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ineffable-opinions · 7 months ago

Text

MAME & BL Literacies (Part 4)

Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Contents:

MAME’s queer characters and their lives

Fetishization of queer men and profiting off LGBT community

Why other queer genres like gei comi struggle to get live action adaptation?

(bonus) What Did You Eat Yesterday sexy times

BL and rape culture

Everyday ethnocentrism & BL

This is the last part of this essay series. In this part, I want to discuss the response this review of TharnType by @waitmyturtles generated. As always, corrections and criticisms are welcome.

Here are the points @solitaryandwandering raised:

1. fans will get SO rabid for MAME’s stuff yet resist tuning in for more queer-friendly Taiwanese BL or lower heat fare

I think that the BL MAME creates is "queer-friendly". Moreover, her BL focuses on the intersection of queerness with local forms of gender, patriarchy & heterosexism, class, race, skin color, age, employment, location & regionalism, abilities and disabilities, education, health conditions and access to medical care, urban-rural divide, migrant status, culture, etc.

MAME's BL have aspects of Thai queer culture and praxis that are otherwise overlooked. Here's an example.

Through Techno’s interaction with Tharn in episode 1 of TharnType, MAME highlights an important issue: invisibility of androphilic “man”. Techno comments that Tharn is the first masculine presenting androphilic male he has met, even though he has several queer friends.

This is in part due to skewed presence of androphilic male characters in mainstream media. In Thai soap operas and movies, androphilic men are 'presented as effeminate, overreactive, with a passionate but unrequited interest in men'.

Countering this perception is the hegemony of masculine aesthetics in urban Thailand’s queer culture. 'The English word “man” has been borrowed into Thai gay-speak to denote acting in a masculine way. Man describes a masculine presentation of either gay-identified or heterosexual males and contrasts with the Thai term phu-chai, which also translates as “man” but is used in the specific sense of denoting the gender role of a heterosexually identified male.

'Many Thai gays believe that effeminate gay men, or gay sao, will experience discrimination and prejudice because of their feminine characteristics and behaviours. Thai gays also think that performing gender-normative forms of manhood are useful in establishing sexual and romantic relations with other gays. These expectations are associated with the culture of images, known in Thai as phap-phot, by which many homosexual men feel compelled to act in accord with normative male gender roles.'

This is in contrast to Techno’s queer friends who blur the lines between the masculine and feminine domains. His use of the word kathoey is case in point.

Moreover, the need for social conformity for Thai gays in terms of their gender performance is an urban phenomenon. Ethnographic study by Wijngaarden traced the rapid adoption of more masculine gender performance by gay men who moved from rural setting to urban for the purpose of education and employment. Ambiguity in gender performance is more accepted in rural setting where there is gender-based understandings of homosexuality. Also, gay dating scene in urban areas seem to assign value to masculine presentation.

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I don't really know what @solitaryandwandering mean by "queer-friendly" in the context of Taiwanese BL.

Support of fu-people (BL fans) for queer works in Taiwan is well-known. When the play 《愛情生活》 Life of Love by Xu ZhengPing was staged, they had BL version shows too.

The play has a short film adaptation which is available for free on GagaOOLala.

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Fu-people have also shown their support for series like Breakfast by 想再見你.

@solitaryandwandering gave valuable response to this post which I am adding below.

I had to go back and re-read what I said in the post for more context. I think though we may disagree on a couple points (what people consider "queer-friendly" is somewhat subjective) your criticisms are totally valid. I think in my first point I was making a really broad generalization and my description of overall Taiwanese BL as being "more" queer-friendly largely rings false to me now. I think what I was frustrated with was more with what I've seen of BL fandom's response to the series and other works. The popularity of high heat and "problematic" themes (I'm using that pretty liberally) like abusive relationships or rape is pretty massive in comparison to Taiwanese stuff in general. But that's not to say Taiwanese stuff don't utilize the same tropes or themes. Hence why I think my comparison wasn't accurate.

In comparing Taiwanese BL I had seen at the time and MAME's stuff (specifically TharnType) I probably felt that Taiwanese BL didn't so heavily utilize themes which made me uncomfortable or angry at the way MAME was writing it. And I still do largely think that at least for her earlier stuff MAME needed to work on her characters and plots. I did not see Tharn or Type or the other characters or the story as appealing or positive representations of… anything. In my view at the time Taiwanese BL liked to play with similar themes but still (mostly) didn't leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. I don't really agree with what I think was a bit of a limited view at the time. Reading your post has given me a bit of a different perspective, too.

I don't think everyone making Taiwanese BL particularly cares about the response queer fans have haha. And MAME has shown she does, at least from my perspective.

And again lumping an entire country's slant on the genre against MAME's creations is a bit disingenuous. So I appreciate you criticizing that.

And I don't inherently think lower heat stuff is inherently more queer-friendly of course - queer people fuck! Queer people can do terrible things! But the gulf of popularity between high heat stuff versus lower heat at least in international online spaces is pretty large. That concerns me for the reasons I stated in my comments - why is fandom more eager to engage with one over the other? Do these fans see queer men as people or as things to fetishize? And how does MAME's writing encourage or discourage those damaging readings? Largely I think what I was referencing in my response was fandom response rather than what creators at large do.

I think we may disagree on how effectively MAME writes her shows but I do think my perspective on her as a creator has changed quite a lot. Her writing certainly has with each show. It's important to interrogate my own ethnocentrism as you point out in your post. Acting like I'm the arbiter of "good queerness" in stories just because I'm queer is not a practice I want to encourage.

and yes, I do think there is quite a bit of critical consumption of BL, and it has only been growing! I was concerned about those who do not critically consume, a more direct criticism.

But I did communicate it as a large generalization… One of the reasons why my response to stuff like TharnType is this way is because I have a background in domestic violence prevention, so the lens I look at that kind of material through is highly critical. But it is also a white American lens.

And here is my contribution to that discussion. I am very grateful for to @solitaryandwandering for engaging with this post.

What each think as “queer-friendly” is subjective. I wanted to be clear about what I thought as queer (since LGBT+ form is a little too narrow from my perspective). I wanted to place BL in the context of Taiwanese tongzhi (queer) culture and wanted to showcase the similarities and their connection. Life of Love by Xu ZhengPing, the tongzhi work I mentioned, has both "high heat" and "problematic" themes (it deals with infidelity) while addressing what it means to be tongzhi in post-marriage equality era. The BL versions’ ad is very funny. Please check out that link if you haven’t.

About abusive themes in BL, I really wish BL audience will pay attention to media consumed by queer people that are made by queer people in BL producing countries and realize how meek MAME is in comparison, both in terms of influence as well as themes. That is why brought up erotic treatment of rape aka rape for titillation – rare in BL but very common & celebrated in queer content from the region such as gei comi and gay pinku cinema. I think that answers the issues you raised – popularity of high heat stuff, queer men as fetish and damage it causes. I have been consuming gei comi and BL for years and when the live action boom happened, I was hopeful that gei comi will also start getting live action adaptation. Instead, there was a deluge of sweet BL and concerns about damage anything problematic can cause, not to mention the kind of critique authors as mild as MAME was getting. When female BL creators were getting bashed (not only about live action but also about comics and novels), I thought the criticisms would extend to gei comi. I was confused when it didn’t. I was even more confused when it seemed like no one was ever mentioning gei comi. It was as though those who were criticizing BL creators don’t know about gei comi.

To be honest, I don’t really know what damage everyone is talking about even now. I mean, what’s the basis of those claims? Gei comi always had those themes, a great deal more than BL. What harm did it ever perpetuate? Whom did it harm? I couldn’t find any evidence (empirical or anecdotal) no matter how I searched. (I will be grateful if you can direct me towards some research or something on the matter.)

Only damage that I know of is linked to the tangible impact of gei comi on the popularity of hairy, gachimuchi aesthetics of queer men [and associated physical manifestations of protest hypermasculinity] in East Asia that I discussed in part 2 of this essay series [as well as in my post on masculinities with special focus on Chinese androphilic men]. This is one area I think a lot of skinny queer men in East Asia would have found themselves at a loss. So I think BL exclusively having skinny dudes is a good thing.

I know that I can wish all I want but audience won’t accept live adaption of something like Fisherman’s Lodge much less Pride (my introduction to the genre and the reason why I fell in love with it). My Brother’s Husband sort of solidified my belief. Then Sei no Gekiyaku [Dangerous Drug of Sex] live action happened, and my worlds collided. All of a sudden androphilic men were discussing a BL like never before. It was such a hit on Netflix Japan. That’s when I discovered The Shortest Distance Is Round and then its sequels. By then it was clear that there is escaping the difference in wavelength.

I would like to make a small addition in light of Heavens x Candy (a 2024 Japanese BL movie, pinku adjacent that is available for streaming on Gagaoolala).

I now have greater hope for "hard" BL and even gei comi getting live action adaptation from OP Pictures (albeit without hairy, gachimuchi aesthetics. I mean the only actor doing such roles in BL is Kaji Masaki who acted in both KabeKoji and Smells like Green Spirit.) I plan to do a longer post on Heavens x Candy when I get time to rewatch it.

2. Fetishization of queer men in yaoi

By that standard, is Minamoto Kazuki fetishizing straight women through his works?

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Minamoto Kazuki is a gay mangaka who creates straight romance and smut.

Arguably, his most famous manga, at least in BL fandom, is Wall Circle’s Doujin Artist Nekoyashiki-Kun’s Desire for Recognition Grows which got live action adaptation: KabeKoji in 2022.

Apart from creating commercial BL and yaoi (self-published BL like the ones in the image given above), he has also authored an autobiographical work titled Shoujo Manga Artist Minamoto-San Comes Out and a manga exploring queer life and homophobia titled The Gay Who Turned Kaiju.

Moreover, many scholars, mangaka, fans, etc. from Asia and elsewhere have already spoken/written plenty about the issue of fetishization. Here's a compilation of resources.

3. zero critical consumption and leveraging of abusive concepts

I wonder why it is assumed that BL is consumed without critical thinking. It is true that BL, especially MAME's BL, are not didactic. TharnType is a BL with odo (royal road) narrative progression. It is not one of the sweet BL that GMMTV produces. Due to a general lack of BL literacies, there are off-the-mark expectations associated with BL, particularly Thai BL. Hence, odo BL seems to violate a lot of these misguided expectations.

TharnType is a well-done odo BL, in my opinion. "Leveraging of abusive concepts" is not a failure but a feature.

When it comes to depiction of abuse, there are those who think that it always gives the wrong message. There are variety in opinions on what is the right way to go about it. BL being an accommodating genre has space for all sorts of treatment. Even in live action, there is good variety in terms of how the theme is treated. But nothing is everyone’s cup of tea. This being the case it is understandable if someone like how MAME handles abuse, just as it is understandable if someone doesn't.

Assuming that fans don't engage critically with the theme and are mindlessly consuming it, have the implication of infantilizing the audience - as though they are without faculties of discretion and are incapable of making judgements. It also has the added implication of demonizing all media concerning queer people that deals with abuse. If MAME’s approach is deemed “unsafe” for queer population, based on that judgement, where does BL and gei comi that offer erotic treatment of abuse fall? What about queer people producing and consuming them?

That brings me to the points @nieves-de-sugui has raised.

4. how much all of these tropes where used (and still are). I believe that when things are made for tv they should take all the things you mentioned into account more than they do.

I believe that makers of live action queer content are very cautious. Thanks to that we are yet to get live action adaptation of any gei comi.

I have seen mainstream media ignore Gengoroh Tagame (probably the most popular gay mangaka creating content aimed at androphilic men) and his works for years in spite of his tangible influence on East Asian queer men. And then suddenly creating a live action adaptation of his all-ages manga My Brother’s Husband.

Who will dare to adapt his works Gunji or Fisherman’s Lodge or Pride? How can we show rape, trauma and taboo involving queer people on screen? What message will it give to the queer population? To the non-queer population?

A scene from Fisherman’s Lodge. Image courtesy of @finalatomicbuster.

If MAME was not involved in producing her BL, it is doubtful if it would have ever happened the way it did. Almost all BL adaptation is a censored adaptation, with notable exceptions like Sei no Gekiyaku. Recently, 25 Ji, Akasaka de (2024) removed complicated sexual content (including a dub-con episode) from the volume 1 of the manga, which was critical to the story and the couple’s development, in adaptation. Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (2024) went as far as removing the more sexual second couple from the live action adaptation probably because makers thought it was better not to go anywhere near cruelty.

The first ever anime adaptation of a gei comi, Shin Yaranai ka based on Junichi Yamakawa's Kuso Miso Technique, is *sigh* disappointing to say the least.

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I wanted to quickly mention What Did You Eat Yesterday yaoi version since @waitmyturtles mentioned the series.

5. What Did You Eat Yesterday

I want to highlight that What Did You Eat Yesterday was not a BL in publication. It was published in Morning, a conservative magazine for middle-aged men. This is what got a live action adaptation.

Fumi Yoshinaga has created a proper BL doujin series that includes content that couldn't be part of publication in Morning.

Here are some panels from the two latest volumes of the yaoi. I wonder if audience would have had the same impression of the show if they had incorporated the doujin bits too.

6. One piece of the puzzle that's missing here is Thai rape culture that blankets all of their society.

This is an important point @yousaygoodbyeandisay raised and it applies not just to Thailand.

Sexual assault as a theme in BL, handled in a myriad of ways, has been the case since the inception of the genre. I have discussed the history in the context of Japan here.

It was during the publication of JUNE magazine that the importance of depiction of sexual assault in BL became clear to the editor through response letters from readers.

June is a place of therapistic rehabilitation for those women who had experiences of mental and physical abuses as a female. Mr. Sagawa said that he cannot ignore that there are not a few readers who had such experiences during their childhood.

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MAME studied BL and its production academically (you can find her research output by searching her name: อรวรรณ วิชญวรรณกุล) before she entered live action production. She not only know what she is writing/creating but also is willing to deal with difficult themes without taking sweet, fable-like route.

Now onto the points @mikuni14 raised.

7. my shock seeing so much SA related stuff (the show covered just about every problematic sex thing there is, and finally forgave the heinous criminal instead of putting him in jail. I don't know how MAME can create for example AePete and also somany vile things

For those who don’t know, MAME is a unique Thai BL creator. Thai BL creators on average lack BL literacies for various reasons. MAME is one of the exceptions. This is because:

she is a BL author & hence, one of the creators of BL literacies

she studied BL and its production academically [you can find her research output by searching her name: อรวรรณ วิชญวรรณกุล]

then she started producing live action BL

In an industry which is lacking in BL literacies, what she brings to the table is fu-culture (BL fan culture) in all its glory. Unfortunately, the live action audience who are fans of sweet BL, have a hard time adjusting.

Here are some typical narrative progressions for a (Japanese) BL:

あまあま – sweet

ユニーク – unique

シリアス – serious

邪道 – evil road (jadō)

王道 - royal road (odo)

Any theme/one-line plot can choose to take any of these narrative progressions. Moreover, Thai BL usually originates online which allows for innovation.

MAME employs different narrative progressions for different ships. AePete follows the typical sweet BL progression. KengklaTechno follows jado and TharnType odo.

TarTum is a sweet BL, complicated by them being step-brothers. While their pairing is barely on odo, Tum as a character has a complicated odo progression within their ship.

Since TharnType is an odo BL all wrong-doings are not punished. Take for example KinnPorsche, another odo BL, where the ending can’t be 'organized crime gets the main characters in jail'. In odo BL involving crime, most of the victims are usually cannon fodders. So, characters are not bothered much by the crime. But in MAME's universe, Tum is an important character, someone designed to make audience root for him. Hence the audience can’t dismiss the crimes against him. It is not wrong to want the narrative to have Lhong jailed. If TharnType was a sweet BL, it would have gone there.

8. selective memory

Selective memory is indicative of preferences and it helps to fine tune BL consumption. MAME's storytelling incorporates diverse elements. Those who enjoy her works also might find that there something or the other that isn't to their taste. This is an important part of BL literacies.

I enjoy dangerous characterizations over subdued ones and prefer a meriba more than a happy ending. While there are plenty of BL media with those, they are super rare in live action. So, I appreciate MAME for taking into account fans who want something different from sweet BL.

Here are the points @bengiyo raised:

9. What Did You Eat Yesterday v/s Old Fashion Cupcake

This has nothing to do with MAME but has to do with BL literacies more generally. Old Fashion Cupcake is more appealing to BL fans because it is a BL and hence not sanitized to continue run on a conservative magazine. So, it permeates moe (affect). Moreover, creators of Old Fashion Cupcake are better informed than creators of What Did You Eat Yesterday in terms of BL literacies. So, the direction and acting works better in the former than the latter.

9. The Effect feeling like the first huge volley leveled at BL from within the genre.

I am always amazed at the takes on the Effect. Somehow it is assumed to be a critique of BL genre. That's not the case. The Effect is a proper jado BL.

What audience are picking up on is the 'I can do it better' spirit that motivates a lot of BL creation. It is natural for audience to feel like the depiction of complex themes, such as sexual abuse, bullying, delinquency, identity theft, murder, infidelity, pregnancy, etc. are not dealt with well. Creating BL that fits one's taste better is one way authors and artists go about addressing the issue. That is how we end up with same theme dealt with in numerous ways. When that expands, we end up with sub-genres and BL categories.

Jado BL are rare, particularly in Thai BL.

It is difficult to sell BL with jado and other narrative progressions. It becomes even more difficult to sell branded pairings when the characters they play are not impeccable. It is unlikely that actors playing bad guys can sell products for advertisers. (Imagine the characters from The Effect being in ads together!) It is even more unlikely that fans would go broke behind wicked characters and would want to attend fan-meetings and concerts featuring them in some way.

This is also so as not to trouble the average audience’s worldview (世界観) and is clearly a low effort and low skill (in terms of BL literacies) approach. But since a lot of audience don’t appreciate villain-like characterization, it is clearly low risk, no chance of a backlash from angry audience and the best method for assured money making.

@respectthepetty has also flagged the next issue:

10. History3: Make Our Days Count.

Gays were being buried and put in prison in Taiwanese BLs in the same year it legalized marriage equality.

There is a lot of ethnocentrism in the hate that MODC gets, apart from lack of BL literacies. While I understand where that take is coming from given American media history in the context of Hayes code, AIDS crisis, etc., I wish media from elsewhere would be looked at independently.

Queer narratives everywhere have their own over-used tropes and historical issues. Malayalam media, for example, has the issue of having one of two queer characters having varathan vibe (Rosy in Ponnaranjanam, Kiran in Sancharram, Antony's boyfriend in Mumbai Police, Kiran in My Life Partner, etc.) that makes them look odd in Kerala's rurban landscape. Even Kaathaloram played into this trope. The problem is that it perpetuates the belief that queerness is an import of sorts.

Mindless application of media critique learned from the west leads to the brushing aside of pertinent issues with media of the region in favor of finding legitimacy via commonality with the west. That way we end up with crits accusing Moothon of employing bury the gay trope while ignoring that:

Moothon is a gangster action flick like Kammattippaadam

It is rare for romances irrespective of the gender of the main characters and genre of the movie to have happy ending in Malayalam. In fact, almost all great love stories in Malayalam movies are tragedies. This is unlike in Hollywood where heterosexual romances usually get happy endings.

more importantly, every queer character, including Latheef, is infused with varathan vibe.

Taiwanese BL has issues worth exploring. Issues of their own media - not varathan queer trope from Malayalam media or bury your gay trope from American media.

MODC was an dealing with well-established BL tropes (like any other show in the History franchise). It explored bereavement (a tribute to Lan Yu, first ever danmei live action adaptation) and substitute lover trope.

The series introduced a doppelgänger of Yu XiGu (Xiang HaoTing’s white moonlight), a perfect candidate for substitute lover trope. But instead of pursuing it, they subverted the trope.

History franchise, which was build to grow BL and BL literacy in Taiwan, ended up victim to prejudice since it failed to measure up to foreign standards. MODC offered something rare. The audience didn't appreciate it. They dismissed it for not measuring up to expectations colored by experiences which danmei is not connected with for historical reasons.

By that standard, would tongzhi literature from Taiwan too have to make amends for sins of the west towards its queers? Imagine stripping of death as a theme from tongzhi author Chiang-Sheng Kuo's works! Then there is also difference in how death is perceived in different societies.

Why must BL be arm-twisted to fit into norms from elsewhere and correct the wrongs of someone else?

11. BL profit off LGBT community

This is really interesting. There are many questions that I can think of that is linked to this take:

Is BL really profitable? Short answer is no. Long answer here.

Is it really LGBT community that BL profits off?

Probably not. It is moe that BL sells. That imo, is the main difference between BL and other queer genres.

Anyway, BL predates LGBT acronym. It predates de-pathologization of homosexuality in many BL creating regions. Fu-people were creating BL before mainstream media started representing queer people in media. Fu-people battled state and its censors everywhere along with queer people. Live action BL surely is commercialized. But that is capitalism reaping the dividends of decades of fu-people's labor of love.

@he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle raised the following point.

12. 2019 saw significant increase in quantity and quality of BL. Since then, live actions smoothed out the rougher edges of the source material (like what happened with Kinnporsche and Love in the Air).

While I understand the rational behind toning down dangerous characterization to appeal to the largest audience, I think that kind of censorship for commercialization limits potential of the genre. The impact is most visible in case of GMMTV BL such as Only Friend (where it could neither be sweet BL nor could it embark properly on jado).

Compare it with adaptation of the ero-BL Sei no Gekiyaku. It stayed true to the content and pushed the boundaries enough to bring about convergence between gay pinku cinema and BL. When BL is allowed to explore its potential freely, it not only imparts BL literacies but also makes it possible for other queer genres to gain new audience, which in turn encourages production houses to venture into different queer genres.

jjsanguine raised the following point.

13. I don't even hate toxic characters or plotlines, actually I love them. But like even if the characters don't know they're doing it, the show should. And it really really doesn't. And neither do the fans. Kind of alarming.

This is in relation to Lhong and San.

Lhong is a yandere in a odo BL. (for detailed discussion see Part 3) It is a matter of the world view and less about show's self-awareness (which I believe it has). If TharnType was an jado BL, Tharn could have ended up with Lhong and Type would be the stalking horse.

@jjsanguine later commented about how Lhong felt "goofy" by way of his over-the-top actions which made the show's convictions questionable.

San and Tharn's relationship was, to an extend, the most realistically depicted. I remember starting to learn about Thai queerness and realizing that a lot of elements in their relationship reads like ethnography. Consider for example Tharn being only fourteen at the time of sexual debut and San being older. This is not too different from the average age of sexual debut in Thailand. Despite it being a compoundable offense, average age of sexual debut is declining. Tharn's discovery of what he likes and dislikes and shedding cuteness (which San comments about) and adopting manliness (which Techno comments about) too is in line with what is observed among urban queer youth. Contrast this with Sky in Love in the Air whose sexual debut and exploitation are tied to his migration to urban landscape. Sky's backstory too read like ethnography and his vulnerability a reflection of the many others' in his society.

@absolutebl raised the following points:

14. Rape - as plot device - doesn't make good stories - lazy & bad writing: Feminist critique and modern narrative analysis.

Feminist and queer BL scholars from Akiko Mizoguchi to James Welker have discussed rape as a plot device in BL. Since experts have written plenty, I'll spare my effort discussing this misconception.

15. rape is an act of sexuality (or worse, sexy), it is NOT - it is an act of violence. But that is only the start to the way it’s chronically mishandled, especially in commercial fiction (of which romance makes the largest percentage).

Akiko Mizoguchi's two decade of work have addressed this in relation to Japanese BL which I feel holds true for BL more generally. Moreover, BL is not a romance sub-genre. BL is a genre in itself. A lot of BL is romance. There is enough overlap between those genres to give the impression that BL is a romance sub-genre. But there are plenty of other works too. Like One Room Angel and Social Reform Season. Similarly, BL is not a porn sub-genre. A lot of BL is porn. But come on!

16. [MAME] produces consistent highly-profitable narratives by-and-about queer folks but utterly disingenuous to the queer experience and that defines exploitation in the ET industry... Right, just adding that yes BL does not represent (in any way) the reality of being queer in any of these countries.

I have already discussed how MAME's works are intersectional reflections of queer experience. BL has been reflecting different queer experiences in Japan even before the term boys' love emerged. But narrow, ethnocentric ideas of queerness doesn't lend itself to honest understanding of other forms and representation. Consider characters being addressed as เมีย ‘wife’. It is a Thai queer practice. One can always dismiss that since it sounds heterosexist in the culture one comes from as absolutebl does in this post. That, imo, is 'disingenuous to the queer experience' of Thai people.

The question is what are westerners missing in their own countries' queer media that they feel they must just judge everything with no care for the cultures and people producing content for themselves? Seriously, what have the westernization done to some in the audience that they emerge so desperate for queer content that they watch BL yet remain blind to the cultures (fu-culture in particular) that produce them and splooge vitriolic ethnocentrism?

That concludes this discourse series. I want to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to and inspired this 🙏.

Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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hanzajesthanza · 7 months ago

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I love your blog and recently watched your amazing YouTube essay! In a nutshell it blew my mind. Having the historical context of 2th century Polish history leading up the the publication of this work, in addition to your detailed analysis of Orwellian and Huxlian societies has helped me gain a whole new level of understanding and appreciation for The Witcher.

I read the books years ago and am beginning a re-read. Being someone who didn't receive the most thorough education on reading media critically or analytically as a younger person, and now trying to redress this fact about myself as I read works like this going forward as I approach middle age (I'm a bit of a "late bloomer" in several aspects of my life including building this skill set), I unfortunately missed a lot of allegory and subtext in my first reading. I enjoyed it mostly fannishly and getting into the characters at that time in my life. Your analysis has been really helpful on this journey of getting back into the books.

My question for you is that I've seen a few random references online to people theorizing that the Dopplers are an allegory for the LGBTQIA+ community. However, I've not been able to find any detailed analysis of this possible allegory and only finding people mentioning it in passing on forums and such.

As a reader who is also part of the LGBTQIA+ community, I would love if Sapkowski had intentionally injected allegory and commentary on queerness and the othering of our community in his work, but I'm reluctant to get excited about something that might not actually be there.

Of course I know a lot of these things are up to the interpretation of individual readers. But I'm also extremely curious to know what you think. Are you of the opinion that there is any queer subtext or allegory in the Witcher saga?

Thank you for your time if you get a chance to answer my ask! And thank you as well for your beautiful work on this series so far, I'm really looking forward to more!

thanks! and honestly, though i'm younger i also have a mixed relationship with reading and media literacy. so you're certainly not alone, also related to witcher/all things fantasy and pop culture, i think it's normal to engage with it for only the characters and story, especially on the first read.

as for LGBT subtext in the witcher...

the first thing to acknowledge is that LGBT subtext is preceded by actual LGBT text in the witcher. we already have some lesbian, gay, bisexual characters and relationships, and at least one trans or gender non-conforming, androgynous character.

the second thing to acknowledge is that this text isn't particularly meant to empower or represent, either in a positive or negative light. it's less about actually being LGBT, and more about how LGBT identities have been represented in the genre.

usually, it goes along with the regular practice of the witcher, its "guiding principle" as i might call it, being to subvert reader expectations, parody, or satirize elements and popular tropes of the fantasy genre. so, for example, mistle rapes ciri not because sapkowski wanted to depict lesbianism as predatory -- he wrote it because he was familiar with the trope of female heroines in fantasy being ahem, "claimed" by male warriors, and wanted to subvert this trope by having a woman do it instead.

so, we get a lesbian relationship, that, like the M/F relationships he was referencing, begins with a rape and turns into a romance by the end of it. this isn't to say that this is a logical sequence of events, but just that it was inspired by other texts -- it was never intended as commentary on lesbianism itself, but instead, of some fantasy texts that sapkowski had criticism of.

speaking of the author's perspective... i'm certain that if he was asked about any of this he would say he doesn't have any opinion, but this is just what i'm collecting from reading him... i'll go from best to worst.

(ŚKA = Świat króla artura, HiF = Historia i fantastyka, RZwSJ = Rekopis znaleziony w Smoczej Jaskini)

the good: his opinions on same-sex female relationships are... neutral to somewhat... positive? he seems to correlate lesbianism with feminism (aka political lesbianism). though he's denied identifying with feminists and feminism, saying that he does not intend to appeal to feminists or read feminist publications, in ŚKA and HiF he starts explaining unprompted ideas about the prehistory of matriarchy, associations of magna mater, and the relationship of wicca... and in RZwSJ includes an entire paragraph with recommendations of fantasy featuring lesbian relationships.

so i think any opinions he has about lesbianism are entirely conflated with his ideas of female power and worship, and/or as previously mentioned, challenging fantasy tropes - both are huge themes across all of his writing. which... i guess is a good thing?

however, i think that this interpretation of lesbianism through the lens of politics can be problematic because he fails to understand that a lot of lesbians like other women for kind of the same reasons straight men like them: because they are fucking hot. (but i guess he did acknowledge this a little with philippa and her countess, so whatever)

i'll also allow myself a small tangent about neratin ceka here, because i feel like his representation was not bad at all, and yet he's entirely missed whenever these discussions about sapkowski's views on LGBT happen, probably because no one read as far as past chapter 2 of tower of the swallow.

we even get the joke cliche of "i'm a bad guy, but i'm not a bad guy" with stefan skellen, who fantasizes about banditry and rape, and wants to kill ciri out of reasons of state, but, when he's told that ceka's gender doesn't really matter unless he wants to marry him, its his being a good soldier which counts, skellen's like, "yeah, ok, that makes sense to me, you're right." so the story doesn't make a joke about him at all, only for a moment raising the "what's his gender??" question in the mouth of a villain -- other than that, neratin ceka is treated by the story just the same as all the others of skellen's hanza (well, except for the fact that he was an imperial spy... but see, he was given an interesting role in the story).

anyways, here's the bad: LGBT characters being the butt of a joke, and not even "characters" but the concept of, for example, the only representation of fat GNC women being antagonistic, stupid, and gross (season of storms, the guardswomen of kerack), or homosexual quid quo pro committed by the guy who is so fucked up evil he will do anything to get political influence, including gay sex (season of storms, sorel degerlund) or attempted homosexual rape (narrenturm, the werewolf), or... homosexual sex slavery (lux perpetua, szarlej trying to "buy" reynevan).

it's... cringeworthy. though i will say the last one i mentioned here read like a monty python sketch rather than punching down, it is more making fun of the discomfort of the slavers themselves at the idea of homosexual desire and sex (which is ironic, because... they are slavers).

with an overview here, i feel like in terms of same-sex male relationships, more often than consensual relationships are jokes about rape, situations like pederasty, actual rape but this time treated as a serious threat (it was either in warriors of god or lux perpetua, one of the times in which reynevan was kidnapped). ... i don't know if i can name one positive, romantic gay relationship from any of his writing (whereas i might be able to name a couple of lesbian ones)

at the same time, he's never said that being gay is wrong, immoral, or espoused fears of gay people taking over, which... is notable as we look amongst his contemporaries in the polish SF/fantasy space of the 80s-90s. (that, and that he's so staunchly pro-choice). but that also doesn't make him some champion of LGBT rights, lmao.

when it comes to the subject, i think he is mostly just a contrarian who seeks to challenge conservative sensibilities and what is considered socially acceptable... so this sometimes results in accidental representation, and sometimes it results in offensive situations or "jokes". i don't believe he has an agenda either way for LGBT rights or condemnation, he generally is against oppression of any sort, but he doesn't put himself on the frontlines of advocacy. and at the same time carries his own biases of LGBT topics, some of which i don't agree with. (ik you didn't ask for this whole review, anon, but i wanted to include it to clarify the topic).

so, finally, about eternal flame.

i wrote this out years ago (with more of a gerlion spin to it, and i kind of roll my eyes at it now) but the basis of the dopplers as an lgbt allegory analysis is that:

dopplers are entirely innocent beings which are persecuted for no reason other than they're different, so they change shape amongst society to remain undetected --

and they've done this successfully, so much so that at the end of the story we realize that more people than one might have assumed, including chappelle, the head of the church of the eternal flame (coughs, catholic church, coughs) who was persecuting the protagonists for relation to a scandal involving a doppler, is in fact a doppler himself who took the persona after the real chappelle died two weeks ago.

so... i think that if one chooses to see it, they can -- though i probably wouldn't argue that this is a certain meaning, it's only one possible interpretation.

and again, it's not like positive representation, hah, i think one can draw their own conclusions from that short summary (especially the part about high-ranking priests being gay... hmmm...), but the fact that the dopplers are innocent and being persecuted and tortured for no reason, and we hear tellico's side of this at the end of the story putting them in a sympathetic light, and the entire moral of the story being acceptance of the other (with tellico even being adopted as dainty's cousin, lmao) i find it palatable because of that.

sapkowski has also denied that he includes any allegories in his writing, but because this doesn't make sense when looking at the first/second nilfgaardian war, i think to interpret this more as there is no specific representations of people or historical figures in his writing (the quote went something like "please do not look for the alter-egos of stalin or bierut amongst my characters...") rather than allegories to real life events or social realities, because those he certainly does include.

#ask #anon #story: eternal flame #andrzej sapkowski

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ming-sik · 9 months ago

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this isn't even completely meant as an insult but ascendance of a bookworm's worldbuilding really isn't that deep, it just has a few clever elements to create the illusion of depth. the biggest thing is in fact the idea of noble euphemisms. creating a social structure where characters communicate in obscure references to their mythology lets you 1) provide a convenient excuse for characters to exposit every time there's a new one, 2) motivates your readers to memorize at least the more common euphemisms, and 3) gives the impression that this is a world with a deep enough culture that they can communicate through references to other things that have happened. this is despite the fact that it's actually very easy to do, all you need is a list of gods along with everything they're the god of, and then whenever you want to create a euphemism you ctrl+F relevant nouns and then add it to a separate list so you can stay consistent. outside of that and "climbed the towering stairway"/"to the distant heights" and "offering flowers" which are direct translations of the simple concepts "he died :(" and "women being offered for sex", you can actually just say "the other nobles euphemistically said OOO" or use the overly flowery speech that exists in your native language. and there you go, convincing vibe of a very socially complicated and obtuse language without actually having to create a language beyond individual vocabulary words and a psuedolatin alphabet!

i think i would like noble euphemisms more if it were... more, or more accurately part of something more. i get that calque idioms are generally pretty cringy so people tend to be hesitant to adapt theirs, y'know "ザンツェの手(て)も借(か)りたい", but there's actually a secret third technique called "making up entirely unique idioms". you can even still use rozemyne and the readers' lack of common sense to have her occasionally mistake an idiom that isn't explicitly mythological for a thing that happens in yurgenschmidt or vice versa. especially if yurgenschmidt actually did have dialect and generational differences!

in a rewrite i would have rozemyne creating books in different dialects rather than standardizing everything in the sovereign royal academy prestige dialect but just like the modern version of it. to revisit a historical example, one of the biggest advances in public literacy were books being printed in the languages people actually spoke instead of exclusively classical languages! basically what i'm saying is that the dunkelfelger translation should've been a team effort between rozemyne and dunkelfelgerian scholars and it should've come with a glossary of common dunkelfeger terms and idioms. AND they should've had an argument about whether or not to phonetically transcribe the accent and if so the creation of a that accent transcription should've been its own chapter. yes this will be on the test

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hyperbolicpurple · 2 months ago

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Many academics cherish an irritating myth: that Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel is an error-strewn and racist endorsement of European imperialism. One mention of Diamond's name is enough to get everyone in earshot to regurgitate their favorite streams of invective against his books. A 2013 article in Capitalism Nature Socialism by David Correa, entitled "F ** k Jared Diamond," decries the aging geographer as a "racist", a "hack", and the "darling of bourgeois intellectuals"—and that’s just on the first page. Others lambast Diamond for using "geographical determinism" to excuse Europeans for the bloody consequences of the conquest of the Americas.

... One historian, to popular Twitter acclaim, suggested that the main problem with Diamond is that "[h]e uses geography to explain horrible things done by colonialism, which makes this stuff natural and not anyone's fault." This is a catastrophic error, reflecting a basic, likely wilful misreading of Diamond's work. As I have noted before, his explicit aim is to explain the rise of Eurasia, and specifically Europe, without reference to inherent European biological and cultural advantages. He explicitly condemns popular histories that emphasize biological and cultural superiority as racist. Guns, germs, seeds, or steel did not make it inevitable that Europeans would invade the Americas and annihilate native populations. I mean, why would Diamond even want to argue this? But it reflects a strain of GGS ripostes that have seized the academic imagination since the book's publication.

... No doubt some crude right-leaning histories, for instance, Jeffrey Flynn-Paul's Not Stolen (2023), attempt this historical gambit, but Diamond does not. In no way does he dance around the question of agency in the destruction of native populations. On page 15, for example, he writes that "the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, the Americas, and southernmost Africa, are no longer even masters of their own lands but have been decimated, and in some cases even exterminated by European colonialists" (15). Two pages later, he adds that "many other indigenous populations—such as native Hawaiians, Aboriginal Australians, native Siberians, and Indians in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile—became so reduced in numbers by genocide and disease that they are now greatly outnumbered by the descendants of invaders" (17). That's right—genocide and disease, working in tandem.

... Diamond's critics would like to have it both ways. On the one hand, they refuse to concede that Europeans had any significant technological or military advantage over Native American civilizations, because that would connote some kind of intrinsic superiority of the former over the latter. On the other hand, however, they want to show that deliberate European manipulation and control over Indigenous peoples led to population decline—a level of imperial mastery that could only have been maintained with some sort of military disparity. Diamond's explanation is much simpler: Europeans won initial victories because of guns, germs, and steel (plus horses, literacy, and ships) and then, after establishing their own colonial regimes, induced further depopulation through impoverishment, coercion, and outright murder—yes, he calls it genocide. Europeans committed horrific crimes that were not inevitable and germs enabled them to do it.

... I’ve spent years reading and rereading Diamond’s work, and I’ve found next to no evidence that he even implicitly attempted to give cover to apologists for European empire. I don’t understand why he would have tried to do this: it is the racists and Eurocentrists that he set out to quash in the first place. As you’ve seen above, the claim that Diamond’s work is based on “junk” data appears to be exaggerated, if not altogether specious. If his data (say, on population sizes and losses) is off, it’s off by moderate percentages, not orders of magnitude, and is more likely just uncertain—the critics don’t know either. The only way to avoid speculation about the history of the pre-contact Americas is to say nothing at all. ...

Finally, some good fucking justice for Jared Diamond.

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udnergecko · 11 months ago

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okay so i have a plan

context: we were doing a project in world civ, we're doing this project instead of a test, and we were supposed to work in pairs. but, my teacher had me work alone, because "i'm in this extra program so i can handle it" but that just means i have less time to work on other school work :/

so, i really want to convince like 7 of you to help me rebel against the teacher.

this honestly isn't about the assignment anymore, it's about getting back at my teacher by getting internet people to help lmao

i just need like unformatted slides with info about the following categories, (country i got was Tailand btw):

Geography

a. Neighboring countries b. Weather and climate c. Physical location – tropics / mountainous / desert d. Landscape features History

a. Independence b. Wars c. Important people d. Other facts Politics/Economy

a. Original settlers b. Country’s official name c. Country statistics - is this country divided into provinces, states, and regions? d. Type of government e. Government leader – name and residence (White House, Buckingham Palace, etc.) f. Government headquarters g. Country Flag (Include The flag’s design and meaning) h. Industries that drive the economy i. Tourism – activities and places for tourists to visit j. Type of currency k. Current foreign currency exchange rate Demographics

a. Population b. Transportation & Housing c. Life of an average person d. Cell Phones e. Internet users Language

a. Dominant language of the country b. Other languages spoken in the country Education

a. Education system b. Length of education for the average person c. Importance of education d. Age children start school e. Age children are completed with school f. Literacy – percentage of population that can read and write Food and Culture

a. Type of food b. Examples of typical meals c. Uniqueness about their culture d. Dominant religion Sports and Leisure

a. Sports/games typically played b. Other activities enjoyed by the “locals”

I'll attach a Google Slides. Put your @ on the last slide, I want the whole class to see that I got a bunch of internet people to do it for me. I will format it all!!! Don't worry about that!

Thank you, anyone who does help. Reblog please

#fuck my teacher #fuck my world civ teacher #i hate him #this is honestly just spite #spite

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monriatitans · 5 months ago

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"Ta-Da!" List: Monday, September 2nd

The image was made in Canva; check it out at the [referral] link here!

Monday, September 2, 2024

I share my "Ta-Da!" List every day so everyone gets a daily update and I have a reminder of what I've accomplished.

To learn more about "Ta-Da!" Lists, and other ADHD life hacks, check out Jesse J. Anderson's book Extra Focus: The Quick Start Guide to Adult ADHD.

Abbreviations

- O&T: Opinions & Truth Blog - IG: Instagram - BMAC: Buy Me a Coffee - TDL: Ta-Da! List

"Ta-Da!" List

✧ throughout the day: 1. Chores: did a quick clean of the Keurig; unloaded the dishwasher; did the laundry 2. YouTube: watched and/or listened to: a. Tom's short "Veronica wants to take a vacation_manager_s" b. Jim Sterling's videos "The Literal Doom Of Derivative AI", "The Fucking Terminator", "XP Boosters Are Some Sinister Bullshit", "The Jimquisition Game Of The Year Awards 2020", "Top Ten Sh*ttiest Games Of 2020" and "Marvel's Anthem" c. Zoe Bee's video "YouTube and the Death of Media Literacy" d. Jessie Gender's video "Exploring The 'Gender Critical' Radicalization Pipeline" and "The Complex Transphobia of Dave Chappelle" e. Robert Reich's video "How We Build an Economy That Works" f. Ashley Embers' video "How society is erasing preteen culture and cutting childhood short || Motherhood in Progress" g. Patrick (H) Willems's short "Plot Is Not The Same As Story" 3. O&T: shared yesterday's TDL to Medium, Pillowfort, IG, Ko-fi, and several other platforms, then, later, today's, minus Ko-fi 4. Designs: in Canva, created the TDL Header for today's TDL

—

Well, these are all the updates I had for today! Thank you for reading!

May every decision you make be *in the spirit of fairness* and may the rest of your day *NOT go to $#!7*!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like what you see and want to know when there's more? Click here to subscribe for updates and/or hit the Follow button! Enjoy what I do? Please consider supporting via Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC)! This post contains affiliate links.

Watch MonriaTitans on Twitch, YouTube, and Rumble! For more about MonriaTitans, click here!

--- This can be read on O&T as well!

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dmpassesment2 · 8 months ago

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Reference List

Clark. J. (2022, September 22). Council Post: Why And How You Should Live Stream On Social Media. Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2022/09/20/why-and-how-you-should-live-stream-on-social- media/?sh=2d8a8db932f8

Dunlap, J. & Lowenthal, P. (2016). Getting graphic about infographics: design lessons learned from popular infographics. Journal of Visual Literacy, 35(1), 42–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/1051144X.2016.1205832

Filippo, C. (2024). Filming 101: Types of Camera Shots and Angles. Www.polarpro.com. https://www.polarpro.com/blogs/polarpro/filmmaking-101-types-of-camera-shots-and-angles

Filipe, F., Pires, I., & Gouveia, A. (2023). Why Web Accessibility Is Important for Your Institution. Procedia Computer Science, 219, 20–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2023.01.259

Gachago, D., Livingston, C., & Ivala, E. (2016). Podcasts: A technology for all? British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(5), 859–872. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12483

Johnston, D., Rockhill, C., & Pastore, D. (2021). The effectiveness of podcasts in sport management education part two: A qualitative analysis. The Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 29, 100338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2021.100338

Pattschull, M. (2023) The Importance of Instagram Reels in Your Marketing Strategy. Amplimark. https://www.amplimark.com/the-importance-of-instagram-reels-in-your-marketing- strategy/#:~:text=Reels%20provide%20an%20excellent%20platform

Merhi, M.I. (2015). Factors influencing higher education students to adopt podcast: An empirical study. Computers & Education, 83, pp.32–43. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.12.014.

Restream. (2022, June 1). The Importance of Live Streaming With Neil Patel. Ultimate Live Streaming Hub – Restream Blog. https://restream.io/blog/importance-of-live-streaming-with-neil-patel/

Rolling Stone Culture Council. (2023). How Social Media in Sports Marketing is Changing the Game. Council.rollingstone.com. https://council.rollingstone.com/blog/how-social-media-in-sports-marketing-is-changing-the-game

Tyagi, A., Zhao, J., Patel, P., Khurana, S., & Mueller, K. (2022). Infographics Wizard: Flexible Infographics Authoring and Design Exploration. Computer Graphics Forum, 41(3), 121–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14527

Varyan, A. (2023). The Art of the Interview: Crafting Compelling Documentaries. EditMentor. https://editmentor.com/blog/the-art-of-the-interview-crafting-compelling- documentaries/#:~:text=The%20Role%20of%20Interviews%20in%20Storytelling&text=Through%20 interviews%2C%20filmmakers%20can%20capture

Vasinda, S., & McLeod, J. (2011). Extending Readers Theatre: A Powerful and Purposeful Match With Podcasting. The Reading

Teacher, 64(7), p 486–497. doi: https://doi.org/10.1598/rt.64.7.2.

Yakubu, Y., & Kwong, C. K. (2021). Forecasting the importance of product attributes using online customer reviews and Google Trends. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 171, 120983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120983

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smokeybrandcompositions · 1 year ago

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John Wayne

Year in and year out, Conservatives use the fear of brown people to propel themselves into office. It’s always the same story; “They’re not sending their best”, “They’re taking our jobs”, “they’re crippling the welfare system”, and whatever else. I tune that sh*t out because I’m not an idiot. It’s an election year so the Right has been particularly aggressive with their brown people prejudice. They’re touting a “crisis” at the border, that five thousand people a day are illegally coming over and that’s just not true. It’s wildly inaccurate. In fact, I learned today that this sh*t comes in waves. I listened to a Texan tell me, one that lives in the State and sees this sh*t pretty regularly, that immigration rises during the holidays because, you guessed it, they cross to see family. Like anyone else during the holidays, these people come over, stay for a week, and then leave. The drop these cats are seeing in the January numbers are because the holidays are over, not because of Greg Abbott’s harsh stance on border security It’s just the natural flow of family exchange for Christmas. You catch a plane to see your aunt in Chicago, they swim across the Rio Grande to so the same. And just like you catch a return flight home, they wade across to the Mexico bank when they tire of all that extended family time. He also mentioned that there would be a spike in the spring. Why? Construction season. These people come over, get picked up as day laborers, then go home. They are temporary illegals. Listening to this man speak, and knowing what my friends abroad think of the US, it immediately dawned on me that most of these “illegals”, probably don’t even want to stay. They come over, work the fields, build a few houses, stay with family for a bit, then go back home. It’s no different than an Asian family sending money back to the home country or an exchange student sending back gifts. The way the Right wing media tells it, those five thousand a day, stay and mooch off our system. That they are parasites on the teat of Big Government. I would posited a guess that at least two-thirds of that five thousand, go back home after a month or two to however long their particular labor seasons lasts. No one abroad wants to actually LIVE in the US. It’s f*cking horrible here, especially if you have an semblance of melanin in your skin.

I’m a huge black dude who is native to the US. I’ve lived here all my life and have seen, firsthand, how f*cking stupid it is here. I’ve watched as out “education” system gets dumber and more propagandized, as time has gone on. Hell, since I graduated high school twenty years ago, sh*t has gotten worse. Common Core Math is the dumbest sh*t I’ve ever seen in my life and the fact here is this ridiculous belief that Critical Race Theory is being taught to grade school kids, is insane. Bro, my niece’s history book refers to the Transatlantic Slave Trade as a f*cking cultural exchange. Do you have any idea how absurd that is? Red States across the nation are declining to teach anything about the Civil Rights Movement, outside of the whitewashed and sanitized version of MLK, because of white tears. More than that, our “education” system is constructed to actually educate. It’s not built to help teach you how to think critically or properly comprehend information. It’s there to make sure you are indoctrinated into the School-Work-Prison system we have here. There’s a reason you go to school for eight hours a day, have an hour of yard time, need to ask permission to use the rest room, and stay sequestered in social blocks most of the day. What’s the difference between desk, a cubicle, an a cell? They don’t teach you anything meaningful like taxes, self-defense, basic auto repair, or computer literacy. They did all of that when I was young, but not anymore. The first budgets to get slashed, every year, are Social Security and Education. Why? Because you don’t need to be intelligent to be a cog in the machine for the entirety of your life. They just move you from one institution to another, until you f*cking die. Our education system is designed to kill any semblance of free thinking and to encourage conformity. You are to take direction, never question it. It’s no wonder these people on the Right, who covet a Strong Man and value Cults of Personality over actual leaders, take to such egregious half-truths.

Admittedly, it never dawned on me to ask if all these illegals actually stayed and I tend to question everything. I just didn’t see it as that big of a problem because, in my experience, most illegals are hardworking, considerate, and go out of their way to avoid the system lest they be targeted. I’m from California. I know a bit about this immigration “crisis.” I live it, too, but, unlike Texas, I don’t care like that. I’m not laboring in that Cali heat during the summer. I did that when I was young. Use to work for a lawn care service in my youth. If someone else wants to do it, they can have it. That’s the funniest thing about all of this, the “illegals” WANT to do that sh*t while the “legals”, don’t. Florida is experiencing firsthand what happens when you turn hostile toward the people who do those quiet, unsung, jobs. Construction has come to a halt. Crops are rotting on the vine. Sure, DeSantis got his wish and bused out all the “illegals” or whatever, but not their State has reached an impasse. Oranges are literally rotting on the vine because all those white people who had a problem with the browns during harvest season, refuse to get out there an pick fruit. Hell, most are even willing to pay taxes out of there slave wages. They don’t mind contributing to a country which gave them more financial opportunity than the one they left. You have a temporary workforce who are willing to d this back-breaking job you outright refuse to do, in horrific seasonal conditions, and, instead of giving them an opportunity to do so in an acceptable, legal fashion, persecute them because they hopped a border? That doesn’t make any sense, especially when you take into account that the government, a bipartisan coalition, set up legislation to do just that. There was a plan on the books, a whole budget ready to be implemented to “secure our border”, and the Right sabotaged it because their Orange Hitler told them to. Because this immigration bogey man is all they have to run on. I don’t think Trump is getting re-elected, he’s alienated too many independents and women, but it’s nuts to see so many Republicans bend the knee, know it’s only in his best interests, not the country. That legislation on the border was the strongest sh*t put forth in decades and the Republicans, after negotiating so many concessions from the Democrats, effectively killed it. Boggles the goddamn mind, man. And that brings me to my whole point: Stupid people are being tricked by this blatant propaganda.

A guy I know was radicalized when he moved to Idaho, one of the Reddest, Whitest, most Religious States in the union. They are known as the potato capital in the Union so, guess what the second highest demographic there is? Before, this dude was absolutely in love with a Mexican woman. She was his unicorn. After that move, and after his second wife cheated on him (just like his first), he became this Far Right, conspiracy believing, Fox News watching, Arm Chair Patriot who believes in his Country, His military, and his God. Dude is also a prime example of the cog pour education system kicks out. He was a C/D student, which speaks to his lack of comprehension but ability to make orders, who graduated High School by the seat of his pants and opted to join the military, another institution where you are literally conditioned to take order. He told me that he loved the military life specifically FOR that. He didn’t like to think and found it easier to take orders. This is a man who had to ask his father for advice at every major life choice, a person who had to have his mother or wife, but up his steak because he refused to eat any food off the bone. Dude refused to cash his Pandemic check because he didn’t need no handouts, or whatever, even though that check was basically the government giving him back his own money. Just stupid sh*t born of immaturity and a complete lack of comprehension, just how our education system raised him up to be. This dude doesn’t have the ability to think for himself, he can’t dive deep into a subject because he was never taught patience or given the tools to actually research properly. He blindly believes whatever strong, male, energy is currently in his immediate space and defers, like a puppy, to it. His masculinity is tied to someone else’s and it’s jarring to see. He fetishizes black bodies, basketball is his favorite sport, but he doesn’t value black lives. We had a NBA Bubble long exchange about the civil unrest after George Floyd’s death and he took the cliche, milquetoast, Conservative stance of, “I believe they are right to be angry but riots are bad and don’t work because they alienate people from your message.” Nah, they alienate white people from the message because seeing a bunch of black people out in force, terrifies them. Riots work. It’s why there are Gay Rights. It’s literally how this country started. Basically this dude I know, is the exact face of the modern Republican proletariat and that goes a LONG way to explain why some asshole like Trump can strangle the entire GOP to near death, in service to his own ego.

The bulk of the Republican voter base are like the dude I know. They’re idiots. It’s not their fault, they were trained to be that way. Sh*t started early, in the pulpits of church, carried over through school, perpetuated once they entered the work force or military, and solidified once they entered middle age. These people are sheep, bred to prop up the elites. They just accept whatever Fox News or Donald Trump spoon feeds them, because they’ve been doing that their entire lives. They want the Strong Man. They need the orders. They can’t function without them. Plus, all these brown people are coming over here and breeding out their pure, white, blood. Poisoning the gene pool and sh*t. They can roll my burritos, but I’ll be damned if they roll in the hay with my daughter. Even though it takes two to tango. That doesn’t matter because Fentanyl is flooding over the border, never mind that the opioid crisis was engineered by Big Pharma and the over prescription of Xanax. The “Crisis” at he border is something only Trump can solve, even though Biden had his pen ready to sing that bi-partisan plan which the Right killed. They even released it to the public so they could see for themselves where that loot was going but that didn’t matter. The Sheeple didn’t believe anything the Swamp was trying to slide by them, because their kowtowing leaders, those weak ass Strong Men they crave, told them not to. These people don’t have the capacity to think for themselves and the ones who do, use that ability to grift. People like Ben Shapiro aren’t stupid. They know what they say is incendiary and ridiculous but he gets paid to say that dumb sh*t, because it resonates with dumb people. Tucker Carlson is a bigot who gave Putin time on his show, and exposure to his gullible ass audience, so that the Strongest Man would push his absurd, revisionist, history directly to the most susceptible idiots in the idiot bunch. And they ate that sh*t up. Carlson is joke and has done irreparable damage to this country with that stunt but only people who understand consequence, individuals who fight for the right to think for themselves, understand that. It’s the same reason these people are so easily spooked by the phantom brown boogeyman every election year. They don’t want to read the legislation and are too idiotic to complacent to ask why? They feel safe in the arms of the Strong Man, even as said Man slowly closes his grip, choking them to death with that strength they long for.

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smokeybrand · 1 year ago

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John Wayne

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rangirizjohn29 · 1 year ago

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" 5 POEMS"

Title: Force of Circumstance (Santong Paspasan)

Jose F. Lacaba

Literary Theory: Reader-Response

Because the explanation of this poetry is based on feedback from readers, it is reader-response. since I get to read the poetry and have the option to comment on it.

Title: What must be believed in (Ang Dapat Paniwalaan)

Jose F. Lacaba

Literary Theory: Cultural Studies

The argument made by the research supports Cultural Studies, as they see the poetry as the reason why their society has advanced to this level.

Title: On the beat of a newspaper delivery (Sa Pagkamatay ng Isang Newsboy)

Lamberto E. Antonio

Literary Theory: The New Criticism

This poetry, in my opinion, is new review since it expresses emotions.

Title: Night of a Construction Worker (Gabi ng Isang Piyon)

Lamberto E. Antonio

Literary Theory: Marxist Theory

Marxist theory was applied in this poetry because, according to some, the term "construction worker" suggests a lack of literacy, and Marxist theory links these kinds of behaviors.

Title: Mareng Mensiya

Fanny A. Garcia

Literary Theory: Practical Criticism

Because the poetry has already been described and the argument is clear, the author doesn't need to understand the poem in order to apply practical criticism to it.

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pythagoreanwhump · 2 years ago

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9. Education, training or literacy

Are kids taught torture is good actually or just to not question authority? Does the language restrict thinking and expression like in 1984?

Yes i do compare everything to 1984

Ahahaha valid and yeah I'm gonna start by answering the language and 1984 thing because OH BOY i have OPINIONS

like LOOK. I think the Sapir Whorf hypothesis is cool and totally makes sense. A person's thoughts and and perceptions are ABSOLUTELY influenced by the words available to describe them, the structure that their thoughts are organized into to be able to be expressed by language (honestly that sentence ((not,, actually a sentence either)) probably didn't make sense but wtv), and how different parts of the language relate to itself. But I think it's KINDA BULLSHIT to say that language can just strictly control thought. Languages evolve naturally and you can't police exactly how it's used. People think outside of words. People invent new words. Just look at fucking France lmao it is simply not possible to control exactly how people use language

anyway, rant over, back to the VMD

the VMD language is honestly just like,, very natural lmao, I didn't really try to play with any funky linguistics yknow weird stuff with it. It's a combination of two real existing languages (Kalaallisut aka Greenlandic and Icelandic) and it's just like. It's pretty normal. There are certainly some Quirks that relate to their culture a bit, and I made it RIDICULOUSLY agglutinative just for shits and giggles, but like honestly it's just a normal ass language

another reason that like language controlling thoughts wouldn't really fit into the vmd is like, honestly you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that isn't bilingual, and even those that can't speak another language fluently have definitely been exposed to other languages and have had to learn one in school for many years. Like you can't really be like, oh our language controls your thoughts if people can just, use a different language lmao. Especially with military officers, like, they're probably the people that you'd expect to be the most "brainwashed" or indoctrinated or whatever you wanna call it, and officers are all required to be fluent in at least one foreign language

anyway, so I guess this is a good spot to transition into education. First off, education on languages ig? Yeah like in primary education, all schools teach a foreign language, but kids don't usually get a choice in which one. Sometimes the language that different schools offer is a factor in parents choosing what school to send their child to. In secondary education, students get to choose what languages they're studying, and they also don't have to learn it like, all the time. There's just a minimum number of classes they have to take over six years.

education in general, honestly, pretty great! like everything is free and they're generally pretty chill, there's not like too much pressure to yknow go to like a High School and uni and whatnot, skilled labour and like polytechnic/college education is very much valued and you're very unlikely to be judged by many people for not going to postsec at all. hmmmmm it was honestly more of a mess before the revolution, but look for all their faults the military did make education a LOT better for everyone, and honestly like if I get into the history this is gonna get way too long. But yeah the way things stand during the rule of the junta, there are like? sort of? no private schools? like ig they have like, charter schools sort of. that kind of do their special thing and are competitive to get into, usually with entrance tests and whatnot, but it's all tax funded. The military government has really tried to make education accessible to everyone regardless of socioeconomic status, but u n f o r t u n a t e l y yknow if you're wanted for terrorism you're probably not sending your kids to schools run by the people that want to torture you. and again yeah this would get WAY too long if I get into like what the rebels were doing for education later on

as for the torture. well. i mean. it's complicated. the VMD just,, culturally,, have always had a Thing for like physical pain as punishment and like a way to show loyalty and whatever, but it was never shit like what the military was doing now. The current narrative fed to children just tend to be stuff like oh yknow they're bad people who deserve it, they knew the risks and they basically chose to get tortured for their cause and it doesn't matter what their cause is (it's bad btw you're not supposed to support it) they made that choice themselves so it's okay to torture them, and yeah definitely don't question authority unless you wanna get tortured too. Within the military though, like with the ""hazing"" that's basically straight up torture of lower ranking members and cadets, yeah again they have a long history of it and it's always presented as like, oh if you want the power and honor of being in the military you're gonna have to give something up and that something is your pain, and it's just very normalized

#worldbuilding #VMD #ask games #asks answered

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transcendentcacophony · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Worldbuilding: Storytelling with Geography: Lunar Lakes

So I've been thinking about worldbuilding for awhile, and one of the things that I like about certain worlds is that they tell a story with their geography. I think Lunar Lakes is one of these worlds.

Image: An overview of Lunar Lakes from Sims 3

All Lunar Lake images will be from here

This is going to draw from James C. Scott's The Art of Not Being Governed and the concept of Zomia

So one of the central concepts behind Zomia and The Art is the idea that not everybody wants to be a part of centralized governments or nation-states.

Traditionally, most academic fields have held that as societies centralize around agricultural centers that evolve into urban centers, they draw everybody to them through some kind of unexplained magnetism as they gradually expand. It's usually held that this is because the centralizing power of agriculture allows for population booms not supported by hunting-and-gathering. At least one philosopher <cough> Daniel Quinn <cough>1 this is a result of these populations controlling access to food. Not just surpluses of food, but access to food at all, forcing those within their borders to join the system or die.

This idea that agricultural societies are somehow fundamentally better. We see this reflected in different cultural evolution models (all of which are horribly racist but still manage to hang on in weird places, particularly developmental models). As such, the shift from hunting-and-gathering to sedentary agriculture tends to be heralded as a good thing in most history text books and is pretty much always seen as a step towards "modernization.2" But what if you don't want that? What if you have zero interest in joining the agricultural community and implied state control?3 What options do you have then?

You, then, may be interested in Zomia or one of the other extra-territorial spaces that function similarly.

Image: A village in the mountains

So what is Zomia? Zomia encompasses a large territory that ranges across Southeast Asia up into Tibet. Its primary defining feature is its rugged terrain and various populations that have no interest in different state-sponsored "civilizing" projects. While different agricultural centers expand outward to fill the lowland regions seeking to bully those they encounter along the way into joining, various people along the way say "f*ck it" and go up into the mountains. Why? Because the rugged terrain makes it harder for their valley-based neighbors to control them while providing plenty of hiding places push back against their expansion.

Image: A map of the Zomia area highlighting the Southeast Asian and Himalayan Massifs, areas encompassing the geography of Zomia itself.

Agriculture tends to lock people into place and makes them easier to control, therefore nation-states interested in keeping track of large populations have a vested interest in convincing people to farm. Buggering off into the mountains offsets this. Agriculture isn't necessarily harder in these mountainous areas4, but you do have different crops as a result of altitudinal zonation and a fair amount of people choose to engage in animal husbandry instead because the high altitudes impact calorie consumption as your body spends more energy keeping you warm.

This impacts cultures in these regions as well. People may choose to define themselves in opposition to the lowland culture they are avoiding. They may hybridize with cultures already in the mountains, create new languages, or define themselves by the fact they are there for political or semi-political reasons and expressly avoiding the control of an outside party, even if that outside party is the nation-state they are legally considered a part of. There is also a tendency of these cultures to discard literacy for orality, in part because orality is easier to carry around and in part because it marks them as Other compared to their lowland counterparts. It also gives you a since of control over your culture itself, as orality can't be shared unless you want it to whereas almost anyone can learn a writing system and open a book.

So what's this got to do with Lunar Lakes? Let's look at LL more closely, shall we?

Image: The downtown region from Lunar Lakes

The most densely developed part of Lunar Lakes is easily this "downtown" district in the lowlands region. This area contains most of the community lots for the world, and, most tellingly, City Hall and the Perigee, which we're told in the original blurb brought the (human) sims to Lunar Lakes to begin with.

Image: The Rim

There is a little bleed over of rabbitholes from the city center onto the Rim, a slightly elevated area just above it, but these are no where near as "mountainous" as the craters we'll get to in a minute.

Image: The Canals

Another defining feature of the lowland central area are these canals. As these canals do not extend to a beach or other waterway, they can't be for trade, thereby lending themselves to the idea that they are intended for agricultural uses. They could, of course, predate the colony, but that doesn't change the intent.

Image: The Crystal Mine, the Outpost, and the Depot

On the backside of the craters, we have the Crystal Mine, the Outpost, and the Depot. We're told in the original backstory blurb for the world on the Store page that the residents had to harness the crystals to to make their colony sustainable, but it feels abandoned now. Given the importance of the mine in the early days of the colony, it makes sense they'd have a transport depot here for the workers and an outpost, possibly for the military, to protect it, especially if the world was inhabited and the indigenous people wanted nothing to do with them or actively apposed them.

Image: The Craters from Lunar Lakes

Which brings us finally to the craters themselves. Here's where Zomia comes in. If Lunar Lakes was inhabited and if the native population had no interest in joining the colonists or being exploited by them, where would they go? The craters, of course! This would also hold true for anyone who didn't want to fall in line with the colonial leadership among the human sims themselves. We know the Louie family, for example, had to move to the craters after they were exiled by Patricia Cross, the current colonial leader. It therefore stands to reason that, even if the people who live here are colonists, this is where they are expected to go if they are exiled or want to get away from the political milieu of the central powers in the downtown district.

Image: Suburban Subspace lot from Lunar Lakes

And, of course, architecturally, this is where we got those distinctive mushroom houses, which again, suggests an alternative development of this region compared to the lowlands even if the people here are exiled colonists, deviants, etc.

Regardless, we end up with a setting that is rife for internal worldbuilding and storytelling based on its geography. If you add an alien population seeking to escape SimEarth colonization by fleeing to the craters, it establishes a political backdrop for stories, making the world feel more lived in and providing a ready-made backstory. This is one of the things I think is drastically missing in the Sims 4 with their itty-bitty neighborhoods and lack of connecting spaces.

Anyways, these are the things I think about when worldbuilding myself. What story does my world tell geographically? Does it have a built in backstory represented by its geography? Are the different regions/neighborhoods connected in a way that makes cohesive sense? Are their other worlds you think do a good job of storytelling with their designs?

If you build worlds, do you take into account the storytelling potential of your geography? Why or why not? If you play in worlds like Lunar Lakes, does the geography inform your storytelling? Does it help build a metadiscourse around your game? Are there other worlds that inspire your gameplay with their layouts?

Edited in response to @nornities excellent feedback.

1) This is not meant as an endorsement of all of Quinn's arguments; he's got a weird overpopulation theory built into his writing that's a little too close to Malthusian for my liking, but I'm not one to throw out the baby with the bathwater, as it were.

2) Ever notice how "modernization" and "development" are always fundamentally anchored in how Europe moved from feudalism to imperialism to democracy etc.? Yeah, that's the remnants of that "cultural evolution" model I'm talking about. "You're not successful until you look like us!" "Take these developmental loans from the World Bank or the IMF! We promise the strings attached are for your benefit too!" "What do you mean you want to skip industrialization and natural resource extraction and invest in your environment, happiness, and long-term sustainability? You'll never be like us that way! You're a failed state! Ignore the coup in the background we swear we had nothing to do with!"

3) This is the section that was edited after @nornities pointed out that it could be read to imply that non-agricultural societies don't have taxes, class warfare, epidemics, subjugation, slavery, conscription, etc. That was not the intention, although it is clearly stated in Scott's original work that he considers these and other negative societal effects to be the direct result of such "civilizing projects." It was not my intent to perpetuate that idea as these things do happen in non-agricultural societies, so I have changed the original wording. Thank you, @nornities

4) I also forgot to mention the clear exception to this: the Incan Empire. Unlike most empire models, the Inca engaged in a top-down society (literally) that was based in the mountains and expanded downward and outward over time. They were predated by two earlier Andean civilizations.

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nightcoremoon · 4 years ago

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it's evident people haven't watched enough kids media to adequately understand just what constitutes a kids show as opposed to a show that kids can watch and be entertained by

when I was a kid I watched king of the hill and blues clues (among other things). king of the hill is NOT a kids show by any stretch of the imagination; it is an adult animation, replete with fairly heavy subject matter, sexual themes, political humor, cultural references that kids won't understand, discussion of religion in the modern day, depression and suicidal thoughts, adultery, puberty and sexual awakenings, body image, propane, propane accessories, and ultimately above all else what it means to be family. and blues clues is a show about a man who plays with a shovel & pail, talks to his condiments and mailbox, and sometimes he teleports into the felt dimension, all while playing Sherlock Holmes hercule poirot with his dog, and teaching kids how to count and draw and recognize colors and learn their ABCs. do you see the fucking difference? no? then I'll make it more clear.

dora the explorer & go diego go, mickey mouse clubhouse, handy manny, octonauts, bob the builder, super why, wild kratts, zoboomafoo, jojo's circus, wow wow wubbzy, stanley, doc mcstuffins, max & ruby, wonder pets, bubble guppies, ni hao khai lan, backyardigans, little einsteins, caillou (ugh) and p*w p*trol (double ugh), these are all undeniably kids shows. their audience is children (and the occasional adult by age with severe intellectual disabilities) and maybe the parents whose brains are too fried to care what's on the tv. these shows main purpose is to educate while entertaining on subjects one would encounter in preschool and kindergarten. counting 1-10, ABCs, basic color, basic language, basic intrapersonal skills, basic emotional literacy, problem solving, using your imagination, what sounds do animals make, breaking the fourth wall to ask the audience to answer what's 2+2 or tell them a lesson they learned today like I LEARNED TO NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER or some simple message like that. it's always light, there's no edgelord grimdark "what if they were dead the whole time" bullshit. it's just good clean simple wholesome [except for paw patrol] programs for kids to be distracted for a little bit of time, while also letting them walk away having said they learned something. at least half of the time dedicated to every single one of these shows is devoted to the same shit over and over again. I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map WE FUCKING GET IT YOURE THE MAP! backpack backpack I'm the backpack loaded up with things and knickknacks too, anything that you might need I've got inside for you. we did it we did it we did it HOORAY! come on vamanos everybody let's go, come on let's get to it, I know that we can do it,

WHERE ARE WE GOING

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

THESE SONGS ARE BURNED INTO MY BRAIN AND THEYLL BE STUCK IN MY HEAD UNTIL I DIE

say click take a pic, the hot dog dance, CAN HE FIX IT???, pizza! spaghetti!, THE DOC IS IN AND SHELL FIX YOU UP, max & ruby ruby & max max & ruby ruby & max MAX & RUBY RUBY & MAX MAX & RUBY RUBY & MAX, wonder pets wonder pets we're on our way to help the friend and save the day, we're not too big and we're not too tough but when we work together we've got the right stuff, goooOOO WONDER PETS YAAAAY~, yoooour backyard friends the backyardigans (weve got the whole wide world in our yard to explore, thATS WHY EVERY DAY WEEEEERE BACK FOR MOOOORE), were going on a trip in our little rocket ship SOARING THROOOOOUGH THE SKY!!! little einsteins!

I swear to god I've been forced to watch so much children's television in my life it's no wonder there's no room left for serotonin executive function or the ability to speak to morons

point is I know my way around kids shows. my sisters were born in 98, 02, 05, 06, 10, and 18, I think, I don't even know because they're all a blur, I'm literally closer in age to my parents than to my youngest sibling, I never stopped being exposed to kids shows. I know what is and is not a kids show.

adventure time? not a kids show even though kids watch it. it's a "for everyone" show. it's got a target audience of 100% of the planet. steven universe? not a kids show even though kids watch it. miraculous ladybug? not a kids show even though kids watch it. scooby doo? not a kids show even though kids watch it. I'm not discussing the history of adult acceptance of animation, adult animation, or anime, so don't ask. dexter's laboratory. the grim adventures of billy & mandy. codename kids next door. teen titans. fairly oddparents. kim possible. invader zim. AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER. totally spies. courage the cowardly dog. the proud family. SPONGEBOB F*ING SQUAREPANTS. powerpuff girls. foster's home for imaginary friends. oh yeah you know what's coming next. my little goddamn pony friendship is mother fucking magic is not. a. kids. show. even though kids can watch it. it is a cartoon. it is an everyone show. that's why it's disingenuous and fucking stupid to decry any fan over the age of 7 as a pedophile and a weirdo creep; it participates in the infantilization of femininity. why is it ok for 20somethings to keep watching aang and squidward and finn & jake and zim and "return the slab" and everyone's totally fine wth that but when it's twilight sparkle suddenly everyone's like whoa you're a huge fucking loser for watching this girly wussy baby show for girly wussy babies. oh some bronies are sex crazed perverts? I'm sorry have you seen just how much porn there is for spongebob? oh some bronies are cringe? I'm sorry have you met half the steven universe fandom? oh some bronies are fascist rick sanchez kinnies with fedoras and katanas? BREAKING BAD FANS, HELLO!?!?!?

this is such a stupid tiring boring argument. maybe magic talking horses being friends and turning their friendship into magic rainbow nuclear fucking arms and blasting the evil out of a demon and turning her into the coolest fucking half-unicorn biker lesbian in the world is something that brings me, and adult, pure wholesome joy, in between bojack horseman and dark souls and breaking bad and deftones and fallout new vegas and jojo and cannibal corpse and other bleak depressing edgy shit that also brings me comfort. and MAYBE me at 16 starting to watch MLP:FIM becoming finally comfortable with the outward public expression of "traditionally feminine" interests is the main reason why I realized I was a girl when I did, and MAYBE I just like how pretty the colorful ponies look, AND MAYBE I KIN WITH ONE OR TWO OR EIGHT CHARACTERS, WHAT OF IT?

AND MAYBE ITS LITERALLY THE BEST LONG RUNNING FANTASY TV SERIES ON THE MARKET RIGHT NOW* SINCE GAME OF THRONES FUCKING SUCKS

but whatever, kids watch it sometimes so it's illegal for anyone who's not a kid to enjoy it, but only if it's something girly because liking girly things is bad because girliness is inherently bad, and the only things that are good have predominantly male casts*. right? right??? wrong, fucker. g4mlp has so much more in common with adventure time & atla than with blues clues or dora the fucking explora...r.

but keep in mind I'm saying this while hugging a blues clues plushie my grandma gave me for valentine's day because it reminds her of when I was a baby because I may not watch blues clues but it still means a lot to me for nostalgia and is 50% of the reason why I love ray charles. kids media isn't necessarily bad. I still do enjoy watching it with my little sisters. all this is is me being anal about categorization because I'm autistic and I LIVE for categorizing everything.

*besides atla obviously

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irkenheretic · 4 years ago

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GKxlgzlhcp MY TAGS ON THE FIC REC POST WERE NOT MEANT TO BE GUILT TRIPPY I PROMMISE i just want to write something stupid good so fucking bad!! And you have rly good taste!!! In your opinion what makes a good iz fic??

no no dont worry i didnt take it as guilt trippy!! tbh the reason space trash isnt on there is bc im.... not caught up on it sdjkfkjsdnf i KEEP SAYING “im gonna read space trash!” and then i do not read space trash. rip that and a bunch of other series i want to read and then just forget to. ive read the first chapter of space trash, fucking loved it, wished there was more Right That Fucking Second, and then when more came i just did not read it because the things i do make no sense to anyone, least of all myself

and ooohhh ok so the main thing that makes a good iz fic to me is dialogue and characterization. like, if i cannot imagine these characters doing these actions, it’s a bust. and really i can suspend my disbelief for pretty much anything as long as the characters stay acting like themselves and their voices are good. my general rule of thumb is if i cant imagine the dialogue in the characters’ voices, its a bust. i try to keep this in mind while writing and imagining the characters’ voices as i go

(pretty much every fic on the rec list fucking nails this but im gonna shine a spotlight on canvas because if it didnt fucking nail the narrative voice then the entire thing would fall apart because it’s first person and the concept is one you need to get the reader used to, so diving right into it is a risk)

another tenant is like.... ok you know ur tags on that “the tallest r two different people” post? shout out to basic media literacy??? that. some people just extremely miss the mark on the characters so hard it makes my brain hurt. even some really popular stuff imo just, COMPLETELY is off the mark and i cant get into it at all. if i cant tell that you know basic facts about the characters just from reading the text you have presented then maybe it is not very good imo. if i need like, the text and 10 metas specifically about the text and an additional 5 metas to explain the characters in the text just to understand like, one fic, then.... imma keep it real i am not reading All This Shit: By You

(a good example is the ponytail dib au- you CAN read the answers to the asks dissecting the characters and how they do things, but the au itself doesn’t seem threadbare and confusing if you don’t. the motivations of the characters are either very clear, or its clear that they will be revealed eventually. i will refrain from saying what i think is a bad example because i do not feel like dropping a molotov on this fandom tonight)

a third tenant is pacing. i can really get into whatever wack ass plot you want me to get into (barring the first 2 tenants are upheld) but if you try to rocket me there too fast im gonna go “what?? what the FUCK???” ESPECIALLY if you’re introducing new info because i will 100% get overwhelmed if its too fast. or inversely i will get bored if its too slow. if it takes like 10 chapters to actually get to the main plot then i will lose interest, especially if there is zero foreshadowing that anything is going to happen at any point. again this is something i have to be careful with because ANX is like, 95% new information and characters so lets just say i know about this fucking intimately at this point so its like.... really easy for me to read a fic and go “holy shit too fast too fast too fucking fast” or “um.. *checks watch* wheres . the plot”

(ersatz has stellar pacing honestly, the plot moves along and balances out the angst and emotions tremendously. the emotional stakes are there as a breather for the serious mystery plot, the serious mystery plot serves to break up emotions and not have them go stale- ill explain later)

and i have some personal disliked tropes like the trope where zim 100% assimilates into human culture to the point where u cant even tell that hes irken anymore, it feels like he gets so watered down and just becomes.... safe

or when an author makes alternate names for red and purple (which is fine in of itself) and then immediately switches to them in the narrative without giving readers a chance to acclimate. bonus if both names are switched at the same time and im like huh what who where please give me time wha

i do not like tall zim and refuse to read any content with it and thats just a pet peeve of mine honestly

ANGST is a huge thing of mine. ive been writing and reading angst for 10 years now so i have a lot of gripes on how its done. the number one thing i do not like with angst is that at some point, it “goes stale” as i call it. what does that mean? it means the work is all angst all the time, that readers get fatigued to the constant barrage of sadness so it just feels... mundane.

i also really dislike Sadboy Angst. again what in gods name am i talking about? its when angst is shown with the characters just kinda, schmooping around. again thats fine in small doses but if its most of the work and every character has depression, then it stagnates. hard.

when the time comes is a bit of a paradox in that zim does schmoop around for a lot of it but dib is a very active character so imo its never stagnant. there’s always a little bit of hope that maybe things will get better...but they dont. (until the most recent chapters it seems) and it never increases too exponentially.

idk, whump is a bit of a weird beast because the point is to be all angst all the time, but i go into whump knowing what im going to get. if there is an actual serious heavystakes plot and the characters are just sad all the time, im gonna wonder where the hell that plot went. a story with a more simple easygoing plot works a bit better as an angstfest because theres no looming threat or mystery. if wttc had a greater-scope plot id be ripping my hair out at the 3 straight chapters of zim angst, but its a fic about zim and dib having a relationship together and thats pretty much it.

also this is more a medium thing but schmoopfests in comics and fics are totally different beasts bc at least in fics theres an internal monolouge but in comics its just “zim laying there sadly” and fics update with 1000-ish words per chapter and comics update a panel at a time. in my opinion (and i am NOT a professional at comics) the t92k1 guy was amazing at comic-based angst. fucking stellar. why am i talking about comics this is a post about fics

anyway yeah those r my Rules As To What Makes A Good Zim Fic. i am the ultimate authority and i am also secretly jhonen vasquez pretending to be non-binary and also 20 and from new jersey so you all have to listen to me

in all honestly i have read fics that have broken some of these rules (mainly the one on dialouge) because i just really liked other aspects of them- hell even fics on the rec list dont hit all these checkmarks so my real advice is dont stress about some arbitrary Standard Of Goodness because it doesnt exist, not even with my picky ass. im not gonna look for High Art when i read fics, just when i stumble across something i sing the praises of, ill sing! and even if its not High Art or perfect but it still does some things well, its worth a shoutout in my book

also i will read space trash i promist

#also also ur rly cool we should b friends if u want #now calling the tallest #aperfecttimeforscreaming

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