#from a historical perspective

[mxystan]

taiwan travelogue by yang shuangzi tr. lin king is indeed an award-winning banger and perhaps the first time in my life i've ever felt vindicated for dual-wielding a novel with its english translation because the act of translation itself is such a big theme in the novel. big win for metafiction-obsessed himejin everywhere!!

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Can’t sleep, and, as is my wont, I fell down a horrifying internet rabbit hole,* this time about September 11, 2001.

I was in seventh grade French class, in the Hudson Valley region of New York, when I got a call from the front office that my mom was there to pick me up. Steven B. commented: “a lot of people are getting picked up this morning!”

My mom was crying, she tried to explain what had happened, but I think my brain kind of rejected what she was saying. I didn’t really get it/appreciate what happened until I was 19 or 20, when I was a collections management intern at the 9/11 Memorial Museum before it opened to the public.

That’s when I finally Got It and everything I’d been repressing. Every year after that I would watch the live news footage from that day on YouTube.

It haunts me, not just because of what happened, but because of what it led to. How much pain, how much grief, how much suffering and war and genocide could have been averted if the FBI and the CIA hadn’t been locked in a power struggle? Where would/could the country be politically if the two orgs had compared intelligence and intervened?

As a historian, I think it’s important avoid binary thinking like “oh a, b, and c happened and that’s why Elon Musk is staging a coup.” It’s obviously much more complex than that. What’s occurring in the USA Federal government is the result of decades of careful GOP planning and strategizing and if we can isolate a cultural moment that “led” to it, it would be the election of Ronald Reagan, and even that is far too simplistic.

Idk, I’m rambling. I don’t consider myself to be old, but it’s almost like I refused to grasp what had happened that day in 2001 because I was cognizant of the fact that something massive, something of global historic import, had just gone down, and my 12 yo brain couldn’t deal with it.

But now I’m 35 and I saw history. And that was the end, I think of the world the Baby Boom generation raised their millennial kids to thrive in.

At some point I binge watched Fringe, and that shot where it’s revealed that Leonard Nimoy is in the parallel universe because the camera pans out and it’s revealed that his office is in one of the WTC towers? I couldn’t breathe for a minute.

*once in grad school the rabbit hole was the genocide in the Balkans in the 90s and everything I read that night is seared into my brain.

ETA: I’m intentionally not discussing that things I saw and learned working for the museum, and my feelings about the deaths which occurred that day. It feels almost…unholy to talk about that stuff online. I don’t believe in god or a higher power, but “holy” is the only word that makes sense there.

[philosophicalparadox]

Also, I have no idea if Miura was keeping this in the back of his head given the amount of research he did, but medieval views of homosexual behavior were…well not actually that “medieval”.

Like, yeah, the church definitely frowned on that, but the whole corporal punishment thing wasn’t really enforced even after it became a cardinal sin circa the 1280’s. It wasn’t until after the 1560’s and well into the renaissance that homosexual behavior became a Big Deal and people were intentionally killed for it. Prior, the punishment for serial sodomy (which as a legal term included things like pedophilia and BDSM in most places) was castration, which incidentally killed about half the people it was done to by way of infection. But those who survived, interestingly, were often all but forced into the Church ironically enough, often as monks or infamously choir boys,less because no one else would take them and more because they had to serve penance and if you were too poor to pay the fine, you basically became a monk or nun and toiled away the fee.

Aaaanyway back on track: The overarching view of homosexual behavior was that it was behavioral; there was no such thing at that time as a “gay” man, only a man who engaged in homosexual activity. Which many straight men did and still do selectively, I.e oral and “helping hand” type things between friends to demonstrate comraderie and/or to assert power or control over another man.

To this end, Miura did actually depict the unfortunately common practice of militaristic men “hazing” the newbies by doing sexual things to them, though raping them is an extreme example. That was a thing that happened with surprising regularity if the casualness of the few sources there are is any indication. They did this not because they were gay, but for the exact same reason frat houses haze their newbs - to establish the pecking order and display dominance, which is essential to the functioning of any military operation, but more so when your men are in a mercenary Band as opposed to a company; the former being smaller, less well organized versions of the latter, usually started by men that didn’t have the tenure to form or join a Company, which was made up almost entirely of retired knights with years of experience. Consequently Companies could be very very picky about their recruiting. Bands were less so, and often fizzled out or turned to criminal behavior because they lacked the discipline(and financial backing) of a Company. Miura depicted that element quite accurately too, with the Band of the Hawk engaging in robbery and in particular pillaging for resources. (That is the entire point of raiders by the by; their sole purpose is to raid, intimidate, and all around be jerks and thieves who dgaf about being either)

Point being, while there’s likely a correlation between Miuras personal interests and the quasi- homosexual lusting after Griffith for his androgyny, it also would not be considered unusual at all in the setting to find him attractive or want to bed him, especially given that he holds so much authority.

Part of why I think Miura threw in the jab Corkus made about Guts being a fag is to further accentuate not only Griffiths attractiveness but the implication that those feelings were not necessarily out of place for the setting. Frowned upon maybe, but not uncommon. Even in medieval times there was definitely an existing double entendre to the phrase, courtesy the aforementioned hazing behavior, implying that Guts might be using “favors” to get Griffiths approval. That he said it in public makes it feel like it leans more towards the slightly more literal archaic meaning someone who is inherently subservient (or the very literal one; fags were below pages in the order of things, so that was about as low as you could go) but that doesn’t really vibe with Guts personality or the fact he is at that point well known as a commander, (albeit maybe not to everyone) so I have to assume that what Corkus meant was intended to be suggestive, unless he was being hyperbolic in his distaste of the man - either way its an interesting addition personally, and as is the case with much of Miuras writing, very up to interpretation.

Anyway TLDR is that it wouldn’t have been remotely out of place in a realistic medieval setting (which, barring some anachronisms and typical Manga/ fantasy things, Berserks world is actually pretty accurate to the 1420’s period) for even “straight” men to find Griffith attractive or even sleep with him, for power/status reasons.

Is there any straight explanation for how a lot of men in the manga are textually thirsty for griffith? Like what was the point? And also i feel like Miura be projecting his own atracttion into it... Like he really wants to fuck him i get uncomfy sometime, idk if that makes sense

Based on at least this interview Miura did have a thing for androgyny so yeah that's likely a factor, though I don't find it uncomfortable. Who doesn't want to fuck Griffith, good for Miura if he wanted to too.

That said, it does fit the themes lol. There's no straight explanation, but imo there is an explanation that goes a little deeper than fun homoeroticism. I've discussed aspects of it before so I'll link a few things.

I have this post about people pedestalizing Griffith and how it facilitates the tragedy of the Golden Age.

This post about how Griffith is a symbol to people and his beauty reflects that.

And this post about his sexual vulnerability and how that's a major theme of his narrative wrt trauma.

Basically Griffith's attractiveness fits his narrative perfectly because his narrative is all about embodying an idealized image of himself to achieve his goals and deny his own vulnerabilty, and how that ultimately fucks him over when everyone including Guts believes that image and doesn't see the real person underneath, and results in him eventually losing everything human about himself and more literally becoming the image when he becomes NeoGriffith. And this is all tied up in trauma as well, which is also related to his beauty, eg Gennon.

Thanks for the ask!

[marzipanandminutiae]

tumblr: your boss is not your friend! they shouldn't be making you do emotional labor! work-life balance! do only what they pay you for and then check out! [to be clear, I agree with this sentiment]

also tumblr: omg why is this literary protagonist saying she's LONELY when there are SERVANTS ALL AROUND HER?! what a SNOB she is to not BEFRIEND THEM AND TELL THEM ALL HER TROUBLES!!!

[luthanraels-bignaturals]

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else talking about how karmic Fitzjames’ fate was.

From the perspective of the artic, it’s a revenge story. His wounds- the wounds he always bragged about, which he got from helping imperialize and plunder, wounds he got from people trying to protect their homes- literally reopening themselves???? This place wants us dead??? “Our ghosts have strong hands and long memories” type beat????

[thatdisasterauthor]

Me: okay, so, I want to learn about the sociology and psychology of people and cultures before, during, and after disasters--

Every college program and academic journal: TERRORISM. YOU MUST WANT TO LEARN ABOUT TERRORISM.

Me: I mean. I'm not really all that interested in the specific causes, so, yeah, maybe a little terrorism, but there's a lot of other disasters out th--

Every college program and academic journal: TERRORISM. ONLY TERRORISM. andlikemaybeonebadearthquakeorsomething. TERRORISM.

[theactualsunshinechild]

I think Aventio and Screwtio shippers shouldn't fight. After all, Ratio has two hands!

That's right. Two hands.

One for his chalk.

One for his codex.

Both of which he's holding in an embarrassed death grip as they chat away with each other about him.

[curse-of-dming-strahd]

I was trying to explain to my group that Barovia is the whole valley but for some reason the game designers decided the little village at the base of the mountain is also called Barovia and it's confusing and I don't know why they did it

and one of my players just goes, "Oh, like New York, New York."

and I'm more okay with Barovia, Barovia now.

[ellmovy]

My Dearest Enemy Act II: 1066 - 1453 // 'An expert in a dying field'

The Chronological FRUK Playlist Part 2/6

Here we go it's enemy time. More genre variety as well now!! I really like this one lol

Part One

[ameliafuckinjones]

Reading this article about how the James Bond films/books embody the 5 stages of grief that British society/a generation (especially the author who lived during the twilight years of the empire) went through after the loss of the empire and how Bond is supposed to represent the British pov and its new role on the world stage as America assumes the role of superpower and engages in a cold war with Russia. It talks about the nostalgia and anger and resentment that the author channeled through his writing at each stage the empire was taken apart (From Indian independence to the Suez Canal crisis). The article suggests that the books/films engage in the fantasy of Britian (or British agents) still being capable and perhaps a bit better than their American counterparts despite America's technological and economic dominance. Also, the constant fantasy of being the only one who can save America and the world. I kind of like it because in a way it fits my own personal head canons about how England came to view his relationship with America, paired with the constant need to give into fantasy/delusions and illusions at odds with reality which kind of goes with his astrology (Neptune in his first house):

I love entertaining the thought that England doesn't start being truly angry with America until AFTER his empire falls and America replaces him. Before that, he viewed America how one might view an aggressive chihuahua: a bit annoying and perplexing, but easy to ignore or placate. That is no longer the case post-WWII, and it pisses him off to no end. He compensates by trying to take a more dominant role in their relationship, though on the social/personal level. He did become a bit more dominant/aggressive on a geopolitical level during the Falklands War, when America under Reagan tried to caution the UK from going to war over the Falklands and England basically said "fuvk OFF" and then America ended up siding with him ANYWAY and he hadn't felt that alive in YEARS.

In my mind, modern England as a character is a bitter old man who still holds in his heart an insatiable lust for a "larger than life" existence with no outlet for that lust in the modern world (where he is no longer the Empire) and it is driving him insane. Comparatively (and to a go a bit off tangent) America is being driven insane by anxieties over his pre-eminence as the worlds first superpower -a role he believes he wasn't ready for though he'll never give England or anyone else the satisfaction of knowing that- and his own mortality due to being so young and in his mind in much more danger of seizing to exist in comparison to older nations (though in truth he shouldn't worry so much, after all France is still around and he literally went through a death and rebirth during his Revolution. It takes a lot to completely disappear a nation).

[fallowhearth]

I don't know how many people remember this, but 2000s internet feminism was obsessed with trying to rehabilitate the reputation of periods with all kinds of stupid reheated divine feminine, feel connected to your womanhood, all negatives are socially constructed, etc bullshit. 4chan had its fun creating extreme versions of this stuff, but they didn't invent it whole cloth. It was inescapable. Anyway, I'm so glad people have moved on and are no longer trying to convince everyone that periods are awesome. So happy that it's now uncontroversial to say that shit sucks.

[henke-penke]

Until Death.

Tumblr exclusive prequel to There's Something Off About Heather ! I highly suggest you read that before this one, because the best way to experience that oneshot is if you know as little about it as possible, and this oneshot spoils the whole mystery part imo.

To the people who have read the first oneshot, enjoy :> !

(If there are any spelling mistakes in this no there aren't)

Content Warning: Semi-graphic descriptions of murder and violence. Morality being thrown out the window. Slight possessiveness (it's nothing crazy, just a line here and there alluding to it, but it's there). I may or may not have gone a bit too hard on framing murder as romantic, but this is horror so it is what it is.

“Sometimes I wish they were dead.”

Alejandro didn't mean it. Never ever would he wish harm upon his family. It was a slip of the tongue, occurring one night when his emotions had gotten the best of him. When the stress had gotten too much to bear. 

Neither Heather nor Noah had said anything about it. Just held their partner through his turmoil in gentle hands reserved only for each other. 

It was a slip of the tongue. 

Yet it lingered in the back of their minds. 

During every dinner party they attended out of nothing but polite obligation. Every time they read their demeaning letters and forced themselves to write back. 

It would forever remain unknown who made the first move: who gave that final push. But soon enough, a plan was made. One they prepared for over the better part of a year. Memorizing routines and creaking floorboards. Marking trails in the forest surrounding the Burromuerto mansion under the guise of getting fresh air. Getting their hands on the axe José, Alejandro’s brother, had been gifted years prior. 

In the middle of the night, May 5th, 1941, they arrived at the mansion. Veiled in darkness, wearing gloves and strangers’ shoes to obscure their trails. 

They entered the house with no problems, and snuck up to the second floor where Sr. and Sra Burromuerto were fast asleep. Unaware of the retribution to come.

Alejandro held José’s axe aloft and stared down at the still form of his father. So peaceful, so harmless. Like an innocent man. It filled Alejandro with unbridled rage.

The axe came down to bury itself deep in the man's abdomen. He awoke with a pained gasp far too late. Alejandro dislodged the axe and struck again and again. Falling into the familiar rhythm of chopping wood for the fireplace.

Blood splattered about, staining the bedsheets and Alejandro's face. His mother awoke at some point, screaming in terror as she tried to escape. But Heather and Noah blocked her path. They held her down while Alejandro wrapped wire around her neck and pulled it tighter and tighter. It cut through her skin, her muscles, her veins. Turning desperate gasps for air into thick gargling as blood flooded her throat.

There was resentment in her eyes— searing through the panic of her life being forced away. The eyes staring back down at her did so in absolute hatred and without remorse. 

With the world two lives poorer, they began to clean up whatever tracks they had left and then set the stage. The perfect framing of José Burromuerto— an impatient and greedy man, who thought he could get away with speeding up the process of gaining his share of the family fortune. Who snuck in through the backdoor, murdered his parents, and buried his axe out in the forest. 

Unfortunately for him, he forgot to rid the imprint of his boots on the carpet. Forgot that he left the spare house keys his mother had entrusted him with at the scene of the crime. 

As they intended, José was arrested for the murder of Sr. and Sra Burromuerto less than a week later. And as an added bonus, he was given the death penalty. They took the news with feigned devastation, Alejandro shedding crocodile tears. An award-winning performance that left the audience none the wiser as they sang their sympathies. 

And maybe they should've stopped there, but they didn't. 

It was three months after the death of his parents when Alejandro surprised Noah and Heather with intricate bouquets of roses— and an unconscious body in the basement of their house. He was gifted gleeful smiles and kisses in return, and then they got to work.

Heather slammed a hammer against ankles and wrists— splitting skin and cracking bones. Noah twisted the knife each time he buried it in the flesh, scraping at the insides. And wielding his own axe, Alejandro dismembered the body. 

It was a near bloodbath. They could afford to be messy, to be less organized. There was no plan; just a body and pent-up grievances with having to play nice. Never had they expected it to be so liberating to let go of decency and politeness, and be truly horrible. 

There was also something so undeniable about the sight of their partners covered in somebody else's blood. A sight meant only for them— a reminder of just how dangerous they were. And how until death, and beyond that evermore, they’d never allow harm to befall their lovers.

Not to mention how absolutely divine they looked in red.

So they continued, treating it as any other date activity. Candle-lit dinners and a body in the basement. Strolls through the park and a victim to hunt. 

Sometimes they did it slowly; Pulled out teeth one by one, injected poisons to watch death make its agonizing claim.

Sometimes they did it quickly; A bullet through the brain, a knife across the throat.

Some were picked at random, simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Others were targeted with reason, simply for being unpleasant to either one of them.

Some they brutalized beyond recognition. Others they left as though untouched.

There was never a pattern to string the deaths together, leaving the police in disarray as they tried to wrap their heads around the cases piling up. They paid little mind to them, they didn’t matter. Not in the slightest. Not when their crimes were so intoxicatingly dreamy.

Gentle hands caressing blood-stained cheeks after bashing someone’s head in. The softest gazes watching grim acts play out. Passionate kisses shared over fresh corpses.

It was the same love that had always been there, as strong as it’d been before— just felt through a new avenue. One meant just for them. One where anyone else would be horrified and call them monsters.

Alejandro couldn’t fathom the idea of anyone viewing his loves as monsters. If anyone did, best it be kept to themselves lest they fall victim. 

On July 23rd, 1945, they stood surrounded by the mangled remains of some poor saps hanging from the trees. Purposefully so, to taunt the police and give the townsfolk the scare of their lives. That was when Alejandro— still covered in blood and viscera— removed his gloves and got on one knee. Presenting Noah and Heather the rings made special for them. 

He knew the answer before he’d even finished his question, and he was overjoyed. They all were. Though of course, someone had to sour it.

So was it really a surprise, that when Heather's father went on a critical tangent— questioning how anyone could love his daughter, the thought crossed their minds;

I wish you were dead.

[goldenstarprincesses]

Out: Puritan and Quaker America

In: America lived with the Shakers because they saw him as just another sad little abandoned orphan and with their interpretation of God leaning more mystical they weren't freaked out by him not aging normally

[smidge-j]

I went to see the first major hydroelectric system (not a dam) built in New Zealand today

Coleridge Power system in Canterbury, New Zealand

Water in the natural Lake Coleridge is diverted through some tunnels (pic 3) under a small mountain, then down the side of the hill through the penstocks (pic 1), where it goes through turbines to generate electricity before being discharged into the Rakaia River(pic 2), which runs parallel to the lake, at a significantly lower elevation. It is not a dam, like most hydroelectric systems are, instead using the natural elevation and tunnels to power the turbines.

Stats:

Operational in 1914

The tunnels through the hill are around 2km long

Elevation difference between the lake and the turbines is around 160m

Output of 270 gigawatt hours annually.

Tagging @possumofdoom because I know you are also interested in hydroelectricity

[alicentflorent]

The problem is that Condal and Hess not only disrespect the source (the book) but also mock it, I read some of their interviews and get the impression that they clearly consider themselves smarter than Martin and think that they understand lore better than the person who created this universe. Like, it's okay when you've read a book and you have some thoughts of your own about this or that, you can express them, but you're not making some kind of a fanfiction, it’s not a retcon or an alternative universe, you're making a tv series based on the book, so be kind and follow its plot, and leave your canons in your head, no one cares about them. All these claims that the book is green propaganda, or it's a maester conspiracy, or only Valyrian blood ppl can ride a dragon and it's Targ propaganda and all the other shit they said in interviews is all their headcanons that has nothing to do with the source. And to criticize it and then intentionally change it show because you don't like it and you don't agree with it is the wildest disrespect to Martin as a writer.

I agree and I’ve seen them doing this too. Like it’s fine to have your own opinions and even change certain things but the people involved in creating the show should be able to behave in a professional manner and adapt the content they’re working with. They also aren’t professional in interviews and criticise the source material (which they aren’t familiar with) and clearly want to create an entirely different show. Their biases also show through the writing and the show suffers because of this.

[gilberttheboy]

The iwtv withdrawals have gotten so bad that i finally caved and watched the queen of the damned movie, and while it is...not good* in most senses of the word, i do find it very funny that marius is Lestat's maker, if only for the fact that it would make armand absolutely insane. What a world we could be living in, with armand and lestat as actual jealous siblings.

*it's almost impressive that they managed to make a movie with so many characters and side-plots and settings and it still feels like nothing happened.