#bc it generally seems like they built the framework around the story and then the story had nowhere to go

[followtheechoes]

do you think that's how he felt when he met merlin?

I sometimes think about what destiny must feel like to the characters in this show and while merlin understands what he's feeling by now, arthur doesn't. arthur looks at merlin and goes, there's something about you, and then he lets him go without (serious) harm. he and merlin became good friends! if he felt that way when meeting lancelot or gwaine or any of the other knights, of course he would lower his weapon. there's something about mordred that arthur is drawn to, the same way he is drawn to every other part of his destiny. merlin, gwen, the knights, his throne, his death. it's all the same force.

it's the same impulse that merlin and morgana both had on meeting mordred for the first time. it's the same thing that passed between them in the forest when mordred was a child and the same thing that's helped him feel out how to make his reign stronger. it's destiny, and arthur has no reason to distrust his destiny when it's never steered him wrong before.

obsessed with the look of understanding that passed between arthur and mordred when arthur lowered his crossbow and spared mordred's life. obsessed with the intimate bond that comes from being the other's victim and executioner. obsessed with the idea of them carrying the knowledge of it within them all along, somewhere in their subconscious. of them being pawns in the hands of fate because, perhaps, it was always going to end this way

[hukkelberg]

sorry this ended up v jumbled. it really irritates me that colin's s2 "are you mad?" comment was so built up when all it did was lead into the teaching plot. his apology fell so flat to me bc he never actually explains why he said that - he says he shouldn't have said it, that he thinks v highly of pen, that he's not embarrassed of her, but then why did he say that? what was going through his head? idk i just don't think you can throw in a Moment like that, actively make it a source of conflict in the new season, then not actually explain why one of our main characters did it. i can certainly come up w a variety of explanations for it but i shouldn't have to imo. esp when it's about a character sorely lacking in interiority - having him question his own motives/instincts/w/e in an already plot-relevant moment seems like such an easy route to that for me. also the teaching plot in general was useless to me (both entertainment and plot-wise) - genuinely kind of convinced that it ended up in there bc they wanted ppl who read the books to not scream at them and they felt they had to contrive a reason for pen to be rejected by the ton but were doing everything they could to not comment on pen/nic's body At All. all it did was retcon some of pen's characterization (wrt her ability to speak to ppl) which really annoys me lol. the use of debling was so weird imo - also annoys me that pen never got a second option that was really viable (bridgerton's second options aren't ever romantically viable but daphne would have been a princess whereas pen would get ditched immediately for debling's travels). also violet's comment about colin never putting himself first is so confusing to me - i've seen ppl go on about how it's referencing that colin is a ppl pleaser basically but most big show things w colin revolve around him doing w/e he wants: literally no one approved of him and marina - he plans to elope; he spends at least half the year traveling on his own during which he's beholden to no one, pursuing his only interest, and completely relying on his family's money; his help w the cousin jack thing was just not a sacrifice for him; the comment to fife - he threw pen under the bus to (presumably) avoid feeling uncomfortable in a random conversation. obviously the way he pursues pen is meant to be a deviation from his supposed history of self-sacrifice but him actively fucking up pen's chances w debling bc he's decided that he wants to marry her now just seems v in line w colin doing w/e he wants the moment it comes to him. that sounds rough on colin i promise i like him most of the time lol.

you raise such good points, my friend, and imo it all leads to the fact that season three just severely mishandled their main characters. the change of writers would've meant some friction regardless, but the hard left all these characters took was a just. jarring. and bland! i do genuinely wonder if someone in this production did not have their heart in it, but then why focus on colin and pen at all? particularly when their story is meant to happen so many years after everybody else's. did they think they'd lose nicola soon? but then why doom her to the revolving door of main actors who leave a season after theirs? and then why make her character the framework for this show if you were just going to shuffle her out the door three seasons in? oh the whistledown thing makes me furious btw. that's the one thing that i truly, truly despise about the show. so truly stupid, false, and cowardly. i have a whole rant about it but every time i get into it i just combust with rage. having her apologize to the ton????? such a disservice to the character, to the narrative device--and to what end?

that really is the losing point of this whole season. nothing matters. nothing ever really mattered at all. i kinda knew when that was one of the first clips they showed as promo was the whole scene that they wouldn't go all in with it as the big betrayal i would've gone for but the fact that it literally had. no. importance whatsoever. same with the teaching plot! same with debling! none of these things had ANY impact. there were no stakes up until cressida came in and you know who those stakes were for? CRESSIDA. the only character to suffer any consequences was her--and truly the only character to be a character at all. the cressida plot, and the eloise and penelope plot, were about the only things i thought were sufficiently emotionally riveting to watch. even the queen lacked interiority compared to other seasons. everyone did! could it have been editing? i have no idea.

on the matter of colin: my working theory is that they just fully decided to chuck everything they'd been setting up with him because the character was harder to work into the Regency Male Lead mold and they didn't trust their audience to keep watching if he was not exactly like that. but they knew it was a hard turn, so they tried to cover it up with the whole "haha we are self aware of this thing we're doing! so it is totally on purpose, but like, in a good way!" type of way modern films in that marvel tone do? like, if we get the audience in on the joke (isn't it soooo funny how colin is acting way different? haha? laugh with us.), then we're absolved. and frankly, i said it on my other blog, that could have been a good plot, if they'd bothered to use it as a vehicle to interrogate literally anything. masculinity. regency leads. colin as a character. my god.

obviously, it did not work, which is why as you well point out violet's comment completely falls flat. his previous actions do not correspond. he's never done anything for anyone but himself, but he doesn't have to. that's anthony's job! and even that could have been interesting. what if colin started helping penelope only to find he has helped nobody at all? what if you are a worse person than you've thought you were? would deconstructing that image of him not be interesting? mind you i keep trying to find purposeful flaws for him because the show filed him smooth like a pebble. they were fearful, i think, and paid handsomely for it.

[guileheroine]

Omg struggling! Got character counted in the comments so I’ll paste here:

Wow this was beyond - thank you so much for the thoughtful and thorough response! I am absolutely signing up for your lecture series lol. All of this helps calcify some vague thoughts I’ve had as a reader but never put into practice as a writer so thank you for laying out a framework about what/why you tackle the stories that you do. I do feel like I’m missing out on the majority of fun from not resonating with so much of what people seem to be excited about(!) but this really helps separate the reader/writer insomuch as writing AUs with the level of thoughtfulness you describe here is an excellent way of engaging with the characters and the themes of a work as a critical challenge. Laying out the different aspects of Korra’s character that you built your stories around is a lightbulb moment for me because it obviously comes through in your stories but seeing it spelled out in this way gives me so much inspiration on how to frame a story and where to push and pull, while still staying true to the values, themes, and abilities of the characters. AUs sit in that really interesting space for me between source-extension and examination and OC fiction and it’s a delicate balance to try and hit that sweet spot in a satisfying way. I think where you excel is not only just technical writing proficiency but creating an AU story that feels like it has something to actually say about the source material in an emotionally resonant way! Honestly thank you so much for taking the time for this I have a lot more thoughts to process but I’m really excited to have this to refer to! <3

i'm really happy you found it helpful, your ask definitely helped me consider my own approach more consciously too! and thank you again ;_; humbled bc when i'm actually writing it's truly 85% vibes

btw you hit the nail on the head with your description of AUs here, i think the tension/negotiation inherent in translation of any kind is also why i can't let them go as a concept even though 99% of what i see is whatever (i've been doing actual translation lately and it's incredibly hard but also one of the crunchiest things you can ask your brain to do??) one thing i actually do wish is that we saw more setting-based AUs rather than the uber specific 1:1 tropes/templates, whether in fic or art, bc again they let the characters lead (e.g. when i see 'star wars AU' i'd much rather it be an interpretation of what the character would be like in star wars land rather than, say, korra in the costume (literal or narratively) of rey. that could not be less interesting to me but yeah soo much of technically excellent fanwork is like this!) i wish characters weren't treated indiscriminately as vessels for [insert any scenario] but that's almost getting into a broader point about fanon in general and i def acknowledge my personal bar for what's OOC is quite easy to clear

so yeah fully empathise on feeling like you're missing out on the fun because of stuff not resonating with you. and i'd love to hear any more thoughts you might have once you're done processing lol <3

[mego42]

hi! a song inside the halls of the dark is an absolute masterpiece of plotting and pacing (and prob my fave fic I’ve read for the show so far), so for the ask a writer meme, I’d love to hear about your planning process(es). the idea of even plotting out something like that, let alone actually finishing it, just breaks my brain lol. do you do a lot of outlining? how much does the outcome end up looking like the ideas that sparked it?

adsfghgsj okay well first off, thank you! that is unspeakably flattering and i don’t know how to cope! my weird robot emotions are misfiring! but also, thank you for this question bc this is the kind of nerd shit i LIVE FOR and up until, idk, 5? 6? months ago my answer would’ve more or less been ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but sometime in between now and then i leveled up how much of a nerd i am.

okay so, the short answer to your (first) question is yes, i do a lot of outlining though the scale of outline varies based on the complexity of the story. in song’s case, how i outline actually evolved significantly over the course of writing it (see that level up) and if i were to outline it today, it would look very different from what i originally started with.

the short answer to your second question is in song’s case, the original idea was a v short, almost fluffy stuck in a hotel room for a night one shot i daydreamed up while listening to a halsey song (is there somewhere, if you were wondering). obvs what it turned into was uh, v different.

digging into how i outline is going to get long, excessively nerdy and borderline terrifying so i’m hiding the rest of this under the cut, read at your own risk.

I preface everything here with a couple of reminders:

1. i am a crazy person who straight up does not know how to have hobbies like a normal person

2. i am actively trying to push myself and grow as a writer including developing new skills and training myself to practice certain habits bc at some point I would like to push myself out of the nest and try my hand at original fiction one day with a vague goal of maybe seeing if i could get it published. idk if i’ll ever actually do that BUT in the meantime, i do stuff like the nightmare that follows to myself

initial outline / what happens next list

okay so the most basic of my outlines (and how i originally outlined song) are p much just lists of what happens next. i do them as bullet lists bc my brain finds them less intimidating and i just start with one and then ask myself what happens next. sometimes the bullets are v vague, sometimes they get so specific i end up writing what becomes dialogue, i try not to think too hard about it, i just keep asking what happens next.

it’s really specifically about what happens next, not asking myself what i want to happen in the story, bc next implies the bullet before informs the one after, so you end up with an overall picture of what you want with a base level of causality built in. it also gives you room to surprise yourself (i think literally every what happens next outline i’ve done has had me going oh, okaaaaaay at some point).

sometimes, this is all you need. for trade my heart for honey, i started and stopped here bc at the end of the day, the skeleton for that fic is super basic: beth and rio attempt to play pool without tripping over their horrendous sexual tension. they fail. the end.

for your monster looks like mine, i did a version of the what happens next list, but i brought in some of my tricks from the pace structuring method i’ve been honing for the multi-chapter i’m currently planning. instead of mapping tentpole beats by story pace, i mapped tentpole beats for what points i wanted beth and rio to be scoring against each other and then mapped out the lead-up and fallout to connect the two and also what they were doing to each other physically at the same time so i could see how it all played together so the conversation supported the smut and vice versa. it was a TOTALLY normal approach to writing pwp. not over the top at all. 

song’s original outline was basically a SUPER long what happens next list and if i could go back in time i would slap myself upside the head like bitch you have no idea what you’re getting into and you are WAY TOO COCKY ABOUT IT, but it’s okay i learned.

the spreadsheet method

somewhere around when i was in the middle of i want to say ch 9 of song, @pynkhues posted about her outlining process including a super awesome spreadsheet she uses (i cannot for the life of me find the original post, forgive me but know that it was hers) and i immediately jacked a version of it to use as my own and oh my god it changed my whole life. 

iirc hers was a bit more in depth but since i was sort of baby-stepping into it, i stripped it down into the following and did a sheet for each of the remaining chapters (well, ch 10 and ch 11, ch 11 ended up getting wildly out of control so i split it in two and mushed the epilogue i’d been planning onto the end of it as a closing breakout scene:

plot

character

it’s a lot of repetition, tbh BUT once i started using it, i found the repetition was incredibly clarifying and by making myself take the time to go through each column and go through the same stuff over and over, it honed in on the strongest, most relevant bits of what i was planning and helped me see patterns and connections i maybe hadn’t been thinking of on the onset.

when i outlined swear i used this method and added a layer to my chapter overviews where i track the lies and corresponding truths worked into the chapter narratives (bc that’s a key theme of the story), and color-coded the beats that corresponded to the main plot vs individual character arcs vs foreshadowing so i’d have an at a glance visual reference to make sure nothing was getting lost and all of the characters (even minor ones) had stuff happening to them and didn’t just feel like cardboard cutouts coming in and out of the story as i needed them

pace structuring

these are all fine and dandy but one thing they’re missing is pacing! for song’s pacing, i will be real with you, i v much went a lot with my gut. i’ve spent most of my life consuming and paying a lot of attention to stories. i’m fascinated with how they come together and literally cannot shut off the part of my brain that likes to pick them apart to examine the pieces to see how they all fit together. as such, it’s left me with a p instinctive grasp for how a story should feel when it’s working which is fantastic when it is, but really useless when it isn’t bc i struggle to identify where and why sometimes so i can fix it.

for the buffyverse, once i started to realize (with no small amount of horror) the scope of what i wanted to write, i realized p quick i needed some kind of tool kit to help me figure out the arc and pacing bc this was going to be a lot closer to trying to plot a whole novel from the ground up (which is great bc one of the things i want to practice is pacing and plotting out novels from the ground up, hahaha)

i’ve been working with a two main docs (and neither of them are spreadsheets, yet, bc one thing the spreadsheet method taught me it’s that while i find them very soothing, my brain works in bullet lists so i’m starting with bullets and then i’m gonna strain it through a spreadsheet):

1. Thoughts:

just a doc where I word vomit out anything I’m thinking, I don’t worry about keeping it organized, I just throw whatever I’m thinking in there so it’s memorialized and I can sort through it later.

2. Act Timelines / Scene Breakdowns:

basically, i have a basic three-act story structure with tentpole story beats broken out by general ballpark percentages of how far into the story/act they should occur for the pacing to feel right. i use that as the framework i run my plot and character beats through and do it in a couple of passes:

high level: i go through and break out what’s happening in the story for each tentpole beat (what the specific story and plot focus is)

by character: i go through and fill in (at least) one sub-bullet beneath each plot tentpole beat with what’s happening with each main character in their individual subplot, how they got there, what their general feelings and mindset is, if they’re having any revelations, etc (one thing i fucked up with song is not making sure i had stuff going on for all of the characters, the plot was super focused on beth and while i generally knew what rio was doing and why, ruby and annie more or less floated in and out of the story at whim and i hate that, so i’m trying to be better about it going forward)

by relationship: now i go in and fill in a layer of bullllets with how the plot and character beats are shaping relationships and how they’re progressing through each tentpole beat

at this point i’ve got a pretty fleshed out outline hitting on plot, character and relationship development at least in broad, general terms. i can look at it like a map and see how characters are growing and changing throughout the story and look for areas where the plot is pushing the characters vs the other way around and places where it seems weak or poorly connected/supported and i tinker with that for awhile until i feel like it’s in good shape.

next step is applying the what happens next approach to the scene by scene breakdowns. i’m trying an experiment with this one where instead of breaking the fic into chapters first, i’m breaking it into scenes and working out the beats of them so they incorporate all of my outlined stuff and then i’m gonna go back and see where the chapter breaks look like they fall.

I’m like, 75% of the way through my scene breakdown for this particular fic and once I’m done with that, I’m going to take everything and plug it into the spreadsheet I worked with for the last couple of chapters of song and highlight/color code like I did for swear to make sure my chapter breakdowns align with everything I’m trying to do and I’m tracking all of my themes and details and setting things up to pay them off later.

so, you know, an absolutely normal amount of planning for a hobby i do entirely for funsies in my largely nonexistent spare time. 

(sorry this was i am assuming WAAY MORE INFORMATION than you ever wanted or needed to know but once i started i couldn’t stop)

(and seriously, thank you, am truly verklempt that you love song like that 💖)

bts fic writing q’s IF YOU DARE hahaha

[dabistits]

while reading your posts, i always feel that you’re really well rounded and good at character analysis and just articulating your feelings and opinions towards stories in general. it’s something that i’m trying to get better at, and something that i admire you for, so i was wondering if you had any pointers or tips regarding developing analysis skills? thank you!

first of all, thank you so much!!😭😭 i’m so glad you enjoy my stuff and it gives me a lot of joy to know that this, like, inspires people or w/e fkdkgkf

i’m putting everything below a cut bcs it’s long as fuck and kind of disorganized. i wrote some parts half-asleep, so they might be rambly or stating the obvious or whatever, but you know, pick and choose what’s helpful to you! this probably isn’t exhaustive (and i kinda focused in on the ‘character analysis’ part, bcs otherwise there’s… so much), and if anything’s unclear or if you want more elaboration on sth just let me know!

the basics:

write!! it doesn’t matter what you write, it can meta, fanfic, rp, whatever, but as long as you write about this character you’ll be forced to articulate your thoughts; by extension that means you’ll have to gather evidence and make a convincing case for your portrayal. even if you’re writing fic or rp i think you should have a strong reference of where your characterization is coming from - i used to rp at places that required applications, so that would force me to think about my character’s personality and put it into words. i think most people are helped by the actual process of writing itself also, so don’t let lack of confidence stop you if you’re someone who tends to do that: you might wind up happier with your ideas after having written something than before (and you can aaalways edit).

read!! read other people’s analyses, not necessarily just about the character you have in mind, but about other characters, other stories, other genres, etc. what kinds of things do they point out to support their argument? what patterns are they picking up on? do you agree/disagree? what’s a new thought they’ve introduced to you? what are things they do that you particularly like? can you replicate that idea/technique in your own reading? there are so many times when i’ve read another person’s analysis and made a note to be more aware of [a certain thing] in the future, so that’s what helps me change and build and incorporate new stuff into the way i think about stories.

try to keep an ongoing chronicle of your thoughts. this could 100% be a personal thing, but i actually started to think and absorb a lot more (especially about small things) after i started this blog. being here meant that not only was i keeping up with chapter releases bcs of other fans, but i was also regularly writing about my impressions. reading and discussing chapter by chapter forced me to read & process everything in smaller increments, which let me take in more details, and gave more time for my thoughts and feelings to develop. in contrast, when i binge-read, i actually miss a lot of details and a lot of finer points of the storyline because i’m just trying to get from one plot point to the next.

stick close to canon. this is definitely subjective, but since this is also partially about how i approach character interpretation, i’ll toss this in. i personally don’t stray too far from what’s shown to me in-text, and i revisit canon a lot to establish a “baseline” characterization rather than building off of my own headcanons. this has pros and cons: for example, i feel like i don’t overstate things compared to their canon importance, and i feel like i don’t get too carried away with embellishing character traits; however, it also holds me back from theorizing unless there’s a ton of evidence in front of me, and i can be overcautious when it comes to approaching narrative hints. sometimes i do talk about my headcanons, but even then i usually point out whether or not it’s substantiated, because i do think the line between headcanon and canon gets muddled a lot in fandom discussion.

think about a character’s role in the story. so, we know stories have plots, a start and an end, and messages and themes. all characters function within that framework, they advance us from point a to point b, the carry the moral of the story. i think these are aspects that are important to include in your character analysis; while sure, there’s already plenty to analyse about the LOV as self-contained characters, but they also seem more important, more interesting, and more complex when you take them into the context of the larger story (how and why their relationships are built, what they mean as a part of man vs society conflict, etc.). not only does it inform you about the character (what the author is trying to say through them, what direction the author might push them in), it can also tell you a lot about the overall structure and themes of the story itself.

authors include everything for a reason. when you’re creating something from scratch, you have to actively decide what you include. the way someone’s room looks doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but the author decided to design their room that way based off something—most likely a character’s interests, tastes, and preferences. while mina’s dorm room looking a certain way might not mean she has an old-fashioned personality, it can maybe tell you that she has a more retro taste and aesthetic. this can apply to “big” things too, like one of tomura’s severed hands still surviving the chaos. hori chose to have it survive rather than be decayed like everything else, so of course the question is why?

… but they are imperfect. creators also do make choices out of plot convenience, because of their own biases, or sometimes they just forget (as hori has done before, such as twice duplicating himiko in the overhaul arc and then saying he doesn’t know her measurements for the mla arc). so it can sometimes also be assumed that a detail was included/excluded because of something on the creator’s end, rather than because of it necessarily being symbolic or important to the characters (e.g. a character not being able to make it to a fight might be because their skills are too useful and could resolve the plot too easily, not because them getting sidetracked is important in itself; a female character losing a fight she should have won could be an issue of the creator’s misogyny). so these are aspects you can keep in mind as well when you’re evaluating characterization!

tendencies i see people fall into:

don’t take everything characters say at face value. characters can and do lie. they can be sarcastic. they can be manipulative. they can be deluding themselves. they can even be mistaken! there’s a reason why they’re expressing themselves that way, and sometimes you can gain more by actually investigating that contradiction rather than just assuming they mean what they say.

allow characters to change! they will change in canon, so don’t be too beholden to their early characterization if you’re trying to analyze or write them from a later point in the timeline. again, this seems intuitive, but i see a lot of people who still appear to draw on tomura’s early character portrayal by making him irritable towards the LOV, but he’s much more recently allowed himself to be physically pushed around by some of them without really reacting in any way.

embrace subtlety. a lot of people in their fanfic just see one aspect of a character and blow it up to make it their only characterization. like, tomura is irritable, himiko is obsessed with blood, any villain can be written as a sadistic killer hellbent on annihilation, etc. while having a couple personality traits come through strongly can help the character have a unique personality and voice, too much will make them appear one-note. it’s just as important to recognize moments when characters are being calm and focused and articulate, as much as their most dramatic moments. for example, a lot of writers don’t seem to notice that tomura doesn’t snap at his allies, tends to answer their questions evenly, and never lashes out at them; that’s because these moments are very understated in the manga. hori doesn’t point a huge arrow at them, and he shouldn’t have to! it’s one of those very subtle ways to show a character’s growth. so, pay attention to those moments, and pay attention to what’s not being done as much as what is.

[tanadrin]

@shieldfoss:

On the one hand, yes.

On the other hand, every time somebody suggests a system with no deterring violence in it, I think of this comic strip:

[dilbert strip]

Our descendants will be those whose ancestors most successfully acquired the resources necessary to raise their children. The worse of a strategy it is to rape and steal, the more those patterns of behavior and genetics will be weeded out of our culture and gene pool, but saying “we shouldn’t use violent deterrence because it’s bad” desperately needs a follow-up to explain how that doesn’t make rape and theft a more successful procreative strategy, ensuring more of it.

I’ll accept “Future Space Magic” as a valid answer, mainly because that’s what I’m banking on myself, but it needs an answer.

@shieldfoss

Wait, this was mainly in response to your last paragraph, which I honestly thought was in a reblog on the thread about exile/prison abolition, I must have gotten them mixed up. I guess I should @ @tanadrin here.

Starting a new thread, bc of potential thread mix-up worries

My own answer in this case is that you don’t need future space magic at all. I think our naive intuitions around the inextricability of violence and punishment and punishment (as we normally think about it) being a necessary component of deterrence, aren’t generally framed (as political discourse) with more than the level of just-so-story engagement with empirical examination of how these things work in practice. I think prison abolitionists and sociologists and psychologists have done work that paints a much rosier view of how humans respond to incentives, and what kind of incentives are necessary to reduce violent crime.

Specifically, while some kind of response needs to exist to antisocial behavior for there to be a deterrent effect against that antisocial behavior (which, I realize, is no more interesting than saying ‘things we tolerate get treated as tolerated’!), violence does not seem to be a necessary component of that, even the reduced violence of imprisonment. What does need to exist varies depending on the exact moral framework, modulo the difficulties of social and psychological consequences in high-population highly-atomized individualistic societies, and it’s clear that a nonviolent response to violent, antisocial behavior is not a trivially easy problem to solve, not even in the most abstract realm of theory, but it certainly doesn’t strike me as unsolvable, or even as potentially unsolvable.

As with the notion “poor people are poor, in part, because they are lazy,” the notion “violence is a necessary component of a criminal justice system” idea is one that’s deeply rooted in our culture, but not one that, it turns out, stands up to the sustained scrutiny of social science. We have already withdrawn the legitimacy of violence as a response for misbehavior in other arenas in our society--corporal punishment of children, for instance, is considered far less acceptable than it once was, and I think that’s interesting. Children have a different psychology than adults, but it’s not night and day. We don’t beat adolescents, either. We don’t whip sailors anymore for minor offenses. Violence in our societies is generally far less acceptable than it once was, and the result isn’t general misbehavior. Quite the opposite. If violence is not necessary to maintain order in all these other spheres of life, what special property does criminal justice alone have, that makes the operation of violence there unique in its effect on the human mind? I don’t think there is one. I think, rather, we simply have treated the assumption of the necessity of violence uncritically so long, and built so much of our discourse on it, that upending it feels absurd. That doesn’t mean it actually is. Lots of other equally deeply rooted notions that have proven to be unfounded we’ve gotten rid of--”women can’t possibly take part in public life,” for one. “Monarchy is an indisputable good, natural, and necessary part of the political order” is another.

I’m going to sidestep the specific evopsych argument, because I disagree with formulating the issue in those terms. Culture isn’t a fixed property of individuals like genome (mostly) is; people respond to the behavior of others around them, and there are countless examples of people who grow up in violent circumstances who lead peaceful lives once they are removed from, or learn to overcome, those circumstances. And I don’t think any meaningful propensity toward or against violence has been reliably discerned in the human genome. Even if it has, the effect sizes for such things tend to be very small and the timescales we’re talking about are far too short for Darwinian selection to matter. And the proposed interventions don’t operate at the level of Darwinian selection--plenty of people have kids despite going to prison--unless we’re talking about execution specifically, which even in the countries where it is relatively popular, only carried out on a very small number of people for an extremely narrow range of crimes. I suppose you could argue we should bring back execution (or exile) for more crimes; but many human societies had draconian punishments for violent crimes for centuries, and that didn’t seem to actually eliminate the crimes in question. Hanging horse thieves does not seem to actually end horse thieving! The incentive to steal horses... probably operates as a level more complicated than genetics.

If anything, societies that respond to crime with greater levels of violence have more violent crime to contend with. I don’t think this is a contradiction. If you look at human history through the lens of societies growing less violent over time and increasingly traumatizing subsequent generations less and less, until those generations find ways to relate to each other and to antisocial behavior within their societies in ways that go beyond the brutality of, say, the Code of Hammurabi, a different possibility emerges: that by legitimizing the retributive mindset anywhere in our society, we can’t help but legitimize it, a little, everywhere. There is no such thing as violence entirely contained and isolated by the austere and even hand of the Law; if violence is something we really deplore, maybe we should deplore it everywhere.

[yuanyuanxu-me]

What is Critical Race Theory (CRT)?

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a framework for analyzing (as well as changing) the realities of race and racism in society. A way of critically looking at race relations today.

Like Critical Pedagogy, CRT is not a thing in and of itself. CRT continues to inspire and inform Critical Pedagogy and critical educational discourse.

CRT is set of lenses (tenets) we can use as critical educators to check ourselves and look at the policies, stories, curricula, and other narratives around us and our students.

Colorblindness

Inspired by MLK ‘I have a dream speech’ - but altered meaning to focus on not seeing difference, rather than original intention/reference towards equality.

Allows you to avoid talking about race, a form of denial (‘ostrich in the sand’), but in the meanwhile Whites face reverse racism.

Connected to differences between Equity and Equality - equal resources do not help equal the systems in place that disadvantage unequally

Does not address inequity directly

Children are aware of racial difference, adults must address but often avoid

Teachers talk of ‘Fear of…’ reinforcing stereotypes, mis-stating, pity, etc.

Seeming neutrality

“The normalization of whiteness produces the coloblind ideology.” (Dipti Desai)

See: CRT Chapter, p. 26; Gloria Ladson Billings, p. 29; Racial Awareness, p. 2-4

Whiteness as property

bell hooks addresses intersection of race and gender, rape as assertion of dominance/dominion “racism and sexism are interlocking systems of domination which uphold and sustain one another” hooks, Race and Sex, p. 59

US was conceived and built on notion of property - connected to citizenship (who could vote, and who could not)

Whiteness connected to privileges - financial benefits and invisible/unearned privileges

Reproduced within structures of capitalism: based on originary system of chattel slavery and violent colonial disposession of indigenous land (bc they did not believe in notion of property/ownership of land), continues through more recent systems of disenfranchisement: Black codes, Redlining, legal definitions of whiteness (Dred Scot, Plessy v. Ferguson)

“Whites know they possess a property that people of color do not and that to possess it confers aspects of citizenship not available to others. Harris’s (1993) argument that the ‘property functions of whiteness’ (p. 1731) - rights of disposition, rights to use and enjoyment, reputation and status property, and the absolute right to exclude - make the American dream of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ a more likely and attainable reality for Whites as citizens.” -- Ladson Billings, p. 26

Explains the expanding wealth gap.

See: Gloria Ladson Billings p. 25-26; Cameron Rowland, 91020000;

Meritocracy (Yuanyuan)

Similar to colorblindness, meritocracy is known as a political effort admitting individual efforts, talents and achievements towards equality regardless of one’s social class and race, aiming to deconstruct oppressive racial structures and reconstruct equitable and socially just relations of power in schools.

Meritocracy creates socioeconomic disparity, which directly affects the distribution of resources and quality of education.

It is closely correlated with high-standard entrance exams/placements, which is dominant by most financially rich and socially powerful elites and aggravates social and financial segregation. -Segregation Has Been the Story of New York City’s Schools for 50 Years, New York Times

Embedded with individual equality, the practice highlights the efforts of individuals, but fails to recognize the function of social, historical, or institutional process. (Ladson-Billings)

Meritocracy doesn’t practically resolve social/political/racial inequality with the existence of “bipartisan support for the privatization of school through charters and vouchers, and high suspension and expulsion rates for Black and Latina/o students at schools”.- Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall, Moving beyond Equality. P31-p32

Meritocracy remains dominated by the power structures, as Angela Davis states, “policies of enlightenment by themselves do not necessarily lead to radical transformation of power structures.”

Intersectionality (Alexis)

Recognizing the interconnectedness of social justice movements. It is also a way to recognize people and their identities as complex. Intersectionality does not hold one social justice cause above another, but rather recognizes the link of oppression under systemic constructs. For example, in 1972 the Gay Sunshine: A Newspaper of Gay Liberation published an article called We Are All Fugitives that, “Visually connected queer struggles with anti-prison, anti-colonial, feminist, Black Power and other liberation movements” (Quinn and Meiners P. 30). bell hooks says, “Black liberation struggle must be re-visioned so that it is no longer equated with maleness. We need a revolutionary vision of black liberation, one that emerges from a feminist standpoint and addresses the collective plight of black people.” She’s saying that with out a feminist framework applied to black liberation, the efforts will disproportionatley aid black men and not women. It is the intersection of black liberation and feminism that is necessary for progress.

“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not lead single-issue lives.” Audre Lorde

Interest Convergence (Sarah W)

Some CRT scholars suggest “interest convergence” in response to contention that civil rights laws serve the interests of whites

Defined as “the place where the interests of whites and people of color intersect“ (Ladson-Billings).

Example of Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday commemoration in Arizona:

State of Arizona originally deemed MLK Jr Day too costly and wouldn’t recognize the holiday for state workers and agencies. African American groups and supporters began boycotting. When the NBA and NFL suggested high profile games not be played in Arizona, the decision was reversed. When the position on the holiday could have negative effects on tourism and sport entertainment venues, state interests converged with the interests of African-American community

“Converging interests, not support of civil rights, led to the reversal of the state’s position” (Ladson-Billings).

Deficit Model (Sarah S)

Focuses on students’ weaknesses

“Critical Race Theory suggests that current instructional strategies presume that African American students are deficient. As a consequence, classroom teachers are engaged in a never-ending quest for “the right strategy or technique” to deal with “at-risk” students.” African American students thus are addressed in a language and manner denoting failure and are often involved in some sort of remediation. When using a set of teaching techniques, the students instead of the techniques are found to be lacking. (Ladson-Billings)

Children are aware of racial differences as well as racism and begin picking apart societal negatives (or weaknesses) which apply to themselves at a young age (Derman-Sparks et al.)

Microaggressions (Zack)

Microaggression is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalized groups. (Sue, Capodilupo, Torino, Bucceri, Holder & Nadal, 2007).

The term racial microaggressions was first proposed by psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce, MD, in the 1970s, but psychologists have significantly amplified the concept in recent years.

From Buzzfeed, here are 15 Microaggressions heard by employees:

1.   What are you?

2.   So what do you guys speak in Japan? Asian?

3.   You don’t act like a normal black person, ‘ya know?

4.   Courtney, I never see you as a black girl.

5.   So, like, what are you?

6.   You don’t speak Spanish?

7.   No, you’re white.

8.       So, what does your hair look like today?

9.       So, you’re Chinese, right?

10.   You’re not really Asian.

11.   Why is your daughter so white?

12.   You’re really pretty for a dark skin girl

13.   Can you read this? (A Japanese character)

14.   Why do you sound white?

15.   Can you see as much as white people? You know, because of your eyes?

Anti-essentialism (Victoria)

Has a lot of connection with intersectionality

“No person has a single, easily stated, unitary identity. A white feminist may also be Jewish or working class or a single mother… An Asian may be a recently arrived Hmong of rural background and unfamiliar with mercantile life or a fourth-generation Chinese with a father who is a university professor and a mother who operates a business. Everyone has potentially conflicting, overlapping identities, loyalties, and allegiances.” (Delgado, Stefancic, 2001) Not all people of the same race have the same experiences. There’s a wide variety of experiences within one race, and oftentimes we’ll have multiple identities that will overlap or conflict with each other.

Hegemony (Ari)

-Hegemony is the internalization of dominant structures in society

-internal agreeance & submissiveness of power structures, sometimes because of not wanting to face furthur discrimination (example: refraining from using a non-english language in public)

-attempts to deconstruct hegemony is known as “counter-hegemony”

-power structure examples: white person & POC, male & female, thin person or large person, elder (wise) & younger (inexperienced), able bodied person & disabled person

-being hyper-aware of these and allowing them to continue, joining this system of oppression