#bc it's fundamentally about you as an individual/your internal relationship to the world

[butch-reidentified]

fact: there is so much of the natural world we don't understand yet

many forms of women's spirituality is just... celebrating how cool that is. not believing in any fictional narrative. just celebrating nature and how much we have yet to understand.

that's why I take issue with the "it's just as fictional as Christianity etc" narrative. some forms, sure, but not any I'd ever be interested in.

it's just ignorance. your idea of witchcraft vs what I'm actually talking about. but you aren't taking the time to ask or listen. there's literally nothing "unscientific" about what I personally practice. it's just about my relationship to the scientific unknown.

edit to add some of what I just included in a different reblog:

fwiw, I still don't consider myself spiritual as (like I've repeatedly said) my witchcraft is, to me, artistic self-expression and is fundamentally about my personal connection to the universe, womanhood, nature, and, despite what certain women on here are insisting, to science. I've never been able to convince myself to believe in specific unseen/supernatural things like deities (learned this at a very young age trying to make myself believe in the Christian God, then tried with other gods, never believed in Santa even).

women engaging in scientific pursuits have historically so often been the ones labeled witches. new scientific creations have so often historically been called magic, witchcraft, heresy, etc., and those involved persecuted for it.

historically, women called witches have so often BEEN scientists, and that & the erasure of women throughout scientific history is exactly WHY using the term is so important to me, WHY I don't respect the patriarchally-derived dictionary definition* of "witch" or "witchcraft." I have a peer-reviewed neuroscience publication with my name on it, and that, to me, is part of my witchcraft. idc how anyone else feels about that but calling it antifeminist is absurd.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

I suspect quite a few people on this site don’t realize they are struggling with the effects of chronic trauma. In particular I think more people need to learn about the symptoms of C-PTSD.

Distinct from general PTSD, Complex PTSD is caused by prolonged, recurring stress and trauma, often occurring in childhood & adolescence over an extended period of time. There are many risk factors, including: abusive/negligent caregivers, dysfunctional family life, untreated mental/chronic illness, and being the target of bullying/social alienation.

I’m not a mental health professional and I’m not qualified to diagnose anyone, I just remember a million watt light bulb going off in my head when I first learned about C-PTSD. It was a huge OH MY FUCKING WORD eureka moment for me—it explained all these problems I was confused and angry at myself for having. The symptoms that really stood out to me were:

Negative self-perception: deep-seated feelings of shame, guilt, worthlessness, helplessness, and stigma. Feeling like you are different from everyone else, like something is fundamentally ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ with you.

Emotional avoidance of topics, people, relationships, activities, places, things etc that might cause uncomfortable emotions such as shame, fear, or sadness. Can lead to self-isolation.

Learned helplessness: a pervasive sense of powerlessness, often combined with feelings of desensitization, wherein you gradually stop trying to escape or prevent your own suffering, even when opportunities exist. May manifest as self-neglect or self-sabotage. (I remember watching myself make bad choices and neglect my responsibilities, and having no idea why I was doing it, or how to stop myself. Eventually I just stopped caring, which led to more self-neglect.)

Hyper-vigilance: always feeling “on edge,” alert, unable to relax even in spaces that should feel safe. May be combined with an elevated “flight” response, or feelings of always being prepared to flee. (I used to hide important documents and possessions in a sort of emergency go bag, even when I was living alone and there was no logical reason other than it made me feel “prepared.”)

Difficulty regulating emotions: may include mood swings, persistent numbness, sadness, suicidal idealization, explosive anger (or inability to feel anger and other strong emotions), inability to control your emotions, confusion about why you react the way you do.

Sense of foreshortened future: assuming or feeling that you will die young. Recurring thoughts that "I'll be dead before the age of 30/40/18/21 etc." As a teenager I used to joke darkly that I didn't plan to live past 30—not because I planned to end my life, but because I simply couldn't imagine myself alive and happy in the long-term. I couldn't imagine a meaningful future where I wasn't suffering.

Emotional flashbacks: finding yourself suddenly re-experiencing feelings of helplessness, panic, despair, or anger etc, often without understanding what has triggered these feelings. Often these flashbacks don’t clearly relate to the memory of a single event (since C-PTSD is caused by repetitive events, which can blur together), making them harder to identify as flashbacks��especially if you’ve never heard the phrase “emotional flashback” and don’t know what to look for. For years I just filed it under “sometimes I overreact/freak out randomly for no reason, probably bc I am just a terrible human being.” (It turns out there was very much a reason, it was just hidden in the past. I have since learned to be kinder and less judgemental towards myself.)

There are other symptoms too, here are more links with good info.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for awhile, because I’ve noticed that a lot of the people I interact with online have risk factors and experiences similar to mine. These include:

growing up in a dysfunctional household

having caregivers who do not fulfill basic emotional needs (do not provide consistent positive attention, encouragement, support, acceptance, communication, a sense of safety and security)

on a very related note, experiencing neglect or abuse at the hand of caregivers or other adults. I also want to emphasize the significance of emotional abuse, since it is hard to recognize, easy to ignore, and utterly rampant in so many communities. In general, family dysfunction, abuse & neglect are quite difficult to identify when you are a child/teen and that is the only “normal” you have known.

(For example, in my family it manifested as an emotionally absent father I was vaguely frightened of, constant nagging from a hypercritical mother, and a house full of people who yelled and screamed at each other. It took me years to realize I grew up in an abusive environment, because there was no physical violence, because I participated in the fighting, and because my behavioral problems made me the family scapegoat. And I internalized that guilt: I thought I was the problem. But no—I was a child, and I deserved not to grow up in a household full of anger and fear and negativity. You deserved that too. You deserved to grow up safe and loved and treated with kindness.) 

anyway back to more risk factors:

being neurodivergent or chronically ill (especially without receiving proper treatment/support/accommodation)

being queer (especially in a conservative or undiverse community, or without the support and acceptance of family & friends)

being the target of bullying or harassment (from peers, teachers, authority figures, irl, online, etc)

being isolated or alienated from peers, from family, from your wider community.

growing up with chronic anxiety, discomfort, pain, fear, or distress caused by any of the above and more.

There are many other experiences that can cause chronic trauma, but these are some particularly common ones I see people in my own community struggling with. And I want more people to be aware of this, because we’ve been taught to ignore and second-guess the significance of our traumatic experiences. We’ve been taught to feel guilty for our own pain, because “other people aren’t struggling, so I shouldn’t either” or (contradictorily) “other people have it worse, so I shouldn’t complain.” But that’s not how it works—you are not other people, and you deserve to have it better. We all deserve better. We deserve to be happy. We deserve not to be in pain.

I used to think I couldn’t have a trauma disorder because (I argued in my head) the things that happened to me weren’t that bad. And then I spent five years in therapy learning to accept the full extent of my issues. I’ve since learned that trauma comes in many forms, and can happen quietly, invisibly, silently, chronically, and usually without the survivor being aware of the long-term repercussions of what they are surviving. That revelation comes later, after you have survived and must instead learn to live.

Finally, no single type of trauma is more real or harmful than any other. Severity is measured by the way the individual is affected, and the same situations affect different people in different ways. Because no one gets to choose how their brain reacts to trauma. No one gets to choose their hurt—otherwise there would be a hell of a lot less hurting in the world.

We can, however, choose to seek help. We can learn to recognize when something is wrong, we can learn when to reach out to professionals, and we can learn to educate ourselves on our injuries.

And gradually, we can learn to heal.

(posts like this brought to you by ko-fi supporters)

[otrtbs]

thoughts about the goldfinch? theo and boris?! which marauder do you associate with them if any?! pls you word things so beautifully i feel like you’re the only one that could possibly encompass what this book actually is

❗️❗️GOLDFINCH SPOILERS BELOW ❗️❗️

I have so many thoughts about The Goldfinch! I have never, seen such beautifully rich worlds crafted like Donna Tartt crafts them in the Goldfinch. Cold and grey Amsterdam, Glitzy and sleazy Vegas, upper echelons of NYC!! And the characters she writes have a million layers to them and I love to peel them all off like an onion and slurp their thoughts up with a straw (that's so weird ik and im sorry but it's the truth! also their thoughts are not onion flavoured just clarifying)

Theo and Boris and their relationship makes my heart ache because it's so poignant and heartbreaking!! I also think it's funny how Boris calls Theo Potter after Harry Potter and perhaps it is a foreshadowing moment to the fact that Theo becomes an orphan. Also Boris taking care of Theo out in the desert even though they were both fucked up bc he knew Theo was self-destructing to die and not to have fun like he was makes me CRYYYY. Ahhhh clearly!! I can talk about them for hours if you let me but I'll try to stick to your question! hahaha

It's really hard for me to pin down Boris as a Marauder idk why he doesn't fit into the mold for me, but after thinking about Theo, I think he's Regulus-coded.

I think about him keeping all his feelings very close to his chest (not telling Boris he loved him in Vegas, all his issues w Pippa, Vegas in general, etc) and the way that he's constantly moving a million miles an hour in his head but he's much more reserved with people. He's crazy smart and he has bad coping mechanisms and an outlook on life that feels similar to one that Regulus would have (imo). ALSO when Theo is lying to Hobie and he goes to the sink to get a glass of water to buy more time and thinks to himself "this is exactly what my father used to do" THAT IS SO REGULUS CODED TO MEEEE

anyway, here are some quotes of Theo's internal monologues that seem so Regulus-coded to me for proof haha

"A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are." "Why am I made the way I am? Why do I care about all the wrong things, and nothing at all for the right ones?" "We are so customed to disguise ourselves to others that, in the end, we become disguised to ourselves."

I could actually also make the argument that Theo and Boris' relationship is very Rosekiller-esque to me, but that's another post, and individually, I don't think Theo or Boris embody Evan or Barty enough to relate them on a character to character level but I can make general conjectures about the similarities of their respective relationships

I love how you were so incredibly sweet and kind by telling me I word things so beautifully and I'm rambling incoherently and talking about slurping characters thoughts up w straws 💀 but yes, Theo and Regulus feel the same on a few fundamental levels to me!!

[skold]

alright time to roast chris’s astrological chart

let’s fuckin go

read more for length

sun in libra - your sun sign is basically your outward personality. ur sense of self. libra suns value fairness and balance and harmony over most other things. tend to put a lot of thought into the things they do. sincere, honest, decent. intolerant of general asshole behavior and those who treat others like shit. a STRONG sense of aesthetic and artistry, prone to becoming artists of some sort.

moon in aries - moon is more yr internal self. a lot of folks relate more to their moon sign bc it’s how we feel about ourselves. aries moons can be hotheaded and impulsive. they rush through things and hate uncertainty. can give off just really intense energy in general, but most fire moons do.

mercury in scorpio - mercury rules communication and interpersonal interaction and oooooh lord does scorpio in mercury want revenge. they’re emotional and unstable in their communication. tend to like art and mysticism and psychology. can see right the fuck through people. you cannot bullshit a scorpio mercury. 

venus in scorpio - venus is basically yr love language planet. rules love and sex and also generally what you find pleasurable in life. venus in scorpio people have intense sexual energy and are generally expressive of their sexuality. they’re often the “impossible to resist” type. they love desperately and deeply. good at getting others to do what they want. have a deep sense for other folks emotions and desires.

mars in aquarius - mars is the planet of action. it’s about energy and drive - any kind of drive, be it sex drive or ambition or goal setting or work ethic. mars in aquarius folks want to be fuckin weirdos. they’re the type of people who stand out both in appearance and their energy. care a lot about enacting societal change and fighting some sort of “system”, be it society or a repressive family or certain stereotypes.

jupiter in pisces - jupiter is about growth and expansion. how we self actualize. it’s also sometimes associated with luck and fortune. jupiter in pisces natives are super friendly. hospitable and charitable types. want to look after other people. super sensitive and intuitive. good at “reading the room” so to say. often distrustful and suspicious of the motivations of others.

saturn in sagittarius - big daddy saturn is an asshole. rules over restriction and order and also ones growth over time. saturn will hurt your feelings to teach you a goddamn lesson if you fuck around. these people tend to reject organized religion and form their own set of morals. they worry about problems too much to the point of inaction. they lack the sort of trust that others love and care for and value them, and will basically always go through life feeling unsupported and like they can only rely on themselves.

uranus in sagittarius - uranus is such a slow planet to orbit it doesn’t move sign alignments very often and remains in the same sign for years and influences an entire generation. rules individuality and revolution. uranus in sag folks crave progress and accomplishment. they see others as equals and fight against xenophobia and general bigotry. generally optimistic.

neptune in capricorn - neptune is also a super slow planet so it influences an entire generation. it rules spirituality and fantasy/imagination. this placement often means a strong determination to meet goals and they have a desire for perfection.

pluto in scorpio - the slowest of planets and the ruler of power and transformation. if you’re reading this you likely have this placement!! most millennials do. these natives have the ability to reinvent themselves. prolific and capable. often into the occult. use their sexuality as a source of personal power.

so that’s the planets, now here’s some other astrological points

north node in aries, south node in libra - the nodes are mathematical points opposite each other in the chart. south node indicates your comfort zone and north node indicates what somebody wants out of life and has to go out of said comfort zone for. these folks have a lot of internal conflict. they have trouble balancing things in their life and have basically zero concept of moderation. tend to bend over backwards for others and suck at setting boundaries.

lilith in gemini - lilith is a fictional point opposite the actual moon. in mythology, lilith refused to submit to adam, rejected the world of adam & eve and decided to go chill with satan instead. and if you ask me lilith did nothing wrong, but that’s a whole other post. lilith in gemini folks are constantly searching for their sense of self. they’re constantly changing and can feel like they don’t know themselves. they do not take things seriously because they feel other things and people can change as easily as they can, which is fundamentally untrue, but difficult for them to understand. make friends easily and like to meet people from other places. ymmv but some folks believe lilith placement can indicate what health issues someone may have, and gemini lilith people are believed to be particularly vulnerable to respiratory infections and injuries to the arms/hands.

chiron in gemini - chiron is an asteroid btwn saturn and uranus. in mythology, chiron was an immortal centaur who was a healer and a teacher. he was injured by a poisonous arrow by heracles and it should have killed him but due to his immortality, he was suffering in excruciating pain but couldn’t die. he gave his immortality for prometheus and upon being sent to the underworld, zeus showed mercy on him and raised him up into the heavens as a celestial body. chiron symbolizes unhealable trauma but can also indicate how one can accept their suffering and move forward. these people feel that they are constantly being misunderstood. they either feel that nobody listens to them, or that people misunderstand what they meant, or even that no one wants to understand them. but the more a chiron in gemini placement tries to correct this misunderstanding, the more it may hurt them.

now here’s some of his aspects, which is just how certain planets align in the chart and interact with each other. there’s gonna be specific astrology words here that i simply do not have the brain to explain right now, but it’s not important really, just there for the folks who do know astrology and want to know what some of his aspects are. i’m not going to include all of them cuz that’d take forever but here’s some notable ones

sun opposite moon - emotions and feelings of the moon are the opposites of the ego and individuality of the sun. this can occasionally cause conflicts, especially in relationships between close family members - parents and children or with significant others.

sun sextile uranus - brings conventionality and independence. creative dynamics and independent creativity. they like to work on projects that benefit their society. idealistic, progressive, intuitive, original. they have the need to be different and they want to show their uniqueness. 

moon trine uranus - need for considerable emotional independence and freedom. often lead unconventional lives and they do not like to yield to the will of others. feel separated from society. often experience stormy emotions and mood swings.

mercury conjunction uranus - good manners and mental balance. can express themselves well and are convincing. their views are also well balanced. their thinking is often so rational that they are not able to express their feelings too openly. 

mars sextile saturn - can work without getting tired. careful and consistent. excellent organizational skills. they like stability and security, and they do not like to take risks. can easily deal with challenges and obstacles.

mars square pluto - this aspect is challenging because these people are stubborn and determined, so they often hurt other people´s feelings with their sharp judgment and their decisiveness can often lead to big life changes

and anyway chris continues to be the person most loudly Their Chart out of all the folks whom i have ever read their charts.

[multicolouredbeanbag]

Tl;dr: I classified teenage bounty hunters characters into Harry Potter houses as a personality study bc I could NOT stop thinking ab the show !!!!

Sterling is a Gryffindor primary + Slytherin secondary

Blair is a Ravenclaw primary + Gryffindor secondary

April is a Hufflepuff primary + Ravenclaw secondary

This is LONG but bear with me….. also spoilers ahead:

The methodology I used was the sorting hat chats website, a more in-depth construction of the hp houses that breaks your characteristics down into both a PRIMARY and SECONDARY house. Your primary addresses WHY you do things (motivations, values, framing of world) and your secondary addresses HOW you do things (your methodology, tactics, approach). 

Keep in mind this is my interpretation of these structures, and I am open to criticism and thoughts, in fact PLEASE send them along bc these characters rule my life!!

First up, Sterling:

Sterling’s secondary is very obviously Slytherin. Slytherins are fundamentally IMPROVISERS. They are adaptive, go-with-the-flow individuals who are able to leverage opportunities that a situation might throw at them. There are so many examples of this but the one that sticks out to me most is S1E10 the Sour Patch scene. She notices something is off ab Twin!Mom almost immediately and loses her phone. Her solution is ingenious: cajole her kidnapper into letting her go to the bathroom, where she 1) maxes out her credit card so that Blair will get a notification 2) leaves a hidden message for her using the sugar from the sour patch candies.

Couple other examples:

When she (and Blair) spreads a rumor about the condom wrapper so that the rumor can’t get traced back to her (S1E1)

When she tries to “own her sins” and, realizing that this worked for her because no one believed that the condom wrapper was hers, went along with the idea that the whole thing was a joke — frankly excellent strategic move that would have protected her. Of course, she gave in afterwards because she saw that April was going to take the fall but this is relevant to her primary not so much her secondary (more on this later) (S1E2)

Post-college party (S1E3), she spins a bad situation (her public drunkenness, a low) into a great one (story of redemption, being closer to God) by riding her peers’ reactions up and back into fellowship. Definitely unplanned, but so, so smart.

Sterling’s primary is probably a Gryffindor. She has a strong internal moral compass and sense of right and wrong that she cannot help acting upon.

Examples:

S1E2, when she confesses that the condom wrapper is hers and rejects her own strategy (even though she had been winning!) because she couldn’t let April take the fall for her. It didn’t matter that April had been threatening her, that April kind of got herself into this bad situation, because April hadn’t done it.

S1E5: Sterling ultimately CANNOT bring herself to attack Craig Wu, because she felt it was wrong. This cost her school the tournament, and the brief period of camaraderie that she’d had with April, and a bit of herself (because Sterling IS a super motivated person who does want to win— just not at the expense of her morals)

Basically at the end of the day, Sterling has a set of morals that she feels really strongly about. I even think her confidence within her own relationship with God is an example of this—the community is teaching her all these Christian values of purity but Sterling is still like NO, I know what’s right, and I know that being a good person means more to God. It is very difficult for her to defy her own internal convictions, regardless of what the community around her is saying.

Note: I did consider Sterling as a possible Hufflepuff primary, which would have meant that she values people/community/fairness, which seems in line initially. The difference between Gryffs and Puffs is slight but significant: Gryffindor is idealistic, willing to sacrifice social harmony for what they believe is right. They are internally driven. Hufflepuff is allegiant to their group, taking input from the community. They are externally driven. Basically, how much can other people influence your decisions?

Sterling’s intuitive morality includes concern for the community/people, but at the end of the day, I think that Sterling will make the “right” choice according to her internalized moral intuition about who deserves what, even if it might hurt people she cares for. Her morality interacts with Blair’s in a very interesting way - not to get too much into it but Sterling ends up being more confident internally while Blair is more of a tester/scientist, willing to research externally in order to affirm/reject her beliefs ab the world. Inadvertently Blair is more prone to existential crises (see ghostgate S1E5).

So overall, Sterling is a kickass character with a strong sense of right or wrong even though she can be conniving/tactical/sneaky in her means!! I am so sorry that this turned out so obsessively long, and I’m not done yet — so I’ll put up the next part tomorrow! We haven’t even rly gotten to how the characters interact with each other, because UGH. Their personality traits bounce off each other so well. Ok thank u for reading please drop ur thoughts PLEASE

Part 2    Part 3

[readingontheroof]

actually i have more questions but you can just answer in your own time, i'll send different asks so u can spread it out if u want [waving hand emoji] anyway i'm interested in how u think the enneagram types approach independence and freedom differently?

lmao thank u for spreading them i appreciate it

I’ll just go type by type for organization’s sake

1s--I think they’d mostly view independence as like “sticking to your guns” as in not wavering from your rule book/principles/values/etc despite life challenges, people disagreeing, etc. I think freedom would be something they’re kind of fundamentally uncomfortable with because they might view it as sort of unsettling/anxiety inducing bc they then lose what they’ve built their identity on. With integration to 7, they have a better understanding of freedom, and are likely to conceptualize it as something they give themselves, by “letting go.”

2s--I think they’d see independence as a kind of intimidating/unappealing concept bc they’re likely to either see it as something they’re bad at achieving or something they don’t understand the appeal of. It’s with integration to 4 that they get a better idea of their own distinct identity separate from community/other people, and they start to hone their idea of individuality. They’re likely to see freedom as interpersonal, eg I think a lot of 2s see freedom as when they’re with people they can be “free” with instead of with people that make them feel insecure.

3s--I think 3s see independence as a main goal, and view it as intrinsically tied to their success. The more successful they are, the more independent they are. and the more they can take care of themselves, the more they’ve proved themselves. I think they can get kind of unhealthily wrapped up in this, and it’s with integration to 6 that they can understand how dependence/trust in other people can be valuable/healthy. I think they view freedom as this concept of a future when they’ve so proved themselves that they’ve kind of reached the ending point. I don’t think they think too hard about this, because 3s essentially see life as a constant exponential increase in success and if they don’t stay on that track they’re failing, but they have this vague concept of Proving themselves, at which point freedom is achieved. However I think in reality freedom is achieved for them when they gain a sense of intrinsic worth, independent of the outside world + expectations + achievement.

4s--I think 4s view independence as tied to their identity and individuality. It’s something very internal for them, it’s about having their own sense of self, separate from other people and the world. I think they view freedom as something tied to thought and expression, they view freedom as being able to “be themselves.”

5s--I think 5s view independence as being very internal as well. I think 5s are def the most independent type/the type that values independence the most, at least on this very literal, internal level (rather than on like a financial or physical level like a 3). 5s view independence as being able to exist/having a honed identity/sense of thought completely separate from/resilient to the outside world and other people. I think 5s view freedom as being very tied to this independence, they view freedom as the ability to escape any situation, often by receding into themselves.

6s--I think 6s have a hard time with independence, and view it basically the same as what I've described for 2s, except more specific to certain people rather than the community as a whole. I think they view freedom as threatening the way that 1s do, I think they like to be dependent on people and gain a better relationship to it with integration to 9, where they might begin to view freedom as an internal thing, about internal peace and separation from the outside world and other people.

7s--I think a lot of 7s have a very strong sense of independence, and view it as very tied to their freedom. They tend to define their independence as their resilience and ability to be easy going in any situation--their ability to have a good time and remain unbothered even as life gets really bad. I think that freedom for them is about their ability to do whatever they want, whenever they want, regardless of rules/the world/their situation. I think that their concepts of both independence and freedom can be unhealthy for them, because they often are not built on real freedom, because of their tendency to lead toward escapism and avoid actually addressing their problems.

8s--I think 8s view independence as very power driven. A healthy 8 will view independence as their ability to control their own life and choices/ability to support themselves, but many 8s seem to feel as if their independence is threatened when they cannot control other people's lives as well. Their idea of freedom is analogous to this, they tend to feel free when they can control their own life, but some feel like they are losing freedom purely because they cannot control aspects of their life which are not theirs to control.

9s--I think 9s tend to view independence as very internal as well. I think they tend to view it as something they can achieve by always remaining neutral and at peace, regardless of outer turmoil. I think they view freedom as the ability to achieve this, similar to 5s.

[scifigeneration]

A team divided: Who is the hero of Justice League?

by J. Andrew Deman

The reviews are coming in harsh for Justice League (Warner Bros.), the keystone movie of the DC extended-universe. In some ways this shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the somewhat dubious artistic record of the Justice League comics.

If you walk up to someone on the street (or, more accurately a local comic book store) and you ask them to identify their favourite Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman stories, they can tell you, but ask them their favourite Justice League story and you’ll have a harder time finding a frontrunner.

The reason for this is obvious: Justice League doesn’t have a lot of good stories. But if Superman is awesome and Batman is awesome and Wonder Woman is awesome, shouldn’t the three of them together be thrice as awesome?

Not necessarily.

The problem is simple: You’re taking three characters who work well on their own and jamming them (along with all the baggage of their respective fictional universes) together, while tossing in a handful of other heroes that you hope will function on their own in future movies as well.

As a novelty, it’s delightful to see so many iconic characters in one place. As a storytelling vehicle, however, it creates an obvious problem and clear question: Who is our main protagonist?

Looking for our hero

The protagonist — essentially, the hero — in a comic book or movie is the character the audience is meant to identify with. He or she is the main player in the narrative and the individual upon whose choices the events of the plot depend.

A good protagonist can leave the audience feeling invested. Whether in a comic book or a film, that’s important. Gaudy tights in comics and gaudy computer-generated imagery in film can be alienating. We need to care about the people in those tights, the people in front of that green screen.

For writers, attempting to create shared-universe storytelling — what we see in the Justice League — has challenges. They need to create a viable protagonist out of several characters. This general issue can be seen in comic books as well. Writing a team superhero book is a very different beast than writing a superhero tale surrounding a singular character.

The fundamental mechanisms by which we are made to empathize with a character and feel immersed in their struggles are different when we go from one person to many people.

The Justice League.

Ancient archetypes reflect our internal struggles

The distinction between single superhero versus a group of superheroes is as old as literature itself. It begins with The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian/Babylonian text circa 2100 BC that is very much a single-protagonist superhero story in all the ways that matter.

In contrast, the ancient Greek epic The Iliad, is a team book (but also a superhero story), featuring a diverse cast of Trojan and Greek heroes with strongly differentiated viewpoints and ideologies, as well as the sort of internal conflicts, struggles and even bantering that we associate with group superhero stories.

The culture and history of these ancient texts is very different from the era of North American comics, but the issues, pitfalls and opportunities for dynamic storytelling are very much the same. When strong, group-oriented comic books such as Fantastic Four, X-men and Teen Titans come along, beginning in the 1960s, the artists use them to explore this same dynamic of internal conflict in a way that is captivating.

The trick to success is to create a functioning gestalt protagonist — a group of heroes who serve, metaphorically, as pieces of a whole. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, isn’t your protagonist in the Fantastic Four and neither are Ben Grimm (Thing), Sue Richards (Invisible Woman) nor Johnny Storm (Human Torch). Your hero is all of them as one. You identify with the group.

Thus, the broader metaphor that gets created through all the internal group tension is one of the internal tensions that we, as individuals, all deal with every day. Humans are complex creatures with a pluralistic perspective on the world; we are paradoxical in nature and often feel like we have a symphony of voices in our head rather than one distinctive voice.

A gestalt protagonist reflects our internal dialogues by externalizing that symphony. This creates a deeper, more nuanced character for the audience to engage with.

Game of Thrones is an example of good gestalt protagonist storytelling — you’re rooting for the group, not the individuals, and it works. (Handout)

This is one of the major reasons both X-men and Teen Titans worked so well during their respective heydays in the 1980s.

Take X-men for example: Cyclops isn’t a person — not really. He represents an aspect of a person — their Type A side, their drive, their need for order and structure. Wolverine is the opposite to that — he represents the instinctual, the raw primal impulses that all humans grapple with.

A similar phenomenon can be seen in Teen Titans through the contrast between Beast Boy and Cyborg’s distinctively different responses to depression: Beast Boy plays a clown while Cyborg withdraws. This works well since a human being with depression doesn’t do one or the other. They do both, typically. Thus, the gestalt protagonist works.

Similarly, the hero of the Harry Potter series is more often Harry, Ron and Hermione, not Harry alone. Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead — all use a gestalt protagonist — you’re rooting for the group, not the individuals, and it works.

A thin spin-off

So what’s different with Justice League? The answer is translation. It’s one thing to build a gestalt protagonist from scratch and a very, very different thing to form one out of pre-existing solo protagonists. The superheroes of a group book are usually too thin and fragmented to stand on their own.

For example, when a spin-off series is created, the character needs to be radically recontextualized in order to allow them to support their own book. They change a lot, add new elements that weren’t there before: new back story, new relationships, new internal conflicts. DC will have to do this with Aquaman’s upcoming film.

That can work but taking a fully fleshed-out protagonist and trying to fold them back into a shared universe is significantly harder.

The Marvel cinematic universe has been successful in terms of both critical and popular crowds — but even there we see brutal character inconsistencies as the Avengers bounce back and forth from group and solo films. This is obvious in the first Avengers movie.

The film’s writers felt they had to contrast the two “science bros” by making Hulk the calm, rational scientist and Iron Man the undisciplined reckless scientist, but doing so contradicted the narrative arc of those characters’ solo films.

Scene from the Avengers movie, another example of lost narratives. (Marvel)

Captain America had to become morose in a way that conflicted with his solo film. Thor forgot everything he learned in his solo film and became irrational and naive again.

So what did all these inconsistencies earn the writer and director of The Avengers? Universal praise for doing the impossible. Writer Joss Whedon made it work: Not in spite of these inconsistencies but through them. Whedon is considered the best of his generation at character juggling, though, so expecting the same of others, including Justice League — even though Whedon is involved — is asking a lot.

Shared-universe storytelling is a big trend in Hollywood and when it works, it works spectacularly well. Unfortunately, it doesn’t often work.

There are deep challenges involved.

To be successful, writers will need to craft a gestalt protagonist out of other singular protagonists so that audiences will achieve satisfaction with these films. They need to transcend the simple novelty of a cinematic all-star team. They need to do what the film’s tagline tells us and actually unite the league.

If we’re going to do justice to the Justice League, we have to look backward — at our storytelling past — in order to look forward to the future of the shared universe model.

J. Andrew Deman is a Professor at the University of Waterloo

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

[cool2020calendar-blog]

July 2020 Calendar For Holiday & Work Schedule

July is the second month of summer and is known for its warm air. The best movement in July is to chill by a plunge in the sea or pool, swing in a lounger and look at get-togethers on a pre-summer night.

July is the most sultry month of the Northern Hemisphere and, regardless of what may be standard, it is seen as the coldest month in the Southern Hemisphere. July is the thing that maybe stood apart from January of the Northern side of the equator in the Southern side of the equator.

The second half of the year starts with July. In various workplaces, the assessments made around the beginning of the year are sketched out and the course is broke down. July is in like the way the comprehensive length of inquiring about decisions taken for the new year. You may even need to do a little cure. Since you may be gone in a general sense speedier, or more conceded than you orchestrated.

July is close to the immense piece of various festivals and there are various inspirations to experience this month flooding with fun. Because of each and every outside activity, coastline parties, weddings, national events and a wide degree of good occasions in July, you can be to some degree hard to contribute noteworthiness with each event.

HISTORY OF JULY

July was from the beginning of the great importance of Quintilis in the Roman timetable. It was the "fifth" month of the year until January and February were joined into the timetable in 450 BC. It got its entrancing name from the Latin word for fifth. Later the name was changed to Julius to pay tribute to Julius Caesar who was considered on July 12.

July is the standard time length known as "fence month," the shut season for deer in England. The satisfaction of England's High Court of Justice Trinity Term occurs on 31 July. July is in like the way the time wherein the races happen for the Japanese House of Councilors, held at standard among times and displacing half of its seats. In Ancient Rome, the festival of Poplifugia was adulated on 5 July, and Ludi Apollinaris was held tight 13 July and for a couple of days a brief range later. Everything considered, these dates don't identify with the progressed Gregorian timetable.

The name of the seventh month of the year – July – was given by the Roman Senate in 46 B.C. out of thankfulness for ruler Julius Caesar.

July is the most blasting month in the Northern Hemisphere all around. It takes after January in the Southern Hemisphere.

A touch of the time the sweltering, wide stretches of July are known as the "dog extended lengths of summer".

There are various countries which have their Independence Day during the hour of July. These set the United States, Belarus, Venezuela, Argentina, Belgium, the Bahamas, and the Maldives. The national days for France and Canada occur in July too.

It is a section of the time called the Hay month considering the manner in which that the grass dries out by excellence of a nonappearance of a tempest and can be made into a feed.

July's birthstone, the ruby, is reliably associated with fulfillment, love, centrality, and steadfast quality.

The regular develop of the great importance of July is the water lily, symbolizing joy, capriciousness, and sweetness.

No month completes on a general day of the week as July close to on the off chance that it is a ricochet year when January achieves everything considered.

More US presidents (seven) have passed on in July than in some other month.

The outdated British called July "Heymonth" or "Maedmonth" recommending haymaking and dales blooming.

JULY HOLIDAYS IN THE UNITED STATES

Opportunity Day (July fourth)

Opportunity Day 2020, generally called Fourth of July, is an association event observed yearly on July fourth. It is the acknowledgment of the dispersing of the solicitation of the self-rule of the United States of America from Great Britain in 1776.

On April 19, 1775, during the Battles of Lexington and Concord (Mass.), the fundamental shots were released among pioneers and British troopers, starting the American Revolution. After these first military conflicts, the strain among Britain and her American pioneers continued mounting. By then, on July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress controlled for self-rule from Britain.

Following two days, on July 4, the Congress authenticated the last draft of the Declaration of Independence, which had been made by Thomas Jefferson and changed by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. On July 8, the basic open researching of the Declaration happened at the Pennsylvania State House (genuinely Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later that for all intents and purposes indistinguishable day, various readings occurred in Trenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania.

In the United States, Independence Day is an association event everything thought about celebrated with walks, shows, sparklers and picnics, and fire burns. Various people show the American standard outside their homes or structures. If Independence Day falls on seven days' end, by then the last Friday or following Monday will be an event. As this is a Federal event, not only will schools and libraries be closed. Most government and state working circumstances will correspondingly be closed and there will be no mail send on Independence Day.

In general Day of Friendship

The International Day of Friendship is a United Nations (UN) day that supports the activity that coordinated effort plays in actuating congeniality in various social solicitations. Before the 30th of July was recently nitty-gritty as the International Day of Friendship by the General Assembly of United Nations in 2011, the central thought for a day of the association began from Hallmark cards during the 1930s, various years back. It was from the beginning celebrated on second August, the day was, as they say, seen incredulously by general society as a business work out, offers of family relationship day cards didn't take off in Europe and by the mid-1940's the day had ended up being unsafe in the USA. The probability of a day to regard family connections was, in any case, understood by different countries in Asia where it remained a standard custom to hold a day for complimenting affiliations and the exchanging of headways between buddies.

The basic World Friendship Day was proposed for 30 July 1958 by the World Friendship Crusade, a general crucial affiliation that fights to connect with a culture of the comprehension through affiliation.

Because of the creation pervasiveness of electronic life all through the world, there has been a huge development in watching World Friendship Day and International Day of Friendship online similarly as in system practices in close to structures arranged for get-together ones of different establishments.

If you are an "all around sorted out" person who reliably says interest is fundamental, attempt to experience this day with your mates (by structure new memories)! You ought to just check this day on your July 2020 calendar printable!

National Parents' Day

Gatekeepers' Day lauds the monstrosity of the development of trustworthy youth raising in family life dependably on the fourth Sunday in July. Families are the most minor unit of the general people and a significant human establishment. The need of a family is to be as one through boundless love and responsibility.

Watchmen's Day was set up in 1994. In a time span where society ended up being genuinely self-devoured, President Bill Clinton meant congressional focuses to watch Parents' Day needing to move family duties and parental responsibilities. Kept up by the Unification Church, Senator Trent Lott passed on the bill into the senate and the National Parents' Day Coalition was made to help Parents' Day by dependably picking 'Watchmen' of the Year' at neighborhood, national and state levels. The Coalition similarly ensures informational activities for protects and might want to drive the dependable idea of family by enabling consistency among wedded couples, and of marriage between youngsters.

National Parents' Day isn't a day of gift-giving. Gifts are starting at now permitted on Mother's Day in May and Father's Day in June. The best way to deal with a watch this day is achieving something fun by contributing noteworthiness with your kinfolk. It's in like manner of key giant that you cause them to appreciate the entire they are revered and saw.

This year in 2020 National Parents' Day will be commended on July 26th 2020, Sunday.

In case you have to experience this novel day with your family or bring a journey through a huge field of cordial recollections, you may put a sign on your printable timetable.

Certainly UNDERSTOOD BIRTHDAYS IN JULY

July 6, 1946 – George Walker Bush who is the past (43rd) President of the United States was considered in New Haven, Connecticut.

July 10, 1856–Nikola Tesla who was a Serbian-American pioneer, best known for his advancement of substituting stream electrical systems was imagined in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (clearly in Croatia).

July 18, 1918–A Nobel laureate, Nelson Mandela who was the man submitted for toppling politically-grasped racial detachment and joining the country of South Africa was imagined in Mvezo, South Africa.

July 21, 1899–Ernest Hemingway who was a Nobel Prize-winning American essayist was considered in Cicero (legitimately in Oak Park), Illinois.

July 26, 1943–Mick Jagger who is a recognized entertainer, lyricist, craftsman, on-screen character and the setting up individual from 'The Rolling Stones' was considered in Dartford, England. July 6, 1907–Frida Kahlo who was a prominent Mexico.

[itsnelkabelka]

Speech: A free, open, secure cyberspace for all

Introduction

Good morning and thank you, Minister, for your warm introduction.

I am delighted to be in India, and I am grateful to the Observer Research Foundation for this opportunity to address such an esteemed audience.

Before I begin to talk about our shared interests in the future of cyberspace, I’d like to take this opportunity to commend the work of my Indian counterparts.

Minister Prasad, like the UK you face vast and complex domestic, regional and global cyber security challenges and you work tirelessly to keep your citizens and businesses safe.

We both know that the threat of today will be dwarfed by the threat of tomorrow, and so our response too must be ever evolving.

At the same time we both recognise the internet’s great potential.

In both of our countries the digital economy forms a significant part of GDP, employs tens of thousands of people and continues to grow quickly.

In India, internet usage is growing at a phenomenal rate every year, and will grow faster still through Prime Minister Modi’s exciting vision for a Digital India.

So I turn to one of the most pressing international issues of our time: how to harness the power of the internet while ensuring our safety and security online.

Or to put it another way, how do we collectively continue to build a free, open and secure cyberspace for all?

Evolution of the Internet

I remember hearing about the ‘World Wide Web’ when I was just completing my law articles in 1990, but could not even begin to imagine the impact it would have.

No recent invention in human history has changed our lives so dramatically or so quickly. This extraordinary creation – the brainchild of a British engineer, Tim Berners Lee – has surely surpassed even his wildest expectations.

An internet worth protecting

Today the internet connects, informs and entertains nearly three billion people across the world. Thanks to mobile phones, we have access to its power virtually anywhere we want.

Never before have ideas, information and products been so universally available.

The internet has transformed vast swathes of the earth from communication black-spots to communication hotspots.

We can access one and a quarter billion websites from our phones, wristwatches, tablets or home computers.

We can control our bank accounts, adjust our heating – or more likely, here in India, your air conditioning - and we can shop for anything from health food to helicopters.

The Challenge

There is no doubt that the internet has spread knowledge and opportunity further and faster than ever before. It has powered extraordinary positive change.

However, the very features of the internet that make it a force for good – its low cost, its global reach and its easy accessibility – also make it attractive to those who wish us harm.

The threat is ever evolving.

From power stations to pace makers; dams to defibrillators; toasters to telecommunication networks, the growth in global connectivity is exposing us all to new risks in ways that could not have been conceived of in a world before the Internet.

We must face the fact that the more we use it and become reliant on it, the greater these risks becomes.

Last year, hackers breached the IT systems of almost half of UK businesses.

In recent months both our National Health Service and our Parliament have suffered cyber attacks.

The Costs of Cyber Crime

It’s easy with cyber security to get lost in the ones and the zeros, but for many in this room, these ones and zeros often come in the form of pounds, dollars and rupees, as they count the cost of cyber attacks.

In fact, cyber attacks have become a global industry in their own right, currently costing the world over $400 billion a year, a figure that is estimated to grow more than fivefold within the next 2 years.

The challenge that faces us all is how to respond to the spectrum of online threats, without restricting the benefits that we know the internet can bring.

It is important to recognise that much of the activity we see online is not actually “new”.

Attempts by rival powers to subvert democratic political processes can be traced back to Persia’s relations with

Athenian Democracy in the 5th and 6th Century BC.

The first documented instance of fraud was in 300BC when a Greek merchant called Hegestratos took out a large insurance policy against his ship and its cargo of corn with the express intention of sinking an empty vessel to defraud his backers.

And it wasn’t long after the advent of the printing press that the medium was being used to produce material that was viewed by the leading powers of the day as dangerous dissent or heresy.

Just as the behaviours we see online are not new, neither do we need to re-invent the solutions. Cyberspace is not a lawless space. Existing criminal and international laws apply online as they do offline, as do fundamental rights and freedoms.

However, while some online activities may be timeless, the scale, speed and anonymity the internet offers are very new indeed and present a uniquely modern challenge.

To address it, we should apply the same qualities that brought us cyberspace itself: energy, creativity and collaboration.

UK Collaborative Approach

This is what is at the heart of the UK approach – working collectively within the international system, with industry and civil society – a multi-stakeholder approach - to address the risks of the digital age while maximising the benefits.

That is why we launched the ‘London Process’ in 2011, to bring people together and further international understanding of how the “rules of the road” for cyberspace might be implemented in practice.

I am delighted that India will be hosting the fifth iteration of the Global Conference on Cyberspace here in Delhi in November.

We take this collaborative approach because the internet is a global resource, which not only stretches across international borders; it also reaches into our offices, our communities and even our children’s bedrooms.

Not only must the governance of the internet be truly global, it must also involve the full range of stakeholders represented here today.

The best analogy I can think of for the UK view of online safety and security is, as a team sport.

A sport where industry, academia, civil society, government, international partners and, above all, the public, play the part of wicketkeeper, slip, gully and deep square leg.

In other words, it is all about working together.

Responding to the cybersecurity challenge

This approach is perhaps seen most clearly in our response to the cybersecurity threat.

With the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy we are seeking to defend our people, businesses and assets across the public and private sectors; to deter and disrupt our adversaries, whether states, criminals or hacktivists; to develop our critical capabilities and to strengthen our cybersecurity sector.

Central to delivery of this Strategy is our National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which celebrates its first birthday this week.

Bringing together all of the UK’s cyber security expertise into a single body, the NCSC works with UK organisations, businesses and individuals to provide authoritative and coherent cyber security advice and cyber incident management.

You will hear more about the NCSC’s achievements tomorrow, directly from members of the Centre, who have travelled here with me.

Another important part of delivering our strategy is international cooperation.

The UK is working to strengthen partnerships on a bilateral, regional and global level to collectively tackle threats, build confidence and transparency, and strengthen global cybersecurity.

Our partnership with India is a good example.

We have built cooperation at all levels, from heads of government to our excellent working relationship with Dr Rai and relevant parts of the Indian government through interaction between our tech sectors, think-tanks and NGOs. Together we are working to improve cyber security, combat cybercrime, and advance voluntary norms of responsible state behaviour and the application of international law to cyberspace.

We have built cooperation at all levels, from heads of government to our tech sectors and non-governmental organisations.

Terrorist Use of the Internet

This kind of multi-layered approach is vital for strengthening cybersecurity.

The same is true of tackling extremist content online.

This issue is a particular priority for the UK government because the UK is reported to have the biggest online audience in Europe for Jihadist propaganda, and the 5th biggest worldwide after Turkey, the US, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

We all have a role to play.

First, national governments have a responsibility to provide the legal framework and the resources to stop material being disseminated within our borders. And we must cooperate across borders to stop material that originates overseas.

Secondly, internet service providers have a responsibility to stop terrorist material being uploaded and to take it down more quickly when it is.

Finally, families and community groups have a responsibility to be aware of the dangers and to do what they can to prevent people they know from falling prey to online extremism.

If I may, before I conclude, I would like to set out what action the UK government is taking to tackle this issue of terrorist use of the internet. As I said just now, it is a current priority for us and our Prime Minister Theresa May has been leading global efforts.

She was instrumental in establishing the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism – an industry-led initiative to close down online space for extremist material.

At the UN General Assembly last month, alongside President Macron of France and Prime Minister Gentiloni of Italy, she hosted an event for tech industry leaders and like-minded countries, including India, to find solutions to the threats we face.

She laid down an important challenge to internet service providers: to take down extremist content within two hours of it being posted.

At a national level we are also stepping up our response, using our counter extremism and counter-terrorism strategies to help us remove “safe spaces” for terrorists online.

We are determined to prevent extremists from using cyberspace to sow fear, hatred and division. However, we must also be alert to the fact that they also seek to undermine our values. We must at all costs avoid a response that restricts the very freedoms they seek to undermine, or we will be doing their work for them.

Conclusion

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, we must come together in the face of these and other threats.

We must hold fast to the values of decency, fair play and mutual respect.

We must defend the extraordinary opportunities that the internet brings.

Let us come together to keep it free, open and secure in equal measure.

Let us make sure that the internet of tomorrow is a force for good. Thank you.

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