#editorials/essays

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Jorge Carrión - Mito y Magia del Mexicano - Editorial Nuestro Tiempo - 1971

[roobylavender]

i recognize that with the way comics work it's easy to take what is publication fact as canon fact. and while at times this may give way to very useful, innovative readings of characters, at other times it's not much of that at all and instead amounts to a revisionism wherein either a gap in content or a lack of its development is subsequently used to punish the character. i see this happen esp with jason, in that his short-lived term as robin is subsequently used to diminish the life that he led, to deplete it of friends, happiness, joy, interests. and i would really advise against it bc.. sure it's easy to imagine jason had no long-lasting, consistent friends bc editorial never had the time to explore him having any. it's easy to imagine that jason's life as robin was squarely plagued with his anger and grief and emotional instability. it's easy to imagine bruce loved him less bc of how he was deterred from killing the joker or bc of how he othered his grief in the aftermath (personally i severely disagree with this statement but i am making it merely for the sake of argument). the lack of content (and this coupled with the fact that jason's character was rebooted two years prior to his death) makes it very "easy" to envision that jason never actually possessed any personhood in comparison to his contemporaries. but i don't see what it does for jason as a character. why isn't he entitled to the same fully realized life, to the same friendships (mark w. barr and his silly school-centered issues, how i adore you to no end), to the same scope of closeness and endearment and happiness to bruce that anyone else called robin would be? i don't want to take what we lacked in publication as immediate fact of whatever failed to exist in canon. i want to imagine and embrace the trivial details, the nooks and crannies, the meaningless extrapolations of jason's life. i refuse to allow editorial's ignorance, disgrace, and condemnation of his grievances to rob him of a life. he doesn't deserve that, and we should never pander to it

[wordtowords]

Losing on "Jeopardy"?

jeopardy - noun - exposure to or imminence of loss or injury

Looking to find a basic definition, I googled "jeopardy," and guess what I came up with? The television game show, of course! Jeopardy has been on the box for forty seasons, boasting over nine thousand shows. Which says a lot. It says that enough people out there in TV Land (network TV Land) are interested in seeing just how much they learned in all of their years of schooling. Ergo, for decades, they have played along with the three contestants chosen from a deep pool of erudite individuals. But as we all know, when it comes to Hollywood, nothing is as it seems to be, especially in a town that invents fantasies and perpetuates them.

Today, my daughter and I drove onto the Sony Pictures' lot in Culver City (definitely one of my favorite L.A. sub-cities) unprepared for what the morning and a portion of the afternoon would bring us as members of Jeopardy's studio audience. Personally, I thought the experience would be more like being in the house at Jimmy Fallon's show where one observed an even taping and only had to applaud when the flashing light labeled APPLAUSE warranted it. It was more of a live broadcast. Being in the stands at Jeopardy was quite different, like being an extra on a movie set sans the omnipresent catered cuisine and eventual paycheck. We volunteers had to do a lot of cueing up and waiting in corralled herds (common on movie sets), listen to and follow through with multiple directives, and maintain patience while the production crew corrected misspellings on the board and overdubbed some of Ken Jennings's and the contestants' words. We, about a hundred naive tourists, were put in jeopardy as human flaws were being perfected in real time. Of course, no one in the audience realized that the studio system was taking advantage of them since both the parking and ticket to the show were free and so few things in life are free. On the other hand, as P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute." And Hollywood makes no exceptions. 

On the totally positive side, while we were lined up single file outside against the wall of the soundstage, polished Ryan Seacrest, Dick Clark's successor and new host of Wheel of Fortune, drove up in his new muted-gray Austin Martin (yes, I know how much they cost), parked parallel to our firing line, stepped out three feet in front of me and gave me, my daughter and a few other stunned onlookers one beaming Hollywood smile. He was, to be honest, a sparkler, perhaps better looking in real life than on TV. Being able to drool over him for a New York minute was worth the complimentary ticket to Jeopardy and what it yielded.

Needless to say, as many of you bonafide fans already know, the contestants don't lose even if they lose. The second and third place gamers walk away with 2K and 1K even if they wind up with nothing earned. One could say that the audience is at a loss, but it really depends on how you look at it. We did walk away with a thorough knowledge of the recording process and the recognition that it isn't easy. 

My recommendation? Even if you are a huge fan, don't buy a plane ticket to L.A. just to see a taping. Watch the show at home where you can call out the answers–whether they be right or wrong–and throw popcorn at the tube if you feel the answer to the inevitable question was too vague or misleading. We in the audience didn't have those luxuries. I actually missed them. One thing is for certain. If you at home continue watching the show, you'll never be in jeopardy of losing it. 

[saphosticated]

The discursive essay.

I announce it to the class like some foul beast that lurks in the peeling paint on our classroom rafters. Feet shuffle. Eyes avert. But I still start my usual spiel.

The discursive essay is the best type of writing that I will be allowed to teach you during the entire HSC. But, I won’t give you a scaffold. I won’t give you letters like PEEL or PETAL or TEEL to clutch like a life-raft. Instead I will give you freedom.

Sure, you’ll have a prompt. But you can interpret it any way that you want. You can use any techniques. You can discuss anything that interests you. You can have an entire paragraph made up of rhetorical questions and still get a band 6. (Trust me, I’ve seen it)

You can write imaginatively, add in some poetry. Experiment with spacing. Use your punctuation for effect. If you want to write about anxiety (or maybe you’re just overthinking it. Again) you certainly can.

It’s your opportunity to throw away the rules and use your voice. Make allusions to the things you know. The things you care about. Link them to your studies. Make me want to keep reading.

Were Machiavelli’s observations of Florentine society and politics decidedly Lady Whistledown’ish. Maybe you want to see if your reader can decipher the difference between a Taylor Swift lyric and a Shakespeare quote.

Make links between your texts and current events. Maybe it is stupid that you sit in a classroom while the person next to you complains that we have no air conditioning so they won’t do their work, but children are being bombed in Gaza and their schools are now empty mouths in the ground and empty mouths not being fed because of the blockade.

Maybe we taught you too well to follow the rules.

To use your scaffolds.

To tie together your five paragraph essays with overly crafted thesis statements.

To use connectives for your ideas

To analyse the techniques.

To repeat what you’ve been taught.

So much that freedom feels overwhelming. It feels dangerous. This unknown text-type that lurks in the shadows and does not get the love it deserves.

But,

Once you start looking. It’s everywhere. It’s the opinion editorial, it’s the recent personal essay written by Lizzo and published on Tumblr (Go read it, it’s fantastic), it’s blog posts, and travel guides and anywhere that someone is sharing their ideas and their story however they want without trying to persuade you.

It’s the antithesis to AI. It’s the combinations and connections and personal style and voice that only you have. It’s uniquely human, and like the dragon in Shrek. You do not need to be afraid of it.

[steelycunt]

is this political editorial ive written for my unit a masterpiece or a disastrous piece of shit. i dont like the fact that i cant tell

[rubiatinctorum]

i've read three GPT-ass essays in a row for this assignment and I can't even do anything about it except ask students rhetorical questions in the feedback of regarding examples for their points so they realise when they get it back I know they don't really demonstrate knowledge of the text we're writing on

[waugh-bao]

Congratulations!! You must be really wow-ing your professors to get this opportunity. They see that you’re more than capable and up to the challenge even as a baby phD. Way to go!!

Aww, thanks so much! <3

[supercantaloupe]

revising my baroque gender and opera research paper from last spring and. damn i really do think this was some of my best work

[antonia-necochea]

“¿Y hoy? ¿Sigue existiendo lo extraño? En la actualidad se piensa complacientemente que todos son de algún modo iguales. Así vuelve a desaparecer lo extraño en el interior de lo propio. (…) Es saludable dejar un espacio libre en uno para lo extraño. Sería una expresión de amabilidad que también haría posible volverse distinto.” - Byung-Chul Han Editorial @cajanegraeditora . . #philosophy #essay #han #culture #editorial #graphicdesign https://www.instagram.com/p/CmUMet0ufBB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jerxiong]

first post as a bookblr & introduction

hi!

i'm a hmong american writer & editor. i'm joining tumblr as we enter 2023 as a way to keep myself accountable on reading while also supporting books by writers of color. my main focus in creative nonfiction books by asian writers, but i'll occasionally venture to other works in other genres too.

anyway, if you're curious, i'm still experimenting with what i'll post & what will be fun to do, but i think it'll generally be these things:

creative nonfiction / essays / memoirs / graphic memoirs / unconventional genre-bending works

writers of color, specifically asian writers and indigenous writers

BIPOC writers in diaspora

book reviews / maps / boards

book love / recs

book reading liveblogs

reflections / insights on editing

reflections / advice on the mfa creative writing experience

hmong stuff

thanks for reading! looking forward to the community.

[pynkhues]

Julianne Moore was TERRIFYING (and mesmerizing) in May December.

Yes! She is incredible in that! I watched that movie around the same time I read The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman and had so many Thoughts about both that I actually wrote an essay which got picked up by a publication outlet initially but later dropped for space / the fact that they didn't think it would be evergreen. It's evergreen in my head though. haha.

[canpandaspvp]

lord have mercy before i show up at this man's house and attack him

[straykats]

gonna be sick trying to decide if i should take the day easy or if i should start my essays

[wordtowords]

How to Quell Fear

quell - verb - to suppress (esp. an unpleasant feeling) Google.com

Whenever something unexpected happens, human nature presses us to dive head first into a pool of fear. Unfortunately, it is an impulse that is generally acted upon sans any sort of prior contemplation. The way the majority handles fear is either to stand and fight it or flee from it. But then there is the minority that refuses even to wade in the aforementioned cement pond for fear of getting mired in it. I can't help but reflect on F.D.R.'s huge capacity for common sense when he shouted into the microphone at his first inauguration in 1933: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." His ingenious quote has unlimited shelf life, especially when it comes to politics. 

Without stating the obvious re: politics, I will say that here in L.A. county, quite a few people are  drowning in so much fear as a result of the elections that they are relying on therapists and clergy members to offer them mouth-to-mouth resuscitation: advice as to how to quell it. Since I am close to both a top psychologist and an effective Presbyterian minister, I will share their solid suggestions with those of you who are still barely afloat, paddling around on a punctured floatation device in the deep end:

1. Upon waking each morning, take a series of deep breaths and then embrace the impetus to get out of bed.

2. Ignore the constant stream of notifications from The New York Times or similar publications on your smart phone.

3. Don't watch the news until you are doing #1 regularly.

4. Work out by running, walking, lifting weights, etc.

5. Search for a local Buddhist temple and take the monks up on their offer to guide you through a free mediation session.

6. Indulge in yoga or take a sound bath.

7. Concentrate on staying in the moment. Forget about all of the what-if's. Find a safe place and stay in it. 

8. Call a friend whom you haven't spoken to in a while and talk about everything except politics.

9. Let go and let God because you should already know that historically speaking, Goodness tends to prevail in the end.

10. Do all of the above. 

What you should not do is head to the liquor cabinet or your stash of Mary Jane for solace as they will only complicate matters or just kill you eventually. Temporary gratification is just that: temporary. 

Times are tough, but we have all experienced challenges before. No matter what, we will get through whatever might happen. 

[maxmvo]

Carrossel de Instagram: O Ano da Grande Mudança

Em conformidade com uma abordagem de marketing de conteúdo, foi solicitado a elaboração do editorial e o design das peças de modo a garantir uma apresentação equilibrada e de fácil leitura. Contudo, foi primordial manter a vitalidade visual essencial para destacar o conteúdo em meio à intensa competição por atenção nas redes sociais.

[ENG]

Instagram Carousel: The Year of the Great Change.

In line with a content marketing approach, we were asked to draft the editorial and design the pieces in such a way as to ensure a balanced and easy-to-read presentation. However, it was crucial to maintain the visual vitality essential to make the content stand out amid the intense competition for attention on social networks.

[moderncommentary]

Returning to Genesis

Personal essay written for Align Magazine

Written by Chloe Strickland

I. Genesis

The first lesson the Christian church taught me was obedience.

Honor thy father and thy mother. Love thy neighbor. Thou shalt not steal. The Lord detests lying lips.

In the beginning you are taught to be good.

I was raised Christian; I was baptized in the Nazarene church that my parents met through and were married in. My childhood was filled with memorizing Bible verses, sitting silently in rows of dusty pews, Sunday school, and prayer circles. I attended a Christian school until the fourth grade, and spent my summers at Vacation Bible School. Every waking moment of my childhood revolved around God.

Among the virtues Christianity teaches, the main one is obedience. To listen, behave, be truthful, be kind, and be good. And I was.

I was an obedient child. I was described as mild and reserved, and although I was quiet and polite like God wanted, it wasn’t out of sheer devotion, but out of fear.

There were countless nights when I was little where I would lay awake and weep not because of the monster that was hiding in my closet, or the fear of the dark, but because of the dread and terror I had about spending eternity in Hell. I would tally everything I did during the day that could be seen as bad or sinful and beg for forgiveness in my nightly prayers.

I would beg God to forgive me for everything. I thought everything I did was going to send me to Hell.

When my family switched to a non-denominational church, the fear didn’t go away.

This church praised enthusiasm, and the ones who showed the most eagerness for being at church were given the invisible badge of loving God the most.

At this point, I had been led to believe that being a good Christian meant to keep my head down and silently follow instruction, but I wasn’t being rewarded for that anymore. Now, I was being judged by how devout I was.

The workings of the world were explained to me as black and white, good or bad. All I knew was that I had to be on the good side, and this ideology was poison to me.

II. Rebirth

III. Reckoning

I was around seventeen when I stopped going to church regularly. The Church had stopped making me feel good. What used to bring me some semblance of comfort now made me feel worse every time I sat through a service.

At this point, my whole belief system was to be seen as and thought of as good. I did everything I could to fit the mold of a good person, but I was always left feeling empty— not good enough.

When the church taught me the fundamentals of being good, they also taught that people are inherently bad, but that we have the choice to be better. Although I hadn’t yet connected this to my religious background, this concept corrupted good and bad for me as a child, and as a teen and young adult, sent me into a spiral of self-hatred and low confidence.

I was no longer crying myself to sleep out of fear of going to Hell, but rather I was staring at the ceiling for hours contemplating my morality. I didn’t know how to be a good person when I was taught that I was innately bad.

I didn’t start contemplating my religious identity until I entered my twenties and was beginning to figure out who I was. This was where I struggled the most, actually. I had separated myself from Christianity and was trying to find solace in myself, but I only felt adulterated without religion as a foundation.

This inherent evil was looming over me and there was no way to cleave it from myself; I was stuck with it. It was this thought process that sent me into a spiral of unhealthy coping skills and depleting mental health.

This period of time forced me to rebuild. The structure that had been assembled for me to be a good person crumbled, and I had to dig myself out of the rubble.

Writing and literature were comforting to me at this time. I put my pondering thoughts to paper and allowed myself to question everything, even if it felt sinful in and of itself. I sought a lot of comfort in Transcendentalism and delved into mythologies from many cultures which taught me different ideologies of selfdiscovery and transformation.

Only after I gave myself the freedom to explore did I connect my childhood in the church to my conflicting identity. I started unraveling what I had been taught and how it polluted my perspective of myself. I didn’t realize how it subconsciously stayed with me or how my whole character had been twisted and molded to fit into it.

Once I identified the origin of my insecurities, I was able to correct my course, although it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Even today I still struggle with the idea of if I’m a good person or not.

My whole childhood was built on the premise of being a good person. I was given the Bible, told to follow its rules, and when I broke them, confess my sins and ask for forgiveness.

My upbringing in the church gave me a lot of good things. It built my moral code and gave me good values to take with me in life, but it also built the foundation of a belief system that would become detrimental to my personal growth.

I don’t dwell on my religious trauma or the things in Christianity that I disagree with, rather I focus on my personal healing and growing away from the skewed perception of the world I was taught. I still believe in divinity and a higher power, but I believe a person could be good without it.

My experience with religion brought me more fear than peace. I strived for goodness out of fear that badness would damn me eternally, but really I was damned from the start. Until I severed myself from that fear, I found that you aren’t a good person just because you tell the truth, because you follow instructions, or because you’re not a thief.

What makes you a good person is yourself.