#I love research

[shirazzart]

FACE REVEAL!!!! i did a presentation today about capitalism and consumerism in the hunger games, pretty proud of how it went:-)

[brightlotusmoon]

Marijuana Users Have More Empathy And A Greater Understanding Of Other People's Emotions, Study Finds

Researchers said the results suggest a potential association between cannabis use and empathy, though they caution that further research is needed to fully understand the interactions “since many other factors may be at play.”

In attempting to explain the findings, the team of neuroscientists noted that a part of the brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), “is a region that is prone to the effects of cannabis consumption and is also greatly involved in empathy, which is a multi-component process that can be influenced in different ways.”

“Given that the ACC is one of the main areas that possess CB1 [cannabinoid] receptors and is heavily involved in the representation of the affective state of others,” the study says, “we believe that the differences shown by regular cannabis users in the emotional comprehension scores and their brain functional connectivity could be related to the use of cannabis.”

Despite the qualifiers, the study concludes, “Given previous studies of the effect of cannabis on mood and emotional detection, we believe that these results contribute to open a pathway to study further the clinical applications of the positive effect that cannabis or cannabis components could have in affect and social interactions.”

In other neuroscience research this year, researchers at the University of West Attica in Greece found that medical marijuana use was associated with improved quality of life — including better job performance, sleep, appetite, and energy — among people with neurological disorders.

Another recent study published by the American Medical Association found that medical marijuana was associated with “significant improvements” in quality of life for people with conditions like chronic pain and insomnia—and those effects were “largely sustained” over time.

Other studies have found cannabis may boost the “runner's high” felt during exercise and enhance the practice of yoga.

[pommedepersephone]

I am currently working on a paper proposal for "Heaven, Hell, and Everything In-Between: Critical Perspectives on Good Omens" and came across an article Neil wrote in 1999 and I needed to share this quote with my fellow children of ineffable divorce -

All I could think was Aziraphale and his love of magic, and learning French, and all the ways he enthusiastically approaches his pleasures.

Anyway, if anyone else is submitting proposals and would like to join me in a last minute panic (since they are due TOMORROW) please reach out. We can sip hot chocolate and be overwhelmed together.

[makingspiritualityreal]

every time I open my Vedic Astrology Software I think...wow, just a computer program, and within it, secrets to the Universe...

[lazymcfail]

being a professional actor is so fun bc you get paid to lie and then after you are done lying for 4 hours straight people come up to you and are like "omg i love you so much, you are so talented" and its like thank you finally someone appreciates all the wikiholes i go down

[inconspicuousnpc]

i love How Much tumblr polls bring out my research side. i’m like i Need to answer and rb for bigger sample size. people must know what i would put in a cake, my favorite character, what time i see this poll. like we’re all working together to piece together little bits of humanity the people must know

[cagesings]

google  thinks  i  am  deeply  troubled  which  i  promise  i  am  not  it’s  just  part  of  researching  for  johanna.

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[funkopersonal]

Me at 2am grinding out my notes to submit to my history teacher to prove that I did my research in their stupid little way. (I do my best work researching in my own method)

[strxnged]

i need to improve at the extending my hand declaring my name thing in a professional setting. people here do it a lot and it looks fun

[fesenmoon]

no fucking way

[thelowcalcalzonezone]

y'all think that if JSTOR (the database) was a dragon it would be red? like a red and gold (?) dragon?? hear me out

[aspiring-writer-hidden-voice]

I will never not share what gives me inspiration! Fam always thought it was strange that I would dive into researching a topic/idea if I felt my knowledge wasn’t enough. Ask and I shall tell! Just don’t expect me to spill on my own, I need someone to ask those questions so that I don’t feel like I’m over sharing.

Do you ever read a fic so interesting you want behind the scenes lore, ten pinterest moodboards and one of those fancy .gif edits but none of that exists bc it's a fanfic?

[fanficmemes]

Love when writers do an insane amount of unnecessary research for their fics. I follow an author that did like 8 months of intense research into 14th century Scotland so they could write smut about it, and guess what. It was some fucking incredible porn AND I learned about old Scottish politics

[fanaticalthings]

the muskification of twitter except it's lex luthor instead of elon lol

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[notbrucewayne48]

"aphobia doesn't exist"

bitch literally not that long ago an aroace youtuber animator was insulted by almost half of its community for being it