#diaspora boy

[steveyockey]

I love the Haggadah, the guidebook to the Passover seder, because it's one of the few Jewish texts that embraces imagery, and because its imagery has evolved to reflect the perspectives of particular periods and communities. One section in particular, the Four Sons (updated to Four Children) frames various approaches to questioning and answering the Passover narrative. They each embody types: the Wise Child, the Wicked Child, the Simple Child, and the Child Who Does Not Know How To Ask. It's the representations of the Wicked Child that fascinate me. The Wicked Child is said to cut himself off from the community, and in turn the community is obligated to ostracize him. He is what we might call a “self-hater." For hundreds of years, Haggadot in Europe depicted the Wicked Child as a warrior, his uniform updated for the region and era in which the story was retold. It was a point of Diasporic pride that Jews and war—and, by extension, Jews and empire—were incompatible. Not just incompatible: mutually exclusive. Judaism was fundamentally opposed to tyranny and all its trappings. Soldiers were intrinsically wicked, their armaments signifiers of depravity.

Then, after 1948, this imagery was reversed, and the uniform vanished. Not only was it no longer acceptable to depict the Wicked Child as a soldier; it was now often the Wise Child, typically the hero, who'd get that role—depicted as an Israeli soldier, of course. There are Israeli Haggadot with soldiers everywhere, not just among the Sons. And not just Haggadot; some of my favorite Rosh Hashanah cards involve soldiers, tanks, gunships, and aircraft carriers. "Have a sweet New Year, also here's a hand grenade!" It's almost a parody of the traditional antipathy for warriors, and a brutal denial of what used to be intrinsic to Judaism. I know Zionists will read this differently—pre-state Jews feared armies because they had no sovereignty, we need our own nukes, etc. The gleaning I take is that neither culture nor self-imagery is static. Contexts change, authenticity is subjective, culture is fluid. The one constant is that the Haggadah itself, and everything it represents, is our cultural firmament, and it is everybody's. Imagery, tradition, family, history, narrative: they're all part of the ever-morphing palette of art.

Who knows, maybe one day we'll stop policing legitimacy based on conformity to twentieth-century dualities etched in stone. In the meantime, we have comics.

Eli Valley, Diaspora Boy: Comics on Crisis in America and Israel (2017)

[nothingbysomebody]

[sxnshxnxxnddxxsxxs]

if you wanna give duke a super, cool

give him like steel, not because they’re black, but because black people find community with one another *shocking*.

but also please remember that duke is a super in his own right (i personally think that his light powers include the ability to move at the speed of light or at least should develop that way) and specifically he is cass’s super.

because he and cass are besties.

like lowkey it’s hilarious that wfa put cass and kon’s brief dating history above cass and duke’s very well established close friendship for who cass considers to be her super (especially when it’s becoming apparent that some people didn’t know that cass and kon dating was canon).

[bonesandpoemsandflowers]

honestly, I feel like Dave McKean's work elevated Neil Gaiman way more than the other way around and we don't distribute credit for that properly. I truly don't think--and, critically, never have thought--the early Sandman writing was so good that it would have gotten far without the heavy hitting art lending it such an air of respectability. McKean's work is so visually distinct still, let alone 20 years ago, let alone 30. "This is serious art for serious stories for serious people," those mixed media paintings say when they're surrounded by pen and ink put out on a brutal schedule. "I am a serious person with sophisticated tastes," the buyer says, given permission to be pretentious and smug as hell, which is very alluring to many people.

[jesncin]

Hello!! I saw yalls lunar boy post (which made me so extremely happy btw, genuinely got teary eyed while reading it) and it said that yall did a lot of research into queer indonesian history and media? If yall dont mind could you link some of those? Im studying up on queer indonesian history myself and struggling to find good resources 😅 ofc all of these are /nf!! Feel free to ignore me and im so sorry for bothering yall 🙏🙏

Not a bother at all, and I'm super happy to hear that the Lunar Boy Queer Escapism comic made you so happy! 💜 Ooh yes there's a ton of sources. From the top of my head:

Creating Spaces for Dialogue: Exploring Queer Cinema in Southeast Asia. An extremely thorough analysis and catalog of queer cinema throughout SEA, with a very robust Indonesian section. My buddy Gris did the research for this and they're very dedicated to this sort of stuff! The Kontinentalist in general has fantastic articles.

Queer Indonesia Archive. An incredible digital collection archiving the lives of queer Indonesians. There's magazines, posters, photos, newspaper clippings, and more! I've talked to and met some of the people working on this project and they're very passionate about memory preservation.

Beyond the Binary: Two Bissu Defend Their Roots in Sulawesi. New Naratif has some good articles covering queer Indonesian lives. I think personal interviews and their reporting are their strong points. I've illustrated for them a couple of times (all queer related things lol). Looks like their website is down at the moment but will be back in May!

Vice Indonesia has some great stuff like their video on Lengger Lanang, Bunda Mayora, and more! I recommend Madame X Memories: The Rise and Fall of Indonesian Queer Cinema.

Bissu A Frame of Diversity. A recent video on the Bissu of Sulawesi. I consider it extremely important to be able to hear from Bissu themselves, since most resources are by white anthropologists who often misconstrue queer Indonesian culture.

The writings of Nurdiyansah Dalidjo. He writes in Indonesian (sorry not in English, my language barrier self uses a mix of google translate and my own Indonesian to read his stuff), but the work he does is invaluable. Whether it's personal reflections on his life, or covering the lives of other queer people, it's all fantastic writing. He did a series "Queer di Masa Lansia" covering elder queer people that is very much worth a read. He's active in waria spaces, working together with transfemme lower class people. I've met him, he's very nice to me :( Idk why :'((

So I hope this is helpful! Early on when I did research for Lunar Boy I reached out to academics on queer Indonesian identities and while some of it was helpful (bless Dédé Oetomo for giving me the time of day and answering my questions), I've learned it was more valuable and enriching to find material that talks more directly with queer people. Stuff that isn't filtered through a scholarly lens or bias. If there's any takeaway I can give, it would be that.

[salty-software-engineer]

Man I just finished Babel and I was excited to read discussions online because there's so much going on in it with so many little things and just....angry white people. Everywhere. Truly a dead dove moment.

[softseaside]

Blauauge (”blue eye”) but give him different eyes colors depending on his mood 😐🤢😡🥰🤨

Since he has access to the Thaumaturgy cantrip as a tiefling, I liked the idea that he can change his eye colors depending on his mood 👀💙 They only change when feeling very strong emotions and he doesn’t notice the color change 🤔

Blauauge didn’t raise up with other tieflings and therefore feels disconnected to his heritage and doesn’t know how to use his corresponding tiefling traits 🤔 ALSO, he is very bad at regulating his emotions ✨

[yearningforunity]

Design Cut by Twin Barbers, Brixton, 1992.

Ph. Carole Wright

[bravest-notts]

we're now maybe two or three sessions from fighting an ancient white dragon who's also wielding a powerful fire orb on top of his usual abilities. as The Cleric™ i am feeling a growing sense of anticipation and nervousness, like preparing to sit for an exam held at gunpoint

[josephinekhawaja]

Been seeing posts around proposing Satine and Bo-Katan Kryze as respectively the Star Wars Elsa and Anna...

...given obvious visual and probably other parallels. And I do see what they see, this is the way. But just immediately hilarious to me on another level as Anna endgames with a more working-class dude with 'zero social skills', who starts off as not exactly her favourite person in the universe or at that to be stuck with. And whose dearest companion is assuredly non-human because humans are overrated as at least half the song goes (facts though, Kristoff -- where is the lie). Perfection.

[julietwiskey1]

Also when Mon and Perrin were discussing their arranged marriage has a cut to Leida standing a few feet away eating a green pastry and walking away. The only way I can describe it is the most suspicious way to eat a pastry and leave.

I wonder how long Leida has been attending the cult like meetings in episode 11. She has the traditional hair style they all wear, but it’s only at this point the Vel seems actually surprised and worried. So I’m not sure if the hairstyle is a true indication of length of attendance.

Her cadence seems slightly off in her solo recital, like it’s not drilled into her yet. But who knows. I’m probably reading too much into this. But I do wonder how much of it is turning towards her old tradition to feel connection and how much it is to get at her parents.

[cosmicrhetoric]

im trying to exit my hater era re: YA like i have better things to do with my time but by simply being brown and following some book accounts i have been getting nonstop press for that book that's being marketed as like desi fantasy watched jodha akbar jashne bahara once enemies to lovers dupatta caught on some white boy's wrist shyamalan era firebending book and let me tell you. you couldn't pay meeeeeeee

[dtkqer]

like can we be honest for once. q is kinda very white passing

[themainannoyance]

Boys, we are so fucking close to getting a sexy apartment.

[youarenot-theexception]

I just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaleed Hosseini. My mind is blown away yet again by his articulation of emotions and language for story telling. I just wanna say to the people i really love and appreciate, for you, a thousand times over.

[earth-1218designate]

Just read the latest One Piece (Ch.1119), now Luffy is a Sun God? And of course Nika is in the same phonetic family as Naga.

Crazy how cultures that are not of the Afro-diaspora can tell our stories, but how would an Afro-Brazilian (like Luffy) or a U.S. black Leo (like me) be treated in JP today?