#less charitably as disposable

[nugulover69]

Fall in Love (2018) aka Andy looks wistful for 3 and a half minutes

[illegiblewords]

Almost current in Dawntrail, I make some references to plot stuff under the cut but this post isn't mainly about Dawntrail. This is an analytical rant. There are people who disagree with me that I adore/respect to bits who have done brilliant stuff from angles I wouldn't take. People shouldn’t stop doing what they’re inspired to do according to whether I like or dislike something. This post qualifies less with 'I think' and 'I believe' statements/is a little harsher because I'm venting though. Proceed at your discretion.

Features critical/darker discussions of Venat and Hermes with brief mentions of Zenos.

I really, genuinely think a lot of people are only getting pieces of what's going on in FFXIV.

The story still isn't black and white. Characters very, very often are not what they advertise themselves to be. Neither the cast nor fans are immune to misjudging.

Hermes is not as compassionate as he presents himself. There is an enormous discrepancy between what he professes and the choices he consistently makes, both with regard to other ancients and creations. I do believe he was genuinely miserable but he is basically Satan from Paradise Lost, who wonders why he alone was made unsatisfied with obedience and perfection. Who recognizes there is difference in himself compared to others but is conflicted about whether this is a defect or higher calling. Satan sees himself as inherently 'other' above all else and Hermes is just the same. The shared snake imagery isn't a coincidence either.

Everything I've seen points to Hermes being a narcissist who does not have instinctive empathy in a society where empathy is the most valuable quality a person can have. He strives to have more empathy than all other people without truly understanding what that means. It's why he projects his anger and hatred onto the wolf creation as it dies instead of offering it any kind of comfort. It's why he sends Meteion into space to suffer pain, death, and despair as a high empathy being who challenges all concepts of what it means to be alive… instead of presenting her to the Bureau of the Architect, where her very existence might instigate star-wide reform for how all other creations are handled. For his ego, he needed to be the only one with extensive knowledge of dynamis. He needed to be the only one with answers from on high regarding the nature of life. That was far more important than Meteion's wishes or well-being, and the creations he claims to love are expendable for this purpose. He frequently oscillates between seeing himself as beneath all other ancients and the sole, divinely powerful judge/jury/executioner of all living things. Like Satan from Paradise Lost he can't be grouped with those around him. He can't be just one of many ancients dealing with fears, doubts, despairs. He MUST be exceptional above all else. I'd argue the main reason he accepts the Warrior of Light at all is because we do not appear as a fellow ancient to him--he sees us as a familiar, and therefore inherently without equal authority and agency compared to him. When we are useful to his worldview he uses us and when we aren't we're disposable.

I've seen people claim that Hermes is just anxious and that's why he didn't submit Meteion. You don't opt for genocide and decree all of humanity as immoral and unworthy of mercy without even allowing your targets a voice to answer out of anxiety. You certainly don't do that while having specifically gone out of your way to avoid any steps that might have given room for more charitable judgments. Hermes opted to destroy everyone because it was what he wanted to do, but it didn't fit his self-image as a benevolent and empathetic person to do so. That's why he made a loophole via memory erasure.

Venat, further, is not a hero. She's gray at best and in all likelihood a pretty dark shade of it. Light motifs and crystal mommy themes do not change this. She not only decided, independently, that Hermes' genocide was an appropriate course without allowing anyone else room to discuss or address the issue--she actively denied everyone else knowledge of what happened or even basic information about dynamis (LET ALONE METEION'S LOCATION) so they could deal with the issue effectively. She passed judgment on the entire Convocation because of Hermes' appointment without once judging herself for withholding information on his true character. There is a reason Emet-Selch called her out for being immediately ready to see herself as a morally correct messiah of the star. He wasn't wrong to do so. And especially after Endwalker I think Venat grossly misunderstood not only what led to worlds self-destructing on a philosophical level (never mind Meteion's emotion amplification powers), I think she misread her own star and its people. Pursuit of purity and certainty was what led to the destruction of worlds. The total absence of pain is just one form that can take, but it isn't necessary for a world to be in perpetual agony to avoid that. Venat dismissed the despairs and struggles of her own fellow ancients because there was no room for them in the view she had of herself and her world. If she didn't see them they didn't exist, but even when she did see them they didn't count enough to sway her judgment. Venat had to be the most correct person and she didn't allow even as Hydaelyn the possibility of making mistakes or unwarranted cruelty to others. She is 1000% guilty of 'ancient hubris'.

Venat might be a more middling gray, in my view, depending on whether she'd been trying to shield as many people as possible from tempering with the traveler's ward only for most of the star to become tempered by Zodiark post-summoning. There are a lot of repeating phrases between Elidibus, post-Final Days ancients, and the lunar shades that I think point to mass tempering. Venat would have grounds for assuming people had homogenized views, prayers, and voices if the star was largely tempered. If they weren't, I think she becomes pretty sinister for how she deals with people's post-Final Days trauma. Her injustice toward the ancients in that case would just happen to be in a way that benefits the shards.

The Zodiark plan prevented life from going extinct. It was necessary. Zodiark's tempering and the subsequent sacrifice spiral were not deliberate I suspect, seeing as Zodirk was the first primal EVER. People have been consistently misreading the loporrit quote on this to try and argue that Zodiark didn't temper the Unsundered.

The line states that Venat used a different summoning technique to the one utilized by Ascians. Venat's technique specifically does not temper people. The Ascian method does. If Venat's technique was used to summon an entity of Zodiark's magnitude (whose power could not be resisted according to Emet-Selch) there might be a slight tug toward tempering despite the technique being much safer.

This is not saying Zodiark didn't temper anyone. It's specifically saying that despite Venat having a safe technique, Zodiark's summoning was on such a monumental scale that even Venat's technique would carry some risk.

Meanwhile, Lahabrea has been getting set up for years as someone who has been dehumanized, judged, isolated, and misunderstood. This has continued to increasing degrees through Dawntrail. It has been going on since A Realm Reborn. The sheer consistency of it is insane at this point. There is a HUGE gap between how Lahabrea emotes and what he's actually feeling. His choices reflect this and it is demonstrated firsthand in Pandaemonium.

No one seemed to think it was weird that Lahabrea was ready to commit a pseudo-suicide by killing Hephaistos. No one seemed to catch that the 'pseudo-suicide' in the lyrics to Scream referenced Lahabrea, as did the 'shadow left far behind' line. People contorted themselves into pretzels trying to say that Scream was not about him. Nevermind that Pandaemonium is the Lahabrea raid, in which all other characters were supporting cast to flesh out Lahabrea. It must be mainly about Hegemone and Agdistis! If not them, it must be mainly about Erichthonios!

The man's entire story is about being dehumanized, dismissed, invalidated, and excluded while suffering severe mental illness. It's kind of horrendous that fans are continuing to do this to him on a meta level.

Lahabrea has a long history of Abrahamic imagery. If the Warring Triad mirror the Unsundered, Sephirot as the Tree of Life maps to the Kabbalistic process of creation. The game explicitly and correctly references this in the attacks used. The lyrics to Fiend track for Lahabrea as does the association with Id issues, and there's symbolically significant overlap between muscular/multi-armed Sephirot (where multiple arms reference the boddisatva Guanyin, who uses those many arms to help those in need) to muscular/multi-armed Zodiark as Lahabrea's creation. And Zodiark being Lahabrea's creation is indicated in Akademia Anyder. People have been trying to attribute Zodiark to Hermes because Hermes hijacked him in EW and it drives me nuts.

Meanhwile, what did Pandaemonium do?

Paired the Tree of Life to The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There's a ton of snake, fruit, and mouth imagery in Pandaemonium. Athena is Eve offering Lahabrea as Adam knowledge of good and evil via the soul bonding. Lahabrea has been afraid of himself as an extremely powerful ancient (which I've analyzed before, tying to Emet-Selch too), particularly given he's in a position of power. He reflects the societal idea that someone with his aetherial strength and authority cannot afford to be selfish or he risks causing immeasurable harm to others. Result is that Lahabrea is absolutely terrified of being selfish in any capacity, even on a basic healthy level. Athena meanwhile is a purely selfish being. Like I believe is the case with Hermes (and am positive is the case with Zenos)--she does not have instinctive empathy. Athena deliberately psychologically violated her husband by forcing him to acknowledge understanding selfish desire through her perspective, then compounded it by exploiting his lack of self-confidence to say he was bound to be just like her for understanding such selfishness. She's not an authority on that, but Lahabrea sees himself as personally less than Athena and is not at that point equipped to argue on his own behalf.

Anyway. Abrahamic connections, Hegemone has the snake imagery. Agdistis has the tree and the fruit. Athena is Eve. The soul bonding is the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Hephaistos uses a ton of snake imagery too. Lahabrea is covered in symbolism both on a personal psychological level and tied to traditional symbolism via the hand of god acting upon the world, the eye of god watching the world. For savage, one arm is covered in eyes. This is his role as Lahabrea employing power for his people. The other arm, his personal desires/needs, is long and thin and malformed/not really functional. He covers his heart with a pair of wings for protection and reduces himself, weeping, to DNA because that's the only value he sees in himself. He'd rather be that than himself as a person because at least as DNA he's wanted for something. Lahabrea doesn't think anyone would ever give a shit about him on a personal level.

When Hephaistos is defeated, there's a reason Lahabrea is shaken when he states that Hephaistos' goal was never to raise himself high. That was what Athena wanted and what she told him he'd want. All Hephaistos wanted was his family back and to be loved. That was the moment Lahabrea had to introspect and realized Athena wasn't correct about his motives. Her declaring something about him didn't make it true.

Erichthonios is convinced he has a cruel and indifferent father for much of the raid. We see him twist neutral-to-kind gestures as malicious in front of us, as with Lahabrea allowing him to go to Pandaemonium as a child but insisting he know spells to protect himself. Erichthonios takes Lahabrea's insistence as believing he's not good enough instead of wanting him to be safe. We also see Erichthonios construe something that actually points to Lahabrea being depressed (giving himself no credit for completing the phoenix and advertising nothing only to be surprised by coworkers throwing him a celebration anyway) as him scorning Pandaemonium for not sharing the achievement with them. Erichthonios was taught to do this by Athena, and Athena likewise twists Lahabrea's self-image as a form of psychological abuse from the moment he approaches her in the soul bonding scene. She cites his status and accuses Lahabrea of thinking himself morally above others for descending to Pandaemonium and judging her. It never occurs to Athena that Lahabrea would try to stop her because he loves and wants to protect his son.

People are projecting their own personal beef with parents behaving poorly to assume Lahabrea is an uncaring father. He's not. He's extremely mentally ill and Erichthonios was groomed by an abusive mother while having no concept of what Lahabrea's mental illness would even look like... let alone how to deal with it.

Lahabrea explicitly thinks Erichthonios is better off with the false memory of a mother who abused him than having him present as a father because he considers himself so personally worthless. He can only see his presence as a detriment in his son's life. He is a short step from the kind of suicide people commit when they think other people would be happier and less burdened if they were dead. 'They might be sad for a while, but ultimately they'll be better off.'

I'm not even bringing out my citations right now. This isn't an Archon Thesis because I want my evidence properly assembled for that. But I recently saw someone try to frame the Convocation and Zodiark plan as uniformly awful, when the reality is doing nothing would have resulted in life going extinct. And if we're talking about zodiac signs mapping to Convocation members, there are more layers to it than 'Ascians = bad versions of the zodiac'.

Ex. The duality (two fish) and creativity associated with Pisces both apply to Lahabrea, but the emotionality does too. It isn't obvious at first but when you look it's there. Lahabrea has hidden strong emotions consistently through a variety of methods across the game. Sometimes it's reserve, sometimes it's aggression, sometimes it's hysteria. But when you look at the surrounding circumstances from his perspective, it makes perfect sense how and why he'd emote that way. It has never been safe for him to be emotionally vulnerable.

One of the earliest moments of 'villain laughter' from him we see is at Carteneau. His assistant waits quietly for him to finish. At that point Bahamut had been unleashed in yet another action that goes directly against Lahabrea's own morals, but is necessary to the Ardor. The sundered respond by invoking Lahabrea's phoenix as protection for humanity against a primal Lahabrea helped orchestrate. On some level people instinctively believe Lahabrea can and will protect them despite his failures, their own reincarnations, and thousands of years passing. It's ironic and horrible but this kind of irony has been happening to Lahabrea over and over again. If he doesn't laugh the dude's going to cry and (again) it isn't safe for him to do that.

(Also as the only Ascian to ever refer to Zodiark as 'master', Lahabrea is A) very tempered B) continuing a pattern of thought/behavior/worldbuilding where he puts his people first and himself dead last C) not talking about Athena. Lahabrea says in-game he had no earthly idea Athena was in the Heart of Sabik. I do think Heart of Sabik effected him by magnifying his desire to save his people and redeem himself in the face of survivor's guilt. It might have influenced his phrasing too. I have theories about what Lahabrea did at Praetorium but blowing it up was not 'the ultimate magic' by any means. I'm pretty sure he used it as a Themis and/or Zodiark backup drive, which Athena's presence at Anabaseios proves is possible anyway. He doesn't need to know about her to figure it out.

People have tried to say Athena is Lahabrea's god instead of Zodiark. Especially given the history of abuse and Lahabrea's own repeatedly shown priorities/actions, that take is pretty appalling imo. Completely dismisses how devoted he has always been to his people to destroy his will and identity altogether on a meta level.)

Even if we strip shit down to the most bare bones narrative form and ignore evidence--where motives and arcs are concerned 'oh Lahabrea has always been evil/uncaring/sociopathic/self-absorbed and stayed that way forever after' is bad storytelling. That would require a 'failure to change' arc as literal or spiritual death. That arc form ties to death because life requires accounting for/adapting to new experiences. If a character fails to do that (for better or worse) that character is stagnant and effectively not living. Such arcs require meticulously showing the process of rejecting experiences though. Zoraal Ja actually approaches the form a bit when we see him repeatedly taking nothing from the trials he undergoes, but his trajectory becomes 'change for the worse' after losing to his father's shade. None of the Unsundered are set up with that arc form, Lahabrea included. It wouldn't offer any insight, fit with what we know of the ancients and their values/society, or carry any emotional impact. Trying to go that route without setup is just bad storytelling and makes characters less believable. But yeah. Tl;dr I really, really wish people paid more attention and examined words vs actions vs surrounding circumstances vs motives.

[guardian-of-da-gay]

Read on Ao3

For Whumptober 2024 Prompt(s) 4: Hypnosis, Hallucinations, "You're still alive in my head"

tw for mind control, hurt no comfort

When Sonic heard that G.U.N. needed help facing a ‘necromancer’ with a ‘zombie horde’ at his beck and call, his first reaction was: ‘Are these contagious zombies?’  Upon finding out they weren’t, his second reaction was ‘That sounds awesome!’.  Like yeah, fighting zombies, like fighting robots, wasn’t what he wanted to be doing.  But as long as he had to fight some bad guys, might as well have them be guilt-free, disposable baddies so you can feel even more awesome when you kick their butts.  But also… fighting a zombie horde just sounded cool!

Or at least that’s what Sonic thought when he ditched the evacuation effort with Knuckles.  Then he actually saw them.

He’d expected the dirty fur and patches of bone shining under shriveled skin.  Wasn’t too surprised to see their eye sockets glowing a sickly green.  He wasn’t expecting their threadbare clothes to be colored leather.  Their stringy hair to be frayed dreads.  The masks carved like owl skulls that had haunted his dreams since he was a kid.

Sonic bolted.

He was miles away before he was able to process:

Those had been echidna corpses.

Knuckles wasn’t with him.

Sonic had left him behind.

Maybe if he hadn’t, things would have been different.  Maybe Knuckles wouldn’t have joined forces with the necromancer.  Sorry, maybe ‘Enerjak’ wouldn’t have joined forces with the necromancer, since that was the lame new name he was trying to make happen.

He’d thought he’d known Knuckles.  Thought the ‘sacred vow’ Knuckles made to protect their planet was something he took seriously.  Thought their new tribe meant more to him.  But maybe it was less that his new tribe didn’t mean much to Knuckles, maybe his old tribe just meant more, even if there was just one freaky psychopath left.

Sonic had never laid eyes on the necromancer himself, but he had it on good authority (G.U.N.’s) that he was an echidna.  An albino one.  Apparently he’d chosen to embrace the ‘evil albino’ stereotype and raise an army of dead echidna.  And somehow Knuckles was not only cool with this, but seemed to be having the time of his life destroying everything in his path with his little corpse soldiers in tow.

All the Wachowskis (plus Wade) seemed to have a theory for why Knuckles would reappear as the hordes’ flagship warrior.  Some were more charitable than others, varying from ‘he’s been tricked’ to mind control/hypnotism/possession to ‘he doesn’t want to be on the side of the guys blasting his people’s bodies with bazookas’ to ‘the echidnas have always done dubious things so why shouldn’t Knuckles too?’.  That last one was Tails’ theory.  Some days, after a really hard fight, Sonic found himself agreeing.

They never say it out loud, but Sonic was sure they’d all considered the fact that the necromancer controlled dead people.  Knuckles’ pupils glowed the same green as the other echidna’s empty eye sockets.  And none of them had gotten close enough to get his pulse.  But that option was unthinkable.  Plus Knuckles didn’t act the same as the zombies.

While the blank-faced corpses destroyed all in their path, Knuckles seemed to… enjoy himself.  The zombies never spoke, but Knuckles did.  He’d laugh or yell or bark orders to the horde like he was really their leader.  Sonic had never been able to get Knuckles to talk to him though… At least, not until today.

“Feels like we’re getting into a bit of a routine now, huh Knux?”  Sonic dodged a flying fist.  “You and the freak legion go after people.  I try and stop you.  G.U.N. blows up a bunch of stuff to stop you.  We all go home tired.”  He tucked and rolled around to Knuckles’ blindspot and immediately ducked the wild swing that followed.  “Maybe we could spice things up a bit?  I propose a dance battle.”

Knuckles threw another punch.

Sonic dodged, keeping light on his feet.  He zipped around the next few swings, trying to keep up a steady stream of banter.  He was the fastest thing alive, but the goal today was to go slow.  G.U.N. was evacuating another neighboring town before the legion could reach it.  He had to keep Knuckles busy so the town was empty when Knuckles finally flattened it.

Because the crappy thing about a zombie horde was that no matter what you did to destroy them, they picked themselves up again.  And Sonic had kinda, sorta, never beat Knuckles in a fight.  They were playing defense right now.

And to make things even crappier: Knuckles fought differently now.  He hit harder.  Which Sonic didn’t think was possible.  Where before Knuckles put some control and thought into how much force was behind his punches, now it was like he threw everything he had into each one.  Sonic couldn’t afford to be hit even once now, because Knuckles was hitting to break rocks and Sonic was a lot squishier than that.

Knuckles was also a lot faster.  Not faster than Sonic, of course, but faster than before.  Apparently if he kicked off the ground harder, his strength would carry him faster and further.  The downside?  He trashed the ground every time.  Sonic knew he only had a limited window before the terrain would get hard to manage for both of them.  Then Knuckles would try and push the battle further away, closer to his target.  Sonic had to avoid that.  So even though he didn’t really want to talk to Knuckles, he said anything he could think of to try and distract him.

“You know, it’s funny how it’s always you and never that other guy,” Sonic said.  “The creepy white echidna?  Whatsisname.  Where’s he at?  Why’s he always sending you out like his personal servant boy?”

“I am no servant!”

Sonic was so surprised to hear him talk, he nearly lost his footing.  Knuckles’ next swing almost connected.  The wind was strong enough to throw Sonic off balance and he had to use his speed just to keep his feet.  “Could have fooled me!”  He stalled.  “Isn’t this just what Robotnik did?  Have you fight his battles so he could sneak around being evil?”

“Finitevus is not evil!”

Sonic dodged the next swing but landed on unstable ground.  He had to put on a burst of speed to get away before it could collapse.  “I beg to differ,” he said once he had solid footing.  “Look what he’s done to your people!”

Knuckles blasted forward, throwing up a huge cloud of earth and dust behind him.  He shot ahead of Sonic, feet digging trenches into the dirt to stop himself.  “He brought my people back!”

Cue the zombie horde.  A group of them dropped from the trees, surrounding them.

Sonic’s first instinct was still to bolt when he saw those masks.  He was getting better at making it a productive flight instinct though!  Case in point: when a group of them dropped from the trees to surround him, he immediately went fast enough that time seemed to slow.  He ran over the nearest one, breaking through their line and into the surrounding forest.

Time caught up with him when he’d put enough distance between them that he didn’t feel like he was going to have a heart attack.  His earpiece crackled and he heard Tails’ voice:

“Sonic, we finished evacuating the town.  G.U.N is just clearing out now.  Can you hold him a few more minutes?”

Sonic pressed one finger to the earpiece.  “Got it,” he said.  More echidnas appeared out of the woods.  The legion was getting closer.  Soon there’d be way more than Sonic could handle.  “Tell Commander Walters to hurry up!”

“Do you need me to come back you up?”

“I’m fine–”

Knuckles tackled him to the ground.  Crap, crap, crap!  Sonic got to see that sneer he’d grown to despise up close.  “Who is a the servant here?”  He asked, raising his fist.

“We have more of a collaborative relationship.”  Sonic tried to squirm away, but Knuckles caught him by the ankle and pulled him back.  Sonic kicked him rapidfire and Knuckles was forced to back off or take it all on the face.  Sonic rolled onto his feet and put some space between them.

“G.U.N. and I just mutually agree that making the world safe is the best thing for everybody,” he tried to keep his tone nonchalant so Knuckles might not notice the slight breathlessness.

“Not everybody,” Knuckles snarled.  “Finitevus will make the world safe for us!”

Sonic snorted and looked around, trying to mask his unease as more of the undead soldiers appeared.  “Safe for who?  You’re the only one still here!”

Knuckles swung forward.  “Are you blind?  They’re right here!”

Sonic tucked into a ball and zipped away.  He unrolled in front of a walking corpse.  “Are you blind?”  The zombie swung a broken spear shaft and Sonic dodged.  “They’re dead!”

Knuckles blasted toward him, his power bursting off him in a violent, red wave.  “NO, THEY’RE NOT!”

The wave forced Sonic off his feet.  He tucked up again and unrolled several yards away.  Knuckles’ blast had even sent his army flying.

Knuckles tugged his fist free from the earth and lurched to his feet.  “Finitevus returned them to me so we could fight together!”

Sonic stared at him.  “Are… are you actually crazy?”

“I’m not crazy!”  Knuckles said, looking utterly deranged.  He ran at Sonic, but Sonic wasn’t really in a fighting headspace at the moment.

What the hell was going on?  Knuckles didn’t think these guys were dead?  “Okay then, I guess I’m just confused.”  Sonic dodged Knuckles’ first swing and darted behind a guy who was literally just a skeleton in armor.  “This guy?  Definitely dead.  There’s no coming back from ‘no skin or organs’.”

Skeleton Guy turned to attack.  Sonic knocked his head off, lip curled in disgust.  The rest of Skeleton Guy flailed, searching around for its head.

“I’ve had enough of your lies!”  Knuckles bowed over the skeleton to charge Sonic.

Sonic dodged Knuckles even as he watched the skeleton feel around for his skull.  “... Do they talk to you?”

“Talk!”  Knuckles yelled back.

Then he slowed to a stop.  The vicious expression Sonic had come to know and hate suddenly faltered.

“Talk?”  He said it like he didn’t understand the word.  He looked around at the legion, first one way, then the other.  For the first time since this all started, he seemed unsure.

The quills stood up on the back of Sonic’s neck.  What was happening?

“They can’t talk…” Knuckles breathed faster.   “They… they were hurt so badly.”  The glow in his pupils sputtered and he swayed slightly.

Sonic’s heart began to race.  Suddenly Wade’s mind control/hypnotism/possession theory didn’t feel so farfetch'd.  But if that was the case, how did he pull Knuckles out of it?  Talking about his people being dead seemed to have been some kind of trigger.  Which sucked, but Sonic was grasping at straws, so he went for it:  

“They died, Knuckles,” he said, watching Knuckles closely to gauge his reaction.  Knuckles waivered, looking around at the hoard like he was looking at them for the first time.  The glow in his eyes was sputtering like a candle in the wind.  “They can’t talk,” Sonic continued, “because they’re not really here.  He didn’t bring them back, he’s just using their bodies.”

“No!  Father–” Knuckles looked around, and there was a frantic edge to it now.  “Where…?  He’s not here–who are–I don’t–”  He took a step back.  “I don’t recognize any of you!”

Sonic stared.  This was like seeing the confused Mr. Krabs meme in real life.  It was actually horrifying!  He’d been saying Knuckles was being crazy since he came back all sadistic and psychotic but this was… this was like for real psychosis.  Knuckles was genuinely shocked to see the people with him weren’t his family.  They weren’t even alive.

“Knuckles?”  He asked, holding his hands out flat.  “Knux?”

“Father hasn’t spoken to me,” he said.  “Why wouldn’t he…?”  Knuckles scrunched his eyes closed and pressed a hand to his head.  His teeth clenched, pained.

If an undead horde could hold its breath, that’s what the echidna corpses around them were doing.  Sonic certainly was.  He dared to take a step forward, then another.  He hadn’t been within arms reach of Knuckles and felt safe for months.  He still didn’t feel safe now, but at least now he knew his brother was still in there.

“Knux…”  He reached out and oh-so-gently touched Knuckles’ shoulder. 

“No!”  Knuckles jerked back, staggering.  “You’re lying!  You’re trying to trick me again!”  He clapped a hand to his head again.  He cringed from something Sonic could not see.  Blinking rapidly, he struggled to focus on Sonic in front of him.

Tails’ voice crackled into Sonic’s ear.  Everyone was clear, he could retreat now.  Sonic stayed put.

“I’m not trying to trick you,” he said.  “It’s that Finitevus guy who’s trying to trick you.”

“No,” Knuckles closed his eyes and jerked his head so hard his dreads swung.  The hand at his head balled into a fist.  He hit himself and Sonic had to suppress the urge to rush forward and stop him.

“I can trust Finitevus!”  Knuckles yelled.  “I can trust my people,” he said quietly.

Knuckles straightened, fists falling to his sides as he squared his stance.  He opened his eyes.  “I can trust myself…”

Sonic watched in horror as Knuckles’ pupils filled with green.

“I can trust my own eyes!”

[aventurine83]

The Two Gentlemen Of Verona

William James Moriarty x Reader

"You guys need to find new hobbies besides reading all day." Sherlock rolled his eyes as he pulled himself up on the cobbled ledge just a few inches higher than the street they had disposed of themselves to walk on, azure eyes transfixed on a certain blonde haired man within view of him, as well as you, who had your arm locked with William's.

"Atleast we do not make it a hobby of ours to sit by a window and gaze out of it with a melancholy stupor thrice a day with not much motive as its accomplice." you shot back, feeling a sense of satisfaction well up in your heart as you noted the change in expression you had inspired in the great detective.

"Tch. You're always such a smartass, aren't ya?" Sherlock groaned, a hand running through his now much longer raven hair, as he pulled it up into a ponytail yet again.

"I suppose the shop spoken of by you must be the one there." William turned his gaze to a small shop, furnished by brisk wood, flowers protruding from the doorway with an almost elegant look about it, if one surmised to glance at it charitably enough.

"Thats the one." Sherlock gave a brief nod. "Jewellery is real cheap there. And looks good too. Though I'll warn you, they only deal in silver and an amalgam of it with copper or brass to imitate gold. There's none of the pure deal when it comes to gold, not even a 20 carat, given how it is affordable and quite in the sorts when it comes to such a common part of Lewes."

"We would not want anything excepting that which is 'quite in the sorts', I assure you." William replied with a chuckle. "We have quite tired of the frivolity of the exemptions. We only wish for something to fulfill our desires for cherishing, and not much else. There is no need for a lavish expense for such a simple task."

"Aye, as simple as how none of Proteus' wealthy affections could win over Valentine's earnest love." you chuckled. William quite liked your statement, for he gave out a little laugh.

"Would you guys stop with the inner Shakespeare jokes?!" Sherlock groaned. "You're different from John and Mary, thats for sure. Their gifts to each other are nothing less than extravagant."

Once inside the shop, you and William picked out some beautiful jewellery for each other, paying for it in a manner of all due propriety before returning to your house in Brighton by the dusk, Sherlock as company.

By the time you had had dinner and settled down, and Sherlock bade leave to his own house after a hearty meal at yours, you slipped into your nightclothes and made yourself comfortable to the idea of sleeping with William cradling you in his arms. That was when you felt something cool slip onto your neck. The silver necklace that William had bought you today, with small charms of roses and birds hanging on to its slender body. You turned your head to the back to meet with scarlet eyes gazing into your irises, a wide smirk decorating the lips of the man you loved as he ran his hand gently up your spine before it came to rest on the nape of your neck, your bare skin humbled by the warm touch of his rough, calloused palm.

"At first I did adore a twinkling star." William recited, his finger tracing the necklace woven around your neck gently. "But now, I worship a celestial sun." His finger brushed your lips, tilting your head upwards as the sweet bitterness of his own lips locked with yours, throwing you into disarray as you longed for breath that you could not afford as your husband kissed you deeper still, his arm steady around your waist as he kissed you gently, his warm chest pressing against your back. "That was quite witty of you, to make a reference you knew Sherly would not be able to comprehend. The Two Gentlemen of Verona." he mused.

"Someone had to bring him down a peg or two." you grinned as you turned around to face William and pressed a kiss to his chest, an action that caused him to blush and smile. "Your words are bonds, your oaths are oracles, your love sincere, your thoughts immaculate, your tears pure messengers sent from your heart, your heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth." you said softly, tracing a line from his chest to his exposed collarbone with your fingers. You felt the man shiver beneath your touch, his heartbeat picking up pace as he surrendered himself to your unyielding desire for him.

"Love." William whispered quietly with all the manner of a dark blush evident on his face. "Do spare me from the teasing. I find it hard to find strength in myself to even stand upright."

"Then you are a man of small resistance." you teased, pulling William closer and kissing his chest passionately, drawing a low whimper from the man. You pressed a kiss next to his collarbone, leading him to instinctively grip you tighter and pull you in closer.

"Only for you, madam." William blushed. "And never would I be a fool enough so as to choose any Silvia over you, nay, you are far greater than even Silvia and Julia combined, my dearest love, (Y/N)."

[hainethehero]

Stucky headcanon of Steve & Bucky meeting in the 21st century...

(Bucky's POV)

"Wait- they're sending who-?"

Natasha sighs over the line, probably pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration at his antics. But Bucky could honestly care less. Because he wasn't feeling too charitable based on the news he'd just received.

"Look, SHIELD wants him, and he's a cool guy once you get to know him," Natasha tries.

"I don't care what SHIELD wants. They know I work alone!" Bucky spits, "I don't need some military mascot trailing after me and my team!"

"He's not a mascot, Barnes. Steve's a cool guy-"

"I don't care, Natalia."

"Look, you can be as pissy as you want, it's not gonna change anything. Fury's already gotten his file and he's probably being debriefed right now."

"The fuck he is," Bucky growls, cutting her off and stomping his way to the elevators. He jabs the button to Fury's floor, leaning against the glass wall with his arms crossed. His nose twitches, several sweet but not overpowering scents filling his senses. It's a soft, floral note that confounds the fuck out of him because none of the agents he works with smell like that.

It's all manly and clean with woody musks.

"Thirty-sixth floor. Fury, Nicholas J." the elevator announces, as if Bucky needed any introduction. He steps out onto the floor and frowns at the scent that seemingly grows stronger the closer he gets to Fury's main office.

He hears the man's voice and slows his stomp to an even pace, trying to make out the figure seated with his back turned to the outside. Fury is leaning against his desk, a finger pointing at something in the file the other man is holding.

"The mission is simple, get in, get out, minimum casualties."

That's Bucky's cue. "Thought this was a one-man job."

The blonde man sitting suddenly rises to his feet, an air of mystery around him and politely offers his hand.

"Hello, I'm Steve."

Bucky narrows his eyes at him, taking in his face which looks so perfect it's almost porcelaine. And his lips are the brightest shade of baby pink the assassin's ever seen. Not to mention how soft his hand looks as it awaits his own. Bucky subconsciously flexes his metal fist, glad it's still hidden under a glove. He does his best to show his utter disregard for the man, guessing he was probably used to being in the spotlight all the time.

"I work better alone. You know that."

Out the corner of his eyes, he can see the man quickly retrieve his stupid hand, sitting back down quietly as if he'd been dismissed.

Well, he had.

But the redness on his cheeks made his embarrassment clear. Barnes felt a little satisfaction in knocking down Captain America a peg or two.

"Well, Captain Rogers has been added to the scheme. He is at your disposal. And when I say disposal, I mean he's the reason why the mission is minimum-casualty- coded."

Bucky glares at Steve again, irritated at the fact that SHIELD thought it'd be a good idea to toss some random into his team, less than two weeks before their mission. He didn't like to be undermined. And this felt exactly like that.

"I don't need help-"

"These orders come from the top, so there's really nothing I can do, Barnes." Fury sighs. "Now, quit pestering me and help your newest teammate get acquainted with mission training. Goodbye."

Bucky rolls his eyes and stalks out of the room, stopping only briefly to address Rogers.

"You comin' or what, Spangles?"

Steve's face was a mirror of discomfort as both men step into the elevator. Bucky jabs the button to the training rooms and leans against the wall, arms folded again. He sniffs discreetly and realizes that the soft, floral scent hadn't left his nose at all. In fact, it had gotten stronger now that he thought about it. He sideglanced Rogers and realized with much surprise that it was him.

Some wretched part of him wanted to call Steve a grandma for smelling like that but even he had to admit, the scent was oddly beautiful and a welcome change to the usual stink of SHIELD and its hypermasculine environs. He takes in Steve's civilian fit and probably for the first time that day, let intrigue win.

As a science and history buff, it was pretty incredible to see a man who'd been plucked straight out of the forties. His sense of style was reflective of that. Soft khakis and a simple white t-shirt under a black leather jacket. His hair was neatly combed and styled in that church boy fashion, with some strands curling down about his forehead. Yeah, Captain America was the perfect polished soldier, if he'd ever seen one.

But Bucky was too annoyed to be inquisitive at the moment. Maybe he was overreacting and overly pissy with the new recruit. That didn't mean he couldn't appreciate how good-looking the guy really was. He was a total doll face, what with the blue eyes and long camel lashes and the pouty pink lips. In some other circumstance, he imagined he'd be asking Steve if he could order him a drink. He could see himself sitting at a bar, talking shit with Rogers all night. Though, he didn't think the great Captain America even frequented bars.

When the elevator announces their level, he steps off and quickly realizes he's not being followed. He turns and asks Steve again if he's coming, and pauses in his tracks.

He recognizes the look of pure disassociation on the man's face almost immediately. Blue eyes were shadowed by a deep frown and blank stare. His brows were set in a confused frown and he seemed to be holding his body tightly, as if he'd fall apart if he didn't.

Then, as quickly as Bucky noticed it, it quickly melts away. Rogers nods awkwardly and follows him to the training room.

"Holy shit."

Bucky watches as Rumlow approaches all sweaty and gleaming. He notices the way Steve's face lights up when he recognizes the man and his skin prickles a little. He chalks it up to Brock's natural tendency to raise his hackles.

"Rumlow," Rogers greets and it's bordering on robotic.

"Rogers, didn't expect them to bring you in already."

Bucky frowns at Brock. "You knew about this?"

"Heard a rumour a couple weeks ago, didn't think of it til now."

The team approach them and Bucky notes how Steve takes a little step back, probably feeling cornered or something. He imagines the dude's got mad stories to tell about the war. With passing interest, he wonders what kind of dreams the Captain has.

"Captain, this is my STRIKE team. I'm assuming you've met Rumlow, my second in command. After him, Rollins. Wilson is one of our newest recruits but we've worked with him before. He's pararescue. And our specialists, Lopez and Murdock."

Steve smiles and signs a greeting at Lopez when he realizes that she's deaf and- what the fuck, why was that so adorable? Bucky narrows his eyes, trying desperately to feign nonchalance when, in fact, he wanted to coo like he usually did when Alpine did some cute shit.

Then Steve's eyes meet his and his smile disappears as quickly as it came. He tries not to take it personally, after all, he had been a total bitch to the guy. But, whatever. Captain America was sort of adorable. So what?

He clears his throat and addresses the team, "We have roughly two weeks to prepare for this retrieval. And now, thanks to Fury, we also have to bring Spangles into the loop. Let's get to work."

He watches as Steve heads on over to the punching bags with Rumlow. He wasn't in the proper gear to train so Bucky assumed he was asking Rumlow for a quick run-down of their training schedule. He tries not to feel offended that Rogers had gone to his second in command, rather than him, the team leader.

[themthouse]

The Internet Archive, Misinformation & the Problem of Digital Lending

I am in the embarrassing situation of having reblogged a post with misinformation. Specifically, the "Save the Internet Archive" post featuring the below image and its associated link to a website called "Battle for Libraries".

The post claims that the recent lawsuit the IA faced threatened all IA projects, including the Wayback Machine, which is not true. The link to a petition to "show support for the Internet Archive, libraries’ digital rights, and an open internet with uncensored access to knowledge" only has one citation, which is the internet archive's own blog.

After looking for more context, I found that even articles published from sources I trusted didn't seem to adequately cover the complexity of what is going on. Here's what I think someone who loves libraries but is hazy about copyright law and the digital lending world should know to understand what happened and why it matters. I am from the U.S., so the information below is specifically referring to laws protecting American public libraries. I am not a librarian, author or copyright lawyer. This is a guide to make it easier to follow the arguments of people more directly invested in this lawsuit, and the potential additional lawsuits to come.

Table of Contents:

First-Sale Doctrine & the Economics of E-books

Controlled Digital Lending (CDL)

The “National Emergency Library” & Hachette v. Internet Archive

Authors, Publishers & You

-- Authors: Ideology v. Practicality

-- Publishers: What Authors Are Paid

-- You: The Ethics of Piracy

First-Sale Doctrine & the Economics of E-Books

Libraries are digitizing. This is undisputed. As of 2019, 98% of public libraries provided Wi-Fi, 90% provided basic digital literacy programs, and most importantly for this conversation, 94% provided access to e-books and other digital materials. The problem is that for decades, the American public library system has operated on a bit of common law exhaustion applied to copyright known as first-sale doctrine, which states:

"An individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a copyrighted work from the copyright holder receives the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, notwithstanding the interests of the copyright owner."

With digital media, however, because there isn't a physical sale happening, first sale doctrine doesn't apply. This wasn't a huge problem back in the early 2010s when most libraries were starting to go digital because the price of a perpetual e-book license was only $14 -- about the price of single physical book. Starting in 2018, however, publishers started limiting how long a single e-book license would last. From Pew Charitable Trusts:

"Today, it is common for e-book licenses from major publishers to expire after two years or 26 borrows, and to cost between $60 and $80 per license, according to Michele Kimpton, the global senior director of the nonprofit library group LYRASIS... While consumers paid $12.99 for a digital version, the same book cost libraries roughly $52 for two years, and almost $520 for 20 years."

Publishers argue that because it's so easy to borrow a digital copy of a book from the library, offering libraries e-book licenses at the same price as individual consumers undermines an author's right to license and profit from the exclusive rights to their works. And they're not entirely wrong about e-book lending affecting e-book sales -- since 2014, e-book sales have decreased while digital library lending has only gone up. The problem, they say, is that e-book lending is simply too easy. Whereas before, e-book sales were competing with the less-convenient option of going to the library and checking out a physical copy, there is essentially no difference for the reader between buying or lending an e-book outside of its cost.

Which brings us to the librarians, authors and lawmakers of today, trying to find any solution they can to make digital media accessible, affordable and still profitable enough to make a livable income for the writers who create the books we read.

Further Reading:

1854. Copyright Infringement -- First Sale Doctrine

The surprising economics of digital lending

Librarians and Lawmakers Push for Greater Access to E-Books

Publishing and Library E-Lending: An Analysis of the Decade Before Covid-19

Controlled Digital Lending (CDL)

Controlled digital lending is a legal theory at the heart of the Internet Archive lawsuit that has been proposed as one solution to the economic issue with digital media lending. This quick fix is especially appealing to nonprofits like the IA that are not government, tax-funded programs. Where many other solutions, like a legally enforced max price on e-book licensure for public libraries, would not apply to the IA, CDL would essentially be manipulating copyright law itself as a way to avoid e-book licensure altogether and would apply to the IA as well as public libraries.

Essentially, proponents of CDL argue that through a combination of first-sale and fair use doctrine, it can be legal for libraries to digitize the physical copies of books they have legally paid for and loan those digital copies to one person at a time as if they were loaning the original physical copy.

It is worth noting that the first-sale doctrine protecting physical media lending at public libraries does not cover reproductions:

“The right to distribute ends, however, once the owner has sold that particular copy. See 17 U.S.C. § 109(a) & (c). Since the first sale doctrine never protects a defendant who makes unauthorized reproductions of a copyrighted work, the first sale doctrine cannot be a successful defense in cases that allege infringing reproduction.”

This is where fair use comes in, which allows some flexibility in copyright law for nonprofit educational and noncommercial uses. Because the IA and other online collections are nonprofit organizations, proponents of CDL argue that they are covered by fair use so long as their use of CDL follows very specific rules, such as:

A library must own a legal copy of the physical book, by purchase or gift.

The library must maintain an “owned to loaned” ratio, simultaneously lending no more copies than it legally owns.

The library must use technical measures to ensure that the digital file cannot be copied or redistributed.

While this model first earned its name in 2018, it has been practiced by a number of digital collections like The Internet Archive’s Open Library since as early as 2010. It is important to know that controlled digital lending has never been proven officially legal in court. It is a theoretical legal practice that has passed by mostly unchallenged until the Internet Archive lawsuit. This is partially due to the fact that before releasing their official CDL statement in 2018, the IA had been honoring Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests of books in CDL circulation, which authors claim they are not always responding to or honoring anymore. The legality of CDL essentially depends on a judge's interpretation of current copyright law and whether they see the practice as an infringement, which would set a precedent for similar cases moving forward.

There are, however, U.S. court decisions that have rejected similar cases, like Capitol Records v. ReDigi, which argues that digital files (in this case, music files) cannot be resold without copyright holder’s permission on the grounds that digital files do not deteriorate in the same way that physical media does, implying that first sale doctrine doesn’t apply to digital media.

In 2019, the Authors Guild, a group of American authors who advocate for the rights of writers to earn a living wage and practice free speech, pointed out this court case in an article condemning CDL practices. They also argued that not only does CDL undermine e-book licensure (and therefore author profits off e-book sales), but it also would effectively shut down the e-book market for older books (the market for copyrighted books that were published before e-books became popular and are only being digitized and sold now). The National Writers Union has also released an “Appeal from the victims of Controlled Digital Lending (CDL),” that cites many of the same complaints.

Further Reading:

U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index

Position Statement on Controlled Digital Lending by Libraries

FAQ on Controlled Digital Lending [Released by NYU Law’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy]

Controlled Digital Lending Is Neither Controlled nor Legal

Appeal from the victims of Controlled Digital Lending (CDL)

FAQ on Controlled Digital Lending [Released by the National Writers Union]

 The "National Emergency Library" & Hachette v. Internet Archive

While the Internet Archive is known as the creator and host of the Wayback Machine and many other internet and digital media preservation projects, the IA collection in question in Hachette v. Internet Archive is their Open Library. The Open Library has been digitizing books since as early as 2005, and in early 2011, began to include and distribute copyrighted books through Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). In total, the IA includes 3.6 million copyrighted books and continues to scan over 4,000 books a day.

During the early days of the pandemic, from March 24, 2020, to June 16, 2020, specifically, the Internet Archive offered their National Emergency Library, which did away with the waitlist limitations on their pre-existing Open Library. Instead of following the strict rules laid out in the Position Statement on Controlled Digital Lending, which mandates an equal “owned to loaned” ratio, the IA allowed multiple readers to access the same digitized book at once. This, they said, was a direct emergency response to the worldwide pandemic that cut off people’s access to physical libraries.

In response, on June 1, 2020, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House filed a lawsuit against the IA over copyright infringement. Out of their collective 33,000 copyrighted titles available on Open Library, the publishers’ lawsuit focused on 127 books specifically (known in the legal documentation as the “Works in Suit”). After two years of argument, on March 24, 2023, Judge John George Koeltl ruled in favor of the publishers.

The IA’s fair use defense was found to be insufficient as the scanning and distribution of books was not found to be transformative in any way, as opposed to other copyright lawsuits that ruled in favor of digitizing books for “utility-expanding” purposes, such as Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust. Furthermore, it was found that even prior to the National Emergency Library, the Open Library frequently failed to maintain the “owned to loaned” ratio by not sufficiently monitoring the circulation of books it borrows from partner libraries. Finally, despite being a nonprofit organization overall, the IA was found to profit off of the distribution of the copyrighted books, specifically through a Better World Books link that shares part of every sale made through that specific link with the IA.

It worth noting that this ruling specifies that “even full enforcement of a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio, however, would not excuse IA’s reproduction of the Works in Suit.” This may set precedent for future copyright cases that attempt to claim copyright exemption through the practice of controlled digital lending. It is unclear whether this ruling is limited to the National Emergency Library specifically, or if it will affect the Open Library and other collections that practice CDL moving forward.

Edit: I recommend seeing what @carriesthewind has to say about the most recent updates in the Internet Archive cases for a lawyers perspective of how these cases will effective the future of digital lending law in the U.S.

Further Reading:

Full History of Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive [Released by the Free Law Project]

Hachette v. Internet Archive ruling

Internet Archive Loses Lawsuit Over E-Book Copyright Infringement

The Fight Continues [Released by The Internet Archive]

Authors Guild Celebrates Resounding Win in Internet Archive Infringement Lawsuit [Released by The Authors Guild]

Relevant Court Cases:

Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc.

Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust

Capitol Records v. ReDigi

 Authors, Publishers & You

This is where I’m going to be a little more subjective, because each person’s interpretation of events as I have seen has depended largely on their characterization and experience with the parties involved. Regardless of my own ideology regarding accessibility of information, the court ruling seems to be completely in line with current copyright law and precedent. Ironically, it seems that if the Internet Archive had not abandoned the strict rules regarding controlled digital lending for the National Emergency Library, and if they had been more diligent with upholding those rules with partner library loans prior to the NEL, they may have had a better case for controlled digital lending in the future. As is, I agree with other commentators that say any appeal the IA makes after this point is more likely to damage future digital lending practices than it is to save the IA’s current collection of copyrighted works in the Open Library. Most importantly, it seems disingenuous, and even dangerously inaccurate, to say that this ruling hurts authors, as the IA claimed in their response.

The IA argues that because of the current digital lending and sales landscape, the only way authors can make their books accessible digitally is through unfair licensing models, and that online collections like the IA’s Open Library offer authors freedom to have their books read. But this argument doesn’t acknowledge that many authors haven’t consented to having their works shared in this way, and some have even asked directly for their work to be removed, without that request being honored.

The problem is that both sides of this argument about the IA lawsuit claim to speak for authors as a group when the truth isn’t that simple.

Authors: Ideology v. Practicality

Those approaching the case from an ideological point of view, including many of the authors who signed Fight for the Future’s Open Letter Defending Libraries’ Rights in a Digital Age, tend to either have a history of sharing their works freely prior to the lawsuit (ex: Hanif Abdurraqib, who had published a free audio version of his book Go Ahead in The Rain on Spotify before Spotify began charging for audiobooks separately from their music subscriptions) or have alternative incomes related to their writing that don’t stem directly from book sales (ex: Neil Gaiman, who famously works with multiple mediums and adaptations of his writing).

In these cases, the IA lawsuit is framed as an ideological battle over the IA’s intention when releasing the National Emergency Library.

Many other authors, including a large number of smaller names and writers early in their careers, take a much more practical approach to the lawsuit, focused on defending their ability to monetarily profit off their works. This is by no means a reflection of their own ideology surrounding who has the right to information and whether libraries are worth protecting. Instead, it is a response to the fact that these authors love writing, and they simply would not be able to afford to continue writing in a world where they do not have the power to stop digital collections from distributing their copyrighted work without their consent. These include the authors, illustrators and book makes working with the Author’s Guild to submit their amicus brief in  Hachette v. Internet Archive.

These authors claim that controlled digital lending practices cause significant harm to their incomes in the following ways:

CDL undermines e-book licensing and sales markets, as most consumers would choose a free e-book over paying for their own copy.

CDL devalues copyright, meaning authors have less bargaining power in future contract negotiations.

CDL undermines authors ability to republish, whether as a reprint or e-book, out of print books once their publisher has ceased production. This includes self-publishing after the rights to their work have been returned to them.

CDL removes the income from public lending rights (PLR) that authors receive from libraries outside of the U.S. which operate on different lending and copyright standards.

The amicus brief provides first-person anecdotes from authors, including Bruce Coville of The Unicorn Chronicles, about how the rights to backlisted books, or books without an immediately obvious market, make up a huge portion of their annual salary. Jacqueline Diamond cites reissues of out-of-print novels as what kept her afloat during her breast cancer treatment.

It is worth noting that according to the Author’s Guild, some authors who originally signed Fight for the Future’s open letter defending the Internet Archive have even retracted their support after learning more about the specific lawsuit, including Daniel Handler, who writes under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket. The confusion stems from the use of the term “library” by both the Internet Archive and Fight for the Future. While authors overwhelmingly support public libraries, online collections like the Internet Archive don’t always fit the same role or abide by the same regulations as tax-funded public libraries. Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street, has written the following:

“To this day, I am angry that Internet Archive tells the world that it is a library and that, by bootlegging my books, it is simply doing what libraries have always done. Real libraries do not do what Internet Archive does. The libraries that raised me paid for their books, they never stole them.”

Further Reading:

Amicus Brief [Submitted by the Author’s Guild]

Fight for the Future’s Open Letter Defending Libraries’ Rights in a Digital Age

Joint Statement in Response to Fight for the Future’s Letter Falsely Claiming that the Lawsuit Against Internet Archive’s Open Library Harms Public Libraries [Published by the Author’s Guild]

Copyright: American Publishers File for Summary Judgment Against the Internet Archive

 Publishers: What Authors Are Paid

Some of the commentators I’ve seen are disgruntled specifically with the publishers suing the Internet Archive, and I will say that many of these complaints are valid. The four publishing companies behind the lawsuits (Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House) are not known for the stellar treatment of their authors and employees. With the HarperCollins Publishers strike ending only a month before the IA lawsuit ruling, many readers are poised to support any entity at odds with one or more of the “Big Five” publishers. In this particular case, however, the power wielded by these publishing companies was used in defense of author’s rights to their works, for which The Authors Guild and other similar creator groups have expressed gratitude.

When it comes to finding solutions to the digital lending problem in general, it is important to understand what and how authors are paid for digital copies of their work. Jane Friedman has created the graphic below displaying the industry standards for the Big Five publishers. You can read more about agency and wholesome models here.

As you can see, authors and publishers alike benefit from e-book library licensure when compared to individual e-book sales, especially when you consider the time limits on library licensures. But advocates of this licensure model argue that the high prices for e-book licensure are designed to make up for the lost sales in e-books. While library goers buy more books than book buyers who don’t visit the library, the copies they buy typically vary by format. For example, a reader may borrow an audiobook from the library, decide they like it, and purchase a physical copy for their collection. While readers may buy a physical copy of a book after reading a physical library copy, they are unlikely to buy a digital copy after readying a digital library copy, making e-book lending a replacement for e-book buying in ways that physical lending doesn’t fully replace physical book purchases.

What ISN’T accounted for in this graphic is self-publication and what is known as a right of reversion. Depending on the wording of their contract, an author can request their publication rights be returned to them if the work in question is out of print and no longer being published. The publisher can then either return the work to “in print” status or return the rights to the author, who can then self-publish the work. In these cases, the 5-15% profit they would have made off their traditionally published book becomes a 35-70% profit as a self-published book. This is why authors are particularly frustrated with the IA’s argument that it is perfectly legal and ethical to release digital copies of books that are no longer in print. Those out-of-print works are where many authors earn their most reliable, long-term income, and they provide the largest opportunity for the authors to take control of their own works again and make fairer wages through self-publication.

The most obvious answer to this is that if authors are being the ones hit hardest by library and digital lending, then it is the publishers that need to treat their authors with better contracts. The fact that some authors are only earning 5% of profits on hardcover copies of their books (whether those are being sold to libraries or individuals) is eye opening. Alas, like the “we shouldn’t have to tip waiters” argument, this is much easier said than done.

Further Reading:

What Is the Agency Model for E-books? Your Burning Questions Answered

What Do Authors Earn from Digital Lending at Libraries?

You: The Ethics of Piracy

There are number of contributing factors to Tumblr’s enthusiasm for pirating. We are heavily invested in the media we consume, and it is easy to interpret (sometimes accurately) copyright as a weapon used by publishers and distant descendants of long-dead authors to restrict creativity and representation in adaptations of beloved texts. There are also legitimate barriers that keep us from legally obtaining media, whether that is the physical or digital inaccessibility of our local libraries and library websites, financial concerns, or censorship on an institutional or familial level. In fact, studies have found that 41% of book pirates also buy books, implying that a lot of illegal piracy is an attempt at format shifting (ripping CDs onto your computer to access them as MP3 files, for example, or downloading a digital copy of a book you already own in order to use the search feature).

The interesting thing is that copyright law in the U.S. has a specific loophole to allow for legal format shifting for accessibility purposes. This is due to the Chafee Amendment (17 U.S.C. § 121), passed in 1996, which focused on making published print material more available to people with disabilities that interfere with their ability to read print books, such as blindness, severe dyslexia and any physical disability that makes holding and manipulating a print book prohibitively difficult. In practice, this means nonprofits and government agencies in the U.S. are allowed to create and distribute braille, audio and digital versions of copyrighted books to eligible people without waiting for permission from the copyright holder. While this originally only applied to “nondramatic literary works,” updates to the regulations have been made as recently as 2021 to include printed work of any genre and to expand the ways “print-disabled” readers can be certified. Programs like Bookshare, Learning Ally, and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print-Disabled no longer require certification from a medical doctor to create an account. The Internet Archive also uses the Chafee Amendment to break their Controlled Digital Lending regulations for users with print disabilities. While applications of the Chafee Amendment are still heavily regulated, it is worth noting that even U.S. copyright law acknowledges the ways copyright contributes to making information inaccessible to a large amount of people.

Accessibility is not the only argument when discussing the morality of pirating. For some people, appreciation for piracy and shadow libraries comes from a background in archival work and an awareness how much of our historical archives today wouldn’t exist without pirated copies of media being made decades or even a century ago. But we have to be more careful about the way we talk about piracy. Though piracy is often talked about as a victimless crime, this is not always the case, and each one of us has a responsibility to critically think about our place in the media market and determine our own standards for when piracy is ethical. In some cases, such as the recent conversation surrounding the Harry Potter game, some people may even decide that pirating is a more ethical alternative to purchasing. Here are a few questions to consider when deciding whether or not to pirate a piece of media:

What other alternatives have you seen for legally purchasing, renting or borrowing a copy of this media?

Is the alternative to pirating this media purchasing it or not reading/referencing it at all?

Who does this particular piracy affect? Whether or not you think the creator(s) deserve to have their work pirated, you need to acknowledge there is someone who would otherwise be paid for their work.

If a significant portion of consumers pirated this work, what would the consequences be for future projects? Would you be willing to claim partial responsibility for that outcome?

I’m not making any moral statements about pirating as a whole, just noting that the way we discuss the consequences of pirating has a genuine effect on the media landscape. If you got this far,  thank you so much for reading! It is genuine work to try and understand the complexity behind every day decisions, especially when the topic at hand is as complicated as the modern digital lending crisis.

Further Reading:

Panorama Project Releases Immersive Media & Books 2020 Research Report by Noorda and Berens

The Chafee Amendment: Improving Access To Information

National Center on Accessible Educational Materials

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled

Books For People With Print Disabilites: The Internet Archive

Bookshare

Learning Ally

[adamsvanrhijn]

from what we know right now, it hasn't been shown that maud has a compelling external reason to get married at all, let alone if she's gay — she ~goes everywhere~ already, lives independently, and has some kind of consistent financial support with money at her disposal.

if all of that is true (and we may find out it's not), and is expected to remain true for her in the future, there are really only 2-3 realistic practical reasons for her to get married... one of course would be to ensure she continues receiving invitations as she gets older / to otherwise join the married social stratum and stay with her own generation socially. another would be if she wants to have sex with a man specifically without risking her reputation, and, extending that, if she wanted to have children.

there is the illegitimacy situation, but while a good marriage would secure her a position in high society, it wouldn't erase any rumors about her birth, so she isn't reeeally being legitimized in that way. and if she married, for example, oscar, then it would still be known that the money is her own, so the source of the rumors isn't necessarily going away either... granted, if there is anywhere she isn't going due to talk about her background, a well regarded husband would get her into doors because he can't be invited without her.

the first one though... if she's charismatic and pleasant and maintains a good reputation, she can easily maintain a busy social life as a spinster, and with her own money, she could entertain on her own terms without considering the needs of a husband. if she wanted to stay meaningfully busy she could have a hobby or charitable vocation of some kind. there would likely be some elements of society life she would have less access to, but that might be a small price to pay for the rest of her independence.

the main risk to that lifestyle is that as an unmarried woman she is more vulnerable to the rumor mill and a fall from grace would likely be final. but... if she's not having sex with men, and any affairs she is having are discreet (in other words, not with married women and not flaunted à la, say, the paris salon scene), the risk of that is pretty low.

obviously we are missing a lot of information right now, and it's possible that she has a practical motivation the audience doesn't know about that makes any of the above more compelling, but based on what we know from. ummm. (checks notes) two episodes... i don't know why it would be more appealing to her to marry oscar than to continue her current lifestyle unless she has genuine interest in oscar. to be quite honest.

[the-witchs-cafe]

Jamaluddin

The Chimera Witch, with an idealistic nature. Seeking to pour beauty into this empty, unjust world, he allows the paint to seep from his nails and hollowed-out head- and on to the canvas. With every stroke of a brush and measurement taken, the witch would feel his vitality slipping away, but it's nothing compared to the glory of what stands high and tall in his mind - the picture of an elegant paradise for all to behold and enjoy -, but it is all so brittle; the structures will crumble without fail, and so shall his patience.

Tearing apart these imperfect scribbles and lines with these mismatched claws in the hopes of forgetting his burdens, nothing but basic blueprints will remain, and the cycle begins once again. One hoping to defeat him must possess a charitable soul, but to be wary as to not fall into the pit of self-deterioration whilst following the paths set by their heart.

--

Barrier appearance:

Befitting an architect like him, it would be as if you have stepped into a blueprint for a magnificent palace in the works. Seamless lines fill the white voids that surround the place, with the more "complete" areas being decked out with furnishings that would be fitting for a tavern or a small home.

Unfortunately, it appears that the witch is not yet completely done with the renovations; trying so hard to gather up whatever he could find just to bring out what he sees in his mind to reality. As such, the vast majority of the place still looks like they're made up of hastily-made sketches, and some of the less-maintained areas appear to be doodled in...crayon?

The bright emptiness is overwhelming- almost as much as the scent of aging wine...

--

Cause behind his appearance:

The belief that he had caused his father to spiral and eventually lose his life by encouraging his to take on the tournament in the first place. This event also marked his mother's mental health to deteriorate and both of their lives becoming harder as result. While he is not as unlucky as, let's say, Bennett, omens of bad luck are something to consider.

Another reason as to why he is a chimera is because its asymmetrical appearance, and something so heinous like that would not pass as an architectural design; more salt on Kaveh's wounds.

--

Familiars:

Golshan. Minions of the Chimera Witch. Their task is to commission. Ever the chatty beings, these hummingbirds would often nestle behind the ears of the witch and blabber their desires and criticisms. Every little detail, every little idea born from the pouring ink, every line drawn and measurement taken; surely, he could do better. Plan this once more; return to them once he has made something the two can agree on.

-

Hasan. Minion of the Chimera witch. His duty is to critique. An eagle with feathers of jade and a heart of ice. As the witch strains himself before inevitably shutting down once more, all he does is watch over his master with nothing but exasperation in his eyes. Just as the witch doesn't want his work to be tampered with, the avian doesn't like his time wasted; as such, any and all intruders are to be disposed of. At least the two managed to agree on a single sentiment for once...

[mediaanalexis]

In Hebrew, the word “Chased” translates to the emotion that God feels towards his creation. The grace, benevolence, and compassion that God feels towards us, we as humans, are expected ideally to feel towards God in turn. But just as God loves our imperfection, the same could be said of us towards God. In the book of Genesis, many Jews disagree with God’s actions. He can come across as vengeful, angry, harsh, and even downright cruel. From everything he did to Job, ordering Abraham to kill his son Isaac, the God of the Old Testament seems far from perfect. But this, it seems, is what makes the Jewish religion so fascinating.

God seems blatantly unperfect, but the Jews’ love for God never ceases, even with His faults out on full display. It is far easier to love an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God. If God were perfect, then we’d love Him for being perfect, which is conditional love. But we are not meant to feel a conditional love for God, just as God is not meant to feel a conditional love for us. The Jews’ love for God does not rely on His lovability, perfection, or any of His other traits. Just as we are forgiven, we must forgive Him.

To see all of someone, and still decide to love them forever is the kind of pure love we have for others-and that God wants from us. The Jews believe that all human beings are “Betzelem Elohim”, or created in the image of God. If all humans are created in the image of God, that means all love, not just the love we feel for God, is a kind of holy act.

However, some Jewish writers feel the opposite. Philip Roth, for example, in The Dying Animal, sees all love as a form of obsession. He believes that the act of loving-not just romantic, but also platonic love- makes people feel as if they are empty and that only through the love of another, can you be filled up. He believes that people are born whole but that “love fractures you. You’re whole, and then you’re cracked open.” And while he does make an interesting point, time and again, Jewish literature mirrors the love humans have for each other with the relationship we have with God. Just as Roth proposes, Love doesn’t make you any more whole; however, it is a form of connecting with the sacred within you that is a mirror of God. To love is to practice radical kindness and compassion which catapults positive change. And that positive change ripples outward, and through that human action, holiness on Earth can ensue.

Love is more than the sum of its parts-it’s so large and encompassing that it becomes intertwined with religion in its own right. For example, Psalm 145:8 exemplifies how we become more holy when we love. When we unconditionally love, we become more like God who is “abounding in steadfast love,” ultimately creating a better world. Love makes humans kinder, more devoted, more forgiving: it ultimately creates salvation on Earth. Through love, we mirror God, creating heaven on Earth.

I.L. Peretz, in his short story If Not Higher, reveals that through love for humanity, every action with this in mind can release the divine into the world and reveal God. His protagonist in the story, the Rabbi, not through traditional prayer in Temple, but through charitable action reveals his love towards God, and therefore by extension, his love towards humanity. By expressing his love through kind acts, he mirrors the steadfast love that God has for us and helps to build a heaven on earth.

Peretz posits through subtext that religion should be less about rigid rules or traditions, and more about the practical love we must have for humankind. His story “If Not Higher” shows how heaven is in our reach: it is not unattainable, because it exists in our hearts. If God made us in His image, then God lives in us. The idea of having so much love at our disposal to spread just like God does is a responsibility we must not take lightly.

[lunapwrites]

Elemental Readings Part 2 - Air

Here's the next elemental reading I did, this time with the correct number of cards (we are learning okay lmao)

AIR - Career and Education

This spread concerns itself with more intellectual pursuits than the home and hearth of Earth. Like, I say "career and education", but that also applies to hobbies and such: anything that makes the brain go brrrrr. And BOY, did these cards have Things To Say.

So The Moon deals with the subconscious mind, dreams and intuition. There are some more negative connotations here depending on context (secrets, the unknown, etc) but given the question asked and its placement in the "strengths and supports" section, I'm gonna go with the positive interpretation lol. Basically: I've got a lot of creative energy to work with, and that's a good thing.

With that said: the second line deals with obstacles. Ace of Wands represents inspiration, new opportunities, and potential. Three of Wands represents progress, expansion, and foresight. These are both very active, forward-moving cards! However: in between them is Four of Cups, which is... Exactly the opposite of that lol. The most charitable reading for this card within this context is that it represents rest and meditation. Less charitably, depression and ennui. Either way, it's an incredibly inward-facing card with no movement at all.

If this was in any other context, I would say this was a simple dampening of momentum (cup framed by two wands? Yeah.) But that's not the vibe I'm getting here: this reads more like scattered energies, progress coming in fits and bursts with long periods of nothing in between and most probably a loooooot of overthinking.

The last line supports this reading. It's the tools at my disposal: what I can use to move forward. (Note the straight line of Major Arcana cards. This is about to get rude.)

The World represents cycles: completion and new beginnings. The Hierophant represents institutions, whether spiritual or cultural or educational. Convention and community for the sake of higher learning. Finally: Death. Honestly not as scary as it looks. Death is not (always) an end: it is change. Transition, transformation. It is, in a word, the spring cleaning card: clear out all the old things in your life which no longer serve you and make room for the new.

We're uh. Really making some very pointed remarks about my creative process here. 💀

That's ultimately what this is about. It's very literally saying: you've got a lot of ideas, and that's great! But you need to focus your efforts and go back to putting shiny new plot bunnies in the waiting pen where they belong, because you keep starting new projects and then burning yourself out writing for them. Stop it. Finish what you're working on and then move onto the next thing. There is also some undercurrent of "your ability to work comes and goes and that's just part of your normal creative cycle: be more forgiving with yourself about that, but also you should work on getting into healthier rhythms and not this 0-100 whiplash bullshit you keep pulling. Pace yourself. Consider also taking advantage of the communities you've literally helped build. Like... You know. You compiled all these resources... Use them? Do sprints with people? Quit lurking in your own servers??? Also, declutter your workspaces, open the windows, and light a damn candle or five, you're depressing to look at.

Fucking rude.

(but also very true.)

[evilaccountant]

Ok Bruce's turn :)

1. What is the character’s go-to drink order? Vitamin water or water with a vitamin tablet. Sometimes he'll have a green smoothie but he hates the taste and texture, he's just trying to convince himself that he likes them. He doesn't drink very often as he doesn't like feeling out of it. He likes being in full control of himself, that's why he started learning to fight. He likes a expresso martini if he's at an event or an old fashioned if it's been an especially shitty day.

2. What is their grooming routine? In the early days he didn't have one, barely able to wash his hair, let alone keep himself tidy. After training and becoming the batman though? Meticulous. He starts with a cold shower, karma soap from lush, fancy shampoo, followed by a face moisturiser and a sandalwood body lotion. He shaves most weeks, gets a haircut once every 3 weeks and sometimes treats himself by painting his nails.

3. What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? It's probably a tie between the Batmobile, restoring his gothic home (it started falling apart after his parents died as Bruce neglected it whilst grieving) and charitable donations. Although he hates being in public he's slowly getting better at masking and even manages to go to one or two charity galas per year (even if he is a total wallflower). Working on the Batmobile has been his pet project for years and he's spent a LOT of money perfecting it. He hyper focuses for hours working on it, to the point where Alfred has to bring him meals. Every little bit must be perfect and Bruce has made an absolutely perfect beast of a car.

4. Do they have any scars or tattoos? He has abundant scars from fighting. Mainly crime fighting. Cuts from bladed weapons, one or two bullet wounds. His hands are cut up from grabbing a sword by the blade once. He's done everything he can to avoid taking blows to the face in an attempt to make sure no one notices that Bruce Wayne and batman have the same face. This has left every other part of his body to take the hits and it shows. I don't think he'd have any tattoos, if only to make his identity less identifiable.

5. What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? He obviously cried endlessly after his parents death and keeps crying when the mood strikes. He has ptsd and has a variety of triggers but has managed to squash his responses until he can hide away. He sometimes goes quiet mid conversation and just leaves, which hasn't helped his recluse status. He cries when he has panic attacks too. They still happen, just less frequently.

6. Describe the shoes they’re wearing. Patent leather doc martens when he's working in the batcave. He wears tidy black leather loafers when out as a civilian. They're practically brand new, he keeps a few pairs of tidy shoes in rotation. People who pay close attention would notice that he wears them in the same order (loafers, brogues, Chelsea boots) every time because he can't be bothered choosing shoes unless it's a special event. So far only 2 people have noticed.

7. Describe the place where they sleep. A four poster king sized bed made of dark pine, with a deep red velvet canopy. It's warm and cozy with plush pillows and a heavy duvet. The sheets are black cotton with a decorative pattern embroidered on the outside. The room itself is tastefully decorated but sparse, a walk in wardrobe and en-suite on one side of the room and a dark pine vanity and chest of drawers by the window. Although the windows are large, they're usually covered by blackout blinds so bruce can sleep during the day. He sleeps a lot at his desk in the batcave though, especially whilst working a case.

8. What is their favorite holiday? Bruce loves Halloween, it gives him a chance to blend into the crowds and feel normal. He sneaks into parties and wanders through the streets all day and just relaxes for a while. Later in his career as batman he also doesn't mind the occasional masked ball (which allows him to be a little theatrical on the rare occasion he feels like it). In contrast, Bruce hates valentines because the press harasses him about relationships every year and he's sick of it. (Mother's Day and Father's Day are rough for him too but I thought I'd pick a less obvious answer).

9. What objects do they always carry around with them? His keys and phone sit in his pockets alongside the fob for the Batmobile and his wireless noise cancelling headphones. He travels pretty light, maybe carrying an odd piece of Wayne tech when needs be.

[morethannumberscpablog]

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[takeonmetakemeon]

The whole dustup over Vance's school shootings comment is revealing.

First of all, it's clear that Republican complaints about biased coverage do have an effect. The AP not only deleted their tweet about Vance saying the shootings are a fact of life, but replaced it by saying he "laments" that they are a fact of life.

Newsweek's headline goes even farther to say he "decries" that they are a fact of life.

What he said was "I don't like that this is a fact of life."

Ok. I don't like broccoli or tailgaters but I'm not lamenting their existence, much less decrying it. The AP and Newsweek both responded to his anger by putting words in his mouth that made him look less callous.

Second, Vance's insistence that the AP had lost all credibility because it had misquoted *him* demonstrated an impressive amount of self-centeredness.

It reminded me of the self-appointed Mormon prophet, Denver Snuffer (his actual name). He was just some average Joe in the LDS Church who decided that God was speaking to the world through him. Instead of through the church's leaders like almost every other Mormon believes.

Brother Snuffer also believed the church had gone astray immediately after the death of Joseph Smith Jr and that none of the church's leaders since that time had done God's will. But he charitably accepted the church's authority in spite of the leaders' sins. In his view, nothing they had ever done (including polygamy, which he strongly opposed) had been enough for them to lose the authority of the Priesthood.

Until they excommunicated him. And suddenly God withdrew his authority from the LDS Church. So Snuffer founded his own.

In a similar way, JD Vance has until now been able to overlook every error in the AP's news coverage. Of course, such errors inevitably exist due to the fact that reporters are clearly human beings, which is not something we can say about JD Vance with the same certainty (talking about soft targets).

But as soon as he perceived there to be an error about *him* the news agency lost all credibility. There is perhaps nothing more revealing about this dust-up than that.

Finally, there is the very different ways his words are understood by his allies and critics.

His Republican allies are upset that his words were taken out of context and insist his entire statement is inoffensive. That is interesting in and of itself, because reading the entire statement doesn't seem to change the mind of his critics.

It seems that people who are disposed to view Vance favorably read his words and see one thing, while people who disposed to view him unfavorably see something else.

Imagining his intent is a big part of this. If you assume he could only have good intentions, you'll read his words one way. If you assume he could only have evil intentions, you'll understand them completely differently.

So for a moment, I would like to imagine he has a mild communication disorder and can't always phrase his words in a way that communicates his intent. I'm not going to discuss what he thinks and feels, only what he said.

“I don’t like this. I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you’re, if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets, and we have got to bolster security at our schools. We’ve got to bolster security, so that if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they’re not able to. And again, as a parent, do I want my kids’ school to have additional security? No, of course, I don’t. I don’t want my kids to go to school in a place where they feel like you’ve got to have additional security. But that is increasingly the reality that we live in.”

The facts of life he's referring to is that there are people who want to get their name in the headlines by becoming a mass murderer, and that schools are a "soft target."

The condemnation has been about him talking about school shootings as a fact of life. But what he said was that mass shootings are a fact of life and schools are an obvious target.

Is either of those true? If mass shootings were a fact of life, they would exist everywhere. Instead they are almost exclusively an American phenomenon. And are schools soft targets compared to WalMarts? Or Home Depots? Or malls? Or movie theaters? Absolutely not.

Aging is a fact of life. Illness is a fact of life. We have to accept them.

But are taxes a fact of life? Is abortion a fact of life? Is cancel culture a fact of life? Is anything conservatives fight a fact of life?

It sounds different when it's something you want to stop, doesn't it?

His defenders point out that he wasn't saying children are going to die and we have to accept that, but his entire statement still sounds callous to critics.

He is still saying that *someone* is going to die, and there is nothing at all we can do about that. And he is still saying the only way to stop school shootings is better security.

His defenders may find those ideas to be reasonable and true. His critics do not.

Gun control advocates point out over and over that this does not happen in other countries. Certainly not with anything like the same frequency. Something is different here. It may not be liberal gun laws, but it is something. And it must be something we can change. Nothing is inevitable about the existence of psychos who want to get their name in the headlines and see killing children in schools as an easy way to do that.

You can argue that he didn't mean for his words to sound like they did. That's a real possibility, given his social awkwardness and difficulty in communicating emotions. But his words were still what they were.

He is free to rephrase them.

[themthouse]

First-Sale Doctrine & the Economics of E-Books

Libraries are digitizing. This is undisputed. As of 2019, 98% of public libraries provided Wi-Fi, 90% provided basic digital literacy programs, and most importantly for this conversation, 94% provided access to e-books and other digital materials. The problem is that for decades, the American public library system has operated on a bit of common law exhaustion applied to copyright known as first-sale doctrine, which states:

"An individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a copyrighted work from the copyright holder receives the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, notwithstanding the interests of the copyright owner."

With digital media, however, because there isn't a physical sale happening, first sale doctrine doesn't apply. This wasn't a huge problem back in the early 2010s when most libraries were starting to go digital because the price of a perpetual e-book license was only $14 -- about the price of single physical book. Starting in 2018, however, publishers started limiting how long a single e-book license would last. From Pew Charitable Trusts:

"Today, it is common for e-book licenses from major publishers to expire after two years or 26 borrows, and to cost between $60 and $80 per license, according to Michele Kimpton, the global senior director of the nonprofit library group LYRASIS... While consumers paid $12.99 for a digital version, the same book cost libraries roughly $52 for two years, and almost $520 for 20 years."

Publishers argue that because it's so easy to borrow a digital copy of a book from the library, offering libraries e-book licenses at the same price as individual consumers undermines an author's right to license and profit from the exclusive rights to their works. And they're not entirely wrong about e-book lending affecting e-book sales -- since 2014, e-book sales have decreased while digital library lending has only gone up. The problem, they say, is that e-book lending is simply too easy. Whereas before, e-book sales were competing with the less-convenient option of going to the library and checking out a physical copy, there is essentially no difference for the reader between buying or lending an e-book outside of its cost.

Which brings us to the librarians, authors and lawmakers of today, trying to find any solution they can to make digital media accessible, affordable and still profitable enough to make a livable income for the writers who create the books we read.

Further Reading:

1854. Copyright Infringement -- First Sale Doctrine

The surprising economics of digital lending

Librarians and Lawmakers Push for Greater Access to E-Books

Publishing and Library E-Lending: An Analysis of the Decade Before Covid-19

Index:

MASTER POST

First-Sale Doctrine & the Economics of E-books

Controlled Digital Lending (CDL)

The “National Emergency Library” & Hachette v. Internet Archive

Authors, Publishers & You

-- Authors: Ideology v. Practicality

-- Publishers: What Authors Are Paid

-- You: The Ethics of Piracy

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics: Humor - In a Lovecraftian Vein.

1915: HPL's Output.

Intro: "The Simple Speller's Tale" is 1 of Howard's many attempts to steer his fellow UAPA members into using old- style English the same way he did.

In this particular effort, he tried to do so - with tongue in cheek.

In a reversal, HPL actually takes the side of 'modern' writers & equates their spelling usage with madness!

However, I've read of no other UAPA member who tried to follow in his footsteps...

The Work:

"When first among... amateurs I fell, I blushed in shame because I could not spell."

"Though skilled in numbers & at ease in prose, My letters I could never well dispose¹."

"Thoughts came abundant, language was the same; Yet none the less I... could (not) spell my name!"

"The kindly printer (with an eye for trade), A clumsy care for... my work displayed."

"Indifferent as I was, I used his art, Til critics cried, "My printer should be shot!"

"(So) boldly censured, I began to seek, A means to (prevent) the... reviewers' clique."

"My... eye in rage I cast around, When the wished-for plan I found."

"It happened on a Summer's holiday, That (thru) a madhouse gate I took my way."

"Within that bedlam² was a sage con- fined, Who... from too much study lost his mind."

"... Strolling out, in (his) watchful keeper's care, With childish sounds the madman filled the air."

"Still dreaming of his lettered days of yore, His ravings on remembered subjects bore."

"Dim came... what he used to teach, And he began to curse our... speech."

"... (Said) he, "The men that made our tongue, Were rogues... I shall have hung."

"For long established customs what care we? Come, let's tear down etymology³."

"Let spelling fly & (nothing) but sound remain; The world is mad & I alone am sane."

"(So) raved the sage; inventing, as he walked, A hundred ways to spell as talked."

"He simplified til his fancy bred, A system... as simple as his head."

"(A) scholar(ly) change he wrought, And altered, as he went, for want of thought."

"But I, attentive, heard with joyful ear, Wild distortions & perversions queer⁴."

"Why could not I defend my ill-spelled page? In progress' name & with (a) re- former's rage?"

"With hope renewed, I (hurried) home to write, And passing wonderful was my work that night."

"For classic⁵ purity I sought no more, But (made) worse blunders than before!"

"Oh fickle fortune! In a week my name, From scholar's praise attained (some) immortal fame."

"(While) other scribes with vague orthography⁶, Seized on the clever ruse & copied me."

"Today in every Skateville Amateur⁷, (Shapeless) letters pass as language pure."

"And when some... (perfectionist⁸) dares to raise, A voice (opposing) our (own) ways."

"We (know) the apt (remark) to give, (And) damn him as a... Conservative⁹!"

"Yet why on us your angry hand or wrath use? We do but ape Professor B_ M_¹⁰!"

Footnotes:

1. To arrange in a certain position.

2. Bedlam was originally the name of a London mental asylum.

The Bethlem Hospital became such a landmark, that it was visited by many tourists!

Which usually came with donations & charitable contributions...

Originally, the place was a monastery called Saint Mary of Bethlehem.

But, by the 1400s, the place became "a shelter for strangers in need."

Over time, Bedlam specialized in caring for those who couldn't care for themselves - especially the mad.

The place appears in many plays & ballads - including in Shakespeare's Hamlet & Macbeth!!

In 1676, the hospital was rebuilt to look more like a palace, complete with formal gardens & Corinthian columns!

Beggars started to pretend they were lunatics to avoid being sent to prison or a workhouse.

The palatial hospital survived til 1815, when it was torn down.

3. Etymology is the study of the changes that words go thru with the unfolding of time.

Scholars use it to find a word's origin & the change in meaning that word has gone thru.

4. Queer here would have meant "odd, peculiar, eccentric."

But, earlier it described things that were about "to spoil" or become a "ruin."

Even earlier, queer was something of a "puzzle, derision" or a "cheat."

As slang, however, it had several other meanings thruout time:

A. "To shove the queer" was actually, "To pass counterfeit money!"

B. "Queer Street" was an imaginary land peopled with persons & shady characters going thru difficulties...

C. "Queer as Dick's hatband" meant "being out of order without knowing one's disease."

D. "Queer Bitch" was an "odd, out of the way fellow."

E. "Queer Ken" described "a prison."

F. "Queer Mort" meant "a diseased strumpet."

G. "Queer Rooster" was an informer - who got his info by pretending to be asleep."

H. "To queer the pitch" described a traveling tradesman's & a showman's 'performance' being "interfered with" - usually by a policeman.

The "homosexual" sense appears by 1922.

5. The sense here seems to be classic English not Classical Roman & Greek.

So, Lovecraft's beloved 1800s English.

6. Orthography means "the correct spelling & punctuation for any used language."

7. Skateville is a city in Minnesota. One of Howard's friends, D.A. Wandrei, was from St. Paul.

Wandrei actually hitchhiked all the way from Minnesota - to visit HPL in Providence!

Later in life, Wandrei & A. Derleth co- founded Arkham House to keep Love- craft's stories in print.

Without this venture it's doubtful that Howard's work would ever have be- come as popular as they are right now.

But, HPL is probably writing about some amateur press association in Skateville...

8. Lovecraft has to be parodying him- self here in these 2 couplets.

9. This was the name of Howard's own political magazine The Conservative, in which this poem 1st appeared.

10. What last human name rhymes with "use"?

Could be interesting...

Also, HPL was talking about the now discredited teaching 'technique' of hitting (& shouting at?) students.

End.

[ensnaredearl]

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀DIARY ENTRY #3: Trancy Bloodlines

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀———————

More brainrot about the Queen’s Spiders and possible Trancy family ideas~!

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀——— 

Eleanor Trancy was a woman of grace and poise, known for her charitable works and deep religious faith. She was beloved by the local community for her kind heart and dedication to helping the less fortunate. Eleanor had always dreamed of having a large family, but faced numerous miscarriages and health complications. Her prayers were finally answered when she gave birth to a son. Eleanor saw her son as a divine blessing, a gift from God after years of heartache. Her life seemed complete, and she dedicated herself to nurturing and protecting her precious child. However, her joy was short-lived. One night, the heir disappeared from his crib, leaving no trace behind. The loss of her son was a blow from which Eleanor could not recover.

Consumed by grief, she became a shadow of her former self. Her once bright and vibrant personality was replaced by a somber and melancholic demeanor. Despite Richard’s attempts to console her, Eleanor’s depression deepened, and she eventually took her own life, unable to bear the pain of her loss.

Richard Trancy was initially a devoted husband and father, deeply in love with Eleanor and overjoyed at the birth of their son. However, the disappearance of him and Eleanor's subsequent suicide shattered him. The loss of his family left a void that he could not fill, and his grief began to twist into something darker.

Richard's initial reaction to his son's disappearance was one of frantic desperation. He used the vast resources at his disposal to search for the boy, sparing no expense in his attempts to locate his missing child. The fruitless search only deepened his sense of loss and hopelessness. Initially, he sought solace in the arms of other women, hoping to distract himself from his grief.

As time passed, Richard's grief morphed into an obsession. He became fixated on the idea of purity and innocence, qualities he associated with his lost son. This obsession led him to seek out young boys, whom he saw as embodiments of the innocence he longed to reclaim. He started to surround himself with young boys, believing that their presence could restore some semblance of what he had lost.

Richard's obsession grew more perverse over time. His need to control and possess the innocence of young boys became increasingly depraved. He began to derive a sick pleasure from their company, using his power and influence to manipulate and exploit them. His actions were driven by a desperate attempt to regain the sense of control and fulfillment he had lost with boy's disappearance.

Once Richard decided to adopt Jim as his heir, the real transformation began. Jim had to learn how to be an earl, a process that was both rigorous and demanding.

Jim received a comprehensive education, covering subjects such as history, literature, mathematics, and languages. This education was crucial for him to be seen as a legitimate noble. He also underwent extensive training in etiquette and social graces, learning how to conduct himself in high society, including proper dining manners, dancing, and conversation skills.

Jim was taught the intricacies of managing an estate, including overseeing finances, land management, and dealing with tenants and servants. He learned the importance of maintaining the family's power and influence, understanding both the overt and covert methods of control and manipulation used by the nobility.

Jim closely observed Richard and other nobles, mimicking their behaviors, speech patterns, and mannerisms. This helped him blend seamlessly into the world of the aristocracy.

He had to internalize the history and legacy of the Trancy family, integrating it into his own identity to convincingly pose as Richard Trancy’s biological son.

In public, Jim had to act like a loving son to Richard, he had to present himself as grateful and affectionate towards Richard, masking any disgust he felt. Displaying affection and respect towards Richard in public, such as attending social gatherings together, speaking highly of him, and showing visible signs of a close father-son relationship. Accompanying Richard to public events and meetings, offering support and appearing to be involved and interested in the affairs of the Trancy estate and wider societal matters.