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monkberries · 4 years ago

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Wait what's wrong with the AKOM How Do You Sleep episode? I remember it being fine but its been ages since i listened to it so if you've got any thoughts I'd love to hear them :)

Be aware, this is only about the first episode, not about the George-focused episode. If they resolve any of the issues I have with the first episode in the second episode, then I sincerely apologize.

First, there are some things they talk about that I agree with! Near the end of the episode, they discuss the dynamic between John and the people around him in a really insightful way, and in a way I’ve often thought about it; both John and the people around him were all kind of in this mindset of “oh, Paul rejected us? Well, we didn’t want him ANYWAY! So THERE!” They also discuss the fact that John was very easily manipulated, and nearly his entire support system (minus Ringo, and shame on them for not mentioning that) basically egged his anger and viciousness on. And they also play/read some interviews with John about the song and tangential subjects, and it’s always nice to hear primary sources.

However, much like their post about Lewisohn, I find a lot of this episode excessive, overtorqued, and generally far too exaggerated. They perceive an imbalance in narratives (which I do think is there, just not to the extent they say) and overcorrect, imho.

First, I want to get my opinion on the song itself out of the way: I listen to it a lot. It’s on my Fall 2020 playlist. I enjoy the musicality, the style; the mood it evokes is extremely strong to me. Sometimes it’s fun to indulge in feeling evil or mean without having to actually be evil or mean! Plus, I love playing it right before Jealous Guy, or Steel and Glass, or I Know (I Know), just to get that maximum John Lennon Mood Whiplash effect. I think George’s solo is vicious and perfect for the mood as well. However, the lyrics are pretty horrendous in terms of their effect on Paul and his feelings; they’re also horrendous in that they’re just not well-written lyrics. IMHO you can tell it was written by three different people all throwing insults at the wall to see what would stick and rhyme. Half of the digs don’t even make sense. “So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise/You better see right through that mother’s eyes” Wut? “The one mistake you made was in your head” ??? The hell do these things even mean lmao

Anyway. Onto the episode itself.

Around 1 minute in, they say that there’s not a lot of check and balance in the Beatles fandom w/r/t this song, and that much of the fandom espouses that HDYS was “deserved” and “honest”. They reiterate this sentiment over in different ways throughout the episode, and I just do not see that kind of thing being a majority opinion in Beatles fandom spaces at all. Perhaps they are occupying different fandom spaces than I occupy (tumblr/Hey Dullblog/beatlebioreview), and it is true where they are? (In which case, my goodness, find some better blogs to follow, babes!) They talk about how they’ve never seen anyone pick it apart before, and that the discussion around it has not changed, that people have been saying Paul deserved it since it came out. Again, this is does not jive with my experience in the Beatles fandom.

From Shout!, a book with a well known anti-McCartney streak, published in 1981: “John’s Imagine album - despite the plea for universal peace and brotherhood in the title track - launched a thermo-nuclear strike back at Paul with ‘How Do You Sleep?’ a title suggesting crimes almost in the realm of first-degree murder. The McCartney references were unmistakable, and, often, cruelly unjust: ‘The freaks was right when they said you was dead... The only thing you done was Yesterday...’ There was even a two-fingered gesture of contempt for Paul’s new outdoor life with Linda on their Scottish farm.” Also, the RS review spends two paragraphs talking specifically about how heinous and unjustifiable HDYS is. You can definitely say that rock journalism takes some of the attitude of HDYS and runs with them, such as Paul’s music sounding like muzak - that sentiment certainly persisted. But I would argue that most of the shit journos are reacting to and buying into comes from Lennon Remembers primarily, where John says all the same crap and more, and worse, rather than HDYS itself, which they seem to balk at.

They make the claim as well that the Imagine LP has been elevated to some kind of untouchable, un-criticizeable status. In the years after his death, I think there is probably some truth to that, although again, untouchable is an extreme word. Even in 2003, the LP was number 80 on Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. However, it was 227 on NME’s list in 2013 and dropped to 223 on Rolling Stone’s new 2020 list, suggesting a waning in popularity over time and a willingness to look more objectively at the quality of it.

The thing that really bothered me about this episode is like... They talk about the need for nuanced discussion of the song, right? And that’s all fine and good, and I agree, nuance in any Beatles discussion is essential if you want to get close to any actual truth. However, they then go on to say, quite adamantly, that if you say the music of the song is good, even if you think the lyrics are awful, then they wouldn’t even bother having a conversation with you. It’s very “We want nuance! NO NOT LIKE THAT! YOU’RE DOING NUANCE WRONG!” Like, I’m sorry, the music is good, in my opinion! John is very good at evoking a mood! The fact that I think George’s solo is incredible, or that the keyboard riff gives me chills, or that I think the bass goes super hard, doesn’t mean I don’t understand how rough the lyrics are or the effect they had on Paul. In fact, imho, I think it’s important that we discuss how quality the music is because it underscores the calculated cruelty John exhibited. He worked hard on this song. He wanted to create a very specific feeling out of it, and he succeeded in spades. I think if it had been crappy musically, people would have been much more contemptuous of it than they already are. As I said earlier, some of the digs don’t even make sense; I think they’re bolstered and propped up specifically because the music underneath them is so good. Also, it’s not fucking wrong to enjoy a groove.

I also take some issue with them saying that HDYS was easily among the worst things John ever did. Like... equivalent or worse than going on anti-Semitic, homophobic rants? Yikes.

There are many instances in this episode where they will go “I often read things like...” or “Jean Jackets will say...” or “I see this a lot...” and then never actually talk about where they see these things or quote directly from them. One instance goes “I often read things like, ‘John Lennon is expressing years of pent-up resentment over creative differences’, as if John is some kind of, like, drunk art teacher doling out free advice to Paul on his music.” I’ve read a lot about HDYS and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that. Just about every discussion of the song I’ve seen says very clearly that it was an unjustified, deeply personal attack. I realize there is an aversion to publicly Naming Names when you’re calling out people who perpetuate a bad narrative. But I want to know where this stuff comes from. I want to actually see what it is they’re upset about.

Lastly, they talk near the end about music innovation and experimentation, and this is where I think things go much too far in overcorrecting a narrative. The well-known narrative for many years post breakup was that Paul was a boring square who wrote granny music. That is true; he was much maligned in the press about that. However, I think post-Hertsgaard, post-Revolution In The Head, post-Complete Recording Sessions, and post-Many Years From Now, that attitude has changed quite a bit. Most serious Beatles fans know now that Paul was the first one to really get into Avant-Garde stuff; most fans know about the fact that he made McCartney 1 basically alone in a homemade studio. Most fans have probably heard or at least heard of Temporary Secretary, lmao.

But it feels like these women are still living in the past where Paul was still being maligned for being a square, so instead they go way far to the other end and say “Paul was the musical innovator, not John.” And that is just flat out NOT true. They were BOTH musical innovators. The fact that Paul was the first to get into avant-garde art does not exclude John from also being incredibly innovative and experimental in his own way. Perhaps he wasn’t doing that on Imagine; they are right that Imagine is a collection of really good but fairly commercial songs. But they utterly discount the fact that he did Strawberry Fields Forever, and I Want You (She’s So Heavy), popularized backmasking, was one of the first if not the first to use amp feedback in a song in I Feel Fine, experimented with recording his voice differently with Tomorrow Never Knows and Revolution, and also the entirety of Plastic Ono Band!!! You don’t have to downplay or erase John’s experimental contributions to music in order to elevate Paul’s. You can elevate both of them. It’s fine.

Also, this is the episode where they say Lewisohn’s book is exactly the same as all the other Jean Jackets books except thicker, and I have a viscerally bad reaction to that for many reasons I have already outlined on this blog. Suffice to say, it is demonstrably untrue (not least because Lewisohn hasn’t published anything in his Tune In series that goes beyond 1962) and unfair to someone who has done an unbelievable amount of legwork to back up his writing. They also compare Lewisohn to Goldman (???????) and call them John and Yoko’s “fuckin bitch boys saying the same shit over and over again.” I have to imagine Goldman was a misspeak and she meant someone else, but still that jarred me lmfao

#about the blogger #Anonymous #podcast blues

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system-architect · 7 years ago

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i genuinely do love seein ppl make cool asura characters and genuinely do wish more folks felt comfy making asura so alright here’s a little starter pack/troubleshooting guide?!

“the ableism and racial supremacy wards me off, what do”

not only do a lot of asura players NOT embrace these and consciously remove these from their writing, but--

--there are many asura npcs ingame as well who are more relaxed and don’t have that supremacist complex!! if every asura was truly entrenched in it then you wouldn’t casually see asura working together with other races within the orders

either way it’s bad criticizeable writing on anets behalf which you’re free to edit as you see fit tbh

anet forgets their own lore constantly and the rp community tends to just be an ouroboros eating its own headcanon filled tail so like no one on any level has any right to criticize u for making non-dickish asura

i personally HC that if asura are an actually for real wise group of ppl then they’ll have realized all that shit is petty/gross/not based in reality/so on and asura that actually have any kinda clue will have risen above it! ur free to also embrace that HC/interpretation if you wish

"ok so aside from that.... what about the lore???? where do i even go to learn asura lore????? also what if i’ve never played gw1 and thus dunno the asura history???”

the both good and bad news is that asura lore tidbits are scattered far and few between so you are granted an incredible amount of freedom with your writing. like, seriously, a ridiculous extent. they have less lore than sylvari do, both with without HoT scraps factored in

but there are a fEW places you can start, mostly ingame:

the personal story has a good chunk of asura lore/worldbuilding in it

if you’re up to it, run around and talk to npcs in rata sum-- most have scraps of info and general setting info relating to daily life

even just plain reading the wiki page gives you a good general idea of things

for info on technology and events happening within the gw2 timeline: play SE story + CoE story (optional: SE P1, all explorable CoE paths, arah P2)

for pre-personal story backstory information: play through the buried insight/roots of terror/the way in instances in HoT, idk literally just stroll through rata novus, for a much more substantial chunk of backstory read/listen to the dialogue from zinn’s recorders which are scattered throughout draconis mons

(super optional for the above: the “new horizons” HoT ac III achievement)

there’s asura stuff in gw1 as well but you literally don’t need it to write an asura in gw2 unless you wanna be a smartypants mgjhldfghkd

“ok so where do i like..... start....... what do i do with an asura???”

_(:3」∠)_

i mean your asura can be literally anything (pact member, pirate, whatever), but for more asura specific stuff..

your asura could have a background in, be a student at, or even teach at one of the three major colleges--

college of statics folks are sort of foppish architects and designers who probably enjoy putting together ikea furniture

college of synergetics folks are somewhat spacey, out-there physicists/astrophysicists/philosophers who are a little high concept for most

college of dynamics folks are zany engineers/gadget makers who have a huge tendency for blowing things up a lot and they embrace this

after graduating from college, asura join/form krewes which are essentially laboratory task forces dedicated to a specific subject. your asura can be on a krewe and/or research anything from tactical golemancy to moa physiology idk

there’s also the peacemakers (the cops) and the arcane eye (the cops but more secret and also a little Bad)

naturally there’s the inquest as well if you want to make a bad boy

...and asura are sometimes turned into inquest test subjects who sometime escape (the inquest are merciless and dgaf if you’re also asura)

many asura also seem to join the consortium, which may have some kind of connection to the inquest

if your asura isn’t a researcher type then it’s very common for more physical action based guard types to be in these groups as well

.............and that’s really the base 123 of making an asura tbh. the next hurdle is character creation and names to which i recommend 1. push those sliders to weird extremes my pal and 2. here’s a name generator that helps a lot, good luck

hopefully that wasnt 2much info but anyways if u ever wanna make an asura and wanna know about my personal interpretation of their lore or my various headcanons and my hot tips on how to bullshit asuran technology stuff then pls....... hmu

#this isnt actually that comprehensive but its a thing

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