#I just do it for love of the game

[gracebutitsasecret]

It’s strange, living in the times we do, when what you want to do is to make art.

I make music, but have wanted to make art in various disciplines since I was very small. I’ve always looked up to artists, especially ones making art with explicitly political implications, because on some level I believed art was important and powerful enough to effect change. So self-expression has kind of become the process around which I’ve built my understanding of myself, such that making art (self-expression’s most pretentious form) has become my reason for living.

But in trying to make my art I’ve realized that art, even speaking truth to power, won’t save us. No album, no art, no truth, no matter how good or well expressed, will ever actually change anything by itself. Because I think while I was right that art that speaks truth to power is important, it doesn’t actually *possess* power. Cause art doesn’t have power, people do, and people don’t do things because art tells them to, they do what they can when they think it will benefit them.

I’ve seen too many examples of good words and good ideas failing to reach, and failing to fundamentally change anything. I think our society’s (and my own personal) obsession with self-expression is simply a reflection of the deeply rooted western fixation on the self over the society. I think the reason why art is limited, is the same reason why its creation is especially promoted under capitalist hegemony:

because it’s passive.

Cause art is something they can package, market, and sell; a product for you to consume. But the only avenue that art can give you is to go make art for yourself. But when expressing yourself is the only praxis you have, when words are all you got, you can only move in a space that the physical world can’t touch. But the world is where the people live, and the people must sum their power in the world if it is to change. I think this obsession with self-expression is holding us back, because the focus on ideas bleeds focus from the acts. It’s the difference between artists and activists; between armchairs and armed resistance: that latter can change the world and the other can only at best describe it. So if they can they’ll keep you on websites like this one, they say publish more words, make more media, create more “content” because if we’re doing that than we aren’t in the streets making changes. And I know this is true because we all call it rightly ridiculous when conservatives on nightly news complain about rap (they’re just racist). Because we all know that art reflects the world not the other way around. Life only imitates art because living beings wrote art down.

So I gotta ask: what is a kid to do? When art is your love and your passion but is ultimately so limited? Should I burn my guitars, and start bombing pipelines? (I mean yeah probably but lemme finish)

I think after some consideration that art does have its place, but only as its own kinda comfort, not an actual agent of change. Cause I know music saved my life, and I know it’s saved so many others cause people will tell you so. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you a story about what art has meant to them personally. Cause I think the *personal* nature of art is both its limitation and its purpose. Cause my music will never change the world, but it’ll be there when you need it. When life is chaotic and insane, when people are cruel and cowardly, when systems keep you underfoot, and when you feel like an alien in our own skin, the right words could keep you going, could make you feel less alone in your feelings. Maybe this is my cop out, my excuse for why I keep doing it, but I think art ain’t something to die for, it’s something you live to experience.

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[watmalik]

Wolverine being a confirmed boy kisser by Hugh Jackman.

[humming-fly]

was anyone gonna tell me shadow saved rouge's life in sa2 or was I just supposed to find that out playing the game myself

(this worked out as a rather fitting closer for the Final Day in Year of Shadow haha, hope ya'll have a fun new year! 🎉🎉🎉)

[chloesimaginationthings]

He has no mouth but he must scream in FNAF..

[sunflowerius]

my favorite thing about andreil is that they spent the first two books observing each other like strange bugs in a lab going "mmm how peculiar" at each others every move only to come to the conclusion "wow this dudes 100% not all there. i should be gay about it" and then they are and its the healthiest thing you've ever seen

[musubiki]

my favorite fields of mistria boys 🥰

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars and Time!

[puppypawbz]

me when i see my most profitable customer

[kazehita]

more traveler than rogue

[ashwii]

I love this stupid game and its stupid dialog options, it's the best part

[egophiliac]

tsum events really are just the best, huh

[shadowinthefire]

[araneapeixes]

happy dragon age month, i miss my homies so I doodled them in some simple camp clothes (bc im bg3pilled)

[theribbajack]

"Now, the vow will be honoured, and my Lord brother's soul will return."

Radahn stans keep winning, but I personally am in Miyazaki's walls rn

[chloesimaginationthings]

"They call it the MANGLE" - FNAF 2 phone guy