#i know nuance is not huge on this site but like

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi Nalyra, how are you? I hope you’re having a great day.

I only joined the iwtv fandom after s2 aired and I’m so happy I found it. I am however very confused by the level of Lestat hate though. I understand that 1x05 was a big deal for the fandom. What I don’t understand is how they’re still holding onto that but can ignore everything Armand stands for and has done. The Lestat hate also spills over into downplaying Sam’s performance which is maddening. I should’ve know, I’ve been on this hell site for way too long. The obsession with Armand in this fandom is just so huge (He killed Claudia, brainwashed and emotionally manipulated Louis for 80 years, no?) I don’t mean that I want everyone to hate Armand. I just feel like I missed something joining the fandom so late. (I’m strictly talking show here)

I thought I’d ask your insight cause I love reading your answers and take on things.

Hey nonny,

so... the way I see it, the very long hiatus between s1 and s2 made parts of the fandom believe that Lestat is the "big bad abuser white demon™"... because 1x05 and the "we had to kill Lestat" is what stuck in people's brains, and was left to fester for almost two years. People who doubted the tale were accused of being racists and abuse apologists, people who pointed out that Loumand might not be the big true romance the same.

The official podcast host called Armand "so much more healthy" for Louis, and some people took that for the truth, and not for the opinion of someone (who had also obviously not read the books). They literally ignore what Armand did for decades, choosing to go on and on about the big bad abuser, and "patriarchal domination", as they have been fed by the tale, never ever taking the step back to look at the tale, and that we know that it has been tinkered with, as Assad called it.

Hating Lestat was seen as the morally correct response, and certain people reflected that belief unto other fans, accusing them of what they faulted the fictional characters for.

This need to morally justify liking or watching is relatively recent in fandom and it is extremely futile for the VC and therefore IWTV.

They‘re all terrible and monsters by our standards.

Giving a more nuanced portrait of Lestat as built on the books brought me a lot of hate and accusations on my fics.

Certain parts of the fandom have also convinced themselves that the show is not at all based on the books, despite the show returning to all emotional main points, and the writers and creators posting their tagged books for all to see.

They have convinced themselves that Lestat, the main character of the VC, will not be that, but will be the abuser throughout, portrayed to be the antagonist.

To be honest, I wish them good luck.

You... are coming in to a more complete picture, and S3 will then add more to it still.

And I'm glad for it!

I am glad that the fans coming in after s2 might be more... chill about some things, because some things have already been clarified.

I hope they are.

I‘m glad you enjoy it here 🥰

I would advise to block freely, and to ... keep the long hiatus in mind, and where this came from, maybe. It might be easier to understand.

As it is, and going by the s3 trailer, and what the writers posted, and what has been stated already.... well, they are keeping quite close to the books.

And with that the very thing Rolin Jones has already stated will happen - namely Lestat taking (quote!) “the show hostage“ - and (quote!!) “setting the story straight“.

Sam and Jacob are co-leads after all, the show built on Loustat.

Some people seem to love to forget that.

[marblebees]

A lot of ppl here post a lot about what other ppl are or arent allowed to enjoy or write about and like??? Genuinely im unsure what yall’re talking about or like. Intending to do with posts abt this topic.

Like idk i get that a lot of ppl take “i personally dislike this thing” as “i think this thing should be outright banned” both bc. Some ppl conflate the two positions, and bc some ppl are used to understanding that the former means the latter.

And like again I can only rlly see. What ppl say broadly bc im just NOT in fandom spaces i have no clue what ppl rlly mean bc i havent seen the posts theyre reacting to?? But also like theres something in between which is the reality that there is a level of sensitivity ppl should have when approaching certain topics and especially when making mass media, bc there rlly isnt a lot you just outright Arent Allowed to Publish even as Fiction in the US, at least; but if you’re like, say making a tv show thats going on netflix i feel like a lot of ppl were in agreement that shows like 13 Reasons Why and Dahmer did handle their subject matters inappropriately in a way that Could Cause real Material Harm.

But thats the thing right. Most ppl talking abt “you shouldnt do x or y in your stories” are talking about Indie Media like it has the same intentions or ability to shape public opinion like mass media does; and its just weird to me to treat both as the same- and I do know a lot of ppl get rlly uppity when indie media isnt able to do the kinda of things mass media can bc they dont realise that difference.

But all this is still different from Censorship. I think “all media has a right to exist regardless of subject matter” is honestly an awful blanket statement, bc even if true from an anti-censorship pov, it kinda leads into the similar “my thing that i enjoy shouldnt be criticised bc it has a right to exist” and like??? Thats the issue, you can still object to media on a personal level and engage in criticism of it without wanting it Censored by some hypothetical government you have influence in to this extent. Idk why this is so polarised, either This Thing is Cancelled or everyones just a bootlicker for not liking this controversial thing like??????????

[centrally-unplanned]

We (somewhat rightly) mock the 2000's era fansub translation notes for their otaku fixations and privileging of trivia over the media, but they should be understood as serving their purpose for a bit of a different era in the anime fandom. Take this classic:

Like, its so obvious, right? Just say "pervert", you don't need the note! Which is true, for like a 'normie' audience member who just wants to watch A TV Show - but no one watching, uh *quick google* "Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne" in 1999 is that person. The audience is weebs, and for them the fact that show is Japanese is a huge selling point. They want it to feel as 'anime' as possible; and in the west language was one of the core signifiers of anime-ness. 2004 con-goers calling their friends "-kun" and throwing in "nani?" into conversations was the way this was done, and alongside that a lexicon of western anime fandom terminology was born. Seeing "ecchi" on the screen is, to this person, a better viewing experience - it enhances their connection to otaku identity the show is providing, and reinforces their shared cultural lexicon (Ecchi is now a term one 'expects' anime fans to know - a truth that translator notes like this simultaneously created and reflected).

But of course your audiences have different levels of otaku-dom, and so you can't just say 'ecchi' and call it a day - so for those who are only Level 2 on their anime journey, you give them a translation note. Most of the translation notes of the era are like this - terms the fansubber thought the audience might know well enough that they would understand it and want that pure Japanese cultural experience, but that not all of them would know, so you have to hedge. The Lucky Star one I posted is a great example of that:

Its Lucky Star, the otaku-crown of anime! You desperately want the core text to preserve as much anime vocab as possible, to give off that feeling, but you can't assume everyone knows what a GALGE is - doing both is the only way to solve that dilemma.

This is often a good guideline when looking at old memetically bad fansubs by the way:

This isn't real, no fansub had this - it was a meme that was posted on a wiki forum in 2007. Which makes sense, right? "Plan" isn't a Japanese cultural or otaku term, so there is no reason not to translate it, it doesn't deepen the ~otaku connection~.

Which, I know, I'm explaining the joke right now, but over time I think many have grown to believe that this (and others like it) is a real fansub, and that these sort of arbitrary untranslations just peppered fansub works of the time? It happened, sure, but they would be equally mocked back then as missteps - or were jokes themselves. Some groups even had a reputation for inserting jokes into their works, imo Commie Subs was most notable for this; part of the competitive & casual environment of the time. But they weren't serious, they are not examples of "bad fansubs" in the same way.

This all faded for a bunch of reasons - primarily that the market for anime expanded dramatically. First, that lead to professionally released translations by centralized agencies that had universal standards for their subs and accountability to the original creators of the show. Second, the far larger audience is far less invested in anime-as-identity; they like it, but its not special the way its special when you are a bullied internet recluse in 2004. They just want to watch the show, and would find "caring" about translation nuances to be cringe. And since these centralized agencies release their product infinitely faster and more accessibly than fansubs ever did, their copies now dominate the space (including being the versions ripped to all illegal streaming sites), so fansubs died.

Though not totally - a lot of those fansub groups are still around! Commie Subs is still kicking for example. They either do the weird nuance stuff, or fansub unreleased-in-the-west old or niche anime, or even have pivoted to non-anime Japanese content that never gets international release. But they used to be the taste-makers of the community; now they are the fringe devotees in a culture that has moved beyond them. So fansubs remain something of a joke of the 90's and 2000's in the eyes of the anime culture of today, in a way that maybe they don't deserve.

[olderthannetfic]

Do you think deepfakes count as fictional, reality or a whole other thing.

I ask this because it's genuinely the biggest news in the kpop space currently. Deepfakes of idols have always existed, I've known about them since 2016 when i first became a fan and tbh, I didn't think much about them. Also, I'm sure people have been editing celebrities and people they know into porn for as long as they've had the ability to. It's just much more accessible and easy to do now.

However, the issue has blown up both internationally and in Korea after a middle school student committed suicide due to being deep faked.

The discussion is now if this counts as sexual harassment and abuse, or is it rpf? It's been a kpop staple for years and people are drawing parallels between it and fanfic. to me deep fakes are worse because they're meant to look exactly like the idols. It's difficult to distinguish reality while fanfiction is just that. Fanfic. No one is reading it and thinking it's really real and the idols actually do the freak nasty after work or smth.

What are your thoughts? I ask bc you and your followers generally are more nuanced and I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter.

--

I've been asked this exact question a number of times. The closest thing is, of course, the photomanips that were hugely popular in some parts of fandom in like 2005.

The difference between those (or the same thing done with better technology now) is that they're openly branded as fake. RPF is the same way. It's posted to fannish archives or on fanworks-oriented social media accounts. It often has watermarks on it indicating it's a fanwork, and that's assuming it isn't... like... a photomanip of somebody as a centaur or something. Fanfic, even fanfic by tinhats, is labeled as fic, not as tabloid news.

Deepfakes intended for harassment are presented as real. A shitty person could take certain types of fan art and repurpose them for this, sure, but that's not the fault of the fan artist. Disguising the fact that this is fan-made (or, well, hater-made) art is the whole point.

How realistic the art is isn't the main issue: it's whether they're pretending it's real.

Now, is drawing cartoony offensive art of your middle school classmate harassment? It could be. Even if it's obviously art and not a photo, it could certainly be used intentionally to bully. A lot of things can be part of a bullying campaign. It's obvious how fake photos could easily be more traumatic and cause more trouble more quickly, but there isn't really a huge difference between known-to-be-fake "photos" and cartoony rude art, nor is there a huge difference between fake photo "evidence" and lying gossip "evidence".

The intent and the social context are what matter here. The photorealism just makes it easier to achieve a specific bullying aim.

--

But, yes, given the current technological situation, if you are a person who uses AI to make celebrity porn or something, the ethical thing to do is to watermark the hell out of it and/or make it less photorealistic and/or make sure it's posted to some porn site with attribution where people can easily go to debunk it should it escape containment and be passed around as The Real Thing. You can't control what assholes do, but you can at least put some roadblocks in place so they can't misuse your stuff as easily.

[runby2]

hi it's the creator of horse plinko and other huge posts on this site.

i wanted to make a quick post on here, not to keep everyone updated on my life, because i'm going to keep staying far away from social media, but to let everyone know that if you feel like you are endlessly changing yourself to fit your following's perfect standards, you are not actually getting better as a person. why do i say this? growing up, i had a horrible childhood and it was hard to grasp a sense of self, so the internet was a good escape. i made posts about current topics, tried to get a lot of notes, and when i got those notes i felt like my life had a purpose. i didn't let myself ever find out who i truly was because early on i was so obsessed with being the perfect persona on the internet and avoiding home life, that i had literally linked my life cable to the internet. i was the living definition of chronically online. i was so young too, so i saw a bright future ahead of myself. "it can only go up from here." 3 years of complete isolation happened after my 18 years in a cult, and recovering from mental institutional abuse. and i went by juicedoesthings. and i fought with every part of myself, ignoring my DID and even having alters post inspirational paragraphs about why DID is 'something i know i don't have because ___'- some you can probably still find on this blog buried deep somewhere - i was lost in a cycle of amnesia and perfectionism to the point ALL of my identities were juicedoesthings, and we were all the same, and if one of us stepped out of line, we'd shun it. we couldn't risk being problematic. we couldn't risk everything we've worked up to be crumble. because that was all we were. don't make your identity a username. don't keep track of what is and is not acceptable at the current time in a fandom of any sort. don't curate your art just because a discourse blog reblogged it for clout. don't overthink some personal statement you made just because thirty people sent you personalized death threats. don't forget about nuance, and in the most sincere way i can communicate this, touch grass. and find out what comforts you. learn what makes you happy, not what can improve you. this post will probably be drowned under reblogs as my life goes on and i occasionally check back into this ghost town of what used to be my only identity. but tumblr fame has irreversibly damaged me, and how i perceive myself. it took so long for me to feel like it was okay to make mistakes. if the above sounds like you, i desperately urge you to find a way out of that cycle. don't chase fame online. anonymity can definitely get you where you want to be safely. over my years on here ive seen children adults and teens ask how to make a webcomic, how i got this many followers, how i became "me". i was conforming. i became perfect for the internet, but i didn't have any sense of self. don't be like me. don't become me. just create, and disconnect yourself from who you think you need to be in order to be enough.

[transienturl]

there is a sizable subset of the ultra-enthusiast tumblr community who (reasonably, in cases, given the circumstances) have been convinced by the sheer volume of tumblr-related discourse that is driven away from factual considerations by the victim complex, the need to have an enemy, and an external imagination of how websites work that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. I don't think that's debatable. I see the volume as a tragedy and a bit of a disappointment (it will always happen but I do think we can do better) and am sympathetic to the people who accept it uncritically, if somewhat concerned (I imagine this kind of thing extends into the non-internet world).

but yeah, like. I enjoy working on the XKit projects, and that's why I do it. I enjoy doing support for them, too—I don't have a way of counting it, but gosh, I must send 50-100 messages a month responding to inquiries, giving tutorials, etc. okay I actually have no idea what the number is. but anyway.

admission: it's not nearly as fun when some huge percentage of the posts you're responding to are just laced with this stuff. "1-starring the app will make tumblr better!" "staff broke xkit on purpose!" "I know the reason behind changes I don't like and they are malicious/ignorant!" "it would be easy to fix [x thing] and it is not fixed so someone is out for me!" (there are more nuanced ones too but those are all pretty unambiguously false examples.) again, I see why people repeat these things because they are so darn prevalent, often from people you trust.

this is a site about sharing things that resonate with you. feeling like you're mostly helpless against a big power without your best interests at heart is deeply relatable. I get that. it's still annoying though.

I don't know to what degree I have the power to change any of this? maybe to some degree I can pull the "I'm half or more of the XKit development for at least the past year" card and maybe that has some weight re: making people see my perspective as coming from "being on the side of the users," blaze some posts maybe, but I dunno, man.

Feels like a weird thing to really lean into, on the one hand. And public comms stuff is a ton of work. On the other hand, I guess it would be silly if I didn't ever pull that card and eventually just quit if it didn't seem worth dealing with. I don't think that would kill the XKit projects, but... okay yeah I'm just saying that because it's nice to be optimistic. I have zero idea if it would or not.

[canmom]

to beat on old drum, why should translation always be to a 'default'/'neutral', relatively formal version of a language? well you could make arguments from accessibility, injecting things that 'aren't there in the original' (or 'writing fanfic' as an angry nyaa commenter might put it), or losing nuances from the source.

but tranlsation is never going to be able to capture every nuance of the source, it's always a tradeoff. you can try to sound idiomatic in the target language, you can risk sounding plain or go for more approximate but lively expressions, or conversely you can go for something that doesn't sound like something a native speaker would write but develops a particular 'work in translation' cadence ("it can't be helped") which is worthwhile in its own right. you can even laboriously explain every missing nuance. there's no need to be dogmatic either - you can adopt a blend of strategies depending on what you think is most important.

the idea of a single 'correct' translation is an illusion. a translation is a new work designed to communicate as much as it can about the original. and if you don't have enough facility in the original language to follow along, the next-best thing is to have multiple translations that capture different facets according to what's picked up by different translators. and if you do know enough of the source language to pick up on an especially creative translation, that's a delightful thing.

this seems to be well understood in like, classics or philosophy, where it's reasonably common to produce new translations of a work. in translating modern media like anime... less so. I feel like it's a huge shame that original fansubs are made much less often today, and that so many arguments about translation seem to assume there must be one strict orthodoxy about the right way to translate. broadly speaking that orthodoxy has shifted - today the handful of still-active fansub groups like Good Job Media look with derision at the 't/n: keikaku means plan' past, and heavily prefer idiomatic translations.

is it ever 'necessary' to include honorifics when translating Japanese? probably not, you can probably find circumlocutions when they matter (e.g. have the characters argue about using titles). is that the 'best' way to translate? depends on your audience and what you want to communicate to them.

for example, in English, there's not really a 'thing you routinely say you routinely say before eating' as there is in many other languages. if we do say something before eating together, we'd probably use a loanword like bon appetit, but that would be rare and probably come across as a bit pretentious. in Japanese by contrast, people say いただきます itadakimasu as a standard ritual before-eating phrase. translators come up with all sorts of substitutions to try and find a substitute that sounds natural in English, potentially breaking the 'translate line by line' convention to insert something from elsewhere in the scene in the subtitle for itadakimasu.

and like, my feeling (from the stance of 'Japanese learner who watches a lot of anime') would be that if I knew most of my viewers would know at least that little bit of Japanese (and if they're downloading it from a fansubbing site, they probably do), I would just leave it untranslated. but leaving はい untranslated as in the above meme would be silly, because a good translation is simple and obvious (though 'yes' is not always a correct translation for はい!). however, I appreciate that there are various takes on this. it's fun to see the different ways people will translate いただきます! it becomes like a game. (the scene in Your Name where a bodyswapped character has to figure out the right personal pronoun is another fun one.)

so in this frame, I think translation targeting specific accents and dialects is really cool, because it can draw out all sorts of fascinating parallels. for example, the sentence ending particle ね is kind of like ', right?' - indicating that you think the speaker already knows what you're saying and you're looking for agreement/confirmation. it's a very common particle in Japanese, and it has a bit of a feminine connotation. how does that compare to the british slang 'innit'? or indeed the Singaporean 'lah'? you'd probably figure out a bunch about Japanese, British English and Singlish by thinking through when it would make sense to translate ね as 'innit', and likewise for 'lah'!

[shin-meddlesome-hero]

Some of my notes from watching Zeta Gundam very, very slowly (up until ep. 34)

(Needless to say that it contains spoilers and that I get very annoying about the female characters because that's my thing)

-I'm 6 episodes into Zeta Gundam and I still don't know what to make of Kamille. On the other hand, it took me a look at some screenshots of SD Gundam Kamille to know that I'd die for him.

-I was very surprised to see Kamille openly declaring that he's autistic. Why don't we have more of that?

-20 episodes in, now (watching v. slowly). So... Z isn't exactly that great about women... right? 0079 left me gladly surprised on that front, but my expectations were super low. Maybe I should turn off that part of my brain while watching this.

- I hate to say this about a female character but so far Beltorchika is so annoying. Wake up, sis! You can't fix the dude, you barely know him! He's not opening up to you, and please leave the 15 year old out of your problems with Amuro!

-"I learned karate and how to make Mobile Suits to become a man!". Kamille isn't beating the transmasc allegations /J

-It makes sense that Kamille resents her mother for apparently caring more about her job than her family, but this does speak more of that general anxiety about women in the workplace than of anything else. Might be a common cliché at the time, still don't like it.

-She's allowed to be a terrible mom, but maybe for other more nuanced reasons? Also the fact that Kamille mentions that Fa made things that his mother should've done for him... it's gonna be really awkward if Kamille/Fa is the endgame ship.

-So, if both Kamille's parents were responsible for the development of the MK-II, then when he fights in it, one can say that his parents are still protecting him. On the other hand, we could also consider the MK-II as Kamille's little br- *gets shot*

-Ep 21: The titular Zeta Gundam appears. -Male Feminist guy is creepy. -Bright has the vibes of an exhausted High School teacher. - Fa rescues Kamille in space. This two are soo endgame

-Bright: Emma, you should do something about Kamille and Fa. Emma: Nah. I'm not Kamille's mom, besides, teens like to make drama as a form of recreation.

Emma is so cool. (Also, she and Reccoa should kiss)

-If there's a fanfic out there about Bright Noah being a clueless high school teacher/principal, please let me know. That's like the perfect AU for him.

-Girls can also fuck up in the battlefield and get slapped as a form of military disciplinary tactic! Hashtag equality. (But seriously though, I wasn't expecting Fa to become a pilot. Interesting).

-In the comment section of the dubious site where I'm watching this show, people are saying that Zeta is ahead of its time. And yeah, in many aspects it is. On the other hand it took Gundam 40+ years to have a girl protag. Suletta Mercury should've been invented like 30 or 20 years ago.

-Meanwhile, Scirocco is high-key trying to get Jerid killed and failing. They're both huge losers.

-Also, Kamille is slowly and steadily growing on me.

-Kamille becomes more mature and thoughtful. - The story brings Katz to be the new impulsive boy who fucks everything up. -Katz matures after a couple of episodes. -Now there's a pair of annoying kids whose only purpose is to awake Fa's maternal instinct (???) It never ends!

-On the other hand, I did enjoy those five seconds where Quattro was babysitting those kids. Would've preferred more of that.

-I love that in-universe everyone refers to teenage drama as "recreation". Even Kamille at some point admits that he and Fa are engaging in such recreation. At least their relationship is evolving in a healthier way than Amuro and Fraw's in 0079.

-Between Reccoa possibly having feelings for Scirocco and Mauar protecting Jerid, it's evident that in this universe everyone suffers from having Bad Taste in Men. Y'all could do better, queens!

-Also everyone punches and slaps each other so much. And it's not a love language. It's just another language that everyone just use. (There's even a punch compilation in tumblr, it's hilarious).

-I really hope to eventually get an explanation of what's up with those kids that Char brought from Earth, because so far their only purpose is to fuel Fa's maternal instincts.

-Episode 33! We're finally meeting those funny guys from Axis. This is also full of high quality Char moments.

-*Char has flashbacks of him playing with toddler!Mineva and also gets angry when he realizes how much they have manipulated her* Aww, daddy Char.

* Char unnecesarily beats the crap out of Kamille, five minutes later* Hey! What the hell, Char?!

-Char: "I have never betrayed anyone in my entire life! Ever!

lol, a classic.

-Help! Char is starting to have a similar effect on me as the one that other horrible and pathetic fictional white men have on tumblrinas.

-Seriously though, if UC Gundam were more popular in the western hemisphere, Char Aznable would totally be a Tumblr Sexyman. *shudders*

-Me: I see, so Reccoa actually has a death wish, she recklessly jumps into the battlefield on a desperate attempt to find her own demise, but she doesn't know it.

Z Gundam: Actually Scirocco is brainwashing her with space magic and she's sexually frustrated with Char.

Wha-?

-Reccoa has so many death flags that I'm always surprised whenever she survives. Her fake "death" and its consequences were really well done. I particularly liked Kamille's reaction.

-Maybe the most effective death flag in Zeta is being close to Jerid. That's more letal than the birthday song or being near Amuro's range.

And that's all for now. Join me next time as I try to watch Z less slowly so I might be able to watch "Char's Counterattack" before Christmas 2023.

[lullabycurses]

E-Gothic Conformity: The Horror of the Algorithm (Part ??/??)

(x)

Hey Ghouls! Been a While!

Today I'm going to talk about something I've been telling my friends about (though with no nuance, so they always look at my like I've got three heads! Arguably not a bad thing...) for probably the last year. That is... This new, almost obsessive behavior... with conformity. I've mostly seen this on "The Tiktoks" and "The Reels", so this is totally connected with structurally oppressive preferences of the Algorithm.

This may need to be in two parts; Here I know I want to write a big regretfulesc love letter to my community, which even though I adore... I cannot help but feel afraid for the future. I also don't feel like finding sources this time

TW for mentions of ED and Racism

It's no secret that the algorithm pushes videos with thin white people who (seemingly!) overconsume off of websites like Dolls Kill and Shein, or even sites like Depop. There's obviously nothing to feel guilty about with buying things that you need (I've covered this in a past post).

But, I worry about the future of the community. I've seen baby bats ask if they are still goth if they don't wear a white face, I've seen creators tight-lace their corsets so tightly that they could receive bodily damage. I worry about those who develop eating disorders to fit this standard. I also worry about those who believe they have to hide their skin color to be apart of our extremely diverse community. I worry about people who feel that they need to buy into this mass amount of overconsumption to feel "goth enough".

The truth is, this is an arts-based subculture- you can do anything you want with it. It is necessary that we keep our fondness of Life as a cycle, all aspects of death are within that. Within life there is death and within that, there is death, in an endless cycle. But IMO it's more of a prompt than anything, Goth is The People.

But enough of that talk, I mean, I have a whole post (which I should probably update as new information comes to light) about it!

I think that a lot of this prioritizing looking as thin and as pale as possible is really dangerous. I know that it's under this guise of looking "dead, sickly, or ghoulish", but that's honestly such bull. We can look at gothic artist Tim Burton's reasons for his exclusion within his "aesthetic".

Not to mention this criticizing article on Wednesday! (From the Independent)

So, "Get on with it!" I hear you say.

Alright, alright. What does this mean for the future of the goth community? I mean, the culture of each social media garbage app is entirely different. Tiktok is kind of a deep pit that I avoid like the plague for how addictive it is (only for myself to replace it with reels). Instagram reels is honestly the place i have the most beef with.

There's this huge uptick in people minimizing what goth is (some of these people aren't even goths!).

They're the ones who are lowkey hierarchal assholes who think that Trad goth is the only form of gothic expression. (Like these dudes haven't read any gothic literature, written any annoying poetry, contemplated religion, spoken to a goth, or even been to a cemetery!)

So, TLDR, if we are not anti-white supremacist about this whole thing, we could see the next generation fall into consumerist patterns favoring whiteness over the beauty of gothic art.

As always, Thanks for reading!

Let me know if I'm missing anything, or if I should spend more time researching this topic!

Song recommendation; I have been obsessing over this band recently! Genre is like darkwave-alternative rock I suppose.

-Cat (Catofthenine)

[thenationaltreasuregazette]

Really?? Nicolas Cage and the Art of Weirdness

It’s kind of strange that Nicolas Cage is the star of National Treasure, right? Tame, family-friendly Disney flicks aren’t exactly his brand.

While the casting still strikes me as an odd choice sometimes, I am eternally, supremely, primordially grateful that he took the role of Ben Gates.

As I touched on while discussing Abigail’s Accent, National Treasure isn’t a film with a lot of subtly or nuance. At least, it wasn’t going to be until it slowly morphed throughout production, as giant collaborative projects tend to do.

Just like Diane Kruger brought nuance and depth to the role of Abigail Chase through both her acting choices and the presence of her accent, Nicolas Cage transformed Ben Gates from a generic action-adventure hero into something far superior: an awkward, obsessive forty year old man.

To fully appreciate the Nic Cage of it all, let’s begin with what the role looked like before he signed on.

More ↓

For those unfamiliar, there’s a version of the National Treasure script available online that’s dated from the month before Cage signed on as the lead. It’s hugely fascinating in the ways it’s the same as, and also wildly different from, the finished film. You can read more about it here.

Age

The first major effect casting had was changing Ben’s age. In the 2003 script he’s introduced as

…intrepid explorer BEN GATES(late 20s, strong family resemblance)

Obviously Nic Cage was not in his late 20s in 2004. Born in 1964, he was 39/40 when the film shot and 40 by the time it came out.

We know from Ben Gates’ drivers license that his character is supposed to be 39 in the first film, as his birthday is shown as May 1965. Why the one year difference? Hollywood is allergic to people over 40. Next question.

So, Ben went from a 20-something to a (basically) 40 year old man. And that changed the story in a few subtle but important ways.

First, it makes Ben’s quest take on a different flavor. To be in your late 20s and still chasing a pipe dream is not that unusual or socially unacceptable. People in their 20s do stupid, impulsive, risky things. They are socially ‘allowed’ to be a mess. At 40, not so much. Ben’s peers have houses and families and kids who need to be taken to soccer practice.

This makes a difference to me because it emphasizes the desperation of Ben’s quest, and his absolutely unwavering belief in the treasure. It also paints a starker contrast between Ben and his father, because when Patrick was 29 he was still gallivanting around treasure hunting too. By the time Patrick was the age Ben is now, he had disavowed treasure hunting and “grown up” into a normal life. But Ben just won’t let go. The older Ben gets, the less hope Patrick has that he will eventually grow out of it. At 29 that kind of hope would still feel possible for his son. At 39, it probably doesn’t.

Hotness

I’m so sorry that we have to talk about this, but we do.

Ben Gates was clearly written to be played by a hot young actor. That’s hot as in popular, and also as in sexy.* A typically implausibly fit and handsome leading man. This is evidenced not only by his age, but by the two (2) shirtless scenes written for Ben in the 2003 script.

Ben Gates is supposed to be hot.

And Nicolas Cage is...I'm not going to say "not hot," lord knows I'm on the being-normal-about-that-old-man webbed site but sex appeal not the primary reason you cast him.

What Nic Cage is know for is being weird.

*I’m aroace and vaguely sapphic, help me I don’t know what I’m doing here.

Weirdness

Weird. Eccentric. Zany. Over-the-top. Melodramatic.

These are the qualities Nicolas Cage is famous for, but they aren’t qualities the role of Ben Gates necessarily calls for. In fact, too far in any of these directions, and the performance could push an already implausible movie over the edge into farce. We wouldn’t take Ben or his quest seriously enough to get invested in the story.

But Nicolas Cage knew that. For as absurd as the iconic “I’m gonna steal the Declaration of Independence” line is, it's the premise that's ridiculous, not the performance. This isn’t the place to find one of Cage's signature zany performances. Search any number of "Craziest Nicolas Cage performances" lists and National Treasure won't rank. He tones it down enough that Ben feels like a rather grounded person in an over-the-top story.

However, he doesn’t tone it down completely, and that is so important.

The little places where Cage lets a hint of his signature weirdness flicker through round out Ben as a character, and give him more (or at least a different flavor of) nuance than he might have had in other hands, particularly if he were cast and played as a typically suave and macho leading man.

Case Study (Cage Study?)

Let’s look at this line from the 2003 script. This is what the FBI has to say when they’re searching Ben’s apartment.

AGENT JOHNSON Profilers say we're looking at an adult male, a loner, has a high IQ but has never been able to hold down a job, is socially inept, has probably written numerous letters to the White House expressing antigovernment sentiments. We're expecting him to contact us shortly with ransom demands.

This line is supposed to show us how off the mark the FBI is in their theory. The joke is that they’re all wrong about Ben.

Except, are they?

In this version of the script, every one of these items after “adult male” is incorrect.

Ben’s not a loner; he’s been working with Riley for 7 years.

He hasn’t not been able to hold down a job, he’s been salvage diving and treasure hunting consistently.

He’s not socially inept; he’s a ladies man. We hear multiple references to past girlfriends, and of course there’s Patrick’s assumption that Abigail's pregnant.

And obviously he hasn’t expressed anti-government sentiment and has no plans to ransom the Declaration, even in exchange for his own freedom.

What I want to argue here is that with the casting of Nicolas Cage, most of these false assumptions about Ben became true, at least a little bit. Of course there were many forces at work shaping the final tone and content of the film, but all of them—writing, directing, acting, costume design, etc—became oriented around fitting this character to the man playing him.

Loner

In the final film, Ben is a bit of a loner. He doesn’t seem to have known Riley for that long, and he immediately gets betrayed by the only other person he’s close to. His status as an outsider is emphasized by the fact that he and his family have been ostracized from the historical community.

In the 2003 script, this element isn’t present and Ben gives a fake name for other reasons. We also meet his landlady, whom he’s very kind to, and hear about at least one former girlfriend. In short, we get a sense of the web of people in Ben’s life outside of the treasure hunt. In the final film, Ben is seemingly much more isolated.

Job

We also get no evidence about Ben’s job. The 2003 script makes multiple references to Ben working as a salvage diver, which might not be what he hopes for, but it is a clear profession. In the final movie we only get reference to Ben being trained at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, which implies that he’s qualified to work at a salvage diver, but gives no indication that this is what he regularly does for work.

We also have Patrick saying:

PATRICK I have a job, a house, health insurance. What do you have?

The contrast makes it clear that Ben doesn’t have any kind of consistent job. Now, my guess is he does still work salvage jobs in this version, and that’s how he affords his apartment and the other things he needs to keep treasure hunting, but it’s never directly mentioned.

As to why he doesn’t hold down a job, the obvious answer is that it would interfere with his relentless pursuit of the Charlotte and the Templar Treasure. It makes sense that he simply chooses not to keep a consistent job because that’s not compatible with his goals. However, I want to raise the possibility that Ben would struggle to hold down a job even if he tried. If, say, he needed some expensive new diving equipment and took a several months long “normal” job in order to afford it, I think he’d be constantly distracted by the treasure and might quit and/or get fired the next time he needed to dash off on a lead.

Socially inept

Likewise, in the final movie, Ben is charming and clever and all the things a leading man is supposed to be, and also awkward and fairly socially clueless.

On the Charlotte he seems surprised that Ian and his guys turn out to be armed criminals, so either he was so desperate for resources and support to continue the hunt that he’s in denial or he’s very bad at reading people. Or at least, very bad at reading Ian. Maybe both. (There’s also the matter of his very poor attempt at bluffing in this scene.)

He’s awkward with Abigail in their meeting in her office, and even more awkward giving the toast. She even points out to him that he says the poetic things that are on his mind even though most people know they're not supposed to do that.

Then of course we have the “cavalier in my personal life” exchange, which I plan to dig into in depth at a later time, but for now let’s leave it at: Ben is not always on the same page as the people he’s in relationships with.

And there’s the very strange reading of the line “really?” after Ben and Abigail survive the collapsing staircase sequence. He’s amazed that he’s met someone who would also prioritize a historical artifact over personal safety, and he delivers the line just…weirdly.

Conclusion

He’s weird! (affectionate)

Ben Gates is a weird guy!

By the final film, Ben Gates had become a hybrid of the thing he was always supposed to be—a suave, swashbuckling hero—and the thing he was not supposed to be—a weirdo outcast on the fringes of society.

To draw a comparison to another popular Disney adventure flick that came out the year before: Ben was supposed to be the Will Turner of National Treasure, the hunky young underdog who always gets the girl. By casting Nicolas Cage and letting him bring a little history and a little weirdness to the role, Ben Gates ended up edging just a liiiiiiittle bit into Jack Sparrow territory as well.

He occupies both spaces, and I think that duality serves to deepen his character and make him far more interesting than if he was a straight-forward action-adventure hero.

Hooray for weird middle-aged men.

[prettyrealm]

i love ur blog fr… one of my least favorite things about the tarot community (not just kpop) is how some people alter or water down their readings (or just aren’t perceptive enough) so that their content is more positive and validating for consumability… and the people who choose to be honest and direct get ate up 😭 divination can be harsh. idk why people are here expecting validation or only positive things. most of these idols are not nice!!

if you want a romantic story and enjoy living in denial, go to ao3!! wattpad or something?? y’all are looking for fanfiction. there are soooo many writing blogs on this site.

and i also have soooo much beef with like, pop culture tarot readings on youtube and tiktok that are clearlyyyyyy not too good in quality, but people eat it up blindly because it tells them things that they like to hear and never anything critical. i have a theory about that being one of the reasons why people assume honest readers have bad intentions or are hating on people. i don’t think people realize just how common it is to read on someone and get the vibe that they’re shitty in some capacity, or not even having to rely on intuition and to be directly told that there is something off about someone. idols aren’t usually any better than the average person, and the average person usually has bad traits. period. some are worse than the average person.

also… i have a problem with how it’s seen as perfectly fine to share the positive traits we’re able to pick up on through tarot, but sharing the negatives is seen as invasive?? like girl either it’s all invasive or none of it lmaooo. you’re okay consuming content that makes you feel like you’d be attractive to someone or reading about what their personality is like, but it’s too much when that same person says that they’d potentially be a bigot or have issues with stuff like anger? that’s when it’s too much??? 😭😭

Thank you so much for stopping by to show love!! I really appreciate your perspective and agree with pretty much everything you’ve said. 🩷

People were shocked by @dreamofmetoday and l’s ideal type readings being so specific and descriptive and we didn’t get why until we tapped in with other peoples readings and realized most are just saying very vague things or just things that EVERYONE is looking for in a partner (for example, kind, sympathetic, loyal) or just things that make it easy to self-insert in general. I think the self-insert aspect is a main reason people put such an emphasis on only focusing on the positive.

I also get asks demanding I tell them how I get such specific and detailed answers when it comes to things like homophobia/race/misogyny whatever, and it’s like, that’s just how it works? Makes me wish more people would get into tarot themselves so they could see.

The “romantic love story” crossover stuff that you mentioned is why I think you’ll often come across readings, and even PACs, on here that are like a wattpad story. like you said, many readers know there’s a large audience for this. For example when it comes to PACs, 3 pile PACs are a very quick and easy way to get followers and likes, but overall don’t exert a lot of energy and limit the amount of people who can actually connect with the PAC but then each pile will be filled with nuance, details and specifics and the reader is able to just say, “take what resonates and leave what doesn’t” to get away with it. How is someone even supposed to know what truly resonates and what doesn’t for a future spouse reading anyway? Not to mention, how can these readers suddenly get so much detail for a random pac and then not in their other readings or personal readings? There’s just a lot of predatory behavior in the tarot community unfortunately (thank you to melody’s anon for helping us label this finally too), and in turn, it creates a huge misunderstanding of what to expect from readings when you know nothing about tarot.

Not saying all 3 pile PACs are bad of course btw, because that would be ridiculous. There are of course situations where the 3 pile format makes sense, but a lot of them on here are just baiting.

In regards to positives being welcomed with open arms and negatives being considered invasive, it’s literally just nonsensical and honestly, a little weird (often the result of fetishization or idolization etc. so to say this under the pretense of high morals is odd… to say the least). I’ve seen people say things like “who are readers to decide what’s a negative?” when that’s literally not the case, it’s not a case of the reader “deciding” anything, I’m literally asking specifically about the negative traits. It makes me wonder what questions other readers are actually asking in the first place to even come to the conclusion that we would assigning these traits ourselves. Or the argument that “humans are multifaceted so we shouldn’t assign them blah blah blah” like… yeah… duh they’re multifaceted, which is why there’s literally a positives section? It just seems like they reach for excuses to defend their main point that the negatives of these men’s personalities just shouldn’t be acknowledged. It almost makes me feel like some people make these blogs to even improve their idols overall image on a smaller scale or have more control of the perception of it.

I really LOVE how you said “it’s either all invasive or none of it is” because that’s something Melody and I talk about together all the time. Their love lives and “kinks” aren’t invasive topics, but everything that could ruin someone’s fantasy about an idol is. In the end, you’re only allowed to post readings that let you daydream about being their best friend, boyfriend or girlfriend with no complications or obstacles I guess lol. Thanks again for sending this ask! It was really cool to unpack this and see that there’s a reader/follower on the same page. 🩷

[naryrising]

Are you still an AO3 Support volunteer? I was wondering why AO3 doesn't allow sorting bookmarks by word count? And whether anyone has suggested this as a future improvement to potentially work towards?

Yes, I am. And yes, they have. I mean this in the nicest possible way, dear anon, but nearly everything has been suggested. We have support requests going back over a decade, we know with great confidence what changes and improvements users would like. (Even if we weren't all regular users of the site who know, based on our own experience, what features it would be nice to have!) We get about 50-75 support tickets per day on an average day currently, and maybe a quarter of them are suggesting something we could do to improve the site. So imagine maybe 10 or 20 suggestions per day, every day, for the past decade - they wind up repeating a lot of the same things. Adding sorting and filtering options to bookmarks, subscriptions, history, marked for later are some of the most common requests.

I will explain, in brief and simplified terms, why this isn't something that is easily done (please believe me that if it was easy and not a huge strain on the site, something this useful and desirable would have been done by now.) I am not a coder or systems volunteer so there could be greater nuances to what I'm saying here, but this is the gist as I understand it: When you look at a work on AO3 (if you think about it from the technical end at all), you probably think about it as one thing - there's a record in a database of this work and its relevant info (things like how many words and chapters it has, what tags does it use, its title, its author, its kudos and comments, etc.), and everything else (bookmarks, history, subscriptions, etc.) revolves around that. But bookmarks are in a totally different database from works. A bookmark of a work is not a copy of that work. It doesn't include all the information about the work. A bookmark of a work includes some info about the bookmark, like the date you created it - these are things you can sort by. One thing it doesn't include is the word count of the work. To allow users to sort bookmarks by word count, we would need to add that to the information that is stored in the bookmark record. Store that information for the currently somewhere upwards of one billion bookmarks, and make sure it updates every time a work's word count changes. It would be a big change to the way bookmarks are stored, and a lot of extra data to keep track of.

Adding a filter to something (history, subscriptions, etc.) is not just a question of slapping a sidebar filter on the page and suddenly it's finished - the data on the backend is what's being sorted and filtered, and that involves some very heavy lifting on the part of the Archive. Remember that it's not just your own personal bookmarks that would be filtered - it would be applied to every user's account, and all their bookmarks, over a billion of them. The history table, last time I checked, had fourteen billion items in it (i.e. fourteen billion views of pages recorded for individual users). Adding additional sorting and filtering for fourteen billion items is... a lot. Even for one billion bookmarks, it's a lot. Adding the current bookmark filters was a huge effort that caused notable site performance issues until it was finished and tweaked and improved. So any additional filtering capabilities would need to be very carefully weighed and evaluated for impact on the Archive more broadly. I won't say it's impossible or that it'll never happen, but it would be a large undertaking that could place considerable strain on the site.

[behindthewox]

World of 波特 [pinyin: bōtè]

In case you missed it, WoP is expanding with a server in Chinese! That makes sense since it's a HUGE market that you'd definitely want to get into, but what doesn't make sense is the way it's being handled at the moment.

Unlike all the other WoP servers in other languages the ordinary rules don't seem to apply. Usually the site leaders must be natives/native speakers and it's up to them to hire staff and teachers that know and use the language for their content. Everything must be written in the server's language and it has to be original material. You can't just copy from other sources, that's plagiarism and we have rules against that.

The Chinese server is set to launch January 29th, and a message has been sent out to fill the teacher positions. It outright says (I'm paraphrasing slightly) "you don't need to know Chinese, just use google translate and chat GPT to cover the minimal text requirements" (i.e. PT/BS and answering owls, maybe say hi in the chat). The message also makes clear that it's only temporary until they find actual native Chinese speakers that will fill the positions, and the newly implemented job limits don't apply here.

I can understand that it's hard to find native Chinese speakers within our current WoX community, and Chinese isn't just one language: it exists in many variants, Standard Chinese being the most common in China followed by Standard Mandarin and Cantonese in Asia (source: quick wikipedia research, I'm not an expert, don't quote me on this). In a way it makes sense to create something temporary to start with and then build from, but this doesn't feel right. This feels shoddy and disrespectful, using google translate for an entire website. Chinese is one of the most ancient languages in the world still spoken today, and like all other languages it's complex and nuanced beyond google translate.

It makes you wonder if the people who decided to launch a Chinese WoP server really thought things through. Troubleshooting and consequence analysis is important, and we've got plenty of people in the WoX community who could volunteer to do just that. We have so many experienced people who know exactly what to look out for and what to expect, what they'd personally consider red flags in a website and what they'd want to see as a user.

We don't have the full insight in what goes on in the creation of this new server, but looking at it from the outside a lot of us agree that it doesn't look good and we have concerns: Are the lessons copied from existing sites and just translated, and if so: do they have permission to use the content? Are the lessons just AI-generated? Who is going to translate all the Harry Potter-specific words and terminology (google translate doesn't do fictional concepts like polyjuice potion). Is this a serious attempt to expand the WoP family or is it a desperate attempt to get new users that will generate more income for the company?

If anyone knows, please share! Asks is open, and so is post submissions.

[note: yes, I googled "Chinese for Harry Potter" for the post title and that makes me a hypocrite, but in my opinion singular words and phrases is fine to translate by manually looking it up on the internet. What's not okay is running an entire text-based RP website through google translate and expect it to maintain a good quality. Spoiler: it does not.] [additional note: I could write a lot more but I won't, at least not in this post. There is more to be said though.]

[atotaltaitaitale]

.

It was a gold medal in my book… from start to finish and everything in between.

Warning: it’s very long. I know this is the era of short format and 30-sec attention spans…but please indulge me and read on. Thank you 🥰

What it is like to host a woldwide event under the microscope of the new social media phenomenon?

I feel like this is the first Olympic Games that is being held where social media and more specifically with the rise of TikTok during the Covid-19 pandemic are so prevalent in our daily lives. Of course pictures were shared on Instagram and Facebook for previous Olympic Games but the big change this time around is the mini video format of TikTok where everyone has become a “reporter” (not to use the term “influencer”) and as such gets to reach a worldwide audience with their personal opinions in an under 1-minute format. Opinions that become trends and in order to get views (and maybe even a monetary compensation) it is clear that “click-baits” are the way to go. Our brains have been hardwired through evolution to focus on the negative, and when adding to the mix Frenchbashing and France’s national sport of complaining you then get the perfect storm for what seemed to transpire in the news. The negative effect is a cognitive bias that says something very positive will generally have less of an impact on a person’s behavior and cognition than something equally emotional but negative. Negative draws more attention. The internet empowers weak people to vent crap, we all need to pay less attention to the opinions of others that have zero connection to you. However if you get away from yellow journalism or sensationalized headlines you get maybe a more nuanced picture of the games. Dare I say a lot more positive, borderline enthusiastic.

Now the core of the Olympics. The brief: “Make It Iconic”. And wow did they deliver!!

For months and in true French spirit I heard and read the most negative comments about the Olympics : it was going to be a disaster, we will be the laughing stock of the world, I’m leaving the city to avoid the chaos, etc etc. In truth it’s always the same scenario : a country of naysayers and then each and every time we pull ourselves together and we party like there is no tomorrow. It happened with football (soccer) and rugby championship… just this year! Since the Olympic cauldron was lit, every site in Paris has turned into powerfully vibey, unapologetically French summer party. There was no scenario where I wouldn’t be in town for at least some of the events; and it turned out that we stayed the whole time. How often do you get to live in the heart of the city hosting the Olympic Games? Well turned out twice for us: first Beijing2008 then Paris2024. The chaos of the pre-game preparation is part of the hassle of hosting but walking around the city in the past few months and seeing the infrastructure being erected in the heart of the city, while I recognize could be disruptive to some, I could see the vision of the Olympic committee. I personally was certain it was going to be amazingly breathtaking and it didn’t disappoint.

Refurbishing existing landmarks is the smartest Olympic investment and they have turned each event into a love song to France - brilliant marketing for tourists, as well as investment for the future. Even though France has topped the list of the most visited country in the world for at least the last 3 decades, with a staggering 100 millions visitors in 2023. France has earned gold by every measure. Every Parisian who dared to stay in Paris this summer will tell you the same thing: they have never enjoyed the city as much as this past few weeks. The people are joyful, the sports venues are iconic, the monuments are shining, the traffic is almost inexistant, the subway is even working well. Tourists mentioned how well organized it is, how the city is calm and relaxed, people are happy and dancing... these games are a huge success. Everything is amazingly on time, safe, clean, no lines, no wait times, no wrong seating, no confusion. Rude Paris service might even just be a myth. The haters can keep whining on social media, it won't change a thing!

I had a very unique way of choosing events to attend. I chose the venues over the disciplines. I wanted to experience the games in the heart of the city with breathtaking background as I don’t have a favorite sport or root for a particular team (well apart for Team France mostly!). So I chose Stade Tour Eiffel, and it just happened that Beach Volleyball was the sport (I even got to see a game with the France team and even the USA team by chance). I did the same with Stade Les Invalides and saw Archery, Stade Concorde and saw amazing young women athletes in skateboarding. I went all the way in the suburbs to go see water polo (again by chance the French team and the USA team played) at the only purpose-built for the Olympics infrastructure Centre Aquatique Saint Denis. I will get to go to the Grand Palais (one of my favorite monument in Paris) for the Paralympics and also Stade de France for Para Track & Fields, as prices were a lot more reasonable and I’m a big advocate of the paralympics. Roland Garros with wheelchair tennis and Paris Arena with para swimming (didn’t make it to Taylor concert so at least I can see how they build a swimming pool where a stage was just a few months prior!!!) are also on my list of places I will be for the paralympics.

The organizing committee had committed to using 95% of existing or temporary venues, which aligns with their vision of promoting responsible event production and reducing the environmental impact. They were the very first Olympic Games with full gender parity, because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allocated 50 per cent of the quota places to female athletes and 50 per cent to male athletes for a total of 10,500 competitors. Countries were encouraged to have a female and male flag bearer. Parity was there even in the lighting of the flame. The last event of the Olympics was also switched from the Men Marathon to the Women Marathon. Holding the women’s marathon after the men’s event, bringing the Games to a close, is hugely symbolic. Especially with the marathon, because women struggled for a long time to be able to take part. The route itself recognized a key moment from the French Revolution: the Women’s March on Versailles on 5 October 1789 when market women shopkeepers and workers from popular quarters gathered in front of the Hotel de Ville in Paris to demand bread and arms. Between 6,000 and 7,000 Parisian women marched through Paris to Versailles to bring the king back to the Tuileries Garden. That day, Louis XVI finally agreed to ratify the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens.

Providing people in France with an outstanding Games experience has always been Paris 2024's ambition. With the Marathon pour Tous (Mass Participation Marathon), amateur athletes were able to run the same route as the Olympic marathon enabling people to follow in the footsteps of outstanding athletes. In line with the parity of the games 20,024 participants (half women and half men) got to run during the night of Saturday and an additional 20,024 participants (again half women, half men) got to run a 10k route. A truly amazing addition to this year Olympics. With the Olympic Cauldron, which has always remained on the ground in the past, the committee decided to pay tribute to French pioneers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, who invented the Montgolfier-style hot air balloon, so the Cauldron was designed as part of a hot air balloon. The Olympic cauldron reflects the organizers' desire to place the Games and their symbols at the center of life in the capital, making the Olympic flame visible to all and contributing to the Olympic fervor in Paris. The golden balloon and cauldron sits in the Tuileries Gardens and it is sent a hundred feet up in the air every day at sunset. In 1783, the Mongolfier balloon took off from the Tuileries in front of 400,000 spectators and in the 1790s, the first-ever aerostiers brigade, the French Air Force’s hot air balloon corps, did its earliest hydrogen experiments in the Tuileries next to the Louvre.

Multiple other French rituals were also added to this Olympics. For example at the start of each sporting event, three blows are given to the floor, in the manner of theatrical tradition; these three strokes of the brigadier (the stick) are a way of combining sport and theater, and paying tribute to France's cultural tradition. In addition to the cultural symbolism, this tradition is intended to impose a certain solemn and ceremonial dimension on the event, emphasizing the importance of respecting the athletes' performances and is intended to create a strong bond between spectators and athletes. These three strokes are a reminder that each event is a unique performance that deserves the public's attention and respect. Another fun ritual is the restored bell from Notre Dame that hadn't been rung since the fire that damaged it in 2019. It has Paris 2024 engraved on it and gold medalists get to ring it and forever leave their mark on the famous city when the Games conclude, as the bell is moving to its new home at Notre Dame when the cathedral's renovations are complete.

But we cannot finish a post about Paris 2024 without addressing the elephant in the room i.e. the Opening Ceremony.

Before I start, it was so disappointing that the weather decided to turn ugly after days of sunshine just as the ceremony was starting and if you looked at a weather map during the event you would have seen that the rain was located only above Paris. But C’est la Vie!

From my French point of view seeing it in France, having just moved back here after 25+ years abroad, and after talking to many friends from different countries, the French TV commentators gave a lot more explanation during the ceremony so even if you didn’t necessarily have all the cultural references you could follow along and get it. I think it would have generated a lot less controversy if international TV commentators had had some knowledge or at least some guidelines, but then it would have spoiled the surprise if leaked before the ceremony. Just my 2 cents. Every host country tries to inject their own culture into the opening ceremony. As a reference I feel we got a different point of view of the Beijing Olympic Opening ceremony in 2008 because we lived there and understood the culture a little more than average Jo on TV and it’s true for each country. We just went a little above average… because well we are French ;-)

The opening was a mixture of references to history, culture, sport, music and, last but not least, the current issues. It carried a strong political message. All that on the backdrop of the City of Light with its plethora of buildings, parcs, spaces and the majestic Seine. It may have been tough to catch every nod to a book, character, painting or song during the event. The French have put a lot of thoughts into the significance of the olympics and of their country. It’s sad that it got nitpicked and focused to one or two scenes.

But we also have to talk a little about confirmation bias: this is our tendency as humans to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with our existing beliefs. This means if we read something or hear something that lines up with what we already think, then we are all in, often no questions asked. And then we may just hold on to our bias for dear life. “It’s a mockery of the Last Supper” may fit in really well with our confirmation bias for example if we are already feeling persecuted or believe we are being attacked. So when we hear that it wasn’t based on “The Last Supper” at all and instead on Greek mythology “Feast of Dionysus” painted by Jan Harmensz between 1635-1640 in France and hung in the Magnin Museum in Dijon, which makes more sense in reality since it links a piece of art located in France with Greece and the theme of opulence, we still have a really hard time stepping away from what we read or believe about the Last Supper. We may dig in and hold on explaining away all the things that don’t line up. We may choose to think everything that doesn’t fit with our bias is false, even if it comes directly from a source that should be given credit, for example the people who planned it! This is normal brain behavior and we all do it. I don’t care what “side” you are on, your brain does this. The trick is to know it and help your brain do better.

At the same time I know it can be hard for foreigners to understand all the messages this ceremony tried to convey. The title of the opening ceremony was “Ca Ira” (meaning it’s going to be ok) it’s a revolutionary song. The opening ceremony has the power to change people’s minds. Even though we are facing great challenges, “Ça ira”. The ceremony was created like a theater play by one of the greatest French theater directors of his generation, Thomas Jolly. They scripted it like a play to take you on an amazing journey from point A to Z. The ceremony took place in the city and unfortunately in the rain! It was spectacular. Axelle Saint-Cirel, a French Black woman, sang the French national anthem. In these times in our country, this is bold.

One of the best comments I read online: “Reading opening ceremony hot takes makes me think a lot of y’all have never heard of the French and their French ways”. It also reminded me of something I heard a while back “the French do not care what you think of them. You are not the main character here.”

Paris is, and always has been, a city of romance, excess, and toppling authority.

Also one must remember the Latin phrase used as the motto of the city of Paris: ‘Fluctuat nec mergitur” “tossed by the waves but does not sink”

The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will go down in history for their stunning venues in the heart of Paris and across France, their focus on sustainability and legacy, and the record-breaking performances by athletes from the territories of 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the Refugee Olympic Team. Media Rights-Holders (MRHs) are reporting record figures compared to previous Games, with Paris 2024 anticipated to be the most followed Games ever, with over half of the world's population expected to have engaged with them.

Olympics 2024 organizers said the Paris Games broke the record for the most number of tickets sold or allocated in the event's history: 9.7 million tickets were sold or allocated for this year's Olympic and Paralympic Games, with 8.7 million sold for the former and a million for the latter. The previous ticket sales record was held by Atlanta in 1996 (the “Centennial Game”) when 8.3 million tickets were sold.

Good luck to the next country/city.

LA: You might not have iconic historical landmarks as backdrop but you have showbiz. Your stadium are big, bigger and biggest and so is your motto. You might not have to worry about rain but I hope you won’t have to worry about wild fires. Anyway You do you. You should do whatever is best for you, no matter what other people think… because France sure did.

With love from Paris 🇫🇷

PS: do not forget the Olympics are not quite finished… there is still the Paralympics and the amazing athletes competing. They need our encouragement too.

There is no excuse since Paris 2024 will make history as the first Paralympic Games to offer some live coverage from each of the 22 sports. There will be record number of broadcasters to cover Paris 2024 Paralympics. Media Rights Holders in more than 160 countries and territories have committed to broadcasting the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

Edit: I wrote a shorter version for the Paralympics… give it a go here you may as well 🤷‍♀️

[batsinurbelfrey]

Having a post that breached containment with a funny haha joke about Grammarly truly has reminded me that this is the "no fucking nuance" site, and also how while MY circles on here are all people my age, there are def still like, teens here.

Like bro if u don't wanna use a service fine, but lets be SO for real about whats realistic and whats not tho pitch a fit about in the current world we live in. What things are useless to "protest" other than to virtue signal, what hypocrisy it is to take certain stances and then use other services that do the SAME shit. Im not saying anyone HAS to use Grammarly, but the biggest thing I've been getting ppl in my notes and inbox about is "you know Grammarly uses your input to train AI models right?" or even "why the fuck are you using Grammarly do you not even care about writers rights?" [the audacity of some ppl, Yes ofc I do, 3 clicks to my profile could show you I'm an artist for a living and very anti AI lol] and its like, ok? are you aware the site you are typing into RIGHT NOW to harass me ALSO DOES THAT???? LMAO. like fine you want to play the protest game? get off tumblr, get off twitter, get off google docs, get off nearly every free web-hosted service at this point. its also such a weird one to choose to put your foot down on. I suppose many people choose it to get their panties in a twist over because it probably feels "more actionable" to them as a "luxury" [i.e. "I cant give up tumblr! all my friends live in there! but a spelling and grammar checking app? sure I'll dump that" and like. good for you? but its kind of a privileged take. Not to go all "god that's such a tumblr take" on this but I use Grammarly for DISABILITY ACCESSIBILITY. I use it because I have tremors and type like ass and having the easy pop up text replacements are a huge help for my typing speed [a thing you need to be p good at for most desk jobs these days], I use it because I grew up with multiple learning disabilities in a low-income school that couldn't give me extra help or time and thus, I never really LEARNED good spelling or grammar, like at all. I NEED the help because sometimes I genuinely don't KNOW I'm breaking a grammar rule or the word I typed out isn't even CLOSE to right, and again. those are things that are CRUCIAL to not fuck up in a modern-day corporate workplace. I can be as smart as ever and great at my job but if I write my communications in a way that makes me look uneducated, people are going to make assumptions about me, and its going to deadlock my career progression, and with that comes a lack of access to keeping up with having a living wage etc etc. I'm not saying anyone HAS to use Grammarly , do whatever you wanna do man, but for FUCKS sake extend the same kindness to others. Stop calling in the firing squad for even the smallest "infraction" to your own personal beliefs. because AGAIN, my "feeding" Grammarly so that I might be able to have an access tool to make my life more manageable is no different than you "feeding" ai by typing ur posts here or anywhere else on the web Certain things are just facts of life now, we've lost the ability to really stop them as an individual, and sure, we SHOULD organize to try to make change as a collective. but yall are really giving "blame the one person who occasionally uses a plastic straw for all of global warming instead of going after the mega-corporations truly at fault" energy is its obnoxious as all get out

[not-poignant]

Looking forward to the new chapter of UtB! Also I learn a lot hearing your thoughts on fandom culture, and I was wondering why you think puritanism is getting stronger? Lately I’ve experienced it a lot both online and irl.

Hi anon,

I could write like a 10,000 word essay on why I think moral puritanism is getting stronger in the world, and how that intersects with increased moral panic, and 'anti' or fancop behaviour among fandom.

But I think there's more than one reason, and that at the centre of it, is the radicalisation of political extremes alongside the disdain for human life and education in the USA specifically. In non English-speaking cultures, antis are often considered a uniquely American phenomenon, for example. (They're not, but I do think some of the problems start there).

And from there it's necessary to look at:

The high presence of evangelist religion and their millions in USA politics in particular, and the influence this has on the news and government systems from the top down, affecting legislation, what we see on the media, what gets censored, who gets impacted (SESTA/FOSTA etc.) and so on. When companies like Paypal or similar say they won't support certain sites because they don't support sex workers or explicit artwork, we see extremist perspectives being normalised into the mainstream. Puritanism becomes baked into the system, and accepted as normal. And it has a domino effect, taking one thing away usually means to another thing being taken away, and by 'one thing' I usually mean like... equality, access to basic human rights, and more.

The presence of certain billionaire TERFs in UK politics actively working to destroy legislation over there gives a platform to hateful, bigoted extremists of all kinds, including Nazis (as seen in Australia recently, during a TERF event where Nazis turned up in open support). Also, I'd like to add that a lot of anti/fancop thinking is generally SWERF, anti-kink and eventually TERF in nature, and often homophobic and transphobic even when it's perpetuated by queer folk.

A long-term attack (we're talking over several decades now) on education (especially the humanities and any area that teaches critical thinking) including gutting the funding to libraries, colleges, high schools, primary schools and not increasing the pay of teachers, decreasing the general intelligence of US citizens in IQ tests across multiple metrics (except spatial reasoning). This, combined with the lack of emphasis on teaching nuance and critical thinking, means you get people primed to make didactic, black-or-white decisions and often are prone to radicalisation and black-or-white thinking. There's an increasing lack of ability to understand complex or even reasonably moderately complex thinking tasks. A great example of this was re: anti-vaxxers who said 'if masking works so well, why do you need vaccines' because there was a complete inability to understand that just because something works well, doesn't mean it works 100% of the time. There was a consistent inability too, to grok things like the swiss cheese model. That's not the only reason people are anti-vaxxers and there are some extremely smart people who are anti-vaxxers, but among broader populations, a lack of basic appreciation of nuance and risk mitigation in health was a huge issue. (And it's fairly easy to see this happening in many fandom discussions when we discuss how racism in fiction is generally not great, but that rape in fiction does not cause rape in reality.)

I know the above paragraph is long and unwieldy but it doesn't actually come close to capturing a lot of my thoughts on this so slafkjdsa it'll have to do though. The tl;dr is 'the government said philosophy and critical thinking isn't worth money, so a lot of people don't know how to do it, and anyone who can do it is often attacked or viewed with suspicion' (see also: The increasing suspicion and hostility towards experts in their field x.x). (Oh see also: A lot of people thinking YouTube videos count as 'valid research' for their viewpoints, and a lot of folks just...not ever learning how to research in general).

Something something social media privileging inflammatory and provocative takes as well as clickbait etc. encouraging people to often say things in the worst or least nuanced way possible.

The systemic attacks on democratic processes in the USA (and the UK and Australia and many other places).

The loudest and most obnoxious voices are often the people saying the stupidest shit. As in: It will feel like puritans are everywhere (and there's definitely more of them), but they're also just louder and getting more attention than they used to. It's misleading. Anti-vaxxers are actually a tiny minority for example, and antis are a minority in fandom, they're just...the loudest and the most willing to try and murder real people to defend the rights of fictional characters.

Er so. That's some of it anyway. There's more, absolutely, because I could talk about the presence of puritanism in a lot of levels of our experience/s, whether you're religious or not.

It's frustrating writing about this because I fall into the same trap of knowing that I can't talk about this in as nuanced a way as I want to, even if I get to do it in 1000 words instead of like, a miserable amount of characters on Twitter. Anyone thinking 'but it's not always like that!' or 'but not in every situation!' like trust me, I know. But if I sat here caveating everything that deserves a good caveat this post would blow out even more.

Basically if you try to stop educating your people as much, don't teach them how to research, debate or learn (yes, you have to learn how to learn), and don't give them access to basic needs, and gut your democracy/s, and the people at the top believe a fictional being cares if they're virgins or not or have abortions or not, and you don't care if people commit genocide against the children of your nation because that's not as important as the right to kill them in a moment of anger..., and you create a world where the children of your nation are primed to develop PTSD due to the fear of being gunned down while learning, you create a really great environment for radicalisation, extremism, the safety and comfort of puritanism (i.e. following very strict rules in the hope of fixing what's wrong with the world) while people look for a solution to why they feel so empty and hopeless in their lives.