#by someone who is not an idiot

[itmightrain]

"There is no denying that this is a great work of literature, one of the greatest, and at the same time, there should be no denying that it is a bad man's book about his own bad deeds. I think it is the best bad man's book ever written. [...]

The best reasons for not teaching this book to the young are that it gets war exactly right and morals exactly wrong, and that it achieves a crystalline purity of style that looks easy from every angle but proves to be sternly difficult and demanding when faced flat on. [...]

The book pretends to be a set of notebooks, commentarii, the sort of official memos generals sent home to inform their masters of their deeds, the sort historians could come along and use to construct genial and politically agreeable accounts of great events. The style is meant to look simple and to seduce. When we read it, we are meant to think we are getting the plain facts, direct and unvarnished. [...]

Translators of Caesar have always been helpful—much too helpful. Surely, they think, the reader just wants to know what really happened. Caesar would be pleased to think that’s what we think he’s offering."

- Introduction, The War for Gaul by Julius Caesar, a New Translation by James J. O'Donnel

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

I remember discussing Tintin casting choices with a friend from Germany and remarked how it was odd he often has an English accent in adaptations rather than a Belgian one, and my friend just replied "that's because Tintin gives incredibly strong English boy energy (derogatory)"

Here in the UK there's a lot of weird classism tied into accents. Today accent diversity and representation in broadcasting is actively pursued but in Tintin's time there certainly was a preferred accent to have.

imagine this exchange happens between pages 28-29 in The Crab with the Golden Claws

[mysterydragon14]

continuing the cotl hyperfixation

this was my reaction when i first beat the one who waits

[mellosdrawings]

Just a dumb idea

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

A lot of you underestimate how prevalent British bias is not only in F1 but across sports generally, and even in other industries.

Max saying he has the wrong passport in the paddock is an accurate statement. Do you think he, Seb, or Michael would've been half as vilified by the British media if they had a British passport instead? Would Fernando? Do you think Yuki would get half as much shit about his radio "conduct" if he was British? Because it's the British commentators who consistently have issues with it, and say shit like it's "unbecoming" for a driver to speak that way, ignoring that 1 it's not his first language and 2 IT WAS ENGLISH PEOPLE HE LEARNT THAT LANGUAGE FROM. Sometimes people misspeak, but Yuki has always taken accountability and apologised if he has and if he caused harm. Martin Brundle did not get nearly as much backlash from the media when he misspoke and called an Asian driver a slur while commentating. He also never apologised for it.

Alex, one of the four Brits on the grid but who drives under the Thai flag, has said that the commentators only call him British born when he does well. He was completely excluded from the Silverstone publicity about the home crowd heroes, whereas George, Lewis & Lando were heralded, not only on race weekend, but for weeks leading up to it.

Alex's statement also reminded me of this Richard Harris quote, "When I'm in trouble, I'm an Irishman. When I turn in a good performance, I'm an Englishman." Genuinely, if I took a shot every time a British organisation/person claimed a talented Irish person was actually a Brit, I'd have died from alcohol poisoning years ago.

Hell, I see George wearing the poppy pin this weekend in the lead up to remembrance Sunday. Do you know the amount of shit James McClean gets every year because he refuses to wear one? And he has very valid reasons for choosing not to wear it, yet he's torn to shreds every year by not only random people on the Internet or on the streets but by commentators and the media too.

Because of how this sport became mainstream and because no one challenged Bernie Eccleston's monopoly on broadcasting rights back in the day (people were given the opportunity to buy a share of the broadcasting rights; the idiots said no), this sport has prioritised the British voice/perspective for decades. I know the other broadcasts are just as biased for their home team/drivers, but the British one is the biggest one, as it's the main broadcast for better and more often for the worst. It's the broadcast with the most reach and influence. Their bias has to be challenged eventually if this sport ever hopes to properly expand and grow. The British bias is so difficult to miss once you start noticing it.

[egophiliac]

C'MON TO THE THEATER!

I love these guys so much. forget NRC, I want to attend their terrible disaster school for disaster children that might actually be plastered on top of the smoking remains of an actively sinking ship. I may or may not actually learn anything, but I will have the time of my life.

[captainvulcant]

Everyone's always going on about Crowley/David Tennant being the slutty one with his slutty little walk and his slutty and unusual little relationship with furniture but no one talks about slutty Aziraphale/Michael Sheen and his slutty little expressions every time he looks at Crowley, the harlot

Michael Sheen is a master of micro-expressions and knew what he was doing.

[chucktaylorupset]

Sam and Evans relationship is so special yet so simple and it really just is that Sam treats Evan like he's normal and Evan treats Sam like she's serious

[ellmovy]

no way! I actually did it!! here's all 93 hetalia characters, my beloved

the last time I did one of these was like 7 years ago 🥲 here's the previous ones: 2016//Sept 2015//Feb 2015

hope you all enjoy, this is my little treat to the hetalia fandom, also the last digital art I'll do for the next 5 months but I've got something else big to post in a while plus sketchbook stuff!

[macbethz]

“Is doctor who a good or bad person” theyre the kind of person to fly in a little blue box and go weeeeee

[maigetheplatypus57]

watching scar and joel's episodes first and hearing impulse shouting that grian knew there was a cave system when he suggested the vertical mining thing and I was thinking "lol I'm sure grian figured that there was a cave system below but i don't think he knew for sure" and then i watch grian's episode where he stumbles upon the cavern and starts cheerfully explaining how he hopes the vertical mining will end up killing someone for demise and i just. i should not be surprised like yeah ok typical grian behavior.

[9ndreus]

Do you think Aziraphale is the literal origin of the damsel in distress trope or did he get the idea from reading books

[prismatoxic]

i'm feeling a lot of emotions about how the adventurer's guide straight up says laios is smart

like, of course he is. of course he is. i already knew that and i think a lot of other people do too, whether they've read this or not. but also, the perception of him in-universe and also in a lot of the fandom is that he's an idiot, and he's just... not.

he's smart, but not in a way people want. he's smart, but not socially. he's smart, but only in ways that benefit his interests--his love of monsters, his ability to fight them, the things that will save his life and the lives of those he loves. laios is intelligent, but only if you judge him for himself rather than compare him to society at large, to what people think of when they think "smart."

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 264

Danny squints at his tiny hands, eyes narrowing as Clockwork hums in the kitchen. Which he wasn’t even aware of having been in LongNow. Maybe it wasn’t. He huffed, voice too squeaky for him to continue complaining. Stupid time accidents. 

Which wasn’t even starting on the other figure awkwardly sitting at the table. 

He glowered at the Ghost King, who kept glancing at him with an unreadable look in their eyes, then looked back towards where Clockwork was. His scowl deepened over his cup of tea- which wasn’t fair, he wanted coffee but nooo, that’s not healthy for ‘little ghostlings’. Ugh.

Sometimes he wished he was fully ghost so he didn’t have to apparently worry about his living body having to grow back up.

[yore-donatsu]

Some idiot #sketches on Ramattra and D-va bc I like them 😊 (both as silly friends and/or like a ship💜) Before some people start moaning: I love to see our great ommiac in good company and be happy ! 😚

[zivazivc]

my brainrot about these two can be measured in liters