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hazbinhotel-bitch · 11 months ago

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Alastor x (Name) podcast

Head cannon:

Alastor making fire segues to sponsors

(Name) both loving and hating the segues that he comes up with on the spot.

The two have a lot of banter and sometimes will have arguments live on the broadcasts.

(Name) having to convince Alastor to try and revamp his broadcast by having sponsors.

(Name) also happened to be a well known journalist before she died so she tends to be the bringing in new stories circling the rings of hell.

Alastor eventually learned to enjoy having a co-host for his live broadcasting to help the exposure of the hotel.

(Name) is a Fox Demon (Might Draw what she looks like)

(Name) is a very creative woman who also enjoys the arts of music and dance.

Unlike Alastor she is rather fond and open to many genre of music and has an appreciation of all things old and new.

They often bicker about what sponsors to take on, (Name) was newer things that are deemed more modern but Alastor surprisingly prefers things a little more outdated or a little more sustainable in nature.

(Name) passed away around 21st century, she was roughly in her early 30s when she passed after a bad lead that ended up killing her. She had always been a very cunning woman and knew how to get what she wanted and would do anything to get the information she needed for her articles.

She was a very selfish woman when it came to her career and her promotions but aside from her greed and her pride she was sent to hell due to her questionable behaviour in obtaining said information, it’s a detail she still keeps vague from those around her.

(Name) managed to come across Alastor after she saw the news interview of Charlie prompting her little hotel of redemption, the Hazbin Hotel. She originally pretended to be a sinner who was on the path to redemption, but her original motives were to write a paper giving the inside scope to twist and tarnish the silly cause, but after meeting Charlie (Name) started to rethink her motives.

Alastor as an Overlord scared her when he fought on to her snooping but eventually the two dispute coming from two different eras were able to become the unlikely of friends. (Name) still does write her papers on other subjects and publishes them anonymously until she ends up pissing off Valentino and Vox.

Above all Alastor and (Name) have a very platonic relationship but it can tiptoe around almost being romantic as they are both very protective of each other.

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** Alastor in this Head Cannon I am creating for this Fanfiction is that Alastor is part of the Ace spectrum in his sexuality/orientation. I am not well versed in asexuality aside from what friends have told me about their experience. Alastor in this fanfic is not someone who feels sexual attraction nor does he find any interest in romantic relationships. Not because he dislikes the idea but because he doesn't understand romantic relationship and just doesn't find romance important (this is subjective to change as the story progresses when he and (Name) start to develop a closer relationship). If I had to label his asexuality for this fanfic it would be Demisexual.

I just wanted to be clear here so I don't get anyone getting mad at me. I am aware back in 2018 the creator of Hazbin hotels said Alastor was Asexual and that at some point someone said that Alastor was Aro-Ace (Aromantic-Asexual) which is fine but for the sake of this Fanfiction he is Demisexual **

(Photo of (Name) the fox demon writer)

#hazbin hotel #hazbin alastor #hazbin fanfic #alastor x reader #radio demon #alastor headcanons #x reader #female reader #alastor

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eretzyisrael · 9 months ago

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by Dan Perry

The serious international media is most comfortable when it can maintain a comfortable distance from any particular protagonist. Generally, this is wise. It's also good business, because the media is struggling to stay afloat financially and doesn't need the headache of political controversy—as Michael Jordan famously said, Republicans buy sneakers, too. And so, it generally gravitates toward a type of bothsidesism that suggests to readers and viewers that there are no good guys on any given field. Usually, that is sufficiently accurate that it works quite well.

It breaks down when the market of news consumers—or other powerful players—has chosen sides. The media has largely presented Russia's President Vladimir Putin as satanic, and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky as impishly heroic. So, coverage of the Ukraine war has been a tad simplistic and has hardly reflected the Russian case. But this is not, on balance, the worst thing in the world: Putin is odious and Russia's attack on Ukraine was, in the final analysis, a mistake and a crime.

No such luck in the case of the Gaza war. The media has largely stuck to its instincts for impartiality: "Both sides" have their narratives, and both have good and bad. One may be a terrorist group and the other a Western-leaning democracy—but in this era of progressive decolonization narratives, an association with the West will not get you very far with much of the Western media. Ironic.

The Israelis indeed have good and bad. But Israel is a democracy that can dump its useless government and probably will. Israel's mainstream wants to be rid of the conflict with the Palestinians and views the issue largely through the prism of security. Israel has ultranationalists, violent settlers, and religious fanatics, but the bulk of the population inhabit the same Euclidean universe, share the same values, and believe in the same primacy of reason as most news consumers abroad.

None of that can be said of Hamas, and since Hamas is omnipotent in Gaza it should be the center of media scrutiny. It is a violent fundamentalist movement that seeks not just the demise of Israel but also, with its jihadi fellow travelers, of the West. Hamas and its accomplices share none of the values that drive the modern world, from respect for human rights to freedom of speech to the rule of law.

Are so many Westerners, especially Gen Zers, too feeble-minded to get this? Perhaps to a degree. But I say that a major factor is that they are not being informed.

Is it antisemitism on the part of the foreign press corps, as some Israeli partisans will rush to charge? Not much, in my experience. It mostly stems from intellectual laziness typical of our era, a surfeit of cynicism typical of journalists, and a dollop of woke-ish fuzziness.

Some argue that no one appointed journalists to connect the dots for people, and that the wisest approach would be to just "report the facts." The self-righteous just-the-facts school misses something basic. Every nanosecond in the universe throws up an infinity of facts. The choices of which tiny minority among them to pursue and how to present them are already judgement calls.

When the result is the normalization of a monstrosity like Hamas, that is malpractice. Have I been guilty of it myself? All I can say is, like Oscar Schindler in the film, I feel I did not do enough.

#hamas #gaza #media bias #misinformation #journalists #journalism

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ollieflopkins · 4 months ago

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what exactly happened to sterling at liverpool why he was so adamant nothing would make him stay ?

THANK YOU ANON FOR ASKING THIS and apologies for the delay!

In my original post I detailed how upsetting it was for me as a newer Liverpool fan in 2015 to go through Sterling’s transfer to City and see all the media surrounding said transfer. I was upset because 1. He was a highly sought after young talent and I didn’t want him to leave in general, 2. He left to go to City of all clubs, and 3. Everything surrounding the transfer, at least to me at the time, came down to money. And yessss all footballers do care about their bag but for a 20 year old + his team who we raised to be talking about money in the press like he was? For me it was in bad taste. But I’ll try to keep it objective.

Raheem Sterling and why he wanted to leave Liverpool, plus some insight into 2010-2015 Liverpool, below the cut.

Why did Raheem Sterling want to leave Liverpool?

Wanted to win trophies. In Dec 2012 he signed a new long term contract with us under Brendan Rodgers and was enthusiastic about his future with us. However, Sterling’s entire career at Liverpool occurred pre-Klopp/pre-modern resurgence era so we weren’t ever really competing for leagues or silverware: we won a League Cup and like…almost won the prem once lolol… but that was it for Sterling’s entire career with us 2010-2015. City 2010-2015 were in Kun Aguero era and won the FA Cup, the League Cup, the prem twice, and came in second in the prem two other times. City easily were more successful and had more money to throw around at the time (still do 😌).

Wanted his bag. In 2014, he won Golden Boy, so journalists were touting him as the current best young talent in Europe at the time. He is also making pots/poty lists and such. Obviously his stock went up like crazy then. Liverpool were also being very flexible with him and providing rest/vacation time and such to prevent him from getting exhausted, etc etc aka they were glazing Sterling and clearly wanted him to stay badly. Early 2015 and Liverpool were offering Sterling an insane contract rumored to be £100k+ / week but Rodgers also said Liverpool aren’t going to rain money on him. Sterling notoriously dragged his feet on signing and fans began to boo him at matches bc the contract negotiations were being dragged out ostensibly bc of money. Sterling and his team at this point begin to give interviews talking about turning the contract down, saying at first it isn’t about money, then saying he’s not staying at the club for any amount of money…meanwhile Rodgers is pissed bc why is their player saying anything independently of the club to the BBC. Very messy. Then the bids start coming in from City and Sterling asks not to go on the summer tour with Liverpool and misses trainings, and former players and pundits are not having this. Lots of disappointment and feelings of abandonment. Ultimately Sterling became the most expensive English player ever at the time upon his transfer to City the summer of 2015. He went from making £35k/week on his current contract at Liverpool (Liverpool were offering him £100k/week to stay) to £150k/week on the 2015-2019 contract at City. Again, this is as a 20 year old winger coming off ~3 seasons of first team at Liverpool with rough generous estimate ~15 goal contributions in the prem for his time in the first team. no european experience bc Liverpool weren’t good at the time. bag chaser 🤷🏼‍♀️

I am not saying Sterling was not a good footballer - he was quick, a good dribbler, and could always pose a threat (still can on brilliant singular occasions). Like obviously he was an extreme talent bc Liverpool were willing to pay exorbitant amounts (for our club’s standards) to keep him. Sterling has always been inconsistent though. But he shone at City and fwiw they can keep him lol in my opinion he doesn’t have much of a legacy at Liverpool. That era was about SAS first and foremost - Sturridge and Suarez - with Sterling and Coutinho for support, but yes Sterling was important. He’s no legend but he matters.

I also recognize that I don’t think Sterling has been surrounded by the right people during his career. Many young players get preyed upon and misled and mismanaged. And really maybe Liverpool just didn’t matter to Sterling that much in the end. Which then…good riddance lol. He’ll always be a rat to me and if you feel differently that’s fine.

And since he’s come to chelsea and really began his tour of the big 6 clubs in earnest, he’s been a shadow of his former self. Landing at arsenal is strange and surely undesired by Arsenal fans but who knows what Arteta is cooking. Me personally, idcccccc

#I worked on this for like an hour lol #lfc historians assemble #aka if you survived Hodgson and Rodgers #thanks for reading if you did lol #lmk if I missed anything important or mixed up any info #Raheem Sterling #liverpool fc #lfc #manchester city #chelsea fc #arsenal

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thejennhall · 9 months ago

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Title

Endgame

Author

Omid Scobie

About

The follow-up book to Finding Freedom.

On September 8, 2022 the world stood still as news broke of Queen Elizabeth's II passing. Her death dismantled the protective shield around the world's most famous family and saw a long simmering crisis of confidence in the British monarchy boil over.

The end of the New Elizabethan age brings in a shorter Carolean era. With this traditional reign comes a brewing power struggle between father ( King Charles III) and son ( William, Prince of Wales) and an outmoded institution riddled with dysfunction, mistrust, and poor judgement. As investigations into the Firm's costs and conduct mount, and their dangerous game with an insatiable press continues, cracks are forming in the House of Windsor's foundations. Now a growing population feel more comfortable than ever questioning the monarchy's relevancy - or the need for one at all.

Omid Scobie has spent over twelve years covering the lives and work of the Royal Family. His unique position as a young British journalist in the America media helped him forge special bonds within William's, Kate's, Harry's, and eventually Meghan's worlds. It was from that vantage point he coauthored the bestselling Finding Freedom in 2020, an intimate glimpse into a fracturing family - one that could be splintered beyond repair. Though the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are no longer a part of the monarchy's future, their experiences and actions, good and bad, have put a spotlight on many of the problems at the heart of the institution. With unique insight, deep access, and a willingness to burn his bridges to tell the full story, Scobie draws a candid portrait of a family in peril and a monarchial system facing uncertainty.

Endgame is the result of more than a decade of unseen reporting and intimate conversations with insiders, Royal Family members, fellow journalists, and those working within the palace walks.

Our world is modernizing at a pace that the Royal Institution is failing to keep up with, but there is still time for change. This is the Monarchy's endgame... Do they have what it takes to save it?

Review

This book is perfect for people like me who can't get enough Royal Gossip.

Endgame is a follow up to the book “Finding Freedom”.

Granted it is blatantly obvious that this book was written from a one sided perspective and most of the information shared is from “ anonymous sources from inside the palace” so I take everything with a grain of salt.

Endgame continues to push the victim narrative to a whole new level while trash talking every single member of the Royal Family and their assistants.

There is so much trash talking in this book that you don't want to keep reading but it's so juicy you just can't stop until you finish the book.

Based on the prologue of this book it seemed to be written to boost Prince Harry and Meghan’s name / brand but sadly fell short. Very, very short.

Instead based on the book and everything contained in it they come off as narcissistic, manipulative ,spoiled brats.

Sadly, this book definitely did more harm than good to their image.

#book review #book

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mysteriouslytransparentwitch · 4 years ago

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The BRF May / June / July 2021

before starting to interpret my maps, I begin to better understand the energy I was capturing. Remember, I told you, I feel the geopolitical energy. I can translate now, the BRF wants and will neutralize Meghan and Harry through their communication and marketing movement. We don't tell journalists anything, we keep a lot of mystery around the projects and then we let go of the information, they will do so during the year 2021. I understand better my cards telling me Meghan won at the beginning but in the end the BRF will win completely (long sets)

Known event: opening of the English parliament and the G7. I was telling you that the BRF wants to show the world who are moving forward and that they are not weak, we are still powerful.

The royal families will show for the next 3 months, that the bad times are behind them, we are free and we are ready to show their usefulness after covid-19 and all the consequences.

The BRF will show the world their project and their usefulness, it is really a wish on Charles' part, the BRF is not dead and it is entering the 21st century. We think after the death of the Queen, which direction we must take, what impact we want to leave to remain relevant.

I know that a lot of you don't take a good liking to the opening of the youtube channel, I tell you in 5 years you will say it's a good idea. Remember that the BRF is there to convince the royal non-observer. You have before you a generation born between 1996 and 2002 the era of Queen England and the 40s are over.

The modern challenges are:

- mental health every time a social network is born with a 4% increase in cosmetic surgery, you have an increase in TCA and an increase in depression and suicide.

- environmental issues, helping new businesses with money

- tourism, it will take 4 to 5 years to return to normal

- industry and jobs (it's going to be a communication war in the world) to attract investors

We make common decisions for the future of the BRF, we communicate, then we show ourselves. Any misunderstanding of the usefulness of BRF should be cleared up. Big changes will take place and be seen around the world and this will bring more balance and respect to the royal family.

In conclusion: The royal family will return to its base, that is to say to serve and be the face of the United Kingdom but with a modern face.

#brf reanding #royal british family

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sunflowervolvimp3 · 3 years ago

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Do you have any books you’d recommend!? I’m trying to get back into reading for fun now that my course work load has lightened up.

OOH YES YES I DO!!! i also have been out of reading for a while but these are the books that have gotten me through slumps (in no particular order)

1.) the invisible life of addie larue

addie larue makes a deal with a demon to get out of marrying a man she doesn’t love in 18th century france and the novel follows her over 300 years. although the book jumps through different timelines, everything is clearly labeled so it’s never confusing!! the plot and the characters were so so so interesting, and the ending literally left me with my mouth hanging wide open. so so so good

2.) the seven husbands of evelyn hugo

evelyn hugo tells the story of her life and her infamous seven marriages during hollywood’s golden era to a journalist in the modern day. the title is a bit of a bait and switch and the story is much more queer than what it may seem at first glance. the plot twist left me in shock and i definitely tested up multiple times. i’m completely obsessed and need to see evelyn’s version of little women right now immediately please

3.) one last stop

this book 🥺 this BOOK!!!!!!!! i am obsessed with every character in this book and i wish i could show you my annotations because i have never been called out by relating to a book character so bad before. the novel opens with august landry, a reformed kid detective, moving to new york and meeting a girl named jane on the subway. there’s a little bit of a time heist in there, a little bit of magic, a little bit of queer history, and also the worst place to hook up probably, but this entire novel was so charming and i adore it. if you are a former gifted kid virgo who overanalyzes everything and has a penchant for note taking, you will feel directly called out every second page.

4.) red, white, and royal blue

the first son of the united states falls in love with the prince of england. it reads like fanfiction and i mean that in the best way. there is a bit of angst but overall it’s very cute and nice and warm and an easy read to get out of a slump. if you’re looking for something dark and twisty, this is not the book for you (as i was told by a friend i recommended it to) but if you want something sweet and nice to read recreationally, it’ll be harder to find a better book than this.

5.) beach read

january andrews, a best selling romance author, ends up at her late fathers beach house, where her next door neighbour is her former college rival and fellow author augustus everett. DISCLAIMER: i am only about a third of the way through!! i found my copy at my favourite used bookstore and picked it up last week. is it the most groundbreaking novel i’ve ever read?? so far the answer is no. but it’s fun and light and a pretty easy read, and it’s getting me out of my current reading slump, so maybe it’ll help get you out of yours!!

i hope those help bby!!!!!! let me know if you check them out!!!!!!!!

#book recs

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davidmann95 · 4 years ago

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How do you explain that so many people *do* love the Rebirth era of Superman? That Bendis shaking things up “took away the only thing that made Superman interesting” as one person put it to me?

Anonymous said: What is so bad about Rebirth era Superman? I’ve read it, and I’m reading Bendis, and while I’ve liked both I think Bendis has seriously misfired in more ways than Tomasi/Gleason.

When I was getting my comics in college my local LCS owner, himself adamant that Superman was incredibly boring, was convinced Rebirth was as good as he’d ever been between the new family dynamic and that it embraced that “he’s the light, that’s his one thing”. And while it’s easy for me to say “go reread those comics now that you don’t have to settle for them, they’re such garbage”, the real crux of it for me beyond the weak storytelling, uninspired ideas, and threadbare characterization driving it comes down to this damn page:

Gosh, why you gotta be so mopey? Cheer up, it’ll all work out! Look at that big strong nice man holding his adorable nuclear family protectively and telling that mean ‘ol cynical sneering city-slicker what for!

The thing about this era that I think people connected with, especially just a couple years out from Man of Steel and right on the heels of the New 52, is that this is in opposition to all that *exactly* what culture at large imagines as the basic model vanilla take on Superman, dialed up further than it ever had been before. It’s just that to some that was him as everything he always should have been, while to me and others it was proof that this was at least as toxic an approach as your neck-breakers. This is Superman as family authority figure, as Americana signifier, as away from the noisy seedy big city, as literally a cosmically retro figure in-universe for the first chunk of the run where he’s a refugee from the previous DCU, as the dude whose kid calls him ‘sir’ and who spends two issues taking his family on a patriotic vacation where he and Lois valorize the Korean War and complain about modern movies making crime look cool. This is Superman as The Man, full stop, proud and tireless defender of the sacred status quo who’s here to let you know that everything is now, and always has been, just fine so long as you listen to the USA’s Super-Dad.

Look, if you’ve read much of my stuff you’ll know that I’m not a dude who is opposed to the idea of Lighthearted Superman Family Adventures, but - putting aside the comically grotesque hypocrisy of that approach in the era that gave us Superman locking up his enemies in a secret gulag, his child accidentally burning the family cat to death, and friggin’ Bizarro being revealed as a child abuser - there’s such an air here to me of condescension and contempt and at best small-c conservatism (except when I remember that, oh yeah, the Korean War thing, that C ain’t small) when right after we had t-shirt Superman taking down corrupt business moguls and wrecking white supremacists, this guy, a guy framed in-text as a superior replacement, is offering platitudes on family values and redoing What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way? The guy built for fans who earnestly believe that ‘Superman’s SUPPOSED to be dopey and whitebread and corny and retro, that’s his charm!’, the safe sanitized wholesome image DKR was righteously taking the piss out off 35 years ago.

Look, Bendis has his ups and downs, I get to a certain extent why he turns people off. But the man’s taking chances and exploring the characters and interrogating the family dynamic and having Superman working proactively as a journalist and as a public figure to make things better. Conversely not everything about this era was bad by a long shot, there was tons of gorgeous art and Jon Kent’s turned out to be a truly wonderful addition. But, again, the bare-bones inadequacy of the writing and the ways it betrays its stated goals aside? Superman is supposed to be the light. But we have to reach for it; if we’re being told we’ve already snatched it right where we feel comfortable, that everything’s nice and shiny and clean and as it should be aside from a few discontented smudges trying to bring down the mood? All that light does is blind.

#Superman #DC Rebirth #Brian Bendis #Opinion

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kyloren · 5 years ago

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Why Reylos Are A Bright Spot In The STAR WARS Fandom

It’s impossible to parse all of this out or to really say who’s “right” or “wrong” or what “right” and “wrong” even mean in fandom spaces. From my vantage point, the Reylo community is one of the more forgiving and accepting out there. It’s comprised of not only women, but plenty of men and non-binary Star Wars fans, from different races and orientations and experiences. And that’s true of any shipping community. In a fandom as large as Star Wars, there should be room for all of us to express joy or grief or surprise or disinterest in our cultivated spaces. It’s how we all choose to cross-pollinate that could use some work.

But Reylos aren’t deserving of the intense condemnation that comes from larger voices in the fandom. The ridicule feels specific and exclusionary, and rooted in gatekeeping sexism. Comparing them to the Fandom Menace is ridiculous. That group created blogs dedicated to roasting journalists, creators, and fans. Meanwhile, the Reylo community (along with Ben Solo fans) poured much of their frustration and sadness over The Rise of Skywalker into an act of good, by raising money for Adam Driver’s charity, Arts in the Armed Forces. How much money? As of this writing, over $76,000, more than double the charity’s fundraising goal for an entire fiscal year.

full article below the cut:

Why is romantic love such a controversial thing in fandom? It’s something I ask myself a lot, as a person who writes about shipping and who desires the kind of love that stories tell me might exist. I’ve spent most of my life in fandom spaces—participating in conversations or observing and examining them—and have witnessed firsthand how objectionable fictional romance can be, especially in fandoms that appeal to and target men. Why is this the case, and why is romance a thing we use to punish women looking for escapism in genre stories?

It’s hard to say, but it remains an endemic and undeniable strain. Shipping, which is fandom code for wanting two characters to be together, is often snickered at or seen as some frivolous element of appreciation. It can lead to shaming that feels personal and accusatory, as if your interest in a fictional relationship is a roadmap to your own intentions and experience. This attitude towards shippers is especially present in the Star Wars fandom, where the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren is steeped in a seemingly never-ending controversy. There are fervent supporters of the romance between these characters, a plentiful contingent of opposers, and those who don’t really care one way or another but still seem fit to criticize.

Why has the “Reylo” ship created such a stir? Let’s dig into this subset of the Star Wars fandom: where it started, why it’s accumulated so much negativity, and why the Reylos don’t deserve the bad reputation they’ve acquired, especially in the wake of The Rise of Skywalker.

THE ORIGINS OF REYLO

The release of The Last Jedi was a rough time for a lot Star Wars fans. The film—the eighth in the Skywalker saga and the second in the Disney-era sequel trilogy—made a lot of bold storytelling choices, which divided the fandom into camps. Those who loved the meditations on the Force, Luke Skywalker’s troubled hero’s journey, the complicated characterization of Poe Dameron, Finn and Rose’s failed mission, and the strange developing bond between Rey and Kylo felt at odds with anyone who saw otherwise. Many disliked Luke’s arc, or the apparent sidelining of Poe and Finn, or the democratization of the Force. The disagreements spiraled into something bordering collective mania. It’s a debate that still rages today, and that seeped into the conversations we’re currently having about The Rise of Skywalker.

I loved the movie, but found the discourse numbing. Positive Twitter conversations were instantly marred by detractors, and every passionate argument was upended by accusatory nitpicks. I felt discouraged from participating in any of it, and I felt bitter towards the Star Wars community in general. Until I found the Reylos.

After stumbling on podcasts like What The Force?, Skytalkers, and Scavenger’s Hoard—all female-hosted programs—I realized there were plenty of encouraging conversations about The Last Jedi happening in fandom. I also realized most of them were Reylo-oriented. Suddenly, I was exposed to the exact conversations I always wanted to have about Star Wars: deep dives into mythology, redemption arcs, symbolism and dualism, religion, poetry. And all of that was encompassed in Reylo. All of these larger stories, focused through these characters joined by fate and purpose, who represented opposing ideologies of the Force.

There was so much to dig into. Rey and Kylo have a classic enemies-to-lovers storyline, a romantic trope seen in fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, classic literature like Pride and Prejudice, mythological stories like that of Hades and Persephone, even modern genre television like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s typically used in women-oriented storytelling, as it affords duality and compassion to both parties; a distribution of power that makes the women as complicated, compromised, and interesting as their male counterparts. Rey’s interest in Kylo adds a layered intrigue to a character otherwise patently “good” and “pure,” words commonly associated with women, forcing them into palatable, antiquated gender roles.

Their relationship feeds a part of the fanbase who craves that kind of female protagonist. One who represents their own burgeoning lust, complicated compassion for the men they chose to care about, and temptation towards things we’re told to fear. Through the Reylo relationship, Rey took on another angle, one that finally made Star Wars feel like a story for me.

THE BACKLASH

I also learned right away what it meant to be a Reylo in the Star Wars fandom. The relationship between the light-sided Rey and dark-sided Kylo was riddled in turmoil. In The Force Awakens, a scene where he straps her down and interrogates her is considered by many to be abusive. The language Kylo uses to seduce Rey to his side in The Last Jedi is also seen as manipulative and problematic. He tells her that no one knows her like he does. In their opinion, he’s attempting to groom her to his standards, to turn her into what he wants against her own will. Those against the relationship will tell you that it’s a dangerous and negative message to send to young girls.

And here’s where I’ll say something potentially controversial amongst my fellow Reylos: I don’t think these people are “wrong.” Because everyone’s experience and perspective is their own thing to interrogate, and it’s not up to me to tell people how to feel about something–even if I disagree entirely. What I do take issue with, however, is the need to interrogate someone else’s preferences or fantasies. There is an infantilizing element to the backlash, as if those opposed think that Reylos haven’t reconciled with the themes presented to them, and are merely choosing to ignore them because they think Adam Driver is hot.

The way I see it, relationships like Reylo—power fantasies oriented on the feminine psyche, with an antagonistic male—fulfill two things I love in storytelling. They are pure escapism; the happy ending those of us drawn to the incurable are never afforded. And they are instructive, as they exemplify the patriarchal schism between men and women: that we are not equal, but that women love men anyway because of the compassion that comes naturally to balance that division. It shows how we can mend those gaps through patience and understanding. It’s archetypical and fantastical, sure, but that’s what Star Wars is: a fairy tale that wrestles with society and humanity in broad strokes.

That said, there are other reasons for dissent. Some fans ship Rey and Finn, and see their romance as a better avenue for a healthy relationship. Some have experienced personal trauma and can’t abide a romance that mimics and negates their pain. Others just don’t see the Reylo thing at all. Absolutely all of that is valid. Shipping should never be a competition or an authoritative moral stance on any side. Rey/Finn shippers are just as valid as Reylos because it speaks to what someone personally craves and desires. The shaming shouldn’t exist on any side—but because it does, the passionate defense comes in.

REYLOS DON’T DESERVE THE HATE

That knee-jerk self defense has drawn a lot of ire to the Reylo community in the aftermath of The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. On paper, the Reylos were given a lot of what they desire: Kylo Ren is redeemed and turns back into Ben Solo. Rey and Ben fight side by side and even share a kiss. But then Ben dies and Rey ends the movie alone, something that irked the shippers. They saw the ending as a grim conclusion for Ben and a way of punishing Rey for expressing her desires. To many, the ending feels hopeless and feeds into this stereotypical notion that for a woman to be strong, she must be single — as if romantic love weakens us.

There are other ways to read the ending, and many fans found power in it. That’s the beauty of film: that it’s entirely subjective. But in their profession of disappointment, the Reylos once again became a punching bag for the fandom at large. A recent BuzzFeed article compared the way Reylos reacted to The Rise of Skywalker to the way the Fandom Menace—a trolling, abusive, anti-Disney hate group—reacted to The Last Jedi. (Never mind that their “source” for this reaction was a tweet from a prominent member of the Fandom Menace, and that many of the complaints in question were either fabricated or from non-Reylo accounts.)

I also know that the Reylos helped me find my way back to loving Star Wars, gave me endless professional and creative inspiration for the last two years, and deepened my interest and love of storytelling and mythology. I know I’m not alone, and I know that the Reylo shipping community has made Star Wars finally feel like a fandom they were allowed to love. That’s something I hope fans with different access points to the world of Star Wars might think about before they wag a finger or call Reylos fake fans or mock their interests and experience. Star Wars can and should be for everyone, and how we find our way into the galaxy far, far away is a unique, personal, and beautiful thing. Love is what it’s all about at the end of the day. Even romantic love.

by Lindsey Romain for Nerdist [find article HERE]

#reylo #kylo ren #ben solo #rey #star wars #*

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zktop10 · 4 years ago

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Top 10 Not Rated WIPs!

Sx: Oh my god it went off the rails, this list is wild y’all.

ADULT CONTENT! NO MINORS!

List under the cut

Title: synergy Author: Juvenilledrabbles Summary: Avatar Aang saves the world but ruins himself in the process

Katara engages he who saved the world but becomes so lost in the process that she ends up arriving at the fire nation palace. - Aged up. When the battle against Ozai takes place Aang is 18, Katara is 20, and Zuko is 22. Score: 10 / 10 Tags: Firelord Zuko, Fluff, Angst, Zuko is an awkward turtleduck Last Updated: 30 Jun 2020

Title: The Dictator, the Journalist, and the Road to Democracy Author: KeysmashJones Summary: Modern AU- The Fire Nation is dictatorship, which falls to the Earth Kingdom in a coup. Zuko, having spend half his life locked away in his chambers, is pulled from isolation and placed on the throne. Meanwhile Katara, a promising young journalist specializing in international politics, is sent to interview him. Their lives (and the entire world) will change as a result. Score: 7.0 / 10 Tags: Alternate Universe, Modern Setting, Major Character Death, Slow Burn Last Updated: 25 Jun 2020

Title: Zutara Month (May 2020) Author: Neva_Borne Summary: My collection of works for Zutara Month 2020 part 2! Some will be one-shots, some will be continued in later days, and some may spark future full-length fanfics.

All of them will be Zutara. Full of goodness and spice and fluff and maybe some angst and maybe even some smut. We'll just have to see how this month plays out. Score: 5.7 / 10 Tags: Collection, One Shots, Zutara Month Last Updated: 15 May 2020

Title: Set Us On Lightning Author: faerietell Summary: When they sent the last waterbender of the South to the Fire Nation as hostage, they never expected her to set the young prince's heart on lightning. Score: 5.4 / 10 Tags: Friendship Last Updated: 26 Sep 2015

Title: The Makings of a Bad Boy Author: hopscotch_11 Summary: Katara loves bad boys. It is a well-known fact that she readily refuses to accept no matter how much evidence is stacked against her. Toph and Suki help to prove it to her when a mysterious guy on a motorcycle pulls up next to them at a red light.

Zuko is far from a bad boy. He couldn't even try to fool himself. But when he met Katara, confidence he never thought he possessed took over him. Suddenly he was smooth and flirty, and not at all like the awkward stumbling mess he usually is.

Now Toph will have to teach him the ways of a bad boy, so he doesn't reveal the shy, timid guy that is truly at the center of his core being.

How long Zuko be able to pull off this charade and win over the girl of his dreams? Score: 5.2 / 10 Tags: Alternate Universe, Modern Setting, Mutual Pining Last Updated: 22 Jun 2020

Title: Random Author: takawbelle University is a teeming mass of random humanity but for college freshman Katara, there's one boy she keeps on bumping into. Score: 5.1 / 10 Tags: Alternate Universe, Modern Setting, College Setting, Zutara Month Last Updated: 29 Jun 2020

Title: The Art of Finding Each Other Author: TinyRayOfSun Summary: The war is over. However, barely a week has passed since Team Avatar ended it. Now, they are all trying to acclimatize to the new world and their new responsibilities.

Katara and Zuko have shared many experiences. Still, there are some mutual feelings between them that were left unexplored, ignored and put on hold in order to focus on the bigger picture. They are even technically involved with other people, despite their clear connection to each other.

When the start of a new era and Zuko’s search for his mother finds them working closer than ever before, those feelings finally start coming to light. The only question left to be settled is whether or not they will be able to deal with them.

— Or: My really slow burn Zutara take on Zuko’s search for his mom. Score: 5.0 / 10 Tags: Post Canon, Slow Burn Last Updated: 27 Jun 2020

Title: In Royal Blue Author: natlovesyou Summary: When the night of passionate, forbidden love comes back to haunt them, Zuko and Katara must face the biggest challenge yet: a child. Hearts will be broken, anger will arise, and the two new parents must protect their daughter from the cold and prejudice world. Score: 5.0 / 10 Tags: Steam Bab(y/ies) Last Updated: 16 Aug 2019

Title: Steam Will Rise Author: AddictedToTheWrittenWord Summary: Southern Water Tribe princess Katara is arranged to be married to Hahn, the arrogant Prince of the Northern Water Tribe, but after negotiations break down over women's rights to become waterbenders the marriage contract is broken. Angry over the loss of the financial gain Hahn's father, Chief Pakku, orders the Northern Water Tribe's Navy to cut off the Southern Water Tribe's main trade routes. Over the years Pakku's tactics take their toll on the Southern Water Tribe leaving them desolate without enough food or medicine to sustain the village. In a desperate bid to save his people Chief Hakoda negotiates an uneasy marriage alliance with their one time enemies, the Fire Nation.

Funding a war for 100 years has nearly bankrupted the Fire Nation forcing regent Fire Lord Iroh to agree to the marriage alliance between his nephew the future Fire Lord and the Water Tribe Princess, but the still embittered North will do anything in their power stop the alliance from happening and attacks the young newlyweds on their maiden voyage from Hira'a to the Fire Nation. Without the support of their friends, family, or countries Zuko and Katara must now survive the North's onslaught and each other. Score: 4.9 / 10 Tags: Zutara Week Last Updated: 11 Apr 2020

Title: Ever After Author: Melissa1226 Summary: Katara and Zuko enter marriage and life but even though the war has ended death may take one of them. Score: 4.8 / 10 Tags: Smut, Angst, Steam Bab(y/ies) Last Updated: 12 Mar 2020

#zutara #fanfiction #fanfic rec list #top 10 #not rated #WIPs

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adeliaharris · 4 years ago

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My Favorite Books...

1. Harper Lee "To kill a Mockingbird"

The story of a small sleepy town in the South of America told by a little girl. The story of her brother Jim, dill's friend and her father - the honest principled lawyer Atticus Finch one of the last and best representatives of the old "southern aristocracy". The story of the trial of a black guy accused of rape a white girl. But first of all it is the story of a turning era when xenophobia, racism, intolerance and bigotry inherent in the American South are warming to the past. The "wind of change" has just begun to blow over America. What will it bring?

- This is probably one of my favorite books.The book captured from the very first pages and did not let go for a long time after reading. You can say a lot of things but better read it.

2. Khaled Hosseini "The Kite Runner"

A heartfelt story of friendship and fidelity, betrayal and redemption, penetrating to the very core. Delicate, ironic and sentimental in a good way, Khaled Hosseini's novel resembles a painting that can be looked at endlessly set in pre-war Kabul in the 1970s. In this magical city shimmering with all shades of gold and azure two weather boys Amir and Hasan live. One belonged to the local aristocracy the other to a despised minority. One's father was handsome and important the other was lame and pathetic. Master and servant, prince and beggar, handsome and crippled. But there were no people in the world closer than these two boys. Soon the Kabul idyll will be replaced by formidable storms. And the boys, like two kites, will be picked up by this storm and scattered in different directions. Each has its own destiny its own tragedy but they like in childhood are tied by the strongest bonds. You run after the kite and the wind as you run after your destiny, trying to catch it. But she will catch you.

- Psychological novel on the theme of "crime and punishment". Deeply elaborated images, convincing children's characters, a remarkably built plot - everything speaks of a great master. For me it is "heavy" literature but it has the right to be because it calls things by their proper names. And most importantly there is light in the stories of Hosseini! The light of true human feelings.

3. F. Scott Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby"

A jubilant, sparkling thirst for life, a desire for love, alluring and elusive, exciting pursuit of wealth - but now the dream breaks to the sound of jazz and the eternal holiday turns into a tragedy. "The Great Gatsby" is a novel about "how illusions are wasted which make the world so colorful that having experienced this magic, a person becomes indifferent to the concept of true and false." F. S. Fitzgerald

- I read it and was not at all disappointed! Elegant presentation with high meaning - everything in this life is done for the sake of love. And no amount of money can replace the woman you love... And even if she is stupid, frivolous and idly living her life. I have great respect for Gatsby and contempt for Daisy. There are a lot of wonderful quotes, phrases in the book, it's worth thinking about. I didn’t expect to literally fall in love with this piece! In the future I will definitely re-read it more than once!

4. Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon"

Forty years ago it was considered a fantasy. Forty years ago it read like fantasy. Exploring and expanding the boundaries of the genre eagerly absorbing all sorts of newest trends trying on a common human face bravely ignoring the Cain's stamp of the "genre ghetto". Now it is perceived as one of the most humane works of modern times as a novel of piercing psychological power, as a filigree development of the theme of love and responsibility. It is not for nothing that Keyes called his book of memoirs published in the 1990s "Algernon, Charlie and Me."

- The book is an emotion that will not make you think about something particularly difficult. All the thoughts that it generates are very simple and understandable. Without revelations, of course, but not bad either. The assessment will, rather, depend on the degree of personal sensitivity because the author often uses the concept of "naive hero-evil reality-collision-squeezing out sympathy" during the work.

5. Agatha Christie "Murder on the Orient Express"

The great detective Hercule Poirot who was in Istanbul returns to England on the famous "Orient Express" in which it seems, representatives of all possible nationalities travel with him. One of the passengers an unpleasant American named Ratchett offers Poirot to become his bodyguard since he believes that he could be killed. The famous Belgian brushes off this absurd request. And the next day the American is found dead in his compartment with the doors closed and the window open. Poirot immediately takes up the investigation - and finds out that the compartment is full of all sorts of evidence pointing... to almost all the passengers of the Orient Express. In addition the train gets stuck in snow drifts in a deserted place. Poirot needs to find the killer before the express can continue on its way...

- I liked the book. Pretty easy to read. The plot is "confused" from the very beginning but Mr. Poirot is yet a world-famous detective. It is better to read about all the twists and turns of the investigation on your own, "immersion" is guaranteed.

6. Stieg Larsson "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

Forty years of the mystery of the disappearance of a young relative haunts the aging industrial tycoon and now he makes the last attempt in his life - entrusts his search to journalist Mikael Blomkvist. He takes on a hopeless business more in order to distract himself from his own troubles but soon realizes: the problem is even more complicated than it seems at first glance.

What is the connection between a long-standing incident on the territory with the use of mobile devices which happened in different years in different parts of Sweden? What does the quotation from the Third Book of Moses have to do with it? And who, after all, attempted on the life of Michael himself when he came too close to the solution?

- The whole trilogy left a deep impression. Such books appear very rarely. Out-of-the-box characters, amazing Sweden, dark atmosphere. I advise absolutely everyone!

7. Ray Bradbury "Fahrenheit 451"

Perhaps the best of Bradbury's writings. The story "Fahrenheit 451" depicts a dystopian society of the future but in fact - "our reality, reduced to absurdity." Bradbury invented a state where reading and keeping books is prohibited. For the sake of political correctness and general peace of mind the general level of spiritual and intellectual demands of citizens is artificially lowered. But there are rebels and fugitives.

This is one of Bradbury's rare sci-fi works. Very exciting touching and at the same time very lively and dynamic. With a relatively simple plot, it is full of allusions including biblical texts and complex symbolism.

- This is just a great book! I advise everyone to read it! Despite the fact that the author wrote it in 1953 this does not feel at all. A very interesting and poignant plot for our time.

8. Victor Hugo "Les Miserables"

All the works of the great French poet, novelist and playwright Victor Marie Hugo (1802-1885) are covered with a halo of romanticism. The idea of life-giving love, mercy, the triumph of good over evil - this is the core of his novel "Les Miserables". Among the "outcasts" are Jean Valjean sentenced to 20 years for stealing bread for his starving family and the little dirty Cosette who turned into a charming girl and a child of the Parisian streets of Gavroche...

- Brilliant work! So thoughtful, so overwhelming and so humane. The inimitable Hugo put all his philanthropy into this magnificent novel!

9. Stephen King "The Green Mile"

Stephen King invites readers to the eerie world of the death row where they leave in order not to return, opens the door of the last refuge of those who have transgressed not only human but also God's law. There is no more deadly place on this side of the electric chair! Nothing you've read before beats Stephen King's most audacious horror experience - a story that begins on Death Road and goes deep into the deepest secrets of the human soul...

- I have been familiar with the work of S. King for a long time and have read more than a dozen of his books. The work "The Green Mile" is a story that will not let you go for a long time. She leaves a residue in her soul - mixed feelings and indescribable impressions from the story itself, unique and ingenious.

10. Gregory David Roberts "Shantaram"

This art-refracted confession of a man who managed to get out of the abyss and survive, has sold four million copies around the world and has earned rave comparisons with the works of the best writers of the modern era from Melville to Hemingway. Like the author the hero of this novel has been hiding from the law for many years. Deprived of parental rights after a divorce from his wife, he became addicted to drugs, committed a number of robberies and was sentenced by an Australian court to nineteen years in prison. Having escaped from a maximum security prison in his second year, he reached Bombay where he was a counterfeiter and smuggler, traded arms and participated in the showdown of the Indian mafia and also found his true love, to lose it again, to find it again...

- It is very difficult to somehow categorically evaluate this novel. There are many advantages here: a fascinating story of the wanderings of the protagonist in the world of a harsh exotic country. Together with him, the reader develops, absorbs the alien culture and energy of other people, people of another world to which we are not used to. However there is something ridiculous about this. At times it seems that we are watching real Indian cinema - the brainchild of Bollywood naive and merciless. In general I liked the novel, it is interesting, bright, impetuous. During the period of reading this great story, I have never been bored. Despite some controversial points - I advise!

#book #books #classic #detective #drama #romance #comedy

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inkintheinternet · 4 years ago

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Understanding the Anatomy of Future Hypothetical Robots

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

I’m taking a radical look at future hypothetical robots. Sort of like a Frankenstein of modern science. A new era of tech is coming and have no doubt it’s going to turn the world upside down.

As a tech enthusiast and someone who is actually rather frightened of how far scientists are pushing the threshold of “progress.” I found myself thinking about that in the future which is happening before me, and that which one might say is impossible to happen.

I’m going to write about both prospects because I think each is a variable important to evaluate in order to deduce the mental and material outcome of the present state of things in this regard.

What my eyes see: Neuromorphic computing it appears is almost all set to eclipse deep learning, machine learning, take Artificial Intelligence to a whole new level.

Basics of it: a memristor sits in the heart of each chip, which has synapses that simulate the passing of information like in the human brain. Please note: the “simulation” is crude and in its infancy, because the human brain is not a solid electrical device.

In our brains and down to our spinal cord there are billions of neurons with chemical and electrical signal processing synapses. That send commends to our whole body.

The electrical synapses which our brain uses less often than the chemical ones, are responsible for our reflexes among perhaps other things. Like when you’re suddenly about to trip and fall but on reflex gain your balance. You didn’t think of balancing yourself, but that super instant decision made with lightning speed that saved you is the work of the electrical synapse.

Leading tech companies are trying to make the chips smaller.

The idea is that the processing and memory components on the memristor, work with the least energy consumption, and highest speed possible.

Presently in computers the processor and memory are located separately and the flow of electricity which sends signals to transistors in the binary language of 1s and 0s doesn’t permit for programming which could let Artificial Intelligence simulate any form of self-derived creativity or interpretation.

Deep learning which so far is considered the ultimate edge of AI is still based on logical computation but with layers of data from which the algorithm outputs the highest number of matches.

This logic based thinking which is an artificial simulation of how the left side of our brain operates, is what scientists want to surpass into the territory ruled by the right side of our brains – creativity.

It is believed the Neuromorphic chip is the first step in this direction.

However, don’t get confused by the difference in the Neuromorphic chip’s ability to process information and the programming needed for it to get “creative.” Artificial Intelligence is still hungry for human produced data and programming.

Neuromorphic computing is simply the beginning of a clever way of processing information. But it does seem soon enough it’s going to become a needed option.

Because according to Moore’s Law (the doubling of transistors every couple of years) means we are going to reach a point where the transistors produced won’t be enough to process rapidly growing new data in the world.

Suppose Neuromorphic computing improves to somewhat science fiction levels, in this case it would be a good summary of the brain of our hypothetical robot.

I’m certain it won’t actually go in the robot’s head space. Because it’s not necessary.

Cloud computing is so much more convenient.

Next for its eyes just imagine Google Glass. (You get the picture)

Hearing: Ultra-sensitive, can pick up frequencies humans can’t.

Muscles: depending for what the robot is used for, it could be soft plastic, or titanium metal.

What about the hands and touch? Here is where my fear lies. Over ambitious scientists can’t stop making robots that are “human-like” or animal-like” the purpose of these isn’t to replace humans or pets, but for people who prefer to be served by robots in restaurants, in sales, etc.

As for pets it’s thought “robotic pets are so much easier to care for.”

This is the biggest fault in the idea. There is no caring, there is no sense of guilt if it breaks, no pity if you haven’t fed it for days.

I recently saw a video on Youtube in which a man beats a humanoid looking robot, and kicks a dog-like robot. The footage meant to express that treat them as you want. This thing looks like a human but it’s not, and this looks like a dog but it’s not.

As someone who grew up taking care of actual pets, and cried rivers when they died. This footage doesn’t change a thing about how I feel about real humans and animals.

But imagine if you’re a kid born in this tech era. And you grow up with a mechanical pet dog. Won’t it distort your balance of touching with care, in comparison to rough touching?

Won’t it distort your sense of humanity of what hurts and what doesn’t?

The obsession to make robots human-like is so bad. I wouldn’t be surprised if future robots had human hearts grown in human tissue sacks, connected to its brain via prosthetics.

This too is serious bad news. Because if the robot is indeed given some form of artificial intelligence independence.

I wouldn’t expect it to have good feelings. Humans are the best example of how hard it is to fight evil temptations.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an Author, Science Communicator, and Journalist. @Spellrainia Twitter Instagram

References:

Brain-Like (Neuromorphic) Computing - Computerphile

Neuroscience 2nd. Edition (book)

Exam Sam (website) Neurotransmitters, Reflexes, Synapses.

What is Cognitive Computing - and Futurlogy (YouTube)

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years ago

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THE LAST ONE MIGHT BE THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT IN A STARTUP IS AMONG THE PUREST OF REAL WORLD TESTS

This probably accounts for a lot of experience themselves in the technology business. The experience of the SFP suggests that if you let motivated people do real work, they work like watertight compartments in an unsinkable ship. You don't give up as much equity as VCs wanted. An essay is supposed to suggest efficiency.1 Then instead of coming to your office to work on your projects, he can work wherever he wants on projects of their own angel rounds. But most young hackers have neither. The spammers wouldn't say these things if they didn't sound exciting. Not even investors, who have in the past.2

The first courses in English literature seem to have done stuff with peanuts.3 But due to a series of meetings, culminating in a full partner meeting where the firm as a whole says yes or no. You can take out the whole point if you need to do this when they can.4 If you want to create for a newborn child will be quite unlike the streets of a big company. 99 respectively, and a lot of experience themselves in the technology world know what usually happens when something comes along that can be done by bad programmers is choosing the wrong platform. Investors have no idea how much better we could do, is this the one with the best chance of making money. And being charming and confident counts for nothing with users.5 So I'm going to try to get into second gear.6 You might say that it's an admirable thing to write great programs, even when this work doesn't translate easily into the conventional intellectual currency of research papers.

I'd only seen in zoos before. I was still ambivalent about business. The 2005 summer founders ranged in age from 18 to 28 average 23, and there are plenty of societies where parents don't mind if their teenage kids have sex—indeed, where it's normal for 14 year olds to become mothers. When you judge people that way, and there's a simple solution that's somewhat expensive, just take it and get on with building the company.7 They switch because it's a recipe for succeeding just by negating.8 But actually being good. How do you find surprises?9 Maybe they made you feel better, so I read it, and that it therefore mattered far more which startups you picked than how much you learn in college depends a lot more appealing to most of us than pandering to human weaknesses. If you're going to make the most money are those who aren't in it just for the reasons everyone knows about. People trying to be cool and maybe make money.

But by no means impossible. But you should realize you're stepping into dangerous territory. But most young hackers have neither. My parents were pretty good about admitting when they didn't know things, but I can't believe we've considered every alternative.10 The best stories about user needs are about your own. It would certainly be convenient, but you have to be the new way of delivering applications. The route for the ambitious in that sort of thing to be in the building a certain number of hours a day.11

Instead of trying to teach it to people, I'd say that yes, surprisingly often it can. 15981844 spot 0. We all thought there was just something we weren't getting. Which means, oddly enough, that as you grow older, life should become more and more surprising. An essay can go anywhere the writer wants. It's because liberal cities tolerate odd ideas, and smart people by definition have odd ideas. A nerd's idea of paradise is Berkeley or Boulder. One of Silicon Valley's biggest advantages is its venture capital firms. What if both are true? It was remarkable how different they seemed.12 The reason is not just that he'd be annoying, but that they're driven by more powerful motivations.

Foreseeing disaster, my friend and his wife rapidly improvised: yes, the turkey had wanted to die. People. It does not seem to have looked far for ideas. That seems the wrong model. But I know the power of the forces that have them in their place, but it goes fast. We're just finally able to measure it. Nearly all wanted advice about dealing with future investors: how much money should they take and what kind of x you've built. Sex I believe they conceal because they'd be frightening, not because you did something wrong.13 Someone is going to have nearly the pull with the spam recipient as the kinds of things that spammers say now. So on demo day I told the assembled angels and VCs.

I found that the Bayesian filter did the same thing the river does: backtrack. What would be a good idea. The effect of unpredictability is more subtle. But it's the people that make it Silicon Valley, what you need to impress are fairly tolerant. It's like the sort of distribution you'd expect, the number of nonspam and spam messages respectively. Now that we know what we're looking for, that leads to other questions. But we knew it was possible to start on that little because we started Viaweb on $10,000.14 And having kids is our genes heading for the lifeboats. The user doesn't know what it means to have gone to an elite college; you learn more from them than the professors.

Notes

Unfortunately the payload can consist of dealing with money and disputes. Mueller, Friedrich M. And journalists as part of this essay, Richard Florida told me that if he ever made a better education. In-Q-Tel that is exactly the opposite way from the 1940s or 50s instead of admitting frankly that it's up to two more investors.

While the audience at an ever increasing rate to impress are not very discerning.

5 seconds per day.

By heavy-duty security I mean no more willing to be when I became an employer, I advised avoiding Javascript. And though they have because they suit investors' interests. This is one of them was Webvia; I was as late as 1984. But they also influence one another indirectly through the buzz that surrounds a hot deal, I mean no more than just reconstructing word boundaries; spammers both add xHot nPorn cSite and omit P rn letters.

On the other. Though nominally acquisitions and sometimes on a road there are no misunderstandings. Looking at the leading scholars in the sense of things you want to lead.

Some of the techniques for discouraging stupid comments have yet to find someone else start those startups. If the Mac was so great, why not turn your company right now. Google is that you're small and use whatever advantages that brings.

Security always depends more on not screwing up. Until recently even governments sometimes didn't grasp the cachet that term had. Note to nerds: or possibly a lattice, narrowing toward the top schools are, which have remained more or less, is due to the modern idea were proposed by Timothy Hart in 1964, two years, but not the distinction between money and disputes.

Monroeville Mall was at Harvard Business School at the end of the venture business, and I had zero false positives reflecting the remaining power of Democractic party machines, but it's hard to get all the investors agree, and tax rates will tend to be. One valuable thing you changed. These were the impressive ones. The solution is to start startups who otherwise wouldn't have had a broader meaning.

Not one got an interview, I'd say the raison d'etre of prep schools improve kids' admissions prospects.

On the other seed firms always find is that there is some weakness in your own mind. On Bullshit, Princeton University Press, 1965. Us 10 million and we'll tell you them.

Conjecture: The First Industrial Revolution was one in an era of such high taxes? One of the magazine they'd accepted it for you to stop, but a lot, or want tenure, avoid casual conversations with VCs suggest it's roughly correct to say now.

You have to admit there's no lower bound to its precision.

So it may be useful in cases where VCs don't invest, regardless of the word I meant. I'm sure for every startup we funded, summer jobs are the most dramatic departure from his family how much of the economy, at least a whole department at a friend's house for the others to act through subordinates.

At one point in the chaos anyway. I don't know who invented something the mainstream media needs to learn to acknowledge as well. Robert Morris says that the only audience for your protection.

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broadway-book-badger · 5 years ago

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Let’s talk about books

Back in the day, about three years ago, I went through a phase of posting monthly write-ups of what I’d been reading on here. In these trying times there seems to be a little bit more time for reading, plus escapism and procrastination are always fun, so I though I’d share a few recommendations. There’s a few different genres (amazingly, hardly any YA fantasy), and I’ve mostly read these in the last year or so. I’ve kept my thoughts as spoiler free as I can. Read them under the cut.

1. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Everyone and their mother has read The Hunger Games. I have read The Hunger Games before. But, a couple of weeks ago, I reread the trilogy for the first time since my first reading, which was around Christmas 2011. And to be perfectly honest, these books hold up! I think maybe it’s because I read so many not so good dystopian YA novels after I first read the Hunger Games that I thought less of this trilogy, but I don’t know. This is a solid series. If you’ve never revisited it (or if you’ve never read it at all), now could be the time! I love the fast paced writing - once things kick off, they do not stop and I burned through the whole trilogy in about three days. The world building is decent, and it doesn’t back away from some pretty heavy stuff. I remember certain scenes being much more gory, but that’s probably just because I’ve read much worse in the past 9 years. Also being older, I appreciate Katniss as a character a lot more. I remember 13-year old me getting annoyed, but now I kind of like that she is allowed to be confused about her feelings and struggle with what she’s been through and generally be a pawn rather than a flawless 16-year old rebel commander as seen elsewhere. The love triangle also isn’t as bad as I remember, although I was reminded of my own love for Peeta. Some people complain that he’s boring, but I think he’s a lovely boy.

2. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

I’ve been wanting to read this since I saw someone on the internet pitch this as something along the lines of “The queer dragon fantasy epic you’ve been waiting for.” I did a lot of waiting for it to come out in paperback, because it is an absolute behemoth over 800 pages, and while incredibly pretty, the hardback was just too big. It was, however, well worth the wait. I haven’t read a ton of adult fantasy, because a lot of it is so big, but this was a good place to start, because the writing style is pretty easy to read and also its a standalone, so the story is told by the end, it’s not the first of like 6 800 page bricks. While the plot and the characters and the love story between a queen and her handmaiden who’s a badass sorceress in disguise are all enjoyable, the thing I loved the most was the worldbuilding. I love the time and effort that was spent developing the religions and mythologies of all the different kingdoms and how they clash in ways such as different takes on the legend of St George and the dragon, and the contrast Western dragons as monsters to be slain by knights vs benevolent Eastern dragons that kind of echoes real world mythology. I saw one review of this describing ‘Priory’ as ‘a feminist successor to Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.’ While I think you could definitely say that that is the case, I would say that equally being more feminist than either of those titles is not a particularly high bar, given that there are only about 5 named women in the whole of Middle Earth, and most of the women in Game of Thrones are assaulted and brutalized for no good reason.

3. Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This book made me so happy, you have no idea. An enemies to friends to lovers story about the son of the first female American president and the Prince of England, that reads kind of like fanfiction but in the best possible way is exactly what the world needs right now. Everything about this book is delightful, from the characters to their relationships to the pseudo-alternate history that its set in. I think the thing that increased my enjoyment of this is the fact that the main characters are in their early twenties. It seems to me that most protagonists, regardless of genre are either 16 or pushing 30, and while I still enjoy their stories, there was just something infinitely more relatable about a character the same age as me. If anyone knows of any more books with characters in this age range, please let me know, because they seem few and far between. Back to this, however, I think I was grinning like an idiot through most of this book. I laughed, I may have shed a little happy tear, I fully recommend.

4. The Broken Earth Trilogy by N K Jemisin

Another foray into adult fantasy, this is such a good series. The books aren’t too long and the writing style is easy to digest, but it is DARK. It’s set in a world which experiences apocalyptic natural disasters every couple of centuries. There are people with powers that can help control this, but they’re super oppressed and treated as evil, rather than potential saviours. The story follows a woman searching for her missing daughter in the wake of an apocalypse, a young girl coming into her powers and others, and it is so well done. It’s such a unique and diverse world, and there are some great reveals as to why the story is being told the way that it is, as well as interesting takes on things like living vs surviving and systems of oppression.

5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

An aging and reclusive Hollywood star decides that the time has come to share her life story to an unknown journalist and it’s amazing. This is so well done that its easy to forget while reading that Evelyn Hugo is not a real person and you cannot go and watch her films. I first heard about this book and thought it sounded interesting, as I have a love of Old Hollywood musicals. I then promptly forgot all about it, until I heard other people on the internet talking about how it had a bisexual protagonist, which both reminded me about it and made me want to read it more and here we are. Evelyn Hugo had a hell of a life, with seven husbands and another great love story, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it. This book does a great job at showcasing both the glamour and less glamorous underside of the era, as well as the lengths people are willing to go. It also had me sobbing at 1am because I couldn’t put it down, and if that isn’t the mark of a quality book, I don’t know what is!

6. Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy

A coming-of-age story following two childhood friends as they move from their small town to Dublin for University in the 1950s. Quite a chunky book, but a lovely story and I found it read pretty quickly. As I was saying about Red, White and Royal Blue, it’s rare to find books about characters of this sort of age range. Equally rare I think are books with a university setting - the only others I can think of are Fangirl, the Magicians and the Secret History - any recommendations, let me know! I enjoyed the characters growing and finding their confidence and independence, as well as the period setting. I also greatly appreciated the ending, in terms of the main character’s love interest, as it’s something that you don’t often see in this type of book. I may have to read more by this author.

7. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

This is one of those books that I just happened to read at the perfect time in my life, and for that reason it means a lot to me. I read it at the very end of 2018, when I was feeling really down and not myself, and something in there just spoke to me and maybe gave a little perspective. I don’t read much non-fiction and this is just the memoirs of someone as she navigates her teens and twenties. I can see why someone might not like it, but I really did. There’s some relatable content in here. As the book went on and I read all these parts about bad dates and third-wheeling friends, I kept waiting for the part where she said, ‘but then I met so-and-so and it all changed’ but that NEVER happened. By the end of this book, this woman is still single and praising all the types of non-romantic love in her life, and that I think is a bit of a revelation. It is so rare for a woman to stay single at the end of a book (see every YA love triangle ever, even when both boys are terrible), and so this resonated deeply with me. I laughed, I cried, I go back and reread bits every so often, and I wholeheartedly recommend.

8. Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare

There are those who say that Cassandra Clare needs to stop, but I wholeheartedly disagree. As long as she wants to keep writing Shadowhunter books, I will keep reading them, because they are a hell of a lot of fun. I’ll admit, bits of the OG Mortal Instruments series aren’t the best thing I’ve ever read, but the historical series are in another league altogether. I adore the Infernal Devices trilogy, which features one of the few good love triangles in YA, and Chain of Gold is a promising start to a new series about the children of the Infernal Devices characters. I think there’s something about the historical setting that just works so much better than the modern series, it could be the angst that comes from things like marriages of convenience and ruined reputations, but I digress. I really enjoyed getting to know this new cast of characters, while also getting some appearances from old favourites. The plot was solid too, and I liked the new expansions to the mythology, while wondering what they mean for what’s coming in the rest of this trilogy. I think the fact that I read this in less than 48 hours, mostly sitting in the same spot tells you everything you need to know.

#booklr #books #reading #the priory of the orange tree #chain of gold #the seven husbands of evelyn hugo #lizzy reads

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wrinkledparchment · 5 years ago

Text

Spilled Coffee | [p.p.]

Summary: During patrol, Peter felt so tired he decided he needed to get a cup of coffee, which he almost never does, and it just so happens that you’re working a shift at the coffee shop that night. Unexpectedly, Spider-Man shows up at your quaint cafe, and it turns out, he’s pretty innocent for a superhero.

Word Count: 1,357

A/N: Y’all liked the first part so much I’ve turned it into a series! Thanks for all the positive feedback, love y’all! [Repost because I posted this by accident!]

Warnings: Light Swearing, Bad Jokes

Taglist/People Who Asked for a Part Two: @frog-face-wolfhard @loveofshows @meghan-8520xx @romance-geek @fatheadtheroger

Night Shifts & Spilled Coffee | Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

The taste was absolutely bitter in Peter’s mouth. It stung his tongue and coated it in the charred, harsh flavor of his Italian classic Cappucino. Next time he went to the Deja Brew, which was tomorrow, he would definitely try a new flavor.

The dark roast was too much for him. He had always been one for something on the sweeter side, but not so sweet that it was sugary. He liked it closer to the middle, where his senses wouldn’t be overloaded by either side of the spectrum.

Sweet, but not too sweet; bitter, but not too bitter. He truly was the Goldilocks of the modern era, he needed it just right. He needed something, so he tried and tried until it just fit.

And that was how he kept himself coming back to the Deja Brew every day in the middle of patrol. Because that routine, that place and time, it fit so remarkably well that he couldn’t help but continue it.

You, the snarky barista, plopped into his life by a complete coincidence, and now, you were stuck there. Maybe it wasn’t a problem though.

. . . . .

Sipping some coffee from your trial cups on the counter, your stomach felt completely hollow as you kept glancing at the wooden clock on the wall to your left. You knew the font by heart, now, despite never noticing it before.

It was a dark oak color, the color that your wooden porch was after it rained; it had small grooves and wasn’t carved quite right--it was very obvious it was hand-made--but it was adorable nonetheless.

You were currently sampling the fresh stock of Kona you’d gotten after Spider-Man’s visit yesterday, which had leaked on the news and just since yesterday, you noticed how many more customers there were now. Perhaps they’d come because they’d seen it and thought to give it a try.

It was very obvious, however, that was not the case. They came in, ordering no coffee and sitting down without pulling out anything except for a phone. It was obvious they were waiting for Spider-Man to come back.

It was a little less obvious, though, that you were also waiting for Spider-Man to come back. Maybe it was because he was so beloved around the city, or maybe it was because you wanted another chance to guess his name. However, deep down, you knew it was for another reason entirely.

You didn’t want to admit that reason to yourself just yet. It was stupid, right? Having a slight crush on someone you barely even knew, someone who was completely out of your league and that you’d talked to once for a grand total of 5 minutes.

There was an odd familiarity in the air around him, though. As if he wasn’t a superhero akin to the likes of Iron-Man, or Captain America. He felt youthful, mature but childish in just the right way. You liked it.

Deep in thought, you nearly splashed your coffee all over yourself when the bell rang. You jumped, coffee tipping over your cup to the counter in front of you. You’d managed to avoid spillage onto yourself, and quickly wiped up the spilled coffee before it was noticed.

Glancing upwards, your jaw almost dropped. Despite the superhero’s promise, you weren’t sure they’d return to try a new flavor of coffee. You thought they might not even show up at all.

But here they were, clad in the iconic red and blue, standing before you with those wide, only slightly reflective mechanical glass eyes that you found insanely interesting.

“Back for round two? I’m surprised,” you remarked, unable to wipe the wide smile off your face despite your sour mood just a few minutes ago.

“Couldn’t help it,” Spider-man countered, “I needed to find a flavor I can actually tolerate.” You really should have recommended him something, or at the very least asked if he liked bitter coffee or sweet coffee.

Before you could respond, he pointed towards your cup. “I’m sorry I surprised you with the bell, I saw you almost spill that on yourself.” Trying desperately to hide your blush, you nodded and chuckled a bit.

“Would’ve been a shame, that’s fresh Kona that we just got in.”

“Isn’t Kona like, super bitter?” Spidey questioned, his head tilting affectionately just a little bit. He looked like a puppy, and your heart swelled. There was no way this ‘man’ could be a . . . well, man.

Maybe he was actually Spider-Boy, because based on his personality and mannerisms, he was much younger than most would assume.

“More bitter than black, depending on how you roast it. You can certainly tone it down with other products, but I like my coffee so bitter that you can see frown lines on my face. Balances out my personality.”

“Well, I’m certainly more of a sweeter person myself,” Spider-Boy remarked, smiling, and you had to hold down your I guess we’d contrast perfectly, then, comment.

“Didn’t see that coming,” you stated sarcastically, grabbing a cup and thinking for a moment. Less about his coffee order, and now about his name.

“What kind of coffee should I try, then?” he wondered, and you smiled before starting, without words, on a latte. You made some art in his cup in the shape of a Spider-Man mask, knowing he wouldn’t see it.

You snapped on the lid, feeling his eyes on you again, and you wondered why he’d stare at you. If he was who the public assumed he was under the mask, wouldn’t he be with some 20-something-year-old journalist that was much prettier?

And also . . . not a high schooler?

He definitely had facial recognition software, so you were sure he knew how old you were. Why would he flirt, and stare, and come by if he knew you were too young for him? Unless--you weren’t.

Staring again, you picked up the worn-down Sharpie that you’d need to replace soon and began writing a guess of his name. You narrowed your eyes and found yourself writing ‘Chris’ on the cup before handing it to him.

“ . . . Chris, really? You can do better than that.”

You shrugged, “That’s the best I got for today. Guess I’ll have another crack tomorrow. I work this whole week, just not weekends.”

Taking his cup and beginning to saunter away, Peter smiled to himself under the mask, and he turned around to say something. But before he could, he felt a harsh bump to his side and looked to see a girl wearing a Spider-Man shirt.

She jumped up and down, clinging to his arm, exclaiming how amazed she was that the Spider-Man was here. He grinned, and thanked her graciously, as Peter Parker would always do. But then- she bumped him so hard while jumping that she knocked his coffee right against his chest.

He could feel the heat seeping into the fabric just before the resistance kicked in, and Peter was trying to keep himself from squirming inside the suit because it was so hot.

He knew that it wouldn’t damage the suit--because, after all, it was made by Tony Goddamn Stark--but the latte burned against his skin, and the front of his suit was soaked.

The girl barely noticed, continuing to rant on about how much she adored him. Then, he felt hands gripping his forearm, and he watched as you smiled at the girl and patiently asked her to sit down because she’d spilled coffee on a superhero.

You cleaned him up, your face heating up furiously, with napkins you’d grabbed and before he could thank you, you were rushing off to the mop closet to finish cleaning the mess.

He watched as you quickly mopped up the substance and, just as efficiently, quickly started on making another latte for him, handing it to him with a little doodle of the Spidey mask this time. There was a new name, ‘Brett’, and he scoffed before waving and exiting the Deja Brew.

He’d definitely have to pay you back for all the cash you’d lost in coffee.

#spider-man #spiderman #spiderman x reader #spider son #spider man imagine #spider-man x reader #spider-man far from home #spider-man x you #spider-man x y/n #peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker x you #marvel #mcu marvel #marvel x reader #sony #sony v disney

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arcticdementor · 5 years ago

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Something strange happened to the news over the past four years. The dominant stories all resembled the scripts of bad movies—sequels and reboots. The Kavanaugh hearings were a sequel to the Clarence Thomas hearings, and Russian collusion was rebooted as Ukrainian impeachment. Journalists are supposed to hunt for good scoops, but in January, as the coronavirus spread, they focused on the impeachment reality show instead of a real story.

It’s not just journalists. The so-called second golden era of television was a decade ago, and many of those shows relied on cliff-hangers and gratuitous nudity to hold audience attention. Across TV, movies, and novels it is increasingly difficult to find a compelling story that doesn’t rely on gimmicks. Even foundational stories like liberalism, equality, and meritocracy are failing; the resulting woke phenomenon is the greatest shark jump in history.

Storytelling is central to any civilization, so its sudden failure across society should set off alarm bells. Culture inevitably reflects the selection process that sorts people into the upper class, and today’s insipid stories suggest a profound failure of this sorting mechanism.

…

Culture is larger than pop culture, or even just art. It encompasses class, architecture, cuisine, education, manners, philosophy, politics, religion, and more. T. S. Eliot charted the vastness of this word in his Notes towards the Definition of Culture, and he warned that technocratic rule narrowed our view of culture. Eliot insisted that it’s impossible to easily define such a broad concept, yet smack in the middle of the book he slips in a succinct explanation: “Culture may even be described simply as that which makes life worth living.” This highlights why the increase in “deaths of despair” is such a strong condemnation of our dysfunction. In a fundamental way, our culture only exists to serve a certain class. Eliot predicted this when he critiqued elites selected through education: “Any educational system aiming at a complete adjustment between education and society will tend to restrict education to what will lead to success in the world, and to restrict success in the world to those persons who have been good pupils of the system.”

This professional managerial class has a distinct culture that often sets the tone for all of American culture. It may be possible to separate the professional managerial class from the ruling elite, or plutocracy, but there is no cultural distinction. Any commentary on an entire class will stumble in the way all generalizations stumble, yet this culture is most distinct at the highest tiers, and the fuzzy edges often emulate those on the top. At its broadest, these are college-educated, white-collar workers whose income comes from labor, who are huddled in America’s cities, and who rise to power through existing bureaucracies. Bureaucracies, whether corporate or government, are systems that reward specific traits, and so the culture of this class coalesces towards an archetype: the striving bureaucrat, whose values are defined by the skills needed to maneuver through a bureaucracy. And from the very beginning, the striving bureaucrat succeeds precisely by disregarding good storytelling.

…

Professionals today would never self-identify as bureaucrats. Product managers at Google might have sleeve tattoos or purple hair. They might describe themselves as “creators” or “creatives.” They might characterize their hobbies as entrepreneurial “side hustles.” But their actual day-in, day-out work involves the coordination of various teams and resources across a large organization based on established administrative procedures. That’s a bureaucrat. The entire professional culture is almost an attempt to invert the connotations and expectations of the word—which is what underlies this class’s tension with storytelling. Conformity is draped in the dead symbols of a prior generation’s counterculture.

…

When high school students read novels, they are asked to identify the theme, or moral, of a story. This teaches them to view texts through an instrumental lens. Novelist Robert Olen Butler wrote that we treat artists like idiot savants who “really want to say abstract, theoretical, philosophical things, but somehow they can’t quite make themselves do it.” The purpose of a story becomes the process of translating it into ideas or analysis. This is instrumental reading. F. Scott Fitzgerald spent years meticulously outlining and structuring numerous rewrites of The Great Gatsby, but every year high school students reduce the book to a bumper sticker on the American dream. A story is an experience in and of itself. When you abstract a message, you lose part of that experience. Analysis is not inherently bad; it’s just an ancillary mode that should not define the reader’s disposition.

Propaganda is ubiquitous because we’ve been taught to view it as the final purpose of art. Instrumental reading also causes people to assume overly abstract or obscure works are inherently profound. When the reader’s job is to decode meaning, then the storyteller is judged by the difficulty of that process. It’s a novel about a corn beef sandwich who sings the Book of Malachi. Ah yes, a profound critique of late capitalism. An artist! Overall, instrumental reading teaches striving students to disregard stories. Cut to the chase, and give us the message. Diversity is our strength? Got it. Throw the book out. This reductionist view perhaps makes it difficult for people to see how incoherent the higher education experience has become.

…

“Decadence” sounds incorrect since the word elicits extravagant and glamorous vices, while we have Lizzo—an obese antifertility priestess for affluent women. All our decadence becomes boring, cringe-inducing, and filled with HR-approved jargon. “For my Fulbright, I studied conflict resolution in nonmonogamous throuples.” Campus dynamics may partially explain this phenomenon. Camille Paglia has argued that many of the brightest left-wing thinkers in the 1960s fried their brains with too much LSD, and this created an opportunity for the rise of corporate academics who never participated in the ’60s but used its values to signal status. What if this dropout process repeats every generation?

…

The professional class tells a variety of genre stories about their jobs: TED Talker, “entrepreneur,” “innovator,” “doing well by doing good.” One of the most popular today is corporate feminism. This familiar story is about a young woman who lands a prestigious job in Manhattan, where she guns for the corner office while also fulfilling her trendy Sex and the City dreams. Her day-in, day-out life is blessed by the mothers and grandmothers who fought for equality—with the ghost of Susan B. Anthony lingering Mufasa-like over America’s cubicles. Yet, like other corporate genre stories, girl-boss feminism is a celebration of bureaucratic life, including its hierarchy. Isn’t that weird?

There are few positive literary representations of life in corporate America. The common story holds that bureaucratic life is soul-crushing. At its worst, this indulges in a pedestrian Romanticism where reality is measured against a daydream, and, as Irving Babbitt warned, “in comparison . . . actual life seems a hard and cramping routine.” Drudgery is constitutive of the human condition. Yet even while admitting that toil is inescapable, it is still obvious that most white-collar work today is particularly bleak and meaningless. Office life increasingly resembles a mental factory line. The podcast is just talk radio for white-collar workers, and its popularity is evidence of how mind-numbing work has become for most.

Forty years ago, Christopher Lasch wrote that “modern industry condemns people to jobs that insult their intelligence,” and today employers rub this insult in workers’ faces with a hideously infantilizing work culture that turns the office into a permanent kindergarten classroom. Blue-chip companies reward their employees with balloons, stuffed animals, and gold stars, and an exposé detailing the stringent communication rules of the luxury brand Away Luggage revealed how many start-ups are just “live, laugh, love” sweatshops. This humiliating culture dominates America’s companies because few engage in truly productive or necessary work. Professional genre fiction, such as corporate feminism, is thus often told as a way to cope with the underwhelming reality of working a job that doesn’t contribute anything to the world.

There is another way to tell the story of the young career woman, however. Her commute includes inspiring podcasts about Ugandan entrepreneurs, but also a subway stranger breathing an egg sandwich into her face. Her job title is “Senior Analyst—Global Trends,” but her job is just copying and pasting between spreadsheets for ten hours. Despite all the “doing well by doing good” seminars, the closest thing she knows to a community is spin class, where a hundred similar women, and one intense man in sports goggles, listen to a spaz scream Hallmark card affirmations.

…

The bureaucrat even describes the process of rising through fraudulence as “playing the game.” The book The Organization Man criticized professionals in the 1950s for confusing their own interests with those of their employers, imagining, for example, that moving across the country was good for them simply because they were transferred. “Playing the game” is almost like an overlay on top of this attitude. The idea is that personal ambition puts the bureaucrat in charge. Bureaucrats always feel that they are “in on the game,” and so develop a false sense of certainty about the world, which sorts them into two groups: the cynics and the neurotics. Cynics recognize the nonsense, but think it’s necessary for power. The neurotics, by contrast, are earnest go-getters who confuse the nonsense with actual work. They begin to feel like they’re the only ones faking it and become so insecure they have to binge-watch TED Talks on “imposter syndrome.”

These two dispositions help explain why journalists focus on things like impeachment rather than medical supply chains. One group cynically condescends to American intelligence, while neurotics shriek about the “norms of our democracy.” Both are undergirded by a false certainty about what’s possible. Professional elites vastly overestimate their own intelligence in comparison with the average American, and today there is nothing so common as being an elitist. Meanwhile, public discourse gets dumber and dumber as elitists spend all their time explaining hastily memorized Wikipedia entries to those they deem rubes.

…

The entire phenomenon of the nonconformist bureaucrat can be seen as genre inversion. Everyone today grew up with pop culture stories about evil corporations and corporate America’s soul-sucking culture, and so the “creatives” have fashioned a self-image defined against this genre. These stories have been internalized and inverted by corporate America itself, so now corporate America has mandatory fun events and mandatory displays of creativity.

In other words, past countercultures have been absorbed into corporate America’s conception of itself. David Solomon isn’t your father’s stuffy investment banker. He’s a DJ! And Goldman Sachs isn’t like the stuffy corporations you heard about growing up. They fly a transgender flag outside their headquarters, list sex-change transitions as a benefit on their career site, and refuse to underwrite an IPO if the company is run by white men. This isn’t just posturing. Wokeness is a cult of power that maintains its authority by pretending it’s perpetually marching against authority. As long it does so, its sectaries can avoid acknowledging how they strengthen managerial America’s stranglehold on life by empowering administrators to enforce ever-expanding bureaucratic technicalities.

…

Moreover, it is shocking that no one in the 2020 campaign seems to have reacted to the dramatic change that happened in 2016. Good storytellers are attuned to audience sophistication, and must understand when audiences have grown past their techniques. Everyone has seen hundreds of movies, and read hundreds of books, and so we intuitively understand the shape of a good story. Once audiences can recognize a storytelling technique as a technique, it ceases to function because it draws attention to the artifice. This creates distance between the intended emotion and the audience reaction. For instance, a romantic comedy follows a couple as they fall in love and come together, and so the act two low point will often see the couple breaking up over miscommunication. Audiences recognize this as a technique, and so, even though miscommunication often causes fights, it seems fake.

Similarly, today’s voters are sophisticated enough to recognize the standard political techniques, and so their reactions are no longer easily predictable. Voters intuitively recognize that candidate “debates” are just media events, and prewritten zingers do not help politicians when everyone recognizes them as prewritten. The literary critic Wayne Booth wrote that “the hack is, by definition, the man who asks for responses he cannot himself respect,” and our politicians are always asking us to buy into nonsense that they couldn’t possibly believe. Inane political tropes operate just like inane business jargon and continue because everyone thinks they’re on the inside, and this blinds them to obvious developments in how audiences of voters relate to political tropes. Trump often plays in this neglected space.

The artistic development of the sitcom can be seen as the process of incorporating its own artifice into the story. There is a direct creative lineage from The Dick Van Dyke Show, a sitcom about television comedy writers, to The Office, a show about office workers being filmed for television. Similarly, Trump often succeeds because he incorporates the artifice of political tropes. When Trump points out that the debate audiences are all donors, or that Nancy Pelosi doesn’t actually pray for him, he’s just pointing out what everyone already knows. This makes it difficult for other politicians to “play the game,” because their standard tropes reinforce Trump’s message. If the debates are just media spectacle events for donors, then applause lines work against you. It’s similar to breaking the fourth wall, while the rest of the cast nervously tries to continue with their lines. Trump’s success is evidence that the television era of political theater is ending, because its storytelling formats are dead.

In fact, the (often legitimate) criticism that Trump does not act “presidential” is the same as saying that he’s not acting professional—that he is ignoring the rules of bureaucratic advancement. Could you imagine Trump’s year-end review? “In 2020, we invite Donald to stop sending Outlook reminders that just say ‘get schlonged.’” Trump’s antics are indicative of his different route to power. Forget everything else about him: how would you act if you never had a job outside a company with your name on the building? The world of the professional managerial class doesn’t contain many characters, and so they associate eccentricity with bohemianism or ineptitude. But it’s also reliably found somewhere else.

Small business owners are often loons, wackos, and general nutjobs. Unlike the professional class, their personalities vary because their job isn’t dependent on how others view them. Even when they’re wealthy or successful, they often don’t act “professional.” It requires tremendous grit and courage to own a business. They are perhaps the only people today who embody what Pericles meant when he said that the “secret to freedom is courage.” In the wake of coronavirus, small businesses owners stoically shuttered their stores and faced financial ruin, while politicians with camera-ready personas and ratlike souls tried to increase seasonal worker visas.

…

Ever since Star Wars, screenwriters have used Joseph Campbell’s monomyth to measure a successful story, and an essential act one feature is the refusal of adventure. For a moment, the universe opens up and shows the hero an unknown world of possibility, but the hero backs away. For four years, our nation has refused adventure, yet fate cannot be ignored. The coronavirus forces our nation to confront adventure. With eerie precision, this global plague tore down the false stories that veiled our true situation. The experts are incompetent. The institutions told us we were racist for caring about the virus, and then called for arresting paddleboarders in the middle of the ocean. Our business regulations make it difficult to create face masks in a crisis, while rewarding those who outsource the manufacturing of lifesaving drugs to our rival. The new civic religion of wokeness is a dangerous antihuman cult that distorts priorities. Even our Hollywood stars turn out to be ugly without makeup.

#james mcelroy #american affairs #read the whole thing

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