#and also provided me language for stepping out of the drama triangle

[liminalpsych-in-teyvat]

This is actually a painfully accurate depiction of the drama triangle.

Katara lives in the Rescuer role: caregiving, nurturing, putting aside all her feelings and needs to focus on everyone else’s. It’s part of how she copes with her own trauma. Everyone around her is wrapped up in their own issues, and they’re used to only seeing her show up in that Rescuer role and take care of them, to the point where they don’t even think about her having hurts and needs of her own.

And the fans, the viewers watching this story, too often fall into the same trap.

So when Katara steps out of the Rescuer role, when she tries to relate differently (more healthily), when she tries to have boundaries, when she says no, when she breaks down because it’s too much, when she snaps and gets upset, when she has her own needs that aren’t about taking care of others… everyone who she’s a Rescuer to gets confused, reactive, and tries to shove her back into her usual role.

This is exactly what happens when you start to unlearn codependency and start to assert needs/wants/boundaries, and move towards healthy supportiveness instead of codependent Rescuing behavior.

It drives a lot of people successfully back into the drama triangle cycle. And if it doesn’t, if you persist, it loses you a lot of friends. Because changing things up and expressing needs and limits partway through a friendship built on you taking care of the other person doesn’t tend to work out. If you start the friendship with needs and limits and assertiveness, then it tends to be a reciprocal, mutually supportive relationship rather than the one-way drain of Rescuer-Victim dynamics.

How people react to Katara’s moments of genuine expression and boundary setting and breakdowns says a lot about where people are in their development and their healing journey.

I just watched Avatar for the first time all the way through, and yeah, it’s great, but the one thing that surprised me was how different Katara was compared to the fandom interpretation I’d seen and internalized before watching.

Like, before you watch Avatar, you’ve seen all these memes about Katara and her mom, and based on those memes, you assume it’s one of those lines you have to get used to hearing at least once every episode. But then you watch the show and realize that she only talks about her mom maybe five or six times per season and you also realize she only brings her up when she’s trying to comfort someone or empathize with them because that’s how she processes her grief and that’s one way she connects with people.

Or you hear the infamous line, “then you didn’t love [our mother] the way I did” and you prepare yourself for one of the worst character assassinations ever only to see the scene after nearly three seasons worth of context and realize she was kinda right. She’s been the mother, the nurturer, the comforter. She’s been patient, gentle, and accommodating where everyone else has gotten to be insensible and reckless and childish, and the one moment where she allows herself to feel her grief, suddenly she’s this evil bitch and not, y’know, a 14 year old girl whose been thrusted into adulthood in a way no other character has. A 14 year old girl who should be allowed immaturity and raw emotion and anger instead of the patience and grace she’s been forced to extend to every character without even the smallest amount of gratitude or even consideration in return.

Or you see all of the clips where Katara puts Aang in the “friendzone” and you expect to have this wishy washy back and forth where Aang is putting his feelings out there only to have Katara neither commit nor express any clear reciprocation or rejection. Then you watch and realize that, as cute as the ship is initially, that there’s never a point where Aang returns any comfort or grace to Katara despite her always doing this for him to the point of coddling. That for as much as Aang says he loves her, he never seems to outgrow his perception of her so he can recognize her as someone who feels grief, anger, and pain as much as she expresses love, kindness, and maturity. And instead of having moments where he learns to see her beyond her strength or compassion, you’re instead given moments where Aang forces his feelings onto her, both romantic and non-romantic, and Katara is expected to just…shoulder those feelings the way she shoulders everyone else’s.

Katara is the most misunderstood character in the show. As much as people recognize the complexities of Zuko, Sokka, and Azula, they struggle to do the same for Katara because they see her struggles as somehow lesser, and therefore, less deserving of sympathy. They can handle her so long as she’s being endlessly patient and loving and kind, but the moment her endless love, patience, and kindness runs out, she’s suddenly this annoying bitch who can’t shut up about her mother or reciprocate Aang’s feelings. But Katara’s trauma does matter as much as anyone else’s. No, she wasn’t banished from her kingdom. No, she didn’t lose her entire community, and no, she isn’t the only one who lost her mother. But the difference between her and everyone else whose experienced loss because of the Fire Nation is that she’s never given time to process her trauma. Aang gets to lean on Katara constantly. Toph gets to express her feelings to Katara, and yeah, Sokka also lost their mother, but unlike Katara, he isn’t put in the position of being a substitute for everyone’s parent. He even admits that he sees his sister as a mother. The only characters who ever comfort Katara or allow her to vent is Zuko and her father and that’s, like, three scenes in a show where the other characters are consistently given opportunities to seek out Katara for unconditional support.

The fandom interpretation of Katara has been so bastardized that even those who haven’t watched the show know her for this fanon version and not for who she is. She’s such an interesting character beyond her fandom limitations, though. She’s brave, hot-headed, and hopeful as well as gentle and caring. She wishes to learn waterbending, not only because she wants to fight in the war, but because she wants to continue her culture’s practices because, and people often forget this, she also lost an entire subculture within her already fractured tribe. And she wants to defeat the Fire Nation both because of her deep love and empathy for other people, but also because she wants to avenge her mother. But because some of the fans have reduced Katara to a bitch who constantly whines about her mother and friendzones Aang, you wouldn’t know any of this, and it sucks because she’s the only character whose been dumbed down to such an extent.

[angelatiwi]

【literature and art Commentary】See clearly the face of the "dangai drama" By National Radio and Television Zhiku

Guide : Not long ago, "Dangai Drama" and "Shanhe Ling" became a hit and attracted social attention. "Dangai Opera" became a hot topic for a while. Many production organizations have heard the news. According to relevant information, there are more than 80 Danchang dramas to be broadcast this year, already started, and in preparation. In 2021, they were dubbed "Dangai 101" by netizens. Why this niche subculture became a film A new outlet for the show? Is there really a market need or a capital marketing effect?

One, Capital is acting an increasingly important role in the development of Dangai dramas Tanmei, originally meaning "wonderful, aestheticism", Tanmei culture mainly refers to cultural works that express the love between two men and target women as the audience. Since it was introduced to Mainland China via the Internet in the late 1990s, it was first popular with comics and online novels. Since 2014, the web drama "Counterattack" has been adapted from online texts, and the development of Chinese dramas has been on the fast track. Among them, there are several iconic dramas. 

For example, in 2016, "Addicted", this youthful campus-themed drama, was taken off the shelves due to its overly explicit content and obvious violation of online audiovisual-related policies. However, its spread was rapid, breaking through 10 million in 24 hours before it was released, and 100 million before it was removed. In 2017, "Guardian" embodies a strong desire to survive in its creation. For the first time, the male love in the original work was changed to brotherhood, and the final broadcast volume exceeded 3.2 billion. The overall production of the drama is not excellent, even slightly rough in special effects, but for the first time it became popular with two top stars. In 2018, "Chen Qing Ling" was a purely commercial creation after capital intervention. From planning, production, dissemination, and even peripheral product development, the entire process and the entire industry chain were firmly controlled by commercial capital, becoming a phenomenon-level network of the year. Drama, a single episode has 113 million views, and the total number of views currently exceeds 9.1 billion. The 2021 "Shanhe Ling" is a reprint similar to "Chen Qingling", with more than 1.27 billion broadcasts.

From the perspective of the development process of Dangai drama, there are two notable features : First, from the content point of view, under the background of increasingly strict policy supervision, the desire to survive is becoming stronger and stronger. The male love component in Danmei literature is weakening, and it is basically transformed into brotherhood and confidant love, gradually move closer to mainstream values; Second, with the intervention of commercial capital, Dangai drama has long been not only a special film and television drama theme, but has become a new format that is more and more closely integrated with capital and fan economy. It is like a new industry investment outlet, and it is also a fast Star-making tools have an increasing impact on young people, but they are also prone to proliferation of themes, causing problems such as chasing stars and excessive entertainment.

two,

Why did the drama come out?

First of all, from the perspective of subject matter, due to policy restrictions, Danmei culture has always been in a relatively recessive subcultural position, a taboo place for industry creation, and the Internet is a flexible, The free "heterotopia" provides the soil for the prosperity of Danmei literature, and fully releases the "audience's eros creativity" (Marcuse language). Through their own participation, Internet audiences, such as writing fanarts, in turn promote Danmei literature The development of online literature, and as the commercialization mechanism of online literature becomes more and more mature, the influence of Danmei literature is also growing, forming a huge fan group, which has become the most important soil for the prosperity of Dangai drama.

Secondly, it is also related to the homogenization of the current love genre drama series. Looking at some of the current romantic dramas, whether it is a modern sweet pet drama or an ancient costume fantasy drama, there is a core creative mode that allows the hero and heroine to "sprinkle sugar" anytime, anywhere, In addition, there are some romantic dramas that do not respect the rules of artistic creation. They create emotional conflicts through sadomasochism, triangle love and even polygamy between men and women, which are easy to be assimilated and routine, and love such as "the domineering president falls in love with me" drama, There is also the suspicion of dwarfing and objectifying women. On the other hand, Dangai drama does not deny the masculine and rough part of men, but at the same time removes the overly feminine part of men, providing a relatively novel emotional model. Just as netizens commented, "When the audience watch Dangai drama, they just want to see the emotions of evenness and detachment from gender. This is an important reason for delaying the change of the drama to get out of the circle." 

From a deeper reason, it is because with the economic and social development, the improvement of women’s economic status has brought about the awakening of women’s consciousness and the tremendous increase in spending power. Few works actively cater to women’s preferences, including consumption of male sex. Many Danmei dramas are typical popular cultures written by women, presupposed with female audiences, and women as the absolute main consumer. Looking at the dramas that are out of the circle, the biggest feature is that the appearance of the two male protagonists must be high, and their behavior interaction must also meet the aesthetic expectations of women.

three,

What problems will the prosperous creation of Dangai drama bring?

Dangai drama originated from Danmei culture. Although it is constantly evolving under the dual drive of policy pressure and commercial interests, it shows marginal values after all, and is a subculture that is more suitable for enclosing self-initiation. Once Danmei's text was adapted into a Dangai drama, it has a larger audience, and its dissemination and influence are also greater. If it is allowed to over-market, large-scale follow-up creation and other bad tendencies, it will not only have an impact on mainstream culture and mainstream value, but also on the industry trend. It will also bring adverse effects, and we must pay attention to it. 

First, it has an impact on the values of young people "Ban Yue Tan" once pointed out that "Dangai drama enters the field of mass entertainment, and you need to beware of its adverse effects, especially on young people who are not deeply involved in the world. Research has shown that the motivation for many young people to first come into contact with danmei culture is that they are influenced by their peers, and then they "enter into the pit" under the attitude of being curious. In a survey of female audiences aged 15-23, in the question "What factors make you start reading Danmei literature", the second-ranked option is "Affected by CP orientation in animation, film and television, and variety shows". The establishment and broadcasting of so many delay-change dramas will objectively stimulate the soil of "corrupt culture", which may confuse young people who are in the critical period of shaping their outlook on life and values, and their aesthetics will be biased. As the article "Guang Ming Daily" stated, "When Danmei culture has stepped onto the cultural front and is known and obsessed by more and more people, the problem is not that simple when it even has an impact on mainstream values." 

Second, the marketing chaos of delayed reform dramas will damage the industry's trend

With the rise of Danmei culture, excessive marketing has acted a role in fueling the flames, and these marketing platforms are often inextricably linked with production agencies, and they will take the initiative to set up issues, such as in the Weibo Chaohua community, movies, TV series, and animation In the ranking list, the topic of "male and male CP" in some Danmei-themed works not only appears on the list, but also often occupies the top rankings. In addition, although some dramas have reduced the affection between men and men in content, they have strengthened or even extreme in marketing. They are ubiquitously hyping up the ambiguous emotions and behaviors of men and men, promote marginal values and emotional views, impact the mainstream value sentiment, and disrupt the network environment. And order is more likely to overwhelm and obscure mainstream voices. As some media publications pointed out, "We should not be wary of Danmei culture itself, but after some companies have tasted the sweetness, they have bottomless hype and excessive consumption of "corrupt culture" in order to cater to market demand."

Third, Dangai dramas cannot carry serious and heavy mainstream value expressions 

The characteristic of Dangai literature is that it is mostly confined to the overhead world, exaggerating the sorrows and joys of the individual. Its characteristics determine that this subject is difficult to carry an epic and heavy narrative, and some Dangai dramas highlight the male on the screen in order to attract attention. The ambiguous teasing of body language, some can't bear to look directly, show a tendency to be vulgar and low. The competent authority has repeatedly emphasized that the creation of TV dramas must follow the requirements of "finding the right topic, telling the story, and making a good shot", and fulfilling its duties and mission, the first is to find the right topic. Literary and artistic creation advocates a hundred flowers blooming, but realism must be the mainstream of the topic selection and the mainstream of creation, because fundamentally speaking, socialist literature and art are essentially people’s literature and art, which must reflect the most mainstream life and promote the most mainstream values. From the creations in recent years, we can also see that only by adhering to a realistic attitude, describing the characteristics of the times, and showing the spirit of the people, can we resonate with the audience and give full eduction to the spiritual inspiration of literature and art. 

Fourth, the creation of Dangai dramas can easily lead to a utilitarian mentality. 

The appearance of Dangai drama can make the starring famous quickly and become a shortcut to fame and wealth. As a result, many young actors are eager to appear in dramas, and there are even mature actors who want to take the opportunity to become popular. Netizens ridiculed them as "too utilitarian and ugly to eat." "If young actors don't want to sink down to hone their acting skills, but are rushing to shoot and change dramas to become traffic stars, who would be willing to act in reality-themed TV dramas in a down-to-earth manner? In fact, in recent years, under the control of the national authorities, the problems of star chasing and excessive entertainment have been brought under control. Many real acting actors have ushered in the spring, and the industry atmosphere has been invigorated. This is countless down-to-earth. The actor's hard work is hard-won If the opening of the Dangai drama is opened, there will be a resurgence of problems such as traffic fraud, exaggerated acting skills, and even sky-high pay.

It can be seen that the large-scale follow-up of the drama is not as simple as the theme of overheating, but also involves the issue of value orientation. If it is not properly guided, on the one hand, it may have a negative impact on the values and aesthetics of young people. On the other hand, it may make industry creation move toward utilitarianism and speculation, and it may be in line with the core socialist values. There are conflicts in the socialist views on literature and art. How to supervise this new form of literature and art is a test of the wisdom of the competent authorities.

Literature and art is the clarion call for the advancement of the times. It can best represent the style of an era and can best lead the trend of an era. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized :”Chinese writers and artists should be the forerunners, pioneers, and pioneers of the times, and write and record the great practices of the people and the progress requirements of the times through more muscular, moral, and warm literary works, and demonstrate the beauty and nobility of faith. The beauty of China promotes the Chinese spirit and gathers Chinese power.” Literary and artistic creation must firmly grasp the correct orientation, insist on putting social benefits in the first place, and unifying social and economic benefits. "Dangai 101" phenomenon urgently needs to be strengthened by all parties concerned to conduct fine management, especially in the face of large-scale project establishment and broadcasting of delay dramas. It is also necessary to consider the establishment of an early warning mechanism for themes, and the industry value orientation and creative wind direction. In addition, it requires the joint efforts of the entire industry, especially the major creative communication agencies, to further enhance cultural awareness and responsibility, adhere to the people-centered approach, and actively invest the most advantageous resources in realistic themes. The majority of actors should sink their bodies, hone their acting skills down-to-earth, and use more profound thoughts, exquisite art, and well-made excellent works to create a biography for the people, statues for the times, and souls for the nation.

(Author's unit: Development Research Center of the State Administration of Radio and Television) 

 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Ub89VUIqXFMSY8pDdbdZHQ

[tomhiddleslove]

Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton and Charlie Cox play the three points of Harold Pinter's adulterous triangle in Jamie Lloyd's superb production from London.

Reverse chronology has become a familiar narrative device in film, but when Harold Pinter employed it in 1978 in his blisteringly personal drama about an extramarital affair, Betrayal, it was still uncommon enough to become highly influential. It makes the drama start from a place of awkwardness steeped in grief, two years after the illicit liaison has finished, and end at the beginning, with a rapturous sense of secret possibility, marbled by the deep vein of melancholy present from the first scene. That emotional complexity smolders like hot coals in Jamie Lloyd's expertly calibrated production, transferring to Broadway direct from its hit London engagement.

The headline news is the commanding Broadway debut of Tom Hiddleston, taking a breather from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to revisit the stage roots to which he has returned periodically throughout his career. The coolly charismatic star is matched at every step by Zawe Ashton and Charlie Cox, the latter trailing his own Marvel association from Netflix's Daredevil.

Lloyd staged Betrayal, one of the tightest and most straightforward (albeit back to front) of Pinter's full-length plays, as the unorthodox culmination of an acclaimed London season of the dramatist's one-acts. The director's feeling for Pinter's tricky rhythms, his freighted silences, glacial distances and brittle intimacies is unerring, evident not just in the dialogue-driven moments but also in the physical staging, the austerely elegant design choices, the stunningly descriptive use of shadow in Jon Clark's lighting and the precise attention to movement.

The action unfolds in bars, restaurants, family homes, a regular assignation address and a Venetian hotel. But designer Soutra Gilmour's set is a simple, stark rear wall in slate gray that makes intimate advances on the actors at times, with a sparingly used turntable that suggests the unkind passing of time, even as the scenes play out in backwards order. Among the few props are two chairs, the glasses or bottles required for a variety of alcohol, cigarettes, of course, and only late in the play, a table with an Italian linen tablecloth that becomes the saddest sight you'll ever see.

The three principal actors are onstage for the duration, with the third player at first remaining detached in the background through each of the mostly two-character scenes. But almost imperceptibly, the tiniest flicker of reaction begins playing across the face or in the body language of the silent additional presence as key information is divulged, twisting the knife as to who knew what and for how long. It's a masterstroke of direction, adding lacerating stabs of hurt to a drama in which none of the protagonists is overly sympathetic.

The parties involved, all in their mid-30s, are Robert (Hiddleston), a London publisher; his wife Emma (Ashton), who runs a gallery; and Jerry (Cox), a literary agent who also has an unseen wife at home. Each couple has two children. Complicating the seven-year affair of Emma and Jerry is the friendship of much longer duration between Robert and Jerry, who was best man at their wedding. The two first met when both were bright young things editing poetry magazines, Robert at Oxford and Jerry at Cambridge.

Pinter, and in turn here, Lloyd, get much mileage out of the urbane sophistication of these very English characters, consistently testing the strain beneath their polite small talk and practiced civility, with an edge of formality even between spouses and lovers.

It's thrilling when the simmering rage beneath Robert's smooth, at times bordering on smug, surface bubbles up, for instance in a discussion of the male ritual of a squash game followed by a pint at the pub and then lunch, his exclusion of Emma delivered like a casual body blow. Or during one such lunch with Jerry, when he rants about the tediousness of launching a novel while ferociously attacking a plate of prosciutto and melon. That his anger is never directed openly at its target doesn't make it sting any less.

But it's in those moments when the armor of Robert's composure is pierced by vulnerability that Hiddleston's performance truly dazzles. A scene in Venice, during which Robert dances around his suspicions to the point where Emma reads the knowledge of her transgression in his eyes and chooses that moment to confess, is made all the more wrenching by its restraint. As they sit side by side and she provides key details — location of their trysts, how long it's been going on, reassurance about the paternity of their youngest child — Robert stares straight ahead, impassively absorbing the full impact as his eyes pool with tears. The generally guarded Emma's sudden emotional release is quite different, but no less affecting in Ashton's self-possessed but finely layered performance.

Lloyd's brisk scene transitions add texture to the drama throughout, notably when that painful exchange segues to Emma and Jerry meeting at the suburban flat they've been renting, the shadow of their embrace seeming to infect the still-seated Robert like a virus.

The uncustomary choice to show one of Robert and Emma's children (an adorable girl played at the performance reviewed by Emma Lyles) also pays off. Repeated reference is made to Jerry tossing her up in the air and catching her one afternoon in their kitchen — or was it his? It rips your heart out to watch the child giggle with joy when that happens before curling up in her father's arms to sleep as Emma then meets with Robert early in their relationship, seemingly contemplating making a permanent change.

It might be argued that Lloyd's repeat use of a chilled-out, female-vocal cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" is a little on the nose for Pinter ("Words like violence / Break the silence"). But the effect is powerful and the music choices, including Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Norwegian electronic duo Royskopp, help thread one scene to the next, as words and wounds bleed into the spaces between.

At the beginning of the play (which is the end of the story), Robert's infidelities also have contributed to end the marriage, two years after Emma has broken off the affair with a still-aching Jerry. But of the three, Jerry is arguably the only one who wears his guilt visibly. The excellent Cox plays that burden with a palpable sense of the pain beneath Jerry's studied attempts to keep things light and breezy. His declaration to Emma in the final scene, at the start of their love story, is one of the most searing Pinter monologues — ecstatic in its expression of romantic feeling and yet desolate in the awareness that Emma is condemning Jerry to a kind of exquisite misery.

"I can't ever sleep again, no, listen, it's the truth, I won't walk, I'll be a cripple, I'll descend, I'll diminish, into total paralysis, my life is in your hands, that's what you're banishing me to, a state of catatonia, do you know the state of catatonia? Do you? Do you? The state of… where the reigning prince is the prince of emptiness, the prince of absence, the prince of desolation. I love you."

Those last three little words never sounded so doomed. The smile of contentment as Robert interrupts them, entering the room from the party all three are attending, seems veiled on Hiddleston's face with a suggestion that he already sees what's happening. And Lloyd stages the closing moments like a mournful dance, anticipating the pain of what's to come.

It's just six years since the last sizzling Broadway revival of this work, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Rafe Spall, all in top form. But this very fine production makes an absolutely compelling case for returning so quickly to the play, in which betrayals cut in every direction — between couples, friends and within the characters themselves. Lloyd and his actors illuminate a glimmering darkness in the drama, a deeper well of sorrows that linger in the air even after the cast take their bows.

If there's one nagging issue, it's with the audience, not the production. While it's great for business that fans flock to Broadway to see an MCU star like Hiddleston showing consummate skill, the constant laughs at inappropriate moments must be distracting for the actors, particularly in the many moments of quiet devastation. Sure, there are sparks of dry humor throughout Betrayal, but c'mon people, it’s Pinter, not Upright Citizens Brigade. It's for grownups.

-

[ Link to full article in source below. ]

[rikiroy1793]

Reply 1988

I wish I could write my thesis reports this well. The following analysis was made by an YouTube account owner who goes by the name of ‘ 0dandie0 .’

On another note, Reply 1988 withdrawal setting in once again. 

It says, “ "I have no intention to dissuade you, everyone's entitled to their feelings. But it does seem that your feelings are mainly coming from watching through JH-colored glasses and not fully understanding the drama as a whole. Your misunderstanding could likely be based on lack of knowledge in Korean language/culture/and the concept of Baduk. This drama is not just what you see and hear but it's brilliantly written and twisted with style, and you really need to watch carefully and analyze to get 100% out of it. The main theme of this series of Reply is Family(and love ofc but family first)and Baduk is the biggest metaphor in the drama representing Family/Love. Baduk is a game of building "zip"(means home). So it is very fitting that the main lead is a professional Baduk player(someone who builds home/family). Baduk is often compared to life, as you make "choices" that can't be undone and every move you make along the way will determine final outcome. Also there can never be two identical Baduk match ever, every match is unique and original of its own, hence the old Korean saying "there is truth of life in Baduk". The main love competition btw JH and TK is a big game of Baduk. JH is black stone and TK is white. Black stone has the advantage and always plays first. White starts off late and has the disadvantage of 6.5 zips(homes) behind. Does this rule of Baduk ring a bell? Yes, TK only came forward in this love triangle in the latter part of the episode 6(TK calls DS and asks her out to a movie on the night of the first snow) Also, note that TK's character is based on a real-life, legendary Baduk player Lee Changho. There are countless homage references to LCH from his matches(the games in the drama are exact copies of LCH's) to his family background(LCH's father also owns a jewelry shop) and personality(LCH is also introverted, hates interviews, can't tie his shoe laces, challenged in operating simple household gadgets) LCH's Baduk style is non-aggressive, appears to be very slow, low-profile and timid. Many players who were brutally beaten by him recall that they "thought" they were winning until the end. And this quality of LCH is closely mimicked by TK in the drama. TK always made right choices at the right time(this doesn't make him an strategical opportunist, but rather as JH puts it TK was more ardent, and out of love, without any hesitation, he gives DS what she's looking for every time. TK is also represented as a slow turtle(his nickname was "turtle-Taek" since episode 10 among fans, he proposed DS with golden turtle as well) but we all know who wins the race in Aesop's fable, "a turtle and a hare." At the end of a Baduk game, the white player is given 6.5 homes for the initial disadvantage he had. This explains the more screen time for TK and less for JH twrds the end. The kiss scene of TK and DS in Beijing Hotel in episode 19 gave me chills. As the camera zooms out, did you notice the house-motif fire place in the background? And yes, it's white. TK's been earnestly and successfully built his home all along, step by step. Now then why did the director decide to use the perspective of JH instead of TK or DS? We were mainly shown from JH's one sided point of view and this made a lot of people confused. Is this just to troll everyone to think that JH is the husband? At the end of every Baduk game, players do sth called "Bokgi"(review match). Although the outcome is already determined, Bokgi is still a crucial part of the game and often referred to as "the flower(beauty) of Baduk". It is basically a replay of all the moves during the match. Bokgi is entirely a time for the loser, it is time of humility and introspection. Only the loser can refuse Bokgi, the winner has no say in this. Bokgi is a very painful process for both parties but it is the only time where the loser will gain much more than the winner. Through Bokgi, the loser identifies his own mistakes, face his weaknesses and learn from them. The love relationship btw JH, DS and TK was indeed JH's Bokgi. This is very evident especially in episode 18, at the end JH revisits all his mistakes from the past to present and faces it like a man. He thinks about what he could have done, and learns a life lesson to step up. Although this type of storytelling(anti-antagonistic narrative) did somewhat trolled many, I personally was in awe with the writer/director for employing such innovative, original method. This sure is not a typical everyday drama that we come across. This is just brilliant! Another big point to recognize is that although TK had a bare minimum screen time in the beginning, his presence was always there. Everyone talked about TK, the kids, the parents, friends from school, even the radio and TV. The kids always gathered into TK's room whether he is there or not. TK's room is a big metaphor for TK's presence. He provides the emotional "home" for the kids. The kids spent their childhood and youths, their young days in his room. It's a place of heart for the kids, it represents the good old times they can reminisce and wish to go back in time in a heartbeat. Therefore, the show rightly begins and ends in TK's room. TK's little cozy room under a soft afternoon sunlight is the signature scene from Reply 1988. Now, was the male lead switched at the end from JH to TK? I hardly doubt it. Although the storytelling was from JH's perspective, everything else in the drama was all pointing to TK. That's why unlike Overseas fans, many Korean fans did catch early on that TK is the husband. I myself became sure TK was the husband by episode 6, during the narration of Lee Munse, but many caught on by the first 2 episodes. There are endless amount of foreshadowing and metaphors that are all pointing to TK. I rewatched the entire series 3 times and now I am convinced that by episode 2, you are given pretty much all the clues. For example, when TK enters his room in episode 1, the camera focuses on the swing clock at 6pm, and it rings 6 times, indicating that TK will make his real appearance in episode 6. 4.33 is another very clever metaphor. The name Suyeon and goldfish candies and goldfish buns were great foreshadowing tool leading to TK as well. So many symbolism on wedding theme btw TK and DS gives no room for any doubt. Anyways this is getting too long. I suggest you do some research and re-watch the whole thing again. You will only see how much you know, but I promise you you will see much more than the first round."

[the-potions-fanatic]

Mcsm Youtube/Internet celebrity AU

As you can no doubt read from the title above, another Au has spawned from my realm of thought. Again, I’ll state this for the people in the back row. This is something I just thought about and figured I would post. I searched Tumblr for it and a few other forums to see if anyone else had the same idea and so on, so far there is nothing so I figured I’d add something to the community for funsies. Anyway, on with the Au.

Ivor: Science(Scientific) based <Youtube channel/Stream/Internet whatever>. He is a mix of 'I know what i'm doing, and can explain the science behind it'; 'I have no idea what this will do but we're going to test it out'. He can be rather loud and generally eccentric in his body language and almost zero volume control. Ivor is thirty (30) in this Au and does have that "Dad" vibe to him, he also does many collabs with other <Streamers/Internet content creators/ETC>. His general appearance is easily summed up here <Ivor>. Of course with a few tweaks and changes. Such as his eyes are more of a deep subtle purple and just small changes (etc).  To get a general feel for what Ivor’s channel is, Imagine the “Will it blend” Youtube guy mixed with generally all at home Science stuff with a side of slow-mo guys in terms of the general ‘safety’ of experiments. 

That is generally all for the Au itself given i’m going to be Role-playing my character.  However I have a few headcanons that are literally just for this Au or to help build ideas off of it. So to put it bluntly if I said Jesse(s) is a six foo, purple monster in the au that’s all well and good. But if a jesse wants to rp it they do not need to stick to that headcanon as if it is a fact. It merely is there to get the story/ideas flowing. So it’s find if you base or see your character in another light, or in this case in a different channel idea. With that said let’s keep going. Soren: I see Soren’s Channel/Streams potentially being something Educational like a Language learning channel, or potentially the guy who builds projects at home step-by-step.  Magnus: It sounds cheap to say it but Magnus’s thing would definitely seeing what he can blow up. He would probably blow stuff up out in an open field that is pretty far from any neighborhoods as to not get into any trouble. Funny enough he actually Co-owns a Channel/Stream with Ellegaard.  Gabriel: Fitness, Fitness, Fitness. He would provide demonstrations, healthy eating,and show off some pretty intense work outs that most people in his comments would say works pretty darn well.  Ellegaard: Her channel comes as a no-brainer to me. Pulling,ripping things apart to see how they work, or even rigging stuff up like mini robotics or some off tech to see what works and what doesn't. Of course if it doesn't work she has her partner, Magnus, to help blow it up.  Jesse(s): Jesse(s) channel is rather hard to pinpoint as i’ve seen and rp’d with a variety of Jesse's who are completely different from one another. So for the sake of time let’s shorten what I have for ideas: (Cooking Vegan or other, Pet care/Pet videos of Ruben, Fashion, Pranking, Makeup/hair tutorials, Ghost hunter) Axel: Again a no brainer, Axel is a guy who can deny no challenge. So a channel dedicated to taking on new challenges is right up his alley. He too does collabs with other content creators and hilarity ensues. <Think any prank channels/challenge channels like team edge>. Olivia: Builds useless inventions, like the useless box that turns itself off and only off.  Petra: Urban exploration, able to protect herself and find super cool,creepy places to show off to the rest of the world. Lukas: Fashion, and hair styling. Common running joke is his greaser-like attire and persona. at the end of each video or midway through he looks straight at the camera and says “Greaser style, the only thing that matters. Forever.” Even if he done out in anew outfit or hair style it always cuts to the greaser thing. He calls his followers ‘greasers’ or ‘grease balls’ . Aiden: Drama alert-style news channel/stream that reports on drama within fandoms to potential love triangles that may or may not exist.  Gill(Gil): Food channel, travels the world and shares the wonders of different cultural food with everyone.  Maya: React channel, people come for the reactions but stay for potential prizes she offers at the end like 20% steam cards and so on.  Hadrian: The open minded channel, aka the channel that tries to get your goat and gets him controversial views.  Mevia: Mimic channel. Sticks between Aiden and Hadrian as a background host/guest to ensure the controversial ratings grow and help grow her own channel. Otto: <GrandPaGamerCop> the moderate of multiple gaming/other servers and the ultimate speaker of the ban hammer. Catches the multiple rule breakers, cheaters,hackers, etc.  Harper: Photography /video channel, someone who tries to change views with her pictures/video on ethnic friendly views on how things could be in media and so on   

[quiltedopenlettertounclesam-blog]

Yes, Uncle Sam, love does exist.

One evening last December, my husband and a friend quizzed each other on U.S. citizenship questions. I sat in the living room with them, listening as I worked on my husband’s Christmas quilt. They were studying for the final step of the U.S. citizenship application process, where 10 questions out of a pool of 100 are administered orally by an immigration official.

Questions range from as easy as #28 (“What is the name of the President of the United States now?”) to as difficult as navigating the subtleties between the rights and responsibilities of citizens versus residents as bestowed by the Constitution (#49 “What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?” and #51 “What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?”).

Over a decade ago, I passed my high school A.P. U.S. History exam. Immediately thereafter I replaced most of the memorized facts with post-high-school-worries and summertime shenanigans. Bearing witness to the study session unfolding in my living room was an excellent refresher course in U.S. history and, much like my husband, I began internalizing the 100 items the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) deem most important for new citizens to know. We hold our new citizens to high standards.

Occasionally, self-quizzes pop into my online periphery, touting citizenship questions and daring me, “Could you pass?” I’ve seen cringe-worthy videos of random victims fumbling through incorrect answers to the same questions naturalized citizens are required to answer correctly.  Most of the questions I knew vaguely, but the USCIS only accepts a highly specific set of answers.

Off the top of your head, and without help from Alexa or Google:

- Do you know the answer to Question #70? (“Who was President during World War I”)

- How about Question #23? (“Name your U.S. Representative”)

- Can you differentiate between a responsibility granted by the Constitution for U.S. Citizens (Question #49, mentioned previously) and a right of everyone living in the United States, citizen or not (Question #51, see above)?

- Couldn’t we ALL benefit from a cozy living room refresher course?

Let’s back up: My husband and I have spent the last half-decade wading through the U.S. immigration system together, petitioning for visas, requesting permissions, demonstrating evidence, and spending large chunks of our savings on the aforementioned. What began with a petition for an interview at a U.S. embassy in South America turned into a whirlwind visa approval with strict time limits on his entry to the U.S. and just 90 days to legally marry on U.S. soil, morphing into formal requests for permissions to work and travel, then a temporary conditional residency, resulting in our filing for permanent residency and, most recently, applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Phew.

I recognize that my socio-economic and race privileges, paired with good will and support from family and friends, made any of the above possible. This has been an exhausting and humbling and privacy-invading process for us, and I’m disturbed to think how exponentially more difficult it would have been under different circumstances: if I were not white; if my family could not have helped us prove financial solvency; if ours wasn’t a heterosexual relationship.

Almost every step of our immigration process mandated we show evidence of our continued genuine relationship, and we not only sent the required formal documents (marriage certificates, joint leases, bank accounts, and tax returns), but we also attempted to show the humanity of our relationship, that which black-&-white documents simply cannot convey, in hopes that humans on the receiving end of our application would see us as real people.

We included the receipt for our wedding rings, bought as soon as we learned we were granted an embassy interview and marking the exact moment we allowed ourselves to believe our dream might become reality; we included ticket stubs from flights taken together throughout his native country and the ominous one-way ticket from his country to mine; we included photos of our impromptu marriage ceremony in a U.S. county government office, when our 9-year-old niece boldly stepped into the role of Maid of Honor with a beautiful reading – in two languages, no less! – as follows:  

Today I am marrying my best friend, The one I laugh with, The one I live for, The one I dream with, And the one I love.

(These very words are now stitched into my husband’s Christmas quilt)

We were stuck for almost 18 months at the “permanent residency” step of our immigration process due to unprecedented backlogs in the USCIS system. It was during this time the defining phrase “a nation of immigrants” conspicuously disappeared from the USCIS mission statement.

A nation of immigrants: I am as proud of my husband’s South American heritage as I am of my own immigrant ancestry. I am just two generations removed from the brave Jampolsky family that anglicized their Eastern-European surname to the American-sounding “Jay.” Question #67 of the civics exam states: “The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.” One of the accepted answers is John Jay, a founding father of the USA.

While my family shares John Jay’s name today, our “Jay” comes from immigrant tailors taking a purposeful measure to avoid implicit bias when 20th-century New Yorkers purchased their garments. My family’s original surname is etched on the wall at Ellis Island, meaning the Statue of Liberty was our beacon of hope, as it was for so many others. For more on Lady Liberty, see citizenship Question #95.

A few weeks before citizenship questions ricocheted around our living room, we received an “RFE” from the USCIS regarding my husband’s residency petition: the dreaded Request For Evidence. After sending bank letters, joint health insurance policies, utility bills, photos from our first years of marriage, and affidavits from family members, we now had a hard deadline to provide even more proof of our relationship, and failure to comply risked deportation. Was there still room to doubt the existence of our love?

We pulled out all the stops. We slogged through every single document containing our two names, and we spent over $100 at the copy store making a veritable tower of papers. We are products of our tech- and texting-savvy generation, and it dawned on us we had no idea how to send via snail-mail a stack of documents too thick for paperclips, staples, or envelopes.

We ultimately tied the giant bundle together with ribbon leftover from tethering our garden vines, and after placing everything in an over-sized box we filled the extra space with plastic bags blown up like balloons. Our previous attempts to prove our humanity with photos and anecdotes obviously hadn’t worked, as shown by this Request For Evidence, but perhaps this MacGyvered packing method would do the trick?

After a few anxious weeks, my husband’s permanent residency was approved. In rapid turnaround, he soon applied for U.S. citizenship – I’ll save the conversation surrounding one’s willingness to pledge loyalty to the U.S. in today’s xenophobic environment for another time. We are back to playing the waiting game, but at least this time we have a solid method of distraction by way of studying for the citizenship exam.

Let’s shift gears to this Christmas quilt: When you’ve just spent upwards of a thousand dollars on applications, copy fees, and postage (and when a thousand dollars is still a considerable sum of money), what helps pass the time while your husband works evenings, without increasing the credit card balance? A quilt. What will be unequivocally better than any gift found on Amazon? A quilt. What can I give to the person who opened my eyes to the beauty of a new culture, who walks with me through international bureaucracy barriers, and who continues to be the best thing to happen to me each day? This quilt.

I grew up accompanying my mother to Quilt Guild meetings and falling asleep under a patchwork made by her and her friends. I marveled at the Gee’s Bend quilts and devoured children’s books about the Underground Railroad, with illustrations depicting specific quilt blocks that signaled safe houses. I showed up at college with an extra-long quilt for my dorm room’s Twin XL mattress, and I myself have made T-shirt quilts for friends when beloved tees from high school athletic teams and drama clubs became too threadbare to continue wearing and washing.

Quilt symbolism fascinates me, so I carefully chose representative blocks for this foray into heirloom quilt making: the “Log Cabin” block, with its square hearth in the middle wrapped in outward radiating strips, for the homes we’ve made on two continents; my mother’s favorite “Flying Geese” flock around the centerpiece, for although geese migrate long distances, they always find their way home; “Storm at Sea” for my husband’s love of the ocean and recognition that life’s storms are better weathered together.

Quilting purists will notice my Storm at Sea block contains one too many diamond-and-triangle rows, the result of a novice attempt to make things fit after flipping the square centerpiece on its corner – let’s chalk that up to the Amish quilting tradition of purposefully including an imperfection in each piece, or in my case, a fair few imperfections.

I was, perhaps, a little overzealous trying to hand-quilt the entire piece before Christmas, which is why basting stitches are still visible (though I might argue the basting stitches reflect our life together as a work in progress). Leaves and curling tendrils will eventually replace the basting stitches, embodying the fruit vines my husband so carefully tends, and ruefully reminding us of the string used to bundle our Request for Evidence papers.

Quilts need stitches every few inches to anchor their layers, and I needed something to anchor me in the tumultuous close of 2018. Hand quilting is meditative: making uniform, even stitches means rocking the needle up and down, over and over again. Placing the needle perpendicular to the fabric, find the tip of the needle from underneath and use the thimble you filched from your mother’s sewing room decades ago to push the needle through, then begin the process anew. I recommend playing an audio book and losing yourself in someone else’s world and in a rhythm of stitches.

I was like the millennial Betsy Ross stitching into the night, trying to finish before the holiday, and my husband the modern-day immigrant Francis Scott Key, finding his own quilted Star-Spangled Banner* on Christmas morning after having survived the bombardment of plagues that the year 2018 hurled at our family.

*For anyone keeping score, “the Star-Spangled Banner” is the correct response to Question #98: “What is the name of the National Anthem?”

The living room study session paused: “What the *bleep* does ‘Spangled’ mean?”

Follow-up observation: “Spangled” is not an English vocabulary word I’d had occasion to translate into Spanish, nor is it easy to do so. Despite not having a direct translation, I got the point across with “estrellada,” and “cubierto de estrellas.”

At one point, I showed process shots of the quilt to a friend (also an immigrant and someone who has selflessly adopted me and my husband on numerous holidays). While swiping through photos she mused, “Making quilts is something typically American, isn’t it?”

A little context: I spent the better part of six years living in South America, struggling all the while to put my finger on the U.S. equivalent of the traditional dishes, the typical costumes and dances, and the ingrained cultural customs I witnessed. Everyone in my new country inherently knew they must greet each person individually when entering a room, and everyone expected that pork belly and freeze-dried potatoes be served at weddings (usually well after midnight), just like everyone assumed fast-food hamburgers were wholly representative of the U.S.  Sigh.

Thanks to my immigrant friend’s nonchalant observation, I discovered that quilting was the very evidence I sought: a cultural link, a generational continuum, a method of telling stories and connecting families. Quilting is an American tradition. Quilting is MY American tradition.

Returning to the pre-Christmas study session, quilt on my lap, Question #55: “What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?” Easy answers include voting and running for office. Farther down the list of USCIS-approved ways we can participate in our democracy is “write to a newspaper.” At the raised eyebrows I saw appear over my quilt, I explained Letters to the Editor and Op-Eds.

“So … Anyone can write?”  “Yes.”

“… And does anyone actually write?” “Well …”

Apparently, not all answers to the USCIS questions have contemporary resonance (seeing as writing to a newspaper certainly pre-dates 160-character limits), and it seems not all South American countries encourage writing to newspapers, thus the question I just fielded. Once I’d gotten past the shock that writing to a newspaper is now a somewhat archaic concept, I used the classic example of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” to show that anyone can indeed write to a newspaper. It was Christmastime, after all.

To jog your memory, in 1897 a young girl named Virginia wrote to the New York Sun doubting if Santa Claus was real, and the editor’s response is a timeless explanation that “often the most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.”  You’ll notice there was no implication that at age seven, “It’s marginal, right?”

When all is said and done, it’s important to note my husband and I are grateful. Although I aim to remind the USCIS that this will always be a nation of immigrants, its systems have allowed me and my husband to live, be free, and pursue our happiness on U.S. soil.

So, in the Christmas spirit (albeit belatedly), with help from Virginia and the editor at the New York Sun, and with renewed inspiration to contribute to my democracy as Question #55 of the citizenship exam suggests, I conclude with this:

 Yes, Uncle Sam, love does exist.

Our relationship exists “as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist,” and this gives our “life its highest beauty and joy.”

And yes, Uncle Sam, we are a nation of immigrants.

As neither of these two statements has been clear from the stacks upon stacks of papers and documents and signatures and petitions and forms and photos we dutifully provided, I invite you to come lay under my husband’s Christmas quilt, painstakingly stitched with generations-old traditions and infused with an entire nation’s dreams. For without these dreams, “there would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.”

I invite you to wrap yourself, as our future children will, in the warmth of this labor of love, and to dream with us our American dream.

[folukeifejola]

I am constantly looking for films set in colonial Africa. For some reason they are very rare. I wonder why? There is an old movie starring Pierce Brosnan (one time 007). Mister Johnson. And not many more. However, I found one recently on Netflix. ‘Palm Trees in the Snow‘ It is a lovely Spanish language historical romantic drama set on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea [not Guinea Conakry, and not Guinea Bissau, and definitely not Papua New Guinea].

It would be a good idea to watch it (if you have access) before reading this article. Let  me call out Baba Spoilers.

Baba Spoilers, Announcer Extraordinaire

Spoilers O! tueh tueh

Spoilers O! tueh tueh

Spoilers O! tueh tueh

Spoilers O! tueh tueh

Spoilers O! tueh tueh

Spoilers O! tueh tueh

  In other words, there will be massive movie spoilers in this article.

A little background information about Bioko Island: It used to be called Otcho by the Bubi people who have lived there since approximately the 7th century BC. In 1494 it was renamed Fernando Pó in honour of  Portuguese navigator Fernão do Pó after he ‘claimed’ it as a  Portuguese colony. The Portuguese developed the island for sugarcane crops among other things. Fast forward a few hundred years, during which the Dutch turn up briefly as well. In  1778, under the Treaty of El Pardo, Portugal ceded Bioko, Annobón, and the Guinea coast, Rio Muni, to Spain, together forming modern Equatorial Guinea, in exchange for territory on the American continent. Then the British also make an appearance. One tiny island, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British. (Why only them???) But from 1843, the Spanish regained control of Bioko, using it as a dumping ground for undesirable Afro-Cubans and Spanish people they didn’t like. From this time till independence in 1968, Spain developed large cocoa plantations for which thousands of West African workers were imported as labourers. And here begins our story…

Map of Bioko Island; Equatorial Guinea

The historical scenes on Bioko in the film begin in 1953. It’s a film of a book. I am assuming you have watched the film and realise that it is a very moving story. Good acting and exceptionally beautiful visually. [I would watch it for the visuals only]. Also good music. Bisila’s song is very emotional.  I really love the scene with the turtles on the beach and the accompanying metaphor spoken by Anton. ‘One never forgets where one was born.‘ As you can see from the map, Bioko is very close to Nigeria. And so, Nigerians turn up a lot in the story. When there is a party, the Nigerians are in charge of it. Naturally. So generally, I would recommend it. Please watch it and let me know what you think of it.

There a few things I have issues with though. (Obvs! I have written a nearly 2000 word article!) For a film set in Equatorial Guinea, we hear very little from actual Equatorial Guineans. All the scenes are focused on the foreigners. Despite this being a love story, even the poster does not centre the heroine. Erasure and gaze are deployed here. Where is the centre? Who is the story about? Who is it being told for?

It is worrying that the black men are largely depicted as aggressive, hypersexed and mute. Colourism also comes into play; the darker ones speak less and are more violent. Bisila’s husband, Mosi, is practically silent throughout the whole nearly 3-hour movie. As a key part of the central love triangle that seems a bit reductive. In contrast, did dastardly Jacobo really need that much screen time? Gustavo, who seems to be the resident African nationalist has barely any lines. We know that the Spaniards are fearful of the political change of independence, but what about the perspectives of the people of Bioko and Equatorial Guineans? Yes, it is a love story, but there was enough room and time to fill in the gaps in the political context especially as that political context has a profound effect on the story and the protagonists.

I would definitely have loved to hear more of  Bisila’s thoughts. What does she see in Kilian? When the story gets to her bit of narration, there is a foregone conclusion that she has feelings for Kilian, with no foreshadowing of that in their prior interactions. Of which they had very few. He did not even know her name! Also the oversexualisation of interracial encounters in the movie was a bit problematic. Julia & Manuel for e.g. don’t get the same treatment. It felt like a metaphor for the exotification and fetishization of Africa.

There was some misogynoir going on there with the gaze on Bisila’s body. She was undressed for a large part of the movie. A hint of fetishization and exotification again seemed to be in play. So, this feels to me like a metaphor. Africa constantly being stripped and laid bare, open to a certain type of exploitation often couched as benevolent. In most of the movie Bisila lacked agency and this lack of agency was not really addressed.

I watched the movie with the English dub, if you do not understand Spanish, you can either do that or watch with subtitles. One thing that completely jarred, with the English dub, was the dubbed voices of the black people. Without exception they all spoke with African American accents. ALL OF THEM. It was so incongruous that I found it difficult to concentrate on what they were saying. Close your eyes you may be watching Atlanta… or something similar.

The movie used a very light hand on the nature of colonialism and the colonial plantations. This is basically the context of the action in the movie. And it was mostly shuffled off to the background, and the way in which the power dynamics of that context affected the protagonists and their choices I think was largely discounted. I wonder if this is the same in the book. If you know let me know. But it felt like a movie about a flood in which no mention is made of anyone got wet, or a setting based on a towering inferno where no mention is made of burning people burning or a movie set against the backdrop of a famine where access to food is not really addressed.

So a little bit of political context and some legal points (I look at everything through the eyes of the law, I am after all, a lawyer and a teacher #canthelpmyself. Sue me. If you dare). One thing people seem to forget, or are unaware of is the fact that White-owned plantations existed not only in the US, but in most of the Americas, as well as across Africa and Asia. When the slave trade was outlawed, these plantations did not cease to exist, and people who had engaged in slavery – slave and plantation owners – still needed cheap labour for these plantations. This was vital, not just to those individuals, but also the nations for which their produce provided a lot of revenue. To ensure that economies did not tank, colonial governments gave plantation owners low-cost land grants. They also forced the local population to work on the plantations. Monopolies were created by preventing the sale of crops grown by other farmers. These state-supported plantations often produced most of a colony’s exports. Similar in many respects to plantation slavery. These labour relationships were sometimes called indentured servitude – so, not slavery. That’s the ‘beautiful’ thing about the law. As the example by Sundiata illustrates:

‘the labourer found himself working for the period of the advance, three months, as unpaid labour’  [Sundiata, 1974: 104]

Planters detained labour but failed to pay their contracts, resulting in a situation of de facto slavery.

So it is interesting how the legal abolition of a thing (in this case slavery) often results in the evolution of the thing a step away from the legal definition of what it used to be, but in spirit, more or less the same thing.  Such that legally the doers of the newly made thing cannot be convicted for doing the abolished thing, but by taking just one tiny step away from the old doing, the old results are kept alive. (Gregorio’s use of the whip is many shades of Kunta Kinte and Roots.) This also exposes the dangers of naming things. Once a named thing is legally defined and confined, to be the named thing, a thing must fit into all the boundaries of the definition. If it does not, then, it is not the abolished thing. It is a new thing for which new resistances must be mounted. And the cycle continues. Thus using indentured labour on African plantations was (legally) not the same as using enslaved Africans’ labour on plantations in the Americas. But in truth the power relations remained largely the same.

And this brings to the crux of my article. It is amazing how a narrative has developed suggesting that interracial relationships signify a move towards ending racism, when we know that heterosexual relationships do not signify less sexism. In many cases, they actually just signify misogyny. We must always talk about the power dynamics. Without discussing the context above, Kilian and Bisila’s relationship is not examined with any reference to the power dynamics between them. Even though some of the horrors of the system are shown, there is an attempt to cast Kilian as an innocent caught in a system beyond his control. But he is still complicit in the system and benefits from it. Gregorio ‘provokes’ Kilian to the point where Kilian violently whips an African. Innocent? When he sees Bisila for the first time, he is in the process of ‘falling in love’ with the sights, sounds and smells of the country and she appears as a physical embodiment of this desire for an exotic Africa.

And this is my question and observation on the true meaning of love; this has been examined in an article by Panashe Chigumadzi who articulated my feelings thus:

‘love without justice, without a reckoning with the history that has created our present realities, is not really love at all.’ Panashe Chigumadzi

Palm Trees in the Snow is a beautiful and romantic movie, in which the romance is so overwhelming that we may fail to note the absence of love. A love that does not acknowledge the history that created Bisila and Kilian’s realities. Love without justice.

  Bibliography

Sundiata, Ibrahim K. “Prelude to Scandal: Liberia and Fernando Po, 1880–1930.” The Journal of African History 15, no. 1 (1974): 97-112.

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Palm Trees in the Snow: I am constantly looking for films set in colonial Africa. For some reason they are very rare.