#genealogical research is fascinating

[galespillowprincess]

It was the Titanic for me. The fact that some of the survivors were still alive when I was 9. I was actually 24 when the last living survivor died.

Actually girlhood is being obsessed with a specific historical tragedy when you were like 9

[eyeodyssey]

The Post-Futurist Fossils of LITCHI HIKARI CLUB In a somewhat recent research tangent, while considering the possible “genealogy” of the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s themes and aesthetics, I made an interesting personal discovery regarding Litchi Hikari Club. Specifically some distinct thematic parallels that the play shares with the Italian futurist movement, less in relation to the art of the movement itself, but rather the ideologies of the movement’s controversial founder, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and his relation to the Italian fascist party. This is all of course in the context of understanding Litchi as a transgressive/dystopian horror story. This is less of an absolute statement than it is a sort of open train of thought, so take things with a fair grain of salt. This is more or less just my own personal analysis of all the materials I could gather of the original play. Beyond inspecting the play as a possible allegory for futurism, there's also just a lot of general analysis of the play in relation to Ameya's overall body of work, both with the Tokyo Grand Guignol and also as a performance artist. I rarely put a 'keep reading' tag on these things since I'm an openly shameless product of the early days of blogging, but this one's a doozy (both in the information but also just the gargantuan length). Hopefully others will find it just as interesting. The full essay is below...

The futurist movement itself was nothing short of an oddity. In their time, the futurists were pioneers of avant-garde modernist aesthetics, with their works ranging from deconstructive paintings to reality-bending sculptures and even early pathways to noise music with the creation of the non-conventional Intonarumori instruments of Luigi Russolo. Russolo’s own futurist-adjacent manifesto, The Art of Noises, would go on to influence such artists as John Cage, Pierre Henry, Einstürzende Neubauten and the openly left-wing industrial collective Test Department. When visiting the MOMA in New York City as a child, I was fascinated by Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, a sculpture that appeared to be a spacetime malformation of the human figure encapsulated in a continual state of forward motion while in total stillness. Despite this, the futurists were also a social movement of warmongering misogynists, with their own founding manifesto by Marinetti describing the bloodshed and cruelty of war as being “… the only cure for the world”. Their manifesto would also feature quotes such as “We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice”. They would originally pin anarchism as being their ideological ground in the manifesto, but shortly thereafter Marinetti would pick up an interest in fascism along with the politics of Benito Mussolini, going on to be a coauthor for the Italian fascist manifesto alongside the futurist manifesto. In consideration of how throughout most of World War II, modernist and post-modern works were considered “degenerate” forms of art in contrast with traditionalism, a whole avant-garde movement founded from fascist ideals is paradoxical. But for a period of time, that parallel wasn’t only in existence, but backed by Mussolini himself with there being a brief effort by Marinetti to make futurism the official aesthetic of fascist Italy. One of the draws of futurism for Marinetti was an underlying sense of violence and extremity. According to Marinetti, his initial inspiration for the movement was the sensations he felt in the aftermath of a car accident where he drove into a ditch after nearly running over a band of tricyclists. He conceived his works to be acts of social disruption, intending to put people in states of unrest to cause riots and similar bouts of violence. “Art, in fact, can be nothing but violence, cruelty, and injustice”. He sought to destroy history to pave the way for a rapid acceleration to futuristic technological revelation.

“As shown in Edogawa Rampo’s Boy Detectives Club, young men like to hide from a world of girls and adulthood to form their own secret societies.” - June Vol. 27 In Litchi Hikari Club, a group of middle school-aged boys are faced with a crisis on the brink of puberty. At the twilight of their childhoods, they form a secret society known as the Hikari Club (or Light Club), a collective that’s devoted to the active preservation of their shared youth and virginity. The boys naively mimic an authoritarian organization and its hierarchy as they seek a means to preserve their boyhood, which they see as being idyllic in contrast to adulthood, a dreary state of existence that they call old and tired in the Usamaru Furuya manga version of the story. Similarly, in the Litchi Hikari Club-inspired short manga Moon Age 15: Damnation, the boys go on to liken their hideout with the paradisiacal garden of Eden. In said story, Zera would directly name the poem Paradise Lost in reference to the discovery of their hideout by adults (arriving in the form of ground surveyors) and the wide-eyed daughter of a land broker, with their contact to the virgin industrialized land being an ideological tainting of the sacred lair. In their mission, they seek refuge in technological inhumanity by having their penises replaced with mechanized iron penises, symbolic devices of power and violence that can only procreate with other items of technology. Working in absolute secrecy, they collectively manufacture a robot known as Lychee. The purpose of Lychee, previously only known to Zera, isn’t revealed to the other club members until its completion. It’s when they unveil their “cute” robot in a scene that parallels the 1920 German expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari that Zera tells the other members of Lychee’s purpose as a machine that would kidnap women for them. The robot's efforts are assisted by the girl capturing device, a strange rice cooker-shaped mask that’s laced with a sleeping drug. When questioned about the fuel source for the robot, Zera explains how it will run off the clean fuel of lychee fruits rather than an unsavory yet plentiful substance like electricity or gasoline as a means to further match the robot’s perceived beauty.

While the club share a general disdain for adulthood, they hold a special hatred to girls and women. Going off the dogmatic repulsion to sexuality that Kyusaku Shimada shows as the teacher in the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s prior play, Mercuro (1984), it could be assumed that the Hikari Club hold a similar dogmatic viewpoint about the vices of sex. In this context, it’s likely that they would’ve perceived women as being parasitic by nature as spreaders of the “old” and “tired” adult human condition through pubescent fixation and procreation. Sexual thoughts are inherent to aging for most people, given the process of discovering and exploring your identity throughout puberty. It’s that exact pubescent experience the club seek to eradicate. Further insight is given to the Hikari Club’s dystopian psyche through their open allusions to nazi ideology. While Zera travels out to gather lychees from a tree he planted, the club get a special visit from a depraved elderly showman known as the Marquis De Maruo, performed by none other than Suehiro Maruo himself in the 1985 Christmas performance. Despite the club’s disposition to adults, they hold an exception for the Marquis for his old-timey showmanship and open pandering to the children’s whims. He always comes with autopsy films to show the young boys, and as they watch the gory videos he hands out candies that he describes as being a personal favorite of the late Adolf Hitler. He was said to also be the one to convince the boys to name their robot after the lychee fruit. It isn’t until Zera returns that the Marquis is removed from the hideout on Zera’s orders. Just before his exiling, he foretells to Zera the prophecy of the black star as both a promise and a warning to the aspiring dictator. It should be noted that there is a fascist occult symbol known as the black sun.

Suehiro Maruo as the Marquis De Maruo. On the right side is a caricature of Maruo as drawn by a contributor to June magazine, excerpted from an editorial cartoon in June Vol. 27 covering Litchi's 1985 Christmas performance. In addition, the Marquis’ role alongside Jaibo’s appearances in the play (which I’ll get to later) show distinct parallels with the presence of the hobo in the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s first play, Mercuro. In Mercuro’s case, the hobo (performed by Norimizu Ameya, who would go on to also act as Jaibo) visits the classroom in secrecy to lecture the students his depraved ideologies. Whilst the hobo in Mercuro was a figure of perversion that existed in contrast to the teacher’s paranoid conservatism, in Litchi both Jaibo and the Marquis are enablers of the club’s fascistic leanings, with the Marquis being a promoter whereas Jaibo is a direct representation of the underlining perversions of fascist violence. Though completely omitted from the Furuya manga, the element of the autopsy films shines a unique light on Zera’s death at the end of the story. In both the play and the manga, Zera is gutted alive by Lychee when the robot undergoes a meltdown after being forced to drown Kanon (Marin in the original play) in a coffin lined with roses. In the manga, Zera appears deeply unsettled when realizing his intestines resemble the internals of an adult. It’s unknown if this aspect is present in the theater version, as the full script remains unreleased to this day. It would fit however knowing not just the club’s repulsion to adulthood, but also how they retreat to technological modification to eradicate the human aspects they associate with adulthood. What is described of Zera’s death in the theater version has its own disquieting qualities as, from what’s mentioned, when confronted with his own mortality he appears to regress to a state of childlike delirium, a demeanor that’s drastically different from his usual calm and orderly presentation. Upon seeing his intestines, one of the responses he is able to muster is “I’m in trouble”. He says this as he questions whether or not he can fit his organs back inside the cavity before eventually telling himself that he’s just tired, that he “need(s) to sleep for a while”.

While never directly stated, it’s heavily implied that the club’s ideologies and technological fetishism ultimately root back to Jaibo, an ambiguously European transfer student who secretly manipulates the club’s actions from behind the scenes. Referred to by Hiroyuki Tsunekawa (Zera’s actor) as the “true dark emperor” of the Hikari Club, he was said to haunt the stage from the sides, closely inspecting the Hikari Club’s activities while keeping a distance. The iron phallus was first introduced by Jaibo through a monologue where he reveals how he fixed one to his own person, carefully describing its inner mechanisms and functionality before demonstrating its inhuman reproductive qualities by using the phallus to have sex with a TV. A television that he affectionately refers to as Psychic TV Chan, in reference to the post-industrial band fronted by Genesis P’Orridge. In the same scene, he promises the other members that they would all eventually get their own iron penises just like his own. In a subsequent scene, he reveals the iron phallus’ use as a weapon when, arriving to the club’s base with a chained-up female schoolteacher who accidentally discovered the sanctuary, he uses the device to brutally kill the teacher through a mocking simulation of sexual intercourse. Just before raping her, he likens her to a landrace, bred for the sole purpose of reproducing and being processed into meat for consumption. He menacingly tells her that he will make her as “cut and dry” as her role in society before carrying out her execution. While there was some confusion on whether or not the iron phallus was a machine or solely a chastity device, it was found in bits of dialogue that the iron phallus at least shares the qualities of a pump with a described set of rubber hinges. The teacher’s death gruesomely reflects the death of Kei Fujiwara’s character in the later film Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), with the iron phallus mangling her insides as blood splatters across the stage. While the club treats adult sexuality as a plague, they manage to find through the iron phallus a way to convert their own states of chastity into a form of violence, stripping all humanity away from the penis and rendering it to a weapon of absolute power through desolate mechanized cruelty.

JAIBO: “Length, 250 mm, with a weight of 2.4 kilograms. Arm diameter, 30mm. Cylindrical thrust, 170mm… With pins, plates and rods of die-cast alloy. And hinges of rubber… the rest is pure iron. It is the iron phallus.” - June Vol. 27 In the same interview, Tsunekawa would go on to recall how the members of the Hikari Club were effectively Jaibo’s guinea pigs. In both the play and the manga, an after-school night of the long knives ensues with the slow collapse of the Hikari Club as Jaibo influences the exiling of certain club members, with Zera left ignorant to the social engineering as a mere extension of Jaibo’s elaborate puppeteering. Left embittered by a chess match where he lost to Zera, Tamiya is easily tricked by Jaibo into burning the lychee field as a way to get vengeance. Upon being caught, Tamiya is castrated of his iron phallus, resulting in his exiling from the club as a traitor while also being mockingly likened to a woman in the process. In another scene, it’s recalled that Jaibo and Zera exchange a conversation about the Hikari Club’s loyalty to Zera as they observe the outside world through their periscopes. By all contemporary recollections, Jaibo was the club’s puppet master. He would’ve been the likely source of the club’s ideologies, the underlining hatred to women and fixation on technological violence, replacing mankind with a race of humanoid weapons. Zera would be a shell without his influence. The presence of futurism could arguably even be rounded down to Lychee’s presence in the story. Beyond his theoretic work, Marinetti was also a playwright. He would be most well known for his futurist drama La donna è mobile, a story riddled with similarly perverse renditions of sexual violence. The play notably featured the presence of humanoid automatons a full decade before the term “robot” would be coined by Czechoslovakian author Karel Čapek in the play R.U.R., with the French version of Marinetti’s script referring to the machines as “puppets” for their visual similarity to humans.

All of this plays out over a soundscape that’s dominated by unnatural electronic frequencies and synthesized percussion. The sound design was arguably one of the most important aspects of Ameya’s plays, with Ameya at one point describing the Tokyo Grand Guignol productions as being an ensemble of his favorite sounds. The setting further compliments the atmosphere, made to resemble the internal of a junkyard or factory warehouse where heaps of technical jump decorate the stage around the monochrome cabinet that would eventually birth Lychee. Some of the featured artists in the play’s first act include Test Department, The Residents, 23 Skidoo and Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. The play’s opening, which depicts the capturing and subsequent torture of a student named Toba through a so-called “baptism of light”, is underscored by the S.P.K. song Culturcide, a grim primordial industrial dirge that paints the image of a dystopia where the genocide of ethnic cultures is likened to the infection of human cells by parasitic pathogens. Instead of being hung with a noose, Toba is suspended by a meathook, left as a decoration amidst the heaps of mechanized excrement. He would eventually be joined by the lifeless bodies of various women the Hikari Club abduct as they’re steadily gathered in a small box at the back of the stage. “Membrane torn apart, scavenging with the nomads. Requiem for the vestiges. Dissected, reproduced. The nucleus is infected with hybrid’s seed. Needles soak up, the weak must destroy. Cells cry out, cells scream out. Culturcide! Culturcide! Culturcide! Culturcide!” - Culturcide (from S.P.K.'s Dekompositiones EP)

“We are now entering an era which history will come to call ANOTHER DARK AGE. But, in kontrast to the original Dark Age, defined by a lack of information, we suffer from an excess of information, which has been reduced to the repetition of media-generated signs. Through this specialization, it is no longer possible for an individual to attain a total view of society. Edukation is struktured to the performance of a limited number of funktions rather than for kreativity.” “Kommunications systems are designed for the passive entertainment of the konsumer rather than the aktive stimulation of the user’s imagination. Through the spread of the western media, all kultures come to stimulate one another. By the end of the millennium, this biological infektion will have penetrated the heart of the most isolated traditions - a total CULTURCIDE.” “Yet in every era, a small number of visionaries rise above the general malaise. Those who will succeed, will resist the pressure to become kommercialized “images”, demanding identifikation and imitation. They will uphold their principles in the face of impossible odds. By remaining anonymous, they will be free to develop their imagination with maximum diversity. For this is the TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS, - the end of the proliferation of the ikons and the advent of a new symbolism.” - From the back cover of S.P.K.’s Dekompositiones EP (released under the moniker SepPuKu) Over the course of the play, the story undergoes a drastic tonal shift as the focus moves from the Hikari Club’s hierarchical order and internal conflicts to the relationship between Lychee and Marin. Marin (performed by synthpop musician Miharu Koshi) was the first girl the Hikari Club successfully kidnap through Lychee after implementing the phrase “I am a human” in Lychee’s coding so it can understand the concept of human beauty. This small implementation causes a full unraveling in Lychee’s personality as it quickly forms a close bond with Marin, convinced that it is also a human like Marin. The soundscape changes alongside the overarching atmosphere, going from cold industrial drones and percussive electronica to ambient tracks. Some of the major scenes play out over moving piano-focused pieces and music box tunes from Haruomi Hosono’s soundtrack for Night on the Galactic Railroad. Originally created a weapon like the iron phalluses and the girl capturing device, Lychee is eventually defined in how he transcends from being a weapon to a conscious being with feelings. In this context, the play can be read as a juxtaposition of human emotion against inhuman futurist brutality.

This split was likely the product of the radically different creative ideologies of Norimizu Ameya (the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s founder and lead director) and pseudonymous author K. Tagane (the playwright for the group from Mercuro to Litchi). Ameya had come into the group with radical intentions, holding Artaudesque aspirations to transgress the literary limits of modern theater to achieve something deeply subconscious. Meanwhile, Tagane was a romantic who was known for their poetic and lyrical screenplays. Ameya purportedly sought out Tagane’s screenplays specifically to find a literary base he would “destroy” in his direction, deconstructing the poeticisms in his own unique style. He describes it briefly in an interview regarding the stage directions of Mercuro, stating how he took elaborate descriptions of a lingering moon and ultimately deconstructed them to the moon solely being an illusion set by a screen projector, mapping out the exact dimensions of the projection to being a 3-meter photograph of the moon rather than a “fantastic moon”. It’s believed by some that the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s formation and ultimately short run were the product of a miraculous balance between Ameya and Tagane’s ideologies. It’s possible that Litchi could’ve been a last straw between the two artists. After Litchi, Tagane left the group, with Ameya having to write the troupe’s final screenplay on his own. LYCHEE: “Marin is always sleeping… all she does is sleep. She doesn’t eat anything. Why does Marin sleep all day?” MARIN: “When you’re asleep, all the sadness of the world passes over you.”

"The second half of Litchi was predominantly driven by the sounds of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono. During a scene that featured a piece from the Galactic Railroad soundtrack, Miharu Koshi sang to Kyusaku Shimada while dancing like a clockwork doll to the sounds of a twisting music box. The scene lasted for a while and was very romantic, the interactions between Lychee and Marin were all very sweet and cute. The second act of Litchi was all a product of Tagane’s making. By the time of the following play, Walpurgis, I was told by a staff member that Ameya had written the screenplay by himself because Tagane had left.” “… While the first half was filled with repeated mantras and the unfolding aesthetics of an aspiring militia, the second half was immersed in the world of shoujo manga. It did appear that through the intermission, much of the junk and rubble around the podium was sorted out.” “… The Tokyo Grand Guignol’s plays were always defined by a strong nocturnal atmosphere. But in Litchi’s second half, it wasn’t a dark night, but a brightly lit one under the moonlight and plentiful stars in the sky shining through an invisible skylight. Marin doesn’t forgive Lychee immediately for his actions, responding to him harshly in a way that would confuse him and make him sulk. It came across as a somewhat bitter reimagining of a French comedy like Louis Malle’s Zazie dans le Métro or Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, it was different that way in how it wasn’t only Maruo’s inferno.” - From a Twitter thread by user Shoru Toji regarding the 1986 rerun of Litchi Hikari Club Some questionable qualities do exist in the relationship between Lychee and Marin. What should be a peaceful retreat from the dystopian corruption still has a sinister undertone in the disparities between Lychee’s cold masculine features in contrast with Marin’s childlike girly innocence. It doesn’t help that Zazie dans le Métro (one of the mentioned films in the recollection) was directed by Louis Malle, who while known for such films as My Dinner With Andre and Black Moon was also responsible for the infamously discomforting Pretty Baby. Then again, Litchi was the product of a confrontational transgressive subculture, so the sinister undertones could be intentional. Keep in mind the contents of Suehiro Maruo’s prolific adaption of Shōjo Tsubaki and how it unflinchingly depicts abuse and manipulation through the eyes of a confused child. It could be possible that Lychee himself was intended to be childlike in its mannerisms. Throughout the existing descriptions, Lychee was shown as speaking in fragmented sentences while struggling to understand basic concepts. Zera was mentioned to also use certain phrases like “cute” when referring to the robot when it was unveiled. And it’s through Marin that Lychee learns morality like a child. The robot’s masculinity could be passed off as the cast all being adults. Hiroyuki Tsunekawa for instance shows distinctly sculpted features from certain angles when performing Zera.

In his aspirations to become a human, Lychee eventually “dies” like a human. With the burning of Zera’s lychee tree, the robot is left with a finite limit on its remaining energy before it totally loses consciousness. After his rampage, Lychee attempts to reunite with Marin, but he runs out of fuel. Before what should be a moment of resolution, things are cut short as the stage goes black, eventually illuminated to show an unpowered Lychee cradling Marin’s corpse in his arms. Zera reemerges to observe the remnants of Lychee and Marin. He speaks of how Lychee will crumble into nothingness alongside Marin for foolishly giving into human emotion, further implying the club’s views on humanity. After this, recollections of the play’s final lines differentiate somewhat. It was said that in the original Christmas performance, Zera calls out to Jaibo, posing the corpses of Lychee and Marin as being his seasonal gifts to Jaibo. Whereas in most popular recollections, it’s described that after his monologue, Zera shouts “Wohlan! Beginnen!” (German for “Now! Begin!”) before prompting the decorations across the stage to collapse, revealing a set of stepladders from behind that the remaining previously deceased club members stand, all drenched in blood with spotlights illuminating their faces from below. ZERA: “And with that, our tale of a foolish romance between woman and machine reaches its conclusion. It ends before me as I stand here, watching. Lychee, the machine, will rust away into dust. And Marin, a young girl, will rot away leaving behind only her bones, which too will crumble…”

Multiple readings can be deciphered from this conclusion. The most established theory is in relation to the Hikari Club’s aspirations for eternal youth, with the members technically achieving their goal through the stagnation of death. They will remain eternal children since they died as children, unable to ever grow into adulthood. In the context of futurism and mechanized fascism however, it could be read as a bitter observation of a lasting dictatorship. With how the Hikari Club members had rendered themselves less human than their own robot, they survive death to continue their work, seeking to one day eradicate humanity in favor of a race of sentient childlike weapons. “To admire an old picture is to pour our sensibility into a funeral urn instead of casting it forward with violent spurts of creation and action. Do you want to waste the best part of your strength in a useless admiration of the past, from which you will emerge exhausted, diminished, trampled on?” “… For the dying, for invalids and for prisoners it may be all right. It is, perhaps, some sort of balm for their wounds, the admirable past, at a moment when the future is denied them. But we will have none of it, we, the young, strong and living Futurists! Let the good incendiaries with charred fingers come! Here they are! Heap up the fire to the shelves of the libraries! Divert the canals to flood the cellars of the museums! Let the glorious canvases swim ashore! Take the picks and hammers! Undermine the foundation of venerable towns! The oldest among us are not yet thirty years old: we have therefore at least ten years to accomplish our task. When we are forty let younger and stronger men than we throw us in the waste paper basket like useless manuscripts! They will come against us from afar, leaping on the light cadence of their first poems, clutching the air with their predatory fingers and sniffing at the gates of the academies the good scent of our decaying spirits, already promised to the catacombs of the libraries.” - from the 1909 Futurist Manifesto by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

I forgot what exactly first caused the parallel to cross my mind. I do recall it being reignited when having a closer look over the poster and flyer for Litchi’s Christmas performance in December 1985. The flyer in particular is really a wonderful thing to look at. Predominantly featuring an art spread by Suehiro Maruo, a suited man with Kyusaku Shimada’s likeness is shown caressing a girl in front of a modernist cityscape with spotlights shining up to a night sky. Other suited men in goggles fly in the air with Da Vinci-reminiscent flying apparatuses between the beams of the metropolis’ spotlights. A student in full gakuran uniform flings himself into the scene from the far left side of the image with a dagger in hand, and a larger hand comes from the viewer’s perspective holding a partially peeled lychee fruit. While not based on any direct scene from the play, it perfectly instills the play’s atmosphere with an air of antiquated modernity, like the numerous illustrations of the early 1900s that show aspirational visions of what a futuristic cityscape might resemble. The bizarre neo-Victorian fashions of the future and its post-modernist formalities. The term futurism came to mind somewhat naively from this train of thought. It was a movement I recalled hearing about, but my memory of it was hazy. It wasn’t until I went in for a basic refresher that I felt the figurative lightbulb go off in my head. That was when the pieces started to come together, but then also strain apart from each other into tangents. Granted, many of these parallels could be read as coincidental. Many of them can even be passed off the play being a work of proto-cyberpunk, knowing how Tetsuo: The Iron Man would subsequently explore similar themes of cybernetics and human sexuality. It should still be noted however that in contrast with many of the Japanese cyberpunk films, Litchi was explicit in its connotations between technological inhumanity and fascism, with the machinery itself being the iconography of a dictatorship rather than a product of it. In addition, with Tetsuo the film has strong gay overtones, with the technology being an extension of the sexual tensions between the salaryman and the metal fetishist. For a period of time, efforts were made to make futurism the official aesthetic of fascist Italy, and modern fascism as we know it is in the same family tree of Italian philosophy as futurism. The Hikari Club are explicit in drawing from German aesthetics rather than Italian however, speaking in intermittent German and predominantly using German technology. The spotlight that they used when torturing Toba in the first act, for example, was a Hustadt Leuchten branded spotlight. And if that isn’t a German name I don’t know what is. It was also said that Jaibo’s outfit in the play was modeled after German school uniforms. Though then again, the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s works were a bit of a cultural slurry. Jaibo’s name for example is Spanish (derived from Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados), while the character is implied to be German.

Similar to the cited origins of futurism, Ameya stated in a 2019 tweet regarding the June 9th, 1985 abridged Mercuro performance on Tokumitsu Kazuo’s TV Forum that in the following August of that year, an airplane accident occurred that led to the conception of Litchi’s screenplay. The exact nature of the accident was never specified, but the affiliates he was communicating with all appeared to be familiar with it and expressed concern when it was brought up. This was however one of an assortment of influences that were cited behind Litchi’s production, with the two more established theories regarding the then-contemporary mystique around lychee fruit in Chinese cuisine along with the play being a loose adaption of Kazuo Umezu’s My Name is Shingo. For what it’s worth, the themes of Litchi, along with the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s other works, were closely tied with certain concepts that Ameya personally cultivated throughout his career. A frequent recurring topic Ameya would bring up in relation to his works was the nature of the human body in relation to foreign matter, need it be biological or unnatural. With Mercuro the students taught by Shimada are made into so-called Mercuroids by having their blood supplies replaced with mercurochrome, a substance that is referred to as the “antithesis of blood” by Shimada while in character. In an interview for the book About Artaud?, Ameya cites an interest in Osamu Tezuka’s manga in how certain stories of Tezuka’s paralleled Ameya’s observations of the body. He directly names Dororo and Black Jack, observing how both Hyakkimaru and Black Jack reconstructed their bodies from pieces of other people, going on to bluntly describe Pinoko as a “mass of organs covered in plastic skin”.

A section from June Vol. 27 highlighting some of the more established performers from Litchi's 1985 Christmas performance. The actors from left to right are Norimizu Ameya as Jaibo, Naomi Hagio as the female school teacher (best known in cult circles for her role as Kazuyo in the 1986 horror film Entrails of a Virgin), Suehiro Maruo out of costume and Miharu Koshi as Marin. During his temporary retirement from theater, Ameya would take up performance art, with some of his performances revolving around acts with his own blood. While my memories of these works are a bit hazy, I remember one action he performed that involved a blood transfusion, with the focus being on the experience of having another person’s blood coursing through your veins. While I didn't have much luck relocating this piece (probably from it not being covered in English), I did find on the Japan Foundation’s page for performing arts an interview where Ameya discusses being in a band with Shimada where Ameya had blood drawn from his body while he played drums. He would also describe an art exhibition where he displayed samples of the blood of a person infected with HIV. “After 1990 he left the field of theatre and began to engage himself with visual arts - still proceeding to work on his major topic - the human body - taking up themes like blood transfusion, artificial fertilization, infectious diseases, selective breeding, chemical food, and sex discrimination, creating works as a member of the collaboration unit Technocrat.” - Performing Arts Network Japan (The Japan Foundation) There are still an assortment of open questions I’m left with in regards to the contents of the original Litchi play. One of the most glaring ones is Niko’s eye. In consideration of Ameya’s interest in the body, the detail would fit perfectly with his ideologies. A club member who, to show his absolute loyalty to the Hikari Club, has his own eyeball procedurally gouged out to be made a part of the Lychee robot. Despite this perfect alignment, none of the contemporary recollections mention this element. While Niko does have an eyepatch in certain production photos, it never seems to come up as a plot point. He isn’t the only one to bear an eyepatch either, with Jacob also being shown with an eyepatch in flyers. More questions range from Jaibo’s motives in causing the dissolution of the Hikari Club to the true nature of Zera’s affiliation to Jaibo. While Tsunekawa has stood his ground in the relationship between Zera and Jaibo being totally sexless, in the cited volume of June the editor playfully refers to Jaibo as being Zera’s “best friend” in quotes.

A side-by-side comparison of the cast listings on the back of the flyers for the December 1985 performance of Litchi Hikari Club alongside its 1986 rerun. The 1985 run's lineup is at the top while the 1986 run is at the bottom. Much speculation is naturally involved when looking into the original Litchi Hikari Club since it is in essence a cultural phantom. There’s a reason I used the term genealogy in relation to my research of the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s works. It is an artistic enigma as while its presence lingers in subculture, the original works are now practically unattainable due to the inherent nature of theater. As Ameya himself would acknowledge in another interview, theater is an immediate medium that can only be perceived in its truest form for a very short span of time before eventually disintegrating. So with the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s plays, you are left to scour through the scattered remnants and contemporary recollections alongside the figurative creative descendants of the plays. You analyze the statements of both the original participants and the people they openly dismiss, as even those people were original audience members before reinterpreting the plays to their own unique visions. Despite the apparent differences, I still feel that Furuya’s manga gives a unique perspective to the story when viewed under dissection. That is if you want to see it in strict relation to the play. Outside that, I feel it firmly stands on its own merits. I like the manga no matter what Tsunekawa says, that’s what I’m trying to say. Ameya approved it anyway. It took me a full day to write all this out, and like the first time I went down this train of thought, I’m pooped. During that first excursion, after excitedly spiraling through these potential connections, I noticed in passing mention something about Marinetti’s cooking. You see, later in his life Marinetti aimed to apply futurism not just to art and theater, but cuisine also. As an Italian, Marinetti openly despised pasta, seeing it as being an edible slog that weighs down the spirits of the Italian people. Just further evidence that I would never get along with the man, no matter my liking of the Boccioni sculpture I saw at MOMA all those years ago. Well, outside of him being a fascist and all obviously. I like pasta. Either way, he was on a mission to conceive all-new all-Italian cuisines that would match the vision he had of a new fascist Italy. Nothing could prepare me though for when I saw an image of what would best be described as a towering cock and ball torture meat totem. It is exactly as it sounds, a big phallic tower of cooked meat with a set of gigantic dough-covered balls of chicken flesh on the front and back where you have to stick needles through the thing to hold it together. Words cannot express just how big it is. The thing was damn well near falling apart from how unnatural its shape was, and you’re expected to eat it while it has honey pouring from the tip of the tower. I genuinely winced watching its assembly, I instinctively crossed my legs somewhat when it was pierced by wooden sticks and then cut into sections to reveal the plant-stuffed interiors. As a person with no interest whatsoever in cooking shows, I was on the edge of my seat watching a PBS-funded webisode of someone preparing futurist dishes. Seek it out for yourself, it’s an excessively batshit culinary freakshow. That is more than enough talk about penises for the rest of the week. I’m going to spend the next few days looking at artistic yet selectively vaginal flowers to balance things out, equal opportunity symbology.

[perdvivly]

🔥 beauty

*abhumanex0, bubbliterally, perdvivly and tranxio are sitting around a fire*

abhumanex0: 🔥 beauty bubbliterally: How are you doing that with your mouth? perdvivly: I'm trying out beauty. bubbliterally: What does that mean? perdvivly: It means that for a long time a particular brand of brainworms I've had comes from the Platonic conception of beauty as this horrible deciever. I'm trying to shed that. tranxio: That's an anachronistic genealogy of the idea. perdvivly: Huh? tranxio: Plato does talk about the interplay between truth and beauty. Notably in the Ion and in The Republic, books two, three, and ten. Plato is worried that the arts and specifically poetry in the Ion, as Ion of Ephesus was a rhapsode, are persuasive by means of rhetoric rather than an appeal to the truth. Specifically, an account of truth that Plato takes to be his idea of Forms. But Plato is chiefly concerned with the interplay between mimesis, from the Ancient Greek mimos, meaning "imitative" and diegesis roughly meaning "narrative". For Plato, the poets are doing a bad job of representing the beauty of truth; they are unable to capture its virtue. But that doesn't mean that Plato doesn't care about beauty or reviles beauty. Plato considers the Form of Beauty to be very important! He talks about it at length in the symposium and does note the associations in many more dialogues. e.g. phaedo, phaedrus, parmenides. I think this is most obvious when you consider what surviving writings we have from Plato. They're dialogues. He was writing creative fiction. He was engaging in a memetic artform, but one that he hoped would transcend the pitfalls of poetry. A "pure crystalline theatre of the mind". I think that the idea you had in mind dervies from the Neoplatonic tradition as it was interpreted by Christianity. The works of Plotinus come to us by way of his pupil Porphyry-- bubbliterally: --wait! You're saying that Christianity takes its philosophical foundations from Neoplatonism? tanxio: That's right. Dean Inge emphasises this point in his book on Plotinus. He says there is "an utter impossibility of excising Platonism from Christianity without tearing Christianity to pieces." Or if that isn't convincing consider that Saint Augustine-- perdvivly: --the saint who fucked. tranxio: That's right, the saint who fucked. Consider that he says of Plato's system that it was the "most pure and bright in all of philosophy" and he talks of Plotinus as a man in whom "Plato lived again". The early church owes a great deal of philosophical debt in this regard. bubbliterally: That's fascinating, so you're saying that Plotinus distrusted beauty and that's where the seed that Viv is picking up on originates? tranxio: Aha, no. Not quite. There is nothing in the mysticism of Plotinus that is hostile to beauty. But he is the last religious teacher for many centuries of whom this can be said. Plotinus founded the Neoplatonic tradition but he wasn't the sole arbiter of their beliefs. Beauty and all the pleasures associated with it came to be thought to be of the Devil. Pagans and Christians alike came to glorify ugliness and dirt. Julian the Apostate, like contemporary orthodox saints, boasted of the populousness of his beard. bubbliterally: But how did all this happen? tranxio: That's a matter of historical debate. The Neoplatonists found themselves in dialogue with the Gnostics for long while. And Porphyry suggests that there is precident in Plato for turning away from the physical world of matter. Perhaps it happened as an extension or outbranch of these dialogues? I'm not certain. But I can go and do more research on it if you would like? bubbliterally: No pressure, but I'd really enjoy the answer if you could find it! tranxio: Of course! *tranxio leaves, presumably to go to the library*

bubbliterally: That was an interesting historical perspective, but can you say more on what you meant Viv? You're "trying out beauty"? perdvivly: Right. I grew up in a pretty heavily Christian dominated soceity and personal environment. My grandparents were missionaries and I went to Sunday school. And because I grew up in England, you can bet that that sect was Anglican. Protestantism is... Austere. It's in a really sharp contrast to Catholicism. You know, you imagine these elaborate ornate robes, the alters decked-out with gold and you have these huge buildings with complicated architecture... And then you have, what I was raised in, which is, sort of an extreme embodiment of the famous saying "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" so imagine like, wooden pews so upright they could fix quasimodo's posture, plain homespun clothing, nothing ornate or elaborate just this very bare aesthetic. And gradually through a sort of cultural osmosis I think I took some of this in without meaning to or critically evaluating whether or not I wanted to. abhumanex0: So, that's a more personal etiology, it doesn't really answer the question of what you mean though. perdvivly: I know, and I don't want to mess you about, but let me give one more take on why this feels so forceful to me before I expand on what I mean and why I want it. abhumanex0: Go ahead. perdvivly: Have you ever seen something really beautiful and been compelled by it? Or, someone even? bubbliterally: I think we all know about being horny. perdvivly: Right! Sexual desire is actually a really good use-case here. abhumanex0: Not what use-case means but continue. perdvivly: It feels deep down gut-level wrong to be forced by my own body to want something without regard for its... wholeness? Without regard for all of it and all of its interactions with me... Have you ever been compelled against your better judgement to eat junk food that you know will make you feel ill? That to me feels like the same pernicious facet of force that beauty compells. Beauty in this way, sort of forces a passitivy of choice. bubbliterally: the same kind that David Foster Wallace was talking about with Eric the other day? perdvivly: Exactly! Think Catullus 85. I am beset on all sides by emotion and the waves of those emotions are bigger and stronger than I am. I'm afraid of being drowned by them. I'm afraid of being killed by them. Beauty is chief among these emotion makers. abhumanex0: Have you considered that when you say "It feels... wrong to be forced by your own body" that's an extension of the cultural Neoplatonism you absorbed through Christianity? Seeing this sharp distinction between mind and body? perdvivly: I... Hadn't... That's actually a really astute point. bubbliterally: I see... So that's why the issue is so forceful for you. But you want to try beauty out? Okay, maybe I don't see. You love and you hate beauty at the same time? perdvivly: There's no escaping it. So what I mean when I say, "I'm trying out beauty" is that I'm trying to integrate an appreciation for beauty into my life. And there are so many things I find beautiful. That I'm slowly realising I can appreciate without being destoryed by... It''s a long and hard journey. And I'm nowhere near being very good at it yet. But I think it's probably a pretty crucial step on the path of fully realising my own autonomy. bubbliterally: I think it's interesting that this whole discussion has had the locus it's had. That you've situated yourself as the desirer in world of objects to be desired, but you haven't really talked about the effects of being desired. perdvivly: Oh, well. One thing at a time. But I pretty much think that the feminists of the 80s were right about most of it. I could say more but maybe that's a story for another time. *abhumanex0 and bubbliterally both nod* perdvivly: So, how about you guys? bubbliterally: Us? perdvivly: Yeah.🔥 beauty bubbliterally: Okay seriously, how the fuck are you doing that with your mouth?

[steddieyes]

OHMY GOD. NEW NESS LORE JUST DROPPED.

Okay, so we all know that Ness loves theories, small town conspiracies, old legends, right? And the Lock Ness monster is a CLASSIC, right? DO YOU HEAR WHAT IM GETTING AT?? CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW EXCITED NESS WOULD HAVE GOTTEN WHEN DISCOVERING THEORIES ABOUT THE LOCH NESS MONSTER AS A KID?? AND THAT HIS NAME NESS?? JUST LIKE THE MONSTER???

OHMY GKD.

Guys I can't, I know for a fact that he believes in the lock Ness monster and that its his favourite cryptid/legend, 100%, its just true, he told me, actually. Ness would dedicate his entire life to the Freddy's case and in discovering what happened (it's such a huge case the town he lives in, of course he's going to go physco about it) but I just know he's got a whole nother theory board about the Loch Ness monster and all the hoaxes about it, why this is true and that isn't. Maybe he goes on a trip to Scottland one winter to try and seek out Nessie himself (it set him back so far in going to collage, like seriously, Mike would have scolded him so hard if they knew each other then)

He's got multiple little charms off Nessie on his bag and kept safe in his room, posters and printed out news papers with headlines of it. At one point he almost convinced himself it was smart to buy an original copy of one of the newspapers shipped from Scottland that would have set him back on rent, he just barely didn't do it, too. But it was for the best, he brought back a boatload of newspapers, photos and memorabilia from his trip. Enough to where he had to wear his big snow jacket on to the plane so he could fit it all in his bag.

The reason why he knows so much about the evolution of early mammals (other than it being incredibly interesting, the fact we evolved from that is extremely fascinating to him) is because of the Lock Ness monster. He has diagrams of what it's skeltal structure is, or at least what he believes could be, he can't say that it is without solid evidence other than a hunch and years of research. He links its genealogy back to this and that, starts a whole new research paper on how the Scottish seas (where Nessie comes from) could open up a whole new gene pool of what Ness could be or could have evolved from and what could have evolved from Nessie. What if Nessie is the last of its kind and the rest of its genus evolved Into something further? Something smaller, bigger? Was it abandoned by its kind and left here while they went onto bigger bodies of water? It boggles his mind. Getting to the bottom of this his life mission (besides the Freddy's case and woo'ing the cute security gaurd into giving him his number)

I, have... so much planned. This has spurred on my Ness and overall securitywaiter brainrot by SO much, and I will infact be going ahead and adding this to my Nestortheory lore😔

(Nestortheory is Ness' instagram, he's got silly (literally canon, I swear) stuff on there:))

[1141520851813892291920]

ENT0010

RE: Jonathan Sims, Electronic Reference Specialist (Margaret Usher Library of Discreet & Internal Research).

I am starting to realize that it was...perhaps too hasty of a decision to dismiss Jon's life before as irrelevant. As unreal as it may be - as I continue to believe that it must be - it does hold more clues to a puzzle I still can't quite get the shape of yet. He may have more useful things than computer passwords and library cards to share with me.

Much of his life was so similar to mine, I had assumed it didn't warrant careful review. We grew up in the same area, had the same distant grandmother, the same thirst for books and fascination with the darker side of the paranormal. We both got an A level in drama despite seeing no use for it, and even though he went to Cambridge instead of Oxford, our University experiences were more or less the same. He faired a bit better in the relationship department...

But instead of The Magnus Institute, this Jon caught the attention of the Usher Foundation. He was hired in a seemingly innocuous, if spontaneous, candidate selection process for a consulting research position in an academic library. The interviews were all conducted remotely, his references from the British Museum and his professors were apparently glowing, and his appointment - though perhaps too generously compensated - was not in any way...suspicious.

So far, I've regulated Jon's professional life to a temporarily necessary inconvenience, something that was worth putting up with while I oriented myself and refocused on my own investigations in this New Place [research presently ongoing. I will make a separate post with current theories]. His job was nothing too taxing - largely sitting at his computer and completing various reference requests for an academic research library. It reminded me of the Institute, in a way, in the early days. I do still quite enjoy research, and the library's resources are vast. None of the ongoing work has set off any alarms, nothing too odd - quite a few local history and genealogy requests, tracking immigration and family trees, some specialized scientific questions that were more of a challenge but not impossible, copies of old academic journals and microfiche of old newspapers. A few interesting rabbit holes that sated me enough that I bothered to finish them.

Looking back at the work log...there is more specialized research on the subjects of a more...hah- "spooky" nature: apparitions, manifestations, ESP, astral projection, irregularities in reality, etcetera. It was these topics in particular that Jon spent most of his time on. Most notably, however, these requests only come from three primary accounts: GROBI1 CUSHE1 PSHELL3 [NOTE: While this account was highly active in the beginning, requests stop entirely after 2021.

Jon was under the impression that all three of these individuals were his direct superiors in his department, though it was purely speculation as he had never, in fact, met any of his colleagues in person. His office is located in the university's library depository building, and the only other employees he ever has contact with are student workers or otherwise the depository's building supervisor.

The only one he had actually spoken to outside of emails at all with GROBI1, who sat in on his initial interview and, from what he understood, was the one who hired him. GROBI1...Gertrude Robinson, chief researcher and head of the Midwest Regional Usher Foundation office.

I am...ashamed at myself for not having realized this, or acknowledged this sooner. I have been so reluctant to accept any of Jon's memories for fear of losing my own, a fear I still hold, but how much did he...Know? I searched his apartment again, following the fake memories to hidden caches of what appears to be stolen case files...He was looking into something. I'm not sure what, other than he did NOT trust his employer...some things never change, I suppose.

I feel oddly...nostalgic with this discovery. Once again, I am sitting on the unfinished work of a paranoid archivist working secretly against the powers the be while trying to find my place in everything...or perhaps, this is just proof that things are cyclical. Will the same events unfold, just with different colors and mediums? Will I find myself walking through the remains of a destroyed world, blood drying on my paper hands?

It is a familiar fear that I feel, too, just as nostalgic as anything else. More than that fear though, I feel the rising and demanding hunger. It drives me as Beholding did, pushing driving seeking hunting each precious piece of knowledge into the thorned and venomous thickets of secrets and Things that Should Not Be. I, too, Should Not Be. I am Wrong, here. My presence in this place is a slowly spreading cancer and I have already infected so many around me. I cannot stop. I don't want to...stop.

I will not stop, until I Know what This Is.

[werewolfetone]

Since you like Irish history, I'm curious if you also care a little about Celtic history? The original colonizers according to the Brits :( Shame that Celtic history has been p. much taken by fascists, I just wanted to learn a bit about Celt-Iberians, man.

Yeah I do!!! ngl my interest in the celts mostly just boils down to watching youtube videos about them (when I can find one that isn't overtly fascist. hate it here) and reading pop history books rather than any genuine academic interest but I find it really fascinating as a subject just because there's so much we don't and can't know... I was sooo frustrated when I had to write a paper about something which happened in the 1740s and could "only" find basic biographical details and some vague ideas about the personality of someone relevant to what I was researching so I cannot IMAGINE trying to reconstruct events based on, like, a genealogy of a king where half of the relevant names are quite literally never mentioned in a single other manuscript anyone on earth still has access to. celticists and mediaevalists please know that I view you as superhuman

[enlitment]

I recently read a fascinating book chapter in which the author makes a compelling case for defining a subset of historical despressive conditions specifically related to the struggles of queer men (he calls it "homodepression", which is not a very elegant word to my ear, but it gets the point across). He mentions that, at the time of writing, there was no comprehensive survey of depression and related conditions for the 18th century – but, since you've just written a thesis about it, that might have changed! Do you happen to have some reliable resources you could share on the topic?

For interest, the chapter is Rousseau, G. (2003). “Homoplatonic, Homodepressed, Homomorbid”: Some further genealogies of same-sex attraction in western civilization. In Love, Sex, Intimacy, and Friendship Between Men, 1550–1800. Palgrave Macmillan.

Thank you for the ask!

Firstly – let me just say that I'm kind of obsessed with the chapter's title, kind of a love-hate situation. I'll definitely give it a read once I get home! (It is especially interesting for me since I'm convinced that a queer reading of my primary text is possible. I haven't brought it up because academia in CR still can be quite conservative sometimes but I've definitely danced around the subject a bit. I may post more about it here after my defence to get it out of my system?)

Regarding your question – I mostly centred my analysis around few selected philosophical texts in my actual thesis, but I should have a folder on my laptop from back when I did background research. I can definitely look into it once I get home!

I can also ask my supervisor, he's bound to have much more resources than I do and I feel like I need to refresh my memory about the historical context before I defend anyway. I'll be sure to let you know!

Right now, without the access to my laptop, the one thing I can say that could potentially help is that like so many things, it may be an issue of language.

My research is technically about 'hypochondria'. That can be confusing because the meaning of the word has shifted quite a bit from the 18th century, but I've made a case that there's a great deal of overlap between hypochondria and the current understanding of depression, based on the current diagnostic criteria for depression. The word 'melancholy' was also sometimes used to refer to a similar idea. If can get quite blurry though, authors are often playing a bit fast and loose with the concepts.

So, searching for a review of either melancholy or hypochondria in the 18th century could (hopefully) yield some interesting results! I'll get back to you with links to potentially interesting articles once I get home/talk to my supervisor.

[gracehosborn]

If you went to graduate school, what would be your dream dissertation?

Hey, Anon! This is so late but I’m slowly going through my inbox and mentions.

See, my problem is I have too many ideas. The one that attracts me most that could conceivably span a dissertation is Alexander Hamilton’s time serving the Confederation Congress as a New York Representative in 1782-1783. As of now, there is no standalone secondary book to my knowledge covering this period of Hamilton’s life (many biographers gloss over it), or this period of Congress’ goings-on all together. In preparing to outline Volume III of my historical fiction series centering around Hamilton, I’ve been slowly reading through the pages and pages of Hamilton’s papers while in Congress and it’s super fascinating. I could ramble on.

Three other topics I would love to touch on in the realm of “glossed over but could be good for a full investigation” would be Hamilton’s career as an attorney (1784-1788; 1795-1804), his stint as Major General during the Quasi-War (1798-1800), and of particular fascination to me lately, his time as Captain of the New York Provincial Company of Artillery (1776-1777).

Besides these, I think delving into my own family history during this period would be fun. My family has done a lot of genealogical research, and we have found at least seven ancestors who fought during the American Revolution, which is wild to me.

[basicallyjaywalker]

Do u have a favorite oc?

(Thank you for enabling me JJ)

I love all of my OCs equally but the one i've given the most development is Jackie

I really enjoy doing arcs for OCs and Jackie's is the most finalized. The tl;dr is that a lot of her character focuses on learning independence and developing a sense of self. She is magical and nerdy and kind and will constantly show up in OC writings if I don't control myself

Autism rant under the cut bc when you enabled me you got me on a "was literally ranting to my boyfriend about my ocs earlier so is in a talky mood"

Jackie Fei aka I am putting this girl through the grindhouse of trauma and she's gonna come back better

Jackie is the one who, when I started reworking/rebooting my OCs in 2020 got the biggest change, design, powers, and relationships-wise. Her arc is about learning to define herself and escape her issues with co-dependency.

I am sort of exploring this in my fic Selenelion, which focuses on her relationship with Lloyd (which does play in a lot to her arc) (also shameless plug for the fic it's only two chapters but i'm gonna start working on it again in november) because well... a lot of her co-dependency is there.

Up until post-S7 in the timeline, Jackie latches onto people as sources of strength to an unhealthy degree. She was raised by an oppressive, overbearing caretaker and had her life dictated to her for 18 years. When she tries to escape and gain independence the first time, she gets kidnapped by the Overlord ends up latching onto Garmadon. After Garmadon dies she latches onto Lloyd. It isn't until she and Lloyd have a blowout fight in S7 that she realizes how much she's defined herself using other people. She was Garmadon's Student. She was Lloyd's Girlfriend. Four years ago, she ran away to find who she was, and she still hasn't done it. So she runs away again. Lloyd is fucked up by this but don't worry he'll be fine.

And that ties into her powers. Jackie uses magic as an elemental power, but I want it to be different from other forms of magic in ninjago. Her magic needs a power source to draw on, and the healthiest one is herself, but she does have the ability to draw on others. For example, the Overlord teaches her how to use Dark Matter as a source (bad idea, do not do this, it damages ur mental health) and I've toyed with the idea of Lloyd lending his power to her in battle. Her personal strength is like a muscle, she needs to use it and work on it to grow stronger and relying on other sources doesn't allow her to develop it (which leads to issues when she starts relying solely on Dark Matter in S2, only to lose access to it)

Who Jackie is Post-S7 is a different person and for me it's important she gets that development then because even though I'm a fake fan and haven't finished S8 (I should be soon bc I've been feeling brave) I know her reaction to Garmadon's resurrection and her relationship to Harumi is going to occupy my brain for fifty years, along with how she and Lloyd interact and how their relationship grows in this time (I am determined to give them a healthy romance with a happy ending after a tumultuous start)

None of this is even mentioning the super complicated relationship she has with Wu and Misako at first because her mom... well, her mom Mei is another fascinating character who will be talked about when I talk about my thoughts on the previous generation of EMs at some point

One fun fact about her Post-S7 that I gatekeep but will make appearances is that she curates the Museum of History after she comes back from a long self-discovery journey. She does a lot of research into genealogy and is determined not to let any of the myths, legends, histories, or lore go unremembered (she and Misako and Twyla love to bond over their shared interests). She has an intern named Jenny who goes onto curate the museum after her.

Other general facts:

1. her color scheme is galaxy + green, with purple featuring prominently

2. she's the best at video games of her friends

3. the ninja she has the closest friendship with is Kai, the member of her team she has the closest relationship with ties between Hannah and Roxie

Sorry for the rant, thank you again for enabling me to talk about my OCs I love any opportunity to do so, and hopefully you enjoyed a mini-essay on why I often think about her and why she's up there in terms of my lovelies <3

[californiastatelibrary]

Explore the fascinating world of Polynesian family history at the Sutro Library's free virtual genealogy talk on Friday, April 12, at 1 pm PST! Join speaker Miya Jensen as she discusses the culture of genealogy in Oceania, the variety of records available for researchers, and the wealth of knowledge provided by the Oral Genealogies of the Pacific.

Register at bit.ly/genealogy-0424 to reserve your spot!

[television-overload]

job as a photo archivist is so neat!! (if you're comfy sharing) how'd you end up in that field? do you work big clunky machines and dusty boxes? and for fun, who's your fav coworker

Ooh fun questions!! I've always loved studying history, and I never really realized you could do that as a career until fairly recently. My dad and I used to watch this show called Who Do You Think You Are where celebrities do research about their family genealogy, and they visit archives to look at documents and it was always so fascinating. And then of course National Treasure, which is one of my favorite movies.

I started college as an Interior Design major (lol) and after a year realized that wasn't for me. We were doing research on the history of a building when I realized I liked that way better. And at the same time I was doing my own family's genealogy research and looking at digitized documents. I eventually talked to a family friend who told me how to get into an archiving career. I switched to a History major, got my Master's in Information Science specializing in Archiving last December. I was an intern and now full time at the place I work, and have been here a little over a year. I get to meet a lot of very unique and fascinating people, photographers donating their archive, who have rubbed shoulders with all sorts of people from presidents and royalty to famous athletes and movie stars, and they all have amazing stories to share.

We do have microfilm and big old machines that I still don't know how to use and at this point I'm too afraid to ask 😂 I feel like that's a big old gap on my resume, I probably ought to ask my supervisor to show me what's what haha. But SO many dusty boxes. Sometimes bug filled boxes. We have a basement warehouse that kinda looks like the end of Indiana Jones. Lots of stacks. Offsite storage that's pretty high tech with doors that slide open like Star Wars. Goofy pictures of the presidents, or Mrs. Reagan sitting on Mr. T's lap while he's dressed like Santa Claus. Maps from the early 1800s. Every day is different and some are more boring than others, but I really do love it ☺️

It's a pretty independent job, but all my coworkers are great. Our registrar is probably one of the funniest, though I don't interact with him much. He's a huge Star Wars fan like I am and has an awesome statue of Yoda in his office. We did a white elephant gift exchange at Christmas and I ended up with the gift he brought, a Bedazzler straight out of the 90s

[bosses-stay-flawless]

✨To anyone who is curious about their family history, research it and celebrate it!!!

Researching my family history has always been a part of my life even before it became trendy. I was the child who sat for hours at my grandparents and great-grandparents feet listening to their stories about where my family (on every side originated) Ancestry and a variety of other genetic sites have helped me understand the scientific aspects of the people in my DNA but much of what I’ve discovered were the exact medical/genetic things like eye color & certain other dispositions my ancestors have passed down to me and several others in my family. Before I was old enough to take on the work, my aunt had done a lot of the documentation of our family history, I have extended that by taking several genetic tests that tell you different things and can give you more in-depth information.

This part of my journey has been awesome!!! My personal family history is EXTREMELY diverse. My ancestors, literally came from all across the globe.

Without a doubt, I love my ancestors, great and small, known and unknown, from the earth and from the galaxies.

The basic core ancestors meaning, my most recent ancestors, consisting of my parents, grandparents and my great- grandparents were from Italy, Germany, Egypt, Algeria, Mali, the Navajo Nation, Cuba, Japan, and Peru, when I delve deeper into my genetics (there are a variety of tests that allow you to do that) other nationalities are present. Some are Russia, Norway, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Wales, Nigeria, Benin & Tobago and China just to name a few. Yep, there a more, the further back in my genetics the more vast the information became.

I have encountered some people whose genetic histories only contain one or two groups of people I also find that very fascinating. It’s natural to focus on what you know about yourself and go through life with that, but even as a child I wasn’t content with just knowing that I was Italian, Navajo, Egyptian, African, Cuban. I wanted to know why some souls in my family had stories that extended further across the globe, and I wanted to know where my African ancestors came from specifically. Growing up I knew more about my Italian, Cuban, Navajo, and American Heritage, than anything else. The only time I didn’t feel foreign was when I was on sacred lands or sadly Native American reservations, (I always feel at home on the reservation because of the spirit of my people) those were the only places on American soil, that has always had people who had already been here, same as with other indigenous lands, where other indigenous peoples reside. ✨

As always I love, honor, and cherish, ALL of my ancestors, it has become a big part of my life. An even greater portion of my life is now about, discovering them, understanding their journeys on this planet, not as an extended nod to the past or not even as a hopeful gesture toward a future that is yet to come, no my genealogical work is a contribution to this very present moment that is being lived out here on earth.

Now, whenever I go around the world, things don’t feel so foreign, I don’t feel so disconnected from the people around the world, because some of their stories may be similar to mine, some of their joys, their pains, are just like mine. Their desires for peace, and the reasons why, are just like mine.

I am GRATEFUL, I can’t say it enough!!! Grateful for all of who I AM and for all of who my ancestors were and my descendants are to become. I am also grateful for how the love for my immediate FAMILY, has allowed me the mindset to create a space and encourage a heartfelt curiosity that exceeds what I know, see and was taught about what it means to be a family but also what it means to be a citizen of the world. #connections #heritage #cultures

[secreteviltwin]

Sorry if this seems a weird thought, but I noticed that you said patriarchal naming makes materiarchal genealogy incredibly difficult, but what IS the purpose of genealogy? Is it not the ancestors of the culture you grew up in that are more important than than those that are related by blood? My great granparents could have been Russian for all I know, but that doesn't make me Russian, I consider my heritage to be the culture I grew up in rather than the country my bloodline is from.

i love this question!! short answer is genealogy is not about culture/heritage, it's about history.

anyone with a genealogy hobby does it because they love the history and they love the process. newbies who approach it from a perspective of culture get bored quickly and give up lol.

what genealogy IS for:

1. original historical research!! genealogists have generated a MASSIVE body of original research (mostly for free!) that otherwise would never be funded or done at all. we work with primary sources and original historical documentation. if you start researching your family history you will quickly find yourself combing through census and marriage records, historical maps, newspapers, and all sorts of other sources. and that research extends past individuals to local history, a good genealogist spends at least as much time researching the places as the people.

2. fun! genealogy is like a puzzle. for me it's the same as doing a sudoku or playing an escape room - finding clues, making connections, and solving mysteries! the game of research is a lot of fun. when a hobby genealogist finishes their own tree they often branch out into one name studies etc.. last summer i started doing some research for a friend ive really enjoyed!

3. understanding your personal context. for example my research has helped me understand generational trauma in my family, and it's fascinating to watch something 5 generations ago still echo today. we don't usually think about families on that kind of scale but i think it helps.

4. connecting with your family. i have 2 grandparents who are very interested in their family history but don't have the internet savy-ness to do this research on their own. sharing my interest has helped me connect with them and im very grateful :)

[ausetkmt]

IFLScience: Largest Ever Family Tree Reveals Origins Of All Humanity

Almost all of us, if we go back far enough in our family trees, come from somewhere else. Maybe it was your mom or dad; maybe it was a distant ancestor who lived more than twelve thousand years ago, but eventually, you’re going to find someone, at some point, who left their homeland in search of a better life. 

19.4N, 33.7E - the origins of everyone alive today. Image: Google Maps/IFLS

Almost all of us, if we go back far enough in our family trees, come from somewhere else. Maybe it was your mom or dad; maybe it was a distant ancestor who lived more than twelve thousand years ago, but eventually, you’re going to find someone, at some point, who left their homeland in search of a better life. 

Unless, that is, you happen to live here. It’s a spot of desert in the north-east of Sudan, not far from the Nile river, and according to an ambitious new analysis by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute, it may be the ancestral home of everybody alive today.

“Essentially, we are reconstructing the genomes of our ancestors and using them to form a vast network of relationships,” explained Dr Anthony Wilder Wohns, lead author of the study published today in the journal Science.

“We can then estimate when and where these ancestors lived,” said Wohns.

We’re likely all familiar with the idea of tracing family trees using DNA and genomics analysis these days – not only are they a commercially-available relationship ender, but they’ve also been used to solve quite a few murders in the past few years.

But for some researchers, the dream has always been to take it global.

“We have basically built a huge family tree, a genealogy for all of humanity,” said evolutionary geneticist and principal author Dr Yan Wong. “This genealogy allows us to see how every person’s genetic sequence relates to every other, along all the points of the genome.”

“Huge” is right: using data from eight different human genome databases, the researchers were able to create a network of almost 27 million ancestors. Samples came not just from modern humans, but also ancient people who lived across the world between thousands and hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Cutting-edge algorithms were employed to scan the data for patterns of genetic variation and predict where common ancestors would occur in the “family tree” to account for them.

“[The study] models as exactly as we can the history that generated all the genetic variation we find in humans today,” Wong explained.

What results is a fascinating visual representation of the movement and migration of humanity throughout history. But the researchers aren’t done yet: as more data becomes available, they intend to continue adding to and improving the genealogical map – and thanks to the efficiency of their methods, they still have space for millions of extra genome samples.

”This study is laying the groundwork for the next generation of DNA sequencing,” said Wong. “As the quality of genome sequences from modern and ancient DNA samples improves, the trees will become even more accurate and we will eventually be able to generate a single, unified map that explains the descent of all the human genetic variation we see today.”

And if that isn’t ambitious enough for you, Wohns thinks the team can go even further.

“While humans are the focus of this study, the method is valid for most living things; from orangutans to bacteria,” he said. “It could be particularly beneficial in medical genetics, in separating out true associations between genetic regions and diseases from spurious connections arising from our shared ancestral history.”

[eurofinsgenomics755]

DNA Sequencing: Unlocking the Secrets of Life

In the age of modern science, one of the most fascinating advancements is our ability to read the very blueprint of life��our DNA. DNA sequencing, the process of determining the precise order of nucleotides within a DNA molecule, has transformed biological research, medical diagnostics, and even the criminal justice system. It allows scientists to understand genetic makeup at a deeper level, and has a wide range of applications, from personalized medicine to ancestry tracing.

What is DNA Sequencing?

At its core, DNA sequencing is the process by which we determine the exact order of the four nucleotides (adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine) in a DNA strand. This sequence encodes genetic information, providing instructions for building and maintaining an organism. By reading and understanding these instructions, we gain insights into everything from inherited traits to potential health risks.

DNA sequencing can be thought of as reading a very complex instruction manual. Each sequence is unique to the individual organism, and even small changes in the sequence can have significant effects. For instance, a single alteration in a DNA sequence could lead to a genetic disorder, while other variations might make someone more resilient to certain diseases.

Types of DNA Sequencing Technologies

Sanger Sequencing: This is one of the earliest and most accurate methods for DNA sequencing, developed by Frederick Sanger in the 1970s. Often referred to as "first-generation sequencing," it’s commonly used for smaller projects, such as sequencing single genes or small DNA fragments.

Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS): This technology revolutionized DNA sequencing by enabling high-throughput, massively parallel sequencing. NGS platforms can sequence millions of DNA fragments simultaneously, making them ideal for larger projects, like sequencing entire genomes or analyzing complex populations of microorganisms.

Third-Generation Sequencing: This includes newer methods like nanopore sequencing and single-molecule real-time sequencing, which allow scientists to sequence longer stretches of DNA in real time. This can be particularly useful for sequencing highly repetitive or complex regions of the genome.

Why is DNA Sequencing Important?

DNA sequencing has a huge range of applications, which include:

Medical Diagnostics: DNA sequencing allows doctors to pinpoint genetic mutations that may cause diseases. In cases of rare genetic disorders, sequencing can help diagnose the condition, enabling targeted treatments. For instance, the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes can be sequenced to assess an individual's risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.

Personalized Medicine: One of the most promising applications of DNA sequencing is personalized or precision medicine. By understanding a patient's unique genetic makeup, doctors can prescribe treatments tailored specifically for them. This can improve the efficacy of treatments, reduce side effects, and help manage chronic conditions more effectively.

Forensic Science: DNA sequencing has become a critical tool in forensic science. From solving criminal cases to identifying disaster victims, sequencing can provide accurate identification based on DNA left at a scene or recovered from remains.

Agriculture and Food Security: DNA sequencing is widely used in agriculture to develop better crop strains, improve livestock health, and even track food sources. By understanding the genetic traits of plants and animals, scientists can create more resilient crops, increase yields, and breed livestock with desired characteristics.

Ancestry and Genealogy: Ancestry services, powered by DNA sequencing, allow individuals to explore their genetic heritage. By analyzing the DNA and comparing it to known population databases, these services can provide insights into an individual's ethnic background and ancestral migration patterns.

The Process of DNA Sequencing

The process of DNA sequencing typically involves several steps:

DNA Extraction: First, DNA is extracted from cells, often through a simple swab or blood sample.

Library Preparation: The DNA is fragmented into smaller pieces, which are then prepared for sequencing. This preparation varies depending on the sequencing technology being used.

Sequencing: The DNA fragments are sequenced to determine the order of nucleotides. Depending on the technology, this can involve methods like fluorescence (Sanger sequencing) or electrical signals (nanopore sequencing).

Data Analysis: After sequencing, bioinformatics tools are used to analyze the data. The raw sequence is assembled, aligned, and compared to reference sequences to identify any genetic variations.

Interpretation: In a clinical or research setting, scientists and doctors interpret the sequence data to make conclusions about gene function, disease risk, or ancestry.

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

While DNA sequencing offers incredible potential, it also raises ethical and practical challenges:

Privacy Concerns: The accessibility of genetic information raises concerns about privacy. Who owns your genetic data, and who has the right to access it? These are critical questions as more people undergo sequencing for health and ancestry purposes.

Data Interpretation: Just because we can sequence DNA doesn’t mean we fully understand it. Interpreting the vast amount of data generated by sequencing requires sophisticated computational tools and a deep understanding of genetics.

Genetic Discrimination: There’s a risk of genetic discrimination if employers, insurers, or other parties misuse genetic information. This has led to regulations like the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) in the United States, which aims to protect individuals from discrimination based on their DNA.

Equity in Access: The cost of sequencing has dropped dramatically, but access is still limited in many parts of the world. Ensuring equitable access to these technologies is essential to prevent widening disparities in health and research.

The Future of DNA Sequencing

As technology continues to improve, DNA sequencing is becoming faster, more affordable, and more accessible. In the future, it's likely that sequencing will become a routine part of medical checkups, allowing for more preventative and personalized healthcare. Imagine a world where everyone has a digital version of their genome, providing insights into their health, ancestry, and even traits like athletic ability or dietary needs.

Furthermore, as we decode more genomes from various species, we may uncover new insights into evolution, biodiversity, and the origins of life itself. Scientists are also exploring "gene editing" techniques like CRISPR, which, when combined with DNA sequencing, could potentially allow us to correct genetic mutations and cure inherited diseases.

Conclusion

DNA sequencing is one of the most transformative technologies of our time. By understanding our genetic code, we unlock the secrets of biology and open up a world of possibilities in medicine, agriculture, forensics, and beyond. As we move forward, it’s crucial to navigate the ethical and social implications of this technology carefully, ensuring that it benefits society as a whole.

[evidentia01]

How Tree Genealogy Software Can Help You Preserve Your Family Legacy

Evidentia's tree genealogy software offers a powerful way to preserve your family legacy. By meticulously organizing and documenting your family history, you can create a lasting record that can be shared with future generations. With Evidentia, you can easily build comprehensive family trees, add photos, documents, and notes, and even connect with other genealogists who may have information about your ancestors. As you delve deeper into your family's past, you'll uncover fascinating stories, discover hidden connections, and gain a deeper appreciation for your heritage.