#anachronistic anarchy

[yellow-yarrow]

Nihilism & Elysium web weaving

Disco Elysium / Russian nihilist movement wikipedia page / What Is To Be Done by Nikolay Chernyshevsky / Full Core State Nihilist / Émile Zola:Germinal

additional info: Robert Kurvitz has named Germinal as one of the inspirations for the game, in which coal miners strike, and then attack the mines. The violence of the angry proletariat that will destroy the old world one day and create a new is one of its themes.

What is To Be Done? is an utopian novel and it was an inspiration to nihilists (and to different kind of people on the left)

Full core State Nihilist is a story that takes place in Elysium, it can be read here

[weepylucifer]

it is known that in uncertain times, we return to seeking out things that brought us comfort in earlier periods of our lives back when things were easier. so obviously now that i have new health issues, i'm getting back into professor layton and doing another paul deepdive

i did not know this about him, for example. must have not made it into the translation i was playing back then. i wonder which instrument

[radioactivemelody]

Holy Quintet and their paranormal elements

I have been twirling this idea around my head for a good amount of time until I finally indulged it (and because I got some free time) so yeah. But first, let me explain to you what "paranormal elements" I'm talking about.

Simply, the paranormal elements from the Brazilian RPG called Ordem Paranormal (Paranormal Order if you will) and it has four main elements in which people can connect with.

BLOOD - Everything starts with Blood. Blood is the flow that drenches the eternity of the Other Side.

Blood is the entity of feelings. It seeks the intensity: pain, obsession, passion, love, hunger, hatred - everything evolving feeling an extreme emotion pleases the Blood entity.

DEATH - Everything has a start and an end, and time takes everything with it. Nothing transformed by Death can return to what was before.

Death is the entity of time. It seeks the lived moments, distorting the egocentric perception of each individual's existence for its own satisfaction.

KNOWLEDGE - To know everything is to lose everything.

Knowledge is the entity of consciousness. Discovering, learning, knowing, deciphering. Having one's perception of the Other Side and its entities pleases the Knowledge element.

ENERGY - Chaos is inevitable.

Energy is the entity of chaos. Everything that cannot be explained, the intangible, anarchy. The constant change, the heat and the cold, the light and the darkness. Everything that involves unpredictability and transformation pleases the Energy entity.

With that aside, let's get into it (and please, know this is my opinion based on their personality and character design overall).

Homura Akemi – Death/Knowledge

With the characterization of the anime and half of Rebellion (Devil Homura comes later), Homura has always struck me as a mix of Death and Knowledge.

For Death, obviously, her time powers. She doesn't have the ability to speed or slow things, only pause and reset. Her journey can be defined as "running around in circles" and the main symbol for this element is spirals. She seeks to live once again the happy moments with Madoka, in order to change her fate. Her mind is old but her body is young. Homura is an anachronistic. But playing with time - every story has an end eventually.

Along with that, there's Knowledge. Homura prefers logicality, she's strategic in her steps and plans. She takes mistakes as an opportunity to learn and turn better. She doesn't let emotions blind her sense of awareness. She stands on the side of reason. All of those traits are perfectly descriptive of the element of Knowledge. And yet - the holder of information, she can't even tell the others. The truth kills those who know, hence: to know everything is to lose everything.

Now, Devil Homura. She's blood and energy. Why?

What was the factor that made Homura do her board flip? Love and obsession. She tainted the entire universe with her feelings alone, creating a new world just for her beloved. This intensity is what the Blood entity seeks. An emotion so strong that is capable of changing the entire fabric of the universe.

This twines finely with her rebellion against the law and order the Law of Cycles set. Anarchy, the other side of the coin. Nobody expected her to suddenly overthrow Madoka. She's the darkness to Madoka's light. She's evil and unholy to Madoka's purity and divinity. Those traits fit into the description of Energy. Not to mention the entire purple motif going on.

Kyoko Sakura – Blood

A pretty damn obvious one. Intense with her own feelings, has a red motif. Bold, seeks carnage and hunts witches and if needed, magical girls. With a mindset of survivalism and refusal to lose against the chain of food with anger, hatred and bitterness in her heart, Kyoko's erratic intensity is basically a perfect description of what the Blood entity is.

Madoka Kaname - Knowledge

Meanwhile Knowledge is all about being logical and constantly seeking to discover, it also has this motif of purity and holiness. One of the creatures from the RPG associated with this element is literally the Angel from the bible, you know, biblically accurate angels?

Madoka, even much more in her Goddess form, fits into the category of Knowledge. The entity messes in a "psychological" way, spilling truths about things that are out of our reach - like a concept or an universal being. It maintains the balance of reality so it doesn't collapse. Guess who did something similar in the anime? The two colors which are commonly used to those who connect with the entity of Knowledge are yellow/golden and white. Once again, guess who uses this exact palette when she ascended to godhood? Madoka Kaname, you're Knowledge through and through.

Mami Tomoe - Knowledge

Just like Kyoko, Mami's also an obvious one. Thinks in the side of reason, has a yellow and white motif. She's elegant, not failing to have this aura of purity and holiness (hence, Holy Mami). When not having emotions blinding her sight, she's extraordinary. And yet… The truth is cruel in killing her. Despite fitting into the Knowledge entity, being aware of the truth behind Magical Girls makes her lose her mind without pity. She's a great explanation behind the meaning of the phrase "to know everything is to lose everything".

Sayaka Miki - Knowledge/Blood

Oh boy, I do love to analyze multifaceted characters.

Sayaka might not fit entirely into the Knowledge mood but she has some traits of it. A knight who fights for justice, for what's right or at least, what she thinks it's right. Through Sayaka's eyes, that's logical and reasonable. She fights to maintain peace and balance. In Rebellion, she used to be literally one of God's angels and lived in the Magical Girl heaven.

Despite these traits, Sayaka lets herself be swayed away by her own emotions. She's intense and isn't afraid to hide them. Despite sharing similar traits, she heavily conflicted with Kyoko, who's Blood as well. But later, in Rebellion, they connected more than ever. She summons Oktavia through her own blood because everything starts with Blood. She made a wish because of an emotion - love. Died because of that and with that because Kyoko loved her.

And for bonuses…

Nagisa Momoe - Energy

This sweet little ball of chaos. Who cares if it is God or the Devil who's in control of the universe? As long she's alive and has cheese, she's apparently fine. While Homura and Sayaka go down into an argument, she's seen running in the background, laughing. Maybe because she's free or maybe it's cool as hell to run through a river of punch juice. It's really funny to see a character who aligns with the entity of Energy be the family of someone who aligns with Knowledge. Oh, the irony. That's what Energy seeks for.

I hope all liked my shameless crossover between my two favorite pieces of media. It's fun to analyze characters through the lens of another universe. Don't care if it's cringe, at least I'm free. And if you're interested, search for Ordem Paranormal on YouTube! Recently, a special two-shot has been released with global creators, it's all in English. Other seasons have been subtitled in English as well. :)

[squishmallow36]

Behold. Garvarioli.

Yes, this is what garvar chapter 4 looked like. Haven't read it yet? Go read it.

I have so many regrets :) most of them are garwin's shorts :)

Taglist (lmk if you want to be added/removed!): @stellar-lune @faggot-friday @kamikothe1and0lny @nyxpixels @florida-preposterously @poppinspop @uni-seahorse-572 @solreefs @remember-me-in-another-time @rusted-phone-calls @when-wax-wings-melt @good-old-fashioned-lover-boy7 @dexter-dizzknees @abubble125 @hi-imgrapes @callum-hunt-is-bisexual @xanadaus @callas-pancake-tree @hi-my-name-is-awesome @katniss-elizabeth-chase @arson-anarchy-death @dizzeners @thefoxysnake @olivedumdum

And bonus notes because I spent too long on this

- by "too long" i mean almost 11 hours over 2 days wheeee

- the background is a pattern preloaded into ibis paint. I think it looks fun. So is the ivory blanket that can barely be seen anymore

- garwin's shirt is an actual shirt i found and then copied

- the fact that garwin is both pathetic cringefail loser and whatever his bracelet things are doing will never not be funny to me

- where do alvar's legs go? Idk put a blanket on them

- where do ruy's arms go? Idk put them out of frame

- i tried to reduce the abundance of black lines by having the background in base-color ish shades. Did it work? Discuss.

- it's kind of sad the bigfoot squishmallow isn't visible behind the garvar idiots. Also it's a little anachronistic but I don't care.

- garvar chapter 4 has influences from watcher / buzzfeed unsolved so ofc i had to use a screenshot to make ruy. I can't do that kind of perspective myself.

- alvar top surgery scars canon. Don't argue with me

- timmy will be getting his own art soon, don't worry.

[natequarter]

"cousins' war" is a crap name for the wotr because a) i'm pretty sure it's as anachronistic as the wars of the roses if not more and b) there was a whole war between two actual cousins which lasted over a decade. we call it the anarchy these days

[trashkerouac]

↑ ☛{dL}✔︎ ↑

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week - 25

Was 1973 the greatest year in cinema?

Besides the ones below, 1973 was also the year of The Holy Mountain, Day for Night, Mean Streets, Badlands, La Planete Sauvage, Paper Moon, Scenes from a Marriage, Amarcord, Oh Lucky Man, American Graffiti, Enter the Dragon, The Sting, The Exorcist...

✳️✳️✳️ 1973: The Spirit Of The Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena) - one of the most beautiful Spanish films of all time.

It’s 1940, and six-year-old Anna lives with her family in an isolated Castilian village. A mobile cinema truck bring Frankenstein to the village.

Quiet, symbolic and deeply moving.

The trailer.

✳️✳️✳️ 1973: The Last Detail, written by Robert Towne, with Jack Nicholson at his peak and with cameos by Gilda Radner, Nancy Allen and Carol Kane. 9/10

“Welcome to the wonderful world of pussy, kid..”

Going to watch the few other Hal Ashby films again.

✳️✳️✳️ 1973: Critically-acclaimed Robert Altman’s anachronistic neo-noir The Long Goodbye, with chain smoking Elliott Gould as unconvincing and bumbling Philip Marlowe.

Also, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first movie appearance.

✳️✳️✳️ 1973! I don’t know why I haven’t revisited Don’t Look Now for at least 15 years: I always considered it to be Nicolas Roeg’s best film, but it’s actually one of the greatest films I ever saw! Cinematically, emotionally, with extraordinary sound editing (The first 8 min.! The dressing / undressing scene!)..

With Renato Scarpa as the police inspector: ”AH! MIS-ter BAX-ter!”

Simply perfect!

✳️✳️✳️ 1973: In La Grande Bouffe four friends, Marcello, Ugo, Michel and Philippe (played by Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret) decide to binge-eat themselves to death on fine cuisine. A decadent and perverted food and sex orgy, full of excess and anarchy that doesn’t end until the last one shits himself to death. But why?

Bon appétit!

✳️✳️✳️ 1973: Honest cop and whistleblower Serpico fights obsessively against systemic corruption at the New York Police Department.

With Who’s Who of the time in small parts: Hank Garrett, ‘The Mailman’ from ‘Three days of the Condor’, Jack Kehoe, Midnight Run’s ‘Jerry’, James Tolkan as Steiger, M. Emmet Walsh, F. Murray Abraham, John Randolph, Allan Rich ...

✳️✳️✳️ 1973 / First watch - The Wicker Man, a British folk horror number about a Christian copper vs. a Scottish village of pagan heathens. With younger Christopher Lee in a hippie drag.

It had a unique way of combing folk songs, sung by the characters, nearly like a strange musical.

✳️✳️✳️ 1973: Westworld, the robots malfunction and revolt at a futuristic, adult-themed amusement park. Yul Brynner as the original Terminator. 3/10.

✴️                  

Queen of Hearts, a complex erotic drama by Danish-Egyptian director May el-Toukhy. An illicit affair between gorgeous Trine Dyrholm and her stepson Gustav Lindh (From Riders of Justice!). Shockingly explicit sex and unexpected third act reverse expectations and sympathies.

Best film of the week!

✴️            

Jackie Chan’s 1985 Police Story, a “broadly” choreographed slapstick / martial arts film. With young and chubby-faced Maggie Cheung, before she became world-class gorgeous.

✴️           

This isn't a rental car - it's privately owned.

How come I’ve never seen David Byrne’s True Stories before? Written by Ned Ryerson himself. Kooky characters in small town Vernon, TX. inspired by actual supermarket tabloid stories. Like Nashville for the 80′s..

✴️                

Crimes and Misdemeanors, a classic Woody Allen nihilist drama with a dual storyline that still holds its power.

“The eyes of God are always watching us” .

Toddler Dylan Farrow appears in a cameo at the wedding, and a distinct sub-plot has Allen wooing his teenage niece by taking her to see old movies and buying her art books... So, yuck to that part.

✴️              

“It’s good to be king.”

Mel Brooks’ 40 year old class-conscience History of the world, Part 1 - narrated by Orson Welles, with cameos by John Hurt as Jesus and Hugh Hefner, who also supplied the harem of vestal virgins. While ‘The Meaning of Life’ which came 2 years later was about philosophy, this was about history.

But everybody had such pearly white teeth.

✴️                     

I started watching Jojo Rabbit 3 times before I could finish this pretentious Holocaust comedy of revisionist Nazi-chic cuteness. A ten-year-old Hitler Youth boy finds out that his mother, Scarlett Johansson, is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic. Kitschy, cowardly and lazy. This is not ‘The Great Dictator’ or ‘The Producers’, or even ‘Look who’s back’. It’s Hitler 101 explained to 10 year olds who never heard of him.

I wonder how they got the rights to The Beatles and Bowie songs.

Also, Hitler was not a smoker. 2/10. (Photo above)

✴️                 

Picked up a random Apple’s TV series, Home before dark, about a 9 year old girl playing a journalist. I tried to get into it, and saw 2.5 episodes, but it was so ordinary, and soul-less, and full of teenager flick cliches, that I had to quit. Even the Jason Robards quotes from ‘All the President’s Men’ couldn’t help it. PASS!

✴️               

✳️✳️✳️ Woodward and Bernstein X 2

So, prompted by the series above, I watched All the President's Men again (for the 10? time). What a masterful film! Romancing investigative journalism never looked so good.

With a script by William Goldman, cinematography by Gordon Willis, and Robert Walden playing Donald Segretti.

The sparse score by Michael Small, who was Pakula’s go-to composer (and which I already mentioned here earlier)! Compared to his Parallax View theme.

True fact: Frank Wills, the black security guard who discovered the break-in, was fired without explanation a few days later. He was out of work for three years until he played himself (one day's work) in this film, and never had a full-time job again, until his death in 2000, at the age of 52.  

✳️✳️✳️ Also, All the President's Men Revisited, a 2012 documentary featuring all the players, and just before Trump, so they all could comfortably predict that Watergate will happen again, but none of them realized how terribly soon it will be.

✴️          

The company Men is about 3 senior executives trying to survive during the financial crisis of 2010 after getting fired, downsized, becoming redundant.

The Corporate-speak sounded fake, and Ben Affleck is not a good actor, so it wasn’t too engaging. 3/10

- - - - -

(My complete movie list is here)

[eien-no-gakusha]

Winter Begonia is Art

(...by virtue that its English title has very no association with its Chinese title)

Winter Begonia is a stunningly beautiful show!  Despite the toning down of the homoerotic elements from the source material, I would say this is a case where the adaptation elevated the source material and can stand on its own.

I never finished the novel, it’s a particularly hard read.  But from what I read, the drama is practically lifted from it while adding to it.  The novel is a historically accurate depiction of the people and society of the time, the mentality of the time included.  The drama provides more complex characters, anachronistically infusing the leads with modern sensibilities and much appreciated character growth.  Not to mention the great cast who had the nuanced acting chops to carry such a heavy show.  Both mediums are well researched from dialect (novel only) & cultural nods to timeline placement and the featuring of famous (& thematically relevant) operas.  The story is layered, addressing many deeper themes and historical realities very maturely.  In other words, subject matters communist China usually wouldn’t address.  The time period and the subject of Japanese invasion, the Republic, civil wars, and general anarchy still hits too close to home but the drama handles them with some nuance.  That aside, the interpersonal stories are well written and their arcs stimulate philosophical thought and emotional investment.  Show only elements were seamlessly incorporated.  The filmography and costume design (both on and off stage) are lovely visual spectacle.  

Overall, a class act.  Perfection.  *chefs kiss*

If we ever get a legal DVD/BluRay box set of this, I will buy it and proudly display it in my collection and NEVER watch it ever again. @liuet I know you will know if/when it will be physically distributed.  Keep me posted!

BUT...

Not sure if the highly coincidental family bonds were a drama only invention but I have mixed feelings about it.  Really drives home good old Confucian values about blood being thicker than water.  Perhaps I’m too westernized but I would have preferred the show to just let Shang XiRui continue to dislike of children to validate alternative lifestyles.  It would have also been a nice way to portray other forms of success & even filial piety outside of preserving the bloodline.  On the other hand, having Shang XiRui or other family members accepting FengYi without her lineage being confirmed could positively represent unconventional families.  Like would Shang XiRui have had a change of heart if FengYi was not his biological niece?  If we’re being anachronistic, lets be ballsy about it!

[forbidden-sorcery]

The seemingly entrenched position of the corrupt power elites is not impenetrable to attack, everyone can define objectives in their own lives to begin the revenge against those who have taken everything from us and sold it back to us at a price. In these new ruptures of the “social peace”, new enemies and new allies become known out of the breakdown. Some of the enemies are well known, others have remained covered by the trappings they could retain in the privileged positions of post-scarcity consumer capitalism. The legal part of the anarchist movement, that part still so dedicated to the social activism of democracy, is one of those enemies. Collaborating in the recent repression against the FAI-IRF and the anarchists of praxis, with so-called ‘public-political condemnation’, and open speculation with propagandistic and repressive aims, they have exposed their reactionary weaknesses and anachronistic nature. In various places, these ‘anarchists’ loudly shout-out their ignorant bleating, but what is clear is their total irrelevance and shabby performance both historically and presently. Cowards, informers and ‘civil anarchists’; these arse-lickers of the herd are similar to the reactionary mass of society, eagerly repeating the script of the political police and their “anti”-terrorist jargon. They have found themselves a place within the Inquisition and the protection they seek from the state is clear in their denouncements.

Anarchy: Civil or Subversive?

[markoftheasphodel]

So last I checked, “feudalism” was deemed a vague and anachronistic term that tells us more about the people doing the talking than how anyone in pre-modern Europe (much less anywhere else) actually lived, but since “feudalism” is one of those buzzwords for FE16 discourse I wanted to mention it wrt to Fódlan’s spiritual predecessor Jugdral.

So Jugdral on its face fits what I think some people in fandom are talking about when they bang on about feudalism. It has one of the most defined suzerain/vassal systems in FE, in which vassal states keep their own standing armies and mercenary brigades to wage war on one another as well as enemies of their overall nation/state. In brief:

Kingdom of Grannvale, consisting of six duchies under a King, based on Germany and reminiscent of various stages of the Holy Roman Empire. The duchies keep their own standing armies of knights, each with a specialization, and the capital of Belhalla has its own army whose Captain appears to come from the overall nobility. Ducal armies can be mobilized on behalf of the kingdom. For a protagonist homeland we don’t spend a lot of time here!

Dominion of Agustria, consisting of semi-autonomous regions ruled by “Lords,” again under a High King. Based on France and reminiscent of pre-Renaissance France when the authority of the French Kings was limited and dukes/satellite kings held a great deal of territory and power in Brittany, Burgundy, Normandy, Aquitaine, Anjou, etc. Each Lord has his own army and some contract with mercenary groups. Also they burn witches, which is Thirty Years War as much as its medieval. Sounds pretty damn “feudal” to be honest.

Kingdom of Verdane, an orientalist “barbarian” state with ill-defined structure.

Kingdom of Silesse, theoretically a centralized monarchy with a single army, as the developments we see in-game appear to be a factor of Lewyn’s uncles making power plays and not the status quo. Treasure indicated that its climate makes Silesse a poor agricultural area and the industries are small-scale hunting and fishing and a presumably lucrative fur industry. Doesn’t sound very “feudal” at all.

Kingdom of Isaach, a country of nomadic herders since ancient times, with cities and a centralized monarchy as fairly new developments.

Darna, which is pretty much Jugdral Jerusalem

Miletos, another ill-defined place that is definitely a shopping district-- analogous to Venice? To Damascus? 

Northern Thracia, four kingdoms that don’t have a clear hierarchy though the royal house of Leonster would like to be the High Kings. Inspired by Italy and a very interesting place in terms of economy; it’s one of the two breadbaskets of Jugdral along with Agustria, so agriculture and animal husbandry are a major factor. In addition, the Treasure artbook cites shipping, fishing, pottery-making, and technologically skilled wood-working. It recalls the Italian city-states of the early Renaissance (Genoese shipbuilding, Florentine and Milanese craftsmen, Venetian glass) but also the post-feudal mercantile societies of say, 17th-century Holland and 18th-century England. The fertile river Thracia could be an analogue to the Po, the river whose valley made Northern Italy a verdant paradise. More than any place in Jugdral, Leonster appears to be the cute little “model” state of an enlightened monarchy presiding over a thriving economy with a happy middle class (akin to Altea or Renais). In other words, not feudal.

Kingdom of Thracia, a despotic monarchy. Inspired by Spain and it sounds more like Castile, “the land of stones and saints,” than it does mercantile Aragón. Its main export appears to be its own people, for use in mercenary brigades in Agustria and elsewhere. Mercenary nations often make little sense in FE, especially in games that pretend there’s been peace for 800-1000 years before the current conflict; at least Thracian mercenaries have an obvious place to go and earn their bread. Thracia also is apparently rich in minerals but without the watershed of the River Thracia it’s more like untapped potential than anything they can benefit from at present. Any place not under control of the king’s own army devolves to warlords and anarchy, with individual walled towns and city-states providing sanctuary. Less “feudal” than Dung Ages, really.

TL;DR, even in a place like Jugdral that seems straight-up “feudal” there’s more going on under the surface. Also “feudal” is a vague and poor jumping-off point for discussion, so let’s have discourse on something else now.

[davey-dammit]

Fashion often changes in broad, pendulum-like swings, and this is a good example of the phenomenon. But while the question is deceptively simple, the answer is complex, because it involves explaining several social and historical convergences. Bear with me, if you will, and I hope all will become clear: In the early 70's, there came about, pretty abruptly, a strong visual backlash against the electric, high-chroma,"psychedelic" colour palette that was such an iconic feature of the late 60's hippie culture; in short, the style got old very fast. The reasons were multiple: America was now deep in a quagmire of war; thousands were being drafted and returning home in coffins, mere weeks after their induction; protesters were being beaten and jailed; every day, the newspapers (!) revealed our leaders to be ever more egregiously stupid crooks, liars and fools. Madness and anarchy seemed to lie around every corner. Somehow all that celebratory, fun, acid-saturated colour now seemed ... silly and self-indulgent. It became as inappropriate as wearing a "Smile" t-shirt to a schoolbus rollover. And all the gentle social upheaval and genial questioning of institutional values that those bright colours once cheekily promised? Well, they no longer carried much appeal. In fact, they seemed frightening - just more uncertainty and conflict, in already uncertain and conflicted times. People were suddenly in the visual mood for something more muted, contemplative and restrained. The faintly mournful "autumn" colour palette - dark orange, oxblood, copper, brown, harvest gold, avocado green - filled that need so well that, as you point out, it literally became symbolic of the decade. Perhaps simply because it reminded folks of a less complex time, when subtle, visually digestible, vegetable-based dyes coloured our surroundings, rather than incomprehensible, knock-your-eyes-out chemical pigments (whose colours were actually meant to approximate the livelier visual effects of a hallucinogenic experience!). Concurrently with the shift in colour preferences, smaller, meticulously repeated patterns once again began to appear on fabrics and wallpapers, as sharp stylistic counterpoint to the free-form, Yellow Submarine-esque, "supergraphic rainbow" visuals that had overwhelmed every available wall surface during the previous decade. Those autumn colours also thematically supported, and were cross-fertilized by, the decade's nascent "natural" movement. Still inspired by the lofty ideals of their older siblings' recently failed hippie paradigm, and boosted by the first vague stirrings of the modern ecology movement, '70s boomers forsook (at least temporarily) their parents' blatant consumerim, and instead embraced the generationally dormant, homespun handicrafts of their grandparents: macramé, crochet, bargello, weaving, leatherworking, cutting down old beer bottles into drinking glasses. The handicrafts they created and proudly decorated their homes with were mostly made from organic materials, so they just looked better when surrounded with earth-tone colours. Chromatic colour was out, because it detracted from the workmanship - which was, after all, what differentiated handmade-and-unique from factory-extruded and common. This attitudinal shift towards muted, "homemade" colour and texture, and away from slick, obviously industrial colours and finishes was, at least in part, probably a subconscious side-effect of the 70's generation's fast-growing resentment of both the politician-buying industrial complex, and its ongoing material support for a war they despised. (Yes, the war ended in '75, but resentments lingered.) It was, if you will, a form of protest, or boycott: a generation's tentative, somewhat pathetic attempt to re-exert control over their own visual destiny, and to wrest whatever tiny part of their environment they still could, away from the overbearing and apparently malignant industrial and commercial forces that were threatening to overwhelm them socially, financially and politically. At the same time as these colour and design changes took hold in home decor, people began gradually shifting their wardrobes back to natural wools and cottons. After a decade and a half of collecting increasingly slinky, shiny, uncomfortable, odiferous and obviously synthetic garments - which were themselves a pendulum-swing away from the ossified white-cotton-shirt, gray-flannel-suit ethos of the two decades following WWII, the fabric-choice pendulum was again swinging back. And in clothing, as in interior design, autumnal, natural colours were generally seen to be more complementary to natural materials than chromatic colours. That all being said (whew!), the prevalence of the autumnal palette wasn't really as all-encompasing as retro media like That 70's Show would have us believe. (Btw, what was up with the anachronistic, so-90's, industrial loft-tech, cheese-grater kitchen lights? Obvious clanger.) Designers frequently go kind of over-the-top when they try to recreate a period look, a generation or more later. Frankly, even Mad Men, though certainly very well researched, is visually a little overbearing in its representation of the period; after all, not everything in the Sixties was of the Sixties; some of it hailed from the Fifties and Forties, even the Thirties. Just as we still occasionally see an 80's wood panelled Buick land-shark station wagon in the Walmart parking lot, or a suitcase-sized VCR parked under a friend's tube TV, I long to see a cheap postwar suit on some poor agency schlub who supervises the steno pool. Instead, everybody wears Brooks Brothers. All the time. It is also instructive to realize that within any fashion era "look" you'd care to examine, competing visual ideas constantly jousted with one another for dominance. Visual style is a roiling river, not a still pond. Remember that the "natural, homespun" 70's were also the era that gave birth to platform boots for men, polyester lounge suits, "designer" jeans, disco, the New York Dolls, foil wallpaper, smoked glass coffee tables, naugahyde sofas, spherical stereo speakers, shag carpet, gold-veined mirror tiles, chrome overhead lamps, and pink Christmas trees; and may God forgive my generation for those particular stylistic trespasses. For further proof, take another look at Goodfellas, with an eye to the set decoration and costumes; it is a veritable omnibus of questionable 70's design. (And a showcase for some very clever designers!) Next instalment: why the theme colours of the late '50s and early '60s were red, pastel green, chrome yellow and teal, and why commercial printers suddenly stopped putting type into straight lines. Source: Lived through it all. Also, history of design in theatre school.

theartfulcodger (reddit post from 2014)

A really well thought out and interesting answer to the question “Does anyone really know why brown and orange were so popular in the 70s?”

[satbiym]

Both Alike in Dignity by satbiym

Summary

Breaking News!

This just in, according to the Lotus Pier Police Department, Walmart has now banned local man for driving an electric cart while drinking wine from a Pringles Can at 9AM.

Walmart Employee, Wei Wuxian, who first reported the drunk man, when asked for about this ban said, “Nah man, we’ve all been there, you know? Let he who hasn’t had the exact same urge cast the first stone!”

The man in question could not be reached for any comments.

We’ll keep you updated as the story progresses.

Next up! Is your cat plotting to kill you? Find out, after the break.

Listen.

Listen.

Lan Wangji hadn’t thought his recent (unwilling) transfer to Lotus Pier, brother’s engagement (to a complete and utter asshole) and his (first ever) heartbreak would impact him much.

But if the police officer in front of him was to be believed, he might have to reconsider some of his earlier considerations.

Like where he got his groceries and sandalwood moisturizer, because it appeared that the logistics of shopping at Walmart were now… legally complicated.

When the Walmart Employee who started it all starts challenging him at every turn, Wangji’s life is turned upside down yet again. Thus begins a journey of saving bunnies, breaking engagements and starting a cult.

… and somewhere along the way, maybe falling in love.

AKA: The not-so-tragic Romeo-and-Juliet love story that shook the foundations of Lotus Pier, now with 1000% more Walmart representation!

ACT 1 Prologue

O, here

Will I set up my everlasting rest,

And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars

From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!

Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you

The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss

A dateless bargain to engrossing death!

X

Lan Wangji woke up to the sound of clucking, the smell of hay and the taste of what appeared to be all the grime of the world; his mouth was - Lan Wangji was certain - now housing the occupants of Pandora’s box, presumably to accelerate Lan Wangji’s descent into the abyss from sheer, unfiltered anguish.

And no. Lan Wangji was not being a - as his dear brother would claim - drama llama, and the fact that you thought so makes you complicit in the heinous system of victim blaming. Stew in that.

However, putting aside your blatant enthusiasm for contributing to a systemic socio-economic issue, the point was, Lan Wangji had woken up disoriented, not quite ready to do so and all the more resentful for it.

By the smells and sounds assaulting his senses, he could deduce that he was not the sole occupant of the space he had somehow found himself in.

Lan Wangji forced his eyes open with a repressed hiss at the bright light that caused him to almost empty his stomach right then and there, and looked around.

Oh.

He was in a barn.

He had never been in a barn before. Lan Wangji looked around with curiosity, only to lock gazes with someone whose very glare seemed to scream: Colonizer! Begone!

It might have been his equal parts fascination and disdain for British history, but it did seem like his co-occupants weren’t very pleased about his presence in their midst.

The rooster cocked his head and, with a considerable amount of self-importance and flair for the dramatics, as if the audience had only validated his illusions of self-grandior, crowed.

Loudly.

Lan Wangji flinched back, unable to bear a sound he had only ever read about and heard in movies or ironic ringtones born from phones of people he never spoke to again, especially as his head felt like it was splitting itself apart.

Clutching his pounding head with his hands, Lan Wangji offhandedly wondered if this was how Zeus had felt right before Athena had been born out of his split skull.

The rooster continued its morning call, caring naught for Lan Wangji’s lifelong practice of vegetarianism or his regular recycling habits. The world truly was not kind to those who tried, Lan Wangji despaired.

His clothes were dirty and disheveled, hair unsightly and a rooster was loudly proclaiming that Lan Wangji was not welcome in his territory. He couldn’t remember how he had ended up in this situation. The last thing he could recall was loud laughter, turning instinctively (as if he could do anything other than heed the siren call of that laugh) and watching as We-

No.

Lan Wangji got up.

Answers could wait. He needed to first get out of here and maybe get some food. For some reason, despite it being early morning he was ravenous.

Only, before Lan Wangji could proceed with his plan, the barn door abruptly opened, hinges creaking and even silencing the self-aggrandizing rooster.

Lan Wangji looked at the newcomer with trepidation, making sure his face remained as stoic as the muscles would allow.

A woman stood with sharp light behind her, making her seem all the more ominous. Upon seeing Lan Wangji, she stopped, doorknobs still held in her hands.

They surveyed each other for a second, but before the twisting in Lan Wangji’s stomach could get too much, the woman broke out in a wide grin, open and unerringly friendly.

“Doctor! What’s a fella like you doing in a place like this?” She boomed, voice echoing off of the rafters of the barn.

Lan Wangji blinked. He had never before understood how someone could relate their complex and intricate human experiences to pithy existential questions that were carelessly tossed en masse. But, it seemed like today was a day for revelations.

Lan Wangji bowed slightly and intoned, “Apologies for trespassing, Ma’am.”

The woman’s eyes widened and her face seemed to somehow become fevered, as if she was coming down with the flu. She fluttered her hands, almost dancing in her place, and giggled, “Oh, don’t worry about it, Doctor! It must be the lack of apples in my diet!”

What.

Lan Wangji decided this conversation wasn’t worth the emotional toll as of this moment and with another bow took his leave. He very firmly did not run, he simply… power walked. It was better for the cardiovascular system.

But as he reached the door his stomach made itself heard. Lan Wangji paused, he wasn’t familiar enough with this area to be able to locate a restaurant quickly enough. He turned back, the woman was turned towards him presumably watching him leave to ensure he never darkened her doorstep again with his trespassing.

“Excuse me, Ma’am, where is the nearest restaurant that serves breakfast at this time?” He asked.

The woman laughed and said, “Doctor, I think even you’d find it difficult to find a diner serving breakfast at 2 in the afternoon.”

Lan Wangji’s eyes widened against his permission. He had never woken up past 5 AM since the day his Uncle had taken him in. But then, why…

“Your rooster. He was…” Lan Wangji trailed off, unsure how to describe the unholy shrieks of anarchy the beast had been emitting to his definitely demonic overlords.

The woman slapped her knee as she shook with laughter, “Oh, that’s just Henry for ya! He is up and cock-a-doodle-dooing at all hours of the afternoon. My husband likes to tell me it’s because he’s working on a different timezone. ‘We, Bertha,’ he says, ‘have gotten ourselves a foreign rooster!’” The woman continued, voice much softer and fonder than before.

Look, Lan Wangji was a certified veterinarian.

Lan Wangji even had a PhD!

But no amount of wet lab or theoretical knowledge of “roosters can crow at any time of the day” could prevent the inherent wrongness of the realization that the movies had lied to him.

“But if it’s lunch ya want, then there is Mellie’s diner right down the road, next to the Walmart.” She continued, positively brimming with good-natured joviality but that didn’t stop Lan Wangji’s traitorous heart from lurching at the end of her sentence.

Lan Wangji nodded, ignoring his inner turmoil and after sending one last look at the anachronistic hell bird, walked to the direction the woman had indicated towards, recent memory still evading his grasp.

Maybe it was the headache still pounding away or his avoiding thinking about recent revelations by trying to recover his lost memories, but so engrossed in his own mind was he that it was almost a surprise when he reached the diner cheerfully proclaiming itself as being Mellie’s.

Straightening his clothes and wishing he had had the chance to wash up, Lan Wangji walked in, the bell at the door chiming sweetly, announcing his presence to all the other patrons.

The diner was full, Lan Wangji noted. Not that you would know it by ear, seeing as they all fell silent and turned to look at him like he was a particularly interesting alien species.

Lan Wangji waited until a man wearing a garishly cheerful uniform walked up to him nervously.

“Table for one.” Lan Wangji said, voice level and seemingly oblivious to the way the many eyes had not moved past him.

The server nodded and with a look of confusion but as if directed by an external puppeteer as he played a role he hadn’t realized he had auditioned for, walked Lan Wangji to the nearest empty table, which was, to Lan Wangji’s consternment, right next to a raised television playing the local news.

As Lan Wangji moved, the eyes of the diner’s patrons followed.

But at this point, Lan Wangji was used to it. The stares, the open differential awe you’d give to a limited edition figurine, prized but untouchable. Alien and inalienable.

It seemed as if moving to a new town hadn’t been the answer to this particular quirk of circumstance.

The server cleared his throat, a sound that reverberated in the silence of the diner, sounding like a caricature of the act. Lan Wangji looked at him, askance.

“May I take your order, Doctor?” The server asked, seemingly flushed for some reason.

The server, Lan Wangji offhandedly noted, had gray eyes. Eyes which were somehow too reminiscent of another pair of eyes and at the same time, not gray enough to be an apropos comparison.

A pair of eyes that danced into being more silver than gray on any given day and answered more questions than Lan Wangji had been prepared to have had answered when he had moved to this town.

“Salad.” Lan Wangji intoned.

The man bobbed his head and clutching the unopened menu in his hands, walked away. Lan Wangji resumed staring ahead at nothingness and contemplated the recent disorder that had been wrought on his life: abrupt, unwelcome and without even the good grace of having sent a courtesy invitation.

Dear So-and-So,

You have been cordially invited to witness the anarchy that has befallen what many experts could identify as the remains of a perfectly fine life that didn’t deserve to have experienced the full spectrum of human emotion when it was perfectly fine without it, thank you very much.

The noise returned gradually.

Lan Wangji tuned back in just as the news anchor changed to a woman he had heard at the grocery store last week as she shouted about deadlines and leads into her phone while carefully cradling a carton of eggs.

Maybe it was that familiarity bred sustained patience for the a person’s presence, but Lan Wangji found himself turning his attention to the television as she spoke, almost jumping with preppy excitement. The excitement made sense a moment later as the television flashed with red signs alerting the other patrons of an incoming breaking news story.

She cleared her throat and clutching her ear-piece, said with alacrity, “This just in! According to the Lotus Pier Police Department, Walmart has now banned local man for driving an electric cart while drinking wine from a Pringles Can at 9AM.”

Lan Wangji blinked, Who in the world-

A video of a long-haired man grinning cheerfully flashed onto the screen and Lan Wangji’s thoughts halted to a stop.

Surely-

She continued, her voice loud and clear in the silent diner as all awaited the rest of the story, “Walmart Employee, Wei Wuxian, who first reported the drunk man, when asked for about this ban said and I quote, ‘Nah man, we’ve all been there, you know? Let he who hasn’t had the exact same urge cast the first stone!’”

The diner’s patron’s hooted and some laughed as someone yelled, “Yeah! You tell ‘em, Wei Wuxian!”

The news anchor continued, “The man in question could not be reached for any comments. We’ll keep you updated as the story progresses. Next up! Is your cat plotting to kill you? Find out, after the break.”

A cheerful anthem broke the segment, signalling a break and an advertisement of the local Walmart and its services filled the screen.

The patrons were still laughing and loudly discussing the news.

“That Wei Wuxian, he will never change!”

“Why should he? He is just perfect!”

“Oh, please. He is so out of your league. You know he is going to be the one to inherit Walmart after Madam Yu steps down as President of the franchise, right? Stop dreaming.”

Lan Wangji clenched his fist, hidden by the table.

“Forget his hopeless delusions! what about that story, right?! Who in the world could do something like that?!”

Lan Wangji turned back to his staring at nothingness, eavesdropping was prohibited, even if they were making it really hard to not eavesdrop with their loud voices and inclusion of the whole diner into their conversation.

The diner bell chimed.

Lan Wangji paid it no mind, at least until he sensed a presence coming towards him. He looked up. It was a uniformed police officer. The officer stopped before his table and waited until he had Lan Wangji’s attention before speaking “Are you Doctor Lan Wangji?”

Lan Wangji, with a foreboding feeling in his gut, inclined his head. The other diner patrons, at this point, weren’t even pretending not to be listening in. Clearly, they hadn’t been brought up by Lan Qiren.

The police officer nodded, pulling out an envelope which he handed to Lan Wangji.

“I am here to inform you that you have hereby been banned from Walmart for the foreseeable future in light of the incident that took place this morning.”

Lan Wangji blinked, a sort of rushing sound echoing in his ears. He didn’t understand.

“I am afraid I do not know what you are referring to, Officer.” Lan Wangji said, outwardly calm despite a dawning in his chest, like he had almost grabbed hold of an late-blooming epiphany but it was still dancing out of his reach.

The officer looked back flatly and said, “I am referring to your operating an electric cart while intoxicated at walmart at nine o’clock this morning.”

Lan Wangji stilled.

The epiphany had stopped dancing out of his reach, simply vanishing into a whiff of smoke and regrets.

And it appeared that so had he.

… Or so he wished.

“I am afraid you have the wrong person, Officer,” Lan Wangji said succinctly, not believing even his own words because somehow that - considering how disobedient, contradictory and unruly his life had been behaving - sounded… about right.

The Officer raised an unimpressed eyebrow and pulled out a credit-card sized object, handing it to Lan Wangji.

It was a... picture.

In it was a laughing Wei Ying, hands tied together with a white ribbon throwing up peace signs regardless, flushed and all the more beautiful for it.

It was a lovely picture and Lan Wangji wanted copies, but how was this proof of his alleged crime? If this was some kind of joke-

The officer, probably impatient with Lan Wangji’s lack of enlightenment, pointed behind Wei Ying, at…

Oh.

Yeah, alright. That was him riding an electric cart while drinking from a pringles can.

Lan Wangji nodded, pocketing the photograph, focused on making sure the internal screaming remained internal, “Noted. Anything else?”

The officer raised his other eyebrow and said grimly, “Not at this moment, no, Doctor.”

Lan Wangji inclined his head and turned back to stare at the spot he had been staring at before, dismissing the officer and uncaring as he walked away.

Everyone pretended they weren’t staring at Lan Wangji, though somehow he felt their presence more keenly than before when they hadn’t even been trying to conceal their stares, as the server walked up to him.

“Um, D-Doctor? Your meal.” The server stumbled out, hands quickly depositing the plate on the table before swiftly walking away before Lan Wangji even had a chance to look at the food.

Lan Wangji looked at his plate.

It was not a salad.

X

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;

The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;

Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

[ryukyuan-sunflower]

I recommend reading "Anachronistic Anarchy: A Linguistic Character Analysis of Shinichiro Watanabe’s Samurai Champloo" from Macy Park to any Samurai Champloo fan. It has great insight into the main characters, especially Fuu. I don't remember other fans expressing such idea about Fuu, and I am in love with the idea.

I read this a looong time ago! Thank you so much for bringing it up; I totally forgot. It’s very admirable that a person went to such lengths to record the character’s speech patterns. I highly recommend this as well.

A lot of people misinterpret Fuu as being a weak, damsel in distress. But I think it is even more admirable of her to be so emotionally strong in the face of adversity. Being a young woman in Tokugawa era Japan, with no family traveling alone…. The threat of kidnappers and sexual predators would be utterly terrifying.

Despite these dangers, Fuu is shown many times to defy being the socially accepted, timid girl who caters to others needs. When she sees something wrong, she acts. She speaks. She is a voice for those who cannot or will not speak for themselves. Episode 1, where the magistrate’s son is causing trouble with the other patrons is our first glimpse into this.

The teahouse owners told her “gaman gaman” which is a Japanese saying that basically means “Just Bear It”. She just can’t accept that.

When Fuu was thrown in a brothel, Fuu desires to escape, trying to convince the friend she made to do the same. When no one comes to her rescue (Mugen does though he misses her by a few minutes) she devises a way to escape herself. And in another episode, she defends a woman being forced into an arranged marriage with an abusive man.

While Fuu may not be physically strong, she is clever and resourceful. She manages to convince (more like deceive) two men into accompanying her on a crazy journey without giving them any info. In a way, I think they admire her bravery to do such with two known killers wanted by the law and those out to seek revenge. That’s honestly pretty awesome. And for her, perhaps being around two men who give two shits about what others think felt liberating for once. In a society where everyone acts like everything is fine, they are the only ones who are honest that things are not always good.

Her speech in both Japanese and English is very much like a tomboy, despite the femininity of her tone. This way, she blends in with the two men she travels with.

Fuu is a mix of a traditional Japanese woman while still having a strong, determined no-nonsense character that speaks up for herself. It was frowned upon to do such back then, and even today. Creating a scene over someone doing something obviously wrong is still bad. Example, if someone cuts in line in Japan…no one says anything. They would rather not make a fuss. But Fuu stands up against these sorts of injustices, defying her entire social environment.

All three characters are outcasts in that way. Jin looks perfect but runs from a shameful misdeed in his past without defending himself. Mugen with his entire getup and the stigma behind his tattoos, just doesn’t care what people think of him. Fuu is herself, no matter if her uneven hair is an odd style, or her impolite speech is more like a guy talking than a girl.

She might be the biggest Chanpuru of the whole cast.

Shinichiro Watanabe always has such interesting characters who still apply to modern times.

[emphoenixcat]

Pass the happy! When you get this, reply with 5 things that make you happy and send this to the last 10 people in your notifications.

1) Watching my favorite movies

2) Poetry

3) Dancing like nobody’s watching

4) Coloring my hair

5) c h o c o l a t e

@violetmcl @iamsilentwolf @julietsilvers @jaybingu @strawheartist @fandergecko @anachronistic-cat @chemically-imbalanced-romance @deceitful-deception @bird-based-anarchy