#and especially if they were making a flag to fit with conventions of mans world then they could totally use purple because it 1. wouldnt be

[themyscirah]

Obsessing abt the Amazonian embassy and embassy day & tours and the details of all that while at the same time being BONE tired from all my schoolwork.

Like I am lying here with aches all over and the remnants of stress pains and also my energy drink (not to be confused w my coffee from earlier) leaking out of my system and all I can think about is color symbolism and what the flags would look like for the different Amazon tribes

[flintwoodandco]

Three Is Not A Crowd

Summary: Neville and Oliver like to bring strangers home.

Neville should recognize this one, but doesn’t, and Oliver is, well, blindfolded.

Rating: Explicit

Genre: Choose Your Own Universe, Established Neville/Oliver, Pre-negotiated Kink, Threesome, Safe Sane and Consensual

Warnings: Polyamory, Frottage, Anal Sex, Blowjobs, Awkward Sexual Situations, Spitroasting, Dirty Talk

Words: 2509

A/N: brainworm .... may write more about these three.

if there’s anything else i should tag on ao3, lmk!!

-

AO3

or

They had been stealing glances for minutes now. 

Like always, Neville waited, testing the waters. Whenever he took a sip from his pint, the man across the bar followed suit. Then, their eyes would meet before they pretended to get caught up in something else. 

Whether it was the man’s steel grey eyes or his rugged–and handsome in their own way–looks, Neville was intrigued. Enough was enough. Taking a long drink, Neville steadied himself and made his way over to the other side of the bar. 

“Care to buy a man a drink?” he grinned as he took an empty barstool next to the stranger. 

“What about the one you just had?” the man teased back. 

Neville smirked at this, letting his leg brush against the man’s as he turned towards him. “Well, there’s still room for shots isn’t there?”

With a quirk of an eyebrow, the man then flagged down the bartender and ordered two shots, dark and unidentifiable. Toasting each other, Neville didn’t let his gaze stray as they took their shots, the liquor burning as it flowed down his throat. 

“Got any plans for the rest of the evening?” Neville said as his confidence grew. 

If only his old schoolmates could see him now, a far cry from the timid boy he once was. It only made him stand even taller, flashing a wicked smile at the man. 

“Well, if you’ve got time in your busy schedule for me,” the man licked his lips. 

At this, Neville couldn’t help himself. He dove in, stealing a kiss from the man, who eagerly pushed back. Their kiss broke with a small bite and Neville cleared his throat, reminding himself of his task. 

“Just one thing,” Neville began, “I, well, I have a boyfriend–” the man’s face fell and Neville stumbled over his next words. “But! We like to fool around! Bring in another person. If that’s alright with you.”

“Oh,” the man blinked. Neville’s stomach dropped and he waited for the rejection. “More than alright.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Neville leaned forward, placing a kiss on the corner of the man’s mouth. “Suppose we shouldn’t keep him waiting then, hm?”

Neville took the man’s hand and the two quickly paid for their drinks before heading out of the bar. Outside, they met in another heated kiss and Neville’s knees weakened. This felt so right, the excitement, the unknown that laid before them. 

“Got your boyfriend all tied up or something?” the man asked when they parted for a moment. 

“You could say that,” Neville toyed, unable to stop his cheeky grin. 

Amongst rough kisses and heavy petting, somehow Neville managed to get the two of them back to his shared flat. Make-out sessions against the door and down the hall finally brought them to the bedroom where upon opening the door, Neville was able to see all his hard work coming to fruition. 

On the bed, his boyfriend–Oliver–writhed as a whine left him. His wrists were tied up, eyes covered with a black cloth while a red ball gag held his mouth open. His body, fully nude, shifted against the sheets, the vibrator inside of him buzzing on his sweet spot. 

Neville grinned as the man stared on, almost to the point of drooling. “If he didn’t have that cock ring on, he’d have come five times by now,” Neville whispered in the man’s ear. 

Stepping away, Neville stripped himself of his clothes and climbed onto the bed, running his hand down Oliver’s side. “We’ve got a guest, sweetheart. Let’s put on a show.”

Oliver moaned in return, his hips bucking up as Neville’s fingers trailed lower. Looking back over at the man, Neville held his stare as his fingertips ghosted along Oliver’s cock before sliding lower, teasing at the pulsing entrance. 

With a low groan, the man all but tore off his clothes, landing on the bed with heavy movements. Neville pulled him in for another kiss and the two moaned loudly as their tongues shoved in and out of each other’s mouths. 

Neville’s smile never wavered, especially when he felt Oliver twist and shake from his fingers playing around with the vibrator. With an agonizing, slow pace, Neville pulled the vibrator out, before tugging the man to sit between Oliver’s legs. 

“Why don’t you have the honors?” Neville offered, his hand stroking the man’s hardened cock a few times. 

The man nodded, a shaky breath leaving him and Neville felt his cock twitch. Without clothes, Neville could see the man’s shaped abs, his bulky form and he almost thought about offering his own ass up first. However, Oliver had been so patient. Neville didn’t want to neglect him. 

“Alright, darling, let’s work that mouth of yours,” Neville sat across Oliver, his cock landing on Oliver’s face. 

Oliver nuzzled the cock and Neville steeled himself, lest he started rubbing on Oliver’s face to get off on that alone. When Oliver froze, Neville looked over his shoulder, watching as the man entered Oliver. He slid in easily, filling Oliver up to the hilt. Oliver and the man moaned together, but it wasn’t until the man started thrusting, rough and slow, that Neville took the gag off of Oliver. 

Giving Oliver only a moment to breathe, Neville then shoved the head of his cock into Oliver’s mouth and swore as Oliver worked his magic. Oliver’s tongue teased him, his lips sucked Neville deeper, until the world faded away. Neville worked himself in and out of Oliver’s mouth, timing himself with the man’s thrusts until the sound of slapping skin, heavy moans filled the room. 

This was ecstasy. Neville looked behind him to see the man gripping tight to Oliver’s hips, slamming into him and Oliver’s cock bouncing against his stomach. The sight was beautiful, Neville wishing he could see multiple angles at once.

“Take that cock ring off of him, will you?” Neville panted as he kept fucking Oliver’s mouth. “He’s been such a good boy after all.”

The man agreed, freeing Oliver from the cock ring. In a few thrusts, Oliver was screaming against Neville’s cock, cum coating his stomach and Neville’s back. The vibrations only helped bring Neville to his own orgasm and he spilled into Oliver’s mouth, a gasp leaving him as he endlessly came. A grunt from the man was all Neville needed to hear to know that Oliver was being filled up and he grabbed onto the headboard to keep himself from collapsing. 

“Fuck,” the man rasped out and Neville couldn’t help but agree. 

With gentle moves, Neville pulled himself away from Oliver and freed his wrists before laying next to him. “Alright there?” Neville checked in as he untied the blindfold. 

“Never better,” Oliver managed, his voice raw. 

The two shared a passionate kiss before Neville turned to the man to ask how he was. Until Neville saw the confused stare on the man’s face. 

“Flint?” Oliver’s voice shot up in pitch.

Neville could only watch as Oliver scrambled into a seated position, knees up as if to protect himself while the man at the end of the bed jumped off, eyes wide and mouth open. 

“Wait, what?” Neville looked between the two men, confusion and fear colliding together. 

“Wood,” the man spoke at last before his stare snapped over to Neville. “Hold on...Longbottom?”

Neville’s stomach sank. Suddenly, there was something familiar about this man and old, haunted memories from school filled Neville’s brain. 

“You didn’t recognize him?” Oliver brought Neville back to the moment at hand. “You’ve been to all my games, we went to school with him.”

“I…,” Neville sifted through scrambled thoughts but nothing made sense. “To be fair, my focus was...has always been on you, Oliver,” Nevilled then defended himself. 

“Holy shit,” Marcus breathed, running his hands down his face. “When did you get fit, Longbottom?”

Neville blinked at this. He had expected yelling, some choice insults. Not Marcus Flint staring at him with a renewed hunger. Heat coiled in Neville’s stomach and he suddenly felt the need to cover himself. 

“Alright now, he’s my boyfriend,” Oliver nearly growled as he took Neville’s hand in his own. 

“Yeah, but, we all just fucked,” Marcus shrugged as if there was no problem at all. “I don’t think anything here is exactly conventional.”

Neville looked between the two men, Oliver glaring Marcus down as Marcus pretended there was something interesting on his arm. Just minutes before they were all on the bed, having the time of their lives. There was plenty to say but Neville couldn’t focus on any of it. 

Laughter burst out of Neville and he could only collapse on the bed as his stomach began to hurt. Yet, the laughter didn’t stop. He could feel the stares, feel Oliver’s concerned touches, but it took what seemed like eons before Neville finally caught his breath. 

“Oh, fuck,” Neville giggled as he properly sat up. “This certainly is something, isn’t it?”

Wiping the tears away from his eyes, Neville’s pride swelled as both Oliver and Marcus had small smiles of their own. It was almost too impossible to be believed and yet everything that had transpired on this night was perfectly real. 

“Well, I suppose we could start over,” Oliver mused, his gaze straying over to Marcus. “It’s not as if I’ve ever truly hated you. Just...”

“...Good, old fashioned rivalry,” Marcus supplied. “And you, Long–er, Neville,” Marcus caught Neville’s attention. “I’m sorry about everything that happened at school. What my classmates did. What I did.”

The corner of Neville’s mouth twitched and he nodded. “Thank you, Marcus. Though, you didn’t really do–”

“–but I should have been better, should have stopped them or something,” Marcus was quick to jump in. “You didn’t deserve any of that.”

Neville fell silent then and leaned into Oliver as his arm wrapped around him. School had not been easy by any means, but Neville was finally healing, ready to move on. Swallowing, Neville settled into his resolution and brought Marcus into a small kiss. The hesitation from Marcus only solidified Neville’s choice, their embrace ending all too soon. Neville was quick to kiss Oliver as well, the love of his boyfriend helping Neville feel safe and sound. 

The silence in the room was deafening and despite everything, Neville wanted to go back to where it was before, when the evening had begun. Sharing a stare with Oliver was all it took before Neville was watching Oliver kiss Marcus, an unresolved tension finally breaking between the two. 

As Marcus’ hand slid up his thigh, Neville’s stress fell from his shoulders and he was quick to dive back in, nipping and kissing along Marcus’ neck. Before Neville knew it, he was wrapped up in Oliver’s arms, fingers ghosting along his chest and teasing his nipples. A small moan left him, earning a wicked grin from Marcus.

“Sensitive?” Marcus teased before he leaned down, taking one of the nipples in his mouth. 

Neville’s hands flew to Marcus’ hair and he whimpered as Oliver flicked one nipple while Marcus’ tongue swirled around the other. Strong hands gripped onto his waist, sure to leave deep bruises that Neville would never want to fade. 

“What do you want, love?” Oliver whispered in Neville’s ear, his teeth grazing along the curve of Neville’s neck. 

“Fuck, anything, everything,” Neville panted, his back arching as Marcus’s mouth traveled down his stomach. 

The snap of a bottle cap and Marcus’ mouth on his cock forced Neville’s eyes wide open. He shuddered, letting his body be rearranged so he was kneeling. Marcus went on his hands and knees, still pleasing Neville’s cock while Oliver’s oiled fingers traced along Neville’s rim. 

Neville pleaded for more as Oliver’s finger pushed into him, only to have his breath caught in his throat as Marcus wrapped his hand around Neville’s cock. Sitting up, Marcus pulled Neville into an open kiss, moans exchanged between the two as Oliver stretched Neville open. 

“More, yes,” Neville trembled, leaning on Marcus to steady himself. 

“Needy too,” Marcus joked as he slowly pumped Neville’s cock. “Any other secrets to Neville, Wood?”

Neville could see Oliver’s evil grin in his mind and when Oliver brushed against his prostate, Neville lost any coherency he still had. His moan filled the room, followed by breathy laughs that shot along his spine. 

“Please, Oliver, put your cock in me,” Neville begged, his hands gripping tight to Marcus’ shoulders. 

Letting the two men move him around, Neville found himself staring right into Marcus’ eyes as Oliver pushed into him. 

“Beautiful,” Marcus breathed against Neville’s lips, holding his head in place by simply holding his chin. “I can’t wait to see what you look like when you come.”

Neville groaned at this, pushing his ass back against Oliver to make him move faster. 

“Easy there,” Oliver held onto Neville’s hips. “You’ll get what you want, sweetheart.”

With his free hand, Marcus gripped his and Neville’s cocks in a tight hold, rubbing them together as Oliver began to thrust into Neville. 

“Oh, fuck,” Neville’s voice shook. 

It all felt so good–the two bodies he was stuck between, the stretch of Oliver’s cock, Marcus’ rough pumping–he was losing himself in the best way and Neville let himself be consumed by Marcus’ deep, heavy stare. 

Whines and moans escaped from Neville as Oliver and Marcus wrought out his pleasure, sending him closer to the edge with each passing moment. Oliver’s breaths warmed Neville’s neck while Marcus teased him with small kisses and nips on his lower lip. 

Neville couldn’t hold back anymore and his head fell back onto Oliver’s shoulder as he reached his climax. A near scream tore itself from Neville’s throat, his cock awkwardly thrusting in Marcus’ hand. Cum covered his and Marcus’ stomachs, but Marcus continued to milk Neville dry as he reached his own orgasm with a sharp groan. Oversensitivity took over, causing Neville to whimper as Oliver pounded into him, Marcus’ hand still stroking the two of them. His nails dug into Marcus’ skin and when Oliver came, Neville let out a pleased moan. 

All three men struggled to catch their breaths, holding each other up as bliss passed over them. When Neville lifted his head, he was greeted by the sight of Marcus licking the cum off his hand before Oliver snuck in a kiss from Marcus to have a taste. With Oliver slipping out of him, Neville lost his strength and he was happy to let Oliver lay him down, his mind still in a slight haze.

Neville tried to help clean up, but Oliver and Marcus were quicker, gracing Neville with small kisses before they finally settled on the bed. As sleep began to take over, Neville watched Oliver and Marcus take their places on either side of him, both men choosing to throw an arm over his waist. 

As their legs tangled together, Neville settled into the warmth and exhaustion washed him away, a smile on his face as it did so. 

[afroggyfrog]

SuperStraight

A brand new sexuality that is trending on twitter and being super popular.

Definition:

A superstraight person is someone attracted to members of the opposite gender who are not transexual.

This was created as a response to people who sometimes say things like this:

(source:BBC)

Let’s give a name to the people who insist that not being attracted to trans people makes you transphobic, since I’m not about to describe them every time i wanna bring them up, I’ll call them trans-incels because just like incels they resent people for not wanting to have sex with them.

It’s worth it to remember that trans-incels aren’t representative of all trans people. or even of a majority of them, if i were to bet, they are about as popular as actual incels.

In all the comment sections I checked the anti trans-incel side was a clear majority, and having searched for “superstraight” on youtube to see what people have to say, the first video on the list, from a trans man, is definetely anti trans-incel .

> If you don’t want to date a trans person that’s fine, and if somebody is trying to force you they’re just an asshole

-probably most trans people

From the perspective of a trans-incel (and how we’re all assuming too much)

Imagine a person.

Imagine the probability that they are racist.

Imagine that same person saying “i wouldn’t date a black person”

Has the probability increased at all? be honest, it hasn’t gone up to 100% (which would be the race-incel response) but it must have gone up by at least a little.

But why did it go up by a little? Because now the chance they’ll say something like “because blacks disgust me” has also gone up.

Now imagine being into internet drama (ew) and as a trans person, you’re especially interested in people being transphobic and you probably see transphobia every day because people like talking about it as much as anti-sjw(tm) people like to talk about the trans-incels.

If discussions about trans people only gets to you when it causes drama you’ll probably never see “i wouldn’t date trans men/women...” without having it be followed by “...because they’re not real men/women”.

And even though the whole point of being superstraight is to explain why people wouldn’t date trans men/women without calling them ‘not real men/women’ lets see what the original guy who started the whole superstraight meme has to say at second 15.

https://youtu.be/z8vQhkPnEE4

It’s like instead of throwing bait, they’re just throwing food.

The more you see “...because they’re not real men/women” the more likely you are to expect it, and as someone who subscribes to people posting drama 24/7 you’ll see that hundreds of times until you end up answering ...

the probability that the person who says ‘i wouldn’t date trans men/women’ to be transphobic is 100%

...and even if they don’t follow up with something transphobic it’s always easier to imagine they’re just hiding it rather than to change your whole worldview on the spot.

And if you think “why do they even predict transphobia before its spoken”, well, this might sound crazy to you, but everyone is assuming things all the time, our whole perception of reality is nothing but a hallucination that our brain comes up with using not only stimulus from the world but also assumptions.

There’s a blind spot on each 1 of your eyes, your brain simply fills it in without you knowing, it also adds color to the edge of your vision and makes the whole thing less blurry.

When someone says “i won’t date trans people” some people will simply fill in the blanks, they’ll assume every bit of info about who you are what you believe in what your personality is from just a sentence, because the brain is literally designed for it.

IQ tests are just patterns where a spot is blanked out and you’re supposed to fill it in, your intelligence is measured by your ability to fill in the blanks, and low intelligence people will just make mistakes more often, but everyone smart or dumb will constantly make assumptions about everything, and dumb people will be proven wrong about their assumptions more often.

And this happens all the time even when you’re not talking about politics or having a fight.

Someone talking about the earth being curved? well, every time I saw someone do that they called it a sphere so let me just fill in the blanks.

Someone saying they wouldn’t date trans women? well, every time I see screenshots of people saying that in my drama facebook group i see them being transphobic, so let me just fill in the blanks

That’s just how incels operate.

Building legitimacy

Have you ever noticed that every sexual preference eventually gets assigned a flag, on that note, why does every country have a flag?

If you ask a regular person to guess why their country has a flag you’ll get something related to aesthetics, our flags represent our country.

For example Romania and Hungary:

In school we are taught that each colour on our flag has a different meaning, I searched on google and everyone disagrees on what they mean but as an example.

Liberty (sky-blue), Justice (field yellow), Fraternity (blood red) 

Outside of school I was taught by my grandma that the Hungarian flag, much like the Romanian flag, also has a meaning.

The green represents a wide field of green grass, the white represents a white dog playing on the field of grass, rolling around on his back, and the red represents his red dog cock.

Both of these meanings are pretty much just something that a Romanian randomly came up with so i don’t think most people know why countries have flags.

Flags originate from war, that way the armies know not to attack their own allies when they see they carry the same flag, having an army grants you true legitimacy because you can just beat people up into believing you’re legitimate, so countries with no armies probably still had flags because it would be really hard to pretend you have an army otherwise.

Nowadays every country has a flag even if war is illegal, simply because every country has been using one for so long that it became convention. If you don’t follow convention you will be seen as illegitimate. It’s an unwritten rule, but a rule nonetheless, that you need a flag, and much like not following written rules makes you illegitimate (and illegal) so does not following unwritten rules.

And sexualities having their own flags and names probably feels like an even stronger convention than countries having flags for some people.

It’s very often brought up that you have to feel “valid” (which more or less means “legitimate”) 

I still don’t know why, but it’s apparent that people need to be reassured that their sexuality is “valid” and then there’s also this:

Why does a sexual preference have to be distinct from a sexuality? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure the only difference between the two is legitimacy, to confirm to the conventions of flags and labels.

Q: So why do superstraights get a label and a flag and copy everything that LGBT people do, like tweets talking about how valid their followers are or using the word bigot etc

A: Because to get true legitimacy you need to copy the conventions.

The cargo cult

(wikipedia) Some primitive tribes of people would look at colonists from the civilised world and notice that after they’d built some plane lanes, the planes would come bringing cargo full of valuable stuff.

The tribesmen have made the observation that planes land if you build lanes for them to land on, they made the hypothesis that building the lanes causes the planes to come, and like scientists, they set out to test it.

They made lanes, they made fake planes, they tried to copy everything that the colonists did hoping it would be enough.

Superstraight is a lot like a cargo cult of sexualities, they have a flag, they have a label, they call everyone bigots all the time.

This is the first pic I sent before cropping it.

Because, like a cargo cultist who does not see the plane factories from the colonists homelands, the superstraight person does not see the LGBT community from outside his filter bubble, the filter bubble where only the most obnoxious people like the trans-incels can get through.

So when the superstraight person who thinks every LGBT person is just an obnoxious incel tries to “fit in” with the LGBT, they will act like an obnoxious incel, and when everyone is angry at him, he thinks to himself “they've all proven themselves hypocrites! i baited them so hard! i won!!!”

Even tho there’s a bunch of LGBT people from the comment sections I read who don’t even know the trans-incels even exist, because their filters simply don’t show them the same things you superstraight people are shown.

It gets worse

There’s some people who are so cocky and think they’re so much smarter than the LGBT community that they can just sneak in the nazi SS symbol into their flag and not just fuck up the bait completely.

hehe Schutzstaffel fla- wait! you cant call me a nazi! this is just another sexuality you hypocriteeeee

But this is also just a minority of the people who get superstraight trending, its so popular that I’m pretty sure most of the people getting it to trend are actual normies who wouldn’t even recognise the SS symbol and who have never been to 4chan.

Speaking of 4chan

Of course people don’t think superstraight is legitimate when you have 4chan taking credit for it.

They pick up on all the superficial customs like the flag the label the speech patterns and think “this is their, logic, im using it against them, and they’re all mad because of this alone and not just because a we’re comparing ourselves to the Schutzstaffel”

In a turing test a computer attempts to pass as a human.

In the ideological turing test a human tries to pass as someone of a different ideology.

Are people afraid of passing the ideological turing test? do they think if they can think like the enemy, then they’ll become the enemy? there was no need for people on 4chan to talk so openly about superstraight being a ruse, there was no need to make nazi memes with it, there is no need to post “we used their logic against them”, to constantly tell “yes this is all a lie”.

And yet people have to constantly break character and expose superstraight for being a fake sexuality, why? what’s even the point of it then?

What it could have been

Imagine a world in which instead of making a cargo cult sexuality and just delegitimizing it yourself with all the actual nazi symbolism, you were able to cancel trans-incels.

Imagine if they were able to say things like “the trans-incels are trying to create a new rape culture in which superstraight people are coerced into having sex with transexual people” with a straight face

Imagine if they even tried to coin the term “trans-incels”, since incels are hated by progressives for misogyny and are often associated with 4chan.

Imagine if they could get people banned for hate-speech against the superstraight

Imagine if they had the balls to denounce the people amongst them trying to delegitimise superstraight with their nazi SS and obvious parodying of the  points that aren’t taken seriously by anyone who doesn’t call themselves anti-sjw.

Maybe then there’d be some divide between “pro-superstraight” and “anti-superstraight” instead of everyone who’s not anti-trans agreeing that superstraights aren’t legit.

Maybe they’d be able to get some people canceled, there’s been at least one actual celebrity (India Willoughby) who is a trans-incel, they  could have canceled her! but nobody is even trying.

And oh how much “applying their own logic against them” would have been true if as a response to “but not all trans people are calling you transphobic for having a sexual preference!” you dusted off the “not all men are like that” memes that was popular with feminists.

If they would go on the offensive, cancelling people, spreading trans-incel screenshots to everyone who says they’ve never seen one, mocking people who stand up against them the way feminists used to and say “nOt aLl TrANs pEopLe aRE liKE THat” to anyone who says “not all trans people are like that”, to tell them that “silence is violence” and to make them cancel eachother.

Imagine how much more effective that would have been.

In the end this isn’t gonna make a difference, it will be forgotten, maybe in a couple months, or a year, or a week, some people are  angry today because a counterculture hashtag is trending, but they’ll forget about it too, maybe a couple dozen people will permanently have superstraight on their twitter bios, but really, nothing interesting is gonna come out of it, and if someone tries to make something like whitesexual/blacksexual/asiansexual etc a thing the well will have already been poisoned by superstraight.

[midnghtprentiss]

Royalty - Chapter One.

Olivia felt her body heavy the moment she put on the dress. It was not the type of clothing she wore at the convent, it was full of sparkles and lacy scraps. On his head was the crown that clearly showed his destiny. Queen of a man she knew and a desperate nation. In a place where she did not know.

"Majesty, we are ready to go. " One of the guards approached, bowing first.

"Just one more minute." Olivia stammered, approaching Sister Mary. "Thanks for everything, Mary. I will never forget you."

"You have no time to waste, Olivia. Soon you will be married to Prince Luke who will also be king. Win his heart and you'll be able to get through it." Sister Mary gave the girl a hug and then went on her way to the carriage.

The carriage was large and comfortable enough for a long journey. Olivia liked to travel around the country, even though she didn't do it very often. She liked to observe nature, people and places, which would soon be in her possession. The region was beautiful, full of chateaus and villages. As well as it was full of animals and plants different from what I was used to.

"Princess, we're coming. Get ready." One of the guards alerted on his horse.

The castle was beautiful. Full of flowers and flags showing that it belonged to the royal family. Some servants and royal guests were waiting for their carriage at the entrance to the castle. The moment they stopped, the door was opened for Olivia, who went down and looked around. The instant she saw Grace and Nora with their chaperones, she ran to meet him. Hugging them as tightly as I could.

"Olivia! How are you" Grace hugged her friend and then made room for the others.

"How I missed you. Did you travel well? We have a lot to talk about later. " Olivia smiled and looked at the castle door.

Queen Liz, King Andy. With his bastard son Calum. But no sign of Luke. The women quickly started walking in the same direction, but before a tall, blond boy came in.

"Majesty. " He bowed briefly before extending his arm.

" Luke! " Olivia shook her head and walked away. "You are ... Bigger. I have to admit that this new form of you has gone well with you."

"You look beautiful, Your Highness." He smiled, showing his flushed cheeks and stretching his arm so she could catch him.

"Call me Olivia, please. " She smiled, fitting her arm, going towards the rest of the people.

Wherever she went, people bow, whisper and smile. Olivia was the queen everyone expected to replace Liz on the throne. Liz had an ambition to protect her children at all costs, even if it cost her own life.

After the formalities, Olivia and her ladies were directed to their royal quarters. The walls were lined with light fabrics filled with flowers, while the ceiling with gold details had some paintings. Solid wood furniture with chandeliers. The bed with posts that held a white silk veil, made the whole environment less scary and cozy. Not as a child, but it was still cozy.

She sat on the bed, feeling the soft, fluffy fabric, letting her body slide in the middle and the mattress welcoming her in a simple and comfortable way. However, she was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Oli, we need to get ready for your dinner. The king wants to do especially to flatter the future queen of Australia and daughter-in-law. " Nora murmured entering the room and approaching.

"I think I'll explore the castle before I do anything." The girl stood up quickly, adjusting her cottage around her body.

"We meet here in an hour, right? " She quickly agreed and walked away.

Those walls and corridors kept secrets and saw things that can never leave Olivia's memory. She and Luke used to run and play all over this place. They created a world without even leaving, but after she went to the convent, he abandoned the games and high imagination.

She walked down the steps they were running on and where Luke had tried to steal a kiss for the first time. He was so ashamed that he had to run. At the end of the stairs there was a room, where were his old rooms. The door was open and then Olivia could see that Luke was there and where there was a bed now she had a piano.

"Since when have you played? " Olivia murmured, leaning against the door.

"Hm, hi. Since you left. I didn't have anyone else to run or imagine and you know the rules with Calum." She smiled and approached, looking around.

"I remember that room. We stayed here for hours. Imagining the future where we weren't royalty and didn't even need protection." Olivia commented, running her hands over the old furniture.

"It was good and as if we were free. Nobody else comes here. Just me. It is good to be able to work on so many memories." Luke smiled, approaching. "Don't you have to get ready for the party?"

"I can do that later. I needed to come by before. " She smiled and stood up. "I didn't mean to disturb you. Anyway, it's good to know that you take care of it here."

Olivia walked out, leaving the room behind, walking down the stairs quickly. Heading towards your room.

Her ladies were already waiting for her, with some jewelry and dresses she could choose from. Olivia was an easy person to please and that was a very good quality, but when it wasn't her days, nothing pleased her.

Grace helped her to wear a green sleeveless dress with gold details all over the sleeves and shoulders, with a medium tail and lace on the front, highlighting her well-designed medium body. The crown on his head fitted into the locked hairstyle. The ruby ​​earrings that had been gifts from the English queen.

"You look stunning, majesty." A male voice had echoed through the room. He was a blond boy and a little shorter. "I'm Michael, your coast guard and if you want, I can be your friend too."

"Oh, hello Michael. You can call me Olivia." She smiled approaching the boy. " I would love for you to be my friend and faithful companion."

He smiled and bowed. The ladies left and Olivia followed, walking next to Michael who kept his hands close to his sword and his posture upright.

"Calum chose me along with Luke to be your guard. " He asked, looking through the corridors.

"I trust them to entrust my life to you. Thanks." As soon as they approached the main hall the doors were opened.

All attention was directed to the woman who passed by, no longer as a child, but as a woman. Noble people greeted her, others ignored her, but none of them could deny that Olivia was not funny. His light steps, straight posture and hands close to his body.

"Olivia, I want to introduce you to Cardinal Louis. He was sent by the Vatican. " King Andy approached introducing the man who smiled kindly.

"It's a pleasure, Cardinal. " He nodded and left.

"You look stunning, Olivia. " The queen said looking up and down as she looked. "Fit for a queen."

"Thanks. " The girl agreed and was soon called by the ladies. "Let's Dance." Olivia pulled her friends to the middle of the dance floor, dancing what they knew because of the dancing melody of the orchestra.

Luke and Calum watched them from a distance. They drew attention, but the pedestal was all Olivia's and no one had any doubt about it. Her presence in the country made some people fear war or worse. But without a doubt the salvation of the Hemmings was in the Pristol family, precisely in Olivia and in the future children that she and Luke would have.

"Can I ask for a dance? " Luke murmured, extending his hand to Olivia who took it without hesitation, passing it over the boy's shoulders. "You look beautiful, Olivia."

"You look beautiful, as always, Luke. It looks like we're going to have to get used to these events after we get married." He shook his head, turning the woman over.

"If we get married. It all depends on the circumstances my father decides." Olivia raised an eyebrow.

"You don't want to marry me, do you? " Olivia's voice sounded hard, but she wasn't surprised. "I'm doing what's right for my country, but I'm not going to wait too long Luke. Australia is my alliance, but it is not the only option."

Olivia moved away, leaving the middle of the dance floor, heading for a less busy corner. She smiled at Michael who kept a safe distance.

"Diplomacy is not easy, is it?" Calum's voice echoed through the background, making her jump in surprise.

"Good to see you, Cal. There were so many letters during twelve years that I can recognize you from afar." He smiled at the compliment, laughing quietly.

"How is your stay going? " The girl murmured, handing him a glass of wine.

"It is not as comfortable as the convent, but it will soon be. Or not." She shrugged. "I'm a part of the game here. I may stay until I marry your brother, if we get married.

" don't know much about diplomacy but I understand about Luke and he doesn't like that." Calum always tried to defend his brother and that was mutual.

"I don't know, Cal. If they don't find me useful, I have to find someone who thinks otherwise." Olivia smiled, placing her hands on the boy's shoulder before leaving.

Attention went to the king a while later to organize a toast in honor of the future queen.

"Olivia's return represents a new beginning and reconstruction of our nation. To the Queen Olivia of New Zealand." Everyone raised their glasses celebrating Olivia's life.

At the end of the party, she decided to return without the chaperones, only with Michael who maintained the same posture, just looked a little tired. Olivia offered to take a nap, but he denied it and went about his business.

"Mike, being a woman is difficult. I have to be quiet until men want me to speak, but I'm not that kind of woman" Olivia murmured, drawing the attention of the guard who crossed his arms. "I'm Olivia Pristol, queen of New Zealand and if Australia wants me to be part of the game, so be it my way."

[aboutcaseyaffleck]

Casey Affleck Is a Full-Time Flag Football Coach, Part-Time Actor

The quiet Affleck is known for soul searching performances, but mostly he's just trying to call the right play.

Looking for Casey Affleck? Head to the park. It’s where he’s doing some of his finest work — and spending a hell of a lot of time. 

“My son got into flag football so I started coaching it,” says the actor and father of two. “I coach his team and then the parents of his friends asked me to coach their team. I coach three flag football teams and a baseball team.”

The last time we saw Affleck, 43, on screen, he was a burnout saddled with raising a nephew he didn’t want after his own kids died in a house fire. The sublimely quiet performance earned him a best actor Oscar for Manchester by the Sea. But it was just a performance. Despite his introverted public persona — so much for that Ocean’s 11 loudmouth — Affleck is incredibly present in his children’s lives and specifically on the sidelines of their various games. In fact, Affleck explains that he has eschewed blockbusters to ensure he has time with his sons, Indiana, 15, and Atticus, 11. He didn’t want to show up after they were already out of the house. He wanted a major role in their lives.

But don’t think that his turn as a dad is a conventional leading man part. The actor who plotted a murder as a sociopathic teenager in Gus Van Sant’s 1995 classic To Die For, the guy who gunned down Brad Pitt in 2007’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, isn’t what you’d call a cool dad. He says he lectures his sons, annoying them constantly. “Here’s a tip,” he laughs. “If you’re driving in a car with two kids and you turn around and see they’re both wearing headphones, you’re talking too much.”

Still, that’s not going to convince Hollywood’s most notoriously reserved star to stop talking.

“I could talk about my kids all day. Being a parent has taught me more about myself and about life than any other experience I have ever had. I want to soak up every minute of it. It’s a priority I’m happy I have,” says Affleck, who will debut Light of My Life, an exquisite yet grounded film he wrote about a father and daughter navigating a post-apocalyptic world this summer. He says the science fictional elements are sort of a metaphor for his anxieties as a parent. (Not-so-much the flag football playcalling anxieties. More the bigger stuff.)

Affleck spoke to Fatherly about being a nearly full-time youth sports coach, how parenthood changed his career, and how his sons influenced his new film.

I’m told you are quite the dedicated coach. Are you, like me, all about winning?

I’m that coach inside, but I try to contain it. I love doing it. I was never into football when I was a kid. My son got into flag football so I started coaching it. I coach his team and the parents of his friends asked me to coach their team. I coach three flag football teams and a baseball team.

Coaching to me is incredibly rewarding. To have the kind of relationship with your kid in a different way is really great. They come home and they critique my coaching style. They write plays for me. They do it with me. It’s an extra little bonding experience. Also, I get to know other kids. When you’re the coach, they give you a kind of authority you don’t deserve. There’s a lot of trust and respect. There’s a mob of kids over here at the house all the time. They don’t always listen, but when you’re their coach, it’s a different relationship.

When I talked to you a few years ago, you were wary of even revealing your first son’s name. How have you kept them out of the spotlight? I mean, look at your brother Ben Affleck. He gets it so bad.

He does get it bad. If you’re two celebrities who are married, that is just gossip and fodder and crack. It’s double trouble. Jennifer Garner being so famous and Ben… they just get the worst it. I hate it for my nieces and nephew. It’s so intrusive. It’s so awful. They manage it really well. They talk to the kids about it and explain it. With my kids, I think it helps that the paparazzi don’t care about me that much, which is amazing and thank God for that. I was really vigilant early on about protecting my private life and making choices that would keep me out of the spotlight. I didn’t do that much press. I wouldn’t talk about my kids. But my kids now give me career advice. They’re old enough.

Like what tips do they give you?

My son told me I had to get a verified Instagram account. My heart sank. I need all the help I can get. My son is 15 and knows what it is. At a certain point, you can protect from the world but then you have to move into the world with them. To me, that has meant allowing them to be online with the rest of the world.

In terms of your career, did your Oscar change things for you in a major way? I know you’re particular about what you work on.

You can be very picky and still end up in things that aren’t great. There’s no formula. I would like to rethink my strategy of being so picky. I don’t put being successful or being in a great movie ahead of everything else in my life. This summer, I wanted to spend the summer with my 15 year old. I didn’t want to be away all summer, no matter how good a project it was. It’s been tough. I’ve had to let go of a lot of professional experiences that I really wanted. I wanted to be at home more. Winning the Oscar didn’t change anything. It’s not me being regretful.

Do your kids care that you’re an actor? Have they seen your movies?

They have very little interest in watching the movies I do. They care about when I talk to them about movies. That way they can understand that I actually do something. Some parents work in banks or in schools. I act. It’s a little harder for younger kids to grasp. I ask for their advice all the time on what projects to do. When the movies come out, they’re not that interested. They don’t go to the movie theater that much. They like plays. I took my youngest kid, at 11 and two of their friends, to the sound stage when I was shooting this movie. They lasted about four minutes. They went to the hallway and played tag.

Let’s talk about the new movie, Light of My Life. The opening scene with Anna Pniowsky, who plays your daughter, is so intimate, so sweet, especially when you’re telling her the bedtime story you made up on the fly.

It was pretty easy and relaxed. For one thing, Anna is just naturally a great actress. She’s relaxed on camera. She has a lot of emotional intelligence and depth that is apparent. But also, like with any scene, the scene begins the first minute you meet them. Anna and I — I love her to death. We got along so well. She’s such a sweet kid. But the time we got into shooting that scene, she was in a groove.

This movie is about an apocalyptic future, but it’s mostly about being a dad. Could you have written it before you had kids?

I wouldn’t have written the role if I wasn’t a dad in real life. It’s about being a parent to me. All the science fiction stuff, the action, that was secondary. My experience with being a parent… that’s what it’s all about. The dynamic with me and Anna is stuff I draw on from being a dad.

How did your kids influence the development of the film?

My oldest son came to a reading of a scene and he gave me two pages of notes. They were the best notes that I got from anyone. I’ll save them forever. At the end of every movie, I make a t-shirt for everyone on the crew. On the back of the shirt, I put all his notes. Some of it was from his point of view. Some of it was objective stuff about storytelling. There’s too many moments where I’m like this or like that. They were sophisticated suggestions.

So you’re basically saying, you benefitted from child labor.

Yes, for sure. I’ll put something extra in his allowance.

On a not wholly unrelated note, I’m curious how you, as a celebrity father and well-known guy, work to ensure that your children don’t become entitled. I think it’s something a lot of parents worry about. I know I do.

Oh man. Just the fact you care is 80 percent of it. But I have to give credit to their mom. Their mom has done the best job and has an innate understanding of how to raise good kids.

I’ve been in places where there is extreme poverty. Seeing those kids can really give you a great perspective on parenting — suddenly their finicky eating doesn’t seem like such a giant problem. Our culture of fear and hyper-vigilance and media saturation can be an obstacle to giving them roots and letting them go a little bit. You have to trust that they’ll be ok.

I think that’s dead on. I also think it’s hard not to overthink and under-do.

The thing that affects them more than anything is how you live. If you’re on your phone 24 hours a day, they will be too. If you’re an entitled person, they’re more likely to be that way.

And you can’t indulge their every demand or whim, which is pretty damn hard.

My son said he should start thinking about getting a car. I told him to start thinking about getting a job. I’m not the parent that will buy them a car. They will have to earn it like I did. They give me that look like, ‘Give us a break!’ and I wonder if I am being too hard.

I do want them to hang out with me when they’re older and when they have kids.

What do you do that totally, utterly humiliates your kids? Every parent has at least one of those behaviors.

I’m overwhelmed thinking about all the embarrassing things I do. The things that make me suddenly cringe are all the dumb things I’ve said and done as a parent.

Here’s a good one: My son had a birthday party. There are these kids over here. It’s the best party I’ve had in my house in ten years. I found out that 15 year olds are really fun and I wanted to hang out. I said, ‘Let’s play some ping pong’ and I got the look. My son just looked at me like I was the least cool person he’d ever seen. He wanted me to give them space. I was trying to fit in.

[epistolizer]

Hit and Run Commentary #125

When liberals insist that there needs to be a conversation, what they really mean is that they intend to browbeat and  berate the general public until they surrender ideologically just to be allowed a semblance of peace and where the prevailing conventional wisdom is allegedly altered to such an extent that disenfranchisement and even potential violence against the few remaining stalwart critics is viewed as a viable option.  

Of conditions at facilities warehousing urchins dragged across the border, a Southern Baptist theologian lamented,  “Those created in the image of God should be treated with dignity and compassion, especially those seeking refuge from violence back home. We can do better than this.” But at no time did he offer to board these individuals in posh and palatial Southern Baptist Convention properties. If we as a nation weren’t concerned about the dignity of these souls, wouldn’t they be disposed of at the border crossing? One notices at no time did he urge parents to remain with their children in their respective homelands or for the regimes from which these individuals originated to improve conditions for their citizens. 

For Boo Beep failing to consent to being Woody’s breeding sow and for Jessie The Cowgirl taking over as the new sheriff in Toy Story, homeschool activist Kevin Swanson invoked I Corinthians 11:11, stating that man is not independent of woman nor woman independent of man. But that only applies to those that are married. For no one else has right to control you in that sort of manner. As much as aspiring cultists might want to, you can’t make someone marry someone else.  

The same homeschool elites jacked out of shape that characters at the end of Toy Story aren't married off would probably toss a bigger fit if these pairings were formed in a manner other than the parents selecting the mate with the decision subject to approval by pastoral authorities.

It was said in a homily on SermonAudio that one will not find the right relationship until one has found satisfaction in Christ. Given that we still endure results of a sin nature until we depart this world, such never fully happens. Ironically, these hardline exegetes are usually of the sorts that toss fits if people aren’t married by the time they are 23 years old. Second, if one has found satisfaction and completeness in Christ, why bother getting married? Solely for increasing the size of the herd as the brainwashed girl remarked in the South Park episode on homeschooling?  

In analyzing the Avengers films on Issues Etc,  columnist Terry Mattingly referenced in what seemed an almost condescending tone   “Evangelicals and their minivans.” So exactly how else is one supposed to get around if one spawns the requisite number to be categorized as sufficiently pious? It’s not like there is a variety of station wagons on the market to select from these days.  

Instead of condemning singles that stay to themselves, perhaps Southern Baptist elites should have gotten after those for the most part married that can’t seem to keep their hands off the underaged.  

The media is outraged at the existence of a secret social media group where border agents are alleged to have used vulgar terminology. So apparently the media can teach us to say these naughty sorts of things. We apparently just aren’t allowed to repeat them.

If the government is not allowed to ask how many residing within the nation’s borders are actually citizens, by what right can it ask how many flush toilets are in my house when I am the one paying for the amount of water that flows through both?  

Pastor Mark Dever and his herald theologian Jonathan Leeman of the Capitol Hill Baptist network of churches insist that one is in a state of sin if a believer does not hold formalized membership in a church. But aren’t their membership contracts (or “covenants” laying over the vernacular a hyperpious coating most will lack the courage to question) terminable only upon death or membership transferred not to a congregation holding to the fundamentals of the Christian faith but rather one within their particular network of churches themselves sinful? How is this appreciably different than the billion year contracts aspiring Scientologists are compelled to sign before induction into the sect?  

In remarks about church membership in a Ligionier Ministries podcast, theologian Jonathan Leeman remarked that those leery of such commitment are doing so to avoid accountability. But aren’t such individuals in a sense justified to be skeptical of such intrusion into their lives when a number of congregations that look to this particular thinker as one of their leading theological beacons stipulate in their membership covenants that such an arrangement is terminable only upon death or one sidedly when those in authority rather than the mere pewfiller decides that their walk with Christ might best be cultivated elsewhere? Contrary to Dr. Leeman’s flippant dismissal, there is more to this reluctance than not “wanting to live in the light”. It is about reticence over being compelled to live by pastoral preferences spelled out nowhere indisputably in the pages of Scripture and about the perdition it sounds like some churches might put an individual through if they come to the conclusion that they just have got to leave a miserable situation.  

Elder Jonathan Leeman of Cheverly Baptist Church in an oration on church membership at Southeastern Theological Seminary admonished that great care must be taken to keep the line between world and church clear. Has he brought this up with his 9Marks colleague Isaac Adams who affiliates with a group of Christian hip hop artists advocating recreational cannabis? In this same oration, Jonathan Leeman pointed out the dangers of allowing non-Christian musicians to play in church. Perhaps he could similarly clarify his position regarding Christians extolling the delights of recreational cannabis or do they get a free pass when they are not White?  

In an oration at Southeastern Theological Seminary,  Elder Jonathan Leeman says that he likes to drive along Embassy Row in Washington, DC to see the flags of the various nations. Many of these represent nations engaged in outright tyranny and oppression. Others subtly restrict freedom of expression in the name of tolerance and diversity. Yet to this theologian, the flag of the United States is so vile that it must be removed from the nation’s churches for fear of upsetting foreigners often from these repressive lands happening to visit an American church in America.  

In an oration at Southeastern Seminary, theologian Jonathan Leeman said that there needs to be a conversation about the requirements of church membership. Usually when someone says that there needs to be a conversation than means that they will be the ones doing the talking which will likely consist of a lengthy list of demands and you will be seriously berated if you raise any objections, questions, or calls for clarification.  

In an oration on membership at Southeastern Theological Seminary, theologian Jonathan Leeman joked that the first membership interview was Jesus asking Peter who do you say that I am. But nowhere in that did Jesus strongarm Peter into signing a contract stipulating that the Apostle was bound to a single congregation for life or that he could only transfer with permission to another within a particular network of specified churches. Secondly, nowhere in the interview was Peter required to elaborate a serious of raunchy past escapades that would make a soap opera screenwriter blush.

In a Capitol Hill Baptist podcast discussing race, it was remarked that Black South Africans have a remarkably forgiving ethic. So are tires filled with gasoline placed around the necks of victims set ablaze and land seized from farmers for little reason other than that they are White the sort of social justice policies these New Wave churches would like to see implemented?  

In a Capitol Hill Baptist podcast discussion about race, theologian Jonathan Leeman remarked that some have been hurting for months and some have been hurting for several hundred years.  So wouldn’t one of these individuals have to be an immortal like Duncan McCloud born 400 years ago in the Highlands of Scotland?  

In the new wave Baptist circles out there, the American flag and patriotic anthems are out. In apparently are hip hop albums where on the cover the artists appear to be puffing weed with insignias resembling three intertwined  sixes bringing to mind the Mark of the Beast. But what do i know? I apparently just stoke unfounded fear.  

If the party line is that an elder of a church no more represents a church than any other church member when the name of the particular elder is among the first things that pops up when researching a particular church, those about to have their church manipulated out from under them are hopelessly naive regarding about what is on the verge of rolling over them.  

In discussing race in a podcast, Pastor Mark Dever and Dr. Jonathan Leeman discuss how they wished more racial minorities would take part in the pastoral internship program of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. You will note that at no time did the duo ever articulate their willingness to resign their own lucrative, prestigious positions to toil in manual labor and obscurity for the purposes of giving life to the utopian vision that they not only want imposed upon everybody else but also demand you celebrate enthusiastically if you wish to retain the church-bestowed designation of acceptable Christian.  

I was verbally upbraided that I am obligated to “set my prejudices aside” and “to be open minded” in regards to two pastors discussing things as Christians when the perspective being addressed might end up becoming the preferential interpretation among the potential leadership of an unspecified in these posts congregation. So, in other words, I am apparently obligated to set aside the Biblical admonition to be a Berean in a church that claims to adhere to sola scriptura. So what other Biblical injunctions am I to also set aside for the time being? So why am I obligated to open my mind to new interpretative winds blowing into a church when apparently other minds are as closed regarding cautions I have raised?  

In a sermon on church membership, theologian Jonathan Leeman rhetorically asked do you hang with those that do not look like you? Other than my father and brother, I don’t “hang” with anyone. Is family interaction also now to be verboten in New Wave Baptist Churches that don’t simply impart to you knowledge regarding God’s word but seek to take control of those aspects of your life over which the church once offered teaching but left you to yourself to implement?  

It was remarked that, if a church member skipped several Sundays during the summer to go fishing, they ought to be disciplined. But in such an instance wouldn’t the church run the risk of the individual leaving altogether?

By Frederick Meekins

[fapangel]

Hi, that's a mighty wall of text, and very informative, thank you. A couple of issues which seem to me to undermine the point that you're trying to make. One, that sarin gas is difficult to manufacture doesn't seem to be a strong argument against a hypothetical 'deep state' false flag - one would assume such an entity would have the resources necessary to produce it. (1/3)

Two, while chemical weapons may produce an immediate tactical benefit, the fact that using them is a massive strategic mistake on Assad’s part is quite obvious - there is no more effective way to ensure the active, continuous presence of America and her allies in Syria than the use of CW. Unless one thinks Assad wants America to stick around longterm for some reason, or he is stupid enough to trade dead children for airstrikes 1/1, the thought that it wasn’t him is quite natural. (2/3)

Three, your tone of outrage seems inappropriate considering that the American government has conducted false flag operations in the past - Gulf of Tonkin and Project Ajax are two of the better known examples. It’s not ‘America would never!’, it’s ‘It wasn’t America this time, and here’s why.’ Thanks again for taking the time to put this together. (3/3)

I can answer these in order.

1.) At the moment most people - like Sargon, specifically - are suggesting that either no attack occurred at all, or any attack was launched by rebels gassing themselves, and the media and “deep state” are lying about it extensively to form a casus belli to war. People who suggest that we created Sarin just to drop it on civilians in Damascus to create a causus belli are so far around the fucking bend that Alex Fucking Jones would be worried in their company, as Alex Jones doesn’t actually believe any of the shit he says. It’s not hard to find a casus belli to take out Assad; the civil war has driven a massive immigration wave of refugees into Europe, further destabilizing Western societies (a situation Putin has deliberately and gleefully exacerbated) and Assad’s heinous war crimes against his own people are beyond the pale. To suggest that the United States needs to engage in elaborate conspiracy to justify intervention is a fantasy. We’ve outright killed people for much less. 

2.) Like hell it is. To date, Assad’s use of chemical weapons has cost him some older warplanes (by no means his entire fleet, or his most effective aircraft) and most recently… his CW capability itself. In over SEVEN YEARS of more or less regularly conducted chemical weapon attacks, he has suffered very little damage to his conventional warfighting capabilities. Also, he knows damn well that the United States does not want to stay in the country, and moreover, they don’t want to depose him, either, as the power vacuum will simply be filled by Iran and Russia might take extreme measures to keep their strategic gains (a military port in the Med.) In my own pre-strike analysis I predicted the US would target non-military governmental targets and important infrastructure or resources to punish Assad for using chemical weapons, to discourage others from doing the same, but that they’d have to carefully calibrate it not to weaken Assad too much. 

Instead, the US focused purely on taking out the chemical weapons themselves; which was a rather weaker statement but a much safer option from the power-balance perspective; making it clear that the US doesn’t give a shit about Assad killing his civilians with shells or machine guns, but only about keeping the WMD genie in the bottle so it doesn’t impact US interests in the future in other parts of the world. 

And you are telling me - after TWO military strikes by the US that actively focused on deterring or preventing chemical weapon attacks by Assad, without changing the strategic balance on the ground - that Assad would never have used CW? Losing chemical weapons capacity itself equals a wash, and if you weigh 20% of the SAAF’s oldest, least-capable airframes against the repeated battlefield gains he’s made by using CW, Assad has gained FAR more than he’s lost by using Chemical Weapons. 

Assad knows damn well that US and allied presence isn’t going to change one way or another no matter what he does, because even if “America” leaves; the Kurds certainly aren’t. Assad knows this because Trump stated his strategy bluntly during the Presidential debates and again the day after he was sworn in as President:

“If we kept the oil, you probably wouldn’t have ISIS because that’s where they made their money in the first place, so we should have kept the oil, but, OK, maybe we’ll have another chance,” he said.

The Kurds are currently sitting along the Euphrates river, where they control a good portion of Syria’s oil fields. By Trump’s own long-standing statements it is squarely in America’s strategic interests that the Kurds stay there - especially after the Iranian-puppeted Iraqi government drove the Kurds out of oil-rich Kirkuk. It is far preferable for that oil money to stabilize a de-facto Kurdistan than to be up for grabs by jihadists or Iranian jihadist proxies (which at this point, includes Syria.) The United States was never going to pack up and make the Kurds give that all back to Syria before Assad’s latest gas attack. It is clearly and demonstrably Trump’s long-standing policy. 

So, in short, if Assad would “never use gas” because of all the horrible consequences, where are the FUCKING consequences? Because he has suffered very, very little. And there’s no shortage of people making that observation. 

3.) “False flag” operations in the past were justified by the need to prevail in an existential conflict with a nuclear-armed Soviet Union, and current “commentators” see the Syrian situation through the same lens - witness Sargon of Akkad specifically mentioning Syria’s status as a “Russian ally.” However, the Russians are nowhere near as powerful as the Soviet Union was, militarily, diplomatically or economically, as Putin’s penchant for “hybrid warfare” and opportunistic shit-stirring demonstrates. 

We’ve returned to an era of “great powers conflict” but Russia is not the Soviet Union and the old Cold War era strategies are both ineffective and demonstrably not US policy. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is laughably overblown, as involvement in Vietnam was essentially an extension of our involvement in Korea - a policy of keeping Communism from spreading to new countries. The US had the demonstrated interest, the incident was just the PR excuse. Much the same could be said of the Iraq war - WMD was simply the casus belli; the Bush Administration was pursuing a much grander strategy involving nation-building in the Middle East. 

In Trump’s case, interventionism and foreign entanglement is anathema to the man and everything he’s ever advocated (witness his insistence on “keeping the oil” and even that mostly with Kurdish allies and not US troops) and the only evidence for his administration wanting “regime change” anyone can point to is by invoking ~the Deep State~ and left-wing outlets crowing about the statements of people who’ve since been fired out of a cannon by the Administration. Paying lip service to the idea of ousting Assad does not equal a fucking policy of regime change, especially as Assad and Assad’s regime are not the same thing. Assad’s Alawite sect is Assad’s regime, not Assad. (Americans, being members of the first nation really founded on a secular government, tend to forget that in most of the world for most of its history, politics and religion have been one and the same thing.) That Assad himself will have to step down from power to satisfy any lasting political settlement to divide Syria is not a great surprise; he’s presided over horrific amounts of bloodshed, slaughter, and brutality against his own civilians. But that simply means he’ll be replaced by another high-ranking member of his own government, another general, another strongman. 

In conclusion; these pro-Syrian conspiracy theories stem from an almost complete ignorance of the situation in Syria. In fact, they are calibrated to appeal specifically to those ignorant; ordinary folk with no in-depth knowledge of the military or politics, who simply fear a repeat of Iraq. The narratives are short, sweet, easy to remember and repeat, play on existing fears and fit what very limited information the average guy on the street is likely to know about a confusing conflict in a far-off land. In short it is classic propaganda, and you needn’t look further than RT.com and Sputnuk to see who fucking packaged it. 

[back-and-totheleft]

An epic memoir for an epic life

In a 1992 interview with Arthur Miller, Charlie Rose asked him what quality the great playwrights have shared in common, distinguishing them from the not so great ones in any given age?

After a pause to gather his thoughts, Miller replied that the “big ones share a fierce moral sensibility” and that “they are all burning with some anger at the way the world is.” “The littler ones,” Miller continues, “have made their peace with it. The bigger ones can’t make any peace.”

Oliver Stone is an artist whose work (his early work especially) is, as with Miller’s and all the “bigger ones”, suffused with the passion and fire of a man who refused to make peace with the world he both experienced and observed around him after serving two tours in Vietnam as an infantryman, prior to emerging determined to live life on his own terms or not at all.

The period covered in Chasing the Light runs from Stone’s his childhood and formative years all the way to the mountaintop that is Oscar night in 1987, when he picks up the Oscar for best director for Platoon, which also wins the award for best picture, editing, and score. In between we are taken on a journey of Sisyphean magnitude as he battles to overcome personal demons as a result of fraught-ridden teenage years in the midst of his parents’ divorce, which shatters any semblance of security and certainty he’d enjoyed as a child of relative privilege and affluence. Those demons were key in his decision to volunteer for Vietnam, which he does bent on either death or spiritual rebirth in this hell of his own choosing.

Greek mythology is a key theme in the book and in his life during this seminal period — in particular the epic character Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin), hero of Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, and also a key character in its prequel, the Iliad. Stone uses Odysseus as his inspiration in choosing to forego the safe and steady path of convention and instead embrace the wisdom enshrined in Nietzsche: “The secret of realizing the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously!”

Stone’s struggle to mount the ramparts of the fortress that is Hollywood would have broken the spirit of all but those in possession of the kind of adamantine tenacity and perseverance that takes you to the edge of madness. Reading of his struggles, his years of rejection, of climbing the ladder of hope only to be kicked off it again, you are reminded of the agony of Vincent Van Gogh, expressed in his letters to his brother Theo, or of Knut Hamsun in his classic semi-autobiographical novel Hunger, chronicling his early failed attempts to establish himself as a writer.

To wit: Hamsun: “I was conscious all the time that I was following mad whims without being able to do anything about it … . Despite my alienation from myself at that moment, and even though I was nothing but a battleground for invisible forces, I was aware of every detail of what was going on around me.”

Stone: “I drew hurt and perverse pride in being able to take rejection. Yet my wounded ego interfered with my ability to understand the reasons for these rejections….Beyond the paper world of rejection, there was also the in-person wound of being told no in face-to-face meetings — when they could be had — the hard-to-come-by lunches, the unreturned phone calls.”

In one the most powerful passages in the book, Stone garners renewed strength from visiting his beloved grandmother in Paris on her deathbed. Amid the flux and tumult of his parents’ split during his adolescent years, she had been both sanctuary and emotional anchor.

But then: Meme [grandmother] wanted me to go — quickly, before it was too late. I couldn’t hear but it was clear what the shades were saying: We, the dead, are telling you — your lifespan is short. Make of it everything you can. Before you’re one of us.

After many fits and starts, Stone’s breakthrough comes through his writing — first with Midnight Express, for which he wins the Oscar for best adapted screenplay in 1979, and then Scarface in 1983, a cult classic to this day. The writing in both movies crackles with a rare kinetic energy, jolting you out of your comfort zone with the unvarnished truth of the human condition in situations of extremis. If the famed and controversial Method system of acting has its parallel in screenwriting, Oliver Stone was perhaps its first and still most notable exemplar.

But despite his success as a writer, Stone’s calling is as a writer/director, with his fierce sense of how his words and vision should be captured on screen driving him on through setback after setback, until in 1985 with Salvador (released in 1986) his moment of truth arrives. The drama involved in getting it over the line more than parallels the drama captured onscreen.

At the time, Salvador’s impact on the conscience and consciousness of America when it came to the disjuncture that exists between the mythical depiction its role in the world as a force for good, and the grim truth of its litany of crimes in places that most Americans, trapped in a bubble of celebrity culture and a news information ghetto, don’t even know exist, can’t be underestimated. Salvador was crucial moment in my own political awareness, as someone who grew up in Scotland on a diet of American pop culture and Hollywood movies, becoming imbued in the process with the idea of America as the place to be, the place where you had to be if you wanted a shot at an exciting, meaningful and fulfilling existence.

When it comes to Platoon, there really is nothing more to say or write that hasn't already. It remains the Paths of Glory of our time, a withering riposte to the flag-waving, chest-beating, unthinking patriotism on the part of those whose belief in the myths of Americana personified by John Wayne and the heroes of Iwo Jima has trapped them in a prison of false consciousness. Platoon — not only a masterful movie in its own right in terms of its writing, acting, cinematography and brute authenticity — exploded in the midst of Reagan’s America as a subversive and delicious j’accuse, levelled at a status quo which two decades on from the social upheaval of the sixties, had sought to repackage and resell Vietnam to the American people as a noble if failed attempt to thwart a Communist drive for world domination in service to the God of democracy.

The movie’s depiction of the internecine struggle that rages within a combat platoon polarised along racial, class and cultural lines mirrored and still mirror the faultlines which continue to polarise American society today. In this respect, Platoon is as much social commentary as it is a dramatic piece, retaining its force and relevance thereby.

Throughout the book Stone writes with commendable candour about his fears and insecurities, his relationships, and also his lapse into Hollywood hedonism and drug use, which all serves to make him three dimensional and relatable in equal part.

Ultimately, in reading Chasing the Light, you are reminded of Theodor Adorno’s admonition that “Behind every work of art lies an uncommitted crime.” If Stone had not succeeded as an artist and his creative powers applied constructively, you come away from his story convinced that those powers would have found destructive expression, given what he experienced in Vietnam and his struggle to readjust thereafter. Given his remarkable body of work, we can only be thankful that the former rather than the latter prevailed.

-Jon Wight’s review of Chasing the Light, Medium, Aug 31 2020 [x]

[sapphireorison]

Hokay. So. ACOTAR, ACOMAF, and ACOWAR. I finished them. A bit ago. And then I forgot to actual finish this write-up.

I enjoyed them! I have a great many thoughts and it will take a while to unpack them. Fair warning: I’m an editor and some of this is critique. These books hit a good number of my buttons and I legit cried in several different places, so they receive a rec from me. Just--I love to interrogate what I read as well as enjoy it. 

Spoilers to follow. :) 

:rubs hands together: 

Just in case my readers have read some but not all of the books, I’m going to be trying to split thinguses all up. This is difficult b/c I read them mostly back to back and I have a hard time splicing out storylines when I do that. Thank goodness for book summaries. 

Book 1: A Court of Thorns and Roses.

I loved the concept of eternal Spring at the Court, and I love the fact that Feyre is so driven. She makes shit happen, throws herself head-first into...not the best plans, let’s be real, but she’s sympathetic and we get a really deep glimpse into her head with the first person PoV. Her crap plans are also very interesting from a character growth standpoint, because she’s flailing around trying to figure out how things work and still willing to dive into the shit half-prepared because she thinks she needs to. I respect that in a protagonist. The supporting characters, Lucien and Alis, are also a lot of fun. I also thought the worldbuilding was fun in that the fae actually use their glamour for pretty much everything, and that there are festivals and rhythms to life. The estate feels very empty on purpose, but the life of the characters seems to extend beyond the page and I quite like that. 

One thing I found very interesting was that, as the book goes on, Maas slowly finds her stride. The end of the book is better than the beginning (and the second book better than the first, but that’s getting ahead of myself). Maas’ strength is in interaction person v. person and person v. environment, but until the environment is established, her people can’t properly interact with it. We’re missing too much and the clues aren’t actually clues that a reader can put together--or even recognizes as clues. ‘Ah yes this is a mystery’ isn’t...isn’t helpful. The world doesn’t *quite* exist before it’s explained, which is a bit rough when it’s explained at the rate of ‘clueless newbie in an information-averse environment.’ I speculate that a reason why her series are so popular is that she does very well with cumulative worldbuilding. Or, rather, working within established worldbuilding. When she’s establishing it herself, it’s a little wonky until it takes hold.

I mean, I enjoyed the whole ‘masque masks stuck to everyone’s faces’ thing but it wasn’t incorporated emotionally and then they just pop off. The resolution of that arc factored into the climax but the focus had shifted away almost completely at that point. That’s partially because we get three or four character anchors, and not a lot of secondary and tertiary characters to populate the emotional background of the story, so there are precisely two people she knows/interacts with from Spring Court there Under the Mountain and they’re narratively busy. Plus, masks are a major, ridiculously romantic imagery thing. The decadence. The finery. The masks hiding everyone’s true intentions. But without keeping them important, they don’t have the impact I think was intended.

When Maas DOES incorporate something emotionally, she’s good, imho. See anything she does with tattoos. It’s personal, a body transgression with a dab of body horror, it’s visible and has a major impact on her day-to-day attitudes and the images she strikes in this book and for the rest of the series. I ended up caring very much about that damned tattoo. 

On another note, I was /deeply confused/ at the totally blasé attitude the Spring Court had most of the book towards the fact that Feyre had murdered the fuck out of that fae. Like. I didn’t get the vibe that 'something must be going on for everyone to not be beyond pissed off at me.’ I got the the ‘wow, things are moving really fast and everyone’s reactions are a little weird because the main characters need to be together’ vibe. Which turned out not to be the case in, like, any sense, but it was still very distracting. Also, I’m just like, “There is a lot of emphasis on love in this book, but I’m not actually feelin’ it anywhere.” Maybe it’s my aromantic ass talking, but there was a lot of emphasis on the sustaining power of love that didn’t really...okay. I think it’s fair to say that I don’t *get* why love was a driving force for most of the tail end of the book when there were other perfectly valid reasons to take action and/or survive. The main character spent most of the end of the book in an altered state of mind and fixated on an emotion that wasn’t being actionably reciprocated, so that when she won things I was very excited, but when she was floundering in between I stopped being able to quite access the character.

It’s a bit of a left turn at the end into sexy villainess territory, and the altered state of mind thing--like I get why it was done on a narrative level (tho I consider it a bit of a narrative cheat), but it’s also sort of extremely iffy on a ‘future romantic interest’ level.  

Overall, though, I liked a lot of the interpersonal play between characters and how the edges don’t always meet. And I like the sense of ‘no, don’t do it! why are you doing this?!’ and ‘yes, do the thing!’ that I as a reader felt depending on the decision that Feyre had to make, and most of the time those character choices were nicely in character. 

Book 2: A Court of Mist and Fury

Well. I was spoiled by tumblr for this one, so I knew it was coming, but EVEN SO I was still a little ??? that Tamlin was straight-up the villain. On the one hand, the first book WAS a riff on a Beauty and the Beast narrative, so this is the ‘Beast’ subversion book that digs into the abuse and depression narrative. Which--I actually didn’t mind. The oddest thing was Tamlin going from a very poor fit for a boyfriend to legitimately abusive, which I take to mean (as is alluded to in later bits) that his experience Under The Mountain just...broke him. I was actually watching in the first book for ‘abusive’ cues, and they were little red flags that seemed to have been incorporated into the fabric of the story in the traditional-love-story sense that only in contrast and context analysis appear as big red flags. 

So...that’s interesting. Because it was very much a sense of exacerbated personality, without necessarily the seeds of the abusive relationship being developed as such. Even though :waves vaguely at Rhys: that dude’s presence was at least planned, and the mating bond was present at the end of the first book. So yes, it seems abrupt, and I can’t decide if it’s an abrupt that fits or not.

And just as an addendum, I’m not actually interesting in redemption stories (as I know there’s all sorts of discourse surrounding Talmin on tumblr), so I didn’t mind him being the villain and staying that way. 

The strength of this book, imho, is its tight focus on healing from abuse. It’s a very specific narrative, very in-depth, and very personal. Feyre is such an emotionally-driven character, and it’s her emotions--conflicting a lot of the times--that are cracked open and chewed-upon. And, actually, it’s her emotions that, well, it’s not that they provide /continuity/ but they actually carry the book. Whatever she’s feeling at that particular moment is encompassing, and it eclipses a lot of the book’s continuity errors and world-building...holes. At least for me, it did, and that’s part of why I enjoyed the story as much as I did. Worldbuilding is my /jam/, so the emotional resonance has to be engaging for me to enjoy a book without a solid foundation.

But part of the recovery-from-abuse narrative is that there’s a lot of emphasis on consent--or at least there’s an attempt at it. Everything at Feyre’s pace as much as possible (a convention broken only for plot, if I recall correctly.) Even if, most practically, there is a lot of organizing Feyre’s life and she doesn’t have a lot of actual control over it, she feels like she does. She is able to accomplish things again and accomplishing those things isn’t a panacea for her depression, but it certainly helps. 

What boggles my mind, with respect to the consent thing, is that Feyre very much has no control over her emotions at the best of times, not when she’s vulnerable. But that Maas adds the mating bond/soulbond nonsense. 

Okay. FULL DISCLOSURE. I...read soulbond fic. I *enjoy* soulbond fic. But I’m very picky about my soulbond fic. For the most part, I consider it to be a good part manipulative drek where people are attracted to one another for no apparent reason with an automatic love that spans lifetimes. 

Which, you know, romantic. (Says the aro lady) But my point is, that the soulbond fics that I really enjoy are the ones that really grapple with the idea that, okay, you didn’t /pick/ the soulbond. You were destined, and that destiny means you had little-to-no free will, consent, or agency in that choice. You feel encompassing...something for a person. Is it love? Is it healthy? And I understand that some people really, deeply enjoy the idea of destiny and the idea that this bond to someone in your soul means you are inherently lovable no matter where you came from or what you’ve done. I, however, resent even the hint of fate, so exploring how people deal with that (beloved) + (fate) thing is simply deliciously fascinating. 

However, in context of a recovery-from-abuse narrative it’s, uh...wow. Feyre doesn’t have a choice but to fall in love with this man. For a healing narrative making an attempt to be about giving her choice once more, a soulbond inherently removes that consent *especially* because it’s kept a secret. Feyre doesn’t know what’s going on and can’t make an informed decision about. 

But I think what completely flummoxed me was the fact that Feyre’s emotional response to finding out that she had a soulbond was *relief*. ‘Oh, it’s not actually me moving on from the abuser I sacrificed so much for and forming this crazy-strong attachment to this man in what I consider a betrayal of my former love for my abuser.’ She’s happy it’s not her fault. With one soulbond, her conflict over moving on is wiped away and resolved, even when moving on and forming a strong emotional attachment/falling in love with another man is, uh, perfectly natural. especially for someone who runs so much on her emotions as Feyre, even if maybe there’s a bit of concern that Rhys might be a rebound because he’s helping her heal (as not everyone can handle both healing-phase relationships and then the transition to stable-established). I mean, it’s an understandable response for her to be like ‘oh, thank fuck,’ but, um, that’s the end of it. She’s done feeling any conflict because she has cosmic permission to move on. 

And tbh, that’s...not an issue with character responses imho. It’s an issue with how the world is built and what function the soulbond serves within a narrative that attempts to emphasize consent...by resolving part of the conflict by make it fate. 

So that’s a thing. XD

Anyways, I am definitely of the opinion that this second book was stronger than the first, both emotionally and world-buildingly. And just...the visuals are wonderful. I think out of everything, I loved the visuals the most. 

Book 3: A Court of Wings and Ruin

The most recent (last?) book in the series, a Court of Wings and Ruin is by far and away the most solidly established book with respect to the worldbuilding and pre-established character. At this point, the world has accumulated enough that there are repercussions, politics, and things moving and shaking. The narrative expands from tight-focus on specific relationships to an epic continent-spanning conflict with multiple cooperating factions. 

It’s, uh, quite a jump. 

But first let me just...bang my fists on the table and chant: High Lady Feyre. High Lady Feyre. High Lady Feyre. The simple fact that we get to see her be High Lady and that she embraces it. No matter how the execution of her being High Lady falters, it’s viscerally pleasing that the intent is for her to be a partner. She has a powerful position, a seat at the table, and (although her inexperience is, er, a liability, uh) the ability to change the tide of the epic shenanigans going on all over the place. 

Also. Nesta. My love. She shines in this book. I just. I think it says a lot about what your favorite character in any particular book is, and for me, it’s hands down 100-percent Nesta. She’s just so angry and complicated and she lashes out and hurts people and even in the previous books when she’s being stubborn or antagonistic-y and Freyre is pissed off and hurt by her...I just kept thinking to myself: is she supposed to be my favorite? Because she’s absolutely my favorite. 

Like, she’s reserved as fuck and ready to cut into people and eat their hearts, and was dragged into Feyre’s bullshit literally kicking and screaming and basically sinking into the Cauldron while flipping the world off. And then she rips part of the Cauldron’s power out with her teeth. Plus, she develops a thing for the one who is clearly the hottest boy character (sorry Rhys, I have a type). I mean, she couldn’t be set up any more perfectly as my favorite character. 

Like. I like Feyre, but to be quite honest, I don’t GET Feyre. (I don’t recall if I said that in part one, but whatever, this is part three and a whole different book.) I just...Feyre is emotional to the point where I lose hold of her, because I’m not the same personality type. I can feel what she feels because that’s Maas’ forte as a writer, but that’s about as far as my sympathy goes. I /feel/, but I don’t understand why she acts the way she does on those feelings. 

What I do find interesting is the trope evolution of the soulbond thing. It’s like Maas walks it back. It’s a mating bond and it’s physical. It’s not necessarily a ‘meeting of souls’ or ‘one true love’ thing, because there have been crap soulbonds in the past, but a signifier that elf-y genetics decicded they’d create good bebs. Which...holy het, batman, for one, the implication being that only reproducing couples will ever matebond. And two--that’s...a marked difference from the second book. There’s also some confusion as to whether the mating bond is destiny or a result of love. Because more than once it’s referred to wanting the mating bond to snap into place (implying that love can come first), and more often it’s shown that the mating bond is destiny. It’s never clarified if it’s both, or Feyre’s mistaken, or what. Or if it can actually be cancelled, or if it becomes only cancelled for one because it’s ventured by one? Or if there’s an attempt to snap it into place and...

Basically, book three just confuses the shit out of the issue of the soulbond from the straightforward trope-dancing of the second book to attempting to address edge cases without actually clarifying anything. 

There is one point, though, where I’m sort of...the series started as one thing and has morphed into somthing entirely different, and the style it’s written in can’t quite support it yet. Namely, there’s a scene where Feyre does a bit of psychic eavesdropping to relive a scene we would not otherwise have gotten to see and just...

That, my friend, is cheating the first-person narrative. It’s invasive, and debatably out of character, and is handle with a ‘sometimes we suck, and we just have to get over it’ conversation, and the invasion is never elsewise addressed. It’s just, like. An errant scene. It’s worked into things, but in such a way that the value of the scene is debatable for as much damage as it causes the narrative. 

Which flows into the fact that the narrative can’t sustain the epic battle thing. There’s a deus ex machina at the end, even though it’s not the thing that wins the day. Like, there’s an entirely character PoV and narrative thread that’s just...left out. For three books. Which is a limitation of first person without careful plotting. But the whole end with reinforcements and Lucien and the firebird Queen? Not out of the blue, but like...a whole different book. 

And the last thing that I think is interesting that *doesn’t* touch on the Black Jewels trilogy, is part of the inspiration for some of the fae mythology, namely the Black Cauldron. 

Or, more rather, the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, upon which the Disney movie the Black Cauldron was based. The Chronicles themselves are based on Welsh Mythology, notably the Mabinogion. But the Chronicles have the three witches in the swamp (the three death gods?), the fair folk, the land of death with its control of the Cauldron with the power to create an unstoppable army. Of a living sacrifice jumping into the cauldron of their own will being the only thing to shatter it.

(And, hilariously, I did a search for what Maas herself said about Prydain since I was gonna ramble on about it, and it really does seem like they were a major inspiration for her. I found a twitter thread where she laments that he used all the really cool antiquated names for all the places she wants to use. If you wanna see what she says about it, pairing the author names will give you direct quotes from her saying how much inspiration she drew from them.)

It’s just that even though Eyrian and Illyrian are very similar, Illyria is the name of a Baltic country back in antiquity. And her naming conventions for the races aren’t complicated. The angel-people are Seraphim. The falcon-people are Peregryn. She uses a lot of possibly-Greek-inspired words for her mythological faerie people. So while I wouldn’t say Illyrian is a coincidence, it does fit with her rampage through her favorite things, pulling in disparate (and sometimes clashing) elements and knitting them together as she slowly builds her world the best she can.

To me, this feels like a hodgepodge of inspiration, though I know that a lot of people knock the books for tasting very strongly of Bishop’s work. I’d argue that, Prydain and the aforementioned Welsh mythology and Greek references are as much an influence on Prythian as Kaeleer and Terrielle are, at least in the worldbuilding aspects. She even says in interviews that they’re her inspiration. She’s enthusiastic about them in a charming way (I say as an editor of new, baby authors who have this sort of love for their inspiration, too.)

But ‘what is inexpert but honest homage and what is are you sure this isn’t fic’ is a discussion for...later. That I’m half done with. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish and post it sometime soon. :) 

[tvtiokistwimicmptgxz-blog]

Day 25 ~ Independence day!

25/365 It’s the fourth of July. The day we Americans celebrate our independence. This was once my favorite holiday, I love my country, but today I don’t feel much like celebrating. Don’t get me wrong, I understand how great this country has, and can be. I believe the birth of our nation was a spectacularly heroic event that spawned countless other triumphs. The accomplishments we as a nation have made in the past are well documented and worthy of celebration.

Still, I can’t help ask the question, is a nation and its’ people judged by the past alone? Should we be happy and celebratory given the current state of our union? I recently went to Germany with a group of young Americans. They were honestly ashamed to admit their nationality choosing instead to pretend they were Canadian. How could this be? Our actions over the last eight years have done more to undermine the foundations of our nation, and our standing in the world, then all our so-called enemies combined.

We turned a blind eye to Kyoto even though it’s clear our country is a leader in globally destructive green house emissions. We started a war under blatantly false pretences. We funded said war through huge loans from China rather then higher taxes as was the case for every other war effort we undertook. We violated human rights and the Geneva Convention by torturing war prisoners. We lost civil liberties in the name of Home Land Security. We currently hold prisoners without the writ of habeas corpus We repealed environmental legislation in order to clear the way for coal mining interests, and feed China’s growing thirst for energy. In doing so we destroyed countless ecosystems, and standards of living especially in West Virginia mountain top removal projects. We listened to our president when, in the midst of this generation’s darkest hour post 911, he urged us to get out and spend more money. We allowed the precipitous weakening of the dollar by building a false sense of economic strength through the use of cheep and easy credit. We re-elected the man who made many of these decisions. We watched as our government ineptly fumbled aid efforts while women and children died in New Orleans. Now we watch as gas nears five dollars a gallon and our president tries to repeal more environmental protections to drill for more oil.

Granted many of us never voted for the man, we didn’t get to make those decisions, and many of us were outraged by his administration, but are we doing enough? Our government is supposed to be by the people, and for the people. Today it’s by big business, for big business. We are told that to question the government’s actions is un-patriotic. We are told if we don’t side with the war in Iraq we side with the terrorists. The only thing more outrageous then the rhetoric is that many Americans believe it. We as a people can’t properly participate in the process if we fail to educate ourselves about the realities surrounding us at home and abroad. As the late George Carlin once said, “It’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe in it.”

It is our responsibility as Americans to wake up and seek the truth, carry out public discourse on political matters, and demand change when we see fit. Generations before us had their moments in history where in they were called to rise up and demonstrate that which makes America great. Perhaps our moment is now. It is up to us to stand before our leaders, see through the rhetoric, and demand that our government be wrestled away from big business and returned it to it’s rightful owners, the people. Until we do, I can’t celebrate the birth of a nation that teeters on the brink of losing every liberty, ideal, and human right it was founded to champion and protect.

Posted by Bondseye on 2008-07-04 21:51:00

Tagged: , 365 , self , portrait , self portrait , me , American , flag , independence , day , fourth , july , 4th , fire , works , sparkler , American flag , patriotic , weekend America , political , election , shirtless , chest , man , dude , crazy , fire works

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[vantosf]

Day 44, Montreal, 20th September

It was an easy bus ride back out to the Ottawa train station from my hotel.  The bus drivers are all so nice and very helpful as are most people I have come across in my travels. The trip from Ottawa to Montreal took about two and a half hours. I sat next to a very nice man and we had some interesting conversation about the world and Canada. He even knew a fair bit about Australia. He explained a bit about the division of the French and English sides of the country. People call themselves Francophiles or Anglophiles. The French side became very prominent a couple of governments ago which leant more to the French side and that’s when banks moved their headquarters to Toronto so they could operate in English. It’s very complicated with very strong feelings on both sides. He also told me the train we were on was left over from the Chunnel in England. It was a bit smaller than a lot of trains so I had to check my bag. I’m never short for company.

My hotel was close to the station and even though it was only one o’clock the hotel checked me in which makes life more comfortable. It was a very nice room so I was happy. Once settled I headed out as I was going to do a ’free’ walking tour of Old Montreal. I gave myself time to wander on the way to the meeting spot. This was a representation of the Olympic Torch outside Olympic House.

Around the mirrored surface are the names of all the Canadian medal winners in all the Olympic Games, summer and winter, over the years. The weather had turned much cooler hence back to my coat.

Canada has held the Summer Olympics in Montreal in 1976 and then the Winter Olympics in 1988 in Calgary and then in Vancouver in 2010.

From the Main streets and the modern skyscrapers I headed down towards Old Montreal going past older buildings with character.

Lovely colourful flowers.

Entering into Chinatown with a touch of French architecture on some of the buildings.

A busy shopping area in Chinatown.

A real mix of styles.

Bust of Sun Yet Sen in front of a small park. He was reveled by the Chinese who escaped Communust China. There was a big park in his honour in Vancouver.

Some older Chinese doing chi tai.

Around the corner you move into a more older French style area. 

Colourful houses with very steep steps leading up to their doors.

A bit overgrown but interesting looking.

Montreal City Hall in Old Montreal. It was built between 1872 and 1878 in the Second Empire style.

Inside the council chambers.

Beautiful light fittings.

Outside along the front of City Hall were garden beds representing different events in the life of the city.

Looking west from the steps of City Hall. I was surprised just how French Old Montreal looked. I suppose I hadn’t thought much about the city before arriving here.

Looking east across the road from City Hall was Chateau Ramezay.

Chateau Ramezay was built in 1705 as the residence of the then governor of Montreal. Claude Ramezay. Now it is a museum and historic building and considered worthy of heritage status.

The Chateau has been a number of things over the years from residence to Continental army headquarters, to governor’s residence again, to University building and now museum.

The walking tour stated from outside the City Hall. Jean was very French and addressed everyone in French first, as most people seemed to do in the city. I was thinking the tour was going to be in French, but no. Jean was a real history bluff so he gave excellent information about all the places we walked to.

This was a column of Nelson which is the oldest monument in Montreal, if not Quebec. It was erected in 1809. It was put there by local merchants to honour the British naval officer who won the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. 

Opposite Nelson was a statue of Vauquelin who came to Canada as part of the naval force involved in the Seven Year War against the British. He arrived in 1758 and his bravery impressed even his British foes.

The Chum hospital was a new hospital behind the City Hall. It’s interesting that Montreal has two French hospitals and two English hospitals. You really need to know both languages to live in the city which most, but not all, people do. I have asked questions in shops and people can only speak French. There was more French signage than English around.

Nice old buildings on cobbled streets. Each building has a story.

Lovely catholic church at the end of the street. The French had bought Catholicism to Canada by way of their missionaries.

This statue was featured in Leonard Cohen song ‘Suzanne’ which he wrote while living in Montreal. 

Old courtyards behind the buildings.

The Marcie Bonsecours which was the old market area since 1847 and still operates as a Market today.

The shield of Montreal is on the front of the building. The Rose was for the British, the thistle for the Scots, the shamrock for the Irish settlers and a beaver for the French who had originally settled the territory and traded in furs.

Basements under the old buildings.

Hotel Rasco which dates back to 1834 is considered one of the most luxurious hotels in the country. Charles Dickens stayed here in 1842, during the weeks he spent directing three of his plays at the Royal Theatre that once stood across the street.

There seemed to be a lot of roadworks going on all over the city. Jean explained that Montreal has 6 months of summer then 6 months of roadworks as the winters are so severe.

Lots of lovely restaurants with the beautiful hanging baskets.

Place Jacque Cartier named after the first recorded European to visit the island that now the city of Montreal occupies.

Lots of colourful shops along the way.

It was a lovely area to walk around in. I had no idea how French Montreal was going to be. Most people address you in French and French is what you hear people speaking on the street. The shop signs are all in French so you could easily be in a France especially in this old section of Montreal.

The Boulevard Saint Laurent or Main st was the first street new immigrants would see when they landed. The street runs north south and serves as the city’s physical division of east and west. Street numbers begin at Saint Laurent and continue outwards

First Customs House.

The coming together of 35 First Nation tribes in August 1702 to sign a Peace Treaty on this spot.

Nice park land in among the old warehouses. This has become a trendy area to live. At one stage all the old warehouses were going to be pulled down. A common story around the world, but luckily they were saved as they add a lot of character to the area.

Warehouses that have been turned into apartments.

Monument to the first European settlers of Montreal. Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and a small group of settlers, about 50 including a child, founded Ville-Marie in 1642.

The Basilique of Notre Dame. In 1657 the Roman Catholic Sulpician syndicate arrived in what was known a small Ville-Marie, now Montreal. The parish church was built on the site in 1672. By 1824 the congregation had outgrown the church so an Irish American Anglican from New York was commissioned to design a new church. He was a proponent of the Gothic Revival architectural movement and designed the church as such. He is the only person buried in the church’s crypt after converting to Catholicism in his deathbed. The main construction work took place between 1824 and 1829. The sanctuary was finished in 1830, the first tower in 1841, the second in 1843. It was the largest church in North America remained the largest for over 50 years. Celine Dion married in the Cathedral. It costs a lot of money and there is a wait if you want to be married there.

Inside.

The red building was the original skyscraper in Montreal built in 1817 and the first building to have a lift. Next to it was a mini Empire State Building built in 1930

The World Trade Centre was built in the 1990′s.  You can see the shield of Montreal which was modified in 1938 and again in 2017. In 1938 a cross was added to represent both the St Georges Cross associated with England and also the Christian missionaries of the French Catholics. A fleur de lys replaced the beaver and was to represent the descendents of the original French settlers. The blue and white Fleur de Lys was the flag of Quebec Province and the red and white Maple leaf flag of Canada.

Inside the buildings were connected by glass.

It was a lovely building inside.

This was part of the Berlin Wall, which was given to Montreal 26 years ago, which faced the west. It was unusual to have some of the Berlin Wall in a public space. Most pieces are in museums.

The Eastern side of the Wall has less markings.

The RES sign indicates the entrance to the largest underground city in the world. There are 33 kms of underground tunnels with 200 entrances and 5000 people work in there every day. Montreal has severe winters so this makes life easier.

It was an interesting tunnel to walk through. All the sections look different depending when they were built.

Map of all the RES paths.

This street divides old and new Montreal. Look at the street lights. One side are the gaslight looking lights the other side are very modern.

The Palais des Congress which was built in 1983 and is a world leader in convention space.

It was getting dark so the coloured windows were standing out.

Inside was huge.

Along one side was the Lipstick forest and it’s that colour pink as the colour was invented in Montreal. Our tour finished at this point afternoon two and a half hours of walking and learning about the city. I just love walking tours and getting in among the buildings and streets.

A sculpture fountain named La Joute stands in Place Jean Paul Riopelle across from the Palais des Congress. The fountain was made of bronze and depicts abstract animal and human figures. At times fire rings the statues. Steam was coming up as I past.

Heading back up towards Downtown I went past the Olympic Torch again this time lit up.

A wander through the shops on my way back to the hotel. I walked 17,000 steps today.

[beingmad2017-blog]

The Case for Flag Football As an Olympic Exercise

New Post has been published on https://beingmad.org/the-case-for-flag-football-as-an-olympic-exercise/

The Case for Flag Football As an Olympic Exercise

The Olympics are unlike another sporting competition on the earth. For 16 days, over three hundred activities representing 35 sports activities and every u. S . in the world compete to take home their prized medals, and I have appeared forward to looking the Summer season Olympics every four years thinking about as some distance lower returned as I’m able to bear in mind. But there is constantly been a few thing lacking. One of the United states of America maximum popular sports activities, and a pinnacle 10 Recreation at some stage inside the arena, it seems as despite the fact that tackle and flag Soccer might be Olympic sports with the aid of the use of the three hundred and sixty-five days 2024, But hassle barriers though live for that to grow to be a fact. First, we are able to stroll through a few motives why the road to getting American Soccer included into the Olympics has no longer been an easy journey, observed through why we agree with flag Soccer to be the logical answer and choice as a destiny Olympic Game.

OLYMPIC

WHY Is not AMERICAN Football Flag ALREADY AN OLYMPIC Endeavor? In line with a chunk of writing by using NFL.Com, the most important logistical troubles handling the sport of yank Football being included inside the Olympics are very similar to that of Rugby. With the big numbers of individuals in each group, the “gender equality” codecs in which each woman and men participate in every Recreation, and the compressed 3-week agenda that could be hard with a greater physical Recreation like Football and rugby. Furthermore, for American Football, the barrier to entry is immoderate due to its miles cost to equip all game enthusiasts with pads and device and therefor has additionally been gradual to undertake in lots of foreign nations, especially of the poorer range.

Knowing all this, it’s miles difficult to peer how either Recreation might be a tremendous suit for the Summer season Olympics. Rugby is lots like Football in that very little is wanted to play the game in terms of tools and practice at it’s base degree, and has a much huge worldwide following. This amongst different reasons has recently allowed Rugby to be cleared for the Olympics beginning in 2016 with the aid of the use of converting the traditional fashion to a much much less conventional “sevens” layout which is quicker paced with less human beings, that can help carve a similar course for American Football, or flag Soccer more specifically.

address Safety Troubles Even increasingly more excessive college, college, and pro groups are beginning to lessen the extensive kind of contact practices, however wearing the likes of gentle-padded headgear and shoulder pads for delivered safety. But what if we may want to restriction the contact gamers see before excessive university and middle university at the same time as also addressing some of the Problems for the sport related to it being absolutely everyday into the Olympics?There may be quite a few communicate nowadays revolving across the safety of cope with Football, and now not truely within the NFL in which concussions are a chief challenge. starting as far again due to the fact the children Soccer degree, contemporary evidence has surfaced assisting the concept that even short of a concussion, repeated head influences and collision can appear in similar mind injuries later in life for kids examined by some time of 8-13. Many researchers are suggesting youngsters must now not be playing Soccer in any respect, suggesting that children’ heads are “a larger a part of their body, and their necks aren’t as strong as adults’ necks. So children can be at a more chance of head and mind accidents than adults.”

DREW BREES BELIEVES FLAG Football CAN Store Soccer

Soccer As of 2015, studies display that flag Soccer is the quickest developing children Exercise inside The us, substantially outpacing the boom of traditional cope with Soccer. Many character excessive faculties are making the transfer to flag Football over deal with, getting different faculties of their areas to comply with healthy developing organized leagues and divisions. it’s miles even an officially diagnosed varsity Game in many states, and with women specially flag Football is a manner to allow easier participation versus the physical nature of the deal with.And he’s no longer the only one. recently Drew Brees end up interviewed through the use of Peter King for NBC’s pregame show and had some strong phrases on why he believes flag Football is the solution. “I enjoy like flag Football can Save Soccer,” Brees stated. Brees coaches his son’s flag Soccer group, and accomplished flag Soccer himself via junior immoderate, never playing address Soccer till excessive university. “I feel like (flag Soccer) is an outstanding introductory approach for quite some kids into Soccer,” Brees stated. “In any other case, I experience it is very clean to go in and have a horrible revel in early on and then no longer need to ever play it once more. I experience like when you located the pads on there are simply so many other elements to the game, and you are at the mercy of the coach in loads of instances too. And to be sincere, I do now not think enough coaches are properly-versed enough concerning the right basics of the sport mainly while the pads pass on at the teen’s stage.” Many specific pro athletes and coaches have expressed similar sentiments as well, making a music praises for the sport of flag Soccer, and the upward push in popularity of the game echoes that.

Flag Football Is not a fluke or just a leisure improvement tool that feeds into tackle Football, it is a full-fledged motion that has it’s very personal identity and cause and it is the time we identified that difference.

Internationally it is gaining popularity as properly, heaps faster it seems than conventional American Soccer wherein the barrier to get right of entry to is an entire lot better with the want for entire pads and equipment. In Mexico for instance, flag Football is booming in popularity, in which most remember it to be the #2 Sport to Football and ultimate rapid, with and predicted 2.five million youngsters taking component simply on the essential college stage. worldwide companies are beginning to make the journey to some of the more famous American flag Football tournaments, with the instance from Panama, Indonesia, Bahamas, Mexico, Canada and further a commonplace incidence.

Everywhere you appearance, participation and hobby in the game flag Football is exploding.

At a man or woman degree, it was a document 365 days for the game of flag Soccer. New main tournaments are shooting up the world over, seeing lots of companies competing throughout all age groups, codecs, and patterns. Coins prizes were at an all time high, anticipated to eclipse over $100,000 in team giveaways in the subsequent calendar year. Sponsors have started taking note as nicely, with the likes of EA sports, Nerf, Accommodations.Com, Purple Bull and other essential brands seeing the rate and increase from flag Soccer as a way to effectively attain their target audience in large numbers. girls’ participation is at an all-time excessive as nicely, mirroring it’s reputation at the kids level, and is the desired layout of play for American Soccer in most Principal to South American nations.

So how does this all lead returned to the Olympics and getting American Football protected as a professional Game? First, permit’s evaluate a hint information on in which the game stands these days with the worldwide Olympic Committee or IOC.

Historically, As a manner to be included in the Olympic video games as an illustration Game, you need to have a worldwide Federation and have held an international Championship competition. This need to take region as a minimum 6 years in advance than a scheduled Olympic video games. The global Federation of Yankee Football, typically centered on address Soccer But consists of a flag in it is event lineup, met this present day and end up accredited in 2012, and acquired provisional popularity in 2014. This can pave the way for American Soccer to be protected as a legitimate Game, and flag Soccer as possibly a subject of said Recreation, but the IFAF has considering faced setbacks because of alleged scandal, occasion mismanagement and misappropriation of the price range that can’t bode nicely for the sports activities inclusion quick term. Thankfully in 2007, the IOC followed a present day, more flexible rule set allowing programs to be up for evaluating after every Olympics beginning in 2020, clearing a direction for all sports activities to provide their case for being protected by using winning an easy majority vote.

So the opportunity is there for American Soccer to be included inside the maximum prestigious sporting event spherical the sector, However, how are we able to triumph over the boundaries supplied by using the shape of the game to healthy the mildew of a success Olympic wearing occasion?

FLAG Football IS The important thing TO OLYMPIC INCLUSION For every way tackle Football does not fit the mold as a logical preference for the IOC, there is flag Football. Here are the pinnacle 4 reasons flag Football have to be taken into consideration to be blanketed as the subsequent Olympic Sport.

1. it’s miles an awful lot less Physical Stressful than address Football

As we’ve already set up, flag Football is a miles greater secure opportunity than address Football. fewer hits and collisions same fewer injuries, and flag Football is already a tested success version it is being praised for maintaining the sport for destiny generations. However, when it comes to the Summer time Olympic games, Protection is just one element of the Physical needs of the game, considering you have got much less than a 3-week window to match in all degrees of competition, and the 12 months-round interest had to practice and qualify. Believe gambling 6-7 whole contact Football video games with a constrained roster all interior a span of ~16 days, not to say distinct viable qualifying activities in the course of the yr. For flag Soccer, it is no longer unusual to play 6-7 video games in a weekend or every so often even a day, so the game is extra than organized for this fashion of event play.

2. worldwide Flag Soccer hobby is Exploding

As mentioned above, this is a trouble even as determining whether or not a Sport is in shape to be taken into consideration, and even as conventional American style tackle Soccer is rather popular global as nicely, flag Football appeals to extra nations. it’s a decreased barrier to entry as some distance as fee and tool circulate, don’t require complete duration and striped Soccer fields to take part, and is less difficult to hold large event competitions and leagues to encourage nearby hobby.

3. It Requires Fewer contributors

Counting on which format might be used (our wager is either 5v5 or 7v7), flag Football Calls for a long way fewer members than conventional tackle Football. part of this is because of it being a far much less Bodily Stressful Undertaking and the want for a great deal much fewer substitutions, and any other part is due to desiring an awful lot less expert gamers, at the side of kickers, punters, unique groups, offensive lineman, and many others. where each traditional deal with Football group should in all likelihood convey 50+ competitors, flag Football may need in all likelihood 15 games at maximum, reducing that variety to less than a 3rd. that is critical due to the fact the Olympics cap their ordinary participants to 10,500 athletes and coaches. It additionally once more permits greater countries to compete, especially poorer international locations, where fielding a smaller and much much less financially Demanding group coupled with the motives above makes more sense.

four. it’s miles, not just a Guys’s Activity

Gender equality is a top emphasis for the IOC. The 2012 Summer Olympics marked the primary time all sports protected competing girls in their category. these days, any new Game that is brought to the Olympic video games have to include both male and girl participants. For tackle Football, there is surely now not almost sufficient hobby from women participators for it to make revel in. while there are a few woman game enthusiasts, or maybe a few lady address Soccer leagues and businesses, it just doesn’t fit the mold, mainly with the other problems regarding physicality and barrier to getting entry to. For flag Soccer, this Isn’t a problem as certain above, with girl participation booming Across the world.

Flag

next STEPS FOR FLAG Football AND OLYMPIC INCLUSION

So how are we able to take the subsequent steps to journey the momentum of flag Football right away into the following to be had Olympic video games? The IFAF has already helped start the system of getting the sport of American Football inside the front of the IOC in present day years But with their public problems and seemingly no motion for the reason that 2014 extra desires to be completed to keep shifting in advance. What we do realize is that flag Football is being taken significantly in any respect tiers for sincerely the primary time in history, with important organizations making moves to get extra into the flag Soccer location and the advent of large and extra worldwide events to gasoline the sport. We take into account that both on it’s very own, or as a field of address Soccer, flag Soccer Can be blanketed inside the Olympics at some diploma in the next 10-two a long time.

If that occurred, what do you think that might do to enhance the recognition and legitimacy of the sport of flag Football long term? Allow us to recognize within the remarks beneath!

[caveartfair]

Raymond Pettibon’s Twisted Diagnosis of America

Installation view of “Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work,” courtesy of the New Museum.

As the country finds itself in the throes of nation-splitting political upheaval, the work of cult artist Raymond Pettibon hits you with a particular force. In searing, raw drawings, Pettibon portrays the faces and thoughts of corrupt politicians, religious icons, dazed and confused hippies, gay punks, and surfers chasing the sublime.

Currently on view in “A Pen of All Work,” the New Museum’s retrospective of Pettibon’s work, 940 pieces from his output of over 20,000 drawings hang across three floors. They offer an honest, gut-punching lesson in U.S. history. It’s not one issued in textbooks or even from the maws of the world’s foremost historians. This artist’s America—seen through illustrations that grapple with war, sex, and underground subcultures—is one with disfiguring blemishes, but also great strengths: namely, the polyphonic diversity of its people and their freedom to express themselves and hunt their dreams. It’s an overwhelming portrait of a nation, a concert of hopes, desires, transgressions, and cruelties.

Below, we dissect the vital organs of Pettibon’s vision of America—one that transcends far beyond the artist’s individual experience to express the communal voice of a flawed but tenacious country.

The power of language and media to shape the country

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Language most shewes...), 2000. Private collection, Switzerland. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (This feeling is), 2011. Aishti Foundation, Beirut. Photo courtesy the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

It’s fitting that Pettibon’s alter-ego, a little man by the name of VAVOOM, is able to alter the American landscape with words. In a series of drawings and paintings from the 1980s and ’90s, the artist (who was born in the late 1950s and raised on cartoons) reimagines this “Felix the Cat” character who has the power to punch holes through mountains and fell trees by simply yelling his name. Pettibon’s version of VAVOOM stands alone, amidst sprawling American vistas. Bordered by poetic phrases, his voice resembles the collective rallying cry of the American people—as integral to his surroundings as the rocks and mountains.

Other works take this idea a step further, to highlight how language has been manipulated as an agent of political propaganda. One prescient piece from 1986, titled No title (A certain Donald Trump), taps into the current discourse around fake news and President Trump’s derogatory statements about women. “A certain Donald Trump / The first real gentleman I’d met in years,” it reads. To some ears, the text might ring with the “alternative facts” that Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway or press secretary Sean Spicer are seen as disseminating. The power of language and its ability to reveal and shape history are the thematic foundations of Pettibon’s work. Today, they read like warning signs.

A long history of war, violence, and political corruption

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Do you really), 2006. Collection Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London.

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (The war, now...), 2008. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York.

It’s not language but America’s long history of war, violence, and political corruption that Pettibon lampoons most overtly, however. Few leaders or wars are spared from the artist’s critique. This surfaces most powerfully in a series of works from the 2000s that broach the subject of America’s involvement in the Afghani and Iraqi conflicts. Through Pettibon’s unforgiving paintbrush and pen, politicians (chiefly then-president George W. Bush) are implicated in the deaths and torture of civilians and soldiers alike.

In one especially biting piece, No title (The War, now...) (2008), the artist exercises his satirical hand to suggest that George W. Bush’s fragile ego, and his desire to live up to his family’s legacy and “impress the press,” inspired his decision to be a “war president.” The sarcastic text joins a cartoonish image of Bush flanked by American flags and giving the Nazi salute. The piece reveals an integral and stomach-turning theme of Pettibon’s work—that of histories of violence and corruption repeating themselves.

Family values and the sex lives of our politicians

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (We destroy the), 1983. Private Collection, Los Angeles. Courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

Sex courses through every theme of Pettibon’s work. It emerges in meditations on power and war, as in a series of drawings and paintings that imagine, with bawdy hilarity, Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s sex life. It also surfaces in a series that explores the presumed homosexual relationship between the hyper-masculine superhero Batman and his boyish sidekick Robin. Another piece shows two male punks embracing, as an “f-you” to the text that hovers above them—“We destroy the family.” Today, the phrase recalls a homophobic slogan adopted by the Tea Party and other conservative groups.

The dark underbelly of America’s cults and religions

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Jesus), 1979. Hauser & Wirth Collection, Switzerland. Photo courtesy Archive Hause & Wirth Collection, Switzerland.

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (“God himself has...”), 2007. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, Regen Projects, Sadie Coles HQ, and Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin.

Pettibon probes religions and orthodoxies of all kinds across his paintings and drawings. One work shows a disappointed St. Thomas recoiling from Jesus; the text that surrounds them explains their dilemma, one that many who are wary of religious dogma struggle with. “God himself has disappointed me more than once,” says St. Thomas, whose body hovers above the line: “His faith in anatomy was stronger than his faith in faith.” But while Jesus makes numerous appearances, Christianity and organized religion aren’t the only agents of blind devotion to come under Pettibon’s lens. In his cosmos, hippies, punks, and Charles Manson disciples are subject to the same line of questioning.

In an extended series that explores the Manson murders, Pettibon examines the way in which cults borrow language and ritual from organized religion in order to manipulate their devotees. Pettibon surrounds a spine-chilling drawing of Manson’s face with the text: “Crucify me, I’m completely innocent” and “He was not a prophet who had once for all climbed his Sinai or his Tabor.” But Pettibon isn’t out to condemn all sources of human hope and faith. Instead, he’s again focusing on the slippery nature of language—and the penchant of the power-hungry and ego-driven to abuse it.

L.A.’s underground scene and the problem with counterculture

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Fight for freedom!), 1981. Private Collection. Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Easier to change...), 1984. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York.

Pettibon himself was a hero of the 1980s Los Angeles underground. His drawings decorated the covers of punk and rock albums by the likes of Black Flag and Sonic Youth, and his zines were bagged by artists, comic-book fiends, writers, filmmakers, musicians, and activists alike. But as is Pettibon’s way, he reveals both the truths and fictions of countercultural communities. On one hand, he presents creative experimentation and resistance to convention as liberating and essential. On the other, he questions the superficial motives of those who style themselves as countercultural, epitomized in a piece showing a goofily smiling, long-haired dude wielding a sign that reads: “Easier to change ideologies than hair-cuts.”

The dreams that are won and lost on the fields of American sports

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Let me say), 2012. Private collection. Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

Baseball, that quintessential American sport, offers another through-line in Pettibon’s mythology—and a means to map the dreams and disappointments of Americans. Drawings and paintings depicting fictitious players abbreviate the tales of real baseball heroes. They reference legendary wins, historic defeats, and battles with alcoholism, racism, and ego. They also tell a larger story of American life, with all of its opportunities and upsets.

Pettibon takes these meditations to a more existential place with his paintings of surfers. Towering cascades of waves, dotted with microbial surfers, offer a calming salve that washes over Pettibon’s broader, acerbic body of work. Some of their captions, like “I’m a lover not a fighter” and “Don’t complicate the moral world,” poke light fun at blissfully relaxed, zoned-out surfer bums. But at their core, these works are passionate expressions of individuality and freedom. In one mighty painting, a massive wave is suspended just before it breaks. At the bottom of the composition, tiny words are scrawled, like Pettibon’s hidden, hopeful manifesto:

“With every going out and coming in, with touching bottom and with coming up for air, or staying in the tube, there is a longing for escape, beyond the sea, for a lifting, from time to time, of the actual horizon (like the necessity under which the painter finds himself, with his last tube, to set a window or a doorway in the background of his picture).”

—Alexxa Gotthardt

from Artsy News