#but i was not into her overtly catholic stories

[izengard]

Sincerely I just can't get behind the new "Interview with a Vampire" show because of Anne Rice. I loved her books for years (as a teen in the late 90s and early 2000s) and then I started getting into fanfiction.. and the fact she was so against it put me off.

I'm now 40 and frankly I just can't wrap my head around the fact that Anne Rice used to get her legal team to take down fanfics.

So if I found a really good one, I had the risk of never finding it again because of her.

[waterfall-ambience]

"nooo auri dont start a new project" and i wont. but what if queer wizards, intellectualism, isolation, and the pain being connected/disconnected to a culture and society that simultaneously loves and hates you.

[fatcatlittlebox]

Something has been needling me since I first read that quote from Morfydd and it later caught fire on the webs:

What I had taken immediately for granted was that she meant that the relationship between Halbrand and Galadriel was intended to be platonic and it was Charlie who decided to add the extra heat and the hint of a romantic aspect. But in retrospect upon reading and watching his interviews I think it is the opposite -- were Halbrand and Galadriel originally meant to have been shown as more overtly falling in love? Was it written more explicitly as a love story rather than implied, as we eventually see?

First, we can recall that the very first promotions for the show had press descriptions of Halbrand as Galadriel’s “love interest”. Even the concept art showed more intimacy.

And I think this is the reason why I find it so interesting when I revisit some of the Haladriel scenes from season 1. Particularly the ones that Charlie and Morfydd had said they came up with the blocking for. And that clearly the director agreed with. I can appreciate that if the blocking were chosen differently, it would have changed the whole tenor of the scene and hence, the dynamics of their relationship. Take for instance, the log scene. Imagine if Galadriel and Halbrand had been simply standing and saying those words, looking upon each other. It would obviously be a conversation between lovers. A tone of romantic declaration. Imagine if Galadriel had been looking directly into Halbrand's eyes, bodies facing, when she said, "I felt it too."

But that's not what Charlie, Morfydd and the director went with and I like it even better. It was Charlie and Morfydd who collaborated and agreed that they would sit parallel and not looking at each other. The scene takes on a "confession". Which...Catholic. The symbolism here is great because as I have said before in previous metas, their original "sin" was when they chose each other over their gods. And here, in this "confessional" scene, as it is composed, they are performing the sacrament of reconciliation. With Galadriel and Sauron interchanging roles of penitent and priest. Galadriel is pledging allegiance, unbeknownst to her, to a fallen demigod and Sauron is seeking absolution from her, an exiled elf. A sinner asking for salvation from his accomplice. It is worshipful and sacrilegious.

As Charlie, and frequently supported by Morfydd, have said, their connection "transcends" romantic love. It is not a human, mortal emotion. It is cosmic. It disrupts the celestial hierarchy but is ultimately restorative to the universal harmony. It is their beginning and ending eternally. Where Sauron isn't just the biblical snake. He is the snake eating his own tail.

Love and hate. Light and dark. Life in defiance of death. And I would much rather have that. Galadriel and Sauron as emissaries of this cosmic balance, permanent fixtures in a primordial architecture. Destined to always be chasing the other. Gravitating, circling. Vigilant and yearning.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Do you have any thoughts about how Avengers Academy - the new infinity comic - tackles its versions of younger Billy and Tommy and their connection with Mephisto and M’Kraan and Blackheart? I have very little knowledge of the circumstances of how Billy and Tommy came to be / their birth outside of it just being Weird, so I wanted to ask somebody who had more knowledge if there’s any merit in how this arc goes about it. (Also, do you like the new AA infinity comic? Im personally enjoying it, but I completely understand why people wouldn’t) sorry if someone else has already asked this or something similar also!!

Yep, I've written about this previously here and here, and I have a few more posts about the series in general that are all tagged as Avengers Academy. If you'd like to do some more reading on your own, my Scarlet Witch reading guide covers Billy and Tommy's birth, death, and reincarnation. I also have a more detailed explanation of what happened to the twins here.

To give a very brief summary-- Wanda became pregnant while channeling an enormous amount of magical power that allowed her to subliminally manifest her wish to start a family. Later, however, it was explained that even Wanda cannot create life from nothing, and she had unknowing made Billy and Tommy's souls using fragments of Mephisto's power, which had recently been scattered across the world. Sometime after they were born, Mephisto attempted to re-absorb the twins, but it caused a shock and he was dispersed once again. Mephisto eventually got better, but the twins were, supposedly, erased. In Young Avengers, however, they resurfaced as teenagers, having been apparently reincarnated in different families. They're also several years older than they should be. In Children's Crusade, Wanda explains that she had attempted to resurrect the twins by using her nexus powers to channel the planet's "Life Force," which is what caused her powers to go out of control in Disassembled + HoM. I suppose it's not explicitly clear, but I have always taken it as read that Wanda's resurrection spell worked, just not how she expected. Her heightened reality-warping can account for most of the weirdness, including the timeline discrepancy with their ages.

In Avengers Academy and Marvel's Voices Infinity Comic, we learn that Billy and Tommy's souls survived as individual beings, but were trapped in Mephisto's Hell until they escaped through a rift caused by the M'Kraan Crystal, as part of larger story that ties together several important events in the Young Avengers' lives. This also further explains some of the timeline weirdness.

In theory, this is kind of a perfect retcon-- it adds onto the pre-existing story and fills in some gaps without altering or taking away from what was already there. The M'Kraan Crystal storyline itself was really cool, and I loved the reveal that it/she has been present in the Young Avengers lives for years-- especially finding out that she was the drag queen in War of the Realms and Empyre! What I don't love is that Oliveira consistently takes an HoM-era approach to Billy and Tommy's origins by invalidating Wanda's motherhood and casting her in a negative light. It's not faithful to what happened in the 80s, or how those relationships have been characterized in more recent comics-- and, honestly, I just think it's unfair. I may be reading into things too much, but Wanda's treatment around this storyline is loaded with very sensitive topics, so I can't help being critical.

I'm enjoying Blackheart's renaissance. If there's one thing Oliveira's great at, it's existential Catholic angst and Biblical deep-cuts, and it works perfectly here. But I also feel like there are times when he's a little too indulgent with his obsessions. Catholicism takes up a lot of air in this series, to the point where, sometimes, I can't help rolling my eyes. While nothing overtly offensive happened, I think that there was a lack of cultural sensitivity regarding Billy and Tommy's proximity to Mephisto. It's really not appropriate to make Jewish characters out to be devil-spawn, and, obviously, Oliveira didn't invent that storyline, but I think he literalized the idea in a way that was uncalled for, and immersed the characters in religious imagery that is not a good fit for either their Jewish or Romani background.

I have felt for years now that the whole Demiurge thing needed to be reworked. This new take works for me on multiple levels, but there are a few things that bother me. I really appreciate that, much like the new and improved Nexus lore in Scarlet Witch, this version of the Demiurge premise includes both Billy and Tommy on equal footing, and it fits into an existing part of the Marvel cosmology in a way that I find exciting. It is still frustratingly unclear what being the Demiurge actually means, although this is likely by design-- it makes more sense, in this case, to leave readers with a sense of intrigue. Best case scenario-- Billy and Tommy have some hand in either retroactively creating the M'Kraan Crystal, or are instrumental in creating some new world with the Academy's shard. Either way, I think it works better as a specific act or contribution, rather than implying that the characters will become omnipotent creator gods. It's the least interesting thing that could happen to any character-- I don't want it for Wanda, I don't want it for Billy, and I don't want it for either of their twins. Unfortunately, I do feel like Oliveira has hinted towards Billy being the architect of reality in previous comics. It doesn't do anything for me, and I worry that, somehow, he'll find a way to make that Catholic, too.

The thing that really bothers me is Tommy's time powers. I know everybody lost their minds when that happened, but here's the thing-- it's fanservice. This has been a popular fanon thing for years, and to me, allowing fanon to become canon almost always feels cheap, and again, indulgent. This might be a personal issue, but it's really hard for me to look past.

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

before this goes any further, I want it on the record that you all asked for this.

my first and most petty point: Midnight Mass gets basic details about Catholicism wrong, such that even I (not a Catholic) twigged them. The big one is that Catholics DON'T HAVE MIDNIGHT MASS FOR EASTER - it's a Christmas thing - but since the priest holding the mass is also a vampire, I can accept that he's going off-book. I have a harder time with them holding a PICNIC for ASH WEDNESDAY, aka THE DAY LENT STARTS, aka the day everyone starts fasting and are therefore not snacking on a potluck. It's a minor thing, and normally I wouldn't pick at it, but since this show ostensibly revolves around Catholic doctrine, it bears mentioning.

on a writing level, not one single character in this show talks like a human being. or acts like one. I couldn't give you any information about who these characters are as people, because they're not people, they're mouthpieces for Flanagan to impart his ideas to the audience. He is both deeply in love with his own writing and entirely unconvinced that his audience is smart enough to Get It, so he has his actors turn to the audience and lay it all out. Not only is this bad writing on a character level, it brings all plot and tension to a screeching halt whenever it happens. The most unintentionally hilarious instance of this has to be when Annabeth Gish comes to the sheriff to tell him that the church is being run by a vampire and her mother is aging in reverse, and his response is to start rambling about where he was on 9/11. Like. Nothing about this makes sense, and also why should we care when it has fuckall to do with the story?

(as regards the sheriff character: I, a white Quaker, am not the person to critique this show's handling of Islam. But I will say that Flanagan doesn't seem to have a clear idea what he wants to communicate: the overarching plot is antitheistic, in a very r/atheism sort of way ("WHAT IF THE SACRAMENT WAS VAMPIRE BLOOD" ooh wow didja cut yourself on that edge there, buddy) but Flanagan has no idea how to balance that with the precepts of any religion that isn't Christianity while also maintaining his broadly liberal bona fides, so it all sits very uneasily next to the church plot. I'm not advocating for the show to go full Christopher Hitchens, but I am saying that if Flanagan wants to posit that faith is a mass delusion and a net detriment to any community formed around it . . . he needs to either focus only on Christian characters or be willing to engage with how other religions function in society, because as is, the storyline with the sheriff and his son just peters out into nothing.)

but the thing that made me angriest - that took me from "this is so boring and pretentious and badly written" to "oh FUCK this guy and the horse he rode in on -" was the titular midnight mass. It is very overtly inspired by the Jonestown massacre, which a lot of horror media does, but what it fails to account for is that the members of the People's Temple did not voluntarily kill themselves. I know "drink the kool-aid" has entered the popular lexicon as shorthand for "blindly following a leader," but extensive testimony from Jonestown survivors - not to mention the death tape, which is available online if you really want to ruin your day - all confirms that the people who died that day were forced to drink poison at gunpoint, after years of brutal abuse from Jones and his inner circle. And even after all of that, people fought back. And not outsiders - people who had been in the Temple for years and wholeheartedly believed in the mission that had lead them to Guyana in the first place. (Christine Miller was a fucking hero and she deserves to be remembered for it.) Jonestown was not lemmings going off a cliff, and any serious take on the story would involve reckoning with that - that these people believed in a higher power and also believed that they had a right to live despite what Jones told them. But that would contradict Flanagan's point of "religion is dumb, WAKE UP SHEEPLE," so instead he borrows the iconography of a truly horrific tragedy and disrespects the victims by implicitly representing them as dumb, brainwashed cult members who eagerly toss back poison because they think sky daddy wants them to. He has so little respect for the subjects he's portraying, and the real people whose deaths he is copying for shock value, that he doesn't care about the inner lives of anyone whose beliefs might demonstrate that faith is more nuanced than his screed would have you believe.

There are good horror properties out there that are critical of religion and society - The Medium, which we posted about a few days ago, is one. The Witch is another. So is The Sudbury Devil. Hell, you could go back to the sixties with Witchfinder General. Religion - especially socially dominant religions like Christianity in the west - can and should be critiqued. But Midnight Mass is too sloppily written to be a critique of anything besides, accidentally, how far Mike Flanagan's head is shoved up his ass.

Anyway, that's why mod L doesn't like Midnight Mass. I did warn you.

[millenniumfae]

Dragon Age Demons vs Real-Life 'Inner Demons'

Way back in the summer of 2015, my symptoms got so unbearable I was bedridden. 20 years old and experiencing psychosis, quasi-hallucinations, and actual, unending panic for the first time. It marked the start of a condition that has never stopped since.

My aunt (and other relatives) helped me develop proper mindfulness skills based off of our homeland's folk Buddhism - the 'second arrow'. The meaningless of forgiveness. Devaluing control. And something that struck me as a new Dragon Age fan … 'Possession'.

Well, when translated to english, you'll find texts using the word 'insight' rather than 'possession'. But that's the word my mom translated from off the top of her head, and it immediately resonated with me.

"Imagine your panic as an inner creature. Something that is also you, but is acting independently. Treat your panic with kindness and mentorship, not antagonism. The more you struggle in the spider's web, the worse things get. But if you nourish what's hurting in you, let them tantrum, then come back in to nurture."

Up until the 2010s, the most acclaimed mental health books you could buy written in the english language would most certainly be christianity-influenced. Maybe not overtly, (but you'd be surprised how many have a chapter about "insert-book-topic-here and Christ") but there's little hints like how the reader must have left home at 18 to avoid mooching off their parents, or how to 'turn guilt into something productive' (???), the use of the word 'gamble' as a bad word, etc. But these books tend to include a chapter that would be some weird bullshit like "The Dark Souls Of Respawning?? What Daoism Says About Immortality" and take a brief moment to talk about the radical, never-before-heard-of methods from across the pacific that Will Turn Your World Upside Down.

Behavior therapists (of the 1950s) were aware insights about the origins of the problem usually weren't helpful. Exposure to the thing the patient feared was often curative. -When Panic Attacks by David D. Burns MD, Chapter 18, "Taking a page from the Tibetan Book of the Dead"

Now, it's no secret that the Dragon Age serial is very. Um. Christian. Catholic, specifically. Faith is written to be an unequivocally redeeming trait. Attempts at inventing fake elf/qunari/Tevinter 'religions' still have them be belief-based, colonialist, and conversion-heavy, while also at the same time implying that the 'Maker' of Chantry faith is the single actual true god.

So it's no surprise that the demons and spirits of DA are very seven-deadly-sins. Party banter and side-quests do point out the euro/christian-centricity of this demon categorization (Merrill, Solas), but that doesn't mean shit if, in overall story and gameplay proper, Pride is the most powerful demon while Faith is virtue at all.

So here I am, lying in bed and only capable of just riding the waves of panic day after torturous day. You bet I'm gonna try to geek-erize my symptoms. If people do it with Jesus, then I can do it with Dragon Age.

Enter Vigilance the Spirit. I was an at-risk young Rivani mage, so their Magic Welfare Government helped me join their クサビ-依り代 program and matched me with a spirit to induce possession. Can't boil two skulls in one pot, so to speak. I could have chosen to do their hemispherectomy program (I am made Tranquil but carry around a piece of the Fade like a pacemaker that keeps me perfectly lucid, only turning off when I sleep), but that comes with its own risks.

But it doesn't take much for a spirit of Vigilance to do a 180 and become Panic. They're still Vigilance, and I am still me, but the taste in the mouth is different. Our life will need to adapt.

I will not kick myself for 'failing' my friend. Vigilance has turned to Panic, yes. But they have always been one. Now, so are me and Panic. Such is the nature of spirits.

If I am kind to my spirit, then I am kind to myself. It's what we both deserve.

[expensivemistake]

Daredevil ask: What do you think of the current run? I stopped reading Zdarsky about halfway through, but just started catching up on Ahmed's run and I think it's a definite improvement (only read the first five issues though).

OOOH good question!!! It’s a tricky one, to be honest. I like it more than Zdarsky’s for sure, and I’m keen on giving Ahmed the benefit of the doubt because he’s having to clean up Zdarsky’s messes (while dealing with detractors who really liked Zdarsky’s run) and it’s nice to get a Muslim writer on what is the most overtly Catholic Daredevil run to date.

He’s handling Matt as a priest better than I hoped, though I loathe the idea of it. It doesn’t feel like Matt chose this but he was reborn in a new life. I’ve liked a lot of the reunions, I thought the She-Hulk and Wolverine issues were exceptional, and I like what he’s doing with Elektra (though Erica Schultz is her main writer right now).

I also think anyone who says Elektra should’ve been Daredevil for a while is kidding themselves. There’s no way Marvel was going to let Matt sit out of his own book for however long ahead of his 60th anniversary year. Elektra is so much better off as a character when she’s far away from him, Gang War was refreshing.

But this run scares me. It needs to be a detour before someone comes in with the same mindset as Mark Waid and take Matt back to his roots. Hopefully Marvel’s need for comic-mcu synergy will do me a favour for once and we’ll get Matt as a lawyer again in March.

It’s also telling that my favourite story of the era so far was the Elsa Sjunneson penned one for the anniversary issue. I need Daredevil to once again focus on disability more than religion, and I thought her story was such a great return to what I love about Matt as a character.

So y’know? This current run is fine. It’d be great to move away from the same old villains and I miss Matt as a lawyer so much, but it’s for sure better than Zdarsky’s last volume.

[werewolfetone]

top 5 favorite things about your ocs?

In no particular order + putti g this beneath a cut cos I'm Nervous when it comes to talking abt my ocs on main

In the least weird way possible, from a meta perspective I loove how bad they all are at being 'good' victims of their various horrific backstories... major theme of the entire oc 'verse is that it literally doesn't matter how awful someone is there are still many things (like colonial violence) that they don't 'deserve' so the characters' various flaws and bad coping mechanisms and unpleasant personality traits are some of my favourite things about them. I love u whittaker basically erasing her personality to better lie to people I love u rearden stealing random people's money I love u o'donnell and mary twin descent into opium addiction I love u sarah fantasising about murdering people who slightly piss her off etc etc

Love how stupid and ineffectual charles is ngl... not enough early 19thc british military characters who give me the "how do you have every single card stacked in your favour and are STILL managing to almost lose every time" vibes many historical figures from the period do so how bad charles is at everything is my fave thing about him

Rearden and whittaker's shared total inability to give up on god's most lost causes ☝️ yes girl spend every waking moment convincing yourself that THIS attempt to blow up parliament will actually work. I'm sure this can't go wrong in any way

Lazarus and brendan's absolute failrelationship. not enough stories about protestants and catholics reaching across the religious divide to completely fuck up the lives of everyone around them and each other and make one another indisputably worse but I'm changing that one cannibal inn owner and threatening housewife boyfriend at a time

O'Donnell as an autistic character... very important to me to depict autistic people who are fucking cunts and also overtly very very interested in sexuality etc due to the way that autistic characters are usually infantalised. can't pretend like there's no way he could possibly know what sex is if all of his problems are because he thinks with his dick lmao

[beboped1]

Carpe Jugulum

When I started this series, I knew I would find some of the series hadn't held up. But I was really hoping I'd find some which were better than I remembered - and here's one.

Carpe Jugulum

First Read: Post Grad-School

Verdict Then: Fine, but not particularly memorable. The witches books just aren't hitting as well as I expected

Verdict Now: A fun, propulsive, and allegorical ride, maybe my favorite of the witches books (not counting Tiffany Aching, who'll take over this subseries from here). Mightily Oats is a particular point of interest, especially in comparison to Brutha's journey.

Carpe Jugulum is perhaps the first Discworld book I've felt is underappreciated. It's not one that I hear talked about, Wikipedia says that it didn't hit the British "Big Read" list from 2003, and in general I feel like it's often forgotten. But hidden within that is just as interesting and scathing a satire as Hogfather, just with less overtly humorous window dressing. It's one of his least funny-haha books so far - not because his jokes don't land, but because they all have razor edges hidden just beneath the surface. He also leans into horror here in ways that he hasn't previously in the series.

Carpe Jugulum is a book about myth, morality, and religion, and the ways that those forces can be used to bind people or to free them. The vampyre antagonists have found a sort of freedom in directly contradicting the myths - but it's only freedom for themselves, while for everyone else it's a true horror. Mightily Oats is struggling and trying to find the truth hidden among all the tales and rules and morals that he grew up with. Granny Weatherwax confronts again the choice of light or dark, but here it has the tenor of deciding what myth she will embody. Nanny Ogg and Magrat all confront what the myths and stories of Witches really mean to them - are they bound by Maiden, Mother, and the other one, or is it a tool they can use? Agnes & Perdita get the character arc here they deserved in Maskerade, that classic adolescent story of deciding what path you will walk, and who you really want to be.

Granny gets some great monologues in during her journey with Mightily Oats, but it's really Oats's arc that I keep coming back to. In Small Gods, the Omnian church is cruel and broken, a force of evil in the world, but Brutha has the chance to change that, to show them how to be a force for good. But now, a few generations after Brutha, there are echoes of the same essential human failings recurring in the Omnian Church. An adherence to text, an evangelism that is still dehumanizing of its targets even if it's gentler now, and a constant conflict within and between the adherents of the church - all of these echo the failings of the church in Small Gods. The Omnians have gone from early Renaissance Catholics to mid-century Episcopalian/Church of England, but they're still an organized, evangelical religion. I wonder how much of the differences in Brutha's journey and Oats's journey are a reflection of Pratchett's own evolution - while Brutha was who I needed to see in high school, struggling with the Catholicism in which I was (happily, mostly) raised, but now, it's Oats's solution to the central conflicts of religion that rings most true. Find the wonder, awe, and holiness in everything - no god required. Listen to those who seem to be doing the most good in the world, not as a holy leader, but instead as a rough guide. Granny Weatherwax never tells Oats what to do. She's not a pastor. She's a Witch, a guide, a coach, an example, but never a shepherd.

This one really got under my skin. There were a few bits that didn't quite land - it's not as tight as Jingo - but overall, I do think this is a story I will want to revisit. Maybe even in a back-to-back with Small Gods, to really see the evolution of the thoughts on religion in stark relief. And in the end, that's always what the best Pratchett's do - get you to keep thinking long after the story has ended.

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

By Michael Gold

Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday spewed crude and vulgar remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania that included an off-color remark about a famous golfer’s penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris.

The performance, 17 days before the election in a critical battleground state, added to the impression of the Republican nominee as increasingly unfiltered and undisciplined. It comes as some of Mr. Trump’s allies and aides worry that Mr. Trump’s temperament and crass style are alienating undecided voters.

It was unclear if the outbursts and insults were an expression of his frustration as the campaign grinds on or of his reflexive desire to entertain his crowds. At her own events on Saturday, Ms. Harris called attention to Mr. Trump’s temperament and his tendency to “go off script and ramble.”

Mr. Trump opened his speech at the airport in Latrobe, Pa., with 12 minutes of reminiscing about the golfer Arnold Palmer, who grew up in the Western Pennsylvania town and for whom the airport was named.

His monologue culminated in lewd remarks about the size of Mr. Palmer’s penis. Moments later, Mr. Trump gave the crowd an opportunity to call out a profanity. He went on to use that four-letter word to describe Ms. Harris.

“Such a horrible four years,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the Biden-Harris administration, as he surveyed the crowd of hundreds of people in front of him. “We had a horrible — think of the — everything they touch turns to —.”

Many in his audience — which was mostly made up of adults but included some children, infants and teenagers — eagerly filled in the blank, shouting, “Shit!”

Minutes later, Mr. Trump urged his supporters to vote, telling them that they had to send a crude message to Ms. Harris: “We can’t stand you, you’re a shit vice president.”

With Election Day nearing, Mr. Trump’s advisers billed Saturday’s speech as the start of his efforts to make a closing argument to voters. But the choice to open his rally with a long story about Mr. Palmer — one of the few topics Mr. Trump spoke about at significant length without veering off on tangents — set a curious tone.

“This is a guy that was all man,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Palmer, who died in 2016. “This man was strong and tough. And I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh, my god, that’s unbelievable.’”

As the crowd reacted, Mr. Trump chuckled. Later, he said, “I had to tell you the shower part of it because it’s true. What can I tell you? We want to be honest.”

Mr. Trump has always enjoyed shocking people, and in addition to cursing volubly, he enjoys talking about sex and men’s and women’s looks.

But in the past, he had refrained, for the most part, from being overtly crude publicly as a candidate or as president. Now, however, as he makes his third run for the White House and has become visibly angrier since Ms. Harris joined the race, there has been a notable uptick in such behavior, especially in the campaign’s final weeks and days.

In rallies, in interviews and on social media, he has seemingly relished deploying off-color language that politicians shied away from in another era. He has reposted racially and sexually charged insults of Ms. Harris on his Truth Social website, and he has done little to dissuade or calm crowds that have chanted profanity about the people with whom he has grievances.

This week, Mr. Trump was speaking at a Catholic charity event and standing mere feet from the Archbishop of New York when he swore while insulting Bill de Blasio, the former mayor of New York. “He was a terrible mayor,” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t give a shit if this is comedy or not.”

Mr. Trump often uses a variation of that word to allude to the four criminal cases against him. “I won’t say it, because I don’t like using the word ‘bullshit’ in front of these beautiful children,” he said in June at an event at a megachurch in Arizona, where the crowd began chanting it in unison, to Mr. Trump’s glee.

It was one of several recent acknowledgments from Mr. Trump, including one in Latrobe, that his profanity had the potential to offend. Mr. Trump has often told his crowds the story of a letter he received from Franklin Graham, the evangelical leader, urging him to clean up his language.

“I wrote him back,” Mr. Trump said on Saturday. “I said, I’m going to try to do that, but actually, the stories won’t be as good. Because you can’t put the same emphasis on it. So tonight, I broke my rule.”

Many of those who attend his rallies reflect his attitude in their apparel, wearing shirts, baseball caps and other clothing with vulgar expressions, many of which are aimed at Ms. Harris.

In Latrobe, Mr. Trump eventually shifted to his typical campaign themes. At one point, he insisted his election might bring about “America’s new golden age.”

It was a rare moment of optimism in his speech. Mostly, Mr. Trump continued to use dark, at times violent, rhetoric to describe the Biden administration, the American economy and illegal immigration, which he once again spoke of as a military invasion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/us/politics/trump-vulgarity-pennsylvania-rally.html

[project1939]

100+ Films of 1952

Film number 147: The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

Release date: August 20th, 1952

Studio: Warner Brothers 

Genre: drama 

Director: John Brahm 

Producer: Brian Foy 

Actors: Susan Whitney, Sherry Jackson, Sammy Ogg, Gilbert Roland 

Plot Summary: In 1917 three Portuguese children of shepherds see an apparition of the Virgin Mary. She brings warnings of upcoming war and strife if people do not worship the Christian god. The anti-religious government fears what could happen when thousands of people begin arriving to see Mary for themselves. 

My Rating (out of five stars): *** 

Full disclosure, I am neither a Christian nor religious, so I am not the intended audience for this. I wasn’t sure if I would even watch it because it’s so overtly Catholic, but I decided to give it a try because it was a major release by Warner Brothers in 1952. In my heathen opinion, this could actually unintentionally be atheist propaganda! Do you want to worship a god that delivers a “positive message” by making children suffer? Over and over again, this god refuses to intervene and stop the suffering of children! I could not find anything beautiful in it, but horses for courses, I guess. (some spoilers)

The Good: 

Susan Whitney as Lucia, the main girl. She was only about 12 here, and for a child actor in this era, she was quite good. Her face gave off a genuine seeming innocence and earnestness. 

I liked the character of Hugo just because he was the only skeptical one who wasn’t judged harshly for it. He was clearly written to be likeable despite his lack of piety. Of course, he had to have a tacked on “come to Jesus moment” at the end, but I was expecting that. 

The cast overall was pretty good. Both of the other children were capable and cute, despite the fact that the poor girl playing Jacinta had to cry more than speak. The adults were also effective performers. 

The crowd scenes at the sacred spot were impressive. I appreciated that the extras all looked like real people. 

The score was lush and pleasing, even if the non-diegetic choir got a little tedious at times.  

The WarnerColor looked nice. It’s not as beautiful as Technicolor, but it's not bad, either. 

The Bad: 

Mary appears to be cool with the suffering of children! One of her first messages is that two of the three children will soon die, which she says right to their faces! Then she stands back and lets them all endure trauma after trauma. Another time, a boy on crutches asks to be healed, and Mary basically says, “OK, chill- you'll be cured in about a year.” How can a loving god do nothing about, and even glorify, the agony and pain of children??

At one point Mary tells the suffering Lucia, “You are enduring these hardships for the conversion of sinners, as atonement for sins committed against God.” WTF?! I thought Jesus already did that?? Isn’t that the whole point of Christianity? Why does an innocent little girl need to atone for other people’s sins? I wanted to scream. 

Mary hates Commies, I guess?  

The spot where the miracles occurred was obviously a set. I understand that to make it otherwise would require a lot of location shooting, but the set felt stagey and lifeless. 

The ending “miracle” was highly disappointing! 

There was some absolutely hilarious rear projection where a road sign appeared to be a cartoon! 

The film was completely unskeptical of the events. No real inquiry was given to the story, because everyone who questioned it was either a villain or malevolent in at least some way. 

“Secular Governments are bad, I say, bad!” Because the theocratic monarchy that preceded it was so freedom-lovin' good?

In one scene an innocent little girl was scapegoated and handed over to the police to protect Lucia. We see her terrified face and hear her desperate cries... and that’s the end of the scene. The movie only cared about the “good outcome” of Lucia getting away. What about that little girl? Again with the suffering of children! 

Lucia’s mother was horrible in the first two thirds of the film. She screamed at her, slapped her, and grounded her, telling her to stop lying and admit the visions were fake. When she had a change of heart at the end, I didn’t exactly want to forgive her. 

[grownups-are-the-real-monsters]

Ok so I actually want to expand on this!

SO with the help of my sister ( @m-o-o-n-thatspellsblog's) notes, let's start with this, In Salem's Lot, Father Callahan is an alcoholic Catholic priest right? And he encounters a vampire who challenges him to go faith vs faith. And when Callahan's faith fails him, the vampire (Barlow) cuts open his own vein and damns Callahan by forcing him to drink his blood thus marking Callahan. After this, Callahan can sense vampires; type ones, types twos and type threes (more on this later).

But wait a second, hold on I forgot to mention; during this confrontation, Callahan reveals to the reader that his childhood 'Boogeyman', Mr. Flip, was a "strong, intelligent, and handsome man that hid in his closet", right?

Anyway, in Wolves of the Calla, the reader learns that Callahan is queer and experiences attraction to a man and also finds difficulties in accepting this. So when one goes back to that 'Mr. Flip', could that be a manifestation of his internalized homophobia? Perhaps!

My sister can better explain all this Father Callahan stuff and I'm gonna continue to quote her notes exactly here, in Salem's Lot blood sucking is referenced in overtly sexual tones and Barlow forces Callahan to perform this 'sexual' act on himself (another man) and this scars Callahan (obviously).

ANYWAY, THE POINT IS:

Eddie Kaspbrak is another character who experiences a lot of trauma and internalized homophobia. SO, to think about Eddie being marked by a vampire....

First of all the uncleanliness/dirtiness of having to drink someone's (a vampire's) blood would be enough to send him into a mental breakdown.

After that, being able to sense vampires is a power that he'd be very uncomfortable with. As previously mentioned, there are type ones, twos and threes. "Type ones are the most powerful and are almost immortal. They can spread vampirism to others and create Type Two vampires. Kurt Barlow was a Type One. Type Twos are more common and can create other Type Twos or Type Threes. Lastly, the Type Threes cannot spread vampirism but can spread diseases that travel by blood, such as HIV."

Callahan, after losing the man of his affection to AIDS when he's infected by a vampire, begins killing mostly type three vampires.

Imagine Eddie Kaspbrak, whose biggest fear is disease and who grew up during the HIV/AIDS epidemic and at a time where being gay was seen as dirty, being able to sense vampires who can spread this disease!!

What would he do??????

Callahan and Eddie have some interesting similarities in the internalized homophobia department.

The moral of the story is I think Eddie Kaspbrak being marked by a vampire would make for an interesting AU.

[piedpiperslists]

Jungkook One Shots (XIII)

*s - contains smut

Hold Me Close by @ahundredtimesover s wc~22k / brother’s best friends Summary: When Jimin hits a crisis, he enlists the help of his older sister - you - and his best friend, Jungkook, to put the pieces back again. That proves to be difficult when 1) Jimin’s a brat and a certified pain in the ass, and 2) Jungkook has grown and suddenly, you can’t keep your eyes off him.

White Lies by @noteguk s wc~13.3k / athlete!Jungkook, friends to lovers, fake dating, college au Summary: In which Jungkook lies his way out of and into trouble. But he can’t tell white lies when it comes to you.

Howling for You by @fortunexkookie s wc~14.2k / werewolf au Summary: The way your Little Red Riding Hood costume lured over a fuckboy in a half-assed werewolf costume was a little cliche, but god damn was he beautiful. He promised he had plenty of big things to show you, and you took him up on the offer, not realizing that you might’ve bitten off more than you could chew

Skirt Chasers by @1kook s wc~7.8k / friends to lovers, college au Summary: "Baggy clothes are in, but you wouldn’t know that, Miss I Draw Inspiration From Catholic School Girls."

Appetite by @ssscentral s wc~2.4k / established relationship, PWP Summary: Jungkook visits you at work - and it seems he can neither keep his eyes nor his hands off of you.

Spring Blooms by @snackhobi wc~20k / florist!Jungkook, author!reader, strangers to lovers Summary: “You’re in love and you didn’t tell me?” Jimin sounds affronted. “Who is it? Are they cute? Where are you hiding them? I knew you were lying about those flowers, you lying liar.” or: the story of how you meet a pretty florist with soft hands and warm eyes, how he mends your broken heart, and how he helps you realise some other things along the way.

Heavy Lifting by @snackhobi wc~13.4k / coworkers au Summary: You work the night shift in a supermarket. And now your crush, aka the cutest boy in the world, aka the guy you’ve been thirsting after for months, aka Jeon Jungkook, works the night shift too. Les geddit.

Petal to the Metal by @luxekook wc~7k / jewelry maker!Jungkook, florist!reader, strangers to lovers Summary: Every Sunday, the farmers’ market took place in the center of town. Vendors from near and far traveled to sell their crafts, their produce, their teas. As the local florist, you figured that running a booth each weekend would boost your business and bring in new clients. At least, those were your reasons in the beginning. But, now? Now, you returned just for the handsome jewelry-maker whose booth was next to yours.

Stay in Your Lane by @luxekook s wc~5.8k / enemies to lovers, college au Summary: In which the reader is the captain of the women’s swim team and Jungkook is the “golden freshman” of the men’s swim team… or in which Jungkook is overtly whipped for the reader and acts out in any way possible to gain her love and attention - no matter the consequence.

The Golden Boy by @luxekook s wc~2.5k / enemies to lovers, teachers au Summary: The new physical education teacher insulted you the moment you met him, and you’ve given him hell ever since. If only you didn’t think that he was the most beautiful boy you’d ever seen and that he was so much fun to play with.

[treesap-blogs]

“The Lesbiana’s Guide To Catholic School” review! this. might be kind of turning into a book account lol

Hello, Tumblrians! While I don’t have a very big following at the moment (only one of my followers is legit, the others are bots)(seriously, leave me alone p^rn bots), and I can’t say popularity is what’s motivated me to continue doing these reviews, my last one was a blast to write so I’m doing one for my most recent read; A Lesbiana’s Guide To Catholic School by Sonora Reyes! 

Equal parts hopeful and gut-wrenching, Sonora Reyes writes what I believe is a truly impactful story about learning to find(and express) your truth, and how difficult that is for a person who is marginalized in multiple ways. This was also one of the first books I’ve read to have the main character completely crush any opportunities of rushed, half-assed third act redemptions for other characters! (Very glad that we didn’t have any of that, especially with the offenses committed by other characters in a story like this! A different piece of queer media, The Prom, really pissed me off with its unrealistically optimistic ending of basically everyone making up after being homophobic to the main character and her girlfriend, and I’m glad they did not do it here.) I’m not really a fan of stories that largely focus on romance instead of having it as a side plot, but here I didn’t mind it! Perhaps it’s because it was queer(in comparison to the heterosexual romance books I’ve read), perhaps it was because of its importance as part of Yamilet’s coming out story. (Also I was like..squealing and stuff at Yamilet and Bo’s relationship they were the cutest!) And although I have never been part of the Catholic nor Christian faith like Yamilet, much less go to a Catholic school, I really resonated with a lot of her internalized homophobia. (Perhaps it was due to having Catholic and Christian beliefs surrounding me during the course of my elementary school years? Huh.) (Saving that dissection for my therapist not Tumblr though.)

-SPOILERS! Tw for discussions of su!cidal ideation and mental health.-

Reyes also writes in their list of content/trigger warnings before the story that they tried to write about all of their subject matter with the utmost care, something that they definitely followed throughout the course of the book. One of these topics was mental health, something that was discussed not overtly in the beginning of the book, but became crucial to the plot once Cesar was revealed to be su^cidal. His struggle was extremely realistic(something that caught me off-guard as someone who also struggles with their mental health), to the point where I found morbid humor in him using lighter vocabulary to discuss finding coping mechanisms when he’s starting to spiral again. While I wasn’t surprised by the reveal of him being depressed (there were signs of it during a particular scene in the book that made me concerned), it probably shook me up just as much as Yamilet because goodness, the fourth-fifth of the book was intense. I literally didn’t want to stop reading it because I was so concerned and I needed to know he got better.

(How much can I talk about that kind of subject matter on Tumblr before I get shadowbanned or taken down?! Shoot, guess I’m about to find out!)

I think that’s all spoilers-related that I want to cover?

-END OF SPOILER DISCUSSION.-

Anyhow, I can’t really name any significant flaws with this book? It didn’t feel like everyone did a complete 180 and supported Yamilet(and, I guess spoilers but not really?, her girlfriend Bo), the book was clear about that being only a portion of the conservative Catholic school she goes to, and the parts of the plot about culture(being disconnected or connected to it), racism, and homophobia felt very realistic. It’s what made this a bit difficult subject-matter-wise but also well-written.

A whopping ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 :)!

(And before I go, I will also need to figure out how to remove my bot followers, even if it will taint my ego.)

Paz, signing off. 👋

(Book trigger/content warnings are listed inside but include: Deportation and immigration, experienced racism, homophobia, self harm, suicidal ideation and the hospitalization of a character.)

[drivingsideways]

Mine Review

It will never cease to amaze me that 2021′s most feminist kdrama turned out to be a chaebol-makjang , a genre that I’ve never really paid attention to. I picked this one up purely for thirst reasons, aka Kim Seo-hyung, but stayed out of sheer amazement at what this flashy, over-the-top melodrama about a bunch of awful (and awfully) rich people was pulling off with such aplomb. 

At the start, this really seemed like a show that was primed to hate women, what with gold digging, scheming nannies, and cold step mothers and silly rich women with too much time on their hands, and too little going on in their brains. 

But! Writer-director duo Baek Mi-kyung and Lee Na-jung  almost straight away subvert those expectations and  the show continues to escalate in the opposite direction, until it ends with the finale, appropriately titled “ Glorious Women.” (I want to state here that there’s some classism and slut-shaming in the show that is quite disappointing in a show that gets a lot of other things right, but the bulk of the show actually works against those moments.)

A short list of things that I particularly enjoyed about the show:

1. Literally smashing the patriarchy by insisting that sons belong to and with their mothers. Yep, yep, yep. Much of the plot and back story is devoted to the question of legitimacy and heirs; as the plot progresses, what is initially set up as a cat-fight between two mothers, and on the surface,  a glorification of motherhood as the goal of womanhood,  ends up instead, being a damning indictment of unfit fathers. In the end, the women win by rescuing the next generation- their children of the heart as much as their body- from the personification of toxic masculinity in the form of a child’s biological father. (All three of the women do this- in Seo-hyun’s case, it’s fighting for her step son to follow his own path, and marry the “unsuitable” woman of his choice.)

2. The lesbian love story! This got a lot of press, deservedly, and ran into some controversy re: one of the actors, which I won’t get into here- at the end of the day, what we got was a textual wlw romance that was tender, romantic, and, in many ways, hopeful. The fact that Seo-hyun does not, even at the end, come out to the larger public despite all her privilege, is actually very well done, imo, because it’s framed as something she’s choosing on her own terms. There may be a day when she does, but more importantly to me, she’s  already freed in her own mind and to the people she loves the most and cares about the most, and their acceptance of her is wonderfully played out. (Side note: Absolutely loved that they had Sister Emma leave the order, which I am 100% convinced was just so that Seo-hyun could have that coming out speech to an (ex) Catholic nun and have her say that love is love)

There’s another, more subtle way, I think in which they made fun of male homophobia in particular, but in what seems to be, again, on the surface an extremely homophobic way! I refer to the constant “gay” jokes that are played between Han Jin-ho and Kim Seong-tae, and later with the young hunk who replaces Seong-tae. My initial reaction was, oh, they are playing both sides, to placate the bigots and undermine what they’re doing with the Seo-hyun story line, but y’know, at the end of the day, what the scenes did , in large part due to Park Hyuk-kwon’s stellar acting choices, were to leave you with a niggling doubt about whether the womanizing philanderer Han Jin-ho was really 100% straight. Well played, well played, show. 

3. Deconstructing masculinity! The show takes pains to show up the fragility and toxicity- and finally, the pathetic nature-of certain kinds of masculinity, whether overtly or subtly violent.  Not a single male character is spared of indictment; but more importantly I think, it shows how this is a learned behavior, passed down through generations, and not “inherent” to maleness. That is the hope for change that the show leaves us with, both in the younger and older male characters. But! It also clears up that the responsibility for the change lies with the men taking accountability for themselves and their actions. No women are around to baby sit and cajole them into becoming better people; instead the women are shown as busy getting on with their lives, sans men, in new configurations of “family”: Hi-soo and Ja-kyung with their son; Seo-hyun reaching out to Suzy Choi in a intimation of their future, and Seo-hyun and Hi-soo remaining as supportive friends despite no longer being “official family”.

4. The space it gives women! Of all stripes. They are allowed to be smart, angry, petty, greedy, silly, loving, sexy, strong, weak, naive, sweet, bitter- every single flavour. I was particularly thrilled by the star turns put in by Park Won-sook who played the bitter-ridiculous wife/mother/mother-in-law with flair and pathos; and Kim Hye-wa’s Han Jin-hee who’s written to be laughed at, but played so you can laugh with her. 

5. The women win. They just do. Straight out, no waffling, no compromises. It’s THRILLING. 

[morwensteelsheen]

The longer I write/write about Éowyn, the harder it becomes for me to associate her story and character arc with gender in the way that I think it typically is. I think it’s actually kind of funny and interesting that her most legendary line is “but no living man am I/I am no man” because, when push comes to shove, her story isn’t really about gender. Don’t get me wrong: gender is an enormous complicating factor in her life and certainly the fact of her being a woman makes getting the real point of her story across much easier to do, but in reality, there’s very little of her story that says anything about gender.

Éowyn’s story is, fundamentally, about the tyranny of violence and violent society and the alienation and dehumanisation inherent therein. Éowyn bears the brunt of that alienation and dehumanisation because she is a woman, but there’s nothing in the text to say that it is not a burden borne also by her brother and her uncle (especially her uncle). In some ways, Éowyn’s gender actually acts as a red herring for the greater problems in her life. When she’s asked by Aragorn about what her fears are, she says, essentially, that she fears a life lived without recognition of her merits and of her capacity to duke it out with the lads, and this lack of recognition is tethered (to her mind) inextricably to her gender, and the fact of women’s socially-mandated position as tenders of hearth and home. But Éowyn does get to duke it out with the boys, and in fact manages to singlehandedly outdo all of the men for feats of valour and martial prowess. By the guidelines she has established for herself for feeling fulfilled/realised in her own life, we ought to expect to find her in the Houses of Healing feeling pretty good about herself, but when we do catch up with her, she’s still desperate for death. On that basis, we could quite justifiably say that it’s because she’s woken up as still a woman, and probably recognises that the future that awaits her irrespective of if they win at the Morannon is a pretty grim one. And that is an accurate assessment of where Éowyn feels like she’s at, but it’s also an incomplete one because, as we learn through The Steward and the King, it fails to acknowledge that Éowyn’s parameters for judging her own life will never bring her the happiness and the fulfilment she seeks. The reason for that is because war and violence are fundamentally terrible, ugly things, things that can never bring goodness or succour to people; even if Éowyn is always facing down foes of unimpeachable evil (like the Witch King), violence still brings with it infringements upon her bodily autonomy, upon her psychological wellbeing, so on and so forth. If she only ever judges herself based on those guidelines, she’s always going to be left feeling bad in one way or another about herself.

But, as she discovers (with Faramir’s gentle nudging) in the Houses of Healing, there is another rubric against which she can judge her life, one that can bring her fulfilment and joy, and that is through the arts of peace and of nurturing life. Some people might rather unfairly boil this down to Women Be Mothering, but I do think it’s notable that both Faramir and Éowyn are careful to talk about nurturing the land and the earth, and not strictly about children. Yes they are two things that are poetically linked, but they are talking primarily about healing the great hurts to the land of Ithilien (and Gondor in a much wider sense), which brings with it a sense of stewardship (haha) that is far greater than just parenting (not that parenting should be denigrated). And this discovery is actually something that’s not gendered in one way or another: Faramir also includes himself in his desire to go out to those hills yonder and plant some flowers, and — as Éowyn helpfully tells us — he is not someone who’s necessarily lacking in, uh, overt masculinity lmao (at least by Rohirric standards). In the end, this No Living Man Am I stuff is only really relevant for throwing the Witch King off his game, it doesn’t really matter a whole heck of a lot for her, because the things that she ends up going off to do are things that almost — but not entirely — transcend the stifling gender binary.

As an aside, I think in a purely historical sense Éowyn actually ends up going through the social/moral transformation a lot of young men in Britain went through around the First and Second World Wars. As ever, you’ll have to forgive me because my area of expertise is post 1970s, but James Hinton has done a lot of really fascinating work on this in his micro-histories that looks at the changing views of masculinity vis a vis violence and the military and the ways in which the World Wars sort of ‘popped’ that old imperial militaristic masculinity. This might well have been analogous to something Tolkien himself went through, though perhaps because of his more overtly Catholic background he might not have had the wool pulled so thoroughly over his eyes before his service. Anyways…