#if i find anything on jstor.... i will let you know.... also hi!!!!

[specialagentartemis]

hi artemis! a friend I made during artfight who doesn't have a tumblr account asked me to pass a question on to you!

they're wondering if you know of any good resources for researching more modern history. This is what they were interested in specifically:

"i am trying to think of somewhere i could find information about when cars started appearing in songs and i am absolutely blanking on how i could find things about this

i know the library of congress has a LOT of stuff [and a really good system for filtering the search results] but… i don't even know what i would enter into the search bar sjdhgj. cars?? songs?? the spread of motor vehicles??"

i know this isn't your specific area of expertise but i thought you might still have some thoughts, or be able to point them to someone else who could help. also, they asked me to tell you that you're very cool and they like your posts :) (i concur)

Aww, thanks! <3

Hmm unfortunately, this is not really a topic I know anything about. This is a combination topic/time period I don't study, and a method (corpus analysis) I haven't really done.

But I can talk about how I would go about it, because starting research from scratch is a specialized skill and it is Daunting.

First, I go to Wikipedia on my topic--let's try the Wikipedia page for "Lyrics." The "Academic Study" subheading has no references--pity. Ignoring most of the article text, I scroll down to the references. Scanning them, they're not that helpful, but "Further Reading" suggests Moore, Allan F. (2003). Analyzing Popular Music. That looks potentially useful! File that away.

All right, now I go to academic databases. My own university's library database and JSTOR are my first options. Let's try some keywords--technology in popular music. Hm, no, that's mostly turning back books and articles about the technology used to make and disseminate popular music, not references to technology in the lyrics. Wrong tack. Try technology popular music lyrics. Little bit better--it turns back The Bloomsbury Handbook of Rock Music Research, that sounds promising. The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, sounds like it could be a useful reference too. Still, this turns back a wide variety of things, none of them about cars. All right, "technology" was too broad a concept. We want to know about cars. Try cars popular music lyrics and automobiles popular music lyrics.

Aha! Here's some good stuff! "Sentiment analysis of popular-music references to automobiles, 1950s to 2010s" (Wu et al. 2022); "Experience economy in the making: Hedonism, play and coolhunting in automotive song lyrics" (Askegaard 2010); Driving Identities: At the Intersection of Popular Music and Automotive Culture (McLeod 2020); "Communicating cars: television, popular music and everyday life" (Alam 2020, a chapter within the book Race, Taste, Class and Cars). Now this is what we're talking about!

And reducing my search terms to cars in popular music, I turned up a book called Popular Music and Automobiles. Jackpot!

Tbh research is trying various keyword strings, and then sifting through a dozen irrelevant result for every relevant one. Identifying relevant-looking books and articles from titles and abstracts is also a skill. JSTOR is good but arbitrarily limited; Google Scholar is pretty good; Library of Congress has records of nearly everything but is in my experience kind of overwhelming unless you know precisely what you're looking for. University library databases are the best, if you have access to any.

However, once you've hit on something specific, the LOC is really, really good in this way: you can go to the page for the book you found--here's "Popular Music and Automobiles"--and then look at the subject tags. Automobiles--Songs and music--History and criticism is its own subject tag! You can see what other books have that subject tag!

... looks like, including Popular Music and Automobiles, it's only four. (and one of those is also McCloud's "Driving Identities," lol.) But, hey. That's two more books about the topic you didn't know about before!

These are the tactics I use when I want to research something new! Hope some of this was helpful.

[yamayuandadu]

do you know much about the story わが身にたどる姫君? i've heard it's an even older text potentially discussing lesbianism than tamamizu monogatari, but i can't really find anything on it in english

I’ve heard of Wagami ni tadoru himegimi before but, truth to be told, I had no clue there’s a lesbian scene in it. A series of cursory searches on Brill, De Gruyter, Persee and JSTOR indicates it usually comes up in English in the same context I’ve seen before - the discussion of belief women could be reborn in pure lands and its reflections in literature (ex. Regenerating Narratives: The Confessions of Lady Nijō as a Story for Women's Salvation by Kimura Saeko, p. 98; Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan by Lori L. Meeks, p. 72).

The main exception I’ve managed to find is Donald Keene’s 1989 article A Neglected Chapter. Courtly Fiction of the Kamakura Period. He offers a quick introduction (the text was most likely written between 1245 and 1271, as of 1989 was poorly known even in Japan let alone overseas - i don’t think much changed in that regard - in part because it was only discovered in 1933 and wasn’t published until the 1950s, and so on). He provides a summary of the lesbian section (p. 18-20) - mea culpa, I was unaware of this when I wrote the Tamamizu article, there's undeniably sex there. In my defense, evidently so was Bernard Faure, since he doesn’t bring it up in his discussion of (lack of) references to lesbian sex in historical literature. 

Keene argues that the whole section is meant to be a condemnation of the characters involved - “everything in this section of Waga Mi ni Tadoru Himegimi is not only decadent, but ugly” (p. 21).  I am unable to evaluate this statement without being able to read the work itself, though the only fragment I found in english does have the narrator call what is going on "bizarre". If I understand correctly the jp wiki article seems to present a somewhat similar sentiment as Keene (and also mentions the work has sections focused on incest and sexual assault in addition to a lesbian one and a gay one; not very fond of this bundling of gimmicks if I have to be honest though I will say the gay section seems to have an interesting premise considerably better than the typical chigo routine). So, I was wrong when I called Tamamizu the oldest example (it was a common sentiment online last I've checked), but jury's out on whether this story is similarly positive as Tamamizu in its evaluation of the characters. I feel obliged to also mention Torikaebaya monogatari and Ariake no wakare here, since they are arguably even earlier (late 1100s), though in both of these cases your mileage will vary. While they are labeled as “same sex romances” in scholarship every now and then, whether they count is debatable imo. In both cases an AFAB character ends up performing a masculine courtly role and marries a woman (at least in the former case it’s an arranged marriage); in both the wives are not aware of this setup (they presume they married cis men) and the narrators make a point out of the impossibility of consummation of the relationship (which tracks with Faure’s observations on perception of sex between women, fwiw).

I haven’t read the latter story (yet), but truth to be told I’m not very fond of the former. It has a very unpleasant sexual assault scene which is presented favorably and leads to the reveal that the protagonist’s gender nonconformity (or however you choose to interpret their identity) was really just a result of a tengu curse from a previous life (in the beginning there’s no indication of that) and the happy ending involves giving up on it. Tamamizu no diffs this, I’m afraid…

[i-like-old-things]

Hey Julia! I'm currently working on my senior thesis concerning the Culper Ring and noticed that you said Tommy knew of James Rivington's spying. Do you have any sources on that you could send me? I would greatly appreciate it!

I GOT YOU

So I’ll send you a little more once I have access to my JSTOR account cuz there’s some stuff there but here’s what I’ve found so far.

This is an excerpt from page 26 of Charles Thomson: Patriot and Scholar by Lewis R. Harley. This excerpt indicates that Thomson knew very well what, at least part of, the Culper Spy Ring was doing. However, this was published in 1897 so it might be taken with a grain of salt.

There’s also this excerpt of a letter Charles Thomson wrote his wife, dated July 22, 1783. I could only find this little section online but I have the whole book accessible to me at my local library so I’ll pick it up and see if the rest of the letter has any other information about their relationship.

Unfortunately, Charles Thomson destroyed almost all of his papers related to the revolution before he died so the information we have is very sparse. That’s really all I could find through a brief search but I’ll look more into it tomorrow.

In the meantime, I’d possibly reach out to these people who might have more information:

Harriton House — This was Thomson’s estate that he owned through his marriage to Hannah until his death in 1824. I’m not really sure if they’ll have what you’re looking for but you can always reach out.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania — they have a whole slew of Charles Thomson’s stuff from his time in Congress as well as some out of print books. I’ll be the first to admit, their website is not the most accessible to use but I’d still reach out to them.

I hope this was at least a little helpful. I’ll keep my eyes peeled and let you know if I find anything else!

[baravaggio]

hello i wanted to ask you a question and i hope i don't sound biphobic.. what do you think of bi people in a heterosexual relationship who say they're "queering" heterosexuality or that their relationship is still queer? as a bi person myself i don't really get how you can "queer" a straight relationship because being queer is an act, unless the other person is also bi and they engage in sex practices that are subversive of heterosexual norms.... but i don't know! are there more academic discussions about this? i would like to hear your more informed opinion!

Hi! So this is a whole can of worms, but I'll do my best to answer...not without adding a couple long ass caveats first though, as always 😭

First, I think it's helpful to draw a distinction between sexuality descriptors as they're used to describe our private, internal experiences of sexuality, the ones that are mediated by invisible qualities like our personal sense of identity and time, and the sexuality descriptors as they're used as a tool of social categorization and political organization. I'm not interested in arguing against the idea that regardless of orientation, a visibly M/F couple will typically be read as straight, a visibly M/M or F/F couple will be read as gay or lesbian, and each will materially be treated differently as a result - this is obviously true, we live in a cisheteropatriarchal culture.

As always, I also think it's important to remember that words like straight, gay, queer, etc. are historically & culturally determined terms with their own messy histories, and that they're not necessarily going to track perfectly onto our lived experiences of sexuality as a result. So let's momentarily put aside any complaints about people who will say this stuff out of personal insecurity surrounding their "place in the queer community," or because they want to disrespect the sexual boundaries or lived struggles of gays and lesbians - not saying that you're doing this or that these people don't exist, but I don't think this is where the majority of people are coming from (despite how loud they can be on the internet), so I just want to get ahead of it.

To answer one of your questions, there is some academic discussion about this - this is by no means exhaustive, just a couple papers I've read that touch on the topic:

"Queer Ethics; Or, The Challenge of Bisexuality to Lesbian Ethics" by Elisabeth D. Däumer

"Playing with Butler and Foucault: Bisexuality and Queer Theory" by April S. Callis

Both are really interesting and fairly accessible imo, even if you've never read Foucault or Butler! And if you didn't already know, you can read 100 articles per month for free on JSTOR.

Those papers aside, my perspective has been informed by my personal experience more than anything. The tl;dr is that I don't really care what others do, but that I also think bisexuality throws a significant wrench into what we otherwise consider to be a relatively stable sense of ourselves as gendered, sexual, political, and social beings. It's destabilizing enough to make categorizing the emotional, sexual, erotic, and social aspects of our relationships as strictly straight or gay difficult for some people. While some of our relationships will be categorized this way in order to render them socially and politically intelligible to the larger culture, I think we can afford be a little more creative when we talk about how our bisexuality makes finding the right language for our relationships difficult. This of course won't be everyone's experience, but I can really only speak for myself here - I'll elaborate more on my personal experience and feelings under the read more if you're interested.

I'm not sure how much you know about me, so I'll give you the run down: prior to identifying as bi, I identified as a lesbian, and for most of my life I have found that my attraction (social, emotional, sexual, and much later, romantic) has been directed almost exclusively towards women. So much of the way I relate to others and myself have been informed by this lifelong experience of loving & being loved by women as someone who is read as a woman. I no longer identify as a lesbian (or strictly as a woman), but those experiences continue to shape the way I approach casual and intimate relationships, the way I have sex, my politics, my understanding of my gender, etc.

I prefer to sleep around and am not interested in dating for the foreseeable future (slut rights!), so I can't speak specifically from the POV of relationships...but I have found that this lifetime's worth of "lesbian" experiences have intimately affected my sexual experiences with men. Sex between women has its own unique tempo and its own language of eroticism, having sex with women has shaped the way I understand the "goals" of sex, how I move in my body, how I touch my partner...my encounters with women are ever present in & relevant to my encounters with men. Likewise, my experiences with men, specifically queer men, have impacted the way I have sex with women - I participate in still different practices of eroticism, different ways of relating to the bodies and emotions of others, different ways of understanding & accessing my physicality, and those experiences make constant additions and edits to the way I fuck women.

The effect of all this has been that I personally don't find much meaning in categorizing any given encounter as gay or straight. I think of this quote from Epistemology of the Closet quite often:

Will I categorize things along gay/straight lines for the purposes of answering a sexual health questionnaire when getting tested at a clinic, for example? Sure. But privately, between me and myself and me and my partners, I find the language inadequate. Even when the kind of sex I'm having isn't technically "subversive of heterosexual norms," the totality of my queer experience and how it never stops impacting upon my understanding of myself as a gendered, sexual, emotional, social, romantic, and political being prevents me from understanding it as entirely straight. At the same time, I wouldn't be offended if someone who is not privy to this history would label that encounter as a straight one. It's just a byproduct of the vocabulary available to us in the culture we live in.

I think it's important to understand that outside of the context of group sex or mixed gender polyamorous relationships, there is no way for us to meaningfully "perform" bisexuality. The origins of our modern sexuality labels lie in medicine and psychiatry, which has positioned heterosexual and homosexual acts as a dichotomy, with the goal of pathologizing homosexuality for the purposes of social control. In the article by Callis I linked above, she points out,

...the medicalization of "homosexual acts" forbids the creation of a bisexual person, because all individuals who were sexually active with others of the same sex were labeled as homosexual. Eadie (1993) stated that "bisexuality simply cannot exist as a category in discourses which name all male-male and female-female sex 'homosexual' and all male-female sex 'heterosexual'" (p.146) [...] Because "bisexual acts" did not exist within the medical discourse, there was also no corresponding bisexual species. A group of individuals could not be labeled as "bisexual" if there was no action they could perform that was read in this way. (p. 225)

I've discussed it some on here, but I highly recommend reading the Foucault section of that article for more context. Callis is talking about bisexuality as a personal identity descriptor, but I think the point extends to our descriptions of relationships as well. Another personal example - I have a fwb who is a cis bi man, a strict bottom who primarily has sex with other men. The way we understand ourselves and our relationship with sexuality and gender have been shaped by our sexual histories and preferences. The sum total of those experiences paired with the type of sex we have prevents both of us from understanding our arrangement as a strictly straight one, but if we were in a relationship, how would an outsider who might see us walking down the street hand in hand know that? Another quote, this time from the Däumer (p.96):

Anyway...maybe this wasn't the most direct or objective answer, but I think that the limitations of our language of sexuality mean that lengthier explorations are required - half the problem is that we don't have a succinct shorthand for this stuff! Like I said above, I can't really find it in myself to care what other people do. And I don't particularly care whether other people insist on calling my relationships gay or straight...I might not always agree, but I find it more amusing than distressing. The only thing I really care about is mutual respect and intellectual honesty, which is why I bother to be open about my personal experiences in the first place.

Hope this answers your question even a little bit 😭

[fallloverfic]

(Sorry if you get this ask 2 times, my device is lagging pretty badly..)

It is sometimes said, about another god, Wepwawet, that his father is Seth. But Wepwawet isn’t even present in Ennead, (yet?). Some are saying this is because he will appear, to be Seth and Horus’s child. May I ask what you think of and or believe in this theory, and if you don’t, what you think of why Wepwawet isn’t present?

I only saw one ask so you're fine <3

The answers to this that I can share are complicated, and I am not a historian, theologian, Egyptologist, or mythology expert, particularly with Wepwawet, nor am I a follower of Kemetism (the religion that worships the ancient Egyptian gods), but I shall do my best. I also only joined the fandom in late 2021, and ENNEAD began around 2017/maybe a little earlier, and Mojito seemingly deleted most of her online presence (including the original site the comic was on and most of her public social media stuff) prior to my joining the fandom, so my knowledge of fandom history prior to my joining it is based on what I've dug up and asked other fans from that time. So just take what I write with many, many, many grains of salt.

The mythology

I'm not sure where you're looking, but a lot of people in fandom rely on Wikipedia, which lists Seth and Nephthys as Wepwawet's parents. I don't know where Wikipedia got that from, other than, at least in some instances in the mythology, Wepwawet is claimed to be a child of Nephthys (not with Seth, purely Nephthys alone), and Nephthys was sometimes married to Seth (so people assume that Nephthys had a child with her husband, Seth, which, as we know, is not true in ENNEAD in re: Anubis). I read one of the articles the Wikipedia page cites, which is Wepwawet in Context: A Reconsideration of the Jackal Deity and Its Role in the Spatial Organization of the North Abydos Landscape from Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt (2007) by Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, which, to my recollection, doesn't mention his parentage at all, or at least doesn't mention Seth (but if you make a free account on JSTOR, you can read the article in full for free and see yourself, I would highly recommend it, it's a neat article).

From a general search elsewhere, there's no clear indication of who his parents are. Jenny Hill's page on Wepwawet doesn't mention Sutekh/Set/Seth at all in the article, though she notes that Wepwawet's origin and family changed over time as belief systems changed and merged, like all the gods, as groups of people came together through marriage, trade, war, etc. He has apparently been noted at times as the father and/or brother of Anpu/Anubis, the son of Osiris and Nephthys, the son of Isis, sometimes even with connections to Horus... It just depends. He's also sometimes viewed as a sort of parallel to Anubis and Osiris (The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Richard H. Wilkinson (2003) 191-2). Since Anubis is sometimes viewed as a child of Seth, so too is Wepwawet (though as we know in ENNEAD, being Anubis' brother doesn't de facto make you Seth's child, as Anubis and Horus are half-brothers through their father Osiris, and both are Seth's biological nephews, not his biological sons). He's also sometimes connected to Ra.

In sum: there really isn't anything I can find, from a historical and mythological standpoint, about Wepwawet specifically being Seth's child in mythology (other than by association with Nephthys and/or Anubis), let alone Horus' child and/or Horus' child with Seth. This is not particularly relevant for fanworks or fan theories or ENNEAD, all of which can do whatever they want, but that's what I found.

The fandom perception

One thing to know about this fandom is that mpreg is popular in it, as are child OCs (and, to a degree, omegaverse, but not all omegaverse has mpreg and not all mpreg is omegaverse, nor did omegaverse originate the concept of mpreg). Many folks in the fandom latch onto any character, particularly actual gods they can find who might somehow be Seth's child so they can have Seth have more children/actual biological children (particularly children who are gods). Any commentary from fans that Wepwawet will appear in the manhwa, possibly because he hasn't yet, is honestly baseless speculation and wishful thinking and/or them talking about their own fanworks without making it clear. I don't think he's ever been mentioned anywhere in the manhwa, and so far as I am aware, Mojito has never commented on it. If Mojito has mentioned Wepwawet somewhere, particularly in context of his showing up in the manhwa, either I've just not seen it or it has otherwise been lost to her mass deletion of most of her public social media presence outside her twitter account some years ago.

Wepwawet is popular in fandom I think because:

Anubis is popular and Wepwawet is often associated with him

The idea of Anubis having a brother with similar abilities is popular, especially if Wepwawet is a rival/otherwise makes Anubis jealous/can work as a teacher

The idea of Anubis having a brother, older or younger, is popular, or even possibly being a twin

People like dogs

People like how it's sort of a black-and-white thing because Wepwawet has a sort of opposite color scheme to Anubis (to differentiate them in art)

People just like Wepwawet as a mythological figure, some also worship him

Omegaverse is popular and it sometimes involves wolves

There are just a lot of reasons this character in particular is popular in fandom, particularly as a child OC for fanworks. Generally, though, he's not the most popular fan child (that's usually the Four Sons of Horus or fully made-up characters, though I admit I don't really keep track of it).

I have seen no indication that Mojito plans to have Seth and Horus be parents of anyone (other than Seth being Anubis' father, and maybe a cat dad; he's friendly with the three human children he's met, but there's a difference between being a protector god/being friendly with children, and being a father). Horuseth being parents, either through adoption or mpreg, is popular in fanworks, often due to folks liking/knowing of The Contendings of Horus and Seth, which is from 1147 BCE, and features a story of Horus and Seth fighting, wherein Seth eats Horus' semen and later during a trial, Thoth (in some versions) is born (often from Seth's forehead). ENNEAD!Osiris preparing to impregnate Seth by feeding him the power of creation (which Osiris did not actually accomplish because he was interrupted by his own lust and Seth in S01E42, and then he used the power on himself in S1E48), has only encouraged a chunk of fandom's desire for mpreg. That both the mythological Seth and Horus, depending on the story, have a variety of kids to pick from (but usually not with each other, outside maybe Thoth) only helps.

Allegedly, Mojito said there would be no more about mpreg in the manhwa than what Osiris attempted, though I'm not sure where she said it, under what context, or what she specifically said. Mojito's alleged words here are from fandom repetition (what people in fandom have told me, and I believe what they were told by other people; the Discord I first learned this in is locked and was dying when I left it some years ago). What we do know is that the story universe has a built-in rule that male gods cannot create children, only female gods can, because only female gods have the power of creation (S1E48, S1E70, S2E78). As Osiris is the god of life, and even he couldn't get around this rule without trading Nephthys for her power of creation, I don't know how exactly Horus would get around it in canon (heck, we honestly don't even know if Osiris' plan would have been successful, given he failed a lot (S2E78)). In my own mpreg fanfic with Horuseth, I just messed around with it because Horus is a sun god (like Ra) and so Just That Special and Seth is a shapeshifter, and Horus got messed around with the magic mirror, which has (in the fanfic), Hathor's magic on it. (and Wepwawet is not in that story, Horuseth's child is someone else). But I don't honestly believe that or anything similar to it will happen in canon. Otherwise, I just did the one eggpreg story by doing a Venom crossover, which doesn't rely on the rules of ENNEAD, as Seth is human and Horus is an alien parasite.

But regardless of what Mojito said, that doesn't stop the fact that mpreg is at least presented as a possibility in the story, and that encourages folks to wish for more, especially as it's been years and maybe her opinions on the matter changed.

In sum: there is no evidence Mojito will add Wepwawet in any capacity to the manhwa, let alone as a child of Horuseth, or Seth alone, and little to none she will add in mpreg or make Horuseth parents. Wepwawet as an OC of sorts in varying capacities is a relatively popular fan conceit, though.

My thoughts on the theories/fanworks

Folks are free to imagine whatever they want for headcanons! Folks have fun making child OCs and writing mpreg stories, and I wish them the best of luck (I had fun with my own mpreg and eggpreg stories, though I don't have more planned). This particular fan idea of Wepwawet as either the child of Seth and/or the child of Horuseth is, unfortunately, not my cup of tea. It also has no basis in canon, very little if any in the mythology I'm aware of, and Mojito has not hinted at it being a thing, now or ever, so I think it is extremely unlikely to happen in canon. I also honestly hope it doesn't happen in canon, purely because Horuseth having babies/children outside my brief time with the idea in the fanfic I wrote (mostly as a writing challenge) is not something I'm into, but if Mojito writes it, I'm sure it'll be interesting.

For folks who love it, though, there are a number of people who are into it, so that's awesome for folks who like it and want fanworks of it!

I actually think Wepwawet sort of gets referenced in See You My King, an unrelated boys love manhua by Wen Yuan that sometimes uses Egyptian mythology as a base, as Mohemisi (who has dark hair) is very aligned with Anubis (and Horus), and he has an older brother, Hattsutter, who has white hair, so it's possible Wen Yuan is using the story of Anubis and Wepwawet as brothers.

Hattsutter was also reborn as "Anubis" (with the help of a human clearly masquerading as Seth), who is made out of white energy. But SYMK focuses on different mythology (when it does so at all), and Anubis is much more central to the narrative as Mohemisi is one of the leads and the sole love interest for the protagonist, whereas Anubis in ENNEAD is a side character and non-principal love interest of the story protagonist. But if people want Wepwawet stuff... well, it's sort of there, I suppose?

Why I think Wepwawet is not present in the manhwa

The simple answers: Wepwawet is not present in the manhwa because Egyptian history and mythology is huge and Mojito cannot include everything as that is literally impossible, and the story is also not about him so it's less likely he'll show up.

We as humans struggle to comprehend just how long Egypt has existed in some form. It is thousands of years old (there's a viral post floating around tumblr somewhere about how ancient it is). It has a great number of gods and immortal beings in its culture and mythology and many, many stories about them, many of which we only have fragments of, but we sure do have a lot of them. It is quite literally impossible for one manhwa to focus on all of them, particularly when the manhwa is focusing on Horus and Seth, not every god in existence. Mojito is writing a boys love comic, not a history of Egyptian mythology. Hamish Steele actually did a robust job in trying to cobble together a graphic novel that covered a great deal of the known myths in all their often conflicting glory (again, different gods were worshiped different ways over time: e.g., Horus and Seth have been brothers and uncle/nephew and completely unrelated; also there are many falcon gods named Horus). And even Steele couldn't cover everything (I don't think Wepwawet is in there, either), and he accomplished his work mostly through humor and not focusing overmuch on any particular character (though much time is given to Seth, Isis, and Horus), whereas ENNEAD is more focused on drama (albeit with humorous moments). So again: Wepwawet is likely not in ENNEAD because Mojito cannot cover everything, and the number of things she has chosen to cover simply does not include him, at least not yet. That doesn't mean she won't, but it doesn't mean she will, either. He's not the only Egyptian immortal being who hasn't shown up in some form.

Wepwawet is also likely not in the story because the story is not about him. He is not closely connected to Horuseth, he is connected to, if anyone, Anubis, and sometimes Nephthys and Osiris. If he shows up, it will likely be as a shadow figure or side character with no lines, as a number of other gods have seemingly showed up, like in S01E20 and a few other places:

(The assumption is this is showing gods like Serket, Ptah, Sebek, Seshat, Min or Amun, Anukhet, and some other gods surrounding Isis in the middle)

It's a way for Mojito to incorporate more mythology without dedicating a ton of story time to it, and keeping the focus on the central cast. Though considering the similarities in their silhouettes, he'd probably just show, if he does at all, as a side character in color, so the audience can tell it's not Anubis.

If there is a trip to Duat, I think Wepwawet may show up in some form. He may not. Who knows! He could show up as a mentor for Anubis, an ally in Duat, or something else. He also might not show up at all because two jackal gods is kind of confusing, and he could overshadow Anubis. We already have a prevalence of cat gods (e.g., Tefnut, Sekhmet, Bastet). But that Mojito is willing to include similar gods does show she'd potentially be willing to show other gods similar to Anubis.

That was long, but that's all my thoughts on that. Thank you for asking <3

[nimblermortal]

The notes seem divided between:

-love me some fayum/encaustic art (whatever that is) -the one on the right is hot -and people say there was no diversity in Rome -those are not brothers. they're lovers right. historians doing that revisionism thing again.

So - what is fayum art? Art found on mummies. There’s a collection of pictures here. I for one am impressed with the level of... realism in the sense of these look like people I’ve met. (It’s also worth noting the level of decay in these images, which is a lot stronger than that above.)

To the consideration of whether they are brothers: The notes also direct to this article on the subject by Anne E. Haeckl, which, delightfully, JSTOR is still offering 100 articles a month for free so anybody can read the link! I’m including some screenshots of passages I find relevant below, along with irreverent and uneducated commentary.

Odds of being buried with your (adult) brother seem lower than odds of being buried with your lover.

Called it - they look very different initially, but they do have the same eyes, and similar noses, mouths, and slightly different jawlines. I’m not familiar with the art styles or the artist to say whether this is just representative of where it came from, vs. of genetic similarities, where the differences in coloring might be explained if they are half-brothers.

And now we get into this paper’s thesis that the two are lovers. Please bear in mind that I do not know anything about the art, history, cultural practices, mythology, or... anything here, and am just offering irreverent summaries

To summarize a longer passage, the fact that this is from Antinoopolis carries inherent reference to some gay shit that went down there between Hadrian and Antinoos. Also, they’re dressed up like Hadrian and Antinoos and the iconography references gods associated with dem gays, and the art style chooses to reference those gay helenes rather than local, straighter art styles.

If the statues are referencing ~clan membership rather than gods, then these two are not brothers because they’re of different ~clans and therefore unrelated.

There’s only one date, and it’s placed near the fellow on the left and deliberately not near the fellow on the right. Did Lefty die earlier, and his is the only death date marked?

And then! We get to some fascinating stuff about their different complexions!

And it ain’t Rome without good old-fashioned top/bottom discourse:

It gets a bit raunchier from there; I direct you to the link above the cut if you’re interested. The conclusion is: Lefty embodies the characteristics Martial lists in his wish-list for a boy lover, and from there discusses hierarchy and the lack of it otherwise shown in the painting.

Let’s move on to that swastika, which definitely predates modern associations:

And finally: feels

~ Portrait of two brothers.

Period: Roman Period

Place of origin: Hawara, Fayum

Medium: Cedar wood with encaustic painting

[gringolet]

hi it's Caradoc anon I hear you like Caradoc too!

YES its maybe the funniest romance of all time things just happen at an unprecendented rate. like truly nothing else compares in terms of wild events one after another. and none of my mutuals will read it :(( please its so. good isn the word. its so like getting repeatedly run over with a truck but in a wildly entertaining way. i want to read scholarship on it because its genuinly so wild there must be something going on. .

[lovesick-feelin]

Willex with 42 and 27 please!

Another anon also requested 42, so this is for both of you! Enjoy :)

Send me prompts! | Read on AO3

27. Kisses exchanged while one person sits on the other’s lap.

42. Distracting kisses from someone that are meant to stop the other person from finishing their work, and give them kisses instead.

“Alex?”

“Hm?” Alex squints at the blinking cursor on his screen. Gray’s poem is part nostalgic love letter to the school at which he spent his formative years, part lamentation on the cruelty of a cold contemporary society that young boys must enter upon reaching adulthood. Does that sound too pretentious? No, wait. This is for Professor Lessa’s class. Does it sound pretentious enough?

“Alex.” A nudge at Alex’s shoulder finally manages to tear him away from the screen. Willie’s face is touched with an endearing mixture of fondness and concern, his video game controller limp in his hands. Someone has turned the string lights on above them on Alex’s bed. The room is dark. When had it gotten dark outside? Alex frowns. He’s not nearly close to being finished with his first draft. He switches back to his tab on JSTOR. He should have enough sources by now, right?

There’s a sudden touch to the side of his jaw and before Alex can react, he finds himself being kissed. His heart gives a pleasant flutter, eyes slipping closed as he lets himself lean into it. This thing he has with Willie is still new, but Alex has a sneaking suspicion that kissing Willie is never not going to give him butterflies.

Willie pulls away far too soon, and Alex blinks his eyes open slowly, feeling a little dazed. “What was that for?” he asks, and Willie shrugs.

“Just wanted to,” he says. “Also, you’ve been working for, like, three hours straight. You need a break.”

Working. Alex’s gaze snaps back to his laptop, still sitting in his lap. “I gotta finish this first,” he says, already scanning where he left off in his last paragraph. “I need a first draft.”

Willie sighs. “Alex, you told me this wasn’t due until, like, next week.”

“Okay, but why wait when I can finish it now?”

“Because,” Willie says, taking Alex’s face in his hands and turning it to face him again, “you could be doing this.” He kisses Alex again, less chaste this time, and Alex’s mind is once again pleasantly blank. He reaches up to fist a hand in Willie’s shirt --

-- and almost succeeds in dropping his laptop on the floor. “Shit!” Alex grabs for it quickly, making sure he hasn’t accidentally deleted anything. “I just - no. I need to finish this.” He hears Willie sigh next to him and Alex’s stomach tightens. “I’m sorry,” he adds quickly, voice a little higher than he’d like. “I know this is boring for you, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to --”

“Alex.”

“I just, like, what if I forget about it? Or I don’t have time to revise a draft and I just have to turn in what I have? If I fall behind, I’m never going to catch up, and then my dad will --”

“Alex.” Willie’s quick fingers appear in front of him, saving Alex’s changes in Word before reaching up and snapping his laptop shut. He puts it down on the desk next to Alex’s bed. “It’s okay.”

Alex shakes his head, unable to look anywhere but his hands in his lap. “It’s not. I’m sorry. I’m being a shitty boyfriend.”

“No. Nope. Uh-uh.” The mattress dips and shifts and suddenly Alex is pinned against the back wall with his lap full of Willie and wow, this is new. Willie’s hair falls from where it’s tucked behind his ear, tickling Alex’s nose. His weight is solid but not heavy, seated across Alex’s legs with his knees bracketing Alex’s hips, and suddenly Alex can’t remember what he was panicking about if only because he can’t form a single coherent thought.

“Hi there,” he manages, and Willie smiles, reaching with the hand that’s not braced against the wall to tip Alex’s chin up with one finger, locking their gazes together.

“Listen to me,” he says, and Alex is helpless to do anything but that. “You are not a shitty boyfriend,” Willie continues. “You’re actually, like, kind of an amazing boyfriend. You’re really cute,” and here he plants a kiss on Alex’s nose, “and really smart,” a kiss at Alex's temple, “and I’m telling you to take a break because I care about you.” Willie sweeps the bangs away from Alex’s forehead and kisses his hairline with so much tenderness it aches. “You’re, like, insanely ahead on your work. You’re allowed to give yourself a break. You deserve it.”

Alex nods dumbly, finally regaining enough motor control of his limbs to reach out and rest his hands on Willie’s hips, sweeping his thumb across the stretch of bare skin where Willie’s shirt has ridden up. “Okay,” he concedes softly, meeting Willie’s gaze and earning himself a brilliant smile as a result.

Another second passes before Alex remembers a crucial detail about their current situation, which is that his recently acquired boyfriend is fully sitting in his lap. “So, uh,” Alex offers lamely, “this is new.” He squeezes Willie’s hips for emphasis, and Willie laughs.

“Sure is,” he agrees. “You don’t mind, do you? I can move.”

“No!” Alex blurts, almost embarrassed at how quickly he responds. “No, no, um. This is - this is good.” He lets one of his hands skate up Willie’s side under his shirt, priding himself on the way Willie’s breath catches. “This is, like, really good,” Alex murmurs, meeting Willie’s eyes again, their noses almost brushing.

Willie catches his bottom lip with his teeth, pupils so blown that his eyes almost look more black than brown. “Noted,” he says, voice low and so dripping with want that Alex finally breaks, lunging the short distance between them to catch Willie’s mouth in a searing kiss.

The marks on his neck are still fading a week later when Alex turns his first draft in for Professor Lessa’s class. It’s worth it.

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Hello! I just found your yt channel (it's amazing) and watched your video on writing diversely. What an awesome video, I learnt and took away a lot from you and your thoughts, especially as a white writer. I am still however a little conflicted on one thing. Not just writing the characters as another race or gender or identity of any kind from the writer, but the actual main character. Would it automatically be offensive and destined for failure for a white author to write a black main protag?

Hi there! I’m happy you found the video helpful, thank you for watching! This is a link to the video if anyone reading this has not watched it.

To be honest, I think I explained this as concisely and accurately as I could in the video as it’s truly the thesis of the video itself. I don’t want to fully reiterate what I said in the video because I feel like I won’t be as accurate/coherent, so I urge you to rewatch the video and take care to look at the timestamps as that may clarify your particular question, first and foremost! Taking a look at some of the comments too might also be helpful.

Stay in your lane as a detrimental, albeit well-intentioned, mantra

As I say in the video, it’s not as easy as saying “white people can’t write XYZ main character” or “we can write whatever we want”, nor is it as easy as and saying “stay in your line” , which may inadvertently enforce the majority as publishing is majorly white (stats are in the video). I believe I did address main characters too in that video, but whatever I said about characters in general 100% applies to POV/main characters as I was rebutting the well-intentioned, but perhaps detrimental idea that it’s only appropriate for a marginalized POV character to be written by someone marginalized in the same way (IMO, long-term, this will cause an influx of white POV stories which is the opposite of the intention [people say “stay in your lane” will allow marginalized folks to represent themselves rather than have white people represent us] as the publishing industry a) is mostly white and b) only seems to care to actively publish white people. “Stay in your lane” may also inadvertently define the role a marginalized person should play in the writing industry [responsible for writing stories about their marginalization]).

Writing POC main characters = automatically offensive/destined to fail?

If you’re viewing or questioning if writing a POC MC is “automatically offensive” or “destined for failure” I really urge you to rewatch the video because this is covered quite extensively but particularly take a look at the “trade fear for empathy” section as this question in itself is laden in a black and white binary of right versus wrong. If you’re asking this question, it might be that you are lacking the empathy to understand what I’m saying in the video (which is okay! there are many others who I’ve further discussed with in the comments). Writing POC isn’t something that’s destined to fail just because you’re a white author IF you do your research, be respectful, write empathetically and craft well-rounded, complex people. If you’re thinking you might automatically fail in this department because you are a white person, I did mention in the video that you may not be ready to write diverse characters in the respectful, robust ways necessary because you may be viewing POC as a “pass or fail” system which is obviously not what we are. If you want to write a diverse POV character and you do your research, write empathetically, speak to those people from that community (with their consent) and be willing to adjust your representation with that feedback without getting defensive, I don’t see how this would be automatically offensive or destined for failure, just like anything else that requires research.

Disproportionate amounts of white versus POC writers being published

In terms of publication failure, white people are actually the ones being majorly represented to write marginalized stories (when they don’t share that marginalization), so you probably wouldn’t have a problem getting a POC-lead story published (not saying I think this is right) because publishers treat diversity as a quota/marketing tactic and IMO, don’t seem to actually care about representation on a structural level, but rather on a topical, superficial level (which is why my main point in that video is that publishers, not individual writers, need to be held accountable).

White writers accidentally “dehumanize” POC in a misguided attempt at being empathetic

I think some white people, (and I don’t exactly want to use this word because it is quite severe but illustrates what I mean) may accidentally “dehumanize” people of colour in worrying that whatever move they’re going to make is automatically going to offend us, when in reality, if you take the time, and put in the effort to research and get to know people of colour (from my comments, these worries often stem from white people who don’t know many people of colour IRL), you will see that yes, we are different from you and difference is good, but no, this difference does not make us an untouchable, unknowable species. I don’t mean to make this seem like an “I don’t see colour” or “the only race is the human race” argument, which would be harmful, but rather a reminder that people of colour are also human beings and as you would write a white character with empathy, integrity, and vigour, you should also do the same when writing characters of colour (I address this in more detail in the video).

Doing personal research in times of confusion

I understand that as a white person, thinking about and understanding these issues may not be particularly easy, and even after a nearly hour long video of me expressing these thoughts, I genuinely do understand why someone who is not affected by these issues daily may still struggle with grasping these concepts. That’s because anti-racism is not something you can accomplish by watching one video, or reading a few articles--it’s a lifelong commitment, and so that’s when you would take your privilege as a white person to do more digging before you ask questions to those who have to expel emotional labour to answer them for you (not saying I have any problem answering your question at all, but putting this out there because there are many well meaning white people who I’ve encountered in my comments that do ask me or other BIPOC questions before turning to other resources that wouldn’t require free labour). Take some time to ruminate with this info, and then do some digging of your own. If you haven’t checked out these, these are my favourite anti-racism resources, all of which are free to access (noted otherwise):

Jane Coaston - The Intersectionality wars

A pretty comprehensive place to start with Kimberle Crenshaw’s theory of Intersectionality

Peggy McIntosh - White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Wonderful place to start in understanding white privilege for those who don’t understand the differences/nuances between race VS class VS gender privilege etc

Article that explores white privilege beyond McIntosh’s ideas

It’s really important that white people also learn the systemic ways in which they benefit from white privilege and not just the “bandaids are made in my skintone” examples (though those examples are often used first because they’re the easiest to understand for a white person who is affected by other intersections, i.e. class, sexuality, gender, who does not feel they are privileged in other ways i.e. race).

Documentary on white privilege (Jane Elliott’s Brown Eyes VS Blue Eyes experiment)

Angela Davis - How Does Change Happen?

bell hooks - Ending Domination: The Struggle Continues

Abena Busia - In Search of Chains Without Iron: On Sisterhood, History, and the Politics of Location

I was able to access this reading through my university but IMO it is a must-read, especially for non-POC who may not fully understand the privilege of whiteness.

Claire Heuchan - Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Racism in the Feminist Movement 

**Absolute must-read: “The theory did not emerge in order to aid white women in their search for cookies – it was developed predominantly by Black feminists with a view to giving women of colour voice (Heuchan).”

Tamela J. Gordon - Why I’m giving up on intersectional feminism 

Powerful perspective on Intersectionality and how it’s been used in white feminism

Jennifer L. Pozner - How to Talk About Racism, Sexism and Bigotry With Your Friends and Family

Really good place to start if you have loved ones in need of education.

Maria Lugones - Playfulness, “World”-Travelling, and Loving Perception

This is the absolute crux of my points in writing empathetically.

"The paper describes the experience of 'outsiders' to the mainstream of, for example, White/Anglo organization of life in the U.S. and stresses a particular feature of the outsider's existence: the outsider has necessarily acquired flexibility in shifting from the mainstream construction of life where she is constructed as an outsider to other constructions of life where she is more or less 'at home.' This flexibility is necessary for the outsider but it can also be willfully exercised by the outsider or by those who are at ease in the mainstream. I recommend this willful exercise which I call "world"-travelling and I also recommend that the willful exercise be animated by an attitude that I describe as playful" (Lugones 3). 

^^^ For writers struggling with the prospect of diversity and trying to find a place to start in what I call in my video "letting go of fear and voraciously welcoming empathy" I highly recommend this article as it is a powerful account of travelling across each other's "worlds". Read it for free with a free JStor account or through your institution, like your public library.

How to BLACK: An Analysis of Black Cartoon Characters

A FANTASTIC video that is an absolute must-watch (covers writing empathetically, writing with care)

If you have not already, read through the sources I used to formulate and argue my thesis in my video (much more detailed than I could do in an hour!):

Corinne Duyvis (ownvoices creator) on # ownvoices

CCBC - "Publishing Statistics on Children's/YA Books about People of Color and First/Native Nations and by People of Color and First/Native Nations Authors and Illustrators"

Hannah Heath - "5 Problems Within the Own Voices Campaign (And How to Fix Them)"

Saadia Faruqi - "The Struggle Between Diversity and Own Voices"

Kat Rosenfield (Refinery29) - "What is # ownvoices doing to our books?"

Lee and Low - "Diversity Baseline Survey 2019 Results"

Vulture - "Who Gave You the Right To Tell That Story"

School Library Journal - "An Updated Look at Diversity in Children's Books"

TL;DR: if you’re more overcome with the fear of offending people (often grounded in white fragility) instead of making the active, albeit sometimes uncomfortable, decision to do the hard work necessary to empathetically represent someone outside of your marginalization in fiction, I don’t think you’re ready to write POC in the nuanced, complex, empathetic ways necessary for good representation, and I would encourage you do more independent anti-racist work. (Note that “you” is not individualistically aimed at the asker!!)

Questions like this don’t necessarily have a clear-cut answer, and that is essentially the point of my video (I know, not super helpful, but I hope that makes sense!).

Hope this helps!

--Rachel

[laurelnose]

monster! parasites!

you know how a few days ago i said we weren’t going to talk about monster parasites? that was a fucking lie.

the basis of my monster parasite thoughts are: every organism comes with its own internal ecosystem that goes with them everywhere. it’s like having built-in friends! ergo, when monsters crossed over to the witcher dimension during the Conjunction of Spheres they must have brought many new and delightful parasites with them. you know what fiend manes are full of? MITES. you know what drowners got on their skin? COPEPODS. what can we do with this information? anything we want.

i promise there are no pictures below the cut. i have tried to put warnings on all my sources but click any of the links below at your own risk. warning for internal and external parasites of animals, monsters, humans, and witchers; parasites altering the behavior of their hosts; and probably general body horror. if you read the eating-liver-flukes post that’s probably a decent baseline for how revolting you will find this post. 

also, super obvious bias towards aquatic parasites as referents. my degree is fisheries science not terrestrial ecology so that’s primarily what i’m drawing on even though nearly all of the witcher monsters are terrestrial. there is a TON i’m missing here bc of that bias! specifically i really wish i could talk about how parasites of invasive species often act as co-invaders with their hosts and monsters definitely count as invasive species and would have majorly reshaped ecological interactions on the Continent but i don’t know enough about terrestrial ecosystems to speculate properly. (ETA: while i still think monsters would have majorly reshaped ecological interactions on the Continent, I don’t actually think they’re invasive species anymore!) hopefully you enjoy it anyways!

it is, hilariously, canon that parasites are used for alchemy. according to The Last Wish, the Temple of Melitele’s grotto grows a bunch of different “rare specimens—those which made up the ingredients of a witcher’s medicines and elixirs, magical philters and a sorcerer’s decoctions” and some of those specimens are, uh, “clusters of nematodes.” nematodes being parasitic roundworms. this is really funny because it’s so fucking weird. also everything else in this description is a plant or a fungus and nematodes are definitely animals? i choose to believe the world makes sense and nematodes aren’t plants in the witcherverse. therefore parasites are alchemical ingredients, it’s canon, give me more witchers digging through monster intestines in search of worms and put a nematode colony in the basement of corvo bianco please and thank you

this actually leads right into my personal favorite drowner headcanon (hello yes i’m tumblr user Socks Laurelnose and i am always thinking about drowners)—you know those bits where drowners kind of have red blotches in their skin? those are nematodes, actually, because i said so. the reference is Clavinema mariae, a nematode that infests English sole. the worms are basically harmless but they’re dark red and you can see them through the skin. it freaks people out and makes it hard to sell sole. (IMAGE WARNING: a picture of an infected flatfish. it looks mostly normal but there’s a dark red lesion near the fin.) said lesion is probably a coiled-up Clavinema. sole have so many of these, it’s not even funny (PDF article link, IMAGE WARNING for worms visible underneath skin of flatfishes. relevant images pointing out exactly how many worms on page 5). “but the red parts of drowners could just be flushed from blood”—no. worms. 

okay that was my main specific-parasite-for-specific-monster headcanon (except also succubi probably have a unique species of lice for their hairy legs. but that’s barely even a headcanon, basically all terrestrial vertebrates have a unique species of lice.) i wanted to start with it because i think that everyone should feel free to arbitrarily assign a totally benign but conceptually gross worm to their favorite monsters. why not, yanno? also it probably sets the tone for the rest of this post. 

carrying on: “what monsters might have nematodes, besides drowners,” you may be wondering? probably all of them! all of them are full of nematodes. nematodes are fucking everywhere. allow me to share a deeply unsettling quote from nematologist Nathan Cobb: 

“In short, if all the matter in the universe except the nematodes were swept away, our world would still be dimly recognizable, and if, as disembodied spirits, we could then investigate it, we should find its mountains, hills, vales, rivers, lakes, and oceans represented by a film of nematodes. The location of towns would be decipherable since, for every massing of human beings, there would be a corresponding massing of certain nematodes. Trees would still stand in ghostly rows representing our streets and highways. The location of the various plants and animals would still be decipherable, and, had we sufficient knowledge, in many cases even their species could be determined by an examination of their erstwhile nematode parasites.”

jesus christ! thanks nathan, I hate it. nematodes are usually both benign and microscopic, but we’re talking witchers, we want some parasites we can fuckin get our hands on. sperm whale placentas are sometimes infested with nematodes up to 28 feet long but only a centimeter in diameter (Wikipedia link, no images). like an incredibly awful spaghetti! we don’t really seem to know if this bothers the sperm whales. also, i unfortunately do not know enough about the size of whale organs to tell you how big the placenta is in relation to this worm. the point is: real big monster? REAL BIG NEMATODES.

moving on from nematodes—okay, you know, since i mentioned eating deer liver flukes at the start of this post, let’s just go there. real life flukes max out at about 3 inches long, but hypothetical monster flukes could be much bigger and equally edible if desired. (if you’re wondering what a liver fluke would taste like: the flukes feed on the liver and they have very few organs of their own, so they would taste basically just like liver, just also long and flat like a fruit roll-up. if you’re going there, a witcher should not eat any flatworm live. if they’re digging them out of cockatrice livers or whatnot they should kill them before munching or save to cook later. it would probably be safe to eat one live, but you know that cliche “their tongues battled for dominance”? handling a live flatworm is like a handling very strong and energetic tongue complete with slime, okay, it wouldn’t be nice.)

parasites often need more than one host to complete the life cycle—for instance, Leucochloridium paradoxum (VIDEO WARNING: you may have seen this, it’s the one that makes snail eyes pulsating & green) has a bird stage and a snail stage, and it makes the snails look and act really weird in order to attract the birds. parasites altering host behavior to attract the next host in the life cycle is pretty well-documented; for instance, there’s an eye fluke that can make fish swim near the surface where predators can eat them (New Scientist article link, images of a microscope slide & a normal-looking fish) and a tapeworm that does the same and makes the dark silver fish turn white (JSTOR article, no images). i posit that at least some monsters are accompanied by “ill omens” of animals looking or acting strangely because they become infected with a stage of one of the monster’s parasites—usually, the mechanism is that internal parasites lay eggs that are passed in feces & transmitted that way. witchers who are up on their parasite ecology might be able to identify what monster is hanging around by observing exactly what kind of freaky-looking animals or animal behavior is going on around the area!

(if geralt is involved you may desire to have him explain this totally non-supernatural mechanism for abrupt animal appearance or behavioral changes at excruciating length to the chagrin of all present. or maybe that’s just what i desire. it would be funny okay)

potentially even more hyperspecific application of dual-stage parasites: there’s a dinoflagellate parasite that, when it infects crabs, makes the meat chalky and bitter like aspirin (Smithsonian link, images of healthy crab and microscope slide). geralt hunts down dinner, digs in, and immediately sighs and grabs jaskier’s portion away from him to the poet’s complete bafflement before going to get his swords because judging by the flavor there’s definitely a shishiga nest in this forest. 

like. parasites are one of THE most hyperspecific things in biology. the majority of them have very specific hosts and life cycles, many of them are completely unique to a species, if you think a fictional parasite is too specific to be plausible you’re probably wrong, make it even more specific. “the witcher monster lore is so hyperspecific lol” IT AIN’T TRULY HYPERSPECIFIC UNTIL YOU CAN IDENTIFY EACH MONSTER SPECIES BY ITS UNIQUE PARASITIC LOAD, OKAY.

and, with regards to behavior-affecting parasites, before anyone brings up Cordyceps (Ophiocordyceps, as of 2008): yeah that sure is a thing! if you weren’t aware, just a couple of years ago we found out it actually is not a mind control fungus!! it bypasses the brain entirely and affects the muscles (Arstechnica article, Atlantic article—photos of fuzzy ants and electron microscope pictures of fungi). or as Ed Yong puts it, “The ant ends its life as a prisoner in its own body. Its brain is still in the driver's seat, but the fungus has the wheel.” which is. significantly worse than the brain thing. awesome!! i bet there would absolutely be similar fungal parasites of endrega and arachasae. real Ophiocordyceps still very much does not affect humans, but you know what, if plants can be cursed into becoming archespores and cultivated by mages i see no reason why mages could not also curse endrega fungus to affect humans, just saying

aaaand quickly back to hyperspecificity: monsters in different geographical areas having different abilities because of their symbionts. forktails in vicovaro acquire a bioluminescent symbiont in their diet that forktails in other parts of the continent can’t get, and they can create flashes of light? that’s sure gonna fuck a witcher on Cat up when he comes in the cave expecting a normal forktail. (geographic location affecting bioluminescence is a thing that actually happens in midshipman fish—Wikipedia link, no parasites.) geographically-dependent symbionts can also produce different toxins and such for their hosts! this isn’t exactly a parasitism thing per se (although parasites are also symbionts because ‘symbiosis’ refers to two organisms in close association not two organisms in positive association) but like. it’s cool okay ecology is so cool

writing fic and tired of all these same-old monsters-of-the-week? quick and easy way to spice up either the horror factor or just make the hunt stand out slightly: just add parasites!! i know i’ve read fics where monsters were described with distinguishing old wounds. you can do the same with parasites! i would fucking swoon over a detail like an ancient water hag’s eyes glowing in the dark, one of them marred by a dangling parasite—geralt notes the blind spot and presses his advantage. (Wikipedia link, no images: this one is referencing an aquatic copepod called Ommatokoita.) also, please put barnacles on skelliger drowners, i want it so badly. just—some percentage of monsters should be Extra Grody on the inside and/or the outside, that’s how nature works. spicing up a mundane hunt by making the monster a little extra gross for its species is Valid, is what I’m saying.

also, every single time frozen specimens with obvious fungal/ectoparasite infections come into the lab we absolutely always take extra close-up pictures of those suckers and make sure everyone else gets to see them. witchers bringing field sketches and notes of the weirdest shit they found on the path back for winter. lambert declares they’ll never know if this alleged fiend tumor was a fungus or mange because geralt sucks at drawing. eskel, the man who hauled a katakan corpse all the way up the mountain so he could dissect it, produces actual skin samples of his own encounters for examination, possibly in the middle of dinner. this elicits mixed reactions.

quick detour into preservation, since I went there—witchers are probably immune to parasites that infect humans by virtue of having pretty different biology to begin with, and probably immune to parasitic infections from other sources by virtue of superhumanly boosted immune systems and all the poison they put into their bodies on a regular basis. picking up a monster parasite would probably not be a big deal for witchers, either in that they have total immunity or that they would only be minimally and briefly affected, but the field of monster biology is likely such that they probably just don’t actually know what would happen to them in the majority of cases. this has potential as a source of battle stories and/or stories intended to freak out trainees, i think. therefore, out of caution, a witcher harvesting/preparing parts for alchemy might want to be sure to treat them first. personally i think all monster parts should be preserved immediately anyways to avoid attracting necrophages, and given that alchemical concoctions in witcherverse are alcohol-based, preservation in strong alcohol is probably the best way to maintain potency and kill basically everything. (cons: alcohol is SUPER heavy and jars are fragile. tissues or organs which are thicker than perhaps half an inch or an inch require additional preparation for the alcohol to penetrate properly. other preservation methods are more efficient for travel. depends on how soon your witcher intends to use or offload their stash.)

also, here’s an absolutely wild marine parasite that would make it worth a witcher’s while to make certain everything was dead! pearlfishes are long eel-like fishes that live inside the anus and respiratory organs (which are attached to the anus) of sea cucumbers, and they have pretty nasty teeth (PDF article link, IMAGE WARNING: dissected sea cucumbers literally stuffed to the gills with pearlfish). the highest number of pearlfish discovered in a single sea cucumber was sixteen (ResearchGate article, free PDF; no images). a different fact: we discovered tiger sharks eat each other in the womb because a researcher got bitten by a fetal tiger shark while he was dissecting the mother (NYT link, no images or parasites). what i’m saying is: parasites are often very small relative to the host and usually harmless to things rummaging around inside, but what if the monster’s parasites were also monstrous. give me a monster that has to be very dead or when you start rummaging around for alchemy ingredients the things in its intestines will lunge out and bite you. 

what happens if a human becomes infected with a monster parasite? bad things, probably, i mentioned before that parasites in the wrong host, if they don’t just die, often super fuck things up internally (if you get tapeworms outside of the intestine where they’re supposed to be... it’s not good y’all. CDC link, no images). host-jumping for parasites is actually fairly rare since most of them are highly specialized for their hosts, but it does happen. humans are very not my strong suit so i’m not going to dwell on this but it is entirely possible that something like necrophage infestations or monster-contaminated water sources or just being a little too involved on a witcher’s monster hunt could produce strange parasitic diseases in humans. up to you how well-known and/or how clouded in superstition these effects might be! opportunities for hideous whump? gross body horror? messy and horrifying parasite-driven behavioral changes? terrifying and potentially prolonged uncertainty over what the issue actually is because of minimal information about parasites? the decision whether or not to dose with a witcher potion? excellent possibilities.

okay last one, just because i think it would be fun: myxosporeans and sirens. Myxos are a parasitic relative of jellyfish that produce whirling disease in baby salmon. whirling disease causes neurological and skeletal damage and has a pretty high mortality rate, but it also makes infected fish do this, well, whirling behavior and it’s honestly fascinating. (video link: a pretty normal-looking young trout spinning like a fuckin top). imagine a siren doing that in the sky. i just think myxos are neat!

tl;dr: extra grody hyperspecific biology of monsters!!!

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

who was Bartolomeo Manfredi? did he have a family?

Hello! I found some sources that describe Bartolomeo Manfredi’s life, I could not find anything about him having a family, but one source I looked did state his life was poorly documented so that part of his life just might not be known today His wiki page, a good starting point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeo_Manfredi A brief description of Manfredi’s art career and style (also the source that states his life was poorly documented) https://artuk.org/discover/artists/manfredi-bartolomeo-c-15821622 WorldCat sources on Manfredi, includes a biography section (which has materials in English and Italian) https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Bartolomeo+Manfredi JSTOR sources on Manfredi, https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=Bartolomeo+Manfredi&acc=off&wc=on&fc=off&group=none&refreqid=search%3A6ccf11618997ee49c3db483a2c3f84e5 Manfredi is closely tied to the artist Caravaggio, so searching through materials about Caravaggio as well might prove useful Hope this helps! Let me know if you need anything more 😊

[the-busy-ghost]

Hi! I hope you're well - I was just wondering if you had any recommendations for interesting & engaging "introductory" texts about Scottish history (particularly between 500 and 1500 AD, although I know that's really broad!) No worries if you don't have any ideas or don't feel like answering such a vague question though! Have a lovely day :)

Hi! 

Apologies for the delayed response on this, I have no real excuse except being anxious that I wouldn’t be able to answer it perfectly. So I’ve decided to bite the bullet and answer somewhat imperfectly. This answer also depends on just exactly how much knowledge you already have of Scottish history, so if I’m being patronising and assuming too much ignorance, or alternatively if I’m not being clear enough, please let me know. 

The first thing I would always recommend before diving into serious literature is having a basic framework in the back of your mind. It may be an inaccurate framework but given that mediaeval Scottish history really isn’t taught or known to the same extent as say mediaeval English history, it is essential that you know where you are on a basic level, so you can both enjoy and learn from the texts that go into more detail. This basic background can come from almost anything- Braveheart and blatantly inaccurate novels aside. 

This is quite freeing because basically reading almost ANYTHING can be useful at first, and also first and foremost if you’re going to devote a considerable amount of time to something, you should work out how to make it fun and understandable.

I always had some idea of Scottish history since I was a kid but I got more into it in my late teens and I’ll be honest, though I probably don’t agree with anything in it pages now, one of the first books I picked up at the age of about sixteen was Neil Oliver’s ‘History of Scotland’ (released alongside the documentary series). Any basic ‘History of Scotland’ of that type (if it looks reasonably reputable) should give you a basic framework that you can build on- in the same way some people learn the kings and queens of England. Wikipedia could also work this way, though it may be more patchy. Other, slightly more reputable and in-depth but not really textbook, works of this kind include Stewart Ross’ “The Stewart Dynasty”; Alistair Moffat’s ‘The Borders’; popular (if coloured) biographies of people like Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, and Mary Queen of Scots (she’s post-medieval but still a relevant example); and even some of the older Victorian histories of people like Tytler (watch out though, they get weirdly ‘ethnic’ in their interpretations of some historical events and processes- some were convinced that there was a centuries-long feud between the “Celt” and the “Teuton”/”Saxon”). Even novels and songs- though sometimes highly inaccurate- can help with this, even if they’re Walter Scott. 

So I’m not going to be a purist and get snobby about Neil Oliver or Walter Scott even if I would never set store by any of the above works in an academic context (or even just a drunken argument). The first step in my view is literally to get a basic feel for what we *think* our history is (and enjoy learning about the different regions and cultures a bit!), and then you can set about dismantling all these stereotypes and misconceptions with better books. 

If you DO want a reasonably trustworthy general overview though, I believe that Fiona Watson has written one called “Scotland: From Prehistory to Present” and there must be a few others written by academics, it’s just been so long since I’ve read completely general histories I can’t really comment on this accurately.

Assuming you’re already aware of the above though and have a pretty good idea of what you’re dealing with then there are two next steps I would recommend.

The first are the series of texbooks/overviews that are often published by universities. Obviously since these are textbooks they are more introductory and general, but they do often cite academic articles and books that are more detailed. I have found a couple of series particularly useful and outlined the main titles below:

- The “New History of Scotland” series. This is a good series as most of the books were initially A5 sized or slightly bigger (so quick to read and easy to carry). Sadly this means that they do not employ footnotes/citations to any great extent, usually only providing a ‘Further Reading’ section at the end of the book. You can usually find old copies of these online for a reasonable price. This series includes, among others:

- “Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland, 80-1000”, by Alfred P  Smyth

- “Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000-1306″, by G.W.S. Barrow 

- “Independence and Nationhood: Scotland, 1306-1469″, by             Alexander Grant. (This one has a particularly good basic overview of diet, trade, e.t.c.)

- “Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470-1625″, by Jenny Wormald

- “Power and Propaganda: Scotland, 1306-1488″, by Katie Stevenson (note- the previous titles listed were written in the 1980s and 90s, but this one was added to the series in 2014, so it’s more up to date in some ways though it’s up to you whether you think it’s more persuasive).

- The “New Edinburgh History of Scotland” series. These are bigger books than the previous series and are complete with on page citations and bibliography. They tend to all come in matching blue jackets, and I thought that secondhand copies of these would be slightly more expensive than the above but a quick search on amazon has surprised me, since a copy of Oram’s “Domination and Lordship” is several pounds cheaper than Grant’s “Independence and Nationhood”. Anyway these are slightly more in-depth than the above series, but work very well in tandem with those shorter books. The series includes:

- “From Pictland to Alba: 789-1070″, by Alex Woolf (it is a very long time since I read this, so I have to admit I have very little memory of its contents but I put it here for balance)

- “Domination and Lordship: Scotland, 1070-1230″, by Richard Oram (good used along with Kingship and Unity)

- “The Wars of Scotland, 1214-1371″, by Michael Brown

- “The First Stewart Dynasty In Scotland, 1371-1488″, by Stephen Boardman (full disclosure I have not read this one yet, but I have read some of Boardman’s other books).

- “Scotland Reformed, 1488-1587″, by Jane E.A. Dawson

- The “History of Everyday Life” series. These books are collections of essays on some selected aspects of day to day life in medieval Scotland and can provide some interesting reading and insights. Only one of the books in this series is relevant to our time period, but it may be worth checking out the other three since some customs and behavioural patterns from more recent times are worth comparing with the past. The volume covering the medieval period is “A History of Everyday Life in Medieval Scotland, 1000-1600″, edited by Edward Cowan and Lizanne Henderson.

- The “Northern World” series. This is not a series I’m particularly familiar with outside of some light reading while at university (mostly because these books can be really expensive compared to the previous ones mentioned). HOWEVER not only do they range across northern Europe (not just Scotland) but a couple of them help to balance out the Lowland focus which sometimes predominates in the above general overviews. There are quite a few interesting books in this series (identifiable usually by their purple jackets) but some that I know of include:

- “Kinship and Clientage: Highland Clanship, 1451-1609″ by Alison Cathcart.

- “The Lordship of the Isles”, edited by Richard Oram (this is a collection of essays)

There was also an older “Edinburgh History of Scotland” series published in the 1970s- some of the authors were better than others and they’re a bit dated now but they’re still a useful starting point. The series includes:

- “Scotland, the Making of the Kingdom”, by A.A.M. Duncan

- “Scotland: The Later Middle Ages”, by Ranald Nicholson

There are lots of other book series out there- the St Andrews Studies in Scottish History or the publications of old literature by the Scottish Text Society for example but I think I’ve listed enough to be getting on with. There are also a few books that I think make good general overviews (or are collections of interesting essays) that aren’t in a particular series:

- “Women in Scotland, 1100-1750”, edited by Elizabeth Ewan and Maureen M Meikle (this is a collection of essays rather than an overview of women’s history but it’s a good starter, and great if you only have fifteen minutes to spare)

- “Glory and Honour: The Renaissance in Scotland”, by Andrea Thomas (a beautiful coffee table book with lots of pictures of art and architecture). It starts in 1424.

- “The Kingdom of the Isles: Scotland’s Western Seaboard, c.1100-c.1336″, by R. Andrew MacDonald

- “The Black Douglases”, Michael Brown

- “Robert the Bruce’s Rivals: The Comyns, 1212-1314″, by Alan Young

- “The Northern Earldoms: Orkney and Caithness, 870-1470″, by Barbara E. Crawford

- “Scottish Independence and the Idea of Britain: From the Picts to Alexander III”, by Dauvit Broun

- “Virgins and Viragos: A History of Women in Scotland From 1080 to 1980″, by Rosalind K Marshall (Marshall has also written some good introductory overviews on Scottish queens, on Mary of Guise, and on the women around Mary, Queen of Scots, though these last two are sixteenth century).

- Any of Alexander Fenton’s books on agricultural history- they don’t deal exclusively (or even mainly) with the medieval period, and they’re not the most up to date but they are still useful handbooks.

There are also lots of shorter academic articles on JSTOR and elsewhere, as well as online networks for things like Scottish Women’s History and Environmental History. 

The second step I would recommend is using biographies- biography is not always the most useful form of historical writing, but they do have their own benefits. For this time period most of the full book-length biographies of individuals are royal figures (though lots of other people are covered in academic articles).

For some figures it’s wise to have several biographies on hand since they’re well-known or controversial- for example, for Robert Bruce, you could start with an older bio like G.W.S. Barrows “Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland” and then supplement it with a more modern biography like that written by Michael Penman or by Colm McNamee. In other cases, a historical figure may not be quite so well known so jumping straight into an academic biography of them, which hops around and analyses expenditure and parliaments, may be a bit confusing- for example, for King James IV, it may be useful to start with R.L. Mackie’s (admittedly dated and a bit romantic) biography to get an idea of the structure of the king’s reign before diving into Norman MacDougall’s more scholarly biography.

Other biographies/overview of royal reigns include Richard Oram’s works on David I and Alexander II; D.D.R. Owen’s bio of William the Lion (this is an interesting one, since it’s written by a French professor rather than a straightforward historian so there’s a big focus on the importance of literature); Andrew Fisher’s bio of William Wallace; Stephen Boardman’s survey of the reigns of Robert II and Robert III; the two biographies of James I written by E.W.M. Balfour-Melville and Michael Brown; Christine McGladdery’s ‘James II’ and Norman McDougall’s ‘James III’; and Annie Dunlop’s biography of Bishop Kennedy.

Lastly once you feel you’ve got a bit of a grip on some secondary source material (or really, as soon as you like) I do recommend checking out some of the primary source material as soon as possible. A LOT of primary sources of medieval Scottish history were printed during the Victorian and Edwardian periods and now thanks to digitisation projects many of them are available online- from chronicles like those of Melrose, John of Fordun and Andrew Wyntoun (and useful English chronicles like Lanercost and Scalachronica); to acts of parliament and accounts of royal expenditure (Treasurer’s Accounts; Exchequer Rolls); to letters of the nobility and poetry. Personally, I find that you learn as much from working directly with the words of historical figures themselves, even if you’re untrained in source handling, as you would from a whole host of textbooks (also it lets you get used to the languages- Scots is straightforward enough to pick up even if you don’t have Latin or Gaelic). If you ever have trouble finding these let me know and I might be able to point you in the right direction. 

It is also worth bearing in mind that sixteenth century sources may shed a lot of light on earlier periods.

Anyway hopefully this helped but if you have any other questions please let me know and I will endeavour to reply quicker this time!

*One last disclaimer, the above list of texts is based purely on my own experiences and what my brain could remember quickly- it is not to reflect a bias or to promote these texts above the works of other historians. It is also not an exhaustive or comprehensive list (and some dearly beloved books are not included- but I tried to stick to simple overviews/textbooks and a few other interesting surveys).

And people are very welcome to add to this since there’s lots I’ve missed!

Lastly try to have a bit of fun with it. Some of these books are very informative but can drag at times- on those occasions I highly recommend taking a break and trying to get outside to a hill or a castle, or if you can’t do that try putting an old ballad on on youtube, and physically look at or listen to the thing you’re studying.

[pierrebeaumarchais]

Hi! This is gonna sound weird, but I figured- it's not like I expected to find a Beaumarchais expert on tumblr in the first place, so I might just take this chance, right? I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about the relationship between Beaumarchais and Salieri when they were working on Tarare, or about any Beaumarchais biography that dedicates some space to that so I can document myself on my own. Weird topic, I know! So it's cool if you're like "idk ask someone else." Thanks in advance.

hi there! a good place to start would be the improbable patriot biography, which very briefly touches on the context of tarare and how beaumarchais first reached out to salieri. it’s one of the most easily accessible and comprehensive beaumarchais biographies out there, and the majority of the book is available for free here if the $26 price tag is out of reach for you. i also have a print copy of my own and would be happy to send you scans of the missing pages if you need them!

pierre beaumarchais and antonio salieri were first introduced to each other in a professional context when beaumarchais sought a composer for his libretto of tarare (later revived under the title le couronnement de tarare). after a brief period of correspondence, beaumarchais invited salieri to stay with him at his house in paris, where they worked together on composition for the opera. their relationship seemed to have a largely paternal dynamic; beaumarchais lavished favors and kindness on salieri, who in turn respected beaumarchais’ judgement and adapted the music to his every whim. the two remained in contact after the initial productions of tarare, with beaumarchais excitedly sharing the news of its later successes to salieri. even after beaumarchais’ death, salieri referred to him fondly. there was clearly a strong mutual respect between the two, which can best be seen in beaumarchais’ dedication of the tarare libretto to salieri:

“A monsieur Salieri. Mon ami, je vous dédie mon Ouvrage, parce qu'il est devenu le vôtre. Je n'avais fait que l'enfanter vous l'avez élevé jusqu'à la hauteur du Théâtre. Mon plus grand mérite en ceci, est d'avoir deviné l'Opéra de Tarare dans les Danaïdes et les Horaces, malgré la prévention qui nuisit à ce dernier, lequel est un fort bel Ouvrage, mais un peu sévère pour Paris. Vous m'avez aidé mon ami, à donner aux Français une idée de Spectacle des Grecs, tel que je l'ai toujours conçu: si notre Ouvrage à du succès, je vous le devrai presqu'entier ; et quand votre modestie vous fait dire par-tout, que vous n'êtes que mon Musicien, je m'honore moi d'être votre Poète, votre Serviteur et votre ami. Caron de Beaumarchais”

if you want the full translation of the dedication let me know, but the relevant bits to focus on here are: beaumarchais stating that salieri alone is responsible for raising tarare to “the heights of theater” (vous l'avez élevé jusqu'à la hauteur du théâtre), believing that he owes the work’s success to salieri entirely (si notre ouvrage à du succès, je vous le devrai presqu'entier), and finally saying that he is honored to be salieri’s poet, servant, and friend (je m'honore moi d'être votre poète, votre serviteur et votre ami). for a man as frequently vain and proud as beaumarchais, this is high praise indeed.

looking beyond the biography and tarare dedication, the sources we have looking into the salieri-beaumarchais collaboration are unfortunately fairly limited- but they are out there. some of beaumarchais’ correspondence with salieiri is documented, and while access to the letters is restricted i was able to find references to them in other papers and books, which i’ll link below:

chapter xxx of the book beaumarchais and his times: sketches of french society in the eighteenth century from unpublished documents, volume 4 (available for free via google books, and pdf transcription available here) has an extremely in-depth discussion of the writing, composing, production, and reception of tarare, and i think you will find the translated quote from salieri regarding his stay with beaumarchais in a letter to eugénie beaumarchais delarue on page 191 most helpful:

“I stayed with your celebrated papa [Pierre Beaumarchais] and your adorable mamma, who loaded me with favours and politeness; we two used to sit down in the afternoon at the piano, and play sonatas, arranged as duets. At two o'clock M. or Madame de Beaumarchais came into the room, and said to us, ‘Let us have dinner, my children;' we dined; I went out afterwards to take a walk, to read the papers in the Palais Boyal or to some theatre. I came in early. When M. de Beaumarchais was not at home, I went up to the second floor to my apartment; sometimes I put my servant, a drunken German, to bed; I slept in a room, whence, working as I did every day, I saw the dawn from my bed with a heavenly pleasure. Towards ten o'clock M. de Beaumarchais came into my room; I sang to him as much as I had composed of our grand opera; he applauded me, encouraged me, and gave me his  instructions in quite a paternal manner. Everything seemed so tranquil...”

exoticism and politics: beaumarchais' and salieri's "le couronnement de tarare" (accessible via institutional login for university students or through a jstor subscription) analyzes the writing of tarare and its reception, while also touching on the more technical aspects of salieri’s composing work for beaumarchais.

staging the french revolution: cultural politics and the paris opera, 1789-1794 (available for free via google books) also analyzes the writing and reception of tarare, with some brief references to beaumarchais’ correspondence with salieri.

this one is more for fun, but a slightly relevant paper discussing a scandal between beaumarchais and guillaume kornman that occurred when salieri was staying with him, mesmerizing adultery: così fan tutte and the kornman scandal, offers some additional context and is available via institutional login.

to wrap up, here are some slightly less academic sources that seem reliable but should still be taken with a grain of salt:

this page on russian poet alexander pushkin quotes one of his poems, “mozart and salieri,” where salieri’s character talks to mozart about his friendship with beaumarchais and mentions some advice he received from him.

this site has a biography of salieri that includes a brief section on his collaboration with beaumarchais.

i hope this was helpful for you! if you have any other further questions don’t hesitate to reach out.

[criophorus]

Hi there! I would like to know if maybe you have any resources about witches who happen to be mestizas, like, idk if I can worship/practice indigenous gods/religions bc cultural appropriation=being an asshole but I also don't wanna just stick with the purely European witchcraft bc it doesn't really resonate with me (also eurocentrism yucky) and I'm also super lost on where to even look for. If you find/know anything pls let me know. Lots of luck! ♥️♥️

To start off, this isn’t my area of expertise, but I think I have a few things for you! I would say as a general rule, read into different religions and whether or not they’re open. If you’re ancestrally related to people who worshiped the deities, I’d say you’re probably doing just fine.

Bruja Positionalities: Toward a Chicana/Latina Spiritual Activism

Conjuring with Coca and the Inca: The Andeanization of Lima’s Afro-Peruvian RItual Specialists

"¿Espiritus? No. Pero la Maldad Existe": Supernaturalism, Religious Change, and theProblem of Evil in Puerto Rican Folk Religion

Women on Top: The Love Magic of the Indian Witches of New Mexico

The Inca’s Witches: Gender and the Cultural Work of Colonization inSeventeenth-Century Peru

and then I have one that shouldn’t take any account at all (again, if it doesn’t work, please PM me and I’ll get it to you from elsewhere!)

Las salamancas mestizas: de las religiones indígenas a la hechicería colonial. Santiago del Estero, siglo XVIII

I hope this is helpful!

[sisterofiris]

Hi there, you seem like the person to ask this question; but for pagans who are interested in minor deities such as Ariadne who don't have a lot of information (at least none that's easy to find) about their worship, what would you suggest for connecting to that kind of deity?

As a fellow worshipper of a little-known deity (not quite as little-known as Ariadne, but still), I feel you.

There’s basically two roads you can go down: the extreme academic road, which will lead you further and further into JStor reading obscure articles about possible cults of your deity; and the UPG road, which entails just jumping straight into worship and filling the gaps with personal experience. I personally recommend a healthy balance of both.

I believe research into the cult of a deity you want to worship is important, so that you can get the gist of who they are and how they should be approached. In the case of a minor deity, keep your expectations low; you likely won’t be able to reconstruct an entire cult, or even an entire ritual. You might not even find out what specific offerings the deity likes. But every scrap of information you find is useful, so gather those scraps.

That said, don’t let your research stop you from worshipping. Approach the deity in a way that is traditional to the pantheon they belong to: for example, for Hellenic deities, purify yourself, purify the space you’re going to use, invoke the deity, and offer something commonly offered (wine, honey, olives…). Spend time with the deity at your altar and away from your altar, in places where you feel their presence. Get to know how they “feel”. Remember that their very first worshippers didn’t have sources either - ultimately, all information that you’ll read was born from the experiences of people just like you.

Remember, also, that you don’t need to know the deity like you would know a friend. As a newbie polytheist, I used to believe that I should be able to describe my deities’ “personalities” like you would on a character sheet: she is severe and always expects the best out of people, but she also knows how to have a good laugh and she is very protective of her family. Her favourite food is honey biscuits and her favourite drink is coffee. In all honesty, I felt like a bad devotee because I couldn’t describe the deity I’m devoted to in those terms. But I’ve come to realise, since then, that none of these things matter as much as the tangible experience I have of my Gods. I have no idea what Artemis really thinks of her brother, but her presence has helped me through a lot. I have no idea whether my lady Ištanu has a sense of humour (if deities can even have one in a way we understand), but offering to her makes me feel calm and warm. Both those things mean infinitely more to me than anything a character sheet or an academic article could tell me.

You don’t need to understand a deity fully to worship them. You just need to worship them.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#5yrsago RIP, Aaron Swartz

  To the extent possible under law,       Cory Doctorow   has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to   "RIP, Aaron Swartz."

Update: Go read Lessig: "He was brilliant, and funny. A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That person is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society would only call bullying. I get wrong. But I also get proportionality. And if you don’t get both, you don’t deserve to have the power of the United States government behind you."

My friend Aaron Swartz committed suicide yesterday, Jan 11. He was 26. I got woken up with the news about an hour ago. I'm still digesting it -- I suspect I'll be digesting it for a long time -- but I thought it was important to put something public up so that we could talk about it. Aaron was a public guy.

I met Aaron when he was 14 or 15. He was working on XML stuff (he co-wrote the RSS specification when he was 14) and came to San Francisco often, and would stay with Lisa Rein, a friend of mine who was also an XML person and who took care of him and assured his parents he had adult supervision. In so many ways, he was an adult, even then, with a kind of intense, fast intellect that really made me feel like he was part and parcel of the Internet society, like he belonged in the place where your thoughts are what matter, and not who you are or how old you are.  

But he was also unmistakably a kid then, too. He would only eat white food. We'd go to a Chinese restaurant and he'd order steamed rice. I suggested that he might be a supertaster and told him how to check it out, and he did, and decided that he was. We had a good talk about the stomach problems he faced and about how he would need to be careful because supertasters have a tendency to avoid "bitter" vegetables and end up deficient in fibre and vitamins. He immediately researched the hell out of the subject, figured out a strategy for eating better, and sorted it. The next time I saw him (in Chicago, where he lived -- he took the El a long way from the suburbs to sit down and chat with me about distributed hash caching), he had a whole program in place.

I introduced him to Larry Lessig, and he was active in the original Creative Commons technical team, and became very involved in technology-freedom issues. Aaron had powerful, deeply felt ideals, but he was also always an impressionable young man, someone who often found himself moved by new passions. He always seemed somehow in search of mentors, and none of those mentors ever seemed to match the impossible standards he held them (and himself) to.

This was cause for real pain and distress for Aaron, and it was the root of his really unfortunate pattern of making high-profile, public denunciations of his friends and mentors. And it's a testament to Aaron's intellect, heart, and friendship that he was always forgiven for this. Many of us "grown ups" in Aaron's life have, over the years, sat down to talk about this, and about our protective feelings for him, and to check in with one another and make sure that no one was too stung by Aaron's disappointment in us. I think we all knew that, whatever the disappointment that Aaron expressed about us, it also reflected a disappointment in himself and the world.  

Aaron accomplished some incredible things in his life. He was one of the early builders of Reddit (someone always turns up to point out that he was technically not a co-founder, but he was close enough as makes no damn), got bought by Wired/Conde Nast, engineered his own dismissal and got cashed out, and then became a full-time, uncompromising, reckless and delightful shit-disturber.

The post-Reddit era in Aaron's life was really his coming of age. His stunts were breathtaking. At one point, he singlehandedly liberated 20 percent of US law. PACER, the system that gives Americans access to their own (public domain) case-law, charged a fee for each such access. After activists built RECAP (which allowed its users to put any caselaw they paid for into a free/public repository), Aaron spent a small fortune fetching a titanic amount of data and putting it into the public domain. The feds hated this. They smeared him, the FBI investigated him, and for a while, it looked like he'd be on the pointy end of some bad legal stuff, but he escaped it all, and emerged triumphant.

He also founded a group called DemandProgress, which used his technological savvy, money and passion to leverage victories in huge public policy fights. DemandProgress's work was one of the decisive factors in last year's victory over SOPA/PIPA, and that was only the start of his ambition.  

I wrote to Aaron for help with Homeland, the sequel to Little Brother to get his ideas on a next-generation electioneering tool that could be used by committed, passionate candidates who didn't want to end up beholden to monied interests and power-brokers. Here's what he wrote back:  

  First he decides to take over the whole California Senate, so he can do things at scale. He finds a friend in each Senate district to run and plugs them into a web app he's made for managing their campaigns. It has a database of all the local reporters, so there's lots of local coverage for each of their campaign announcements.

Then it's just a vote-finding machine. First it goes through your contacts list (via Facebook, twitter, IM, email, etc.) and lets you go down the list and try to recruit everyone to be a supporter. Every supporter is then asked to do the same thing with their contacts list. Once it's done people you know, it has you go after local activists who are likely to be supportive. Once all those people are recruited, it does donors (grabbing the local campaign donor records). And then it moves on to voters and people you could register to vote. All the while, it's doing massive A/B testing to optimize talking points for all these things. So as more calls are made and more supporters are recruited, it just keeps getting better and better at figuring out what will persuade people to volunteer. Plus the whole thing is built into a larger game/karma/points thing that makes it utterly addictive, with you always trying to stay one step ahead of your friends.

Meanwhile GIS software that knows where every voter is is calculating the optimal places to hold events around the district. The press database is blasting them out -- and the press is coming, because they're actually fun. Instead of sober speeches about random words, they're much more like standup or the Daily Show -- full of great, witty soundbites that work perfectly in an evening newscast or a newspaper story. And because they're so entertaining and always a little different, they bring quite a following; they become events. And a big part of all of them getting the people there to pull out their smartphones and actually do some recruiting in the app, getting more people hooked on the game.

He doesn't talk like a politician -- he knows you're sick of politicians spouting lies and politicians complaining about politicians spouting lies and the whole damn thing. He admits up front you don't trust a word he says -- and you shouldn't! But here's the difference: he's not in the pocket of the big corporations. And you know how you can tell? Because each week he brings out a new whistleblower to tell a story about how a big corporation has mistreated its workers or the environment or its customers -- just the kind of thing the current corruption in Sacramento is trying to cover up and that only he is going to fix.

(Obviously shades of Sinclair here...)

also you have to read http://books.theinfo.org/go/B005HE8ED4

For his TV ads, his volunteer base all take a stab at making an ad for him and the program automatically A/B tests them by asking people in the district to review a new TV show. The ads are then inserted into the commercial breaks and at the end of the show, when you ask the user how they liked it, you also sneak in some political questions. Web ads are tested by getting people to click on ads for a free personality test and then giving them a personality test with your political ad along the side and asking them some political questions. (Ever see ads for a free personality test? That's what they really are. Everybody turns out to have the personality of a sparkle fish, which is nice and pleasant except when it meets someone it doesn't like, ...)  Since it's random, whichever group scores closest to you on the political questions must be most affected by the ad.  Then they're bought at what research shows to be the optimal time before the election, with careful selection of television show to maximize the appropriate voter demographics based on Nielsen data.

anyway, i could go on, but i should actually take a break and do some of this... hope you're well  

This was so perfect that I basically ran it verbatim in the book. Aaron had an unbeatable combination of political insight, technical skill, and intelligence about people and issues. I think he could have revolutionized American (and worldwide) politics. His legacy may still yet do so.

Somewhere in there, Aaron's recklessness put him right in harm's way. Aaron snuck into MIT and planted a laptop in a utility closet, used it to download a lot of journal articles (many in the public domain), and then snuck in and retrieved it. This sort of thing is pretty par for the course around MIT, and though Aaron wasn't an MIT student, he was a fixture in the Cambridge hacker scene, and associated with Harvard, and generally part of that gang, and Aaron hadn't done anything with the articles (yet), so it seemed likely that it would just fizzle out.

Instead, they threw the book at him. Even though MIT and JSTOR (the journal publisher) backed down, the prosecution kept on. I heard lots of theories: the feds who'd tried unsuccessfully to nail him for the PACER/RECAP stunt had a serious hate-on for him; the feds were chasing down all the Cambridge hackers who had any connection to Bradley Manning in the hopes of turning one of them, and other, less credible theories. A couple of lawyers close to the case told me that they thought Aaron would go to jail.

This morning, a lot of people are speculating that Aaron killed himself because he was worried about doing time. That might be so. Imprisonment is one of my most visceral terrors, and it's at least credible that fear of losing his liberty, of being subjected to violence (and perhaps sexual violence) in prison, was what drove Aaron to take this step.

But Aaron was also a person who'd had problems with depression for many years. He'd written about the subject publicly, and talked about it with his friends.  

I don't know if it's productive to speculate about that, but here's a thing that I do wonder about this morning, and that I hope you'll think about, too. I don't know for sure whether Aaron understood that any of us, any of his friends, would have taken a call from him at any hour of the day or night. I don't know if he understood that wherever he was, there were people who cared about him, who admired him, who would get on a plane or a bus or on a video-call and talk to him.  

Because whatever problems Aaron was facing, killing himself didn't solve them. Whatever problems Aaron was facing, they will go unsolved forever. If he was lonely, he will never again be embraced by his friends. If he was despairing of the fight, he will never again rally his comrades with brilliant strategies and leadership. If he was sorrowing, he will never again be lifted from it.

Depression strikes so many of us. I've struggled with it, been so low I couldn't see the sky, and found my way back again, though I never thought I would. Talking to people, doing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, seeking out a counsellor or a Samaritan -- all of these have a chance of bringing you back from those depths. Where there's life, there's hope. Living people can change things, dead people cannot.  

I'm so sorry for Aaron, and sorry about Aaron. My sincere condolences to his parents, whom I never met, but who loved their brilliant, magnificently weird son and made sure he always had chaperonage when he went abroad on his adventures. My condolences to his friends, especially Quinn and Lisa, and the ones I know and the ones I don't, and to his comrades at DemandProgress. To the world: we have all lost someone today who had more work to do, and who made the world a better place when he did it.

Goodbye, Aaron.

https://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html