#but neither was the entirety of the us government killing most of his family over a land dispute

[kercherisacanopener]

Seems a little unfair

[cowperviolet]

Vittoria Accoramboni and a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy – Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This is one of the most riveting stories from the Italian Renaissance history – the kind that seems to be ready-made for the stage or silver screen. It has everything: an ambitious beauty, jealousy, papal intrigues; Medici plots, vengeance and desire, and assassins hiding under beds.

Happy stories tend to end with weddings. This story starts with one.

Even given Rome’s great population of gawkers, few spectators turned out to watch when, in 1573, Vittoria Accoramboni married Francesco Peretti. The bride was one of the eleven children in a family of impoverished noblemen; the groom was a nephew of a remarkably poor parvenu cardinal whose own father had been a pig farmer in the Marches. There was only one reason that would have made people gaze as the wedding procession led Vittoria along on her traditional white horse, her hair virginally loose – namely, the luminous beauty of the bride.

     Vittoria herself knew the value of that beauty. So did her determined mother, Tarquinia, who burned with desire to see the Accorambonis restored to their once-prominent place in society – and the most beautiful of her daughters was to be instrumental in this.

Three centuries ago, back in the 1200s, Vittoria’s family owned a castle in the town of Tolentino, and enjoyed all the accolades due to prominent noblemen in those feudal days. All of this was lost in one unwise move – the Accorambonis went too far, and rebelled against the Pope. In retaliation, they were stripped of their honours and their castle, and exiled to an old house in the tiny Gubbio, where they dwelled quietly for centuries after. This generation, with eleven mouths to feed and nothing more than a too-grandiously-named palazzo in Gubbio to bank upon, should not have been any different. However, Tarquinia was determined to turn the tide. If two of her daughters, Massimilla and Settimia, had no other choice than to join a convent due to their parents not having enough money for their dowry, Vittoria possessed a rare blessing – namely, the kind of beauty that could offer the family a way out of poverty once and for all.

     Once on the Roman marriage market, Vittoria attracted a number of suitors. Francesco Peretti was the kind of luck they hadn’t expected at first – his family heard his intentions to court the most beautiful girl in Rome without enthusiasm. His uncle, Cardinal Montalto, might have had the appearance of a frail old man of quiet disposition, but he was not devoid of ambition, and would have much preferred to see his nephew marry a girl with a good dowry and connections who might have enhanced their political prospects. Francesco’s own mother, Camilla, was not amused, either – while not particularly ambitious herself, she always wished her brother success. However, she knew true love where she saw it, and, sighing privately, accepted Vittoria to her house and home with open arms.

Tarquinia, however, had less than romantic thoughts on their mind. She was counting days when the reigning Pope Gregory XIII is finally going to give his soul up to the Almighty, and clear the way for Cardinal Montalto.

     While other states in Italy were governed by republican senates or petty princes, and the countries north of the Alps had their great feudal monarchies, in Rome the throne of St. Peter was the shining centre of the universe from which all blessings, material as well as spiritual, doth flow. The Accorambonis have always known it, and not simply because it’s the displeasure of a long-dead Pope that cost them their old fortune. Vittoria’s grandfather, Girolomo, considered the crowning achievement of his medical career to be the fact that he became the personal physician of Pope Adrian VI. Now Tarquinia was aiming for them to find a place even closer to the Vicar of Christ – namely, a familial one.

Most people would have considered her hope for Cardinal Montalto to become the Pope one day to be absurd – however, not everybody, and certainly not Cardinal Montalto himself. Yes, his late father might have been eking out a miserable living growing vegetables and tending pigs; yes, his mother might have been a housekeeper; yes, his sister Camilla might have been a widowed laundress. Still, ever since Montalto, as a young boy, joined the monastery that gave him a good education and his start in life, he was sure of his divine destiny. His parents agreed – after all, how else to explain him surviving the plague that killed his brother, the swimming accident that almost left him floating face down in a pond, and the fire that ignited his bed thanks to a forgotten oil lamp, except by the fact that God had a special plan for him?

Cardinal Montalto thought so, and Tarquinia thought so. Vittoria herself was more sceptical. Nothing in her new household screamed greatness, even a prophesized one. The Venetian ambassador who happened to visit the Perettis’ house some years later, in 1585, wrote in shock that the place was almost devoid of furniture. Moreover, Camilla Peretti, despite being a sister to a cardinal, did her own laundry and that of her household herself, pushing soiled linen with a paddle in steaming cauldrons. The small courtyard of the house, which was not big enough for a horse to properly turn itself around it, was full of running chickens. Cardinal Montalto’s income was only 8,000 scudi a year, which, for his position, was truly miniscule. Besides, he had to not only maintain his own household and that of Camilla, but also to spend greatly on charity works – if he wanted to climb higher in the world, good publicity was a must. This is not to say his contributions weren’t genuine – for example, he built houses for poor families in his down-on-its-luck hometown, and, in 1578, he built a school there and hired a teacher out of his own pocket. However, I highly doubt that any of these things would have meant much for Vittoria.

Neither was she likely to be amused when he used the entirety of her dowry to buy himself a vineyard – and put the land in Camilla’s name. Gradually, Vittoria persuaded him to change this last fact, and legally transfer the land to her and Francesco instead, so that the proceeds from the sale of wine and oil could pay for their upkeep. However, having to wheedle and beg for the ownership of a piece of land bought with her own money must have felt rather degrading. Later, when she realized that the young trees are too young to bear fruit that would bring her any substantial income, she sold the vineyard back to the cardinal for 750 scudi more than it cost initially, and put the difference into annuities.

This particular vineyard might have been paid with her dowry, and thus given her a moral right to protest about its ownership – however, in many other questions, Vittoria went way over the line. One document she and her family presented to Cardinal Montalto bluntly said that

‘And there remain many scudi of old debts that he will be forced to satisfy if he stays in Rome and lives among men’.

In other words, she was not averse to some blackmail – after all, she asked, the cardinal doesn’t want to undo all his charitable efforts by appearing like a skinflint when it comes to his beloved daughter-in-law and her closest relatives, does he?

Perhaps, she would have been more careful if she had known with him if she had known certain facts of his past that he, now that he was a cardinal with quiet papal ambitions, took care to keep from the public…

More on them, however, next week.

Sources:

Eleanor Herman, Murder in the Garden of God

[blodreina-noumou]

what would the show have had to have done to be considered good for you? I thoroughly enjoyed my time watching the show, so I look back at it fondly.

Oh god, where do I even begin?

For starters - if you’re one of the people who enjoyed The 100 in its entirety, good for you! That’s awesome! I don’t want to diminish that. These are just my feelings and my opinions, and I don’t intend for them to make anyone else feel bad for what they like. The ending could’ve been much worse, I’ll give it that. And there were obviously moments I enjoyed throughout the final season, and the series as a whole will still stand (unfortunately) as one of my favorites.

HOWEVER.

I found the ending thoroughly disappointing. It robbed our characters of any of the development they made in the final season, for the sake of propping up Clarke (canonically, that is why they stayed.)

The final season provided us with some really fascinating journeys for our characters. Without recapping the whole season, I can say that I really liked where Octavia, Emori, Murphy, and Echo ended up in their respective arcs. They all had to overcome their past tragedies to fulfill new roles. It was interesting and engaging.

The show itself provided us with so many interesting conflicts, with so many different groups who had competing goals and ideals. On some level, it promised us that peace was not possible until these folks all learned to work together and stop killing each other. That was the goal, all along. 

Survival of the human race was the first goal of the show, and survival of the human race is only possible if they (a) stay human and (b) survive.

Neither of those things happened by the end. The goal of our protagonists - the thing they allegedly existed for, in their stories - to save the human race and survive and thrive and all of that, did not happen for the vast majority of people.

Transcendence and the final scene on the beach erases all of the hard work they did in showing us those character journeys, and in making us invest time and energy into different groups that would only continue to suffer assimilation and homogenization by the end.

What was interesting to me about our main characters - Clarke, Bellamy, Monty, Raven, Murphy, Octavia, Emori, and Echo - was that they appeared to be the ones best suited (according to the storytellers) to save the human race.

The moment the show introduced the Grounders, I wanted a political thriller that I was probably never going to get. I accept that. 

What I cannot accept is that they erased all of their conflicts with a convenient deus ex machina, and everything that our characters learned is more or less pointless because of it. I’ll focus on their s7 arcs, but I think it applies to their entire storylines.

Octavia learns about her brother’s way of raising her and comes to forgive him for it. She becomes a parent herself. She manages to bridge the gap between two cultures yet again (Bardo and...everyone else, I guess) by falling in love with Levitt. 

She will never utilize any of those skills again. Hope no longer needs a parent. There will never be another culture different from them again. She and Levitt will never have children.

Murphy learns to put value in the group, and to recognize his own abilities as a leader and as a man. He saves multiple people in Sanctum, becoming their protector and their shield. 

Emori learns to put value in herself, and to recognize her abilities to empathize with outcasts and those deemed “less worthy” by society. She becomes a queen in her own right, a protector and a diplomat.

No one will ever need them to fulfill these roles, ever again. There was no point in them leading those people.

Echo had to go back to a deeply painful role, one which has cost her dearly in life - a spy among her enemy. When she’s brought to her lowest, to the brink of committing genocide, it’s her love for her family that keeps her from going over the edge. She reemerges as herself, recognizing that her painful past does not define her, and she can find love despite it.

Too bad the love of her life was murdered by Clarke!

I wanted our heroes to save the human race, not be the only humans that ended up saved. Does that make sense?

Clarke gets the closest thing to a happy ending of anyone, since she was the one who insisted for seven seasons that “[her] people” were the most important thing in the world, and that she would stop at nothing to protect them. Welp, now there’s nothing to protect them from. Her genocidal rages get a little slap on the wrist and then she gets to spend an endless beach day bossing everyone around and pouting.

It just sucked.

I hate the magic hand-wave of all of the conflicts. You can try to tell me that transcendence was a choice all you want. Plenty of people chose the City of Light, too. That didn’t make the way it erased their individuality and personal goals okay. Frankly, the ending to me feels like everyone just decided to go into the City of Light anyway. And sure, they keep their bad memories and some semblance of individuality, but what do those things even mean when you just one blip of a species that works, moves, lives, and decides things as one?

They didn’t overcome their tribalism. All of the other tribes just got assimilated into the borg. And sure, they maintain some semblance of personality once they transcend - we know that because of Madi’s message to Clarke. But what kind of lives are they going to have as part of that big glowy shit? Madi never gets to grow up, or fall in love, or pet dogs again. (Picasso is always going to wonder where her new best friend went.)

And who were those alien assholes anyway? Who are they to say that their way is better, that they have the right to judge entire species based on one representative? That they can just exterminate anyone whose way of life doesn’t match up with theirs?

Our heroes didn’t save the human race. The human race turned into something else entirely, and its last survivors get to watch each other die knowing that that’s it, that’s the end of them all.

No societies. No cultures. No new art, or music, or fashion.

No children, no future. No hope. 

It’s very disappointing and scary to me. I don’t like the messaging and I don’t like the implications for the surviving characters.

There was a brief, brief moment when I saw a glimpse of an ending that I could’ve liked. When Raven says, “just give us another chance,” I was really expecting the aliens to swoop off and leave humanity to their own devices. No crystallization. No transcendence. All of the remaining groups have to come together and figure out how to thrive together. Discuss and establish a system of government that doesn’t rely on state-sanctioned child battle royales, or body snatching, or extreme restrictions on how many children people can have. Obviously, in this ending, nobody gets shot and nobody almost dies. Madi retains control of her body, somehow. Fill in the details yourself, but my ending would include just about everybody surviving.

Build a society that will grow. Let our characters take the lessons they’ve learned and apply them in a meaningful way, a lasting way. Show us that humanity will survive and will rebuild, on the planet of our birth. Let them rest, but let that rest and that peace mean something more than, “Good job! You made it to episode 100!”

Not to mention, the fact that Earth did eventually heal made everything that Monty and Harper did at the end of s5 completely pointless. Monty thought he was delivering the human race to a new hope. He was just steering them towards assimilation to the borg. I don’t think that’s the “do better” that he wanted, you know?

I could go on, but this is long enough. I’ll just end by saying this - if someone had told me, back in 2015 when I started watching, that this is how the show would end, I never would’ve started it. Not for Lexa, not for Octavia, not for anything. 

The ending made everything they went through so painfully pointless.

[nezumiismissing]

Yoming: A Step-By-Step Guide on How Not to Lead a Revolution

So in honor of Earth Day (and also my birthday) today I reallly wanted to write something about No.6 and the environment/environmentalism, but I only realized I should do that right as I was about to go to bed last night, so it didn’t happen. Maybe next year. Anyways here’s a post on a completely different (but maybe still relevant) topic that I’ve had in my drafts for probably a year and finally got the motivation to finish over the weekend!

So I’ve been thinking a lot recently about No.6 and revolution, because I’ve always viewed No.6 as a story that is very much about revolution, and yet the revolution that actually occurs within the story (at least in the novels/manga) is objectively a failure and instead serves mostly as a way for No.6 to demonstrate its military power (and create an exciting climax to the story). Despite this failure, however, I don’t think that No.6 is ultimately against revolutionary action, and instead simply uses the example of Yoming's character and ideology to demonstrate what a revolution in the real world shouldn't look like. Because while he is clearly correct in his desire to see No.6 fall, Yoming is still, in many ways, an antagonist of the story, and ultimately attempts to do the right thing in the wrong ways for the wrong reasons.

Now obviously the biggest offense here is the fact that his entire plan to mobilize people is based on a lie. We know that there is no secret vaccine against the bees, and we know that people from any class within the city are able to die from them. So already the premise from which Yoming plans to base his overthrow of No.6 is corrupted. But even beyond that, there are numerous issues with the framing and motivation for revolution in this context, mainly stemming from the fact that, despite what he might say, Yoming doesn't actually know that much about No.6. He knows that there is a strict hierarchy within the city, and that people are regularly taken away from their families. He doesn’t know where they go or what happens to them, and while his assumptions about the people who are taken away may be true (for the most part), that’s all they really are, assumptions.

I think what gets to me the most about this is the fact that he appears to be entirely convinced that he has the whole story. He doesn’t even consider the idea that other atrocities may be occurring within the city or in the Correctional Facility, and he doesn’t ever mention the huge population of people living in West Block, and what conditions they may be living in as a result of No.6’s actions and existence. The (true) idea that No.6 may have even been built upon extreme violence against another group does not occur to him. Those people are not important to his personal experiences or goals, and so they are not important to the resistance in its entirety, despite the fact they are arguably the primary victims of No.6, and their situation is not entirely unknown to the general populace. Rather than a movement focused on systemic injustice and a highly corrupt/authoritarian government, Yoming instead creates what amounts to an almost entirely unconstructive riot based on his own personal desire for revenge, resulting in the deaths of multiple people who, while maybe not entirely happy with the city, were also not directly involved in any of the things being protested. By focusing so intensely on the individual, the concept of a collectivist-based society is completely left behind and forgotten, as in Yoming’s mind collectivism is aligned with the control and utilitarianism of No.6, and can thus only be opposed by the inverse organizational ideology of individualism, rather than a different form of collectivism focused on community and justice.

This of course leads to the scene where we actually see the extent of his insanity, in which Karan brings up the fact that a large mobilization of people against the city will cause No.6 to use military force. We of course already know that this is exactly what will happen, as we've just witnessed it in West Block and know how the leaders of the city function, but even within Yoming’s limited context, this should be seen as a completely plausible and likely scenario, as it directly aligns with the authoritarianism he claims to oppose. But he isn’t able to imagine anything that he hasn’t seen personally, and ideologically he isn’t really that different from No.6, as he only wishes to replace the current leadership with his own in order to protect those he deems worthy (as is shown in Beyond), and so he rejects it. Not only that, he says that it is impossible for No.6 to have an army, because it would go against the Babylon Treaty, a document that no one in the city seems to have actual knowledge or understanding of outside of a very surface level reading (and also definitely not the main reason you should be concerned about a state using military force on its own people). He isn’t willing to completely let go of his own utopian ideals, or those of the creators of No.6 though, and so he is unable to accept that at a fundamental level, the city has overstepped its boundaries. He isn’t able to see the disappearances of people as a systemic issue affecting the population as a whole rather than individuals and families, and is therefore unable to imagine that those disappearances may have a purpose outside of simple control, or that they may only be a small piece of a much larger issue.

Just a quick aside here; while I sympathize with Karan’s strong desire to not get anyone killed in the process of destroying and rebuilding a society, I think she’s also wrong to think that that is in any way realistic. She is aware enough of the situation to recognize that an army likely does exist, and she knows that things cannot remain as they are, but in entirely rejecting Yoming’s way of thinking, she is also eliminating any chance of No.6’s fall actually occurring in a way that doesn’t involve bees killing everyone. There’s obviously a huge philosophical debate to be had about whether or not death on either side is acceptable or even allowable during such a large political shift, and I’m not looking to really start that debate here because otherwise this would be a 20 page essay, but all I will say is that even without the deaths inflicted as a result of the revolution, the destruction of the Correctional Facility, which we are led to believe is an almost entirely positive outcome, didn’t come without its own significant death toll (and not all of those victims were on the side of No.6).

Yoming is rightfully angry at the city for creating such a strict social hierarchy and murdering his wife and son, and he is right to wish for the city’s destruction (although he doesn’t really know why this is correct), but neither of those occurrences are a justification for the suffering he put the rest of the citizens through. If he knew what was actually happening to the city, he wouldn’t have had to lie, and he knows that. It is then perhaps the case that he lies about the vaccine not because he actually believes that it exists, but because he knows that his experiences are not shared by a large number of people, and are not enough to get the entire population to join in his personal fight, so he needs to invent something that sounds real enough that people will go along with him. In this case, the bees are not his enemy, and instead are just a neutral occurrence that he is able to use as a tool in his favor. In his mind, it doesn’t matter that the citizens will eventually find out about the lie, because by then he thinks that he will already be seen as a hero, and perhaps the lie will even be seen as positive, since in this case the truth is difficult to believe. But in the end, it wasn’t enough to actually make a difference, because neither side was willing to either separate themselves from their own beliefs and ideology for long enough in order to understand the entirety of the situation, or create a legitimate and strong opposition to the other side.

I think that Yoming’s failures as a revolutionary icon are an important aspect of the story, and while he was ultimately unsuccessful, there are certainly many positive aspects of what he had hoped to accomplish, so I’m not trying to rewrite the ending of the story in any way, but what could he have done better? If his way of doing things wasn’t correct, but pacifism is also out of the question, then how could the situation have been resolved? If this were a real situation, as opposed to a story where it is important to maintain a sense of tension, I believe the best option would probably have been to wait until more information was available to avoid having to lie in the first place. There is definitely a fine line here, and I wouldn't fault anyone for disagreeing, but there has to be some threshold of facts and dissatisfaction that must be met before taking such extreme measures as a revolution, and I don't think that by that point in the story it had been reached yet. He also could have just been honest. This would have been risky, but he had already taken advantage of the confusion caused by the bees, so taking a much smaller chance in order to build the strength of his group would probably have been a better move than endangering the entire city for personal reasons. Of course he wouldn’t actually do this because it would involve a self sacrifice, which under his extremely self-centered individualist ideology is entirely unacceptable, but if he were to actually be interested in improving society, this would have probably been a good move.

Just at the end here I would like to touch on the endings of Yoming's character arcs in the various iterations of the story, because all of them are excellent in their own ways, and deserve a brief discussion.

Starting with the anime, this is just about as good an ending for his character as you could have asked for given the circumstances of the anime’s ending. The anime doesn’t exactly frame him as a revolutionary icon like the novels and manga do, so he is very much just kind of a crazy dude who also has somewhat higher legitimacy than manga/novel Yoming due to his lack of actually doing anything of significance and therefore also not getting anyone directly killed. His revolution is doomed from the start as he gives his speech to a crowd of people who can’t hear him because they’re already dead, and his lack of any actual public appearance is successful in framing him as simply an overly ambitious coward who is very much deserving of his off-screen death by the one thing that made his message questionable in the first place. It’s a very different characterization than the one seen in the novels, and while it has some consequences for the overall effect of the anime’s story that I’m not going to get into here, it's an extremely effective way of getting across the point that this revolution was not going to work. It also ties Yoming more directly to the revolution itself, with the fall of No.6 and subsequent lack of need for revolutionary action also resulting in the destruction of the revolution’s leader.

Because there is no manga for Beyond, we are also in a way given another ending for Yoming in the manga, although I feel it is incomplete. Because the manga follows the novels so closely, we see the revolution occurring prior to Shion and Nezumi’s interference, all the way up to when Yoming gives his speech in front of city hall, and then he is never seen again. This is probably the weakest of the three endings for him just because the novels give us the same scenes but with a very well done follow-up in Beyond, but I think this still works fairly well. Like the anime, this ending proves that Yoming was not really needed in order to destroy No.6, and that the scale of what was happening was completely beyond his abilities. But on the other hand, by showing the revolution in the first place, unlike the anime, we are left with the possibility that he could have been successful had it not been for Shion and Nezumi’s extremely convenient arrival at that moment. It was unlikely that it would have succeeded of course, but without either the confirmation of his death such as in the anime or the context and developments given to us in Beyond, we have no way of knowing what would have happened next. Yoming is neither a hero nor a failure in this version of the story, but instead was not given a chance to exert his full power, and therefore becomes a mostly insignificant figure in the overall story of the manga. 

Finally we come to the novels, where we get a much fuller picture of who Yoming is and what his real goals were in the story told in Beyond. Rather than acting simply as the figure of a failed revolution, he continues in his quest to destroy No.6 and build a new society. However, As was mentioned earlier his actions imply that the society he wanted was not all that different from No.6 other than the fact that he would be (at least in part) in charge of it. This is of course the issue that all revolutions and their leaders must face, “Once we get into power, how do we prevent ourselves from becoming corrupt and recreating the thing we were originally fighting against?” For Yoming, the answer is that you don’t. His movement used the power of the people to earn leverage in the fall of the city and subsequent rebuilding, but was ultimately never about helping the people of No.6 as a whole, and instead served as a vehicle for just replacing the current leadership with a new regime functioning under the guise of a people’s movement. It’s a smart move if you can make it work for you, as any number of real-world examples have shown, but as we see in Beyond, Yoming really isn’t smart enough to pull it off, and since he is only one member on a larger council of leadership, his lack of overwhelming power makes it impossible for him to take total control of the city, and ensures that he is eventually caught. That isn’t to say that the system is perfect, as Shions actions clearly show it is not, but it functions well enough to weed out those who are not actually interested in restructuring. You could of course also make the argument that Shion takes over what would have been Yoming’s role had he succeeded, but that’s a different discussion for a different day.

I don’t really have anything else to add here, so this is the end of the post! There’s more to discuss here of course (there always is), but I feel that this gets the main ideas across in a way that is (hopefully) easy to understand. Revolution is complicated, including in fiction, and there really is no one right way to go about it. But in the context of a story like No.6, which is so much about revolution and social change, the portrayal of a movement that was ultimately a failure and upheld ideas of corruption alongside one that had greater success is an exercise in the exploration of the topic that not only makes the story much more interesting, but greatly contributes to our own understanding of the topic and the ideas associated with it.

[scary-lasagna]

XD ok then. I’m going to warn everyone that my oc’s backstory does mention p3dophillia and r4pe. It also got holes in it lol. So her name is Sephrina Felis, but the public calls her Copycat. She’s 14. Its important to note that this is in a world where the government is so corrupted that it could be called an oligarchy. Some people are also born with powers that also contributes to one part of their personality. For example, Jeff was born with enhanced strength and to match that, — (1/??)

—he’s naturally stubborn. Of course if people get powers, arranged marriages would pop up again to form a powerful bloodline. These are called Power Marriages. This is what Sephrina is a product of. Unfortunately for her, she was born with a mutated power that came from neither of her parents. Her mom did everything in her power to give her the best life. However, she mysteriously died when Sephrina was around 5. Her father is a part of this oligarchy so he gets away with basically— (2/??)

—Sephrina’s dad is also an alcoholic, abusive, perv of an asshole. With his wife finally gone, he now has full control over the entirety of his staff and daughter. He started grooming her until she was around 7. It was always, “a lady should always obey without a word.” and “a lady is always a servant to the men.” and, of course the classic “a lady should be seen, not heard.” Because of this and the constant publicity, her independent personality never had a chance to form. All she knew is—

—that she didn’t like it and had a nagging but weak feeling that it wasn’t right. Her dad made sure nothing of his and the government true nature got out, but there was nothing he could do about the rumors. He became frustrated that he eventually ends up taking it out on Sephrina. Around the age of 8, she was forced to take gymnastics classes. It was one of, if not THE, best thing his dad has done to her. The young co-owner, Lyra Rogers as she later finds out, befriends the little girl. —

— She felt safe, had some kind of food after being starved for days, and most importantly, she eventually found a family. Lyra introduces her to her energetic little brother, Toby. Even though he was four years older than her, they became best of the best of friends. Later that month, Liu Woods came to visit Lyra to work on a school project they had with his little brother being dragged behind him. (

—rushed to the hospital twice that year. Once for the Rogers siblings’ car crash and another for Jeff’s attack. Her already broken heart shatters when Jeff’s heart monitor flattened. (

— In a fit of anger, Sphrina’s dad pinned her and slit her throat. He then killed the family cat that she was very attached to and rand off to bed. The maid was the first to see the corpses. She followed a shadow of a cat down to Sephrina’s head body. Sephrina’s blonde hair and her blood turned black and her tear tracks turned into black blood. The maid calls the police. The news of the murder of a government official’s daughter made the police and the news team arrive faster than usual.—

—With some money and corruption, the blame was removed from her dad to the maid. Well into the investigation and the news story, her body rises to its feet like how a newly turned zombie would get up from the ground. Before the viewers could process what was happening, the now undead Sephrina broke the newscaster’s neck and the camera turned sideways. The viewers were left horrified as all they could hear were screaming and bones breaking. A shadow of a cat with a wide, monstrous smile—

— stared into the camera and the cameras cut to static. As the months go by, priceless items from museums started to disappear, explosions went off, and the black market hit a growth spurt. Copycat got her name from her ability to copy powers for a very short period of time (5-10 minutes) just by watching her victims use it and by touching her victims (

—Her fighting style is like Ty-lee’s from TLA mixed with Catwoman from the DC universe. She would take any excuse to show off her gymnastics skills as she fights as paralyze her enemies. She’s also highly manipulative. She uses her innocent nature as a weapon. She eventually caught the walking lamppost’s attention. He sends the proxies to investigate her and to report back. Sephrina’s first words to Slendy were “Woah. You’re tall…” before Slendy takes her and her cat to the mansion.

— Anon

sorry I ended up confusing myself trying to put these posts together so I just copied and pasted them xd

Bro Sphrina is so gnarly?? Like??? Also I really like this whole Oligarchy and powers thing, it’s really unique and adds a whole lot to the story.

[weresilver]

Tarsus IV aka Olduvai

(So much shit under the cut. I should just write the fic.)

You know those random ideas that just... Invade your thoughts? Well, let’s go. I started this one week ago, and just now came back to this.

First of all, disclaimer: I have seen a fic in AO3, I’ve since lost it, where the author made Tarsus IV a settlement on Mars eons before humans really existed. Jim was one of the surviving Martians.

This is sort of, but not really like that. Vaguely like that. This is more of uh... “What if Tarsus IV was Olduvai?”

Olduvai is the fourth of Tarsus colonies on Mars;

One of the other three is also research, although specifically Energy Research (Tarsus II aka Argent) and the other two are residential colonies (Tarsus I aka Lazarus, and Tarsus III aka Titan);

Yes, John Grimm still quite hates it, and yes, he’s a marine;

Yes, Samantha Grimm spent the last ten years up there, since the twins were 18;

Everything happens mostly the same? But instead of taking the Ark back to Earth, the mutants break out of the facility and start advancing towards the other colonies. What is the atmosphere again? The mutants don’t need to breathe, not exactly;

The ones remaining are Sarge, Reaper, and Destroyer, so they suit up, each going to a different colony (With the Praetor Suit?), killing off whatever mutant they do find along the way;

Tarsus I received the name of Lazarus after the biblical character and meant a second chance for humans. A second home. The original Ark was discovered there and led to the other end in Nevada. A transportation system was created by the responsible engineer, based on the Ark, and is the most common method of traveling between the colonies, although suits were also created to allow travel outside the contained environments of the colonies.

Tarsus II was the first research facility, established after UAC’s discovery of an element/compound (or both) not too different from silver, but a far better energy conduit than anything on Earth. The facility was named Argent after the French word for silver, silver coin, etc.

Tarsus III was the second residential colony, far larger than Lazarus, and it received the name Titan due to such fact. it still isn’t as populated as Lazarus, but it certainly could, and likely would surpass it.

Tarsus IV was established after a scan starting from Argent discovered the remnants of what seemed to be buildings in a gorge not too different from the one in Tanzania and as such was named after the location, Olduvai, but the initial diggings destabilized the area and, in 2036, a landslide killed its two head researchers and almost took their two children as well.

A well-known, albeit secretive physicist is the head of the Argent facility. He’s known simply as Spock. People gave up trying to get his real name at that point (20 something years old? Maybe still a Vulcan, who knows, that could still work);

J.T. Kirk is a 13-year-old boy living in Lazarus with his father George, a shuttle pilot between Mars and Earth. His mother is still on Earth for the time being;

Pavel Chekov, 5 years old, is in Titan with his family.

Nyota Uhura, 11 years old, is also in Titan, the other residential colony and wants to participate in the archeological research in Olduvai.

Hikaru Sulu, 17, is training to be a pilot (under Geroge? Possibly);

Montgomery Scott, in his early thirties (??), is the chief engineer for the entirety of Tarsus colonies. This poor man has a lot of work;

(oh god I almost equated Scotty to Pinky, god no, thanks but no thanks)

Sarge went to Lazarus, Destroyer to Argent and Reaper to Titan;

Needless to say, Reaper is the first to question Sarge’s orders of simply clearing out the residential colonies, no matter who they find there;

He cleared Tarsus III of mutants and searched for survivors, finding Hikaru, Nyota, and Pavel;

He contacts Spock and sends the kids over to Argent through the internal transport system;

Spock is needless to say not “happy” ("does he even emote?"), but thankfully Hikaru is there and he’s actually good with kids;

(11-yo Uhura still sticks to Spock anyway, but she’s okay and a damn smart kid)

Reaps try to contact the other two, as well as Sam still in Olduvai. She’s the only one to respond, so he tells her to go to Argent, as it’s still apparently safe;

He starts to make his way to Argent, the closest colony to Titan, and he finds that the mutants already broke in;

And he may or may not be panicking, he just sent three kids and his sister into this place with also god knows how many scientists in it;

Way too many were actually killed, but even more turned, so he locates Destroyer and starts working on clearing the place of mutants;

Destroyer ends up dying all the same too (Maybe I’ll figure out a way to keep him alive? I like him a lot)

The events in Argent lead him to get the C24 injected all the same; 

Reaper still has to locate Sarge, so he finishes what he started, locates Sam and Spock (and therefore the kids) and leaves for Lazarus after he’s sure they’ll be safe;

Sam is relieved that her very ill-thought-out plan didn’t end up turning her brother (and really condemning Earth in the process);

Nearly as soon as he arrives, a very startled, dirty Scotty jumps out of cover, with an Argent plasma weapon in hand, not even really relaxing after seeing it’s another person and not a mutant;

After convincing him that he’s not a threat to him (and checking his neck - as well as being checked by Scotty), he has Scotty give him a layout of the colony;

The Scotsman then warns him that another marine had come in, ordering him to seal the colony off and saying that he would clean out the place;

Scotty was a bit wary of Sarge, he didn’t “look right in the head”;

And rather than stay put (and alone), Scotty tags along Reaper, with the goal of reaching the transporter;

Doesn’t take long for the two to find a clearly shocked JT, protecting a five-year-old kid.

(Y’all didn’t think I’d forget Kevin Riley, did you?? With this, we have 9 survivors... ;D)

Too many bodies, as the other colonies had, but there is also a lot more of structural destruction from the BFG;

Reaps has Scotty take the two kids to the transporter while he deals with Sarge and whatever mutant is left;

(If I were to write this, and you know I will, this feels like a good place to have that first-person sequence...)

Their encounter and this last battle occur mostly the same...

... Except a very tired, angry and desperate 13-year-old James Tiberius Kirk is the one to fire the final shot against Sarge, with the gun he stole while Scotty was distracted.

The two eventually make their way to the transporter, and back in Argent, three out of the five oldest people in there are ready to scold him for running off, but John doesn’t let them.

“You didn’t have to do any of that, you know?”

“Yeah well, I felt like doing it.”

“And you just do things without thinking of consequences?” The kid nods. John laughs. “Thanks, kid.”

They have to return to Lazarus to access the Ark, but Scotty says he can just modify the transporter system to be used for longer distances. He did develop the system, he can make ‘her’ do what needs to be done.

Ten years pass. Spock looks the same, Sam notes as she sits down beside him. He notes the same about her, but he is interrupted before he can say her name. She introduces herself as Christine Chapel, this time. They make small talk until another person sits by Spock’s other side.

John Grimm also looks just the same as he did on Mars. He introduces himself as Leonard McCoy, doctor, with a small smile. The fact that neither of them seems to have aged doesn’t escape Spock. They ask about the others fairly quickly.

Hikaru did become a pilot, and Pavel, still glued to his side, became a bit of a genius child and is on his way to becoming a navigator. 

Nyota still has a great interest in archeology, but her focus shifted into linguistics very quickly. Spock has been tutoring her on certain relevant topics.

Scotty has been working as an engineer for the global government in its early unification process and has since taken Riley in as sort of an adoptive child.

JT - now introducing himself as James, sometimes Jim - has just signed up into the space program, wanting to go out to space proper this time, further than Mars. Spock’s not sure how he managed to find that desire.

“Kid just does things without thinking of consequences," John- Leonard notes. “But it’s a good thing we signed up as well, someone’s gotta keep an eye on him.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sweet mother of Jesus this is gigantic. Imma just tag whoever may enjoy this.

@littlecrazyfangirl-98 @schatzi-89 @cuddlememerrick @shewhowillrise @lt-trick @bunnygeneral @urban-trek-thru-middle-earth @jiminthestreets-bonesinthesheets @yueci

[janiedean]

god, youre so delusional, its pathetic.

johnny 99 is a song by Our Only Savior Bruce Springsteen, to be found in his masterpiece 1982 record Nebraska, which was wholly composed of acoustic songs concerning themes way darker than his usual and which his record company probably considered a commercial suicide back in the day - and it’s regarded by many people as his actual finest record (and objectively I agree, ngl). the song, other than being in the same stark style as the rest of the record, as in, acoustic guitar and harmonica only, in less than four minutes manages in an admirable example of synthesis, not only to tell an entire story, but to touch heavy themes such as economical crisis, the death penalty, the fact that the american government didn’t give a shit about blue collar workers way back in the seventies and arguably also that it might be a tad too easy to buy guns in the US. sounds interesting? great, then let me welcome to this evening’s episode of tumblr user janiedean explains bruce springsteen! ;)

so, shall we start? brace up because this is a wild ride.

Well they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late that month Ralph went out lookin' for a job but he couldn't find none He came home too drunk from mixin' Tanqueray and wine He got a gun shot a night clerk now they call 'm Johnny 99 

first of all: bruce again shows that he knows how to hook you in, because in four lines he has pretty much told you the bones of the story. first - and most important thing: a factory in a town in new jersey closes. it was a true fact, and in real life it was because they failed to follow environmental rules, but as back in the day there was indeed an economical crisis in the US for which a lot of factories shut down, we could fictionally assume it was for that reason as well. anyway, what matters is that the factory closes. our protagonist, ralph, who presumably works there, is fired, searches for a new job, isn’t re-hired (which was common to a lot of people who were laid off at that time, please feel free to read dale maharidge’s journey to nowhere and somewhere like america to get educated on that), proceeds to get drunk and when he’s not thinking straight he buys a gun (just like that), shoots a guy and gets a new nickname: johnny 99. why? we don’t know yet. but we know that a guy who was just doing his job and failed to be rehired lost it and shot someone... because he lost his job. hmm. but let’s go on.

Down in the part of town where when you hit a red light you don't stop Johnny's wavin' his gun around and threatenin' to blow his top When an off duty cop snuck up on him from behind Out in front of the Club Tip Top they slapped the cuffs on Johnny 99

so: after having shot the night clerk, our guy is in the part of town where you don’t stop at a red light so we can assume not the best part of it, he’s threatening to hurt himself with the gun, he gets arrested by an off duty cop, that’s it. sorry, not that much of a criminal career. but snuck up on him from behind... maybe like the closing of his factory and the fact that his life was fucked in the span of a few days? that might have been a deliberate lyrical choice, which makes you, if not sympathize with the guy, at least get how he’s feeing right now.

Well the city supplied a public defender but the judge was Mean John Brown He came into the courtroom and stared poor Johnny down Well the evidence is clear gonna let the sentence son fit the crime Prison for 98 and a year and we'll call it even Johnny 99

at this point, of course johnny goes to trial. he gets a public defender (which from what I gather tends to be shitty) and a judge whose nickname is mean, from which we can surmise that the stacks against him are bad regardless. the judge comes into the courtroom and stares poor johnny down, and at this point it’s obvious that we’re meant to sympathize with him, not with the judge, who is *mean* and stares down at the guy before even sitting down at this point. so, the judge says that the evidence is there, and his sentence is 99 years of prison.

which is why he’s re-baptized johnny 99 as we had seen in the beginning. now, 99 years is pretty much life, since this guy must have been at least older than twenty to work in a car factory. rough. 

A fistfight broke out in the courtroom they had to drag Johnny's girl away His mama stood up and shouted "judge don't take my boy this way" Well son you got a statement you'd like to make Before the bailiff comes to forever take you away

this verdict does not indeed please johnny’s family/loved ones, as a *fistfight* breaks out and they have to forcibly remove his girlfriend, while his mother pleads the judge to not take her boy this way, presumably crying, which means that again, we are supposed to see that he has relatives who love him and would cry for him and so maybe he’s not a bad guy deep down. sure, we haven’t heard his side yet, but we know his girlfriend loves him enough to try to beat up the guards and his mother pleads for another solution... which is denied, and the judge actually replies with the last two lines, which sound fairly rude and insensitive especially given that the bailiff is coming to forever take him away. but it’s as if the judge has decided that since the guy isn’t rich or matters much in the great scale of things, it’s an already done thing and fuck that. ouch.

Now judge I got debts no honest man could pay The bank was holdin' my mortgage and they was takin' my house away Now I ain't sayin' that makes me an innocent man But it was more 'n all this that put that gun in my hand 

aand wait, here finally our dude finally speaks for himself. first: he had debts no honest man could pay, which means that losing his job fucked his finances for good and he was deep in the red. the bank was taking his house away, which was another thing that was extremely common back in the day (same as in the twenties haha) (read those maharidge books for more info) and so he was going to become homeless because he couldn’t find another job and had no other safety net to fall back on. he doesn’t try to argue for his innocence because he did kill a man so he’s not really downplaying it, but then he adds that ‘it was more than all of that which put a gun in his hand’, which means that it was losing his job, losing his money, possibly losing his house, being unable to provide for his family and feeling most likely useless and like he couldn’t do anything anymore with his life. and that puts the gun in his hand. he didn’t do it because he enjoyed it, he did it because he saw no other way, and none of that was considered in the *evidence*, which means he got a trial where his circumstances weren’t even taken into account. but that’s not the heaviest blow this song deals. that one’s the ending:

Well your honor I do believe I'd be better off dead And if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that's in his head Then won't you sit back in that chair and think it over judge one more time And let 'em shave off my hair and put me on that execution line

HAAAAA BUT JUST YOU WAIT. so: he thinks he’s be better off dead, which admittedly is fair of him, idk if I’d take 99 years (so: entire life and death) in a US prison over just being done with it already, and after all if he has no job, no house, no money and no prospects, what does he have to lose? and fine enough, but here’s the gist: if the judge can take a man’s life for the thoughts in his head, ie if the judge thinks he can condemn him to 99 years in prison ie rotting in there until he dies for what he thought and not giving a fuck about why he thought that or why he did what he did... then he welcomes the judge to ‘sit back in that chair’ (which is already pretty damn wording because it sarcastically implies the judge is in a higher position and nothing can hurt him in the chair while everything can hurt johnny 99 and everything has done so already) and have the balls to give him the death penalty instead of condemning him to die but pretending to have been merciful and only giving him time in prison that he can’t possibly serve before he dies. so he’s basically raising the judge (representing the system that betrayed him) the middle finger because if the judge/the system have ruined his life then they should at least have the courage to end it instead of condemning him to be a prisoner for the entirety of it.

now: that’s it. there’s nothing else. there’s no lesson, there’s no moral, that’s how it ends, it’s bleak and sad and it doesn’t really give you any silver lining... because there’s no silver lining and it’s unjust to live in a society where losing your job means losing your life *and* you will be automatically judged for the thoughts in your head without a chance to prove that you can be better or meant better or could make up for it.

no, it’s one mistake out of reasons beyond your control that you would actually pay for, and hey, thrown in jail with the keys thrown away. what an enlightened, beautiful, just system, the system that judges a man for the thoughts that are in his head, huh?

and actually, bonus story: this story is tied to bruce’s biggest BDE display ever, as when reagan became president and was running for re-election in 1984, he thought to quote bruce’s (sadly misunderstood) song born in the usa in a speech in nj. at that point bruce said nothing for a bit, but then:

guys, what a man, what an idol, what a class. no, sure af reagan did not listen to nebraska nor johnny 99.

and, given how you, my dear anon, also judge people by the thoughts that are in their heads and proceed to be their jury, judge and executioner, both fictional people and real ones, if you’re who I think you are (and I actually know you are)... I’ve got a feeling that neither have you. and I really think you should, same as everyone because bruce is the best ;)

[giantpredatorymollusk]

This is a story about farming. It is quite long. I think it may be worth reading anyway, but unfortunately I have no way to prove it. I’ve also tried my best but I still don’t know if it actually makes perfect sense in every way? But it did all actually happen; so it all kind of has to make at least a little bit of sense, even if doesn’t really seem like it.

The trouble all started in 1901, when my great great grandfather emigrated to the United States from the modern-day Czech Republic and later, in 1911, bought a 90-acre farm there. Many years later, most of that farm came to belong to my grandfather, and roughly 10 years back he retired from his job selling tires at the tire store and started making the 40 mile drive north to the farm to spend his summer days there and plant a garden (in the area that wasn’t already rented out to be planted with soybeans.) Not long after that, he had enough produce to start selling stuff at a nearby farmers’ market in an upscale town, physically not far from the farm, although psychogeographically immensely distant from that chunk of desolate, isolated, fairly representative rural Ohio.

I was dragged in in the summer of 2015, from the end of June to the beginning of July, mostly pounding stakes into the ground so that the roughly 1000-1500 tomato plants that my grandfather had planted that year (with occasional help from my grandmother and uncle) could be tied up between them and the fruit wouldn’t lay on the ground and rot easily. I hated it there (in fairness, I probably would’ve hated anything that involved leaving the house during that time in my life) and when my dad got me out of it (by hiring me to help him paint a house) I quickly divested myself of the money I’d received there to wash my hands of the place and resolved never to go back. My dad was never in favor of me going to the farm, knowing as he did that the work could be dangerous (operating old, large, and unreliable tractors and backhoe with minimal training or safety precautions; running large, dangerous power saws in creative ways without the proper guards, gear, or safety precautions, mostly to put points on stakes; operating saws in an unsafe manner while standing in the raised bucket of the old and unreliable backhoe in order to trim trees; etc) and probably also suspected that I personally (especially then) was fairly vulnerable to being psychologically manipulated into performing difficult tasks that I was unhappy doing over a long period of time while being underpaid under some circumstances. Hmm.

I returned to the farm for the entirety of the summer of 2016. After barely surviving/graduating my senior year of high school that year I had given up on life and settled pretty quickly back into the routine of the daily back-and-forth farm trips. It is true that I was getting paid; it was also true that I was being challenged and learning things, mostly the basics of planting vegetables, like which plants were cold-season crops and which were warm-season and how far apart to space the transplants, and how a PTO works on a tractor; and it’s certainly a fact that on a personal level, I was still completely taken in by my grandfather’s wit and farm wisdom and overpowering managerial confidence. I made myself completely subordinate to him, and blamed myself when his ideas for what we should be doing next were completely obvious to him but rather opaque to me; I remember it frequently happening that he would tell me what to do and I would reflexively go off to do it, and then realize I was unclear on what he meant and have to timidly re-approach him for further instructions. This kind of slowed down the learning process. Much later I would also realize how superficial his constant confidence could be, and how it was often less the natural attitude of someone who knew what they were doing and more a tool he used to impress people into doing things without thinking too much about any of the potential alternatives. Also, according to my admittedly fallible memories, I was getting paid $35 per day for what were generally between 7 and 8 hour days. I was, in fact, 18 years old that year and probably could have gotten a different job that for one thing paid a better hourly wage and for another left me less reliant on the caprices of my family; but this was neither a thing that happened nor a thing that was expected from me, least of all by me. My internal world hadn’t expanded as I’d grown older; my universe of possibilities was limited to the things that were already present in my somewhat simple life. This was probably symptomatic of some larger problem or problems with the functionality of my brain at that point in my life.

One can become trapped in many different ways. You can be trapped in a specific city, or a zip code, or in a geographic region sorely lacking in cities, or one which they are considered entirely strange and outlandish things; in a job, in a career, in a lifestyle, or in a set of lifestyles considered realistic given your high school grades, ability to connect with others, and standing in society and life; in a friend group, or in an identity, or in a lack thereof, or in any number of the various rules and regulations that govern how one is allowed to interact with the rest of the human race; in a comedy, a tragedy, a pastoral narrative, or in any combination of the above kinds of story that one no longer wishes to be part of. For all I know, thanks to the stereotypical farm benefits of character building, meaningful work experiencing, and nature connecting-with, working at the farm for that year may have actually been good for me; nevertheless, I wish that it had been my last full summer there. I had showed up, learned some stuff, earned a small amount of money, and, in retrospect experienced at least the majority of what this particular 90 acre area of the planet had had to offer. Alas.

2017! This year, we had a pretty consistent schedule that I can remember clearly to this day: we left at 9:30 AM, when my grandfather would pull into my driveway and blow his horn, and got back between 7 and 8 o’clock at night. Built into that schedule is a one hour commute each way (we both lived about 40 miles away from the farm, which was actually inhabited by my uncle, who was often around and occasionally helped with the work but frequently made fairly abrasive and critical comments (if often correct) comments about it (for example, about the fact that our work day started so late in the morning)) and a daily grocery store stop for drinks for the cooler. I was the driver (once my grandfather’s problems with what I suspect is undiagnosed narcolepsy had almost killed us a couple of times) which you would think give me control over the stereo, but I quickly learned that my grandfather had pretty specific taste in music (country from the 50s and 60s) and a temperament unsuited to most podcasts. Obviously, most of that time in the daily schedule was taken up by the work day (so generally either planting tomatoes (which gets a little less rewarding after about the 500th one, which that year only put us at about a quarter of the way through the tomato plants, not counting the hundreds of eggplant, cabbage, and zucchini plants or the miscellaneous corn, squash, and beans), pounding stakes and tying string for the tomatoes, or harvesting tomatoes) which lay at the end of the lonely highway on a lonely work site at which the same 2-4 people showed up every day. (It became four people once you counted my younger brother, who came up to the farm that year until the start of marching band season got him out of it, and who fortunately made it his main job to get everyone to pack up and leave promptly at the end of the day. Once he stopped showing up, and even though I persuaded my grandfather to move the schedule up an hour so that we could get home earlier, we never left as consistently as we did when he was there; I didn’t have the stamina to find my grandfather (who didn’t carry a phone or a watch) and tell him what time it was at the end of the day every single day so that he could start to think about leaving.) I was being paid $40 a day, with a $20 bonus for market days once they started, which with our theoretically 35-hour work week ends up being about $6.29 an hour? Huh. In addition to the extra $20, the market season was nice because picking stuff is less tiring and more rewarding than planting stuff, and because I got to see way more people every day in the form of our market customers, even if I was interacting with them mainly through the intermediary of my grandfather.

Another nice thing is that this is the first year I have a decent photo album for! I started experimenting with old 35mm film cameras in late June and by early July I had my first interchangeable-lens digital camera, which I relied upon to keep my brain alive for large parts of the summer. I have… a lot of pictures from this season.

Finally, at the end of the year, I ended up in college. Any criticisms of my grandfather that I might offer up here have to be tempered by the fact that he did in fact drive me to the local (relatively) cheap higher-education dispenser and basically registered me for me (technically, I applied but there’s a 100% acceptance rate.) This was something I desperately wanted to do but was unable to make happen by myself. I won’t say that my grandfather every really understood the problems I went through while experiencing formal education, but as perhaps the member of my family least comfortable himself with the concept and culture of higher education, he was the most willing to notice and accept that I needed help getting started with it.

However, I did do quite badly that semester (I started out enrolled in 4.5 classes and ended enrolled in 2, with a C average) and going to the farm to work 4 days a week still (after morning classes and also on Saturday) did not help that except in that it provided a convenient distraction from it; an opportunity for me to distract myself from my frustrations by wearing myself out.

Why did I come back to the farm for 2018? I wasn’t happy there in 2017, I have the journal entries to prove it. Reasons: it was the path of least resistance, it was something I was more already familiar with than any other job, and my grandfather remained a very difficult person for me to say no to. (Also, he asked me (and my brother) to commit in midwinter, when it still seemed non-threatening and pretty far away.) The schedule was pretty much the same as I described for last year except that for some reason we went up 6 days a week as often as 5 (weather permitting.) My brother went up with us for the same period of time as he had previously, but was even more ornery this year than he was the last, which was an accomplishment; this didn’t stop me from being grateful for his presence. Mostly, I recruited him to work on whatever I was working on during the day, whenever I had a specific project: like building a fence around the second patch, or digging drainage ditches on the lawn, or moving the rainwater collection tank trailer to water stuff before Grandpa could realize that something that he didn’t plan for us was happening. My uncle became extremely fond of complaining that we were getting less done working on the same thing together than we might have working on different things far apart; this may have been true, but I was unwilling to test the theory.

As I implied above, I had a lot more freedom this year to pick projects that I thought needed to be done instead of following instructions all day, as long as I could seem confident about it under scrutiny later. I responded in two ways: I started wearing earbuds and listened to music and occasionally podcasts for most of the day, which was great except that it ruined earbuds and made me feel slightly spacey like I wasn’t even physically there sometimes, given that it was the main input that was actually making it to my brain, and I gave myself three new jobs. The first was to pick, display, and sell produce at a roadside stand that I set up back home (ideally without attracting too much attention from my uncle, who was doing the same thing); the second was to start picking for and selling at a new weekday farmers’ market; and the third was to fix an old dump truck that had been sitting in the back barn for the better part of the decade with a broken brake line, with the help of my dad, who came up to the farm a few days to show me what to actually do. The stand was very successful but 20% went to my mom for stocking it during the day and another 20% went to my grandfather for owning the farm; the new farmers’ market only required me to pay off my grandfather but had too many vendors for the customer base and was generally very slow; and the truck project was a huge disaster that consumed countless hours and brain cells: one brake line burst after another, we ended up having to remove and replace the two brake cylinders in each of the back wheels (which necessitated jacking the 12.5 ton vehicle up and removing both rear wheels and axles), the wiring for the lights was fucked from a previous botched repair job by a person or persons unknown, the bed needed to be attacked with the farm’s one working boom truck to get it to even move, and even after it was going up and down smoothly the hydraulic pump was occasionally leaking fluid, which I was neither qualified for or willing to try to fix; then, during the first test drive with a potential buyer, the radiator apparently exploded, and he convinced my grandfather to sell it to him for $1000, which was split between him, me, and my dad and uncle for helping (more or less.) I eventually calculated that with those three extra projects in addition to my regular salary (up $5 a day but without the weekly bonus, resulting in a net raise of $5 a week) I nearly made minimum wage working there that summer. (Hey, if Quinn is going to read this, I should probably note that minimum wage in Ohio was $8.15 an hour, at least when I wrote this, it’s up to $8.55 an hour now.)

Also, after going on three years of the whole “pull into Mitch’s driveway and blow the horn for a while” routine, the horn on my grandfather’s F-150 finally gave out and he locked the keys in my car while climbing inside of it to use its. (He did admit to this but also told me that I should never have left the keys inside of a car with “automatic locks.”) I had a much better spring semester this year, but it still wasn’t made easier by my 28 hours a week at the farm (plus the commute) right up until October 25th, when I finally quit.

Performance review:

Another part of my feelings about the farm that I have to mention is that the whole time I was there, I was pretty well aware that it was not nearly as productive as it should have been. One large part of this was just flawed soil management practices; by the time I got there, my grandfather had been planting mostly the same plants in mostly exactly the same spots for nearly 10 years, which is absolutely not how any of that is ever supposed to work. He sent soil samples away for analysis, got back reports prescribing long lists of fertilizers to be applied in massive quantities to help production, and then went back to using what he was planning on putting down anyway (mostly starting fertilizer (which we dragged around in 5 gallon buckets for the entire planting season), calcium spray to try to prevent previous years’ blossom end rot epidemics, and some poorly labeled sacks of miscellaneous stuff that he had gotten at a farm auction and that had been taking up space in a barn for years.) My grandfather’s managerial attitude was that all ideas were suspect unless they occurred to him first, which meant it sometimes required some stamina to get certain things done; he would ride up on the lawn mower and stare at you suspiciously if he wasn’t sure of exactly what you were doing.

Like this.

(Of course, the farm was not really run with the purpose of maximizing production, anyway. My grandfather kept it going year after year initially because he was retired, and wanted something to take up his time, and because he wanted to turn himself into a farmer; later, he got the idea that he was going to turn me into one.)

The other main obstacle to growth was the fact that we were surrounded by 80 acres of soybean fields that were at a slightly higher elevation than our plants, which meant that 2 inches of rainfall was more than enough to flood the place. This is not actually a good thing for any plant’s growth (except for cucumbers, and I guess sometimes zucchini.) I ended up (with my brother) digging hundreds of feet of drainage ditches in 2018 to try to combat this. Like, with a shovel. We had a trencher, but its hydraulic pump leaked fluid like a sieve, which had prevented it from being used for years, kind of like that dump truck I mentioned fixing earlier. Other broken down equipment included two boom trucks (one of which was specifically designed just to lay railroad ties), two full-size tractors (an Oliver and a Farm-All), a handful of mechanical tractor attachments that lay scattered throughout the barn-adjacent grass, a smallish red Troy-Bilt riding lawn mower, and a 1963 Buick Riviera.

On a personal level, going to the farm every day felt like dying? It was long hours of difficult, tedious, low-paid work in a desolate and isolated location. It was sort of like a sensory deprivation chamber, but for thoughts and feelings instead of for senses. On one hand, I regret every single miserable second of it, and hope to never see the place again for as long as I somehow manage to live (sadly unlikely); on the other hand, I do think it made me more appreciative of the moments when I do feel like I’m alive in the world, even when they’re not exactly easy ones. I have more enthusiasm for certain types of fear now, like driving to a strange and distant city to see a band play by myself, actually talking to the host in the AirBNB there, and descending into a strange subway system without really knowing how I’m going to get anywhere I’m trying to go from there; or signing up for classes for next semester without knowing exactly what they’ll be like, and talking to the strange person sitting next to me, or even just emailing the professor to ask for an explanation of an assignment that I don’t understand. It reminds me that I’m not as trapped anymore.

This contradicts what I want to be true, which is that the farm was just a background event in my life, instead of something that defined it for all of those years. The things that I was doing in the background of this, the story about farming, were the things I now realize were actually important to me at the time: taking those pictures, going back to school, the music I was listening to while I was out in the field, pounding in tomato stakes… I was also re-learning the piano in the evenings when I still had the energy. Unfortunately, the farm did define that part of my life to a large extent because of the way it served as an obstacle to me pursuing those things. The thing is, I wasn’t really trapped there, in any real physical or consequential sense; the farm took over my life because I was unable to recognize and act on the fact that I did have access to real sources of happiness.

Also, I guess the whole time I was technically committing tax evasion?

Anyway, whenever I see one of those posts about how nice it would be just to leave society and go live on a farm or something, this is what I’m thinking of.

[thewritewayyoutube]

The lost boys of Drestiol: The Age of Impoverished Orphans in a post war region

The now infamous policy of mercenaries paid by the body has come to change Drestiol's self image. This is in no way better captured than in the tragedies of the lost boys. But what image is that? Well the region is a complex place. It began life as a maelstrom of waring tribes. Too rocky, vast and mountainous for one tribe to control, but too fertile a region for any too leave. Drestiol had her enemies outside, but no war was ever larger than the internal one fought among the tribes. However, with the invention of some defenses like early walls, tunnels and then eventually writing. One tribe did rise above the others.

At this time, "outsiders" with scary new cultures and religions, came to conquer the fertile lands. United under a common banner Drestiol defeated her enemies. And in doing so forged the first collective identity of the region as what you'd call a kingdom or an empire.

But it was neither. Rule was 'of the mighty' and leaders were warriors measured in conquest and plunder. The tribes never unified and instead formed something of a council of leaders who would debate among themselves which leader was fiercest. If an enemy was present no leadership disputes would take place, but if you figured yourself undervalued in the art of war you could challenge the leadership.

And he'd either step aside or you'd agree to fight it out.

At first, total war, but eventually settling to small skirmishes or champions.

However, one clan emerged as the leaders by constantly stoking the flames of war. By expanding, provoking, and raiding they kept an "enemy" at all times and so couldn't be challenged.

This house and bloodline were known as "the brutal cowards", but their name was Kuelt. And the Kuelt directly caused the Lost Boys crisis, which cost them the entirety of their power, influence and blood.

See what do you do when you've bled the nation dry fighting never-ending wars? and when all your government hates you? and when your allies are only waiting for peace to provoke civil war?

You have all these enemies and no money to fight them.

Well, you invent credit. You create an entire monetary system around the trade of human death for coin. Then you just make the war brutally managed, by design, so that the vast majority of your men don't come home.

Once war ends from violent and costly attrition you make even civil war seem ridiculous. Then you force a stay of execution until you can have your rivals killed and take over sole control of the lands. Sound good? well that is what Ayon Kuelt tried to maneuver for his family.

However, only one problem, they won the war. And the next. And the next. Drestiol exploded and the financial crisis was (not at all) over.

Many many men were dead in the lands they began with, the lands absorbed and in the ranks of the mercenaries. Yet, too many of the coins ( which you can read about here if you're interested ) made it home. So the state didn't honor them. They just changed the rule. You got something, but nothing really and many families had lost their biggest income earner.

A shortage of adult men, male role models and fathers, older brothers, uncles and so on scarred the country.

Then the civil war came and it was fought by mothers. By women. The tribes all formed orphanages and most boys were shuffled around to make room. This lead to a mixing of languages, culture and identities that really became Drestiolian identity. These institutes were controlled by the winners of the civil war as only a minority of children had homes to return to. The winners were the house of Edmund Clate and his merchant class ally Paul Delton who'd made a fortune on the child labor of the homes and the new coinage.

But Delton and Clate both agreed they needed new soldiers. Enter the military slavery of the orphanages and the worship of the state. Children were taught how great Clate was. How mighty.

But they were also trained to fight and in their downtime made to work. The budding identity of the kids mixed with a hatred of the old tribe system. It took the blame for taking their parents and Clate took the role of father, but then the wars in Kibon broke out.

And many were wounded, maimed, killed and upon returning to their home and 'father' were abandoned.

This is the faith known as being 'a lost boy'.

There were lost girls too, but their faith will be dealt with in a future post.

The lost boys were dangerously numerous, understood the world in a new way than the old leaders and had found a new father.

Edmund eventually found himself executed. The war in Kibon ended in defeat. The new ruler Vernaut, didn't last due to poor health.

Delton ran from power vacuum to power vacuum until his death at the hands of social uprisers.

The new class made treaties, they made peace and they made leaders.

It was asked why the civil war didn’t occur sooner... As said, the traditions of civil war for succession as leading tribe were long standing.  The family who broke it, the Kuelts, didn't break it all at once. They used started wars in a war loving people. So they were popular. And it was custom to stay the leadership disputes. The Kuelts grew in power and tradition stayed their challengers. Some tribes wouldn't support a tribe breaking tradition. That would have been seen as a bigger problem to some. However, to others they were a problem and there was internal tension between tribes and in tribes.           

Also a lot of the negative feelings are from a time closer to the lost boys crisis rather than the peak of their power.         

But when the dam breaks it is the first civil war that unites the tribes and ends a lot of those traditions. So it was a wave of frustration and it "should have happened earlier" would be a sentiment in the people.        

A lot of poverty and suffering and death for nothing. This is why the gutting of the old tribes system got the support it did.         

But a lot of the religion, customs, traditions and laws of this society were built on this system. And the system was an intrinsically xenophobic and racist one. They feared not being the mighty and dominant peoples.      

So, their support of Kuelt lasted longer than it should for fear the turmoil would see them inferior and conquered by an outsider.         

Things were really bleak, but Kuelt had managed to sell mercenaries a lie. A promise of wealth. The return for killing was substantial (before the failure to pay). So to challenge him would have incurred the wrath of the troops he commanded.         

It wasn't so much a reason why not to, but a litany of soft reasons why you shouldn't.      

Also these people didn't trust each other. So while Kuelt couldn't stop all the clans, he could stop anyone. And that weak alliances feeling kept them from banding together.         

But I do plan on writing a short story from the perspective of a lost boy and a lost girl so I'll be doing a lot of building on this period of time.

[cannibalghosts]

Blade Runner & Rape Culture

You know those grim realizations you have about the things you’ve loved for a really long time? You know what I’m talking about. The ones that kind of come out of nowhere and totally upend your whole idea of what you used to think. They hurt, right?  Well, I recently had that happen with Blade Runner, one of the most influential sf movies of the last fifty years, and, until very recently, a personal favorite.

Without any context, without any of the before or after, I’d like you to take a couple minutes and consider this scene (start at 2:20 for the cliff’s notes version):

…Yeah, that’s, uh, that’s fucking atrocious.

That scene always made me sort of uncomfortable, but only when I was rewatching this movie for the first time in ten years was I physically outraged. I just kept thinking to myself, How did I miss this all these years? How the hell did I miss how monumentally fucked up that is? Have I spent all this time looking at this movie all wrong?

And I suppose the answer is, Yeah, I think I have.

Let's rewind here for a second.

For the uninitiated: Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film by Ridley Scott, adapted from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Half of the plot concerns Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), the eponymous “blade runner,” a special sort of detective in near-future Los Angeles tasked with the hunting and “retirement” (read: trial-less execution) of human-identical (and human-adjacent) androids, known as “replicants,” whose presence has been declared illegal on planet earth.

The other half is centered around Deckard’s assigned quarry, four renegade replicants: Roy Batty, Pris Stratton, Zhora Salome and Leon Kowalski, an unofficial “family” that has returned to Earth from offworld, simply seeking a way to extend their factory-warranty-limited lifespans while avoiding Deckard’s grasp (and his gun).

Over the course of his investigation, Deckard finds himself involved with a young woman named Rachel, who we all just watched get brutalized in that clip up there. Rachel’s a replicant who doesn’t know she’s a replicant—she’s an experimental model who’s had memories implanted in her software to make her believe she’s a human being, and this naturally leads her to discovering her own thoughts and feelings and experiences.  It leads her to actually become human.

And Deckard rapes her.

Given that perhaps the BIGGEST THEME OF THIS MOVIE is the ever-shifting nature & definition of humanity, and whether or not the replicants are in fact “people” as traditionally defined, or if it’s possible to grow beyond your original “programming,” it’s a HUGE MORAL/THEMATIC PROBLEM that the ostensible protagonist forces himself on her, because either:

A) He doesn’t consider her to be a person, or B) He doesn’t care whether she is or isn’t, or C) He recognizes her burgeoning humanity and does it anyway.

No matter how you slice it, that’s SUPER FUCKED UP because, and I can’t believe I have to spell this out, but:

She says no.

She does not consent.

And then he does it anyway.

Now, across the wasteland of the internet, the common defenses of this scene (also, two quick asides: 1. That there’s such thing as a “common defense” of this scene should broadcast that there’s something really wrong here, and 2. It’s pretty much always some condescending dude defending this scene and maybe that should tell us something) tend to come down to, in no particular order: 1. ”It was purely an act of passion! Sometimes passion is violent! That’s some people’s kink, you know!” 2. ”He was teaching her to be human! She was only just figuring out her own emotions!” 3. ”She’s a replicant, which means she’s an inanimate object, not a human being! You can’t rape the inanimate!” 4. ”Oh come on! She just shot Leon in the head, so she was going through a lot! Deckard was only helping her sort through that trauma!”

But none of those hold up, even when placed under the lightest possible scrutiny. Check it: 1. They don’t know each other. They haven’t discussed kinks/safe words/whatever. In no way was this safe, sane or consensual. This wasn’t passionate, it was a violent power move. It was rape. 2. Rape is not a rite of passage. It’s just not. Full fucking stop. 3. She’s not an inanimate object, she is absolutely a person. That is literally the entire point of the movie. 4. Remember how I just said Rape is not a rite of passage? Forgot to include this: it’s also not a way to help someone sort through the trauma of having committed their first murder. Duh-doi.

Or, put another way: 1. She said no. 2. She said no. 3. She said no. 4. SHE SAID NO.

By any definition of the word, Deckard rapes Rachel. Per the written + performed narrative and the thematic content of the movie, she is a thinking, feeling, sentient being acting of her own accord that is, at that very moment, trembling and on the edge of tears, and Deckard bullies, cajoles, demands, orders, restrains, makes clear (and follows through on) the threat of violence, and ultimately forces himself on her, regardless of her opinions or feelings on the matter.

I don’t know about you, but that sort of behavior sounds kinda fucking familiar to me.

Oh. Right. Turns out sick, entitled fucks in positions of power do this all the time.

Now, look: a lot of this movie is centered around the mirroring going on between Deckard and the replicant leader, Batty, and the similar-but-different (however both often violent) paths they cut through ruined-future Los Angeles. They hit the same beats, they shadow each other, over and over.

So, let’s just go ahead and run the numbers on these two dudes from opening crawl to end credits, shall we?

In a fit of grief and rage, Roy Batty kills Eldon Tyrell, the genius creator of the replicants, when it comes to light that this God/Father is in fact just another mortal, powerless to grant any more life to his children. Remember this. It gets important later. (Also, in the same scene, Batty also probably kills JF Sebastian, one of Tyrell’s contemporaries, except we never see it actually happen, so your mileage might vary).

However, I think it’s more telling that Batty also goes out of his way to spare Deckard’s life in the climax of the movie; moreover, Batty actually rescues the piece of shit from falling to his death. Consider that for a second: in the final moments of Batty’s life, he uses it to save the man who has hunted and killed his entire family, and he does so selflessly and earnestly. He’s not a terrorist, he hasn’t come to earth looking to do any damage to anyone. He just wants to live longer, wants it so desperately that it was worth coming back to a place where his very existence was a death sentence if he and his loved ones were discovered. Have you ever wanted anything that bad? Can you imagine the depths and complexities of emotion required to take that risk?

(Also, side note, BATTY NEVER RAPES ANYONE. Writing tip: if the alleged villain in your movie rapes less people than your so-called hero, you’ve got an enormous problem because, obviously.)

(Also there’s some breaking & entering, property damage and general menace perpetrated by the replicant family, but it’s so low-involvement it’s barely worth mentioning, but let’s try and be somewhat comprehensive here.)

So for the sake of fairness, let’s look at the frankly astonishing laundry list of the crimes committed by Rick Deckard, sociopathic government-backed murderer:

He executes two people, Zhora Salome & Pris Stratton, for no crimes other than having the gall to be alive on earth. Neither are self defense, either - Zhora is running away when she’s unceremoniously gunned down, and while Pris attempts to defend herself by any means, let’s not forget that the framing of that scene is that Deckard came to her hideout with the express purpose of putting a bullet in her brain.

He gleefully smashes apart Rachel’s illusions of humanity, seemingly for no reason. Remember, kids: Rachel thought she was a human being, and early on in the movie, in his contempt and his pettiness, Deckard disabuses her of that notion because he can, or because he hates replicants, or because whatever.  The result’s the same: Surprise! You’re a robot, and fuck you anyway. After he does this, she understandably leaves his apartment in tears, and he seems BAFFLED by this reaction.

Later, Deckard calls Rachel from a bar to harass her into meeting up with him (again, this is not long after he’s torn her world asunder), and she hangs up on him. Yet this does not deter him.

Later still, after Rachel saves Deckard from a lethal curbstomping at Leon’s hands by shooting the other replicant in the brain, Deckard, instead of “retiring” Rachel like he’s been ordered, takes her back to his apartment under the guise of comforting her in the aftermath of her having killed another person. When she rejects his clumsy romantic advances and tries to leave, he gets angry, and vicious, and brutal. As if he’s owed something for saving her life. That brings us back to the scene up at the top.

In the fiction of the movie, Replicants have a lifespan of four years. We’re never told how old Rachel is specifically, but since she’s walking and talking (and yeah, thinking and feeling) we can safely assume it’s somewhere under that wire. Now, she’s got implanted memories and all, but as previously mentioned, Deckard viciously dashes those apart pretty early on, causing what has to be some very serious mental damage. I’m not sure the formula to calculate age of consent from physical age/mental age/amount of trauma received, but Rachel acts pretty fucking scared and childlike in basically every scene she has after she meets Deckard, for good reason. From every angle conceivable, this gets really sick, really fast.

In fact, Deckard exclusively hurts/kills women through the entirety of the film. Never men. Sure, he swings on Leon once and Roy a few times at the end, but Roy and Leon shrug his attacks off like they’re nothing because they are nothing to them. He is an ant struggling against Panzer tanks. But that’s exactly the point. Deckard is repeatedly emasculated and dominated by every other major male character he interacts with in the movie: -Bryant, sociopathic old cop that he is, bullies & threatens Deckard into taking his old job back -Gaff, for most of the movie, speaks in a language that Deckard doesn’t comprehend, only deigning to communicate in english when he’s got something to shove in Deckard’s face - a power move if ever there was one -Tyrell can’t help but lord his intelligence + achievements over Deckard’s head -Leon, who is kind of an idiot, bests him in single combat -Roy also bests him in single combat AND THEN LETS HIM LIVE WITH THE SHAME OF DEFEAT! (As Rutger Hauer, Batty’s actor, puts it, at the climax of the film, Roy Batty “shows Deckard what a real man is made of.”)

Deckard. Is. Impotent.

And he takes that broken, impotent man’s rage out in some very ugly (and sadly predictable) ways. Even in the fight with Pris, he’s nearly beaten to death, saved only by a lucky shot from that gun of his.

Speaking of guns: it’s worth noting that only Deckard and Leon use firearms in this movie (with the brief exception of Rachel that one time, which I will get to in a second). I know that the gun-as-penis/replacement-penis metaphor is not new or dynamic, but the way it’s deployed across the board here is, if nothing else, both interesting and telling: –Leon shoots and kills another blade runner, Holden, early on in the movie. The force from the shots is, well, potent enough to blast Holden through a wall, establishing Leon’s typical—if overwhelming—masculinity. –However: Batty, the most dangerous of all the replicants, never uses a gun, because he doesn’t have to; his identity, his value are never in question. He loves his friends. He wants them all to live longer, he cares for them and he grieves when, one by one, they die. In combat, he uses his hands, further emasculating Deckard, both directly (the final battle) and indirectly in the viewer’s mind (literally the rest of the movie before the two of them ever meet). –Deckard’s gun is on full display when he goes, barechested, to pour himself a drink moments after tearing apart Rachel’s reality in their first scene in his apartment. –The only time a woman uses a firearm in this whole movie is when Rachel picks up Deckard’s pistol and puts one in Leon’s head when he’s about to kill the shit out of Deckard. There’s a lot of subtext going on here, but I don’t think it’s off the mark to read this as a further emasculation of Deckard, him having to be “rescued from the bad man” by a woman he’s viewed up until this point as a damsel in distress/possible sexual conquest. He is castrated by this woman who turns around and utilizes his own genital metaphor far better than him (earlier in the film, Deckard had to shoot Zhora twice to take her down, whereas Rachel does Leon in one, from about the same range). This goes a long way toward ratcheting up his insecurity and aggression, both of which metastasize later in the film. –Go back and watch that scene at the top again (if you have the stomach); dude starts the scene off barechested and sweaty, again signalling toward the traditional masculinity that’s thus far been denied him (and will continue to be so) throughout the film; a portent of what’s to come immediately after he moves to kiss her and she recoils.

I really used to love this movie. I’ve watched it a ton, and I got something new out of it every time. But this most recent screening might be the last. Don’t get me wrong, I do recognize how hugely influential it’s been on a genre that I love over the course of the last thirty-five years, but this isn’t something I think we can or should quietly ignore anymore. Something like this should be treated as repugnant, because it is.

I think I’m done, and I think I finally understand why Batty kills Tyrell:

If your gods fail you, then they’re not gods. It doesn’t matter how how influential they’ve been, it doesn’t matter what they changed, or how, or why. And if they’re not gods, then they’re just shitty, fallible mortals like the rest of us, destined to wither and die and rot, and should be held accountable as such.

Maybe it’s time for me—for all of us—to stop worshiping.

###

Stray thoughts:

*How many other Harrison Ford movies feature some sort of scene where he, in one way or another, forces himself on a woman? None so blatant or mortifying as Blade Runner, but just off the top of my head, there’s: Empire Strikes Back Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ...oh, shit.

*I know that “female roles with shitty in-universe jobs” is not a new thing in Hollywood, but in a movie with this many problems with women, it deserves special fucking mention: Rachel is a Secretary, Zhora is a stripper, Pris is, *ahem*, a Pleasure Model, and every other woman in this movie is a cook, a showgirl, or a geisha. Uh, yeah, one quick question about all that: Are you fucking kidding me?

*More Deckard’s Gross Views On Sex shit: in the scene with Zhora at the strip club (just before he runs her down and murders her in cold blood), Deckard gains access to her dressing room under the pretense of being a moral watchdog protecting the integrity & safety of the dancers on staff. Is this his/the movie’s idea of a sick joke, or is he/it really just that dense?

*Just going to leave this one Batty quote here at the end: “Not very sporting to fire on an unarmed opponent. I thought you were supposed to be good!”

[elysiumrp]

Samantha Louise Deane || Registered Witch || Pro-Unity Portrayed by Chloe Bennet

Biography /

As the many other lives of children reigning from Council members, Samantha Deane grew up living a very sheltered life that was predominantly surrounded by magic. Her father, a member of the original Council, wanted his only child to embrace her witch side as opposed to hiding it away. Like the few other children of local magical families, she was home-schooled for the entirety of her K-12 years so that she could be taught her regular education and learn to embrace her magic as well. Samantha came into her powers around the same time as the other children, and for the most part of her magical training, she excelled. She loved being able to cast charms and perform spells leading her to study whenever she could and enjoy everything. That is, until a few months before her eighteenth birthday. Samantha’s mother had gone to a meeting with a coven across the city and hadn’t returned. They waited up all night for her, her father even calling a fellow Council member that was in the NYPD with no answer. They received a phone call from the police the following morning, not from his trusted Council member, but the a human police officer stating that there was a mugging and the body had just been found and they need him to confirm that the body was that of his wife. Her father paid no attention to the mugging because he was convinced that she had been killed by another supernatural creature. Those few months before her eighteenth birthday was when the true lockdown began. Her father was terrified that he would lose his daughter, too, and he tightened his hold on Samantha’s life leaving her lost to basically any access that she had to her own freedom and privacy. All Samantha wanted was for her father to let her mother’s death go, especially when her eighteenth birthday came and his leash still hadn’t untightened. She had learned to cope with it, how couldn’t he? She lived under his watchful eye for two years with her father constantly being suspicious and overprotective of every little thing she did. It was all too much to take, and Samantha was already to the point where she was ready to do just about anything if it meant she could escape from his grasp and stop being like Rapunzel trapped up in a tower. Curfews weren’t made for twenty-year olds, and neither were checking in with your dad every hour on the hour unless you wanted a tracking spell put on you. Of course, in a bittersweet and morbid way, her wish came true with the Council was massacred, her father included, and she was left without any parent to worry about her. It was a shock at first, her mind still used to having his eyes on her and for a year, she lived just as she had if he was alive. Time passed and Samantha learned to be an adult on her own, finally, after so long, coming into her own shell and becoming herself. She mourns her parents, as many of the other children she grew up with, and has seen another Council come and go. Like her parents before, she tries to support any means for the supernatural, even the Resistance that has been formed. If it’s for her people, she supports it, just not as watchful as her father was with her.

Important Points /

-- It took over half a year for Samantha’s internship at the infamous vampire-run Nouveau Magazine to turn into landing a job with them. Of course, at the time of her internship, she had been tied to Gabriel Moreno, learning from him and the rest of the staff. A number of connections were made during her time at Nouvuea, and after establishing herself, it was not a difficult decision for them to let her stay with the company that she had already had a firm foundation upon. Samantha had also declared at Nouvuea that – when she was finally able to go to college rather than forced to stay home and learn online – her major would be in Advertising, so whether she stayed at Nouveau or it led her to a brighter place in the future, it would only help. The internship taught her the independence she craved and gave her something to focus on when she felt that all was lost. Frankly, without Nouvuea, Samantha isn’t quite sure how she would have survived those painful and dramatic months after the loss of her father. It helped her become the Samantha that so many people know, and even under the scrutiny it went through when the supernatural were announced, she stayed firm with the place that knew who she was and proudly stood with the magazine through thick and thin.

-- Although Samantha has considered the fact that there could have been some supernatural manipulation in her mother’s death, especially since it was an idea that was so hard to ignore after her father was so convinced, she chose to rule out any other possibility and let herself truly believe that it actually had been a mugging that killed her mother. It was common, and they were in New York after all, it wasn’t that hard to believe. After having a father that was murdered because of who he was, she just couldn’t force herself to come to terms with the fact that her mother might have been killed for exactly the same reason, actually like a foreshadowing for what was to come for her dad. It’s just easier to pretend that it truly was a case of awful, random chance because she was in the wrong alley, or wore the wrong necklace that showed her wealth, not because she was a witch and the wife of one of the warlocks that was in the Council. It’s better to think of it as a mugging, because then that means that she doesn’t have to live with the constant fear that she’s next on the list of whatever, or whomever, it was that took out each one of her family members.

-- At first, Samantha was afraid to support the second Council. Due to the previous thought that it would lead her straight to her death – as it had done with her parents, even if she tried harder than anything to not think of it that way – it took its disbandment to truly support the cause of a government for the supernaturals. With the big reveal, it was scary to know that there were not only hunters after them now, but humans as well. A bigger wave during the ongoing hurricane to pull them under. Sure, she wasn’t as big as the rest of the supernatural that had tried to make a second Council, nor was she the one that had the thought to create a resistant force against the advancements of the human governments trying to oppress them. She was past that part of her life, having had enough of it when her father was alive. No one, whether it be of race, species, or talents, should be discriminated. Sure, Samantha knew that she wasn’t the first to suggest the idea of trying to come up with a plan to counter the humans or to suggest that maybe they should come up with ways to unify them. Others had already done that. What Samantha did know was that she could continue working for Nouvuea, using her skills to further show that no force could bring the supernaturals down even if it were as a mere beauty assistant. She worked for a magazine that pushed through it, she would work with her people to push through the turmoil no matter what. She isn’t trapped anymore and it’s her world to explore and make sure she lives in it as she should.

Connections /

ALEXANDRA JACKSON ; Samantha and Alexandra Jackson had always been close even if their species were different. It was actually Alexandra's father that her own dad called the night that her mother went missing, and though she thought that someone was holding back the truth from her family, she's past it now. Maybe it was for their safety, or maybe for their safety, whatever the case, Samantha doesn't hold it against her friend. Through it all – losing their parents one by one, the big reveal – Alexandra has been a constant, one that still has the same personality and views as she does. They want what's best for the community, but while Alexandra chooses to distance herself from things that are supernatural, Samantha has delved right in it. It's understandable seeing as she knew exactly what she went through with feeling betrayed by the previous Council, so she doesn't push anything on Alexandra for her sake.

DEREK SUMMERS ; Although Samantha never had Derek hang out with her and Alexandra as a trio, Samantha and Derek Summers certainly did hang out together throughout the years that their dads were on the Council together. Both the Deane and the Summers family were prominent members of the witch society, and Samantha and Derek, being close to the same age, were thrown together to hang out more often than not. The Council kids for witches were always fairly close, and atlhough they drifted throughout the older years, everything going to hell has pushed them together once more. Samantha still runs with the vampire crowd a lot of the time, but the one warlock she has still tied herself to is Derek because of what they've been through. In all fairness, besides Bethany who had vanished, he's really the one person she still has that is a childhood friend.

GABRIEL MORENO ; People had always warned her that Gabriel Moreno wasn't as nice as his sister was, and going into being his intern, Samantha feared that it would be short-lived. Of course, it turned out to be exactly the opposite seeing as they actually became friends instead of someone's temporary employee. They spent enough time together that it was impossible to not become friends, even if he denied it, Samantha knew otherwise. That was why it hurt receiving the text that he had jumped ship and went to California without giving so much as a wave her way. She know's he's back since she's heard it around the Resistance meetings at Nature's Botanicals, and in all fairness, she doesn't really know if she wants to say hello just yet. She was his employee, sure, but his friend, too; she deserved more.

HANNAH ROWE ; Her newest roommate since the other one left town after the supernatural was announced, it's Hannah Rowe that has finally tested Samantha's capability with being face to face with a human. With the constant thought of being caught as an unregistered supernatural by someone she knows is a pro-humanity supporter and an anti-supernatural, it's as if her dad is alive and well and living with her rather than a twenty-two year old living in New York City after graduating. There's nothing wrong with Hannah; she's a sweet girl and is fun to talk to. But what happens if she finds out Samantha's a witch? What if something gives herself away even if she just introduces her to her human friends she's made? Samantha's registered, so it's only a matter of time before Hannah finds that out, but then what?

AVERY BELFAST ; A witch that is a sweetheart in all actuality and talented with her powers, Samantha can't help but have acquired a distast for Avery Belfast. Of all of the children of the original Council, Avery is the only one to have made it out alive with both of her parents still intact. Samantha can see it in the way the girl's happiness is always bouncing everywhere and the jealousy of it eats at her constantly. If only she could have the lightheartedness Avery has without the constant thought of her deceased parents and someone possibly always out there preparing to kill her.

BETHANY HEATON ; Holding in a secret about a family member being in town is something that is incredibly difficult for Samantha. She doesn't know what to do when she sees Oliver, and therefore she has been avoiding him as much as she can. They have a resistance meeting coming up soon that she knows she will have to attend, and she's already planning how to avoid talking to Oliver as much as possible during it. She's never been the best with secrets, and especially not secrets of this magnitude, so avoiding is the best thing she can think of.

JACOB NEWTON ; Word on the street is that Jacob Newton is one of the hunters that the government hired to take out unregistered supernaturals. She's noticed him lurking around with Tarryn, but at the same time, the government hiring hunters isn't something that has ever been confirmed. Samantha believes that people are just scared and pointing fingers where they can. She might not be friends with Tarryn, but she knows that Tarryn cares for their community, and she highly doubts that Tarryn would be so close to someone that is only here to take them out. It just doesn't make sense.

SAMANTHA DEANE IS CURRENTLY OPEN

[rachelbethhines]

Is it for me?

The Tosh Era

The Time Meddler - The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve  

There was a lot changing of hands during the 3rd season of the show. Donald Tosh came in to replace Spooner as head writer. During the middle of his run Verity Lambert step down as producer and John Wiles took over. Neither he nor Tosh would last very long, both leaving in the middle of the season. 

Where to Start

The Time Meddler is a fairly good jumping on point for the show. It introduces a new companion and reintroduces some of the main concepts of the series to the audience. While also setting up new ideas that would later become staples of the franchise.     

However my previous warning of not trying to watch whole stories in one go applies doubly here, as The Daleks' Master Plan is the longest serial in the series; clocking in at 12 episodes. So take it slow. 

Missing Episodes

This era has been hit the hardest by lost episodes. Only one serial exists in its entirety. 

Galaxy 4 - Only one episode has been recovered. For the other three you’ll need recons or audio

Mission to the Unknown - is only one episode long and it’s missing. However there are multiple ways to experience it. First there is the recon and then the audio. There’s also a fan made animation that’s of the same quality as the BBC’s official animations and can be found online. Plus there is a fan made short film reenactment. 

Since this story was the first Doctor-lite episode, the film isn’t harmed by the lack of regulars and the parts can be recasted easily. 

The Myth Makers - All of the episodes are missing. The only thing that exists is a short clip of Vicki’s leaving scene, and we’re lucky to even have that. Once again recons and audios to the rescue. 

The Daleks' Master Plan - Only three parts of this twelve part epic exist. There’s some clips and of course, audios, recons, and a well regarded set if novelizations. One of which includes the novelization of Mission to the Unknown. There’s also a pretty popular fan animation of the episode “The Feast of Steven”, which was the first Christmas special.   

It’s gotten taken down by the BBC before. So if you’re interested in seeing it, I’d watch it as soon as possible. 

The Massacre - is also completely missing. You’ll have to follow the usual recourse of audios, recons, and/or novels. 

Tone

Remember how I described the first era of Doctor as serious and dark, but not grimly so? Yeah, this era is grim and gritty. Everything from implied rape, to mass murder, to whole worlds blowing up, this is easily the darkest Doctor Who has ever gotten. Two companions die for good, two historical massacres happen, and one episodes ends with literally everybody dead.  

Granted this is still a 1960s children show so nothing shown is very graphic or gory. It’s certainly no Game of Thrones by any means. Hell, it’s not even Torchwood. But it is devoid of humor for the most part (with The Time Meddler and “The Feast of Steven” being the exceptions) and if you’re looking for a lighthearted adventure series than this era isn’t for you. However if you love drama, lies, betrayal, and the thrill of never knowing who’s going to die next, then you might want to give this era a shot. Assuming you don’t mind recons. 

The Doctor   

This is arguably the era where the First Doctor makes his greatest strides towards being the hero we know him for. Surrounded by death, destruction, and the constant lost of friends, we began to see a Doctor humbled by his experiences and questioning if there’s more to life than just exploring for curiosity’s sake. Hartnell gives some of his most touching and profound performances during this era. Like little stars of hope against an increasingly darkening sky.  

The Companions 

Slight spoiler warnings as I do reveal which companions die during this era. 

Vicki - As strong willed, adventurous, stubborn, and impetuous as ever, Vicki goes through very little change. She does however, grow even more independent than before promoting her to leave during the middle of the era. A girl from the far flung future choosing to stay in ancient history for love and adventure. 

Steven - Steven is also a space pilot from the future, so this era marks one of the rare times in Doctor Who where the Doctor doesn’t travel with a companion from present day. Originally meant to replace Ian as the action man of the team, Steven actually winds up being something a fusion between Barbara and Ian. He has a strong moral backbone and becomes the Doctor’s conscience in their place. Like Barbara he tends to use his wits and his words to save the day rather than his fists, though he is capable of throwing a punch, but like Ian he’s more affable and is quite over protective of his friends.

What makes Steven unique, outside of Peter Purves wonderful performance, is that he takes on more of a big brother role rather than a parental one. Meaning he has a different dynamic towards Vicki and the rest of his female friends. 

Katarina - Katarina is one of those companions who’s interesting on paper but lacking in execution. A sweet and mild mannered maid from ancient Troy, Katarina is flung into the horrors of the far future and finds herself way in over her head.

What really makes her interesting is that she views modern sci-fi concepts through the eyes of fantasy and magic. The Doctor is a demigod, his tardis a magical temple, the daleks monstrous cyclops, and her journey through time and space an adventure in the underworld. She may not know what pills or keys are, but she can piece two and two together and make out what they do even when she doesn’t fully understand how they work.

Sadly though the writers gave up on this idea halfway through and decided that writing for someone so different from the norm was too hard. Therefore, Katarina has the honored distinction of being the first companion to ever die; nobly sacrificing herself to save her new found friends and the rest of the universe.        

Sara Kingdom - There’s a bit of debate on weather or not Sara counts as a companion. That all depends on how you define “companion”. Like Astrid Peth or Jenny from the new series, Sara is meant to fulfill the companion role but only for one story; as she dies at the end of The Dalek Masterplan. However, given that that particular story is extra long, and she travels on the Tardis to many different locations through out it; many are inclined to include her on the list. She even proved so popular that expanded media has given her an extended shelf life and many extra adventures outside of her one on screen story. 

But why is she so popular? Well for two reasons; for starters she is the first action girl in the series. A trained soldier from the future, Sara is a ruthless combatant on the field; both with fire arms and her fists. The second reason is because she’s morally complex. When we first meet her, she murders her own brother in cold blood. All because her government ordered her to. Once she’s betrayed by the government she trusted and realizes she was duped into killing her family, she joins the Doctor in his quest all in the vain hope to seek revenge.  A goal that ultimately becomes her undoing. 

Personal Opinions 

I do love the experimental nature of this time in Doctor Who, and I admire the chances they took, but overall this era is something of slog to get through. The lack of watchable episodes doesn’t help matters, but there’s also an issue of pacing as The Dalek Masterplan, while impressive in scope, has really no business being twelve parts. With some episodes seemingly having little to do with the over all story. 

All in all it’s my least favorite of the various Hartnell eras, but it’s still Hartnell so I’ll go back to rewatch it more than some other doctors. 

[itsfinancethings]

New story in Politics from Time: At the Republican National Convention, You Might Think COVID-19 Was Over

Listening to the speakers at the Republican National Convention, you might be forgiven for thinking that the coronavirus pandemic is over.

Many have largely ignored the virus that has killed nearly 180,000 Americans, despite the fact that it continues to seriously disrupt life in the United States, including their own event. Others, like White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, referred to the pandemic in the past tense: “It was awful,” Kudlow said on August 25. “Health and economic impacts were tragic. Hardship and heartbreak were everywhere. But presidential leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the COVID virus.”

When Vice President Mike Pence took the stage Wednesday night, his speech was a striking example of the Trump Administration’s attempts to reframe the history of the pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide and nearly ground the American economy to a halt. “Thanks to the courage and compassion of the American people, we are slowing the spread, we are protecting the vulnerable, and we are saving lives, and we are opening up American again,” Pence said, speaking at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD. “Because of the strong foundation that President Trump poured in our first three years, we’ve already gained back 9.3 million jobs in the last three months alone.”

Pence was named chair of the White House coronavirus task force in late February. Experts point to the failure to set up a speedy and functional testing and tracing system, the inconsistent guidance coming from the White House on mask-wearing and other crucial mitigation measures, and the early push to reopen states as costly missteps in the Trump Administration’s response to the virus. In August, more than six months after COVID-19 began sweeping through the U.S., the country continues to lead the world in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and number of deaths. Americans have experienced unemployment rates unseen since the Great Depression. The U.S. will almost certainly surpass 200,000 deaths from the virus before the election. Until a vaccine is approved, testing delays are hampering reopening throughout the country.

For the Trump Administration, it’s a dire situation just over two months before Election Day. According to polls tracked by FiveThirtyEight, 58.2% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s coronavirus response, compared to 38.7% who approve, and that disapproval has been steadily rising since the U.S. surpassed 10,000 deaths in April.

Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter.

Most of the political speakers Wednesday night avoided talking about the pandemic entirely. Neither senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway nor Second Lady Karen Pence mentioned COVID-19 explicitly; both made only an oblique reference to “everyday” American “heroes” including healthcare workers, teachers and frontline workers. Rep. Elise Stefanik from New York didn’t mention the virus, but said Trump is “working to safely re-open our Main Street economy” while Democratic challenger Joe Biden would keep business owners and workers “locked up in the basement.”

Rep. Lee Zeldin from New York was the sole speaker in Wednesday’s lineup to devote the entirety of his remarks to the Trump Administration’s response to the pandemic. Zeldin praised Trump and described being on the phone late at night with senior adviser Jared Kushner to get needed personal protective equipment (PPE) to his district— nearly 1.2 million items of PPE in one month, according to Zeldin, including masks and gowns. “During a once-in-a-century pandemic— an unforeseeable crisis sent to us from a faraway land— the President’s effort for New York was phenomenal,” Zeldin said.

The alternative history spun out during the convention portrays COVID-19 as an unpredictable lightning strike sent from China against a U.S. left unprepared by the previous administration. But Trump had already been in office for three years when the pandemic washed ashore—mostly through Europe—and Trump’s White House had stripped away an office for pandemic response and ignored plans developed after the 2014 Ebola outbreak. More damaging, Trump repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the virus as it spread in American cities through the spring, and when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Americans cover their faces in April, Trump said he himself would not.

During his speech to end the night, Pence heralded the administration’s work fighting the virus. Pence said Trump’s decision to halt travel from China saved “untold” numbers of American lives. He said the federal government was able to “launch the greatest national mobilization since World War II” and “forge seamless partnerships with governors across America in both political parties.” And he offered a hopeful prediction: “America is a nation of miracles,” the Vice President said, “and I’m proud to report that we’re on track to have the world’s first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.”

The determination to move past the harsh realities of COVID-19 is contradicted by the format of the convention itself: as speakers talk about the virus in the past tense, or announce that it has been successfully subdued, they have been speaking in pre-taped videos, to empty rooms or in outdoor spaces, because it remains unsafe to gather large groups of people inside.

When Trump has spoken about COVID-19 this week, he called it the “China virus” and “the plague,” and talked about it as an external force over which he had little control on influence. During a 53-minute rambling speech to 336 GOP delegates gathered in a hotel ballroom in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the opening day of the convention, Trump called for some magical thinking: “But think of your life just prior to the plague coming in. It was the best it’s ever been.”

He promised to deliver a “super V” shaped recovery. He described his administration’s response as “incredible,” while at the same time shunting responsibility onto others, saying many governors were “totally ill-prepared” and that the virus response should be run by the states and the “governors are supposed to do it.” He blamed earlier administrations for not having prepared, saying the “cupboards were bare” of supplies, and promised that Americans will “soon see vaccines pouring out years ahead.” (Earlier this month, Trump said a vaccine approved before Nov. 3 “wouldn’t hurt” his reelection chances.)

Even when the moment calls for it, Trump slides past the destruction the virus has brought to millions of American lives. Later on Monday, as the GOP convention kicked off, Trump visited a farm distribution facility near Asheville, N.C. that has packed boxes of food for delivery to families in need during the pandemic, but he didn’t meet with any of those families on that trip. The same night, a taped segment of Trump standing stiffly in the East Room, talking at a six-foot distance with two nurses, two law enforcement officers who had recovered from COVID-19, a trucker and two postal workers impacted by the pandemic, aired as part of the evening convention program. “These are the incredible workers that helped us so much with the COVID,” Trump said. “We can call it many different things from China virus — I don’t want to go through all the names because some people might get insulted because that’s the way it is — these are great great people.”

Trump has rarely spoken to the devastating loss and economic hardship families are feeling right now. His wife and Vice President took on that role during the convention. In her Rose Garden speech Tuesday night, First Lady Melania Trump expressed her “deepest sympathy” for “everyone who has lost a loved one.” And in his speech the following night, Pence said, “In this country, we mourn with those who mourn, and we grieve with those who grieve.”

But as much as Trump and the Republicans who have spoken this week may be ready for America to move on, the pandemic itself is not yet finished with America.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/34Dog3O via IFTTT

[newstechreviews]

Listening to the speakers at the Republican National Convention, you might be forgiven for thinking that the coronavirus pandemic is over.

Many have largely ignored the virus that has killed nearly 180,000 Americans, despite the fact that it continues to seriously disrupt life in the United States, including their own event. Others, like White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, referred to the pandemic in the past tense: “It was awful,” Kudlow said on August 25. “Health and economic impacts were tragic. Hardship and heartbreak were everywhere. But presidential leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the COVID virus.”

When Vice President Mike Pence took the stage Wednesday night, his speech was a striking example of the Trump Administration’s attempts to reframe the history of the pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide and nearly ground the American economy to a halt. “Thanks to the courage and compassion of the American people, we are slowing the spread, we are protecting the vulnerable, and we are saving lives, and we are opening up American again,” Pence said, speaking at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD. “Because of the strong foundation that President Trump poured in our first three years, we’ve already gained back 9.3 million jobs in the last three months alone.”

Pence was named chair of the White House coronavirus task force in late February. Experts point to the failure to set up a speedy and functional testing and tracing system, the inconsistent guidance coming from the White House on mask-wearing and other crucial mitigation measures, and the early push to reopen states as costly missteps in the Trump Administration’s response to the virus. In August, more than six months after COVID-19 began sweeping through the U.S., the country continues to lead the world in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and number of deaths. Americans have experienced unemployment rates unseen since the Great Depression. The U.S. will almost certainly surpass 200,000 deaths from the virus before the election. Until a vaccine is approved, testing delays are hampering reopening throughout the country.

For the Trump Administration, it’s a dire situation just over two months before Election Day. According to polls tracked by FiveThirtyEight, 58.2% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s coronavirus response, compared to 38.7% who approve, and that disapproval has been steadily rising since the U.S. surpassed 10,000 deaths in April.

Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter.

Most of the political speakers Wednesday night avoided talking about the pandemic entirely. Neither senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway nor Second Lady Karen Pence mentioned COVID-19 explicitly; both made only an oblique reference to “everyday” American “heroes” including healthcare workers, teachers and frontline workers. Rep. Elise Stefanik from New York didn’t mention the virus, but said Trump is “working to safely re-open our Main Street economy” while Democratic challenger Joe Biden would keep business owners and workers “locked up in the basement.”

Rep. Lee Zeldin from New York was the sole speaker in Wednesday’s lineup to devote the entirety of his remarks to the Trump Administration’s response to the pandemic. Zeldin praised Trump and described being on the phone late at night with senior adviser Jared Kushner to get needed personal protective equipment (PPE) to his district— nearly 1.2 million items of PPE in one month, according to Zeldin, including masks and gowns. “During a once-in-a-century pandemic— an unforeseeable crisis sent to us from a faraway land— the President’s effort for New York was phenomenal,” Zeldin said.

The alternative history spun out during the convention portrays COVID-19 as an unpredictable lightning strike sent from China against a U.S. left unprepared by the previous administration. But Trump had already been in office for three years when the pandemic washed ashore—mostly through Europe—and Trump’s White House had stripped away an office for pandemic response and ignored plans developed after the 2014 Ebola outbreak. More damaging, Trump repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the virus as it spread in American cities through the spring, and when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Americans cover their faces in April, Trump said he himself would not.

During his speech to end the night, Pence heralded the administration’s work fighting the virus. Pence said Trump’s decision to halt travel from China saved “untold” numbers of American lives. He said the federal government was able to “launch the greatest national mobilization since World War II” and “forge seamless partnerships with governors across America in both political parties.” And he offered a hopeful prediction: “America is a nation of miracles,” the Vice President said, “and I’m proud to report that we’re on track to have the world’s first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.”

The determination to move past the harsh realities of COVID-19 is contradicted by the format of the convention itself: as speakers talk about the virus in the past tense, or announce that it has been successfully subdued, they have been speaking in pre-taped videos, to empty rooms or in outdoor spaces, because it remains unsafe to gather large groups of people inside.

When Trump has spoken about COVID-19 this week, he called it the “China virus” and “the plague,” and talked about it as an external force over which he had little control on influence. During a 53-minute rambling speech to 336 GOP delegates gathered in a hotel ballroom in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the opening day of the convention, Trump called for some magical thinking: “But think of your life just prior to the plague coming in. It was the best it’s ever been.”

He promised to deliver a “super V” shaped recovery. He described his administration’s response as “incredible,” while at the same time shunting responsibility onto others, saying many governors were “totally ill-prepared” and that the virus response should be run by the states and the “governors are supposed to do it.” He blamed earlier administrations for not having prepared, saying the “cupboards were bare” of supplies, and promised that Americans will “soon see vaccines pouring out years ahead.” (Earlier this month, Trump said a vaccine approved before Nov. 3 “wouldn’t hurt” his reelection chances.)

Even when the moment calls for it, Trump slides past the destruction the virus has brought to millions of American lives. Later on Monday, as the GOP convention kicked off, Trump visited a farm distribution facility near Asheville, N.C. that has packed boxes of food for delivery to families in need during the pandemic, but he didn’t meet with any of those families on that trip. The same night, a taped segment of Trump standing stiffly in the East Room, talking at a six-foot distance with two nurses, two law enforcement officers who had recovered from COVID-19, a trucker and two postal workers impacted by the pandemic, aired as part of the evening convention program. “These are the incredible workers that helped us so much with the COVID,” Trump said. “We can call it many different things from China virus — I don’t want to go through all the names because some people might get insulted because that’s the way it is — these are great great people.”

Trump has rarely spoken to the devastating loss and economic hardship families are feeling right now. His wife and Vice President took on that role during the convention. In her Rose Garden speech Tuesday night, First Lady Melania Trump expressed her “deepest sympathy” for “everyone who has lost a loved one.” And in his speech the following night, Pence said, “In this country, we mourn with those who mourn, and we grieve with those who grieve.”

But as much as Trump and the Republicans who have spoken this week may be ready for America to move on, the pandemic itself is not yet finished with America.

[blitherandblather]

Get Out There and Don’t Vote

Democracy... what a load of shit.

I hate democracy and the whole democratic process. Democracy is built on the presupposition that we're all born equal and, maybe we are. We're sure as fuck not equal by the time we're old enough to vote, though. I'm not equal to, say, Tim Peake. That fucker's been to outer space. He's literally left the planet. He's seen the Earth in its entirety, with no imaginary borders or divisions between religions or beliefs. My vote isn't worth as much as his. Neither is yours. If I get to vote purely on the basis that I'm alive, then he should get five votes, because he knows more than I do. And he's been to space and he's a nice guy who genuinely seems to want to make the world a better place. I'm also not equal to Christopher Langan. Never heard of him, huh? He's the smartest man in the world. Let that sink in. He's the smartest man in the world. We're not equals. This guy taught himself how to read when he was four years old. Do you understand that? Not only was he reading at four, he taught himself how to do it. When I was four years old, I discovered that I would collapse on the floor if I spent ten minutes spinning around in circles. The only thing I've got in common with the Christopher Langan is my first name. And, yet, we both get one vote apiece.

It goes the other way, too. There exists in there world people who have deliberately never read a book. Ever. Not even at school, where you have to read books or they don't let you leave. There are people who are in their eighties and still have to go to school every day because they refuse to read a single book. They're going to die in detention. How stubborn do you have to be to never read a book? It doesn't even have to be a good book. Just read something, anything. You can't form opinions on anything if you don't read; the only thing you can do is appropriate other people's opinions and pass them off as your own, with nothing to back them up with should you be questioned on them. Don't be proud that you've never read a book, it's not an achievement, it's a fucking embarrassment. If you've never read a book, you don't get to vote, okay? You don't understand anything. You can't understand anything and you refuse to learn how anything works, so you don't get to vote on how anything works. Thankfully, this isn't a rule that has to be enforced; it's surprisingly self-policing, that one.

Also, you one get one vote, and that's it. So, if you vote on I'm A Celebrity..., that's it. You've used your vote for the year. If you took the time to call in to a TV show and let them know you'd prefer it if (Interns: Check which D-Lister couldn't get a pantomime gig this year) got voted out of the jungle instead of (Interns: Check which 80's supermodel has an autobiography coming out this Christmas), then you're done voting for the year. You don't get to decide who runs the country.

Another rule in my version of utopia, the voting age should be lowered to six. Six-year-olds are the most open minded and caring people in the world. They can tell just by looking at a person if they're good or bad. They also care. They're bothered what happens to the world because they're going to be stuck there for a long time. The want people to be happy and, as long as they themselves are fed and have a bed and a few toys and a family unit that cares for them, they don't really want much else. They want everyone to have that. Happiness, to a child, is a universal human right. The voting age then cuts off again at sixteen, when kids turn in to assholes, angry at the world and selfish. They have sponge-minds that suck up any information presented to them as though it's the absolute truth and the only truth that exists. Tell them something else two hours later and their entire philosophy changes. You can't trust teenagers. They're too malleable. Their minds are like plasticine. One day, homosexuality is faggy and the next they discover they quite enjoy a finger in the ass during foreplay. Their brains are bombarded by new ideas and philosophies, which is great, but their brains are also working at full capacity, capable of seeing all points of view simultaneously. There's no consistency in a youngster's mind. If they could, they'd tick every box on a ballot sheet, then set fire to it, because of the inherent corruption that comes with any form of government. You can vote again between the ages of thirty and sixty, when you actually know a thing or two about a thing or two, but you're still young enough for it to matter. If you're ninety years old, voting doesn't apply to you because you don't do anything all day and you're going to die tomorrow, anyway.

Either way, it's all fucking pointless. Who gives a shit who's in charge? What difference does it make? Here in the UK, we have two political parties and a bunch of time-wasters. Can't vote for the Tories, because they put money ahead of humanitarianism. Can't vote for Labour, because they're too soft on the hard issues. We tried voting for the Lib Dems once, but they panicked we'd called their bluff and realised they were in way over their heads, forming a coalition, in which fuck all got done for four years. It was terrible, in as much as nobody noticed anyway.

What, exactly, does the government do? There's an old, unfunny adage that proclaims “If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal” and it's true, to a point. It doesn't matter who's in charge because nobody is. Any time there's an actual decision to make, a decision that is genuinely going to affect the people of a country – and I should point out here, I mean the people of this country – they throw the decision right back to us, the dumb shits who voted them in to power in the first place. The EU referendum was decided by ordinary schmucks like you and I, many of whom had no idea we were in the EU in the first place. Why the fuck are we paying these people to govern the country if they're just going to make us do their job for them?

In 1948, Britain entered Malaya to battle the Chinese Communist Party. This conflict when on to 1960. Between 1950 and 1953, Britain was involved in the Korean War. 1951, the Canal Zone Emergency in Egypt saw us involved in guerilla warfare. 1952-1960, Kenya. 1955-1959, Cyprus. 1956, the Suez Canal. 1962-1975, Oman and Dhofar. '62-'66, Borneo. '63-'67, Yemen. '69-the end of time, our good friends in Northern Ireland; the “troubles”. 1982, the Falklands. 1990-91, Gulf War One. '92-2001, Balkans. 2000, happy millennium, Sierra Leone! 2001-2014, for fuck's sake, Afghanistan. 2003, Gulf War II: The Gulfening. And so on. Since WW2 which, admittedly, wasn't our fault, there has been one day where a British Serviceman hasn't been killed in action. That's what the government does. It sticks a pin in a map to decide who we're going to fight with today.

There are one hundred and twenty four thousand members of the Tory party and five hundred and fifty two thousand in the Labour party. That's a total of seventy billion politicians in the country. That's fifty politicians for every civilian. Do we really need that many people to pick a fight? Could we not just have one guy clicking “random article” on Wikipedia until a country comes up on his screen and, so long as they're not as well armed as us, we go to war with them? That would leave us with the question of what to do with all those suddenly out-of-work politicians, but I'm sure we could figure something out. Using them as fuel or hardcore or something. They're fuck all use for anything else.

Because they react, and that's it. They're supposed to be the leaders of our country, but they don't actually lead us anywhere, do they, the cunts? They see what the rest of us are doing and the react to it, retroactively pretending it was their idea all along. And we, for our part, ignore everything they say (apart from who we're currently at war with) and just plod on with our meaningless lives, moaning that the price of fags has gone up 15p but beer's gone down six, so that's all right, isn't it? If the whole lot of them just fucked off on holiday, would any of us even notice? Would our lives be any different if every single politician in the world boarded a spaceship and flew off in to the sun? Depends on the propellant, I suppose, but that's more a chemical consideration rather than a political one.

Point is, I vote in every election that comes along. I vote in the big one every four years and I vote for the little local ones whenever the slip comes through my door. In between elections, I tend to ignore everything that goes on in Parliament. I'm like one of those arseholes – exactly like them, in fact – who becomes an expert in the louge every four years during the Winter Olympics, but forgets even the existence of the word “louge” in-between. The only thing I really understand about politics is that it's always wrong. The politicians in power are never the ones I voted for, even when they are. When someone I vote for gets in to power, they instantly pull of the masks are reveal themselves to be Mr. Wickles the caretaker. Ha ha, you fools! It was me, all along!

So, what's the point of voting? We never win. Doesn't matter who you vote for, the government gets in either way. They carry on doing whatever the fuck it is they do, and we carry on trudging through our daily lives, pretending that we had a say in things. It's huge lie we've all agreed to play along with and it's miserable and depressing and pointless and endless.

Except that, they play along too. They play along knowing that we're playing along. They do whatever it is politicians do because they know, every four years, that we won't let them play anymore if they don't follow the rules. We don't know what the rules are, but we know what they aren't, and we can tell when they're not playing fair. We don't kick them out of the game; we just put them on the naughty step for four years, after which they can try again. We all do this, and we all have to do this because, Jesus Christ, imagine what they'd do if they thought we weren't paying any attention at all.

[thegloober]

Thumbnails Special Edition: National Disability Employment Awareness Month

by Chaz Ebert and Matt Fagerholm

October 24, 2018   |  

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Thumbnails is a roundup of brief excerpts to introduce you to articles from other websites that we found interesting and exciting. We provide links to the original sources for you to read in their entirety. This special edition of Thumbnails celebrates National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which runs through the entirety of October. Our contributor Scott Jordan Harris gave us the following article recommendations, and they provide a vital array of perspectives on the need for inclusivity in media.—Chaz Ebert

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1. 

“Growing Up, I Only Saw Half of Myself Represented On TV—That Needs to Change Now“: A personal essay from Bustle‘s Andrea Lausell about representations of Latinx people with disabilities. See also: Melissa Hung’s Huffington Post piece on “the most damaging way movies portray people with disabilities” and an article by prominent activist Vilissa Thompson on her Ramp Your Voice blog about portrayals of disability in the Black community. 

“As I’ve grown into my adult years, it has made me happy to see Latinx-centered media begin to share stories of other marginalized non-disabled groups in the Latinx community (LGBTQ+, Afro-Latinx, Indigenous-Latinx). Representation is slowly improving with how these identities are viewed with TV shows like ‘One Day at a Time’ having a teenager like Elena Alvarez come out as queer and work through the emotions while seeking acceptance from her Cuban family. ‘Jane the Virgin’ highlights characters of color tackling the topic of immigration, all while making a political statement about our government and its treatment of people seeking a better life. Although these strides are giving us a diverse representation of Latinx culture and are being received fairly well by the community for being marathon-worthy, if Disabled Latinx were to be included in the narrative, would the public receive it as well? I’ve noticed that non-Latinx communities are just starting to embrace disabled narratives on their TV screens. Often, disabled representation in Hollywood, like in the novel-turned-film ‘Me Before You’ starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin, portrays the harmful stereotype of disability being a burden. However, shows like ABC’s sitcom ‘Speechless’ have been a game changers for showing a disabled lead character happy with their life. But that’s just starting to happen now. Growing up, I learned to be ashamed of who I am because there were so few positive disabled Latinx representations on TV. Hearing from my Latinx community that disabled Latinx don’t exist — or that there’s ‘no need’ for us to be shown — told me that my place as a Disabled Latina within Latinidad wasn’t welcomed.”

2. 

“Why are disabled actors ignored when it comes to roles like the Elephant Man?“: Asks The Guardian‘s Frances Ryan. See also: Ryan’s piece on the controversy regarding Netflix’s “Afflicted” series and Julie Rehmeyer’s Los Angeles Times essay on how Netflix is “televising prejudice against the chronically ill.”

“The BBC has been widely criticised over its decision to cast a non-disabled person in its remake of ‘The Elephant Man.’ The role of Joseph Merrick – who had severe physical deformities – will be played by the Stranger Things actor Charlie Heaton. Notably, actor Adam Pearson – who has neurofibromatosis type 1, a condition which was once thought to affect Merrick – has said he wasn’t even given the opportunity to audition. As Pearson told LBC, it’s part of a culture of exclusion for disabled actors. ‘It’s a systemic problem, not only in the BBC but industry-wide.’ From Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man to Eddie Redmayne in ‘The Theory of Everything,’ it’s routine for non-disabled actors to play disabled characters, often gaining critical acclaim in the process. At best, it takes work and exposure from talented disabled actors and further adds to an arts and culture that pushes disability representation – much like race, sex and class – to the sidelines. At worst, it sees non-disabled actors mimic the characteristics of a minority group without any involvement from the community it depicts.”

3.

“‘A Quiet Place’ proves there’s no excuse for using non-disabled actors to play disabled characters“: According to The Independent‘s James Moore. See also: Variety‘s Joe Otterson reports that Maysoon Zayid, who has cerebral palsy, will write and star in “an autobiographical comedy series in development at ABC,” while CNN‘s Wayne Drash analyzes the outrage over the portrayal of epilepsy on Netflix’s “Seizure Boy.”

“The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world haunted by blind monsters that zero in on sound with the aid of supersensitive hearing. Silence is thus a matter of survival. Because her family uses American Sign Language (ASL) they have an advantage: they can talk to each other in a world where speaking can get you killed. The script could have fallen down at this point by having Simmonds perform a functional role without much else to do other than move the plot along for the other actors, including A-lister Emily Blunt, to shine. But it has more ambition than that. Simmonds’ Regan Abbott is a fully formed character; a stroppy teen, chafing against her parents’ overprotectiveness and haunted by what she sees as her role in her little brother’s death. It’s not just her deafness that is central to the plot: she is. She’s neither an afterthought, nor is she an inspiration, which is another trap films involving disability fall into. She’s a person. She’s also the best thing about a film that is full of good things. Director John Krasinski, who pushed to cast her, has further revealed that she changed one of the signed parts of the scripts in an important way that makes it better.  In fact she elevates the whole project. As Kamran Mallick, the chief executive of Disability Rights UK, says, she brings ‘an extra dimension to the role which a hearing actor would not have been able to do.’”

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4. 

“Toppling Structures of Inequality in the Documentary Field“: A great article published at IDA by Nicole Opper. 

“New Day Films, a distribution co-op created by and for independent documentary filmmakers in 1971, has recently been grappling with what it means to be truly representative of the broad spectrum of filmmakers that exists, including filmmakers of color, working-class filmmakers, trans and gender non-binary filmmakers and those with disabilities—groups that have historically been underrepresented or poorly portrayed in the industry. At our Annual Meeting in upstate New York this past June, a panel was convened to discuss the findings of an Equity and Representation task force, and to open up the conversation to all member-owners of the co-op. ‘Very often in the documentary space, I’m the only person of color,’ remarked Michael Premo. Premo is the director of ‘Water Warriors,’ the story of a community’s successful fight to protect their water from the oil and natural gas industry. ‘This is also sort of dually equated with poverty, which is equally as racist as being the token black guy.’ Cheryl Green, the director of ‘Who Am I To Stop It’—a documentary about individuals with traumatic brain injuries—shared her perspective as a filmmaker with acquired disabilities herself: ‘There is no one disability community. What is a film about disability? What is a person with a disability? We’re not a monolith. There’s not one way to talk about it; there’s not one way to present it. The main way disability is represented is non-disabled people parachuting in and filming a medical story. Usually it’s one that starts off as ‘That’s gross or scary or painful! Phew! They got better.’” 

5. 

“CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion“: Scott Jordan Harris recommends Jenni Gold’s documentary in his RogerEbert.com review.

“‘CinemAbility’ is the most entertaining and comprehensive history of disability in American film and television ever made. In that sense it is the onscreen equivalent of Matthew F. Norden’s classic book Cinema Of Isolation: A History Of Physical Disability In The Movies, and Norden is prominent in the film’s opening scenes, explaining the early and generally disheartening history of Hollywood’s ideas about disability. Due prominence is given to Lon Chaney, an able-bodied actor notorious in the disabled community for making a career out of grotesque and exploitative parodies of disability. He often did so in partnership with director Tod Browning, who in 1932 made ‘Freaks’ with a cast of disabled actors. Norden uses ‘Freaks’ to make an important point about audience attitudes to disability then that is still relevant now: ‘Audiences couldn’t handle [‘Freaks’]. People supposedly went screaming down the aisles because what they were seeing on the screen were not able-bodied actors wearing tricky makeup … They were seeing authentic disabled people.’ But ‘CinemaAbility’ never feels like a lecture. It is structured like a conversation, with contributions from an array of industry heavyweights, including Marlee Matlin, Ben Affleck, Geena Davis, William H. Macy, Ben Lewin, Peter Bogdanovich and R.J. Mitte.”

Image of the Day

TV Guide‘s Alyssa Andrews explains “how TV is still failing people with disabilities,” in graphic novel form. 

Video of the Day

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The official trailer for Jenni Gold’s documentary, “CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion,” reviewed above by Scott Jordan Harris.

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