#i dont actually recommend the article from where this joke comes from

[batfleckgifs]

Batman v Superman : Dawn of Homoeroticism (2016) Directed by Zack Snyder

[jorrated]

Hiya Jo, sorry to come to you for this, but your post on Maya Knuckles was so cool I had to ask. You seem good at researching stuff, do you have any tips on looking for sources on specific groups of people? I've been struggling on finding good resources on indigenous groups from brasil... (I'm brazilian myself but i dont know where to start)

I wouldn't say I'm good at research, as I think I'm more insanely curious and just lucky LOL. A lot of times when I try to search for specific things I try absolutely everything until I stumble on whatever I was looking for!

But usually I start with a quick basic skim-read on whatever google gives you when you look up whatever your looking for. Most often then not it'll probably give a wikipedia page, some related news articles and some unsourced pages. A lot of times I won't use any of these, but it's a good way to get a feel for what you'll need to keep an eye for.

What I mean is that sometimes just looking for the main subject of the research wont actually give you what you're looking for. For example, when I was looking for Mayan stuff, it kept giving me Inca and Aztec info, which is cool, but wasn't what i was looking for. But since these 3 were usually grouped together, looking for Inca and Aztec books/resources actually helped me a bunch into finding what I was looking for, and more! So keep an eye out on how the subject you're looking for is COMMONLY described, what's usually associated to it, what people talk about the subject etc.

Then you can go actually searching for thing now, I recommend using DuckDuckGo! And always check if they got a source. Plenty of articles will say things that they've seen on other articles, which maybe are true! but then you always run the risk of getting incorrect facts. So always check, if it's not sourced, run another search with the info and see if another article has a source.

When you do find an article/book with a source THEN you can fall down the rabbit hole! No joke one sourced article can lead you to 5 sources, which most probably also have sources. So from there it's pretty easy to search up on references.

If you run into a dead end and still hasn't found what you're looking for I recommend checking what the wikipedia page is citing as sources. You might not be able to access everything there, but some links should be able to redirect you to somethings.

In terms of paywalled scientific articles, disabling javascript usually works (right click on the page -> inspect element -> find the gear on the top right of the window it just showed up -> scroll down until you see a checkbox saying "disable Javascript" -> and refresh page). But if that doesn't work, Sci-Hub is fucking amazing. Just put down your ref or DOI and voilá!

For books I recommend checking the Internet Archive! They usually have what you're looking for, but also half of the time you can just type "Book name PFD" and it'll usually come up after a few search pages. Just make sure you know how to download stuff without getting a virus in you PC.

Reverse image search can also be pretty useful if you find an image related to the subject, since you can link up to other articles/blogs.

If you're STILL running in dead ends, switching up languages can help (probably not your case since your brazilian and most likely already searching in portuguese but yknow). Google translate extensions can really help looking into pages with languages you don't know! It's not perfect but it might help you get a gist of it.

And lastly if you want to know more about Indigenous people from Brazil, I got a couple of reccomendations (most in portuguese btw)!

Centro de Referência Virtual Indígena

Probably the BIGGEST resource on historical and political information on Indigenous groups. It hosts around 2,3 million documents ranging from bills passed, to personal diary entries. (aaaaand can link up to a lot of other cool resources)

Observatórios dos Direitos e Políticas Indigenistas

Translated from their website: OBIND aims to obtain and systematize quantitative and qualitative data on territorialization processes, territorial management, interethnic conflicts, human rights and quality of life of indigenous peoples and populations in reserved areas or in urban contexts, in order to enable visibility, comparability, evaluation and guidance for indigenous policies and promotion of their rights, notably those pertinent to respect for their uses, customs and traditions and the exclusive enjoyment of the lands they traditionally occupy, recognizing for this the sine qua non condition of promoting indigenous autonomy and overcoming guardianship as assimilationist legacy.

Indígenas pela Terra & Vida

Youtube playlist about many different Indigenous people recounting their experiences and narratives.

GENOCÍDIO INDÍGENA E POLÍTICAS INTEGRACIONISTAS: demarcando a escrita no campo da memória

Book titled: INDIGENOUS GENOCIDE AND INTEGRATIONIST POLICIES: demarcating writing in the field of memory

[roccinan]

I agree with your point that Andres wasnt manipulating Martin to stay with him.

Idk, I think that the bullshit idea of manipulation (somewhat) comes from a Screenrant article where the writer fucking says that "Palermo is the kind of person Berlin would manipulate to keep him around"

Now, I dont have a right to hate on someone's opinions, but that thing was so ?!?!? Like, Berlermo despite being the most toxic idiots (which can be said for almost everyone in lcdp?) Have the most equal and stable relationship, whether you see it platonically or roromantically.

Actually, Screenrant Money Heist is a fucking joke with the most bullshit and garbage opinions. 10000/10 wouldnt recommend.

And IMO, Martin loved Andres, yes, but also knew he was unattainable so Martin instead decides to value their friendship more and doesnt make a move. (Unlike Angel, who kind of kept forcing Raquel into giving him a chance.)

Well, look at me going on a tangent here 🙃

Screenrant as a website is a joke too! Their articles are legit SO poorly written, and anyone (I mean, anyone with a keyboard) can submit articles for petty cash. They get all sorts of basic facts wrong, have no basic structure, and asdfasdf ugh, the majority of that site is a joke, so not surprised that the Screenrant Money Heist articles also contain a lot of poorly written crap.

Don't know if the manipulation BS stemmed from the article, but it's an idiotic take no matter where it came from!

"Martin loved Andres, yes, but also knew he was unattainable so Martin instead decides to value their friendship more and doesnt make a move. (Unlike Angel, who kind of kept forcing Raquel into giving him a chance.)" --> This this this! 100%!

[in-the-whisper]

I'm sorry if this is a common/stupid ask but I fundamentally don't understand religion and I couldn't imagine believing so strongly in anything, but it seems very nice(?) and possibly even optimistic to have a constant like that in your life. so in the sense I think I have an idea of what religion is, what makes you decide(?) to follow it or believe in it? genuine apologies if this comes across as patronizing or condescending, it's not my intention and sometimes I'm just bad with words ':]

dude you are always welcome here and i will never assume that you are being mean you are very sweet <3 i am very happy to talk to you!

ok so i come from a super different background so it’s hard for me to even imagine like not knowing a ton of people who are religious so i will try to explain and then if it doesn’t make sense feel free to poke me and i will try again. also it makes me happy so dont be scared i will say oh! someone asked me about God! yay! and then i will write a silly tumblr post while making this face -> c: 

okay so one of your confusions seems to be why i would believe in something so strongly. in a way everyone believes things strongly, some even more than me (i mean look at politics and thanksgiving dinner). i think the reason that my relationship with God in particular is something i feel strongly about is because i derived my faith from my natural understanding of the value of my friends and from my understanding of morality.

i love my friends very much (most people do) and the idea of them getting hurt or mistreated makes me very angry (i think people would agree). and you could make the argument that the reason that i care so deeply about people and justice is because of all the stuff ive been through but i did think this before anything bad happened to me really.

there is a difference between atheist (philosophical) morality and Christian morality. for someone who doesn’t believe in God, there isn’t anybody who is more important than humanity who can tell them what to do. if one person does something, and i don’t like it, all i can say is, “i don’t like that,” and not “you shouldn’t do that.” because im not in charge of them. i’m just another person, who am i to go around establishing moral laws for other people?

but what that /also/ means is that there isn’t any “grounding” or like /reason/ for morality or the value of life other than personal preference. this Really bothered me about my philosophy class, every atheist philosopher did this. they all wanted to say that you could make morality for yourself (looking at you nietzsche). But then what happens? What about when someone is killed? or raped? I want to be able to say, “Rape is horrible.” and not just “Rape is horrible in my opinion.” Anything that doesn’t allow for these like absolute, unquestionable, overarching standards of how people /should/ or /shouldn’t/ live just doesn’t add up imo.

Atheist professor of law at Yale, Dr. Arthur Leff, wrote an article on this exact topic called “Unspeakable ethics Unnatural Law.” The entire thing is amazing and I recommend it, but here is the conclusion:

All I can say is this: it looks as if we are all we have. Given what we know about ourselves and each other, this is an extraordinarily unappetizing prospect; looking around the world, it appears that if all men are brothers, the ruling model is Cain and Abel. Neither reason, nor love, nor even terror, seems to have worked to make us "good," and worse than that, there is no reason why anything should. Only if ethics were something unspeakable by us, could law be unnatural, and therefore unchallengeable. As things now stand, everything is up for grabs. 

Nevertheless:  Napalming babies is bad.  Starving the poor is wicked.  Buying and selling each other is depraved.  Those who stood up to and died resisting Hitler, Stalin, Amin, and Pol Pot-and General Custer too-have earned salvation.  Those who acquiesced deserve to be damned.  There is in the world such a thing as evil.  [All together now:] Sez who?  God help us.

So if I think this is true, if I really believe that death is evil, that rape is horrible, that there are some universally binding and unchallengeable truths about how people ought to live, I have to believe in a God. or i can live in a state of constant existential dread hahahahaha, , I joke but I actually did do that for a while it was pretty miserable.

i think the next question was kind of what made me believe in it? and that is kind of a difficult question because i think in a way Christianity just encapsulates a bunch of things that i already believed, and i just found like a label for them i guess. i also grew up Christian, so for me my experience questioning my religious identity was more like, three people you love are dead why do you still believe in a loving God? Rather than which religion or philosophy do i like the best?

idk maybe they come out to be the same but it doesnt feel entirely the same. i’m still a christian because of sunsets and sunrises and because the world feels beautiful and intentional, and because i’ve been in a lot of pain and it was real. it really happened. it wasn’t in my head (looking at you stoicism). it wasn’t unimportant. there is not if buts ands ors it was just awful and that’s that. so what can explain it? what can explain meaning? only God can.

Christianity is specifically the religion im interested in because it’s the only one i’ve come across that is as internally consistent, historically accurate, scientifically accurate, coherent understandings of the universe.

No other philosophy allows you to grieve. That’s why I believe in God. No other philosophy validates grief that a belief in a loving God, a belief that death isn’t meant to happen, that people are violently ripped from you without purpose and that you are meant to live together forever. It allows for a belief in the value of humanity and grace while also allowing you to believe that things that happen to you that might last with you forever are wrong and not just in your opinion. They were violently wrong, they violated ancient laws of the universe, they were an act of aggression toward God himself.

Ok im rambling now but I will leave you with this, which is what i wrote after finally deciding to remain a christian:

“There are several questions I asked that stopped me from rejecting Christianity.

Where did the universe come from and why does it exist?

Why does our experience involve morality?

Why is there love? (deep love between brothers, self sacrificial love, to die for another love)

Why is there goodness?

There are, of course, answers to these questions under ideologies other than Christianity, but I found their answers to be unsatisfying because to me, the existence of these things screams that there is something more to the universe than an unfortunate accident in a vacuum of uncaring nothingness.

When I listened to music encouraging its audience to live, when I listened to people fight for the lives of those they love, when i watched the sun set, or cried at the end of a deeply touching movie, I would think, “In light of this how can you say there is no God?”

In Christianity I found answers that profoundly satisfied my deepest questions. 

There is a universe because God in his wisdom fashioned it to be a beautiful gift. There is morality because we stand in the midst of a cosmic battle between good and evil. There is love because God’s nature is perfectly loving and the fabric of the knowable universe was woven in his loving kindness. There is beauty and goodness because life wasn’t created to be a void and an unknowable miserable darkness.

The true issue with atheism is that while intellectually and technically feasible, it gives empty answers to facets of life that do not have empty realities.

It forced me to ask myself this question: How can such a beautiful, meaningful, tragic world exist from nothing and for nothing?”

[graffitibible]

how do killjoys treat raygun burns? i genuinely have no idea and i know you've already gone pretty in-depth with raygun wounds in general but i was curious about the treatment

cw: we’re gonna be talking about medical stuff and injuries in here. i’m not gonna include any graphic pictures and also i’m gonna warn anyone who wants to do further research that some of the images that’ll come up are gonna be pretty damn graphic. tread carefully!

SO i’m gonna be going off this ask here, and running with the assumption that raygun burns probably both bleed and burn. thats important since thats gonna affect how youd do treatment. it also means that raygun injuries are messy. most burn injuries in the real world can cauterize - theyre unique in that the site of injury is usually sterile at the time of injury. however, since the rayguns in this world are capable of making someone bleed (rather a lot too, if the comics are any indication), that means that these wounds can get pretty gnarly.

the important thing about how rayguns in danger days seem to work is that they are not pure laser bolts! if they were, they’d be able to pass through something and cauterize it pretty neatly, like a lightsaber. the raygun blasts have an obvious physical component - they can physically knock someone back, for example, and we see sparks shower when people are shot in the music videos. so rayguns in danger days have an apparent kinetic component to them: you are basically applying heat to the human body at high velocity. 

ONCE AGAIN, THIS GOT LONG. THE REST IS UNDER A CUT. mind the content warnings above!!

other than that, we’re not sure what specifically the makeup of the lasers like...are. electromagnetic radiation? plasma? heat? electricity? i doubt its pure electricity since that would be more consistently fatal, but it is some kind of bolt that has both heat and velocity on its side to be sure, but thats the extent of what we know.

now logically, this would actually cause the human body to like. explode. cause thats what happens when you apply that much heat to something made of mostly water. getting hit with a bolt of something that hot would cause all that water to boil off abruptly and then the steam would fucking parboil you. not a fun way to go though it is funny that the steam would be the thing that causes the most damage. so yeah actually a very gory kind of injury.

obviously thats not what happens in danger days, since no one to my knowledge Fucking Explodes when theyre hit with a laser bolt. but lasers from rayguns can make blood FOUNTAIN OUT OF A DUDE’S GUT in the comics so obviously they can do a hell of a lot of damage (the mvs are way less explicit but they also werent allowed to like, swear in the mvs and had to tone down some of the violence and shit so im taking the comics canon as the more “realistic” one wrt rayguns here) the science here is kinda...eh, cause laser bolts don’t appear to be a penetrating injury but rather a messy “burn and blister” kind of injury that are nonetheless capable of making someone eat it pretty quick.

but this is danger days and this is kinda where science goes to die so here is how i view laser injuries in the universe:

danger days laser bolts have a kinetic or explosive quality to them.

what this means is that the injury is twofold: first, the heat damages the external layer of skin. i’d hazard that we’re talking second-to-third degree burn levels of injury on immediate contact. second, the kinetic energy released at that velocity and force generates an explosive impact that does damage to surrounding tissue.

what’s left is an injury that both burns and bleeds. my take on it is that the bolt impact creates the open wound, while the heat intensifies that damage and disseminates it. you need a temp of maybe 300ºF and higher to cauterize a wound so lasers would have to burn at least a little bit lower than that since the injuries do consistently bleed. but since the human body is pretty sensitive to high temperatures that works out in our favor seeing as if you heat things too much, again, the risk is that we would Fucking Explode.

lots of burn injuries, especially third degree and higher, tend to bleed. since thats the closest thing i have to compare to a laser wound in danger days, thats going to be my basis here.

treating a raygun injury is likely to resemble burn treatment in a lot of ways

burn treatment stuff varies a lot and i will spare you guys from googling this and going “oh thank you google images thank you for showing me what a graphic third degree burn looks like i am so glad that i know this and that this is in my search history and keeps popping up in my search history im SO GLAD.” 

burn injuries go by degrees. first degree is like mild sunburn basically, and only affects the epidermis or external layer of skin. second degree affects the top and middle layers of skin and can leave blisters. third degree burns go all the way to the subcutaneous fat layer and can leave the skin white and charred. fourth degree burns can go through nerves and muscles and even down to the bone and can cause permanent damage that requires amputation. at fifth degree you have significant risk of organ injury and at sixth it’s basically like “fifth degree, but with the common side effect of Death.” 

again im not linking to anything here because pretty much every information article you get on this stuff is gonna have some nice graphic images. so if you look this stuff up on your own do it at your own risk or have an image/media blocker extension ready if that kinda thing squicks you out

the main takeaway is that any burn from like the third degree downward can be very brutal and hard to heal over - they can cause swelling and severe scarring and the destruction of the epidermis and hair follicles means that new hair won’t grow. add to that the idea of raygun blasts tearing open that external layer of skin that means that you can get burns that go in pretty deep which would go a long way to explain how it is a weapon that doesn’t appear to have a lot of “penetrating” energy is capable of killing someone relatively immediately, especially if theyve got that initial kinetic impact thats capable of tearing open the dermis and making the injury go deeper.

im going to tentatively say that raygun injuries are basically full-thickness burns with a few bells and whistles. basically, they destroy the epidermis and the layer of skin below it, the dermis. thats the level of third/fourth degree burns and worse, essentially.

so, serious burn treatment usually goes as follows:

clean! that! wound! it’s best to do this in a sterile environment, cause otherwise youre gonna end up blistering the injury and agitating it further. you wanna get all the dead tissue and gunk off the burn.

pain medication. with most burns the nerve endings can get pretty fried and you might not immediately experience any pain, but since raygun injuries go a little harder than your average burn, thats probably not the case. people definitely consistently react in pain after theyre shot with a raygun in the both the mvs and the comics. so yeah, its painful. pain medication is nice to mute that feeling.

antibiotics and/or tetanus shots to make sure that you don’t get an infection

intravenous fluids containing electrolytes as well as a diet high in protein and nutritional supplements

antibiotic ointments/creams for the injury

skin grafts to close the injury since a burn of that severity would have difficulty closing completely on its own. yikes.

continuous monitoring of the patient to prevent sepsis and eschar from fucking with the blood vessels and healing tissue.

obviously killjoys do not have the benefit of a fully stocked hospital. if youre in bat city youre probably gonna be in more luck. but if youre slumming it or if youre in the zones, heres what i imagine the killjoy diy procedure would likely be:

application of water over the wound. cool water is best, not ice-cold (alright alright alright alright alright etc)

cleaning the injury comes next to prevent infection. ideally you would use soap. do not scrub as youll agitate the wound

pain medication might be helpful here, but who knows if thats common out in the zones - and i imagine city-born killjoys might have some hang-ups with taking meds, so who fuckin knows there.

bandages, ideally clean ones, would help cover up the injury and keep it from the elements in time for it to heal. that will also cover up the skin while the bleeding heals up. keep the wound as closed from infection as possible.

check up on the injury consistently especially since the burn probably wasnt sterilized on impact the way most burns are. a messy injury like that one can go south very very quick.

realistically i doubt that skin grafts are readily available. its recommended that you stay out of the sun and avoid lots of exercise that might risk reopening the injury. and that...is going to be nigh impossible if youre a zonerunner lol. its likely that improper treatment can lead to infection and then death. it is also likely that too much agitation of the injury can lead to the wound reopening, infection, and then death.

if you get stuff like light grazes, where the bolts clip you but dont fully impact you, that means youre like to get some surface-level burns that cover a larger surface area. theyll heal quicker if you treat them right, but thats a larger area thats open to infection. burns that go deep into the skin have more immediate fatality risk. there could be variation here as well! maybe a laser gun with a lower or dying charge will do less damage. maybe some guns have fancy “stun” settings that don’t do permanent damage.

the human body is surprisingly resilient and can recover from a lot. but burns are no joke and a raygun blast can easily be fatal either immediately or a little bit after the fact. even if you survive the blast, there are likely to be a lot of repercussions to taking a serious hit, which im again basing on the noted consequences of major burn injuries

likely consequences of surviving a raygun hit in the zones:

scarring. especially without skin grafts, this ones gonna be a gimme, and likely permanent. serious burns can leave lots of color changes to the skin as well as keloid tissue (which is a raised, lumpy kind of scar tissue. you can google it if you want but as i warned before: images might be pretty grody). this would also prevent the growth of new hair in those areas. most hospitals try to excise this and replace it with skin grafts to speed healing but like i said thats not likely to be an obvious solution in the desert.

nerve damage. burns that go super deep can permanently remove the feeling from the affected part of the body. this is likely to be permanent. deep contact usually remains intact but stuff like subtle pressure changes can be outright impossible to sense. this can also cause contractures in the affected area.

weakness in the affected area. related to the above point, damage to muscle tissue and nerves can reduce range of motion, strength in that area, and more.

itching and pain at the site of injury. pretty self-explanatory. that one might get better as you go on depending on how good the medical treatment was at the time of injury.

inability to sweat. the destruction of sweat glands in affected areas are possible if the burn goes deep enough. in the desert this can be very bad news lol

psychological trauma. a given. any traumatic injury can have long-term psychological effects.

my main takeaway here is that killjoys who’ve been in lots of serious firefights are gonna have a sHITTON of scarring, some of it obvious. lots of killjoys looking pretty fucked up. lookin wiped out. my other takeaway is that surviving a raygun blast is pretty dependent on getting care for it as soon as possible, cause the infection/hemorrhage risk seems pretty high.

ofc this is just me analyzing this shit to hell and back and it’s probably nowhere near that scientifically DENSE im just detail-oriented as hell. so take or leave this answer, whichever you like lol. i like writing the nitty gritty details of injuries since i generally wanna emphasize how rough life in the zones can be so this is something im interested in exploring.

[slaygentford]

hi ms emily i was wondering if you had any tips for Critical Litchrature Reading? i did an eng lit a-level a million (5) years ago so i Did know how to read critically but then i did a history degree where i had to read so much boring shit a week that when i have read for pleasure now it’s been stuff that smooths my brain over. which i know isnt always a bad thing! but i’d like to get back into big brain takes i just dont know how? like i tried reading mrs dalloway and i struggled bc subtle writing now makes my brain melt. sorry if youve answered this already and DOUBLY sorry if the answer is literally just ‘practice and experience’

oh this problem is so easily solved!! you’re starting with mrs dalloway, and mrs dalloway is a BIG one to jump right into, that's like trying to decipher Einstein after taking algebra. I'd recommend starting with some poetry, and of course now that I'm trying to think of some every syllabus I've ever written just flew directly out of my head. um. glass essay by Anne Carson. that icebox poem that’s a meme now is like the great Gatsby of poetry, it’s practically created for people learning to read literature. no joke, Richard siken? worth a revisit also. THIS ARTICLE will get your brain juice moving as well. 

short stories, try drown, by junot Díaz (sorry, I know, but it’s really good at teaching you how to read). Dubliners, Joyce, specifically the dead, is very good for starting to re-learn. ahhh shit I just thought of one and forgot it. fucking...brownies, zz packer. 

for novels, try Jane eyre, wuthering heights, those are less opaque. beloved, 100 years of solitude, slaughterhouse five. WAIT, do slaughterhouse five first. I firmly believe that if you can properly read slaughterhouse five you can read anything. it’s extremely simple and extremely not and very moving and I think maybe the best but least perfect book ever written but that is just me. 

THEN go into like, you know, modernism (Woolf, Joyce’s novels, stein), all that. to me modernism is the last hurdle in Getting Literature and the tallest one, or maybe that’s just how my brain works. but you gotta work up to it. 

other approaches include: you can pick stuff that sounds interesting and then look up book club and reading questions for them, which is the most accessible way to do this by far. you can get one of those big anthologies of short stories that come with introductory essays in them, which is how we’re taught to close read, and that could set you on the right path. you could supplement this as you keep reading, if you really want to, with like actual real theory (this is what I was taught from in my theory 101 class).

remember that what you need MOST out of this is a fellow player/interlocutor/improvisor, someone who’s read it too and says “yes and” to each of your ideas. the good news is the internet is huge and free and also I am here and also your brain is here. if you see something in a text and youre like, is that a symbol/motif/parallel/whatever, UHHH yeah the fuck it is cuz you just said so! so say “yes and” to yourself while reading, pull on every thread you find. 

[illfoandillfie]

ok sorry but how many people do yall think rog has ever slept with cos i’m guessing four figures no lie

okay, i don’t normally respond to messages like this because, frankly, i dont really feel like its my place to speculate on roger’s sex life. Theres a difference between writing a fiction story with a character named after and inspired by him and discussing his actual personal life which i have no real knowledge about. What he gets up to in his free time is between him and the women he does it with. but i didn’t really feel able to ignore this one. please don’t take this as me telling you off or shutting you down or anything like that. If you want to speculate about roger’s body count thats up to you, go nuts with it. and i love when you guys message me and I don’t want to discourage you from feeling like you can talk to me or just send me your random thoughts or whatever about any subject. But I feel like I need to address why I disagree with this sentiment. Also so I can ask ya’ll to please stop asking me questions like this. 

So firstly, just to get this out of the way. 1000 is a lot. even 100 is a lot. I think if rog had slept with 1000+ people he’d have a least a few illegitimate kids and probably would have been checked into rehab for sex addiction (not to mention STIs and such because lbr people in the 70s specifically probs werent the most careful especially if drugs were involved). I mean even if we were going to say Rog got lucky with a different woman after every show we wouldn’t reach 1000. According to google, Queen played around 700 shows in their entire career. If we add shows played by The Cross thats only another 67 odd shows (according to wikipedia). 

now, i think there are 3 things that contribute to this idea of roger as especially promiscuous. 1. His attitude/demeanour/general way he sells himself. 2. the generally held conceptions about rock stars and rock star behaviour. and 3. what i’m going to call fandom dumbassery (but i mean that with a lot of love) 

So lets start with the man himself. Roger Taylor is loud and opinionated and not particularly humble. He knows he’s talented and attractive though for at least some time he was a little self-conscious about how feminine he looked. He’s always up for a laugh, likes to party and has admitted to enjoying his drink and his women. He’s had kids with two different women, who’s relationships “overlapped”, and is currently married to a third. At least that’s the perception we can gleam from his interviews, behind the scenes videos, and other public appearances. 

It’s easy to see how that image leads to accusations of being a womaniser and a cheater and basically a bit of a slut lmao. But here’s the thing. I think Roger, in part, markets himself that way. The thing is, if you look at his solo songs and the relationships he currently has with his kids and their mothers, and things other people have said about him/his relationships over the years, I think it’s fair to say he also has a bit of a romantic streak maybe? idk if thats the best way of describing it...he’s self confessed to not being a fan of marriage and the like but he’s not opposed to writing and singing love songs and seems to believe in ~love~ as a concept/power. He certainly cares deeply for those closest to him. Whether or not that translates to an agreement with monogamy I can’t say for certain. It’s hard to draw conclusions here because a lot of what we know of his personal life was fed to us through magazines and news paper gossip column articles and they were never looking for the truth, they were looking for scandal and sensationalism. 

For instance the whole thing with the overlapping relationships. I think most people who have read anything about roger and dom and debbie realise that it’s not as cut and dry as “he was cheating with debbie and left dom for her” even though that was the story being sold by the press at the time. The reality (or at least the version closer to reality since obviously no one outside of them and whoever they were closest with knows all the nitty gritty details) is that rog and dom had already split when they got married. it was a marriage of convenience to make sure her and the kids would be looked after financially etc even after he’d moved out. So while it looked to the public like he married one chick and 30 odd days later was spotted with another, there really wasn’t anything untoward happening.  I’m not saying he never had casual hookups or one night stands and i’m not saying he never cheated, but I do think some of it’s been exaggerated, whether by him to encourage the rock star perception or by newspaper/magazine articles.

Now, obviously, we have stories of rog, particularly in the late 60s and into the 70s, being with multiple women. There’s that bit in the Interview with a Queen “Groupie” (which is a fantastic read and i defs recommend checking it out if you havent already) where she talks about roger being a chick magnet and says that, at the time, it was pretty common to sleep about. But, she also says she didnt notice him doing it more or less than anyone else and seemed to mostly be with Jo (his girlfriend at the time). This is the same Jo that got a mention in the Queen in 3D book (”i think we all had the feeling that these two were together for life, but it was not to be”). Conversely, we have that quote (which i cannot find rn but i’ll link it when i do) about roger sometimes having one girl upstairs while another waited in the garage for them to be finished. I think it was about Rog in the mid-late 60s in Truro but whatever. Obviously he wasn’t anywhere near celibate and it’s likely was sleeping with people outside of his relationship(s). But one has to assume that as he got older those kinds of antics stopped happening, at least as frequently.

There is one potential story that I remember reading somewhere along the way about Roger cheating on Debbie while she was pregnant. But, take that with a grain of salt because I can’t find the article again and also I think it was from like The Sun or something equally as rubbish. The press was notoriously always printing mean shit about the boys and that might have been another thing they published to create scandal. Even so, if we assume it’s legit that is still only 1 story. Not to throw him under the bus but Brian is the one with multiple confirmed affairs, who literally wrote songs about it all. So why is Roger the one with sleazy reputation? 

This is where my second and third points come in. There is a pervasive idea about what it means to be a rock star. The whole trashing hotel rooms, sleeping with groupies, passing out drunk every night thing. And I’m sure that Queen was like that to an extent. I think it’s pretty common knowledge that all of them got up to shit on the road. Between innuendo laden interviews and songs, videos and accounts of their parties, stories CT has put online, and other stories like the one of Roger bringing out lines of coke as dessert when he was having dinner with motley crue. They definitely embraced the rock and roll lifestyle. And I think with Roger’s personality being what it is, it’s easy to link him to those traditional rock star tropes and say it was all true all the time. I also think Roger has done nothing to counter those beliefs. He’s been open about how he wanted to be a rock star since the minute he picked up a guitar, he’s labelled himself as a great lay in magazines, he’s joked about girls pulling their tits out over dinner in interviews (though he said he didnt take her home), he’s written songs like One Night Stand and Dirty Mind and Airheads which explicitly mention his preference for women and alcohol. I think it’s fair to say he’s kind of encouraged that view of himself. Whether it was just a side effect of being part of such a well known band and having such a boisterous demeanour/personality, or whether it was intentional as a version of promotion i don’t know. maybe a mix of them? I mean I’m sure it didn’t hurt sales and stuff. it’s the whole guys want to be him, girls want to be with him thing, right? Maybe that’s just me being cynical though lmao. 

Anyway, the fandom brain has taken all of that and compressed it into memes and jokes about rog being the band slut. Which i’m not complaining about, lord knows i’ve made the same jokes and reblogged the same posts and used those tropes in my fics. They’re funny and lend themselves to interesting fic concepts. Plus, i think roger is the sort of person who would probably laugh about most of it. But it’s an idea that keeps feeding into itself through fandom, perpetuating what is probably a misguided view of his personal life.

Again, I am sure he’s had his fair share of fun and I’m not trying to make out that he was always perfect or whatever, but I don’t think he’s been with as many women as the popular discourse would imply and I certainly don’t think he’s in the 4 digit numbers. 

[liathgray]

yellow im that writing anon from a min ago and actually i have questions???? if thats ok????? 🥺🥺🥺 so like,,,, how does writing themes into something work cuz i just with my gut feeling everytime i write ive got no idea how to do it On Purpose?? also like,,, tips on writing Feral Characters?? you dont have to answer ofc i just wanted to know how you do it cuz you always do it so well 💜💜💜

Let’s start with Themes!

First off, it is good to know your ending before you start with themes. That is to say, again, I’m recommending that yall outline and plan before you start writing! It helps!

Knowing where a story goes/ how it will end is really important too. If a theme of your story is recovering from loss, then it wouldn’t make sense to kill off the central character. Part of this also has to do with Want vs Need and character arcs.

The Want is where a character begins. Ex: Aladdin equates his value as a person to wealth. He Wants wealth and respect. The Need is where they end and their arc comes full circle, typically tying together with one of the key themes. Ex: Aladdin realizes that lying about his status wont change anything. He Needed to be truthful.

Key theme: apperance vs reality, self worth/ acceptance

For more, this article details what not to do. And this vid is good.

They should compliment each other, you know? Motifs help with theming a lot as well, whether it be a phrase or a symbol or an image. It creates a throughline between what might otherwise feel like disparate events.

If that’s not your jam, its also good to plot out the theme beats. The thing about themes is tha you gotta do something with em. Or at least, I think so. Its not doing much to present a theme and then do nothing with it. Which is why planning the beats is helpful. A beat is basically a moment of challenging or change. It marks the development of the themes.

Here’s a lil guide to write beat sheets, though this particular one pretains more to the story it can be applied to themes.

As for feral characters....

I honestly don’t know what to say. I’m a bit of a feral person myself, though I rarely act on it cause of laws or whatever, so I tend to just think “what would I want to do?”

Sometimes it boils down to the thing I find funniest or most ridiculous but I’ll try to give some tips!

- Consider the plausibility. Its infinitely more fun when something is implied and it’s just out there enough to be a joke but... is it though?

- Pick a certain genre of feral. (Criminal, bookworm, woodland cretuore, unpredictable etc.)

- Ask yourself “what would a squirrel do?” This has saved me on many occasions.

- Find the most ridiculous, long winded ways to insult things. For example: calling someone a wet sock with a hole in the bottom. It adds to the ✨energy✨ in my opinion

- Dude just have fun! Like, if it’s something you find amusing, go for it. Why do you think I let Ed break in everywhere? Cause its funny.

[krotiation]

p*wd*ep*e is a literal nazi. that you are sympathizing with. you are ACTUALLY digusting. he got what was coming to him and i genuinely hope you see how terrible he is. he didnt just say the n word and make a "few" mistakes; he openly addmitted to enjoying things from nazis, promoted antisemetic/nazi channels, and keeps doing this shit despite ""appologizing"" all to a mostly 12y/o audience. KIDS. IMPRESSIONABLE KIDS. so no, its not just a small disliking of him, its genuine hate and discomfort.

first of all, these claims of him being a nazi are not true. what happened is pewdiepie wanted to promote several channels because he was getting a lot of attention from the subscribe to pewdiepie meme. one of the channels (note how there was only one and not several) he promoted was an anime review channel that apparently had nazi references hidden in his videos. thing is though, pewdiepie made a video addressing what happened and said he didnt know those references were there and that if he did know he wouldnt have recommended the channel because after the controversy that happened previously he wanted to distance himself from the subject. why would he consciously recommend a channel with nazi references when it would only result in backlash and why would he remove the channel from his shoutout if he truly wanted his subscribers to “submit” to nazi propaganda?

secondly, he does learn from his mistakes and hasnt repeated any behavior that previously got him into trouble. as mentioned, after the joke on fiverr (which was a terrible and insensitive joke) he decided to stay away from offensive jokes and guess what? he did. hes a lot more careful in what he says and the only reason he got the nazi label again is because of the channel he recommended. same thing with the time he said the n-word; he made a video after it happened and after some time had passed he made a response video to it, criticizing what he said (22:50). ever since that he has not repeated that mistake, not in a regular video nor a live stream and not in english nor in swedish as some people are apparently claiming.

thirdly, his audience is not mostly 12 year olds or 9 year olds for that matter. this was a joke that spread after pewdiepies dispute with alinity who claimed his audience were that young as a way to retaliate. if you look at his actual age group statistic youll see the majority of his subscribers are between 18-24 year old, 25-34 being the second biggest age group on his channel. in fact, only 11% of his viewers are 13-17, not below that because google does not allow you to make an account if youre not 13, 16 in some parts of europe, or over. kids making accounts despite being under that age is not a concern pewdiepie should have to deal with, it is a matter of parental control which im not going to get into now.

and lastly, you cant argue for something when you only get your facts from opinion based articles and tumblr. all of the things he has been accused of or criticized for have been addressed by pewdiepie in his videos and on his twitter. this is where the personal dislike of pewdiepie shows because people will immediately jump on whatever people say about him and refuse to see his side of the story. im not saying only people who like pewdiepie will understand the story as ive seen people who arent fans of his argue that he is innocent, its a matter of being critical and getting the full story. if you dont it only shows your personal bias and your low credibility.

overall you do not say someone deserves to be robbed. i know i mentioned this in my tags of that reblog but im gonna say it again. being robbed is not just losing your possessions, its losing a sense of security and privacy. it is a crime and wishing it, or further harm for that matter, upon someone is nothing but cruel and immoral. furthermore (i dont know if this applies to you specifically as you are on anon and havent made any jokes about this in this ask but im bringing it up for anyone else who might see) joking about the matter is disgusting and shameful. making fun of a traumatic event is never okay and i hope that, like pewdiepie did with his insensitive jokes, youll realize the weight behind this and grow up.

[wormmomma]

tyler, the creator: the very queer discography review!!!

Im bored of writing overly long threads on twitter so i wrote a look at tyler the creators discography and why hes gay and im gay and deserved to have his dick immortalized in gold when he dies. So tyler gregory okanma is a black man born in ladera heights california. He’s also my third favorite rapper and since he discovered my favorite rapper earl sweatshirt I guess he deserves goat status for that shit too. Tyler started his career around 17 years old as the ace the creator. He did features at the time with casey veggies and the inspirations in his flow to mf doom where already apparent even back then. From ace the creator mixtape you can already hear the very digital and jazz inspired pharrell production. Funny story if you look up any of his ace stuff now you'll mostly find some really old production that in the age of tyler the creator type beats doesn't really hold u all that great. From there Tyler went on to create odd futures and his first album bastard. He quite quickly followed up bastard with godlin. Goblin, bastard, and the OF tape vol.1 all feel pretty interconnected so im gonna speed round from worst to best. So odd future tape volume one is fun and punk and really crass, it's also completely eclipsed by odd futures other releases. I love odd future and the collective's ability too be both edgy teen skate rap garbage, and a risky artistic rap collective all at the same time. In odd future's first tape it seems pretty clear that tylers description of the groups early work as a bunch of niggas joking around in a studio is very apparent for better or worse. If you wanna get high with some friends can listen to some funny edgy and downright grimey tracks over left brains booking production skip this and listen to odd future's next mixtape but come back here to listen to some funny skits and a few proto mellowhype track with domo genesis. Goblin is Tyler's attempt to do a bigger darker more sprawling version of bastard but misses the mark. I like the album and I love singles on the album. Goblin the opening track is amazing and is a great look at tylers mental state attempting to live up to his newfound fame and anxiety about his infamy. I love yonkers and tron cat. Tyler says alot at this time that he doesn't make horrorcore and he's correct but the lack of emotional honesty and his immature deflections is really going off on all cylinders. If you dont wanna hear skits like “my bitch suck dick” and lines like “im not homophobic faggot” i would probably call it his worst album. Before i talk about bastard id like to go over his use of slurs and rape in his work. Tylers consistent lyrics about violence towards women and use of the lgbtq community really don't insult me. I feel like his lyrical content is filled with a clear look of how angry and insecure tyler was about not having a father or any way of processing his angst. Did he have to sound like a incel threatening to stalk and murder women who refuse to love him for over 3 albums? No, but i really enjoy looking at his early music. He doesn't shy away from how angry, sad and desperate he was at the time. That synthesis of need for fatherly love, anger from a lack of it and deteriorating mental state honestly makes the content more palatable. Also as a black trans women id rather hear tranny an faggot bars from a male rapper making intreeating music. Tyler at the time was being honest, angry and vulnerable not like eminem and action bronson who spit these bars with all the same rap bravado and violent anger toward women with zero pathos. Bastard is amazing, it's an intimate dark album. At the time it felt like it was tapping right into where I was at the time. The amount of mental anguish on bastards opening track really hit me. I was an angry kid with a lot of angst and bipolar disease so hearing a rapper yell about that same dysfunction really meant alot to me. The flows are amazing and it was a really good look at tylers ability to build a narrative. Wolf was tyler's next album. For a while wolf was my favorite album by tyler. His look at relationships and breakups on bimmer and ifhy are amazing and are expanded on his future releases. Find your wings and treehome are also a good look at his more melodic influence. It was such a good album I actually bought the mrech for and went to see Tyler at afropunk. Also hearing an entire song about the death of his grandma really hit me, my grandfather died around the same time. Cherry bomb was bad, now moving one. Ok im  joking i've listened to it two or three times but its really not worth going back to even though tyler put his all into it. The soul features and amazing production is worth listening to but even Tyler admits he rushed the album a little and that he needed to blow people away next time. Flower boy, is one of the most important albums in hip hop. That's it. Bar none. It was my favorite release of 2018. Flower boy is about tylers newfound isolation with his fame, and how he drives cars by himself in beautiful la vistas. Its also about how he’s gay (or bisexual). There are ALOT of stupid takes on this album. There is a contingency of tyler stans that think tyler has been “playing a character” since bastard. Now I'll admit that wolf haley and dr.teecee are clearly characters; they are also artists' representations of tyler's mental state. If wolf haley has adhd and no father that means tyler also has those issues. So whether or not Tyler is playing a character he has in fact “been kissing white boys since 2004”. I also have seen an insipid article that asks if “tyler the creator should be accepted into the lgbtq community” due to his homophobia? Much more controversial and actually homophobic and transphobic people are in this community hes tyler the creator, not milo yinnaoplous. I also dont think that it occurs to the reviewer that alot of gay men are very hmophobic before they come out and that self hate is very common. Lyrics like “im not gay i just wanna dance to some marvin” also has a much deeper context now. Listening to older releases you can see how in your face tyler was about his queerness. He even said he filmed himself kissing his friend Lucas to prove he wasn't a homophobe. I'm happy Tyler grew enough to make an album not only about being attracted to men but how lonely he felt in and out of the closet. As someone who came out as bisexual at the time it came at a perfect time. Being  gay is isolating and confusing and when you do you lose alot of friends and family. Garden shed, who dat boy, and 911 are real standouts. His collaboration with kali uchis was also so fucking smooth and she a born r&b star. Tyler gained a grammy nomination off the album and said he loved the feeling of finally making popular catchy music people wanna sing the lyrics too, so he followed it with igor. Igor opens with this addendum on the back of the physical album: 

This might be fiction, this might be about igor but it is fully about tyler okanga. The album is very hard to parse and barely has any rapping. It's more of a pop experimental album with a lot of lofi synth production. Tylers production chops are full force here. Igor is melodic, sad and full of the same anger and obsession from his previous albums. Its just more mature and really gay, and i fucking love it. Tyler was dealing with a tumultuous relationship with a guy and his refusal to be with tyler exclusively. Its about a breakup. A love tragedy that only becomes more depressing after the argument on a boy is a gun, the breakup in my love is gone, and the sad slump back into needing closure in can we be friends. The album is fun to sing to, and fucking devestating. I've dealt with a lot of similar issues with love and obsession so to hear it so clearly illustrated on igor really hit me. I think the album becomes even more depressing with the unreleased track best interest, about tyler being a side nigga. This is the kind of music that's sometimes made in r&b and pop but never in rap. There was an interview where Tyler says he hated his voice which is why he edits it so evident on igor. Tyler also said he wanted to send these songs to rihanna and Justin Beiber but they didn't want them, as cool as it sounds. I'm happy tyler was able to tell his own story. I would also recommend magic wand since it's my favorite track on the album and kicks you in the face with how angry and heartbroken Tyler was at the time. 

Tyler is an artist that talks and speaks about how he feels all the time, he's also a person who feels enigmatic and mysterious somehow. I think it has to do with how constantly he's put to the side of his other hip hop contemporaries. He always seems to be making music Tom weird, controversial and experimental to be treated like asap rocky, vince staples, or the late mac miller. A fact that feels ironic since he worked with all of those artists, lil wayne, and even kanye west. I'm as big a stan for tyler as he is for Pharrell, if it wherent forever I'd never take rap seriously and would never have chosen to make my own music. As a black trans woman I find a lot of tylers work really relatable. I've been in alot of the angry hopeless situations Tyler talks about in his music. I think he's the artist who hits me the most on a personal level and yeah when i was depressed i sat in my bedroom and listened to bastard in my low moments. I like riding in the car and listening to all of flowerboy. Igor is amazing as well for almost half a decade it's been amazing growing up and hitting the same emotional beats Tyler went through5 in his work. Hearing about him coming out as gay ajd dealing with very similar backlash mad me feel less alone if im being honest. Tyler has said he wants to take a more production heavy role in the industry moving forward but he says that a lot, i think as long as he has a story to tell he's always going to make music. His music feels like a diary and I'm happy to read it and sonnet to it in all its beauty and ugliness. 

Hi my name is lua o'reilly i make music on soundcloud.com/wormmother

If you liked this review let me know and I'll do a look into earl sweatshirt.

[authorkimberlygrey]

Shitty Things Nobody Tells You About (Self) Publishing And How To Deal With Them

This isn’t in my usual style because I got tired of trying to do the paragraphs thing. 

fuck that I think in bullet points and curse words, y’all can deal with it. 

There’s a readmore a bit further down because this it got long don’t worry. 

It's Expensive

When you self-publish, you are becoming your own publishing company. 

you have to pay for everything

Editing

Cover

Marketing shit

fifteen billion other things. 

There are places that you can get services for cheap but you gotta be careful about that cause you might just get what you pay for. tbh I dont’ have much advice on this, its just a thing you’re gonna have to figure out, sorry. 

Everyone wants a piece of the pie

The shittier members of your friends, family, and community will probably try to horn in on your hard work

“Am I in the dedications?” 

“Am I in the book?” 

“Can I have a free copy?” 

etc. etc. 

fuck these people, you don’t need that shit. 

you just wrote a whole ass book, go you! 

they don’t get to take away from that. 

Shitty businesses definitely will try to horn in on your hard work

you will get messages

and emails 

and offers 

and followers 

Fuck those guys

fuck them so hard. 

It may be tempting because they’ll sound nice and shit

but listen to me: 

The reason they’re trying to get you to come to them is that nobody else is and they want to prey on your assumed inexperience. 

because the reason nobody is coming for them is that they are shitty. They are so shitty. 

I have gotten three messages from a company called Doran 

They are very professional, pretty messages

I have my very own publishing consultant. 

Doran has a total of 1.8 stars on google ratings. 

Block these fuckers immediately 

Do not pass go, do not give them the 200 dollars that they are asking for. 

Fuck them. 

Again, you wrote a whole ass book

they haven’t done shit. 

They don’t get to horn in on your hard work. 

tell them to fuck off

I’m putting the rest of this stuff under the cut because it got too long and I don't want to obliterate y’all’s dashes.

Post-Publication Depression

 Not everyone deals with it

Some lucky assholes get to feel accomplished and happy 

But you’re not gonna know until you get there 

keep an eye on that shit 

I’m not fucking joking here y’all 

this is shitty. 

Nobody talks about it because Ya Gotta Keep Up The Happy Author Image 

But fuck that, I’m not letting yall trip facefirst into this shit unprepared. 

You might feel like nobody cares about you, about your book, about anything. 

You may feel like you’ll never write anything again 

You may feel like what you have written is a shitty, shitty pile of steaming garbage and you are doomed to die cold and alone in the night

You may miss the world and the characters and feel like they’ve died and taken a part of you with them

You may feel a billion different shitty things and it sucks so bad my friends

You just did like several solid months of stressful shit at the very least. 

You are a rubber band and you have just been stretched to the limit and unleashed against the unforgiving back of the head of reality by some dumb fuck kid who’s supposed to be paying attention in class. 

But look at me: It's not gonna be here forever

There are always people who care for real

You will write again and it will be awesome

What you wrote is awesome, no matter how many imperfections you may see in it right now. 

The world and characters are with you always. There is literally nothing stopping you from continuing to write shit with them. or even just daydreaming shit. They are yours and the world cannot take them from you. 

You will get through this, it may take a week, or a month, or longer and it may be shitty that whole time 

but it will end. And you’ll make it through. 

My advice?: 

Get a support system

Tell them that this is a thing

Have them check in on you 

Don’t try to do this alone because you don’t have to. 

It's Difficult to Find Information

Remember that part where I talked about how everyone wants to horn in on your hard work? 

yeah. 

It is entirely possible that I’m just shit at researching but all of the videos, articles, and free PDFs that I found fell into one or both of these categories: 

Either they’re from a publishing company that wants to discourage you from self-publishing so that they can publish your book for you. 

fuck you, pocket guide to publishing

Or for some godforsaken reason, its full of utterly useless fluff to give it length or to cover up the fact that the creator doesn’t actually know what the fuck they’re talking about

The thing you need

if its there

will be one sentence long and buried somewhere in all the fluff somewhere in the middle-end of the thing

somewhere

fuck if you’ll ever find it though. 

What I recommend is that you find a publishing mentor

Someone who’s been through this shit and can give you the short answer instead of letting you sit in front of your computer crying because you just need to know what button to push what the fuck

Again, maybe I’m just really shitty at research, but still 

publishing mentor

good shit

crying over ingramspark’s shitty, shitty website design:

bad shit

shoutout to @brynwrites for answering my neverending stream of questions when I finally gave up trying to find the information on the internet or on ingramspark

do not look for things on ingramspark 

just dont’

there is no logic or organization to that hellhole. 

the blog posts may have promising titles 

but the information you want is probably buried in the middle of a tangentially related article 

the rest of the internet isn’t much better tbh. 

Its Easy To Get Lost In The Crowd

There is a metric fuckton of books out there

and another two fucktons of WIPs 

because none of us writeblrs seem to have an attention span longer than two chapters before we get distracted by a shiny new idea

you know I’m right

People on tumblr are shitty in general at reblogging shit despite that being the point of the website

you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink 

People on writeblr are really busy with their heads stuffed up their own WIPs and they tend not to notice other shit

we’re all guilty of it, its fine

but it can be depressing

its not personal tho

What ya gotta do is make friends

yes, I am literally telling you to believe in the Power of Friendship.

You gotta make yourself an apocalypse survival group my pals

You and yours on the wild seas of greater indifference

it’ll be great 

All that matters is the people that matter 

Fuck everyone else or you’re gonna be crying yourself to sleep for the rest of your life

nobody wants that. 

Post-Publication Depression

y’all

seriously

I’ve cried myself to sleep more nights in the last two weeks than I have ever since I was hella depressed in high school

-100/10 would recommend

but I forgot to opt out of this subscription

this shitty, shitty subscription. 

God I’m so tired. 

Btw I’m going on hiatus for like a week after this last giveaway ends

Its been twelve days since Ascendant was published but it feels like a god damn month

fuck this shit I’m out

see y’all later

P.S please reblog the last giveaway or someth if you want a book. 

[rissa-posts]

Why representation in media is needed

Let's start this off by saying that I was born in the south... you can already see where this is going. My parents mindset is "I don't accept the LGBTQ+, but I won't do anything actively against it." That is important to note because it is better than being violent towards LGBTQ+, but it is still homophobic. Think of it as me being born on the threshold of closed mindedness and open mindedness (born on the wrong side, but easy to cross over)

The first representation in media was Nico coming out in Rick Riodan's House of Hades. I thought of it as a literal joke, a punchline. It only got worse when I overheard my mom recommend to another mom not to read it because Nico was gay. Me, being a young impressionable child, decided that day that gay=bad. (Because parents are always right, right?)

The next representation I saw was a minor character in a book who just happened to be gay. The important thing about this was that it literally didn't affect the plot at all. I mention a book who's title I can't even remember because I remember not recommending it because a minor character was gay. At 14 years old, I was censoring the LGBTQ+ community.

Skipping forward a year, my sister and I wanted How to Get Away With Murder. My sister absolutely loved Coonor and his arc. (Obviously she was more accepting than I was.) I was kind of quiet, so I didn't admit to her that I didn't really accept of the LGBTQ+ community. I just listened to her rant about Connor. This is kind of what started my transition towards acceptance.

Next up: Anime. The thing about Anime is that it is mostly queerbaiting (especially the ones I watched) so this mostly goes out to the fandoms. I was the heteronormative shipper, but I was definitely exposed to all of the gay ships. My sister also watched some of these with me, and she would just rant about her favorite ships and point out any cute moments. I actually found some of the ships cute, and by the end of my anime phase, I was shipping several gay ships.

Last up, cartoons. I had my wisdom teeth pulled, and binged Avatar and Korra in 3 days. I remember that when I watched Korra, I naturally veered toward the heteronormative ships. But I also remember being pleasantly surprised and ginuenly happy when Korra and Asami became canon. Why? Because Korra deserved someone who made her happy instead of confused. This was the first gay ship I had formed without the influence of my sister, which was a huge step in my little journey.

I can't tell you the specific steps between LoK and now, but I can tell you that I have grown. Now, I watch Steven Universe, She-Ra, Dragon Prince, etc., and I get excited about representation. I was happy when Rupphire had their wedding, I ship ALL the character on She-Ra, and can't wait to see the promised rep in Dragon Prince. In fact, what spurred me to write this was me reading an article on how the latest episode of SU was a trans metaphor and I rewatched the episode right then and there as I realized how different I was from my 12 year old self.

Now all of this had been in media, but that soon changed. I was at a sleepover with my sister and her friends just this year when all of them came out to me a bi. (Yes, all of them.) I'm pretty sure my exact words were "cool, but it's your turn now, can you play a card?" I was happy for them, but I didn't see them any differently. They were still my friends.

So you want to fight for representation? Go for it. You want to ship a non-cannon gay ship? Please do. Because if I had not been exposed to it I would be the one voting against you. I would be the one censoring your representation. Worst of all, I could've lost a lot of my friends, including my own sister. The thought that I could've become that is absolutely disgusting.

Edit: please dont say anything about my parents, my sister and I have made a point to bring up gay rights in any conversation. Their worldviews have changed too!

[mountain-of-divine-fire]

Crystal skulls. Whats the appeal? & Their ancient, phony history. 💀☠️💀☠️

Disclaimer: Most of my posts about magic are my personal craft, and my opinions. I hope they inspire you in your craft, but as always, they are just opinions. my word is not the authority , and neither is any other blog post.

The history

If you want some well sourced and better written information on how these skulls came about, I suggest the wikipedia article for crystal skulls.

In the early 1900′s, there was a trend of the occult, adventuring, archaeology, and treasure. This resulted in a lot of fake artifacts that people produced solely for fame and fortune, and a lot of frauds.  (similar things come to mind, like the Ica stones, Ectoplasm photography,The trade of shrunken heads, and pretty much anything to do with Ed and Lorraine warren, in my opinion at least.) 

Tldr, think about stuff like the plot of the disney tarzan movie. White dudes, trying to make money off of some culture theyre actively harming.

Theres a lot of “history” about them being Mesoamerican artifacts, important in aztec, inca, and whoever else they've decided to pass it to’s religious practices and magical rituals, but this is simply not true. There probably have been skull shaped idols/icons in the past, but these perfect, “ancient aliens” style , magical, all knowing , perfectly carved crystal skulls were made up purely to sensationalize them. Anything about getting “all 13″ or however many together for some ritual,, i call BS. 

Most modern carved skulls might have had these older ones in mind when they were made, but truly, have nothing to do with them.

(a modern skull that was originally passed off as an artifact, who resides in the British museum)

So whats the appeal of modern skulls? 

First of all, from a lapidary standpoint, skulls are challenging and fun to carve! having a style, giving it an expression, the markings that end up on it from the inclusions in the stone, all very fun for someone who cuts stones. Its simply art, even if you dont use them for anything else. alot of the time, due to the quality of the materials, and the effort that went into their creation, they end up higher end of the price range. Its worth it if youre willing. 

In magic, the skull shape is symbolic of many things. of the self, mankind, of consciousness, maybe a memento mori, or a figure to represent death or the cycles, for retaining knowledge, or maybe just for ancestor worship. (And probably more im overlooking.) They have so many uses and are very versatile just for their symbolic meaning. Skull candles are also very good for magic no matter what kind of magic it is.

This next part is something ive learned/realized in my work~

The skull shape also gives the crystal spirit a stronger personality. by giving the crystal a Human-ish shape, or one that represents us at least, it can easier express itself in terms a human can understand. Crystal skulls a lot of the time are more talkative and opinionated than regular crystal spirits, simply because now they have a link, and a way to relate to humans a bit better. Another part of this is because a human put work and effort into making it, and the love that comes with the craft contributes to its personality and strength. 

These skulls are known to be knowledgeable. If you have questions, try asking a crystal skull. 

A lot of skulls have their own likes and dislikes, and relationships. One skull might name itself the protector ,mother, or leader of a group of skulls. They might have likes and dislikes concerning the way you cleans them, what music to listen to, who should be put where, And the fairness of house spirit rules.

(my sisters skull, the dumortierite with the mask on the left there, wasnt fond of my rules when i put them into place. just try and work it out with them if they have any scruples.) 

Crystal skulls are good to have as companions for those who want to start spirit work, but start somewhere kinda small. Theyre a step up from plant spirits, but are probably easier than more complex spirits. They help in divination and meditation because of their opinions, and in general, theyre just really fun. Even if you start out off put by the imagery of a skull, try adding one to your family. You might just find that youve fallen in love. I didnt buy my first skull, it was given to me as a gift,i never considered getting one. But ever since then my family has steadily grown.

Good ole grainy pic of my little family. Left to right, Doomy, Princip, Seft, Jasper (whom isnt a jasper), And Tibbs! theres still room for more on my shelf, too~

~~~~~~

Like the ideas in my Crystal spirits post ,Which you should totally check out if you dont know how to work with crystals, btw,  These skulls work the same way as regular crystals. once you get to know them for a while, ive found most of the time they WILL give you their name, if they have one. If you have problems trying to work with crystals, get you a skull. they seem to be much stronger. 

Certain crystals might have preferred roles. Some like to work in healing magic, some like to help in divination, some may help in grounding/warding/protecting, and some may just like to hang around with you just for fun.

There are also other shaped skulls, some looking like aliens,some being bird skulls,  some having decorative carvings on them, or druzy body horror aspects  (my seftonite up there, the big guy, has a snake on his head~)

Im sure other folk use these crystals in different ways, but personally, thats how i work with them. 

 What if I think skulls are spooky and gross, and i dont want them in my craft!

Dont be scared when i tell you this, sit down for a sec. Grab your own hand. Poke at it a bit, Feel that? The hard stuff? That means youve got a skeleton in you, Right now! Dont be scared of them, we all have one. Theyre pretty neat.

Im mostly jokeing, but being grossed out by something that helps you live is kind of funny~ 

I know skulls are given a bad rep. some known as “deaths head”,and in the instance of one crystal skulls in specific, “the skull of doom” . Because they can be used to do hexes/curses, and predict/cause deaths. But most of this is because of the aforementioned sensationalism. Skulls bring up ideas like death and decay, evil, and general bad omens. some people just dont like looking at things that are considered “gorey” or “macabre”. but let me sway you to think about it on both of the sides. Anything symbolizing death also comes with the ideas of rebirth and regrowth. Anything negative must be analyzed to find the positives. Even if you “CAN” theoretically use them in negative magic, you dont HAVE to.

💀☠️💀☠️ 💀☠️💀☠️ 💀☠️💀☠️ 💀☠️💀☠️ 💀☠️💀☠️ 💀☠️💀☠️

If youve found this post as a magic user who was unsure but curious about skulls, i hope youve come away with some more knowledge on how to work with them/their history. 

If youve stumbled upon this post somehow because you are a parent, and are concerned for your kids obsession with “morbid” things, or possibly that they are a practicing magic user, just be aware they are probably just exploring their creativity and bringing positivity to the world.

A lot of things you can use crystal skulls for, is the same or similar as candle skulls, and real bones. (the discussion of bone magic and the ethical problems with owning actual remains, whether human or animal, is for another time, and definitely not for this post. I only work with crystals and candles and therefore dont have a dog in that fight.) 

And after all, if you dont WANT a skull. you dont absolutely need one. But i would definitely recommend trying them at least once. most of the time they are friendly, and willing to help. I hope this post made at least a little bit of coherent sense. 

Admin Fifa~

[tomboyneedshercoffee]

Being Friends with The Losers (IT)

Summary: Your personal relationship with each loser

Word Count: 1.9k

Author’s Note: I’ve been in the IT Fandom for a while so I just whipped this up because BOY do I love each Loser with all of my heart!

I did this in like an hour pls dont hurt me!!!

- There isn’t a group of friends that are closer than the loser’s club

- You loved hanging out with the Loser’s club whenever you had the chance and it didn’t take long for you to develop a close relationship with each and every one of them

- Bill was your neighbor and the first person you met when you moved to Derry

- you two would hang out pretty often, most days consisted of running errands for Bill’s mom on your bikes

-if you had enough money you two would take turns paying for snacks at the convenience store and Bill would always let you keep his leftover change because he hates the feeling of coins in his pocket

- on weekend nights, Bill would always invite you to have dinner with him and his parents so he wouldn’t be alone or lonely at the table

- you both leave your windows open so that way if there needed to be an emergency meeting between the two of you, I’d be as easy as throwing a shoe into the other person’s window

- you’ve definitely woken up to Bill sleeping at the foot of your bed whenever he had nightmares or couldn’t sleep

- you have  the tendency to kick and turn in your sleep so there are times when you’ve kicked Bill in the face

- when his “sleepover” became more frequent, you made it a point to leave space on the bed so he wouldn’t have to sleep near your feet

- out of all of your friends, your parents love Bill the most because of how respectful he is but when you two are hanging out, he never hesitates to roast you

- “ You’re actually an idiot Denbrough.”

- “ This is c-coming from the s-s-same girl who t-thought Chicago was in P-Pennsylvania s-so shu-shut your mouth.”

- You’re pretty smart in school but it’s mostly because of  your study buddy Stan Uris

- You two share most of your classes together and if you fall asleep in class, Stan always has your back and takes notes for you

-  whenever the teacher announces that you can choose your partners, he leans over his desk to flick your ear asking, telling “hey be my partner.”

- most study sessions are at his house in his living room since his parents don’t trust him to have a girl in his room

- Stan always has flashcards and his textbooks are always labeled with sticky notes which makes studying with him super easy

- if you’re reading the textbook silently, he’ll just shout random questions that he thinks will be on the test like  " QUICK! what’s the Stamp Act of 1775?“

- ”AHHHH WAIT I KNOW THIS ONE LET ME THINK!“

-” Wrong answer.“

- You two love using big words around the other loser’s to try and seem smarter, even if you have no idea what the word even means

- ” Quit being so hematopoietic all the time Richie"

-“  Cut him some slack Stan, he can’t help but feel ceruminous all the time.”

- “Okay what the hell does that even mean?”

- The only time you ever saw Stan cry was because of how much he hated Chemistry and he then proceeded to throw his textbook at the wall

- but you were always there to comfort him as best as you could with your chemistry jokes

- “hey Stan, what do you call an acid with an attitude? A-mean oh acid!!! Get it like amino ac-”

-9/10 times Stan would never laugh but he would at least give a small smile or stop pacing the room and pick up his book

-speaking of books, BOY did you get along with Ben Hanscom

- when you first saw his room, you were in awe of all the news clippings and articles scattered along his wall

- he was so happy when you asked about what other things he thought were interesting, causing him to pull a box of conspiracy theories from his closet

- you two spent a whole month reading theories about the death of Marilyn Monroe, the JFK assassination, and the moon landing

- while most of your theories made sense, you two would always debate on whether or not Aliens were real 

- “If Aliens are real how come we’ve never seen one? The closest flying saucer I ever saw was the plate that Stan threw in his house.”

“ There are UFO sightings all across America! Do you think those people just made those stories up?”

- “ YES! I think that’s exactly what they’re doing!”

- other than that, you two would always get along since you both shared a love of reading

- you two would always recommend and exchange books and you had days where you both would go to the library and just read quietly

- he always made you bookmarks out of old newspapers or tree bark

- long story short you two always have something to talk about and you’re glad someone enjoys reading as much as you

- next on the list is my boi Eddie and don’t be fooled this boy has amazing taste in music

- everyone thinks Richie has the best playlists but that’s only because Eddie recommends the songs to him

- you and Eddie share the same type of music, he said you are his “music soulmate”

- when he found out you were going on a weekend road trip, he made you a mixtape with songs he thought would keep you awake

- you never went into Eddie’s house since his mom is pretty strict about girls and who he hangs out with so you two just jam out at your house

- no one knows Eddie’s big secret: BOY can he dance, he has so much rhythm in his bones but if you ever told anyone he would kill you

- the only person who knows is you and Bill since Bill catches you and Eddie dancing through the window

- you aren’t a big dancer but when you’re around Eddie, you dance like there’s not a care in the world

- some days you two will lay on the ground side by side and go through the “sad days” mixtape that he made when he was feeling down

- other days would be the “Dance it Out” playlist where you would grab his hand and dance around your room, jumping on the bed and acting like a bunch of hyper kids

- when you’re walking to class in the morning, you’ll feel a pair of headphones go over your ears

- “Y/N you HAVE to listen to this song! Tell me this isn’t the best song ever!”

- “Africa by Toto? Are you serious?”

- if we’re on the subject of Africa by Toto, let’s talk about you and Richie

-it’s not surprising that Richie hit on you when Bill introduced the two of you but the big surprise was how quickly you two got along

- whenever he wants to watch a movie he’ll beg his dad for money and take you to the theatre where you two make comments about the movie and throw popcorn at each other

- however, when you two watched I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Richie clung onto your arm and tried to crack jokes to lighten the mood

- “Hey gov'nor! I didn’t know you were the lead role in this movie! You’re acting is phenomenal Y/N!”

- “Beep Beep Richie.”

- you loved dragging him to horror movies and you can bet when Jaws (1975) came out, he avoided jumping into the Quarry for a whole two weeks, no matter how many times Stan told him “Sharks can’t get into the Quarry”

- even though Richie is such a huge flirt, you’re definitely his wingwoman and vice versa

- when a classmate had a crush on the famous Trashmouth, Richie begged you to put in a good word for him

- it was going well until he told you of the attempted date he had

- “Wait! You told their dad ‘the only hot thing I put in my mouth is hot sauce, peppers and [Classmate’s name]?!?!”

- “ Should I have said your name instead honey?”

- but no matter how annoying Richie can be, he’s still one of your closest friends

- You were always busy with school but you made it a point to bring lunch to Mike everyday on the weekends at the farm

- you didn’t get to see Mike much since he was always telling you he was busy doing chores but you decided to volunteer and help him around the farm

- it took a little bit of convincing but he accepted your help

- one day you two had to clean the barn and move some of the machinery out to make room for more animals

- bonus Mike Outfit which is ACTUALLY CANON: Mike shows up in corduroys, a white tee shirt and black high-topped Keds

- Some of the machinery was hard to lift by yourself so you would ask Mike to help you

- “ I swear Hanlon, after all of this heavy lifting I better be as ripped as you!”

- after a hard days work, you two would sit on the grass and eat your late lunch, staring at the field and horizon as the sun went down

- your discussions were always deep and about the future, you envied how Mike knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life while you had no clue

- Mike always comforted you, telling you that you had so much time to decide what you wanted to do and that there’s no point in worrying about the future when you’re still young

- “Y/N, you’re smart, I know you’ll figure it out someday but you shouldn’t worry about how much money you’re going to make or who you’re going to fall in love with. Just live in the moment and live day by day you know?”

- “ You always know what to say, you  big nerd.”

-  Mike was always grateful for your help and presence since he knew how tired you always were after helping him out

- but you were even more grateful for having him in your life

-Last but not least is your girl Beverly who you were close to for obvious reasons

- you two were always surrounded by the loser’s club and you both would share a sigh or a groan when the boys said something incredibly stupid

- “ I’m losing brain cells being around so much testosterone, you wanna blow this popsicle stand?”

- you could always go to Beverly to talk to her about boy troubles and when she and Bill shared a kiss, you were the only person she told

- but you two didn’t always talk about boys, it seemed that there was no limit to what you two would talk about whether it be home life, the terrible thing called puberty, funny events that happened at school etc.

- one day, the boys were going to the Quarry and you were cramping so Bev decided to take you to get ice cream and you both walked around town the whole day laughing and cracking jokes

- your style was pretty different from Bev’s so it was always interesting when you would borrow clothes from her closet and vice versa

- the only person who noticed the outfit swap was Stan and it annoyed him because he thought his mind was playing tricks on him since “I just saw Beverly wearing that yesterday…”

- you love every single member of the loser’s club with all of your heart and while some days you love one of them more than the others, each of them have a special place in your life

- even if they annoy the living crap out of you sometimes

- *cough cough* Richie Tozier

-nonetheless, you couldn’t ask for a better group of friends

[plunder-heaven-and-devour-god]

This fan base never ceases to amaze me. Apparently, no one moved pass their SuperWhoLock mentality.

I loved the film, but I’m still adjusting, that is all I will say about the Last Jedi. 

Having a good or bad reaction to the content does not bar me from critiquing any production experience of a major film franchise. I can admire a film franchise I dont like for its creativity and cast and crew, and I can critique one I do like for where it goes wrong. 

But I have written this as a reaction the internet’s hatred toward’s Rian Johnson, not the film, not his choices, not Lucasfilm’s or Disney’s choices. That is an entirely different subject. This is about the hatred that sprung from the ground like oil out of nowhere. This dirty oil did not exists before December 15th. 

Where to start?

People are pulling up out of context interviews and tweets to make it seem that Rian Johnson was hated by the cast and no one wanted to work with him. I’ve seen every accusation under the sun. If you ask Tumblr, Reddit, IGN, etc, he’s everything from racist to Cthulhu. 

This type of reaction from the internet is predictive and cyclical. 

There was, and still is, a camp of disatisfied star wars fans born in 2015 dedicated to defaming J.J Abrams and The Force Awakens. This was in the wake of the criticism that The Force Awakens was too similar to A New Hope. Coincidence? If you said no, you’re right. 

But back to Rian. 

I want to state here and now that I don’t have a rosy tinted view of the production, I’m not saying everyone warmed quickly to the plot points of The Last Jedi. I want to state that no one, strangely, had a problem with the director. That’s it.

I hope that I can bring up some points that are on record to remind people, that maybe, if not surely, that this criticism is transparent and stupid. 

There was a slow evolution for the actors, like many of the avid star wars fan, to adjust to the change in gear for the franchise. I find it especially amazing that Mark Hamill went out of his way to publicly state his wariness and the disagreements on the script which the late Carrie Fisher collaborated on with Rian Johnson. Hamill came back and said he was wrong and now he is utterly in tune with Rian’s vision. If there were any hard feelings left they wouldn’t have mentioned it on the press tour. This isn’t remotely reminiscent of Chris Hemsworth staring into camera during the 2015 Ultron Press Tour and saying: I had no clue what was going on. 

If Hamill and Johnson hadn’t reconciled you can bet that their original disagreement wouldn’t have made itself known on the Star Wars 40th Anniversary Celebration Stage. If audiences want to counter and say that it was Disney’s plan all along to bolster the image of the Last Jedi, go ahead, it’s a damn good strategy. People disagree in creative circles, and to have one publicly state their agreement is a good thing. 

Carrie Fisher didn’t seem to be the only collaborator. Rian Johnson and John Boyega inform interviewers on separate occasions about how happy they were to work on progressing Finn’s character together. John Boyega took a huge lead in strengthening the character and making him stronger, he even cites rian’s auteurship as the reason for the maneuver room in the franchise. 

Gwendoline Christie also cites Rian’s collaboratory attitude when forging ahead with Phasma’s story. Oddly enough so does Oscar Isaac.

Daisy Ridley speaks about her wariness for the direction of the franchise as well. But she also speaks on how open the director was to input and how much he tried to make everyone feel comfortable. I say this because I saw someone pull up a tweet of Daisy’s reaction to J.J coming back to work on IX. The article states she apparently was delighted and cried with joy at the TFA director’s return. The blog post framed it as a relief and reprieve from Rian’s supposed reign of terror. This sounds very silly because J.J Abrams wasn’t AWOL during pre-production, production and post: He’s the producer. Not even executive producer. Producer. He is also present for writing/directing the third installment in the trilogy. The most important detail left out was that this was a reaction to Colin Trevormorrow who was slated to direct the third installment. I believe he left on creative differences with the Walt Disney corporation and lucasfilm. His vision for the film was not in tune with the direction of the movie. This was also a secondary source article, there was a clear bias in the words spoken by the article. 

Speaking of bias, the internet loves screenshots, so much so that they become subsitutes to whole videos and dialogues. An out of context picture is misleading, for better of worse.

The cast joke about the poker faces during interviews because their NDA comes with a side order of Mickey Mouse Snipers. But yet, bloggers on the internet take screencaps of the interviews mid questions and post them with captions like: They’re hiding their hatred for the director and/or the movie. In reality, they’re in the middle of listening to a question or trying to not react to a spoiler. If any of you have seen anything of the press tour, most of it is the cast trying to keep a straight face and avoid spoilers. And trust me, I watched the entirety of the press tour, I know which moments were screenshotted. 

If this sounds familiar it’s because the internet is predictable. This is beginning to sound a lot like how people tried to frame Adam Driver like some sort of 9/11 bigoted ex-soldier with no respect for his cast mates after TFA. There was divisive crowd who initiated a backlash against him simply because they didnt like the character. Remember half the reason he isn’t in most of the press junkets and press conferences? Half of it is his self proclaimed discomfort at the whole idea of the spotlight. But it isn’t absurd to think the other half is unfounded backlash he receives for his character.

I saw people also quoted one of Adam’s interviews and his feeling on 9/11 and left it at that. The blogger made it seem like he was what all liberals fear. They forgot to mention his exit from the Marines, the creation of his foundation for returning War Vets and reintegration and encouragement through the arts as a way to explore trauma. When I did my gendered violence class we found a Ted Talk with him talking about the toxic masculinity of the US military complex. It’s a great speech and its deeply profound. If you really care about feminist issues and the nature of the military backbone in the United States there is some great reading I can recommend but this is a good start.

I don’t want anyone to mistake my fondness for any of the characters for any biased defense. They are people too, they aren’t perfect, but they aren’t evil incarnate. I’m not opposed to dumping a content creator like a hot potato for violation of ethical rights and questionable conflicts in production. 

This is all to say that Tumblr finds ways to do what all bad journalists do: commence head hunts through clipped interviews, out of context quotes,images, and pseudo liberal pitchfork waving. 

I’m half expecting half the disgruntled fans to be Alicia Silverstone in the Scooby Doo movies. So much of the hatred on the internet feels like Freddie’s dialgue cut together to say: I THINK COOLSVILLE SUCKS.

All for what? For the same reason they don’t like the new movie. They’ll skim the surface for buzz words, absorb misunderstood information, and ignore internal meaning, and cast aside the answers to their questions which are explicitly stated. 

Until I see any facts that actually exist outside the draconian and dogmatic bubble of Tumblr’s bowels I think its safe to say that Rian and the cast are A-Okay with one another. I’m not avoiding being convinced, I just hope people can see HOW SILLY IT ALL SOUNDS.

It seems like we haven’t really progressed from the SuperWhoLock Days? Huh, Tumblr? It just seems to hide behind seemingly more lofty righteous reasons. 

[trendingnewsb]

Safe, happy and free: does Finland have all the answers?

In the first of our new series, The Upside, we look at how the country went from famine to topping nearly every global social ranking

Finland

The Upside

Safe, happy and free: does Finland have all the answers?

In the first of our new series, The Upside, we look at how the country went from famine to topping nearly every global social ranking

Finlands 10 great innovations

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About this content

Jon Henley in Helsinki

@jonhenley

Mon 12 Feb 2018 09.00EST Last modified on Tue 13 Feb 2018 05.28EST

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Its about cooperating. Everyone together, equally: Helsinki, the Finnish capital. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy

Western Europes last naturally caused famine ended 150 years ago this winter. In a poor and backward part of the Russian empire called Finland, more than a quarter of a million people nearly 10% of the population starved to death.

Last year, on the centenary of its independence, Finland was ranked, by assorted international indices, the most stable, the safest and the best-governed country in the world. It was also the third wealthiest, the third least corrupt, the second most socially progressive and the third most socially just.

Finlands judicial system is the most independent in the world, its police the most trusted, its banks the soundest, its companies the second most ethical, its elections the second freest, and its citizens enjoy the highest levels of personal freedom, choice and wellbeing.

The Nordic countrys 5.5 million inhabitants are also the third most gender-equal in the world and have the fifth lowest income inequality. Their babies are the least underweight, their kids feel the most secure, and their teens perform the second best at reading (only third at science, though).

In a century and a half, they seem to have done rather well. And so, as the Guardian embarks on a new series investigating the things that are going right in the world, it feels natural to start in Helsinki.

If you look at where we were then and where we are now, I think, absolutely, you can talk about a Finnish miracle, said Bengt Holmstrm, a Helsinki-born Nobel prize-winning economist not much given to exaggeration. How and why did it happen? Now thats a question.

There are limits, of course, to the usefulness of this kind of exercise: no two countries their circumstances, their histories, their people can be the same. Learnings may not be transferable. The magic sauce that made Finland would not produce the same results in, say, France.

It is true, too, that shown the long list of social and economic measures by which their country can only be judged a success, many Finns snort: emerging slowly from a long recession, with unemployment at 8% and a populist, nationalist party garnering up to 20% of the vote, the countrys not what it was, they say. Often, the response only semi-joking is, You mean other countries are worse?

Quick guide

About this series

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What is The Upside?

News doesn’t always have to be bad indeed, the relentless focus on confrontation, disaster, antagonism and blame risks convincing the public that the world is hopeless and there is nothing we can do.

This series is an antidote, an attempt to show that there is plenty of hope, as our journalists scour the planet looking for pioneers, trailblazers, best practice, unsung heroes, ideas that work, ideas that might and innovations whose time might have come.

Readers can follow up with our Further Reading guides and can also recommend other projects, people and progress that we should report on, by filling out the form at the bottom of the article.

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But inquiring after the sauces recipe of, among others, an economist, a philosopher, a sociologist and an ex-president, intriguing ingredients emerge.

To begin with, the geography and its consequence, the climate. We live, Tarja Halonen, Finlands president from 2000 to 2012, says carefully, in a cold, harsh and remote place. Every person has to work hard for themselves. But that is not always enough. You have to help your neighbours.

Bruce Oreck, who served as Barack Obamas ambassador to Helsinki (he liked it so much he stayed), says this has been a profound, long-term influence. Its made Finns self-reliant, private, but also dependent on a highly cooperative society, where rules matter. Its cultural, but its become part of the chemistry.

Of all the Finnish words that are hard to translate into English, the one Finns cite most is sisu: a kind of dogged, courageous persistence regardless of consequence. It is what, in 1939-40, allowed an army of 350,000 men to twice fight off Soviet forces three times their number, and inflict losses five times heavier than those they sustained.

The Finnish icebreaker ship Sisu, named after the countrys term for a certain dogged stoicism. Photograph: Alamy

But there is another that is, perhaps, more revealing, says Sirpa Khknen, an award-winning historical novelist. Talkoo means working together, collectively, for a specific good, she says. Getting the harvest in, stocking wood, raising money. Its about cooperating. Everyone together, equally.

Cooperation, but also relative equality, are recurring themes. Ruled for almost 600 years by Sweden and a further century by Russia, Finland was generally and democratically poor, says Khknen. There were no serfs, but no wildly wealthy aristocrats either. Society was not hierarchical.

Since long before independence in 1917, says Riitta Jallinoja, a sociologist, gaps between the social classes in Finland have been smaller than usual. Even the industrial revolution here was modest: no Rothschilds, no Fords, not even a dynasty like Swedens Wallenbergs.

Even in todays clean, functional, visibly prosperous Helsinki, that still sort of holds. You can be walking down the street next to the richest guy in town, and you really wouldnt know, says Oreck. In Finland, insists Halonen, You dont look up at people, and you dont look down. You look level.

The countrys most successful current firm, games studio Supercell, creator of Clash of Clans, paid over 800m in tax, producing seven of Finlands top 10 income tax payers in 2016. Along with the rest of the countrys highest 10,000 or so highest earners, the amount they pay is published in an annual list, on national envy day. Finland is big on civic duty, but also on transparency.

The success of the countrys free national education system, established before independence in 1866 and regularly ranked among the worlds best, also has its roots in a more egalitarian society, says Jallinoja: Education was the key to advancement.

Not only that, says the philosopher and professor emeritus Ilkka Niiniluoto, but the whole country is actually a social construction created by university professors. The academics who led the countrys nationalist movement created Finland as a nation: its language, history, literature, music, symbols, folklore. The nationalist leader was a philosophy professor.

Since independence, nearly 30% of Finlands heads of state and government have been university professors, including half its early prime ministers. They shaped the country as we know it, says Jallinoja. But vitally, they also created confidence in social mobility, and real belief in education. That history comes with us.

If, however, Finland has been rated the worlds most literate country, it may also have something to do with a 19th-century decree that a couple could not marry in the Lutheran church before both passed a reading test. Quite an incentive, observes Halonen, to learn to read.

Ilkka Paananen, CEO of game developer Supercell, which paid over 800m in tax in 2016. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Gender equality, similarly, was baked in. In 1906, Finnish women became, if not quite the first to win the vote, the first to run for electoral office. Nearly 10% of MPs in Finlands first parliament were women (the figure is now 42%); as early as 1930, up to 30% of university students were women. Women in Finland took their rights seriously, and men accepted it, says Halonen.

Other ingredients have since added to the sauce. Finland benefited enormously from wise wartime and postwar leaders, insists Holmstrm: They thought about the good of the country; took big, sensible decisions. And the consensus backed them, because everyone knew we were fighting for our existence.

Responsible choices were made, invariably by continuity-conscious coalition governments, on big industrial and infrastructure investments, that have paid dividends many times over. More recently, todays high-tech, startup-friendly Finland was born of record investment in research and development in the 1990s, nearing 4% of GDP.

Steady growth through war, the collapse of the Soviet Union and a deep recession in the 1990s, Finlands economy has expanded over the past century at a rate equalled only by Japans has bolstered trust in the nations institutions. People criticise the government constantly, and often for very good reason, says Khknen. But fundamentally, they do trust it.

As they do, on the whole, their welfare state on which Finland spends 31% of its GDP, the second highest proportion in the OECD. (If youre going to have a welfare state, says Halonen, the only real way to it is so well that theres no point having a private alternative.)

But Finns also trust each other more than most, says Andr Chaker, a Canadian-born lawyer and public speaker who has lived in the country for 25 years. Corruption and organised crime are all but nonexistent. That feeds into the business environment, he says. Things get done here faster, more reliably.

And it is trust that breeds confidence, and a willingness to innovate: the World Economic Forum ranks Finland the most innovative country, per capita, in the world. For years dominated by monolithic mining and forestry firms, then by the once-mighty Nokia, Finland today is close behind Silicon Valley in the number of startups per head.

The magic sauce, then, seems based mainly on basic virtues: self-confidence, cooperation, equality, respect for education, trust. At bottom and in practice, says Anu Partanen, a Finnish journalist who now lives in New York, it boils down to a different quality of relationship. She calls it since it is shared to a greater or lesser extent by Sweden, Norway and Denmark the Nordic theory of love.

In the family, its realising that relationships can only really flourish between individuals parents, children, spouses who are equal and independent, Partanen says. In a society, it means policy choices aimed at ensuring the greatest possible degree of independence, freedom and opportunity for everyone.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/12/safe-happy-and-free-does-finland-have-all-the-answers

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