#but these are books that are MASSIVELY popular among the masses

[pritvolny]

I just think the absurdity of being a good writer on the internet has been the biggest downfall of many people who write, esp. in the rpc. it's obvious that it all started with the era of purple prose being celebrated but then it grew into exclusivity of interactions with people "whose writing complements mine". it then fed the idea that if you wanted to interact with someone, you had to write a certain way— which, from idealising someone, becomes wanting to be "a better writer" as if you already weren't good enough. it kinda paves the way to writer's block because what you were initially doing for the sheer enjoyment of it suddenly becomes i have to create this masterpiece for it to be worthy of enjoyment. and each time you think you've made it, you dig a deeper hole for yourself and then it goes on and on...

[edwordsmyth]

"It has become clear during the past two months in the Gaza Strip that the Zionist entity is plenty capable of equaling the belligerence of the American frontier, an era of wholesale ethnic cleansing thought to be a feature of history.  (“It could never happen today,” people sometimes would foolishly declare.)  Colonial atrocities of the past—Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, the Trail of Tears—are now everywhere in evidence.  The Zionist entity is carrying out a kind of primitive violence with modern technology.  This violence fills our computer and television screens. People around the world get minute-by-minute accounts of massive destruction and widespread murder. Certain images have become horrifyingly familiar: throngs of refugees queuing for bread; ambulances dodging tank and machine gun fire; hospitals in disarray; once-dense neighborhoods transformed by aerial bombardment into kilometers of rubble. We scroll through photos of men blindfolded and stripped to their underwear, lined up on the ground like antiquities in a museum courtyard. The scrolling continues into pictures of white body bags in shallow trenches and then into videos of little girls and boys screaming trauma into the ruins of their childhood. We are perhaps the first generation to witness genocide in real time. History books about the horrors of the past are written every time somebody opens social media.

The theory that bearing witness will curtail Israel’s ability to act on exterminationist fantasies no longer holds. Information and knowledge, it turns out, aren’t reliable bulwarks against genocide. Impunity isn’t beholden to disapproval.

What does it tell us that the Zionist entity can conduct this genocide in high definition, with no credible deniability and amid condemnation from all corners of the world? It tells us that people serious about Palestinian liberation were right to despise the so-called radicals who laundered Zionism through celebrity activism, academic credentialism, NGO astroturf, and the Democratic Party. An entire class of influencers arose from Bernie Sanders’ failed presidential campaigns. They populate hundreds of podcasts and livestreams. They wasted incalculable energy and resources promoting a man who would go on to repeatedly justify the bloody campaign in Gaza. Now they deplore Sanders after having extracted all the clout appended to his name and having ostracized the outliers who accurately tagged him as a fraud from the get-go. It was the most noteworthy example of a timeworn practice: pursuing access to microphones and New Yorker profiles by subsuming Palestinian liberation to institutions constitutionally hostile to revolutionary politics. It tells us that international governing bodies and legal institutions are at best useless. Despite some halfhearted hemming and hawing, the UN has been an accomplice to the Zionist entity’s genocide. The ICC will never see an American, Israeli, or EU war criminal on its docket. The Arab League pretends to care, but its performance is entirely unconvincing. Such institutions have been captured by imperialism since their inception. It tells us that “dialogue” was always a pathway to submission. The idea that Israelis and Palestinians should dialogue as a means to peace was always dubious if only because dialogue can’t work in situations of disparate power. But now, with Israelis overwhelmingly in favor of the genocide, it should be clear that Palestinians never had anyone to dialogue with in the first place. It tells us that Western academe was completely unprepared for the material demands of decolonization despite its popularity as a professional brand. Many among the intellectual class, including scholars of Fanon like Adam Shatz and Lewis Gordon, either disavow or diminish anticolonial resistance or ignore it altogether. Academe is where resistance goes for processing and beautification after it has been completed. It’s rarely a place for the organizing stage. It tells us that deterrence isn’t a game of strategy played by eggheads on the internet, but an onerous project conditional on guns and rockets. Academics generally are too scared to say it, or, in an object lesson on arrogance, don’t actually believe it, but a cache of weapons will always be more important than a conference panel. It tells us that electoralism is a sham. There is no meaningful ideological variance among U.S. politicians at the national level. In practice, they range from center-right to fascist. In the upcoming presidential election, for example, voters will get to decide between two scarcely-functional old farts with histories of sexual misconduct and a complete devotion to Zionist genocide. It tells us that racism isn’t simply an attitude, for its origin is social violence and eventually it will become physically violent in order to perform its civic mandate. In the framework of settler colonization, racism manifests as a yearning for cultural purification through displacement of the native. It tells us that capitalism makes death a valuable commodity. The Zionist entity isn’t merely an imperialist beachhead; it is a major player in the international weapons trade. It tests new munitions, chemicals, and surveillance technology on Palestinians. It arms reactionary forces throughout the Global South. It serves as a conduit and accomplice to U.S. policing. Because of Zionist occupation, corporations enjoy the use of human subjects as raw material for development and innovation.

It tells us that we wasted a whole lot of time trying to convince the oppressor that we are worthy of life when the oppressor cannot live without our extinction.

More than anything, it tells us that in the benighted West there is no democracy, no free speech, no legislative remedy, no human rights, no right even to be human. These are illusions people repeat in an effort to survive pervasive depravity, or myths they cynically invoke to gather the crumbs of deprivation. There is a ruling class and various iterations of the dispossessed and the dispossessed exist only to serve ruling class gluttony.

That’s why countless people can deplore a genocide zoomed into our personal devices without being able to stop it. We are not simply ineffectual in the world of policymaking; policymakers are taunting us with their depravity.

What can we do, then? It’s important to start by recognizing that the entire political class, from presidents to online pundits, has no regard for us—detests us, in fact—and is therefore never a reliable source of empathy or relief. Denizens of this class do not want our feedback; they want us to scroll through the debris of their malevolence. Upon this recognition, the possibilities become clearer, albeit less convenient. But in the spirit of urgency, we can keep it simple: whether it happens in darkness or light, on screen or off, the Zionist entity needs to become an archive we browse as a cautionary tale, or else our future on this planet will be history."

[crystalelemental]

"books-are-my-life-stuff: This is the news I talked about regarding Rika's popularity (especially among women): https://twitter.com/nise_shi/status/1611027146809683968 I forgot where Arven was ranked but I think he's among top 10 or so. I'm glad that Nemona has fans who genuinely like her in western community too. I thought only some JP fanartists that I follow who like her, because people's hate comments about her reminded me so much of the massive Hop haters back then, I don't like that.

Like, all my knowledge about Nemona is from the event and the ScarVi trailer, even from those alone without playing the game just yet she's already my most favorite so far. Hope I can get around to play ScarVi someday…

But yeah, it makes sense. I'm still optimistic about Rika and Arven being added considering their popularity, they can be the Anni pairs or post-Anni."

HAH! Okay that's funny. #1 most datable woman, per women. That actually tracks really hard. Though I'm always at least slightly wary of the distinction between these kind of "voted most datable" and "actually super popular." It is a good endorsement though.

I don't know for sure, and shouldn't talk like I know since I actively avoid community half the time, but Nemona seems wildly popular with a particular subsection of really pissy fans. But if Reddit's recent activity this month is any indication, a lot of people joined up and the stated reason for a good number was Nemona. We are flooded with new player questions, and while pre-anniversary always accounts for a bit of that, the Nemona push seems to be doing some heavy lifting. Which is nice because she's great. I vouch for the game, but also it's still buggy as hell and will never be patched so like...I dunno, maybe just watch a playthrough of story beats? Or like...just Area Zero. That's the meat anyway.

I certainly won't complain if it is Arven and Rika. Rika in particular does have the added draw of the masses fucking loving Clodsire. That would be a hell of a Master Fair, even if I don't suspect it.

"I forgot about Oleana because I didn't pull for her, sorry. But yeah she's pretty good, though if I had her I would probably use her more as a support/utility/backup DPS than a main damage-dealer."

It's easy to forget, I don't really like considering Oleana unless I have to. But yeah, 1/5 she does do really well as utility support. She was a very effective pair, just not a favorite trainer. Do it for Garbodor though, you know?

[destinyc1020]

Timothy is not a movie star. Bones & All proved that after his fans were making fun of Tom's Uncharted movie on twitter. Bones & All even had the benefit of Thanksgiving weekend & still flopped. I think there is some truth to what Rachel Green said about the era of the movie star being dead. But unlike Tarantino, it isn't the fault of Marvel. This problem predates the MCU. I could go back to the YA era in Hollywood. Except for Jennifer Lawrence, most of the leads in those movies were never able to have a box office smash on their own. People saw Twilight for the books that were already popular. I also get the feeling that the audience wants escapist movies more than boring Oscar baits. We just came out of a pandemic and the last thing people need is to watch some pretentious stuff. You see how all the blockbusters walked away with atleast one Oscar this year while stuff like Tar went home empty handed?

Hmmm....Idk Anon.... Are we really using B&A (an indie movie about cannibalism trying to disguise itself as a "love story") as the barometer for Timmy's star status and ability to put butts in seats?? 🥴

Idk Anon.... I'm not too sure any actor would have been able to have a large opening for a film like that lol. It's just the nature of the film. 🤷🏾‍♀️ Plus, I honestly didn't see much hype for it. I also don't think it was a film that was expecting a huge box-office in the first place. Some films (believe it or not lol) are NOT made for box-office "numbers" or to "break records". SOME films really are just made to tell a story, or to get a director's creativity out there. I think way too many people put way too much emphasis on the box office numbers or how "successful" a film is monetarily-speaking, when the reality is, maybe Timmy did this film simply because he wanted to challenge himself or do something different for a change? 🤷🏾‍♀️

RE: Jennifer Lawrence, et al.... I think at the end of the day we have to realize that some people just have that "it factor" or "star quality", and others don't? Sometimes it could just be how their managers are handling their career, and other times it's more so the projects they're choosing, etc. Not every actor is going to be a "box office buster" and that's OKAY! Not every actor out here can be a Tom Cruise, or a Will Smith, and that's okay! It would be boring actually if EVERY single actor out here were a box-office mogul. 😅🤣

RE: Twilight... I do feel that anyone in those roles would have become popular simply because the BOOKS were so popular among the masses. But I say that about "Harry Potter", and the Marvel films as well. Those projects go beyond the actor because those stories alone are so popular already among the masses, so you're already going to have a massive following just for that reason alone.

RE: The Pandemic.... I agree, a lot of people are just looking for "FUN" these days since the pandemic. I think that's why "Top Gun: Maverick", "Elvis", "Dr. Strange: MOM" and "Jurassic World Dominion" did so well last summer. But if some enjoy more "serious" films, then that's okay too?? 🤷🏾‍♀️ I will say, "Tar" had to be one of the most PRETENTIOUS films I've seen in a while lol.... 😅🤣 (so I agree w/you there lol) But, it was still an interesting movie for me to watch, and you're kinda wondering the whole entire movie if she really did it. 👀 But boy was I lost with some of the lingo my gosh lol. Cate's acting was decent, but very methodical and robotic, but maybe that's how her character was supposed to be?? Idk... Either way, it wasn't a boring film at all to me. It was quite enjoyable actually. It was just very pretentious and seemed to be made for a certain "crowd" lol. 😅

[myrfing]

maybe a lot of it is misdirected frustration as well and an overly individualistic mindset on my part just because I personally don’t feel like there are greater restrictions on what kinds of stories I’d write and still very much believe that I’d be allowed to write about and publish complicated subjects without unexpected hate or cancelling or whatever as long as I would do it with sincerity and respect and due research. all my favorite works, works that have not held punches on depicting depravity or brutality or whatever, have, if anything, been shown more enthusiastic and thoughtful engagement than I had expected in recent years. some of these stories I could not see hitting mainstream audiences just like two decades prior; horror for instance is gaining some credence among everyday people in its ability to tell meaningful and resonant stories and not just a schlockfest porn-adjacent thing for people with weird tastes. and yet i notice this great wave of fear among people where they believe they can’t Say Anything In Chat Without Getting Banned so to speak or other things that feel fearmonger-y when tons of movies, books, comics, etc are still being put out with the same very dark themes people are scared to write now and are recieved with the same sincerity as the writers put into their work on a massive scale.

in my mind the problem is more because scale of communications and information spreading has expanded more quickly and to an extent where most if not all people struggle to grasp or handle the immenseness and unpredictability and honestly inhumanity of it and not because of a great intellectual decline among the masses. but i recognize the threshold for anxiety about it is different for everyone and that maybe I’m the more delusional one for dismissing the danger just because of my own insular pov especially when I’m not a popular creator or whatever actually at the forefront of it all

[rotzaprachim]

from @littledoggy-girlcollar

Yeah this is a whole range of sentences but dear lord. If you have to name a language that’s evil, maybe don’t choose modern Hebrew? There’s a lot happening here for fucks sake

a) we can and should critique the language policy of modern hebraists and the state of Israel, but to only list modern Hebrew as a reason that Yiddish and ladino were “deliberately wiped out” is straight up bHolocaust erasure. The thing that deliberately wiped out Yiddish and ladino was the deliberate wiping out of the populations that spoke Yiddish and ladino when people murdered Jews in a violent and organized fashion and stripped the Yiddish and ladino social, artistic, and cultural realms from the face of modern Europe and forced the survivors into exile and out of the homelands they’d lived in for thousands of years. The Hebrew-centric policy of the state of Israel, the actions of the Soviet Union, and mass movement to the U.S., Latin America and other locales should all be critiqued, obviously, but to act like anything other than the Shoah was the most significant reason for the decline of Yiddish and ladino and the most significant reason why they are now endangered (oversimplifying a little - ladino society continued outside of the areas of Europe affected by the Shoah, in Turkey, but the ladino speaking heartland of Greece was absolutely stripped from the earth) is Shoah erasure.

also. “Only in this metaphor Venetian was seen as the language of the people among Trotsky-ite communists in the Soviet Union.” I don’t even know what’s going on here, but it’s also very wrong - or at least oversimplification on a massive level - to claim this. First up, Hebrew and Hebrew revitalization, along with the interlinked but by no means fully one-and-the-same political movement of Zionism, were damn popular with an awful lot of left wingers and communists. Second, Yiddish might have been seen as the language of the people by the Jewish labour bund, and Jewish socialists, but that’s a long way from being one and the same with the Soviet Union. These things were big issues and caused big rifts within the pre-war Jewish community, but Jewish diasporic leftism and socialism took a big hit from a) the Shoah working hard to wipe all Jews out, regardless of ethnic origin and b) the fact the Soviet Union ended up not liking Jewish attempts at establishing autonomous and more liberal forms of Jewish leftism and independence in Eastern Europe. Like, really weren’t fans - they murdered or exiled a bunch of leaders of this movement, and then a bunch of Yiddish language leaders.

C) “it’s not even the same as Biblical Hebrew” of course it isn’t. Two thousand years does shit to a language. Hebrew is actually remarkably conservative, which doesn’t mean it’s going to be one and the same across time, only that it’s remarkably possible to connect biblical texts to the (different, but related) modern form, as a lot of modern Hebrew poets and writers play with

d) no language is bad

e) modern Hebrew has greater complexity - as noted, it was actually quite a widespread language in the diaspora, esp prior to the Shoah and exile of the mizrachim, you can find modern Hebrew papers and presses from Odessa and Berlin. The destruction of many forms of modern Hebrew outside the state of Israel is as well part of the destruction of the Jewish people as a whole that was carried out during the Shoah

f) Hebrew kept changing after the biblical period, due to natural development, exile, and contact with other languages. While we can say something specific changed within the Hebrew soundscape with the revernacularization into a spoken vernacular modern tongue, the fact that Hebrew kept living and changing is a 2000+ year continuity in which EVERY form of Hebrew was modern to the people of that period

g) it’s genuinely hysterical this person chose Italian for their example of “hey wouldn’t it be crazy if” given that… thats pretty much exactly what did happen following the risorgimento, except for the medieval florentine dialect rather than Latin. Like. That’s what happened. It was Dante, rather than the Bible but. That’s what went down.

(there are probably things that are unique to Italian and Hebrew in these situations, but there are also a lot of things that are not. The bloom of nation-state nationalisms in the 19th century along with the push for literacy lead to many mass movements to create a “national language,” often through dialect leveling, and this process continued into the 20th century and present with, in particular, decolonial attempts to create new national languages to replace or fight the dominance of English, Spanish, French etc. These movements are by their nature extremely complicated, as nationalism is complicated - they destroyed local cultures and minority languages, they also often saved minority languages, they allowed for mass literacy and education, they created mass feelings of both shame and pride. This is the complexity of history. You can look into the histories of modern Turkish, Persian, Tagalog and/or Filipino, guaraní, basque batua, Irish… the list is endless and the language planning decisions endlessly messy) it’s kinda interesting they consider Hebrew but not Italian to be “bad,” no?

not only are there no bad languages there are also no bad or annoying dialects

[romilly-jay]

COSY CATASTROPHE: Returning to the underlying rationale for writing it

I want to keep building the case for why cosy versions of various genres exist and should be allowed to exist... why they are in principle perfectly legitimate, valid, and appropriate forms of writing.

[Disclaimer - do I think it's possible to do cosy-sub-genres badly? Um, yes, definitely, of course I do. Feel like it's a universal principle that there's nothing humans - wilfully or through ignorance - are incapable of making worse. I suppose for me, though, the question here is ~ can they be done well, or well enough? And I feel equally strongly that they can be done well and sometimes - excellently.]

This is what I said earlier about the draw of cosy catastrophe, for me:

I think there's something important - relevant - zeitgeist - about that uff of recognition. There are many sad and terrible things happening in the world, there's suffering, stress, and existential threat in most of our pasts and - we fear - many of our futures...

I believe this leads to a number of responses but one is a longing for cosiness - hence the massive popularity of Danish hygge and the trend towards the 'cosification' of many genres.

Yet also, for some, not all of us, perhaps what we want is not *just* cosiness - because the multiple sources of disquiet are too close and too loud. Presumably this whiplash reaction, the huh, what? is why some people have the ICK reaction to cosy catastrophe - and some of us identify with it, own it, want to embrace it.

Thinking about the catastrophe as an event that empties the world of most of its inhabitants, for instance. Jo Walton suggested that cosy catastrophes rely on 'bizarre calamit[ies]' (2009, n.p.n.) but living in an emptying world - emptied of species other than humans, at least - is rapidly becoming our 21st century reality. Times have changed.

The progressive disappearance of Earth’s wildlife was described as a possibility in Rachel Carson’s environmental classic, Silent Spring (1965), and has been evidenced in recent years through research from, among others, the IPCC (see e.g. their report of 2018).

Robert Macfarlane, in conversation with Diane Ackerman, describes the implications:

My children are scared. Deeply scared. No ambiguity about it. My students too. When I was growing up in the 1980s, my future horizon, probably like yours, was foreclosed by the possibility of nuclear conflict. Theirs is foreclosed by climate breakdown and mass extinction, an incremental but still calamitous vision.  I have frequent conversations with students who have almost normalized this prospect; they feel themselves involuntarily to be entering what E. O. Wilson calls “The Age of Loneliness,” in which our depletion of more-than-human communities results in an emptied, echoing earth. Personally, I am, one might say, more hopeful of our visions than I have ever been before but more despairing of our futures (Ackerman & Macfarlane, 2019, n.p.n.)

My WIP channels some meta-anxieties about climate breakdown and socio/economic injustices. On the other, it also looks for reasons to have hope and finds those reasons in small-scale details of the plot and in the qualities of various character relationships.

The idea of finding hope in unexpected places is expressed through a ‘found family’ trope, as unlikely misfits from disparate backgrounds – and, indeed, from entirely different time-periods – come together against the odds to help each other find a way through.

References:

§Ackerman, D., and Macfarlane, R. (2019) ‘Interview with Robert Macfarlane’, Conjunctions, 73(Fall), n.p.n.

§Carson, R. (1965) Silent spring. London: Penguin Books.

§Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2018) Global warming of 1.5 degrees centigrade: summary for policymakers. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC.

§Macfarlane, R. (2019) Underland: a deep time journey. London: Hamish Hamilton.

§Walton, J. (2009) ‘Who reads cosy catastrophes?’, Tor.Com, 14 October. Available at: https://www.tor.com/2009/10/14/who-read-cosy-catastrophes/ (Accessed: 5 December 2023).

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

The Life & Musical Legacy of Mandisa

K-LOVE Honors the Life & Musical Legacy of Mandisa

Friday, April 19, 2024 by Lindsay Williams

GRAMMY®-winning Christian music artist Mandisa, 47, passed away at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024. The cause of death is not yet known.

Born and raised in California, Mandisa first came to national attention when she stood her ground with kindness when critiqued by “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell on Season 5 of the popular TV vocal competition. After finishing in the Top 10 on “Idol,” Mandisa released her debut album, “True Beauty,” in 2007.

The celebrated vocalist began her career as a member of the revered Fisk Jubilee Singers while in college at Nashville’s Fisk University. After “Idol” introduced her to the masses, her charismatic personality and show-stopping voice quickly captured the hearts of listeners and her fellow artists, many of whom she collaborated with through the years. Among her most notable collaborations were songs with TobyMac, Matthew West, Michael W. Smith, Kirk Franklin, Jordan Feliz and Jon Reddick.

The two-time K-LOVE Fan Award winner released five full-length projects and one Christmas LP over the course of her nearly two-decade tenure. 2013’s career-defining album, “Overcomer,” earned the powerhouse vocalist numerous accolades, as well as an array of critical praise and high-profile media coverage, including multiple appearances on “Good Morning America.” In addition to songs of resilience like “Overcomer,” Mandisa became a staple at Christian radio with energetic, faith-affirming singles like “Stronger,” “Good Morning (feat. TobyMac)” and “My Deliverer.”

Even more than her music, the Platinum-selling singer will forever be known for her huge heart and sincerity. Her longtime friend, frequent collaborator and former tourmate TobyMac described her best when he penned an endorsement for her last book. “Since the first day I met Mandisa, she has been nothing but original and courageous,” Toby shared. “My touring family is better when she is out with us. She genuinely supports each artist that takes the stage, as well as every crew member behind the stage. In a single word, I would say without hesitation that she is one of the most authentic people I have ever met. Her heart is to help others.”

Mandisa’s final collection of all-new musical material, "Out of the Dark," bowed in 2017. She’s since released a “greatest hits” compilation, a remix EP and a string of one-off worship singles. Mandisa revealed her battle with depression in her intimate memoir, “Out of the Dark: My Journey Through the Shadows to Find God’s Joy.” She further discussed her struggles on her “Out of the Dark” podcast with co-host Laura Williams on AccessMore. Even from her earliest days on “Idol,” Mandisa was respected for her transparency both on and off the stage.

“Mandisa loved Jesus, and she used her unusually extensive platform to talk about Him at every turn. Her kindness was epic, her smile electric, her voice massive, but it was no match for the size of her heart,” says David Pierce, K-LOVE Chief Media Officer. “Mandisa struggled, and she was vulnerable enough to share that with us, which helped us talk about our own struggles. Mandisa’s struggles are over. She is with the God she sang about now. While we are saddened, Mandisa is home. We’re praying for Mandisa’s family and friends and ask you to join us.”

[kamreadsandrecs]

By Alexandra Alter

For about as long as he’s been a published author, John Green has faced efforts to censor his books. His debut novel, “Looking for Alaska,” a coming-of-age story that includes references to drug use and sex, has been challenged in schools for at least 15 years, and has frequently landed on the American Library Association’s most banned books list. Last year, it received more than 50 challenges in schools across the country.

But a recent dust-up over whether his books are appropriate for teens feels more personal, and like an escalation of a growing movement to ban and restrict access to books, Green said.

A public library in his home state of Indiana implemented a new policy earlier this year requiring library staff to remove any books with sexually explicit content from the children’s and teens section and re-shelve them in the adult collection. The decision at Hamilton East Public Library in Noblesville meant more than 1,800 young adult books were moved, among them classics like “Forever” by Judy Blume and “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, as well as two of Green’s novels, “Looking for Alaska” and “The Fault in Our Stars.”

“I love Indiana so much, and it breaks my heart to see that kind of radicalism in a public library,” said Green, who lives in Indianapolis.

The mass relocation of Y.A. titles at Hamilton East has drawn intense public scrutiny in part because Green’s beloved books were swept up in the purge. But it’s hardly an isolated incident.

Efforts to ban books have soared across the United States in the last two years, driven by conservative groups and lawmakers who have targeted books they view as inappropriate, most often titles that address race and L.G.B.T.Q. issues. Lately, a growing number of public libraries have responded to complaints by moving books out of the children’s section, or placing them in a restricted area where parental permission is required.

In Montgomery County, Texas, commissioners voted in July for new library policies that bar people under the age of 18 from accessing books with “explicit” content, including many L.G.B.T.Q. themed works. A library board in Campbell County, Wyo., passed a measure this summer requiring librarians to weed out any books with sexual content from the children’s and teens sections, and fired the library director after she refused to move the books.

In Crawford County, Ark., the library system removed children’s books with L.G.B.T.Q. themes and placed them in a separate age-restricted “social section,” a policy that is being challenged in a lawsuit. And after residents in Marion County, Miss., complained about L.G.B.T.Q. content in the popular Y.A. graphic novel series “Heartstopper,” a library board agreed to move it to the adult section, and to conduct a review of all the books in the young adult section.

Librarians and free speech advocates say that such practices, while not new, are rising, and can amount to a form of censorship.

“I see this as censorship, because it is removing access from the intended audience,” said Emily Knox, the board president of the National Coalition Against Censorship. “No one wants to be called a censor, so one of the ways you do that is by impeding access.”

At a moment when conflicts over books have divided communities, the debate over Green’s novels has been especially charged. His blockbuster novel “The Fault in Our Stars,” which follows two teenagers with cancer who fall in love, has sold around 25 million copies, and has particular resonance in Indiana, where most of the novel takes place.

As a literary celebrity with a massive online following, Green has now become a somewhat reluctant conscript in a raging culture war over what books are appropriate for young readers, and who gets to decide.

“This is an escalation on the part of those far right groups that want to control what kind of information teenagers have access to,” Green said. “‘Looking for Alaska’ has been removed from dozens and dozens of school libraries just in the last year, so the public library is the next logical step.”

The controversy over young adult books in the East Hamilton library started in early 2022, after the library had received challenges to 11 books that patrons viewed as inappropriate, including nonfiction titles for teens about sex education. Following a caustic public debate about whether such works belonged in the children’s section, the board instituted a new policy that would restrict all books with explicit references to sex to the adult section. In the spring, they added new restrictions, requiring library staff to review Y.A. titles not only for sexual content but also for certain profanities and criminal acts.

By mid August, library staff had reviewed more than 3,500 young adult titles, and moved more than 1,000 books, drawing widespread complaints from community members who opposed the removals.

Public outcry against the policy intensified last month, after Green posted messages on social media slamming the policy as “ludicrous” and sent an incensed letter to the library board.

Last Thursday, after weeks of pressure, the library board voted to suspend and re-evaluate the policy. The books that have already been moved to the adult section will remain there while the policy is paused, but could be returned to the young adult section pending decisions by the board, the library director and board president said in a statement to The Times.

While many residents who attended last week’s library board meeting criticized the policy, some spoke in favor of moving books with explicit content. One speaker who supports the removals, Julie Boyd, brought a stack of books that she said had explicit content, and read a sex scene from Courtney Summers’ novel “I’m the Girl.” “I don’t want kids reading this,” she said.

Moving books so that they are inaccessible to their intended readers could constitute both a breach of the First Amendment and a lapse in a librarian’s professional duties, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the office of intellectual freedom at the American Library Association.

“If you are re-shelving John Green’s books because you don’t like the content, that could rise to an unconstitutional act,” Caldwell-Stone said.

In the past, courts have ruled that such practices violate the First Amendment. In 2000, a judge ruled that the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, had violated residents’ right to receive information after the city implemented a library policy that led two children’s books about L.G.B.T.Q. characters to be removed and placed in the adult section.

For now, the status of Green’s books and hundreds of other titles that have been moved at the Hamilton East Public Library remains unresolved.

Green said he will never grow used to having his books, some of which feature teen romance and intimacy, labeled pornography. But it was especially jarring to hear such accusations being lobbed so close to home.

“It’s always pretty tough for me,” he said. “But it’s certainly a little harder when it’s in your hometown, and you’re conscious of the fact that you have to walk around the grocery store with those people.”

Green, who has spoken and written about his struggles with anxiety, said he was reluctant to get involved because the controversy makes him “super extra anxious,” but he felt compelled to do so because the librarians who are bearing the brunt of the criticism were unable to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.

“I believe very strongly in the freedom of expression and in teenagers’ rights to read, and I feel very strongly that other parents shouldn’t have any say in what my kids get to read,” he said. “As long as that fight goes on, I feel obligated to lend my voice to it.”

[kammartinez]

By Alexandra Alter

For about as long as he’s been a published author, John Green has faced efforts to censor his books. His debut novel, “Looking for Alaska,” a coming-of-age story that includes references to drug use and sex, has been challenged in schools for at least 15 years, and has frequently landed on the American Library Association’s most banned books list. Last year, it received more than 50 challenges in schools across the country.

But a recent dust-up over whether his books are appropriate for teens feels more personal, and like an escalation of a growing movement to ban and restrict access to books, Green said.

A public library in his home state of Indiana implemented a new policy earlier this year requiring library staff to remove any books with sexually explicit content from the children’s and teens section and re-shelve them in the adult collection. The decision at Hamilton East Public Library in Noblesville meant more than 1,800 young adult books were moved, among them classics like “Forever” by Judy Blume and “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, as well as two of Green’s novels, “Looking for Alaska” and “The Fault in Our Stars.”

“I love Indiana so much, and it breaks my heart to see that kind of radicalism in a public library,” said Green, who lives in Indianapolis.

The mass relocation of Y.A. titles at Hamilton East has drawn intense public scrutiny in part because Green’s beloved books were swept up in the purge. But it’s hardly an isolated incident.

Efforts to ban books have soared across the United States in the last two years, driven by conservative groups and lawmakers who have targeted books they view as inappropriate, most often titles that address race and L.G.B.T.Q. issues. Lately, a growing number of public libraries have responded to complaints by moving books out of the children’s section, or placing them in a restricted area where parental permission is required.

In Montgomery County, Texas, commissioners voted in July for new library policies that bar people under the age of 18 from accessing books with “explicit” content, including many L.G.B.T.Q. themed works. A library board in Campbell County, Wyo., passed a measure this summer requiring librarians to weed out any books with sexual content from the children’s and teens sections, and fired the library director after she refused to move the books.

In Crawford County, Ark., the library system removed children’s books with L.G.B.T.Q. themes and placed them in a separate age-restricted “social section,” a policy that is being challenged in a lawsuit. And after residents in Marion County, Miss., complained about L.G.B.T.Q. content in the popular Y.A. graphic novel series “Heartstopper,” a library board agreed to move it to the adult section, and to conduct a review of all the books in the young adult section.

Librarians and free speech advocates say that such practices, while not new, are rising, and can amount to a form of censorship.

“I see this as censorship, because it is removing access from the intended audience,” said Emily Knox, the board president of the National Coalition Against Censorship. “No one wants to be called a censor, so one of the ways you do that is by impeding access.”

At a moment when conflicts over books have divided communities, the debate over Green’s novels has been especially charged. His blockbuster novel “The Fault in Our Stars,” which follows two teenagers with cancer who fall in love, has sold around 25 million copies, and has particular resonance in Indiana, where most of the novel takes place.

As a literary celebrity with a massive online following, Green has now become a somewhat reluctant conscript in a raging culture war over what books are appropriate for young readers, and who gets to decide.

“This is an escalation on the part of those far right groups that want to control what kind of information teenagers have access to,” Green said. “‘Looking for Alaska’ has been removed from dozens and dozens of school libraries just in the last year, so the public library is the next logical step.”

The controversy over young adult books in the East Hamilton library started in early 2022, after the library had received challenges to 11 books that patrons viewed as inappropriate, including nonfiction titles for teens about sex education. Following a caustic public debate about whether such works belonged in the children’s section, the board instituted a new policy that would restrict all books with explicit references to sex to the adult section. In the spring, they added new restrictions, requiring library staff to review Y.A. titles not only for sexual content but also for certain profanities and criminal acts.

By mid August, library staff had reviewed more than 3,500 young adult titles, and moved more than 1,000 books, drawing widespread complaints from community members who opposed the removals.

Public outcry against the policy intensified last month, after Green posted messages on social media slamming the policy as “ludicrous” and sent an incensed letter to the library board.

Last Thursday, after weeks of pressure, the library board voted to suspend and re-evaluate the policy. The books that have already been moved to the adult section will remain there while the policy is paused, but could be returned to the young adult section pending decisions by the board, the library director and board president said in a statement to The Times.

While many residents who attended last week’s library board meeting criticized the policy, some spoke in favor of moving books with explicit content. One speaker who supports the removals, Julie Boyd, brought a stack of books that she said had explicit content, and read a sex scene from Courtney Summers’ novel “I’m the Girl.” “I don’t want kids reading this,” she said.

Moving books so that they are inaccessible to their intended readers could constitute both a breach of the First Amendment and a lapse in a librarian’s professional duties, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the office of intellectual freedom at the American Library Association.

“If you are re-shelving John Green’s books because you don’t like the content, that could rise to an unconstitutional act,” Caldwell-Stone said.

In the past, courts have ruled that such practices violate the First Amendment. In 2000, a judge ruled that the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, had violated residents’ right to receive information after the city implemented a library policy that led two children’s books about L.G.B.T.Q. characters to be removed and placed in the adult section.

For now, the status of Green’s books and hundreds of other titles that have been moved at the Hamilton East Public Library remains unresolved.

Green said he will never grow used to having his books, some of which feature teen romance and intimacy, labeled pornography. But it was especially jarring to hear such accusations being lobbed so close to home.

“It’s always pretty tough for me,” he said. “But it’s certainly a little harder when it’s in your hometown, and you’re conscious of the fact that you have to walk around the grocery store with those people.”

Green, who has spoken and written about his struggles with anxiety, said he was reluctant to get involved because the controversy makes him “super extra anxious,” but he felt compelled to do so because the librarians who are bearing the brunt of the criticism were unable to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.

“I believe very strongly in the freedom of expression and in teenagers’ rights to read, and I feel very strongly that other parents shouldn’t have any say in what my kids get to read,” he said. “As long as that fight goes on, I feel obligated to lend my voice to it.”

[hightechinfluencer]

Defining the Metaverse…

If you didn’t work in the tech industry prior to 2021, the term “Metaverse” might have been unfamiliar to you. But when social media giant Facebook changed its name to “Meta,” there was suddenly a virtual gold rush for NFTs and virtual land. News outlets and blogs covered Mark Zuckerberg’s “metaverse”, though they often misunderstood the term. Zuckerberg was talking about his vision of the Metaverse when changing the company’s name and not a singular virtual world, while at the same time launching Meta’s virtual world platform Horizons. This created a lot of confusion among news outlets and those racing to become knowledgeable on the subject matter to position themselves as subject matter experts. The Metaverse is not just a virtual world; it’s a by-product of the third generation of the internet, an entire connection of platforms at the internet level with the interoperability of digital assets.

Misinformation about the Metaverse has spread widely, making it difficult to re-educate people within their echo chambers. It’s worth noting that anyone claiming to have built “a metaverse” is factually incorrect since the Metaverse isn’t a virtual world or even a single platform of virtual worlds, but rather a network of interconnected platforms that allow digital assets to pass from one place to another with the same ease of being on one website and migrating freely to another.

Note: The word Metaverse is always capitalized the same way that the word Internet is. If “metaverse” is used culturally to refer to a virtual world then it’s lowercase.

Defining the Metaverse:

In his book “The Metaverse and How It Will Revolutionize Everything,” Matthew Ball defines the Metaverse as “A widely scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence and with continuity of data such as identity, history entitlements, objects, communications, and payments.” The problem with referring to being in the Metaverse as it stands is we do not have the accessible infrastructure for the Metaverse to exist currently.

Ball’s definition represents a significant evolution from the concept of the Metaverse as depicted in Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash,” which is credited with popularizing the term. Although Stephenson’s book portrays a capitalist dystopian world in which people live in virtual environments, the real Metaverse is likely to be much different. Nevertheless, “Snow Crash” inspired many futurists to begin exploring virtual world concepts, such as the now-cult social virtual platform Second Life, which enabled users to live out their lives on the internet prior to the widespread availability of VR headsets.

For many, “Web3” simply denotes the inclusion of blockchain technology, NFTs, or cryptocurrency. However, “Web3,” which stands for “third-generation web technologies,” is a comprehensive ecosystem of technologies that, when fully adopted, will take us from the second to the third generation of the internet. You might be wondering what characterizes “Web1” and “Web2.”

A little history…

The ARPANET was created on October 29th, 1969, and there was an enormous migration of online users, primarily comprising educational and government institutions. With advancements in the field, the US government passed regulations in 1993 allowing commercial content to be available on the internet, marking the start of the first generation of the internet, also known as the “information age” or Web1.

Around 2005, we transitioned from the first generation of the internet to the second generation when social media was massively adopted, leading to the rise of the second generation, also known as web2 or the “social media age.” As we continue to move towards the third generation of the internet, we need to achieve several milestones to gain mass adoption of these third-generation web technologies. Only then will we be able to enter the immersive age and experience the full capabilities of the third generation of the internet.

The ARPANET (1969–1989)

Web0: The Premodern Internet Era (1969 — 1993)

Web1: The Information Age (1993 — 2005)

Web2; The Social Age (2005 — Present Day)

Web3: The Immersive Age (est. 2030 — ???)

Web4: The Symbiotic Age (??? — ???)

Decentralization technology is only a part of the larger picture.

As I mentioned earlier, for many people, web3 simply means decentralization technologies such as NFTs, cryptocurrency, and blockchain. However, the third generation of the internet is a comprehensive ecosystem of technologies that work together. Entrepreneur John Randolph proposed the concept of “The Seven Layers of the Metaverse,” which includes different technology and execution areas such as experience, discovery, creator economy, spatial computing, decentralization, human interface, and infrastructure. Each of these areas addresses a specific use case and technology set. For instance, the experience area encompasses esports, theater, and games, while the human interface area includes voice, gesture, neural interfaces, haptics, mobile, and wearables, often in combination with virtual reality. In my personal opinion, there should be an eighth layer called “identity” that would impact the previous seven layers proposed by Radoff.

So how do we differentiate between the Metaverse and a virtual world? I would like to introduce you to a concept called “The Immersive Internet Scaling Model.” While the Metaverse comprises an ecosystem of technologies, it can be confusing to distinguish between it and virtual worlds, especially since each level has a specific responsibility.

Base Level: (Instance, Virtual World, Land, Game Level) The base level is where you experience the Metaverse, and it is a single place among many other virtual worlds. If you’re in any platform, your avatar will spawn in the base level.

Platform Level: (Subverse, Metagalaxy, Virtual World Cluster) The platform level serves as the controller for all virtual worlds within it. It establishes the rules and conditions that affect all instances or land that it controls.

Metaverse Level: (The Internet, The Metaverse) The Metaverse, which is a byproduct of the third generation of the internet, connects all these different platforms together and allows interoperability between them. Without this layer, virtual worlds would only be able to interact with other virtual worlds within their own platform level.

If we refer to a virtual world as “a metaverse” enough times will it change the meaning? No…

If we use the term Metaverse to describe a virtual world, will it become the new definition? This is a question/statement I often hear from NFT enthusiasts and social world builders who come from the same background. If we use the word “Metaverse” as a catch-all term, it will lose its meaning altogether. The follow-up question to this line of thinking is usually “How can we define the Metaverse as this thing we’re working towards if we don’t know what we’re building?” the answer is if we use “Metaverse” as a stand-in for the virtual world, we’ve already predefined it which defeats the line of questioning altogether. The misuse is purely cultural slang at this point.

By using the Immersive Internet Scaling Model, we can easily differentiate the different layers that make up the Metaverse from a virtual world perspective. Another point to consider is that we do know what we’re building towards, as there is a level of self-fulfilling prophecy within the industry. The entire industry is moving in a direction that has already been predefined to a degree. Many people may not know what the outcome will eventually look like, but for futurists like myself who have been in this industry for a long time, we do know what the Metaverse is going to look like with adjustable details. The challenge is to ensure that everyone else understands what we’re building toward and why specific terminology is so important.

If you find this today's newsletter useful, share or tag a friend. 

Got questions? You can DM me directly on Twitter

[jimsvk2blogs]

Mass Media

In our society, mass media plays a pivotal part. Mass media is a medium that brings news, entertainment, and artistic and educational programs to millions of homes. Mass media is classified into two orders publish media and electronic media. Publish media includes journals, journals, magazines, etc., and electronic media consists of the internet, television, pictures, etc. Some primary coffers through which we get information are reading journals and magazines, harkening to the radio and watching television.

Radio, TV, cinema and press are precious forms of media run by private or government- run institutions. The main focus of these institutions is the idea of mass product and mass distribution. Among all the mass media tools, television is the most popular. We've numerous channels to watch colorful shows, flicks, sports, plays, and educational and artistic programs.

Compared to other mass media tools, the information published in the journals is different. It publishes information about the rearmost happenings nationally and internationally. Some magazines and journals cover news, events, and reports on sports, artistic life, education, fashion, and entertainment for youth.

By watching television or harkening to the radio, you can upgrade your history, literature, and artistic knowledge and indeed learn foreign languages. Mass media includes cell phones, the internet, computers, pagers, emails, and satellites in moment’s world. Information can be transferred from a single source to multiple receivers through these mediums.

Other mass media tools similar as books, magazines, flyers, books, billboards, etc., also have equal significance as the reach of these mediums extends to a massive number of millions.

Function of Mass Media

Information

One of the primary functions of mass media is the dispersion of information. Mass media circulates information and opinions about colorful events and situations to mass cult. The information we get through multiple mediums of mass media is private, objective, secondary and primary. As a followership, we get instructional news about the happenings worldwide via mass media. Media broadcast information on television, radio, journals or magazines. Also, announcements are also substantially for information purposes.

Entertainment

The most deceptive purpose of mass media is entertaining. It's a performance that pleases people by making rest time more pleasurable. Magazines and journals, TV, radio, and other online mediums offer diurnals, stories, flicks, and comics to entertain cult. Other cases include news, sports, columns, art and fashion. Infotainment means the emulsion of entertainment and information, and edutainment is education and fun programs.

Socialization

Socialization means the transmission of culture and media workshop as mirrors of society. Socialization is a process by which people bear in respectable waysin their culture or society. Through this process, we learn how to come members of our community or mortal society in a lesser sense. People who read a review or watch TV know how people reply to matters and what morals and values they perceive on particular events, issues, or situations.

[ms-demeanor]

Just because capitalism is bad doesn't make rioting a good or effective means of change.

As much as I hate cops I feel like it pretty much proves my point to START with the article in the cop magazine about how the Rodney King riots changed policing in LA:

Shortly after the riot, Chief Willie Williams was sworn in as the first outside police chief in 45 years. The voters created a new system where the chief could serve only a five-year term, renewable once at the city's option. On two occasions so far, the city has sent the chief packing after five years.

(Police Mag April 2012)

Here’s Anaheim City Councilman Stephen Fassell talking about changes after riots in Anaheim due to police shooting people:

We now have a representative government that we did not have before. We now have a city government that listens more. We’re only six or seven months into this, so we still have to learn our way around. Overall, the city is taking a renewed interest in that neighborhood (Anna Drive) and others. Neighborhoods, in general, have higher visibility in the eyes of the city government from one end to another.

(OC Register, July 2017)

Here’s some historians talking to Vox about rioting:

The 1960s unrest, for example, led to the Kerner Commission, which reviewed the cause of the uprisings and pushed reforms in local police departments. The changes to police ended up taking various forms: more active hiring of minority police officers, civilian review boards of cases in which police use force, and residency requirements that force officers to live in the communities they police."

This is one of the greatest ironies. People would say that this kind of level of upheaval in the streets and this kind of chaos in the streets is counterproductive," Thompson said. "The fact of the matter is that it was after every major city in the urban north exploded in the 1960s that we get the first massive probe into what was going on — known as the Kerner Commission."

(Vox, September 2016)

This is from an abstract of a study done on the 1992 LA riots

Contrary to some expectations from the academic literature and the popular press, we find that the riot caused a marked liberal shift in policy support at the polls. Investigating the sources of this shift, we find that it was likely the result of increased mobilization of both African American and white voters. Remarkably, this mobilization endures over a decade later.

(American Political Science Review, 2019)

There’s a whole-ass article about this in Jacobin this week

Even the case of the 1960s is more complicated than the liberal story about scared white Nixon voters suggests. For one thing, there is substantial evidence that the riots led to higher government expenditures in the deprived cities where they erupted. James W. Button’s pathbreaking 1978 book Black Violence documented the ways the riots forced policymakers to pay attention to the effects of their policies on the urban poor, a group they had been happy to neglect previously. At a time when many social scientists viewed even protest movements as a kind of mass psychosis, Button showed that riots were a rational response to being ignored. Later research showed that riots could increase welfare expenditures, even in areas where white racism was strongest. In other words, even if riots pushed white public opinion in a conservative direction, they also brought important benefits to the areas where they occurred.

(Jacobin, June 2020)

And here is the full 17-page PDF of an article published by the American Political Science Association in their journal, I’m linking to the whole thing but I’m only going to reproduce the conclusion here:

We focus on violent protest as a political tool for a low-status group in the United States. While other scholarship has examined other forms of political action and asked if it is efficacious for racial minorities and other low-status groups, the scholarly literature has largely failed to ask whether rioting is a useful tool for building policy support, even though, from the perspective of the rioters, this question is paramount. Here we show that violent political protest can spur political participation among people who share an identity with the rioters.

Although it often seems extreme from the American perspective, political violence is not isolated to particular regions or eras and is still common in many parts of the world. Moreover, the implicit threat of violence underlies the relationship between governments and citizens in many places. As the use of violence continues to be an active feature of our political system, our findings and approach may help future scholars better understand this important topic.

(American Political Science Review, June 2019)

And also just because riots may or may not be politically expedient doesn’t prevent them.

I want to talk for a second about the concept of a state monopoly on violence.

The deal is that in most states (here meaning countries or governments, not US States) the State (or government) is the only entity that is allowed to be violent. You’re not allowed to break down your neighbor’s door, your partner isn’t allowed to hit you, you’re not allowed to smash your boss’s windshield. The state and its agents are the only things allowed to be violent and their violence is supposed to be used to curtail societal violence. The cops outnumber your partner and have the legal power to lock them in a cage if your partner hits you, this is in theory supposed to prevent your partner from hitting you. Fear of state violence is supposed to act as a deterrent to crime and interpersonal violence.

BUT there are supposed to be rules. The state is the only one allowed to be violent but they’re not allowed to be wantonly, willfully violent. The state doesn’t get to hit you with no evidence of a crime, the cops aren’t supposed to smash in your windshield, sheriffs aren’t supposed to break down your door if you haven’t committed a crime that warrants a violent response from the state.

The state isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.

The state has lost its right to a monopoly on violence.

Yes, the violence is unfortunate. Yes, the violence is not ideal. No, I’m not applauding when people set fire to local businesses.

I am maybe applauding a little when they set fire to a massive corporation that has utilized the violence of the state against citizens while working hard to protect itself against workers (Target) and I’m applauding the destruction of symbols of inequality and institutionalized racism (Rodeo Drive in LA and the Market House in NC and all the statues of racists on this list) and I’ma be real here, I kind of always think police stations should be torn down brick by brick or forcibly converted into libraries or low income housing.

So while the violence is not ideal I don’t think that it’s illegitimate. The state has lost its right to a monopoly on violence and a violent response is certainly one way to make that point.

But here’s the other thing:

All these riots started with peaceful protests against state violence. There are thousands of photos and videos of peaceful protestors peacefully protesting and having speeches and asking for change.

And there are hundreds of videos and photos of cops launching tear gas and rubber bullets at these peaceful protestors. There is a staggering amount of evidence that in city after city police escalated tensions and introduced violence to peaceful protests.

(and please let’s remember: all of this started in response to an act of police violence. These riots didn’t fall out of a clear blue sky, they are a direct reaction to four police officers killing a man by kneeling on his neck for eight minutes while he begged for his mother and his life. That is, in my opinion, something completely worth burning down a police station over even if that act never accomplishes anything further than burning down that police station)

[architectuul]

FOMA 46: (Re)Building A City – Building A Society

Marija Mano Velevska and Slobodan Velevski are presenting five Forgotten Masterpieces in Skopje. Modern architecture has flourished and made great impact on the city of Skopje and Macedonia for decades following a devastating earthquake in 1963 – leading to what has become generally accepted position of Skopje as the capital of Brutalist architecture.

Telecommunication Center in Skopje by Janko Konstantinov | Photo unknown

An enormous effort (with generous involvement of local and foreign aid) in rebuilding the housing fund introduced the highest standards in residential domain applicable even today. Alongside re-forming the everyday life, numerous architecture masterpieces were built for the purpose of housing the public life and the official institutions thus marking the very nature and the character of the society (at the time, a socialist republic in the Yugoslav federation). 

For this occasion, we have selected five distinctive architectures erected in the post-earthquake period, designed by local architects as well as architects from other Yugoslav republics, various in program as much as in their formal and spatial articulation: National Hydrometeorological Service (1972) by Krsto Todorovski and Telecomunication Center (1972-1981) by Janko Konstantinov – devoted to science and the state of the arts technology; Macedonian Opera and Ballet (completed 1979) by the Slovenian architecture office Biro71 – part of a project for cultural center; Ss Cyril and Methodius University Campus (1970-1974) by Marko Mušič – putting the higher education among the highest public imperatives; and City archive (1966-1968) by Georgi Konstantinovski – to treasure and govern the memory of the city.

Telecommunication Center in Skopje by Janko Konstantinov | Photo unknown

Main Post Office Hall in the past. | Photo by Divna Penčić

Clear distinction of the office building and the main hall is united through the expressive sculpturality in concrete. The spectacular space of the main hall as once popular for telephone and postal services is not gone even after the fire in 2013 that destroyed beautiful murals and furniture, leaving the bare concrete structure. The space below the dome together with the space between the buildings that create this assemblage synchronize the fluidity of public terrain in and out of the building.  

Main Post Office Hall - current condition. | Photo by Georgi Licovski 

National Hydrometeorological Service Building. | Photo Blagoja Bajkovski 

What appears as robust and imposing structure reappears in almost domestical working space inside. The architecture of this building is constructed of many fragmented pocket spaces that combine functionality with the idea of inner public rooms. The generosity of the inner space proved suitable also as a setting for this year Biennale of Young Artists.

Entrance hall of the National Hydrological Building. | Photo Angelika Apsis

Plan for Cultural Center by Biro 71 | Source: Bajkovski, B. (2020). Operative Atlas of Skopje Brutalism_Graphic Biography of 15 Architectures, Unpublished PHD dissertation, Department of Architecture and Territory (dArTe), Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria)

Macedonian Opera and Ballet - exterior. | Photo Unknown author

Macedonian Opera and Ballet - interior. | Photo Blagoja Bajkovski

The peculiar topography of the building extends and complements the plateau overlooking the riverbank (recently notoriously transformed and thus lost beyond redemption). The ‘icebergs’ of splintering architectural masses integrate public plaza with inner intimate spaces, thus interplaying outside and inside, allowing free flow of the publicness.

Ss Cyril and Methodius University Campus, aerial view. | Photo Blagoja Bajkovski

Ss Cyril and Methodius University Campus. | Photo Boris Jurumovski

The megastructure in a Metabolist manner stems from the main open square through inner aulas to the smallest cell. In that way the public space is becoming single element that transgress the boundaries of the buildings functionally creating one autonomous machine for education.

Skopje City Archive. | Photo unknown author

Skopje City Archive - entrance Hall. | Photo Aleksandar Zatkovski

Skopje City Archive - interior. | Photo Marija Mano Velevska

Monumental axial composition of two programmatically and volumetrically distinctive parts speaks for the importance of the institution, whereas its scale and materiality provide rather intimate atmospheres inside, offering unique visual and tactile perceptions.

In these remarkable architectures we recognize the standpoint amidst devastation that is both bold and progressive. The architectural credo ‘only sky is the limit’ became societal goal and the exceptional and unprecedented architectures defined the territory of the city as ‘a brave new world’. Not only the city of Skopje but the whole society had undergone massive transformations that established its trajectory of growth and progress. 

These examples not only meet the institutional and state demands, but also are expressed in a variety of forms and compositions that emanate an emblematic if not monumental image, while at the same time embrace the publicness in different ways and manners. Despite the institutional and representational values, we find the architecture of these buildings esthetically abundant and socially generous. 

—

FOMA 46: Marija Mano Velevska and Slobodan Velevski

Marija Mano Velevska (1977) and Slobodan Velevski (1976) are associate professors at the Faculty of Architecture, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, in Skopje, where Marija teaches courses in Architectural design, while Slobodan teaches Urban design. Together, they lead master design studio in architectural-urbanism entitled Growth 2.0 (previously Patterns of Growth). In 2018 they curate the Macedonian national pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia with the project Freeingspace, which reflects on the fragmentary nature of contemporary city and sees the concept of freedom as embedded in the multitude of current socio-spatial and political realities. The exhibited projects include collaboration with several young architectural groups on a design task for the city of Skopje dealing with the transformations that Modern architecture legacy from the socialist period has undergone in the neoliberal economy. They are also authors and editors of several publications including Conversations (2010) comprised of interviews with eminent architects and educators (such as Elia Zenghelis, Alexander Brodsky, Neil Leach, Carlo Ratti, and Dietmar Steiner among others), and design studio series ‘Patterns of Growth’/’Growth 2.0’ with the books: Microcity (2016), Residual Form (2017), Un-natural Ecologies (2018), Freeingspace (2019), and Narratives (2020).

[naradasblog]

How come is Digital Media More popular?

narada

If you want to explain electronic digital media, you would declare that the electronic media channels that work on handheld codes and worked across online thing format is called a digital news media. If you think this particular definition is a lot more technical, we can state in other words that the via the internet news media is the long term of many things, just like marketing, advertisement, trading of information, verbal exchanges media, etc . It truly is changing the concept of promoting, advertising, and the strategy information is viewed and accessed.

narada

You should also refer digital press to the electronic or even online media which can be becoming our essential now, such as cell phones, compact discs, internet, digital camera video, minidisc, personal pc, e-Commerce, e-book, television system, video games, and many additional interactive media. They might be called online press since they have the ability to stash information in digital camera way. Among them, world wide web is the most powerful 1.

Internet offers wonderful flexibility and user friendly. We can store snap shots, audio and videos material, graphics, in addition to rich text. This growing use of web and the great pros it offers are simply no secret for anyone.

Your fusion of electronic digital media and online world has created a new society of fantasy. The country's growing importance are usually judged by the proven fact that some universities possess created its school; for instance, the Digital camera Media Academy from Stamford University. At this point, students can be a part of certificate courses around 3D animation, online designing, and show production. If most people move further in front of you and find the varieties of digital media along with how they can help you and me, we can certainly excuse the growing reputation of digital storage devices.

Digital news media even offers great chances of purchase in businesses linked with it in any facet. There is always something completely new and useful for those. Online media can be attracting more and more people every single day and offers great probabilities of secures investment. You have got many lines to get, such as internet mass media, social media websites, handheld news media technologies, and so forth

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Narada is a multi-platform news and entertainment digital media company for Millennials and Gen Z in Indonesia

[coreytaylorslefteyespupil]

why clowns aren’t scary + how society makes serial killers and mass murderers pop culture

i’m first going to put a massive trigger warning here. the full list will be in the tags

in this day and age when you think of a clown, you don’t think of a sad circus clown or juggling; you think of clowns like pennywise from “it” or jojo the klownzilla from “killer klowns from outer space”, among other, similar things. or you think of juggalos like insane clown posse or twiztid. either way, clowns in modern pop culture are creepy or edgy or in a “gang”(by the way, juggalos are not in a gang). but this is a recent thing and clowns were never supposed to be scary.

clowns have been around since 2400 bc during the fifth dynasty of egypt, and since then they have become a staple of comedy and entertainment. the first clowns as we know them, though, were created during 1800s with characters like joey the clown and others became popular. from then on, clown characters like bozo the clown were non threatening and fairly funny. yes, some of the face paint was a little odd but there were no bad intentions. until the 1980s.

john wayne gacey was caught and put in prison for the murders and sexual assaults of 33+ young boys and men in 1978, and the media went wild. this was one of america’s biggest serial killer cases to date, so every news station, paper, and radio was covering the case and trial. one detail that stuck with people had nothing to do with the crime itself, though. it was the fact that, in his free time, gacey dressed up as circus clown named pogo the clown, or sometimes patches the clown, for children’s hospitals and charity events. this allowed the media to call him the “killer clown”.

this obviously went on to inspire many movies and books such as “killer klowns from outer space”, “31”, “terrifier”, “it”,” wrinkles the clown”, “stitches”, among others. on top of that, a whole season of “american horror stories” was based off of killer clowns. wether intentionally or subconsciously, all of these films and movies and books were, in some capacity, inspired by gacey. in fact, in modern media, we hardly see any content about clowns showing them in a good light, aside from the big comfy couch.

this is a prime example of the way that society takes crime cases, particularly serial killers and mass murderers, reports them to hell, then ends up placing them into popular culture. we should not see a pair of specific glasses and immediately think of jeffrey dahmer. we shouldn’t see a clown and think of john wayne gacey. we shouldn’t see a volkswagen beetle and think of ted bundy. i could go on. the way society chooses to report on certain incidents is important and they tend to go about it the wrong way. for example, the only reason we had the sandyhook massacre and the uvalde massacre is because the killers were inspired by columbine, and the way mass media reported on it definitely influenced those killers. another example would be russian serial killer alexander pichushkin, who was inspired by fellow russian serial killer andrei chikatilo. the list goes on. i’m not saying media shouldn’t cover crime cases, especially mass murders. they absolutely should. bringing awareness to a situation is extremely important. but what shouldn’t be done is capitalizing off of tragedy and reporting it constantly.

another thing i wanted to bring up here, which i mentioned briefly, is capitalizing off of tragedy and trauma. for example, netflix recently released “dahmer”, their second docuseries about jeffrey dahmer. for some background, the families of dahmer’s victims, as well as the families of other killer’s victims, have repeatedly asked for media to stop making movies and documentaries about the tragedy, as it re-traumatizes them. which is 100% valid and i 100% agree with that. but netflix disagrees, goes against their wishes, and pumps out highly produced documentary after highly produced documentary. then each of these documentaries hits the top ten things on the platform, so everyone watches it, talks about, allows netflix to make millions off of it, and re-traumatizes hundreds of families who have lost loved ones to the depraved people we choose to use as entertainment. it disgusts me and angers me so much and i can’t help but feel horrible for the families.

i am aware i went all over the place in this essay, and i am aware of how dark this is. but it’s something that i want to talk about even if only a few people see it. it is important to discuss these topics and the awful way media and people in general discuss these atrocities.