

That burning pile of shit did not deserve Philomel, nor does he deserve his biological daughter. If the baby swap never happened, I doubt he would've ever been a good father to her.

And now for the scum who started all of this.

This delusional ass bitch that would make me advocate against women's wrongs!

You're gonna tell me that the reason for not only Philomel's abuse but also Elencia's is because this nutbag has a thing for men with dark hair?

This crazy-ass cunt that agreed with the experiment that Le Gummdrop was doing, ran away from the mage tower, heeding the safety warning and going to the empress who she worked under in her youth and was on friendly terms with, only to swap the babies when the empress died due to childbirth and booked out of the empire right into the woods because she was attacked to the emperor?

Now, she might've felt guilty for it, but that didn't stop her from throwing things near Elencia, almost hitting the girl and screaming at her. Believe it or not, that's abuse.

And yet this mentally unwell trash had the nerve to yell at Philome to leave them alone because she loved Elencia like an actual daughter.

This pure girl!

This pure soul that she kidnapped and abused. This child who cleaned up after this grown ass woman's temper tantrums.

All because she was physically attracted to her father.

I don't care what shitty excuse someone could pull out of their ass to defend her. It won't excuse the crimes she has committed.

No amount of garbage manhwa parents would ever top these three for me.

[taldigi]

So I was rereading some of your old posts about the miraculous setting, and it made me wonder something. How interesting do you think it would have been if Ladybug Classic took place in a fictional city instead of Paris?

I would have liked them to actually have used Paris to its full potential. It would have been ideal.

The show runners are completely obsessed with cartoons and superhero media but It feels like they forgot that one of the most important characters in those pieces of media tend to be the cities! Gotham is a huge character of its own, so is metropolis and Spider-Man's New York. Hell, look at Miles Morales' New York.. a big part of those characters is their ugly side. Sometimes the setting is what makes the character shine the most. Sure Batman is cool right? But outside of Gotham City he definitely feels odd. (Coming from someone who only watched some cartoons when she was a kid and only experience with Batman is through the Justice League cartoon)

Ladybug's Paris is.. weird. It's like a shiny doll house version of Paris where everything is beautiful and the streets are clean and there's no crime so the police can be incompetent and they send their trash into space... But they still can have their little episodes where they pull in the entire police force to fight a single akuma based on the fact that it's a Chinese person rather than all the other akuma that were not. It's also weirdly futuristic. And I don't think I like that. That is a huge personal point but I think series based around ancient magical fairies trapped in magical artifacts probably shouldn't have a futuristic tint to it. Just make them superheroes with super suits instead of fairies with magic. Just go iron Man on them. That contrast might be interesting to some but it's incredibly frustrating to me as to why when fairies eat ancient potions suddenly again the ability to wear space suits. Even the characters having a weird hex overlay is way sci-fi for the setting. It's frustrating and I hate it. I know they wanted to give the suits a sort of texture but...

It's like solar punk done wrong. Or like eco.. vaugeism... There's a word for it, but it's not solar punk. Solar punk would be interesting. It's trying to be eco forward, but it's not doing well because it's not actually doing anything worth saying. And then again I haven't seen the recent episodes because I refuse to watch it. Though I hear the last episode has some pretty fucking weird decisions in terms of setting like how different characters in different grades can now intermingle and go to the same classes or whatever. I can't be asked to look it up.

They also never explore any other part of France. Which I think is odd. They want this to be a uniquely French story but they only really feel like expanding out into big major cities. Honestly them expanding out to New York and introducing their own Justice League or Shanghai or even dystopia France just kind of shows that they're all playing in baby mode.

Honestly what they should have done and what they probably would have been happier with is if they had just gone ahead and made it their own original city sort of like how Gotham is original and made it this funky futuristic eco city that they seem to have always wanted and they could have just made it really Chinese because that's clearly what they want to do with all of the kung fu and Chinese mysticism they're forcing into the show.

Something something in the daytime my name is Marinette but when the sun goes down I become ladybug and I watch over Miracle City. Something something. They could have even had like big art centers to do their history episodes in or have like a giant statue or a giant tower be sort of their big monument.. anything that makes the show uniquely French is interchangeable. There's nothing so intricately French about the show that It would ruin or severely damage the show if it changed settings.

As for ladybug classic... It's a chance to do Paris right I guess. I wouldn't change the setting. If I wanted to change the setting I would just play with my faewild characters instead..

[culttvblog]

Denis Shaw Season: The Invisible Man - Man in Disguise

I am delighted that this exercise in writing blog posts about an actor has brought several series that are new to me to my attention. The first of these is The Invisible Man (1958 to 1959), which I think I might actually have seen an odd episode of a long time ago but have enjoyed watching this odd episode because it has a role for Denis Shaw.

The premise of the show is of course borrowed from the HG Wells novel of the same title, however nothing else if taken from the novel at all. The protagonist - Peter Brady - is a scientist whose experiment into invisibility goes horribly wrong and makes him invisible instead of the rat he is trying to experiment on. In the TV series ultimately his invisiblity becomes publicly known and he ends up working with the authorities, using his advantage over everyone else. He does not go insane or die a miserable death, which is pretty much what you would expect from this situation. In fact I suspect that what would have put me off this series when I have seen it previously is the huge problem that it is impossible to make a human invisible. It is therefore completely science fiction but presented as if it is something that could really happen. As you can tell this is not an idea which appeals to me personally but I haven't been repelled by it this time.

The premise also gives the show licence to play with the special effects in a big way, which I suppose would have been an attraction for the show then and afterwards. For example we see cigarettes being smoked hanging in the air. The show had ongoing problems with depicting Brady driving a car or motorbike, which was of course done by having a stunt man drive the vehicle while crouching low out of view of the camera. Members of the public who saw this would of course think it was a runaway vehicle and respond accordingly.

I see the show was made by our old friends ITC who are no strangers to eccentric television, and I'm particularly taken with their gimmick of not crediting the actor who actually played Dr Brady, other than to put in the titles that the Invisible Man played himself. This has left a legacy where it isn't clear who played him in which episode and apparently he was played by different actors and voiced by another actor again.

Man in Disguise is a series 2 episode with a fairly straightforward drug plot. Dr Brady in his role as aide to the authorities is investigating a drug smuggling ring. A member of the ring pretends to be Brady (by bandaging up with dark glasses) to smuggle drugs into the country. A lot of the action is set around a night club where salt is peddled pretending to be cocaine, and Dr Brady sets out to bust the smuggling ring.

A lot of the show is very classic ITC. We have the French milieu of the beginning of the episode, which at the time was probably intended to suggest both continental sophistication and dodgy foreigners to its British audience. Then of course we have a presage of the classic 1960s televisual warnings about what happens when science goes wrong, in the shape of Brady's temerity in experimenting with invisibility and its effects on him. We have the slightly sleazy nightclub, and in fact I really enjoyed this episode.

Denis Shaw's role is of course as the manager of the nightclub. It's another perfect role as a dodgy man for him, and in fact in this role you can see how he could have obtained his name as 'the rudest man in London' and managed to get banned from every pub in Soho (quite an achievement). You get the impression that he's not even really acting but just uttering the lines resentfully, and honestly it's absolutely perfect for him.

I don't have any real criticism of this episode, although I see online that while it is widely loved there is some criticism that of course the contemporary special effects can tend to creak like an old gate. I think a certain inconsistency in plot and in the actual effects of the invisiblity has also been identified.

An excellent, enjoyable episode, which gives a perfect platform to Denis Shaw.

This blog is mirrored at

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Archives from 2013 to September 2023 may be found at culttvblog.blogspot.com and there is an index to the tags used on the Tumblr version at https://www.tumblr.com/culttvblog/729194158177370112/this-blog

[milfglupshitto]

started reading the king in yellow, this post will serve as a record of my thoughts in their original progression.

The Repairer of Reputations:

NEW JERSEY MENTION!!!

rest below the cut I just wanted the world to see that this was my actual first thought

keep having to remind myself that this was written about a possible future not a fake past

finally getting into the story part side note I kind of hate my edition’s footnotes so far

guy who’s read infinite jest voice wow this is sort of like what happened in infinite jest

some of the prose choices here are incredible. like “my cane shivered to splinters” that’s so good

knew we were doing unreliable narrator stuff here but oh shit

oh goddamn. is anyone else seeing this shit

The Mask:

the excerpt at the beginning was in the show I’m almost certain of it (it’s been 16 months I won’t bet my life on it but I’m pretty sure)

this one fucked like hell excited to maybe get more pieces of the story later

In the Court of the Dragon:

“he was a slender man, and his face was as white as his coat was black” robbie my boy you are a prophet

liked this one a lot also. right amount of length and deliberation, great ending

The Yellow Sign:

this one is fun so far I wonder if this is where the name tess is from

seeing the phrase “what’s up” in a book from 1895 is jarring

fuck Macy’s really is that old isn’t it

strong characterization of the narrator, the voice is so clear I can almost hear it

the reading scene. sickening. sick sick sick

The Demoiselle D’ys:

put the phrase ‘“Like a woman,” I said stupidly” on my grave

why are we only translating some of the French

ok not sure how that one connects but excited to find out soon

The Prophets’ Paradise:

not sure what to make of this part yet. loved the repetition it seemed fairly modern to me. think I need to read this guy’s poetry now

The Streets of the Four Winds:

yep also confused by this one but clearly cats have been a genre staple since the beginning

The Street of the First Shell:

why is this section so difficult to parse I hate French people

I’ve never really read war fiction before but those scenes were poignant. holy shit this guy’s good

The Street of Our Lady of the Fields:

I’m gonna be honest I’m so fucking lost right now why are we still in france

where the fuck are we going!!!!

love a good train though

Rue Barrée:

IM BACK IN THE FUCKING BUILDING (FRANCE) AGAIN

ok with that done I can see why he made bank with romantic fiction later on in life

[sednonamoris]

fran's 2023 read it and weep 🫵

a comprehensive list of everything i read this year and why you should (or shouldn't) read it as well...

how to read literature like a professor by thomas c. foster

i picked this back up again when i took on a teaching job as a refresh - it was my fourth or fifth reread and as always my main man thomas c. did not disappoint!! not joking when i say i quote this thing on the reg: it's a symbol if you think it is became a permanent fixture in my vernacular ages ago. this book aligns perfectly with my yes the curtains are blue on purpose agenda and serves as an excellent foray into deep/active reading, which i am constantly preaching about to my kids. fun and fresh literary analysis, just the way it should be!

tiny beautiful things by cheryl strayed

gritty, witty, and full of heart. this advice column-turned-book is shocking but so very human, and it got me out of a months-long reading slump.

bridge of clay by markus zusak

yes, a boy named clay builds a bridge, but it’s sooooo much more than that. this book weaves the past and present together in a beautiful way and really brings meaning to the concept of haunting the narrative. the descriptions are vivid and lived-in which makes the setting - 1980’s australia - entirely accessible, even to a foreign homebody like me. the family dynamics at play are outrageous and charming and the whole thing is gorgeously written and it made me cry. read it right now.

the hunchback of notre dame by victor hugo

i LOVED this book but unless you are just as obsessed with the story as me, this is not a rec. victor hugo anything is more of a warning or an i-read-it-so-you-didn't-have-to. did i learn more than i ever wanted to about french gothic architecture and the paris catacombs? yes. was i still utterly enthralled by the layers upon layers of tragedy woven together? also yes. it was so neat to see the (obviously many and major) differences from the children's movie and musical that i grew up loving. so many good quotes for my commonplace book in this one.

song of solomon by toni morrison

i had read just about every toni morrison book except this one, and since this is like theee book i figured it was high time i rectified that. to no one's surprise, i loved it. a brilliantly written coming of age novel with family history and family mythology in dialogue with cultural history and cultural mythology. who are we but the stories we tell ourselves? is common history alone enough to have in common? morrison is an author who poses difficult questions and lets her readers grapple with difficult answers and i always come away from her work feeling exhilarated. if you let me influence you in anything let it be this - whatever book of hers you choose, Everyone should read toni morrison and experience her brilliance firsthand.

the first law trilogy by joe abercrombie (the blade itself, before they are hanged, and last argument of kings, respectively)

gritty political fantasy with the most lovable evil bastards of characters you ever met - it's safe to say i'm obsessed. each and every character has themes and lines of repetition that carry through the series, but they're Anything but one-note. this trilogy is all about cycles, and what i love is that everything - literally everything - comes full circle while still feeling fresh and true to both the story and its characters. also logen ninefingers is my wife now.

the pale blue eye by louis bayard

i watched this movie first on netflix and had a great time, but to no one's surprise i'm going to tell you that the book is better. the character voices are strong and enjoyable - the kinds of personalities that keep you turning pages - and the mystery itself is full of wonderful twists and turns. it's in dialogue with sir arthur conan doyle, as all post-holmes detective fiction is, but does not feel shadowed by or beholden to it. the historical fiction aspect is fun as well!

[raitrolling]

Cursed Drabble meta post because i cant help myself sometimes

while i dont think i nailed the vibe for the tumblr reader x celebrity self-insert fan fiction (mainly because i just Could not get through a single fic without dying of cringe. im sorry i do not vibe with this genre in the slightest for reasons that are probably evident in how i wrote that fic) and its probably more wattpad / quotev fanfic tier, i think i did pull off the standard tropes for those sorts of fics

like how the self-insert is supposed to be a blank slate for anyone to, well. self-insert into, but they're always very obviously written to be (cis) women. and the author can't decide if they want their self-insert to be meek and easily smitten, or sassy and genre-aware, as well as simultaneously living the fantasy of having a glamorous lifestyle that people would be jealous of, but she's also totally just an ordinary girl you guys. see, she's got average looks!

and also the combination of fulfilling the fantasy of 'what if my dream man saved me from a scary situation like gross dudes hitting on me', and the fact that the love interest is... often not written that much better than the bad guys lmao. the 'i saw you from across the room and immediately fell in love and wanted to protect you because you are so beautiful' seems to be popular in self-insert fics from what i skimmed through, but a lot of the time the dudes always come across as creepy to me. but in this fic sharle is using french terms of endearment so clearly he is sexy and romantic and not also a weird sleaze, duh

i died the most writing every single piece of sharle's dialogue but also the descriptions talking about how hot he is, btw. the line about the reader imagining his hands choking someone and them smelling his intoxicating scent in his bedsheets both made me want to hurl LMFAO props to people who can write that shit, id rather swan dive off a cliff thanks (tho the hand focus is also due to me listening to that read-through of the foxhole court and the video essayist mentioning how often the characters in that story grabbed each other by the chin. i was just like 'ok yeah i need more hand stuff in this people eat that shit up')

the warnings at the start are there solely because when i was scrolling through the tumblr tags for reader self-inserts i saw quite a few that warned for swearing which i thought was funny since like. this is a 13+ website. you can say the fuck word here and not get in trouble. apart from the cringy dialogue i wouldnt say anything in the fic actually merits a warning, but i felt like i needed to add the other stuff to keep it true to the formatting style that is common for tumblr self-insert fic

the bit with ropikk at the end definitely breaks the illusion and probably turns the fic into some 'lol well that just happened' marvel '''humour''', but tbh i just wanted to include a 'he would not fucking say that' joke and needed to write a palate cleanse LMAO you can pretend that last paragraph doesn't exist if you dont like the immersion-breaking

anyways uh. this was a lot of words i wrote to explain my stupid drabble i wrote as a joke and because people voted for something cursed. you can't say i half-ass anything lmao

[sirensoftheweb]

Do Robots Deserve Rights?

By: Hydra 🐍

I want to start this post by firmly stating: I AM NOT SCARED OF ROBOTS!! Except maybe that AI Robot named Sophia… I am just simply unsettled. Maybe it is because I enjoy immersing myself into a good science fiction book, movie, or video game? For example, my favourite solo player video game is Detroit Become Human. The game follows three different androids, all in which have different jobs but act as a type of servant for an owner. Throughout the game you are faced with prejudice, which ultimately leads you to have to choose between breaking the programming and becoming a deviant (gaining a consciousness of one’s own), or continuing to live as a slave to an other.

If roboticist Alan Winfield is correct with his statement: “Real robotics is a science born out of fiction,” (2011, 32) how are we to assume that robots gaining consciousness will not be a relevant topic in the near future? I mean we have a A LOT of fictional media existing around the idea of such topic (M3gan, Black Mirror, I Am Mother). In my opinion, scientist should be more focused on creating the flying cars from Back to the Future instead of frenzying over the next trendy artificial intelligence. Imagine never having to worry about sitting in rush hour traffic EVER AGAIN.

I realize the whole idea that “robots will take over the world one day” may seem comical to some, but If you really think about it, this notion is already in motion (hehehe that one made me feel like a white dad). The man of the moment himself, David J. Gunkel says, “Despite what is imaginatively foretold in fiction, the robot invasion is not coming from the future. The robots are already here. Like the “barbarians” that were said to have invaded Rome, we have already invited the robots into our places of work, into our homes, and into our lives. They are already all around us, even if we often do not see or identify them as such” (Gunkel 7).

I will assume you are human if you are reading this, and therefore I will also assume you have been inside a grocery store (considering you must consume food to survive). Well this being said, have you noticed the progression of self checkouts becoming more and more frequent? It’s so simple to go in and scan all your items, letting the machine do the brunt of the work for you. Or maybe you are a little more bougie and have experienced the cat robots of sushi places that act as a substitute for servers… IS THIS NOT AN EXAMPLE OF ROBOTS ALREADY BEING HERE AND RELEVANTLY USED?? That was a rhetorical question because OF COURSE IT IS. Even in the comfort of our own home we rely on robotic devices like Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ or Apple’s ‘Siri’ to turn on/off lights, answer questions, set alarms, etc.

So how did we get here? If we think about famous french philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s essay “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” Deleuze argues, “This technological evolution must be, even more profoundly, a mutation of capitalism […]” (Deleuze 4). This would make sense given the examples above, because these robotic machines tend to replace human jobs and duties. Robots don’t require a paycheck like people do. Therefore, the capitalist win once again. Human Kind: 0, Capitalism: 1,000,000,000.

Since it is evident we are living in a time that depends heavily on robots and technology for everyday use, I would like to bring up another question raised in Gunkel’s book: “Can and should robots have rights?” This question really perplexed me. At first, my obvious answer was ‘no.’ Robots are already taking away jobs from people who actually need to make money in order to survive. How can a machine need rights equal to those of humans? They do not have consciousness and souls (as far as I know)! That question’s ridiculous right? But then I think back to my favourite video game and how gut wrenching it felt having to play as an android with no rights or freedom of speech. I feel a little more tempted to say yes to Gunkel’s question after that, but I just don’t have it in me to place technology over living, breathing, flesh.

Should we be more empathetic and moralistic towards technological beings such as robots? Or is it more important to value our own human rights, especially considering that is a questionable topic in it’s own?

[megkuna]

(ask inspired by that post about no one sending asks nowadays) what are some of your favorite nonfiction books? also pls tell your puppy he is adorable for me

thank u for this, west!!! 🥺 i have so many but here's a few:

speak, memory by vladimir nabokov — does this even count as nonfiction? it is autobiography but sometimes it feels so much like fiction. anyway, absolutely one of my favourite books, beautiful prose, made seeing the butterfly collection at the nabokov museum much more meaningful!!

the house of government by yuri slezkine — a history book but like if it was a tolstoy novel. what could possibly go wrong (many things) but it's just an excellent read. the crux of the argument, that the bolsheviks were a millenarian sect, is so compelling and i think about it all the time even after graduating lol. definitely changed a lot re: how i think of religion and secularism

the furies: violence and terror in the french and russian revolution by arno j. mayer — another one of those books that makes u question how analytically sound it is, but provides a thought-provoking framework for thinking about revolution (and the less often addressed force of "counter-revolution") & political violence

ghosts of my life by mark fisher — i don't know what there is to say about this lol. i read it during spring 2021, when the pandemic wasn't quite over and i still wasn't sure what i was going to do w my life after graduation. it put a lot of things that i had been feeling re: art, media, just my general sense of the (im)possible future into words

the last utopia by samuel moyn — similar to the above actually but within the realm of political frameworks/ideologies. i don't think i've used any work more than this one in my own (academic) writing). the general gist of it is re: the way that the desire for political utopias (e.g. communism) turned into a desire for moral utopias (namely, human rights in the western/US-centric sense of them)

the elusive republic: political economy in jeffersonian america by drew mccoy — i have a strange fondness for this one because tbh it was the first book that made me interested in a) US history b) political economy overall. before this i didn't understand what republicanism was at all, tbh

ludwig wittgenstein: the duty of genius by ray monk — intensely well researched biography of an interesting man and the only way i will ever understand anything wittgenstein ever wrote. so. thank u mr monk

financial missionaries to the world: the politics and culture of dollar diplomacy by emily rosenberg — similar to the mccoy book, one of the first books that made me interested in political economy and US history. also actually addresses gender & media, which makes it doubly interesting because hmm. gender has historically not been addressed very often in studies of economic history or political economy lol. not a lot of women writing in this field to begin with unfortunately. anyway, it's about international lending as a form of imperialism, to be very very general

designing dead souls: an anatomy of disorder in gogol by susanne fusso — just such a cool book tbh. i don't know of any other authors writing about 19th c russian literature from this lens (then again i don't read a lot of complit monographs), v much focused on themes of sexuality, death, gender, aesthetics, etc. not just in this book but in her other ones, too

& pls ..... i gave him a tiny little forehead kiss on ur behalf<33