#and Cultural Resonance

[esperanzapretila]

Writing Across Borders: Greg Fields on Literary Craft, Advocacy, and Cultural Resonance

What if your life took a completely unexpected twist? How would you adapt and thrive? Greg Fields reveals how this question shaped his writing journey and the heart of his new novel.

“All of us are individuals seeking the right place in a pluralistic, complex society, and all of us have the quirks, neuroses, joys, and traumas that make us unique.”– Greg Fields Content Warning: This interview addresses themes of trauma, marginalized children, and generational struggles, which may be distressing for some readers. It also touches on Imposter Syndrome and personal doubt, which…

[samwaverley]

Writing Across Borders: Greg Fields on Literary Craft, Advocacy, and Cultural Resonance

What if your life took a completely unexpected twist? How would you adapt and thrive? Greg Fields reveals how this question shaped his writing journey and the heart of his new novel.

“All of us are individuals seeking the right place in a pluralistic, complex society, and all of us have the quirks, neuroses, joys, and traumas that make us unique.”– Greg Fields Content Warning: This interview addresses themes of trauma, marginalized children, and generational struggles, which may be distressing for some readers. It also touches on Imposter Syndrome and personal doubt, which…

[sallymajors]

Writing Across Borders: Greg Fields on Literary Craft, Advocacy, and Cultural Resonance

What if your life took a completely unexpected twist? How would you adapt and thrive? Greg Fields reveals how this question shaped his writing journey and the heart of his new novel.

“All of us are individuals seeking the right place in a pluralistic, complex society, and all of us have the quirks, neuroses, joys, and traumas that make us unique.”– Greg Fields Content Warning: This interview addresses themes of trauma, marginalized children, and generational struggles, which may be distressing for some readers. It also touches on Imposter Syndrome and personal doubt, which…

[rachellepryce]

Writing Across Borders: Greg Fields on Literary Craft, Advocacy, and Cultural Resonance

What if your life took a completely unexpected twist? How would you adapt and thrive? Greg Fields reveals how this question shaped his writing journey and the heart of his new novel.

“All of us are individuals seeking the right place in a pluralistic, complex society, and all of us have the quirks, neuroses, joys, and traumas that make us unique.”– Greg Fields Content Warning: This interview addresses themes of trauma, marginalized children, and generational struggles, which may be distressing for some readers. It also touches on Imposter Syndrome and personal doubt, which…

[twbmagazine]

Writing Across Borders: Greg Fields on Literary Craft, Advocacy, and Cultural Resonance

What if your life took a completely unexpected twist? How would you adapt and thrive? Greg Fields reveals how this question shaped his writing journey and the heart of his new novel.

“All of us are individuals seeking the right place in a pluralistic, complex society, and all of us have the quirks, neuroses, joys, and traumas that make us unique.”– Greg Fields Content Warning: This interview addresses themes of trauma, marginalized children, and generational struggles, which may be distressing for some readers. It also touches on Imposter Syndrome and personal doubt, which…

[exilley]

I do sort of wish western anime fans would analyze anime and manga from a framework of japanese historical and cultural context. Specifically a lot of works from the 90s being influenced by the general aimlessness and ennui that a lot of people were experiencing due to the burst in the bubble economy and the national trauma caused by the sarin terrorist attack. I think in interacting with media that’s not local to our sociocultural/sociopolitical sphere it’s easy to forget that it’s influenced and shaped by the same kinds of factors that influence media within our own cultural dome and there ends up being this baseline misalignment of perception between the causative elements of a narrative and viewer interpretation of those elements. It’s a form of death of the author that i think, in some measure, hinders our ability to fully understand/come to terms with creator intent and the full scope of a work’s merits

[butchlifeguard]

we need to destroy the idea that girls should wear makeup. normalize bare faces on prom queens and flower girls and cheerleaders. no products at all instead of '7 product simple makeup routine.' no more 10 step skincare and regular facials and dermablading and gua sha just to be comfortable with yr natural face. i want to see eye bags on the funny librarian and acne on the swim coach and wrinkles on all our adult role models. i want to see a 16 year old girl that has never tried putting on eyeshadow. i want to see a 7 year old girl who doesn't have to go out and buy powder for her dance recital. i want to see trans women and girls everywhere to never have to wear makeup, regardless of how well they 'pass.' no more 'contouring to look masc' either. a post-beauty industry world is possible

reblogs are on but if you bring up the stage makeup point that i have addressed three times yr blocked on sight ☹️

[commsroom]

as an extension of how hera reads as trans to me, hera/eiffel resonates with me specifically as a relationship between a trans woman and a cis man. loving hera requires eiffel to decentralize his own perspective in a way that ties into both his overall character arc and the themes of the show.

pop culture is baked into the dna of wolf 359, into eiffel’s worldview, and in how it builds off of a sci-fi savvy audience’s assumptions: common character types, plot beats, or dynamics, why would a real person behave this way? how would a real person react to that? eiffel is the “everyman” who assumes himself to be the default. hera is the “AI who is more human than a lot of humans,” but it doesn’t feel patronizing because it isn’t a learned or moral quality; she is a fundamentally human person who is routinely dehumanized and internalizes that.

eiffel/hera as a romance is compelling to me because there is a narrative precedent for some guy/AI or robot woman relationships in a way i think mirrors some attitudes about trans women: it’s a male power fantasy about a subclass of women, or it’s a cautionary tale, or it’s a deconstruction of a power fantasy that criticizes the way men treat women as subservient, as property. but what does that pop culture landscape mean in the context of desire? If you are a regular person, attracted to a regular person, who really does care for you and wants to do right by you, but is deeply saturated in these expectations? how do you navigate that?

I think that, in itself, is an aspect of communication worth exploring. sometimes you won’t get it. sometimes you can’t. and that’s not irreconcilable, either. it’s something wolf 359 is keenly aware of, and, crucially, always sides with hera on. eiffel screws up. he says insensitive things without meaning to. often, hera will call him out on it, and he will defer to her. in the one case where he notably doesn’t, the show calls attention to it and makes him reflect. it’s not a coincidence that the opening of shut up and listen has eiffel being particularly dismissive of hera - the microaggression of separating her from “men and women” and the insistence on using his preferred title over hers. there are things eiffel has just never considered before, and caring for hera the way he does means he has to consider them. he's never met someone like hera, but media has given him a lot of preconceptions about what people like her might be like.

there’s a whole other discussion to be had about the gender dynamics of wolf 359, even in the ways the show tries to avoid directly addressing them, and how sexual autonomy in particular can’t fully be disentangled from explorations of AI women. i don’t think eiffel fully recognizes what comments like “wind-up girl” imply, and the show is not prepared to reconcile with it, but it’s interesting to me. in the context of transness (and also considering hera’s disability, two things i think need to be discussed together), i think it’s worth discussing how hera’s self image is at odds with the way people perceive her, her disconnect from physicality, how she can’t be touched by conventional means, and the ways in which eiffel and hera manage to bridge that gap.

even the desire for embodiment, and the autonomy and type of intimacy that comes with it, means something different when it’s something she has to fight for, to acquire, to become accustomed to, rather than a circumstance of her birth. i suppose the reason i don’t care for half measures in discussions re: hera and embodiment is also because, to me, it is in many ways symbolically a discussion about medical transition, and the social fear of what’s “lost” in transition, whether or not those things were even desired in the first place.

hera’s relationship with eiffel is unquestionably the most supportive and equal one she has, but there are still privileges, freedoms, and abilities he has that she doesn’t, and he forgets that sometimes. he will never share her experiences, but he can choose to defer to her, to unlearn his pop culture biases and instead recognize the real person in front of him, and to use his own privilege as a shield to advocate for her. the point, to me - what’s meaningful about it - is that love isn’t about inherent understanding, it’s about willingness to listen, and to communicate. and that’s very much at the heart of the show.

[annepi-blog]

Okay, after seeing so many cool gifs and art from Dead Boy Detectives from my tumblr mutuals, I gave the show a chance.

I watched it and oh my god it's awesome and I love it so much.

Then I go on tumblr to look into fandom and find out that Netflix canceled it... WHY?!

If I understand correctly, it wasn't unsuccessful, maybe less than expected, but still a lot of people watched it. The ratings from critics and audiences are very good. And they had already ordered season 2 and it is completely written.

I know everyone has different tastes, but seriously, they make weird reality shows with questionable content or that weird Gwyneth Paltrow show that spouts pseudo-scientific nonsense that is actually dangerous and just advertising for her company.

And didn't Netflix recently announce how much money they've made from new subscriptions since they stopped the sharing?

Seriously, I hate this new throwaway culture of streaming services so much...

[piqued-curiosity]

It’s really sad seeing women make videos making fun of how their former selves did their makeup (example: “how I looked doing my makeup in 2016”, “we all thought we did something with the 90’s blue eyeshadow”, etc.). Because they act like the problem was them not knowing how to do makeup…instead of recognising that the problem is that trends change constantly, and women are expected to relearn how to paint their faces to keep up.

They don’t seem to realise that the makeup they’re wearing in these videos that they deem to be “better” and “right”, will be subjected to the same mockery the looks they laugh at today are. One day, they’ll all be laughing at “soap brows” and “e-girl blush” while wearing the current trend. And then they’ll mock that trend in a few years.

It’s a never-ending cycle of makeup looks going out of style, and being deemed Bad for it. In the 90’s and 2010’s you thought your makeup looked great, so did everyone else. You laugh at it today, thinking your 2020’s makeup looks good. Do you think you won’t be laughing at it in 2030? Do you not see where this is going?

Women’s faces are a trend. Men look back at pictures of their younger selves and may cringe at their hair or their clothes, but their face is the same and never the subject of mockery. But women? Women’s faces change because makeup changes. Women don’t just cringe at the clothes and hair of their younger selves—they cringe at their faces. It’s sad.

The only way to stop this is to stop wearing makeup. That tik-tok trend makeup you think looks good? I promise you, it will be a joke in ten years. Maybe even five. And the reason this keeps happening isn’t because you were bad at makeup back then. It’s because all the looks you worked so hard to get good at looked ridiculous all along—you were just blinded by trends. Today they’re “soap brows”. Tomorrow when the novelty wears off, they’ll be what everyone else sees—ridiculously brushed up eyebrows. Today it’s “e-girl blush. Tomorrow when the trend dies away, it’ll be what everyone else sees—sickly looking.

What I want to get at here, is that it breaks my heart to see women fall into the never-ending cycle of learning to paint their face a certain way because it’s the trend, then having to learn a new thing in a couple years when that trend becomes a laughingstock. And saying “wow I was so stupid back then, but I know better now” every five years.

Faces are supposed to be timeless. Let’s keep it that way.

[melonisopod]

Whole chapter showing war being pointless and exploitative and how the government that funded said war was all too happy to throw away the soldiers they used as literal living weapons: Apolitical.

Whole chapter about a woman urging her friends to do something about their starving neighbors and how she ended up killing a pawnbroker to enact justice but the system ensured the most helpless were still punished: Apolitical.

Whole chapter where literal Crusaders murder people for modifying their bodies and how it relates to bodily autonomy and identity; main characters visit a border crossing and witness a child being separated forcefully from their family: Apolitical.

Whole chapter about corporations appropriating and exploiting well-meaning genius inventions to benefit themselves and quite literally profit off the suffering of others: Apolitical.

Female character doesn't have her tits out: Evil Feminist Agenda, Forced Politics

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Broke (2016): BBC Sherlock is a phenomenal piece of media and anything that seems like a flaw just hasn't been fully explored yet

Woke (2020): BBC Sherlock is an incredibly flawed series run by an egotistical writer, it never deserved the hype and is actively bad on so many fronts (especially representation)

Bespoke (2024): BBC Sherlock is flawed and bogged down by increasingly poor writing, which many fans refused to see while it was airing, leading to hugely misplaced expectations (particularly for the final series), AND it has the seeds of some compelling characterizations and portrayals, some genuinely solid performances, and touches--albeit imperfectly--on complexities that are still being discussed today (particularly as it relates to the relationship between Sherlock and John). The huge cultural impact of the show has created a massive pendulum effect in its public perception, leading to most people today remembering a caricature of the show (whether positive or negative) rather than appreciating its nuanced merits and failings...that being said Season 4 sucked

[lanotteviene]

anyway it's funny in an interesting way how the internet turned Kafka into the sad boy with an existentialist + romantic flavour instead of the author of seminal works about alienation & the confusing, painful contrast between what society deems normal and what Isn't. how the rules that establish that divide aren't made clear, how to the marginalized they seem ever-changing, impossible to grasp, surreal to the point of despair.

if you've ever felt overwhelmed by the absurdity of a system that seems legitimately against you instead of for you, if you've had days or months or years where language or cultural barriers have made you feel wrong to your core, if you've dealt with so much stress or mental illness or abuse that you've struggled to recognize yourself in the mirror his work talks about your struggles and would probably speak to you

[dj-of-the-coven]

Something that strikes me a bit funny about the TWEWY fandom is how many posts I've seen praising the game for being "like if an emo game... wasn't emo". And as somebody who was emo in my younger years, and is still heavily involved in the alt scene (by way of graduating to punk), I think this take is a bit of a misunderstanding of what alt cultures are, and what they do. The World Ends With You is an emo game. I'm just gonna lay this one on the table. If you disagree, that's fine, but I'm going to explain my reasoning from the viewpoint of someone on the inside.

Being emo is not synonymous with being "edgy", despite what its reputation would have you think. Emo is a music subculture that was born of punk in the late 90s--though some sources claim that the term was used as early as 1982--and is highly contextual in the same way that goth is, meaning that the exact same object or article of clothing can be many things at once: goth, emo, or what-have-you. What differentiates one from another is mostly music, but can be more specifically tied to one's societal views; the way that you go about the world and what you care about expressing to others. Emo in particular is differentiated by its relationship to pain. It's simultaneously fascinated by the macabre and terrified of it, reveling in the agony of loneliness, abuse, and depression while maintaining a space for the victims of broken systems to find solace in each other. Being "edgy" is not the point, just like being mad at your father isn't the point of punk.

The World Ends With You is about a boy suffering from the ills of society. Neku Sakuraba is isolated from his community, having no apparent friends or family at the start of the game, and he's isolated from his pain, refusing to acknowledge how his persistent solitude and the death of his best friend negatively affected his life. Instead of dealing with his pain, he loses himself in the comfort of his music--something that many emo teenagers do at some point. But this, I think, is where the misunderstanding comes from. Being emo wasn't what was wrong with Neku, and it wasn't what was fixed by the end. Neku was initially refusing the part of himself that makes emo such an alluring concept to the people involved in the real-life subculture. He wasn't even dealing with his own shit yet. Neku's journey is what led him to embracing the way he felt, and even though his problems weren't immediately fixed, being honest about his feelings and sharing them with others was what helped him overcome his shitty attitude. Neku's problem wasn't being emo, you guys. It was being fifteen.

What emo is really about isn't being an asshole; it's about grappling with the ugly parts of yourself and the world around you, but not in the effort to convince yourself that these things make the world evil, because much like goth, emo finds beauty in the darkest parts of life. Emo romanticizes the struggle of mortal life as a way to keep its members alive. It says "I see you, I feel you, and it gets better some day". The message of TWEWY is much the same--that the world may be confusing, but opening yourself to others is how you find the beauty in its chaos.

TWEWY is an emo game. Aesthetics and music aside, it falls perfectly in line with what the members of the subculture believe, so stop claiming it isn't emo just because its message is uplifting.

[syndrossi]

The idea where Arya comes along too, and has mismatched eyes - what do you wanna bet Viserys looks at this fierce girlwithmismat he'd eyes who can use a sword and ride like the wind and follows Jon around (last time he was gone from her sight he almost went through the door at Summerhall alone! She's never letting go!) and muses that she's like his and Daemon's mother, Alyssa.

(Also, Arya is asked what name she'd like and she answers Arya. They ask again and she says Nymeria, and Daemon sighs in defeat and let's her keep being Arya LOL.)

Also, I keep thinking about the burning thing that possessed Jephyro and I have a theory - it's R'hllor. Not a God, but some powerful demonic fire being, possibly created in Valyria?

I could also see Arya being cool with Visenya, who was a badass warrior dragon queen. And would make a very impassioned argument for getting Dark Sister over Jon and Rhaegar due to said name. 😂

Is your theory that R'hllor is not a god but something of Valyrian origin/creation? Or that some powerful/demonic fire entity from Valyria is masquerading as the actual god R'hllor?

[foggyfanfic]

Themes vs Realism

Saw an old debate about how isolated the Encanto is and it got me thinking about my own headcanons.

I watched the movie, saw the windows and wine glasses and thought “Oh! They must have trade, glass requires a specific sort of sand and while glass blowers would be relatively common, the odds they had somebody who knows how to make glass frit are pretty low”. And I can back up that argument with research and facts, buying glass is getting more expensive because we’re running low on sand with the right chemical composition, glass frit production would be more likely to happen in towns near silica rich beaches, where as Alma’s hometown looked like it was in the middle of the forest. Nowadays, not every country in the world has the right sand, when I worked with glass blowers they imported their frit from I think a family in Sweden(?) that are like one of the last few people making frit. So glass is actually a very big deal! I digress. Basically, realistically, the fact that they have glass means that they must have some trade.

But that’s completely irrelevant to the movie, isn’t it?

The movie is all about healing from generational trauma, Encanto being completely isolated is better for the movie’s themes. It’s like how we all love the deleted scene where Bruno argues with Alma and says “I wish I was dead” but the writers cut that scene because it gives Bruno confronting Alma on Mirabel’s behalf an extra bit of punch if he was never willing to do so before. Realistically, a deeply unhappy, almost forty adult who is as blunt as Bruno would have had that argument with Alma; thematically, Mirabel’s mysterious Tío couldn’t muster up the courage/passion to confront the movie’s antagonist until he was doing it for love. Realistically, it is actually necessary for Pepa to control her emotions because she can create hurricanes and that sorta disaster could wipe out the village; thematically, Pepa needs to be allowed to let her feelings flow through her without anyone snapping at her about it. Realistically they must have trade; thematically, they must be completely isolated.

There isn’t really a good way for canon to bridge this gap as far as I can tell, in story telling themes usually take precedence over realism, especially in a fantasy setting. But for a lot of people (like me) the funnest thing to do when writing fanfic is throw in a dash of realism and see what comes out of it. Obviously, the way you want to reconcile this is absolutely up to you. I personally care more about the movie sticking to themes than I do it being realistic or conforming to my background knowledge, I’m fully expecting to have most of my head canons disproven when they release more material. That said, for the sake of fic, I think asking questions like “Where are they getting the raw materials to build that” is a great launching pad.

I don’t know how to word my conclusion. That year I spent working with glass blowers is going to butt heads with my suspension of disbelief for the rest of my life? Realism is great for fanfic but not so much in short stories like movies? My head canons will never be canon and it’s better that way?