#Thesis Publication

[nathaniacolver]

i feel like tumblr NEEDS to know about Dr. Ally Louks, and the term "Olfactory Ethics"

(long post incoming)

storytime/timeline:

on november 27, 2024, an excited English Literature PhD recipient posted a picture of herself with her thesis, titled:

"Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose"

as you can see (on the bottom row, above), the tweet has been viewed over 119 MILLION times, and has received over 250k likes. unfortunately, within days (most of the replies dating december 1st), she had garnered what seems like every possible insecure man with a twitter account to post their vitriol and rage concerning the fact that a woman is clearly more well-researched than them. regardless, she tanked it ALL with kindness and with a smile:

AND I MEAN VITRIOL (queen of making boundaries clear):

(inserting reading break for the timeline's space's sake):

here's her abstract:

and in case the abstract wasn't clear, she has since (date: december 16th) taken the time to re-summarize her thesis for the layman (yes that is a link! click it! 3min read!)

she has repeatedly shown just the perfect amount of kindness and understanding for those who are simply Not Comprehending (mostly december 1st):

(the chatGPT hate in the next one is my favorite:)

has upheld an incredibly high moral standard of how she interacts with the situation (december 2nd):

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS: regardless of this crap, she made it clear that as a professor, her FIRST priority at the end of the semester would be taking care of them (december 3rd)

(CAN SHE GET MORE BASEDDDDDDDDDD)

she stays both 1) educating the masses, and 2) engaging with pop culture as much as a normal person would (december 9th-17th):

she also supports a free palestine (WHO IS SURPRISED. NOT ME.) ((december 15th))

here's the BEST FREAKING THING ABOUT THIS. since this all has happened, RANDOM TWITTER USERS, UNKNOWINGLY, have REPEATEDLY proven her thesis to be true,

again,

and again,

AND AGAIN.

EVEN CARDI B DO YOU HEAR MEEEEEEEE

COMBATING MISOGYNOIR WITH HER OWN BARE HANDSSSSS

oh she knows she's mother

here's some more she never saw/commented on (INCLUDING SOME FROM TODAY. IT IS STILL GOING ON. EVERY SINGLE DAY LIKE CLOCKWORK SOMEONE POSTS SOMETHING THAT PROVES HER POINTS ABOUT OLFACTORY ETHICS):

THE WICKED MOVIE REFERENCE HELLO

apparently, OTHER academics are mad at her for being so famous and influential, but she stays unbothered (december 16th, and TODAY, december 19th):

and she's partially getting her post-doc on how people's sense of smell has been altered (december 1st):

and the best part is!

all of these screenshots i've collected are only a SAMPLE, illustrating dr. louks' indomitably kind and ethical character.

anyway. i want ALL of y'all to start saying, out loud, "olfactory ethics", or even better, "dr. louks was RIGHT" (something something women's names are erased something) every time you see something that plays into her thesis. never let her influence die. THINK THROUGH what you're REALLY saying when you comment on the smell of something, or how your perception has been shaped by society. USE THIS PHOTO IF YOU HAVE TO:

follow her on twitter (@DrAllyLouks) or bluesky (idk her handle, if someone tells me i'll edit it in)

AND SAY HER NAME!! DR. ALLY LOUKS

[starberry-cupcake]

I'm nobody and my opinion is nothing but there's a thesis somewhere in there about the mainstream coexistence of

1) how insanely homophobic media outlet arguments on social media got when jon kent and tim drake came out canonically as bi, how major media adaptations of both superman and batman (most notably nolan and snyder stuff) have settled a superficial, bland and boring form of masculinity, devoid of any nuances from canon to try to be as "heteronormatively manly" as humanly possible (probably as a response to the camp in the joel schumacher movies that they couldn't handle)

VS

2) the fact that the commercialization of pride has become so automatic as a business strategy that none of this matters to six flags, who is is outright selling pride pins of both superman and batman in their parks next to their superman and batman roller coasters

[thecoolerliauditore]

not to be petty but totally petty I really really really hope scott going neck and neck to Joel in their pvp battle that ended with scott killing joel and etho shooting scott puts an end to the "scott isn't good at pvp he's just good at the social game" posts that spiked in number a few weeks ago for some reason. one of the scariest players in the cast (THE scariest, according to Skizz!) having this weird reputation has to be one of the strangest fanon propaganda campaigns i've ever seen in my life.

[thehecklingmouse]

kaveh went on a desert trip and alhaitham becomes a sopping wet pathetic cat which, normally, wouldn't be a big deal but unfortunately alhaitham is the acting grand sage

[shitty-proendo-blackout-posts]

You know yourself better than medical professionals. You do.

[mayasaura]

I've finally finished the six games in the main Ace Attorney series! That's right!! It's time for my review!

I think it's fairly common knowledge that Ace Attorney is a political commentary on the Japanese legal system as it existed in 2001. I know I knew that going in.

What I didn't know was just how topical the games were. I didn't figure that out until I started looking into what the fuck was going on in Apollo Justice, and what I discovered makes Apollo Justice my favourite game in the series.

At the time the Phoenix Wright trilogy was first being released, Japan did not have any form of trial by jury, and boasted a conviction rate to make Edgeworth and Von Karma's records look almost credible. Four months after the release of the third game, the Japanese National Diet passed a piece of legislation implementing judicial reform with the explicit intention of “the promotion of the public’s understanding of the judicial system and … their confidence in it.”

The next installment of the series—Apollo Justice, released in April of 2007—builds the themes of legal corruption explored by the first trilogy into a passionate argument for reform by restoring judicial power to the citizens.

Phoenix Wright, seen through the eyes of the new protagonist, appears to be a jaded shell of his former self: retired from the legal profession, beaten down by trying to champion truth and justice from within a broken system. The circumstances leading to his forced retirement come to light in the game's climactic final case, hand in hand with the revelation that Phoenix never really gave up on his ideals. He just gave up on the system. Speaking directly to the player, he casts the player as one of a panel of six civilian judges in a new reformed system of trial he and Edgeworth developed together. At the end of the trial, the player directly casts the final vote to decide the verdict.

In May of 2009, two years after Phoenix Wright handed the player direct power over the outcome of a trial, the real Japanese legal system conducted its first trial utilising civilian lay judges under the newly reformed judicial system.

I don't know nearly enough about how the current Japanese system works to judge the accuracy of Apollo Justice's vision to the final real result of real Japanese lawyers and judges' efforts, but from my casual perspective, it's pretty close. Close enough for it to be clear the game developers were following the progress of the real reform. Perhaps the game was meant as a celebration, or maybe they hoped it could work as an educational tool to introduce the concept to the public. Either way, these games were made by someone or someones who cared deeply about criminal justice, and I love them for it.

I also love them for their fun and immersive mysteries, of course, and their ludicrously charming cast of characters. It's no wonder the series has withstood the test of time, thriving on their own solid merit as games even far removed by both time and distance from the context of their social commentary.

[wetcatspellcaster]

You’ve mentioned The Serpent Gates books a couple of times in these ask responses, and I’ve never heard of the series. How would you describe/pitch this series in all its glory to your followers?

(Bonus Points if there’s a thing in your own writing that you just know vibes the way Serpent Gates vibes and you can just be like “this thing? it’s like that thing” because creative influences are genuinely so much fun to see)

so, the only overlap with my own writing really is that The Serpent Gates reads like my favourite parts of fanfic? by which I mean, it has some really hard-hitting good character work that towards the end of book two made me want to eat my own hands, and then also some jokes that don't feel like 'marvel quips' but instead genuinely made me laugh out loud in public. It's a series that spans well between serious and silly, like (for me) good fanfic does.

there is also a bitchy twink fighting off sincere emotions at all costs, but he's not really an Astarion he has no comparisons to anyone else. he is simply my favourite.

In terms of my "sales pitch" for the Serpent Gates, there's two versions:

Imagine Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K Le Guin, but Ged finding Tenar isn't necessarily a good thing.

Or, if you haven't read Tombs of Atuan:

2. The Serpent Gates is about a girl called Csorwe, who has spent her whole life preparing to be a child bride sacrifice to a god called the Unspoken One. At the last minute, she meets a wizard, who offers to take her away from being killed and gives her a different kind of life. Only, she trades 'child sacrifice' for 'child soldier', and the jury is out about whether that's a good thing.

...and that's only the first half of book 1 x

If you like gods as characters with their own agendas rather than divine forces, you'll like this duology. If you like warlocks, you'll like this duology. If you like messy familial relationships with cathartic endings, you'll like this duology. If you like old man yaoi, you'll like this duology. If you like lesbians, you'll like this duology.

...There, I think that about covers it!

[equinesandeducation]

Snack preps for the week and a perfect recovery run around the faculty. Found a route that’s exactly 5k and starts/ends in front of my building!

[spooksier]

ok so given that pandorica radio (part one at least) is my thesis project and so has to be completed before december, i had to do a lot of reworking to get it to a point where it was something i could reasonably do within like. seven months. and while i was super bummed about it at first im so so so happy with how the final form of this is turning out :-)) i love working on pandorica and im so excited for everybody to see part one soon!!!!

[sskk-manifesto]

--

[beechersnope]

ok so i had a dream that someone drew butch kimi in these sunglasses circa 2002

but for some reason finding a picture of them on google was almost impossible? so i'm submitting some other peak butch kimi early aughts fashion moments for consideration

[intuitive-revelations]

After a few years of part-time supporting-artist-ing in Cardiff I finally get a DW-related casting enquiry... a month after I moved away. 🙃

[userjiminie]

x

[fitzrove]

Agjgjkd I'm wondering about something...

EDIT: If "other", feel free to elaborate in the replies!

[meezer]

IT'S OFFICIAL. I'M DOING MY THESIS ON VIDEO GAMES

[verlake]

some podcast episodes will ask why the vampire lestat was a commercial success when it's objectively, not a good book, as compared with interview with the vampire which is objectively a better book and a commercial flop. and then they will posit an answer that has you crying on the bus home.