#I WANT SOMETHING MUCH DEEPER AND MORE INTERESTING. WITH POTENTIAL GAY SEX ATTACHED

[anachronistic-falsehood]

GOD i wish i just had like. a friend with benefits i could fuck just for fun. i dont want romance i dont want any kind of connection that they could mistake for romance i just want someone i could trust with my life, have sex with, and like go to fucking tim hortons with after IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!!!!!

[takaraphoenix]

I’m finally reading Out of Oz, or rather I am continuing it. For referrence, that’s the fourth book in the Wicked Years, of which the first book inspired a quite unrelated musical somehow. (No knock on the musical, I love it, but bloody hell does it have little to do with the actual book...)

I hadn’t touched it in... surely five years. For reasons.

You all know me to not be someone who necessarily needs, or even wants, her ships to be canon. But on the rare occasion that I do sail a canon ship, I so hate when something happens to it. Like, say, it gets broken up so one of the characters can get married to his rapist. That just... doesn’t really do it for me...

For context - because guys, I really need to vent about this so I can keep going (it’s literally the last book and I want to finish it) - Elphaba Thropp, our green-skinned protagonist of the first book/the musical, has, among many things the musical changed, a son named Liir.

Liir Thropp is the protagonist of the second novel in the series, The Son of the Witch. Wherein he falls for a dragon-rider named Trism and the two, both men in the army, have a heated romance.

While Liir is hurt, he stays with a bunch of nuns where he meets a girl named Candle. And while Liir is literally in a coma, she decides to have sex with him, figuring “eh, he’s hard, he wants it too”, which is not how that works. She ends up pregnant with his child. It’s wildly plausible that she was driven by some mystic magical force to allow for the conception of our latest protagonist, but that’s kind of beside the point because he still was in a coma.

The end of the book is relatively open, as Liir goes to a cottage to meet Candle, but only finds the bundled up, newborn and very green-skinned baby. Candle fled the scene, abandoning the newborn baby.

That’s been in 2005. And between that and Out of Oz in 2011, I spent quite some time thinking on the potential continuation of it all.

Thinking about Trism, who makes it to the cottage and who gets to raise the baby with Liir, primarily. Because honestly, you already made the bio mom abandon the baby, so why not let Liir and the boyfriend he chose to be with raise the kid together? Just leave Candle out of the picture.

And, quite frankly, two dads is by far not the most unconventional family dynamic in this series. There is... not a single set of mother-father-child, not really.

Elphaba herself was, in the first book, raised by a polyamorous throuple, with two fathers.

Liir himself was, also in the first book, primarily raised by his mother and his stepmother - the wife of his bio dad, who does actually in fact die, good gods why did the bloody musical have to imply he turned into the Scarecrow that was some Solid Bullshit Right There.

And the third book, A Lion Among Men, is literally about a Lion married to an asexual human woman. (Who is Liir’s half-sister; yeah no seriously the Wicked Years have an insane family-tree. I’d also like to add, to make it less weird, that Capital Letter Animals are talking, sentient animals who dress in clothes, have jobs, are articulate and such. And she mainly got married to him to be safe from men, after having been sexually abused for years. They’re... honestly a very interesting relationship to read, because it’s based on respect, gentleness and kindness?)

So... two human men, raising a child together? It would not have been that far off to hope for it.

Which means that, when book four hit and it hit me in the face with husband and wife Liir and Candle, I revolted so hard, I put the book down for five years and hadn’t touched it since. Because... even single-dad!Liir would have been indefinitely better than him marrying her, of all people.

But I picked the book up again. Because the gods know I love this series and am deeply attached to the Thropp family and now, after everything, I do want to know how it all ends.

But... they’re not even portrayed as a good relationship and it’s just killing me. As bad as it sounds, but had they... managed to move on from it and be stronger together for the sake of their kid and the literal future of the world, it would be more endurable, but she keeps manipulating and gaslighting him??

They just had a fight, in the scene I’m at. Because she neglected to tell him about a prophecy from a sorceress regarding their daughter. Their daughter who, mind you at this point in time, is already twelve years old.

She didn’t tell him. He gets upset and angry about it. She deflects by redirecting the whole conversation and accusing him that it’s actually about Trism.

Because - because, back in that cottage, where she had given birth to the baby, before Liir had gotten there, Trism had been there. He had come. Just as Liir had asked him to. He had come for Liir. And Candle just... never told Liir, not even after the two of them met back up and got together, for years she lied to Liir that Trism had never shown up.

And she is still refusing to talk to him about it! She still refuses to tell him what Trism said, what Trism had wanted.

She... She keeps lying to him, twisting things, manipulating him and... just... for fuck’s sake, why do you make me sit through this farce, Gregory?

Especially since all this drama and tension is unnecessarily bloating this book; Out of Oz is a total of 592 pages long. Every single page dedicated to their relationship drama and to Liir wasting time reminiscing on this relationship so we’re all caught up (since we spent the years between book 2 and 4 with the Lion and his wife). Truly, if you’d just said “Trism had come to the cottage and the two have been together ever since, they raised the kid and No Drama”, we could have moved on in peace to all the plot happening around it. Relationship drama is literally the last thing I want to read about, especially not one with these particular... circumstances.

(He has claimed to love her. But it’s been twelve years, the two spent most of those years completely isolated together and she’s been manipulating him every step of the way so far, so I’m not really buying it, to be quite frank. Their interactions with each other can be described as cold and tolerable of each other, at max. Even Liir’s thoughts of Trism in this book are filled with more emotion and warmth than any actual interaction between him and his wife...)

Which. You know. Makes the series sound bad. The series isn’t bad. I love the series. It’s just this one (1) plotline that is driving me insane. And it’s not like skipping the Liir/Candle chapters is much of an option; the book is about two main plots and one of them is Liir/Candle’s daughter, who is with them and about whom they have the knowledge to share with the reader.

The Wicked Years is such a fascinating read on a political level, the plot is... way deeper than the candy-striped musical makes you assume and the characters are amazing. Also there’s gay dragon-riders in the second book. There’s a poly throuple and a gay side pairing in the first book. There’s an ace character in the third and fourth book. There’s magic.

[sagebodisattva]

MGTOW and Nihilism

Welcome, followers of MGTOW. Before we begin, just real briefly, for those who are watching this video and are unaware of what MGTOW is, the acronym stands for Men Going Their Own Way, and is the title for a movement by and for men. A few samples of definitions mined from the internet include:

“M.G.T.O.W., Men Going Their Own Way, is a statement of self-ownership, where the modern man preserves and protects his own sovereignty above all else. It is the manifestation of one word: “No”. Ejecting silly preconceptions and cultural definitions of what a “man” is. Looking to no one else for social cues. Refusing to bow, serve and kneel for the opportunity to be treated like a disposable utility. And, living according to his own best interests in a world which would rather he didn’t. MGTOW asserts that only you have the right to decide what your goals in life should be. It is saying that, as a man, I will not surrender my will to the social expectations of women and society, because both have become hostile against masculinity. MGTOW often talk about seeking “independence” from western and/or consumer culture, and a few MGTOW try to live that sort of Zen existence. Most of those who embrace the term have a deep hostility towards and/or profound distrust of feminists and women in general. Many MGTOW refuse to date “western women” and some try to avoid women altogether.”

Well, before we go any further, it should be noted that, just by being a MGTOW, you are a nihilist, plain and simple. And before you get all up in arms, relax, this is a good thing, and I mean this in a good way. After all, you are watching a video by the Meta Sage, and you could say that the Meta Sage channel is the flagship station of nihilism on the internet today. So, this isn't a disparaging title aimed to degrade you, nor is it indicative of a characterization that you are either depressed, violent, lazy, immoral or apathetic, but, meant just as a label that is reflective of a matter of truth and fact. Nihilism is a philosophical doctrine that suggests the negation of one or more reputedly meaningful aspects of life. MGTOW itself is a cornucopia of negations of normative meanings and values that are usually associated with the average life. Tossing out the investments into dating, sexual relations, marriage, child bearing, societal expectations, social and cultural traditions, and the disposal of all aspirations to emulate the role of a specific gender archetype, are all value subtraction equations, no matter how you slice it.

So, you have arrived at this point; so are you gonna live up to the name of MGTOW and really be a man that goes his own way, or are you gonna remain bitter and resentful of women and get stuck on moaning about it. If your aim is to be an activist and spend the rest of your life screaming from a rooftop about the inequities of women, it can't really be said that you have gone your own way. By doing this, you are still giving women power and importance by way of investing value judgements into their behavior, which continually provokes taxing anger and indignation, which, thereof, serves as validation by way of negative attention. Remember, negative attention is still attention. And eventually it gets to the point where, thou dost protest too much.

Are you really ready to move on from these values you have subtracted, or is this all just an elaborate ploy to continually sustain a platform on which to complain about women? If you consider yourself MGTOW, then you identify as such because, either you are a product of the so called “incels”; that is, a group of men who call themselves involuntary celibate, (which is just a round about way of saying, you can't get a girlfriend,) or, you are a man that has had girlfriends or a wife, but has been somehow royally screwed over by one. Either way, it's time to use all that time and energy you would normally waste on trying to jump through hoops for a female, or in complaining about a female, towards your spiritual growth. In other words, it's time to actually go your own way. And when I say "spiritual growth", I don't mean religion, or any other vague supernatural notion concerning a soul, or the divine, but rather, am more referring to what was implied earlier from the definitions of MGTOW, to seek to live, and know, a Zen experience of life.

You are not the first ones to renounce women, only the most recent ones. A man's struggle to find a suitable woman as a companion is nothing new. The inequities of women is not something new either. Granted, the modern western world seems to have gone berserk with many of these courtship issues, but this is mainly due to the explosion of a very shallow materialistic western culture coupled with overpopulation and the subsequent massive influx of mediocrity. Yes, women far outnumber men, and so most of the decent men out there are already taken; coupled up with compatible women and are currently in relationships. Of the small pool of men that are left, some are gay, some are in prison, some are homeless, and what remains are either the cads, that is to say, a few cavalier males, that are usually very confident with themselves and therefor unobtainable and unwilling to be pinned down, which makes them a very desirable albeit unrealistic ideal for a woman, the so called hidden fruit, so to speak, or the common average insecure desperate man that women generally don't want, but usually end up settling for; ie the bulk of what's out there. And of this bulk, the ones with the money or career get the girl, and then usually a subsequent knife in the back, aka, cheated on, divorced, child custody battle, paying alimony and child support, and the rest of the bulk get nothing, aka, Involuntary celibacy.

All of this, and yet somehow, we are still overpopulated. Go figure. And don't tell me that we're not overpopulated because of a fallacy of scarcity, or because we can fit the entire population of the world into the state of Texas... that isn't the point. The point is, the more you have of something, the less valuable it becomes. The significance and importance of the contributions of individuals are undermined by an over flooding of individuals, which drives down the value of individuality. Too much of anything isn't healthy, and humans are not excluded from this truth... of which, is also why I would encourage MGTOW's to dig even deeper into philosophy and to check out anti-natalism, which is not too far of a stones throw from your current positional mindset. You see, I'm waiting to see the fourth wave of feminism, wherein women reject procreation... but honestly, I don't think they have the balls for that.

But anyway, MGTOW man, now that you are not tied up in chasing the meaningless mundane pursuit of conquering a woman; of which, doesn't lead to enlightenment, and will, given enough time, only lead to having babies, which will seriously jeopardize your pursuit of an awakening, because having a child is almost always indicative of passing on the buck; why not use your newly found freedom to investigate the inner connectivity of reality with the mind?

This is what all people should be investigating: the secrets concerning the source of attention, instead of wasting all our time being desire whores and value junkies. Honestly, I enjoy people's disillusionment. I enjoy it, not because I enjoy people's suffering, which is how your average sheeple of righteous indignation would like to portray it as, but because disillusionment is what ultimately leads a sheeple to a place where he or she can finally have an opportunity to possibly discover the truth of awareness. In order to arrive in such a place, often a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be, is required. Whether it be a disillusionment due to let downs associated with school, politics, religion, work, justice, fairness, the opposite sex, or expectations of success in some field of interest, doesn't matter... the seeds for a possible enlightenment could potentially be planted, depending on whether or not this disillusionment leads to nihilism, or to a wounded ego that is gonna play the victim because it still deep down desires what it is disappointed in, and is just bruised from rejection. I root for the former.

Hey, I have an idea. Instead of getting a gun and shooting up a school, a movie theater or a nightclub, drop the value of the investment into that which is facilitating your malcontent disposition, and instead, meditate. Instead of spending all day as a keyboard Rambo, posting diatribes on online message boards, explore the inner connectivity of reality and the mind. Instead of indulging in the poignancy and resentment that comes with the territory of playing the victim, take responsibility for your reality and incorporate a little existential nihilism in your life. Don't swear off women as a means of protest, swear them off and then close that chapter of your life. Truly let go of the value you have placed on the gratification you receive from female companionship, courtship, sexual relations, union and family.

MGTOW is a good thing. It's an excellent beginning, but there is still much more work to be done. There is more conditioning to unlearn, and more attachments to let go of. It doesn't end with women. Welcome to nihilism, where you will deconstruct every attachment, every convention and every expectation. For you MGTOWers that are curious to find out a little more about nihilism, I recommend searching through my video library to find out some more useful information, for this is one of the only places where you will find the subject treated honestly and not demonized or maligned with a negative connotation.