#and that meaning changes based on the culture and time and author that is producing them

[wilberave]

can we please stop blaming Ovid for the fact that ppl on the internet don’t know how ancient literature/mythology works :( it’s not his fault. if we’re gonna blame anyone it should be madeline miller and whoever did that ugly lore olympus comic

[hollowed-theory-hall]

what would tom riddle's patronus?

Okay, it took me some time to answer this ask since I needed to spend some time thinking. I didn't really have an answer in mind until your question. It's just something I apparently never thought about. So I was interested in finding the most canon-adjacent answer I can for if Tom Riddle/Voldemort could cast a patronus, what would it be.

So, my approach to finding the right animal was based on a few factors, the first of which:

How exactly is the form your Patronus takes determined?

Because we don't actually get a straight answer in the books. We know Patroni can change with a person, but we don't exactly get an answer on what their form represents and why some couples have matching Patroni.

Basically, I don't know what you expected, Anon, but what you're getting is some rambling about the magical theory behind the Patronus charm followed by why that means Tom gets a certain animal over another.

So, let's start with the basics, the incantation:

"Expecto Patronum"

This is in Latin and literally translates to: "I await/expect a defender"

And Remus Lupin explains what the Patronus charm is as:

“Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus,” said Lupin, “which is a kind of anti-dementor — a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor.” ... “The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire to survive — but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the dementors can’t hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry, that the charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it.”

(POA, page 237)

We also know the patronus is cast by thinking of a happy memory — well, not really. The memory isn't really important; the emotion is. The memory is to help you have the right happy feelings that can fuel a Patronus. "You got to mean it" just like with an unforgivable.

So, what does it tell us about the Patronus:

We have a defender made out of happiness, literally.

This already sounds like something Tom Riddle would struggle with. I don't really see canon Tom Riddle/Voldemort being capable of producing one, but let's assume he can in some hypothetical AU. Let's take a look at a few patroni to see how their form is chosen and why.

Obviously, we have Harry's (and James') stag. A stag symbolizes many things in different cultures, but deer (both Stags and Does, like Lily and Snape) in general symbolize:

The cycle of life and death

Agility and grace

Bravery

Nobility

All this fits the Potters quite well. The nobility and bravery of Gryffindor and the cycle between life and death. Stags actually represent regeneration, as in a return from death, which fits with the Potters' connection to the Paverells and death perfectly.

Stags also symbolize authority, strength, leadership, and fatherhood, while does symbolize femininity, grace, intuition, and devotion. All in all, both animals fit James and Lily well. And while the stag does fit Harry (to a degree), I don't think his Patronus represents him.

I think Harry's patronus is a stag because James' patronus was a stag. Harry was actually convinced his father cast the Patronus when he first saw it in POA. And it makes sense.

I don't remember where I saw this theory, but it essentially was that your patrons would represent a person or an idea that you feel will defend you. It's why certain couples have matching Patroni, why a Patronus can change when you or your feelings about people change.

And Harry, when he casts his Patronus, the idea of his father who he never knew but would have protected him is the idea represented in Harry's Patronus. It's a stag like James' not because Harry and James are so similar (they have very different personalities actually) but because Harry's Patronus is James. It's a stag because James was a stag, and Harry is calling the concept of his father to defend him.

Following this logic, Lily's Patronus is a doe, because she is the doe. Lily's defender is herself. Courageous, noble, graceful and devoted. Lily's devotion to her son is what literally sets the series into motion. The reason she and James match is that they always have. He was always represented by the stag and she was always represented by the doe. Their Patroni aren't matching because of their relationship with each other, but because they are so compatible their Patroni matched from the get-go.

Snape's Patronus is a doe because of Lily. Lily is represented by the doe. As she was Snape's first friend and defender, whenever he calls for a protector, it's Lily.

Let's look at a few other Patroni, like Hermione's otter:

Playfulness

Joy

Family and close-knit friendships

Loyalty

All of this doesn't really sound like Hermione. Ron's Jack Russell Terrier on the other hand:

Loyalty

Courage

Playfulness

Cleverness

Protectiveness

Tanasity

Does sound very in line with who Ron is.

But then who does Hermione's otter represent? Well, an otter is from the weasel family and the list of characteristics looks closer to Ron's list of traits than Hermione's. I think Hermione's otter represents Ron who did step in to defend her since the troll incident in their first year multiple times.

So, where does that leave Tom Riddle?

Well, we established the Patronus becomes your defender, and in Tom's case, it'll be himself. Tom is distrustful and sees himself as more capable than anyone else. Not to mention he never had a real connection or person in his life he could call upon to defend him. So, whatever animal his Patronus is would represent himself as his own defender.

So, which animal represents Tom best?

The first animal I thought of, is of course: the serpent. Snakes are heavily associated with Tom (for obvious reasons) and is an animal we know he has a soft spot for. When looking at what snakes represent, you can see why he is associated with them:

Deceit

Transformation

Power

Regeneration and rebirth (shedding their skin)

Healing (Cadcadeus)

For the most part, the list seems to fit him well. Specifically their association with rebirth and the cycle of life and death by shedding their skin. Deceit and power are also right up Tom's alley. And even transformation considering he rewrote his entire identity to become Voldemort.

But, just "snake" wasn't good enough for me, I wanted to know which kind. And as I wanted his Patronus to be as rare as Harry's stag, I went to the list of official Pottermore possible Patroni to find a snake that is as hard to get in the test as the stag while not being magical.

(Magical Patroni are incredibly rare and to have yourself represented by a magical creature in your Patronus you need to be incredibly unique or incredibly full of yourself. At least, that's how I see it)

And low and behold, there was one on the aforementioned list:

The King Cobra

So I looked up if this snake has any interesting additional unique symbolism that would fit Tom. And, well, there was:

Authority and Leadership

Aggression and Fearlessness

Destruction and Creation

Intelligence and Cunning

Which all in all sounds fitting for Tom Riddle.

I also continued reading and apparently, snakes are associated with lightning by some Native American tribes. And when I saw that I was sold on the idea. Considering how the killing curse is represented by lightning (Harry's scar and the lightning-struck tower being the name of the chapter Dumbledore dies in). It feels appropriate with Tom's connection with snakes.

The King Cobra is actually not really a Cobra and is considered a unique breed of snake, which Tom would approve of. It's also the longest venomous snake and its venom can result in a rapid fatality, as soon as 30 minutes following a bite. It's also a cannibal snake that eats other snakes, including its own kind.

Overall it just fits perfectly, both in traits, symbolism, and how rare and dangerous it is. So, for your question, I think Tom Riddle's Patronus, if he could cast one, would be a King Cobra.

[dailymanners]

Hello, Stranger. By Will Buckingham. Granta; 336 pages; £16.99 The Power of Strangers. By Joe Keohane. Random House; 352 pages; $28. Viking; £16.99 Fractured. By Jon Yates. Harper North; 348 pages; $28.99 and £20

ATTITUDES TO STRANGERS tend to follow a familiar pattern. Children are taught never to speak to unknown grown-ups, especially those regarded by their parents as untrustworthy. The onset of adolescence and young adulthood brings a bursting desire to interact with all sorts of people, particularly the kind who might not elicit family approval. Whether the resulting encounters are sexual or social, they confer a thrilling frisson of escape.

Social circles generally narrow again as people find life-partners, form households and produce offspring of their own. Time becomes scarce; new friendships are often based on sharing the burden of child care. Some people never recover the youthful zest for unforeseen liaisons. Professional duties swell even as parental ones diminish, and the inclination sags. In old age, even if curiosity and charisma remain undimmed, frailty makes new serendipitous connections harder to establish.

But that is not the whole story. In mid-life and beyond people can still experience the joy of a random meeting, however short, which somehow touches a nerve. That might involve nothing more than a smile, or a chance remark that hits an emotional spot; or it might be an unexpectedly deep conversation on a plane or train, a surge of mutual understanding that is life-affirming even if the interlocutor is never seen again. This aspect of the promise and peril of strangers has enticed storytellers—from the rapture of “Brief Encounter” and “Before Sunrise” to the ruin of “Strangers on a Train”. The knowledge that the exchange will be a one-off can permit a delicious, uninhibited frankness.

In the age of covid-19 and Zoom, the chronological pattern has been warped. Instead of their hazy possibilities and risks, strangers have assumed an all-too-literal role as a looming source of infection. During lockdowns they are officially to be avoided. Yet youngsters still long, dangerously, for the ecstasy of communion, not just with edgy individuals but anonymous crowds. People of all ages have come to miss the human stimulation of busy high streets or trains, or the comforting sense of fellowship in a cinema or theatre audience.

So this is an apt moment for three books about meeting strangers. Will Buckingham has written a moving memoir of finding solace, after the death of his life-partner, in travelling and talking in lands such as Myanmar that are culturally distant from his native England. Joe Keohane, an American journalist, argues that communicating empathetically with strangers is vital and potentially life-changing. Jon Yates, who runs a youth charity based in London, frets that deep fissures in Western societies are making it impossible for people to reach, even casually, between classes, religions, ethnicities and generations.

All three authors make sweeping generalisations about the evolution of human society, from hunter-gatherers to the age of Homer and beyond. But they are more interesting when they reflect, using personal experience or scientific research, on how people live and communicate now. In different ways, they all make two separate but related points. First, interacting meaningfully with a new person can bring huge rewards—but it is a skill that must be cultivated and can easily be lost. Second, the self-segregation of modern Western societies means that, for many people, conversing with some fellow citizens seems pointless, undesirable or outlandish. The second problem exacerbates the first: if you consider others beyond the pale, why make the effort to get to know them?

. . .

Mr Buckingham focuses on the pleasures and pitfalls of encounters in remote places where the stakes are lower because the acquaintanceships are bound to be temporary—in a holiday flat-share in Helsinki or while travelling through the Balkans. But, like the other two, he notes that wariness of unfamiliar people is neither new nor insuperable.

Faces look ugly when you’re alone

Mr Keohane and Mr Yates offer tips on befriending strangers. . . Mr Yates discusses the case for a kind of national social service that would encourage youngsters to mix with other groups and generations. Both have homely micro-solutions that readers can apply in daily relations—assume the best of others, remember that most have stories they are longing to tell, react philosophically when a friendly approach is rebuffed.

A telling point that none of the books captures is a paradoxical one: some of the most sophisticated forms of interaction between strangers occur in societies that are chronically divided. Think, for example, of rural Northern Ireland, or of parts of the former Ottoman Empire, such as Lebanon, where residents have lived in separate communal silos. In ways impenetrable to outsiders, the denizens of such places develop perfect antennae for the affiliation of a stranger and adjust their remarks accordingly. The ensuing exchanges occur within well-understood parameters—including a sense that social categories are resilient and pleasantries will not change them. But tact allows people from antagonistic camps to have amicable encounters and transactions.

All three authors are inclined to overstate the ability of brief interactions to stave off conflict. Yet at least this much is true: a capacity to engage with new people in civilised, humane and meaningful ways is a necessary condition for social peace, even if it is not a sufficient one. That points up a half-hidden cost of covid-19. Children educated on screen; teenagers bouncing off the walls; adults working at home; lonely pensioners: more or less everyone’s social skills have been atrophying, with consequences not only for individuals but, perhaps, for the fabric of society.

As lockdowns lift, people are now stumbling back into a world of accidental collisions, some eagerly, some queasily, most with an odd sensation of novelty after a year of hibernation. The lesson of these books is that the easing of restrictions is not just a coveted opportunity to reconnect with those you love and resemble. It also restores a freedom, long taken for granted even if little used, to come to know the profoundly different. ■

[hunxi-after-hours]

Hi hunxi! In your post the other day about The Way Spring Arrives, you said in the tags that you’d put it on a list of required reading for people interested in danmei. I’m curious, is there anything else you’d recommend for people who want to learn more about the culture/context surrounding danmei? Thanks!!

oh goodness, I suppose I did say that somewhat flippantly but I do want to take a moment and reiterate that I am not qualified in the slightest to make a list of required reading, nor do I think that required reading is a thing that should necessarily exist, since we should all read whatever we'd like in our own free time; there is no moral directive on what someone should or should not read, we're all just here to have a good time!!

but! for those so inclined, I... don't think I have so much a reading list as a series of reading thought exercises?

first of all, some academic articles that I found deeply worthwhile:

Jin Feng's 2009 paper: “Addicted to Beauty: Consuming and Producing Web-based Chinese ‘Danmei’ Fiction at Jinjiang”

Tian Xiaofei's 2015 paper: “Slashing Three Kingdoms: A Case Study in Fan Production on the Chinese Web.”

Xi Tian's 2020 paper: “Homosexualizing Boys Love in China: Reflexivity, Genre Transformation, and Cultural Interaction”

Xi Tian's 2021 paper: “More than Conformity or Resistance: Chinese “Boys’ Love” Fandom in the Age of Internet Censorship”

Yang Ling & Xu Yanrui's 2017 paper: “The love that dare not speak its name: The fate of Chinese danmei communities in the 2014 anti-porn campaign”

Yang Ling & Xu Yanrui's 2013 paper, “Forbidden love: incest, generational conflict, and the erotics of power in Chinese BL fiction”

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories ed. Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang. I've already gushed about this elsewhere, so I shall leave this be for now

this is by no means a comprehensive list, merely the ones that have really stuck with me for various reasons. I compile a table of contents of my research booklets here, and @dulharpa has been kind enough to share their immense resources here

I'd like to stop short of compiling a list of danmei novels for people to read because folks have different genre and narrative tastes than I do. instead, I think what might be more interesting and customizable would be a kind of reading challenge, paired with thought exercises:

read works by three (or more!) danmei authors

what recurring themes, character traits, narrative tropes, or cultural aspects to you observe across works by different authors? what differences do you notice? do you think these similarities/differences are hallmarks of the genre, coincidental stylistic choices, authorial interests, or wider cultural trends? how do different authors address certain issues, or avoid them altogether? how do these choices affect the content and style of the text, as well as your perception of and/or response to these texts?

read two different danmei novels by the same author (if you can wrangle it, try to read novels in different genres)

what recurring themes, character traits, narrative tropes, or thematic commonalities do you observe across an author’s works? how do the different narrative or genre contexts of each novel affect characters and themes in each work? do you observe changes in an author’s perspective, views, or opinions on common themes and/or social issues from novel to novel?

read a danmei novel that is not wuxia, xianxia, or xuanhuan

how do aspects of worldbuilding differ across genres? what new aspects of culture, character, or language do you observe in a different genre setting? how much character or worldbuilding do you think is attributable to genre convention, and how much isn’t? what do you think readers find attractive about wuxia/xianxia/xuanhuan settings? what do you think readers find attractive about other genres?

read a danmei novel set in modern day China

how do the emotional and narrative stakes of novels change depending on time period? what were you surprised by? what similarities or resonances did you recognize between the text and your own life? how does the fabric of the setting in this novel differ from novels set in other time periods and settings? in what ways do class and power factor into character conflicts and relationships? how do these differ from the way class and power are addressed in historical novels? what is the role of tradition and history in this novel? do you find the text more realistic because it’s set in modern day? why or why not? how important do you think “realism” is to the text and the readers? why might this be? how important is “realism” to your reading experience? why might this be?

read a webnovel that was not serialized on JJWXC

there are many other Chinese internet literature platforms, such as 长佩文学 and 奇点文学网. explore one (or more!) of these literature platforms and note any observations about differences, similarities, or things you’re surprised by. how does this inform your understanding of the larger scope of Chinese web literature? in what ways are literature and genre organized differently from what you’re familiar with? compare and contrast your experience reading a non-JJWXC novel with a JJWXC novel. what was the same? what was different? do you think these similarities/differences are influenced by the different audiences of these websites or larger societal trends in media and culture, or something else entirely?

read a webnovel by a danmei author that is not danmei (i.e. 言情 / heterosexual romance, 无CP / no romance)

what similarities do you observe between this novel and a danmei novel written by the same author? what differences do you observe? how do narrative reflections of gender and character dynamics differ? what other themes, issues, or narrative aspects do you notice coming to the forefront when the focus has shifted away from male/male romance? what were you surprised by? what weren’t you surprised by? has your perception of the author’s views on gender/gender dynamics changed? if so, how? if not, why do you think this is?

read a danmei novel with 2+ adaptations into other forms of media (e.g. audiodrama, donghua, manhua, live action)

what do you think about this novel generates wider media attention and interest? how do the characters and narrative change from text to adaptation? why do you think this happened? how did the popularization via adaptation affect the original text, if at all? how did you come to discover this text, and how many platforms did it have to jump to get to you? why do you think this text received attention on the platform you first heard of it? in what ways beyond the content of the text itself did this novel draw wider attention?

read a danmei novel with no adaptations in other forms of media

why do you think this novel hasn’t been chosen for adaptation yet? in what ways would this novel be challenging to adapt? what medium do you think this novel would be best suited for? how would an adaptation of this novel change your perspective and experience of this text? what would you hope to see in an adaptation of this novel?

read a traditionally published work of Chinese speculative fiction

how does a traditionally published work of Chinese fiction differ stylistically and narratively from the web literature you’ve read? what does the wider field of Chinese speculative fiction look like? how do the imaginations and concerns of Chinese authors manifest in their worldbuilding, setting, characters, themes, and conflicts? how do subgenres of Chinese speculative fiction resemble and differ from genres you’re more familiar with? what did you like about this work? what puts you off about this work? did this work raise any questions or themes that you haven’t thought about before? what aspects of the novel seem rooted in contemporary Chinese society, and which themes seem more universal? if reading in translation, did you identify any moments where context was lost between languages? were there footnotes in the translation, and if so, how did they affect your reading experience? if not, did you ever wish there were footnotes? what kind of additional context did you wish you had? how do you think the translation influenced your reading experience? how high-profile is this work of Chinese speculative fiction, and why do you think this is?

read a novel written by a Chinese diaspora author

how do characters, themes, settings, and worldbuilding differ from the perspective of a diaspora writer? what aspects feel the same? how does translation on linguistic, cultural, or metafictional levels factor into the text? what is the role of tradition and reception in the narrative? what other influences can you spot in the text? what Chinese work would you put this text in conversation with, and why? how are different cultures portrayed in diaspora works vs. non-diaspora works? based on this text, have cultural values shifted in diasporic reception? what is the relationship presented in the text between identity and nationhood, tradition and ownership?

okay I had way too much fun coming up with those discussion questions, but I genuinely do think that these are interesting thought and reading experiments to pursue! I think there’s a lot you can learn about danmei, internet literature, and the wider cultural context of these phenomena simply by taking some time to sit back and reflect on these texts, or observing Chinese fandom interactions (there can of course be a language barrier in doing so, but I’ve learned so much from 弹幕 culture and I heartily encourage other people to do so).

and seriously, if anyone ends up trying this reading challenge, please let me know how it goes!! I’m still pushing myself to read outside of my comfort zone (a lot of these challenges are ones I’ve posed to myself), and would love to hear if other folks have thoughts on their reading journeys

[justforfunweb]

Find out why "cat meme" videos are popular in China. Does it provide fun for you?

I wonder if you've ever seen pictures of cats like this, this, and this. Or weird cat videos with sound? For example, the last one, I wonder if there's a voice in your head singing 'happy happy happy'.

Since February 2024, a trend of making cat meme videos and watching cat meme videos has been popular on the internet. However, few people have introduced the reasons why cat meme videos have become so popular on social media in China (bilibili and tiktok). This blog will introduce you to this trend from the perspective of an audience. If you like this article, please don't be shy to click like, comment and share.

The Origin of the Cat Meme A certain moment in a cat's life is recorded and people give it more meaning. Such as this picture of a cat meme recorded by a tumblr user, which gained tons of likes and shares because of its human-like expression.

The Development of the Cat Meme The cultural trends of the modern internet are changing all the time. Expressing one's feelings with a picture or emoji is more concise and interesting than a large paragraph of text. Some people will take a multi-creation to the cat meme image to express their feelings and thoughts. For instance, this image of two women and a cat was created by a Twitter user:

The emergence of the cat and cat video trend Tiktok has made a wide variety of videos focused with the very fast flow of information. Some short but unique cat and cat videos got popular.

The development cat meme videos The videos are interspersed with cat meme gifs and text narration. They are usually titled with an eye-catching synopsis of the story. During the storytelling process, they use cat meme gifs to express their feelings and describe the reactions of other people in the story. On the Chinese video platform called bilibili, the videos can reach up to 6 million views or even more.

Some examples of cat meme videos.

1.I beated the bully guys with her tears

Being defeated by a Japanese man in Chinese

My father and my face blindness problem

Here are some reasons the author believes cat meme videos are on the rise in China:

Story attributes. The plot is simple but informative and the story is shocking.

Low production threshold. It is easier to produce cat meme videos than general videos. Creators commonly narrate that it takes a few hours to make a cat meme video.

Platform push mechanism. Similar videos will be tweeted. The research results show that recommendation algorithms push information to users based on their historical data, algorithmic models and interactive behaviors, which can maximize personalized needs and enhance user stickiness.（What motivates users to continue using current short video applications? A dual-path examination of flow experience and cognitive lock-in - ScienceDirect）

Sense of immersion. Cat meme videos can perfectly eliminate the third party perspective. So that the audiences will substitute themselves into the main character in the story, thus more immersive roleplay.

A way for ordinary people to share their lives & anonymous. Cat meme videos do a great job of removing identity barriers. The author's ideas are fully shared and expressed.

The properties of short videos. Generally a video is mostly within 1-3 minutes, which can be watched quickly and viewers can get feedback quickly. Unique stories will keep people in a high emotional situation. Chloe West has spoken in her blog about how short videos for marketing focus on creating an emotional narrative that sticks with the viewer long after they've watched it（The Ultimate Guide to Short-Form Video Content (influencermarketinghub.com)）.

Satisfy the viewers' curiosity. The synopsis of the story of such videos is usually already written in the title. It's important for creators to appeal to the curiosity of their readers, says Clifford Chi in his blog（6 Psychology-Backed Hacks for Making Engaging Videos (hubspot.com)）.

Here comes the question. Is the creation model of catmeme replicable? Will the creator's inspiration dry up? Will there be other ways to create in the future? If you have thoughts on these questions, please leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Sincere thanks for reading this blog. Feel free to click the like button for this post to inspire. Your support is the biggest motivation for me to update.

[writemarcus]

In Conversation: Keelay Gipson with Marcus Scott

Keelay Gipson, an award-winning multi-disciplinary Afro-surrealist dramatist, activist, and teaching artist, knows what it means to battle your inner demons and come out the other side.

In June 2020, during the pandemic, Gipson’s mother, Gwendolyn, passed away. From the pangs of grief, Gipson began excavating and examining his life and journey as a storyteller. Born in Oklahoma City to a young, unwed mother, the prolific writer was adopted by a Black married couple from the Deep South who relocated and raised him in the idyllic suburbs of Tulsa. It was his mother that nourished his love of theater and the performing arts. Studying acting at Pace, and after a period of being relegated to roles of drug dealers, gang bangers, and sex workers, Gipson turned his focus to writing for the stage and advocating for Black people and Black lives through his work. This would eventually lead to a passionate drive as an activist, with Gipson eventually becoming a member of “We See You, White American Theater,” an anonymously-led coalition of artists that circulated a widely read set of demands for change during a cultural reckoning that saw seismic shifts in and out of the entertainment world.

Now, the award-winning scribe is on the verge of making his off-Broadway debut with the kitchen-sink drama demons., a poetic meditation on loss and legacy. The play, produced by The Bushwick Starr in association with JAG Productions, revolves around the Daimon family who have come together to bury their patriarch and exorcise the trauma passed down to them—but is it too late?

While speaking via FaceTime from his apartment in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood, Gipson was in the midst of rehearsals for DOT DOT DOT, a TheaterworksUSA musical commission based on the Creatrilogy trio of picture books by New York Times bestselling author Peter H. Reynolds, adapted with composer Sam Salmond. Below is our conversation about the glass ceiling, gatekeeping, and demons.

Marcus Scott (Rail): Can you describe the journey of going from actor to playwright?

Keelay Gipson: The journey from actor to playwright was really just me following the path of least resistance. I was a student in the Musical Theater program at Pace University (class of 2010) and didn’t find much success in booking roles in my time there. This was way before we were having these kinds of nuanced conversations surrounding race and representation in theater. So I began writing roles for myself to act. I would get folks together in an empty studio and we’d read my plays. Soon I stopped acting in them and would just listen to them. I found my voice while trying to give me and the other brown and Black folks an opportunity to be full artists during a time and in a program where that wasn’t happening.

Rail: How many plays have you written and where does demons. stand among them?

Gipson: I’ve written seven full length plays. demons. is the most recent. I began working on it in the summer of 2019 as part of a joint residency with New York Stage and Film and the Dramatist Guild Foundation.

Rail: While I have my theories—why is the name of your show called demons.?

Gipson: I grew up in a Southern Baptist household. The idea of demons. is something that has always been a part of my consciousness. As a child, I remember my dad telling stories about seeing exorcisms, and it always fascinated me. This idea that something other could be the cause of our afflictions, both mentally and physically. I wanted to toy with that idea. Honor the faith that I grew up with while reclaiming it on some level.

Rail: In a 2020 interview with JAGFest, you said “demons. was a play I wasn’t supposed to write, so I listened to the muse; I sat down and it came out of me.” Can you explain this?

Gipson: As I said, I was in residence with NYSAF and DGF at Vassar in the summer of 2019. I was there to work on another play of mine, The Red and the Black—which is a play about the rise of New Black Conservatism. I often have multiple projects going at one time. A play I’m “supposed to” be writing and a “procrastination play” [laughs]. demons. was the latter. Honestly, it was a thought experiment. I was moving squarely into my mid-thirties and I had seen friends lose parents, and I was trying to mentally prepare myself for what that might feel like. Little did I know, the play would be the precursor for my own experience with the death of a parent during the pandemic. I say, “it wasn’t the play I was supposed to write” but it was the play I needed to write.

Rail: So, what’s it about? What was the inspiration for your play demons.? I assume the loss of your mother.

Gipson: Yeah. So, the story follows a Black family after the death of their patriarch. And what I noticed in dealing with the aftermath of a death is that a lot of stuff comes up, right? So, demons. is an exploration through an Afro-surrealist lens of what comes up after the death of a family member, mainly of a parent. The things that you have to reckon with, things that maybe aren’t yours, but that you inherit. So, there’s this idea of inherited trauma, and especially with Black folks in America, what we pass down to our family members and what we leave behind when we’re no longer here. So, demons. is an exploration of all of those good things that death sort of unearths.

Rail: I followed your journey throughout the pandemic with regards to the loss. Once again, I'm very sorry for your loss, man.

Gipson: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Rail: What was your relation like to your mother?

Gipson: My mother was my biggest cheerleader. In high school, she was the president of the parent association for the drama program. She got the pass to come do a photo-call during the dress rehearsal; she would be there with her camera in the front row taking pictures, not for promotional use but for the scrapbook. Like, my mom was the one who was like, “Go to New York.” I went to New York a couple times in high school with my drama program and my mom came as a chaperone. We went and saw the shows that we saw with the theater department and then we went and saw our own shows. My mom, she loved theater and she was the one that—when we didn’t have the money and I didn’t know if I could come to New York to go to school—she pulled me aside and was like, “I’m gonna make this happen for you.” She was… she was everything.

Rail: So, you’re working on this play about Black conservatives—I think it’s hilarious cause both of us have written about Black conservatives during the pandemic, by the way—and you’ve got so many other things going on; you’re an advocate, or an “artivist” as you call yourself, being one of the figureheads behind We See You, White American Theater and the issues revolving around that, in tandem with the multiple projects you’re cultivating. So before we get into that aspect of your life, was it hard for you to kind of mentally go from one place to another place? Are you one of those writers where you have to be working on multiple projects or are you one of those writers where you can only work on one project at a time?

Gipson: I have never worked on just one project at a time. I think for me, I need something that’s completely opposite of the thing that I’m supposed to be doing. Like, if I have a commission that’s about a historical moment, then I’m gonna write something that’s wild and fanciful over here to like, break out of that—not monotony—but break out of the sort of structure that one wouldn't give me. So yeah, I’m often working on multiple things just to keep my brain limber.

Rail: That’s interesting. I see the link between The Red and the Black in your artivism, but what about this particular play with regards to it?

Gipson: This play kind of feels like a new era of my artistry. You know, I’ve written several plays that are about race, that are about Black folks dealing with race and racism, and not like, being beat down by it, but finding a way through; and I try to be honest in all of those works, but this play feels very much not a part of that pantheon. It feels like, to quote Toni Morrison, I’m taking the white person off of my shoulder. It’s not about race. It’s about Black folks. I wanna write about Blackness and all its complexity and not in relationship to whiteness or to racism. This feels like a new era of work for me, where it’s just about these Black folks in a room trying to figure out how they move forward after this thing devastates them. In the opening of the play, it says “a Black family and extremists.” Like, that’s what the play’s about. How do we relate to each other? The world sort of doesn’t come inside of the space in this play. It’s about Black folks in a space together figuring it out and not in relationship to society or the political landscape or 2022, 2023… it’s timeless in a way because death will always be true.

Rail: Let’s talk politics. Let’s get into it. There were many incidents over the last three years and many of those incidents in the industry in some way involved We See You, White American Theater. This collective has attracted the likes of Tony Award winners, the Academy Award winners, the Broadway Elite and those on the rise… What was the intention behind that? Was there a litmus for that?

Gipson: I think that during the pandemic, we had a lot of time, right? I’ll say that a lot of people had things in the pipeline and the industry was chugging along. There was no reason for it to change. It was working. Then everything stopped and we had time to look at the way that things are going. Look at our industry for real, holistically, and I think a lot of us brown and Black folks saw that it's not working, not for us, and it hasn't been for a long time. We’ve been tokenized. So, in working alongside those organizations and those movements, I was trying to galvanize other brown and Black folks who felt similarly that the industry wasn’t working for us and we could do better. Like, especially in the theater.

The theater is different than film and television because it’s people in a room breathing the same air, there are people sharing space, right? And I’ve always wondered how we can do better at sharing spaces with one another; and I’m all about community. The theater for me has always been a community-driven space. So, I wanted this community to mean what it says! I do think that it's business as usual a little bit again, which is not concerning because I think that the theater is working the way that it was designed to work. Much like a lot of things in our society. Yes, we can push back on it, but if we don’t imagine new models—like completely new models—then the old models that we’re trying to reform are always going to try to revert back to the way they were working. Cause that’s how they were built to work. So, the momentum of some of these things, like We See You… there are several organizations, I don’t want to just point to that one… but I wonder what their role is now because things kind of feel like they’re back to normal. I mean, the seven Broadway shows that were Black-led that came right out of the pandemic, that’s a great thing. But they all closed pretty early. Even with Ain't No Mo… it’s not working. So what?

It’s not us, it’s not the Black creatives. Right? It's because we know these things that we’re trying to make it better and it’s not getting better. So, it feels like it’s the model. I don't know, I think we need to imagine bigger than we are even doing now. I think we need to think magically, we’re theatremakers, right? We deal in magical thinking. I think we need to do that more when it comes to the theater because right now we’re just trying to polish a turd a little bit, it feels like. [Laughs] Like, we know it doesn’t work. And we had all of this time to try to make it work and it’s still not working. I think of the Cleveland Play House incident that just happened. And I’m like, “How, after all of this time of listening and learning, did we come to this moment?” So, we have to think magically. We need to think bigger than I think we even know.

Rail: For our readers, what are some things that we need to really look at? You mentioned the seven shows that opened on Broadway in the fall of 2021: Pass Over by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu, Lackawanna Blues by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Chicken & Biscuits by Douglas Lyons, Thoughts of a Colored Man by Keenan Scott II, Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage, and Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau. Since that time, shows like Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’, the Broadway transfer of the Asian-led musical K-Pop, MJ: The Musical (also penned by Nottage) and Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders opened and closed on Broadway. Not to mention, Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop.

Gipson: And it won every single award it could possibly win; you know what I mean?

Rail: What are some things that we can look at in general for the field? Because this is a global issue affecting Black, Brown and BIPOC people on both sides of the pond. Using a bit of magical thinking, what are some concepts, machinations or ideas that could work?

Gipson: I think it starts with audience cultivation. Honestly. I think outreach is a huge thing that theaters don’t know how to do because they rely on their subscriber base. That's the truth. The subscriber base we know is mostly older white folks who have disposable income. Millennials don’t have disposable income. And like, I'm sorry, but to get a package at one of these off-Broadway theaters, or to go to a night at the theater and get a good seat, it’s expensive. Right? So there needs to be outreach to people who can't spend a hundred dollars or five hundred dollars or a thousand dollars on a package for a season. And we need to make it cool. Honestly, theater is not cool. It’s only cool when it’s like the hottest ticket in town, right? Right? We need to figure out a way to make theater accessible to people younger than the Boomers and to Millennials that don’t have disposable income. And it’s not gonna happen with one or two nights of Affinity Nights. It’s gonna happen by putting people on late night shows! I don't know. I’m not like a marketing person but to me, it feels like there’s a disconnect between what the theater is talking about. Because once people come see these plays and get talking, that’s where the change will happen. But you gotta get people into the theater and from what I’ve seen, it’s the same people. And yes, there’s Affinity Nights, and so you can go to a Black Theater Night or an LGBTQ Theater Night and see your community. But the truth of the matter is we’re either seeing it for the second time, or it’s because it's your community, you’re finally seeing those people, but they were gonna come to the show anyway.

Rail: Ain’t that the truth. So, you are trying to appeal to a particular audience. How would you market demons.?

Gipson: I don't know. That's interesting because I couldn’t go to churches, I don't think, and market this show in the same way that like Ain’t No Mo’ might be able to. I’m a professor, so I’m going to try and get young people to see this show. Young Black people because this show’s kind of weird. I like weird stuff. Weird Black shows can be successful too. Shows that are weird and Black… there's a place for them. A Strange Loop is weird to me. I’m like, that's cool. Passing Strange, things like that. How can we take Black surrealism, things that are a little left of center, but talk about being Black in a way that is just as valid as something that’s a little more straightforward.

Rail: You’ve grown exponentially as an artist, mostly because of just the nature of the beast. Where do you think the next stage of Keelay Gipson is going?

Gipson: I hope it is still in the theater. Actually, I know it is. I think I'm working on some musicals. I know I’m working on some musicals. I’m working on a new history play about Tulsa (because I’m from Tulsa and I haven’t written about being from Tulsa and being Black from Tulsa, and I think I should do that). So musicals, a play about Tulsa and hopefully, a film or a TV show.

Rail: And if you could bring any family member to see this show, who would you bring?

Gipson: I would bring my mother. Yeah, I would bring my mother. I kind of regret—I’ve told her to wait so many times to, you know, just wait until it’s the real thing. “Don’t come to the reading, just wait till it’s the real thing.” So, I would want her to see the real thing.

Rail: Pleasure to finally meet you, Keelay.

Gipson: No, this was lovely. Thank you. Thank you.

The Bushwick Starr and The Connolly Theater demons. May 20–June 10, 2023 Brooklyn

Contributor

Marcus Scott

Marcus Scott is a New York City-based playwright, musical writer, opera librettist, and journalist. He has contributed to Time Out New York, American Theatre Magazine, Architectural Digest, The Brooklyn Rail, Elle, Essence, Out, Uptown, Trace, Hello Beautiful, Madame Noire and Playbill, among other publications. Follow Marcus on Instagram.

[matekonkol]

Megjelent egy (első?) angol nyelvű kritika a kultúrás Fordulat lapszámról, ami nagy örömömre a legtöbb recenzióval szemben behatóan foglalkozik a magyar filmiparról szóló tanulmányommal is (nem úgy, mint a magyar filmszakma, ahol sajnos semelyik lap nem élt a párbeszéd lehetőségével).

Idézem itt hosszabban ezt a szakaszt a LeftEast-cikkből:

"Next, “I Hope Next Time You Will Manage to Apply ” grapples with the issue of ‘independence’ in the film industry and its dilemmas within the contemporary Hungarian scene. Due to limitations such as language and the still miniscule private capital involved, film production (a grossly expensive form of culture) in a small country like Hungary has been historically funded by the state through an ever-changing institutional framework. Author Máté Konkol shows that, surprisingly, during the ten years of the existence of Orbán regime’s funding body, the National Film Fund (NFI), almost 30% of feature-length films were ‘independent’ productions. This was due to the fact that NFI allocated most of its budget to popular productions aligned with the regime’s ideological values, benefiting a small and interconnected slice of the field, leading to a wide-scale refusal of filmmakers to apply for state funding. Konkol focuses on this 30%, examining ‘independently’ produced films through a Bourdieuian lens, where independence refers to the productions’ funding schemes (as opposed to aesthetic decisions, regarding which the author discusses the term autonomy and concludes that it is always-already a ‘relative autonomy’ one can talk about, given the interplay of various dependencies in the production process). Due to the lack of financial resources, these indy productions have been forced to adapt to conditions of scarcity. Using the social and cultural capital of the already well-known filmmakers, many of them managed to access the technical means of production for (almost) free, and employed staff based on ‘deferred payments’ or on a volunteer basis (free labour). Konkol offers real-world insight to the reader by analysing the production (and distribution) of a feature he worked on as the director’s assistant. The case study reveals that, although the director (Szabolcs Hajdu) was already locally and internationally renowned, the film had a very low production budget (Hajdu did not apply for NFI funds). The film was produced by the free labour of the director’s students (at a private art university), and went on to win the Karlovy Vary film festival. The author claims that the students who made the film did not feel that they were exploited in the production process, as the lack of remuneration was compensated with gains in cultural capital, and thus, future opportunities.

In his conclusion, Konkol identifies the urgent need for a movement that would oppose the structures and standards of the film industry set by patriarchal capitalism. He claims that for this, a new network ought to be organised that is integrated into a wider network of the ‘solidarity economy’, is open, and allows for the participation of those currently outside elite circles.

I cannot agree more. For this to happen, I believe, we must confront not only the far-right, ethnonationalist post-fascists, but also the liberal elites who still claim the position of the makers of ‘good culture’, while remaining blind to the slew of exploitation they perpetuate for the sake of the end product and success for the few."

[thearchivestudio]

HERE FOR THE COMMENTS SECTION

There was a shift in the art world toward collectives rather than individuals. as an artist, I found it appealing for many reasons, but for this essays sake, I can comment on the ways in which the collective allows one to remain anonymous and divorced from identity. a way for marginalized people, specifically women, queer people, white passing people, to gain entrance into the art world. it did not serve everyone. in terms of collectivization, this movement echoed the intentionality and honesty of other communal organizations.

HYPERPERSONAL

And now - 20 years later, we have swung back to the hyper personal, the ridiculous need to brand yourself. be a "content producer" no, I'm am artist. sell yourself even less symbolically. is this lessening at all? is this shit stopped yet?

I think it might be slowing down?, simply based on changing aesthetics in fashion, dominant fashion models body type, and interior design trends.

anyway - i think it's called fyp ? except it's not personalized everyone's consuming from the Big Social Medias so there no way its truly PERSONALIZED because you yourself did not conciously select what you view.

the big social medias. they inform real journalism. they are immediate. [are they regulated? monitored?] misinformation clarification? via Community Notes - nice.[Who implemented that at Twitter? where did staff go after leaving Twitter en mass?] finally a good feature

Where is all of this going?

Who is creating it?

Who has access to it?

there's already push back from elder millenials. i am pretty much "offline" or "dark" - so then there have got to be many others who are too. and by this I simply mean not on Big Social Media

I am here with my EM siblings to remind you that this is still a good time to be alive. the internet is still good. it still contains aeons of information.

There are Many Benefits to Being a Marine Biologist

and here we are back at Tumblr- deep sea subterranean ecosystem scavangers Who will die if exposed to the harsh light of day

Critically, Tumblr culture is so internally focused, its long standing traditions, collective stories and folklore, etc

and it's precisely because it is chronological, sequential numerical rather than algorithm generated, you personally must follow users and tags. but then nothing ever goes away, your corpse of a post can be reanimated even if you deactivate!

AND YOU CAN DOWNLOAD YOUR OWN DATA

Reddit is the forum of all forums and now has become the preeminent knowledge repositpry that's more accurate than the first 5 hits from an Ask Jeeves search result.

it's gotta be broader.

HERE FOR THE COMMENTS SECTION

WHERE IS OUR KNOWLEDGE?

we are recognizing the importance of information located within reddit, and here on Tumblr, and also understanding in real time the precariousness of Twitter.

disqcus has SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE

does discus own the data? is it shared ownership w author? domain resigtrar? owner?

where else are conversations happening?

not as much on blog posts. Definitely comments sections. maybe forums. wait what is that live stream thing. twitch? and then the forum/chat room thing where people "make servers" ?

the spoken conversations and typed communication during video games

the problem exists in maintaining infrastructure and access to these communities and repositories of information and knowledge. yes it's held privately. private ownership, the owners can dictate whatever they please? the only way to enact change is through education. there's got to be more awareness of how the internet works lmao

I want to know how we can determine what is worth keeping, how to archive it and ensure we have access to it for a long time, despite changes to our power structures, electrical grids, climate crises, and cultural shifts.

[cyberbenb]

Andreas Umland: Should Kyiv be pressured to exchange land for peace?

Both Kyiv and the West want a full and stable truce with Moscow – sooner rather than later.

Why and how Ukrainian national interest currently contradicts a ceasefire with Russia is clear: Kyiv’s problem in negotiating with Moscow is that an agreement with the Kremlin now will not lead to the full restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. It will also not protect Ukraine from continuing Russian imperialism and anti-Ukrainianism.

According to most Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans, talking to the current Russian government about accommodation is a waste of time. Only after a crushing defeat of Russia is a lasting condominium between Moscow and Kyiv feasible. As in earlier periods of Tsarist and Soviet history, a military disaster may trigger fundamental domestic change in Russia.

Western countries, as well as other states across the globe, face a different dilemma.

They may be more equivocal toward Putin’s idiosyncrasies, Russia’s future, and Ukraine’s sovereignty. Western capitals may worry far less than Kyiv about the long-term prospects of a ceasefire or peace agreement. Electoral cycles in democratic states suggest to politicians in pursuit of public offices to look for quick solutions today rather than engaging in multi-year stand-offs.

Andreas Umland: Why Russia and Ukraine will not find a compromise soon

Editor’s Note: This article is based on a series of four reports currently produced by the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS) at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the

The Kyiv IndependentAndreas Umland

The cynics' challenge

Many in Washington, Brussels, Paris, or Berlin – not to mention capitals in Asia, Africa, or Latin America – may view Russia’s war against Ukraine as a far-away regional, post-Soviet, and/or Slavic dispute. Some politicians continue to argue openly that this Eastern European confrontation is of little concern to them.

Ukraine is geographically, culturally, historically, and politically remote from most Western actors’ homelands. That could be seen to imply for their governments that financial, military, and political investment in Ukraine’s defense, security, and recovery should be limited or even discontinued. It could also be seen to mean that a bad but soon peace now is preferable to a noble but long military confrontation.

Even politicians and governments unconcerned about justice, freedom, and self-determination cannot separate, however, their behavior vis-à-vis Moscow and Kyiv from issues of global stability and security. Ukraine is – like Russia – part and parcel of the world’s political and legal order. It constitutes a full member of the international community of states.

Already in 1945-91, the Ukrainian Soviet republic was, unlike the Russian Soviet republic, a non-sovereign participant of the United Nations.

Ukraine became, after gaining independence in August 1991, not only a regular member of the UN as a fully sovereign state. It is today also an orderly participant of the Council of Europe, OSCE, and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as well as many other international organizations, regulations, and agreements.

The Kremlin’s gauntlet

For this reason, Russia has, already with its illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, created a fundamental problem for the international community of states – including those governments caring little for the fate of the Ukrainian people and state.

Moscow insists that the Ukrainian nation and state have no full value. The structure, logic, and functioning of international order, trans-border cooperation, and the security system suppose, however, that it does.

Eight years after its armed capture of Crimea, Moscow doubled down on its denial of Ukrainian statehood. Again illegally and even more unashamedly, Russia annexed yet four more regions, now in Ukraine’s southeastern mainland.

This additional demonstrative violation of international law, as well as Moscow’s escalating terror campaign against Ukraine’s civilians since Feb. 24, 2022, have increased the stakes. The war’s course, duration, outcome, and repercussions have become ever more fateful not only for Ukraine, but also for the solidity of the planet’s order of sovereign states.

Nine years ago, the Kremlin’s story about the allegedly disputed status of Crimea was partly bought by the international community. Today, in contrast, only a few politicians, diplomats, and experts would any longer accept the Kremlin’s odious justifications for Russia’s outrageous behavior in Ukraine.

The Kremlin still provides putative explanations as to why Ukraine does not have the right to exist, at least not in its internationally recognized borders. Moscow continues its selective presentation and plain falsification of Ukrainian history, law, politics, culture, etc. All of this is meant to substantiate the Kremlin’s claim that Ukraine is “not really a thing.”

Pelechaty, Robertson: Decoding Russian disinformation campaigns

“Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, is dead.” Such was the false message spread by Russia’s propaganda machine in early May – even Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin joined in. Kyiv was quick to dispel the claim as an intentional effort to “demoralize Ukrainian f…

The Kyiv IndependentTeah Pelechaty

International order, adieu?

The problem of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign is not only and not so much its factual inaccuracies and cherry-picking of events in Ukrainian history. Moscow’s more fundamental challenge with its narrative about Ukraine is that rhetorically similar stories could be told about many countries.

Most states and territories across the globe had confusing histories, contradictory allegiances, and odd episodes during their ancient and recent pasts. Some have until today disputed territories and ambivalent identities. All countries of the world did, like Ukraine, not exist at one time. They were all once not real nations, and had, like Ukraine, different borders.

In spite of the explosiveness of Moscow’s behavior for the international system of states, the Kremlin insists that Pandora’s Box is empty. Worse, Russia is, in doing so, not just any country in the post-Cold War world. It has inherited from the Soviet Union a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and the status as an official nuclear-weapon state under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Russian Federation is one of those five members of the community of peoples which have special rights and responsibility for upholding the order of states, world security, and international law. With its actions, Moscow is undermining the most fundamental principles of the UN Charter.

Russia is turning the logic of the worldwide regime to prevent the spread of atomic arms and the exceptional status of the five official nuclear-weapon states on its head. The UNSC and NPT have, in Russia’s hands, become instruments not of stabilizing but of undermining the international order.

Richard Cashman: Understanding Russia’s imperial conceits

Understanding Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine as part of an imperial war begun in 2014 has become increasingly commonplace in Euro-Atlantic foreign policy-making circles and amongst a wider group of countries concerned with ending the war. Yet the full range of imperial conceit…

The Kyiv IndependentRichard Cashman

Nevertheless, peace now?

Most self-proclaimed pragmatists and pacificists who argue for a land-for-peace deal are not on the payroll of the Kremlin. They may have little sympathy for Putin & Co. Some express empathy for Ukraine and its people. Their ceasefire and peace proposals are drawn in the belief that they correspond to the assumed real interests of the Ukrainian people.

Yet, the supposed pragmatists seem to be unwilling or unable to consider all consequences of their pacifist plans.

First, a land-for-peace deal with Moscow begs the question of what kind of truce in eastern and southern Ukraine this can lead to. The local population in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories has been exposed to deportations, torture, executions, expropriations, and other human rights violations. Many of the ceasefire advocates are prone to moralistic argumentation. They typically avoid, however, the fundamental ethical issue of prolonging Russia’s terroristic occupation regime in parts of Ukraine.

Second, the various peace plans either ex- or implicitly foresee a temporary or even permanent limitation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity or/and political sovereignty. Among the most popular proposals are leaving Crimea under Moscow’s control or/and excluding Ukraine’s NATO accession. This would, however, create a problem not only for Ukraine. It would also send an ambivalent global signal.

Following such a path to peace implies that the territory, freedom, and independence of a full UN member would be constrained not only by Russia. An internationally promoted compromise would mean that other countries too become complicit in subverting the international order.

This course of action would repeat France’s and Germany’s dubious pressure on Ukraine within the infamous “Normandy Format” of 2014-21. After using large-scale military violence and nuclear blackmail, Russia would again be officially allowed and supported, by a multilateral group, to harvest the fruits of its aggression.

Inconvenient questions

What authority and legitimacy will the UN system and European security order have if Russia gets away with violating dozens of bi- and multilateral commitments it has taken upon itself in various international treaties and organizations?

If a larger community of states promotes and accepts a deal resulting in net gains for Russia, this would not only fail to respect Ukraine’s political sovereignty and territorial integrity. It would also contradict these countries’ obligations, according to international law, not to legitimize the spoils of military conquest.

Even a partial satisfaction of Moscow’s political and territorial demands may send a message to certain countries around the world that may try to be as “smart” as Russia. Why should other relatively powerful countries in different parts of the world not attempt, with some semi-plausible apology, to do things to their neighbors similar to those which Russia did to its southwestern “brother nation?” Aren’t other territories around the world not as disputed and as much waiting to be brought home as so-called “Novorossiia” or “New Russia” (i.e., Ukraine’s east and south)?

Worse, several or even many smaller nations around the world might want to make sure they do not end up in the shoes of the Ukrainians. Why would governments of relatively weak states across the world continue to rely on international law and organizations for the protection of their borders, territory, and independence?

If Western governments and other influential states signal that they cannot be counted on as defenders of the international order, perhaps, other instruments may be necessary for self-defense, such as chemical agents or nuclear warheads?

How controversial cluster munitions give Ukraine needed punch during counteroffensive

Ukraine has begun using American cluster munitions in the field and is doing so effectively, according to the White House. “They are using them appropriately,” National Security Spokesman John Kirby said on July 21. “They’re using them effectively, and they are actually having an impact on Russia’s…

The Kyiv IndependentIgor Kossov

Conclusions

The slow and half-hearted reaction of the international community to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, hybrid war in the Donbas in 2014-2021, and large-scale invasion since Feb. 24, 2022, has already done damage to the international system. The implementation of a well-sounding peace plan may temporarily end the fighting in Ukraine today. Yet, it would further deepen the already worrisome cracks in the world order.

A multilaterally sponsored land-for-peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would acknowledge that might is right. This admission would derail not only the international liberal order, but world security and stability in general. It would do lasting damage to the worldwide regime for the non-proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

The Russian armed aggression and genocidal campaign against the Ukrainian nation cannot be fully reversed with non-military means. There is thus no other way than to meet force by force. This is in full accordance with international law, in general, and the UN Charter’s Article 51, in particular.

Compromises, concessions, and other allowances to an aggressor state are no way toward a durable peace in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. A land-for-peace deal would do lasting damage to the rules-based international order and future rule of international law.

This article has been written within a larger SCEEUS project on hindrances to a Russian-Ukrainian truce. (See: https://sceeus.se/en/publications/)

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.

Submit an Opinion

[102571508]

W6: The Slow Fashion Movement

The set reading this week was a literature review, ‘Slow fashion Consumer Behaviour’, written in 2022 by authors Mariana Domingos, Vera Teixeira Vale, and Silvia Faria. The slow fashion movement is a sustainable and ethical approach to fashion that emphasises quality over quantity and prioritises the use of environmentally friendly and socially responsible production practices. As defined by the authors, Slow Fashion “represents the need to adopt sustainable performance and a change in core values in the fashion industry” (Domingos et al, 2022, pp. 1). Although the Slow Fashion movement is something that many of us are seeing in recent years across social media, it’s a movement in which its core values have been around since the 1960’s, with the ‘Counterculture’ movement, sharing similar values including the rejection of fast-paced and disposable mainstream fashion and a desire for greater individual expression and authenticity. The slow fashion movement “encourages brands to embrace a quality-based rather than a time-based business philosophy based around slower production, ethical attitudes, and well-made and long-lasting products.” (Domingos et al, 2022, pp. 2), resulting in good quality products. 

In the reading, the authors compared a series of research papers on the topic of Slow fashion and then came to some understandings themselves. They ended up looking at 25 different relevant papers and the main theories from each were split up into 7 categories, sustainability, marketing, culture, fashion, human behaviour, methods and business (Domingos et al, 2022). The groups with the highest representation of theories were human behaviour and sustainability, when discussing slow fashion. A mind map was then made in order to understand how consumers perceive slow fashion. From the research, the mind map focussed on key concepts associated with slow fashion: ethical values, sustainable consumption, consumer motivations, consumer attitudes, and awareness of sustainability (Domingos et al, 2022).

Social media influencers who are successful play a significant role in social movements, such as the slow fashion movement, by facilitating conversations within digital communities and sharing their knowledge and tips to those who follow and interact with their content. 

There are many trends on social media platforms like TikTok, which gain lots of views and give inspiration to people, to think more ethically when buying clothes. Some of these include, Thrift with me and Thrifting Haul videos, encouraging people to be more environmentally sustainable, by purchasing second-hand items. There are creators making videos about upcycling and even doing challenges like Flipping Feb, where they take an item of clothing, they are currently not happy with and flip it into something they would wear, which means they are not just throwing away old clothes, which then minimises the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports “that Americans produce averagely 16 million tons of textile and apparel waste every year, of which only 15% was recycled” (Chi et al, 2021, pp. 102), so content surrounding the slow fashion movement can be very influential and educational to those who don’t know much about the social issue.

References: 

Chi, T., Gerard, J., Yu, Y., & Wang, Y. (2021). A study of U.S. consumers’ intention to purchase slow fashion apparel: understanding the key determinants. International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, 14(1), 101–112

Domingos, M., Vale, V. T., & Faria, S. (2022). Slow Fashion Consumer Behaviour: A Literature Review. Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland), 14(5), 2860  

[swordartonlmerch]

From Page to Screen: The Journey of Sword Art Online

Are you a fan of Sword Art Online? Have you ever wondered how this beloved anime and manga made its way from the pages of a light novel to the screens of millions around the world? Join us as we take a journey through time and explore the fascinating evolution of Sword Art Online, from its humble beginnings to becoming one of the most popular franchises in pop culture today. Get ready for an exciting adventure as we dive into the world of SAO!

Introduction to Sword Art Online

The series has been adapted into an anime television series, two animated films, and several video games. The anime television series aired from 2012 to 2014 and was produced by A-1 Pictures. It was directed by Tomohiko Ito and written by Reki Kawahara. The first season of the anime adaptation covered the first four novels in the series, while the second season covered the remaining three novels. The first animated film, Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, was released in Japan in 2017. The film grossed over $5 million at the box office.

The video game adaptations of Sword Art Online have been well received by fans of the series. The games allow players to experience the world of Sword Art Online in a more interactive way. The games have been released for various gaming platforms, including the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

The Light Novel: Overview

Light novels are a type of Japanese novel that typically features illustrations and are often adapted into manga, anime, and video games. They are usually published as serials in magazines or compiled into volumes.

Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the near future and focuses on various virtual reality MMO worlds. The first volume was published in 2009, and as of 2020, 22 volumes have been published.

Adapting the Light Novel into an Anime Series

When it comes to adapting a light novel into an anime series, the process can be quite involved. First, the light novel must be optioned by a studio or production company. Then, a script must be written based on the story in the light novel. Next, character designs must be created and approved. Once that’s all done, it’s time to start animating!

The first step in adapting a light novel into an anime is to option the rights from the original author. This means that a studio or production company has purchased the rights to adapt the story into an anime series. The author usually has final say over who can option their work, so it’s important to make sure they’re on board with the project.

Once the rights have been secured, it’s time to start working on the script. The writers will take the story from the light novel and adapt it into episodes for an anime series. This can be a challenging task, as they need to condense the story down to its essential elements while still staying true to the spirit of the original work.

After the script is finished, it’s time to start on the character designs. The artists will create designs for all of the characters that will appear in the series. These designs need to be approved by both the author and studio before they can be used in animation.

How Sword Art Online Changed the Anime Industry

The anime adaptation of Sword Art Online was a major success, and it had a big impact on the industry. It was one of the first anime to be adapted from a light novel, and it popularized the genre. It also introduced a new style of animation, which was later adopted by other studios. The success of Sword Art Online led to more adaptations of light novels, and it helped to boost the popularity of the genre.

The Impact and Legacy of Sword Art Online

When Sword Art Online first aired in 2012, it quickly captured the imaginations of anime fans around the world. The story of a group of gamers who are trapped in a virtual reality MMO was thrilling, and the characters quickly became fan favorites.

The show was a hit, and soon spawned a movie, video games, and other spin-offs. The franchise has become one of the most popular in recent years, and its impact can be seen in many different aspects of pop culture.

The sword art online franchise has had a lasting impact on the anime community. It has inspired many people to create their own stories and characters, and has even led to some cosplayers dressing up as their favorite characters. The show has also been credited with popularizing VRMMORPGs, and has helped to increase interest in the genre.

The legacy of Sword Art Online is evident in its popularity and influence. It has sparked creativity in its fans, and has left a lasting mark on the anime community.

Conclusion

Sword Art Online is a captivating story of adventure and friendship that has been enjoyed by millions of people around the world. From its origins as a light novel series to its many anime adaptations, this beloved franchise continues to be one of Japan's most popular works in recent history. The journey from page to screen has been an incredible one for Sword Art Online fans everywhere and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

"Don't miss out! Visit https://swordartonlineshop.com/ and get your hands on exclusive Sword Art Online products today!"

[itsideh]

Reading 2

critical Media #522

In the early 1980s, there was a debate in the academic design journal Visible Language between Stanford Professor Donald Knuth, who wrote about his software MetaFont, and mathematician Douglas Hofstadter, who challenged Knuth's view that the shape of a letterform is mathematically containable. Hofstadter argued that the shape of a letterform cannot be contained and that type design should allow for change and adaptation. Geoffrey Sampson, a linguistics professor, later weighed in, saying letterforms can be both closed systems (Knuth's A-shape) and open systems (Hofstadter's A-ness).

The history of typography has been marked by a desire for rationalization, starting with the invention of movable type in the 15th century. In the 17th century, Louis XIV commissioned the "King's Roman" in Paris to apply Enlightenment rationality to technical ends. It was a mathematically rigorous structure imposed on organic forms. With Herbert Bayer's Universal Alphabet, a pared-down sans-serif made up of lower-case characters, the Bauhaus revived this approach. TheBauhaus Stencil Alphabet by Josef Albers was also created using similar principles. Futura, a commercially successful typeface, toned down the hard geometry of the Bauhaus fonts. The letterform of the age cannot be created by one person alone, according to Tschichold, a prominent figure in the "New Typography."

Stanley Morison was a British type designer who was asked by The Times, London's newspaper, to publish a 1,000-page ad in the 1930s. The paper's typography had to be redesigned by Morison. The result was Times New Roman, a typeface that was amalgamated from various historical typefacesHis role was similar to that of a producer, editor,or or arranger. The foundry Deberny & Peignot released Adrian Frutiger's Univers in 1957 as an extended family of fonts, with 21 fonts at any given size. Frutiger later added more variants, bringing the total to 63. Univers was charted in a two-dimensional matrix, with the potential to expand in any direction, and Frutiger has kept the project open since its inception.

Donald Knuth created MetaFont, a font generation system, as a companion to his typesetting system TeX. He aimed to enhance the appearance of text by adjusting the details of a font based on the output device and to meet the need for variety in typefaces. However, he emphasized that typefaces should be a medium rather than a message and that they should have a clear appearance while being subliminal in their effect. Knuth did not expect the widespread use of novelty as an end in itself.

Walter Benjamin, a German cultural critic, wrote about the relationship between technology and writing in his 1928 book "One Way Street" and his 1936 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." He believed that the increasing intimacy between the writer and technology would result in the writer composing work with a typewriter rather than a pen, leading to a closer connection between content and form and a new evolution of writing. Benjamin was a Marxist who believed that the means of production should be owned by the people who operate them. In "The Author as Producer," he demanded that artists transform the root-level means by which their work is produced and distributed, rather than just adopting political content. He offered Sergei Tretiakov and Bertolt Brecht as examples of artists who implicated themselves in their work and transformed the functional relationships between their work and production.

The essay "A Noton Type"e" discusses the relationship between writing and production in the arts. The author argues that artists, including writers, should not be limited by norms, job descriptions, and expectations, but instead should freely explore different mediums and methods of expression. The author uses the thMeta-The-Difference-Between-The-Two-Fontsnt (MTDBT2F) project, which is a revised version of Donald Knuth's MetaFont project. In the author's view, the difference between MetaFont and MTDBT2F is not easily discernible, but is related to time and intellectual backstory. MTDBT2F is not only a tool for generating PostScript fonts, but also a tool for thinking around and about MetaFont. Boris Groys argues that the new is not just a difference, but a difference without a difference, or a difference not recognizable because of the lack of preexisting structural code.

The concept of "letter vs. spirit" can be traced back to the "Visible Language" debate and was keenly foreseen by Douglas Hofstadter, who believed that typefaces could inspire readers to reflect on the intelligence of alphabets. The idea is also related to Walter Benjamin's "The Author as Producer," where he called for writers to reflect on their role in the production process. Several design critics have updated this notion to reflect the digital age, when code has replaced heavy machinery and hand tools as "tools of production." To reflect the influence of digital technology on religious practices, Boris Groys also updates Benjamin's title in his essay "Religion in the Age of Digital Reproduction." He argues that contemporary fundamentalism is grounded in the repetition of a fixed "letter" rather than a free "spirit," and this antinomy informs all Western discourse on religion.

This passage is discussing the evolution of media and how it affects the distribution of religious and philosophical ideas. The author argues that with the advent of digital media and the internet, the spread of idiosyncratic views has become easier. However, the author also argues that this has led to a lack of trust in the form of images and that meaning is no longer tethered to definite surfaces. The author proposes the creation of a shapeshifting typeface, called MTDBT2F4D, which would constantly move and change. Through cross-domain thinking, this would enable a more dynamic representation of ideas. An example of the "Hello World" script in a new programming language is used to illustrate the distinction between instructions and instances.

[harishjagtani123]

Six Practices That Help Creativity In Business – Mr. Harish Jagtani

In this fast-moving digital age, being successful in business does not mean being bigger or working harder than your competitors. Today, success goes to people who can come up with creative solutions to critical issues. For instance, Airbnb came up with innovative stay options for travelers and earnings for homeowners, while Uber gave us a new and easy convenience choice and a career option for youngsters

Most leaders today are aware of the best practices for mission-critical tasks in any business, but only a handful are familiar with what nurturing and promoting creativity requires. Here are a few ways that entrepreneurs can adopt to make themselves, along with their companies, more creative…

Gather New Ideas

Looking for new and innovative ideas from your areas of interest whenever you get time will help you think creatively. Talk to your friends and read prolifically. Try to know about the new things that are happening around you. You can take a break once in a while to relax and stay updated. Brainstorming can be highly effective. Gather members from diverse teams because several brains can produce more novel ideas than just one. But also remember that wrong kind of diversity can be damaging. To be most effective, teams should have people of differing skills, talents and backgrounds, but with similar values and a common goal.

Reduce Pressures

We are all aware about the old saying, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. But that does not mean one would be creative only one is up against a wall. In fact, research shows deadlines make people less creative. We may, at times, be forced to be creative at the last minute, but we are at our creative best in a relaxed environment and when we are not under a gun to deliver results fast.

Have a Positive Mindset

One good way to be creative is to simply change your mindset. Feed positive thoughts to your mind by talking to yourself. Say such things as, “I can do this”, or “I’ll accept good ideas that anyone can come up with”. Repeating these positive thoughts will fill you with creative inspiration that will help you resolve pressing issues.

Change the Locale

Entrepreneurs may ask what values idea-generating sessions can bring. But we feel it is these that spur creativity, especially when held off-site, such as on weekends. Just changing the physical location and environment can significantly help improve creativity. Moving out of familiar walls helps individuals get out of their regular thought patterns for effective brainstorming.

Embrace Failure

Research also shows that one of the best connections between creativity and corporate culture is the way individuals treat failure. Basically, creative people must feel safe to come up with new approaches and to try them out.

Organize & Be Active

We have been told millions of times by our mothers to clean our rooms and, today, there are endless numbers of sites on de-cluttering our lives. It is a belief that, by keeping your surroundings clean and by de-cluttering your life, you can keep your mind clean for positive and creative ideas to flow when needed. At the same time, exercising and keeping your body fit stimulates your brain. Physical activities, like running, walking in a park or the neighbourhood, doing yoga, or even freehand exercises, can inspire new and creative thought patterns. There are people who use their yoga or exercise time to take a break from work and find motivation.

About the Author

Mr. Harish Jagtani, a philanthropist, visionary, businessman of Indian origin, currently based in Democratic Republic of Congo for more than 20 years now, is one of the most reputed business owners in the Indian diaspora as well as the entire expat business community in DRC. The business house caters to multiple domains, including but not limited to Domestic as well as International Air Cargo, real Estate and infrastructure development, healthcare, hospitality as well as CSR.

Coming from humble beginnings from Jaipur, Rajasthan, Mr. Harish Jagtani has come a long way in building this conglomerate with a strong and clear vision, sheer dedication and grit. Starting with a small job in sales, Mr. Harish Jagtani today is a proud and righteous owner of a fleet of airplanes and multiple businesses that cater to the basic and advanced needs of the people of Dem. Rep. of Congo in different sectors

[brilliant-red-eternity]

There are several reasons why Japanese fans stick with Kouaka even after PPP. Many have been with PP for years, producing lots of fanart and writing stories themselves. Fans who invested so much love, time and energy inevitably become deaf in one ear, but not in the sense of ignoring canon and being completely delusive. I think they just don’t take interviews and marketing stuff that seriously and continue to have fun in their long-time communities on social media or at cosplay events. Some of them may not even know about the interviews, they simply watch the anime and let the impressions sink in. A story is not always just what I’m being told by the writers. It’s the sum of what is presented, how I feel about it and how I interpret events or relationships based on my experiences. Interviews can be a great guidance but they can also contradict what I myself believe to be true and honestly, I think there's nothing wrong with seeing different perspectives as there is no such thing as "one size fits all" when it comes to the human experience. Japanese Koukas simply enjoy their ship and they stay optimistic about it.

A little knowledge of Japanese language and culture is very helpful to understand Kouaka and its Japanese fandom. I don’t have the interview at hand, but I’m sure the authors didn’t say that Akane and Ko are nothing special to each other. Quite the contrary. They care about each other, they protect each other and they write letters in which they share their innermost thoughts. Ubukata said that “their relationship is platonic and therefore appeals to the audience.” The word platonic doesn’t necessarily mean “friends” in Japanese. It can also be seen as a pure, chaste love. That’s why some Kouakas interpret it as a love story between two individuals (ai), not exclusively a love story between a man and a woman (romansu or ren’ai). But still, even if Kouaka is devoid of carnal desires and sex in the anime, it is recognized by many as a potential romantic relationship that hasn’t yet come to fruition. Fans love to think about the future and it’s possibilities. They make fanart about it or write fanfics. They are hopeless romantics indeed, but yeah, even romantics don't like to be told what to think or to be mocked. The authors should have left Akane and Ko's bond open for interpretation, I agree. The word “buddy” is quite neutral because it describes the circumstance of being partnered with someone you trust. When I think of Akane and Ko in PPP, that's about right. The current status is that they are not a couple. There’s trust, care and understanding between them and for most people, this is the necessary basis for intimate relationships and marriages.

I think Fukami said that “there are no romantic feelings between Akane and Kogami” while talking about PPP days before the official release. I don't know why he said this or why it was said before anyone had a chance to see the film and form an opinion. Fukami (Urobuchi's coauthor at the time) has been writing the PP novels for 10 years and he has given us quite a bit of romantic Kouaka in them. I can only speculate that it has to do with the male audience ("herbivore guys" LOL) and marketing or some pressure from the producers. Rumour has it that tickets didn't sell well at first and there has always been a lot of criticism that the PP audience is way too female. I think it's about 50:50 but maybe they want it to be 80% men? Changing the main characters in PP3 was probably also a way to reshape the fandom but that's a different topic.

This month, Fukami admitted in an interview with Newtype that he had drafted a scene between Akane and Ko in PPP that looked like a romantic comedy. Change of mind? The magazine features a Kouaka poster titled “to the future beyond” and to be honest, Ko and Akane walking under Sakura trees with petals raining down on them really looks like the beginning of a love story. I think it was also Fukami who stated that if Ko and Akane were in a romantic relationship, they would quarrel half of the time because of their differences in personalities and because “they are one another.” And then Shiotani brings up the handcuffs in a radio interview last week. The PP crew talks a lot about the relationship of Akane and Ko, and it’s often very contradictory. It sounds as if they haven’t yet decided what to do with Akane and Ko in the future which of course creates room for speculation. Or they are in disagreement, idk. But I think it’s also a strategy. They string us along with the promise of Kouaka to keep a considerable amount of (female/first gen) fans interested.

Another example is the stage play at the Psycho-Pass FES that featured a story about Akane and Ko after their reunion in FI. It was written by Fukami and it looked very much like a rom-com in parts despite the retrospective elements. There is an awkward silence between them at first in the car until Ko starts to speak and it reminds me of the phone call in PPP. At the end of the play, Akane says “I still haven’t decided what to eat, right?” and Kogami suggests “What about a hamburger?” (his favourite food). Akane simply declines the offer by saying “… I don’t like it” and the crowd starts laughing. It sounded as if she’s teasing him, and even Seki-san had to laugh. Right after that, they played the Egoist song “All alone with you” which is a love song. The Japanese fans were quite surprised to get so much Kouaka content. Maybe the authors have finally realized the hype they created and the sales market that will follow? Who knows, but that cute little Kouaka keychain was sold out in a couple of hours.

The circle has closed in PPP (as @whatsyourcolor so beautifully put it) and it seems to make Akane and Ko more equal and attractive than ever. I was a bit surprised to see so many new Kouaka fans in Japan – young men and women. Some of them were with PP since the start but they had no opinion about Kouaka until Providence and now they ship them. Others are completely new to the fandom, because they watched the movie by chance. If they all didn't understand that Kouaka is meant to be "platonic", you probably have to blame the authors for not correctly representing it. I myself have had close friendships with guys in my life, and Kouaka definitely feels different. Just saying! AND there’s more Kouaka in Providence than a shipper can hope for so I’m really looking forward to watching the movie this summer. I can't see why westerners in particular see the relationship between Akane and Ko in PPP so negatively. It isn’t negative or bad at all. And it isn’t a happy love story either. It’s the story of two human beings who, despite many ups and downs, try to connect with each other but are destined to fail miserably. It's tragic, but I guess that’s why the demand for a happy ending is now growing in Japan, hence the optimistic Newtype interview and the rom-com stage play.

This is a weird ask but is there any reason JP kouaka fandom is so convinced of Kouaka post PPP?After Ubukata and Fulani doubled down on the fact they are nothing more than comrades fighting a shared enemy and they are nothing special to each other.And they said it right before PPP release as well knowing people would speculate heavily(which they did and still doing regardless).The whole thing is so confusing to me.

I think the writers and animators taunted that poor fandom so much with Kokane, that the fandom couldn’t give two craps about what they say anymore. Also, they understand Japanese so there may have been pieces of dialogue in the movie that fueled their resolve. In the Psycho-Fed there was a little keychain with Akane and Kogami. I think it’s the first time we get merch that is just the two of them in the same piece.

The live reading was about Akane and Kogami talking too. I know none of this is explicitly romantic, but in PPP their dynamic is different. Most of the time Akane seems pissed at Kogami while Kogami seems cold. Some people may have interpreted this as something personal going on between them. In the end, he rescues her and he also gets super pissed and worried when he reads her letter.

Overall, it’s like they’re past the point of formality and are now involved with each other in some new way. Or the writers just didn’t study these two characters enough. Akane taking Kogami’s cigarette right out of his mouth means they’re closer in a way. I can’t imagine her ever doing that before. Kogami from S1, the one who told Akane to kill Makishima, wouldn’t give two shits if Akane set Nona Tower on fire. But now he cares and is clearly upset.

It’s the beautiful closing of a circle. Akane is making a stand and Kogami disagrees and wants to stop her, but he can’t. Kinda how she tried to stop him before. In a way he has to “lose” her now.

Interesting too that she waited until he went to the isolation facility before she did what she was planning to do. Maybe he’s the only person who could’ve stopped her.

Again, they leave these things in the air… people will make conjectures. What can we say? The PP fandom is full of hopeless romantics.

[sineala]

How would you say fandom culture has changed over the years? What are some differences you notice between older and younger fandom folks?

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to answer this, and I’m not sure I have a really good answer, but I’m going to try.

I’ve been in fandom since approximately 1995. Maybe 1994. At that point, the world wide web was a relatively new part of the internet, and the fandoms I was in had most of their activity on privately-hosted mailing lists (predating eGroups/OneList/Yahoo Groups) and on Usenet newsgroups, with fiction beginning to be available on websites as part of either fandom-specific or pairing-specific archives as well as authors’ individual pages. Fanfiction.net did not yet exist. LiveJournal did not exist. AO3 definitely did not exist. If you wanted real-time chat, there was IRC. I was coming in basically at the tail end of zine fandom; zines were no longer the only way of distributing fanfiction, as fandom started to move online. So I have a selection of zines from 90s-era Western media fandoms but even by then zines weren’t where I was doing most of my reading.

I think in terms of generally “what it was like to be in fandom,” the big-picture stuff hasn’t changed. Fandom still produces creative fanwork and likes to, y’know, get together and talk about fandom. Also, almost every fight or complaint that fandom has about something is a thing that has been going on for actual years. People complain that, say, the kudos button is ruining comment culture because back in the LJ days the only way you could comment on a story was, well, by leaving an actual comment, or sending an email on a mailing list, and this might mean that people who would have otherwise commented have left a kudos instead. But back in the LJ and mailing list days, people were complaining that commenting was going downhill since the days of zines, when in order to comment on a story you had to write a real paper letter and mail it and because you had to do that, the quality of feedback was so much better than you got nowadays because people could just dash off a quick email or comment. You get the idea. Top/bottom wars are not new either. Pairing wars are not new. If you’ve been in fandom a while, you will pretty much have seen all the fights already. I think one thing that is new, though, is the fandom awareness of things like privilege and intersectionality and various -isms, as well as things like “providing warnings might be nice” (do you know how much unwarned deathfic I have read? a lot!) and I sure won’t say we’re perfect at any of this now, but I think fandom is trying way way more about all that stuff than it used to.

There are some fights we actually don’t have anymore, as far as I can tell. I feel like it’s been years since I’ve seen the “real person fiction is wrong” battle, but also I don’t hang out in a whole lot of RPF fandoms, so it’s possible that’s still going and I just don’t see it.

There also used to be a recurring debate about whether gay relationships that were canonical were slash or not. When slash started, obviously this wasn’t a question because there weren’t canonical gay relationships in fandoms, period. But as gay characters began to appear in media, people started to wonder “does slash mean all same-sex relationships, or does slash mean only non-canonical same-sex relationships?” Now, you may be reading this and think that sounds like an incredibly weird thing to get hung up on, but that’s because what appears to have happened is that the term “ship” (originally from X-Files Mulder/Scully fandom) has, as far as I can tell, come up and eaten most of the rest of the terminology. Now people will just say, “oh, I ship that.” For any pairing, gay or not, canonical or not. Fandom seems to have decided that for the most part it no longer actually needs a term specific to same-sex relationships as a genre.

Similarly, there are a few genres of fic that we used to have also pretty much don’t exist anymore. There are also plenty of genres that are well-entrenched now that are also extremely recent -- A/B/O comes to mind. But there are some kinds of fic we don’t write a lot of now. Like, I haven’t seen smarm in years! I also haven’t seen We’re Not Gay We Just Love Each Other in a while. There was also a particular style of slash writing where you’d basically have to explain, in detail, what made you think that these particular characters could be anything other than straight. You’d have to motivate this decision. You’d have to look at their canonical heterosexual relationships and come up with a way to explain why all those had happened in order to reconcile how this one guy could have romantic feelings for another guy. When had he figured out he wasn’t straight? Who might he have been with before? How does he interact with people in ways that make you think he’s not straight? That kind of thing. You had to, essentially, show your work. And these days a lot of fanfic is just like, “Okay, Captain America is bisexual, let’s go!” It’s... different.

Fandom also used to skew older, is my sense. A lot older. I don’t know, actually, if it really was older, but I get the sense now that there are some younger people who are surprised that adults are still in fandom. I have seen people saying these days that they think they’re too old for fanfiction because they are not in middle school anymore. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the barriers to access fandom are a lot lower than they used to be. You used to basically have to be an adult with disposable income (or know an adult with disposable income who was willing to help you out; but even then if you were reading explicit fiction you also had to swear you were 18+, usually by sending in an age statement to whoever you were buying the zine from or to the mods of the list you wanted to join, so a lot of fandom was very much age-gated). Internet access was not widely available. Even if you had internet access, you maybe didn’t have your own email address, so you couldn’t sign up for mailing lists; free email providers didn’t exist. If you wanted to buy zines, you had to have money to buy them. If you wanted to go to cons, you had to be able to afford the cost of the con, travel to the con, et cetera. If you wanted to have a website you had to know HTML. Social media did not exist. You want to draw art? Guess what, you’re probably drawing it on paper! You might be able to upload a picture to your website if you have a digital camera or a scanner, but both of those things are expensive, and also a lot of people don’t have the capability or the money to download pictures from the internet (some people have data caps with overage charges, and some people have text-only connections!), so they won’t get to see it. Maybe you can sell your piece at a con! You want to make a fanvid? We called them songvids, but, anyway, you know how you’re doing that? You’re going to hook two VCRs together and smash the play and record buttons very fast! If you want anyone else to watch them, you are either making them a tape personally and mailing it to them or bringing your vids to a convention. Maybe you can digitize them and upload them, but it’s going to take people hours to download them!

(Every three hours my ISP would kick me off the internet and I’d have to dial in again. If it was a busy time of day, it might take me 20 or 30 minutes to get a connection again. And that was assuming no one else in the house needed to use the phone line. Imagine if your modem went out every three hours now.)

And now, for the cost of my internet connection, I can read pretty much whatever fanfiction I want, whenever I want it. I can see all the fanart I want! I can watch vids! Podfic exists now! Fanmixes exist! Gifsets and moodboards exist! If I want to write fic I can write it with programs that are completely free, and as soon as I post it everyone in the entire world can read it. If I want to draw or make vids that may require some additional investment, but I may also be able to do it with things I already have. Do you have any idea how good we all have it?

There are a couple of kinds of fan activity that don’t seem to exist anymore, though, and I miss them. I know that roleplaying still goes on, but I feel like these days most people who do real-time text roleplay have switched to things like Discord. I know that in the LJ days, RP communities were popular. But I really miss MU*s (MUDs, MUSHes, MOOs, MUXes..), which were servers for real-time text-based RP with a bunch of... hmm... features to aid RP. There were virtual rooms with text descriptions, and objects in virtual rooms with descriptions, and your character had a description, and they could interact with the objects as well as with other characters, and you could program things to change descriptions or emit various kinds of text or take you to different rooms, and so on. Just to, y’know, enhance the atmosphere. It was fun and it was where I learned to RP and I’m sad they’re pretty much gone now.

I also don’t think I see a lot of fanfiction awards in fandoms. Wonder where they went.

Going back to the previous point, the barriers to actually consuming the canon you are fannish about are way, way, way lower now. You can pretty much take it for granted that if right now someone tells you about a shiny new fandom, there will be a way to read that book or watch that show or movie right now. Possibly for free! Of course you can watch it! Why wouldn’t you be able to?

This was absolutely, absolutely not the case before. I’m currently in Marvel Comics fandom. If there is a comic I want to read, I can read it right now on the internet. I have subscribed to Marvel Unlimited and I can read pretty much every comic that is older than three months old; the newer ones cost extra money. But I can do it all from the comfort of my own home right now. I was also, actually, in Marvel Comics fandom in the nineties. If I wanted to read a comic, I had to go to a comic book store and hope they had it in stock; if they didn’t, I had to try another store. Not a lot of comics were available in trade paperback and they definitely weren’t readable on the internet. I used to read a lot of Gambit h/c fic set after Uncanny X-Men #350. I never found a copy of UXM #350. I still haven’t! But I did eventually read it on Unlimited.

Being in TV show fandoms also had similar challenges. Was the show you were watching still on the air? No? Then you’d better hope you could find it in reruns, or know someone who had tapes of it that they could copy for you, otherwise you weren’t watching that show. It was, I think, pretty common for people to be in fandoms for shows they hadn’t seen, because they had no way to see the show, but they loved all the fanfic. The Sentinel had a whole lot of fans like that, both because I think it took a while for it to end up in reruns and because overseas distribution was probably poor. So you’d get people who read the fic and wrote fic based on the other fic they’d read, which meant that you got massive, massive amounts of fanon appearing that people just assumed was in the show because it was a weirdly specific detail that appeared in someone’s fic once. Like “Jim and Blair’s apartment has a small water heater” (not actually canonical) or “Blair is a vegetarian” (there’s an episode where his mother visits and IIRC cooks him one of his favorite meals, which is beef tongue).

Like, I was in The Professionals fandom for years. I read all the fic. I hadn’t seen the show. As far as I know, it never aired in the US, and it certainly never had any kind of US VHS or DVD release. I’d seen a couple songvids. I eventually saw a couple episodes in maybe 2003, and that was because my dad special-ordered a commercial VHS tape from the UK and paid someone to convert it from PAL to NTSC. I didn’t get to see the whole show until several years later when I got a region-free DVD player someone in fandom sent me burned copies of the UK DVD releases and then I special-ordered the commercial release of the DVDs from the UK myself. But if I were a new fan and wanted to watch Pros right now? It is on YouTube! For free!

I think also one of the things about fandom that’s not immediately evident to new fans is the way in which it is permanent and/or impermanent. There are probably people whose first fannish experience is on Tumblr or who only read fanfic on FFN and who have no idea what they would do if either site, say, just shut down. But if you’ve been in fandom a while, you’ve been through, say, Discord, Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, Imzy, DW, JournalFen, LJ, GeoCities, IRC, mailing lists. And sure, if Tumblr closed, it would be inconvenient. But fandom would pack up and move somewhere else. You would find it again. It would, eventually, be okay. Similarly, if you’ve been in a lot of fandoms, if you’ve made a lot of friends, drifting through fandoms is like that. You’ll make a friend in 1998 because you were in the same fandom, and then you might go your own ways, and ten years later you might be in another fandom with them again! It happens.

But the flip side of that is that I think a lot of older fans have learned not to trust in the permanence of any particular site. If you like a story, you save it as soon as you read it. If you like a piece of art, you save it. If you like a vid, you save it. Because you don’t know when the site it’s on will be gone for good. I have, like, twenty years of lovingly-curated fanfic. And I feel like people who have only been in fandom since AO3 existed might not understand how much AO3 is a game-changer compared to what we had before. It’s a site where you can put your fic up and you don’t have to worry that the webhost is going out of business, or that the site might delete your work because they don’t allow gay fiction or explicit fiction or fiction written in second person or fiction for fandoms where the creator doesn’t like fanfiction, or whatever. Because all of those things have absolutely happened. But, I mean, I still save pretty much everything I like, even on AO3, just in case.

So, basically, yeah, fandom is a whole lot more accessible than it used to be. I think fandom is pretty much still fandom, but it’s a lot easier to get into, and that has made it way more open to people who wouldn’t have been able to be in fandom before. There is so, so much more now than there ever was before, and I think that’s great.

[communistkenobi]

“If […] adherence to conventional values is determined by contemporary external social pressure, if it is based upon the individual’s adherence to the standards of the collective powers with which he, for the time being, is identified, then we should expect a close association with antidemocratic receptivity. It is this state of affairs that we wish to call conventionalism—and to distinguish it from mere acceptance of conventional values. The conventionalistic individual could in good conscience follow the dictates of the external agency wherever they might lead him and, moreover, he would be capable of totally exchanging one set of standards for another quite different one—as in conversion from official Communism to Catholicism.” (I made minor grammatical edits to this quote, as it was part of a larger conversation on methodology)

A couple points with this quote:

The authors seem to be suggesting that fascism can be suppressed by having a strong left wing state. If these people value submission to authority above all else, then a communist state would, in theory, remove the impulse towards right wing extremism. Not sure how to feel about that one lol. I’m sympathetic to it by virtue of my own biases but I don’t know how much that bears out historically. This isn’t to suggest that a communist state would eradicate bigotry, of course, but rather it would suppress an urge towards right wing extremism. Although maybe now we’re just talking about authoritarian communist states, which isn’t necessarily better. Idk I don’t know enough to make definitive comments

If fascism constitutes a personality type (“The Authoritarian Personality”) that is durable across societies and history, how would these people respond to an anarchist society where hierarchy is minimised as much as possible? Would they feel the need to produce hierarchy themselves, or would the social and cultural acceptance of anarchism (which is an authority in its own right) dispose them towards a lack of hierarchy as their guiding authority? If these people are pre-disposed to accept the dominant social attitudes of the day, presumably that would mean that strong social and cultural acceptance of anarchism would allow for that?

Or, if fascism is a product of capitalism, would these personality trends disappear from society by virtue of the change in the dominant political and economic order? I feel a lot more skeptical about that claim