#blatant corruption of catholicism

[ic3-que3n]

“Damnant quod non intelleguent”

HELLO! I am so excited to finally share the first art piece for the 2024 Eruri Matchmaking on Twitter. I got paired with the amazing @nngi_e on Twitter and AO3. And they wrote a truly amazing fic "Pietas" and let me get carried away with the art!

This is the first of three pieces. In this piece Erwin in the classic "sacred heart of jesus" pose with Levi at his feet in a pose inspired from "the fallen angel" painting by Alexandre Cabanel and another painting of the same name by Roberto Ferri

GO READ THEIR FIC!

Link to piece 2 (n$fw)

Link to piece 3 (VERY n$fw)

[notaplaceofhonour]

Hey @frankujito, what exactly about Holocaust denial, Khazar theory, and calls for the genocide of Jews puts antisemitism in scarequotes? Because that’s what I’m talking about, not mere criticism of Israel.

Don’t bother answering, though. The question is rhetorical and you’re already blocked. And I will continue blocking anyone else who denies or seeks to whitewash the antisemitism of these things or anyone who espouses them.

But I thought I’d highlight how this response illustrates just how blatant and obvious the lies are that some leftists will tell about Jewish leftists who dare criticize the antisemitism around them.

For instance, they claim I made no mention of Israel’s crimes, when in fact I very obviously did—more than once in that post. I even start the post they’re replying to with an acknowledgment that Israel abuses the Palestinians, and every sentence that follows takes as a given that Israel is in the wrong in how it treats the Palestinian people and commits crimes against them. I even say:

Oppose Bibi Netanyahu. Oppose Israel’s far-right, authoritarian government. Oppose its apartheid policies. Oppose its violent abuse of the Palestinian people. That isn’t antisemitic.

I go into further criticisms of Israel in greater detail elsewhere (a country I have never been to and have no ties to, and lord willing will never have to flee to, but apparently need to constantly be criticizing simply because I’m Jewish).

I should not have to make an itemized list of every specific crime the Israeli government has ever done in the moment just to talk about how the left shouldn’t embrace Holocaust denial and bombing civilians—just as I don’t need to list out every crime of Japanese Imperialism to talk about how the US bombing Japan was bad, or list out every crime the US has committed to talk about how the OKC bombing was bad, or list out every crime of the Catholic Church to discuss how Protestant anti-Catholicism is often rooted in bigotry. But you know as well as I do that you would not have been willing to listen even if I had sat there and listed out literally every crime that has ever been committed by the state of Israel or even every Jew in all of history.

My post about the left’s embrace of Hamas’ antisemitism was not made “the moment Palestinians were afforded a chance of freedom”. It wasn’t even made the moment some on the American and European Left started embracing antisemitic conspiracy theories like the Khazar theory and claims of Israeli “deep pockets” and control of mass media (side note: I wrote this line before I saw that this person continued on their tirade, in which they invoked exactly these tropes from the Protocols). It is only after YEARS of escalating and increasingly blatant calls for & acts of violence against Jews caused by the rhetoric I am criticizing that I made that post.

I could not have been more measured and nuanced without just shrugging my shoulders and saying “eh, what’s a little Holocaust Denial?”. But this person using the word “nuance” as a pejorative, as something I somehow shouldn’t have been engaging in, speaks volumes about where this attitude comes from. Some people just do not want to wrestle with the fact that a decades-long conflict between the corrupt governments of two oppressed peoples is going to be complex and complicated to engage with, and they will eagerly flatten it into a black-and-white, us-vs-them battle between the virtuous heroes and the dastardly evil villains.

And when anyone engages with this complexity, it is easier to lie and say they didn’t say what they said or that they don’t actually mean it, so you can sort everyone into “the good camp” and “the bad camp”. This Campist logic is exactly the same way of thinking that leads some people on the left to deny the atrocities of the USSR and/or side with modern Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Don’t fall for it.

[bazpitch]

too scared to say this on letterboxd but here wrt alucarda

i am wondering at some of these other reviews that rated alucarda higher though, i have to admit. i think that some are making this implication that having a portrayal of gay women along with minor critiques of the church means that a connection is implicitly being made by the director between homophobia and the church, but that's not quite true? aside from being a blatant application of modern politics to a film from fifty years ago, i must stress that it is an adaptation of carmilla, and it is based in anxieties around ~satanism~ which is further associated w the racial other. the film literally opens with the birth of the titular alucarda and her mother’s worries that she’s ~corrupted by satan~. it’s all about like, corruption by nature like all of these movies r..

that's okay; you can still enjoy the film, obviously, but i think... painting it as otherwise is misleading and shows ur own misunderstanding LOL. frankly, it does make you look a little stupid; pan has tan skin, a long nose, etc. and the ‘possession’ of the girls occurs in part during an orgy scene that is mostly comprised of romani (no they did not call them romani) people that they met earlier in the film. alucarda has dark brown hair, while all of the girls she forms attachments with have blonde hair. parallels ARE drawn between satanic ritual and catholic ritual, but those don’t really matter when later in the film, a doctor starts to favor catholicism over western science after previously reprimanding nuns and other churchy people for performing a ritual (exorcism).

it’s like the director is saying okay these things seem pretty similar but clearly they’re different so don’t think too hard about it.

i saw ppl comparing it to heavenly creatures which is laughable because it’s way smarter than this film. anyways it’s a 3.6 on letterboxd it’s probably all like white gays and white film bros so whatever. Whateverrr

[armsdealing]

/ NUEVA RELIGIÓN.

there is always something left to love. when people ask, that is what they say. there’s always something left to love, and it’s because of that love that they do the things they do. what makes them kill. what makes them punish and desecrate the holy alongside the mundane. it is not hatred, not revulsion, not fear, but something else, much purer than all those things combined, what turns the gears of this barbarity: a conviction that cuts through diamond. a deeper knowledge about the world and the beings that live in it, than could be found anywhere else. a willingness, stripped of all pride, to use this knowledge crucially against transgressors, against liars, against evil itself -- without any kind of differentiation between men and gods.

                                                                   ***

nueva religión is a verse subservient to elements already established in the otherworld verse and the nulliverse. it’s basically an au of an au with strong magical realism and urban fantasy influences, as well as a background in mythopoeia and crime. theology and mythology are central themes of the verse, so talks about religion are bound to show up frequently. naturally, there will be general, verse-wise trigger and content warnings regarding: blasphemy, sacrilege, and violence. there will be mentions of unsavory topics in this post like gang violence/crime, abuse and drugs, so it is best to stop reading from this point onward if mere mentions of these topics trigger you. mental health comes first, always. of course, all specific disturbances will be tagged in a post by post basis.

continue if you wish to read more about this verse, and the characters involved in it.

FUNDAMENTALS.

as prev. mentioned, this is an au of an au. it centers around the well-known (as far as my blog is concerned, at least) reyes family and their efforts running a gang that also happens to have unorthodox religious beliefs. in this verse, the reyes never went to new york between 1970 and 1990. instead, they decided to settle completely in florida in a neighborhood of miami-dade county called carrion. there, they would gain a foothold by waging war on neighborhood gangs until they achieved complete control of carrion. now the area is the base of operations for everything they do.

the characterizations in this verse are drastically different due to: 1. the different setting 2. the different background 3. the different tone -- and while characters like marcelo still retain several core characteristics, it’s best to assume the characters will not behave in the exact same way as they do in their canon verses, and they will not respond the same. it might be jarring. it’s meant to be jarring, as this verse intends to explore a ‘what if’ type of scenario for the reyes family if they still decided to be active in the criminal world.

as it’s been hinted, the reyes have an alternative religion, complete with a central deity and minor gods. this religion is completely fictional, as are their ritual practices, and they are not meant to be similar to any real life religion or belief system.  

the neighborhood of carrion is fictional too, and while certain historical elements might be taken directly from real life, i don’t mean to make accurate depictions of them (this especially concerns the cocaine boom of the 80s and colombia’s la violencia between the 40s and 50s). i also don’t plan to use any real life gangs/criminals in this verse, and i won’t acknowledge their existence. 

the verse sways between urban fantasy and magical realism. while the magic is very much real, the extent of it will be unfamiliar to most people, and a lot of things will be deliberately vague. things in carrion work a particular way, people work a certain way, and it’s not the same for other parts of miami. 

LOS DISCÍPULOS.

known by a variety of names (los dorados, los reales, la justicia, la realeza, or the kings of miami) los discipulos de la nueva religión is the gang the reyes run. consisting primarily of werecats and humans of magical predisposition, they’re infamous in miami for their extremely violent ways and their vicious grip on carrion. 

though during the first decade they were focused on drug distribution (and were, for several years, in full control of the colombia-caribbean islands-usa cocaine pipeline), over time they have downsized their drug operation.

nowadays, the kings manage protection rackets for businesses outside of carrion, simultaneously protecting their home neighborhood from the influence of other gangs -- completely for free. they also perform armed robbery and theft outside of miami and hijack trucks. 

perhaps the thing they are most known for, however, is their vigilantism. notably anti-cop, the kings have taken it upon themselves to impart justice in their neighborhood and surrounding areas. this effort, unlike the protection rackets, is completely free of cost. essentially, they will go after those they consider to have evaded justice: murderers, abusers, p*dophiles, and rapists. they will also make a point to go after corrupted authority figures in particular: police officers, priests, and the occasional politician. as a result, they have been linked to various assassinations, but nothing has ever been proven as of right now.

the kings also pump a lot of money into carrion and surrounding areas. their businesses include, but are not limited to: a tattoo parlor, a hair salon, a barbershop, and a bar. they also run a private shelter and organize many activities for the benefit of carrion’s citizens. because of this, they’re pretty beloved within their community and outside of it. the popular consensus seems to be that if you need help and ask the kings for it, you’re guaranteed to receive it. 

EL CULTO / THE BELIEFS.

though the gang came to be around the 80s officially, el culto has been going on for much longer, evolving steadily into what it is today. originally started in colombia, it centers around one main figure: la Justicia, a goddess thought to be responsible for keeping balance in the universe by killing what needs to be killed and subsequently consuming it -- something for which she was given the title of Divine Devorer (or Divina Devoradora). 

la justicia is the guiding figure of their lives, and believers kill for her (human sacrifices and offering dead bodies being quite common). she’s considered the agent of retribution, above all other gods and above all other things.

the worship maintains that all other gods might as well exist, but they too have to follow the laws of the universe, and if they break them, then they too will be consumed by la Justicia. in that way, the goddess acts as a check/balance for other pantheons. and they don’t necessarily have to like that (many, in fact, hate her) but there’s nothing they can do about it. 

the culto is notably anti-catholic/anti-christian god, and in a certain way started as a direct response to the forced christianization of south america that happened during colonial times. missionaries were often killed around this time, and many churches were destroyed. because of this tightly knit history with catholicism, it’s not rare to see worshippers of La Justicia “appropiating” catholic imagery in blatant and mocking ways. 

el culto’s other deities are La Muerte and La Locura, representing respectively the two other laws of the universe. if la Justicia is the agent of order, La Locura is the agent of disorder, and La Muerte (death) is the only certainty in the whole universe. despite their massive power, the are considered minor in the cult -- they’re seen as two natural influences that prefer not to directly involve themselves in the world, unlike La Justicia, which must be constantly pursued and taken care of.

CARRION, MIAMI.

bordered with allapattah to the west, wynwood to the east, and liberty city to the north, carrion is a neighborhood in miami with a large latino population that represents about 70% of its makeup. predominated by dominicans, puerto ricans and cubans as well as colombians and venezuelans, it’s primarily a low to working class neighborhood with a big textiles market. it’s also well known for it’s food distribution centers and mercados, which a wide variety of tropical fruits.

apart from all this, it happens to be the homebase of the kings, and where much of the action takes place. carrion has a reputation for being a strange neighborhood, where weird things often take place and “nobody notices”. despite being somewhat quiet, it boasts an alarmingly high number of unsolved disappearance cases, only rivalled by the number of unsolved murder cases. it was pretty active during the cocaine boon of the 80s and it’s rumored there’s 20 tons of cocaine hidden somewhere from those times in the neighborhood. as far fetched as that sounds, in 2016 someone found 100k worth of jewelry hidden inside their kitchen wall during a house renovation, so -- let’s just say nothing is out of the question when it comes to carrion. 

CHARACTERS INVOLVED WITH THE VERSE.

MARCELO REYES

ALBA REYES

SAUL BAUTISTA

ELIÁN VALENCIANO

CAMILA VALENCIANO

JOAQUÍN

LEON ROMERO

[eccleraprisma]

been thinking and there’s definitely one new religious movement i will never reblog here and i owe no one and explanation for that but i feel like saying it anyways. and it’s because of how my first impression of it was extremely anti queer, appropriative and full of bad theology. and i’m still fucking angry about it. [cw: lesbophobia, transphobia, transmisogyny, conversion therapy mention and rhetoric, antimasculism]

when i went to go look up this religion (most of the adherents are actually here on tumblr) i found some really upsetting and bigoted things positioned as normal and acceptable. like spiritual reasons for why a gender expression beyond femininity exists chalked up to a “corruption” of divine order that explains why men and masculinity exist (they believe in something they call ‘feminine essentialism’, just like gender essentialism but built spiritually and worse and geared towards hatred of men and non-women).

then i found more when a question was asked of a popular (and now thankfully deactivated) blog about why gay people exist in which op proceeded to claim lesbianism was a disorder and that adherents had to fight against those “urges” and that they didn’t know if their god actually hated homosexuality or accepted gay adherents at all but that god definitely doesn’t accept trans women in her religion with a lot of transmisogynistic reasons for that. oh yeah, and someone lamented that no form of conversion therapy has been proved truly effective so gay people would have to pray against “temptations” instead because being a lesbian is incompatible with their feminine essentialism doctrine and with the religion.

thinking back on it now a few months later makes me want to be sick. when i first read those things i was absolutely enraged. disgusted. this was after i read their main holy books and started dissecting them but seeing what the actual followers thought and believed told me not to waste anymore time researching or giving thought to that movement except maybe to warn people about it. i vehemently hate religious based bigotry against minorities in this case against queer people and you’d expect something better from a modern movement until you realize it purposely mirrors conservative catholicism almost in every way with some gnostic thought thrown in for fun and new movement doesn’t always equal good movement.

it’s no surprise the religion is basically conservative christianity for r*dfems, down to their holy book, creation story, imagery and even the literal eucharist and rosary were appropriated along with “inspiration” from various eastern religions like hinduism and buddhism (stolen dharma principles, reincarnation, terms for angels and demon entities and they literally use statues of the virgin mary as stand in for their religious figures). they will deny blatant appropriation of christianity by instead saying it’s one of the eastern religions they got insp from which is arguably worse considering the exoticism, racism and appropriation that led to this. the people within the religion were more preoccupied with keeping the peace among adherents (read: not calling out transphobes and making sure the community stayed hostile to trans people and trans women especially and those that support them)

i never thought i’d stumble upon a faith so invested and built on gender essentialism and bigotry except maybe modern christian fundamentalism/evangelicalism but no, somehow in my curiosity i found something even worse right here on this webbed site. and the true origin of the religion? it’s from literal t*rf island in the ‘70s and ‘80s. go figure

[threecardtrick]

bxrnqueen:

The quill in her hand stops mid-sentence, she considers his words and finds truth in them. There has been plenty of occasions where there had been a path of wrong and right placed in front of her and she considered the pros and cons of each one. “I have the slightest of feelings that this is about the talks with Rome.” She states, as the quill is set in its ink allowing her to lean back in her chair. The privy was divided on the matter, half of the noblemen insisted she remain where her father began and she continue with the reformation, the other half insisted she continue to rectify her father’s mistakes with Rome and return the one true religion to England.

“And you, master secretary?”  A slight smirk touched the very corner of her lips. “Where do you stand on the matter? Would you rather we resume the reformation or return Catholicism to England?”

Despite his subtlety, Mary had untangled what his words meant, and it made him feel a little sheepish to have his bias laid out so plainly. It was well known to all at court what his particular religious views were. He’d been under suspicion since even the days that Thomas More had been alive. He had been a fierce proponent of the reformation and of course, he wished to see it continue. But he was well aware of what Mary’s particular views were... And he wouldn’t risk his position for his beliefs. But there was no pretending that he felt a different way than he did. “I believe Your Majesty is observant enough to know my particular stance on the matter...” He said, feeling a touch of tenseness. “I am merely informing you from my personal experience of working with the Vatican of how...” How does one say that he had seen blatant corruption? “That not all is as it seems.”

[alengthyread]

“Getting There”

This high society I wanna get to.  Something about learning something, and being sophisticated about it. I do feel that I will never learn espanol, I didn’t know how hard this language was. But at the same time you have to go to Florida to accomplish such feat. But I don’t think it’ll hurt trying.  Just because it’s impossible to get there doesn’t mean you can’t take fifty steps. I do find that this generation is keen on business, and a lot has to do with money.  I also need money, but I think when the social life is always about business, you kinda’ lose taste. Because the thing with language is that you don’t really know where to take it. Obviously, I put my language on this social media, but if am gonna have a cigar with “latin friends”, it’s very unlikely that it’ll happen. I do get the idea that I have to keep reading, and I have tons of books here, but the thing with reading is that you can only have enough information. But I will keep endeavouring. Society is not an easy thing, I can go through five cities in one drive, all adjacent geo locations of course, but if you have to deal with individuals within this society, it’s not easy. But I strongly feel that I can’t give up. I can’t give up on what I want to do. It’s tough when there’s ill will.  It’s tough when you deal with favours, and things get blatant. It’s tough when people pass judgement. But I knew what was going to happen, because I did go through a negative experience in my late teens and early twenties, am not really worried with the people I’ve met, because I know the crux of it. The back bone of it is funny.  You now have people acting all cool, and sophisticated, but I know where it comes from. I get mad of course when people pass this judgement, but it’s just cowardice to me. But it’s part of life, having away with the old, and kinda’ embarking the new, it’s part of a generation. But at the same time, I can’t be hard on people, because maybe the same issues are being dealt with just on a quieter aspect. But that’s the harsh reality of life, life seem like a paradise, but it isn’t really especially when you go through these different issues, and when you’re still young and inexperienced with these things, it can affect your temperament. But again, it’s part of growing up. My only challenge was that I was introduced to this at a young age, and I feel that as a boy, I already had to answer adults much older than I was. Because I wanted that boy in The Philippines who was just biking around, I wasn’t even going to school much, I would just bike around the city much. But obviously things changed when my parents, myself, and sister decided for this Canada thing, it became scary. Time went fast, I was really only eight, ten years old, but now am forty. But that’s the poetry of life. Life is a story. You have to respect people, you have to just deal off with temper regardless if you don’t really like what’s happening, because you’ll destroy the relationship. You can’t expect perfection with people. Because you never know, maybe these people have more problems than you. This passing of judgement, because we all basically grew up with Christianity, or Catholicism, and to get labelled as a bad guy, it’s tough. When I decided for this writing thing, I knew that people were basically going to read it, and that’s because am visible if we should meet @ this particular place. It’s the love of God, obviously. I think it’s okay to cry if you’re hurt.  Because one thing with hurt is that people are going to hurt you. Some of these things are just crime, but with the love of God, you kinda’ just say, “You need love too.” Because we’re really not in paradise, I don’t even know how people survive, I see some people poor pushing their empty shopping carts across the mall parking lot, alone, and am like, “Wow.” It’s hard when people are out to destroy you. You can only depend on God, again this love that kinda’ just forgive, and having the ability to love that individual who has ill will. Love your enemies as the Bible state is not an under statement, you really have to love your enemies, because you never know, you may end up winning them before the day you die. But regardless how hard it is, you have to love. Love is not the icing on the cake, or the cherry on top of that icing on the cake, love is a gruesome and dark thing. Because you are going to get hurt.  But do you get angry, or do you yell back when you’re hurt?  Or do you just deeply love this person. Because things will settle, maybe that person was just jealous of you, or that person feel some insecurity with his or her own personal life, you don’t really know the issue.  But you can’t say that this person is corrupt and horrible, maybe there were things in his past that affected him. I think the problem is that we have this expectation in life, we want life to be awesome, but when you deal with the reality, we feel disappointed, because the expectations weren’t met. But that’s part of life where you can grow, and learn of the person. You can’t say that it’s all fireworks, and that the grass is always green.

[ic3-que3n]

A fair deal, he mused, as the thin layer of wheat melted over Levi’s tongue around his fingers.

Erwin offered the body of Christ, while taking Levi’s own for himself.

I present the second art piece for the 2024 Eruri Matchmaking on Twitter. I got paired with the amazing @nngi_e on Twitter and AO3. And they wrote a truly amazing fic "Pietas" and let me get carried away with the art!

This is the second of three pieces showing a unique way to recieve the eucharist.

GO READ THEIR FIC!

Link to piece 1

Link to piece 3

[kidsviral-blog]

The Terrifying True Origins Of Favorite Childhood Stories. YIKES.

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/the-terrifying-true-origins-of-favorite-childhood-stories-yikes/

The Terrifying True Origins Of Favorite Childhood Stories. YIKES.

As it turns out, children’s stories aren’t all puppies and sunshine (no matter what you thought growing up). As it turns out, most of the famous nursery rhymes and fairy tales have a really dark origin. 

1. Cinderella: Mutilation and Murder

Wikimedia Commons/Alexander Zick

“So, if I agree to feed you, you’ll totally blind my step-sisters, right?”

There are many different versions of the Cinderella story from all over the world, the earliest known variant being the Greco-Egyptian tale of Rhodopis. Most people today, though, know the story of Cinderella through Disney’s 1950 animated version. This version is based almost exactly on the 1697 version of Cendrillon by French author Charles Perrault, with some singing mice added in for fun. But this is the nice version. There are two others that were deemed unfit, and rightly so, for children. The Grimm brothers’ Aschenputtel features the wicked stepsisters getting their comeuppance by first slicing off bits of their feet to get into the famed slipper, which has been, over the years, glass, gold and fur. When that doesn’t work, they still attend the wedding, only to have their eyes pecked out by birds. The Italian version, Zezolla, or “Cat Cinderella,” by Giambattista Basile, finds the Cinderella figure killing her step mother by breaking her neck. 

2. Sleeping Beauty: Corpses and Sexual Assault

Wikimedia Commons/Gustave Dore

“Ugh, we really have to clean this castle out when you wake up.”

The Grimms’ Sleeping Beauty, also called Briar Rose, plays out similarly to Disney’s 1959 animated feature. Except for the hundreds of rotting bodies. See, everyone in the castle falls asleep for a hundred years and exists in a magical suspended animation. Outside, a thick forest of thorn bushes grow, preventing anyone from coming in and breaking the spell. That doesn’t stop people from trying, though, and as a result, they all die in the thorns. A century after the spell is cast, it expires and the briars simply turn into flowers by the time the lucky prince happens by. The flowers probably didn’t really help with all those corpses lying around, though. Going back farther, we find that, like with Cinderella, the Grimms borrowed heavily from a Basile story called “Sun, Moon and Talia,” in which Talia, the Sleeping Beauty figure, is raped by a king while she sleeps and gives birth to twins. The babies are born while she’s still sleeping, and wake her by sucking an enchanted splinter from under her fingernail. She marries the rapist king, but his jealous mother attempts to have the babies killed and served at dinner and to burn Talia, but everything works out and the queen is burned instead. Happily ever after!

3. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary: Torture, Religious Persecution and Political Upheaval

“Ha ha, where did you think I got those heads?”

Though there’s some dispute, this little rhyme is commonly associated with Queen Mary I of England, otherwise known as “Bloody Mary,” and who is possibly the origin of the mirror chanting tradition as well. She reigned for only five years, from 1553 to 1558, and was a fierce upholder of the Roman Catholic faith. During her short reign, she executed hundreds of Protestants. The “silver bells” and “cockle shells” are said to be torture devices, while “how does your garden grow” may refer to her lack of heirs. Conversely, the rhyme is also said to be about Mary, Queen of Scots or about Catholicism itself. 

4. Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe: Racism

Flickr/John Liu

“Eeny meeny…oh, isn’t there a rhyme that can help me choose that comes with less baggage?”

A favorite of indecisive schoolchildren everywhere, there’s nothing immediately about this rhyme. However, a tiger was not originally what they were catching by his toe. No, “tiger” is a relatively recent replacement for the original, which was the n-word. How charming. Even though most people don’t know this, it’s still an uncomfortable truth about the rhyme’s past and will probably leave a bad taste in your mouth. However, there have also been many similar “choosing” rhymes with origins in Ireland, England and Germany, usually using nonsense words and lacking blatant racism. That part came in with the American versions. 

5. Snow White: More Torture

Wikimedia Commons/Franz Jüttner

“Oh, you’re alive? Well…okay.”

If you thought the 1937 Disney version where the prince kisses what’s essentially a dead person in the middle of the woods was weird, you haven’t even begun to dig into this story, which, by the way, also has variants from all over the world. For one thing, the Grimm’s version, which the Disney one is based on, has the wicked queen trying to kill Snow White three times, and in the end, the wicked queen is forced to wear red-hot iron shoes and dance in them until she falls down dead. The Grimms were really into cruel and unusual punishment. But wait. It gets better. Another Basile story, “The Young Slave,” has a young girl being poisoned and placed in seven nesting crystal coffins. However, she grows while in her magical coma. She’s wakened by a jealous aunt who beats her and makes her a slave until she is saved by her uncle, who helps her restore her health and marries her off to a baron. This story might have influenced both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. 

6. The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Even More Torture and Execution 

Flickr/universalstonecutter

“We’re in a Victor Hugo novel? Oh, this isn’t going to end well.”

In Victor Hugo’s original, Quasimodo is still in love with the beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda, and acts as a liaison between her and her lover, the already-engaged Phoebus. Also, in the book, she’s not actually of Roma heritage, because racism, and was actually kidnapped as a child. Anyway, the lustful Archdeacon also desires Esmeralda, and when he finds out about her tryst with Phoebus, he stabs Phoebus and frames her for the attempted murder. Both she and Quasimodo are tortured, and Esmeralda is hanged for murder and her body tossed into a mass grave. Quasimodo crawls in after her and curls up around her corpse and dies. Many years later, the crypt is opened, and their skeletons are found wrapped around each other. Yeah, the Disney version is a lot happier. 

7. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush: Prison Workouts

Wikimedia Commons

“This is pretty nice for a prison yard.”

Legend has it that this rhyme originated in Wakefield Prison, and English prison for women, where the inmates were brought outside to exercise around a shrub or tree in the yard in the mornings. Mulberries, actually, grow on trees, not bushes, but it’s still an interesting theory.

8. Ring Around the Rosie: Maybe Not the Plague, but Subversion at least

Wikimedia Commons/Jessie Wilcox Smith

“Do we have the plague yet?”

The rhyme is famed for “actually” being about the Bubonic Plague, and I thought this, too, for a long time. “Ring around the rosie” was supposed to reference a skin rash that signified the onset of the plague, and “pocketful of posies” referred to the flowers people carried to mask the stench of death, which was believed to cause the illness. “Ashes” was thought to be a corruption of “achoo” as sneezing or coughing fits were the last symptom before “we all fall down.” You know, as in dead. However, historians highly doubt this. the rhyme first appears in writing in 1881, well after any major plague outbreaks. Early versions of the rhyme don’t even include lyrics about ashes or falling down and mainly seem to be about literal flowers. More than likely, the rhyme was simply rhythmic and charming, and was used by teenagers to subvert religious bans on dancing in the nineteenth century. Like with the Mulberry Bush rhyme, it’s possible that these have no “hidden meanings,” but rather that people just like to dance in circles.

9. The Little Mermaid: Suicide

Wikimedia Commons/Edmund Dulac

“Okay, maybe I didn’t think this through.”

Hans Christian Andersen was not a cheerful guy, and his best known fables, this and The Little Match Girl, are evidence of this. In the original mermaid story, the mermaid, in love with a human prince, has her tongue cut out to become a human and, hopefully, win him over. Being a human is painful, though, and it feels like she’s walking on knives. But her love is so great, she dances for the prince anyway. The prince, though, ends up marrying another girl, who he really loves, and the mermaid is heartbroken. The only way for her to return to the sea, though, is to kill the prince. She can’t bring herself to do it, though, and hurls herself into the ocean, where she turns into sea foam. Later, Andersen amended the ending and had her become a “spirit of the air,” because I guess that’s more cheerful?

So, can you still look at your favorite childhood stories and rhymes the same way? Don’t worry, there are plenty more messed-up fairy tales from all over the world, some that stem from actual historical issues, and some just speak to the weirder parts of the human psyche.

Read more: http://viralnova.com/mary-mary-no/

[thenobodyhasarrived]

My Thoughts on Marvel Humor (1)

I love the idea of joking about Matt Murdock/Daredevil’s religion? Not in the “Can’t believe you’re Catholic!” way but..: “Through sheer Catholicism, he managed to take down corrupt (insert something here)” “Dude! You don’t even NEED a healing factor. You can’t complain, that’s illegal. The whole, you know, being Catholic thing kinda just lets pain roll right off you.” *when eating something particularly good* “Is this what faith feels like, Mattie-boy? This bliss?” *Matt trying to eat something too spicy* “I believe that this is where the whole ‘Catholics revel in suffering’ belief came about; no matter how much it hurts, I just have to take another bite.” Like being comfortable with and respecting his religion but also blaming his super-endurance on his Catholicism is a hilarious concept to me. 

Also! Non-lawyer friends all start picking up the jargon; Spiderman and Daredevil have to team up sometimes and a whole slew of jokes crop up: “This is.. This is blatant defamation of my character! This slander will not stand! Mark my words, Lucy; I will pursue legal action if you continue spreading these lies!” “Actually, according to the first amendment, go fuck yourself.” And more gems like that!

[ic3-que3n]

(reposting with a link to pillowfort because tumblr can be a prude)

Whatever value my soul holds, it is worth nothing compared to this. Have my soul, seize it as it attempts to cross the Gates, if you must. But as I live, do not ask me to part from him.

I present the third and final art piece for the 2024 Eruri Matchmaking on Twitter. I got paired with the amazing @nngi_e on Twitter and AO3. And they wrote a truly amazing fic “Pietas” and let me get carried away with the art!

GO READ THEIR FIC!

Link to piece 1

Link to piece 2

[kidsviral-blog]

The Terrifying True Origins Of Favorite Childhood Stories. YIKES.

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/the-terrifying-true-origins-of-favorite-childhood-stories-yikes/

The Terrifying True Origins Of Favorite Childhood Stories. YIKES.

As it turns out, children’s stories aren’t all puppies and sunshine (no matter what you thought growing up). As it turns out, most of the famous nursery rhymes and fairy tales have a really dark origin. 

1. Cinderella: Mutilation and Murder

Wikimedia Commons/Alexander Zick

“So, if I agree to feed you, you’ll totally blind my step-sisters, right?”

There are many different versions of the Cinderella story from all over the world, the earliest known variant being the Greco-Egyptian tale of Rhodopis. Most people today, though, know the story of Cinderella through Disney’s 1950 animated version. This version is based almost exactly on the 1697 version of Cendrillon by French author Charles Perrault, with some singing mice added in for fun. But this is the nice version. There are two others that were deemed unfit, and rightly so, for children. The Grimm brothers’ Aschenputtel features the wicked stepsisters getting their comeuppance by first slicing off bits of their feet to get into the famed slipper, which has been, over the years, glass, gold and fur. When that doesn’t work, they still attend the wedding, only to have their eyes pecked out by birds. The Italian version, Zezolla, or “Cat Cinderella,” by Giambattista Basile, finds the Cinderella figure killing her step mother by breaking her neck. 

2. Sleeping Beauty: Corpses and Sexual Assault

Wikimedia Commons/Gustave Dore

“Ugh, we really have to clean this castle out when you wake up.”

The Grimms’ Sleeping Beauty, also called Briar Rose, plays out similarly to Disney’s 1959 animated feature. Except for the hundreds of rotting bodies. See, everyone in the castle falls asleep for a hundred years and exists in a magical suspended animation. Outside, a thick forest of thorn bushes grow, preventing anyone from coming in and breaking the spell. That doesn’t stop people from trying, though, and as a result, they all die in the thorns. A century after the spell is cast, it expires and the briars simply turn into flowers by the time the lucky prince happens by. The flowers probably didn’t really help with all those corpses lying around, though. Going back farther, we find that, like with Cinderella, the Grimms borrowed heavily from a Basile story called “Sun, Moon and Talia,” in which Talia, the Sleeping Beauty figure, is raped by a king while she sleeps and gives birth to twins. The babies are born while she’s still sleeping, and wake her by sucking an enchanted splinter from under her fingernail. She marries the rapist king, but his jealous mother attempts to have the babies killed and served at dinner and to burn Talia, but everything works out and the queen is burned instead. Happily ever after!

3. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary: Torture, Religious Persecution and Political Upheaval

“Ha ha, where did you think I got those heads?”

Though there’s some dispute, this little rhyme is commonly associated with Queen Mary I of England, otherwise known as “Bloody Mary,” and who is possibly the origin of the mirror chanting tradition as well. She reigned for only five years, from 1553 to 1558, and was a fierce upholder of the Roman Catholic faith. During her short reign, she executed hundreds of Protestants. The “silver bells” and “cockle shells” are said to be torture devices, while “how does your garden grow” may refer to her lack of heirs. Conversely, the rhyme is also said to be about Mary, Queen of Scots or about Catholicism itself. 

4. Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe: Racism

Flickr/John Liu

“Eeny meeny…oh, isn’t there a rhyme that can help me choose that comes with less baggage?”

A favorite of indecisive schoolchildren everywhere, there’s nothing immediately about this rhyme. However, a tiger was not originally what they were catching by his toe. No, “tiger” is a relatively recent replacement for the original, which was the n-word. How charming. Even though most people don’t know this, it’s still an uncomfortable truth about the rhyme’s past and will probably leave a bad taste in your mouth. However, there have also been many similar “choosing” rhymes with origins in Ireland, England and Germany, usually using nonsense words and lacking blatant racism. That part came in with the American versions. 

5. Snow White: More Torture

Wikimedia Commons/Franz Jüttner

“Oh, you’re alive? Well…okay.”

If you thought the 1937 Disney version where the prince kisses what’s essentially a dead person in the middle of the woods was weird, you haven’t even begun to dig into this story, which, by the way, also has variants from all over the world. For one thing, the Grimm’s version, which the Disney one is based on, has the wicked queen trying to kill Snow White three times, and in the end, the wicked queen is forced to wear red-hot iron shoes and dance in them until she falls down dead. The Grimms were really into cruel and unusual punishment. But wait. It gets better. Another Basile story, “The Young Slave,” has a young girl being poisoned and placed in seven nesting crystal coffins. However, she grows while in her magical coma. She’s wakened by a jealous aunt who beats her and makes her a slave until she is saved by her uncle, who helps her restore her health and marries her off to a baron. This story might have influenced both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. 

6. The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Even More Torture and Execution 

Flickr/universalstonecutter

“We’re in a Victor Hugo novel? Oh, this isn’t going to end well.”

In Victor Hugo’s original, Quasimodo is still in love with the beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda, and acts as a liaison between her and her lover, the already-engaged Phoebus. Also, in the book, she’s not actually of Roma heritage, because racism, and was actually kidnapped as a child. Anyway, the lustful Archdeacon also desires Esmeralda, and when he finds out about her tryst with Phoebus, he stabs Phoebus and frames her for the attempted murder. Both she and Quasimodo are tortured, and Esmeralda is hanged for murder and her body tossed into a mass grave. Quasimodo crawls in after her and curls up around her corpse and dies. Many years later, the crypt is opened, and their skeletons are found wrapped around each other. Yeah, the Disney version is a lot happier. 

7. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush: Prison Workouts

Wikimedia Commons

“This is pretty nice for a prison yard.”

Legend has it that this rhyme originated in Wakefield Prison, and English prison for women, where the inmates were brought outside to exercise around a shrub or tree in the yard in the mornings. Mulberries, actually, grow on trees, not bushes, but it’s still an interesting theory.

8. Ring Around the Rosie: Maybe Not the Plague, but Subversion at least

Wikimedia Commons/Jessie Wilcox Smith

“Do we have the plague yet?”

The rhyme is famed for “actually” being about the Bubonic Plague, and I thought this, too, for a long time. “Ring around the rosie” was supposed to reference a skin rash that signified the onset of the plague, and “pocketful of posies” referred to the flowers people carried to mask the stench of death, which was believed to cause the illness. “Ashes” was thought to be a corruption of “achoo” as sneezing or coughing fits were the last symptom before “we all fall down.” You know, as in dead. However, historians highly doubt this. the rhyme first appears in writing in 1881, well after any major plague outbreaks. Early versions of the rhyme don’t even include lyrics about ashes or falling down and mainly seem to be about literal flowers. More than likely, the rhyme was simply rhythmic and charming, and was used by teenagers to subvert religious bans on dancing in the nineteenth century. Like with the Mulberry Bush rhyme, it’s possible that these have no “hidden meanings,” but rather that people just like to dance in circles.

9. The Little Mermaid: Suicide

Wikimedia Commons/Edmund Dulac

“Okay, maybe I didn’t think this through.”

Hans Christian Andersen was not a cheerful guy, and his best known fables, this and The Little Match Girl, are evidence of this. In the original mermaid story, the mermaid, in love with a human prince, has her tongue cut out to become a human and, hopefully, win him over. Being a human is painful, though, and it feels like she’s walking on knives. But her love is so great, she dances for the prince anyway. The prince, though, ends up marrying another girl, who he really loves, and the mermaid is heartbroken. The only way for her to return to the sea, though, is to kill the prince. She can’t bring herself to do it, though, and hurls herself into the ocean, where she turns into sea foam. Later, Andersen amended the ending and had her become a “spirit of the air,” because I guess that’s more cheerful?

So, can you still look at your favorite childhood stories and rhymes the same way? Don’t worry, there are plenty more messed-up fairy tales from all over the world, some that stem from actual historical issues, and some just speak to the weirder parts of the human psyche.

Read more: http://viralnova.com/mary-mary-no/