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system-of-a-feather · 9 months ago

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there's a solid chance you've talked about this before and I just missed it, so I'm super sorry if thats the case, but if you feel comfortable discussing it: what are your thoughts on the whole tulpamancy cultural-appropriation debate? i feel like the debate is populated by a disproportionate amount of non-buddhists, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it as someone who is actually part of the affected group.

have a good one!!

-ray (@rayssyscourse)

Oh I have talked about it A LOT cause its one of the topics I like to think about and examine from different perspectives (and debate within our parts a lot) but I absolutely don't mind being asked about it. Tbh I welcome any like specific questions cause it's a very complex topic imo that I really honestly couldn't do justice in a single post if I wanted to, particularly since my opinions are pretty complicated. I'll link some of the more recent-ish posts we've made on the topic cause it's easier than going into each of them. I often talk about it whenever I have a Thought On The Matter that I feel is worth sharing AND I have the energy to do so.

The short answer is that I honestly think its way too complicated than any straight forward "side" or answer I could simply summarize in anything less than maybe five paragraphs and even then I'd probably do my opinion disservice.

I do take pride in being one of the main runners who started the first relatively recent wave of Tulpacourse like in 2021 or 2022 I think? At that point I hadn't gotten too into Buddhism beyond a cursory ankle dip into it since I found that when I went into it earlier, as much as it was helpful, it fucked with our dissociation a lot so a lot of my views then were built on a reverence but superficial skin deep understanding of Buddhism (which is still much deeper than the average person's understanding of it since even on a skin deep level there is a lot of misunderstandings due to the western mysticism of Buddhism) and mainly charged from my experiences as a POC interacting with white people.

Generally, I do stand slightly on the "if I have to pick a side" opinion of "it is cultural appropriation and people should probably not use it" as I feel a lot of people that want to use the term don't acknowledge and want to consider the complications, history or any of the details to it and with the community as it stands, I don't think there is enough genuine and honest respect to the history of the term "tulpa" and the harm its done and the relationship it has to orientalism / cultural appropriation and what not. So generally speaking, if you made me say "which side to I stand with", I'd probably lean on the "yeah its cultural appropriation and shouldn't be continued" but that's really only on the conditional that - for whatever reason - talking about it and discussing the nuances, intersectionality, history, and present issues / aspects of the term is off the table.

Ideally, I'd honestly really just like to be able to have a not-heated no-judgement no-name-calling no-winning/loosing discussion with people in the tulpamancy community about a number of things and compared and contrast experiences, practices, values, etc of the tulpamancy community against that of Buddhists and ALSO talk about the complicated and problematic history it has and what can be done to better respect the history.

I don't (anymore) think that people HAVE to not use the "tulpa" term and I really don't think its productive to try to make someone not use a term just by saying "stop its bad" or "stop its racist". I think its much more productive to hold a discussion and talk about it and develop a much more developed understanding of the term and it's history and its relation to complex topics.

I do think there is a large racism issue in the tulpamancy community though, but I don't think its fair to dunk an entire practice, concept, and community based on the bad apples, even if the bad apples may be the majority and/or the loudest bunch.

I've been meaning to continue a conversation on the topic with @discourse-by-candlelight but the two of us are awfully cursed with the "we actually find this topic really interesting and important and so we want to be able to dedicate our full attention and mental space to genuinely considering the information provided and responding with my thoughts and thus RARELY have that ideal perfect mental place to reply"

But honestly, I think there's a lot more benfit to talking about the many intersecting and complex topics within tulpacourse than just simply regurgitating and parroting the not-wrong but also not-right "tulpamancy is cultural appropriation". I also think its especially not helpful when people parrot that in a context that is not it's original intent or use it to push an agenda that is not inline with the original values and intent in statement

(that being, the core issue with that statement is that tulpamancy is bad because its built upon orientalism, eastern mysticism, and just white people taking advantage of eastern cultures; therefore people who actively state other things that ALSO harm AAPI / eastern cultures should not be pretending to be an ally to AAPI; for more on this read the third linked post below)

But genuinely its something I have a lot of thoughts on and if you got any specific questions feel free to ask, cause honestly I like talking about this stuff and navigating the complexities of it and I'd really like to see a more nuanced and conversational discussion on the topic of tulpacourse.

Here's a bit of a directory of some recent-ish posts on it from us:

Nuanced Perspectives and Aspects to Consider in the Tulpamancy-Is-Appropriation Debate and My Thoughts

Anon Asking About the Term Thoughtforms

People who say "tulpamancy is cultural appropriation" but then state that plurality is inherently clinical / disordered / only due to trauma are honestly acting more annoyingly white / western than people who do engage and use the term tulpa / tulpamancy (also known as me being a clown and making "one" post about tulpamancy, spoiler it was way more than one post)

General Reflections on Buddhism, Plurality, Final Fusion / Functional Multiplicity

#tulpacourse #sysconversation #ask #asks #buddhist posting

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chiarrara · 1 year ago

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Nanami anon here. I really hope they develop Mahoro with these sorts of themes in mind. I can't believe I forgot the princess aspect of Nanami, it's such a big thing in Utena in regards to self delusion and how people end up stuck in gendered social roles. This general perspective is what's keeping me interested in Bucchigiri cuz I can see so much potential for that sort of depth. I'm so glad I could help spark this sort of discussion (it's been sorta hard to find people willing to engage with these kind of interpretations).

Hiiii Nanami anon! I'm so glad you came back!!

Yes I think this story is so interesting even just in the potential it sets up. If it doesn't deliver on that potential it could be disappointing, I guess. but it brings up a lot of interesting discussions either way, so I'm just enjoying where we are right now and the conversations going on in the criminally tiny fandom.

To be completely honest i spent a lot of time arguing with people about the literary worth of this show on another platform and it was just depressing. Nobody wanted to engage deeper than surface level appeal, and only would approach it through an extremely narrow lens of expected tropes of the type of show *they* wanted to watch, and a demand for pandering to one type of fan in a genre it doesn't even really belong to, instead of honestly approaching it for what it is and the story it's trying to tell. I've been trying to curate my experience more so I can actually enjoy myself, and interacting with the small community of people here who actually like to enjoy and analyze the show within the literary conversation it's clearly trying to have has been so much more fulfilling.

ANYWAY, I love what you're bringing up because self-delusion is such a big theme here! and specifically how it interacts with compulsory gender roles!!! Like, Arajin is trying so hard to fulfill compulsory heterosexuality, but is running away from the very masculine coded honor-through-fighting that senya and the general culture value. A lot of people suspect that his pursuit of losing his virginity is a way to make up for his self-perceived weakness and failure to uphold the masculine ideal of honor-through-fighting when he was young.

THEN when MAHORO stands up and displays that ideal, he is able to achieve it (at least for a moment). There's also discussion that if this follows Aladdin, he's going to lose the genie and some point and will have to essentially prove himself as honorable without the genie's help. This could be interesting. We'll see what happens.

So is fighting masculine coded in this show? Or is it just the height of honor? Or is fighting for the right reasons or in the right ways honorable. Because not all the fighting is portrayed as a good thing.... I'm thinking out loud here.

Anyway, Mahoro is also stuck in this gendered role obviously, but I wonder how much self-delusion will play into it. She believed she needed to use her role as a cute girl to stop the fight, but all those attempts failed. Ultimately what worked was dropping the facade, dropping the role & those tactics, and standing up to fuckface (i do not care about this man I'm so sorry lol) as HERSELF. Saying what she really thought, how she really felt about these people and the whole situation. And basically willing to sacrifice her well-being to do so. Ooooh this is so interesting!!!!

I really can't wait to see where this goes, I know I keep saying that but. It's true. I mean, Matakara could be said to have some delusions about honor. Maybe the way he sees his brother is diluted. He believes in Arajin to a fault, but he was proven correct. Although it wasn't him that sparked the change. I dunno, a lot to think about.

I'm so glad I could be an intermediary for this discussion! I don't know anything about Utena, but if y'all do feel free to talk through me lol. I'm loving this.

#bucchigiri?!#bucchigiri #jin mahoro #arajin tomoshibi #matakara asamine #revolutionary girl utena #mahoro jin #bucchigiri analysis #bucchigiri meta #bucchigiri predictions

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tonydaddingham · 1 year ago

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LWA: This is just a mini-ask, but I've seen people comment before on Crowley's waiter jacket, and while the lapels are genuinely different from the others, the rest of the look, as far as I can tell, is because Crowley /does not understand how to wear it/. From the way it is draping at the front, he has the hanging loop attached--which you should not do while actually wearing the jacket!--and the sides aren't shorter, but tucked into the cummerbund. Which also, no. I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be a deliberate costuming parallel to Gabriel's own misadventure in suit jackets, where he has neglected to cut open the back vent. Aziraphale and Crowley are more humanized than their employers, but they are still "off."

to be honest with you, LWA, mini/silly asks are very welcome at the moment!!! the details on crowley are really cool, and to my shame i'd never really paid much attention to it!!! it's not so obvious in this post (in fact i don't think the jacket is closed here, there's too big a gap?) but by 'hanging loop', im guessing that you mean this little clasp thing going on here?

(also love the detail of what i think is a FiH knot, as opposed to the other servers, who im guessing are sporting half, maybe full, windsors. iconic)

as for the cummerbund disaster... from the back it definitely looks bunched and bulky, or at least the shirt definitely is (which in itself... yeah, negates the whole point of it - is it even sat in the right place?? looks like it should sit a smidge higher??) but from the bottom right, the cut of the jacket would suggest it's not long enough to be standard length, and the front finishes, and angles up, in a cropped shape at the waist (more like the front of a very high tailcoat cut?)... odd:

edit because ive just looked at this again - it does quite literally seem like it's a tailcoat cut, and he's tucked the tails into the cummerbund? crowley wtf are you doin my love you're an enigma

regardless of the specifics though, crowley in particular dressing just slightly out-of-place is a really cool detail, especially in his historical dress; people always remark on aziraphale's clothing being slightly - or completely- out-of-touch, but crowley in his own manner dresses slightly off as well, absolutely.

slightly unrelated, and took me a hot minute to find it, but this overview of his rome attire is an example of awesome details demonstrating that crowley might not blending in as much as he intended. and bernadette banner's (1:26:45) review of their 1827 dress was really interesting too, indicating that crowley oftentimes dresses 'ahead of the time'. its plausible that crowley would just dress in a way that he thinks is accurate, but from a human's perspective is just completely foreign, and whether his attire just happens to be noticed by the right people, or its another subconscious (demonic?) power-of-influence thing, what seems to be slightly incorrect dress for the exact, specific period suddenly becomes trend-setting fashion.

but then again, we get his nanny costume, which the book chalks that up to him having watched mary poppins; goes to show that sometimes crowley doesn't quite recognise the shift in time period where dress is concerned, and instead takes the pop culture idea of what a nanny would dress like, and runs with it.

i like the thought that gabriel (and maybe all the angels, when they visit earth, to varying degrees) might dress a little strangely/have some faux pas going on, but got to confess - can't spot where gabriel's vent stitches might still be tacked? from what i can see, in s1 he has a double-vented jacket that appears to be open, and then in s2 has a ventless/ double-pleated vent jacket? possibly? (@everyone timestamps most welcome; i was scouring both seasons half asleep at 2am)

seems like he still has them tacked in his coat though which, yeah, is a really amusing detail:

#i live for the details in this show truly #good omens #ask #costume meta

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thedreadvampy · 5 months ago

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Midcentury American novels update:

Finished Farenheit 451 on Thursday and it didn't hit me to the degree Catcher in the Rye did but I do completely get the sense of despair and the hunt for something to cling to. Umm also there's an actual nuclear apocalypse in this book which I. Did not know through my general cultural osmosis. And it made a lot of the stuff that initially read a bit as 'you can't say ANYTHING now cause of 50s Woke' less irritating in hindsight, cause the looming presence of nuclear war gives some real crunch to the overall theme of looking away from the discomfort of acknowledging what's wrong. Still not 100% comfortable with 'well we started burning books lest minorities become offended' as a midpoint comment but like I read this when I was 12 or 13 and very much came away with the sense that it was a shallow What If TV But Too Much kind of story that was very pleased with its own intellectualism. and I don't really think that's what it is I think it's a primal scream of WON'T ANYONE DO ANYTHING????? CAUSE I AM TOO SMALL AND TOO STUPID AND TOO COMPLICIT BUT NOBODY ELSE IS MOVING EITHER???? which you know. I can connect with at this time.

anyway then I reread One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest yesterday. That one I actually have read as an adult, like 10 years ago, and what I remembered mostly from it was the degree to which either the characters, the author, or both, truly despise women. On reread I don't think that's entirely fair, although it's hard to tell inside one character's very limited and metaphorical perspective - I don't think Ken Kesey hates women, I think that Candy and Sandy are relatively whole people and the other women in the story are avatars of the system abusing the men on the ward, so Chief Brogden sees them as such. Getting over the general 60s misogyny miasma, though, I really really liked it and stayed up very late last night finishing it, I think it has a lot of very coherent things to say about trauma, power and marginalisation and I think it's all a bit Foucault. It's odd that I remembered it as being very het-white-American-male in tone because this time around it felt very interested in how people are artificially marginalised in order to preserve power, and specifically in the violent assimilation of Indigenous communities, so I truly don't know why I went away last time feeling it was so tone-deaf. It's really good, is the thing.

(As a side note, cause Sam's copy is an 80s film tie in copy - there's no fucking way that film is good, right? Cause I actively cannot imagine how you would make a film adaptation of a book that exists so much in one mostly-silent character's head, kind of unmoored from time and moving between reality, metaphor and hallucinations, and with a fairly distant relationship to the literal events, and have it not be shit. Animation could maybe do it and you could potentially do it with a really good effects department to establish early on that this isn't a neutral, literal depiction, but even so it feels like doing this in a visual medium would undercut the fact that most of the book's story involves stuff that isn't really happening on a visual or audible level.

Like about a tenth of the text is Chief Brogden drawing connections, conclusions, describing the emotional and sensory experiences of things like dissociation, anxiety and electrocution, and generally explaining why the things that he and the other patients do that seem random make sense to him. And even with heavy voiceover it seems to me that a) a film would mostly be us watching mental patients act the way we expect mental patients to act, without the insight we get through his eyes, and b) it would inevitably need to be about what a guy McMurphy is, either positively or negatively, which to be entirely honest is kind of not what the book is about even though that's the plot of the book?)

The book isn't about McMurphy, it's about people realising they've not only had their agency taken away, but given it up themselves, and how they react to that and what it would mean to reclaim that. McMurphy's one of several people going through that arc, and he's going through it in an opposite direction to the people around him, but it's not more about him than about Chief Brogden or Billy or Harding or even Nurse Ratched. But I feel like because of how film language works, it would be very hard to make a film of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest where McMurphy wasn't the main character. And he's not. Chief Bromden is the main character as well as the narrator - his life is defined by people collapsing under unbearable pressure and giving up their freedom and agency, which is how his tribe lost their land and how he lost his agency and his power of speech, and watching McMurphy force the people in power to subdue him by force rather than him caving in, the Chief makes actual choices about how he wants to respond to power that don't involve him falling out of reality or becoming invisible. and I think like halfway through I was like 'ehhh don't really get why Kesey went with a specifically Native protagonist' and by the back end of the book it is extremely clear to me why.

Cause his arc has a lot to do with the violence against indigenous communities and while I don't think that the book is primarily a metaphor, per se, because it very much is literally about institutionalisation and the stigmatisation of inconvenient Madness, I do think it's also saying things it wants us to apply to other relationships of power and assimilation, starting with the forced assimilation and land theft of Native Americans, and touching in on class, politics, race and sexuality more generally. Not much on gender, mind - I don't think that it does actually despise women, but it also isn't very interested in interrogating anything about them other than the impacts they have on men, which 🤷‍♀️ 60s innit.

idk I liked it a lot. I liked Farenheit 451 pretty well and better than I expected to, but Catcher and One Flew have both got me in this kind of rambly post-read mode where I'm just turning them over and over in my head to look at them, you know?

#red said

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biblicalhorror · 5 months ago

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Finally got to what is (I think) the climax of taash's gender storyline last night [SPOILERS]

First, I want to say I think Taash as a character and what they're going through with gender struggles makes a lot of sense. Qunari traditional gender roles vs. Gender roles in Rivain are naturally at odds, so it makes sense that they'd not really feel like they fit neatly into any role. Their nonbinary identity makes sense, particularly with their personality being very "specific labels are confusing, words are not my strong suit, I just wanna be me" kind of attitude. I used to say that they should have come up with some new qunari-specific words for nonbinary, but I think given the broader context of this conversation being not just about gender but also about Taash feeling torn in multiple directions culturally, it made sense for them to use a more nonspecific term like nonbinary, particularly if Rook encourages them to embrace their Rivaini side.

I also liked hearing Shathaan talk about how she essentially had to go against her own "gender role" so to speak, being a scholar rather than a mother under the Qun but still choosing to put Taash's wellbeing above her own by escaping the Qun after giving birth to Taash, presumably instead of handing them over to the tamassrans, because she was worried that Taash would be exploited and raised as a weapon for the Qunari army. I really believed that a scholar would see her infant start to breathe fire and immediately worry about the broader implications re: imperialism and violence. I think that was really interesting insight on her character's values and motivations and gave some new dimension to the gender talk.

Also, I will say that as a nonbinary person myself, this scene felt extremely familiar to me. Shathaan reminds me of my own mother in many ways (she was also definitely meant to be an academic rather than a mother, she cares deeply for her children but shows it through constant criticism and disapproval, she would absolutely refuse a meal I made for her bc it was "too rich" and demand raw vegetables instead) and I'm sure that was the intention here. Because it reminded me so much of my own coming out to my mother, I did feel emotionally invested.

However, that brings me to my main gripe: what I don't get is why Shathaan seems so tied to, let's face it, human ideas of gender and gender roles while also clearly basing her own identity around gender in the Qun. It's been previously established that "men" are soldiers and generals and occasionally spies under the Qun, and "women" are basically everything else, from scholars to mothers to artisans, and while there is generally an assumption placed on you for your assigned gender at birth, genitals are broadly irrelevant to those categories and it is not uncommon for people to switch categories based on aptitude. It's very strict and austere from what we know, but Taash being a "woman" or not seems like it should be mostly irrelevant to a follower of the Qun, especially because Shathaan seems to know that they are a fighter regardless. If anything, she should be confused that Taash isn't a man. It's not like we see her trying to get Taash to pursue "womanhood" under the Qun by honing non-combat skills. I just don't get her angle, and it frankly feels like the writers weren't really thinking about what an authentic perspective would be from this character and they're just kind of copy/pasting a common real-life dynamic between a nonbinary child and their parent onto this conflict instead of really taking the time to reckon with how this perspective would look within this fictional culture. At the same time, they're using these words and phrases to show us that they DO in fact remember established Qunari lore, which honestly took me out of the scene a bit because none of it really follows the same logical path. It confuses me, to be honest.

I still haven't finished the game yet, so maybe I will change my mind again. Who knows!

#dragon age taash #datv #datv spoilers #qunari gender #(very mild)#bioware critical

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transmalewife · 2 years ago

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does anyone have any leftist reading on the subject of tourism to recommend? Specifically about how travel for fun, education, sport, friendship or whatever might work in a communist or anarchist or socialist society. Because like yeah, open borders or no borders whatever, cool. But that usually only gets discussed in the context of permanent immigration

Idk I guess I just find it hard to imagine how it could be organized since where I live the most obvious ways capitalism has made things worse over my lifetime have all happened because of and through the lens of tourism. Rents literally doubling over the last five years, while the standard of living falls because apartments are bought, split into tiny pieces and renovated to accomodate a couple days of living at most. The specific kind of gentrification that is NOT being pushed out by richer people moving in permanently, who might cause more expensive shops and services to replace the affordable ones, but do still need the basic necessities everyone does to live. Instead, all hairdressers, repair shops, clothing stores (especially thrift shops), pharmacies, post offices etc etc close and are replaced by luxury boutiques, clubs and stores whre you can only buy snacks, alcohol and microwave meals. Restaurants and bars hiking up prices because most of their clients come from places with stronger currencies etc etc.

At the same time though I believe travel is a crucial part of a fulfilling life for most if not all people. I believe people have the right to see and appreciate the culture and history of other places and also like... maybe go somewhere warmer and lay on the beach sometimes, even if they prefer to live and work somewhere colder. Or go skiing even if they chose to live somewhere warm and without mountains. Or even just like... vacation in a big city if they live in the countryside and vice versa. Or pop over to another continent to visit an online friend maybe. Although obviously intercontinental travel would have to be hugely limited until and unless we find ways to do it that don't destroy our planet.

At the same time some precautions do have to be taken to protect historical and especially sacred sites. Like, I don't think endless crowds should be allowed to trample through historical buildings and also open borders obviously doesn't mean white tourists get to go camping on Uluru. But on some level I do believe everyone who wants to should get to see Venice at least once in their life. But that's probably not feasible so like... who gets to decide? On what merit? Are historians, artists, journalists privileged? Or should it be a lottery?

Also I think there's a significant amount of tourism that would simply die out if going to that place wasn't a status symbol. Like you cannot convince me that if you spend 2 weeks by the pool in an enclosed luxury resort it makes a difference that it's on Hawaii rather than like... in florida. And then theres places like the Hamptons. What the fuck is the point of the Hamptons, other than bragging rights?

Obviously I know none of this is even remotely the main pressing issue to solve about a potential communist society, but then again, that's why I'm asking for reading materials, because it so rarely gets discussed. I mean I bet Marx wrote about it, which, great, point me to the relevant fragments please and I'll have a look but also this is an issue where a modern perspective would be really important. I don't think Marx, for all his wisdom, really has a solution to "what are the ethics of taking an 8 hour flight to visit a tumblr mutual".

Or maybe this whole thing is me being cynical and this is another place where things would sort of just regulate themselves. Anyway. Send me reading recs and let's very unscientifically try to check if it could work. Do try to be honest, like I've been several times as a kid and I would still go again in a heartbeat.

btw the goal of the poll is to get some kind of percentage that can be compared with the world population and how many tourists venice can support per year, though I obviously know tumblr skews mainly american and european

#mine.#leftist #tourism #venice

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marciabrady · 2 years ago

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For the princess thing: Mulan (I know you have talked about her before but I'll love to know your full thoughts on her :)

Let me say this about Mulan- there are good and bad stans for every character and some characters have SUCH bad fans with the worst takes and, while there are some who are fans of Mulan for the wrong reasons or misunderstand her, those who are genuine fans of Mulan and totally understand her are the BEST fans, genuinely. There's no quotient of understanding Mulan fans that are inserting themselves as her or feel like she's perfect or are appropriating her traits to be cool. The ones who genuinely get it seem to have the deepest understanding and tolerance for other cultures and an incredible empathy. While I think they could've gone further with some of the elements they presented in the movie with her, I do like her as a character. Like, I wish Reflection wasn't cut short but that wasn't her fault? And, again, it was too war focused with not enough women and way too many men for it to ever be a full favorite for me but...again, I do think Mulan is a stunning design and her voice acting is definitely different. I love how the film is obviously made by a Western production company, but it also features non-Western values- how Mulan would've willingly gave herself to an arranged marriage because she puts her family's honor before her own happiness because that's the way some cultures and women are and, honestly, to some people it's noble- I certainly thought it was when Aurora had that same sentiment. I also think it's so refreshing in a sea of writers using female characters rejecting men/marriage to denote they're feminist. It's almost as old as the symbolic corset "I'm trapped in my life!" metaphor. But back to Mulan.

I like Reflection (especially the longer version), I love that she's a non-white princess, I love the era that she came out in (higher production value end of the Disney Renaissance when they had MONEY), and I like how her wit surpasses her athletic nature. I love how loyal she is and how honest she is, in the whole scene where she's talking about the fact that she felt selfish because maybe it wasn't all about saying her Father. Her dynamic with her Father and some of the tension that transpires is interesting and I would love to further pursue it. I love her Grandmother and her mother is just interesting to me too. I used to love her matchmaker dress as a kid because it was long and pink lol but now I actually really love her green look in the beginning! It's very calming and quite becoming to her. While the voice actress did say problematic things about Cinderella, just like Meg's and Belle's and everyone pretty much, I still really like her and her take on the character and she has a valuable insight and perspective into this specific character.

#ask #anonymous

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abbyindenhaag · 4 months ago

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Arts and Architecture

On Wednesday morning we visited the Museum of Sydney, a small building on the site of the original governor’s house that taught us a lot about the city’s origins. Much of it echoes Euro-Indigenous conflicts with which I was already familiar, but it was interesting to learn about specifics. The first governor, Arthur Phillip, showed a somewhat admirable inclination to learn about the indigenous peoples’ perspectives, but when they (the Gadigal people) decided they wanted little to do with the English and started avoiding them, Phillip decided to implement his initiative by kidnapping two men and holding them hostage in his house while trying to get them to interpret their language and culture. And then he was shocked when one of the hostages, Bennelong, who had been charming and cooperative, escaped as soon as they removed the shackle from his leg. (Pikachu face) who could have predicted?! For Bart the history provoked questions of what the most ethical version of first contact would have looked like, given that leaving the first Australians in isolation would have left them without the benefits of trade, but also that it might be impossible to ethically organize trade arrangements with a people that had completely different concepts of ownership, territory, institutions in general, etc. And that’s also setting aside the whole inevitable devastation of smallpox thing. Should the British have just established a barricade around the entire island to prevent any European from bringing the disease? What a different world that would have been.

Another part of the museum had an exhibition of artwork supported by the Coomaditchie center, which was a center for Indigenous culture established during the (relatively late) efforts at Indigenous policy reform in the 1960s. I really enjoyed these artworks in particular:

First painting: Black Swan, by Allison Day

Second painting: Our Fish II, by Allison Day and Dereke Brown

The dots and lines style is so cool, and I love the earth-toned color palettes.

Our next cultural experience, in some ways at the opposite end of the establishment spectrum, was an evening at the Sydney Opera House. We went to a performance of “great opera hits”, which was not necessarily the first choice for either of us but was better than all the alternative performances that were on (a Cinderella opera and a Beatles tribute show………. Oof.) There were a couple of arias we really enjoyed — the Habanera from Carmen, which also features (instrumentally) in Up, and E lucevan le stelle from Tosca, which had really beautiful imagery in addition to the lovely voice of the tenor who sang it. I also enjoyed the “Flower Duet”. But overall, I think most opera is not for me — some combination of what feels like a lack of momentum in the music, plus I find the high dramatic soprano notes kind of uncomfortable to listen to. But! I expanded my cultural touchpoints, and I also got to be inside the Opera House, which was super cool.

To be honest, my first impression walking into the building, which you do from the ground floor level, was: this feels like the DC metro. Lots of concrete, maybe some uplighting. But you go upstairs into the area around the concert hall, and it becomes incredibly airy. This was extra special in the gloaming just before sunset.

Two obligatory “we’re alive and really here and not kidnapped” photos in front of the view follow:

On Thursday morning we visited the White Rabbit gallery, a free museum of contemporary Chinese art. Also very small, it was the right size for an hourlong visit. Many of the art pieces did not speak to me, but there was one that delighted us both and, according to Bart, made the whole trip worth it on its own. Big words. Let me explain.

You take an elevator to the 3rd floor and step out into a room full of trash cans. Comme ca:

Actually, their lids were closed when we arrived. The docent says to you: “We’re almost ready to have them play automatically.” You think: oh, must be pretty fiddly that they are still working on whatever it is, but I suppose we’ll get to see it happen manually. Then she says: “The performance is about to begin.”

The trash can lids all open up and you can hear an orchestra tuning up. There’s one instrument per trash can. The lids close. After a moment, they open again, and you hear the opening notes of Beethoven’s 5th. Dah dah dah DAHH. Oh. Wow.

After the performance, the lids close. We have to let the trash cans rest for two minutes, but then we can wander through them and open each lid at will. When you open it, you hear the particular instrument assigned to the can as they play through the piece again — clarinet, violin, cello, oboe, bass. Trumpets, too, if you’re lucky. There was a map to show you which instrument was where, which allowed me to find the one (!) viola. It was so fun to walk through and feel like you were enabling the performance by letting an instrument’s voice be heard. Also, what a great piece.

Bart and I had only two constructive suggestions (ha, arrogant, I know). First, we thought it would be cool in the automated performance part for each lid to open only when the instrument was playing. Second, Bart thought it would be fun in the interactive portion for the viewers to modulate the volume with how far open the lid was. But overall, a total delight. (And it checked Bart’s box for unexpected good music, which is all he really wants in a vacation. Oh, and good tea, but we got that at the tearoom downstairs.) The artist’s name was Shyu Ruey-Shiann, I think, and the orchestra was the Taiwanese symphony orchestra, again, I think, because unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the wall label.

The other piece I liked in the museum was an autobiographical series by Yu Hong, which depicted a number of self-portraits at different ages reflecting the artist’s growth in parallel with the tectonic changes in China over her lifetime. This is the closing pair of paintings:

We walked back through a fun university-ish neighborhood — look at the greenery!

and we saw this fun street sculpture:

And that was another day and a half in Sydney. This afternoon (in about 10 minutes) we are heading out to the zoo with friends who are also in town for the wedding. I am a little concerned it will be somewhat depressing, as my last zoo visit was, but you can’t go to Australia and *not* see a koala or a kangaroo, so here we go!

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dearsunrise12 · 9 months ago

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Writing is so easy (coming out from a slump)

Does anyone ever thought of how easy it is to write? I literally got my computer, keyboard, and endless thoughts for content: imaginary interviews, conversations with people I look up to, and confessions to my none existent therapist. I cannot fathom how I am always holding myself back. Why can't I write? As I typed that last question mark, I reached for my phone and mindless fiddle from app to app, without any specific goal. I don't want to blame mainstream media for my slump, but I gotta admit that it's a huge part of it. Sure they don't do it first handedly, but if there is no need to be constantly updated not only with personal messages and emails, but also with trends, memes, and whatever is the latest pop culture reference this week, I know I would have all those apps deleted in no time. I should know because I tried a hundred (not really) times. But all those distractions being also a part of my work, it's important that I keep them. And to be honest, I already know what I need to do to fix this problem, only that, it's the same thing that I can't achieve no matter how much determination I gather the moment I start my day: discipline.

I saw an Instagram post that illustrates determination and discipline; the former is a fire that sparks every ones in a while, and the latter is a steady, consistent flame that burns all through out the looping video. That was a huge slap in face for me. It's been a few weeks and that post still haunts me.

As someone who has a lot of solid ideas and the means to execute them, I really am a slacker. I'm not writing this to self pity, but rather to see what I am in a third person perspective. Because I know I can do it. I know I have enough time, but if I don't start immediately, that may not be the case anymore.

There is one thing I'm hoping, though. Because the discipline and the getting into it are things that is within my control; like right now, I finally gather the strength to type my thought. Yey for this. But what I'm hoping for, what I think could help me to really be awake and present everyday is a tangible inspiration. Maybe a person? A hundred million pesos? Anything that would remind me that It's all gonna be ok. Only that thing is what I call God-given. Just like the job I have now; if the stars did not align I might still be gouing through interviews now, or worse, stuck in a job I hate.

You know what people say, how everything worth having does not come easy? Well, easy is not the word if the thing that's gonna make it all worth it can only be given by an unknowable force.

With this, I am still very hopeful. And it brings me joys that I'm typing my thoughts. One tick at a time. I'll do my very best to show up more.

#at sunrise

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system-of-a-feather · 2 years ago

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don’t really know how to phrase this tbh, but do you have any advice for improving “awareness” (in quotes bc it’s close to what I mean, but brain is too foggy to figure out a more specific word/phrase)??

I’m the primary host for us, and I really struggle to recognize a) when others are in or near the front with me, b) when another part is exerting passive influence, and c) who other parts (especially in/near the front) are. everything asides from full possessive switches always feels very blurry and I have a hard time distinguishing myself from the other parts. I think this is in part due to the way that our DID hides itself and our amnesia (by giving me partial/vague memories and making it feel like I was the one active in them) but it makes recalling things very confusing (and pretty distressing if I realize that I wasn’t in the front for as long as I thought I was), especially when we’ve had non-possessive switches and/or co-con and/or passive influence.

so far, the others are helping me practice recognizing co-consciousness and passive influence by giving me a “nudge” at which point I’m supposed to try to identify who is in/near the front with me. but it’s still a big struggle and it’s been really frustrating, so I’m looking for suggestions on improving that skill, hopefully to a point where I don’t need to be promoted to realize that I’m not alone in the front.

and you’re a blog that we generally trust for info, so do you have any pointers?? (or do you know of anyone else who might be able to help??)

(~ @wondering-phenomenon)

I am assuming you mean "prompted" not promoted XD

I will be honest, our system is considerably "overt" and we have primarily possessive switches (even when we co-con / co-front) and so this realm of things is one aspect we don't have too huge experience with compared to systems that have it as their main form of switches. I'm not 100% sure what kind of switches they tend to have but I know they've talked on similar issues, so I'm gonna @l0st-identity to see if they want to / have anything to say on this / have any other blogs to redirect towards.

With that said, a lot of my experience with this comes from within our subsystem which deals with more non-possessive switches and a lot more confusion of parts (and parts assuming themselves to be other parts), which while different, is a similar frame work from MY experience that I'm using to suggest some things that might help.

One thing that has helped me in identifying me VS not me when parts are similar is to change perspective a bit. Rather than trying to be aware of when "I am not me", try to be more conscientious of when you ARE you - and by that, I mean answering the question of what situations and traits and behaviors make you feel the most you. You can approach this in a "what makes me who I am, how would I describe myself" manner if that's easier (which it tends to be for white and western (/neutral) cultures - if so then its a good place to start, the question is hard to answer so meet yourself where you are) but I think its best done by focusing on just how you feel when operating in the world and learning the general resting state / vibe that "you" settle in. I personally find labels and attaching descriptive labels to an identity tends to be limited in the long run, but thats more so a philosophical ideal preference on my end.

The better you know who YOU are as a part, the easier it is to tell when something isn't quite right. Sometimes if you are struggling in figuring this out, if you have a close person around you who you trust, you can also ask them for feed back and to keep an eye out to help point out things that might be different between parts and/or prompt you to just check in with yourself.

Additionally, its less long term helpful and maybe not hte most productive to long term healing in terms of DID but it can be helpful in the getting through the early stages of DID, which is to just think of things that you know you are ABSOLUTELY not, things you do not at all see yourself doing, and locating the oddities and incongruence between how you see yourself and some of your behaviors in the past to kind of see if there are any odd trends that stick out. It might results in an increase of tension between parts and alter differentiation, but in my experience, to get through the stabilization phase, alter differentiation and some level of tension pulling tends to be part of the process.

Additionally, you can also ask if other parts in the system that are more familiar / better at identifying this could write down some notes and pointers as to how they can tell next time they are out.

Your own parts are often some of your best teachers in my experience.

I had another in mind but I forgot it (honestly probably a few others XD I'm getting tired fight me /lh /j)

Also its kinda silly, but a thing I just do regularly throughout the day as a system that tends to usually have a pretty high co-fronting / co-conning ability is that sometimes I just internally call out and just wait to see if I hear back from anyone.

At this point when it comes to driving (I'm honestly easily stressed by driving due to OCD and dissociation, but at this point basically everyone elsei n the system is fine driving or enjoys it) I call out just about everytime "OK whose gonna drive" and see who speaks back.

Not always will parts respond, especially earlier in recovery and healing and communication work, but its always worth a try in my experience

OH I REMEMBERED IT

It sounds kinda silly as well, but if you notice something feeling off, sometimes I find myself "zoned out" and then as I hear whatever part is in the front wondering if they are me, I click back in and go "WAIT A MINUTE IM ME" and I don't really know if theres any advice I could give REGARDING that but it is a relevant point that might have something to it XD

Oh and in the end of it, per my usual motto, when it comes down to DID, try not to stress too much about figuring things out. Unless people are getting hurt or drastic issues are coming out in the lost time / time you aren't fronting, its not something that needs to be blown up and awareness will general build with time. It's not something you need to focus too much on to be able to slowly develop. As long as you intend to reach out and connect and try to be aware, that should be more than enough to keep you on a good track to increasing awareness as it is. Being kind to yourself and lowering your stress levels to the best of your ability can help a lot in lessening confusing symptoms cause ironically being stressed out makes you dissociated which makes both you and your symptoms more confused / confusing.

#alter: riku #ask #asks #advice #actuallydid #dissociative identity disorder

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knight-of-the-graces · 27 days ago

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~~~~~POST UNDER CUT~~~~~

Now do keep in mind, I know very little about art history except what is taught in basic K-12 schooling. A lot of my theory probably doesn’t make much practical sense. But this is for fun so that’s okay!

In this au, the setting of Empires S2 is a different continent than Empires S1. After the Rapture, many people were killed or displaced from the S1 continent. 1,000 years later during the time of S2, the S1 continent has become habitable and is fully populated. A few S2 members are from the S1 continent, such as Shelby and Pix! All this to say, the historical opinion of the Codfather isn’t local to S2’s nations and probably has a pretty homogeneous perspective from those who live on the S1 continent (which I have been calling the Ruined/Old Continent.) That’s not to say there isn’t some variation that exists!

First of all, there is obviously the one explored in this fic. The general perspective of the Codfather seen by most is “Technically we can’t prove he caused the Rapture, but it’s definitely the most likely outcome so he might as well have done it.” Whatever S1 cultures survived the disaster and the 1,000 years of time probably have changed a lot. They have no connection to the Cod Empire anymore, no reference to its morals or reputation outside of historical accounts. Also, the inhabitants of the Cod and Ocean empires are literally fish and amphibians in this au, and their whole deal is that they only formed civilizations due to the influence of 2 demigods (kinda like in Hollow Knight if you know the lore behind that) so they’re not around to give their side of the story. The various ravines and craters dotting the Old Continent, reminding those who see them of its terrible past, probably doesn’t do much for the cultural conscious as well.

Another perspective is that of Pirate Cove, or more specifically by sailors! I talk about it in this post, but generally it focuses more on the seablings as ocean gods than as historical figures.

There are a few other ideas I have. Maybe Animalia has a different perspective on the Ocean Gods, revering them more as gods of Fish and Amphibians then of water? Also, the art museum referenced a few times: Azelo City is meant to be located in modern day Mezalea. A lot of fan interpretation pictures Mezalea as the arts capital of S1, mostly due to the bright colors and the idea of Joel sculpting clones. I think this culture would have withstood time, so that area might interact with the history of the Codfather more through art, prose, and philosophy more so than anything else.

Some of the above applies for Lizzie too, mostly the sailor lore. I think she is seen as the older and wiser of the two (Older? Yes. Wiser? …they’re both kinda silly lets be honest.) If the Codfather facing upwards represents youth and optimism, the Ocean Queen facing downwards represents wisdom and protection. She is said to be both terrifying and devoted. Maybe nowadays young lovers call their partner their “Ocean Queen” to show their love. It's a little ironic like someone calling you the Juliet to their Romeo, lol.

Jimmy, at this point of the au, probably doesn't agree with the more sympathetic interpretations of him. Even if The Rapture wasn't his fault, he doesn't have very high opinions of himself as a leader. So what does it matter that history sees him as a villain, it's probably deserved. I also don't think Jimmy knows how Joel died, he left before that. We also don't have a time frame for when Joel specifically died. I like the interpretation that he lived past the rapture for a few years before the grief finally caught up to him. (Ironically, by running away to the ocean depths, this is exactly what Jimmy was trying to avoid.)

Maybe I’ll get to some of the other S1 emperors and their legacies another time, as I don’t have many great ideas for most of them. Also most aren’t relevant to this au. Feel free to come to your own conclusions or suggest some!

Also, I have another ask about Hermes and already had sketches in the work before they were asked. The lad is of great importance to me too don’t worry :D

Id like to know more cod father opinions do the empires have different widely excepted interpretations among the citizens what is the worst possible way they have told his story and what is the most generous conclusion some one has come to How are the other empires remembered what does jimmy think of the more sympathetic artist or writers Is Jimmy the only one to be seen as a villain or are there other cases of historical misinformation does Jimmy know how Joel died or did he leave before that

Also, in the comments of Part 8 on Ao3, Efield commented this:

"I would like to know more about depictions of the cod father do the different empires have different widely excepted interpretations among the citizens What is the worst possible way they have written his story and what is the most generous possible conclusion some one that didn’t meet him would come to with the knowledge available What do they think of Lizzie if they remember her well then would art of them would focus on the stereotype of good and evil twins or seablings How do they remember the other emperors what does jimmy think of them Would he find some funny I love works that shows how history remembers season 1 emperor’s Was jimmy the only one to be painted as a villain or where there other cases of historical misinformation Is Jimmy a good house guest to Joel does he get along with Hermes"

I have taken both of these as an excuse to write a lot, so here you go!

Another perspective is that of Pirate Cove, or more specifically by sailors! I talk about it in this post, but generally it focuses more on the seablings as ocean gods than as historical figures.

Also, I have another ask about Hermes and already had sketches in the work before they were asked. The lad is of great importance to me too don’t worry :D

#empires smp #empires smp season one #esmp s1 #codfather jimmy of the cod empire #empires smp season two #esmp s2 #great witch shelby of the evermoor #empires season one and two #esmp s1 & s2 #To Be Tagged #cydanite's swamp duo au #tw depression #just to be safe #empires worldbuilding

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polgedanken · 2 years ago

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thoughts the first (enlightened centrism)

centrism is presented as rationality; inherently it is not (why depending on what 'centrism' means in the context).

centrism can simply refer to specifically the opinion in the center of the spectrum (spectrum as referring to left-right spectrum, though this is probably a simplification). centrism and centrists can also refer to people who actively try to align themselves to the middle, usually on principle (which i think is a fairly good principle, which is that the two sides are equal, which is what makes it enticing to believe; it ends up with problems still). This is not rational because it forces you to give equivalence to the left and the right points equally distant from the center, when they aren't necessarily equal. If you were to actually consider their opinions and think about where you were on the spectrum, you would probably find you're off from the center by nature.

quick oversimplification (the usage of 'far-left' and 'far-right'; more on that later) to write a statement: The far left and far right in America are not equal; the far right is much worse. military groups parading around nazi adjacent flags & etc, the storming of the capitol on Jan 6. Supposedly there are some similar groups on the far-left, like Antifa, but i don't know how significant they are, if 'they' actually refers to something; this is either because it's just not a threat on the same level as the 'far-right', or because i'm limited by my perspective (i'm pretty culturally left). furthermore, if you consider those who are considered the farthest left politicians (bernie sanders, aoc) vs the farthest right (jewish space laser lady and co.), you'll find that they are not equal at all.

the point of this far-right far-left statement is that the center, placed in the center of the ends of the political spectrum and linearly extrapolating (probably linear; im not sure what it would be) everything in between (which is probably bad for a definition, though realistically it would probably be used as a definition by many) is very not good, and people would probably imagine themselves as a little more left (though not necessarily in the left) if they weren't centrists

picture to illustrate everything so far. not drawn to scale (the point is to illustrate the hypothesized phenomena). considering how the right gets much darker, and gets darker much more quickly, the 'center' is not really a good place to be.

a lot of the time, due to the nature of centrism that centrists think of centrism as inherently rational, these people see themselves as inherently rational. I do not think the act of centrists trying to actively align themselves in the center of the spectrum actually works; the 'center' isn't even well defined (probably depends mostly on your perspective), and they will tend to fall into the side that they like more. explicitly, centrists probably don't even exist on a true level (that they're in the center); it's more imagined in their heads, and they're just following the political ideology they like (though they would at least partially self balance due to their acceptance of the principle of aligning themselves to the center)

so what? i don't really know to be honest. it would maybe be better for people to do off with this enlightened centrism. and that isn't to say that we shouldn't be striving to work with one another and to bridge the gap between the right and the left. polarization and cultural division (cultural issues like guns, lgbtq, even abortion are so so soooooo important and dominate a lot of politics today, which causes so much polarization) are really really big problems in society currently that really need to be addressed

side note at the end: biden actually seems to have tried to mitigate polarization (in the few times i've watched him speak and learnt his policy, which isn't many. i think this might come from his state of the union address, maybe a town hall? i'm not sure) and tried to spread the message, though i guess that hasn't had an impact, maybe either because he's kind of old and shleepy and doesn't get much credit as a result, or because the message just isn't pushed enough. idk

examples: i'm lazy so there are none, but look for them in your personal social media platform. personally youtube comments and r/all reddit is a ripe place for this kind of stuff (for reddit, i would think unpopularopinion-like subs would be ripe, but in general, r/all subs that are big, like r/memes or general things like r/damnthatsinteresting or r/facepalm. a good percentage of the popuation sees r/all posts regardless of their political orientation, which leads to a lot of enlightened centrism). this lack of examples makes this a bad post. sorry :(

#politics #centrism #centrist

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ghostlytidalwavephantom · 2 years ago

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Tumblr Product Identity

Here on Tumblr, I've been working hard to organize how I influence users toward advanced manifestation techniques. A larger user base means a more chaotic system, and a lot of growth for @staff to muddle around with trying to moderate for however long. What follows is my honest opinion on site growth. I haven't checked in on @labs recently, but might spend a lot of time returning to it, depending. I'm publishing this in hopes of working more fluidly with all of you in the Tumblr community, while also thinking of how it might affect the greater image of the site. This essay provides guidance amid limitless ideals and resources, allowing people to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr's future as a Community.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, people need to accept every useful feature, new or old, which makes it a useful place. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is very difficult to stabilize. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. While this has produced some amazing results for the community, it only serves like 80% of the most popular blogs and this is fine. Maybe we'll get lucky and see new features which improve things.

Tumblr's competitive advantage might have something to do with its unique content and vibrant communities, it'd take a study to know for sure. As a thin veneer over internet culture, some come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this phenomenon, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless concept of realistic ideals for attention.

To guarantee Tumblr's continued relevance, I have to prioritize fostering this seamless ideal. Attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform are important steps for us as a community. Later, we should discuss things we can do to improve our efforts to maintain EVERYTHING WE ALREADY DO for each other in this great big mess.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Hellsite's usability, we must address its core guiding principles:

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Improve the platform's performance, stability, and quality.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Following is my personal perspective for advancing each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr should fully support every guest, and not feel pressured into needing everyone to be logged-in users. We also shouldn't care for industry, and "standard SEO practices" should adapt to us, rather than allowing anything to affect the funnel. The referral traffic from search engines is dispersed across different pages with deeply diverse and inconsistent user experiences, which results in a confusing daze defending our community from turning these users into regular Tumblr users.

We need to experiment with our logged-out tumblr.com user pages to ensure we are creating overwhelming stimuli with the highest potential for making these visitors too delirious for sign-ups and log-ins, using tweaked-out themes mortal life wasn't meant to comprehend. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages, or even disable public viewing (or search engines) entirely (in our blog settings). We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. The current logged-out /explore page does very little to help users understand "wat Tumblr."

Actions & Next Steps

Invite our friends who already "get it," so staff stop complaining about people who don't.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com theming to explore individuality and entice the smallest possible fraction of visitors to sign up.

Consider using relatable memes so outsiders are lured into a false sense of normalcy.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to community needs. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault is with their confusingly niche interests.

The default position should navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure staff can identify automated content related to our interests, it is easily accessible to bots in their journey for our increasingly accessible metadata.

I wouldn't exactly call Tumblr a "brand" since half the purpose of this site (let alone the current essay) is to systematically dismantle the lay person's preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, apparently a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts will need to be ones we specifically set aside for processing by the "newbie" algorithm we have ZERO REASON to trust.

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content when we choose to, sharing our concerns when we don't feel like pandering to the machine.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are, including official blogs in the conversation so they don't keep threatening us with nonconsensual change.

If "Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds" makes sense to us, jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

Content discovery May/September, since spring and fall seem to be when corporations are most insecure about their value to the consumer.

Further discussion. (Features permitting)

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr's inexplicable intrigue, lies, and slander, rest in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the inane remarks found throughout reblog tags and sometimes the good replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless, so drop the app if it doesn't work and log in normally like a real person sometimes.

Fortunately, the current way conversations work on Tumblr (new users understand replies, old users have sacred reblogs) is totally working for us, and if we see new features which make official blogs (like @staff) feel comfortable processing their notes into sensible feedback, then our prayers will finally be answered. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the ability to easily follow threaded conversations, if the relevant parts we care about happen across our incredibly individualized dashboards (which will see full feature retention since I don't think they'd remove a setting for no reason), make it easy to join conversations we actually care to include ourselves in.

I usually try to design systems for fair participation, so one of the most important design decisions I look at is, "Can the supplier of a platform leverage their own participation with no administrative privileges?" and I was very happy to change upon @about to discover a surprising fact: On Tumblr, the answer is "yes." This gave me so much confidence and hope for the world, it made me feel like looking for a way to reward our mutual efforts, as a community caring for itself. Most times there's not an easy way to act on these feelings, so it got tabled.

Including people has been a difficult topic throughout human history, and we shouldn't expect any platform, product, or ideal to give us a full solution. Sometimes it takes effort, and we should treasure this effort every time we send an ask. Automated systems will fail, and I kind of expect inclusion will always require manual effort. Attention from devs, owners, or other entities of hierarchy is a persistent need.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion of creating followup posts for a public which might seem fickle.

Improve the conversational. It doesn't matter where.

Allow engagements on reblogs. Please don't violate the simplicity of the reply feature...

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths from the influence graph already present in notes.

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads.

Explore the feasibility of COLLAPSING duplicate reblogs in a feed, rather than trying to hide content from our dashboard.

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing the creator base.

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. Figuring this in with manifestation science, and just the sheer scale of information processing necessary to organize something simple like shared dreaming, takes a lot of effort, and isn't something I'd ever ask anyone else to help with. There might emerge solutions which the platform can integrate, giving power to content creators in a way which will enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the ridiculous decision to prioritize everything, looking at content in terms of metadata, and trying to control recommendation features top-down and/or via privileged features rather than community appeal. Modern media has grown to expect moderation, perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform. Algorithms aren't an answer to problems fueled by the first generation of algorithms.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should feel overwhelming when the notes go higher than Dunbar's number. Sorry there just isn't a sane way to process so much feedback.

Actions & Next Steps

Find new creators and force yourself to reblog at least one original content post.

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Motivate slow/small blogs to create anything at all.

"Congratulations! Your post has gotten over 20 notes in the past sixty seconds! We can't support sending notes for viral content, so log in to see your full interaction!"

Expand ways to co-create content.

Principle 5: Performance, stability and quality.

Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Definitely worth adding to the priority list.

launch new features coming out of Labs

Yes. Tell me more. Trust me, I'm a developer, I can take the nitty.

Principle 6: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase normalization of spam email. Wait, what? Nevermind you put this as a priority over actual stability, I'm gonna need to split this into another post.

Conclusion

My mission has always been to empower the world. Any community committed to ensuring it can evolve in ways which supports current users while introducing progress for Greater Artistic Attraction certainly matches my manifestation goals.

This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

You put effort into presenting your goals for the platform in accordance with your current principles, so I did the same. Hopefully this can contribute to the dialogue you want to foster.

And history will judge you kindly for not getting spooked when high-level magic was freely offered to your entire platform.

#content

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yamayuandadu · 2 years ago

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I am not able to respond to this ask normally for some reason hence the screencap. I have more issue with what they did to literally dozens of articles than about their presence on my talk page, frankly. I still have not managed to track down all, and there are a few cases where I can’t do anything. Whatever, they left for now, and the epicenter of their activity has been locked for the foreseeable future. I do try to mostly pick sources which can be easily accessed so I'm glad that's working. As for the book, you mean this one? Truth to be told, the author's declaration troubles me. The Epic of Gilgamesh is possibly one of the worst myths to pick as a starting point for learning about Inanna. It presents a non-standard tradition, with Uruk and Eanna presented as Anu’s rather than hers (something that only holds true for the city in the Seleucid period...), and Paul-Alain Beaulieu went as far as arguing the compilers were biased against her, lol. That alone is a bad omen. Detailed analysis of what is available atm regarding the book under the cut.

Let’s start with the profile of the author. Nothing too bad or fringe, and I do not think you need to be an Assyriologist or otherwise tied to the history of Iraq and/or Syria to have something worthwhile to say about Mesopotamian mythology, so this alone is hardly a problem. With that out of the way, time to move on to the article and the fragment of the novel provided there for promotional purposes.

The novel is presented as a "fresh take on the oldest story of all: The Epic of Gilgamesh." Not great - it is not the oldest piece of literature in the world, or even of Mesopotamian literature specifically. In fact, it needed there to be a large corpus and a tradition of intertextuality to even arise. The famous version only goes back to the Kassite period. I do not think any single narrative holds the title of oldest myth, we more or less know what the oldest known piece of literature in Akkadian is (a hymn to Shamash where he hangs out with other judge deities), but good luck guessing which of the Early Dynastic Sumerian literary texts is the oldest. What's next? "In Athens, they call me Aphrodite now. In Babylon, they call me Ishtar." Not a fan of outright equating Inanna and Aphrodite. Truthfully, there are only two factors that lead to the widespread acceptance of this claim online: a) classicists are, let’s be honest, one of the types of historians who are just universally treated as better. Only Bible scholars rival them in that regard when it comes to the ancient Near East specifically. From an Assyriological perspective, even today their output about Inanna is, essentially, trash. Hyperdiffusionism and orientalism, long debunked myths, and so on. I saw an example on twitter just the other day. If Assyriologists wanted to match this quality they’d need to treat Apollo, Helios and Sol Invictus as interchangeable and base their perception of him on Madeline Miller’s Circe. b) goddesses are treated as interchangeable so Ugaritic Ashtart maybe being present on Bronze Age Cyprus and MAYBE influencing the local goddess is basically the same as her being Aphrodite and everyone knows Ashtart is BASICALLY Inanna. Personally I am very skeptical about such claims of direct descent also because ancient Greek authors just consistently show a completely baffling lack of knowledge about Mesopotamian deities, in contrast with their relative familiarity with Egyptian or Phrygian ones. Meanwhile, cultures which undeniably were influenced by Mesopotamia, like Hurrians, do generally show a solid understanding of the basics. Cyprus does show pretty clear merging of a “Levantine” tradition with a local one, but that’s… not really Mesopotamian, and does not really prove much beyond “Cypriots and first the inhabitants of Ugarit and later Phoenicians were in contact.” In particular, making vague claims about Aphrodite based on that is just faulty scholarship. Part of me thinks it’s also an echo of 19th century need to prove gods which did not fit the sensibilities of the era were not truly Greek. Singling out Babylon as a city associated with Ishtar is INCREDIBLY weird too. Why not Akkad? Why not Kish? Why not Mari? There was a distinct “Ishtar of Babylon” especially in the first millennium BCE but she is ultimately of limited importance and, following the modern consensus, was poorly received in Uruk. Does the author think Akkadian was only spoken in Babylon? Is she aware the names were used interchangeably in Uruk itself? Does she even know which cities which deity was worshiped in?

The use of the term Anunnaki non stop is another weird point. Anunna, with later variants Annunaki (ki = "of earth") and Anunna-anna (anna = "of heaven") is, simply put, just a fancy term for a group of deities. “A murder of crows” for deities, if you will. I would go as far as arguing that in many cases there is 0 reason to even leave it untranslated, much like how DIĜIR.MEŠ or other ordinary plurals. It only acquired a specific meaning as a logogram in Hurrian context, where it referred to Enna Turenna, ancestors of other gods, and in first millennium BCE text, where it refers to underworld deities (note that this does not apply to ex. Inanna’s Descent, where Anunna appear in an underworld context but according to Dina Katz are just major gods). That the gods are warring with each other, when coupled with this term, is suspicious too, but more on that in a sec. For now, suffice to say I suspect this is, in fact, not a reference to the "theomachy" seals or anything like that.

The description of Inanna's marriage - one would presume to Dumuzi - is weird. "Forced into a marriage to negotiate a peace"? Political marriage? With Dumuzi? The guy whose mother barely exists outside of texts about him? The guy consistently portrayed as a b list god, who was never a major deity, and whose cult center was a satellite of Uruk of limited importance? Also, is this some sort of deconstruction? Inanna appears in romantic and erotic poetry, that's hardly a topic relevant to political marriage. There are tons of cases which would work for a political marriage story, like deities whose cults were transplanted to new places because of the destruction of their original cult centers who promptly acquired new spouses. the love poetry romantic relationship thing is really hard to miss. Look how many of the Inanna-Dumuzi poems are on ETCSL. And that's not even all there is! A huge red flag is the focus on gods having children with humans. Demigods are EXCEEDINGLY rare in Mesopotamian mythology. Hell, even fully divine children born out of wedlock seem pretty rare. Gilgamesh is, simply put, a rather unique entity. Sex is pretty common in Mesopotamian literature, but it typically occurs between deities, most commonly between couples. There is only one type of source I am aware of keen on this sort of speculation - the writings of Zecharia Sitchin, one of the “fathers” of modern ancient aliens, and all around scummy fraud. A good summary of Sitchin’s absolutely deranged views, as well as a thorough debunking based on opinions of exports in every field he invaded has been compiled by Jason Colavito, see here for an online edition. One of the main topics of his nonsensical work is the firm belief in a "war" between Enki and Enlil, which is why I earlier said the mention of war between deities makes me suspicious. Sitchin pased away a few years ago after like fort years of "research." Sadly, his ideas keep being repeated by the tv show Ancient Aliens (over and over and over again), as well as in similar “literature” - examples are too plentiful to link all, so I’ll limit myself to some funny examples from Colavito s blog like this and this (feat. new age relationship therapists who believe polyamory is the key to defeating the Anunnaki). Sadly, these “theories” pop up in less expected places too. Their fans include musicians such as Nik Turner (to all of my followers also interested in Mesoamerica, this one’s four you, it’s a crossover episode) and Matt Pike, and various other celebrities around the world, as seen for example here (double feature with “if there are still monkeys, how is evolution real?”). Sitchin is also referenced in one of the leaked emails from a certain famous 2016 case (doesn’t seem the sender was anyone important, tbf). Most bafflingly, in 2016 his claims were presented as truth in a speech given by Kadhim Finjan al Hammami, the Iraqi minster of transportation, which was poorly received domestically for obvious reasons (this is presently the best referenced part of his English wikipedia article; no clue what the Arabic version is like). I am not aware of anyone credible spelling the name as NinshubAr rather than NinshubUr. A quick search reveals mostly shoddy self-help books, “goddess movement” literature (or, as I like to call it, esoteric terfism) and the like. Meanwhile, every credible source under the sun, and even books I normally dislike, stick to correct Ninshubur (or variant transcriptions thereof with dashes, diacritics etc). I am also not aware of any source presenting Ninshubur as a warrior deity. Well, source other than Louise Pryke’s Ishtar, a book which dedicated more space to Joss Whedon than to Nanaya. After all, being worshiped alongside Inanna for some 2000 years is nowhere near as important as being a sex pest who wrote some episodes of a shoddy tv show which is like Inanna because...? I no longer remember the logic. It was insane. If anything, an argument can be made that Ninshubur is the opposite of a warrior deity. Her primary role was to mediate and “soothe hearts” (see here and here) and that's explicitly why she was a popular deity. In none of the narrative texts she appears in is her role even remotely belligerent. The closest she comes to that is Inanna and Enki, I suppose, but it’s still hardly a warrior role. While I have my issues with Olga Tokarczuk’s Inanna novel, Anna In w Grobowcach Świata (I don’t think there is an English translation despite the author’s moderate international success), I actually think it got Ninshubur (my bad, “Nina Szubur”) well, which means it’s something doable even if the author is a self professed Jungian and uses dubious sources. Not a hard bar to clear (with all due respect for Tokarczuk)!

The focus on there being only twelve deities plus Inanna is… incredibly weird. Mesopotamian pantheon was huge, with a lot of local variation. God lists typically enumerated hundreds of deities, with An = Anum, the most extensive known text of this sort, having over 2000 entries, though obviously many are epithets and not individual deities. The humongous numbers show up in Enuma Elish too. When it comes to actual active worship in individual locations: Paul-Alain Beaulieu’s study of the pantheon of Neo-Babylonian Uruk has entries for around 60-70 (give or take a few since regional hypostases are listed separately), I’ve seen a similar figure given for Early Dynastic Lagash. So I think it’s reasonable to assume that this was the norm for a city pantheon. Not all of these will be big shots,naturally, but a pantheon cannot only consist of gods representing the main cities and a couple of natural forces or celestial bodies. Understanding why the mediators, the personified professions, the spouses and children, the foreign imports and the weird leftovers who do not fit any category are there is pretty significant and I’m not a fan of just glossing that over. Myths actually do reflect that. Even the famous ones! To use just the example of Epic of Gilgamesh: Sumuqan, the one actual “fertility deity” (he was responsible for, quite literally, the multiplication of animals) is namedropped when Enkidu is first introduced; Ennugi, a courtier of Enlil, is mentioned in the flood section of the story (there’s an incantation which credits him with creating grubs, to illustrate what caliber of deity are we dealing with here), as are Adad’s sidekicks Shullat and Hanish (a pair of twins with a penchant for destruction), in the Old Babylonian version Humbaba’s master is Wer, a distinctly “northwestern” weather god, Aya (“dawn”) plays an active role when Ninsun negotiates with her husband Shamash, and obviously Ninsun and Siduri are both deities (contrary to what some online hot takes presume; the need to demythologize mythology is kind of tiresome). There’s even a goddess only attested there, Silili. Thirteen does not seem to be a number associated with Inanna anywhere. She does have a well attested numerical association, with 15. The numeral 15, if preceded by the dingir sign, the “divine determinative”, could be used as a fancy logogram to represent her name; hemerologies assign the fifteenth day of the month to her. The logic was basically just “30 is the number of her father (because moon god = lunar month), so a half of that makes sense”, though, it had nothing to do with the number of worshiped deities. Have to be honest, I don’t think I’ve seen either 12 or 13 treated as a religiously significant number in any Mesopotamian text, now that I think of it. I guess there are twelve gods in the curse formula of the Code of Hammurabi? For more see here (it’s old and in German though).

Wait, this is just a “well there are twelve olympians and it’s BASICALLY the same” thing, isn’t it? Oh wait, no. How could I forget Sitchin’s obsession with Mesopotamian deities corresponding to “twelve planets,” with Ishtar/Inanna as a "bonus" without a planet (it does not take much familiarity with Mesopotamian mythology to see the problem). It’s likely just ancient aliens again. Troubling! There isn’t really a single equally well attested grouping in Mesopotamia, while figures such as 7 and 50 might show up as the number of “great gods” (with no list provided), they are uncommon. Add to this major gods could vary between locations - even between the “core” cities (Nanshe in Lagash, Nanaya in Uruk, Zababa in Kish…), let alone “peripheral” ones, where Dagan, Inshushinak or the pair Teshub and Shaushka appear side by side with “truly Mesopotamian” deities. Given that dealing with this reality was a major aspect of Mesopotamian theology, I think a good modern adaptation should at least try to address it in some way. To be fair, the variability is also true for Greece and its neighborhood, take into account how popular Helios was in Rodos or Hecate in Lagina. As a side note, where is Utu? Was Inanna born without her twin? What the hell. How does this work. Is this setup for Sitchinesque "the sun is Apsu actually"? Tl;dr ancient aliens/10, sounds awful.

#namelessscribe #inanna #mesopotamian miscellanea

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o-wild-west-wind · 1 year ago

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I appreciate reading this, but I actually have a completely different perspective from my viewing of this show, and that is the fact that everyone fulfills the role of the queer-coded villain—but especially Ed. It only potentially seems otherwise because we forgot what it felt like to watch season 1 for the first time, and the show did such a good job of transforming the trope from something harmful into something complex and representative.

When Ed was introduced in episode 4, we learned two things about him: he’s not stereotypically masculine, and he’s planning to kill Stede. He, in many respects, immediately fulfilled the queer-coded villain stereotype; he’s dramatic and over the top, he likes fashion, he’s non-conforming, he’s hot and compelling. And yet he’s still explicitly morally grey. He’s presented as the antagonist.

But the trope dissolves as we learn his complexity; he doesn’t actually like violence, he doesn’t really want to kill, and he’s more than subtextually gay—he really is a full human with depth of emotion and capacity for love, and canonically in love with a man. Ed is the character whose arc frames an antithesis to the villain trope that has been pervasive in culture for so long. But the best part: he doesn’t lose the traits we still enjoy of these characters. He is still entertaining, and witty, and beautiful, and tragic, and even violent when he needs to be—but he’s also good, at heart. He is an example of taking this complicated trope and asking, why do we like these characters? And how can we make the story about them this time around, in a way that no longer villainizes them? And you could make this argument of almost any character in this show—every character could be the villain in someone else’s story. Jim is an obvious example of this. But the reason they don’t feel like the villain is because it’s their story.

The queer sidekick, too, is so beautifully represented in a character like Lucius. Lucius who, when first introduced, feels like the token gay—the stereotype we are so used to seeing as the character who bounces everyone else’s insight while never getting an arc of their own. And yes, he does begin as many of these things—similarly to Ed’s fulfillment of the queer-coded villain, the stereotype is presented before it can be refuted—but the crucial aspect is how this is turned on its head through the expansion of his character. Lucius gets a whole romance of his own, but he’s also given his own arc of personal growth; he goes from being the emotional center of the crew to the one poignantly struggling, and he becomes the receiver rather than the giver of support.

Izzy, in contrast, is never explicitly any of these things until maybe mid season 2. When he is introduced, he is actually the foil to everyone’s queerness; he represents a rigid adherence to masculinity, and antagonizes those who present as otherwise. He is never queer-coded while he exists as a villain; if anything, he’s internalized-homophobia coded, but that is a completely different trope with a very unique context in a story where every virtually sympathetic character is gay and harmed by this presence. I also didn’t think he was really presented as a sidekick, and definitely not the queer sidekick, especially considering what I just mentioned by his role as the foil; I’m not entirely sure what you mean by that comparison, to be totally honest, but like I said regarding Lucius, I do think that trope shows up to be challenged smartly in this show. One could argue that Izzy has a queer awakening arc in season 2 during the drag show, but I would argue that so does Wee John—who has had a very subtle but stark and beautiful journey of self-actualization that also culminates in the Calypso drag. So on all of these points, even if he did fulfill the role, there is consistently at least one (but usually several) other characters who also fulfill them. The reasoning for the narrative importance of including his death specifically I delve into a bit here.

Perhaps I have a completely different understanding of homophobia, but honestly…even if this show was taking those exact tropes copy paste as you described and only switching out a gay couple for a straight couple, I still don’t see how that’s homophobic. I think it’s a good thing to turn the tropes we’ve been presented in media on their head by presenting gay romance as just as important and worthy of storytelling as straight romance—and the way people have imposed this filter of “because Stede and Ed are a gay couple that follow typically straight romance story beats that means they are actually straight representation” is borderline dangerous imo, because it is just one more way that the presentation of queerness is policed, and it’s even scarier seeing that coming from within the community itself—what should be the safest space for it.

But since those tropes don’t even play out in that exact way, I do think this all bears some further analysis and this is what I encourage by framing this counterpoint. And what I do also want to mention is my favorite discussion question of all regarding this show, which I bring up because of your take on this show as a sitcom: is it really, and was it ever, just a sitcom? Discussions of death, trauma, violence, racism, homophobia, and suicide have been at the core of this show from day one, but especially through its course this season. This question is rhetorical—I just think it’s an important thought exercise, as not every comedy is only a comedy.

This is an extremely surface level analysis, so if anything is unclear I’m happy to reframe!

Another round of thoughts on the "Izzy died like a queer-coded character from a pre-gay-lib era" theme:

Every time I check into the Izzy tag or the main OFMD tag, I see people talking about how they liked/weren't shocked by the finale because it always kinda seemed like Izzy was going to die:

The reason it seems that way is because Izzy is the kind of gay character that has, historically, gotten buried.

He's the queer-coded sidekick that has to die to make way for the straight romance, and the queer-coded villain that has to be vanquished to make room for the happy ending (which includes a straight romance).

This time, he died to make way for a gay romance. Diversity win!!! I guess????

And it isn't that anyone thinks--well, probably someone somewhere does think it, but it isn't that I think that DJenks did this because he secretly loves homophobic tropes.

I think--I mean, he's pretty much said, in the interviews--that he did it because he just kinda felt like Izzy had to die to complete his arc. And he's also said he didn't intend to write a homophobic show, what I conclude from that is that he didn't fucking notice that the reason he, IDK, just kinda always felt like Izzy had to die was because of this trope.

That's why, as of the actual filming of the fucking episode, he convinced himself he was doing the "mentor dies" trope, even though he'd never done anything to establish that kind of relationship between the two characters. Because he didn't fucking know why it just kinda seemed right for Izzy to die.

And that, my friends, means that this show is just not as smart as we built it up in our minds to be.

I wasn't even expecting it to be the show where That Character finally gets a happy ending of his own. But I was--because it is a fucking sitcom--expecting it to be one where he ended up somewhere we could imagine a happy ending for him, rather than leaving him bleeding out on the fucking pavement.

#op please be assured this is not meant to be an attack but rather a discussion board since I do get the upset I really do #I’ve just seen homophobia thrown around so lightly lately and I want to make sure we’re not misunderstanding and diluting a very real term #and on a less important note I think there’s also been a lot of forgetting canon vs. fanon after such a long hiatus #ofmd #ofmd season 2

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