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my-bated-breath · 4 years ago

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On an Immensely Popular Post

Disclaimer: What I’m writing here may not be completely accurate -- like most works of art, literature, and even STEM tend to be -- and as a new fan of ATLA, a few of the metas I publish may be obsolete or unintentionally insensitive. That being said, I like to believe that I can contribute something valuable to this fandom. In all my (real) metas, I wish to be as objective as possible and not rely on my biases, fanon, or common “knowledge” that may just be misconceptions. If anyone reading this finds something to be false or contrived, I am always welcome to constructive criticism. What I am not welcome to is senseless hate or bashing.

My first experiences with the ATLA fandom begun a long, long time ago, but the most recent and powerful revival of my love for ATLA started with me actually watching the show and soon after, with me falling into the endless abyss of ATLA metas on Tumblr. Sifting through the well-written analyses and the emotion-based rants had taught me a lot about critical thinking and the power of influence, so now I’d like to present a meta that critiques an extremely popular post with over 60,000 notes. And since it’s so popular, this is the part where I must make yet another disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I hold nothing against lesbians4sokka (whose name has now been changed to comradekatara). They have the right to share what they want, but since this particular post has become so influential that it’s still being reblogged regularly to this day, I believe it is within my right to criticize it - emphasis on “criticize,” which is different from “hate.”

Now that that’s out of the way, let us begin:

Lesbians4sokka/comradekatara covers 3 main subjects in their post, which I will quote/summarize below:

(1) Ma/iko: “...the entire foundation of mai and zuko’s relationship was built on how miserable they were together, and how they would just sit there and hate the world together— letting their misery fester as they enabled each other’s depression— and I think that’s really unfortunate because they would work so well as friends if they weren’t trying to make their dumpster fire of a relationship work.”

(2) Zutara: “similarly, what makes zuko and katara’s dynamic so compelling is that they share the same flaws, only as opposed to mai’s apathy and misery, it’s katara’s rage and guilt that zuko identifies with. they both share trauma over having lost their mothers, and both in a similar way (sacrificing themselves for them) and they both cope with their grief through rage, often misplaced… katara and zuko have a deep & profound friendship, but if they were to be in a relationship, they would only bring out the absolute worst in each other thru enabling each other’s rage and emotion-driven decision making.”

(3) Z/uk/ka: this pairing makes for a healthy and wholesome relationship because throughout the boiling rock, we see that “sokka and zuko make an excellent team, as they balance each other perfectly. sokka thinks big picture, and plans ahead, but zuko will charge into situations.” They inspire each other, they trust each other unconditionally, they become more open and supportive of each other, they share a lot of common interests and narrative parallels, and in general, just make each other happy (which could work both platonically and romantically).

As for my response: I’m sure many of you are expecting me to start to save the “best for last.” That assumption would be incorrect because I actually have the least to say about point 3.

I agree that Z/uk/ka can be a good relationship. Their dynamic is funny, playful, supportive, etc. etc. (there are so many positive adjectives I could use to describe their dynamic, the list could go on forever). And they could make a great couple.

…

What, did you expect more from me? That’s it, I’m done.

I’m not here to attack Z/uk/ka as a ship, because while I can never actively ship it (I’m a sad, narrow-minded exclusive shipper, always had been and always will be) I can objectively appreciate them as one. It’s points 1 and 2 I’m more concerned about.

Now, since we’ve already begun working backward, I’ll begin my critiques on point 2: I could write extensively about the parallels between Zuko and Katara, including but not limited to shared pain and a few shared flaws - and just a few, because their weaknesses diverge in many important places. However, since I’m trying to write as objectively as possible and since Zuko-Katara parallels have already been discussed to death, my analysis will focus elsewhere.

However, something from comradekatara’s post that I would first like to address is this-

[Zuko and Katara] both cope with their grief through rage, often misplaced. in the southern raiders, they both act deeply insensitively towards sokka by acting as if his grief over his mother’s death is somehow less valid simply because he is a lot quieter in his coping mechanisms and doesn’t project his rage & guilt onto everyone else.

- or rather, the idea that Zuko and Katara’s shared pain causes them to act insensitively towards Sokka (and though the post does not mention it, Aang as well).

(Note: these points have already been covered by countless metas before mine, so you can skip/skim this section to read a newer argument in the next section.)

Even ignoring the fact that the Southern Raiders had many out of character moments, Katara’s insensitivity towards Sokka is first and foremost a reaction against his insensitivity towards her.

_____

Dialogue from Season 3, Episode 16 “The Southern Raiders”:

Aang: Um ... and what exactly do you think this will accomplish?

Katara: [Shakes her head in dismay.] Ugh, I knew you wouldn't understand. [Begins to walk away.]

Aang: Wait! Stop! I do understand. You're feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?

Zuko: She needs this, Aang. This is about getting closure and justice.

Aang: I don't think so. I think it's about getting revenge.

Katara: [Angrily.] Fine, maybe it is! Maybe that's what I need! Maybe that's what he deserves!

Aang: Katara, you sound like Jet.

Katara: It's not the same! Jet attacked the innocent. This man, he's a monster.

Sokka: Katara, she was my mother, too, but I think Aang might be right.

Katara: Then you didn't love her the way I did!

Sokka: [Hurt] Katara!

_____

While I believe that Aang’s principles of forgiveness are morally sound, the way he pushes his beliefs onto Katara undermines much of her grief. At first, Aang tries to relate to Katara’s experiences by comparing them to his own, but there is a forceful connotation to his dialogue that suggests that Aang considers himself to be the moral authority compared to Katara. Hence, Aang judges Katara (“I think it’s about getting revenge”) without trying to reach out and understand her, forgoing the empathetic common ground in favor of taking on the moral high ground.

Thus, when Sokka tells Katara, “she was my mother, too, but I think Aang might be right,” Sokka is not only saying that Katara should choose forgiveness, he is implying that Aang is the ultimate moral authority on this matter and that Katara should accept that. Moreover, similarly to Aang, Sokka’s opening line, “she was my mother, too,” had the potential to establish common ground between himself and Katara, but the added “but…” places Sokka on the moral high ground against her instead. Of course, when we remember that just two lines ago Aang equates Katara to Jet, Sokka agreeing with Aang seems even more thoughtless and unsympathetic.

So when Katara lashes out against Sokka, ostensibly “acting as if his grief over his mother’s death is somehow less valid simply because he is a lot quieter in his coping mechanisms and doesn’t project his rage & guilt onto everyone else,” it is important to note that Sokka undermines Katara’s louder, more visible way of grieving as well (though that discounts that for most of the show, Katara only uses her grief over her mother’s death to sympathize with others).

Moreover, Katara’s line, “then you didn't love her the way I did!” is hurtful, yes, but it is not necessarily equivalent to “you didn’t love her as much as I did.” Katara’s love for her mother is different from Sokka’s because her pain over her death is different -- after Kya’s passing, Katara had to carry the emotional burden of becoming a pseudo-mother to Sokka (see Sokka and Toph’s conversation in “The Runaway”), a burden that did not cease after she joined the GAang (see the entirety of “The Desert”). To Katara, Kya was not only her mother, but the representation of the childhood she lost and the sacrifice made to protect her life. Sokka simply does not have that same relationship with Kya.

I do not mean to say that Sokka and Aang unfairly taking on the moral authority in this situation means that this authority instead belongs to Katara (and Zuko) - “The Southern Raiders” is filled with questionable moments from all parties involved. However, TSR is an episode that delves into Katara (and Zuko)’s relationship with a mother’s sacrifice, so how Zuko and Katara respond to this specific trauma from their past does not dictate how they respond to painful circumstances in the present/future. Let’s see how this is true.

Sozin’s Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King

No doubt Zuko and Katara felt some form of frustration upon Aang’s disappearance, so let’s see how they “[enabled] each other’s rage and emotion-driven decision making”:

Here, Katara and Zuko make a decision together that turns out to be calm, rational, and not at all emotionally-driven despite their mutual frustration and worry towards Aang.

Sozin’s Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters

Zuko holds immense pain and self-loathing over betraying Iroh, yet Zuko and Katara’s conversation does not enable/exacerbate negativity from any party involved (since Zuko often translates his grief into anger, and Katara was evidently angry at Zuko’s betrayal). Instead, their conversation is open, encouraging, and constructive.

(Note: this is where the review of points made by previous metas ends.)

Hence, to say that “[Zuko and Katara] would only bring out the absolute worst in each other [through] enabling each other’s rage and emotion-driven decision making” - when we are given in-canon examples of the opposite being true - would be a sweeping and inaccurate generalization.

But for the sake of argument let’s say that, hypothetically, Zuko and Katara’s relationship would fail because they only bring out the worst in each other. And here’s where the argument falls apart for me - Is the argument here that Zuko and Katara have an incredibly meaningful friendship yet somehow this “friendship” causes them to enable each other, thus encouraging each other’s worst flaws and regressing each other’s growth? Is a healthy friendship - much less a “deep and profound” one - not one where two individuals can learn from each other in positive ways and balance each other’s shortcomings?

Or is it something different we’re saying here? Are we saying that two individuals can have a “deep and profound” friendship and yet the moment their relationship shifts from platonic to romantic, they are terrible for each other?

While many significant platonic bonds are stunted when they become romantic, I still believe it to be common sense that some of the best romantic relationships stem from a platonic foundation. But since much of “common sense” on the internet sees that “sense” is nonsensical and “common” is a nicer way to refer to mob mentality, I have done my research to show how Zuko and Katara could have been an excellent case of a friends-to-lovers relationship.

An excerpt from my meta, “Research Shows that Zutara Would Have Been the Ideal Friends to Lovers Dynamic.” (give it a read if you want to see references to relationship-research and an overanalysis on diction/tone)

The reason why Zutara is framed as a “toxic and unhealthy” relationship is that their romance would be a classic example of the enemies-to-lovers trope, a trope which modern media has not been particularly kind to. However, when executed correctly, enemies-to-lovers can produce a healthy and loving relationship, frequently relying on friendship as an intermediate between the “enemy” and “lover” stages in the most well-executed versions of this trope. Meanwhile, the trope of friends-to-lovers is just as popular as enemies-to-lovers, though the specific dynamic required between two individuals to achieve this transition is not well-known. Recognizing this, Laura K. Guerrero and Paul A. Mongeau, both of whom are involved in relationship-related research as professors at Arizona State University, wrote a research paper on how friendships may transition into romantic relationships…

According to Guerrero and Mongeau, “...scholars have argued that intimacy is located in different types of interactions, ranging from sexual activity and physical contact to warm, cozy interactions that can occur between friends, family members, and lovers…” Guerrero and Mongeau then reference a relationship model where the initial stages (i.e. perceiving similarities, achieving rapport, and inducing self-disclosure) reflect platonic/romantic intimacy through communication while the latter stages (i.e. role-taking, achieving interpersonal role fit, and achieving dyadic crystallization) often see both individuals as achieving a higher level of intimacy that involves more self-awareness.

In the rest of my research-based meta I demonstrate how Zuko and Katara’s platonic interactions in the show fit into the stages of communicative intimacy (i.e. perceiving similarities, achieving rapport, and inducing self-disclosure) that Guerrero and Mongeau describe as being mutual between friendships and romances. As such, crossing the line between friends and more-than-friends most likely would not cause a dramatic shift in the Zutara dynamic since much of Zuko and Katara’s platonic intimacy easily translates into romantic intimacy. I’ll end off with another excerpt from my meta.

Excerpt from “Research Shows that Zutara Would Have Been the Ideal Friends to Lovers Dynamic.”

“...it would be remiss to simply dismiss the Zutara dynamic as one that would instantly become toxic should they pursue a romantic relationship.”

With that little thought in mind, let’s move onto point 3: an exploration of friendship, romance, and why toxicity is not exclusive to the latter.

Let’s start with what I agree with:

“The entire foundation of mai and zuko’s relationship was built on how miserable they were together, and how they would just sit there and hate the world together— letting their misery fester as they enabled each other’s depression...”

I’m not sure how necessary it is for me to elaborate on this point given that it’s already been accepted by comradekatara and perhaps 60,000+ other users on Tumblr (a gross exaggeration but this remains unimportant), but in her essay, “Zuko, Mai, and the Nature of True Intimacy,” Araeph contributes more nuance to the concept of Ma/iko and mutual misery, stating that,

Unfortunately for [Zuko and Mai’s] relationship, Mai is and will always be a pessimist—a character trait, not a character flaw, in her. The key difference lies in how Mai and Zuko use their negative feelings. When Zuko sinks into negativity, he gives up on any actions that will materially change his world for the better; Mai, on the other hand, can remain negative even at the height of her character development, and it does not impede her ability to act.

So while Mai enables Zuko’s depression, Zuko does not necessarily do the same for Mai. Nonetheless, throughout their relationship for the first half of season 3, neither of them communicate constructively or push each other to grow as people.

This may be the third disclaimer I’m making, but I first want to say I have nothing against Mai. However, I do have something against the idea that “[Mai and Zuko] would work so well as friends if they weren’t trying to make their dumpster fire of a relationship work.”

Their relationship is a dumpster fire, yes, but will the flames cease simply if the amount of intimacy in the relationship changes?

comradekatara state themselves that their entire romantic relationship is quite depressing - they are only able to connect through empty physical intimacy and mutual hatred of the world. Without that, there is little left for them to bond over. Once Zuko overcomes his conflicting morality and inaction from the first half of season 3, he becomes someone who is strongly guided by his principles and beliefs. However, for the entirety of the series, Mai is characterized by her moral apathy. To cite from Araeph again,

It is moral intimacy that is the last and worst omission for Mai and Zuko… Zuko’s struggle to find and follow his principles is the most central aspect of his character, yet it is a struggle Mai neither understands nor respects…

Lack of moral intimacy (not sharing the same core beliefs) is something that applies to both platonic and romantic bonds. Thus, just as transitioning from a meaningful friendship to a romance does not inherently create toxicity in a relationship, switching from a romance that exacerbates one (or both, depending on how you interpret it) party’s misery does not necessarily erase the preexisting negativity in a relationship - perhaps some of it may subside, sure, but as long both parties continue to fail at communicating and understanding each other, even their friendship seems bleak at best. In this case, Mai and Zuko may work well as conditional friends, or in other words, friends who are only friends when they have something to mutually be miserable over. And this tiptoes the line of speculation, but they could be a formidable political team. But unless the Ma/iko dynamic shifts drastically in the lovers-to-friends transition, I’m not sure if there’s much potential in a friendship between them.

In conclusion, there is a lot I don’t agree with from comradekatara’s post, but if there’s one takeaway I want to impart onto everyone who’s read this far, it’s this: crossing and uncrossing the line between platonic and romantic bonds is not always a transformative experience for the relationship, and the nature of human relationships is a complex spectrum -- not a light switch that can only be set between healthy and unhealthy.

Thank you all for reading!

#atla #atla meta #my bated breath analyzes #this is more pro-zukka than anti-zukka #but I will include neither in my tags #zutara #anti maiko #once again this is a critique #not a post meant to tear anyone or their views down #my bated breath's posts

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0214mile · 6 years ago

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✎ svt as hogwarts students! AU

this is basically a ctrl+c and ctrl+v from my twitter account bcs i wanted a different platform to save my “au’s” on! this is NOT stolen! i am @.serencty [previously @.smolteeen] on twitter

[authors note]

this au is v much based on 21st century wizarding world

lots of hp reference so if u dont get them sorry!

they're my thoughts so please dont criticize

☾ if u have any comment to say anything/to add on/questions abt hp, please reply in 'comments?' (end of thread)

⇾ seungcheol

house: gryffindor

blood status: half-blood

patronus: mongrel dog

position 01: gryffindor quidditch captain

↳ keeper

position 2: headboy

a giant dork & liked by everyone

all girls love him&boys want to be him (or vice versa works too)

knows everything abt quidditch. and i mean EVERYTHING (basically oliver wood)

sucks @ potions

has a personal bed in the infirmary (thanks 2 quidditch + potions accidents)

teaches first years flying

has friends in first year & sits and talks w/ them —the go-to person for every first years

attends quidditch matches even after graduating

⇾ jeonghan

house: slytherin

blood status: pureblood

patronus: black swan

position: prefect

boys & girls have a crush on him (a wholesome BI king)

somehow gets E (Exceeds Expectations; 2nd best) in tests without studying

hosts interhouse parties in the room of requirements called '1004'

gets away with every prank (weasley twins wHo)

loves chan; like u hurt him and u will regret that FOR LIFE

never denies dating rumours of him & cheol (a wholesome BI king pt.2)

knows all your secrets

with jisoo all the DAMN time

⇾ joshua

house: hufflepuff

blood status: muggleborn

patronus: mountain hare

position: prefect

the most popular dude in hogwarts; like even peeves likes him —he's just SO NICe ufeel

hosts guitar lessons in gardens (sings sunday morning every single lesson)

ace student in charms

bffs with jeonghan

no one expects it but he's one of the biggest prakster in hogwarts (he’s the black horse okay)

uploads 'calming guitar acoustic for studying' on jihoon's music app (check jihoon)

WILD during 1004

⇾ junhui

house: hufflepuff

blood status: pureblood

patronus: tonkinese cat

position: hufflepuff seeker

(v much like cedric)

looks like a slytherin but yeEt he’s the epitome of UWU

the 'popular guy'

a complete charmer; even portraits like him

flirts a lot but has never been to base 2 in any relationship lol

good at alchemy and DADA

in the theatre club + hoshi's dance club

no one EVER sees him study but he still gets A (Acceptable; 3rd best)

⇾ soonyoung

house: gryffindor

blood status: muggleborn

patronus: eagle

position: prefect

one of the most liked + hated person in the school

cannot and will not shut up

detention is already part of his schedule beforehand

amazing @ transfiguration so mcgonagall loves him

hosts HOSHI's DANCE club

his wand has been broken +5 times so its taped together (somehow still usable)

constantly changes hair colour to be 2cool4skool

provoked the giant squid & was unconscious for 4 weeks

obvious prankster &gets caught all the time

⇾ wonwoo

house: ravenclaw

blood status: pureblood

patronus: nebelung cat

position: ravenclaw seeker

perfect mix of slytherin&ravenclaw

super intimidating & will judge u even if ur friends

somehow bffs w/ soonyoung

↳ only one who can control him

↳ always bickering

will fuking fight u if u call anyone mudblood

in the library 24/7

↳ reading everywhere & anytime

↳ loved by madam pince

↳ helps out in the library; recommends books, shows students where they can find books,etc

good @ all subjects except care of magical creatures hes rubbish

apparates everywhere & scares the shit out of everyone

admired by lots but doesnt realise it

⇾ jihoon

house: ravenclaw

blood status: half-blood

patronus: lynx

position 01: prefect

position 02: ravenclaw chaser

literally the coolest person in hogwarts

ace student in all subjects

always writing lyrics and making beats; if u sit next to him in class, u will not get ANY work done bcs of his tapping

created soundcloud equivalent app in the wizarding world

installed wifi & made muggle technology work @ hogwarts

responsible for the booze @ 1004

↳ releases songs under the name W00ZI

⇾ minghao

house: gryffindor

blood status: half-blood

patronus: salamander

position: gryffindor chaser

the8-ifies his uniform to be "edgy"

↳ wears GUCCI with his robes

↳ cuts up his uniform& adds chains

↳ basically revolutionized diy uniforms @ hogwarts

↳ responsible for fashion trends @ hogwarts

judges u & roasts u all the time

sleeps with a kermit doll uwu

taught portraits how to dab

knows all the secret passages

best @ DADA

best dancer in HOSHI's club

⇾ mingyu

house: hufflepuff

blood status: muggleborn

patronus: mastiff

position: hufflepuff beater

the 'popular guy' w/ jun

surrounded by girls & hates it but is too nice to say NO so wonu helps out by glaringlol

not particularly good @ any subject except care of magical creatures (wonu&him help each other out)

loved by kitchen elves

↳ in the kitchens 24/7

has been locked out of the common room several times

always dirty?; dust on face, mud on shoes, etc.

has a business @ hogwarts selling muggle technology

⇾ seokmin

house: hufflepuff

blood status: muggleborn

patronus: salmon

position: hufflepuff beater

one of the most liked & hated ppl in the school pt.2

louder than soonyoung

sings 24/7 u ALWAYS know when hes comig ur way bcs his voice echoes thru the hallways

works @ honeydukes for free sweets

only good @ charms

banned from potions

uploads on jihoon's music app under DK

reason why hufflepuff never wins the house cup

kicked out of the common room for being loud

once turned himself into a salmon during transfiguration for 5hrs fb status: flapping

super COOL when playing quidditch

⇾ seungkwan

house: hufflepuff

blood status: halfblood

patronus: basset hound

position: quidditch commentator

funniest & nicest person in hogwarts

liked by everyone; ghosts? portraits? teachers? students? u name it and they only have good things to say abt boo :)

loves all his friends (esp. hansol) & will FITE U if u hurt anyone

cheers the loudest in quidditch matches (never biased though)

uploads on jihoon's music app under BOOISHERE

booseoksoon combo is everyones nightmare

good @ all subjects except flying broke his wrist like neville poor boo :,(

wins most of the points for hufflepuff

mcgonagall & hagrid's favourite student ever

killed his plant in herbology & cried

welcomed in the kitchen 24/7

⇾ hansol

house: ravenclaw

blood status: muggleborn

patronus: orangutan

uniform has holes everywhere

↳ wears SUPREME and THRASHERS under the robe

skates to class

has a cassette player 24/7 hes just that wannabe cool 90′s kid okey

never listens in class but does well in tests so the teachers let him be

↳ daydreams alot but his daydreams are with meaning??/?

friends w/ the giant squid

no.1 listened rapper on jihoon's music app (under VERNON)

writes lyrics all the time

girls ♡ him but he ?

rapped for dumbledore's bday & got 250 points

bffs w/ seungkwan

↳ does covers w/ him

↳ w/ him all the time despite not being in the same house

good @ astronomy

⇾ chan

house: gryffindor

blood status: pureblood

patronus: marsh harrier

position: quidditch commentator bangchan is HERE

hangs out w/ older kids (esp. jeonghan)

good @ all subjects; a child prodigy we stAn

“DANCING IS MY PASSION”

↳ part of HOSHI's dance club

↳ watched+ listened to MJ and fell in LOVE ; loved dancing ever since

makes potions that makes u a little loopy/high for 1004

savage af

cried when jisoo got him MJ bed sheets & pjs for his bday

knows everyone's secrets (blame jeonghan)

surprisingly doesnt have that many friends

interested in muggle stuff

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world-of-the-wielders · 8 years ago

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Yo V, i saw this on your DA page and thought it should also get put in the group on here. (nice worldbuilding you two. always so good at it!)

Okay so we also discussed the origins of the atds and their parts in the stories, and this was what Jon suggested: "There are several ways we can explain the devices and/or their frequency without it being TOO much like the series we borrowed the idea from. We could use multiple, even, depending on the characters' backstories. 1. Diplomatic- in some sort of alien U.N., representatives are given these devices to turn into another species to communicate with other representatives, to show respect, or to make them feel more at home. 2A. Militaristic- used for conquest by an alien empire. Perhaps this tech is studied/spied on/stolen by other alien planets/nations who either fear attack and want to be able to properly defend themselves should the time come, or to use it for their own gain. 2B.- Stolen Tech- at one point, a shipment is attacked by a gang or crime syndicate who steals the weaponry for their own use(much like how some gangs or terror groups on earth have military/military-like automatic guns or explosives), the technology is hacked and figured out, and a similar product is produced by the gang, for the gang, possibly/probably eventually spreading to other criminals. 3. Police- a special branch of police, specially trained like the SWAT or a bomb squad. are given devices to better deal with alien criminals. Once another race/species has made a presence on another planet, it makes sense that such a device would be needed to handle them. For example, lets say an alien is definitely causing or threatening harm, but has a very fragile body. Tasing or shooting the alien may kill it, and is considered a last resort, so members of the force with devices can turn into that species/a like one to try and talk them down or engage them while causing as little harm as possible. On the flipside, there may be another alien causing havoc that tasers and guns may be completely ineffective against, and they'd need to use the devices to take them down. 4. Toys- a line of toys created by an alien company puts out a line of these devices, coming in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and with varying forms. Perhaps they advertise, "the more you play with it, the more you can do with it!" This would leave an explanation for why some devices time out- most toys require batteries or at least the occasional charge if used or otherwise left on for a long time. Of course all forms are "child-safe" (perhaps an "Earth" edition would allow the child to be a dog, a cat, a horse, a parrot, and a lizard, or something to that effect) but still allow the interesting experience of being another species, speaking a new language, having different/better senses, et cetera. As in the Stolen Tech proposition, eventually someone hacks it and inputs the DNA of "bigger"/"better"/"faster"/"stronger" aliens, which leads to more teenagers and young adults buying them. It becomes similar in popularity to jailbreaking an iPhone, and the company responsible for the "toys" reacts similarly- all warranties are revoked upon "jailbreaking", and said company claims no legal responsibilities for the device breaking, or and harm caused to or by the wielder upon or after "jailbreaking"." And, based on that, this is what I proposed for a type of origin/backstory/background type o' thing: "I would like to propose the following: ((I redirect you to 1.)) There is a system of planets at peace with one another, I feel inclined to name said system Aurora, and each planet has four representatives in The Council. The Council is the diplomatic situation which decides laws and creates actions. Each member of The Council is equipped with an ATD (if we are infact still calling them that?) which, ideally, would help them to understand the lives of the other species' that live among them. This works, but only to a point. They can see their basic needs, but not much more. They can see what it is that their 'people' need to survive, but not what they need to live. The Council's ATDs are installed only with creatures known to inhabit Aurora. ((I redirect you to 2A.)) The military is highly advanced, seen as imperialistic to outsiders. It's a often a quick and simple procedure Plant a seed, an impostor. You invade first, unseen, undetected, destroy the from from the inside. Usually this is not definitive, and it takes extra action to follow through. Weapons of mass distraction, explosives, guns, world enders, all at Aurora's command. Follow throughs are dealt with quickly. There is a specialized team of invaders, just a small squad, each equipped with their own ATD. Holding only a select number of species, their forms or programmed manually but can be traded for others remotely while in the field. They are professional impostors. ((I redirect you to 2B.)) Plain and simple, there's a market for this. More than guns, more than bombs, it's the ATDs. As much as people want their weapons, they need their escapes. ATDs are both an unseen attack and a clean get away. They're rare, but not unheard of. Especially prototypes and damaged ones. ((I redirect you to 3.)) It's the job of the authorities to keep Aurora clean, and when push comes to shove it's handy to have an edge. ATDs a strictly speaking last resorts to the officers that have them, the Military had overflow and they were divided up evenly among the precincts on each planet. These equipped officers are so spread that it's rare for more than two to ever come into contact with each other. ((I redirect you to 4.)) They did it, and it was a mistake. The ATDs, before even truly being utilized by the military, were mass produced and sold openly. On the market for little over a year, they were outlawed thirteen years ago and Aurora is still recovering. Remnants of what were only supposed to be toys remain fused to scarred children, on the black market, and fused to scarred children on the black market. Now, this is where it gets interesting: Over the years, a small group of people were collected here and there. Children saved from a doomed planet, kids picked out of the streets, babies snatched from the most fortified of upper class homes. Secretly, by an unknown person (or persons) they were each given ATDs and growing up in entirely different lives. Made refugees with no choice, some of them not even knowing it, and for no obvious reason. And THAT is where our story starts." To which I received back a "OHHHHH I LIKE THAT HOLY SHIT YES" and I'm hoping everyone else agrees, at least to an extent, and we can indulge on this universe together. Edit: This was my original response to Jon's suggestions as to why the 'atd's exist--- "1. Not the worst of ideas, but I feel that it doesn't fit the weilders we know and have in mind. Not to mention, I feel as tho changing forms is not as ideal as it should be for changing perspectives and would prove insufficient for that single cause. 2A. Militaristic is probably the most plausible, in my opinion. HOWEVER, the thing with weapons is the necessity of efficiency, now why focus so much of these little shape shifting devices when you can drop bombs, you know? ESPECIALLY if we're toning the aliens down, to make them more realistic or what have you. It reminds me of how Steven's redesign on the Talpaetrix or whatevs also supposedly doubled for mining, when punching your way through mountains seems like a hell of a lot more hassle than say, driving a big ol' drill thru it. Which brings to mind subtlety, which COULD ask for such a branch of people in a military. Secret agents. Spies. That sort of thing. But an entire army of wielders would, i think, prove inefficient compared to any other weapons they may possess. 2B. Goes hand in hand, as you mentioned. While not the biggest use for an army, they could have countless uses for petty criminals and outlaws A tool for some, an entire new life for people on the run. Endless capabilities there. 3. I refer you back to 2A, I think the spies are the closest option. I feel as though the 'cops' in this universe should already be trained or training in ways to disable other aliens. Seems like a mess to throw ATDs in there with them, plus a shitty idea to trust authorities with. I might just be biased there though, idk. 4. Toys. I don't know. It makes sense, and I understand what you're saying with it but I dunno. I just don't really feel it you know? Like, it would be a reckless move to begin with to mass produce these especially knowing fair well that they CAN BE hacked. But then just handin them out to kids? Lik eI'm not even talking worst case scenario or anything, just SO MANY kids would go missing/get hurt/get killed its just I dunno. I feel like it's a stretch to make that scenario seem ... legitimate ... I guess?" In case ya'll were uber curious or somethin'

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partcosmos · 6 years ago

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“when you are thinking, without you know you’re thinking, this is arguably a form of psychosis”

A talk on meditation by Sam Harris. took some stream-of-consciousness notes during a Sam harris lecture of meditation. pasted for your pleasure below

The i and me keep each other company. you like to think there’s a separate person, brain, or ego behind your eyes. but there isn’t one. the i and me are inseparable at the core. there’s no one inside you.

it really doesn’t matter if your mind is worrying over cancer research or mathematical problems, if you think without knowing you’re thinking, you are confused and lost about what you are.

you can’t manufacture anger for an entire hour or a day, if you know that your state of mind is as such

our minds are the substance of each experience in every moment(was). our minds are the basis of every relationship we have, the contributions we can have, and let us break free from bad thought

[[there are those who are truly content in the presence of great deprivation and danger. and ppl who can’t bear the best things.]]

vipassana mindfulness meditation - very much in vogue - but less like a stress ball and more like a tool for making fundamental discoveries about the nature of our minds. clear, undistracted, momentful attention. wide range of effects on perception, emotion, cognition, related to functional and structural changes in the brain.

lot of data that shows this practice is generally good for us.

mindfulness = passion for accurately discerning what is objective in each moment. with a state of curious discovery. focus on cultivating it in general, and eventually you will soon watch yourself thinking with this curious state of exploration translating to how you actually feel about yourself.

one of effects of mindfulness is that it diminishes medial part of brain (default mode network) what parts of brain in midline regions are alerted in normal day to day processes. but mindfulness dimities activity here, and in a linear fashion w/r/t how strange it is with someone. mushrooms do the same thing.

anatomical basis for losing sense of self in your work.

available research begins to suggest a common pathway b/w sense of self, the wandering of mind, and a sense of how meditation could reduce both. cutting thru illusion of self = most important consequence of practicing mindfulness. more than stress reduction or being a glorified stress ball. it’s this exp of self transcendence that makes sense of claims said by seemingly statements made by yogi’s.

if you want to take seriously the project of being like jesus or buddha, you need to talk about more than stress reduction — ppl get glimpses of self transendece often, but often in pathological ones (experience framed by ideas, and they become subsequently attached to them — e.g. living in a cult, doing yoga postures that make no anatomical sense — this stuff can lead to downfalls of societies)

(something about the sheer power of a crowd. we often talk about an expansive sense of self, or a loss of the sense of self.)

the self is a painful illusion - this pain (misconception of self-hood) motivates ppl. when they find pain (conflation of self-hood) assuaged in the context of dangerous and decisive ideas, these ideas become the center of their lives. and become what they’re willing to die for, or have children die for,

you can talk about transcendence in the context of science. logical reasons to accept illusoriness of self but cutting thru this illusion is not a matter of understanding these reasons. here it makes sense to differentiate difference b/w conceptual and pragmatic views. e.g. the arrow story - the guy who wants to know the shooter’s disposition, name, etc. the man needs to get priorities straight. similarly, we may have a problem for which more thinking != the answer.

the ego = to know you’re thinking w/o knowing that you’re thinking. experience of pride. you are praised for doing something good — we all love that. there’s some part of your mind lapping it up w/ your little cat’s tongue. at the same time.. that same part of you always terrified, always poised to be miserable. the rewards of living _in_ the very state of your emotion, when we don’t recognize them, is NOT good enough for how badly we endure the bad when we do have to.

pattern of thoughts - what’s sam talking about? i’m thinking? i’m authoring thoughts. this is how the not of self is tied. it’s not enough to know

you have to be able to observe what consciousness is like b/w thoughts. prior to the arising of the next one: i’ts the identification of thought. the feeling that the next piece of language that comes thru your mind is you. the sense that your consciousness is trimmed down by the net of this with authenticity. that is what it’s like to intuit what the sense of consciousness is like. this feeling of being a self in the locus of our head is part of the feeling of consciousness. selflessness is not a deep part of consciousness, it’s right on the surface. some spend yrs until they figure this out

there’s an intuition w/ mindfulness that you start in your head, and you have to search for the truth in the sense of selflessness - that’s a misunderstanding. so how do we have the exp that we aren’t discrete selves. that the self is an illusion. the white square is real as the 4 partial circles - we can only

there’s no thinker in addition to thoughts themselves - just the thoughts themselves; where are we if we try to look?

douglas warring on having no head. if you look for the head, you might find the world. turn the attention upon itself - where you see the head to be, and see if your perception of experience changes. just the first instance of looking at yourself. see if there’s any change in the feeling of not finding this thing you call i, and to fail to define it in a way that is conclusive.

some ppl fail to get there by imagining not having a head. by not many turn their attention to this. if this has any effect on you; it’s brief and thoughts intervene. not something to curb, but something to keep considering.

goal: not permanent state of selflessness, but ability to drop sense of self in more or less any moment that matters. this is tantamount to no longer being hostage to the next thought you have. this breaks the spell, possible to have the center drop out of your experience, where if you drop out only the world remains.

religion tacitly says you need to have rich ethical spiritual lives - consciousness = the base of examined and unexamined life. cosmos is vast and by all signs indifferent to our aims. but each moment of consciousness is profound. each of us is identical to the very thing that brings value to the universe. consciousness is the only thing that can matter. to experience this. to be this for a moment of time, nixes all the claims people that ppl make in otherwise other contexts (the experiential claims). it’s only a reverence for the ordinary that can lead to extraordinary experiences.

what does not survive scrutiny != real.

it’s cutting through the illusion of the self

he looks up to him, wants him to remember what he said, a psycofantic thing that he wants him to rem what he said. he transcend ended his thought by thought - if he starts meditating, removing sense of experience, removes him from who he is - where he is he then if he gets so much out of his thought process. sams answer: if you can explain thinking as problematic, seems to devalue most of the good things in their lives. more of a biases scientists have that thoughts are captivating and you want good ones over boring ones, and many ppl have careers where beauty/utility of their thoughts is why they have their careers in the first place. BUT HE WAS TRYING TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HE WAS SAYING, and he was trying to pay attention… feels devalued to remove himself from that experiences.

it all comes down to the same point. not that many ways to be dissatisfied w/ this topic. whether any of us know it or not, we all want to be free of dilemma in each moment. most of our thinking = presupposes that if we think ourselves through to some point of completion, we can all be happy now. if you want to achieve something, say something well, be someone, then you are trying to guide yourself through uncertainty of each subsequent moment in the future so you can be satisfied and at rest and no longer neoric/afriad/juding self so you can just settle in to the present moment afraid or judge in each moment that you can settle in to the presence of each moment.

each moment — he realized why he came back - in that moment in his thoughts…

proprioception + 5 senses. it’s clear the lights don’t go out. but … and there are meditators who can appropriate the state of not seeing/sensing/touching - bodiless feeling - wide open conscious piece w/ no reference point in those usual channels. if you have that experience, noting of pure consciousness experience is definitely there to be had.

if you look for this in the visual screen on the brain scans, that is guaranteed to be misleading if consciousness is more fundamental than that.

hard to say what’s real when paying attention changes what’s there to be noticed. think of wine tasting - you can be inexperienced, or have a palette and exercise a palette and change neuronal real estate and you’ll find different things in the wine b/c of your brain — you’ll find different things in that wine by virtue of having brain. could be really in the wine (chocolate, prscilline, etc) one one level it’s really there b/c you could find the molecules and wine tasters could all converge on what those experiences are, but maybe not as it could be a consequence of experiencing your brain. like the white square. if paying attention more closely causes something to collapse as you pay more attention, that is the definition of an illusion. the self of self has that same character. how many times do you need to look at the square? 5/20/50 times? at some point you’ll know it ’s an illusion.

easier to see the absence of self than the image sans white square. e.g. buddhist analogy of coiled rope that’s actually a snake. then you look more closely and the snake collapses into a rope, and how many times do you have to do that exercise until you internalize it? how many times do you need to pay attention to something to notice the world seems to be a given way every single time you do that? Selflessness is similar: look for it and you can't find it

if you know the states of attention and distraction, you’ll feel attention has its own primacy

what does lack of consciousness feel like?

articulate what the sense of selflessness is: in th beg, very brief. you’ll glimpse it, and it’ll just be glimpses. a few seconds. not going to open up and have a week without yourself. it’s a glimpse which its duration can extend and the more it extends, the more its experiential qualities become salient. the more you can feel the good stuff of no longer being burdened with the problem of yourself…

so then, states like compassion/bliss/positive character you hear described in buddhist literature, that stuff happens by virtue of simply concentrating on something, but also by feeling sense of no longer feeling the sense of self, but in those moments it doesn’t feel like anything important has happened at all. esp b/c momentary in the beg.

unless you spend time meditating, and seeking increasingly rarefied breakthroughs in your conscious experience, it’s hard to value this thing until you do experience this. it’s not obvious this is the answer to any problem until you define he problem for yourself… the more you exp. this, it does become the answer to a problem.

compassion and bliss - transitory states within this. can be there when you feel like a self too. point is — it doesn’t necessarily feel like much of anything initially. but it does interrupt process of thinking/creating and creating whatever a manufactured state of consciousness of your thoughts naturally cropping up and-being-identified-to-them; hostage to the emotional implications of whatever your thoughts are. it just becomes you. you are that thought.

to see the present thought disappear and see consciousness be unencumbered by it - it punctuates that moment in a way that is much less solid - if anger is punctuated by hundreds of times a day of moments of feeling anger = and better yet, feeling there is no thinker to these thoughts, then that diminishes momentum of any of these states to a remarkable degree, so its therapeutic in that way.

the spectrum of continuation of happiness - awe, wellbeing, happiness

positive psychology doesn’t produce the

to be an atheist, you just need to say all books were written by an omniscious being (pretending to be 1st or 7th cent ignoramus{)

paranormal and simulations and reincarnation - show me the evidence.

if meditating: will have exp of paying attention to breath, and finding it very difficult to do. ppl should find that interesting - the inability to direct attention. should see something captivating about that failure. someone should see the implications there — of failing to notice as the engine of unhappiness to their every day lives.

other people look inside for 5-10 minutes, find they can’t pay attention here, and it’s not interesting their mind has that character. you have to wait for them to suffer. e.g. if embarrass self publicly you can ask wouldn’t you like to get out of this stream of thought.

is there an experience to feeling an unfiltered version of consciousness? no permanent state of selflessness. 11 days = 10.9 days too many days. by sam’s account. but it is possible to feel far more stable in this experience than one tends to usually feel. if he can just sample his experience in the best hour in the best moment of ta 3 mo retreat — there are some people you’ve met where that would be their worst house, doesn’t seem impossible.

what is as an author his writing process to get him into flow; he notices that he doesn’t know what he’s going to think next. the next thought just appears. do you rework material? yes. sam’s wife is his editor. flow state comes from when sam’s spouse tells him it’s terrible and he gets over his reaction.

she’s aware of pain, injuries, hard to not think about THAT. hw to overcome this? vipassana - notice discomfort, idea of what the discomfort means, and there’s this . a lot of problems sense to the natural resistance to it and a lot of problems around what it might mean - noticing pain and the idea around what it means.

e.g. play sports hard, workout intensely, sometimes there’s discomfort that’s enjoyable. but if you work up and you felt the burn of lifting weights but you found it’s pain - the feeling from the gym you love and the sensation from a disease - the concept around this does so much heavy listing that if you can get out of your mind about what the sensation means. that means feel the raw parts of how you feel. not to say that you shouldn’t move around. so move, but don’t worry about it.

intrinsic nature of consciousness. if we knew it was 10m neurons and 5 hz, then the lights go on at 7 hz… then that’d be a miracle. and we couldn’t explain anything about the nature of consciousness. it seems to sam like this will always be the case no matter how hard we look. means could be consciousness in an atom… if we knew of panpsychism. no reason to believe or doubt.

sam’s beliefs in consciousness won’t be impacted by the next development stated about physics.

no one has fully authored themselves. everyone is a collection of influences from nature. can meaning be found? Q that creates a space for answer we need to fill in, and fact that can’t fill in creates a problem. meaning - whenever you have an experience that’s deeply fulfilling, not looking over the shoulder of present moment, you’re not then worried about what it means. you have to do something to find that q interesting. in the present moment, if you’re not lost in thought, truly surrendered to present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, don’t have to think about the gran design of your life. doesn’t mean you can’t ask great q’s about arch of your life. good to ask how to plan for next 10 years.

reason for existence? to get up and get to coffee pot, doesn’t need a reason unless he wants coffee. most moments are like that. moment of holding daughter’s hands, and seeing her smile, and you have a moment of profundity…. don’t need to abstract away from that and ask what does this means? failure to connect. implicit in the q is the q that if you paid attention life would be better, but why not do the thing that would make life better.

spirituality - talking about nature of experience, mechanics of suffering, consciousness and not making claims about realities or history

pheromones mess w your limbic sys

analogy - fully immeshed in a film . vs. seeing projector and screen. being immersed in a math problem, or martial art - then the awareness drops out — how to reconcile?

being immersed in an experience = not getting clarity from understanding of consciousness, and not an antidote to psychological pains if you’re feeling anger. paying attention to something else could be an antidote… but not tantamount to inspecting the content of consciousness in that moment — so the self is an illusion, so it’s not surprising it falls away if we keep looking.

sam likes the idea of tech to facilitate meditation.

it’s all a higher power. your sense of who you are in the present moment can’t explain how you can open/close your hands. that could be a higher power… and everything is like that. we’re in a condition that’s intrinsically mysterious and your thoughts keep arising.

split brain experiment explicitly calls identity into question. there are two almost independently operating brains. they both form conjectures by speaking/interacting w the other part of your brain. that there’s someone inside of you doing it. giving yourself a pep talk can change the way you feel in the next experience, there are some things we can’t think thru w/o engaging this type of speech. what would it be like to be so mindful of this illusion? what could one get done in that state i have no idea — full enlightenment could be dysfunctional in some ways. can’t lead business in a non conceptual state of peace. the buddhas won’t build civilization.

#sam harris

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music-of-silence · 7 years ago

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Pleasantly surprised I had previously read the Willie Perkins, Gregg Allman, and Chuck Leavell penned books about the band, so when I saw this book hit the shelves I didn't expect to learn a lot more about the band. Man was I wrong. A lot of the background of the ABB with Duane and Berry has been covered before, but the real gold mine in this book for me was the amount of material covered in the post Duane/Berry years. As someone who was first introduced to the ABB in the late 80's, I was especially thrilled to read the chapters that covered the '89-'13 era. The details provided by people like Jack Pearson, Jimmy Herring, Oteil, Marc Quinones, Derek, Warren, and others of that period in the band's history was riveting to me. Thanks to Alan Paul for delivering what I consider the most comprehensive book about the 45 year history of The Allman Brothers Band. It's a must read for any ABB fan. Go to Amazon

The Definitive Allman Brothers Book One Way Out is the only book about the Allman Brothers Band told in the words of the members of the band and those closest to the band. For this reason it is the definitive book on the Allman Brothers. Further Alan Paul is a true Allman Brother's fan. His knowledge of the band and the fans, along with his exclusive access to ABB family, allows him to share all the information any fan of the band would seek. I read the hard cover and then ended up purchasing the paper back version as well for the new final chapter and new photos. The final chapter covers the tumultuous last year of the ABB. Alan was along for the ride at that point so he has some really great first hand knowledge that makes the paperback a must have. He does a wonderful job of reporting and wrapping it all up. Alot of the information was kind of out there in one form or the other, but the new information and interviews in the paperback really bridged the gap and pull the story together. Highly recommended! Go to Amazon

Not Only The Best Book on a Band or Musician I've Ever Read but one of the best books I've ever read PERIOD An ethical person always states their biases up front so I will admit - I have been a huge Allman Brothers Band fan since I was a kid listening to Eat A Peach, Brothers and Sisters and Live At The Fillmore. I am now a happier and more enlightened fan thanks to the marvelous history of the band written by Alan Paul. I could not put the book down tells the history from before they started to today through the eyes of key players in the band's story in interviews. How ironic Warren and Derek have decided to leave at the end of this year. Greg says they will still do selected events so the band is not gone yet. Alan even gives his thoughts on all the recordings by the band and its members through the years in the back of the book. There are some awesome photos included as well. Two thumbs up - way up! Highly recommended!!!! Go to Amazon

Allman Brothers are a band who stayed true to their music. This is their story in their own words. The best way to read this book is to listen to Allman Brothers music at the same time! This book is about the Allman Brothers from the beginning and is written in interview form, which i was at first disappointed about, but then really enjoyed. This way you know you are getting it right from the band members and not the opinion of just the rock critic. And yes, like most band stories, they do talk about the drugs, but this book is not mostly about that; it's about the Allman Brothers' music, their 'brotherhood', the remaining band members' grief over the loss of Duane and Barry, so close together in the beginning of their rise to fame, and then illustrates how their egos created tension and discord as the band went on without Duane and Barry. Great photos too, i especially liked seeing young Derek Trucks in a few of them. If you love the Allman Brothers, you will love this book. Go to Amazon

everything you want to know about the brothers and friends ! allman brothers band always my favorite from the 70'S and gregg my favorite ! have seen them many times . love music and the book was so indepth I could hardly put it down !!! Go to Amazon

i'm not a allman brothers fan but after this book i want to be first let me say I am not a big allman brothers fan.. I own one album (a greatest hits). I mostly know the allman brothers from my uncle barry ,as his favorite band, seeing them at every show they played in the philly/south jersey since the early 70's ( i kinda remember him following them in the late 70's across country like people do the dead) and from songs on the radio. my girlfriends son loves them and I bought him this book as a Christmas present this coming December...but I accidently ordered two books not realizing it. so I figured well might as well read it... I am about half way thru and can not put it down.. love the way it is written and how the people (band member/roadies/anyone who dealt with the band) can have different versions of the same thing. I skimmed the book and I really like the end where the author lists the best/ worst albums...reading the book makes me want to buy some and the list will help me not make a choice .sadly we lost my uncle barry a couple of years ago he would have loved this book.. Go to Amazon

You need to know this is a collection of interviews ... You need to know this is a collection of interviews so its first hand perspectives of their story. You have to be a serious fan to get into this. Go to Amazon

Must Read if you love the Allman Bros. If your a fan of ABB this is a must read. Written in interesting fashion with short paragraphs from all involved with the band over the years. Great honest reviews of all the albums at the end of the book which I'm going to use to download music to my phone of tunes or versions of tunes I have not heard before. This in itself makes it worth the purchase. Nice surprise at end for me especially when the author thanked someone from my home town in NJ. Go to Amazon

Five Stars Five Stars Great read for someone who is not too familiar with ABB history, like me. Great read! Well written, holds ones interest Four Stars which should remain the final word on this band that has made so much wonderful music. The takeaways for me are (1) how ... ... (on and off stage) of one of the world's best live bands Not great I would highly recommend this book to any Allman Brothers fan

#Jaimoe: 9781250040503: Amazon.com: Books

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daisy-dipped-her-crunk-in · 8 years ago

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Recently.

Okay. This isn’t the kind of post I do most of the time but this is something that has been bugging me ever since…well,my younger days.This is a post about my country’s Racial representation in media and across most platforms and how this is solely just my opinion(although I do know of a few who feel the same) and in no way am I saying that this is what everyone around me feels but this is what a select few people near and dear to me have felt or are currently going thru.

So recently, I’ve been talking to a lot of people and about their POVs on the whole ‘Representation of other races in Media’, more specifically, Singapore’s media.

I’ve been told to accept or do either of these,which is:

A. 'Calm down.’

B. 'That’s how the media works in a small country. We don’t have much choice but to appeal to a larger mass in terms of audience.’

And last,but not least;

C. 'We just have to accept it for now,because that’s just how it is in this country.’

My issue being with these statements and what topic I’ve refused to be 'OKAY’ with?

The irrefutable truth that us,minority, in this 'Melting pot of cultures and races’ of a country, is that we have been made the sidekicks and caricatures of a common story. We Malays,Indians and other races(be it mixed and such) are cast aside and portrayed as 'either or’ of the country’s story instead of 'IS’.

We’ve been portrayed as the: •Funny Sidekick. •The wealthy child/family who fits in,so perfectly with the Chinese/Caucasian friends/acquaintances they have. •The thugs or hoodlums. •The overtly sexual or passionate people. •The over the top strict/conservative people.

And of course,

•The pedestrians in other people’s stories but not PART of it.

I feel like, as a young country that has yet to really put our imprint anywhere permanent in other countries and even sights, that while we are still developing into a grander,more consciously aware society, we can do better while we are at it. We can shine a light on the grey areas of our racially different but unique citizens.

Why show and only include the polished versions of stereotypical attributes of the minorities instead of actually hiring or representing unique views and ideas of a beautiful country and it’s people?

(Keep in mind that these are the shows that I’ve either grown up with or have recently encountered and actually watched, not just thrash talking about it.)

I hate and I really do mean it,how shows like, 'TANGLIN’ or 'UNDER ONE ROOF’ show stereotypical caricatures of other races and use comedy to nullify the depths of how serious their problems are or to over exaggerate it, to the point where it’s made to seem unrealistic. Sure to a certain extend,it captures the problems and times of Singaporeans of all walks of life but how deep?

It’s such a shallow pool, that you can drop a coin in it and the coin’s surface is not submerged in it even the slightest bit.

There are people out there that deny that their race has any privilege whatsoever when it comes to representation or being chosen for certain projects,even though, they both have either the same,in terms of qualifications or the minority has better. The majority,in this country’s racial pool, Chinese, will always have better chance or in some cases, the Caucasians,will.

To be mixed race (Im Indonesian Chinese,Indian,Pakistani and Arabic.) and to be a woman, I’ve been told that my chances of being taken seriously or to even compete in the pool of talent that is in Singapore,would be a waste of time. That’s as depressing as it could get,for someone who wants their ideas to shine thru more so ever, then their race(s) or their gender.

But; Most importantly, I want my story along with countless other Singaporeans of other races and such to be a part of the fabric that is weaving the path to a brighter Singapore. I want to show the other sides to what a Indian child had to go thru to have become the author that they’ve always wanted to be or what a Vietnamese/Dutch kid could bring to the table if only their race(s) weren’t such a identifier for that persons stereotypical biases instead of their stories or ideas.

All in all, it saddens me to think that, a child in Singapore that’s Indian/Malay mixed, has not seen someone on TV or even in movies or music, that resembles her/him, in even the slightest of ways.

Sure, the depths of how that race has come to stand where it is today and why it’s so beautifully rich should NEVER be ignored but…should that be why we are divided,ignored or cast as extras to a story that we all share?

Hopefully the day will come when it’s as normal as breathing air to see a Nyonya on TV in a big budget film, along side a Indian,Chinese mixed performer and a French-African main character.

Till then, I will write my stories and create my worlds, that is sadly, a distant future for the world we(POC) live in. Thank you for reading.

#singapore #races #media #singaporean #forabetterfuture #minority #POC #PeopleOfColour #Mixed

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music-of-silence · 7 years ago

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#Jaimoe: 9781250040503: Amazon.com: Books

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