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olderthannetfic · 3 years ago

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That other post is pretty long, so I’m pulling this out into another.

I think this is a really interesting point about how these nebulous qualities are both identifiable (”I know it when I see it!”) and not often found in published fiction...

See...

I don’t entirely think the latter is true.

What I think is that AO3 House Style, Tumblr House Style, etc. have some variations but are, in essence, BL style, at least if we’re looking at the m/m. And once you understand that, it becomes clear both why traditional US publishers are terrible at producing this work and where to go to find more of it.

Big US publishers mostly see queerness as an #ownvoices thing with all of the issues afflicting that movement. In other words, they expect that m/m will be written by cis gay men. Not trans men. Not bi men. Not other queer people. They expect, furthermore, that m/m exists to be Representation™ of an actual queer male identity from their own modern society, and one that they recognize and understand. Those books should exist too, but I think expecting everything to be that is stifling.

What they don’t expect/understand/approve of is m/m that conforms to “chick” genre standards or where the paying market is not mostly men or—and this is both key and terrible—where the main point of the book is something other than m/m. You see this complaint all the time now from various kinds of authors: #ownvoices was supposed to give them a leg up, and instead, the search for pseudo-authenticity is locking them into realistic family drama genres and into only writing lead characters who strongly resemble themselves and the stereotypical life experiences they’re assumed to have.

In the 90s and 00s, many of the m/m books that got published (in English, in the US) were coming from “gay” presses, which were pretty much focused on cis gay men but also covered other kinds of queerness. The genre fiction coming from these presses was very often old slash zines with the names changed, but in its new format, it was nominally for a cis gay male audience.

There are a few—very few—notable examples of sff that is primarily about the sff plot but that also has an m/m romance b-plot and that is from big, mainstream US publishers.

Currently, MXTX novels are coming out in translation, and US and English language publishers are starting to twig to the fact that BL/danmei sells well.

But overall, our regular, mainstream publishers have failed the Tumblr and AO3 audience. We should not look for our commercial m/m books there. Times one billion if we are more romance focused than sff/mystery plot focused!

However

Starting in about 2010, there has been a renaissance in US/English language original BL. It is typically called “m/m romance” (pronounced “em em” and that’s a slash and absolutely not the letter L).

I dislike the terminology because what I want is BL with a stronger sff/mystery plot and not things invariably shaped like romance novels. I hate how market forces mean that the first novel of all the m/m urban fantasy series is romance novel shaped instead of letting the ship be more slow burn, even though the subsequent books strongly resemble their big publisher het counterparts.

Various more indie options keep dying, so this community in 2022 is largely on Kindle Unlimited. (Boo, amazon, boo, I know, but that’s what’s going on right now.) That’s an all-you-can-read program, so books tend to be around 50-80k with many shorter works and not so many 100k+. Many authors release multiple times per year. A lot of them have patreons.

In the initial rise of this wave of English original BL, there were more indie publishers, and certain ones have survived, but as of the 2020s, a lot of the market is self published. I really cannot emphasize this enough:

The good original English language BL is mostly self published.

Forget the stereotypes of selfpub from before 2010: the world has changed radically in recent years, and plenty of big time authors who pay for real editing and good cover art have entered the selfpub space as traditional publishers have gotten shittier and ebooks have taken off.

This stuff was my big “fandom” prior to getting into BTS and spending the last couple of years just reading BTS fic. Alas, that means my recs aren’t really up to date, but it kills me how much of a disconnect there is between this growing niche and most tumblr types who are interested in original m/m work.

Some of the “m/m” market is still fic with the names changed, like it was in the 00s. However, overall, I think a lot of the better selling, more popular stuff started out as original and does a better job of structure than those 00s works.

You guys know what I mean: Some works feel like a mainstream romcom or mystery novel. Others have a noodly structure that you can only get away with in fic where people already care enough to read to the end. Older m/m originals (even ones that weren’t just serial numbers filed fics) did more noodling. More recent works on average feel closer to a big publisher het version of their genre, at least in terms of structure.

This is my hobby horse because I too managed to miss the beginning of this shift in original m/m.

In 2015, I tried out some of the long-running and most famous series and was shocked at how far we’d come from the stuff I’d been seeing only a few years before. In fact, this shift in the market is what finally inspired me to go pro with my writing. I hope it inspires other people from our communities, many of whom I think would do better self published than with a big publisher.

So if you’re an English-speaking American do go buy those MXTX translations, but also check out some of our home-grown BL. Ditto Canadians and others, but obviously, I’m looking at this through my US lens, so it may be more and less applicable depending on what languages you speak and where you are.

The industry conference for this stuff is GRL, aka GayRomLit. You can see which authors have paid to be official author attendees here. Those aren’t all of the big names (obviously, because this is an in-person event, there’s a strong bias towards authors who live in the US, and often ones who live closer to that year’s event), but it gives you a sense of some of the bigger names. Looking them up on Amazon or seeing what Goodreads lists their books appear on tends to find you names of others in this market niche.

I attended GRL a couple of years ago, and it was exactly what I expected: a small handful of male authors, shittons of female authors, many of whom come from m/m fanfic fandom, a lot of female readers there to meet their faves and shop, and a few male audiobook narrators. There was a contingent that had come over from het romance novel fandom, so the vibe wasn’t pure tumblr/ao3, but I’d say it was very tumblr+wattpad. (Or my part of tumblr+parts of tumblr I don’t interact with much, to be perfectly fair.)

My top rec for checking out this world would be Jordan L. Hawk. I back him on patreon and just plain like the dude, for one thing. For another, I know he’s been in some kind of fanfic fandom (we chatted about AO3), and he has that One Of Us vibe. He recently came out as a trans man after a period of questioning and going by they/them briefly, which will be of interest to many readers I know. And most importantly, he has multiple series with different flavors of sff+m/m, some historical. His latest book is a little toothless and fluffy for my tastes, but it has a trans hero treated in a very blasé way, which I enjoyed. It’s about a youtube ghost hunter and an academic who studies the paranormal, which is so exactly my thing! I just wish his other series with the tentacle man was more tentacle porn-y.

Another I might start with is Meghan Maslow. Her Starfig Investigations series is goofy comedy along the lines of Robert Aspirin’s MYTH series. It also has audiobooks that taught me to like audiobooks. While romance is pretty central, there’s a huge amount of world building in these.

Fairly bland m/m contemporaries sell extremely well and are probably the most numerous out of the m/m market, but they’re not what I like, and I’d love to see better labeling for BL-ish stuff with more plot. It’s currently hard to connect those books with customers, and I think a lot of that is because we lack both good vocabulary to describe it and any kind of reasonable index of what exists. (Goodreads tends to be best for finding already-famous things, and Amazon goes ever further towards only letting you find things whose authors paid for advertising.)

A big lack, and one I would like to see rectified, is the lack of 1. Asian heroes and 2. Asian-inspired genres. You’ll get your random kitsune in an otherwise Anita Blake-ish setting, but it feels to me like there’s a disconnect between the original English language writers who are coming from a weeb or cultivation novel-loving background and the authors who more typically end up at GRL. I’d like to see the people coming from more of a “MXTX but originally in English” side of things and people coming from more of a “Bandom AUs made me want to write original m/m” side of things start to build a common English Language BL type consciousness and community.

Anyway, I’ve recced various authors before, and I should be writing, so I’ll stop there for the day. I’d just love to see more of Our Sort check this shit out because the community/market niche/etc. is really cool yet still has huge room for improvement.

I’m super glad Orbit books is jumping on that! Don’t get me wrong! But we don’t need to wait for the big publishers to do this for us. We can do it ourselves right now.

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prorevenge · 4 years ago

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Cousin tries to steal my mother's inheritance

The whole story was a few years ago and is very convoluted. In order not to write a novel here, I try to keep things clear and as short as possible. If some things are incomprehensible, I am happy to submit updates upon request.

Yes, we were too trustworthy and in retrospect we should have done more earlier.

The story begins in the early 90s when my parents got divorced. My mother had been given custody of me and my older sister by the court. We moved into my maternal grandmother's house. The house was built by my grandfather in the 50's and had never been renovated. There were 2 apartments in the house. One apartment on the ground floor and one on the 1st floor. My grandma lived in the lower apartment. But even though it was actually too small for a woman with 2 teenage children in the upper apartment, my mother initially wanted us to see the house as 2 separate households. It took my grandma some time to convince my mother to consider the house as a whole as not my grandmothers, but ours.

My mother and grandma decided not only to renovate the house, but also to refurbish it. But before that could happen, something important had to be clarified.

Because my grandfather had built the house and he died without writing his last will, the house was not legally owned by my grandmother at the time, but belonged in part to my mother and her sister (let's call her Estelle)

My grandma bought Estelles share.

The 40-year-old stove heating was replaced by a floor heating that was modern at the time, windows were renewed, old pipes and cables were replaced and much more. My mother put all of the money my father gave her after the divorce into the house. Among other things, she paid off an old loan that was still on the house.

In order not to repeat my grandfather's mistake, the three made a will. The share in the house that belongs to my grandmother should go to my mother after her death, as she lived in the house and contributed significantly to its value through her investment. Estelle should get a large amount of money and everything else my grandma owns should be divided equally between the two.

Fast forward to 2015. My mother had retired and took care 24/7 of her mother, who is suffering from dementia. The alternative of putting my grandma in a nursing home was out of the question for us. As long as it was somehow possible, my mother wanted my grandma to stay in the house that she built with her husband and that she called home. I haven't lived in the house for a long time, but I still visited whenever I could to relieve my mother of work. But these opportunities are few and far between, as I live and work around 2 hours away by car. So I was all the more pleased that my mother got help with housework for a few hours a week. This domestic help (let's call her Nadine) is the girlfriend of Estelles son Tim.

When Tim was a Teenager he had fallen out with his father and most of our family had very few contacts with him. He showed up once a year, called on our grandmas’ birthday and on Christmas. For over 20 years, he was, besides these 3 occasions, basically nonexistent.

Nadine works full time in a nursing home. After having been in the hospital for a few days, my grandma was supposed to be in that very nursing home for a while. The insurance companies offer this option so that caregiving relatives should be able to recover for a few days themselves and my mother really needed the break.

But my mother was not granted this break. On the second day, in her demented confusion, she crawled under her room neighbor's bed and did not let the nursing staff lure her out from under it. Nadine then called Tim, who came by. While playing hide and seek, my grandma was slightly injured and was taken back to the hospital. After that, she refused to go back to the nursing home, and my mother gave in and took her home.

In the next few months, it was 2016 then, Tim appeared once a week to, as he said, “take care of grandma”. This “taking care” consisted of going to Grandma, who was sitting in her TV chair, holding her hand, asking if everything was okay and driving off 15 minutes later.

At this point I would like to emphasize again that my mother has basically sacrificed herself since 2011 to look after her mother in need of care. She never moved more than 50 meters from my grandma without someone to take her place. Both my grandmother's doctor and the official auditors in charge of the nursing service had certified my mother that my grandmother was doing great under her supervision.

Estelle's birthday was in March. My mother told me later that Estelle had advised her in a conversation that she should put some money aside for the time when Grandma is no longer there.

Nadine celebrated his birthday in July. Since my grandmother was again spending a few days in short-term care at that time so that my mother could recover a little, Tim offered to pick up grandma for the party.

And in August the mood changed.

Estelle expressed concern that my grandma's confusion was really dementia and instead suggested that grandma was in her condition because of poor care from my mother. Tim was increasingly aggressive towards my mother. In a conversation I insisted on participate, he accused my mother of embezzling my grandmother's money and evading taxes. And although I am a peace-loving person, I lost my composure a little and I was only a blink away from beating him.

After we calmed down again, I suggested that instead of just coming by for 15 minutes a week and spreading accusations, he should really take care of Grandma and look after her for a week at a time.

He agreed.

Two weeks later, Tim and Tim's brother appeared with his family and picked up Grandma for a visit to a fair.

When they came back they told my mother that they had ordered a new TV chair for Grandma and that my mother should pay for it with her money. The reason was that my mother “lived rent-free in Grandma's house” and practically doesn’t do anything. Since my grandmother was so “gracious to take in a mother and her two children” she was entitled to the money, my mother supposedly saved on rent.

A few weeks later my mother had an appointment and asked Estelle to take care of Grandma during that time. When she came back there was also a note on the table. Estelle had taken grandma with her to look after her. First a week to try out.

The joy that my mother had about the free time she gained quickly vanished when it turned out two days later that Estelle took the opportunity to go to her bank with my grandmother to revoke my mother the right to access my grandmother's account. We only found out about it by accident.

A few days later Estelle appeared accompanied by Tim, his two siblings and their families and got clothes, jewelry and everything valuable that my grandmother owned. They said that my grandma wanted to stay with Estelle now because she couldn't stand my mother anymore.

The mood between my mother and grandma had deteriorated noticeably in the months since the first stay at the nursing home. At first, we assumed that the dementia was getting worse.

A few days later, 9 people came to my mother's home. Including my grandmother, Estelle, Tim, Ts. siblings and their family. When my mother was about to let 2 visitors out of the door, one of the group stormed through the open front door, pushing my mother and sister aside and demanding that they leave the (lower) apartment immediately. They supposedly had no right to be there and are only allowed to stay in the upper apartment.

A neighbor saw the incident and called the police. The group convinced the police that my mother actually lived in the apartment upstairs and had no right to be downstairs. To this day I still don't understand why the policeman accepted it that way. In any case, he asked my mother to leave the lower apartment until the matter was legally clarified. The police then disappeared. The group then took the opportunity to exchange the lock and searched the apartment for incriminating material that they could use against my mother. Unsurprisingly, they didn't find anything. My mother hadn't done anything wrong.

The day after, my mother went to see a lawyer to give her access to the home again. After a week back and forth, my relatives agreed to let my mother back into the apartment.

They cleared the furniture out of the apartment beforehand, because they thought it belonged to my grandmother, and switched back to the old locks.

Since they were 9 again and my mother had a nervous breakdown from the whole affair anyway and was on the verge of the 2nd, I wanted to receive the key in her place. However, they insisted that my mother personally collect the key.

Since I could already imagine why my relatives insisted of being in a group of 9 to give the key to a 70 year old woman personally, I had an idea. I picked up my smartphone in a clearly visible position and activated the recording function.

As I expected, most of them noticed my cell phone and remained silent. All except my grandma. Although she could hardly see anything, she recognized me and wanted to talk to me. She accused me and my mother of plotting against her. That she always supported me and she couldn't understand how we could do that to her. It broke my heart to hear what monsters my mother and I had become in her mind. But I knew that this was the dementia talking. I listened patiently and tried to explain what she had misunderstood, but I also knew that she had sunk too far in her illness to convince her of the truth.

One of the allegations in that conversation was that my mother and I wanted her out of the house. As already written that was not the case. But I have to be grateful today that my grandma said that. Estelle was sitting next to her at the time and reflexively replied "It wasn't him, the others."

At the time, I was too fixated on my grandma that I hadn't even noticed. Fortunately, I had my phone in my hand the whole time. When I listened to the conversation a while later, it finally clicked and I could slap myself today for not noticing it earlier:

Since the incident at the nursing home, the mood between my mother and grandma had deteriorated noticeably. We had blamed it on dementia, but now it was clear to us that in her condition between dementia and the strong painkillers she was taking, my relatives had talked her into believing some conspiracy against her.

My mother then applied for guardianship for my grandma. In Germany it is regulated in such a way that it is first checked whether the care is necessary. That was a relatively straightforward matter.

Then a judge has to check whether there is a possibility that a relative will take over the guardianship. This test was an on-site appointment at Estelle

As I could deduct from the court papers, the judge was of the opinion relatively quickly that family-internal guardianship was not possible. The decisive factor was apparently, among other things, the aggressive behavior of my relatives towards my mother, whereby the judge was almost injured with a burning cigarette.

Mrs. G. was declared to be my grandmother's guardian. A few weeks after Mrs. G. took over her job, she paid my mother a visit.

Ms. G. said that she was amazed when she met my mother for the first time. After all, she wasn't the hell spawn my relatives described her. We learned that Estelle's family had apparently spread wild rumors about my mother in town. We also learned that apparently my grandmother's set up a new will.

Since my mother lives in a small town, it didn't take long to find out that Tim was named the sole heir in the new will. Nadine had said the same to a friend and if you know someone who knows someone…. Small town.

My grandma died in July 2017. Shortly afterwards, I drove to the court to deposit my grandma's will there so that it could take effect. The lady there said there would already be another recent will. I still insisted on depositing the old one.

The will was opened a few weeks later. We saw for the first time what we are dealing with.

The new will was drawn up by a notary which is normally better than a handwritten will from over 20 years ago. In the will, Tim is established as the sole heir with Estelle in the 2nd position (in the event that Tim would have died before my grandmother). Not a word about the fact that part of my mother's house already belonged to her, instead she was only given a right to live in the upper apartment. But the real shock came when we saw the date. The will was written in July 2016. On the day when Tim and Estelle had so generously agreed to pick up Grandma from the nursing home. When they were still trying to pretend everything was fine and their “only concern was Grandma's well-being”.

I made an appointment with an inheritance lawyer. The lawyer first wanted to convince my mother to only sue for her legal inheritance claim and to otherwise accept the will. Challenging a notarial will is one of the most difficult cases you can try in German courts and it takes a lot of evidence to do that.

My time to shine. It took me almost an hour to convince the lawyer that my grandma had dementia and that the new will is therefore invalid. Doctor's reports that certify dementia back in 2011. The report for the guardianship. Every minute I presented her with new documents and in the end she is ready to go into battle with us.

So the matter goes to court, which means that the lawyers write letters back and forth. In one of the letters, Tim's lawyer mentions that there is an assessment from a doctor A. that clearly confirms that my grandma did not have dementia. That would contradict the evidence I submitted to my lawyer. So the court commissioned a new, independent expert assessment.

Although I had a lot of evidence and the behavior of my grandmother was always a clear sign of dementia for me, we waited a little nervously for the assessment.

We receive the assessment and what can I say, I haven't read anything so beautiful and sad at the same time for a long time. It is sad because the expert quotes from many reports that describe what my grandma was going through after she was brought to Estelles house. Nice because the appraiser completely dismantled the other side's argument. For every argument that the other side has come up with by then, the appraiser has evidence to invalidate it. Most impressive is the fact that the alleged report by Doctor A. is completely worthless to the other side. On the contrary, the doctor was so incompetent that he accidentally not only failed to refute my grandmother's dementia, he even confirmed it.

So there is a court date. The appraiser, Doctor A. and the notary who wrote the will are present.

A. is given the opportunity to defend his "report" before the judge. And he only makes it worse. It is going too far to explain that now. In any case, A. made it clear to the judge that he had no idea how to carry out the test.

Then it's the notary's turn. When he testified, it turns out that there were 2 appointments with him and my grandma. And in their attempt to look particularly good in front of the judge, Estelle and Tim admit that they were both present at both appointments. Not only that, apparently the conversation and further coordination between the notary and my grandmother went completely through Estelle’s hands.

The trial ends and my mother's lawyer is overjoyed. She explains to me that if there were any doubts that the new will does not reflect the will of my grandma, these are finally resolved by the statement of the notary.

A few days later, the judge gives the verdict and it's even better than expected.

The house was awarded to my mother.

Tim is no longer entitled to even one cent from my grandma's inheritance.

All claims that Estelle could still make against my mother, i.e. both the stated sum of money from the old will and possible claims under the law, are offset against what was in his possession at the time of my grandma's death. So she has some old furniture, clothes, some jewelry, etc. And what it looks like so far, that means that's all she can hope for.

tl;dr My cousin tried to cheat my mother out of her inheritance. Didn't work out for him in the end.

(source) story by (/u/Sam_Ronin)

#prorevenge #by /u/Sam_Ronin #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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serpentinerose · 5 years ago

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hi! this isn't supposed to be ship or character hate, I'm just genuinely having a conflictual time reading 2ha. i'm on chapter 60 (so obviously I'm already pretty invested lol), but how do people get past the fact that cw is in love with a 15yr old disciple? maybe I'm just not at the part in the novel where that is somehow justified (i know he doesn't DO anything to moran, really its vice versa, but it's still kind of the thought that counts). does this q make sense? rly not supposed 2b hate!!

Hello anon! Thank you for your question. I think this is a morally gray point and surely will be one of the most common criticisms levied at 2ha, especially once it gets big when Hao Yi Xing is released. Some people would definitely classify Chu Wanning’s love for 15-year-old Mo Ran as very clearly immoral. I don’t love the minor thing due to my own ethnic Asian but Western-raised perspective, but I can kind of see why Meatbun made this decision. Keeping in mind how Chu Wanning was written as a character in the context of fantasy ancient China, I have a few thoughts on this. I tend to ramble a lot, so here is my word vomit:

1. Modern Western age of consent vs. classical norms. I think it is worth examining our own understanding of various constructs of the modern age, including the age of consent. It is no surprise that there was pretty much no such thing as an age of consent in the past; for women, it was whenever they started their period, and then they were eligible to marry. I think it is great that we now care a lot about age of consent; there is an enormous differential of power between a relatively young person and a more established, mature person, and knowing what we now know about prefrontal cortex formation (continuing until roughly the age of 25), it is good that we establish some boundaries. However, there does seem to be a mismatch between the biological point at which we are counted as fully mature and what we consider to be an appropriate age a person can be eligible for guilt-free sex. The age of consent is arbitrary to the point that it still varies in many parts of the world. What is considered immoral varies depending on context. Meatbun wrote 2ha following an established tradition in wuxia novels following the norms of that world. In the world of ancient China and especially fantasy ancient China, the fact that Mo Ran is a minor will not make anyone blink an eye. What is very scandalous, however, is that Chu Wanning is his teacher. One of China’s most famous wuxia stories, the Return of the Condor Heroes, features the love story between the protagonist and his female martial artist master. It has been some years since I returned to this story, but I am 99% sure that the disciple Yang Guo was a minor when their relationship began. Even removed from the Eastern world, Western classical traditions also extol the virtue of the erastes/eromenos sexual relationship. This does not mean I am saying it’s ok for someone to be attracted to whom we consider minors if we just move everyone to a historical setting, but we also have to be critical about how future generations will look back at our current norms and how we, too, will become abhorrent to them in some respect.

2. Chu Wanning as a person and the concept of love. The xianxia world of cultivation seems to de-emphasize the concept of sexual love even as sex itself is widely acknowledged as a method of cultivation. However, dual cultivation is also thought of in-universe as an inferior technique of cultivation, with self-cultivation held to the highest standard, meaning abstinence (I cannot find the reference for this, sorry, but probably somewhere in Book 1). I do not read Chu Wanning’s attraction to Mo Ran as sexual at all in book 1. [minor spoilers] Chu Wanning was raised by monks in a removed temple at the top of a mountain [/minor spoilers], and sexual desire is considered taboo and suppressed. Chu Wanning was so successful at this suppression that he quite simply does not even think about sex or sexual matters until [minor spoilers] book 2, when Mo Ran is much older and way hotter [/minor spoilers]. I think for Chu Wanning, the love he feels for young Mo Ran is romantic and protective, in that he would do anything to keep Mo Ran safe, puts Mo Ran’s interests above his own, and is quite divorced from sexual interests. One may note that every romantic touch between Chu Wanning and Mo Ran at that age was initiated by Mo Ran himself, and Chu Wanning just kind of sat there in shock, and if he did take comfort in those moments, I can’t really blame him with the heavy amount of seemingly unrequited love going on. Chu Wanning saw a spark of something pure and good in 14-year-old Mo Ran when Mo Ran first became his disciple, and through their time together, the spark only grew stronger and fueled Chu Wanning’s love. I don’t think Chu Wanning considered Mo Ran as a sexual being, nor did Chu Wanning consider himself a sexual being. Until book 2. Also, a re-emphasis that it is just so arbitrary that an adult having feelings for a 17-year-old is not ok, but it’s fine when that person turns 18, which leads me to...

3. Thoughts vs. actions. This goes into a philosophical slash kind of religious point about at what point does sin begin, at the thoughts level or at the actions level. Chu Wanning quite clearly believed it is the former. He suffered tremendous guilt over his love for Mo Ran because Mo Ran is his disciple, even if everything I said about the age thing did not count. The master-disciple relationship in ancient China is as sacred as the father-child relationship. There is a famous idiom, which goes “One day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father,” signifying how well this relationship is valued under a Confucian system. Flash forward to 1984 and the thought police, and then taking into account how Meatbun is writing this novel in censorship-happy Communist China, I think it is a pretty deliberate choice on Meatbun’s part to make Mo Ran’s starting age in the novel below the 18-year-old threshold of acceptability. Do we condemn Chu Wanning for what is in his heart, unvoiced, or for what he does? For all that Chu Wanning pines for Mo Ran, what he ends up doing can only be seen as virtuous. Even if someone reads his love for Mo Ran as sexual, does it negate what he chose to do instead? Contrast this with Nabokov’s treatment of the narrator in Lolita, which is a clear example of abuse. Chu Wanning loved Mo Ran at all ages, through all stages of both of their lives; it is not a fetish for him to seek out youth. It just so happened that Chu Wanning met Mo Ran at that point in both their lives. Overall, I think the moral judgment of Chu Wanning’s feeling is up for each reader to answer for themselves.

With all that said, my own context is that I’m a woman in my late 20s with relatively little trauma history raised within both the Sinosphere and “the West,” and so my experiences reading this novel and my own understanding of the characters and their motivations are colored through my own lenses. I am of the opinion that literature (I don’t think I’m being too generous in saying that 2ha counts as a piece of literature) should challenge your perception, expand your horizon, and get you to think critically about what you are consuming. Of course, I would prioritize your own mental health and safety if reading this novel is traumatizing to a more serious degree than feeling conflictual about the subject matter. Thank you for the very thoughtful question. It really helped me work through my own feelings about this pairing and Chu Wanning as a character.

#2ha #chu wanning #mo ran #ranwan #erha #meta #ish

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dameronsgalaxygal · 4 years ago

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I’ve Been Waiting For You: Chapter 7: Waterloo

series masterlist

Pairing: modern! poe x reader

Warnings: FLUFF. angst if you squint.

Word Count: 4343

Songs: Waterloo by ABBA

A/N: I LOVED WRITING THIS CHAPTER. also I'm not going to be posting the song links anymore because it causes my post to not show up in the tags, but you can find the song on a playlist linked on the master list! There are multiple songs referenced in this chapter, feel free to give them a listen! Also, let me know if you suspect anything suspicious in this chapter ;) There is something really important in this that will come to play later. Feedback and comments appreciated, and let me know if you wanna be added to the tag list!

Summary: Its your 6 month anniversary with Poe, and you both learn something new about each other.

“I am home and I have brought lunch for my two favorite ladies!��

Poe burst through the door of Solo Reads holding two white paper bags that had his name written sloppily in sharpie on them.

“Shhh!!” An older man and woman turned to look at him with furrowed brows. They were the only two in the bookstore along with you and Leia and they had been quietly discussing a book regarding the ‘history of the world’

Poe stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide with annoyance as he glanced at them. The couple rolled their eyes and continued to analyze the book.

“Sorry, didn’t realize this was a library.” He spoke quietly, shooting you a look as he walked up to the register desk that you had been sitting behind.

You laughed and stood up from the bar stool as he approached you, leaning over the desk to kiss him.

“It’s not.” You laughed as you pulled away. “Older couples just tend to like a little more peace when they read.” You whispered as you looked over Poes shoulder to look at the couple.

He chuckled lightly and set the bags down that he had been holding.

“How was your trip?” You asked, opening the bag to look inside at what he had got you.

He shrugged, leaning against the desk with his arms crossed. “Same old, same old.”

He had been gone for a couple days for work, flying from Miami to California, then California to Oregon, from Oregon to Michigan, then finally back to Miami. He was finally back and decided to stop by the bookstore despite being exhausted. He even had brought you and Leia lunch, the tiny gesture forming butterflies in your stomach even though you two had been together nearly half a year now.

“I missed you,” You smiled, “Thanks for the sandwich.” You held up the small sandwich. He knew your order by heart. He had memorized it the first time you went to the deli with him after you had gotten the job at his aunts bookstore. Ham and swiss with mayo and extra pickles.

“Missed you too, and no problem,” He smiled back at you before looking around the bookstore. “Where’s Aunt Leia?”

You shrugged, “Probably reading in her office.” You looked to the back of the bookstore to where Leia had spent most of her time. It was a small space only consisting of a desk and chair along with some of her favorite knick-knacks and photos. She stayed in there when it wasn’t too busy, which was almost every day.

Poe nodded and grabbed the food he had gotten for her, heading back towards her office. The door had been cracked open slightly and he knocked on it gently.

Leia looked up from a stack of papers and smiled when she saw her nephew, “Poe! How was work?” She took her glasses off and stood up to meet him.

“The usual. Brought you some lunch,” He reached his arm out to hand her the bag.

“Thank you, dear.” She took it from him, leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek, “So, how are things?”

He shrugged, “Fine I guess. Finn keeps forgetting to fill up our water filter and it gets really annoying because then I have to drink the tap water,” He started.

Leia laughed lightly, sitting back in her desk chair and unwrapping her sandwich, “I meant between you and Y/N.”

“Oh,” He laughed, “Things are pretty good. She’s great. She’s gotten more comfortable with me, which is good. I’m glad she’s starting to really trust me.”

Your relationship with Poe was getting stronger day by day. Poe hadn’t been as clingy, but he would still come over every now and then or you two would go out on dates like bowling, mini golf, the beach, etc. As the days went by, you were getting more comfortable with being with Poe in more intimate settings. You and Poe would cuddle and watch movies in your bedroom, and sometimes he would even spend the night. You would go to bars and dance, just like that night.

He wouldn’t let anything happen, though. If he started to get too heated, you would say something and he would immediately back off. He stayed true to his word when it came to respect and making you feel comfortable.

“Good. I’m glad you two are doing good,” She took a few bites of her sandwich.

Poe sighed and looked out of her office to make sure you were occupied with something before closing Leia’s office door.

“Can you help me with something?” He asked her, crossing his arms.

She nodded, “Of course, what do you need?”

“How do you think I can get Y/N to come over to my place?” He asked quietly, walking towards her desk.

She looked up at him mid-chew, raising an eyebrow.

“Not to sleep with her! I just,” He sighed, “I want to do something special for her, and make her feel really comfortable. Let her know that it’s okay. We’ve been together for a while now.”

Your six month anniversary was coming up soon, and you hadn’t planned anything yet. Poe hadn’t mentioned anything because he wasn’t sure where you stood with it, or if it even was going to be something worth celebrating in your eyes.

She continued chewing, “Well the best thing to do is talk to her. Communication is always key.”

“Yeah but I don’t want to come off desperate,” He said, emphasizing ‘desperate’ with finger quotes.

Leia chuckled and looked up at him, “Hun, just talk to her. Assure her that you aren’t going to try anything, and if she really doesn’t feel comfortable yet, you’re going to be okay with it.”

Poe stood silent, looking down at his feet.

“You are going to be okay with it if she’s not ready, right?” She leaned forward in her desk chair to try to catch his gaze.

He shrugged, “I mean, of course. I love her, but I just really want her to feel comfortable all the time. I want...I want her to feel like she can open up to me.”

Leia stood from behind her desk and walked up to him, reaching up to cup his cheeks.

“Poe, you don’t know what she went through. Whatever it was, it affected her greatly. When she feels like she can talk about it, she will. Whether that’s now or ten years from now, she’ll know when she’s ready,” She stroked underneath his eyes with her thumbs and he responded with a small nod.

“Besides, you should feel special that she's trusted you for as long as she has,” She smiled gently.

He smiled back, “I do.”

She pulled her hands away and nodded her head towards your direction outside her office, “Then go talk to her.”

He pulled Leia into a hug, “Thank you, Auntie,” He leaned down to kiss her cheek.

She pulled away with a smile, patting his cheek gently before walking back to her desk.

You were still behind the register trying to finish your lunch but you kept getting interrupted by the older couple asking you for recommendations. You were giving them classic novels such as your favorite, To Kill a Mockingbird, but apparently they meant recommendations for other bookstores, because Solo Reads ‘didn’t have what they were looking for’.

Poe returned to you and smiled before watching the couple leave.

“Looks like a busy day!” He teased in which you just chuckled.

“Very.”

Hey smirked at you for a second before sneaking behind the counter and grabbing you by the waist and pulling you into him.

You giggled and wrapped your arms around his neck and he took it as an okay to lean down and kiss you sweetly. He squeezed your waist gently as his tongue begged for entrance. You granted it, letting out a small whine as he kissed you deeper.

He pulled away for a breath and smiled when he noticed the bright pink flush of your cheeks.

“Almost six months together and you still make me blush every time you kiss me,” You bit your lip and he kissed your cheek.

“Speaking of six months,” He brushed a hair out of your face, “Tuesday is our six month anniversary.”

You took a deep breath. Has it really been that long? Time seemed to fly by with Poe. You still hadn’t told him you loved him, and he had only said it a couple times since the first time because he didn’t want to scare you away. You also hadn’t had sex with him, nor had you opened up to him about your past. But none of that mattered to him. He loved you just the same, maybe even more.

You nodded, “That’s right. It is.”

He swayed you a little bit, arms still around your waist. “I was wondering if you wanted to do something. I fly back from Texas that morning and I have Wednesday off, so we can have a late night.”

“Like what?” Your fingers played with the hair behind his neck and you could feel him melt at your touch.

He sighed nervously, “Well, if you were feeling up for it, and if you’re comfortable of course,” He said, emphasizing ‘comfortable’, “I thought maybe you could come over. Not for any funny business! I just thought maybe we could have a cozy night in. Order some take-out and watch a movie. Play board games and stuff,”

You rubbed your hands up and down his arms as you thought about his offer. In all honesty, you were getting kind of bored of being at your place. You were curious to see what Poe’s house looked like without a hundred drunk people running around. Conveniently, Rey was having some of her coworkers over for a dinner party and you were just planning on being in your room.

You took a deep breath, hesitant with your answer at first before responding, “Okay. Yeah, that sounds like fun.”

He was surprised by your response, even though he had been hopeful. He leaned back in surprise, arms still around your waist.

“Really? You aren’t going to be uncomfortable?” He asked.

You shrugged, “I need to step out of my comfort zone. We’ve been together for a while, and I think it’ll be fun. Help me grow,” You squeezed his shoulders and smiled.

He returned the smile as you continued, “Besides, I trust you. And Rey has the apartment occupied since she's having people over to celebrate something that they achieved at work.”

“Right, Finn was telling me about that. Something about them finally closing a huge deal with First Order Tech, or something like that. Well, good, that means Finn will be gone too.”

You nodded, hoping that his statement of Finn being gone didn’t mean what you thought it meant. Regardless, you were going to allow yourself to step out of your safety bubble and see where it took you. You had open communication with Poe, and if you didn’t want to go to his place again, you would tell him. He would understand.

“So Tuesday? I can pick you up around 5.”

“Sounds like a plan,” You leaned up to kiss him.

He smiled against your lips before he pulled away, “Perfect.”

-----

“Y/N! Can you get the door?” Rey called as she rushed around the kitchen prepping for dinner.

You rushed out of your room while you put in your earrings and headed to open the door.

Standing before you was Poe with a small bouquet of white roses in his hand.

“Happy six months,” He smiled.

The fact that he had bought you white roses instead of red made your entire body fill with emotions. It was almost as if Poe knew that Kyle used to buy you red roses when he wanted to apologize to you.

“Happy six months,” You replied, taking the roses and giving him a quick kiss, “Thank you, they’re beautiful.”

“Just like you,” He mumbled and you blushed, biting your lip.

“You are so corny,” You laughed, “Let me just get my shoes on and I’ll be ready to go.”

Poe nodded at you as you rushed back to your room to finish up.

“Hey!” Poe said loudly so Rey would hear her over the water running in the sink.

“Hey,” She called back.

“Finn wanted me to tell you he’s running late, he got distracted playing some game called ‘Duel of the Fates’ on the computer. Wasn’t keeping track of the time. He’s getting ready now.”

She just shook her head and laughed, ��That man, I swear. Thanks for letting me know.”

“No problem,” He chuckled.

You came out of your bedroom and smiled, “Ready.”

He put his arm around your shoulder as he said bye to Rey.

“I’ll bring her home later, but if plans change we’ll let you know.”

You rolled your eyes because you knew he was teasing, so you just nudged his side in which he laughed.

“Have fun!” She called out as you made your way to his car.

He opened the passenger door, gesturing for you to get in, “M’lady?”

Blushing again, you got inside, “Why thank you.”

He closed the door with a smile before getting into the driver’s seat and pulling away from your apartment complex.

He reached over to grab your hand, squeezing it lightly as he kept his eyes on the road.

“So,” You started, looking at him while you played with his hand, “What do you have planned for us tonight?”

He kept his eyes on the road, “Well, nothing too fancy. Just something casual. I thought maybe we could order pizza, then watch a movie and cuddle. If you don’t mind, I already had one picked out.”

“Oh yeah? What movie?”

“Top Gun. It’s my favorite,” He looked over at you and smiled.

Of course it was. He was a pilot, so it was no surprise to you that his favorite film would be a classic about flying.

You admired him for a minute before replying, “I’d love to watch Top Gun.”

“It’s been my favorite since I was a kid. My parents used to watch it all the time. My mom would sometimes even call me her ‘Mini Maverick’.” His smile dropped slightly as he mentioned his mother. You squeezed his hand.

“Is that why you became a pilot? The movie inspired you?” You looked at your intertwined hands and then back up at him.

His face shifted and his jaw clenched. You furrowed your brow.

“Yeah,” He said tentatively. “I love fighter jets, but I was always too afraid to fly them. So I became an airline pilot instead.”

His tone seemed hesitant, like he was hiding something. You brushed it off and looked out the window with a nod as he pulled up to his home.

You must have just missed Finn, because the driveway was empty.

Your mouth dropped slightly in awe. You had been there once before, but you had been so anxious to really look at it completely.

It was only one story, but it was big, with several palm trees planted in the front yard. It had a cobblestone driveway that led to two large garage doors, and you wondered why an airline pilot and a tech engineer had lived in such a big place when they could have easily afforded an apartment directly in the city; especially since Poe was gone flying more than half the time.

Parking the car, he looked over at you and frowned when he saw your expression.

“Change your mind?”

You shook your head, “No, no, no. I just forgot how nice of a place you have.”

He chuckled, squeezing your hand again before getting out of the car, “Let’s go inside.”

The inside of his house was just as nice. With wooden floors, it had three bedrooms: Poe’s, Finn’s, and a guest room. There were also two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, indoor bar, and a living room that was so big you swore you could fit three cars in it.

The living room had a giant flat screen and an L-shaped couch along with two reclining chairs, and a giant grand piano that caught your attention before anything else.

“You play?” Your mouth opened in excitement, running over to it and running your hand along the top of it. You didn't remember seeing it during Finn's party.

He shook his head, following behind you.

“No. Finn does, though. When he’s not doing tech stuff he likes to teach himself.”

You admired the instrument, “It’s beautiful.”

He smirked, “Do you play?”

“I fiddle around,” You smiled, opening the fall board to look at the keys, “I was a music minor, remember?”

“Ah, yes.” He leaned gently against the piano as you sat down on the stool, “Can you play something for me?”

You looked up at him, shaking your head. “It’s been a while.”

“Oh come on,” He teased, “You just said you were a music minor, I’m sure you can pick it up again. Come on. Play something. Anything.”

You sighed, “Okay. Fine. I’m a little rusty though, and I haven’t really touched any instrume-”

“Play woman!” He teased, throwing his head back.

You laughed, “Okay, okay!” You thought about what you wanted to play, or at least what you remembered how to play.

After a moment of thinking, you decided to play one of your favorite piano songs, A River Flows in You by Yiruma.

Your hands found the keys, pressing on them softly to reveal the first chords and then glancing at Poe. He had a soft smile on his face and he gestured for you to keep going.

You continued to play and Poes eyes went between your face and your hands, his head tilting in admiration as he watched you.

Your eyes remained focused on your hands, your hair falling in front of your face slightly. Poe smiled to himself as he crossed his arms. You were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

As you dove deeper into the song, your entire body swayed as you pressed your fingers against the black and white keys. You hadn’t played in so long, mostly because you had never had the chance. When you worked at the record label in New York, you were often running around with files or organizing appointments for people. You weren’t able to sit down and play. Music made you feel free, which is why you had written song lyrics constantly. You had written them in that matte blue notebook. The one you threw away months ago. You hadn’t thought about music since then. Until today.

After finally finishing the song, you sighed happily, taking a moment to yourself before looking up at Poe who was staring at you in adoration.

“‘I’m a little rusty’” He mocked.

You giggled, standing up and closing the fall board, “I am!”

“That was not ‘a little rusty’” He pulled you by the waist into his chest, “You’re really talented sweetheart.”

Your face transformed into a grin, gazing up at him and running your fingertips along his jaw, “Thank you.”

He brushed the hair out of your face, holding his hand to your cheek as he leaned in to kiss you. His lips were soft and gentle like they normally were, but they always left you wanting more.

“We should play together sometime,” He said as he pulled away.

“I thought you said you don’t play,” You laughed.

“I said I don’t play piano, I never said I don’t play an instrument,” He winked and turned to go to the kitchen.

You bit your lip, walking to the couch and plopping down onto it.

Poe came back into the living room with two wine glasses and a bottle of red wine. He sat the glasses down as he popped open the bottle, pouring you a glass.

“How's half pepperoni-half cheese sound?” He asked, handing you the glass.

“Sounds delicious,” You took a sip.

He smiled and sat down next to you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder as he opened up his phone to call the pizza place.

You looked around the living room as he ordered when you noticed a bookshelf full of small knick-knacks and informational books. You stood up, wine glass in hand, and walked over to it.

Along the shelf were several small antique fighter jets, similar to life size jets seen in Top Gun and in the Air Force. You ran your fingers along them and smiled to yourself, thinking about how much he must love the movie to have a collection of jets. You also analyzed the books, seeing titles such as Air Force Aircrafts: The Complete Dictionary and A Pilot's Survival Guide to Flying. You bit your lip, kind of turned on by your pilot and his admiration and passion for flying.

You were pulled out of your thoughts by a pair of arms snaking around your waist.

“What are you doing?” Poe asked softly.

“Just looking around. You really like Top Gun don’t you?” You kept your eyes on his collection.

He took a breath, “Yeah. Speaking of that, you wanna watch now?”

You turned to face him, “How long until pizza’s here?”

“15 minutes or so.”

“Well, we don’t want to get interrupted during the movie…” You started.

He cocked his eyebrow, “Okay…”

“Wanna make out until the pizza gets here?”

His eyes widened and he smirked at your boldness, “Now how could I ever deny such a thing?”

You giggled, putting a finger to his chest, “No funny business. Hands stay above the waist and off the chest.”

“Yes, madam,” He teased, pulling you down to the couch.

You smirked as he pulled you onto his lap, hands immediately landing on your waist as he leaned up to kiss you. Your hands cupped his cheeks, kissing him with force. His hands ran up and down your sides, but stayed away from your areas of concern. He continued to kiss you for a while, his tongue battling with yours and you let out a small whine. You tugged on his lower lip and a groan escaped him. You smirked, pulling away as he chased your lips.

Panting, he smirked and looked down at your swollen lips. He licked his as he leaned in to kiss you again when the doorbell rang. He sighed and dropped his head on your shoulder.

“There is no way that was 15 minutes,” He chuckled against your shoulder.

You smirked, tapping him to let go of you so you could get off his lap. You fell back onto the couch as he got up to retrieve the pizza. After a minute, he returned from the front of the house carrying the box and a stack of napkins and two plates.

He sat the box down on the coffee table before returning to his place on the couch.

“Can you put the movie in? It’s up on the shelf,” He said, opening the box and grabbing a slice.

You nodded, standing up and grabbing it off the shelf. You took the CD out of the case, putting it in the DVD player. You thought it was cute that he still owned one. Normally people rented movies off of their TVs nowadays, but you assumed he had it on DVD for the nostalgia.

You returned to the couch, grabbing yourself a slice of pizza and curling into Poes chest.

You had seen the movie a couple times before, but not near as many times as Poe. You adored how he knew nearly every one of Tom Cruises lines. You could hear them say them quietly under his breath, and you had to nudge him playfully at times so you could actually pay attention to the movie.

“Sorry,” He would laugh, “Habit.”

After you had both devoured the entire pizza and an entire bottle of wine, you nuzzled closer to Poe. Your head was laying on his chest and his hand stroked your hair. You felt safe. You told yourself that there was nothing to be afraid of, Poe respected you, and tonight proved that for you. You were getting more comfortable day by day, and it felt wonderful. Maybe you would be okay with Poe after all. Maybe you had nothing to worry about.

“This is one of my favorite scenes,” Poe said, shifting in his seat, pulling you closer to him.

‘Take My Breath Away’ by Berlin began playing, and you giggled. It was the iconic scene where Maverick shows up at Charlie’s door and they kiss and make love. You smiled softly as you watched the scene, quietly singing the lyrics to yourself.

Even though he had just mentioned it was his favorite scene, he looked down at you the entire time. He watched you sing and his lips formed a tiny smile. He didn’t know when he would get you to open up to him, but he just felt so lucky that he was able to hold you and make you feel loved. He stared at you until about half way through the scene when you finally looked up at him.

He continued to look down at you, his hand moving from your hair to your cheek. He cupped it gently, stroking his thumb under your eye softly before leaning in to kiss you. You kissed him back, your arm reaching up to run through the curls on the side of his head. He smiled through the kiss, as did you.

He pulled away once the scene ended, kissing your forehead and moving his eyes back to the screen. You continued to look at him for a moment, your chin on his chest and your smile not leaving your face for even a second. You sighed happily, resting your head back on his chest as you finished watching the film.

He really did take your breath away.

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#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron #poe dameron fanfiction #poe x reader #imagine-poe-dameron #modern au #modern poe #i've been waiting for you #I've been waiting for you poe #poe dameron series

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good-omens-classic · 5 years ago

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Hi Good Omens fans, ever since making this blog, and trawling through the archives for old art, I have been thinking again about trends from before the TV-show, and the way people draw Aziraphale and Crowley. I wanted to make this post addressing it but this is not “discourse” or to start a fight, in fact I would be perfectly content if all I did was make people think critically about what I am about to say and not even interact with this post at all, but I feel like I need to say it.

Talking about any racist undertones to the way people draw our two favorite boys usually makes people dig their heels in pretty fast. This is not a callout post for any artist in particular, this is not me trying to be overly critical of artists especially since they have more talent and skill than I do, and I’m going to address some common counterpoints that I frankly find unsatisfactory. Let’s just take a moment to set aside our defensiveness and think objectively about these trends. It took me a while to unlearn my dismissive attitude about these concerns so maybe I can help others get over that hurdle a little faster. Now let’s begin.

I’ve been kicking around the Good Omens fandom since maybe 2015 and for art based in book canon, whether it was made before the TV show came out, or because the artist is consciously drawing different, original designs, I’m going to estimate that a decent 75% of all fanart looks like this

Aziraphale is white and blonde and blue-eyed while Crowley is the typical “racially ambiguous” brown skin tone it’s become so popular to draw podcast characters as nowadays.

And the question is why? With the obvious answer being “it’s racist,” but let’s delve a little deeper than that.

A common thing I hear is that people get appearance headcanons fixed in their mind because the coverart of the book pictures the characters a certain way. My first point is this only shifts the question to why the illustrators drew them that way, when there aren’t many physical descriptions in the book. My second point is that while there definitely are cover arts that picture Aziraphale as cherubic, blonde, and white and Crowley as swarthy, dark-skinned, and racially ambiguous...

(side note: why is Crowley’s hand so tiny? what the hell is going on in this cover?)

It’s much more common for the covers to simplified, stylized, and without any particular unambiguous skin tones

I don’t know about the UK but the most popular version in the United States is the dual black and white matching covers

And while you could make an argument that the shading on Crowley’s face could suggest a darker skintone, it seems obvious to me that lacking any color these are not supposed to suggest any particular race for either of these two, and the contrasting colors are a stylistic choice to emphasize how they are on opposite sides. If anything, to me it suggests they are both white.

In short I simply do not buy the argument that people are drawing Aziraphale and Crowley this way because that’s how they were represented on the cover art of the book. If you draw them the way they are on the cover then whatever, I don’t care, but I don’t believe that’s what’s driving this trend.

The second thing people will say is that Good Omens is a work of satire, and it’s based in Christian mythology which has this trend of depicting angels as white, and it is embodying the trope of a “white, cherubic angel” paired with a dark-skinned demon for the explicit purpose of subverting the trope of “white angel is good, dark demon is bad” since Aziraphale is not an unambiguous hero and Crowley is not a villain. “It’s not actually like that because Crowley isn’t a bad demon, and Aziraphale isn’t actually a perfect angel” is the argument. This has a certain logic to it and allows some nuance to the topic, but to this I say:

Uncritically reproducing a trope, even in the context of a satire novel, is not enough to subvert it. Good Omens is not criticising the racist history of the church, and while the book does have some pointed jabs at white British culture (such as Madam Tracy conning gullible Brits with an unbelievably ignorant stereotype of a Native American) it is not being critical of the conception of angels as white and blonde or the literal demonization of non-white people. That’s just not what the book is about. So making the angel white and the demon dark-skinned, playing directly into harmful tropes and stereotypes, is not somehow subversive or counter-cultural when doing so doesn’t say anything about anything.

Please consider fully the ramifications of the conception of white and blonde people as innocent and cherubic and dark-skinned people as infernal and mischievous, especially in modern contexts...

Black people are more likely to be viewed as violent, angry, and dangerous. Priming with a dark-skinned face makes people more likely to mistake a tool for a gun. Black people are viewed as experiencing pain less intensely by medical professionals. Black men are viewed as physically larger and more imposing than they actually are. The subconscious racial bias favoring light skin is so ingrained it’s measurable by objective scientific studies, on top of the anecdotal evidence of things like news stories choosing flattering, “cherubic” pictures of white and blond criminals while using unflattering mugshots for non-white offenders.

This is why I say that if you’re going to invoke the “whites are angelic” trope, you better have a damn good subversion of it to justify it, because this idea causes real harm to real people in the real world. And Aziraphale being a bit of a bastard despite being an angel, I just don’t see that as sufficient. I am especially cautious of when it’s my fellow white fans that make this argument, not because I believe they do this out of any sort of malice or hatred of people with dark skin, but because I know first-hand it stems from a dismissiveness rooted in not wanting to think about it for too long because it makes us uncomfortable. Non-white people do not have the luxury of not thinking about it, because it’s part of their life.

Now the strongest textual evidence people use, in the absence of much real descriptor, is this:

"Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide. Two of these were wrong; Heaven is not in England, whatever certain poets may have thought, and angels are sexless unless they really want to make an effort"

This piece of art has circulated in the fandom for so long I don’t know the original artist and it’s been used for everything from fancovers to perfume. This is where I found it and it’s one of the first things that come up when you google this quote about Aziraphale.

Doesn’t it just feel like this is the man that’s describing, some blonde effeminate gay man? Well guess what, there’s the “blonde as innocence” trope rearing its ugly head again, because the stereotype of gay men and effeminacy as being a white and blonde thing is--ding ding ding you guessed it--racism. And why would intelligent suggest a white and blonde person, except if the stereotype of a dark-skinned person is less intelligent?

Now the point of “people assume Aziraphale is British” is another sticking point people will often use, claiming that the stereotype of a British person is white and blonde. I guess this has some merit, since the British empire was one of the biggest forces behind white colonial expansion, and it seems disingenuous to assign “British” as “nonwhite” as soon as we’re being satirical, in the same way I found it distasteful that the TV show made God female when so many of the criticisms of the church are about its misogyny and lose their teeth as soon as God is no longer male.

However consider that 1.4 million Indian people live in the UK. I heard a man say aloud once that the concept of a black person having a British accent was a little funny, as though Doctor Who doesn’t exist and have black people on it. And I’m not overly familiar with the social landscape of the UK, but I understand they’re experiencing a xenophobia boom and non-white Brits aren’t considered “really British.” The stereotype of non-white people not being British only exists because of reinforcement in media. If you really want to be subversive, drawing Aziraphale as Indian goes way further than drawing him as white IMO.

Now let’s talk about Crowley. He is almost always drawn with a darker skin tone than Aziraphale, even when they are both white, and while I’ve outlined above how this is problematic on terms of linking light skin with innocence, I think it does have an extra layer. I think it also has to do with the exotification and fetishization of brown skin and non-white people.

This artist’s tumblr is gone now but their art is still on dA and while it’s definitely beautiful and well-done, I think this is a very good example of what I’m talking about.

Crowley and Aziraphale necessarily contrast each other, so describing Aziraphale as “British” might suggest that Crowley is “foreign-looking.” I also know *ahem* that the fandom generally thirsts over Crowley to hell and back, so making him a swarthy, tall dark and handsome is not necessarily surprising.

An interesting thing happened when the TV show came out, and everyone started drawing Michael Sheen!Aziraphale and David Tennant!Crowley more and more often: It’s not ubiquitous, but it does happen that sometimes artists will draw David Tennant’s skin darker than it actually is. The subconscious urge to see Crowley with dark skin is for some reason that strong for many people. And I really encourage people doing this to think about why. Not naming any names but I’ve working with fanartists before for collabs who I had to ask to lighten “bad guy” demon’s skin tones because it looked like they were making the skin darker on purpose to make them look scarier. This person is a perfectly pleasant person who tries not to be racist! And we both still fell into it accidentally, and it took me a while to notice and point it out, because the ingrained stigmatization of darker skin is pervasive yet often goes unnoticed.

What is the solution? I don’t know, and as a white person I’m not really qualified to make that call. Do we draw them both with the exact same skin tone? Is it better to make them both white? Should we make both of them non-white? Should we only make Aziraphale non-white? I am consciously aware of the fact that the Good Omens fandom is mostly white people, so most of the art we make is being both made by and consumed by white people, so I don’t feel comfortable saying “draw these characters of color specifically” because that can also veer into fetishization territory very quickly. This is not specific to good omens but I think we should pay attention to what fans of color say in all fandom spaces and weigh our choices even if they seem insignificant. And it’s important to realize that fans of color will not be a monolith in their opinion either, and it’s our responsibility to recognize that everyone can be affected by racism and social issues differently, the same way all women are affected by misogyny differently so just because one woman says such as such is misogynistic and another says it’s not. I’m sure there are non-white fans who think it’s perfectly fine to draw Aziraphale as white and Crowley as ambiguously non-white. I’m not saying they’re wrong. And I’m not saying you can’t reblog this kind of art, or that people who make or made it should feel bad about themselves. But so often this sort of thing goes unaddressed just because people don’t like thinking about it, and well, avoiding hard questions never really goes well I think.

#?#voice of mod #?????

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cielrouge · 5 years ago

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2019 YA Reads by Authors of Color

96 Words for Love by Rachel Roy - While exploring her grandmother's past at an ashram in India with her cousin Anandi, Raya finds herself and, perhaps, true love in this modern retelling of the legend of Dushyanta and Shakuntala.

After the Fall by E.C. Myers - A year after the destruction of Beacon Academy, Team CFVY answers a distress call and are forced to relive their former battles, from both the fall of Beacon and from everything that came before.

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney - Allie Abraham has it all going for her—she's a straight-A student, with good friends and a close-knit family, and she's dating cute, popular, and sweet Wells Henderson. Only one problem: Wells's father is Jack Henderson, America's most famous conservative shock jock...and Allie hasn't told Wells that her family is Muslim.

All the Things We Never Said by Yasmin Rahman - 16-year-old Mehreen Miah's anxiety and depression has taken over her life. So, she joins MementoMori, a website that matches people and allocates them a date and method of death. When Mehreen and her new friends change their minds, the website won't let them stop, and an increasingly sinister game begins.

The Athene Protocol by Shamim Sarif - Jessie Archer is a member of the Athena Protocol, an elite organization of female spies who enact vigilante justice around the world. But after Jessie goes her rogue, her former teammates have been ordered to bring her down. Jessie must face danger from all sides if she’s to complete her mission—and survive.

Barely Missing Anything by Matt Mendez - Three Mexican-Americans--Juan, JD, and Fabi--each try to overcome their individual struggles as they all grapple with how to make a better life for themselves when it seems like brown lives don't matter.

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi - An epic YA fantasy about a girl with a special power to communicate with magical beasts and the warring kingdom only she can save.

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh - In 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight and a serial killer is on the loose, half-Asian Celine Rosseau, a dressmaker from Paris, becomes embroiled in a murder mystery, connected to the glamorous supernatural cohort, known as the Court of Lions, and catching the eye of their mysterious, charismatic leader, Sèbastien Saint Germain.

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena - Saudi-Canadian Susan is the new girl. Malcolm is the bad boy. Susan’s parents are on the verge of divorce. Malcolm’s dad is a known adulterer. Susan hasn’t told anyone, but she wants to be an artist. Malcolm doesn’t know what he wants—until he meets her. Love is messy and families are messier, but in spite of their burdens, Susan and Malcolm fall for each other.

The Best Lies by Sarah Lyu - Remy Tsai was happy once. Remy had her boyfriend Jack, and Elise, her best friend—her soulmate. But now Jack is dead, and it was Elise who pulled the trigger. Was it self-defense? Or something deeper, darker than anything Remy could have imagined?

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edit. by Ibi Zoboi - A short story anthology about what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teens and emphasizing that one person's experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than someone else.

The Boxer by Nikesh Shukla - When racial tensions are rising in the city, and when a Far Right march through Bristol turns violent, 17-year-old amateur boxer Sunny faces losing his new best friend Keir to radicalization.

Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid - Teen relationship columnist Lu Charles navigates life in the wake of a devastating breakup, and her decision to chronicle the planned breakup of another couple, Cal and Iris, in the summer after they graduate from high school.

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad - Set in the city of Noor, along the Silk Road which has become a refuge for those of all faiths, Fatima becomes embroiled in a war between two clans of powerful djinn who threaten to destroy her peace in different ways, forcing her to make unlikely alliances to survive.

Caster by Elsie Chapman - In this Chinese-inspired, magical Fight Club, Earth is already at the brink of environmental disaster due to the magic overuse. And 16-year-old spell caster Aza Wu must navigate through an illegal, underground battle magic tournament, while evading local gangs and police scouts to save her family from ruin.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2) by Tomi Adeyemi - After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But with civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye - Love, spies, and adventure abound as apprentic warriors Sora and Daemon unravel a complex web of magic and secrets that might tear them—and the entire kingdom—apart forever.

Color Me In by Natasha Diaz - In this coming-of-age novel, biracal Neveah learns about the meaning of friendship, the joyful beginnings of romance, and the racism and religious intolerance that can both strain a family to the breaking point and strengthen its bonds.

Color Outside the Lines edited by Sangu Madanna - A groundbreaking YA anthology explores the complexity and beauty of interracial and LGBTQ+ relationships where differences are front and center.

Dealing in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera - 16-year-old Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City, but when she sets her sights on giving this life up for a prestigious home in Mega Towers, she must decide if she's willing to do the unspeakable to get what she wants.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika & Maritza Moulite - Told in epistolary style through letters, articles, emails, and diary entries, when a school presentation goes very wrong, Haitan-American Alaine Beauparlant finds herself suspended, shipped off to Haiti, and writing the report of a lifetime.

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He - In this Chinese-inspired fantasy, Princess Hesina of Yan is thrust into power when her beloved father is murdered, and she's determined to find his killer--whatever the cost.

Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno - Rosa Santos is cursed by the sea-at least, that's what they say. Dating her is bad news, especially if you're a boy with a boat. As her college decision looms, Rosa collides - literally - with Alex Aquino, the mysterious boy with tattoos of the ocean whose family owns the marina. With her heart, her family, and her future on the line, can Rosa break a curse and find her place beyond the horizon.

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee - In 1890, Atlanta, 17-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid, but by night, Jo moonlights as newspaper advice columnist "Dear Miss Sweetie." When her efforts put Jo in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, she must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light

A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney - Still reeling from her recent battle (and grounded until she graduates) Alice must cross the Veil to rescue her friends and stop the Black Knight once and for all in Wonderland.

Eclipse the Stars by Maura Milan - Criminal mastermind and unrivaled pilot Ia Ccha and her allies make unpredictable choices as they fight to keep darkness from eclipsing the skies.

The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton - Camille, Edel, and Remy, aided by The Iron Ladies and backed by alternative newspaper The Spider's Web, race to outwit Sophia, find Princess Charlotte, and return her to Orléans.

Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen - Neighbors Mia and Jake pretend to fake date to get their respective mothers off their back. All they have to do is pretend to date and then stage the worst breakup of all time. The only problem is, maybe Jake and Mia don’t hate each other as much as they once thought.

Far From Agrabah by Aisha Saeed - On an adventure in a fantastical kingdom, Aladdin and Jasmine get caught up in the magic therein. But soon sinister outside forces come into play, threatening to strand them there forever.

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe - When Norris, a Black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as clichés from "a bad 90s teen movie."

Firestarter (Timekeeper #3) by Tara Sim - Colton, Daphne, and the others must choose between those striving to take down the world's clock towers so that time can run freely, and terrorists trying to bring back the lost god of time.

Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns #4) by Kendare Blake - In this conclusion to the Three Dark Crowns series, three dark sisters will rise to fight as the secrets of Fennbirn’s history are laid bare. Allegiances will shift. Bonds will be tested, and some broken forever.

Five Midnights by Ann Davila Cardinal - If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping though Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends.

Forward Me Back to You by Mitali Perkins - Told in separate voices, Kat and Robin leave Boston on a church mission to help combat human trafficking in India while Kat recovers from a sexual assault and Robin seeks his birth mother.

Frankly in Love by David Yoon - Korean-American Frank Li Frank falls for Brit Means, who is smart, beautiful–and white. Fellow Limbo Joy Song is in a similar predicament, and so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other. Frank thinks it’s the perfect plan, but in the end, Frank and Joy’s fake-dating maneuver leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love–or himself–at all.

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett - HIV-positive teen Simone Garcia-Hampton must navigate fear, disclosure, and radical self-acceptance when she falls in love--and lust--for the first time.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi - Paris, 1889: Treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie gets the chance of a lifetime when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help in exchange for a priceless treasure: his true inheritance.

The Girl King by Mimi Yu - Sisters Lu and Min become unwitting rivals in a war to claim the title of Emperor.

Girls of Storm and Shadow (Girls of Paper and Fire #2) by Natasha Ngan - After escaping the Hidden Palace, Lei and her warrior love Wren must travel the kingdom to gain support from the far-flung rebel clans.

The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante - To have her family’s asylum request accepted, 17-year-old Marisol participates in a risky experiment to become a grief keeper, taking another’s grief into her own body to save a life.

His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler - 13 of YA’s most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe’s most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation.

A House of Rage and Sorrow (Celestial Trilogy #2) by Sangu Mandanna - As gods, beasts, and kingdoms choose sides, Alexi seeks out a weapon more devastating than even Titania. The House of Rey is at war. And the entire galaxy will bleed before the end.

How to Be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters - When Remy is assigned to write an essay describing himself, he goes on a journey to reconcile the labels that people have attached to him, and get to know the real Remy Cameron.

Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food & Love edited by Elsie Chapman & Caroline Tung Richmond - Interconnected short stories that explore the intersection of family, culture, and food in the lives of thirteen teens.

I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi - When news stations start reporting that Earth has been contacted by a planet named Alma, the world is abuzz with rumors that the alien entity is giving mankind only few days to live. And with only seven days to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide even as their worlds are pulled apart.

I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn - Japanese-American fashionista Kimi Nakamura who journeys to Japan on a quest of self-discovery after her college plans fall apart; along the way, she reconnects with her estranged grandparents and finds romance with a handsome med student Akira who moonlights as a costumed mochi mascot.

I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest - Chloe Pierce’s chasing her ballet dreams down the east coast— with two unwanted (but kinda cute) passengers in her car, butterflies in her stomach, and a really dope playlist.

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver - Non-binary teen Ben De Backer is kicked out by their parents after coming out, but learns that sometimes from disaster one can build a happier new life,

If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann - Winnie dreams of someday inheriting the family diner—but it'll go away if they can't make money, and fast. Winnie has a solution—win a televised cooking competition and make bank.

In the Key of Nira Ghani by Natasha Deen - Guyanese-American Nira Ghani struggles with parental expectations and her love for jazz.

Internment by Samira Ahmed - Set in a near future in the United States where Muslim Americans are forced into an internment camp, 17-year-old Layla Amin must fight against Islamophobia, oppression, and complicit silence.

Inventing Victoria by Tonya Bolden - In 1880s Savannah, Dorcas Vashton offers Essie an offer she can't refuse, she becomes Victoria. Transformed by a fine wardrobe, a classic education, and the rules of etiquette, Victoria is soon welcomed in the upper echelons of black society in Washington, D. C. But when the life she desires is finally within her grasp, Victoria must decide how much of herself she is truly willing to surrender.

It’s a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes & Other Jewish Stories edited by Katherine Locke & Laura Silverman - Get ready to fall in love, experience heartbreak, and discover the true meaning of identity in this poignant collection of short stories about Jewish teens.

Kick the Moon by Muhammad Khan - 15-year-old Ilyas finds a kindred spirit in Kelly Matthews during detention. But when Kelly catches the eye of one of the local bad boys, Imran, he decides to seduce her for a bet. Standing up to Imran puts Ilyas’ family at risk, but it’s time for him to be the superhero he draws in his comic-books, and go kick the moon.

A Kingdom for the Stage (For A Muse of Fire #2) by Heidi Heilig - The rebels are eager to use Le Trépas’s and necromancer Jetta’s combined magic against the invading colonists. Soon Jetta will face the choice between saving all of Chakrana or becoming like her father, and she isn’t sure which she’ll choose.

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron - Set in a West African-inspired fantasy kingdom, Arrah comes from a long line of powerful witchdoctors, yet fails at magic. When Arrah trade years off her life for magic to stop the Demon King from destroying the world—that is if it doesn't kill her first.

Kings, Queens, and Everything in Between by Tanya Boteju - 17-year-old, biracial, queer girl Nina Kumara-Clark is plunged into the delirious world of drag where she has the chance to explore questions of identity and love.

The Last 8 by Laura Pohl - Young Latina pilot Clover Martinez finds herself grounded and alone after a devastating alien attack, but soon finds hope in an unlikely group of survivors who aren't what they seem.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki - Teenager Frederica Riley undergoes what might possibly be the most epically complicated breakup in lesbian history -- or at least it feels that way

The Light At the Bottom of the World by London Shah - Set in a future where the Earth is underwater, Leyla McQueen must navigate the treacherous abyss to find her missing father, but discovers a world drowning in lies.

Like A Love Story by Abdi Nazemian - It's 1989 in New York City, three teens, Reza, Judy, and Art cross paths. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating. But as Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won't break Judy's heart--and destroy the most meaningful friendship he's ever known.

The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan - After she’s caught kissing her girlfriend by her conservative Muslim parents, Rukhsana Ali whisked off from Seattle to Bangladesh, where she must find the courage to fight for her love, but can she do so without losing everyone and everything in her life?

Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali - 18-year-old Muslims Adam and Zayneb meet in Doha, Qatar, during spring break and fall in love as both struggle to find a way to live their own truths.

Love Me or Miss Me by Dream Jordan - Kate's fantasy life of having the perfect family comes to an abrupt end when she is suddenly forced to return to the group home. Alone and vulnerable, Kate falls for the ever so gorgeous Percy who treats her well at first, but soon a cycle of controlling and abusive behavior begins. Will she be able to escape Percy's clutches?

The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas - As they cross the Great Wall to face the enemy beyond, Mulan and the princeling must find a way to unwind their past, unmask a traitor, and uncover the plans for the Rouran invasion . . . before it's too late.

A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai - 15-year-old Indian-American Simran “Simi” Sangha, who comes from a long line of matchmakers, decides to try to gain high school popularity using her family's matchmaking traditions to create a dating app.

The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco - In a world ruled by goddesses that has been split in two—one half existing in perpetual scorching Day, the other in freezing Night—twins separated at birth Odessa and Haidee embark on a quest across the great divide and rule a reunited world.

No One Here is Lonely by Sarah Everett - After having her heart so broken, Eden resorts to having her memories erased instead.

Nocturna by Maya Motayne - In a Latinx-inspired kingdom of Castallan, face-changing thief Finn Voy and grief-stricken Prince Alfehr must race to vanquish a dark magic they have accidentally unleashed.

Not Your Backup by C.B. Lee (Sidekick Squad #3) - As the Resistance moves to challenge the corrupt League of Heroes, Emma Robledo realizes where her place is in this fight: at the front.

Oh My Gods by Alexandra Sheppard - Half-mortal teenager Helen Thomas goes to live with her father—who is Zeus, masquerading as a university professor—and must do her best to keep the family secret intact.

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas - When 16-year-old Bri, an aspiring rapper, pours her anger and frustration into her first song, she finds herself at the center of a controversy.

Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy - In this Arthurian retelling set in space, King Arthur is reincarnated as 17-year-old Ari, a female king whose quest is to stop a tyrannical corporate government, aided by a teenaged Merlin.

Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds - After falling for Kate, her unexpected death sends Jack back in time to the moment they first met, but he soon learns that his actions have unintended consequences.

Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao - 17-year-old teen outcast Ali Chu is simultaneously swept up in a whirlwind romance and down a rabbit hole of dark family secrets when another Taiwanese family moves to her small, predominantly white Midwestern town.

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribar - When 17-year-old Jay Reguero learns his Filipino cousin and former best friend, Jun, was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, he flies to the Philippines to learn more.

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi - Brooklyn bodega worker Pablo crosses paths & falls in love with multi-platinum recording artist Leanna Smart.

Rated by Melissa Grey - For the students at the prestigious Maplethorpe Academy, every single thing they do is reflected in their Ratings System. But when an act of vandalism sullies the front doors of the school, it sets off a chain reaction that will shake the lives of six special students -- and the world beyond.

Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia - When a tragic accident takes the life of the only family she's ever known, 16-year-old Raven is sent to New Orleans to start over. She soon discovers that she can hear the thoughts of others around her...and another, more disturbing, voice in her head.

Rebel (Legend #4) by Marie Lu - Brothers Eden and Daniel Wing struggle to accept who they’ve each become since their time in the Republic, but a new danger creeps into the distance that’s grown between them. Eden soon finds himself drawn so far into Ross City’s dark side, even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own.

The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert - Dove “Birdie” Randolph maintains a close bond with her parents until first love and a family secret threatens to tear them apart.

The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee - The never-before-told backstory of Avatar Kyoshi, from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice who is still feared and admired centuries after she became the Avatar.

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy - A North African-inspired feminist fantasy in which two sisters, Eva and Isa must compete in a magical duel to the death for the right to inherit the queendom of Myre.

Rogue Heart (Rebel Seoul #2) by Axie Oh - Two years after the Battle of Neo Seoul, 18-year-old telepath Ama must use her telepathic abilities to infiltrate the base of the Alliance’s new war commander, Alex Kim, her first love who betrayed her. Will she be able to carry out her task? Or will she give up everything for Alex again—only to be betrayed once more?

Ruse (Want #2) by Cindy Pon - In near-future Shanghai where society is divided between the fabulously wealthy business elite and the masses they exploit, Jason Zhou must play a dangerous cat and mouse game with the ruthless CEO of an all powerful corporation which has an ever-growing choke hold on the polluted metropolis.

Soaring Earth by Margarita Engle - In this memoir, Young People’s Poet Laureate Margarita Engle recounts her teenage years during the turbulent 1960s between Cuba and America.

Shadow Frost by Coco Ma - When Asterin Faelenhart, Princess of Axaria and heir to the throne, discovers that she may hold the key to defeating the demon terrorizing her kingdom, she vows not to rest until the beast is slain.

Take the Mic: Fictional Stories About Everyday Resistance edited by Bethany C. Morrow - A YA anthology focused on a collection of fictional stories of everyday resistance.

The Shadow Glass (Bone Witch #3) by Rin Chupeco - Bone witch Tea's dark magic eats away at her, but she must save the one she loves most, even while her life—and the kingdoms—are on the brink of destruction.

Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells - Maren, desperate to save her kidnapped girlfriend Kaia, plans to steal one of the emperor's dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold, but her success depends on becoming an apprentice to the mysterious dragon trainer, which proves to be a dangerous venture.

SLAY by Brittney Morris - Black video game developer Kiera Johnson battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther-inspired video game she created, and the safe community it represents for black gamers.

Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo - In Hong Kong, k-pop star Lucky who'd like to be anyone else meets charming con-boy Jack, looking for a big break to impress his paparazzo father. When sparks ignite, the two must decide if they can risk it all for each other.

Song of the Abyss (Towers of Wind #2) by Makiia Lucier - When menacing raiders attack her ship, navigator Reyna must use every resource at her disposal, including placing her trust in a handsome prince from a rival kingdom.

Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie C. Dao - After cruelly rejecting Bao, the poor physician's apprentice who loves her, Lan, a wealthy nobleman's daughter, regrets her actions. After learning that Bao’s soul has been trapped inside a flute by a witch, Lan vows to make amends and help break the spell.

Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) by Julie Kagawa - As the paths of Yumeko and the possessed Tatsumi cross once again, the entire empire will be thrown into chaos.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim - 17-year-old Maia Tamarin poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor, and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars, with help from the mysterious court magician, Edan.

Spin by Lamar Giles - When DJ ParSec, rising star of the local music scene, is found dead over her turntables, the two girls who found her, Kya and Fuse, are torn between grief for Paris and hatred for each other--but when the investigation stalls, they unite, determined to find out who murdered their friend.

The Stars the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petraus - Audre from Trinidad and Mabel from Minneapolis, fall in love and create magic at the same time they learn one of them might not have long to live.

Stronger Than A Bronze Dragon by Mary Fan - In this steampunk fantasy set in Qing dynasty-inspired China, warrior girl Anlei teams up with a thief to save her village from shadow spirits, but after arriving at the Courts of Hell, a discovery challenges everything they know about who the real enemy is.

Symptoms of a Heartbreak by Sonia Charaipotra - The youngest doctor in America, Indian-American teen Saira makes her rounds―and falls head over heels in this romantic comedy.

Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi - Sana Khan and Rachel Recht, on opposite sides of the social scale must work together to make a movie and try very hard not to fall in love.

The Things She’s Seen by Ambelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina - As Beth Teller and her father unravel a mystery, they find a shocking and heartbreaking story lurking beneath the surface of a small town, and a friendship that lasts beyond one life and into another...

There’s Something About Sweetie (When Dimple Met Rishi #3) by Sandhya Menon - Told in two voices, disappointed-in-love Ashish Patel and self-proclaimed fat athlete Sweetie Nair begin to find their true selves while dating under contract.

This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura - 17-year-old CJ Katsuyama’s mom decides to sell her family’s flower shop—to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents during WWII Internment. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ’s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.

A Thousand Fires by Shannon Price - In modern-day San Francisco where three gangs rule the city streets, half-Filipina teen Valerie Simons enters the Red Bridge Wars to seek vengeance for her younger brother's death, but soon finds herself torn between old love and new loyalty.

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala - In ancient India, soldier Kunal hunts the “Viper,” rebel girl Esha accused of killing his General, embarking on a dangerous cat and mouse game and where both must decide—loyalty to their old lives or to a love that's made them dream of new ones.

Truly, Madly, Royally by Debbie Riguad - When Prince Owen invites Zora Emerson to be his date at his big brother's big royal wedding, Zora is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, along with her family and friends.

The Universal Laws of Marco by Carmen Rodrigues - Told through the lens of a guy in love with the cosmos (and maybe two girls), this story explores the complicated histories that bring us together and tear us apart.

Virtually Yours by Sarvenz Tash - NYU freshman Mariam Vakilian tries out a virtual reality dating app, only to be matched up with the high school ex she's still not over. Mariam’s heart is telling her one thing, but the app is telling her another. So, which should she trust? Is all fair in modern love?

The Voice in My Head by Dana L. Davis - When a sequence of wrenching secrets detonates, Indigo must figure out how to come to terms with her twin sister Violet, her family…and the voice in her head.

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi - Set in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria, sisters Onyii and Ify, separated by a devastating civil war, must fight their way back to each other against all odds.

Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson & Ellen Hagan - Jasmine and Chelsea start a Women's Rights Club and soon go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by online trolls. When things escalate, the principal shuts the club down. Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices—and those of other young women—to be heard.

What Makes You Beautiful by Bridget Liang - Encouraged and supported by his friends at school, Logan begins questioning his gender. Realizing they are not a gay boy, but a transgender girl, Logan asks for people to call them Veronica. As a girl, does Veronica stand a chance with straight boy Kyle?

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal - In a world inspired by ancient Arabia, 17-year-old huntress Zafira must disguise herself as a man to seek a lost artifact that could return magic to her cursed world.

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia - Set at the Medio School for Girls, where young women are trained to become one of two wives assigned to high society men; with revolution brewing in the streets, star student Daniela Vargas fights to protect a destructive secret, sending her into the arms of the most dangerous person possible—the second wife of her husband-to-be.

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf - A music-loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis - 18-year-old Devon longs for two things.The stars. And the boy she fell in love with last summer. Senior year, Ashton shows up on the first day of school. Can she forgive him and open her heart again? Or are they doomed to repeat history?

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho - After 18-year-old Miyoung Gu, a nine-tailed fox surviving in modern-day Seoul by eating the souls of evil men, kills a murderous goblin to save Jihoon, she is forced to choose between her immortal life and his.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo - With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior and aspiring chef Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

You Must Be Layla by Yasmin Abdel-Magied - Layla's mind goes a million miles a minute, so does her mouth. Despite the setback of a high school suspension, Layla's determined to show everyone that she does deserve her scholarship and sets her sights on winning a big invention competition. But where to begin? Looking outside and in, Layla will need to come to terms with who she is and who she wants to be if she has any chance of succeeding.

#authors of color #book recommendations #yalit #women of color authors #AWW YISSS IT'S MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN!!!

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tyrantisterror · 5 years ago

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TT’S GONNA RECOMMEND SOME SELF-PUBLISHED KAIJU FICTION

Because the mood struck me

(and also because I’ve been meaning to give these a full fledged reviews for a RIDICULOUSLY LONG TIME and I’m kind of embarrassed how long it’s been taking so I figure if I do some quickies I’ll feel less bad about myself as a person ok LET’S GO)

I’m gonna start with the Daikaiju Yuki series by Raffael Coronelli, because its first entry was also the first self published kaiju novel I read. This series is fun and fast paced, with wonderful characters and dynamic storylines in a highly unique setting: a post-post apocaylptic world, where humanity has rebuilt civilization after a kaiju war hundreds of years ago destroyed the old one (i.e. ours). The protagonist of the series, Yuki, partners up with one of the few kaiju who decided to defend humanity back in the kaiju war, a grouchy old bipedal lion named Narajin, and the two essentially fuse to fight various threats to their world with the other remaining members of the Pantheon Colossi (i.e. the protector kaiju).

(Our heroes, Yuki and Narajin, ready to conquer your kaiju-fan heart)

For newbies, this series covers a lot of kaiju tropes in an engaging and unique way that actually serves as a pretty decent primer for how this genre stands out from other monster fiction. For experienced kaiju fans, the new twists author Raffael Coronelli has put on the old tropes and the innovations he’s added solely of his own invention make for a take on the genre that is astoundingly fresh, managing the difficult task of paying homage to what came before while crafting something very new and distinct from it.

I also can’t stress enough how fun these books are. The characters grow on you very quickly, and the stories move at a lively pace that makes the books very easy to digest while still having a lot of substance. Also there’s a LOT of content to consume here, so if you find you like the first book, you’re in luck - because not only is there a lot more of what you liked in the other entries, but Coronelli’s writing has gotten even better with each installment.

Buy them here:

Daikaiju Yuki

Yuki Conquers the World

Yuki vs. Fleshworld

Mokwa: The Lifesblood of the Earth (a spinoff focusing on another member of the Pantheon Colossi - also has the best villain of the whole series IMO)

Scythian Frost (short story anthology in the same universe as Daikaiju Yuki)

Pharoah of Eels (novella in the same universe as Daikaiju Yuki)

BONUS: I’m gonna link Coronelli’s Big Egg here because while it’s arguably more of a Weird West story than a kaiju story and not part of the Daikaiju Yuki series, it’s nonetheless VERY GOOD and kaiju-adjacent enough to feel relevant.

If you love it when kaiju stories go dark and experiment with body horror - and I know a good chunk of my followers here do, both from the posts you make and from the sheer number of body horror-riffic entries you’ve submitted to my Create a Kaiju Contests in the past - you owe it to yourself to read All Your Ruins by Alex Gayhart. It is a bleak kaiju story that leans as far into the horror as kaiju stories can, while still retaining many of a kaiju story’s hallmarks. You’ve got experimental robots, you’ve got a big lizard who shoots lasers from his mouth and has a few suprisingly poignant and tragic moments of pathos, you’ve got scenes of massive property damage - and you’ve also got scenes of people being torn apart by swarms of giant bugs, poisoned by toxic kaiju blood, assimilated into piles of fungus, and all other sorts of horrifying demises. If you want a kaiju story to send chills down your spine, this is your book.

I’m emphasizing the grim aspects of this story, but I also want to note that it avoids one of the pitfalls a lot of modern horror falls into, in that it balances all the horrific shit by having characters in it that you actually care about. It’s a tragedy, you know from the start things won’t end well, but some of the people involved in the conflict are so lovable and try so hard to survive that you root for them despite the prevailing sense of dread. It’s a gloomy story, but it’s not the sort that makes everyone relentlessly awful - more George Romero Day of the Dead in tone than, say, the all consuming bleakness of The Walking Dead.

Also it’s got some killer illustrations. The main monster even takes the “bipedal lizard with dorsal spikes” visual in a direction so unique that it actually stands out against the progenitor of that design concept. That’s not the say the book depends on those illustrations, mind you - Gayhart’s prose isn’t afraid of laying it on thick every now and then to paint an appropriately distinct and horrific image with words. That might not be for all tastes, but as a person who’s read a LOT of classic horror literature, I personally appreciate it - a dash of melodrama in the description of the horrific, when used well, can make it very effective, and Gayhart put just enough in there to work very well for my tastes.

Buy it here:

All Your Ruins

BONUS: I’m going to recommend the two books in author Alex Gayhart’s Black Star Saga here as well. I haven’t actually fully read them yet - I bought the initial release where the two volumes were bundled together as one, and got sidetracked by LIFE BULLSHIT shortly after I started it (this happens to me too often while reading - I still need to finish Stephen King’s It and Marie Kondo’s books too), but I liked what I read, and from what I’ve heard the more recent editions made some big improvements to the story’s pacing. It’s the same quality of writing as Gayhart’s All Your Ruins, but with a less grim tone - more Ultraman and less Shin Godzilla.

The Black Star Saga Volume 1: 2525

The Black Star Saga Volume 2: Moonage Daydream

A lot of classic kaiju movies bring up the threat of giant monsters destroying all of civilization if they aren’t stopped, but almost none have shown them carry that threat through. In the Shadow of Extinction let’s that threat actually play out - you see the kaiju apocalypse begin and civilization as we know it end in the first third of the book. The remaining two thirds focuses on survivors picking up the pieces in a world now ruled by giants. It’s the kind of story you’d think there’d be more of in our genre, but outside of All Your Ruins and, uh, the Godzilla anime trilogy, there really aren’t that other takes out there.

While Gayhart’s All Your Ruins focuses on the horror aspect of a kaiju apocalypse, Kyle Warner’s In the Shadow of Extinction focuses on a political/crisis management angle. It’s like if Shin Godzilla had a baby with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and that baby had the “bureaucratic failings of big governments in the wake of national disasters” elements of the former and the “multiple different perspectives via a large cast of characters” format of the later. There’s no one protagonist in this one - you follow a large and diverse cast of characters from around the world and from pretty much all walks of life as they try to navigate a disaster that destroys society as it once was.

Once the civilization effectively ends in the first third of the novel, In the Shadow of Extinction transition from “disaster movie” to “post apocalyptic thriller,” like The Stand, Day of the Triffids, 28 Days Later, or, I dunno, a toned down version of Mad Max (but, y’know, with giant monsters, so I guess not THAT toned down). I bring this up because the content of the last two thirds takes after the tropes of post apocalyptic thrillers as much if not more so than kaiju stories - that is to say, there is some Triggering Content in this one. That’s not something to dissuade you - the characters and story remains very solid and unique for the kaiju genre - but it is something I feel you should be aware of, and if you want a more explicit description of what kind of Triggers I mean here, shoot me a message. Suffice to say, kaiju aren’t the only monsters when civilization breaks down here.

But Kaiju do remain prominent in the book nonetheless - it is ultimately a kaiju story more than anything else, and it’s impressive how the book manages to incorporate all those other influences as well as a heaping dose of political commentary without ever diminishing the presence of its monster stars.

Buy it here:

In the Shadow of Extinction

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to do what I should have done years ago and write some damn Amazon reviews for these so the authors can have a boost in Amazon’s search algorithms.

#Daikaiju Yuki #All Your Ruins #In the Shadow of Extinction

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penzyroamin · 4 years ago

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Hi I know it’s been a bit but I’m the confused bi anon. I really really appreciated your response and it wasn’t too long. You made me feel a lot better. I was wondering if you could maybe suggest some books, tv, movies with bi female characters. Thanks soo much for the entire last response . You are absolutely incredible and so sweet. This means more to me than you could ever know❤️

of course!! i’m glad that my first response helped <3

disclaimer of course: i’m not bi! so i’m not an Authoritative Source on bi rep and what people want to see more of. i do actively seek out stuff about lgbtq+ characters, specifically girls and women, so i have some recs! however, i’ll also be adding some things that some bi folks i know have recommended because while lesbians and bi women have a lot in common, these are at the end of the day representing them, not me :)

extra-super favorites will be bolded! i’m putting this under a read more because... i read a lot of books. and recommended a lot of them.

books:

her royal highness by rachel hawkins-- this book is a pretty easy read-- don’t expect any massive revelations about life from it, and you’ll have a good time!!! essentially, a bi texan girl named millie, after having her heart broken by her friend-turned-sort-of-gf, goes to boarding school in scotland and ends up rooming with the princess, flora. if this sounds outrageous and sappy, that’s because it is! and i love it! sexuality isn’t a BIG part of this book, but it’s discussed, and it’s just a generally fun enemies-to-lovers story about a bi aspiring geologist and a no-fucks-to-give lesbian princess and them falling in love!

fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe by fannie flagg-- hello this is actually my favorite book! unlike hrh it is... a LOT to read. it essentially follows 2 stories-- one about a housewife named evelyn and her friendship with an old woman named ninny threadgoode who she meets at the old folks home her mother-in-law stays at, and the other about the stories ninny tells her about her sister-in-law idgie and her partner, ruth. the book was published in 1987, and ruth and idgie’s story is set during the great depression, so they aren’t actively labeled as lesbian or bi, but it’s made obvious enough through coding and the fact that ruth has relationships with men prior to idgie while idgie spends her entire childhood pining after ruth. both storylines are fantastic-- they have a lot to say about the lives of southern women in the 30s and 80s, and about race relations at both periods. i’ll warn you that there are depictions of extreme racism and of abuse, but it handles both delicately. it’s a critical piece of southern literature, and a landmark for lgbtq+ storytelling. as a bonus, my copy has a bunch of great recipes in the back, so if you read it you might chance upon an edition with those in it. if you like poignant period pieces about wlw relationships, women losing their damn minds, and abusive men getting what they deserve, this is the book for you! you will sob. this is a fair warning.

you should see me in a crown by leah johnson-- i haven’t personally read this one, but i’ve heard great things about it from everyone i know who has! an anxious black bi girl in indiana has to win prom queen at her mostly-white school in order to get enough scholarship money to go to the college of her dreams, but ends up falling for mack, another girl running for queen.

@landlessbud wanted me to shout out red, white, and royal blue by casey mcquinston-- you’ve almost definitely heard about it before (first son and prince of wales, enemies-to-lovers with a side dish of political drama), and it is primarily about a mlm romance, but nora is a fabulously fun bi girl side character and there’s a lot of great stuff about figuring out your sexuality in it.

leah on the offbeat by becky albertalli-- i’ve read a lot of complex thoughts on this book, and mine are... i like it! it’s flawed, sure, and i wish it had handled a few things a little better, but you know what? it’s cute as fuck! leah is a fat bi drummer, and she’s super cool! abby is a great love interest, and she goes through a whole bi realization throughout the book. all in all, it’s just a fun wlw high school romcom with a couple solid dramatic beats and a lot of goofball shenanigans. also, if you were an american girl kid??? one scene in this book will make the entire experience worth it for you.

harley quinn: breaking glass by mariko tamaki and steve pugh-- hey, we’re in graphic novel territory now! this book is RAD. a really neat look at gentrification, community solidarity, giving people what they deserve, and fantastic lgbtq+ found families. teenage harleen quinzel is taken in by a group of drag queens, and is caught between two sort-of love interests-- mysterious vigilante the joker and classmate and community activist ivy-- and the different forms of protest and resistance they represent. the art here is STUNNING, and it’s a great read!

laura dean keeps breaking up with me, by the great mariko tamaki with art by rosemary valero-o’connell-- the vast majority of the characters are lgbt, with a lesbian main character, and the supporting cast including a bi nonbinary character, a bi girl character, and two mlm characters! this is mostly a piece about modern lgbtq+ teenagers and the way toxic relationships take over our lives. it’s one of the most cathartic things i’ve read in a LONG time, and especially if you’re at a point where your sexuality feels kind of vague, this is a great read because it embraces that vagueness by not needing to clearly label the characters and celebrates whatever point of clarity the characters are at. probably some of the most gorgeous art i’ve ever seen in a book, with a beautiful black-white-and-pink color scheme and a really neat approach to visual storytelling.

movies:

i don’t watch many movies, because i get bored really quickly hskdhskhds. but the movies i DO watch are usually gay!

wowie zowie its fried green tomatoes again!-- fannie flagg came back to adapt this into a film and HOT DAMN is it just as good. the plot is primarily the same, with some stuff obviously cut or trimmed to make it a two hour movie instead of a 450 page books fhsjdhsjhds. mary-louise parker plays ruth!!! it got a GLAAD award and an oscar nomination, and god it’s good. there are a couple scenes in here that i think are going to be in my mind until the day i die. the level of pure butch energy that idgie radiates in this film is a one-hit k.o. and it KILLS me.

birds of prey-- listen. this is not a profound movie. harley’s bisexuality isn’t emphasized, and romance is basically nonexistent in this movie. there is some... quite graphic violence. that said, this movie is so fucking fun. it’s mostly just a bunch of women fucking up everyone who crosses them while margot robbie gives a gleeful performance that you can just TELL she enjoyed the fuck out of. the last 20-30 minutes of this movie are the absolute best part, with a long sequence that kind of reinvented what an action/superhero movie could be for me. again, bisexuality isn’t a massive part of this-- it’s mentioned, and then harley just continues on in her gloriously campy outfits and breaks peoples’ knees. again, i CANNOT overemphasize just how fucking good the last 20-30 minutes are. this movie knows what it is and it embraces it. also, women beating people up in costumes that don’t horrifyingly objectify them is always a plus!

imagine me & you-- i’d be remiss if i didn’t mention this one, considering it’s probably one of the most iconic wlw romcoms. a woman named rachel, while at her own wedding, meets a florist named luce, and they fall in love. it’s a very sweet look at questioning your sexuality when you were already secure in it, and rachel’s husband wins “most genuinely understanding guy in a wlw movie” award. it has a lovely happy ending, and articles have been written about the importance of rachel being a bi character who a) gets a happy ending and b) isn’t shamed for figuring out her sexuality later on or slutshamed. this is just... a sweet movie. it’s the romcom a lot of us need in our lives. also, a LOT of floral imagery.

tv shows:

ok, i’ve got a confession. i reaaaaaaally don’t watch much tv. seriously, the only shows i’ve watched a substantial amount of recently have been parks and rec, schitt’s creek, the good place, and gilmore girls. i have a really REALLY short attention span.

that said, eleanor from the good place is bisexual!! the good place is a really wild ride, it’s half afterlife comedy half philosophical musing, and it will almost certainly make you gasp, laugh, think, and also probably cry. also, eleanor is just buckets of fun and she, like many of us, is often blown away by tahani (jameela jamil) and her beauty.

ummm shows i haven’t watched entirely or at all but that have bi women in them and seem pretty good: black lightning, sex education, jane the virgin, arrow.

if you haven’t already watched it, do not believe what people are going to tell you about watching glee. it will drag you into a pit of despair and white men rapping, and it’s quite biphobic to top it all off.

i hope you enjoy at least some of these!! i tried to include some of my own favs and some that were pointed out to me, so i hope that at least a couple connect with you and make you feel better. again, the bolded ones are my 100% favorites. i love you and i’m glad you reached out again!!! feel free to send some more asks later on <3

#asks #anon #bi anon #ily <3 <3 i hope these help #if anyone wants to add please do!! specifically bi women of color since theres a shortage of them in fiction and media #dont talk abt b/9/9 though id like to not praise diversity in a show glorifying cops

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hannah-martin-uor · 5 years ago

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Quaderno appunti Inglese

Brave New World

Chapter Eleven

Bernard becomes a celebrity and John a curiosity; Linda is content to take an extended Soma-holiday. Bernard takes the "Savage" to see many aspects of the Brave New World. At this point Lenina is attracted to John, but he ignores her.

Comment‐>A change takes place in Bernard in his new role as celebrity - he enjoys the attention he now receives. John is unimpressed by what he sees and still maintains his "old-fashioned" ideas and values; although attracted to Lenina, he considers such impulses immoral and represses them.

These tours which Bernard and John take provide descriptions of other aspects of life in the World State - specifically, the factory system and the educational system. Remembering that science has developed a method of producing up to ninety - six identical twins from a single egg, we see these identical automatons performing identical tasks. The upper-caste students (Alphas and Betas, each produced from a single egg) are not really educated - they are indoctrinated. In both situations individuality is nonexistent - each is but a member of a particular group.

Chapter Twelve

Bernard invites many important personages to meet John, but John then refuses to attend. Having thus lost the friendship of these people, he turns again to John and Helmholtz.

Comment->Bernard realizes that his popularity is based on the curiosity others have about the Savage. He realizes that John and Helmholtz are his only "real" friends. At this point we find John reading Shakespeare to them - making them aware of new ideas, new beliefs, and new values which they find difficult if not impossible to accept.

This chapter emphasizes the difference in character of Bernard and Helmholtz, and their differences in point of view and attitude. Bernard's dissatisfaction with the life he is leading seems to stem from his not being accepted (alcohol in his blood - surrogate), while Helmholtz's dissatisfaction seems to stem from his belief that life must have some meaning beyond the purely physical.

Chapter Thirteen

Lenina and John have "fallen in love", but she finds his desire to marry repulsive; she makes advances to him, and he locks himself in another room. The telephone rings, and John rushes from the apartment.

Comment->We see again the conflict between the two value systems - between the life on the Reservation and the life in the World State. Lenina and John are attracted to each other, but Lenina expects to have sexual relations with "no strings attached"; John considers sexual relations outside of marriage immoral and disgusting.

Chapter Fourteen

John arrives at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying, where Linda has been sent. He sits by her bed, remembering his early life at her side, and weeps at her death.

Comment-> The nurses at the hospital are mystified by John's reaction to Linda's dying; they cannot understand his being upset. Since close personal ties are forbidden and all were conditioned to accept death impersonally, they consider John's reaction indecent and disgraceful.

Chapter Fifteen

Saddened and enraged by Linda's death, John realizes that the government of the World State has made the people the way they are, and that they are being controlled; he warns those around him. Bernard and Helmholtz arrive, the police are called, and the three are taken away.

Comment->John recalls the words of Miranda in The Tempest, "O brave new world!" Having observed life in the World State, these words mocked him; now he hears them as a challenge to do something. He tries to warn those around him, but they refuse to listen - they do not want to change. Conditioning has made them unwilling or unable to desire freedom or to do anything to obtain it.

The difference in the reactions of Bernard and Helmholtz when they see the Savage pleading with the people to change emphasizes the differences noted earlier. Helmholtz sympathizes with John's comments on freedom and his desire to make others aware that the government of the World State has taken away their freedom, and he rushes to aid him. Bernard hesitates - he does not want to become involved.

Chapter Sixteen

Bernard, Helmholtz, and John are brought before Mustapha Mond, the World Controller. The Controller explains that since their society is organized for stability and happiness, individuality and free choice must be abolished. Both Bernard and Helmholtz are to be deported because of their unorthodox behavior and belief.

Comment->In this chapter Huxley makes known the Controller's ideas and, by inference, includes his own views of how the evolution of a World State is possible. The Controller's reference to the inability or unwillingness of the individual to act intelligently and reasonably, to the loss of individuality, and to the shift in emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness, gives emphasis to many of the comments made by thoughtful men about modern society. Huxley himself has commented on the possible consequences of these shortcomings of society in numerous essays.

Huxley believed that man was unable or unwilling to act intelligently and rationally. He was especially critical of the educated class because he believed they should take the initiative in bringing about needed social and political reform. The Cyprus experiment alluded to by the Controller seems to illustrate this point of view. In this experiment twenty-two thousand Alphas were given the opportunity to manage their own affairs - to use their superior intelligence to establish an ideal society. Within six years civil war broke out. Although given the opportunity to create a democratic Utopia, the Alphas were unable or unwilling to act independently, intelligently, and rationally, and chose, instead, to return to a system of rigid state control.

Note that in this chapter the World Controller addresses himself primarily to the Savage. Although dissatisfied with life in the World State, Bernard and Helmholtz do not know any other way of life nor any other values; only John and the Controller are able to discuss an alternate way of life and system of values. The Savage's questions about the value system of the World State and its inhabitants provide an opportunity for Huxley not only to summarize what has gone before but also to illustrate how the creation of an all-powerful World State is possible.

The Controller explains that even during the time of Ford (1932) there was a shift in emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. The people were willing, even anxious, to bring about this shift. Mass production contributed to this shift since material goods were an important aid to comfort and happiness; when the masses seized political power, it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered. Once the choice had been made, truth and beauty, art and science, were seen as threats to universal happiness since such inquiry can lead to dissatisfaction with the status quo. Most people are happy when they get what they want and never want what they can't get. In the World State of A.F. 632, the government provides what the people want and through conditioning prevents them from wanting what they can't have. Anyone who becomes "too self-consciously individual to fit into community life" is sent to an island lest he "contaminate" the others.

Chapter Seventeen

The World Controller and the Savage are left alone and discuss God and philosophy. The Controller again declares that a stable society is possible only if all conflict, internal and external, is abolished - God and modern society are incompatible.

Comment->Huxley, through the World Controller, says that modern man has chosen machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness instead of God, has chosen them as substitutes for God and the religious impulse. This reference to God and the religious impulse embraces all the attributes and aspects of a human being that make him noble and fine and heroic; in the words of the Savage, "I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin." Huxley believed that since man was composed of body and soul, flesh and spirit, his life should reflect this dichotomy. Modern man's values often glorify the body and deny the spirit.

Chapter Eighteen

Bernard and Helmholtz are leaving London, but the Controller has forced the Savage to remain in the area. Seeking refuge in an abandoned lighthouse, the Savage attempts to resume his old life. He disciplines himself severely to remove the taint of the Brave New World, but the curious come to watch his strange antics and disturb the solitude he seeks and needs. Finally, in despair, he hangs himself.

Comment->The Savage attempted to duplicate his old life and his old ways - working with his hands and disciplining his mind and his body. But he could not remove the horror and corruption within or without - he could not forget Lenina, and he could not find peace and solitude. When he could no longer control his thoughts, when he could no longer be an individual, he killed himself. In the World State the choice is conformity or annihilation.

***

Character Analyses:

Director Of Hatcheries And Conditioning

The Director of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre is the first character we meet; the novel opens with the Director taking a group of students on a tour of the Centre. Note that the Director (Tomakin) is, with but two exceptions, always referred to as the Director. This emphasis on the "function" of the man is appropriate since his primary concern is the production of automatons to populate the Brave New World.

The Director is an Alpha-plus, and because of the importance of his position we might well assume that he is a very intelligent and capable man. His comments during the tour indicate that he is efficient, very businesslike, somewhat officious, and very much concerned with conformity - "The primal and the ultimate need. Stability." In fact, when the World Controller mentions history (a forbidden subject), the Director is somewhat taken aback; he recalls with some dismay the rumors that old forbidden books were hidden in a safe in the Controller's study.

Perhaps one reason Huxley portrays the Director as very conventional and scrupulously correct is to stress the irony of the Director's unconventional behavior apparent in his previous relationship with Linda. Imagine the horror and confusion he felt when everyone realizes that he is a father (horrible word). Because the Director had disgraced himself by the impropriety of his actions, he resigns. Bernard becomes a kind of hero, and we hear nothing of the Director again.

Henry Foster

One of the standard men and women who work at the Hatchery, Henry is proud of his work. He is efficient, intelligent, and, most important, "conventional." Henry does everything he is expected to do and does it well - in every way he is an ideal citizen of the World State. In the bureaucracy of the World State he is the young man "with a future" - he knows what is expected of him and does it. Henry Foster would not be classified as an important character in the novel since he does not initiate or determine action - he is most often seen as Lenina's sometime lover.

Mustapha Mond, A World Controller

As one of the ten World Controllers, Mustapha Mond provides considerable information about the creation and maintenance of the World State. He is an intelligent, capable, good-natured man whose dedication and ability we must admire even if we do not approve. His comments at the beginning of the novel, when he meets the Director and the students provide not only information about his role in the World State but also reveal something of his character.

The World Controller is one of the most important characters because he is the most intelligent and the most knowledgeable - he has read and studied the Bible, Shakespeare, history, philosophy (all forbidden books). As a young Alpha-plus, his own unconventionality necessitated a choice between life on an island (reserved for those who were "too self-consciously individual to fit into community-life") and life in the World State (being "taken on the Controller's Council with the prospect of succeeding in due course to an actual Controllership.") Because the Controller has freedom of choice - a freedom which conditioning normally inhibits or destroys - he is one of the few real individuals we meet in this novel.

In the latter part of the novel the conversation between the Controller and John the Savage is the device Huxley uses to "put across" his own ideas and concerns. When the Controller explains his values and beliefs, his arguments and explanations are clearly and logically presented; his sanity makes the insanity of the Brave New World all the more vivid and frightening. The Controller in many ways represents the intelligent, capable individual who uses his intelligence and capability for unworthy ends.

Bernard Marx

Because he is different, Bernard is the source of considerable speculation and suspicion. He does not enjoy sports (everyone is expected to); he likes to be alone (others like crowds); he is unhappy (everybody else is happy). Bernard doesn't know why he is dissatisfied, why he is different; many of his associates speculate that alcohol was accidentally put in his blood-surrogate while he was still "in the bottle."

When we first meet Bernard we see him as a rebel, a protestor, "an individual." He wants to stand up for his rights, to battle against the order of things. We later learn that Bernard questions the conformity of life in the World State and the values it teaches, but that his dissatisfaction seems to stem from his not being accepted. When he returns from the Reservation with John and Linda, he becomes a kind of hero, the girls who formerly ignored him become attentive, important personages in the World State curry his favor, and Bernard is happy and enthusiastic about his life in the World State.

Huxley indicates that Bernard's protest is not intellectual or moral, but personal and social; he willingly accepts life in the World State when he is accepted. When the novel ends we find that Bernard's fortunes have changed and he is to be deported to Iceland because of his nonconformity. Bernard protests his innocence, begs the World Controller to reconsider, and finally is carried out still shouting and sobbing.

Lenina Crowne

Young and pretty, Lenina is very popular as a sex partner, but she sometimes finds living the motto "Everybody belongs to everybody else" a little tiring. She is a happy, contented, well-adjusted citizen of the World State; she accepts its teachings and values without question. The only disconcerting element in her life is the frustration brought about by her feelings for John the Savage. Lenina finds John attractive and attempts without success to seduce him. She cannot understand his attitude regarding sex even as he cannot understand hers. Fortunately she, like the others, can escape most frustrations and unhappiness by taking Soma.

Lenina is a fairly important character because she is instrumental in bringing about the suicide of John the Savage, although we cannot in any way blame her. (She is a product of the system, and the system is wrong.) Because she is a beautiful, desirable woman, she personifies for John the conflict between the body and the spirit. In a way she repeats the conflict he felt regarding his mother - he is at one and the same time attracted and repelled by the object of his affections.

Helmholtz Watson

Intellectually, socially, and physically the ideal of his Alpha-plus caste, Helmholtz is regarded with some suspicion by his associates because he is too perfect. Like Bernard he questions the conformity of life in the World State and the values it teaches, but, unlike Bernard, his dissatisfaction stems from his feeling that there must be more to life than mere physical existence. Although not as important to the development of the novel as Bernard, Helmholtz is in many ways a more admirable character because, instead of simply talking about what he believed, he acted.

As noted earlier, in this novel Huxley expressed his pessimism regarding man and his ability to save himself; consequently none of the characters is able to bring about change. However, Helmholtz is at least willing to try. When the Savage tries to tell the people they are being controlled, Helmholtz joins forces with the Savage when a melee breaks out. Later he accepts his banishment with considerable aplomb and asks that he be sent to a cold climate since he feels such discomfort might aid his writing.

Linda

Having been decanted and conditioned a Beta and then forced by circumstances to spend some twenty years on the Reservation, Linda offers some interesting comments and contrasts. At the Reservation she is not accepted because her values and beliefs are those of the Other Place - when she returns to London, people find her repulsive and ignore her because she is fat, old-looking and unattractive. Having been conditioned a Beta, Linda cannot understand or adapt herself to life on the Reservation. But since the Reservation does not have the ultramodern medical facilities which help retard physical decay, she has grown old even as the Savages do. Her relationship with John is also ambivalent - she is horrified at the idea of being a "mother" and yet she admits that John has been a great comfort to her. Her death during a Soma-induced stupor finally provides release.

John The Savage

A curious mixture of the "old" world and the "new," John does not belong to either. He is not accepted by the Savages on the Reservation because he is "different," and he cannot and will not accept the life and values of the Other Place (London). Like Bernard, Helmholtz, and Linda, he doesn't belong - he is an alien, a misfit, a "mistake."

John is the most important character in the book because he acts as a bridge between the two cultures, and having known both "ways of life" he is able to compare them and comment on them. His beliefs and values are a curious mixture of Christian and heathen, of "Jesus and Pookong," but, most important, he has a strict moral code. His "old fashioned" beliefs about God and right and wrong (his beliefs closely duplicate Christian morality) contrast sharply with the values and beliefs of the citizens of the Brave New World ("God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness"). It is this conflict between the two value systems that ultimately brings about his suicide.

When we are first introduced to John and the Reservation Huxley makes us aware of the moral conflict, but he also makes us aware of the social and emotional conflicts. The social conflict results from his not belonging on the Reservation; his mother was the white she-dog despised by the Savages. The emotional conflict results from the attraction and repulsion he feels towards his mother - he loves her but finds her promiscuity revolting. And, too her stories of the Other Place (London) fill him with wonder and a vague discontent.

The arrival at the Reservation of Bernard and Lenina and the Savage's subsequent arrival in London contribute to the conflict he already feels. John is attracted to Lenina but feels that such lustful feelings are wrong and must be repressed; Lenina is attracted to John and cannot understand the Savage's reticence and unwillingness to show any interest in her. Finally when John protests his love and expresses his desire to marry her, Lenina considers such an entanglement absurd and scoffs at the idea. But John is unable to put her out of his mind. His love for her finally breeds hatred, and when this hate turns inward upon himself, the Savage hangs himself.

Like the others in this novel, the character of the Savage is not believable. (Huxley was not interested in creating characters; he was interested in expressing ideas.) The Savage speaks too intelligently and reasons too well for one whose education consisted of reading a few books and talking to practitioners of a combination fertility - Penitente cult. Huxley himself admitted the inconsistency. But if we accept John simply as a spokesman in another of Huxley's novels of ideas, he is more than satisfactory.

Because Brave New World is both fantasy and satire, Huxley's characters are both fantastic and satirical. They are exaggerated because the year is A.F. 632; they offer a caustic commentary because more often than not they express what we must recognize are twentieth century viewpoints. At this time (1931) Huxley was completely disillusioned with mankind and with its choice of values or lack of values - he saw no hope for man's ultimate salvation of himself. He expresses his pessimism by offering no glimmer of hope in his novel. None of his characters is able to change or to bring about change.

#aldous huxley #brave new world

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bigband98-blog · 6 years ago

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The real Clara Bow.

"(I'm) just a woikin goil" Source: Clara Bow And a working girl she was. During her rise to fame and eventual stardom Clara Bow, one of the most popular and talented actresses the screen has ever produced and the ultimate ideal of the 20s flapper, was the most overworked and underpaid star then in Hollywood. Producer B.P. Schulberg had her under personal contract and steered Clara's career becoming his greatest meal ticket. But fame hadn't come easy to this Brooklyn bombshell. Clara was born into the world on July 29,1905.And her childhood was nothing but unsettled. Her home life was a shambles as her father was an alcoholic, abusive and a womanizer. Her mother had come from a similar background and was given to regular mental "bouts". As a result Clara became quite sensitive and shy and developed a slight speech impediment. When she was old enough the streets more often than not were her home away from home when her father or mother proved too much. She became quite the tomboy but a tomboy who frequented the movies any chance she could get. She would do anything she could to earn money to help pay for her movie habit and to help her father with keeping the household together, as her mother was not able to work steadily for any length of time. Her favourite movie actress was Mary Pickford and she would stand in front of a mirror emulating her. In January 1921 Motion Picture Magazine sponsored a "Fame and Fortune" contest. Clara saw the ads and badly wanted to give it a try. At that moment she didn't have enough money for the two photos that she would need for the contest entry so she sheepishly approached her father. Unexpectedly her father not only agreed but accompanied her personally to the photographer's studio and paid the $1.00 for the shoot. A few days later she attended the offices in New York of Motion Picture Magazine and was crestfallen when she entered to find it crammed with many lovely looking girls, all there for the same reason. Looking at some of the beautifully dressed wanna be's, she figured she didn't have a chance but she had come too far to give up so she persevered through the obligatory interview with the magazine staff and returned home to await the decision. A month or so later Clara was given the astounding news that it was she out of all the others, that had been picked as the magazine's winner;she was floored. Soon after she was given a small part in a movie called "Beyond The Rainbow". The part was so small that it was excised from the original release prints but later when Clara's star had risen to such phenomenal heights they reinserted it and re-released it. One night after work had been completed on the film Clara awoke to find her mother standing over her holding a butcher knife. Her father and Clara had been trying to keep anything about her film ambitions quiet, but her mother had gotten wind of it and this night was threatening to use the knife. Clara as calmly as she could talked her mother into surrendering the knife to her. Clara prayed that there would be no such other instances but shortly after the film's release her mother attacked Clara once more. She chased Clara around and around the room screaming that no daughter of hers was going to go into such a questionable and perverted occupation. Clara retreated to the streets sobbing and it took her father some time to calm her mother down. After the dust had settled her father quietly made inquiries and eventually had his wife put into an asylum. And it was there her mother passed away just a few months later in early 1924. Clara was now under personal contract with Hollywood producer B.P. Schulberg who had seen her work in "Down to the Sea in Ships ", her other 1922 effort. She would complete three movies in 1923 and moved on into 1924 doing an astounding eight pictures.1924 would prove to be a watershed year for her. She was picked as one of the W.A.M.P.A.S. (Western Associated Motion Picture Advertising Society) girls and the only one of the group that actually went on to better things. Then Schulberg moved on to Paramount studios taking his young protege with him. And Clara was getting much needed attention from critics and business insiders alike. Her star was definitely on the rise. Clara's schedule was even more hectic in 1925 for it saw no less than 14 films released!.1926 saw Clara do eight films among them "Mantrap " with Ernest Torrance which really made Clara a star and "Kid Boots" starring a well known vaudevillian making his screen debut, Eddie Cantor. "Kiss me Again" was significant in that it showed off Clara's range as an actress in a more serious role. She garnered great reviews for her part but this was one of the very few serious roles she would get in her career. Directors Victor Fleming and Paul Bern stated on several occasions that Clara could be one of the greatest dramatic actresses of her time It is so unfortunate Hollywood didn't have the foresight and guts to stick her in other than formulaic roles featuring her as a "modern" girl, a flapper and emphasizing her sexuality. They realized they could stick Clara in any kind of picture no matter how bad the script and because of her sheer presence and forcefulness she would carry the day. And as long as his meal ticket was making money B.P. Schulberg was quite happy to keep the status quo. But it was a visit on a set by British author and sex maven Elinor Glyn that kicked Clara's career up another big notch. She had written several novels on relationships between couples that were very daring for their day. Elinor watched Clara work and declared that she had "It". An energy or sexually charged charisma and magnetism that affected everything and everyone around her. And it was this "It" that made her glow on the screen .And there is no doubt Clara lit up the screen. And 1927 was to showcase Clara at her finest. She starred in about seven vehicles that year but two are standouts. The first is "It" and it did indeed capitalize on Clara's "personality" but it also featured a walk on by Elinor Glyn herself to give the movie it's obvious tie in. It was about a department store clerk who falls in love with the young owner of the store that she works in. It had all the typical mix ups, tears and laughter associated with that type of movie but it showed Clara off to great advantage and the film still stands up extremely well today. The second film was "Wings" and was set during the First World War and it co-starred Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers as two fliers who see action overseas. Clara who always had a crush on Buddy meets up with him in France while driving an ambulance there. There was quite a few touching scenes throughout the movie involving Clara. In fact the movie has quite a serious feel to it throughout especially through it's realistic depictions of aerial combat in the war and its consequences. But when Clara is on screen the movie literally comes alive. It is a testament to her ability as an actress that she could do that repeatedly, picture after picture. And it's in no small way that she helped the film win the first Academy Award for best picture that year. 1927 went into 1928 and her film output continued unabated as did her career. She starred in four pictures that year; "Red Hair" and "The Fleet's In " being standouts. But 1929 would prove to be an unnerving one for many actresses and actors and Clara Bow unfortunately was one of them. Clara was at the top of her game. She was often seen driving around Hollywood in a flame red car (a Kissel or Stutz-Bearcat depending on the story) with one or more of her auburn coloured Chow dogs. She was known quite well in the neighbourhood by the local constabulary who would frequently drop in at the rear entrance to her home to have a cup of coffee and sandwiches and have a chat. Clara was frequently linked with many men over the years and was a constant source of gossip for the papers to engorge. One incident was a touch football game she played on her front lawn with the University of Southern California Football team. Everyone had such a great time that she invited them over again. This incident got turned inside out until one read that Clara had slept with every member of the USC football team! Another incident that didn't help Clara's reputation at all involved Clara attending a gambling establishment in Lake Tahoe. It was reported she had welshed on a gambling debt while playing there. She had gotten into an argument with staff personnel and refused at first to pay but it she eventually settled. But not before the incident had leaked out and done some damage publicly. Clara was a very trusting and unassuming individual and often wore her heart on her sleeve. She was in reality a very insecure person and she many times publicly decried that her past home life had left many a scar on her emotionally. And she also stated that mentally she could just not shut down and was always worrying about something and had insomnia.In point of fact Clara had become overworked and overwrought. What happened in 1929 sent Clara hurtling precariously towards the edge. The movie industry had been experimenting with sound pictures from the early 1920s.But it was Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" in 1927 (little dialogue but with musical numbers) and the first full talking movie in 1928 "Lights of New York", that broke the dam wide open and there was no turning back. But the big question was how everyone was going to sound, literally. Many actor's didn't have the vocal capability of transitioning from silence into sound and as a result found themselves leaving the business. In those days sound was monitored from a booth, and especially in the early days the microphone was static and immovable. Actor's would have to know where the mike was and dutifully stand within its' range to be recorded properly. The camera's were put into sound proof boxes where the camera's whirring would not be picked up by the mike. Consider this December 1929 Photoplay article excerpt: "Terrible Mike has cooled down the incandescent flapper-he's giving her an awful kick, and is putting Poor Old lady Has-Been on the Throne" It was a stifling environment in which to work and for Clara this was definitely another pressure which she did not need. The making of "Wild Party", her first talking picture, was anything but smooth. Clara was overwrought with the added pressure of having to know where and when to stand and was now having to pay attention to her annunciation as well as her voice level. In fact it has been reported that in her run through for her very first scene as she comes in and says:" Hello Everybody" all the sound valves in the sound booth exploded! Clara would more than once become so upset she would run off the set crying. But the movie was made and Clara showed she had not lost "It" and it garnered great reviews. Clara's voice came over very well and was able to rise well above the primitive recording techniques of the day. But Clara's career was slowly grinding to an inevitable end and "Mike" was the least of her worries. Clara would make between 1929 and 1933 10 more pictures and all quite successful. Her last two "Call Her Savage" and "Hoopla" were especially good vehicles for her and showed off her acting ability to its best. But strangely they weren't successful at the box office. In January of 1931 Clara was involved in a very public trial in regards to her former personal secretary Daisy Devoe who it was claimed had mishandled Clara's funds. While Clara did not want to press charges the police saw fit to carry it through the court system anyways and many personal details of Clara's life came out during the trial. Clara was forced to testify but was in tears much of the time. When the verdict came down about a month later Devoe was sentenced to 18 months in jail. It was plain that Clara, as usual, had been much too trusting with her employee and when asked about the trial, being the person she was ,she could not kick Devoe even when she was down, it wasn't her nature: "The trouble with me is, I'm no sneak....I may have made mistakes...But my greatest mistake seems to have been that I was open and above board with everything". On December 4,1931 Clara married cowboy actor Rex Bell who she had been dating steadily for the last two years. They bought a ranch in Nevada and Clara would retire there permanently. But Clara was her mother's daughter and some of the same type of inflictions that harried her mother would eventually also do the same to Clara. The pressure of the last few years with sound, her personal life being spread more and more across headlines much of it exaggerated or totally untrue and her realization, albeit late, of her true worth and what the pittance was she actually received, in the end proved too much for the fragile Clara to cope with. Clara would spend much of her retirement years in and out of sanitariums and on drugs of one type or another to control her condition. She would always remain an insomniac and stated that the nights would always be the hardest. Clara had two sons one in 1935 and the other in 1938.Rex eventually gave up movies for a life in politics and by 1954 was the lieutenant governor of Nevada. In July of 1962 Rex died of a heart attack and Clara went all the way to Glendale, California to attend the funeral . Afterwards she retired back to the ranch and seclusion once more. To pass the time away in her final years she would often send letters off to stars that she admired and even answered fan mail that came to her. She would spend her days swimming and reading while at night television was her favourite pass time. . On September 27,1965 while watching the " Late, Late Show" she passed away quietly in her chair. In the late 1960s when film historian Kevin Brownlow wrote his fine work: " The Parade's Gone By" about silent films and their stars he completely overlooked Clara Bow and her works. Louise Brooks, a contemporary of Clara's, wrote to Mr.Brownlow the following: "You brush off Clara Bow for some old nothing like Brooks. The more I think about it the madder I get .Clara made three pictures which will never be surpassed, 'Dancing Mothers', 'Mantrap', and 'It' " And Louise Brooks was right. Clara has been largely forgotten and overlooked as time has passed by many critics and historians. And this is a travesty.For to watch Clara Bow today is to see a human dynamo, a force onto her own who literally brings the screen to life with her presence alone. But there was more to her than just "It" and she could act alongside the best of her day and in many instances surpass them at their own game. This was a star of the highest order. She defined an entire generation and she still touches us as equally today as she did over 70 years ago. She was an original. She was....Clara Bow.

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meggannn · 6 years ago

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i'm curious from a writer perspective of DA, is the world set up similar to that of D&D (Humans, Elves, etc co-exist but who's king?). I've never played the game and was trying to figure out what the worldscope was like in terms of who's in charge, the history, etc but it's kind of complicated and hard to pin down. Would you mind giving a little insight into the premise of DA on a larger scale?

i’m sorry this took so long to get back to you! what a neat question – I haven’t played D&D or actually really read too many classic fantasies aside from some Tamora Pierce novels, so I can’t speak about what’s usual, but yeah Dragon Age is a pretty “standard” high fantasy I guess in the sense that it’s got dwarves and elves and magic and it’s set in a middle age analogue.

i also need to apologize in advance for how long this got. the short answer is, Thedas is a hot mess, everyone hates each other, and nobody knows what’s going on.

RACES

okay, so, there are four main races:

human – most populous and influential. known for causing a lot of wars.

elves – in most parts of the continent they’re second-class citizens. many are servants; in Tevinter elves are mostly enslaved. if they live in cities, they probably live in an alienage, which is akin to a ghetto. there are large groups of elves called the Dalish, which are nomadic groups that live in the forests and try to keep their ancient culture alive.

dwaves – mostly live underground, but there are several surface dwaves that, as the name implies, live aboveground. they’re the only race that cannot be mages due to their high resistance to magic, which is based on their history of mining lyrium (basically like a magic rock that helps mages and mage hunters focus their power). dwaves have a sort of resistance to it so they’re the only ones who can mine it safely and therefore built their economy and major cities underground.

qunari – technically a religion, not a race, but they’re known for their stringent religion and for having large horns on their head.

CONTINENT

DA is set in a world called Thedas (which literally stands for The Dragon Age Setting, don’t ever let anyone tell you your ideas are stupid). here’s the map, so, pretty big (click here for a bigger version):

unfortunately bioware is lazy and they never gave us firm borders, so we have to make due with whatever this is

POLITICAL NATIONS (skip if you don’t care)

I’m not an expert and don’t have the energy right now to go super in depth about each of these nations’ conflicts with each other. there are roughly 9 countries in the above map (bottom - up): Ferelden, Orlais, Free Marches, Nevarra, Tevinter, Antiva, Rivain, Anderfels, Seheron/Par Vollen. not pictured: Orzammar/the Dwarven Kingdom

Ferelden and Orlais are the countries we know the most about because two games take place there (Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age Inquisition). They both have monarchies. Ferelden has a king/queen, and Orlais has an emperor/empress. Orlais is also where the Divine lives, and the Divine (always a she) is the leader of the Chantry, the major religion (p much like magic Catholicism).

The Free Marches are a bunch of city-states, each of them ruled by a Viscount that’s elected by the nobles. Dragon Age 2 takes place in one of these cities, Kirkwall. one of the endings involves the playable character, Hawke, become the Viscount/Viscountess if they make certain choices. Post-Inquisition, one of the game’s companions ends up becoming Viscount.

Nevarra we don’t know much about. I believe they have royal dynasties. most monarchs are related/entwined with the military. one companion, Cassandra Pentaghast, is distantly in line for the throne.

The Anderfels are a bit of a wasteland. it’s called a kingdom but I gotta be honest, we know like a total of five characters from there so not much else info is available. It used to be part of the Tenvinter Imperium before the rebellion, but now it’s mostly known as being home to the Grey Wardens (see below).

Antiva is a plutocracy, so it’s ruled by the wealthy. there is technically a monarchy that’s been around for a couple thousand years, but it’s weak. the country is mostly ruled by “merchant princes” (not literal princes, just like bank owners and heads of trading companies, each have their own army, etc). they mostly resolve political disputes with bribes and assassins.

Rivain – tbh I don’t think I know enough about Rivain’s government. we know certain characters from Rivain, but according to the wiki they emphasize community welfare and I know they treat their mages better than the rest of the continent, where (apart from Tevinter) mages are largely locked up in towers for their entire lives.

the Tevinter Imperium is the only nation in the continent that’s a magocracy, or ruled by mages, and its economy is largely based off of slave labor (the majority of whom are elves, though I think they enslave some humans if I’m not mistaken). Tevinter’s leaders are called Magisters, and they are all part of the Magisterium. they are led by the Imperial Archon, which is usually inherited; otherwise known as the Black Divine, who is always male (more on that below).

Seheron belonged to the Tevinter Imperium for a long time, but it’s land that I think is still being fought over by a group called the Qunari. they currently maintain it, though it’s mostly native rebels that live there.

Par Vollen is the land of the Qunari. they’re really a religion, not a race, but most Qunari that you’ll see are horned giants. we know a lot about their culture from certain characters, but we’ve never seen it in person. in broad sense, the Qunari believe that every person has a certain role (you call people by their titles, eg “Sten”). they’re led by an Arishok which is like their highest ranking general and de facto spiritual leader.

(not pictured) Orzammar – underground, located in the Frostback Mountains (bottom of the pic, left of Ferelden. the last standing dwarven city. it’s like an underground metropolis based on a caste system.

HISTORY

so I don’t know if you’re asking for a long and detailed history, because if so I could be here all day, but in very broad strokes, here’s what’s going down

Elves: long ago they were the dominant race aboveground. they had their own empire in modern-day south Orlais (west of Ferelden), but now they’re treated like second-class citizens after their biggest city fell and they were plundered by Tevinter. then the Chantry came along and that took over.

Dwaves: they also had a massive kingdom underground that spanned most of the continent. these tunnels are known as the Deep Roads, and they still exist today, but they’re mostly collapsing and very dangerous.

Humans: Are kind of running the show now across all major nations. (they apparently aren’t even native to Thedas but arrived millennia ago on boats or something then took over. typical.)

THE BLIGHTS

the driving force of a major recurring conflict in this land is called a Blight, and the first Blight was responsible for the collapse of the dwarven empire. there’s a lot we don’t know about what exactly happened in the first Blight, we only have the Chantry version, and a lot of ppl in the world disagree about how they really got started, or what they even are. but here’s what “the story” behind them roughly is:

the Chantry says that Blights are punishments that the Maker (God) sends because the old Tevinter Magisters, once upon a time, used magic to enter the Golden City (Heaven, sort of). mages can enter a place called the Fade, which is like the magical space between fiction and reality that most people only access through dreaming. the old Magisters basically wanted to enter the Golden City and claim the Maker’s throne and become all-powerful gods and whatnot.

however! this was a bad idea, and so for punishment (or maybe just as a consequence of contaminating the sacred heart of the fade with their dirty human germs), the Maker turned all of those Magisters into monstrous things known as “darkspawn.”

darkspawn are like mindless zombies, sort of, except their primary objective is killing, not eating. what makes them darkspawn is the infection and spread of their tainted blood.

so after those magisters became darkspawn, they spread anything they came into contact with. any species can become tainted I think.

darkspawn are scattered and disorganized for the most part but you still see them here and then. most of the time, darkspawn stay underground in the Deep Roads wrecking mayhem (this is what caused the fall of the dwarven empire).

what a Blight is, though, is a massive swarm of darkspawn arriving to the surface and basically doing what they do, amped up to level 11. what causes a blight is when darkspawn find an Old God underground. the “Old Gods” are really just sleeping high dragons. (Tevinter used to worship these dragons.) there are seven old gods, so when the darkspawn find another of them underground, they infect it, it awakens and turns nasty and evil, and becomes an Archdemon, which leads the call for darkspawn to attack the surface. Archdemons are the sort of Big Boss that needs to be defeated to end each Blight, after which the darkspawn simmer down for a while until they find the next one.

the plot of Dragon Age Origins is the story of the Fifth Blight, which takes place in 9:30 Dragon (read that exactly like you would without colons, so “Year 930″)

TIMEKEEPING

timelines are currently measured by Chantry ages. the years before 1:1 are called “Ancient,” count backwards, and are basically like our BC. there’s no Year 0. the Ancient Age had the arrival of humans, the fall of the elves and the dwarven empire, and the first blight.

according to the wiki: “In the 99th year of each Age, the Divine looks for an event or portent in order to determine the name of the new Age. the last portent was a dragon awakening and going on a rampage, which suggested an age full of violence and destruction”

so dragons are a Big Deal because until this century, people thought they were extinct. except no…. there’s a blight, and an archdemon showed up. and oh look, dragons are appearing in Kirkwall too, and around Orlais. dragons are a symbol of chaos, basically, so the fact that this era is known as the Dragon Age signifies a lot of fighting/turmoil basically.

THE GAMES

Dragon Age Origins – the story of the Fifth Blight. you gather a bunch of companions and join the Grey Wardens (soldiers from all races who dedicate their lives specifically to fighting darkspawn) and become Big Damn Heroes.

Dragon Age II – the story of origin of the Mage Rebellion. you play as Hawke, a refugee who escaped the Blight looking for safe haven in a city in the Free Marches. you befriend several misfits and influence the political landscape that ultimately leads to mages across Southern Thedas rebelling against their captors.

Dragon Age Inquisition – the Mage Rebellions are wrecking havoc, Grey Wardens are disappearing, and at a would-be peace summit between the mages and their captors, the Divine gets blown up and now there’s a giant hole in the sky with demons falling out. you play as a random joe who wakes up one day with the power to seal up that hole, and together with a bunch of other well-meaning randos, you form the Inquisition to bring peace (I hope) back to the continent.

Dragon Age 4 – fuck it, but I hope we go to Tevinter. I’m tired of looking at Ferelden for two games. it’s far past time for an elven slave uprising, an old elven god is now trying to commit mass genocide and Thedas is still on fire, but no, Bioware’s focusing on fucking Anthem. we are suffering.

#Anonymous #askbox #megan talks about bw

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smallnico · 7 years ago

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Idk man. On a moral and ethical level heart of darkness is for sure a really gross book but I think it’s also undeniably impressive on a technical level. While it should and will always inform our absorption of media, I don’t think we can examine pieces of art from the past /only/ through our modern experiences and views. Books like hod display racist viewpoints which can’t be excused but racism wasn’t even a concept at that time. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t subjectively well written

...yeah! i mostly agree!

i actually had complaints with the conflicts of the two books, HoD and things fall apart, being likened in such a way. TFA is about how colonialism affected the nigerian people and their culture – it’s a tragic and compelling story about being forced to watch as the life you’ve known and made for yourself systematically crumbles to pieces around you, because there’s nothing you can do about it. HoD is way more about individualism and how delusional the idea of english theoretical inherent superiority really is, and the fact that it takes place in colonial africa has basically nothing to do with the actual story: this is even more evident when you consider that apocalypse now, the de facto film adaptation of HoD, takes place during the vietnam war, and virtually nothing about the core story changes.

i assure you, all this you’ve said is stuff i know. i’m not one to judge books exclusively from my modern perspective. just being totally honest with you, it kind of annoys me to have that assumption of ignorance made of me, given that i’ve spent many, many years of school having it hammered into me that some books are just a product of their time, and that I Get That. but i do, and always will, maintain that just because something is a product of its time, doesn’t mean i have to like it, nor does it mean that my modern opinion of it is invalid, or made without consideration for its historical significance. i promise that i know it’s historically significant, and therefore technically qualifies as classic literature. but all the same, that doesn’t make my personal issues with it irrelevant, since i’m allowed to have non-academic opinions about stuff.

i have a couple of things to point out before i begin the requested HoD rant, since i take issue with a couple of the things you’ve said, and i want to respond to them:

1) racism, as we know it today, has always existed conceptually. the fact that the term “racism” referred to something else back in the days of colonialism, before people were generally accepting that black people were human and that treating them like less than such was horrifying and disgusting, doesn’t mean people weren’t still racist. exhibit a, that previous sentence. the fact that western society had a different level of understanding of what was fundamentally Wrong with the way they saw africans, doesn’t excuse what they did in response to that understanding. it explains it, yes, but it hardly excuses it. just because critical race theory didn’t exist, doesn’t mean people weren’t still incredibly racist. and for the record, the fact that anyone has to excuse how disgusting the racism in HoD is in order to enjoy it… kind of emphasizes that part of why i hated reading it. like, it can theoretically be a groundbreaking piece of classical literature, but that doesn’t mean i have to enjoy having to slog through colonialist-era racism that makes me want to vom uncontrollably. this is about why i personally can’t stand the book, not why it’s not a classic.

2) i think you meant to say “objectively” when you said “subjectively”, because if you did mean subjectively, then you and i are on the exact same page. some people think HoD is undeniably technically impressive and well-written and enjoyable. i humbly disagree! and that’s totally fine. my goal here isn’t to convince you or anyone to hate HoD, my goal is to help people like my college professors and some classmates understand why i hated having to read it. also, if you meant objectively, then i have some fun news for you about how poorly and confusingly HoD is written. spoilers: it’s poorly and confusingly written. how it was written from a technical perspective is one of the things i feel is objectively Terrible about it, even disregarding my own experience.

all i mean to say is that i hated it for legitimate writing choices, what joseph conrad decided to include in his story and how he handled those inclusions, on top of my modern intolerance for racism, and said modern intolerance for racism isn’t an invalid reason to hate the book.

i promise i’m not attacking you as a person, and if that’s how this comes off, i’m truly sorry. i’m sure you’re fine, and i hope you know that i’m not trying to invalidate your opinions – you’re entitled to them, as am i to mine – i’m just using this as a springboard to leap dramatically into ranting about HoD and how i feel about it.

here we go! :D

heart of darkness, for those not in the know, is a short novel written by joseph conrad in 1899. it’s widely considered to be a classic meditation on the nature of humanity and how twisted and awful we all are deep inside, with themes of racial prejudice and the individual internal struggle between savagery and civilization. the plot can be summarized as such: an unnamed narrator is preparing for a seafaring voyage of some kind, but is trapped in the river thames with his shipmates by the low tide. they are forced to wait a few hours before they can get underway, so a strange and serene man, the main character charles marlow, begins telling everyone a story to pass the time, about the time he set out on an expedition to explore deepest africa along the congo river, an experience which fundamentally changed him.

in marlow’s story, he weaves a wild tale rife with symbolism about his journey, starting with his planning and arriving in the congo, the delays his expedition suffered due to a lack of rivets for his steamboat, and finally, the process of his expedition, all the “horrible savages” he encounters, and the thrilling conclusion. along the way, marlow describes his growing obsession with an ivory-trading legend named kurtz, who supposedly spends all of his time at the end of the river in the heart of the congo, and hasn’t been seen in a while. marlow keeps hearing great things about this guy, like how good he is at getting ivory, and communicating with the natives, and determines himself to find kurtz; however, he finds himself disappointed, as when he finds kurtz, the man’s hardly the paragon of european virtue described by the ivory traders – he’s very physically ill, and has long since been “made savage” by his experiences in the deepest congo, decorating his house with severed heads and demanding human sacrifices from the natives, who venerate him like a cruel god. marlow ends up taking kurtz back to the trade post at the mouth of the river congo, but kurtz dies along the way, and marlow ends the story on the boat in the thames by concluding that no person, english or otherwise, is above the base savagery innate to the human condition. hilariously, when he finishes his story, it turns out that everyone was so utterly enthralled by him that they missed high tide again, and now have to wait even longer for their next chance to leave.

reading a summary of the book and actually reading the book are two very, very different things. it is… bad. i don’t even know where to start.

from a technical standpoint, the writing is somehow both incredibly dense and all over the place. the beginning and end of the story, on the ship in the thames, are a poorly-thought-out framing device that could’ve been foregone altogether with no change to the story aside from an in-world audience to tell us how awesome and amazing marlow is and how deeply disturbed we should feel by his story. not only that, marlow’s whole story is told as dialogue in the framing device. meaning it’s written in such a way that mimics the character marlow’s oral tics, and it’s laid out in truly monolithic paragraphs, some of which take up several pages, with no breaks. as i read it, i also came to the conclusion that joseph conrad must be afraid of ending a sentence, because the innumerable run-on sentences are… a crime against readers. that’s not even touching on all the tangents he goes off on. and like, haha, i know there’s a certain amount of hypocrisy in me calling out others for going off on tangents, but at least i know not to leave lengthy and pace-breaking word vomit in my stories when i have a point to make. i tend to edit them out, because they’re distracting.

speaking of distracting, i have adhd. this isn’t a commentary on conrad’s writing (though i know many people without adhd who also suffered this problem with HoD), but it’s worth mentioning that HoD is so densely packed with irrelevant nonsense, formatted in giant walls of text, written like regular human speech, that there’s physically no way for me to decipher it without my brain making an audible sound like an overheating, lagging laptop with a very stressed fan, before breaking down entirely. now again, this is probably more of a personal problem, but like i said, it’s a problem a lot of other people had, and it directly crippled my own personal ability to enjoy any part of reading the book. besides – and this is a problem i have with a lot of philosophical texts as well – i’m a firm believer that writing is a form of communication. therefore, writing that is deliberately and aggressively incomprehensible to readers is bad writing. objectively. reading HoD felt like getting up at 8:00 and sitting in a lecture hall, listening to your old, old, incredibly racist professor speak in monotone and go off on endless tangents, because he didn’t bring notecards, and he didn’t prepare a powerpoint or any visual aid because he doesn’t believe in computers or whatever. and you can’t leave because you’re physically shackled to your desk. and after the lecture is finally, finally over (because it lasted longer than the appointed time), you have to listen to people compliment the professor’s lecture, calling it fascinating, and referring to his teaching style as brilliant and masterful like it wasn’t the most miserable, frustrating, and altogether screaming-rage inducing experience you’ve ever been forced to endure in a classroom setting.

but like, if you’re okay with that, then more power to you, i guess.

moving on to the racism, because there is a lot of it, and not just from a modern viewpoint. i stand by that something being subjectively good or bad to individual people is just as valid as something being objectively good or bad according to its placement in history. i would never write an academic essay about the former, but the latter isn’t strictly enough to change any individual’s personal experience with the book. i know, for instance, that the epic of gilgamesh is the oldest recorded written story that we know of, and that in and of itself is incredible, and speaks to its significance. but that’s not quite enough to affect my experience of having to read the repetitive writing style, or my opinion of the story itself (which is actually positive – it’s an interesting story, and it represents a change in the ancient sumerian perception of the place of humans in a world of powerful gods. i love that shit). the writing style is representative of how the unknown writer would have communicated using their language, to others who also speak their language; ergo, it’s not hard to read, just quirky and occasionally distracting, though the story itself is enough to make up for that.

(cw for Bad Racism)

the importance of something as a product of its time often isn’t enough to make up for a shitty reading experience. and with HoD, that experience is made all the more shitty (for me personally) by conrad’s compulsive inclusion of the mutilation of africans, cannibalism, graphic depictions of gore and severed heads, describing native africans as primitive and savage versions of english people (naturally made violent and savage by living in the congo, as he describes their skin as, to paraphrase, “indicative of how long they must’ve spent roasting in hell”, like the rainforest carbonized them or something), somehow still exotifying african women as demonic temptresses, and describing an african person on his own crew as “like a dog standing on its hind legs, dressed in its master’s clothes and performing a trick” (the “trick” in question being steering his damn ship). he doesn’t use the setting to comment on colonialism at all, really, aside from the conclusion that colonialism is bad because aren’t they just like us, if we were at our most savage state? don’t you just, somewhere deep inside, want to join in their Weird Horrifying Chanting And Drumming?

like, conrad doesn’t want to raise africans and black people to the same level of personhood as europeans and white people. he would rather insist that we, the readers, see the lives and culture of africans as a lesson – this could be you, if you’re not careful, because deep down we’re All Violent Savages.

(cw over)

i don’t particularly care that this is all historically accurate to how conrad, as a white european, would’ve perceived african folks. i don’t care that it might be groundbreaking in one sense or another because it describes white and black people as being inherently the same – i don’t like reading it. i find blatant disregard for the impact of taking a human life and committing horrifying violence unreadable. that’s just a personal taste of mine. i don’t like shock humour, i don’t like shock tragedy, i don’t like slasher movies, i don’t like visceral gory imagery, and, surprise, i don’t like racism. i don’t like when shock is used to make a point, and i dislike even more when that point is “ooh look how little people care about this terrible violence because it involves ______”.

to a lesser degree than the previous point, i don’t like that particular thesis on humanity, either – that deep down we’re all monsters. i like to think that most people, if not all people, are defined by their experiences and how they respond to them, not how they Just Innately Are. this isn’t a matter of me not wanting to admit that there’s a darker side of me that i don’t want to see, because there is one of those, but it’s not who i truly am. i’m more than just my flaws, and my flaws aren’t a monstrous core, around which all the rest of my personality is built to Hide it. negativity isn’t inherently more true than positivity, and there is no innate human condition. kurtz could have just as easily befriended the natives and attempted to understand them, rather than subjugating them and committing horrible violence against them. that’s just the story of colonialism on the whole, honestly – the violence and subjugation was unnecessary. the horrors were unnecessary. people could’ve kept their own land to themselves and developed trade, people could’ve done cultural exchanges, it didn’t have to be the way it was, and the way it was did not happen because All Humans Are Inherently Awful. colonialism, and all the smaller decisions made by european colonizers, were decisions made by people with power they unquestionably abused, and much as i dislike the notion that all humans are inherently Savage and Evil, i dislike the false equivalence between colonizers and the colonized even more. most of all, i loathe the abdication of responsibility. i loathe the attitude that every awful, violent decision made by colonizers can easily be attributed to Africa Just Done Got To Them that HoD feels determined to push.

so to recap, it’s a product of its time, yes, but it’s also bad, and i hate it. i hated reading it, i hated talking about it in class, i hated its message, i hated its shock value, i hated its disgusting racist overtones, i hated its writing style, i hated its walls and walls of texts, i hated its stupid framing device telling me how to feel, i hated marlow and thought he was a smug piece of shit, i hated the stupid plot device with the rivets (seriously i don’t know if it just wasn’t explained or if i couldn’t parse the explanation from the rest of the irrelevant tangents our oh-so-great narrator constantly went off on), i hated how long marlow spent in that fucking trade post because it made the story go on for longer than it had to just to stroke kurtz’s shaft a little more and depict that many more Nameless Irrelevant Africans be brutally abused, and i hated that kurtz, despite everything awful he did, somehow deserved a quiet and dignified offscreen death, while everyone else who died got to have their brutalization lovingly described. i hated the experience of trying to read it and having to give up after two hours of trying and trying to understand a single 3-page-long paragraph. i hated the word choices. i hated the sentence structure. i hated having to read it even though essentially the same message had been conveyed better in lord of the flies, which we’d read the previous year (LotF was published in the 50s, so that’s not conrad’s fault at all, but HoD truly felt like a way shittier repetition of something we’d already talked about). i hated how mockingly small the book was compared to the gargantuan steaming pile of torturous language that lay inside, waiting.

tl;dr: heart of darkness is the worst, and the terrible experience anyone had while reading it is not and never will be invalidated by its historic significance.

#heart of darkness rant #cw racism and violence #ask to tag #anon #the askbox

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Will Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake Give Us the Game’s Unseen Ending?

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It’s perhaps gaming’s biggest open secret at this point: Aspyr, the studio behind recent current-gen ports like Republic Commando and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, is reportedly working on a remake of the seminal RPG Knights of the Old Republic, arguably the greatest Star Wars game ever made. Rumors of a remake have made the rounds for years, but it’s uber-reliable Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier who has finally given the hearsay a bit of credibility.

Speaking on The MinnMax Show podcast (via IGN), Schreier confirmed the existence of the project and that Aspyr is the studio handling the long-awaited remake: “This is public at this point, I’ve basically confirmed that Aspyr, which is the company that has ported a bunch of KOTOR games, is working on [the remake].”

When talking about the nature of breaking news and revealing games in development, @jasonschreier sheds more light on a remake of Knights of the Old Republic currently in development…https://t.co/8ufeAWH3RB pic.twitter.com/VP3u2tzXK2

— MinnMax (@MinnMaxShow) April 20, 2021

Schreier first alluded to Aspyr’s involvement in February 2020 when he reported that if the remake was in fact happening, it wasn’t being handled by Electronic Arts, which at the time still had the exclusive rights to make Star Wars games. A year later, Lucasfilm’s own gaming branch, Lucasfilm Games, is handling all future titles set in the galaxy far, far away, including a new story-driven game being developed by Ubisoft. Presumably, Lucasfilm Games is also working with Aspyr on the KOTOR remake.

Beyond reports of the project’s existence, we know very little regarding what a Knights of the Old Republic remake actually entails. In fact, neither Lucasfilm Games nor Aspyr have officially acknowledged the project as of yet, so it’s worth taking all this with a grain of salt.

Will this be a remake emphasizing modern visuals that at the same time preserves the core gameplay and narrative of the original? Or will tweaks also be made to modernize other parts of the game, such as the turn-based combat system, which in 2021 feels slightly dated? Adding real-time combat, for example, would certainly be an exciting way to make Revan’s journey feel fresh two decades later.

But is it possible that there’s even more to this remake than a visual upgrade and modern gameplay flourishes?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Last year, Square Enix completely subverted expectations with its Final Fantasy VII Remake, the first part of a multi-game adaptation of the 1997 PlayStation classic that seriously expands and at times completely changes the story fans know and love. In fact, it might be more apt to call the remake a “reimagining” of the original game’s events than a modern recreation. Some might even feel the game is closer to a sequel.

While there’s no indication that such an extensive reworking of Knights of the Old Republic is in play at Aspyr, it’s possible a potential remake could afford a studio the opportunity to expand on levels and storylines from the original. Could the Hutt world of Sleheyron, a Star Map location that was cut from the original, be added back into the remake? How about an alternate dark side ending that would have seen a dark side female protagonist choose to die on the Star Forge with Carth Onasi?

Adding back content BioWare cut from the game would be the most logical way to expand the Knight of the Old Republic experience but this could also be the perfect time to beef up the ending. If you’ve played the original, you likely remember KOTOR‘s largely buttoned up canon ending: Revan saves Bastila from the dark side, defeats Darth Malak once and for all, and destroys the Star Forge. The game’s final scene is a celebration on Lehon, where Revan is awarded the Cross of Glory just as credits roll. It basically plays like an homage to iconic ending of A New Hope. The galaxy is saved and the brave heroes are honored.

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But that’s hardly the end of the story as it pertains to Revan. Players learned more about what happened to the Jedi hero directly after the events of the first game in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords as well as in the novel The Old Republic: Revan by KOTOR writer Drew Karpyshyn, but we never saw these moments on screen. Not long after the Star Forge was destroyed and Darth Malak’s Sith forces fell, Revan married Bastila Shan, a decision that somewhat strained their relationship to the Jedi Order, and settled into a quiet life on Coruscant. But when he began to receive visions of an ancient Sith Empire lying in wait in the Unknown Regions of space, Revan decided that he must stop the impending threat and left the known galaxy behind.

Stepping into the shoes of Jedi exile Meetra Surik in KOTOR II, players learn through exposition that Revan traveled into the Unknown Regions and was never heard of again. In fact, part of the sequel’s core mystery revolves around why Revan disappeared and later who these secret Sith are. The end of the game, itself begging to be expanded upon, sees Meetra escape a Sith Temple on Malachor V and head out in search of Revan.

Now, The Old Republic MMO from BioWare and the aforementioned Karpyshyn book do flesh out Revan’s later adventures in great detail, including his time fighting this mysterious Sith Empire. Most of those events wouldn’t need to be added into a KOTOR remake, but there’s a case to be made that the things that happened directly after the final scene of the first game, things that happened between the two games and inform the sequel, could be added in for a more definitive ending that leads into KOTOR II and beyond.

An extended cinematic after the celebration, or perhaps even a brief playable epilogue, would arguably be a more appropriate ending to Revan’s story in the game, showing how his time with the Sith continued to affect him, and how he didn’t really find peace after the party on Lehon. It would be a more somber ending but definitely more true to the life of tragedy that awaited Revan in later stories.

When players first picked up Knights of the Old Republic II in 2004, they learned little about what happened to Revan and his friends after the Star Forge and why he chose to leave the galaxy. A KOTOR remake could give us this unseen ending that’s been almost two decades in the making.

The post Will Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake Give Us the Game’s Unseen Ending? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2QhhdJG

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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jonathantaylorthomas · 7 years ago

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Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” reckons with the tempo and tone of the rest of the pop landscape for the first time.

Taylor Swift is known for the kiss-off, the eerily intimate way she dismantles those who have wronged her. She is a songwriter and performer who has long thrived on antagonism (it’s one of her two poles; the other is swooning), and no pop star of the modern era has communicated the contours of her disappointment with such emotional precision and melodic sophistication.

“I Did Something Bad,” which comes third on her new album, “Reputation,” has all the hallmarks of a classic Swift assault: lyrics about men who are out of their depth sprinkled with just enough details to imply grave shortcomings.

But the chorus is something different: “They say I did something bad/Then why’s it feel so good?” On the surface, it’s an awakening, but really, it’s a takedown. The target is herself — her innocence, her naïveté, the way in which striving to be flawless is perhaps the ultimate flaw.

The bombastic, unexpected, sneakily potent “Reputation” is many things: It’s the first album on which Ms. Swift has cursed (“damn” doesn’t count); it’s the first time she has sung about consuming alcohol (and repeatedly at that); and it’s the vehicle for her most overt songs about sexual agency. Ms. Swift is 27 now, and the things she used to deny herself — in song, at least — are no more.

But it is also Ms. Swift chasing that good feeling, pushing back against a decade of following her own instincts. And it works. “Reputation” is fundamentally unlike any of her other albums in that it takes into account — prioritizes, actually — the tempo and tone of her competition. “Reputation” is a public renegotiation, engaging pop music on its terms, not hers.

And even though what’s au courant in pop — post-Drake lite-soul noir, or gothic but plain dramatists like Halsey and Selena Gomez — doesn’t necessarily play to Ms. Swift’s strengths, she barrels ahead here, finding ways to incorporate it into her arsenal, and herself into it. Some things are lost, to be sure, but it turns out that Ms. Swift is as effective a distiller of everyone else’s pop ideas as she was at charting her own sui generis path.

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That means a shift away from her signature melodies to an approach that uses her voice as an accent piece, or seasoning — the difference between songs that are 24K Taylor and ones that are merely Taylor-plated. It means a continued de-emphasis — one that began on her last album, “1989” — of the sorts of dense narratives that were so integral to her early career. It means that on a few songs here, Ms. Swift is doing something at least a little bit like rapping. (I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the studio right now.)

Make no mistake: these are jarring propositions. And yet Ms. Swift commits to them and thrives, an act of liberation from her past, and also a calculation about what the marketplace can bear.

That’s because after “1989,” all that was left for Ms. Swift to do was make pop songs the way most other superstars do. All the songs on “Reputation” are produced either by Max Martin with his associates, or by Jack Antonoff with Ms. Swift. Both men are longtime collaborators of hers, and both have had an outsized role in shaping the sound of current pop.

Where they bring Ms. Swift is into soft-core pop-R&B, with synth-thick production that moves at a sensual gallop. “Delicate,” one of the album’s standouts, could pass for a Drake-Rihanna collaboration. Here, Ms. Swift whisper-sings with a newfound attention to rhythm. (She also sings through a vocoder on part of the song.) Something similar, but even more outré, is happening on “Dress,” which — with Ms. Swift’s blushing exhales — sounds like something the club-soul revivalists AlunaGeorge might make.

These songs emphasize the cadence of her singing, not the melody or range. And on a few other songs here, she breaks into a kind of intermittently unconvincing talk-singing. This is a persistent theme on this album: borrowing styles and approaches from black music, then softening them enough to where Ms. Swift can credibly attempt them.

The most striking example of this is “End Game,” a smoothly swaggering thumper featuring Future and Ed Sheeran. That Ms. Swift would go sigh for sigh with Future’s warbles would have been unthinkable five years ago, but here, in a twist, the person who sounds least at home is Mr. Sheeran.

The ideas that Ms. Swift and her producers are borrowing from have been long simmering in the pop mainstream. (Nothing here has the same jolt as when she imported a dubstep drop into “I Knew You Were Trouble,” in 2012, back when that was still novel.) What’s notable, though, is that she hasn’t gone to the innovators of these ideas, but rather used Mr. Martin and Mr. Antonoff as alchemists and filters.

That approach also serves another purpose, which is to protect her from the limitations of her voice. A few songs here — “Don’t Blame Me,” especially, which faintly recalls Madonna’s gospel-choir era — call out for melisma, or a soul-informed vocal approach that blends the tough and the nimble. But those are not Ms. Swift’s gifts. She is as strong a singer as ever (even if this album doesn’t much let her loose), but much of her singing here is done piecemeal.

That’s because almost all of these songs are the sum of very different parts; many move in several different directions, one hard turn after the next. Guitars, when they’re present, are generally distant in the mix.

This kind of structural maximalism is becoming a hallmark of pop-era Swift. “I Did Something Bad” has the energy of a revving motorcycle, and the first two singles, “ … Ready for It?” and “Look What You Made Me Do,” both use harsh sounds and urgent buildup segments to theatrical, bruising effect.

This is the work of both producers: Mr. Martin and his team handle most of the album’s rowdy first half, and Mr. Antonoff is dominant on the more emotionally focused second half. Ms. Swift’s tone changes throughout the album as well — in the beginning, she is indignant and barbed, but by the end she’s practically cooing.

She still has adversaries in her sight; there are jabs at Kanye West, and also at an ex-boyfriend or two. But here, too, she turns the magnifying glass around. Some of the most caustic and aware songwriting on this album is about herself. “Getaway Car” is about what happens when you leap blithely from one relationship to another. Ms. Swift is at her imagistic best here: “The ties were black, the lies were white/in shades of gray in candlelight/I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason.”

This is familiar Swift stuff — or at least, what was once familiar Swift stuff. On this album, it’s no longer the priority. The album closer, “New Year’s Day,” is the only acoustic song, and also one of the best written (though it feels as indebted to Mr. Sheeran as to Ms. Swift).

It is also probably the only song here that, upon first listen, doesn’t prompt the existential question of what, exactly, constitutes a Taylor Swift song in 2017. In making her most modern album — one in which she steadily visits hostile territory and comes out largely unscathed — Ms. Swift has actually delivered a brainteaser: If you’re using other people’s parts, can you ever really recreate your self?

#reputation

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