#because he is RELIGIOUS about the rules of acquisition

[fast-moon]

DS9 Season 2 Thoughts

I've made it through the second season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine after missing out on it during its original run due to being too young to understand it at the time. Let's see how it holds up now!

1. The Homecoming: Kira goes to rescue a Bajoran prisoner who she hopes can unify the planet, but it turns out all the legends about him are just that, and he's just some guy who's not up to the task. But Sisko knows how religious people work, and insists he play the part anyway, since they won't be bothered about whether any claims about him are real or not.

2. The Circle: The plot continues to be too real as a government official conspires with the leader of a small but vocal conservative religious sect to use terrorism to overthrow the government and install themselves. Even the more liberal religious leader still has naughty fantasies.

3. The Siege: The three-parter misses the landing by naively believing that religious extremists attempting to overthrow the government would actually reconsider if shown proof that they're secretly being funded by an enemy power who wants to use them to destabilize the country.

4. Invasive Procedures: Okay, seriously, is Dax just utterly emotionally dissociated from her current body? She shrugs off constant sexual harassment and objectification, she was indifferent about being executed for a crime she didn't commit, she didn't treat Bashir's sexualized replica of her as any kind of violation, and now she's like, "Welp, this guy wants my liver squid. Oh well, bye, guys." Also, I get that Quark's an entertaining POS, but there are certain things he's done that he really should be facing consequences for.

5. Cardassians: Our fabulous Cardassian tailor returns! I'm not sure how I feel about sending the kid back with his bio dad, but if it had ended with him staying with his adoptive family, I'm not sure how I would have felt about that, either. It was a crap situation for that poor kid either way.

6. Melora: The station crew trip over themselves trying to improve the accessibility of the station for a new special needs crew member. Gosh, if only they were that worried about its accessibility for their permanent crew member who still has to contort himself into unnatural shapes on a daily basis in order to utilize its systems. #JusticeForOdo

7. Rules of Acquisition: Quark's new business partner starts hitting on him. His partner then turns out to be a woman, which actually ends up making it even more scandalous.

8. Necessary Evil: Oh, cool, a film noir episode that shows what the station was like under Cardassian rule. Quark finally gets some comeuppance but is saved by plot armor. Odo explores his inner Columbo. He was also apparently a lab subject and then a sideshow attraction before Gul Dukat hired him as security, so good lord, someone give this poor slime a break.

9. Second Sight: A woman in an unhappy marriage literally dreams up a self-insert OC to pair with Sisko.

10. Sanctuary: An entire nation of refugees comes through the wormhole and demands to settle on Bajor because it's their holy promised land. They get denied, then get pissy because one deeply religious group annexing territory from another deeply religious group and then having to live side-by-side has historically worked out so well in the past.

11. Rivals: Prince Humperdinck brings aboard a gatcha game that breaks the universe's RNG.

12. The Alternate: It's finally Odo's turn to get infected with the crazypox that he usually has to save everyone else from. Although, even without the crazypox as an excuse, I think he's earned the right to throw a violent temper tantrum after all the bullshit he's had to put up with. Also, "Wasn't that pillar over here before?" "It was in my way; I had it moved." is living rent-free in my brain due to how deliberate the inclusion of this exchange was yet how utterly pointless it ended up being. A red herring is one thing, but the entire pillar subplot simply vanished entirely following this scene and it left me so confused.

13. Armageddon Game: Aliens gift Sisko a deepfake video of how they would have killed O'Brien and Bashir if they were actually halfway competent about it.

14. Whispers: O'Brien becomes paranoid that everyone is conspiring against him, and it turns out he's right. Nice subtle touch to having him repeatedly order coffee throughout the episode, since his coffee habits in the previous episode were what initially clued them in that he was a fake.

15. Paradise: Sisko: "Excuse me, are y'all with the cult?" Alixus: "We're not a cult, we're an isolated commune that rejects technology and--" Sisko: "Yeah, this is it."

16. Shadowplay: Odo and Dax figure out everyone in the village is a hologram because the episode title gave it away. Also, I really hope that Odo remains aro-ace and the rest of the crew come to respect that, instead of constantly teasing him about his lack of a sex life and ultimately forcing him into thinking he needs a relationship to be happy. He already has to contort himself into uncomfortable shapes to conform. Don't force him to contort into conformity any further. #JusticeForOdo

17. Playing God: Huh. So there are rats on space stations. Also, Dax discovers a potentially universe-destroying proto-universe and decides to dump it in the Gamma Quadrant for them to deal with.

18. Profit and Loss: Quark teaches us that when a woman says "no", she really means "yes" if you hound and threaten her long enough.

19. Blood Oath: Curzon Dax continues to posthumously make me question Sisko's choice in friends, as Jadzia Dax now feels obligated to attend a Klingon murder party that Curzon RSVP'd to.

20-21. The Maquis: Humans set up colonies next to a known bear cave, whine that the Federation won't protect them from the bears, start an anti-bear movement.

22. The Wire: Bashir goes into a panic after his boyfriend ODs. Honestly, Bashir really needs to stop chasing women and recognize he has way more chemistry with Garak. He's always been annoyingly shallow and self-serving to the point that I wouldn't trust him as a doctor no matter how skilled he was. But this episode actually let him give a damn about someone without objectifying them, which is good progress. Hopefully it sticks. Also, Sisko's proclamation to keep Quark locked up "forever" in the previous episode didn't seem to last very long. But at least now I know where the "Especially the lies" meme comes from!

23. Crossover: Bashir learned nothing from the previous episode and goes right back to womanizing and talking incessantly about himself. Damn. Kira's meets her mirror universe counterpart who instantly falls in love with her, which... same.

24. The Collaborator: The liberals lose the election because they're more concerned with their candidate being 100% unproblematic than preventing the entire planet from falling under the rule of a goddamn religious tyrant. (throws table in a fit of "this is too real")

25. Tribunal: O'Brien goes on vacation to Planet Kangaroo Court, which is actually a bit more relaxing than what he usually has to put up with.

26. The Jem'Hadar: are truly truly truly outrageous. And really want to meet a Klingon, and I know we're getting Worf eventually because he's on the series splash screen. But until then, bring on the Dominion!

I found Season 2 generally a bit better than Season 1. I was really uncomfortable with Bashir in Season 1, and he was a bit more tolerable in Season 2. Downright redeemed in "The Wire", then he regressed immediately in the next episode, so I still have a fairly low opinion of him. Dax is another character I'm having trouble caring about since even after two seasons I still have no clear idea of "What would Dax do?" in any hypothetical situation.

Like, if a bunch of monkeys got loose on the station, I can imagine that Sisko would order a containment field and then go monkey-hunting with Kira, who would spend the whole time exasperated like, "Really?! Monkeys?!" O'Brien would technobabble together a monkey trap while grumbling about how this sort of thing always happens to him, Bashir would tell a long-winded story about how there was a similar incident with Emus back at the academy and how much of an adventure it was and he ended up saving the day and then a bunch of women were swooning all over him, Quark would stash a couple of monkeys away to sell later, and Odo would have grumpily already rounded them all up because he's the only competent crew member (and relieving Quark of his monkey stash). And Dax would just... kind of stand there I guess. Maybe quip about how one of her previous incarnations had a monkey. But she just doesn't have enough of a notable personality for me to go, "Yep, that's a Dax thing to do, all right." So far she still feels uncomfortably like a fetish character with little actual substance.

Also, the depiction of the Universal Translator analyzing a new language in "Sanctuary" made me even more perplexed as to how it even works. So, they started out speaking an unknown language, and over the course of the episode, the UT learned it and started translating it. Okay, cool. Except that implies that the aliens -- and probably everyone on the station -- are all actually still speaking their native languages and the UT is just real-time translating them all. But how does this work in a conversation? If Sisko speaks to Kira and Quark, how do they both hear something they can understand? Where even is the UT? They'll beam down to a planet and lose all their equipment but can still communicate with everyone fine. And how does the UT know to stop translating, like when someone will yell in Klingon for one sentence and then switch back to English?

I wonder if there's ever an episode where the Universal Translator malfunctions and everyone has to figure out how to communicate with each other. Heck, might be an opportunity for Dax to actually do something since she's the one most likely to be a polyglot.

Anyway, on to Season 3!

[lemonhemlock]

I think one of the most frustrating things about both the ASOIAF/HOTD fandom is the inability for people to discuss these characters or books without projecting their own personal/modern sensibilities. I've noticed this a lot with TB so targ nation in general, but they fundamentally hate the world building and lore of a feudal medieval monarchy. They hate tradition, they hate religion, they hate the concepts of honor and duty which is why they can't or won't understand Criston's character if their lives depended on it, they hate anything that can be deemed in anyway conservative, religious, traditional lol, they hate the inheritance laws preferring males, they hate that women have to stay chaste before marriage, they hate arranged marriages, they hate the fact that people care so much about bastards and that bastards cannot inherit, etc. I could go on. Yes, from a modern perspective a lot of these things are now deemed obsolete and uncool, but there were very good reasons for these things AT THE TIME. These people just hate the entire lore that this world is based on and instead of good faith engagement with the lore, they just call anyone who uses the world/lore to logically analyze the text a sexist, misogynist, tradcath, conservative, or whatever. It boggles my mind. Why interact with media, and not just interact with it, but have entire social media accounts dedicated to their hyper fixation and borderline parasocial relationship with these characters/books if they fundamentally hate the world and hate seeing their faves lose as a result of the rules in place. I'm begging these people to go read one of the thousands of fantasy books that isn't set in a rigid feudal monarchy.

This is such a spot-on, insightful comment into how a lot of people interact within this fandom. 👏👏👏 This typology of the late stage social justice internet warrior that fundamentally refuses to engage with the historicity of the story's spatio-temporal setting, i.e. a feudal medieval monarchy of European inspiration, that predates centralization and thus absolutism. Even though Westeros is so very obviously decentralized, many fans do not realize this for some reason and pretend it's an absolute monarchy a la Louis XIV.

Many people, like GRRM, who is a prolific science-fiction writer (!), are attracted to this setting regardless, because of the pageantry (look how obsessed he is with creating house sigils and mottos), the romantic flair + the fact that it's literally the setting of fairy-tales, which inspires in the reader a world of magical possibilities. Of course, the world of ASOIAF is an attempt to shore up the 'realism' of this imagological construct, but medieval fantasy is a genre in and of itself, like there are certain flavours of societal layering and organization that are inescapable, like the rigid social structures, the political rule as the purview of the elites, the importance of religion in everyday life etc.

This is not to say that those aspects are in any way aspirational for a modern person or that we should yearn to go back to those times, only that they are merely characteristics that developed hand-in-hand with the technological advancements and the economic progress of the period. If you have a civilisation whose economy is centered on land ownership as the main source of wealth acquisition, its society is going to look a certain way. Certainly, in Westeros there are some craftsmen and merchants, but there seem to only be a handful of towns throughout the entire continent and, off the top of my head, the mention of guilds and the middle classes are few and far between in the books, so there is no concrete way of determining how consolidated the bourgeoisie is. At the same time, this is absolutely just a story and not a 1:1 recreation of those times, so these gaps are completely understandable, as there only is so much worldbuilding one man can do.

Anyway, I often see analysis or commentary being circulated, which are obviously a projection of modern sensibilities, like how there should be no king at all or the Iron Throne is evil or how Westeros should revert to being separate kingdoms because somehow the concept of unifying regions with a common cultural and religious background is automatically bad, always and with no exception. To me these are rather perplexing, but they are so wide-spread that it's not even worth it to try and open up that particular can of worms. Some of these takes don't even make sense if you expand them to their natural implications. Someone has to be the king in a medieval society; it doesn't work like some people envision this - no one chooses to rule and that's that, problem solved? How is society going to be organized then? It's doubtful that the conclusion of the last book will be anarcho-socialism. The Iron Throne consistently cuts kings who are unworthy to sit on it - it's not a symbol that the author intended to be construed as malevolent. Sure, death of the author and all that, but it's not described as mystically quasi-sentient for nothing either. Fragmenting Westeros back into individual kingdoms while maintaining the feudal structure retains the inherent unfairness and inequality of said hierarchy; it's amazing to me how it could be considered progress etc.

To wrap this up, yes, I agree, some people would be much better served if they simply found other fantasy media based on a different time frame. Because it doesn't make sense to become so entrenched in this specific one if you hate the medieval period so much. Again, this is not to say that the Middle Ages cannot be criticised because that's just the way it was back then, they absolutely can, but a lot of criticism shared around is just done in bad faith and with no real desire to understand the historical phenomena at play.

For example, a few days ago, someone commented on one my bastardposts that "just because it was illegal doesn't make it fair", with the implied solution to that conundrum that Rhaenyra should simply be allowed by society to do whatever she pleased. No reflection on why that law/rule was in place to begin with, no consideration of how it would impact the wider community, no proposal as to how one could advance to a society in which all children are considered equal, regardless of their parents' marital status etc. The thought doesn't go beyond "feminism in its modern definition can magically crystallize in any historical period because it is completely divorced from the material conditions of a society".

[deafmangoes]

The Ferengi: Misogyny, Sexuality and Internalised Homophobia

A two-parter! In this essay I'd like to explore and discuss two specific headcanons, and how they are reflected in the display of Ferengi culture throughout DS9:

That Quark is gay

That Rom is genderfluid/non-binary

... and that neither of them have the tools or language to express it.

Part I: Quark is Gay

One element of Star Trek I love is the alien cultures, and the way that through many writers and several decades of work they get built up into complex snapshots of life different to our own, even if they can still be a little Planet of Hats.

Before DS9 the Ferengi were a barely seen race brought up a couple of times in TNG, and always characterised as hyper-capitalist, greedy goblinesque figures. I imagine they were thought up as a direct foil to the Federation: they valued everything the Federation had left behind.

But! Then the DS9 writing team made the decision to bring in Quark, and through him we see so much more of the Ferengi and their culture over DS9's run.

Now obviously the "Quark is gay" theories are hardly new (I mean the show pretty much spells it out with the way he looks at Odo) but I wanted to try and tackle, arguing in-universe, why Quark is closeted even to himself. Firstly, Ferengi culture forbids women from having any place in society except as objects, even more strictly than any real-life culture has ever been. Despite being a spacefaring people, Ferengi women (stated to make up near 53% of their species) are forbidden to own property, run a business, wear clothes in public or exist as individuals divided from their male owners (and they are owned - Quark and Rom discuss Rom's former marriage in one episode, and it's clear that Ferengi marriages are a contract between the father/male 'guardian' and the new husband where the bride is purchased specifically for the role of bearing children).

The only Ferengi women we see in DS9 are - as a necessary consequence - challenging these societal norms. Quark's mother, Ishka, is present in a number of episodes and flouts expectations by wearing her own clothes in public, openly advising on business matters, and later leading the first Ferengi feminist movement! The gif above is taken from S2E07 "Rules of Acquisition" where Quark has to do business with Pel: a female Ferengi masquerading as a male (specifically here using false ears - Ferengi are sexually dimorphic and males have larger ears. One episode indicates they 'shed' them as they grow, meaning it might be a specific male puberty thing).

Quark is a traditionalist. He is, in fact, deeply religious: the Ferengi faith results around the acqusition of wealth so that you can reincarnate into a better life. In essence, it's dharma but with material goods. He resents his mother for her 'failings' (in his eyes) and is horrified by Pel's existence and activities... once he knows she's a woman! He views women as sexual objects for his gratification, and more than once attempts to extort his employees for sexual favours.

But you may argue that Quark isn't gay, because he's only ever shown affection (and overt sexual interest) towards women. He flirts with Jadzia, he flirts with Kira, with Ezri, with all of his female staff and more. But it becomes a little less clear when you get into it.

In S2E07 Pel, still presenting male, kisses Quark in a moment of passion and his reaction is... complicated. He protests, but struggles with it. His discomfort seems less to do with Pel being 'male' and rather his internalised reaction to that. Later still he denies it ever happened! Once confronted with Pel's actual gender he flounders: he realises he has (had?) feelings for her, wants her gone from his life, but also worries about the repercussions if anyone from Ferenginar found out about their business together. Pel leaves at the end of the episode, reconciled to him, and Jadzia comforts the obviously heartbroken Quark. So, was Quark attracted to Pel the male or Pel the female? I would argue he fell for Pel's presentation, and I think there are several more examples of this.

His flirting/borderline/actual sexual harassment of Jadzia and Kira are played off as him being lecherous but... notice something here. These are two women who are very confident, outgoing, public, good at management and business, strong-minded and strong-willed... all traits Feregi culture assigns solely to men. Due to character development his relationship with Ezri unfolds differently (Ezri's definitely enby but that's a different essay...), but his attraction to her lies primarily in his memories of Dax through Jadzia.

To restate the point: he is not attracted to women. He is attracted to women who, in his eyes, act like men.

Then there's the whole... thing with Odo.

This gif, taken from S3E25 "Facets", kinda highlights the whole thing. Odo - merged with the... 'spirit'(?) of Curzon, and containing the personalities and desires of both, grabs Quark by the external erogenous zones and kisses him. Quark and Odo's feelings for one another are very, very gay, although both dress it up in this constant cat-and-mouse game they play. When Odo falls in love with Kira, Quark's the one complaining to Jake Sisko about all the "lonely nights" he "comforted" him. At the end of the series, as Quark puts it:

"Can't you see? That man loves me. It's written all over his back."

Odo, then, is the exception to the above examples: Quark shows a clear affection for Odo, complicated as it may be by their 'professional relationship', but Odo very much presents male.

Well. Sort of. Odo uses he/him pronouns but his actual relationship to gender is left unspoken. I think this is what gives Quark the excuse to open the closet door a little where Odo's concerned.

So why can't Quark just admit he's gay? As I stated above, Quark is a deeply religious, conservative and traditionalist Ferengi (or at least he tries to be... and I think there's something in that, too). There is no discussion of queer identities in Ferengi society, but based on what little of that society we see, I believe that queerness (at least in males) would be strongly discouraged and penalised. Much like real-life homophobia, it would be seen as 'womanly', 'feminine', and therefore undermine what it meant to be a Ferengi (because remember... women aren't Ferengi. A Ferengi with no wealth is no Ferengi at all).

Quark, therefore, cannot be gay, because it would be contradictory to his very sense of self. He's like the gay son of a homophobic evangelical pastor: so deeply conditioned to bury it that he has to act the 'proper' Ferengi despite the fact that he clearly struggles with it. Quark's not as greedy as his peers. He's not as callous or cruel. He has moments of great compassion and kindness, even generosity (which is almost a sin), and, perhaps the strongest piece of evidence to me...

He runs a dinky bar, in a run-down Cardassian space station that until recently was a one-horse town. And he LOVES it. He refuses to give up that bar. He fights for it. When he franchises it at the end of the series, does he move on up to better locations? Nope. He's right there with the dodgy replicators and aging holosuites.

Quark's Bar is his expression of queerness. It's an eccentricity that any 'good' Ferengi would have dumped long ago. Several characters comment on it, and Quark waves them off.

He loves that bar, he loves Odo, and frankly he loves romanticism. Quark is a hopeless gay romantic that, if he ever tried his hand at poetry, would make galaxies weep.

And we love him for it.

[redhatmeg]

Repaying the favor! What is your favorite Star Trek species and why?

Thanks for the ask!

I would like to start with stating something I noticed back when I was bingewatching post-TNG Star Trek (sans Lower Decks, Picard and half of the Discovery first season, since they weren't out yet), namely: that each series delves into cultures of aliens introduced in earlier entries because of major characters being from that culture.

This way I actually grew to appreciate Klingon culture, because in TNG commander Worf gives us an insight to more noble and honorable side of Klingons (especially when he started to take care of Alexander); Bajoran and Trill culture in DS9, Andorian culture in ENT, even Borg in Voyager!

But my absolute favorite race are the Ferengi.

Now, I am aware of their flaws, but I find their culture utterly fascinating and DS9 is one of my favorite Star Treks, because the Ferengi got so much needed character development (God bless you, Armin Shimmerman). Not just through Quark, Rom and Nog that are just fantastic characters in general, but also through introduction of Rules of Acquisition, because some of those rules sound ridiculous and cinical, but others are quite reasonable and can be applied to tactics and diplomacy (they're like Art of War but with business instead of military strategy). And the episodes about that race in DS9 are just wonderful and set my standards for Ferengi Episodes in other shows very high.

And you may probably guess that the way some characters act towards Ferengi in general, kind of pisses me of because there is racism towards this race that doesn't apply to, say, Cardassians (the actual Nazis of Star Trek universe).

Now, onto the other races...

In your reply to my question, you mentioned Bajorans. I must say that even though I don't like them as much as Ferengi, I feel a kindship with Bajorans, partly due to this religious angle, and partly because of the history of occupation. Many things that Bajor deals with is something I, as a Pole, can identify with. It reminds me of everything I was learning about WW2 and post-war situation of Poland.

(Worf's situation as someone who tries to uphold Klingon traditions in foreign enviornment also resonates with me as a Pole. I don't know if you remember, but there was a TNG episode about Klingons living in peace with Romulans and there is a point being made that the new generation of these Klingons don't know what bat'leth is for or that the "lullaby" they sing their children is in fact a battle song. There is this feeling of Klingons forgetting their roots.)

The way religion was handled with Bajor is great, because Sisko treats it with respect (and not because he's the Emissary and he met the Prophets) and in general the show gives it a nuance. It's not the Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions kind of narrative.

That's all... I think.

[libertineangel]

The unusual occurrence that Boso Ta reported was the sudden arrival of Dal Busta on the station: turns out he had managed to launch an escape pod, saw the station and presumed it abandoned, so got his escape pod over there and hoped to set himself up an intelligence post. He told Commander Sloan that Reen Omara had turned herself in to the Argon Federation authorities and was helping them take down the Scale Plate Pact in exchange for some official recognition of the Hatikvah Free League, while Busta himself saw opportunities to take advantage of among the Split and the Paranid. Both were in the midst of a civil war - the Split were partially united under the Zyarth Patriarchy while a coalition of Free Families refused their rule and supported themselves largely by unsavoury means; the Paranid were divided by violent religious schism between two vying Pontifices, that of the established Godrealm and that of the upstart Holy Order. Much as Sloan thought Dal Busta was an annoying incompetent idiot and wanted to punt him out the nearest airlock, he was unfortunately a well-connected annoying incompetent idiot who had identified genuine opportunities she would be a fool not to take, so she reluctantly allowed him to stay.

She first went to take up the first breadcrumbs on the Split trail, which entailed picking up a known smuggler from a station fairly near Pa t'Tn and escorting them into Split space, but the very first jump she made with him was immediately held up by a Zyarth patrol cruiser - turns out the smuggler was in fact an undercover member of their secret police, and before departing suggested Sloan track down Yu t'Knk for more information on the political situation. Turns out Yu tu'Knk was recently taken hostage during one of a series of concurrent slave revolts, and all the information available was that the relevant slaves had captured a Cobra-class corvette. As it happened, there appeared to be one stranded just a short distance away, so Sloan went over to examine it - the thing was a derelict, barely structurally sound with no long-distance engines, but it contained enough data that Boso Ta was confident they could figure out where to look next.

Sloan took ownership of the corvette, beaten up though it was, and assigned Kallie Keppel to haul it over to the nearest shipyard for restoration, because in good condition it would make a truly fine ship - the infamous privateer Ra t'Knt had once commanded a dreaded pirate fleet from such a flagship, and with a couple of million credits' investment Sloan was confident she could do the same. This acquisition was truly a step up on the galactic stage, and she gave it a fitting name: this would be Sloan's Hand, and with space to hold her trusty Mako fighter onboard that would be Sloan's Dagger.

Refitting the corvette would take time, however, as would Boso Ta sifting through its data, so in the meantime Sloan went over to Paranid space, specifically to the Holy Order territory where the Bold Acquisition was still making solid profits. She met an untrustworthy bastard of a contact named Gride Orian for information, survived a three-part ambush and was told to do some menial tasks in exchange for answers, the first of which was to retrieve some old explosives. They turned out to be EMPs held inside a group of self-destructing lockboxes, which was fucking ridiculous but manageable, and Dal Busta then asked that Sloan sate his curiosity by using one to snoop around a mysterious Paranid monument. Turned out this monument appeared to contain stasis cocoons for what was likely some highly revered ancient Paranids, which Sloan didn't really care about, and when the cops chased her off she decided to stop by the Paranid shipyard to hire some more crew and receive the recognition Bold Acquisition's dealings had earned her. This let her buy not only another false flag for use in Holy Order space but blueprints for setting up her own maja snail farms, the organism from which maja dust was derived - as she'd already got the blueprints for producing the dust from the Hatikvah, it would undoubtedly be useful to not have to rely on outside sources for making use of them.

Orian's next task was to retrieve a certain package from a ship in a system a few jumps away, which on the surface sounded simple but turned out to be another ridiculously dangerous job because the system in question was controlled by the fucking Xenon. She did it though, very grateful as ever for the speed of Sloan's Dagger, and met Orian on the nearest major trading station. She spoke cryptically, but eventually gave Sloan the next breadcrumb to follow. She couldn't help but respect Orian, bloody headache as the hoops she made her jump through were - yes, she was an untrustworthy dangerous bastard, but that's very much something they had in common.

Before following any of the new leads, Captain Keppel reported that Sloan's Hand was fully refitted: new engines, a new secondary shield generator, and an array of new weapons. Sloan ordered her to rendezvous nearby, and before long she was stood on the bridge of her new lead ship, with Captain Jace Pareli standing by at the helm of Sloan's Dagger.

[lorenzobane]

Yk I know Quark is a trash capitalist but, at least where I am in my first watch of DS9 (Season 3, episode 3 - House of Quark) he has a LOT of really really interesting character traits and moments. And, in my person theory so far, does a lot to redeem the race that was entirely comic relief and annoyance in TNG. 

Like, he’s pretty much always willing to debase himself for a deal, but he actually does have a really high sense of dignity. When he’s calling Sisko out for disrespecting the Ferengi in S2x26 The Jem’Hadar he points to the ways that Humans don’t treat the Ferengi well but he also comments that despite their cunning, and their tendency towards deceit, the Ferengi are not violent people. They don’t enslave others, they don’t fight interstellar wars, they don’t colonize. They are in fact better or potentially more moral than the other races in this context. The Ferangi may double cross you, but they won’t physically harm you.

And in House of Quark like, yeah he’s really scared about what’s going on but when he demands to see the financial records, his voice is even and serious. He really demonstrates how he is a clever and thoughtful person.  AND he solves the problem by manipulating his understanding of Klingon honor to survive a battle he couldn’t win. In The Maquis he OUT LOGICS a Vulcan by using a Ferengi concept of value to advocate for peace (and sets up a pretty clear reason as to why Ferengi largely don’t get involved in wars, they don’t try to make peace “more expensive” than it needs to be). 

And I think some of this has to do with the fact that Ferangi seem to have a SHOCKINGLY well developed sense of forgiveness, and Quark is no exception. In Move Along Home, he is terrified. He thinks he might have to send his friends to their deaths (once again proving his has no stomach for violence). But as soon as it turns out to be a game? No problem! All is forgiven, let’s see if we can make a deal. In The Grand Nagus Rom tries to KILL him, and he’s forgiven in a heartbeat. I guess that is what allows them to not be violent, they have their very specific codes and you can double cross people within it but that’s the nature of the beast. They don’t hold onto grudges or blame. 

Anyway- Quarkfuckers are right. 

[expended-sleeper]

Comparing the Philosophies of TES Dragons and DS9 Ferengi

Recently I have been adoring this excerpt from Wisdom of the Flying Gods, a lorebook from Elder Scrolls Online on the teachings of the dragons:

"Nihnzey miir wah viik." Betrayal is the path to defeat.

Betrayal, literally, a poisoned brother, fractures alliances. It can be the beginning of the end.

* * *

"Nihnzey miir wah krongrah." Betrayal is the path to great victory.

The Masters are wise. Sometimes breaking an alliance is necessary to achieve victory.

There's something so perfectly dovah about holding two contrary viewpoints to be valid, depending on the circumstances you are in. And it's absolutely held up by what we see from dragons in Skyrim: Odahviing benefits massively from betraying Alduin and helping you to reach Skuldafn, but at the same time Alduin sets up his own defeat by resurrecting his brothers and choosing not to let them share in his soul-feasting. The World-Eater seems to have forgotten this piece of wisdom and expects absolute loyalty, or else he just believes the lesser dragons could never pose a true threat to him.

Which is SUPER foolish of him, because Paarthurnax's betrayal is what fucked him over the first time. Also, remember that guy Miraak, who betrayed the Dragon Cult and caused something akin to a religious schism? Something that was probably an inciting incident for the whole rebellion?

I also can't help but be reminded of an exchange from Deep Space Nine about a comparable piece of Ferengi philosophy:

"And as the 34th Rule of Acquisition states: 'Peace is good for business'."

"That's the 35th Rule."

"Oh, you're right. What's the 34th?"

"'War is good for business.' It's easy to get them confused."

Rule 6, which states you should never let family stand in the way of opportunity, might also apply.

You could probably also compare these two pieces of wisdom:

"Rul jol, lok." When unsteady, rise.

Rule 62: The riskier the road, the greater the profit.

I don't want to say that TES dragons and Ferengi have a lot in common, but hey...both treat conversation as a form of battle, and the struggle to maintain dominance over others is a fact of life for both species. They are both also very quick to flee from situations that seem to be turning against them, and they are both very eager to line up behind any rising power that seems poised to topple the current ruler.

I'll stop myself before I start comparing Ishka and Paarthurnax as radical reformers that attempt to bring some degree of peace and fairness to their respective civilizations. The big difference there is that Paarthurnax never ended up marrying Alduin, but I'm not sure how many people were great fans of Ishka ending up with Grand Nagus Zek anyway.

[lligkv]

what the world will look like when it’s over

Can’t Get You Out of My Head is the first Adam Curtis documentary I’ve seen. I gather it’s not the most successful demonstration of his method; it sounds like Hypernormalization or The Century of the Self are tighter in their construction, less effortful (count how many times Curtis says something like “But then it started to run out of control” in this one), and perhaps less frustrating in their narration. In the early episodes of this documentary in particular, it feels like Curtis is constantly presenting what’s being covered as the turn, the decisive shift in his narrative—the emergence of the American counterculture, the revolution of the “unit of One” led by Mao Zedong’s wife Jiang Qing to help her break the stalemate with the other revolutionaries in China into which Zedong had fallen in the 1960s, George Boole’s development of Boolean logic to describe human thought. And the whole thing feels longer and baggier than it needs to be. The early episodes devote much time to interesting individual narratives, like that of the Trinidadian British activist or sorts named Michael Freitas (or Michael X) or a trans woman named Julie in 1960s Britain; they also sprawl in a way that makes the overall argument a bit hard to divine. It’s not until the fourth episode that the shape of Curtis’s narrative becomes clear—that our age is the product of a struggle between a new, broadly liberal-democratic and capitalist image of individualism, a dying era of collectivist struggle, and older, more vicious systems of power, derived from the control of capital and expressed through the middle classes’ suspicion and viciousness toward the subaltern and toward each other, even as they remain subject to the power of oligarchs and billionaires.

Curtis also seems to play fast and loose with the facts sometimes. When he presents Médecins Sans Frontières’s founder Bernard Kouchner as an avatar of a theory of the “one world” of liberal democracy—the idea that we’re basically one world of individuals, enjoying certain human rights regardless of political orientations or ideologies, and that Western nations are duty-bound by virtue of their prosperity to intervene when other nations violate people’s rights—it seems a distortion of what Kouchner actually says in the footage Curtis includes: “We don’t care on leftist or rightist countries [sic]; there is no leftist and rightist suffering, and there is no possibility to split the world in[to] ‘good’ people or ‘bad’ people, ‘good’ dead and ‘bad’ dead.” Which isn’t to say Kouchner didn’t believe in liberal-democratic ideas—he may well have—but what he’s shown as saying has to do with the consideration of suffering as suffering regardless of a person’s identity or allegiance, which is a different matter.

This is just one of several moments when I stopped to wonder how secure I actually was in Curtis’s hands. But ultimately, I find the emotional history he lays out resonant. The age we’re living through now, in the 2020s, is indeed the product of certain fantasies of individualism and of a post-end-of-history, neoliberal “one world”—with no ideologies but capitalism and putative democracy—meeting age-old systems of power, acquisition, and control, and age-old features of the human mind and heart: resentment, prejudice, betrayal, jealousy, the need to be prosperous, the need to be free.

And Curtis’s work appeals to me for the same reason the writer Pankaj Mishra’s work does. He historicizes our underhistoricized time. What’s more, he does so in a way that’s especially rare to see in any mainstream media venue. Usually, when you want to understand the connections between, say, colonial-era empires and post-war welfare states, or if you want to understand what happened to turn Western societies as they were post-war to Western societies as they are post-financialization, you have to seek the information out on your own. It’s valuable to have someone in a place like the BBC willing to put the pieces of these narratives together. And willing to remind us of the events that are so incredibly easy to forget even in one’s own lifetime. Abu Ghraib, for instance, which pops up in part 6 of the documentary. That shit happened while I was alive. How often do I remember it? How many American sins get drowned out in the new ones that emerge every day of every month of every year? Or in the stasis that sets in when what was once novel, like the War on Terror or the invasion into our privacy represented by the Patriot Act, fades into regular life?

I was jotting down copious notes while watching the doc, as is my wont. The questions and thoughts that came up, in no particular order:

How do the elites of a given era impose their preferred ideologies? How are the structures of power we grow up with constructed, and how do those go on to shape our behavior?

Control, as it’s practiced by societies in the 21st century, often comes down to the recognition of patterns in human behavior—and their manipulation.

The loss of power, like that which was suffered after the collapse of Britain’s empire or in the slow hollowing-out of America’s manufacturing industry in the 20th century, leads to anger and melancholy that people can’t be expected to abandon. Does doing what you’re supposed to do bring you the happiness you were promised—or anything even resembling that happiness? When we’re living in a historical moment in which the answer is no, as is often the case today, we’ll need to watch out. It’s a sign people are being manipulated and abused.

Over time, the tech industry has come to understand that you can manage people en masse by collecting their data and manipulating the messages they receive in social media activity feeds and advertising—and you can make them feel like sovereign individuals at the same time through the very same means. In light of all this, will there ever be a revolution that actually changes the structure of power we’re currently stuck in? Is there a chance to alter this extreme individualism. on the part of people who are surrounded by political systems so enervated, by the supra-governmental system that is global finance capital—which politicians can’t control, and must appease and palliate—that they can’t respond to phenomena like climate change or meaningfully punish atrocities like wars prosecuted on false pretenses? Or are we stuck where we are, in a world that’s corrupt and exhausted? In nations whose governments depend on technologies of surveillance and myths of consumerist abundance or nationalist glory to maintain power, in the absence of any real vision for the future?

It all leads to some interesting takeaways. For one, the way culture reacts to politics and vice versa. As I was watching Can’t Get You Out of My Head, I was reminded of a conversation folks on the Discord server for the Relentless Picnic podcast had had recently about the strange things Richard Dawkins posts on his Twitter account. And it led me to think: when religious “caring conservatism” was in the White House, Richard Dawkins and his New Atheism, this brash repudiation of religion and its pieties, grew as a counterweight. When Obama and his technocratic regime were in power, with social media bringing on a wave of progressivism in popular culture and algorithms presenting us a fantasy of endless choice—much of which was a thin veneer over the same old shit: banks getting bailed out, forever wars going on, productivity rising while wages stagnated—we also got Jordan Peterson-types who claimed to speak to a human need for narrative, even in this point of stability we had seemed to reach, this recovery of sanity after the chaos that was the Iraq War and the financial crisis; who claimed we needed ideas and myths to animate and drive our lives, because they sensed there was something hollow and mendacious driving all this consumer choice, for all it seemed a symbol of our freedom and progress.

Of course, both Peterson and Dawkins are provocateurs, not intellectuals; I don’t mean to dignify the movements they led much, since in both the appearance of intellectual rigor or moral clarity often covered the indulgence of the worst instincts: immaturity, obstinacy, provocation for provocation’s sake, contempt for women and trans people. The New Atheists had a point, and could be absolute assholes about it; they ultimately could be as fundamentalist and dogmatic as any religious people. As for Jordan Peterson, his actual work, in the way of so many grand theorists, uses the appearance of profundity to cover something ultimately pretty banal. And he’s most known for grandstanding in the public sphere—refusing to use people’s pronouns, the usual conservative shit. But these movements do seem to reflect a countercultural response no less than 1960s counterculture reflects a reaction to the staid culture of 1950s America and the sins it covered up.

Which leads me to the question: what was the culture’s response to Trump’s administration? Maybe QAnon and Russiagate, as conspiracies—that is, actual narratives people inhabit to explain the world’s evils, and not just a vague need for them that they satisfied with Jordan Peterson’s light form of Stoicism or his theories of Light and Dark or whatever the fuck. And in that way, perhaps, once a countercultural movement—namely nationalism and Trumpian populism—actually seemed to have overthrown a regime, of Obama-era liberal technocratic management, culture and politics came to mirror each other, rather than standing in opposition to each other. Both became equally conspiratorial and unhinged; in fact, they merged. All the ruling myths and conspiracies mutate in kind these days: Trump’s garbage about draining the swamp, a cover for Trump and his family enriching themselves and Stephen Miller’s like getting to fashion the state they wanted, becomes QAnon’s garbage about rings of child trafficking and pedophilia and Trump, of all people, being their savior—all while actual trafficking and abuse perpetuated by Jeffrey Epstein and his ilk goes unpunished, Epstein’s death swallowed up by the state without a sound—becomes the liberal pundit class’s screaming about Russia: connections between Trump and Putin that were always conjectural to me, because no one who pled them seemed to feel much need to substantiate them.

Here again I feel like what were once centrifugal forces in our culture—between mainstream and the independent media, for example; between people in power and their critics, either in the media or at society’s margins—have collapsed into a single morass. We’re all in hell and there’s no way out.

In all this, what does Biden’s administration represent? Little more than an interregnum, to my mind. How disappointing to see not even a gesture toward forgiving student debt or raising the minimum wage in these first 100 days of his presidency. There’s been some progress in climate legislation, and progress in putting Stephen Miller’s deportation machine to a halt (though they’re also reopening several emergency shelters to accommodate more minors already being held past the mandated limits for keeping them in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Refugee Resettlement). But there’s also been such triangulation on policy by the administration and its supporters and such complacency on the part of the media covering the administration, refusing to call them out on or even cover this. And how can the average voter respond but with resignation?

Ever since I read Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus near the start of lockdown, absorbing the picture of the world pre-World War II that’s presented in that book, I’ve thought we’re in the same sort of moment that Mann’s protagonist Zeitblom was in. There’s a crisis that’s passing over this whole planet like a wave or a seismic event, and no human intervention can interrupt it. We can only wait for it to pass—holding on to whatever’s to hand, waiting to see what the world will look like when it’s over.

[jxd-the-kid]

First Lines

Got tagged by @artemis-personified

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line.

tbh I'm not sure if these are the 20 most recent, but they are what I found/grabbed, also I'm not going to bother trying to put these in a proper chronological order. Feel free to ask about any of these stories it might push me to finish the WIPs.

Bizzaro's First Day: "Superman!" That was the first thought that entered the clone’s mind as it was suddenly awoken.

Testimony From the Parabellum: Testimonies from the Parabellum Crew on Ship Contract - 014 and the Death of Niko Helly (Explosives Expert | He/Him).

The IPS-N Caliban in Action: Zerrick watched the navigation screen as his breaching pod approached the target at high speeds.

Watson on Sherlock on Love: In all of the years I have known Holmes, I have often found myself wondering, how a man of such impressive prospects has gone so long without taking upon himself a wife.

Sword Training - BOTW: Link, the hero, practiced his sword swipes shirtless in front of his house in the Hateno Village, the sun shines off the beautiful steel of the Master Sword.

Cursed Existence: The sunlight poured into the small modest bedroom, landing on Maxwell’s face, instinctively he turned his body only to bump into another body.

Gloomhaven: Athens watched as they lowered his father’s casket into his grave, nervously rubbing the black obsidian pendant he wears around his neck.

Mercury and Persephone: A convertible hearse cut through the expansive dessert wastes.

The Clockwork Prison: Issac awoke his mind inflamed with pain, as though he had spent the previous night overindulging in alcohol.

Super Sentai KnightRangers: In the Arma Corporation's technology lab, Dr. Hatsumei placed the finishing touches on his most recent invention.

United Galaxies: Evolution Technologies, formerly Evolution Genetics before the complete acquisition of Quantum Robotics Technologies (QRT), is the United Galaxys’ number one provider and researchers of genetic engineering, genetic modification, cybernetic engineering, and cybernetic modifications.

The Nightcroft Academy: The Nightcroft Academy for the Mentally Gifted was established 63 years ago by the late great Mr. Renfield Nightcroft.

The Goddess of Night: Cane stood in an endless field covered in tall grass that reached up to his hips, as he looked away from the sun set and watched the moon rise.

The Slave Apprentice: In a dark theatre, people can be heard, shuffling and murmuring in their seats.

The Detective: Khaki walked through the nearly abandoned docks, all of the workers have left for the night, along with the regular night guards.

Ducks: Brian had wondered why he was the first person to think about this, but now that he was doing it he realized that he was not the first to think about it, but rather the first one to be stupid enough to try it.

New Witchhaven: Under the infinite unblinking witnesses of the night sky, 2 men, brothers, dug into the sacred earth of the New Spring Cemetery, resting place for a vast diversity of corpses, the rich, the poor, the religious, and the agnostic; too many variety of corpse to list them all.

The Town of Epoch: The town of Epoch was built around the remains of an Old-World Prison Ship.

Icons: Minerva Glass forced a smile as she waited for her clients to stop their heated argument, which they've been engaged in since Minerva brought them together about 10 minutes ago.

(No Title): The student council leered over him from their elevated platforms, berating him for any number of things each more ridiculous than the last, their bodies moving in a violent caricature of human emotion, as they flailed around, thier heads either limp flopping around with their bodies or exceedingly rigid endlessly string forward, either way unblinking.

RWBY - Children of Monsters: (I couldn't find it so I can't give you the first line, but I was pretty proud of the title)

Its interesting having to dig for some of these old stories because while I haven't seen some of them in years, after finding them I can remember exactly what inspired them, some of its easy because its literal fan fiction, but even the original stuff I can point at the exact piece/pieces of media that inspired them.

I noticed that I seem to have three types of openings, Introduce a character doing something, set a scene, or exposition dump.

I would have to say my favorite opening line might be the New Witchhaven one, mostly because of our poetic and verbose it is. I have noticed that I have been trying to write stories with dark macabre, and that opening was one of the best examples of it.

I don't know anyone else to tag, the only people on here that I know who write and I know well enough to tag have already been tagged, so I'll just say if you see this and it interests you, I officially tag you. (is that how this works?)

[rimmers-swimming-certificate]

For the prompt, can you do 21?

“sometimes, being a complete and comes in useful”

21 was a popular one. I got three requests for it! And I really struggled to write it too.

Also I just want to point out that although Star Trek fans are referred to as nerds in this fic, that is in no way meant to be an insult! I’ve loved Star Trek since I was about 11, possibly even before I first saw Red Dwarf, and I used to go to a Star Trek fanclub meeting every month for years. If anyone’s a nerd around here, it’s me, and I’m proud of it! 

@areyoucorrectingmypronunciation you asked for 21 and another one, so I’ll try to do the other one for you too

“Duane Dibbley,” muttered Cat under his breath. He shook his head from side to side and lifted a hand to his face and hair as though he wasn’t sure he had been transformed back again and needed to check.

“I can’t believe we got out of that alive,” Lister said as he collapsed, relieved, into his seat in Starbug’s cockpit and began programming a course to literally anywhere. 

“What a dork!” Cat muttered to himself.

“Don’t speak too soon, Listy,” Rimmer told him. “I’m not going to relax until we’re not only out of this planet’s atmosphere, but out of its whole solar system. Whoever heard of a society built around gambling for emotions? It’s utter madness.”

Kryten glanced at him. “Well sir, emotions are valuable currency in many GELF societies, and a society built around gambling isn’t that unusual. Surely you’ve heard of the Earth city of Las Vegas?”

“Yes, but gambling on Star Trek trivia knowledge?” Rimmer said. “Absolutely insane.”

“From what I could gather, this particular GELF clan discovered some old Star Trek videos on a crashed ship quite early in their civilisation, and it has somehow become a religion to them. We weren’t gambling on Star Trek trivia, we were gambling on knowledge of religious doctrine.”

“Duane Dibbley,” Cat said again, disbelievingly.

Rimmer shook his head. “A religion built around a fictional Science Fiction story. Well that’s even more insane, frankly.”

Kryten nodded. “Yes, but again sir, far from unique. For example, have you heard of…”

“Lister, can you hurry up and get us out of here before those insane GELFs decide they want a rematch?” Rimmer said, cutting Kryten off before he could finish.

Lister nodded, already working on plotting a course as far away from the moon as possible.

“Why is it always Duane Dibbley?” Cat said. “Why is my coolness so delicious that these emotion-slurping things always want to gobble it up?”

“They don’t,” Rimmer reminded him. “The first time we encountered one, it took your vanity, remember?”

“Don’t remind me!” Cat told him. “I’m not sure which was worse.”

“I rather liked you that first time,” Rimmer told him. “No self esteem, convinced your opinion was worth absolutely nothing…” he nodded appreciatively. “You should be more like that all the time, we’d get on much better.”

Cat glared at him. “Now you listen to me…” he said, pointing an angry finger at Rimmer.

Lister finished programming the flight path and hit the ignition. “And we’re off. Relax, guys, we’re fine. Everyone’s back to normal.”

“Easy for you to say,” Rimmer told him. “I mean, it’s not like they took any of your emotions, is it?” Lister glanced back at Rimmer. “They gave them back when we won,” he reminded him. “Anyway, they only took your charisma, Rimmer. Honestly I couldn’t even notice a difference.”

Cat grinned at that. “Yeah, I’m surprised they even thought that was worth taking.”

Rimmer glared at him. “Now you listen to me, you stupid, useless excuse for a cat…” “Hey, back off Rimmer.” Lister interrupted. “If it wasn’t for him we’d still be trapped there getting into more and more emotional debt.”

Cat grinned. “Yeah! I saved you.” He frowned “Well, I saved me, but you happened to be there at the same time.”

“It wasn’t you though, was it? It was Duane Dibbley that saved us.” Rimmer smirked triumphantly. “Unless you want to admit that he’s actually a part of you?”

“No way!” Cat said immediately.

“Well then you don’t get any kind of recognition for what you did, because you didn’t do it. I mean, let’s face it, you wouldn’t know Captain Kirk from Captain Janeway.”

Cat grinned. “Sure I would, grease stain! Kirk’s the captain from the first show, back in the really olden days when the sets were made of cardboard or something. Cool guy. Totally in love with the dude with the ears. Janeway’s the lady captain from Voyager; got stuck in the Delta Quadrant, like that’s a real thing.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Rimmer stared at him. “What? How do you know that? Fine, answer this one, genius…” He frowned, trying to think of another question. “Give me a minute, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it, and I want to come up with a really hard one…”

Lister sighed and resisted the urge to rest his head in his hands. “Guys, can you have a nerd-off another time? Preferably when I’m not here.”

“It’s not a ‘nerd-off’ Lister. I’m simply trying to work out how on Io the Cat knows this stuff.”

“Hey, I know stuff!” Cat insisted. “What, you thought Duane Dibbley could do something I couldn’t?! You thought the duke of dork had skills that I don’t? You’re crazy!”

“Right,” said Rimmer. “So you’re saying that you, the Cat, actually has all that Star Trek trivia filed away somewhere in the recesses of your brain. You?”

Cat shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Kryten looked over at Rimmer. “It makes sense, sir. After all, when his coolness was extracted, nothing was added in its place, therefore it stands to reason that any knowledge Mr Dibbley has, must be knowledge that the Cat has too.”

“Yeah!” Cat said, then frowned “I don’t know what he’s talking about, but it sounds like he’s saying I know stuff. And I do! I used to watch a lot of videos before you guys showed up.”

“Huh,” said Rimmer. “Well, I suppose you did save us then.”

“Damn right I did. Me and my super-smart brain! You didn’t know the answer to those questions, did you?”

Rimmer shook his head. “No. No I didn’t.” He smirked. “So, you’re a nerd. A complete and utter nerd.”

Cat glared at Rimmer. “Am not!”

“Here’s one. What’s the first rule of acquisition?”

Cat opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again and sighed. “Fine,” he said. “So maybe I am a nerd. I’m still about a thousand times cooler than you,” he said. Then shrugged. “And hey, I still saved our asses, so I guess sometimes, being a complete nerd comes in useful.”

[memorylang]

Language Learning, Mom’s Birthday | #43 | August 2020

Since Mom had held language-learning close-to-heart, I dedicate my August update to a language theme! 

With August 9, 2020, my late mom turned 55. I’ve often felt since 2017 a bittersweet fondness for the summer months between Mother’s Day and her birthday. That year had been my first summer in China getting to know Mom’s family after her death. 

For this August’s story, I’ve reflected a great deal on my experiences with language learning. Of which I’d written before, I’ve basically chosen five languages as the ones I want to be functional using (my native English included). So beyond the usual reflections from this COVID-19 summer in the States, I also take us back through my young life learning.  

And, I’m pleased to announce that I've begun to work on a new writing project! More on that soon. 

From Multilingual Mom to Me 

I start us from spring 2020, around evacuation back to the U.S. from Peace Corps Mongolia. 

By April 10-16, I’d been in my sixth week in Vegas again. Yet, less than a couple months before, I was in Mongolia packing to evacuate. As part of my coping while packing, I’d listened to hours of music. Much included Chinese Disney themes I’d found on Spotify. 

Well, having returned to Vegas, you might recall that the sisters’ songs in “Frozen II” resonated deeply with me. Whether while waking or working the yard, I’d listen to “Frozen II”' tracks in Chinese, sometimes in English. Finding songs in other langauges fit my 2020 exploration resolution. I humorously suspected that my Spotify Wrapped 2020 will surely list the same tracks in different languages... if only Spotify had Mongolian versions. Well, a month later, by week 10 (May 8-14), I’d exchanged the songs’ English versions for Spanish!  

That week also featured May 13, 2020—the third anniversary of Mom’s funeral. This year, something special happened.  

I’d received a fateful book—A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin. My college pastor had ordered this for me just days after I’d asked him what I should consider studying while discerning during quarantine a doctorate in religious studies. After my pastor noted my interest in world Christianity, especially its past and present in Asia, he highly recommended I study Church Latin. 

My pastor’s suggestion pleased me in a curious way. It reminded me of my Duolingo dabbling back in Mongolia, how at that time I’d favored Latin over Greek. Still, Liturgical Latin, studied seriously, seemed like quite an undertaking. Nonetheless my pastor commended my talents and felt confident I could succeed along paths God may open for me. I felt grateful for the aid! 

Embarking on my quest to learn Latin, I’ve found the language remarkable. 

It’s felt at times the culmination of my years learning languages. In fact, Mom had actually wanted my siblings and me to learn languages since we were little—She’d taught us to read English then tried to have us learn Chinese. Most summers, she’d have us in the mornings copy down Chinese characters before she’d let us play games or do activities that weren’t “educational.” 

While cleaning my family’s garage this COVID-19 this summer, I’d unearthed old notebooks in which my siblings and I would write Mom’s required phrases. I noticed how even back then I’d seem to try harder than most of my siblings, given how many characters I copied. Still, I hadn’t much inclination to know the language words beyond, then, clearing Mom’s barrier to letting me play games. 

Still, even if the notebooks had implied some aptitude I’d had for languages, Mom’s requirements left me if anything more averse to language acquisition than eager. 

Suffering Through Spanish

Many today may feel surprised to know that for years I’d called Spanish my second language. 

Given my childhood disdain for studying languages beyond English, I’d found my task to study Spanish in high school assiduous. I formally began in the language fall 2011 as a freshman. Spanish was our Vegas school’s only foreign language option, and all honors students needed two years of language. Yet again, my language studies drew from a requirement—little more. 

Many of my classmates and I rapidly found our classes exhausting, for our instructor had a thick French accent. Furthermore, verb conjugation, unfamiliar tenses and gendered vocabulary felt alien. I didn’t get why a language would be so complicated. 

Yet, despite my struggles to understand our teacher, she’d commended me because I “made the effort.” Well, I sometimes felt like I’d make the effort to a fault. When peers cheated on exams, my darn integrity had me abstain. 

By my second year, when I was succeeding in college-level AP world history, my fleetingly flawless GPA took from Spanish a beating. That hurt. By my senior year, at least Mom let me take Spanish online instead. I’d learned that I’d known more than I thought, but I still sucked. 

Redemption Through Mandarin

By fall 2015, I’d had graduated high school and enrolled as an honors undergrad facing another foreign language requirement. 

Licking my wounds from Spanish, I ruled out that language. I saw the University offered Chinese, though. Studying world history had interested me in Mom’s cultural background and native tongue. Considered she’d made my siblings stare at the language since childhood, I hoped it wouldn’t be too hard. So, I chose Mandarin Chinese.

And by my first days learning Chinese, I could already feel the benefits of having taken Spanish. 

Chinese felt astoundingly straightforward. Spanish had taught me to recognize that English letters (better known as the Latin alphabet) sound differently in different languages. For example, I felt pleased to notice that the ‘a’ /ah/ letter in Spanish sounds similar to its Chinese pronunciation. Thus, Spanish’s “mamá” and Chinese’s “māmā” relate, despite appearing in separate languages. 

Thanks to my Spanish experience, I picked up Chinese’s general pronunciation system far faster. Furthermore, I felt relieved to find that Chinese grammar lacked the conjugation and gender nightmares I’d faced in Spanish. I’d even loved how Chinese characters’ little images could often help me guess word meanings intuitively! 

My interest and success with the Chinese language led me to study abroad in 2017, planned with my mother before she was killed. I returned to China a year later, in 2018 on an intensive program. Both times, I spoke my mother’s native tongue, meeting relatives and making friends. I even received awards for my skills. 

Yet, despite my progress in Chinese, I’d often considered it only my third language. After all, much of my success in Chinese came having struggled through Spanish.  

  Finding Peace with Spanish

In my college senior year, January 2019, I’d attended a religious pilgrimage in Panamá—a Spanish-speaking nation. 

By that time, I’d grown acquainted with language immersions. In fact, I readily used my Mandarin skills when I met World Youth Day pilgrims from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan. They often felt shocked to meet someone outside their communities who knew their language! 

Of course, Panamá left me at times surrounded too by folks who only spoke Spanish, including my host family. 

I listened carefully. A luminous spark, I’d felt. Buried memories of my broken Spanish resurfaced. Near my last day in Panamá, I felt awed to have had a conversation with a cab driver completely in Spanish. 

My peace with Spanish became a renewed interest. 

After our pilgrimage, I’d continued with my host family and new Latin American friends to speak and write almost exclusively in Spanish. Online, we benefited over WhatsApp with Google Translate, too. Panamá in 2019 had taken a language that was for me dead and breathed in it new life. 

Peace Corps Language Level-ups

Later that year (last year), I began to learn what would be my fourth language and one entirely unfamiliar—Mongolian.

I should note that before reaching Mongolia June 1, 2019, I couldn’t even read its Cyrillic alphabet. I’d basically started at zero. 

Peace Corps’ language briefings had at least taught me that Mongolian is an Altaic language, distinct from Indo-European language like English and from character-based languages like Mandarin. Over the course of summer in villages of Mongolia, Peace Corps put us through mornings of immersive language training followed by returns home to our host families. 

Still, many Peace Corps Trainees felt unmotivated to learn Mongolian. After all, with statistically few Mongolian speakers worldwide, many felt that we wouldn’t have much utility for Mongolian outside Mongolia. Nevertheless, I felt motivated by desires to understand and feel understood. I powered through. 

Initially, Mongolian baffled me. 

Its Cyrillic alphabet (and its script one, too) includes consonant and vowel sounds unknown to English, Spanish and Chinese. Furthermore, Mongolian uses a case-based grammar of suffixes, a reversed subject-object-verb order and postpositions instead of prepositions. Mongolian even reintroduced me to my nemeses gendered vocabulary and tense-based verb endings!

I felt grateful for the sparse Chinese loanwords I wouldn’t have to relearn! Yet, my kryptonite was often pronunciation. Challenging consonants and tricky long vowels left me so inauthentic. Regardless, I was an ardent study who savored most every chance to receive Mongols’ clarifications and corrections. 

Finding Latin in Asia

Curiously, Catholic Churches became great places for my language learning.

This was the case for me both with learning Chinese in China and Mongolian in Mongolia. Parishioners would often take me under their wings to support me. Curiously in Mongolia, an English-speaking French parishioner pointed out once that Mongolian grammar is quite like Latin. I didn’t know Latin, though. 

I had encountered Latin, though. For, Asian vocabularies for Church topics often derived more directly from Latin than even English translations! These pleased me, since learning the vocabulary to speak about religion felt less foreign. 

Then came the sleepless nights during Mongolia’s COVID-19 preemptive quarantining, January and February. I’d had taken up Duolingo and opted for Greek or Latin in hopes that they’d bore me to sleep. I’d also hoped they might supplement how I teach English and read Scripture. And while Greek felt hopelessly confounding, Latin vocabulary felt surprisingly... natural. Despite my lack of formal training, I did alright just guessing. 

My Roads Led to Latin

From late May through mid-June 2020, I’d read the first four chapters of the Church Latin book. Meanwhile, mid-summer, I felt pleased to reach Duolingo’s Diamond League! Realizing that to become Champion would take far more effort than I cared to give, though I focused just on keeping my streak. 

Still, my Latin especially progress slowed after Dad’s remarriage and my relocation to Reno, Nev. My mostly-free summer rapidly grew hectic. But even in those first four Latin weeks, I’d discovered true gems in pursuing the historic language. 

At face value, Latin’s vocabulary reminded me of Spanish and English. Sometimes, Church words I’d learned first in Mandarin and Mongolian too related! Vocabulary felt profound. 

Furthermore, Latin grammar felt reminiscent of not only Spanish conjugations but indeed Mongolian cases! I felt relieved that Panamá had freed me from my conjugation aversion. Likewise, my Mongolian skills felt far from obsolete! 

To supplement my Latin studies, I try to translate between Chinese and Spanish, the way how in Mongolia I’d translate between Mongolian and Chinese. By juggling languages, I seek to codeswitch in more contexts with a more unified vocabulary. 

Wherever I wind up academically and professionally, I hope to work between languages. Through daily discipline, textbooks, apps, videos, notes and conversations, I trust I’ll go far. Feel free to connect if you want to practice with me! The more corrections, the better. 

From Ecclesiastical to Classical Latin

On August 23 (of my stateside week 25), I’d reunited in Vegas with a high school friend who’d studied classics in undergrad. From that meeting on, I’d not only ramped up my Latin studies but also transitioned from Ecclesiastical Latin to classical. 

For, Church Latin is but an evolving Latin. To understand the orgins of many words—beyond simply their uses within the Roman Catholic Church—I would need the eternal Latin that changes no more. Well, my friend offered to tutor me, so I offered to try! 

Classical Latin is harder, by the way. 

And in the midst of my suffering throughout September, my friend had even offered to tutor me Greek. While mostly joking (but also not), I’ve offered that I might learn Greek from him if for no other reason than to thank him for teaching me Latin! 

Nearly a month since beginning the tutorial system with him, we’ve since cleared over a fourth of a textbook meant sometimes to take a year’s worth of study. I hope by the year’s end to have finished the book. 

At least a third of my waking hours at times seem to go into Latin. But, it’s nice to keep learning! That same week, my siblings had all resumed their undergraduate studies. At least I’m still learning something! 

Embarking on a Book Memoir 

Besides working on my other languages, I’ve even placed time in my English. 

Lastly, I want to share about my writing quest! Although the project isn’t always across the top of my agenda, I keep at it. We return again to mid-summer. 

Peace Corps friends and I have often checked in on each other since evacuation to the States. Some also write. During a webinar for evacuated Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, I’d met many looking to tell their stories.

Most weeks since July, I’d also have a few video calls. I’d take these no matter what I was up to. I’d still been doing that ‘groundskeeping’ in Reno, Nev. of which I’d written before. Whether I was getting the mail, trimming the hedges, pruning the flowers, watering the lawn, raking debris, sweeping the floor, taking out the trash, tugging the garbage bins, adjusting the windows or washing the dishes, I’d often had some task that Dad requested I’d tend to. Calls with friends broke the monotony. 

After encouragement from mentors and friends, I’d decided to write a creative nonfiction book memoir for publication someday! 

The first step, of course, is having a manuscript. So, since week 17 (June 26–July 2), I’d been typing away at the first chapters to what seems will be a story spanning my three years of studies and service overseas after Mother’s death, leading up to my acceptance and peace. I'm excited to tell stories about finding purpose and identity, despite grief and loss. I hope it helps readers to find their own peace amid confusion. All things are so fundamentally interconnected. 

By three weeks in, I’d felt so grateful for the outpouring of support I’d received. Frankly, I wouldn’t be writing so much if people hadn’t been saying this has potential. Thankfully, readers offer marvelous insights. They treat the story as one deserving of quality. I love their attention to details. 

Still, among the most grueling lessons I’ve learned learned has been that a book about grief has needed me to relive the hurt of my mother's death for repeated days. I trust nonetheless that once I’ve written and rewritten well, the remaining may rest behind me. 

If you’re looking to read what’s coming, you’re in the right place. Merely starting on the book has helped me to improve my blog writing. You may have noticed in my recent summer 2019 throwback stories, for example, I’ve used more narrative than before. I hope you’ve enjoyed! 

The language studies and the book continue, though I’ve taken more breaks lately with the book. From mid-August I’d embarked on advocacy projects with the National Peace Corps Association. I’ll share more on that soon. Having doubled-down on my Latin studies from mid-September, it can be a quite a black hole for my time! For everything there is a season (Ecc. 3:1). 

Seeking to Stay Holy

A couple friends admired my dedication and called upon me to help them meet their spiritual goals. What a kind expereince! In helping them keep accountable, they’ve likewise helped me. 

With a homebound Knight of Columbus, we’d continued July’s rosaries throughout August, as many as three times a day leading up to the Catholic Feast of the Assumption. Afterward, we’d reduced our count back to two times daily through early September. I’d never prayed so many rosaries before! 

Through August, I’d also read a chapter of Proverbs daily with a friend. I’d reconnected with her during my outreach for the book. I enjoy our weekly Scripture chats, and she shows more Protestant perspectives on our faith!  

I find God a great companion along the journey of life. Regardless of how you view religious and spiritual topics, I trust that you have companions, too. They’re so important! 

On a positive note, I’d gotten to revisit my undergrad parish. I felt so amazed to hear that students I’d never met thought I was a cool person! I try not to think too highly of myself, but I feel touched when people notice me. I hope I inspire folks. 

Coming up Next

Thanks for reading my meta-stories about languages and stories!  

If you’ve been following my tales for a while now, you may recall I’d mentioned feeling surprised to learn that my mother had been studying Spanish around the same years I’d been studying it. I felt awed to realize that even when I’d tried to learn one of my earliest new languages, Mom was trying to learn what was for her one of a few. I’m glad to have perhaps inherited Mother’s interest in languages. 

Up next, I have a very special piece dated for September 2020 [and ultimately released in October]. I’m focusing on perspectives—mine and others’. I’m particularly excited to share adventures with teams including those within the American Psychological Association and the Honors College at the University of Nevada, Reno. They’ve given me plenty of fun roles amid the pandemic! 

I’m also writing about national and state parks! God, I love nature.

Stay healthy, friend.

COVID-19 and America Months 11 through 15 | April, May, June, July, August

Easter Epilogue in America | #35 | April 2020 

Remembering Mom—Third Year After | #36 | May 2020 

Fathers’ Day, Faith and Familiarity | #38 | June 2020

23rd Birthday~ Roses and Rosaries | #39 | July 2020

Language Learning, Mom’s Birthday | #43 | August 2020

You can read more from me here at DanielLang.me :) 

[babylon-crashing]

... from,  Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine, by Yulia Antonian.

Armenia, an independent republic formerly within the Soviet Union, was the world’s first country to adopt Christianity as its national religion in 301 A.D. Consequently, one might assume that few traces remain of pre-Christian ways—and then only in remote villages and ancient monasteries lost in the mountains. A closer examination, however, dispels this stereotypical view. In spring 2002, during fieldwork in the Kotayk region of Armenia, I participated in a feast in the ruins of a monastery devoted to the local saints Poghos and Petros. A middle-aged woman with a mentally disabled boy of about 16 sat just in front of the door of a chapel. I later learned that the woman, Vardanush, was a healer and diviner in the region. She attracted my attention when pilgrims approached her with a request to bless a sacrificial rooster, a ritual usually performed only by a priest. Though she had no salt (blessed salt is normally put in the animal’s mouth before slaughtering) she put her hand on the cock’s head and pronounced: “God bless this sacrifice, let it be accepted, let your wishes come true.”

During local feasts, pagan rituals thrive, the blood of sacrificial animals and birds is shed, the zurna (a traditional wind instrument) cries out, and rope-walkers in their multi-colored costumes dance just as their medieval colleagues once did, as depicted in ancient Armenian manuscripts. Pre-Christian traditions are also found among contemporary ritual specialists who engage in healing and divinatory practices involving “pouring wax/lead,” “turning a sieve,” “throwing beans,” and “measuring fright.” Most of these practices are described in medieval Armenian sources as components of a pre-Christian shamanistic ritual of healers who were known as kakhards. (Antonian, 2002) Kakhards’ practices contained many elements of classic shamanism. They suffered from shamanistic diseases, traveled or flew to the world of spirits on vessels, and fell into “ecstasy” or an altered state of consciousness (ASC) during the healing ritual, as described by fifth-century author Yeznik Koghbatsi: “Kakhard must be possessed by spirits before he starts healing other people.” The word kakhard lost its ancient meaning—healers and diviners are now mostly called nayogh, “people who are looking”—but it is still used in contemporary Armenian in a pejorative way, meaning “sorcerer.”

KAKHARD SELECTION AND INITIATION

Vardanush was bestowed with healing abilities while dreaming after suffering from a drawn-out illness. She said she fell sick because she refused to accept the bestowal of special powers. She was familiar with the difficulties of her “mission” because her grandmother was also a hereditary healer and diviner. The process of empowerment of a person with healing skills and abilities often takes place in dreams, and many healers and diviners willingly tell people about their dreams, especially their initiatory dreams, to convince people that they received abilities from saints. Practitioners’ fantastic stories about how they received their skills have similar content and motives. The dream establishes contact with the “other” world, the world of spirits. In dreams, future healers often find themselves in strange places, symbolically indicating the beyond. In an overwhelming number of cases the main action takes place either on a mountain or on a water surface such as a sea or lake.

These themes are illustrated in the dream of Tsaghik Airian, a woman-healer from Karabagh who now lives in one of Yerevan’s suburbs. Tsaghik saw herself moving on a bridge. At the other end of the bridge she was met by an old white man who accompanied her to a palace on a sacred mountain. Tsaghik was struck by the number of treasures that were gathered there. The man suggested she pick something up. She liked a carpet, but the old man took it out from her hands and instead gave her a shabby shawl with a patch in the center. The patch symbolized the navel and it meant that Tsaghik would receive or acquire the ability to cure gynecological diseases.

Varsik, another healer, said that in her initiatory dream she climbed Golgotha, the mountain where Christ was crucified, in an attempt to reach the crucified Christ. Drops of His sacred blood fell down into Varsik’s eyes, making her blind. The nails that fixed Christ to the Cross pierced her breast. Christ then opened her breast, took out the heart and replaced it with his own. Thus she acquired healing and divining abilities—she cures problems in the nervous system, skin conditions, and other diseases.

Details of Varsik’s dream illustrate the components of classical shamanistic initiation when neophytes are blinded or dismembered in order to get new sight or insight and a new powerful body. Dreams of blindness are connected with a perception that, in receiving supernatural skills, shamans can lose their eyesight. (Vitebsky) Blindness, as a component of the “passing period” to becoming a healer, is often mentioned in healers’ stories. Varsik, Lusine, and many others remained blind for some period until they started their healing practice.

The dreams of contemporary healers often display mountains, a widespread mythological symbol of the center of the world. (Eliade) A sacred mountain is a location where shamanistic skills and abilities are delivered to a future healer after they have passed a test. Another ancient symbol of the beyond, represented in a series of dreams of healers and diviners, is a mythic “endless” and “bottomless” sea or a lake widely encountered in Armenian folklore. (Harutyunyan) Before she was awarded divination and healing skills, healer Knarik was required to go through Sevan lake by following a narrow stony path that emerged in waves. Diviner-healer Alvard walked on the surface of the sea in her initiatory dream.

In most cases, initiatory trials are preceded by a period of physical, mental, or emotional suffering—the so-called “shamanistic disease” that occurs when future shamans refuse to follow their calling. All of the healers and community members I spoke to agree that the healer’s and diviner’s mission is severe, full of responsibility, self-denial, and even hard physical suffering. No one would choose this path voluntarily. But no one can resist the “saints.”

The period for “becoming a healer” is filled with drama and often occurs at times when critical changes are taking place in the lives of future shamans. For many women healers, a major life change occurs just after they have married and moved into their husband’s village or apartment. Such change of social status is often accompanied by the sudden acquisition of mystic abilities, and may even provoke it. Death or disease also severely impacts the future healer, particularly when it strikes parents, a husband, or children. Varsik started “looking” (a term signifying the process of divining and healing) after she lost her father. A woman in another village recalled that her own grandmother had become a healer after her child was kidnapped. Alvard had her initiatory dream while sitting on the deathbed of her small daughter. The healer Karine finally decided to accept her “bestowal” after successive illnesses and accidents happened to her three children. She was inclined to interpret this dramatic period of her life as a punishment inflicted by saints for her reluctance to follow their requirements.

The period of physical, mental, and emotional disorder ends when the person selected by the saints agrees to follow. Healers are bestowed with specific rituals, secret magic means, and personal prayers. The latter is taught by saints in the initiatory dream and should be kept secret so it will not lose its magic force. As a rule, “professional secrets” are not inherited, except for medicinal recipes in cases where family members have prepared herbal drugs across generations.

HEALING PRACTICES

Many Armenian healers receive patients in a separate location from their house if they live in a rural area. The locations are rectangular structures with an interior ensuring the sacredness of the place. Those who cannot afford the separate construction or who live in a city make use of the most remote or isolated part of their house or apartment, where people do not live. Armenians believe that in such places spirits and devils find shelter. Inside walls are covered with images of saints (srbi nkar), which are often reproductions of famous paintings by Leonardo, Rafael, and others representing Biblical stories and personages. Also placed on a table are a Bible, mystic books, talismen and amulets, and other tools of magico-religious practice. Healers prefer meeting tete-a-tete with a patient and the presence of other people is usually prohibited. I did, however, have several chances to witness the ritual, including a case when the patient was unable to attend and his mother instead brought his shirt to represent him.

Vardanush’s mode of healing is touching a patient with her hands and fingers or making passes in the air. The ritual is accompanied by whispering prayers passed to her by saints in an initiatory dream. Vardanush said she often flies with saints in the air, communicates with them, and receives advice and support. Dreams are her main mode of communication with saints, as they are to a majority of Armenian magico-religious practitioners.

Bavakan lives in one of the most remote mountain villages of Armenia. In healing, she seats her patient, puts her hand on his head and whispers: “Ter Astvats, Astvatsatsin Mariam [God, Virgin Mary].” Her whispering gets faster and the words are barely understandable. Bavakan ends the prayer with unnaturally long and deep yawning, after which she remains frozen for some time. Yawning is one of the most widely known symptoms of the impending ASC. For Armenian healers, it is a sign of the establishment of contact with spirits, saints, or other supernatural creatures. As soon as she comes to herself, Bavakan crosses the patient three times, then pours a spoon of melted wax into a bowl of cold water. When the wax plate hardens, she takes it out and starts her divination. She says what or who is the cause of disease (or misfortune), why it happened, and what to do in order to eliminate it. At the same time, the ritual is empowered to exorcise the disease, “fright.” Fright is a sickness expressed via severe headaches, depression, insomnia, or mental or emotional disorders, and is caused by sorcery on the part of animal- or man-shaped spirits. For example, the healer may say, “You are frightened by a dog or a dead man, or an ‘evil eye.’” Each diviner-healer possesses his or her own version of the healing ritual. Some include a demonstration of tricks and the preparation of amulets. The healer Siran from the village of Masis opens locks at a distance to destroy the evil forces and “open” one’s luck. She also prepares amulets from garlic, a piece of green fabric, and needles.

Some healers do not practice ASC, while others demonstrate clear signs of an ASC or even possession. Geghanoush, a healer from a region of Vayots Dzor, said she does not start her séance until she has been “contacted” by her saints while in deep silence, sitting before a lighted candle. In some difficult cases, instead of experiencing a light trance she is possessed by spirits and has heavy attacks similar to epilepsy. Varsik said she experiences visions regarding the patient’s state, diagnosis, and outcome of the disease while in an ASC. She said she sees everything in vegetal and animalistic images.

Finding a diagnosis and a reason for the disease is the main and the most important part of the healing process. Some divination rituals like pouring wax or lead have a healing effect as its components symbolically find and remove the disease. Bashkir shamans also pour wax as the main component of their séance. A lump of wax snatched away from the water symbolizes the soul of a patient stolen by the spirits and saved by the shaman. (Khisamitdinova) Other healing methods include magic acts aimed at destruction of sorcery and manual therapy accompanied by the use of traditional herbal drugs or magic means. Siran confessed that she can reveal and manipulate 28 veins and thus heal many diseases. Varsik uses her own saliva to heal some skin diseases. At the final stage, the patient is often sent to make a sacrifice to the saint found to be the culprit of the disease. As a rule, healers-diviners have good knowledge of all sacred places in the vicinity and visit them from time to time to keep in touch with saints. TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE KAKHARDS

Seventeen centuries of Christianity have brought many changes to these ancient healing rituals. According to medieval laws, divination was subject to less punishment than core shamanic healing and, as a consequence, the divinatory component predominated and acquired a healing aspect, which it still has today. Armenian coffee-ground divination, comparatively new to Armenians, is already in some cases perceived as a healing act by both healers and their clients.

Over the centuries, important components of kakhards’ practices, such as falling into long and deep ASC and traveling to the world of spirits on a vessel, almost disappeared. Traditionally, women kakhards could practice healing and divining in Armenian society more easily because official pressure from the Christian church and then the Soviets was slack. Later, under the pressure of Christian church officials, a campaign of persecution began against traditional magico-religious practitioners. Male kakhards were gradually forced to accept other ways of displaying their healing abilities, and often joined mystical branches of the Christian church, like the hermitage. Reports in Armenian biographies1 claim that hermits possess healing abilities. At the end of the 19th century some hermits still existed, and they were widely known as sorcerers and healers. Today, the number of male practitioners is limited.

The official ideology of the Soviet regime considered healers and fortunetellers anachronistic and believed that they would soon disappear. But healing traditions have been revitalized since Armenia regained independence. Unlike countries in which an outburst of shamanistic expression has been associated with national, cultural, and religious revival, the animation of this tradition in Armenia is a spontaneous reaction to stresses that Armenian society has experienced since the early 1990s when war, blockades, and economic crises affected the country. Healers have grown in number, are younger, and their clientele has grown. The gender breakdown of patients and clients has also changed; the number of men resorting to healers and diviners has increased due to the collapse of ideological barriers and increasing stresses and depression. Some theories state that periods of crisis impact the growth and energetic potential of a society and engender a strong need for ancient rehabilitation mechanisms such as shamanism or similar practices. (Kharitonova) This theory seems to hold in the case of Armenia, the world’s oldest Christian culture, where many components of traditional shamanistic practices are alive and flourishing.

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1907.10: Missions Reviewed, “Destiny,” “Prophet Motive,” and “Visionary.”

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1907.10: Missions Reviewed, “Destiny,” “Prophet Motive,” and “Visionary.”

Sisko’s “Destiny” is called into play when a Bajoran Vedek reinterprets an ancient prophecy to mean the Cardassian scientists about to come onto DS9 to construct a communication device to operate through the wormhole are going to instead destroy it. Sisko is initially dismissive, but as Kira (trying to balance her position as first officer and her faith in The Prophets) keeps pointing out, the signs seem to line up.

 When the legitimate threat to the wormhole seems to fall into place, Sisko has to make a choice to behave as an officer or as a religious figure.  Using Dax’s science after Kira tells him she believes he will do the right thing, the wormhole is saved and the experiment successful…fulfilling the prophecy as well if you interpret it just a little differently.

The tension builds here nicely, particularly for Kira as she balances her duty and her faith. It’s also nice to see Cardassians who are not portrayed as the monolithic military bad guys, but have a genuine interest in the science and working with Starfleet. Sisko’s discomfort with being “The Emissary” is something that will be visited to great effect again. Seeing guest stars Tracy Scoggins- 90s icon, and Wendy Robie (Nadine from “Twin Peaks”) is full Cardassian makeup is pretty cool, and they both flesh out their characters well, particularly Scoggins’ character who thinks there’s a romance between her and O’Brien because they keep bickering of engineering.

The Prophets are still with us in “Prophet Motive” as Grand Nagus Zek comes onto the station, ready to involve Quark and Rom in a re-write of the Rules of Acquisition. Quark is appalled however to find they are now very philanthropic, and the Nagus seems far more interested in helping people with charity than profit.

 Rom jumps in heading a new benevolent aid organization, but Quark realizes everything changed for Zek after going into the wormhole and asking the Prophets to show him the future. Quark has his own discussion with the Prophets, mirroring a lot of what Sisko went through back in the pilot episode, and finally convincing them to restore Zek’s avarice. As Zek leaves to continue profiting on Ferenginar, Quark laments how much money they lost in this venture. Rom however has embezzled a tidy sum from Zek’s charities, making Quark proud of his brother.

I always enjoy the fine line between the Ferengi on DS9 being likable and horrible, and even when it’s not specifically the goal of the story, it’s one of the few places Trek asks you to try to examine how open minded the Federation is. These are cultural differences, but so different than just “let Worf wear his sash.”

 The presentation of “Prophet space” here does echo the pilot, and it’s neat to see the more comic relief character standing up to this timeless group. Very fun.

Miles O’Brien becomes a “Visionary” during a visit to the station from the Romulans. Having provided the Defiant with a cloaking device, the Romulans now want their intelligence information about the Dominion in exchange. Something affects the station, zapping O’Brien who starts going all Billy Pilgrim unstuck in time and flashing 5 hours into the future. 

At first, it’s simple things like a Klingon/Romulan bar fight he sees, but later, he sees his own death and finally the destruction of DS9. Dax traces the problem to a singularity that seems to be orbiting the station. When O’Brien triggers himself with radiation to go forward, he finds out exactly what happens- the singularity is actually a cloaked Romulan ship planning to destroy the wormhole to protect the Alpha Quadrant from the Dominion. Miles dies in that flash forward, so the future miles comes back in his place, saving the day and stopping the Romulan threat.

It’s time for our annual “let’s screw with O’Brien” episode and this is a good one. Trek has always been touchy on just how their temporal physics work, and we can argue here whether or not O’Brien actually creates a series of parallel timelines as seen in “Parallels,” any Mirror Universe episode, and “Trek 2009.”  This also furthers my theory that there IS no “Prime” timeline, and all of the Trek history we know is in fact a collection of similar but divergent interacting universes with varying degrees of difference.  It also explains why sometimes my keys aren’t where I am sure I left them.  The Romulans questioning DS9 crew about the Dominion is well handled here, especially Kira’s friendship with Odo, who is one of the “Founders” according to the Romulans, actually bringing some of his behavior into question. Another thing I love here is the idea that maybe the Romulans are on to something- collapsing the wormhole does protect this part of space from the superior forces of the Dominion.

NEXT VOYAGE: Bashir is trapped and aging, having to listen to “Distant Voices.”

[ucflibrary]

The national celebration of African American History was started by Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard-trained historian and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and first celebrated as a weeklong event in February of 1926. After a half century of overwhelming popularity, the event was expanded to a full month in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.

 Here at UCF Libraries we believe that knowledge is key to living a good life and that sharing information benefits everyone. This is why our featured bookshelf suggestions range from celebrating outstanding African Americans to having difficult conversations about racism and American History. We are proud to present our top 24 favorite books by, and/or about, African Americans.

 Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the Black History Month titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These 24 books plus many, many more are also on display on the 2nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators. Blu-rays and DVDs for documentaries and popular films are also included in the display.

 A Rap on Race by Margaret Mead and James Baldwin A black writer's emotional response to American racism is juxtaposed with the logical analyses of a social scientist. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

 Backlash: what happens when we talk honestly about racism in America by George Yancy When George Yancy penned a New York Times op-ed entitled “Dear White America” asking white Americans to confront the ways that they benefit from racism, he knew his article would be controversial. But he was unprepared for the flood of vitriol in response. The resulting blowback played out in the national media, with critics attacking Yancy in every form possible—including death threats—and supporters rallying to his side. Despite the rhetoric of a “post-race” America, Yancy quickly discovered that racism is still alive, crude, and vicious in its expression. In Backlash, Yancy expands upon the original article and chronicles the ensuing controversy as he seeks to understand what it was about the op-ed that created so much rage among so many white readers. He challenges white Americans to rise above the vitriol and to develop a new empathy for the African American experience. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Buffalo soldiers directed by Charles Haid Danny Glover stars in this historical epic of former slaves turned United States Army recruits--the Buffalo Soldiers. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, many ex-slaves head west in search of a new life far from Southern oppression. In 1866, a year after the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Army enlists black men to fight Native Americans on the Western frontier. Nicknamed "Buffalo Soldiers" by the Plains Indians, these African-American troops also string miles of telegraph wire, escort settlers, cattle and railroad crews through the hostile West and patrol the wild United States-Mexican border in this moving drama that chronicles an untold, exciting part of United States history. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Crossing Division Street: an oral history of the African-American community in Orlando by Benjamin Brotemarkle This book includes an overview of the people, institutions, and events that shaped the establishment, growth and history of the African-American community in Orlando. We examine the creation of the neighborhood's educational centers, places of worship, and businesses, and the irony of how desegregation inadvertently led to the decline of the community. Significant instances of racial unrest in Orlando that are often overlooked are detailed in this manuscript. Suggested by Rich Gause, Research & Information Services

 Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the dawn of a new America by Gilbert King In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor. To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves. By day's end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys." Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Dread Nation by Justina Ireland At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland's stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar—a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet. Suggested by Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

 Everything’s Trash but it’s OK by Phoebe Robinson Written in her trademark unfiltered and witty style, Robinson's latest collection is a call to arms. Outfitted with on-point pop culture references, these essays tackle a wide range of topics: giving feminism a tough-love talk on intersectionality, telling society's beauty standards to kick rocks, and calling foul on our culture's obsession with work. Robinson also gets personal, exploring money problems she's hidden from her parents, how dating is mainly a warmed-over bowl of hot mess, and definitely most important, meeting Bono not once, but twice. She's struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jeans size. She knows about trash because she sees it every day--and because she's seen roughly one hundred thousand hours of reality TV and zero hours of Schindler's List. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Frederick Douglass: America's prophet by D.H. Dilbeck From his enslavement to freedom, Frederick Douglass was one of America's most extraordinary champions of liberty and equality. Throughout his long life, Douglass was also a man of profound religious conviction. In this concise and original biography, D. H. Dilbeck offers a provocative interpretation of Douglass's life through the lens of his faith. In an era when the role of religion in public life is as contentious as ever, Dilbeck provides essential new perspective on Douglass's place in American history. Suggested by Christina Wray, Teaching & Engagement

 Frederick Douglass: prophet of freedom by David W. Blight The definitive, dramatic biography of the most important African American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era. Suggested by Christina Wray, Teaching & Engagement

 Heavy: an American memoir by Kiese Laymon    In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Hidden in Plain View:  the secret story of quilts and the underground railroad by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard The fascinating story of a friendship, a lost tradition, and an incredible discovery, revealing how enslaved men and women made encoded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.  In Hidden in Plain View, historian Jacqueline Tobin and scholar Raymond Dobard offer the first proof that certain quilt patterns, including a prominent one called the Charleston Code, were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad. In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts in the Old Market Building of Charleston, South Carolina. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold—and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew—Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help unravel the mystery. Suggested by Jacqueline Johnson, Cataloging

 Hokum: an anthology of African-American humor edited by Paul Beatty This book is less a comprehensive collection than it is a mix-tape narrative dubbed by a trusted friend―a sampler of underground classics, rare grooves, and timeless summer jams, poetry and prose juxtaposed with the blues, hip-hop, political speeches, and the world's funniest radio sermon. Groundbreaking, fierce, and hilarious, this is a necessary anthology for any fan or student of American writing, with a huge range and a smart, political grasp of the uses of humor. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions–affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche. Suggested by Rachel Mulvihill, Teaching & Engagement

 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet A. Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiography by a young mother and fugitive slave published in 1861 by L. Maria Child, who edited the book for its author, Harriet Ann Jacobs. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. Suggested by Athena Hoeppner, Acquisitions & Collections

 March. Book One. by John Lewis This graphic novel is Congressman John Lewis' first-hand account of his lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book One spans Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a climax on the steps of City Hall. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington D.C., and from receiving beatings from state troopers, to receiving the Medal of Freedom awarded to him by Barack Obama, the first African-American president. (Book Two and Book Three are also available at the UCF Curriculum Materials Center in the Education complex) Suggested by Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

 Middle Passage by Charles Johnson It is 1830. Rutherford Calhoun, a newly treed slave and irrepressible rogue, is desperate to escape unscrupulous bill collectors and an impending marriage to a priggish schoolteacher. He jumps aboard the first boat leaving New Orleans, the Republic, a slave ship en route to collect members of a legendary African tribe, the Allmuseri. Thus begins a daring voyage of horror and self-discovery. Suggested by Brian Calhoun, Research & Information Services

 Obama: An Intimate Portrait by Pete Souza Obama: An Intimate Portrait reproduces more than 300 of Souza's most iconic photographs with fine-art print quality in an oversize collectible format. Together they document the most consequential hours of the Presidency--including the historic image of President Obama and his advisors in the Situation Room during the bin Laden mission--alongside unguarded moments with the President's family, his encounters with children, interactions with world leaders and cultural figures, and more. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real, to make a difference. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

 Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues—technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism—have only become more pressing with the passage of time.  Suggested by Brian Calhoun, Research & Information Services

 The Color Purple by Alice Walker Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in modern fiction. This is the story of two sisters—one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South—who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence. Suggested by Jacqueline Johnson, Cataloging

 The Fire this Time: a new generation speaks about race edited by Jesmyn Ward National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. In the fifty-odd years since Baldwin's essay was published, entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era, that we are a "post-racial" society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwin's "fire next time" is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 The Hellfighters of Harlem: African-American soldiers who fought for the right to fight for their country by Bill Harris The author paints a lively portrait of the Hellfighters of Harlem--the Army's most celebrated all-black unit during World War I--chronicling their fierce struggle to be allowed to serve, their exploits in Europe, their influence on American culture, and their continuing contributions in World War II and in Iraq during the Gulf War. Suggested by Rich Gause, Research & Information Services

 The Sellout by Paul Beatty A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality: the black Chinese restaurant. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

[romancatholicreflections]

18th February >> Daily Reflection/Commentary on Today’s First Reading for Roman Catholics on Monday, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time (Genesis 4:1-15, 25).

The story of original sin continues with a number of accounts all pointing to the source of people’s pain and suffering – their alienation from the ways of God. Today it is about the all-too prevalent violence and killing which brings death, anger, fear and division into people’s lives.

The New Jerusalem Bible introduces the story in this way:

This narrative presupposes a developed civilisation, an established form of worship, the existence of other people who might kill Cain, the existence of a clan that would rally to him. It may be that the narrative originally referred not to the children of the first Man but to the eponymous ancestor of the Cainites (see Num 24:21). The Yahwistic tradition has moved the story back to the period of the beginning, thus giving it a universal significance: after the revolt against God we now have fratricidal strife; against these two evils is directed the double command that sums up the whole Law – the love of God and of neighbour, Matt 22:40.

Now expelled from the Garden, the Man has sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and they have a son who is called Cain. “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” The Hebrew name qayin (“Cain”) and the term qaniti (“I have produced”) present a play on words. There are many examples where biblical naming of children or places typically involves puns on key events. The statement also expresses the delight of the first Woman who, though under the domination of her husband, produces what the Man wants but cannot produce on his own – a son. God is more behind the procreation of the son than her husband.

Cain, then, is seen as a gift from God. There is an element of creation in every act of pro-creation. Cain is soon followed by a brother, Abel. ‘Abel’, in Hebrew folk etymology “Emptiness, Futility”, is the perfect counterpart of “Acquisition”. In the Scriptures brother pairs are often seen opposed in temperament, way of life and destiny (e.g. Jacob and Esau).

Abel was a shepherd while Cain was a farmer tilling the ground. The historical opposition of shepherds and farmers is indicated here. God favours the shepherd, but the choice comes to grief in any case. This is the first instance, too, of a common biblical theme – the younger being preferred to the elder (among others, Isaac to Ishmael, Jacob to Esau, Rachel to Leah). Such preferences indicate the freedom of God’s choice, his bypassing earthly standards of greatness and his regard for the lowly. (See Jesus’ teaching to his disciples about who is really great in the Kingdom.)

In the course of time, Cain brought along the fruits of his farming and offered them to the Lord. Abel also brought the first lambs of his flock and offered their fat portions to the Lord. God was pleased with the offerings of Abel but disregarded those of Cain. This made Cain very angry and resentful. We might be inclined to sympathise or ask the reason for the discrimination.

Perhaps Cain is being told that what really pleases God is righteousness and good behaviour. This will emerge more clearly in the time of the prophets where religious rituals are seen only as having value when they are accompanied by a life of concern for the brother and sister, especially those in need.

God asks Cain why he is angry and despondent. If he had done well, would he not have been accepted by God? If he is badly disposed to God’s treatment of him, is not sin lurking at his door “like a crouching beast hungering for you”? This is something he must overcome but something he failed to do. He invited his brother to go out to his farm and there Cain killed Abel. The crime is aggravated by the deceit (“Let us go into the field”), its being against a blood brother and a good man, who had done nothing to provoke such violence.

God then asks Cain where his brother has gone. As in the case of the Man and the Woman after their sin, God knows very well what has happened but he wants to give Cain an opportunity to confess his crime. However, Cain backs off. He says he does not know and then asks the famous question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” It is, of course, in the Scriptures a rhetorical question.

God now comes out straight: “What have you done? Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the earth.” So Cain is cursed from the ground, the very ground which received Abel’s blood from Cain’s hand. From now on, the earth he tills will not be productive while Cain himself will be a fugitive and a wanderer over the earth. He will enjoy no citizens’ rights, at least in his initial homeland.

Cain’s punishment is to till the ground with great difficulty and to be condemned to the life of an ever-wandering nomad. This was, in fact, the life of many people in pre-agricultural days and there are still people living in this way, including the Bedouins of the desert.

Cain feels his punishment is more than he can bear: he has been driven from the soil which provided him with a living and, worse, he must remain hidden from the face of God, while being a fugitive and wanderer for the rest of his life. Anyone who sees him will feel justified in killing him. Faced with his crime, Cain does not express any form of repentance but is simply filled with self-pity. Ironically, then, he begs God that he not meet the same fate as his own brother, that of being killed.

He has no need to fear, God tells him, because anyone who kills Cain will be punished seven times more severely. The message is clear: killing, even in revenge is ruled out (cf. Jesus’ words on this in Matt 5:21-26). God then put a mark on Cain to prevent anyone from striking him down. This is not a brand of shame but a protecting sign: it shows that Cain (with Abel) belongs to a clan which will exact blood for blood. The use of tattooing for tribal marks has always been common among the nomads of the Near Eastern deserts. Also in ancient times, certain criminals were offered limited asylum when uncontrolled reprisals posed a greater social danger than the criminals themselves.

Cain was left in a living hell – neither living nor dying. But what he did was only the beginning of a huge trail of murder and bloodshed in the world’s history. For the authors of Genesis this was the first recorded murder but such violence continues now as a reality of life, part of man’s sinfulness from the very beginning. In a verse which is part of this story but not contained in our reading, Lamech, a descendant of Adam boasts of killing a man for wounding him and a young man for striking him. “If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” (Is Jesus’ answer to Peter about the number of times he should forgive an echo of Lamech’s boast? Cf. Matt 18:22)

At the end of the reading, we are told that later Adam again had intercourse with his wife and they bore a son called Seth. “God has granted me another child instead of Abel.” The Hebrew word for ‘granted’ (shat) sounds very like ‘Seth’. Abel was dead and Cain was rejected so another son was needed for the family line (indeed the human line) to continue. We know very little about Seth except that – in biblical terms – he lived a very long life and had many descendants (Gen 5:6-7).

We live today in a world full of violence and killing. Let us not be instigators of violence in any way – in action, in word or even in thought.

[englishtogether]

Reflection Paper: First and Second Language Acquisition

Several questions come across to people that are familiar with language acquisition; how is first and second language acquired? Is there any difference between those processes? How important is the environment? Experts have been working on answering these questions and many others during the past years through different experiments and theories. For second language teachers these theories can guide them through the process of creating a curriculum and a better environment to learn for their students, so it is important to take all this information into consideration.

It is easier to start with the similarities that have been found between L1 and L2 acquisition since they may be seen as obvious but are important to take into consideration for teaching. First, there are three developmental stages which are the silent period (the learner only listens to the language), formulaic speech (specific phrases are learned), and structural and semantic simplifications (such as omission of nouns or verbs). Although, unfortunately, most L2 learners have to skip the silent period because they are expected to speak as soon as possible. There are theories that support the idea that there is a predictable order for acquisition that is not determined by simplicity nor order of rules taught; there are exceptions, so generalization should be avoided, but teachers can use this to choose the topics for their classes.

Now, it is well known that input is very important for learners, but Chomsky also pointed out the importance of equipping learners with knowledge to help them overcome the deficiencies of this input; since teachers are the main source of input, in order to successfully apply this practice, they need to do it in a way that students can understand it with no problems. The Behavioristic View has also been taken into consideration for L2; experts explain that a L2 learner carries the habits associated to their L1 at first, and actually this is why the errors produced when learning a L2 are related to interference; depending on the proficiency, this is actually not that bad, but teachers should take measures to help students avoid it. Finally, the Zone of Proximal Development plays a role here as well, according to it, assistance from the teachers and collaboration among the students is critical for the development of L2 and for them to pass to the next level.

As for the differences between L1 and L2 acquisition, there are several. When it comes to L2 acquisition, learners can be unconscious or conscious about it. Plasticity is also important here, but with an addition, which is the pronunciation. Speech muscles develop until 5 years old, and maintain their flexibility until puberty, so if a person tries to learn a new language after it, he or she will find some issues when trying to sound like a native speaker and will probably need extra efforts to reach that. Here is when the idea Language Ego comes into play; adults can have problems when developing a second language because for them, mistakes can be seen as threats to their ego and therefore, can struggle to practice the language in front of their peers. Adults’ attitude towards other races, religious, or ethnic groups can affect this process, as well as their level of motivation, confidence, lack of desire to articulate, communicative pressure, lack of learning opportunities and the nature of the feedback received. Natural and educational context may also affect the learners as L1 acquisition only happens in natural contexts, whereas different contexts and people are involved in the L2 acquisition. For L2 learners, this is important as well as their contact with the culture whose language their learning since they choose their reference group here for future development.

After going through the similarities and differences between L1 and L2 acquisition, teachers can use this to plan a syllabus with activities for their students keeping always in mind that in L2 acquisition the internal factors of the learners play an important role (contrary to L1 acquisition). As stated before, generalization should be avoided as not all theories are applicable to all learners, and instead, teachers should get to know the students and apply the theories depending on the situation. There will always be things they won't be able to apply due to the education system like the silent period, but that is when creativity to support the students through their learning need to be present. Learning a second, third, or fourth language is a choice people make for different reasons, such as getting a better job, meeting new cultures, or just for fun, and it is a teacher’s duty to not make them regret that decision and change these people’s lives.