#like if you guys didn't know it was lovecraft what the fuck did you think i was talking about that whole time 😭

[vulpinesaint]

sorry thinking about how i wrote an entirely lovecraft themed poem about transgenderism for my beginning creative writing class last semester and one single person besides the professor in that room full of english majors recognized that it was referencing lovecraft. i do not mean this in a way that shames people for not having read stuff or for not having the means to read stuff. but oh my god guys does anyone who is getting a higher level education in literature even look at the literary sources of common phenomena in media nowadays

[veliseraptor]

October Reading Recap

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: vol. 3 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. Still in the territory of a part of this book I remember fairly well, and while the whole underworld arc is good it's not my favorite part of the book and mostly I come away from it going "Rong Jiu has rights." which is true! and I do think Meatbun knows it actually but it still hurts how his arc goes here. Me: continually getting too wound up in the fates of side characters and distracted from what's going on with the mains.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to moving into the next parts of the book, which I don't remember as well. Though I know it's a while before it gets really painful, aka what I'm most excited to reread.

Dark Carnivals: Modern Horrors and the Origins of American Empire by W. Scott Poole. I was so frustrated by this book. I wanted it to be an analysis of horror films and their relationship to American imperialism; what I got was a lot of overwrought prose and repetition of the titular metaphor that was very light on the analysis of the actual texts and heavy on the scathing opinions about what is "good" (politically) horror and what is "bad" (politically) horror. Which, fine, my politics are technically the same as his politics, but it was annoying to read in a book that I thought was going to be more analytical. I had high hopes for this book and it failed them; makes me more hesitant to read his other book about horror and World War I, which I have had on my list for a while. But I liked his book on Lovecraft, funnily enough, so not totally sure what went wrong here.

Paradise-1 by David Wellington. I did not realize that this book was first in a series and I'm a little bit annoyed about it. It was decent horror but it doesn't need to be a series and the lack of resolution bugs me, because now if I want resolution I have to read the next book and I don't think I really want to read the next book. Space horror seems like it would be such a rich land full of possibility and yet I keep being disappointed by space horror. (If, in this case, less disappointed than I was by Dead Silence.)

Remnants of Filth: vol. 1 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. She's done it again! It's a differently fucked up relationship, to be sure, but boy am I already here for it, despite feeling like I know very little about what's going on. Gu Mang is my jam as far as character type, and I really like the dynamic as its laid out as having been previously between him and Mo Xi, and also how it is now. Dedicated friends/lovers turned to bitter enemies turned to one of them fractured to a shadow of himself leaving the other bereft of resolution...mm, good stuff. Can't wait to find out more about what's going on under Gu Mang's surface. Looking forward to reading more of this one and glad that I already have the second volume to go to. (And the rest, technically, but I do like reading cnovels in print when I can more than reading on a computer.)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Look at me! Reading classic sci-fi knowing only the bare minimum about it. I liked it more than I expected to, and was less bothered by the way the women were written than I expected to. I didn't realize that it was more a string of short stories tied together by a frame narrative than a novel, but it was really fine that I didn't know that going in - didn't affect my enjoyment, I don't think. And I did enjoy it! I might not have read it on my own, but I read it for a sci-fi book club and ended up liking both it and the book club. Not sure I'd give it, like, a strong recommendation, but I'm glad I finally read it. It'll be interesting seeing what echoes/traces of it I can now pick up in other robot/AI-related writing.

Monstress: vol. 5-7 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. This comic is so good you guys. So. Good. I don't really know what else to say here, except that she continues to step up her game even more with every volume, and I don't know how she's keeping all the balls in the air that she is with this story as deftly as she is. I have no idea where this story is going, either, and I can't wait to find out. I don't know. Themes of monstrosity and agency and lack of agency and how to be a good person (or try) in a terrible world. With a whole lot more than that. Also there's gay betrayal, if you're into that.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. Why do I continue to read Greek Mythology retellings when at best they end up making me go "eh, it was okay I guess"? Not sure. But this was okay, I guess. I liked the same author's Electra better.

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy. More of a "history of the western world categorized by periods of time in which there were various diseases" which...was not quite what I was hoping for, but it was still a good, solid book about epidemiology and the impact of disease on history. A lot of it was familiar to me (how disease enabled the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas, for instance, but also British colonization in North America), but I did learn some new things, particularly in the sections about Paleolithic/Neolithic diseases. All in all a book I read because I'm particularly interested in the subject but not probably one I'd recommend as the one book that they'd have to read about it.

The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson. I made it a goal in October to read some spooky books and ended up only reading three, but this was easily my favorite of those - and my favorite non-Darcy Coates horror I've read in a while, too. I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this one, and the slow reveal in the first two thirds particularly was very well done. I found myself slightly more compelled by the portions set in the past than by the present storyline, but not so much as to ding the whole book for it. And I liked that the monster was left pretty vague and undefined, too; that's always my preference. Some very gross descriptions and body horror, as a caveat for those who might be interested but are sensitive about such things.

Die: vol. 1-3 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. I'm finally rereading (and finishing) this series and...I forgot how much I like it. Not only because the art is gorgeous (and the art is gorgeous) but Kieron Gillen's writing remains as sharp as ever, and the way he is playing with fantasy as a genre is very fun for me as a fantasy nerd. My favorite issue remains the one about The Lord of the Rings, though. I don't know that this one is quite as good as The Wicked and the Divine as a whole, but I'll have to reread that one taken as a whole, too, before making that determination.

And the art really is gorgeous. Stephanie Hans remains a fave.

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism by Jeffrey Toobin. A decent narrative about the Oklahoma City bombing, certainly competently written, but he interrupted himself a little too often drawing parallels to January 6th, in my opinion, and I don't feel like I took anything particularly new or fresh away from this. Which is maybe an artifact of the fact that I've read a number of better books about the rise of right-wing extremism in the 90s, and this one wasn't one of them, but I'm going to go ahead and damn with faint praise when I say "it was fine."

currently I'm rereading Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey which is a fascinating text in ways that I'm going to need to chew on for a bit, so that I can finally read the sequel. but then a bunch of stuff came in for me at the library, so I'm next probably going to be reading Silver Nitrate by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, and then Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey, and then The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu, and then Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and then Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. or that's the plan, anyway. we'll see how fast it gets derailed.

also somewhere in there planning on reading more Female General and Eldest Princess and most likely the second volume of Remnants of Filth. I'm trying to spend less time on the internet in general (you absolutely could not tell I am sure) so let's make it a busy reading month instead.

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

what are your influences/inspirations for your art!! like, stylistically or thematically!

visual art, stylistically:

the Borderlands artstyle obviously. cel shading and outlines my fucking beloved. I am so fucking sad that gbx themselves is kinda toning down on it and that they didn't implement the crosshatch shader they put in teasers for bl3. come the fuck on

the Psychonauts artstyle. even if I do no longer draw in the hyperdeformed style I took from that game I still often deform characters and exagerrate their main features in order to make them more distinct. it also kinda made me addicted to shape language lolmao

Team Fortress 2. I am fucking serious btw. blame that one youtube video on its artstyle. it's been a formative experience for me when I watched it and it stuck itself in my brain. it made me appreciate blockiness/solidity/stockiness in art, as well as teaching me how to limit color palettes and how to draw attention to the important parts of the character by using color contrast.

as for actual artists and not. Video Games. I have been eyeing cubists and futurists recently (even went to a gallery with some of Picasso's earlier works) but it's nothing too substantial as of rn

visual art, thematically:

most of what I draw is characters & fanart so. yeah .

however one thing I've been enjoying recently is redrawing paintings or old photos. usually replacing the ppl in them with my fave old man yaoi. maybe it's cringe but they are a very "love in every time" sort of couple to me so :shrug:

literary art, stylistically:

positivist writing, particularly Lalka by Bolesław Prus. perhaps it's because I consider myself academically inclined, perhaps it's because naturalistic descriptions pander to my Biology Autism, perhaps it's bc of smth else idk

impressionism except not really bc im autistic and thus sensory descriptions come to me naturally

Terry. Pratchett. comparisons in my fics are often snappy(tm) as all fuck because they're, well, Borderlands fics, and to me a Borderlands novel should be Discworld-like. also because Discworld itself slaps

the work of Alexis Kennedy: the guy who wrote a lot of Fallen London, Cultist Simulator and also the Horizon Signal dlc for Stellaris. which is all shit im into. and good lird . its hard to describe you have to read this stuff for yourself

literary art, thematically:

again see the visual art section but largely my fics if they aren't self indulgent fluff are just. taken from my brain tee em because I cover topics or angles that the rest of the fandom wouldn't even think of

Alexis Kennedy again bc he writes gothic/cosmic horror. especially the latter. hoo doggy

other things that in general inspire me:

Darkest Dungeon. both the artstyle and the story have been big influences on me even tho I only played the game once and know everything abt it by watching youtube and bingereading wikis

the legacy of H. P. "Racist" Lovecraft. I guess. what can I say I am a sucker (haha) for those tentacles. except I do everything he ever did sexier and cooler and also he can go roll in his grave

legends, folklore, mythology and occultism. Hellenic of course since that's a big part of Borderlands symbolism but I ain't a coward I throw all that shit in there. slavic (creator bias lollll), norse, japanese, a bit of voudoun, biblical tradition, alchemy, tarot, et cetera. of course I usually don't talk about all the symbols that go into my Everything bc there's a crapton and everyone is entitled to their own interpretations but. yknow! and thats not even accounting for my love of assigning complex motifs to things

[monstermaster13]

Muppethell: calls Nathan out just because Nathan writes Dan Aykroyd fanfiction, and acts like he/they can speak for Dan Aykroyd

Werebelushi: Muppet, sweetie I'd hate to tell you this but if you don't like his stories, then maybe just maybe they're not for the likes of you. Really? You think they read like porn, oh you poor deluded creature. sarcastically Yes, it is Nathan's fault Dan Aykroyd is so sexy and thicc. Also you have a thing for the Childcatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, okay, why? You do know that dude is supposed to be scary, right? Oh, you developed a fetish for him when you first saw the movie as a teen, huh? Well that exclaims that then. You always were fucked up. Also how cute, you think you can speak for Dan Aykroyd. Dan doesn't know who you are and even if he did, i'd be afraid of you if I was ihm, because if your Martin Short hyperfixation is enough to go by…yikes. I know you're the one who keeps trying to make MartinShortXSteveMartin a thing, they're married and straight for pete's sake, just because they work together doesn't make them gay. And also YOU called Nathan out and called him out on the Simp Central discord server when all Nathan did was be himself. sarcastically Oh noes, Nathan wrote fanfic about someone turning into the very same celebrity you like, horror of horrors. Oh Nathan should be so lucky that it reads like porn, as far as those fics go it doesn't go over PG-13 or R in terms of mature content so you know, Mel rarely does sex scenes or even nude scenes due to how self conscious she is. You would have a heart attack if you discovered Furaffinity, CYOC and Transformania Time exist. Oh yeah especially the latter, let's just say one that starts off as an elderly person turning younger and turning into a muscular demon only to turn into a sexy female demon goes full on Cronenberg meets HP Lovecraft where he/she turns into a writhing mess of body parts. Oh yes, and the horse dildo story in CYOC. Nathan doesn't deny his weirdness in the slightest, in fact he acknowledges it and is revered for it, heck up until you started bitching about him, the people on Simp Central loved him. Oh, your muturals should hear this, huh? What mutuals? Like what person would agree with your bullshit views? No one that's who. Trying to get the other server members to ditch Nathan didn't help your cause. Also fyi calling John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd's 'dead best friend', seriously? Way to undersell John and Dan's friendship, man-bitch. Also if your boyfriend likes you, your brother either has poor taste or he very much was drunk when he first started following you because I can't imagine anyone being attracted to you at all, also lastly…uhh, hello, you left your fucking documentation about your headcanons on a public link that anyone could click on and edit, it's YOUR fault. Nathan just happened to click on it, but hey…I guess now everyone knows how you wanted to adapt new headcanon for the curator character from Alice Cooper's Welcome To My Nightmare. Speaking of which, I am going to make sure that you won't be sleeping for the rest of your life, call me Freddy, because i'm your nightmare on elm street. Fyi, it's just fiction, dude. I am not impersonating Belushi nor do I claim I am him, I am not using his likeness and name for illegal use, it is not like I am making NFTs with Blues Brothers sunglassess or anything. Anyone can dress as Jake or Elwood, it's not a complicated look to pull off, anyone can wear a suit and tie. Besides, multiple Dan Aykroyds going around sounds like fun. I like the idea of being Dan or his characters, except if it's Vic Frohmeyer…I hate that guy. If I was the admin of that server I would have kicked you off instead.

[heyitschartic]

Okay for those that don't know, in WoW when the universe was created some of the planets in it randomly had a world soul which is basically like the egg of a god, which are called the Titans. Now, the other Titans kinda keep watch over the various planets in the universe and whatever and make sure everything's on the up and up. Now there's also this thing called the Void which we won't get too deep into but it's basically a sentient force of nothingness that wants to pull everyone back into it and in order to do that sent void lords all over the universe to corrupt planets.

Now, these things are basically Old Gods from HP Lovecraft and when they landed on Azeroth they found the powerful world soul and were like "jackpot." Then the Titans found Azeroth with this powerful world soul being corrupted and were like "oh no." So they beat the shit out of these guys but since they couldn't pull them out without killing the planet imprisoned them inside of it.

This is where the Earthen come in.

The Titans created the Earthen as stone beings to keep watch on Azeroth and make sure the Old Gods didn't get out of their prisons. Now, these idiots did a fuck-ass job of it cause basically every single Old God got out at some point, but that's not really relevant. What is relevant is that one of them, Yogg-Saron, got out and was like "fuck these Earthen are hard to corrupt," and so he gave them the curse of flesh which turned them into Dwarves with skin and blood and bones and all that.

Now, here's the thing. The Earthen don't have kids. Since they're literally metal and stone they're created in factories that are really weird to have in a fantasy universe. So, we get to the crux of the question. Do. They. Have. Dicks???

They can't, can they? Like, why would they add dicks and vaginas to the Earthen? They aren't meant to be having sex. But obviously the Dwarves are having sex, or else how would they have children? To add another layer to it, the Titans didn't create all the beings on Azeroth, at least not directly like this. See, there are other creatures on Azeroth like Elves and Trolls that arose naturally from what was essentially sped up evolution and they have no connection to all this stupid shit and they also 100% have dicks (I checked personally: Moonguard realm, Goldshire Inn, hit me up).

So, then did this fucking Old God add a dick to the Earthen??? Why would he do that????? Did the Titans just sort of model these guys after other life forms on this planet and were like "oh most of these creatures have anisogamy, perhaps that is crucial to their function? Oh well, just slap it on." But then why model it after the creatures on the planet??? Are they stupid???? Actually, we meet the Titans later and know for a fact they are pretty fucking dumb.

I don't know, there's just so many questions and not enough answers. My girlfriend is convinced the Earthen do have dicks cause, in her words, "haven't you seen the Yonic nature of caves and rock formations," and also "what do you think Stalagmites are?" Both good points, and both things I can't refute.

I guess we'll never know...

My girlfriend and I have been arguing for the past three days about whether Earthen have dicks

[nicanario]

this post is a product of its time

tw: discussion of racism, homophobia, misogyny and a short mention of sexual abuse.

ok, this is basically gonna be a very long rambling post about my not fully developed thoughts on the justification many people give to bigotry when talking about the past: "it was a product of its time"

it would be fair to say, with me being a raging SJW socialist scumbag, that I don't think this is a very good argument and is most of the time actually an excuse to not think about the problems inherent to our society, historical or not, and, by extension, the problems with ourselves. but I do think that sometimes, just sometimes, this can be a valid point, or at least one that raises some interesting questions.

I'm going to cite examples from several pieces of media, but fear not, I'll try to make this as accesible as I can.

so, let's take Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) as our first case study. this show has, correctly, been called progressive by everyone except for clueless people who don't know much about Star Trek's history, Star Trek's crew, Star Trek's cast, or, frankly, Star Trek. because if you ignore the clear, sometimes in-your-face political history and present of the franchise, I don't think you know much about it at all. I do think you can call yourself a fan if you like it, you may have watched every single episode for all I know. but lots of mental gymnastics are needed to ignore the political progressiveness Star Trek has had since its very beginning.

episodes like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield are obviously anti-racist, at least in their intention. but the episode in question really is "a product of its time," and at the very end fails to uphold its ideals. the episode ends with the two aliens (who are LITERALLY. BLACK ON ONE SIDE. AND WHITE ON THE OTHER. BUT IN THE OPPOSITE SIDES.) fighting each other on their devastated planet, and the crew is like, "oh yeah if they both would give up on their hatred that they both share both of them equally" when it has been firmly established that one is the oppressor and the other one is the oppressed.

and that's a lot of Star Trek, not just TOS. even Discovery, one of the most recent series, has done Bury Your Gays (and Trans) TWICE (though both times literally rectified it, which is cool). there are episodes of the franchise that are overtly racist, or misogynistic, etc. TOS is lauded, mostly justifiably, as very progressive, especially for the standards of the time. they put a woman of colour as one of the senior staff, for fuck's sake. of course, when you analyse that same character, as with most of their intentions at being progressive, you'll see that she was relegated and sometimes even outright mistreated when she had the potential to be much more. but, at that time, it was a lot.

I had a friend (emphasis on "had") who, after I told him about TOS's both progressiveness and constant misogyny, told me something like "imagine feminists trying to complain about a show from the 60s." so, with unearned spite, he was, in some way, trying to make the argument that it was a product of its time.

you could say Star Trek, all of Star Trek, is "a product of its time" in the sense that it's not always perfect. uh, yes, I would agree. but that doesn't mean people have to accept it. well, I mean, the show is kinda over, you have to accept it's that way. but you don't have to accept that it's not wrong just because it was a product of its time.

H. P. Lovecraft, as another example, was a greatly influential writer whose works still shape a lot of people's ideas to this day. I have only ever read like one of his stories, so don't expect me to have an opinion on his works. but I can have an opinion on what I know about him as a person (he did have a life outside his writing, after all). and, yeah, he was a huge asshole. if you want to know more in depth about the subject, please watch Hbomberguy's video on him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8u8wZ0WvxI

but basically, he was incredibly racist & homophobic. some people might even say, "he was a product of his time." well, there are two possible rebuttals to that. the surface level one, and the one that examines why that argument is wrong to the core.

The Surface Level Response to "it was a product of its time": um, no it wasn't. Lovecraft was more racist than a lot of people even in his time. he wasn't just a guy who carried the racist beliefs of his society like everyone else, he was a reactionary who actively thought and discussed how racist he was, and how right he was for being that way. but that's only applicable to Lovecraft. one can't argue the same for Star Trek: TOS, because TOS did try to be more progressive and more anti-racist than the rest of its society. that leads us to the next response.

The Response that Actually Deals with the Fact that No Matter How Progressive You're Trying to Be, Your Failings Can Still be Criticized: the thing is, trying to excuse Lovecraft's or Star Trek's bigotry because they were "products of their times" misses the fact that racism is still wrong, and some people knew that in those times as well. people from these times weren't all naive or stupid or whatever. they had the capacity for rational thinking. they could stop and think, "hey, maybe what we're doing is wrong." and the fact is, some people did. not perfectly, not to our standars, but they did. everyone could have stopped and think. but most of them didn't, and we can criticize them for it. racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. HURT PEOPLE. horribly. massively.

also, even if you agree with the "it's a product of its time" argument, some people aren't criticising people's or work's bigotry: they're explaining why they don't want to experience it.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a 1977 Doctor Who serial, and it's one of the show's more racist stories. almost all the villains are Chinese, every single Chinese person is a villain. there's yellowface, slurs, stereotypes, the Doctor speaking nonsense words instead of actual Chinese, and a general belittling of Chinese culture.

note that I'm neither Chinese nor of Chinese descent. I have been searching for hours for a few posts I've read a while ago (some by people who are of Asian descent) about this episode and I can't find them. sorry.

suffice it to say, even though I love Jago & Litefoot (the audio series and the characters), it's not an acceptable episode at all. but it's also important to remark that, because of it, some people aren't going to want to watch it. sometimes, people aren't saying "the episode shouldn't be this way," which causes others to answer that it was "a product of its time." sometimes, people are just saying, "this is an episode that attacks real people. I don't want to see it. I don't care if it was common in that era to be racist, i don't want to experience it."

however, there is an interesting point to the "it's a product of its time" argument. after all, everything is influenced by its society, for better or worse. and we can't change it anymore. TOS sometimes didn't quite understand the political themes it wanted to explore. Lovecraft was a horrible bigot. Talons was racist towards Chinese folks. and that's that. I don't think we should change the episodes/stories or anything. edit them in any way. that would be, in a sense, changing history. and we wouldn't learn anything from it, about how we can do better.

I think there are two solutions to this:

1. warnings before starting the text: this was done with The Talons of Weng-Chiang. on Britbox, where you can watch Classic Who, this serial has a content warning before the start. that's good.

2. the removal as a whole of the text from some places: I think before applying this one, there should be a lot of thought put into each case. I don't think removing a whole serial of Doctor Who or Lovecraft's stories from anything would be, well, fair. especially on tv episodes a lot more people worked on those, not just the writers and the directors. Lovecraft's writing influenced thousands. we shouldn't erase them or anything. but sometimes, for some cases, we should.

those in the US might seen a Confederate statue being taken down. that is, in a way, a form of removal of a piece of history.

but that is a good removal. statues glorify. one sees a statue and probably thinks "this was a person worthy of admiration." they should be taken down, maybe even with a permanent mark of why this was done (a plaque that reads "a statue of X was here, but he didn't deserve it because of Y" could be put in place of the statues, for example).

another example is the removal from DVDs of the short episode A Fix with Sontarans, a Sixth Doctor minisode that featured Jimmy Savile, a presenter who was later found out to be sexually abusing children.

the removal of that minisode is good, actually. it's not a full episode (it's not even Doctor Who). some might say that's "erasing history" but, like, you can still find it online or information about it if you want. this minisode deserves removal from DVDs and Blu-Rays and whatever more than content warnings. it's not an important part of the show and it prominently features a horrible person who did horrible things during that time.

so, after all that, I have explained why I don't like the "it's a product of its time" argument. it is an interesting point that deserves to be examined, but it's not very good.

I have had this in Drafts for so long I've probably forgot some of the points I was going to make, but eh, what can you do? hope you enjoyed reading this.

bye

[bvnga-aprikot]

hey guys, i know this isn't WMMAP-related content whatsoever, but this came up on my timeline and i think it needs to be talked about.

i don't know if anyone else had talked about this but please read the article first because i think it'll help you understand what i'm talking about. with that said, i just want to say something to netflix and leigh bardugo: what the actual fuck?

if you don't know what shadow and bone is, it's a series on netflix based on two popular YA series' from the grishaverse (first one being the shadow and bone trilogy, and the second being the six of crows duo-logy) by leigh bardugo, who by the way is a part of the show's production. and as you can see, it got into a lot of trouble after it came out that the stunt double for one of it's characters, and i mean IT'S POC CHARACTER, turned out to be a white person.

with all this stuff going around with netflix from the ATLA incident where the writers of the original show left the production due to "creative differences" to netflix not casting a plus-sized actress for, again, one of the characters for shadow and bone, none of this should be surprising.

but that doesn't mean it should be brushed under the rug. there are so many talented people out there who could do stunts that are POC and better fit to be stunt doubles for Amita Suman, the actress who plays Inej Ghafa, said POC character. and yet netflix decided to use a WHITE PERSON, who not only put on a brown bodysuit to give the illusion that it was Inej, but also did BROWNFACE. you're telling me that there weren't any POC stunt actors they could've used?

and this didn't just occurred for Amita Suman, another actor on the show Jessie Mei Li who plays Alina Starkov also had a white stunt double as well! just goes to show how despite the diverse casting for this show, netflix doesn't even care for their POC actors. and what's more disappointing is that everyone had praised this show for it's diverse characters having an actual narrative in the story. so to see this being exposed only showed that netflix's shady behaviour hasn't even changed in the slightest.

and as the article says:

"Unfortunately, Hollywood has a history of whitewashing in stunts, and it's so commonplace that it even has a name: “Painting down." One Twitter user even pointed out that “wigging” is also commonplace — when male stunt performers stand in for women in shows or movies. And the continued use of brown- and blackface isn't just a problem in the stunt world — just last February, an extra who landed a minor role on HBO's Lovecraft Country posted a TikTok where she explained that she was covered in makeup significantly darker than her actual skin tone to play a part. HBO later apologized."

as someone who not only watched shadow and bone but also loved it, it's so disappointing that something like this happened during the making of this show. hollywood has been such a racist industry full of whitewashing and so much more. so if you see this post, spread the word. let netflix and leigh bardugo know that what they did was wrong. let other people who are big fans of this series be aware of this too! at this point, i've lost all hope for netflix and if they could to better, since they have a history of doing this to other shows (*cough cough* the winx club adaption *cough cough*).

thank you for reading this, and i hope you learn something from this.

[mushroomsandteeth]

Favorite Fanwork Day!!!

Too many to pick just one so lets GO!

I'm starting with people who have made fanart and side stories for my fan fiction because I literally think about them everyday and I'm so grateful.

Again, @rainydogco made my baby beautiful, I love it. He looks so handsome like, I think Butch would give you a kiss if he was real.

@felinalain made a side piece to my enormous fan fic that literally stars an in universe cat named Satan. Its adorable and I love it. I'm grateful everyday that such a minor character got attention.

Now onto ACTUAL Venom content

@deluxetrashqueen made this beautiful, almost-too-smart-for-me fic that combines Venom with the Thing novella. It is brilliant and you should be reading it

@dyradoodles said "fuck you Cates I'm making my own canon! With black jack! And a OT3 between Eddie, Flash and Symby!". Seriously though its a good read and a great dive into the mind of Eddie Brock. (Also check out their art, they good)

Eiichi made this AU that is probably one of my favorite Venom AUs. Its 9 parts and my favorite is probably the camping trip. I haven't been able to read the latest parts of it because I'm a baby bitch who can't handle angst, so, if you like angst there is that.

Nitrobot made this big beautiful piece and if you love Black Cat and minor Spider-man villians you should read it. I freaking love this thing. Also rare OT3 of Felicia/Eddie/Symby but it feels so earned.

old_blue made this and it is like Twin Peaks met Venom and had a baby. I kept trying to guess where it would go. This is like my jam and I love it.

Correction, THIS is my jam. Zuzeca mixed Lovecraft with Venom and even though Venom is my primary special interest Lovecraftian lore is my second. So this is just a sandwhiche of two of my favorite things.

LunaLeaf (Nixye) made this based off of the fic @schadenfiend was writing called "The Hand that Feeds". And I recommend both things cus the fic is great if unfinished and this pie recipe is amazing I have made it three times now.

I have more but I'm gonna cut it off here. Go check out @princess-of-peachtrees fics they are all great and too many for me to pick just one. @owlapinart , @d-erm @mentalrhapsody do great art that blows my freaking mind every time they post.

And if I didn't list you its because I spent over 60 minutes on this one post but I swear if you have a fic I most likely have read it and you know I'm always combing the tags for art. I love the fandom here and all our creators you guys rock.

@symbruary

[santaclausdeadindian]

Whining, huh?

Sure. For sure, really. You totally didn't prove me right at all.

I had no idea there was so many subgenres of fantasy, to me, it's sword + magic, and made up locations. That's why the scattershot of examples.

I haven't read any Conan stories since I was a kid, but it never once came off me as racist, even though the man clearly was, apparently. To me there was Conan, the kimmerian, who was just better than everyone else, mostly because of his muscles and because he was a barbarian, who didn't give a single shit about anything. Well, I guess rugged individualism is white supremacy, so I guess I gotta give that to you. I do remember one story where he was saved by his black friend from imminent death, or where he was saved by revolting slaves but I guess we all see shit into what we read. I'm from central europe, we care about which country you are from, not your skin color.

Now that you mention it, there is some painful contortions and torture in the Wheel of time books, I still only read I think 4 or 5 and not even in the correct order, so that part I don't argue, but to say that it's "about guys who can’t handle powerful women and how strong women Gotta Be Tamed by the mighty dick" is really fucking stupid in my opinion. The whole world is set up as a way more matriarchal than ours, men are the ones who can't handle the power, and need to be tamed, the most powerful people in the world are almost all women and those who aren't are either evil or going insane and will be. How the fuck did you get your conclusion? Yeah, I guess like three chicks are into Rand. There's the classic woman pines after the rugged, solemn man, who is too tragic to be in love with her with Lan and Nynaeve, if you are willfully ignore their power dynamic, or that he is essentially a slave. Like how is that series is a power fantasy to men? I mean for me, sure, I don't mind a powerful woman pegging me, but I'm the minority.

You are also dead wrong about Martin, although admittedly he botched the Dothraki somewhat, mostly in the military sense, but he is just not good at that. But if you read the books and not going on by the show, you should know that about half of essos is white and also enslaved. It does go on about the decadence of slaver societies, buddy, the inhumanity of it that does not care about skin color. There is also specific mention of slave revolts, the end of Valyria is likely a result of one, the Faceless men are a sect coming from slaves and Braavos, the probably most powerful entity on the continent has been doing it's best for centuries to stop slavery. Those decadent societies? Half of them are as white as Dany. The northern part of the continent, which is mostly follows the Faith of the Seven, a decidedly non christian, more philosophical faith considers it an abomination, while the defiently more Abrahamic type Red God faith openly and widely practices it. It is also pretty clear that most of these slaver societies won't survive the coming apocalypse, exactly because of the already brewing slave revolts. Then there's Dorne, which is racially diverse, way more gender-equal, because of the Rhoynar, who are about as white as your average indian.

But you are right, Dany is white, fuck that bitch, who was sold like fucking cattle at the very beginning of the story. What a Karen.

I also find it hillarious how apparently the one guy that you consider good, is the one with a helluva lot of unfortunate implications, regarding the handling of races.

Btw, originally, my butting in on you two gleefully agreeing how terrible some (white male) fantasy writers are, because I never in my life read anything that blatantly bad, not from my four examples at least, nothing to do with whatever hangups you have, just the blank ass, cardboard cut out writing style. Like I knew that Lovecraft was xenophobic as shit, that was obvious even back then when I read him, but he still could create one hell of an athmosphere. I only found out about the racism later, wasn't surprised, but never caught on it from his writing.

no one: white male fantasy authors who didn’t deserve to be canonized: The market was unlike anything he had ever seen before. There were people wearing hats and most people’s clothes were dyed. Some of the stalls had livestock for sale, while others sold food that, by the look and smell of it, was neither mushy nor flavorless. The women looked like they wanted to fuck him, and the men had brown skin. There wasn’t a Pound Sterling anywhere in sight. Somewhere nearby, someone was playing an instrument. His senses couldn’t take it all in.

[hashtagsmitty]

Smitty's Thailand Adventure - Day 7

Goddamn happened again - I spent two hours on this post and my phone deleted it.

In which snakes get tortured, an expatriot hero is honored, a suit is fitted, and axes don't get thrown.

I slept weird again last night - I'm not used to box spring mattresses. I have a Koala foam mattress and April has a futon, so springs poking me in the ass all night is a new experience for me. Plus the air con, it's hot then it's cold, etcetera.

Usual morning routine - the Hitler Youth and White Family Mart for breakfast. I planned my day while I ate - I wanted to visit the snake farm. Technically, the late queen's memorial snake farm. I thought that sounded awesome.

Skytrain to Siam, swapped to the other line. Not much new to say about the skytrain except there's this jingle that one of the ads plays that I will never get out of my head. Also, there's barriers around some but not all of the platforms, and the train stops perfectly such that the doors are between the openings in the barriers. It's pretty special.

Crazy Thai traffic aside, I made it to the snake farm. It looked like something out of the Walking Dead:

It was mostly the rust on the spikes. And the overgrowth. And the barriers in front of the entrance. And the red cross trucks unloading pallets of gear. I did not think I was supposed to be in there, but the sign said this way to snake farm, so in I went.

I found the place fine. Once I got past the zombie movie shit anyway. The farm looked awesome!

It was a big pagoda with open air snake enclosures all over the place. Very tropical, very novel. There was a big old rat in one of the enclosures. I watched him for ages to see if a snake was going to get him, but he was as still as a statue, with only his tiny rat ears twitching.

After the pagoda was an indoor museum - much the same, but with single cages for each snake. With glass. It wasn't quite what I expected from a Thai snake farm - far more like a zoo than a snake farm. Not enough zero-fucks-given Thai dudes with snakes wrapped around them. I looked at the snakes for a while. This guy was my favourite:

He's a Malayan Mangroce Cat-Eye Snake. I think he's gorgeous. I also thing I have a thing for snakes. They're like nature's ropes.

There was maintenance work going on inside - some drilling or digging or something. Lots of noise. I found it unpleasant, and I'm not a creature whose entire experience of the world is through vibrations. I didn't stay long inside, and left straight after.

I'm not 100% certain that I would never get a snake as a pet. I was before the snake farm, but now I'm not sure.

On the way back to Siam, I saw the Jim Thompson store! I had to go inside and pay my respects to a true expatriot hero.

Thompson's business was selling Thai silk, so the entire store was silk scarves and shirts and other stuff. Expensive silk stuff - one shirt was $200. The cheapest thing I saw was a scrunchie for $40. I looked around for a while then left, richer for having experienced the life of a great man. Also richer for not having bought any of that tourist bait.

I went back to Siam and went book shopping. I had almost finished Growth Mindset and needed something else for the plane. I found this awesome bookshop:

It took up the whole floor, it was so big. It had the largest non-fiction section I'd ever seen. I spent an hour walking around looking at stuff. It was great. I love bookshops.

I bought Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius, a stoic philosophy book I've been meaning to read for ages. I also got The King in Yellow, by Robert W. Chambers. Lovecraft listed it as one of his influences, and I love spooky.

The coolest bit was that the clerk wrapped the two books in plastic to keep them safe. I thought that was a really cool idea, and I was impressed by how quickly she wrapped them - like 5 seconds each. I only noticed later that the plastic had the store's logo on it - even better, now I won't forget its name.

I went home via Thai KFC. I wanted to try it before I left. I knew it was a mistake going in. I always know that KFC is a mistake going in, but this was bad. Weak McDonald's style chips, boring chicken "pops". A waste of time, what with bonchon around the corner. I regret it immensely.

I went home and chilled out for a while - it's been a big week. I've walked a good 75km, according to my phone. I finished Growth Mindset and wrote some notes, listened to music, charged my phone, lazy stuff. Josh texted me and I met him at my station. We went back past Siam to a station near the tailor.

We got bonchon chicken for a late lunch/early dinner. It was great - best I've had in Thailand, and way better than the culinary abortion I had for lunch before. I distracted Josh with a game I've been playing :

It's a programming game, which is 100% Josh's thing. He hated it, but couldn't keep his hands off it. It's based on Assembly, a really old programming language. The first one, pretty much. It frustrated him because it wasn't like normal programming, but I thought it was a good challenge in thinking iteratively.

We walked to the tailor from bonchon. I cursed that I was going to be fat for the fitting. Josh could barely move - we got 18 pieces of chicken and he had 12 of them. I was still full from my mistake earlier.

On the way, I told Josh how frustrated I was with Bangkok's footpaths. There are lips and cracks and broken bits of concrete everywhere. Manhole covers that could drop you into a sewer if you're not careful. Just look at this:

That's a tame one. I've lost count of how many of these things I've tripped over. Or on trick edges to the footpath - step down onto the road, expect it to be level, nope there's another step down, don't you look smart. Or, walking down the steps from the skytrain, again, expect it to be level. Nope! It's on a raised platform, enjoy your trip, see you next fall.

Josh told me to not stand on the manholes.

We walked past some massage girls. I finally saw first hand what Josh has been talking about all week - they pretty much screamed at him. "hey handsome man," they'd say, and he'd say "no thank you," and they'd say "come over here sexy," and he'd say "no thanks". It looked uncomfortable for everyone involved.

I don't know if I Iook less approachable, less wealthy, less naive or less desperate, but none of them have reacted to me like that. Maybe it's because he's 6'3".

We got to the tailor. The suit was almost ready :

Looks awesome - the vest turned out exactly how I wanted it to. The tailor is going to courier it to the hotel tomorrow after some last minute changes. I hope.

We walked back to the skytrain, but the foot traffic was terrible. Peak hour in Bangkok is insane compared to Melbourne. We couldn't even get onto the platform last time we tried. So, we sat down at Starbucks and shot the shit for a while. I showed him my notes on Growth Mindset, and we argued about that a while. He talked about how he was going to do some of Bill's contract, then renegotiate. Seemed reasonable.

We headed home around 8 - our earliest night this week, but it's been a big one for both of us. Josh is moving to a new condo tomorrow. The train ride back was bittersweet - it's been a fun holiday. We both said while walking around that there's very few people either of us could hang out with for a full week without going crazy. He's probably coming back to Melbourne next month though, so it's not too bad.

I'm going to miss him when I head back. But I'm not going to miss much else. Bangkok is -

I guess I'll save my thoughts on the city for when I'm safely no longer in it.

I found this set of signs on the street today and it made me laugh:

[persephone-of-the-pomegranate]

Separate the art from the artist ffs

If you're going to preach this kind of stuff then you need to look into every aspect of your consumption.

Look into consumer fetishism and only buy things knowing where they are sourced, this means no more cool shirts, jeans and underwear that were made in a Bangladeshi sweat shop that violates human rights so bad they'd sooner lock all emergency exists to prevent people from leaving in the event of a fire letting them burn to death or jump to their deaths, no more Brazilan dark roasted coffee or central American bananas, no more enjoying kpop because of those slave contracts they push on the performers, or movies with now convicted fellons no matter how many academy awards they have won, oh the music director of a new movie has a rape allegation? don't watch it out of principle. H.P. Lovecraft? His works are now irrelevant because of the name he gave his cat, you can't enjoy them anymore.

Practice what you preach or don't preach it at all. Just some thoughts on the topic, if you can't seperate the the art from the artist then you'll find yourself unable to enjoy things you might actually love, you limit yourself on what you can consume taking away any positive emotions you feel for something that actually makes you FEEL because oh they did a bad thing.

Anyone and everyone can be cancelled even you, remeber that, everyone has skeletons in their closet and if we use that logic in conjunction to interactions with things consumer facing or not then even the idea of working in retail or in fast food to make ends meet shouldn't even be so revolting and gut wrenching in your mind you will never do it because you will be interacting with people, so many people the chance that the person you just talked to, made you laugh, smiled at and told to have a great day, that preson might be a convicted pedophile, that old person who acted reasonable, the one who made you think "they were so cute and nice I wish I seen more like them" could have beat their children so bad they never had a chance at a normal life. Statistically speaking exposing yourself to that many people regularly means you will run into them and not even know it, not for a second.

That last bit is extreme (as shit) and considering this platform will probably offend but that is how I illustrate my point, either everything is okay or nothing is, none of this in between hypocritical bullshit people carry out their lives with. It's like supporting PETA and owning a cat, it just doesn't really make much sense.

Disclaimer: This blog is dedicated to playing devils advocate so whether it is actually my opinion or not I am leaving this post to be criticised just like everyone else has, the ones stating thier opinions, I am not attacking any one person not do I plan on doing so (except Lovecraft, fuck that guy and his works), just making a moot point towards some of the attitudes that seem to be included in the posts replies. I didn't come for an argument I just want to give some extreme food for thought.

quick reminder that blizzard straight up attempted to censor and punish someone for raising awareness about the insane human rights violations currently going on in Hong Kong and you should not give them a fucking penny

i don't care how much you love diablo, wow or overwatch, they want you to forget about the blitzchung incident

for the love of god hold them accountable for what they did

fuck blizzard.