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theuniversitychallengereview · 11 months ago

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The Olympics of Quizzing

I don't know about you but I've watched a lot more kite-surfing and modern pentathlon in the past few weeks than I usually do.

I've watched less football, but I'm probably watching too much football normally if I'm being honest with you.

As The Olympics came to a close yesterday, to be replaced by another of life's sporting behemoths - University Challenge - it had me wondering what an Olympics of Quizzing would look like.

And I'm not talking about the World Quiz Championship, or whatever the highest level of normal quizzing is. I'm imagining an integrated quiz-sporting festival, which combines quizzing with all of the other regular sports.

Or a 10m platform diving competition where they ask you a question as you leap and you have to answer it as you come out of the water. Same with the vault in gymnastics.

Or a marathon with a question after every mile, sort of like that guy who drank 25 glasses of wine during the London race this year.

This would test the mind as well as the body, like chess boxing, but on a grander scale.

On second thoughts, maybe we should expand the scope and include things like chessboxing in this new festival of competition, because there are as many different ways of challenging the mind as there are of challenging the body.

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Mind-Body Dualism

The philosopher Rene Descartes is famous for his idea of mind-body-dualism, which states, from a summary on the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy:

"That the mind is indivisible because one cannot perceive one's mind as having any parts. On the other hand, the body is divisible because one cannot think of a body except as having parts. Hence, if mind and body had the same nature, it would be a nature both with and without parts. Yet such a thing is unintelligible: how could something both be separable into parts and yet not separable into parts? The answer is that it can’t, and so mind and body cannot be one and the same but two completely different natures.

This prompted a lot of scientific and religious discussion in the centuries which followed (and to throw my hat in the ring - just because one cannot conceive of the parts which make up a thing that surely does not prove that it does not have parts), and remains a question which interests modern philosophers.

So we have the Body-Olympics for things like running and shot put, and the Mind-Olympics for things like quizzing and scrabble.

Why not the Mind-Body Dualympics for things like Poker-Archery, Sudoku-Judo and the Cryptic-Crossword-Triple-Jump.

This is my official call out to the IOC - get on with it.

Queen's, Belfast vs Liverpool

But back to the matter at hand - the new series of University Challenge. Which could be combined with the Team Pursuit to make a new Dualympics event.

The first episode of this new series features Queen's, Belfast and Liverpool. Remarkably, Liverpool haven't been on since the 16/17 series, while Queen's University last appeared in 22/23.

Queen's won in 1981, but haven't made it past the quarter-finals in the BBC era, while Liverpool have made the semis on two occasions since 1995, losing to Trinity Hall, Cam in 2006 and St John's, Ox in 2016.

Here's your first starter for ten

Queen's get off to an incredible start, which I'll talk about before getting onto the troublesome subject of how to grammatically deal with the fact that their name has an apostrophe in it.

Thompson earns the honour of the first question with sample, and Queen's rattled off a perfect set of bonuses on musicians who were awarded posthumous Pulitzer prizes (for music, unsurprisingly) with Scott Joplin, Thelonious Monk and Aretha Franklin, who would have made quite the jazz trio.

Rankin takes the second starter with Cologne and another hat-trick followed. Carlisle made it three from three for Queen's, and they finally dropped a bonus, but lead by 70 points.

Onto more pressing matters.

How to use Queen's in a sentence?

The issue is that Queen's already has an apostrophe in it, so whenever I write Queen's like this I worry that people will read it as something belonging to a/the Queen. If this isn't an issue for you then you can skip onto the next section.

If it is an issue then you also have the option to skip ahead, but you'll miss out on some good rambling.

The easy (cowardly) solution would be to use their full name - Queen's University, Belfast - every time I mentioned them, to avoid confusion. But that is a long and unwieldy name, and despite the fact I've dedicated an entire section of this blog to a single apostrophe, I generally dislike the unwieldy.

And if I don't want to use the full name I have to use the shortened Queen's, but that then leaves me with a dangling possessive. A garden path possessive, I suppose, as it leads you to believe that there is a possessive where there is none.

But these are solutions which would work, even if they are a bit clunky.

The biggest problem arises when trying to denote that something actually does belong to Queen's. If, for example, I were to refer to the Queen's captain Rankin, or the Queen's mascot. Without further punctuation it would appear that I was talking about a captain or mascot belonging to the Queen.

And if I were to flip the apostrophe and say the Queens' captain, then I would be referring instead to a captain belonging to a group of Queens.

Leaving me no option but to always say the Queen's University captain, or the Queen's University mascot, which is mightily arduous. Though not, perhaps, as arduous as a 350 word section on the subject of a single apostrophe.

Any students of grammar please inform me of a more pleasing solution.

Liverpool fight back

Cartilage provides Liverpool, through Day, their first points of the evening. She is delighted and beams with a fist pump. Their resident chemist Sajit provides three correct answers on molecular structures, and Day is just as pleased by this as she was by her own starter.

But not for long

They returned to form with another hat-trick on the bonuses, before Liverpool captain Williams got his first starter with Dreamgirls, a film which would have surely proved too "low-brow" for a University Challenge question a few years ago.

Sajit takes the dubious honour of the series' first incorrect interruption, but Queen's can't pick up the points. McKillen then makes it a full house for the Northern Irish quartet with serotonin, earning them a bonus set on American sandwiches.

Rajan says that one of these sandwiches shares a name with a famous French novel, so they guess Les Miserable (it was Monte Cristo), which prompts great mirth from the audience. Seeing this, Rajan milks his own laughter a tad too long, giggling his way into the third bonus, which is on the Sloppy Joe.

Making up for her earlier mistake, Sajit gets Liverpool going again with Barcelona, and again Day cheers her teammate.

Would the Real Slim Shady please stand up?

Rankin takes the music starter within a few seconds, knowing not only that the song being played was Eminem's seminal masterpiece, but that it was released in the year 2000.

Rajan asks Rankin if he was born in 2000, which he wasn't. But that's hardly surprising, given that someone born in 2000 would now be 24! Or 23 at the time of filming. Some of this years contestants may have been born far later - perhaps even as late as 2005, which is quite disconcerting.

Boatswains

The subtitles on my rewatch alert me to both the fact that the word boatswain is pronounced bosun, and that the word bosun can be spelled boatswain. I might start referring to all of the UC contestants who aren't captains as boatswains from now on.

Consecutive starters from Liverpool skipper Williams and his boatswain Sajit keep them in it. Ashcroft tries to get in on the fun but his guess of bhaji is wrong and for the first time in the match Day looks like she's having a bad one.

Queen's boatswain Thompson picks up the pieces, and he also picks up the pieces from a Sajit error on the next starter too. The gap was back into the hundreds, and with only a few minutes left Liverpool were done for.

They made a late charge to try and bag a spot in the high-scoring loser play-offs, but their final score of 125 is not going to be enough. Queen's 240 - 125 Liverpool

A magnificent performance from Queen's, who sail into the second round. Liverpool will be kicking themselves for a few incorrect interruptions, which may have been what costs them a spot in the repechage.

After the gong, Rajan discusses Queen's mascot with them (Queen'ses mascot? Now you see the trouble I'm in. I could just say 'Queen's University's mascot, of course, but like I said earlier, that would be the cowards way out).

#university challenge #bbc2 #queen's belfast #liverpool

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pecattestationservices · 14 days ago

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How do I get an apostille from Japan?

What is an Apostille

An Apostille is just the name for a particular authentication, given by the Secretary of State. The Apostille is joined to your unique archive to check it is genuine and true so it will be acknowledged in one of the different nations that are members of the Hague Apostille Convention.

Under customary conditions, when the report is apostilled, it shouldn't be endorsed further from the concerned government office. Apostille is an overall confirmation that is commendable in around 92 countries, and by far most of the western world sees Apostille.

In 1961, numerous nations consolidated to make work on techniques for "sanctioning" records for all-inclusive acknowledgment. Individuals from the gathering alluded to as the Hague Convention, received a record alluded to as an Apostille that would be perceived by all part nations.

What is an Apostille ( Internationally )

An Apostille is a name for a particular testament, given by the Secretary of State. The Apostille is appended to your unique report to confirm it is real and valid so it will be acknowledged in one of the different nations who are individuals from the Hague Apostille Convention.

In the US All the 50 states and the Federal Government (US Department of State – Office of Authentication) can give an Apostille. In 1961, numerous nations consolidated to make a worked-on strategy for "legitimizing" records for widespread acknowledgment. Individuals from the gathering alluded to as the Hague Convention, received a record alluded to as an Apostille that would be perceived by all part nations. Since October 1981, the US has been significant for the Hague Convention invalidating the Requirement of Legalization for the Foreign Public Documents.

The Apostille Convention gives the improvement on confirmation of public (counting legally approved) reports being utilized in nations that have joined the show. Records bound for use in taking interest in nations and their regions ought to be confirmed by one of the authorities in the ward in which the report has been executed.

The perceived standard Apostille contains a seal and 10 obligatory references: name of the country from which the archive radiates, name of individual marking the report, the limit wherein the individual marking the record has acted, on account of unsigned records, the name of the power that has joined the seal or stamp, a spot of affirmation date of the certificate, the position giving the authentication, number of testament, seal or stamp of power giving declaration and mark of power giving an endorsement.

Three fundamental checks should be done to get Apostille to reports:

- Legal officials from approved Personnel.

- State Authorisation from concerned state divisions or secretariat.

- MEA Apostille

There is one more advance included at last if the country you need to get an apostille isn't a Hague country.

-Legitimization from the Embassy of the Country ( just if a nation isn't in Hague Convention) MEA straightforwardly doesn't acknowledge any report for Apostille, and needs to go through our Agency. We are guaranteed from MEA to get Apostille for you.

Every one of the reports that are apostilled should be numbered continuously by the position which is perceived all through the apostille show. The perceived standard Apostille contains a seal and required references.

Following are the subtleties an Apostille contains:

- Name of the country from which the record was given.

- Name of the Person to whom archive is given.

- Name of individual marking the archive.

- Assignment of the scorched individual.

- Spot of accreditation date of affirmation.

- Number of endorsements.

- Seal or stamp of power giving an endorsement.

- Mark of power giving an endorsement.

These are the most common documents we can apostille :

-Birth Certificates

-Marriage Certificates

-Wedding Certificates

-Passing/Death Certificates

-Separation/Divorce Certificate

-Single Status Affidavit

-Record verifications (Local, State, FBI)

-Force of Attorney

-Duplicate of U.S. Visa

-Duplicate of Driver's License

-Driving Record (DMV)

-Federal retirement aide

-Records – High School, College, University, Trade School

-Confirmations – High School, College, University, Trade School

-GED Diploma and Transcripts

-GED Diploma and Transcripts – ONLINE Digital Version for global understudies living outside of the USA.

-TEFL/TESOL Certification

-Approval of Agent

-Authentication of Naturalization

-Authentication of Naturalization – USCIS Form G-24 (Older than 20 years)

-Travel Consent Letter

-FBI Background Check

-Appeal for Name Change

-US Coast Guard Letters

-Vehicle Title Registration – DMV

-Vehicle Title

-Articles of Incorporation

-US Patent and Trademarks – USPTO

-Authentication to Foreign Government – CFG

-Government Aviation Administration Letters – FAA

-Authentication of Free Sale

-IRS Form 6166

-Certificate of Free Sale – FDA

-Public Archives

-Declaration of Origin and Commercial Invoice

-Declaration of Incumbency

-Corporate Power of Attorney

Let us know about how to get apostille authentication for my documents in Japan:

A validation and an apostille are the two affirmations from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of true records given by government/public offices and neighborhood governments. A validation/apostille will be required when you need to submit Japanese authority archives for different systems (like marriage, separate, birth enrollment, visa application, consolidation, or land buy) in far off nations and when its pertinent office requested you to acquire an affirmation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It might likewise be needed for affirmation by the delegate of the Embassy/Consulate (- General) of the objective country in Japan (= authorization). All in all, you need to apply for a validation or an apostille just when it is needed by the important unfamiliar organization or Embassy/Consulate (- General) in Japan.

Authentication (of true seals)

Authentication is an accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is important to acquire sanctioning by the diplomat of an Embassy/Consulate (- General) in Japan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs doesn't give a report itself yet guarantees official seals on true archives and makes such certificates on the authority records. If it's not too much trouble, try to acquire the authorization of the significant Embassy/Consulate (- General) after you got authentication by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Authentication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a certificate that is needed for authorization at the significant Embassy/Consulate (- General) in Japan. In this manner, if it's not too much trouble, present the confirmed record to the significant organization of the objective nation after you have gotten sanctioned by the pertinent unfamiliar delegate in Japan.

Now and again, the important office might require affirmation by the Embassy or Consulate-General of Japan, not a confirmation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If it's not too much trouble, note that records that have effectively gotten validation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can't be guaranteed at the Embassy or Consulate-General of Japan.

#attestation #apostille

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chaoticbri · 4 years ago

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~ Advesperascit ~ J.P

[ cw: death, grief, existential questions, worry ]

[ synopsis: James Potter talks about his life leading up to October 31st 1981 ]

~ it’s Halloween so you know what that means!! Really sad time in the marauders fandom. Anyways, I made this at 2am so if it’s sucks pls do not mention it haha ~

Title meaning - “the approaching dark, the evening draws near”

_____________________________________________

Death wasn’t something James Potter liked to think about. He wasn’t quite sure what happened to people when they died, and he wasn’t the type of person to dwell on it. Sirius and Remus would have hours of conversations about how they thought the world works, how they perceived death. James Potter didn’t like to think about death.

“Dead doesn’t mean someone has left you.” Is a phrase commonly used by James’s mother. He hated it. Of course dead meant that someone wasn’t there. He couldn’t feel them, couldn’t see them, couldn’t talk to them, couldn’t hear them. They were dead. Six feet under.

The Prewett twins went first. Followed by Marlene, and then Dorcas a short while later. Plus the many in between who James never had enough time to learn more than a name. And still as the numbers dwindled, James never once thought about himself. He had someone new to worry about now though, he had Harry.

When they had to go into hiding James was worried, of course he was worried, but this felt more like an existential dread of worry. He couldn’t place it, couldn’t figure it out. That was until October 31st. He knew it then.

He told Lily to to get Harry, she ran up stairs and James was alone. He had a moment before Voldemort entered their home. He had a moment to finally think about that one thing he’d been avoiding his entire life. He had a moment. And then there was nothing.

No more time. No more family. No more thoughts. Just the green light from the end of a wand, the sinister laugh of someone who thought they were winning, and the cold hardwood floor that he lay on top of.

As James felt the world dim and the ringing slow, he thought about it all. He wondered if there was a place where he might be able to see his parents, or the friends he lost along the way. He thought about how hard it would be for Sirius, and then he thought about how he ended up here. Peter betrayed them. He wished that he never doubted Remus’s loyalty, he wished Sirius never brought up that concern. He wished he could go back and somehow try to talk to Peter about this. He wished he knew what would happen to Sirius and Remus.

Lily. He wished he knew if she was following him into the unknown. He didn’t want her to, he wanted her to live. To take Harry and raise him to be a better man than any of them ever could be. But James was also scared. He didn’t want to do this alone, he’d put this thought off his whole life in order to not think about being alone. He wanted Lily to grow old. He wanted Harry to grow old. But James also wanted to grow old.

The light dimmed fully and the bright energy that was once James was distinguished. He died with questions in his mind. He died alone.

What was a world without James Potter? A different one, a sad one, people would say.

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blacknailpolishonguitarstrings · 4 years ago

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The irony of white lilies

CW: funeral, mention of death, hate of a loved one

Bright golden sun, radiant blue sky, fluffy white clouds, joyful chirping birds, colourful blooming flowers, iridescent dew drops sliding off waxy green leaves, sweet scents of freshly-baked bread and pastries wafting through the fresh morning air… all of it was too much for Remus. It was too pretty, too happy, too good to be true. London was never this beautiful. Of course, the one day where it was had to be the funeral of his three best friends and his relationship with the one person he had loved more than anything else. He looked at himself in the narrow mirror in the hallway: tall, slim, long gangly limbs drowning in a dark brown suit, the only one he owned, which was slightly too large for him, mousy brown hair strands hanging limply over his face and having lost their golden shine, honey brown greenish eyes shadowed by dark rings, and pale, ashy skin stricken with several old silvery scars and a couple of fresh pink ones. The mirror reflected the ghost of a person, a mere shadow of who he was before. In the top right corner of the reflective glass, five words and a name were hastily written in black marker. The letters were perfectly shaped, curved in elegant lines, clear and regular, so very different from Remus’ own scrawny, barely readable handwriting. It was unmistakably Sirius’ handwriting through and through, remnants of his aristocratic past clear as day. And it read:

“I love you, remember me

-Sirius”

It was nothing more than a mere note, a regular thing Sirius did, nothing out of the usual, and yet, it was as if he had known what would happen, as if…

“As if he had planned it all along,” Remus realised. Ragingly, he whipped the glass with his long, frayed sleeve, attempting to erase the message before his eyes, from existence, from his memory, but the letters wouldn’t even smudge. Huffing in frustration, he grabbed his wand, before stomping out of the apartment, slamming the door shut behind himself.

“Colloportus,” he whispered sharply, waving at the lock briefly with his hand.

The air around him crackled quietly, buzzing with the magic that escaped the howling wolf inside him, are emotions and uncontrollable feelings ruling over his entire being, brimming with pure power. Remus ran down the stairs, ducking out of the building, and slipped into a nearby foul-smelling alley, shadowed by the silhouettes of the tall houses surrounding it. Hiding behind a dumpster, he Apparated away with a loud crack.

***

The fields surrounding the Potter’s barndominium swayed in the fresh autumn wind, grass blades rustling softly as the last few flowers undulated and bent over under the pressure of harsher gusts of cold air. Not far from him, about 50 meters or so away, a group of people clad in black clothes stood amongst pristine white chairs. An altar of some sort crowned with a plethora of flowers stood proudly above them, a few long ribbons of white silk swaying in the wind over the guests. Ridiculously, it looked almost like the preparations of a wedding ceremony instead of a funeral, full of decorations and extravaganza.

“The entire opposite of what James and Lily would have wanted,” Remus thought, scoffing, before making his way over to the small crowd, striding through the tall yellowy dried out grass.

No one noticed him when he approached the congregation, all too busy talking in hushed whispers amongst themselves or staring at the front towards the flowered altar. Remus recognised a couple of faces here and there, some Professors from Hogwarts, some people he remembered having seen at Fleamont’s and Euphemia’s glorious and colourful Christmas parties, and a few students he had attended Hogwarts with. Order members were stationed in several places, milling around the mourners, stances guarded and wands drawn. Now more than ever, the aftermath of the War hung heavy in the air, looming darkly over everyone’s minds, deemed finished yet never entirely gone. Clenched fists stuffed in his pockets, Remus hung back a little, staying at the back of the crowd, observing everyone carefully and nodding to the occasional acquaintance who caught his eye. Something about the atmosphere felt very off and erroneous, yet he couldn’t quite place his finger upon it thus far. Suddenly, the loud telltale crack of Apparition cut sharply through the muffled conversations, and Dumbledore appeared in the middle of the funeral, exceedingly dramatic. Everything quieted down as he swept the crowd with his bright blue eyes, staring half-pensively half-gravely at everyone behind his half-moon spectacles. Finally, after a few strangely agonisingly long seconds, he turned around swiftly in a swish of robes and walked up to the altar on which lay James and Lily’s lifeless bodies. While Dumbledore waved briefly at the gathered attendance, gesturing for them to sit down on the white wooden chairs, Remus only had eyes for the cadavers of his two best friends, allowing himself to really look for the first time. They laid side by side, dressed in pristine softly shimmering silk white robes as if it were their wedding day, surrounded by wreaths of white lilies. James’ dark caramel skin and black curls and Lily’s auburn hair stood out drastically against the pureness of their milieu. Eyes closed faces relaxed and serene, they almost looked like a pair of coloured porcelain dolls that had been deposited on an elaborate flowerbed. Neither of them seemed dead, on the contrary, it was as if they were plunged in nothing more but deep, tranquil sleep, away from everything, at peace. Unable to bear it any longer, Remus turned away, biting his trembling lip as he watched the grass continue to sway softly. The sickeningly sweet smell of lilies was carried to him by the wind. A small, ironic smile bordering on slightly crazed stretched across his thin lips as his face contorted into a tight, pained grimace.

“Lily hated lilies, especially white lilies,” he thought with morbid amusement.

Behind him, the people had ceased to shuffle around and settled in their chairs. Dumbledore coughed lightly, and Remus glanced back, locking eyes with him. A rush of anger surged inside of him, though he did not know exactly why. The old man must have perceived it somehow, maybe seen the raging flare in his eyes, because after a few seconds, he lowered his eyes, gazing instead at the guests.

“Ladies, gentlemen,” he began, “we are gathered here today to honour James and Lily Potter, who unfortunately and tragically lost their lives far too soon on the grim night that was the 31st of October 1981. Both Lily and James were remarkable people, praised both in magical and emotional domains by many. They were caring and loving people, who brought much new to better the world we live in. I would thus like to go back on some of the deeds James and Lily Potter accomplished in their noble, albeit short lives, to mourn them in a celebration of them rather than in wallowing in sadness, reminiscing what we lost. I knew James and Lily as students under my care at Hogwarts first and foremost, but they revealed to be dear friends as they grew older. I remember the first day…”

The words blurred in Remus’ ears, sounding meaningless and hollow, empty, almost…false, if one would dare to call them as such. They did not appear to hold any real value, and as speaker after speaker would pronounce their own valedictory, Remus doubted more and more whether these people actually knew or cared about James and Lily. All they ever seemed to remember was how good of a witch Lily was considering she was a Muggleborn, how wonderful of a Potioneer she was, how spectacular and outstanding James’ Quidditch skills were, how pleasant of a boy he was even if rather mischievous, and on and on and on. It was incredibly and unexpectedly painful for Remus, to whom Lily and James meant so much more than that, to hear people deliver such vain and barren speeches.

“They deserve better than a listing of their accomplishments, Lily and James deserve better,” he thought ragingly.

All throughout, he noticed Minerva, who sat quietly at the first row, only distinguishable from this far by her telltale pointy black hat, remained quiet. Remus deemed it rather surprising, but paid it no real mind, knowing she must have her reasons. Ever since the war, that peculiar bond they had formed on his very first day when she welcomed him had strengthened, grown into something deeper, maybe a friendship. Minerva McGonagall was probably one of the last few remaining people Remus still trusted. Finally, the tall, thin, balding man whose name Remus had failed to catch finished talking with a mere “We will miss them”, and Dumbledore walked up to the small stage once more.

“Before we bid farewell to our dear friends forever, does anyone else wish to speak?”

After a brief moment of hesitation, Remus walked up to him from the back of the gathering.

“Yes, Professor, there are some things I would like to mention before we let go of James and Lily, some things I believe they would have liked to hear,” he started, nodded faintly.

The gathered witches and wizards watched him expectantly, mistrust painted on the faces of a few at the sight of a skinny, tall, scarred, and shabbily dressed young man.

“Lily Evans hated lilies you know, James learned that the hard way in 5th year when she threw the humongous bouquet he had offered her in an attempt to woo her right at his face. Some said Lily could have been a fine Chaser with such precision of throw. James later learned that the way to Lily’s heart was blush roses. Anyhow, I believe it is time we change…this,” he said gesturing vaguely at the extravagant decorations, a slight moue of disgust forming on his bony face.

Whispering an incantation, he waved his wand briefly in the air and the lilies disappeared in a light poof of sparkles, replaced by creamy white roses with very faint blush pink cores.

“Better isn’t it?” he asked rhetorically, laughing a little to himself at the disbelieving looks painted on some of the elder witches and wizards. “Lily and James were two very special and talented people as you all already mentioned, but to me, they were important in a very different way, I remember them for other reasons which I believe, are just as significant. Lily Evans Potter and James Potter were two of the very first people who made me feel safe and welcomed, who made me feel truly loved, who made me feel at home. I trusted them with my life, and I still would if they were among us. I could spend hours here in front of you, telling you hundreds of stories about them, both sad and happy, about the time James fell off his broom into the Black Lake while attempting to impress Lily with some crazy stunt, about the time Lily was paired up with James in Potions and nearly died of stress and frustration, considering James was practically hopeless at Potions. I could tell you about the time they had a picnic under the stars at the top of the Astronomy Tower and Si…”

Remus choked on the word, feeling his throat tighten around it, refusing to let it go.

“And some friends and I,” he continued, sighing shakily, “found them and scared them into believing there was a ghost haunting them, although it was James who was more afraid if truth be told, Lily was too busy laughing and making fun of him.”

Some people in the audience cracked a faint smile at that.

“What I mean to say is, we can remember Lily and James for the many deeds they accomplished during their lives and for the wonderful stories we have of them. But we could also simply remember them as wonderful people who worked tirelessly to be good and make this world a little brighter, as people who cared for and loved everyone who was in need, as people who always strived to be a better version of themselves. I saw James and Lily as examples of kindness we should all attempt to live up to, and it is how I wish to remember them. I…”

Remus didn’t know what else to say, it felt like he had shared so much already, yet spoken so little of them, and none of the things swirling in his confused mind right now felt right to share with these strangers. It was simply too much, he wasn’t even sure he had already accepted the deaths of his friends, a part of him was still in deep denial, believing hopelessly and foolishly that neither James nor Lily nor Peter were gone, that it was all a terrible nightmare he would wake up soon from. Sirius wasn’t even worth mentioning anymore, he couldn’t think about him. Not today, when his focus should be entirely on Lily and James. From the first row, Remus saw Minerva smile at him gently, tears streaming down her wrinkled cheeks which appeared so pale against the darkness of her robes. He mustered a faint mirthless smile in response, before turning away, tears welling in his eyes. Desperately, he clenched his fists, digging his fingernails into the calloused skin of his palms, trying to distract himself with the sharp pain, doing anything just to forget what was going on around him. He left the stage like that, and walked away from the ceremony, refusing to turn back again, even though he felt a sharp stare drilling holes into his back. Dumbledore probably. Finally, he stopped and willed himself to glance back at least one last time at the lifeless bodies of his friends. At that precise moment, Dumbledore waved his wand, and the flower bed went up in silvery-white crackling flames. Only two white marble caskets remained when they died away. The charred petals of white roses which had burned in the fire softly twirled down on the stone, gentle and dead.

#marauders fanfiction #jily #remus lupin #angst

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thedeaditeslayer · 4 years ago

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INTERVIEW: Bruce Campbell on the enduring legacy of horror classic ‘Evil Dead’.

Bruce Campbell, the multi-hyphenate actor who has had a tremendous cultural impact in the world of entertainment, has put together a résumé like no other performer. He’s known for playing the iconic character of Ash in the Evil Dead films and its spinoff TV series, Ash vs.The Evil Dead. This horror credibility is by no means exclusive; he has also acted in many other projects, including Burn Notice, Bubba Ho-Tep, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. Add to that a couple bestselling memoirs, and his professional life has been a full one.

Now he’s ready to talk about perhaps the best-known bullet point on that résumé: his starring turn in the original Evil Dead. On Saturday, Jan. 23, Campbell will take part in an interactive virtual watch party while the horror movie plays for an online audience. The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio is one of the national venues hosting the event. Tickets are $25-$50.

Recently Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Campbell about his career, about the horror movie that started it all and his new “retirement.” Here’s what he had to say …

On what fans can expect from the virtual event …

They can expect amazingness at every turn. You know what it is, it’s not your father’s commentary. Your father’s commentary was on the old DVDs, and the movie starts, and the actors sit around and shoot the shit about what they remember. But it’s real time. It’s OK, but you miss a lot of stuff. So in this case I’ve got some kind of device that’s going to allow me to stop, start, maybe even rewind because you can get a lot more detail. My problem with the old commentaries I would do: You tell a story, something, something. You look up, and you go, ‘Oh, I wish I could have told that story, but it’s already gone.’ So this is a chance to expand the experience, get a little more detail, more trivia. I can kind of tease stuff up. I can pause it and go, ‘Oh, oh, oh,’ and let the people know something [is coming], so it’s just a different type of format done in a very safe and responsible fashion in this modern era.”

On his other work during this pandemic …

My agent kind of put this together because I’ve done similar stuff. I have worked with Wizard Entertainment a lot over the years, and I’ve been doing Last Man Standing as a game show host virtually through Wizard Virtual. And we’ve done that a bunch of times, and we’ve done this sort of Hercules type of reunion sort of stuff. So we’ve danced around it, but this is a way to kind of do another version of something where you go, OK, let’s do a little sit down. You know what it is, it’s just a live performance without the theater. I would be doing essentially the same thing in a movie theater, but until those open again, this is a pretty good second opportunity because the cool thing about the broadcast is it’s open to the world.”

On his hopes for the future of this type of virtual programming …

I hope it works because there are a lot of other movies that I’d be happy to sit with and watch.

On whether he knew Evil Dead would be so legendary …

We knew it from day one. [laughs] No, we did not. Honestly, it was a struggle just to finish the movie. We were under-funded. We shot in Tennessee, but we left 12 weeks later. We were supposed to be there for four weeks, so everything fell apart. We put it back together again. It fell apart — raise a little more money, shoot a little more. So most people think it was 1981, when it came out, but you’re close. But it’s really 1979 is when we actually shot the movie, and then it took several other years just to cobble the thing together. So, no, there was no heightened sense of oh my God we’ve got Star Wars on our hands. We felt fortunate that we had just enough money to finish the damn thing.

On whether he was OK with the gore …

Going in, we knew we wanted to have no holds barred. The only scene I objected to as an individual was the vine rape scene, but it wasn’t my character they were doing it to. So my dog wasn’t really in that fight.

On how he approached the role of Ash …

Well, look the first Evil Dead is pretty straight. It’s kind of a melodrama. There’s not a lot of cracking jokes. By the second Evil Dead, he’s sort of like a veteran with a little more sardonic cracks here and there. By the time you get to Army of Darkness, he’s sort of the ugly American. He’s morphed into the full braggadocious guy — I’ve been through stuff; get out of my way. And then by Ash vs. Evil Dead, now he’s on the downslope. The guy is picking up chicks at the Last Call. He’s doing mescaline. It was fun to follow the character as he progresses and digresses.

On whether he wanted more episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead …

You can never tell a company that’s putting up the money that they need to pay you more and finance more seasons because they have their own agenda, and they gave us three seasons, which is a fair shot. … Hey, they allowed us to do three seasons of basically unrated television, so fans certainly got their mouthful.

On whether he likes changing it up in his career …

I come from Detroit where in manufacturing they would do job rotation, like Fridays you’d work on tires, next week you’d work on fenders. This is in the factory, working in the auto factory, so it would be a way to keep the workers sort of interested. So, yeah, I love bopping in front of the camera, behind. This year I’m going to be a publisher. I’m going to publish a bunch of books later this year. I started a publishing company because there are a lot of projects that’ll never get made into movies, but doggone it, they sure can be made into novels and books and all kinds of fun stuff. … I’ve got 10 prospective books that I’ll sort of squeeze out over the next couple years. I’m just prepping each one, coming up with a cool cover. There’s tons of projects over the years that I developed. You look at it, and you go, well, no one is going to put up $10 million for this movie. But it won’t cost that much to put it out as a book because I think there’s a lot of stories that we thought were cool. I’d hate for them to wind up in a digital graveyard.

On whether he would ever play Ash again …

I’m officially retired, but I’m sure actors have said that before. I feel like I left it all out on the table for the TV show, and then beyond that, there wasn’t much I was either able or interested in lending to it. I’m going to do the voice for the video game. We’re doing an official Evil Dead game.

On whether he likes to meet fans at conventions …

I have no problem with it. It’s a fun interaction. You get to see new towns and see what folks are up to. You can do your own market research about what are they into, what are they like, what are they all about, who are they, how old are they, what do they look like, so that’s pretty fun. And staying relevant in front of a crowd is always fun, to torment the kids, so I’ll probably get that done if they’ll let us. I might do a drive-in movie tour later this summer.

On the fans who like the sequels as much as the original Evil Dead …

I just know that it was nice of them to embrace the rest of the movies, for different reasons. There are aficionados who like the straight horror of Evil Dead. There are people who like the wackiness of Evil Dead 2, which is sort of splat-stick. And there are some people who can’t really handle the gore, and they like Army of Darkness. It’s jokes; it’s talking skeletons. I mean a 12-year-old could watch Army of Darkness.

On being remembered for Ash above any other role …

You can’t predict how the viewing public will want to remember you over the years. I’m OK with it because Evil Dead got me into the film business and has given me gainful employment for years. What I found in the past is there’s no point grousing over what you think you are perceived as. Every person perceives an actor differently. If you only watch westerns, you might watch The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and love it, but hate Evil Dead. You might love spy shows and watch Burn Notice, but you’re still not going to watch Evil Dead. So I’ve found I’m sort of known by what people watched, and that’s good. I’m OK, as long as they watch.

#Bruce Campbell #The Evil Dead #Evil Dead

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monkberries · 5 years ago

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Wait what's wrong with the AKOM How Do You Sleep episode? I remember it being fine but its been ages since i listened to it so if you've got any thoughts I'd love to hear them :)

Be aware, this is only about the first episode, not about the George-focused episode. If they resolve any of the issues I have with the first episode in the second episode, then I sincerely apologize.

First, there are some things they talk about that I agree with! Near the end of the episode, they discuss the dynamic between John and the people around him in a really insightful way, and in a way I’ve often thought about it; both John and the people around him were all kind of in this mindset of “oh, Paul rejected us? Well, we didn’t want him ANYWAY! So THERE!” They also discuss the fact that John was very easily manipulated, and nearly his entire support system (minus Ringo, and shame on them for not mentioning that) basically egged his anger and viciousness on. And they also play/read some interviews with John about the song and tangential subjects, and it’s always nice to hear primary sources.

However, much like their post about Lewisohn, I find a lot of this episode excessive, overtorqued, and generally far too exaggerated. They perceive an imbalance in narratives (which I do think is there, just not to the extent they say) and overcorrect, imho.

First, I want to get my opinion on the song itself out of the way: I listen to it a lot. It’s on my Fall 2020 playlist. I enjoy the musicality, the style; the mood it evokes is extremely strong to me. Sometimes it’s fun to indulge in feeling evil or mean without having to actually be evil or mean! Plus, I love playing it right before Jealous Guy, or Steel and Glass, or I Know (I Know), just to get that maximum John Lennon Mood Whiplash effect. I think George’s solo is vicious and perfect for the mood as well. However, the lyrics are pretty horrendous in terms of their effect on Paul and his feelings; they’re also horrendous in that they’re just not well-written lyrics. IMHO you can tell it was written by three different people all throwing insults at the wall to see what would stick and rhyme. Half of the digs don’t even make sense. “So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise/You better see right through that mother’s eyes” Wut? “The one mistake you made was in your head” ??? The hell do these things even mean lmao

Anyway. Onto the episode itself.

Around 1 minute in, they say that there’s not a lot of check and balance in the Beatles fandom w/r/t this song, and that much of the fandom espouses that HDYS was “deserved” and “honest”. They reiterate this sentiment over in different ways throughout the episode, and I just do not see that kind of thing being a majority opinion in Beatles fandom spaces at all. Perhaps they are occupying different fandom spaces than I occupy (tumblr/Hey Dullblog/beatlebioreview), and it is true where they are? (In which case, my goodness, find some better blogs to follow, babes!) They talk about how they’ve never seen anyone pick it apart before, and that the discussion around it has not changed, that people have been saying Paul deserved it since it came out. Again, this is does not jive with my experience in the Beatles fandom.

From Shout!, a book with a well known anti-McCartney streak, published in 1981: “John’s Imagine album - despite the plea for universal peace and brotherhood in the title track - launched a thermo-nuclear strike back at Paul with ‘How Do You Sleep?’ a title suggesting crimes almost in the realm of first-degree murder. The McCartney references were unmistakable, and, often, cruelly unjust: ‘The freaks was right when they said you was dead... The only thing you done was Yesterday...’ There was even a two-fingered gesture of contempt for Paul’s new outdoor life with Linda on their Scottish farm.” Also, the RS review spends two paragraphs talking specifically about how heinous and unjustifiable HDYS is. You can definitely say that rock journalism takes some of the attitude of HDYS and runs with them, such as Paul’s music sounding like muzak - that sentiment certainly persisted. But I would argue that most of the shit journos are reacting to and buying into comes from Lennon Remembers primarily, where John says all the same crap and more, and worse, rather than HDYS itself, which they seem to balk at.

They make the claim as well that the Imagine LP has been elevated to some kind of untouchable, un-criticizeable status. In the years after his death, I think there is probably some truth to that, although again, untouchable is an extreme word. Even in 2003, the LP was number 80 on Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. However, it was 227 on NME’s list in 2013 and dropped to 223 on Rolling Stone’s new 2020 list, suggesting a waning in popularity over time and a willingness to look more objectively at the quality of it.

The thing that really bothered me about this episode is like... They talk about the need for nuanced discussion of the song, right? And that’s all fine and good, and I agree, nuance in any Beatles discussion is essential if you want to get close to any actual truth. However, they then go on to say, quite adamantly, that if you say the music of the song is good, even if you think the lyrics are awful, then they wouldn’t even bother having a conversation with you. It’s very “We want nuance! NO NOT LIKE THAT! YOU’RE DOING NUANCE WRONG!” Like, I’m sorry, the music is good, in my opinion! John is very good at evoking a mood! The fact that I think George’s solo is incredible, or that the keyboard riff gives me chills, or that I think the bass goes super hard, doesn’t mean I don’t understand how rough the lyrics are or the effect they had on Paul. In fact, imho, I think it’s important that we discuss how quality the music is because it underscores the calculated cruelty John exhibited. He worked hard on this song. He wanted to create a very specific feeling out of it, and he succeeded in spades. I think if it had been crappy musically, people would have been much more contemptuous of it than they already are. As I said earlier, some of the digs don’t even make sense; I think they’re bolstered and propped up specifically because the music underneath them is so good. Also, it’s not fucking wrong to enjoy a groove.

I also take some issue with them saying that HDYS was easily among the worst things John ever did. Like... equivalent or worse than going on anti-Semitic, homophobic rants? Yikes.

There are many instances in this episode where they will go “I often read things like...” or “Jean Jackets will say...” or “I see this a lot...” and then never actually talk about where they see these things or quote directly from them. One instance goes “I often read things like, ‘John Lennon is expressing years of pent-up resentment over creative differences’, as if John is some kind of, like, drunk art teacher doling out free advice to Paul on his music.” I’ve read a lot about HDYS and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that. Just about every discussion of the song I’ve seen says very clearly that it was an unjustified, deeply personal attack. I realize there is an aversion to publicly Naming Names when you’re calling out people who perpetuate a bad narrative. But I want to know where this stuff comes from. I want to actually see what it is they’re upset about.

Lastly, they talk near the end about music innovation and experimentation, and this is where I think things go much too far in overcorrecting a narrative. The well-known narrative for many years post breakup was that Paul was a boring square who wrote granny music. That is true; he was much maligned in the press about that. However, I think post-Hertsgaard, post-Revolution In The Head, post-Complete Recording Sessions, and post-Many Years From Now, that attitude has changed quite a bit. Most serious Beatles fans know now that Paul was the first one to really get into Avant-Garde stuff; most fans know about the fact that he made McCartney 1 basically alone in a homemade studio. Most fans have probably heard or at least heard of Temporary Secretary, lmao.

But it feels like these women are still living in the past where Paul was still being maligned for being a square, so instead they go way far to the other end and say “Paul was the musical innovator, not John.” And that is just flat out NOT true. They were BOTH musical innovators. The fact that Paul was the first to get into avant-garde art does not exclude John from also being incredibly innovative and experimental in his own way. Perhaps he wasn’t doing that on Imagine; they are right that Imagine is a collection of really good but fairly commercial songs. But they utterly discount the fact that he did Strawberry Fields Forever, and I Want You (She’s So Heavy), popularized backmasking, was one of the first if not the first to use amp feedback in a song in I Feel Fine, experimented with recording his voice differently with Tomorrow Never Knows and Revolution, and also the entirety of Plastic Ono Band!!! You don’t have to downplay or erase John’s experimental contributions to music in order to elevate Paul’s. You can elevate both of them. It’s fine.

Also, this is the episode where they say Lewisohn’s book is exactly the same as all the other Jean Jackets books except thicker, and I have a viscerally bad reaction to that for many reasons I have already outlined on this blog. Suffice to say, it is demonstrably untrue (not least because Lewisohn hasn’t published anything in his Tune In series that goes beyond 1962) and unfair to someone who has done an unbelievable amount of legwork to back up his writing. They also compare Lewisohn to Goldman (???????) and call them John and Yoko’s “fuckin bitch boys saying the same shit over and over again.” I have to imagine Goldman was a misspeak and she meant someone else, but still that jarred me lmfao

#about the blogger #Anonymous #podcast blues

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fillystick · 5 years ago

Photo

week 9 and 10 lecture

NIE WIEDER KRIEG!!! NO MORE WAR – ACT NOW – Urban street art sticker

RESPECT MY EXISTENCE OR EXPECT MY RESISTANCE - Urban street art sticker

photos from Markus Spiske

I was catching up on past lectures when I realized week 10′s content ties back to what is happening in the US right now, which made me decide to create my cover photo in relations to the event.

My intention is to pay my respect- as well as acknowledge- the rights of the community that is in pain at the moment, and reflect on ways of improvement when it comes to racial equality.

knowing that design is closely related to activism really gave me a new perspective, which is the power of design: the fact that we can make a difference by creating, expressing, and voicing an opinion. Design is so much more than just making a profit, it is a tool that comes with great responsibility and potential. Learning how to utilize it to spread importance is what I shall be thinking in my future years.

----------------

WEEK 9

PUNK: a counter-cultural movement

PUNK DESIGN, A SUMMARY: despise typesetter, prefer DIY

collage-style 1: ripping up and starting again

Takes a commercial image and repurposes it for revolutionary purposes.

collage-style 2: the use of stencils

stencils had frequently been used for their ease of use and acquisition, their association with the underground through graffiti, denoting something raw and urban, as well as its nature as simply being flawed by design.

zines: using illegible and garish styles to shock the viewer out of apathy, the punk movement gave little thought to the commonly perceived ‘good’ design practices.

parody and politics: using images from a media-saturated culture for a new purpose, they meant to trigger recognition in the viewer and include them on the subversive in-joke.

All ripped up: Punk influences on graphic design

MALCOLM MCLAREN: A multi-talented man

promoter and manager of bands the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols

he was one of the first white music producers to bring hip-hop to a wider audience and one of the first to popularise world music in the west

partnership with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood: SEX

In a new, in-depth biography, Paul Gorman offers a vivid portrait of the postmodernist impresario who conjured up punk’s angry pose, the Sex Pistols, and much more.

Malcolm McLaren's Life of Chaos, Music, and Art

JAMIE REID Jamie Reid’s artworks

A GUIDE FOR ANYONE WANTING TO DO IT THEIR WAY, FROM REID:

Destroy Your Computer: The more we get drawn into this mad digital world, the more we lose contact with each other. “Most jobs are about enslavement, break free if you can”

Study Art: If I hadn’t gone to Croydon I would never have met Malcolm McLaren, not just for what he did with the Pistols but for everything else he did. The irony is that neither Malcolm or I would have got into Croydon if it was today. What does that tell you about what’s happened to our education system?

Have a Sense of Humour

Learn from the Past

Look to the Future: Radical ideas will always get appropriated by the mainstream, people in authority lack the ability to be creative, and they rob everything they can. you have to keep moving on to new things.

Iconic Punk Artist Jamie Reid Has Some Advice for Young Creatives

XEROGRAPHY ART: is an art form that began in the 1960s. Prints are created by putting objects on the glass, or platen, of a copying machine and by pressing "start" to produce an image.

What Happens When a Photocopy Machine Becomes an Art Tool?

MEMPHIS DESIGN (MILAN 1980’S): its aesthetic embodies the 1980s

Simple geometric shapes; flat colours combined in bold, contrasting palettes; stylised graphic patterns defined by black-and-white stripes and abstract squiggles – these are the ingredients of Memphis-inspired design, fuelled by influences from earlier movements such as Pop Art and Art Deco.

10 iconic examples of Memphis design

ETTORE SOTTSASS: One of the most influential and important figures of the last century, Architect and Designer, founded the Memphis group In 1981, a group that has radically changed the scenario of Italian and world design.

Ettore Sottsass’ works

DAVID CARSON: RAYGUN David Carson design

David Carson’s deconstructed style for Ray Gun, was very much a design aesthetic that blurred the lines of visual communication and challenged its readers to interpret the text in their own way. Much like the youths that he targeted throughout the 90s, they were rule breakers themselves that rebelled against society. His use of non-hierarchical text and visually complex, layered compositions, spoke ‘their language.’

“I’ve never used grids; I still don’t. I never studied or learned about them, and when I did I saw no reason to use them.”

STREET PRESS ANALYSIS: RAY GUN COVER — David Carson, Anti-grid Design Icon David Carson Says Computers Make You Lazy, Contextual Studies: David Carson

NEVILLE BRODY: THE FACE

The Face, drawing freely for his visually exciting layouts and typography on avant-garde artistic ideas. Brody was thoughtful to the construction of its layouts, with blocks of texts often placed horizontally or vertically on the page, the layouts contrasting strikingly with hand-mediated imagery and photography. Such ideas exerted a significant international impact on the appearance of the magazine, advertising, and retailing design.

POST 14 – 1980's – 'The Face' Neville Brody – Monique

-----------------------------

WEEK 10

MIMMO ROTELLA

'With a Smile', Mimmo Rotella, 1962

Mimmo Rotella - 324

ROBERT RAUSCENBERG

Robert Rauschenberg 1925–2008

JACEK TYLICKI

Jacek Tylicki Art and Artworks

FISCHLI & WEISS

Fischli & Weiss: Flowers & Questions. A Retrospective – Exhibition at Tate Modern

GILBERT BAKER: RAINBOW FLAG

“Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’”

Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky, so he adopted eight colors for the stripes, each color with its own meaning (hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit).

How Did the Rainbow Flag Become a Symbol of LGBTQ Pride?

FLAG IN DESIGN: the lecture talked about how flags influence to power of design, this is an interesting article of how flags can go beyond the rules of design, but still make it work.

7 fantastic flags that break every design rule

ACTIVISTS (ADBUSTER, TIBOR KALMAN, GUERRILA GIRLS, BENETTON: COLORS MAGAZINE)

A Review of COLORS

“Oliviero Toscani and Tibor Kalman launched “a magazine about the rest of the world” for United Colors of Benetton in 1991. It seems only fitting that an unconventional title like this should be documented in an unconventional way.”

“Toscani wanted a magazine without any stars, without any celebrities, and without any news. He decided they’d interview people nobody knew, and they’d use the internet to find stories. This approach- a combination of dynamic graphics, striking photographic imagery, provocative themes, and an unwaveringly global outlook—has become familiar to magazine readers now, they hope to firmly establish COLORS’ status as the founder not only of today’s independent magazines, but of mainstream media as well.”

SHEPARD FAIREY: HOPE POSTER Visual Analysis of Shepard Fairey's 'Hope'

Color: Red, blue and beige are representative of the American flag, illustrating his patriotism. Blue help to define his features, the beige on his face might be to say that race doesn’t matter.

Typography: provides the concept that the poster is trying to communicate. HOPE’s typeface used is Gotham, a strong slab sans serif, the use of Gotham in this work creates a sense of authority and a bold assertive statement in which there is no uncertainty. These clean letterforms grab the viewers’ attention and makes a statement, permitting for maximum legibility and objectivity.

#byfilly

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under-the-lake · 5 years ago

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I Suspect Nargles Are Behind It: Luna and Reality - short mind ramblings

I thought that some lighter writing than my usual stuff could be nice during these troubled captivity times. So I wondered and then set my mind on writing about a character, and chose Luna. Why Luna? I just love her. She’s clever but not vain, she’s a proper oddball to whom I can identify, she loves animals and understands the weird. She lives in a strange world of her own, oddly connected with reality, and has values I can share. On a more literature-related point of view, she’s a secondary character but without her the story couldn’t have unfolded as it did. In a very short piece (to my standards at least) I decided to explore Luna’s take on the reality norms the world has built.

Short ID

Name: Luna Lovegood (originally she was called Lily Moon, because it gave Rowling the idea of a dreamy girl - Original Writings for PM, The Original Forty)

Born: 13th February (J.K. Rowling, Twitter, 17th July 2015) and we can suppose it’s 1981 because Luna went to Hogwarts one year after Harry (born on 31st July 1980).

Post-Hogwarts Occupation: Wizarding naturalist (as Rowling called her originally)

Particularities: odd beliefs, and she was able to see Thestrals very soon after her mother’s accidental death, when Luna was nine. Unusually perceptive and creative. Bloody bright.

School: Hogwarts, Ravenclaw

Marital Status: Married to Rolf Scamander (Newt’s grandson)

Children: 2 sons, Lorcan and Lysander

Other Family: Dad Xenophilius Lovegood (Editor of the Quibbler), mum Pandora Lovegood (dead)

Odd Species: Blibbering Humdinger, Nargles, Wrackspurts, Crumple-Horned Snorkack. According to Rowling (Bloomsbury Chat, 30.7.2007), Luna went on discovering and naming many new species, but had to eventually give up on the Snorkack being a real creature.

First Impressions - Hogwarts: from Loony to Luna

She had straggly, waist-length dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. [...]The girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of Butterbeer caps, or that she was reading a magazine upside down.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Ten, Luna Lovegood

That’s how we are introduced to Luna (in the book). Well… dunno what you think, but she is introduced as a weirdo all right. She’s reading a magazine, The Quibbler, upside down, and that she seems to find that perfectly normal (we do learn some pages later that it’s a thing about reading runes but even if there wasn’t any rational explanation I wouldn’t put it past Luna to read something upside down). You cannot deny that Luna is intriguing. There are many reactions one can have on meeting her for the first time, but there will be reactions, either because she’s so far from what the reader holds dear as values, or because she’s so close. One cannot be indifferent to Luna.

Besides, there’s that strange thing that she can see Thestrals, and thinks they are nothing but normal creatures. Who doesn’t remember the ‘You’re just sane as I am’ line? And who wouldn’t doubt their sanity at such a statement? I’m glad they kept the line in the film.

So from the very beginning of our acquaintance with Luna, we know that she’s different, but not yet why, that she is blunt without being rude, that she knows who she is, and that she has some sort of interest in the natural world. We can also imagine from her Butterbeer necklace that she’s not from a wealthy family, her dad running a not-so-mainstream magazine, The Quibbler. We have another bit of evidence for that in the World Cup (see below). The other possibility -which, knowing all the books, sounds at least as true as the first one- is that she’s from a very creative family. However, at that point of the story, we don’t know about Nargles and Crumple-Horned Snorckacks. Yet. As for Luna’s Hogwarts allegiance, Wit Beyond Measure is Man’s Greatest Treasure, and The Circle Has No Beginning, she’s in Ginny’s year, one year below Harry, and she’s a Ravenclaw.

First Mention

Luna is not mentioned by first name until Ginny introduces her in Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Ten. However, Rowling introduces the Lovegoods in Goblet of Fire, Chapter Six. They are just mentioned, en passant, by Amos Diggory, while he and Cedric and the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione are waiting for their Portkey on Stoatshead Hill (seven past five, and old wellington boot) to get them to the Quidditch World Cup. Amos says the Lovegoods aren’t using the Portkey because they’ve been on the World Cup Site for a week since they couldn’t afford it another way. They live near the Weasleys, the Diggorys and the Fawcetts, somewhere near Ottery St Catchpole (Deathly Hallows, Chapter Twenty).

First Meeting

‘There’s only Loony Lovegood in there.’ This statement by Ginny is the first mention of Luna in the whole series. She’s met Neville who is looking for a compartment on the Hogwarts Express and can’t find one because ‘everywhere’s full’. ‘Don’t be silly, she’s all right’, answers Ginny. (OoP, Chapter Ten).

Straight in: ‘Loony’ is ‘all right’. Contradiction, but also completely true. Luna is a loony if you look at her with the eyes of conventional society and the norms it has set. She is all right, which means Ginny has taken trouble to get acquainted and knows she’s no loony, and at least never uses her ‘nickname’ straight in her face (contrary to Hermione’s line in the film…. which I hate, so much not in character. Is that the girl who started SPEW?). Ginny puts things straight from the beginning, yet she’s struggling to repress her fit of the giggles in the compartment, later, when Luna states Ravenclaw’s motto in a sing-song voice. Luna doesn’t seem to care what people think, and she’s pretty straightforward in her statements, though not in a mean way. For instance, when she tells Harry, still in the same scene in the Hogwarts Express compartment, that Parvati didn’t enjoy the Yule Ball with him because he hadn’t cared to dance with her, it’s just a statement, not a judgement. Luna doesn’t do judgement. I must admit that the feelings, at reading this train scene for the first time, are mixed. You perceive that Luna is someone special who is rather unbothered by others’ opinion because she knows herself and is in a way more mature than her fellow classmates. You basically wonder if she’s got some autistic traits. On the other hand, the series of articles in the magazine she’s reading - and obviously taking seriously - show an openness of mind and fantasy that are quite unusual. How Far Would Fudge Go to Gain Gringotts? or Sirius Black - Villain or Victim? Notorious Mass Murderer or Innocent Singing Sensation? are just two of the titles in the issue of The Quibbler that Luna is reading (see picture below).

The first impressions are tested further because once the lot get off the train, there’s the Thestrals. Harry has never been able to see them before, because he had never understood death before seeing Cedric murdered during the Third Task. He’s completely stunned by those skeletal winged horses. Luna isn’t, and simply explains they’ve always been there. Not at all reassured and still thinking he’s having hallucinations, Harry climbs up behind Luna into the carriage, not sure if he wants to disclose this to his best mates.

This is the first meeting with Luna. You cannot deny the impression is strong. Personally I did like her from the start. She then just grew on me.

Reality? Berkeley? Aristotle?

Believing in things that nobody can see… mental, Luna? Or just aware of the world in a way few modern people are able to? Just more open to nature and unusually perceptive or living on another planet? I reckon anything but mental. Luna is a character who questions our perception and definition of reality throughout the three books she appears in.

Traditionally, if we follow Aristotle (On Interpretation), a statement can be true if both the sentence and the reality it aims at describing match. There must be no contradiction and the statement must be in adequation with reality. Like saying, while standing in front of the Hogwarts Express, ‘the steam engine is scarlet’. It’s the, say, rational way. And it is the way it works in the wizarding world, yet the roots are different from the Muggle one. Magic is the scientific framework in which the wizarding world evolves, and in that world magic is a science in the Muggle sense: it can be studied, divided into subjects, tested (Nadal, 2014).

However, on the other end of the spectrum, there’s another way of seeing things that are less black or white, and it was explained by Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1685 - 1753). Berkeley, to put it shortly, states that what one sees is, from the moment it’s apprehended by anything connected with the brain, an interpretation of reality. He says that reality per se doesn’t exist and that the things we see, as a dimension of reality conceived out of the mind, is a mere illusion (Chaillan, 2016; Granger & Bassham, 2016). Seen in that light, Harry’s meeting with Dumbledore at the end of Deathly Hallows is full of sense. So is Luna’s relationship with the world around her. The case of Nargles, Wrackspurts and Crumple-Horned Snorckacks are proof enough. Luna questions our relationship with the norms the world has built around what is considered real and what is not. Can you believe something exists while you’ve never seen it? Well… just ask everyone who believes in any kind of god, magic or whatever. They’ve never seen the source, have they. Still, they do believe it exists. The difference with Luna is that while religion is something built by, and therefore admitted as real, by society (the norm, or one of the possible norms), Nargles and Wrackspurts are not.

If we look at the zoological side of things, the Muggle world has Science (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning), and Cryptozoology. Science proves, tests, confronts, questions. Cryptozoology is the branch of zoology that deals with imaginary species. So there is a society-approved branch of Natural History that deals with what legends and history have given us. Those two sides, in Luna’s world, are, for the ‘official part’, the Ministry Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Scamander’s book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (notice that the title holds the word ‘fantastic’? What irony…) and Hagrid and Grubbly-Plank as Care of Magical Creatures Teachers. Oh and we could add Charlie Weasley as a Dragon Keeper. The other side of this is The Quibbler and Xenophilius Lovegood (and Luna). So while both worlds have two instances to deal with two parts of the natural world, and while the Muggle world has both sides coexisting rather peacefully because society-approved, the wizarding world is in tension because no official body has ever given any credit to The Quibbler or Xenophilius’s weird ideas. I’ll discuss Magical Natural Sciences later in a bit more depth. What I wanted to showcase here is that this comparison about how Natural Sciences and CryptoSciences are dealt with in both worlds further supports the distinction between Aristotelian and Berkeleyan ways of seeing reality, and supports the idea that the Lovegoods are more Berkeleyan, but therefore also the fact that the Wizarding world is even more normative that the Muggle one, and that’s saying something (for instance there’s only one school and one teacher for each subject for the whole of the UK and Ireland; if that is not normative, I don’t know what is).

Luna openly states stuff that is completely bonkers, which makes her sort of -pardon me- unbelievable. Though it fits with Berkeley. I mean who knows if Rufus Scrimgeour is really a vampire or not? Or who knows if Fudge really has an army of Heliopaths? On the other hand, she was raised by An Eccentric if there ever was one. I mean old Xenophilius (incidentally, ‘xenophilius’ means ‘love of the strange’). We first meet him at Bill and Fleur’s wedding, at the start of Deathly Hallows. ‘Slightly cross-eyed, with shoulder-length white hair the texture of candyfloss, he wore a cap whose tassel dangled in front of his nose and robes of an eye-watering shade of egg-yolk yellow. An odd symbol, rather like a triangular eye, glistened from a golden chain around his neck.’ (DH, Chapter Eight) Xenophilius goes one praising the gnome infestation in the Weasleys’ garden, and the wisdom of those creatures. Not exactly your conventional wizard. He looks even stranger than that wizard wearing a lady’s dressing-gown at the Quidditch World Cup. Thing is, the Lovegoods are taking a step back looking at the conventional world they were made to live in. They don’t fit in because their reality is unproven and therefore not believable in an Aristotelian world. However, Luna has her own boundaries of truth. Somehow they meet Dumbledore’s. He believed the Deathly Hallows existed, as did Xenophilius, and finally Harry. For most witches and wizards, including Ron and Hermione until the last moment, the Hallows are only an artefact in a children’s story, The Tale of the Three Brothers.

Luna’s mum died when Luna was nine; a spell Pandora was experimenting on backfired. Luna witnessed that and has since been able to see Thestrals. Luna’s mum was probably the one who was more perceptive and passed that to Luna (reminds me of Fiver in Watership Down passing his own sixth sense on to the next generation). Luna stays as she is, but eventually, according to Rowling, gives up on Snorkacks as her dad’s inventions (Bloomsbury Chat, 30.7.2007).

I reckon Luna would fit more in a Berkeleyan world than in the normative world our ‘civilized’ societies have built, be they magical or Muggle. Of course every society has norms. Thing is, how much constraint they set upon members makes all the difference. Luna is not a Loony (even etymologically, in my opinion, because loony is short for lunatic, which means mentally ill, from the moon - see all the tales and beliefs surrounding full moon for instance, mostly negative in a normative Aristotelian world). Luna is the positive form of Loony, I’d say. She’s seen as a loony by people whose norms are those of the society they grew up in. With a wee bit of openness of mind, Luna is a great character, a philosophical free-lancer, a mirror in which we can question our society and beliefs about reality.

PS: I want to explore friendship and loyalty in Luna briefly too. Soon... confinement helps the writer :P The wizarding community is at risk too! Stay at home!

Sources:

https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-original-forty

https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/thestrals

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2007/0730-bloomsbury-chat.html

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-resiliency-of-luna-lovegood

Aristotle, De Interpretatione (English translation), retrieved from http://www.bocc.ubi.pt/pag/Aristotle-interpretation.pdf

Adams, R. (1972). Watership Down. Penguin.

Chaillan, M. (2016). Harry Potter et Berkeley. In Harry Potter à l’école des philosophes, Philosophie Magazine, Hors série n°31, novembre - décembre 2016. 70-71.

Granger, J. & Bassham, G. (2016). Just in Your Head? J.K. Rowling on Separating Reality from Illusion. In Bassham, G. (2016, Eds.). The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy, Hogwarts for Muggles. Wiley Eds. 185-197

Nadal, C. (2014). Magical Science: Luna Lovegood’s Beliefs, Discoveries and Truth. In Martín Alegre, S., Arms, C., Blasco Solís, L., Calvo Zafra, L., Campos, R., Canals Sánchez, M., ... & García Jordà, L. (2014). Charming and bewitching: considering the Harry Potter series. 148-153.

Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2007). The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Bloomsbury, London.

Scamander, N. (1927; 2001; 2018; [J.K. Rowling]). Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Bloomsbury, London, in association with Obscurus Books, 18a Diagon Alley, London.

#Louhi #Luna #LunaLovegood #Reality #Philosophy #Harry Potter #Hogwarts #J.K.Rowling #Berkeley #Aristotle #Cryptozoology #Xenophilius #SocietyNorms

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years ago

Video

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DUA LIPA - PHYSICAL

[7.50]

It's okay! Move that boogie body!

Leah Isobel: It is a dark and stormy night. In a sinister science lab located somewhere in Carmen Sandiego's plush pomo lair, a pop singer plugs in a neon light, shrugs into a next-season Gaultier lab coat and gets to work. In the reflection of her gold-tinted goggles we see her add one (1) part Extract of "Into You," one (1) part Juice of Newton-John, and four (4) drops of Synthesizer Spice into a contoured beaker. She turns on the flame of a Bunsen burner; stream gushes from her concoction like a geyser, emitting a high, keening refrain. She whispers a few luscious words into the steam -- "diamond," "sssimulation," "adrenaline" -- but her experiment still lacks a certain something. Then -- BOOM! -- in a thundercrash of lightning, it hits her. Eureka! She turns and sees her reflection illuminated in the glass of an emergency axe container, kept onsite in case of fire. "Well," she chuckles to herself as she breaks the glass with a four-inch stiletto heel, "I am creating something... hot." Axe in hand, she chops the neon light into pieces and stuffs the shards, now glittering like a million sequined dancefloors, into the beaker. With the addition of this Decoction of Disco, her potion bubbles... it burbles... then KABOOM: it explodes the entire building and half of the surrounding city! She stands in the wreckage as thunder splits the sky above and sirens wail in the distance. We see Dua's eyes glow green before she throws her head back to the sky and screams: "GAY RIIIIIGHTS!" [9]

William John: Probably the best example of what parts of the Internet's stan culture would facetiously refer to as "gay rights" from a mainstream musical artist since... the last Dua Lipa single, or, failing that, "Into You." Like those precedents, "Physical" is camp but magisterial; playful but extremely melodramatic; sweeping, dance floor ready, and dripping with an exultant swagger. Her reminder to "hold on, just a little tighter" at the bridge is, truthfully, a hollow gesture; at that stage, the listener is so deeply embroiled in her glorious disco caprice as to not really be capable of gripping anything at all. [10]

Jackie Powell: It couldn't be clearer that Dua Lipa had something to prove not only to herself, but to the pop music intelligentsia on her sophomore offering. What has struck me most about the Future Nostalgia cycle is how Dua is executing every facet of it with confidence. On this track, she's not afraid of hitting notes that eclipse the breadth of her previous singles, especially on the bridge. "Physical" is a representative offering of exactly what she's aiming to prove. Each track we've heard so far reflects a different decade accompanied with a modern polish. I don't think I'm the only one who believes Olivia Newton-John's '80s exercise sexual metaphor smash "Physical" deserves the tribute it's getting here. There's a clear homage paid to her and to Patti LaBelle on Lipa's own "Physical." I'm going to interpret her lyric "We created something phenomenal" as a bit of a double-entendre. Not only is it about sex in the narrative of the track, but it's a comment on Lipa's approach to this era and her confidence on every single part of it. The sexual symbolism isn't just in the lyrics, but also in the track's composition and the narrative communicated in the visual treatment. The vocal highs that she hits on the bridge represent a climax musically and sexually. She has so much confidence in the visual treatment, she spends most of it braless. That takes guts. [9]

Tobi Tella: Dua Lipa's perceived lack of personality has turned out to actually be lack of a schtick preventing her from artistically evolving, something many of her peers are plagued with. Also, I've died and gone to gay heaven. [9]

Alfred Soto: The way Dua Lipa's unexpected bon mots and smoky sultriness ride the beat and compete with the strings compensate for a production too dressed up in leg warmers and headbands for my taste -- I mean, her exhortations are more fearsome than erotic. [7]

Julian Axelrod: Pop's '80s revival arms race has escalated to its natural endpoint: the accidental exhumation of Olivia Newton-John. I wish Dua Lipa had used "let's get physical" in a more literal iteration; singing it over hyperdrive synths guarantees it'll be never played in its intended setting, especially when she has half the energy of ONJ. But she hit the mark where it counts: This is going to rule spin classes for the rest of the year. [6]

Brad Shoup: A throwback training-montage track that suggests sex but is really about dancing and Olivia Newton-John erasure. This is Stranger Things pop. [5]

Thomas Inskeep: Sex is natural, sex is fun, sex is best when soundtracked by throbbing '80s synths. [6]

Ashley Bardhan: Okay, fine, I enjoy horny music. Sue me! This song is what would happen if ABBA was brought back to life as a bunch of hot 20-year-olds in little shirts from Fashion Nova. The "let's get physical" chorus feels a little lazy since it's a direct lift from Olivia Newton-John's 1981 hit, but this is a great song to listen to while thinking about that video of Charli XCX holding poppers. No complaints here. [7]

Alex Clifton: I've underestimated Dua Lipa. Her first album had some hits and misses, but Future Nostalgia is shaping up to be one of the best pop releases of 2020 based on the strength of its singles. "Physical" is a cascade of rainbow lights in a roller rink and makes me long to go out to a club, one where I can get down in a huge crowd of people and dance my white-girl ass off poorly. I'm an extreme introvert, so anything that makes me want to leave the house and be around strangers is powerful stuff indeed. It's a little cheesy, but who cares? It's a love letter to the '80s with all the campiness a song citing Olivia Newton-John should have. I'm desperately in love with Dua Lipa after hearing this, and I have a feeling "Physical" will be one of my favourite songs of the year. [9]

Stephen Eisermann: Dua Lipa has quietly become the pop superstar that so many of us wanted Carly Rae to be. Both women make incredible music, but it is Dua who has found commercial success; after hearing "Physical," it seems pretty obvious why. It's a retro-laden, power-pop track that is extraordinary only in the way Dua delivers it. What should be pedestrian instead is hypnotic, infectious, and oh so delicious. [8]

Lauren Gilbert: I promised a friend I'd blurb this song, and now that I've sat down to write it, I have nothing to say. It is a perfect pop song -- Dua knocks it out of the park on this record. I keep getting distracted from writing jamming to the track. I'm dancing while lying down on my couch. She created something phenomenal; we are left with no choice but to stan. [10]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I've justified Dua Lipa's dearth of personality in years past, but this is where things don't add up: her dead-eyed singing makes no sense during the chorus, whose synths lack the fervor to make up for clinical vocal melodies. Around this time last year, we had Lizzo's "Juice"; now we have "Physical" as an example of '80s pastiche that only feels like it exudes energy and passion and charm. [2]

Will Adams: It's neat to have a single that's its own Initial Talk remix, but the synthpop revivalism is a bit too literal, to the point of putting all its chips on an Olivia Newton-John quote. It's not until the bridge -- "keep on DANCING!" -- where the drama locks in and starts, but only starts, to feel real. [6]

Kylo Nocom: Dua Lipa, determined more than ever to win the Popjustice £20 Music Prize, accidentally transforms into Alice Chater in the process. [5]

Katherine St Asaph: If "Physical" being by Dua Lipa wasn't hypertargeted enough to the Popjustice set, is that the synth progression from Saint Etienne's "No Cure for the Common Christmas" in the intro and beneath the chorus? It's certainly the same height of drama. The track attached isn't quite so charged: a little too Lady Gaga circa "Applause" and a little too Peloton instructor quoting Olivia Newton-John for absolutely no reason besides the culture deciding at some point to make the phrase a permanent, meaningless meme. (The song doesn't even sound particularly '80s; the disco strings are the decade prior, and the vocal squiggles on the verse are so specifically 2016 a time traveler's on their way to erase them.) Dua Lipa only betrays a personality on the spoken-word bridge; ironic how that and the vaporous intro, the least physical things on this track, are the most thrilling. [7]

Vikram Joseph: The intro feels like a prickling at the back of your neck, the one-line pre-chorus feels like plummeting six floors in a broken elevator, and the chorus is such a headrush you can practically smell the poppers: "Physical"'s thrills might be straightforward, but they're visceral as fuck. There are vintage Lady Gaga vibes, the "come on!"s are surely a nod to "We Are Your Friends," and the whole thing reminds me, inexplicably, of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life." But Dua Lipa is starting to make this all seem effortless, and the panache with which she delivers "Physical" easily pulls it clear of the gravitational field of its forebears. [9]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: "Physical" dares us to be the boldest versions of ourselves. It finds itself at the perfect intersection of confidence and lust. Dua Lipa is flirting with you with a playfulness she can only possess because she already knows you're going home together -- and she won't let you leave until the dancing is done. Dancing here is instinct, it's synths that sound as sweet as they do sinister, it's salty like the sweat that rolls down your forehead after you've been, well, physical. Dua Lipa is crushing the Confessions on a Dance Floor album that I've long been waiting for Lady Gaga to make. Dance floor music has long been my site of refuge and catharsis, so it's refreshing to be reminded that it can still sound so immediately, eminently thrilling. [9]

Kayla Beardslee: This doesn't quite reach the heights of "Don't Start Now," but damn it comes close. "Physical" should, in theory, be a cookie-cutter pop girl release, but Dua proves once again that she is the most important element in her music. The producers are doing everything right too, but who else could pull off her endearing smirk in "common love isn't for us" or that wonderful growl in "follow the noise"? And Dua takes us through a transcendental bridge that highlights the best qualities of her voice: singing simple lyrics that say everything they need to, she's breathless yet confident, desperate for touch yet satisfied with the musical world she's helped to create. Something phenomenal, indeed: this rollout has been a joy to follow. [9]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: "Physical" takes the opposite approach to "Don't Start Now" -- while that song's studio version swallows up its singer in a beautifully constructed, sterile disco pastiche (the live versions and remixes are much better), turning her into just one more retro cog, "Physical" makes her the center of attention. The production around her is good enough (the synth preset change right before the chorus starts is especially nice), but not particularly coherent or hooky on its own. In the vacuum left, Dua gets to have more fun, charismatically switching between vocal styles and walking around like she owns the place. [8]

Jibril Yassin: A powerhouse vocal colliding headfirst with production that's neither plodding nor limp. It's a song that's meant to feel like a blockbuster and after a few failed tries, it's thrilling to hear Dua Lipa finally nail the landing and sound like the superstar she wants to be. [7]

Michael Hong: "Physical" is magnetic. Its pulse is unrelenting, its atmosphere is shadowy and captivating, and Dua Lipa gives possibly her best vocal performance. There's no sense of the up-and-coming performer who delivered everything with stolid execution, instead, "Physical" is a sly wink of a pre-chorus leading to a forceful command: "baby, keep on dancing like you ain't got a choice." Dua Lipa is at the helm, all thoughts and any other desires are out the window, and the night is neverending. [7]

Joshua Lu: Several of Dua Lipa's past hit songs have relied on a marketable veneer of cool: "New Rules" works because she's the straight-talker friend giving advice, "Don't Start Now" necessitates a stoic character who can't be bothered to fret about her ex, and even on collaborations like "One Kiss" does Dua employ a rather unemotional voice, like she's a blank canvas for Calvin Harris' more playful and engaging production. "Physical" feels like such a departure for Dua not just because of its obvious throwback sound, but because this veneer of cool is completely torn down when the song reaches its rushing chorus. She sounds more and more desperate as her voice climbs and the synths soar above her, and her cries of "come on" ring as desperate instead of dominant. The song is indebted to pop titans of yesteryears (Olivia Newton-John obviously inspired the title, but the theatrics of the song feel more indebted to Bonnie Tyler or Patti Labelle) to the point of it not really feeling like a Dua song, but she sells it all so convincingly that it feels like a natural fit. It's part pop song, part epic showdown, and I look forward to Dua continuing to push herself to the forefront of mainstream pop music greatness. [9]

Scott Mildenhall: Little wonder that Lipa's so keen to get physical, given that she's "dreaming in a simulation" -- her focus seems to be on the former, since the latter exemplifies the aimlessness of the verses in comparison to the locked-and-loaded chorus. That has its thrills, yet never feels as loose as seems intended. "Physical" comes across too in love with the idea of being a kind of Perfect Pop to actually be it; an anthem for kinetics developed via science textbook. [7]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Dua Lipa #pop #music #music review

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slaaneshfic · 6 years ago

Text

Conclusions and sorrow

I've nearly finished editing the three books. I'm slightly overdue with submission, but it is what it is.

Underpinning most of my PhD research has been my ongoing relationship with the two elderly Staffordshire bull terriers that my partner and I adopted right at the start of it, around Christmas 2016.

It is with overwhelming heartbeat that yesterday, after I visit from the mobile vet, we discovered that Lea has a late stage inoperable growth. The vets are returning tomorrow and we will be saying goodbye to lea. I don't have the words yet to address the feeling of loss, or the anxiety of this ongoing 48 where I with lea at every moment to make sure she is as comfortable as possible. it's a lot. And I need to keep writing things in order to occupy my mind. So this is a draft (since edited, but that's in InDesign files I can't access from my phone) of the potential lines beyond the PhD, including the thing I worked on for a year regarding dogs, but couldn't emotionally deal with even prior to this last illness.

I could not have done this research without my relationship with Buster and Lea. The concept of care which I've addressed is as much drawn from this relationship as it is from Sedgwick. How to care for someone across the lines of different bodies and senses and desires. The concept of play as emergent collaboration equally comes from learning to play with dogs who had suffered neglect at the hands of their original owners, and then a year recovering in the noisy RSPCA kennels before they were well enough to be rehomed. I love you lea.

Conclusions and exits.

The structure and methodology of this PhD Output consisting of three approaches to a central area of art practice, and within each approach multiple overlapping attempts through the various documents, turns the issue of a conclusion into a challenge.

Rather than attempt to draw books and documents toward a unifying conclusion, erasing the differences between then, I have offered conclusions in the documents individually. Some of these are clearly labeled as such, some are more demonstrative, and some left as provocations.

Throughout the three books are indications of where future paths could proceed. For continuation of creative research and the application of concepts developed, these indications are generally placed at the end of documents. Paths which are more tangential, or areas where the research could be reinforced through engaging with a separate discipline or practitioner appear in endnotes.

In place of some kind of ending for the PhD Output as whole I will raise three of the avenues of future research not already mentioned in individual documents, that will be pursued at its end. All of these examples incorporate work already commenced, that for practical reasons has not been addressed in documents.

The Incomplete Object.

Archeologist Chantal Conneller has produced a large amount of research focused Star Carr, a Mesolithic site in Yorkshire (Conneller, 2004, 2011; Little et al., 2016; Milner, Conneller, & Taylor, 2018a, 2018b). In particular, Conneller has provided a framework for examining some of the objects recovered from the site, and through this reassess the historic inhabitants of the area’s relationship to animals and objects. The objects, twentyone of which were found during the site’s excavation by Professor J.G.D. Clark between 1949 and 1951, consist of the “uppermost part of the skull of a red deer, with the antlers still attached” and are referred to as “antler frontlets” (Conneller, 2004, p. 37). In offering an interpretation for the frontlet’s use, Clark “suggested they could have been used either as hunting aids, to permit hunters to stalk animals at close range without being seen, or as headgear in ritual dances” (Conneller, 2004, p. 37). This interpretation resulted in an impasse between a “‘functional’ and a ‘ritual’ analogy” and has according to Conneller, meant that “in the intervening 50 years they have been ignored” (Conneller, 2004, p. 37).

Conneller’s research breaches the impasse of an animal derived object needing to be either functional or ritual by use of philosopher Gilles Deleze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari’s work in “A Thousand Plateaus” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987). Firstly, Conneller outlines how in Deleuze and Guattari, “animals come to be seen [...] as an assemblage composed of a number of ways of perceiving and acting in the word” (Conneller, 2004, p. 44). In this view, animals are not singular fixed entities, and the objects derived from them are therefore not limited to being symbolic of the animal whole or else be understood only as practical material. Animals are here understood as collection of “affects” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 253), and the objects derived from them convey those Affects to the user in a manner which outside of the binary of ritual and functional. From this point Conneller proceeds to “examine the specific ways in which different things are seen to modify or extend the capacities of people in particular contexts” (Conneller, 2004, p. 51), bridging Deleuze and Guattari to theorist Donna Haraway’s concept of “situated knowledges” which replaces a fixed epistemological view with “webs of differential positioning” (D. Haraway, 1988, p. 590). The use of animal objects becomes simultaneously a process of taking on capacities as well as the ethical/epistemological/affective engagement with the world from another position.

These observations from archeology are useful not because they set some historic precedent for how art should function, but because they articulate processes which are important to art from another perspective. In the documents in this PhD Output which examine artworks I have consciously treated both the processes deployed by the artist and those of her characters in the same manner. In the art I am interested in, things are not easily split between the practical and the ritual but form processes across these lines to perform different things.

Finally, when I contacted Conneller in 2019 she was continuing to examine the frontlets of Star Carr in terms of how they function as “unfinished things”. Conneller has already observed that the frontlets were “broken up as a source of raw material” (Conneller, 2004, p. 46), but is now considering how this occurred concurrently with their uses. A framework for considering art objects which do not reach a fixed state, but are continually re-worked, and drawn from while being used is relevant to a number of documents in this PhD Output. It is relevant to the analysis of artist Tai Shani’s works (SHANI, 2019) which undergo edits between redeployments, or the ongoing work “sidekick” (Price, 2013) by Elizabeth Price. Going forward, I would consider how unfinished things connects to the writing practice of William Burruoghs both through the “cut-up” technique to “cut oneself out of language” (Hassan, 1963, p. 9), and the process whereby his novels were re-edited in subsequent editions. Burroughs is also relevant to the other side of unfinished things whereby these things are not just refined, but are a source of material for future things. I am also interested in the process by which computer software is updated via “patches” (Fisher, 2019) as another model for an unfinished thing.

I’m interested in the political implications of objects which refuse the linear transition from raw material to finished commodity, but is instead part of processes which cross that distinction. To borrow the image from Karl Marx’s Capital Vol. 1 (Marx, 1981), what would it mean for “coat” to remain functioning as “ten yards of linen”, to be always in a process of being woven/unwoven/rewoven into different forms? I feel there is something here to be pursued via the concepts of Incomplete Provocations, and the improvisations and departures which are centred in Tabletop Role Playing Games.

Divination Storytelling

The second exit is far more practical and straightforward. During my research I have used and developed methods for creating parts of narratives based on sortation systems such as card decks and dice rolls. In 2018 I produced an artwork entitled “The Sodden Gates of Vulnerability” which borrowed a mechanic used in multiple games whereby the space in which play takes places is procedurally generated. A hypothetical example of this mechanic would be a game which takes place in a derelict spaceship, the interior rooms and corridors of which is represented with cardboard tiles. When the players reach the exit of one room, a new random room tile is placed at the exit from the first, so the spaceship is configured, and unpredictable, with each subsequent playthrough. In The Sodden Gates of Vulnerability I combined some of the lore from Games Workshop’s derelict spaceship exploration game “Space Hulk” (Games Workshop, 1999) with their subsequently released rules for randomly generated spaceships (Hunt, 2013), to randomly generate prompts for a narrative built from a fictionalised version of my own past.

As a result of the cessation symptoms I was experiencing while coming off antidepressants I found memories returning that medication use had suppressed. In addition, there were physical cessation symptoms which mnemonically triggered some often confused memories of spaces in the town centre of Luton where I spent my teens, frequently from times in the early hours of the morning after leaving a club or a party. I reconstructed these fragmented memories, and the bodily feelings which connected them to the present, and any emergent feelings and noted them down as prompts on index cards. Some memories were so abstract as to not describe a place but just a sensation, or an action. These abstract memories, combined with some other images and thoughts were written up in a list and labeled 1-20.

The Sodden Gates of Vulnerability was produced as a single take spoken performance to microphone. It began with a short reflection on the different ways in which physical geography and brain chemistry are both modulated by chemicals. After this I shuffled and dealt an index card, describing the derelict spaceship/ 4am Luton Town Centre space it represented in the manner of Games Master setting a scene for players of a Role Playing Game. I then rolled a 20 sided dice and used the corresponding entry from the list as a prompt for what the player (the audience to whom the work is addressed) did in traversing this space. A partial transcription of one room follows;

“You stagger out of the thickening fog into the area where escaping heat from the many times kicked in door makes a dim pocket at the edge of the street. Banging on the door that feels like it should have given in by now and it is finally opened by someone inside. You roll in, and so does the fog, and the door opener is already turning the corner ahead into the living room so you guess you will follow them, remembering to shut the door behind you.

The living room is thick with dust and hair and ash over the brown carpet and old sofas. No one has their feet on the floor, all bunched up to keep warm or to manage some symptoms of intake.

You just want to buy, but that isn't how this is going to work out. It never does.

Everything slips. Someone makes you take a music cassette and in lock-eyed intensity tells you why you will like it and when you will die.

A man takes you to one side and rapidly ages while sharing with you a one sided conversation about how he has lived his life. He has little ears like fins and catfish whiskers and it's clear from the way he holds and interacts with the portable stereo he cradles that he has a relationship with Fabio and Grooverider which is both more beastially physical and more vapourusly transcendental than you will ever understand.

You slip out and it's dawn and you have the cassette and you don't think you bought anything but now do not think you need anything so maybe you bought it and weren't paying attention during intake or maybe someone else was in charge of your body.

You roll out with the fog and luckily town is down hill but my god you would never be able to find this place again and my god you would probably never want to because all those people would want to check how closely you been following their advice on how to live.

Oh yeah the plot twist is you're a rabbit”.

Going forward, I would like to explore the mechanics of procedural narrative based on sortation systems, both as an improvised Rendition, and as material which is subsequently cut up and deployed in other ways, possibly as a development of Diagramatics. I’m looking into how I might produce these works for a platform like YouTube, possible using a split screen where half the image shows the face that speaks, and half shows the sortation system such as tarot-style cards.

Dog Mod

Running throughout all three books of this PhD Output are dogs. When I started this PhD in 2016, I soon afterward began living with Lea and Buster, two elderly Staffordshire Bull Terriers. The importance of this relationship to the research is something I have attempted, and failed, to articulate on many occasions in the last three years. As much as the majority of the documents in this PhD Output are underpinned by a desire to understand my own trans* non-binary gender identity, they are also a response to learning about what Deleuze and Guattari would call dog affects, as well as negotiating my emotions towards Lea and Buster particually during the sadly increasing points where they have become unwell.

In mid 2019 I sketched an outline for what I called the “Dog Mod”. In the language of games, a mod is something added to the game which alters part or all of its systems in some way. Mods are often produced by a third party, and can range from something which simply adds some different functionality (such as the campaign generator for Space Hulk referenced in the previous section) or completely reorientate the system, such as the mod “DayZ” that reconfigures military sim “ARMA” into a zombie survival game and spawned an entire genre of video games (Davison, 2014).

The aim of Dog Mod was to produce a document which could provide a means to reconfigure the rest of the PhD Output through its unspoken focus, dogs. Dog Mod is something I decided was both conceptually and emotionally too overwhelming for me to be able to complete in time for submission, but I remains as a point of departure for my future research. It connects the Becoming-Animal of Deleuze and Guattari (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; Stark & Roffe, 2015), philosopher Patricia MacCormack’s expansion of this into animal rights discourse in the Ahuman (MacCormack, 2014), with other ideas around, animals, play and care (Chen, 2012; D. J. Haraway, 2016; Massumi, 2014; Vint, 2008).

Bibliography

Anckorn, J. E. (2019, October 24). Does The Dog Die?: A Not-At-All Comprehensive Guide to Stephen King’s Canines. Retrieved 26 November 2019, from We Are the Mutants website: https://wearethemutants.com/2019/10/24/does-the-dog-die-a-not-at-all-comprehensive-guide-to-stephen-kings-canines/

Chen, M. (2012). Animacies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Conneller, C. (2004). Becoming Deer: Corporeal Transformations at Star Carr. Archaeological Dialogues, 11(1), 37–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1380203804001357

Conneller, C. (2011). An archaeology of materials: Substantial transformations in early prehistoric Europe. New York: Routledge.

Davison, P. (2014, April 30). Bohemia Interactive Tells the Story of Arma and DayZ. Retrieved 30 December 2019, from USgamer website: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/bohemia-interactive-tells-the-story-of-arma-and-dayz

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Fisher, T. (2019, December 17). What Are Software Patches? Retrieved 30 December 2019, from Lifewire website: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-patch-2625960

Games Workshop. (1999). Space Hulk Rule Book (4th Edition). Nottingham: Games Workshop.

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066

Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press.

Hassan, I. (1963). The Subtracting Machine: The Work of William Burroughs. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 6(1), 4–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00111619.1963.10689760

Hunt, C. A. T. (2013). Campaign Generator Geotiles. Games Workshop.

Little, A., Elliott, B., Conneller, C., Pomstra, D., Evans, A. A., Fitton, L. C., … Milner, N. (2016). Technological Analysis of the World’s Earliest Shamanic Costume: A Multi-Scalar, Experimental Study of a Red Deer Headdress from the Early Holocene Site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, UK. PLOS ONE, 11(4), e0152136. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152136

MacCormack, P. (2014). The Animal Catalyst: Towards Ahuman Theory. A&C Black.

Marx, K. (1981). Capital: A critique of political economy (B. Fowkes & D. Fernbach, Trans.). London ; New York, N.Y: Penguin Books in association with New Left Review.

Massumi, B. (2014). What animals teach us about politics. Durham: Duke University Press.

Milner, N., Conneller, C., & Taylor, B. (Eds.). (2018a). Star Carr Volume I: A Persistent Place in a Changing World. https://doi.org/10.22599/book1

Milner, N., Conneller, C., & Taylor, B. (Eds.). (2018b). Star Carr Volume II: Studies in Technology, Subsistence and Environment. https://doi.org/10.22599/book2

Price, E. (2013). Sidekick. In K. Macleod, Thinking Through Art: Reflections on Art as Research (1st ed., pp. 122–132). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203819869

SHANI, T. (2019). OUR FATAL MAGIC. London: STRANGE ATTRACTOR PRESS.

Stark, H., & Roffe, J. (Eds.). (2015). Deleuze and the non/human. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Vint, S. (2008). ‘The Animals in That Country’: Science Fiction and Animal Studies. Science Fiction Studies, 35(2), 177–188.

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shonijoni-blog · 5 years ago

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Smart Homes and Devices Bradenton FL

The range and extent of shrewd home gadgets in 2019 have never been more grounded. Possibly you're now utilizing the infrequent shrewd light and are searching for additional in your associated home.

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Savvy Home Starter Kits

With extraordinary force comes incredible obligation…

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Before we leave advanced partners and take a meander through other must-have shrewd home gadgets, we'll take a brisk look at Alexa.

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#Smart Homes and Devices Bradenton FL #Smart Homes and Devices

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chiseler · 6 years ago

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All the World’s a Stage

In 1988, a socio-linguist at the university of Pennsylvania posted a note on the departmental bulletin board announcing she had moved her late husband’s personal library into an unused office. Anyone who wanted any of the books should feel free to take them. Her husband had been the chair of Penn’s sociology department. They’d married in 1981, and he died the following year at age sixty. Normally you’d expect the books and papers to be donated to some library to assist future researchers, but she’d recently remarried, so I guess she either wanted to get rid of any reminders of her previous husband, or simply needed the space.

At the time my then-wife was a grad student in Penn’s linguistics department, and told me about the announcement when she got home that afternoon.

Well, had this professor’s dead husband been any plain, boring old sociologist, I wouldn’t have thought much about it, but given her dead husband was Erving Goffman, I immediately began gathering all the boxes and bags I could find. That night around ten, when she was certain the department would be pretty empty, my then-wife and I snuck back to Penn under cover of darkness and I absconded with Erving Goffman’s personal library. Didn’t even look at titles—just grabbed up armloads of books and tossed them into boxes to carry away.

As I began sorting through them in the following days, I of course discovered the expected sociology, anthropology and psychology textbooks, anthologies and journals, as well as first editions of all of Goffman’s own books, each featuring his identifying signature (in pencil) in the upper right hand corner of the title page. But those didn’t make up the bulk of my haul.

There were Catholic marriage manuals from the Fifties, dozens of volumes (both academic and popular) about sexual deviance, a whole bunch of books about juvenile delinquency with titles like Wayward Youth and The Violent Gang, several issues of Corrections (a quarterly journal aimed at prison wardens), a lot of original crime pulps from the Forties and Fifties, avant-garde literary novels, a medical book about skin diseases, some books about religious cults (particularly Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple), a first edition of Michael Lesy’s Wisconsin Death Trip, and So many other unexpected gems. It was, as I’d hoped, an oddball collection that offered a bit of insight into Goffman’s work and thinking.

Erving Goffman was born in Alberta, Canada in 1922. After entering college as a chemistry major, he eventually got his BA in sociology in 1948, and began his graduate studies at The university of Chicago.

In 1952 he married Angelica Choate, a woman with a history of mental illness, and they had a son. The following year he received his PHD from Chicago. His thesis concerned public interactions and rituals among the residents of one of the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland. Afterward, he took a job with the National Institute for Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. His first book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, which evolved out of his thesis, came out in 1956, and his second, Asylums, which resulted from his work at N.I,M.H., was released five years later. In 1958 he took a teaching position at UC-Berkeley, and was soon promoted to full professor. His wife committed suicide in 1964, and in 1968 he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as the chair of the sociology department, a post he would hold until his death in 1982.

Citing intellectual influences from anthropology and psychology as well as sociology, Goffman was nevertheless a maverick. Instead of controlled clinical studies and statistical analysis, Goffman based his work on careful close observation of real human interactions in public places,. Instead of focusing on the behaviors of large, faceless groups like sports fans, student movements or factory workers, he concentrated on the tiny details of face-to-face encounters, the gestures, language and behavior of individuals interacting with one another or within a larger institutional framework. Instead of citing previous academic papers to support his claims, he’d more often use quotes from literary sources, letters, or interviews. He created a body of work around those banal, microcosmic day-two-day experiences which had been all but ignored by sociologists up to that point. After his death he was considered one of the most important and influential sociologists of the twentieth century.

Without getting into all the complexities and interpretations of Goffman’s various theories (despite his radical subjective approach, he was still an academic after all), let me lay out simpleminded thumbnails of the two core ideas at the heart of his work.

Taking a cue from both Freud and Shakespeare, he employed theatrical terminology to argue that whenever we step out into public, we are all essentially actors on a stage. We wear masks, we take on certain behaviors and attitudes that differ wildly from the characters we are when we’re at home. All our actions in public, he claimed, are social performances designed (we hope) to present a certain image of ourselves to the world at large. The idea of course has been around in literature for centuries, but Goffman was the first to seriously apply it in broad strokes to sociology.

His other, and related, fundamental idea was termed frame analysis, the idea being that we perceive each social encounter—running into that creepy guy on the train again, say, or arguing with the checkout clerk at the supermarket about the quality of their potatoes—as something isolated and contained, a picture within a frame, or a movie still.

He used those two models to study day-to-day life in mental institutions and prisons, note the emergence of Texas businessmen adopting white cowboy hats as a standard part of their attire, analyze workplace interactions and the complicated rituals we go through when we run into someone we sort-of know on the sidewalk.

I first read Goffman in college when his 1964 book, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, was used in a postmodern political science course I was taking. In the slim volume, Goffman studied the conflicts and prejudices ex-cons, mental patients, cripples, the deformed and other social outcasts encountered when they stepped out into public, as well as the assorted codes and tricks they used to pass for normal. When passing was possible, anyway. At the time I was smitten with the book and these tales of outsiders, being a deliberately constructed outsider myself (though as a nihilistic cigar-smoking petty criminal punk rock kid, I had no interest in passing for normal). I was also struck to read a serious sociological study that cited Nathaniel West’s Miss Lonelyhearts—my favorite novel at the time—as supporting evidence.

Thirty-five years later, and after having read all of Goffman’s other major works, I returned to Stigma again, but with a different perspective. Although my youthful Romantic notions about social outcasts still lingered, by that time I’d become a bona-fide and inescapable social outcast myself, tapping around New York with a red and white cane.

Goffman spent a good deal of the book focused on the daily issues faced by the blind, but in 1985 those weren’t the outsiders who interested me. Now that I was one of them myself, I must say I was amazed and impressed by the accuracy of Goffman’s observations. He pointed out any number of things that have always been ignored by others who’ve written about the blind. Like those others, he notes that Normals, accepting the myth that our other senses become heightened after the loss of our sight, believe us to have superpowers of some kind. (For the record, I never dissuade people of this silly notion.) But Goffman took it one step further, noting that to Normals, a blindo accomplishing something, well, normal—like lighting a cigarette—is taken to be some kind of superhuman achievement, and evidence of powers they can barely begin to fathom.

(Ironically, he writes in Asylums that the process of socializing mental patients is a matter of turning them into dull, unobtrusive and nearly invisible individuals. Those are good citizens.)

Elsewhere in Stigma Goffman also points out—and you cannot believe how commonplace this is—that Normals, believing us to have some deep insights into life and the world, feel compelled, uninvited and without warning, to stop the blind on the street or at the supermarket to share with them their darkest secrets, medical concerns and personal problems as if we’d known them all our lives. He also observed the tendency for Normals to treat us not only like we’re blind, but deaf and lame as well, yelling in our ears and insisting on helping us out of chairs.

Ah, but one thing he brought up, which I’ve never seen anyone else mention before, is the fate awaiting those blindos (or cripples of any kind) who actually accomplish something like writing a book. It doesn’t matter if the book had absolutely nothing to do with being a cripple. I’ve published eleven books to date, and only two of them even mention blindness. It doesn’t matter. If a cripple makes something of him or herself, that cripple then becomes a lifelong representative of that entire class of stigmatized individuals, at least in mainstream eyes. From that point onward he or she will always be not only “that Blind Writer” or “that Legless Architect,” but a spokesperson on any issues pertaining to their particular disability. I was published long before I developed that creepy blind stare, but if I approach a mainstream publication nowadays, the only things they’ll let me write about are cripple issues. Every now and again if I need the check, I’ll, yes, put on the mask and play the role. But I’m bored to death with cripple issues, which is why whenever possible I neglect to mention to would-be editors that I’m blind. And I guess that only supports Goffman’s overall thesis, right?

Well, anyway, a series of four floods in my last apartment completely wiped out my prized Goffman library (as well as my prized novelization collection), so in retrospect I guess that professor at Penn probably would have been better off donating them to the special collections department of some library.

by Jim Knipfel

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chrysanthmilk · 6 years ago

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a guide to being death: chapter 1

by staccato

“Death is very, very tired of its Master’s strange wants and whims. This is the last time it does something he wants.”

aka: a apocalypse fix-it, featuring a master of death who has been reincarnated into a winchester. things can only go up from here.

read chapter 1 below, or on ao3

It began like this:

After that disaster with the Tower of Babel, Harry turned to his companion.

“I think I’ll like to live some time as a human,” he said.

His companion cocked its head, “why?”

Harry gestured to the people they were watching, “do you not think they’re amazing? I had my doubts, initially, when Chuck created them. I did not believe they could compare to the leviathans or the angels, and yet, barely a few centuries since their creation and they’ve already tried to reach heaven. That’s a more momentous feat than any of Chuck��s creatures have done in the past few millennials!”

“But their attempts were unsuccessful,” his companion reminded him.

“Yes, Chuck was always the spoilsport, wasn’t he? Even now, when he has disappeared,” Harry sighed, “but I think they’ll overcome the language barrier, sooner or later. And, ah, how I’ll like to be there, among their midst, when they do. Yes, yes I do.”

His companion did not answer, for it did not yet understand the basis of Harry’s wish. From what it had seen so far, they were impulsive and illogical beings. For a while, the two stood together, content to observe the humans as they shouted, frustrated at the sudden appearance of the different languages.

Harry broke the silence, “The other day, I saw an angel tear out its grace. Then, it fell.”

“It became a demon?”

“No, not a demon. I think it was reborn as a human boy.”

“How fascinating.”

“Quite,” Harry agreed, “and, I wondered, if the same would happen to me if I lost my powers.”

His companion was alarmed, “Master?”

Harry smiled at it, “I think it would be rather interesting, don’t you agree?”

“Interesting, maybe, but who would collect the souls of the dead?” His companion questioned.

“Hmm,” Harry tapped his chin, his ring glinting as he did so, “perhaps…you?”

His companion seemed shocked at the prospect, although its emotions were always difficult to perceive. Of course, this was not its fault. His creator, being the entity that is Death, had troubles sculpting expressions. There was a reason why Chuck was God, the Giver of life, and Harry was Death, the Taker of life.

“Pardon?”

Harry placed a hand on its shoulder, “you’re my first creation, and I trust you like no other. I will give you my powers, and you will be Death.”

“What about you?” His companion demanded. “Will you cease to exist?”

“No, nothing so drastic.” Harry chuckled, appeasing his companion. “If things occur as I suspect they will, I will be reborn as a human.”

It remained hesitant, “Master, I can’t…”

Harry’s expression softened, “I am aware this may seem like a great burden, but I assure you it is not. You have seen me reap many times; you yourself have reaped many times. Furthermore, I do not think you will have to bear it for long. Humans die rather quickly, as we have both witnessed. When you reap me after I die, you can return my powers to me, if you wish.”

His companion mulled over his proposal, “and what if the Apocalypse occurs in your absence? I am not capable of collecting that many souls alone.”

“Indeed you will not be,” Harry agreed. “To assist you during that time, I will create other companions before I leave.”

“But…” His companion struggled to devise another counter-argument.

“If the Apocalypse do occur during my time as a human, I grant you special permission to find me and return my powers to me.” Harry added. “Any other times, however, you must leave me alone to live my own life freely as I will.”

“That is agreeable,” his companion finally said. It appeared that no amount of persuasion could change its Master’s mind. The entity was incredibly stubborn, after all. It still remember when he and Chuck had argued about the creation of Purgatory, and how the planets came to have craters.

Harry squeezed his shoulder, “thank you, my friend,” he dropped his arm. “Then, I will go and create your companions. Afterwards, I will give you my powers, and you will be Death.”

His companion said nothing as he walked away.

It continued like this:

Death watched as the human, named Shelah by his Earthly parents, took his last breath. By human standards, he had lived a decent life. Death could only hope that it had been enough to satisfy its Master’s curiosity. It had been a long 433 years as Death, and the being could now understand why its Master was so desperate to escape and be a human instead.

When the body’s heartbeat finally stopped, Death reached forward, eager to give the powers back to their rightful master and return to being just another companion of Death. Or, as the humans called them now, reapers.

But its Master’s soul had only exited Shelah’s dead body for a second before it disappeared.

Death paused, glancing around to check that another reaper hasn’t reaped the soul by mistake. It had given out clear instructions, stating that this soul was its and its alone.

None. There was nothing that suggested another reaper had been here.

Death was befuddled, until it suddenly felt its Master’s soul again. But it was no longer here, where the body of Shelah laid. No, it was across the ocean, and…

It was in the body of another human, this time of a baby girl.

Death stared at the wailing infant for seven minutes and 54 seconds before understanding dawned.

Its Master was the original Death, an immortal entity. Like his counterpart God, he could not die. He cannot be reaped.

He will only be reborn as human. Again and again and again.

And Death, who has been instructed to not bother its Master while he—she is alive, cannot return her powers to her until the Apocalypse came.

And it continued like this:

Henry Winchester was born on July 31st, 1981, to one Mary Campbell and John Winchester. When he is brought home from the hospital, he is greeted by his older brother, Dean. Two years later, they will both welcome Sam similarly.

Six months later, his mother will die, and John will throw away everything to hunt the demon that murdered her.

Included among the casualties are the childhoods of his three boys, but he will never spare that a single thought.

And Death will watch, and will count down to the second when Dean will say “yes” to Alastair.

#harry potter #supernatural #apocalypse fix-it #fanfic #ao3 #agtbd

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