#misquoted: once upon a time

[drconstellation]

The Golden Lions of Heaven

S2 has several prominent lion symbols in it, and at first watch they don’t appear to have anything to do with the main story line. But there are lions in both seasons, and they are all connected.

Lions are intrinsically linked with royalty, and are often called King of the Beasts or King of the Jungle. They also symbolize courage, nobility and strength.

Whenever lions appear in GO they are always coloured gold, which is associated with Heaven. Nearly all the angels have some bit of gold on them somewhere - unless they have just discorporated.

In Christian iconography Jesus is represented as a lion upon his return. When he was crucified he was a sacrificial lamb, but the Second Coming is a time when he returns to reign again. As a descendant of the royal house of David, it therefore seems quite logical to assign this symbol to the king of kings.

There is also this paragraph from the Medieval Bestiary:

“In Christian allegory, the three main natures of the lion each have a meaning. The lion erasing its tracks with its tail represents the way Jesus concealed his divinity, only revealing himself to his followers. The lion sleeping with its eyes open represents Jesus, physically dead after crucifixion, but still spiritually alive in his divine nature. The lion roaring over his dead cubs to bring them to life represents how God the father woke Jesus after three days in his tomb.”

There is also an often misquoted line “when the lion shall lie down with the lamb,” but it’s not that at all. The full verse is:

“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” [Isiah 11:6]

It is referring to a time of peace that should come once Jesus returns. Somehow I don't think we are going to get that in S3.

The Two Lions in the Dirty Donkey

There are two large golden lions sitting on the ends of the bar in the Dirty Donkey. Because one of the underlying themes in S2 is about the Second Coming, even if its not obvious until the end, its fairly easy then to interpret these two as being connected to this event. The Dirty Donkey itself can be seen in several ways: a simple donkey that needs a wash, or a black horse. Both are relevant to referencing Jesus. In the former, Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem the first time to signify he came in peace, but the second time he arrives will be like on the back of the black horse of a conqueror come to rule. One lion for each occurrence.

The Lion under the lamp in Jimbriel’s room

While there is some argument for Jim’s character in S2 re-creating parts of the life of Jesus from two thousand years ago, such as the cleansing of the temple and facing temptation from demons. I think we shouldn’t also forget that this is also Gabriel the Herald, and he was doing some ominous heralding of doom at various points in S2 that in hindsight we can see were warning us about the Second Coming. So this lion at the base of the lamp Jimbriel is playing with has to alert us to Jimbriel’s connection with Jesus. (I will probably revisit and add/rewrite this one in the future, I think there is a bit more to it)

The Lion Rampant on Aziraphale’s Ring

At the end of S2 we learn that Aziraphale has been manipulated into going back to Heaven to run the Second Coming by the Metatron. In hindsight, its hard to see how he wouldn't be involved, somehow. What is surprising, however, is that this expert in prophecy didn't see it coming - but then he didn't expect to see Jimbriel arriving either!

Usually the first thing we notice about Aziraphale's ring is the stylized lion rampant on the shield. We know it's definitely a lion because it upright - if it was down on all four paws it would be referred to as a leopard. The upright tail tells us its on guard.

There are more elements to the ring that also add to the story here, it's a much more complex ring than Michael's. The crown on the top is a symbol of victory and sovereignty, and also a connection to God, who considered the "King of all." On either side of the shield are two stylized sprigs of laurel, reinforcing a picture of triumph and fame.

Then there are a fringe of feathers, banded in sharp triangular spikes. Feathers signify willing obedience and serenity of mind in heraldry, so I would tend to lean towards the former. The triangles represent celestial rays, so they reinforce his obedience to the will of Heaven.

You might think, "well this makes sense, Aziraphale is a Principality, he's a protector, that's why there is a lion," but I think it more complicated than that. It tells us something about both the past and the future at the same time. The purpose of the rings remain a mystery to us at the moment, in that we don't know why some angels have them and others don't, or if they have any function. Aziraphale has a tendency to touch his when he is feeling troubled or worried (its easy to miss if you aren't paying attention,) so perhaps it helps to strengthen his connection to Heaven somehow, or is a reminder of his duties.

There is another connection Aziraphale has to a lion, and that is through his past status as a cherubim in the Job minisode in S2E2.

As pointed out in this post, the pattern is stylized to represent the four wings that Cherubim are said to have, with a pearl in the center for an eye. These Cherubim also have four faces: an ox, an eagle, a lion and a man. Well, we sort of get all of those with Aziraphale at some point in the wider story. And the angel set at the eastern gate of Eden with the flaming sword was supposed to be a Cherubim, too. Yes, Aziraphale changed rank from Cherubim to Principality, we just don't technically know whether it was a step up or down...

The Honolulu Roast Lion

There is a lion you don’t see in S2 – the lion logo for the Honolulu roast coffee, mentioned briefly on a blackboard in the background of a shot inside the coffee shop.

The islands of Hawaii were a kingdom up until 1893, when a commercial coup took them over and allowed them to be annexed by the US. You can read more about it here. While the op in that post relates it the Eldritch Ball in S2E5, it still connects a lion to royalty.

The lion at the beginning of S1E1

Right at the beginning we have a lion as well – a real live lion! After Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden they meet a big lion out on the dunes. As Aziraphale and Crowley watch and talk atop the walls of the Garden, Adam confronts the lion with the flaming sword Aziraphale gave him and eventually kills the lion before he walks away with Eve.

What are we to think of this? I've see one op suggest that it was Aziraphale "throwing them to the lions" as his first act. To me it seems more like Adam has just slain God instead to gain their freedom.

The Lions on Crowley’s “throne”

There are two lion heads on the arm rest of Crowley’s “throne” (I don’t know what else to call it, really) in his Mayfair flat in S1. If I understand correctly, this should first be viewed as a homage to the US show Supernatural, as this chair is the exact copy of the one the demon Crowley in that show sits in, only his one is black. But if I’m to look at it in terms of GO symbology, my brain keeps going [error 503: Server cannot process the request due to a system overload; should be a temporary condition...] because I can’t quite believe what its telling me. And I should, because I’m the one running around touting a list that is now 22 items long for why Crowley was once a very powerful archangel and written a batshit-crazy meta on King Arthur themes presenting in GO. So I’ll just present my quandary this way: There are lions, they are golden, of course, so they are connected to Heaven, and a symbol of royalty – but they are being used by a demon in a residence paid for by Hell…(too.much.gold...! what were they thinking?)

Further reading: The Golden Lion by Cobragardens

[princesscolumbia]

https://www.furinkan.com/features/articles/pregnant.html

About a week-ish ago, the above link was posted to the r/Ranma subreddit. I took a look at the article and the tl;dr seems to be as follows:

Once upon a time there was a person who put forth the question to Rumiko Takahashi on whether Ranma's transformation from boy-to-girl was complete enough that Ranma could experience all the consequences of such a transformation, the logical conclusion being, "Can Ranma get pregnant?" The rather infamous 'quote' of "I don't think about that, and neither should you," is purported to come from this question, which told the audience one thing: Don't fucking ask about Ranma's sex life or by Kami-sama, Takahashi-sensei will gut you! This stood as an uncontested truth until the pandemic when someone decided to try and track down the exact source of the quote, at which point they realized this was NOT said at a convention (as had initially been circulated via rumor at the time), but in an editorial that stood in lieu of a an interview that took place over a sit-down dinner between Takahashi and an editor who would wind up garnering a reputation for ginning up drama for its own sake. It's likely a heavily 'interpreted' quote that probably didn't have the intent to come across as cutting or biting and likely had a LOT of questions left on the table that could have been asked as a follow-up. So now that we've answered the question of whether Takahashi-san was actually a rude bitch or not (likely not), if you want to know whether Ranma can get pregnant you are a smelly sex pervert who most likely has cooties and should just drop dead and save us all the trouble of shunning you.

Am I taking liberty with my summary? FU~HUH~HUH~UCK YES! If you want to see what they actually say, follow the link and read. It's not tremendously long and, save for the author's unconscious purity cult bias, is a pretty solid piece of reportage into the infamous "quote," even if the question isn't actually answered. What follows is what I posted to Reddit in the comments section for that link:

I take issue with the foundational premise that the question of whether or not Ranma could get pregnant is inherently puerile or vulgar, which is not only the foundation of the original misquote but also the basis of the article's author's premise. Guess what, people f*ck, including at least two people you (yes, YOU) know. This should not be controversial. Now, I'll grant that, maybe...maybe in the 1990s when the question came up it might have been one of those giggle-behind-a-hand-in-shock kind of things, but we're entering a phase in world culture where uterus transplants for transwomen are being put through clinical trials to allow them to get pregnant. The rights of trans and gender-non-conforming folk are being trampled on the world over. Some transmen are choosing to become pregnant and have children. The hypocrisy of "cis het people get to talk about pregnancy without everyone assuming the question is about f*cking, but you'd better not talk about someone who's even a little bit trans or you're clearly doing it to be filthy, nasty perverts" is being exposed for the comp-het that it is. Asking "does this character who, canonically, transitions back and forth between one biological set of sex organs and secondary sex characteristics multiple times per day have to deal with all the concerns, consequences, and benefits of both forms?" is no longer the automatic, "You can't say that on TV!" that is used to be (and, honestly, never should have been). Soun, canonically, has f*cked. Nodoka, canonically, has f*cked. Genma, canonically (goddess help us all), has fucked. The operational premise of the primary conflict of the series is whether or not Ranma and Akane are going to, eventually, f*ck. The question of "What happens if Ranma gets pregnant?" should only ever be problematic if Takahashi at some point declares that Ranma is an ace transwoman and never wants to birth children, at which point it would be a thing that shouldn't be considered for hard/soft canon purposes because it would violate Ranma's choices in the matter. IMHO, in the reboot I think an episode where Ranma has to deal with attending both the boy's and the girl's sex ed classes would be tremendously funny. It would also have the knock-on effect getting people to think about things like "consent" and "consequences," something our current culture rather lacks.

This was auto-banned on Reddit because, apparently, saying the word "fuck," even with the self-censoring and used in the appropriate context, is a bridge too far for a subreddit attended by people old enough to know what sex is.

This isn't the first time I've encountered problematic behavior on the r/Ranma subreddit. When I pointed out that Ranma's basically saying that s/he just plain forgot about their gender and they only wanted the cure for Akane's sake, this is basically Ranma declaring that they don't care about their 'curse' and is genderfluid/NB, just lacking in the language that we have for those gender presentations (or non-presentation, as the case may be) that we have today, I got the clapback of, "NUH-UH! You're wrong! Ranma's a cis guy!".

(Yes, a cis guy. A cis guy who has 'his' own bras and likely has to carry around period products "just in case" and grows at least a cup-size canonically over the course of the show's run as commented on by Nabiki...and don't tell me Nabiki's not at least bi!)

This was on a conversation about whether Ranma was trans, which is a challenging question given the best word at the time for what Ranma is was 'newhalf,' a term that has come to be associated with sex workers and holds the same cultural niche as "sh*male" in American culture; it's a bit derogatory and is considered to be a slur that is used specifically in a sexual connotation. Couple this with the anime and manga being, at best, parallel continuities (there's SO many places where the two are different timelines I could probably do an entire series of posts just breaking down the differences) AND the fans stitching the two together to create fused variant timelines for their derivative works means that we just don't, at this point, have a solid answer.

Thanks to THAT episode of the anime:

Am I... Pretty? Ranma's Declaration of Womanhood (Peacock link)

...pretty much no transwoman on the planet is going to question that anime Ranma is a transgirl. The parallels to our own experiences that (femme)Ranma talks about during her dissociative state hit entirely too close to home and if a member of the writing team for that episode wasn't part of the queer community I will eat my bra with spaghetti sauce.

It's important to note, as well, that because of the anime, Takahashi is NO LONGER THE FINAL AUTHORITY ON ALL THINGS RANMA. If 'death of the author' is a thing, Takahashi committed honorable sepuku and gave creative control over to a writing and directorial team that is not her.

For the original manga, because Takahashi was unwilling to tackle those questions that give Purity Cultists hives (though why she'd shy away from the pregnancy angle when she was perfectly happy showing Ranma and her mirror clone working as prostitutes is a question I will probably never get answered), it's "open to interpretation" as to Ranma's Genderfluid/NB status, though IMHO the text is as clear as you can get it for the language of the time.

(In retrospect, it's obvious; she should be in the club)

In the anime, though, Shampoo and Ukyo are bi (and fuckin'), Ranma is a transwoman, and Akane is either lesbian or bi and strangled by comp-het to an obvious degree. Ryoga may well be trans as well, though his pig-related curse makes the matter questionable given his lamentations could be either about not having a girl body like Ranma does OR having a pig body, which would suck and result in severe dysmorphia either way.

This is because the anime team chose to tackle those questions, at least tangentially. Rumiko Takahashi, for all she is to be thanked for giving the world Ranma 1/2 (...and a few other things), handed off the baton to other creators. If we want the answers to the questions like, "Can Ranma get pregnant?", Takahashi is NOT the source for that.

That said, if she and I had the chance to sit down over a meal in San Diego during a convention, I'd apologize on behalf of the community for the monstrous tool who misquoted her and ask the questions like another content creator, not some asshat who just wants to stir up trouble for decades to come.

[krakenskrak]

I finally wrote a thing!! ugh writing sucks how do writers do it?

919 words of dukexiety fluff because I said so

Silence in Black and White

Remus was used to his boy toy sleeping at random times. He was also used to finding him in only a T-shirt and boxers, starfished on top of the covers, or with the covers bunched at the foot of the bed. He was always so cute when he was asleep. 

It was one of those days when Remus' skin was crawling and he needed physical affection. He was all showered and clean because the hot water was like a hug. It wasn't enough, but his Scare Bear was snoozing. 

Remus planted his bouncy booty on the bed, next to his fallen angel, and sighed. He was so drained and twitchy, but he was not about to wake Virgil, not when he was sleep deprived. It was frustrating but Remus could be considerate and kind when he wanted to be. 

He leaned over and rested his forearms on his knees. Maybe he was shivering because he was cold since he was only in a pair of undies. Maybe he could get under the covers to warm up instead of getting dressed. Maybe he could snuggle up to his sleepy spider and scratch his itch.

It was so quiet

So lonely

"Mmm," Virgil grumbled and rolled on his side. Remus glanced back and smiled softly at him. This man was too adorable. 

Remus returned to his hunched posture and ran his hands over his face. He couldn't wake Virgil. He was too cute like this!

He jolted when two arms wrapped around his belly and rubbed his bare skin. 

"Puppy," Virgil said and sat up. His usually deep voice was even deeper with sleep. He rested his chin on Remus' shoulder and nuzzled his cheek. 

"Scare Bear, I thought you were sleeping," Remus giggled. He would love to hear Virgil talking with that sleep soaked voice for hours, getting goosebumps from the embers of words. Virgil had other plans that he would love all the same. Remus purred in the back of his throat as Virgil kissed down his neck, lingering with each press of his lips. 

"I need a teddy duke," Virgil grumbled and rubbed his cheek against Remus' back. 

"Do you now?" Remus jeered, shaking from the delicate touches.

Virgil was not playing silly little games. He dragged Remus down onto the sheets. He snickered at the squawk his boyfriend let out. 

"Need my cozy cuddlefish," Virgil muttered and hugged him closer, pressing up against his back. 

"You don't need me to keep warm," Remus teased and squirmed in his tight hold, "You're hotter than hell!" 

"Shh, my nightmares are scared of you," Virgil huffed fondly and slowly covered his shoulder with kisses. Remus was going to melt into a puddle of dukey if he kept this up! 

"I'm your nightmare," he teased and tried to pry Virgil's arms away from him, just a little bit. 

"Mmm, you're a dream and I'm a nightmare," Virgil muttered against his electrified skin. 

"Are you being emo?" Remus giggled and gave up trying to get some breathing room. He didn't need to breathe. He needed to be consumed.

"My sheets, my covers, and the headboard. I'll be a king if you are a queen," Virgil continued softly and nuzzled him. He was still so sleepy! How could Remus ever complain about these adorable moments when he got all the affection he could ever want? 

"I just fell in love for the first time, watch as I pick myself up off the ground. In the dark I'm so far from the spotlight. Can you see me now?" 

"I can't see you!" Remus said with a giggle, "Let me roll over so I can return the favor! Or at least so we can nipple dock!" 

"Mm, nah, it's my turn to be a sap," Virgil hummed, "Let me misquote Hawthorne Heights and hold you." 

"But I want to see your face when you fall asleep again!" Remus whined. 

"You'll just kiss my stupid face and then try to eat it," Virgil mumbled. 

"Who wouldn't be driven to madness when gazing upon the sublime? I won't eat your brilliant face this time, but I'll kiss it once your eyes are closed!" Remus jeered and wiggled, trying to roll over.

"I sleep with one eye open so I can see you breathing. I follow your chest home," Virge grumbled and reluctantly loosened his hold. 

Remus rolled over and finally got to see his Scare Bear. He wanted to squeal. Virgil's hair was messy and his droopy eyes were locked onto his Trash Bat. His soft smile was so warm and adoring, Remus was actually torn between leaving it be and smooching it away. 

"I can see you!" Remus giggled and cozied up to his chest. Spider tits were the best things to snuggle! 

"I can hear you breathing, exhale," Virgil mumbled and hugged him, gently rubbing his arm. 

"Stalkerish!" Remus teased and kissed his throat. 

"I know," Virgil muttered, "I'm outside of your window with my radio." 

"I know," Remus hummed and closed his eyes. He was warm and safe and his skin wasn't crawling. 

"You are the only station," Virgil mumbled, slowly fading, "You play the song I know." 

"Scare Bear, get some rest, I won't go anywhere," Remus sighed fondly and kissed his chest. 

"You are the song I know," Virgil muttered as he slipped into sleep again. 

Remus giggled and clung to him like an octopus, stealing his warmth and affection. Yeah, he loved his sweet cuddly Scare Bear no matter how awake!

[p-isforpoetry]

Poetry in Movies and Television: The Crow (1994)

The poem Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) misquotes when he breaks into Gideon's (Jon Polito) shop is from "The Raven". Eric says:

"Suddenly I heard a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door."

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

You can watch/listen to the full poem on my channel by Xander Berkeley or James Earl Jones

When T-Bird (David Patrick Kelly) recognises Eric, he quotes from John Milton’s Paradise Lost:

"I knew you. But you ain’t you. You can’t be you. We put you through the window. There ain’t no coming back. This is the really real world, there ain’t no coming back. We killed you dead, there ain’t no coming back! There ain’t no coming back! … Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is!"

Paradise Lost, Book IV, [The Argument]:

“Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

The quote is from the end of the movie:

“If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.” --- Sarah/James O'Barr, The Crow

Music: Jane Siberry - It Can't Rain All the Time

[minou-roussel]

Junk Removal - Disposing Of The Practice

While heading to work meager morning, I saw the junk removal truck in a homeowners drive way. I would envision that someone is doing some late-winter cleaning. Its astonishing how quick we gather junk in our homes, things that we once saw value in are presently not valuable, they are currently junk.

Some individuals like to keep their junk around just on the off chance that they need it (all things considered would it be junk) and other can not wait to dispose of useless items laying. From the time another christian starts going to worship services, book of scriptures studies or other parties of Christians, they start to gather a great deal of useless profound junk.Whats otherworldly junk? The stuff that is in a profound way useless to your otherworldly walk, things like, customs, misquoted sacred text, a rundown of dos and don't s, useless banalities that individuals rely upon. There are a large group of different things that can be considered as otherworldly junk too, the thing to look for is anything that will thwart or discourage your profound development you should get ride of.

Some believers have a negative behavior pattern of giving their profound junk to other people and the one getting it could think whats being said has value, until they attempt to have confidence in something that God didn't say.

A good spot to start the junk removal...is to get into the expression of God for yourself. I'm not suggesting that you skirt book of scriptures study, but rather your way of learning is upgraded when you review with others. Book of scriptures study, should never be a trade for perusing and inspecting the Expression Of God for yourself. Numerous believers make the error of underestimating each word, as spoken by the minister. What if, that are off-base? The main way you would realize this is by perusing it for yourself.

[spiritelectric3]

My Journey Through Homestuck: A Closer Look at Act 1

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” -Andrew Hussie

Act 1 of Homestuck is a notoriously slow beginning to the deep seething pit that is Homestuck. A pit that is said to lead it's denizens to an altered state of being, assuming they still have their senses. But know now that when all finally said and done, there is still a beginning. An act, so subtly hinted at by a Shakespeare quote misattributed to Mark Twain. But perhaps we should sympathize with John Egbert, for he is only a child, though we all know that the path he is on will, if he survives, steer him away from such a position. That is certain.

Before I delve into this closer look at Act 1. I want to make a couple statements. Firstly, I have done some base level research into philosophical and spiritual ideas that Homestuck references. Keep in mind as you read that my knowledge is at a very base level in the context of these and should not be considered expert level. If I get anything wrong, please let me know.

Additionally, I have a few corrections to make regarding my previous posts in the Journey Through Homestuck series. Firstly, I had made a claim earlier that John Egbert was actively associated with Walt Whitman on account of the misquote entrusted to him. This is false. There are numerous misquotes throughout the series. I have encountered 3 in Act 1 on rereads. Secondly, I have decided to let go of my position that the parents are inferior, though I do hold onto the idea that perceptions and understandings of reality are thematically important to the series. On a similar note, I would also like to acknowledge that John doesn't know quite so much as I give him credit for. In a sense, he is the 13 year old equivalent of a tabula rasa (yes, I did have to look up what it's called). Lastly, I have been made aware that in the earlier days of Homestuck, readers played a role in determining character choices, which is what these commands are. Mayhaps I should look at the earlier MS Paint Adventures. For now, let us dive into Act 1.

Section 1: Childhood

Homestuck takes upon itself two formats: the comic book format, and the video game format. Both mediums are, at least by a societal standpoint (at the time), often associated with children. They are often disregarded under those pretenses. For me, Homestuck's art style specifically invokes a nostalgia for a lot of the children's graphic novels that I read growing up, often after picking up at my local library. Some examples are Missile Mouse, Stone Rabbit, and Lunch Lady. To be fair, this was how a lot of comic art was drawn at the time, especially outside of traditional superhero comics. This is an art style that additionally emulates the art of comic strips. One might even compare the slow nature of Homestuck to that of a serialized comic strip (though the art style of serials are very different from Homestuck's, which is closer to a "daily gag" style). In many ways, comic strips are themselves based in a collapsing idealist fantasy of childlike preservation, collapsing not only due to the declining use of newspapers, but also because a lot of cartoonists just don't want to make comics explicitly for kids. Similarly, video games, while easy to write off (at the time) as a children's medium, are incredibly violent and deal with mature themes. Heck, a lot of children's video games have themes that stand out more to the adults playing than the kids. A distant air of childhood is baked into the very format of Homestuck from the moment you begin.

That air is continued through many of the events befalling Act 1. Despite this being a story about the death of childhood, John and Rose feel free to act as children within the narrative. It is a role they are comfortable in. John spends a considerable portion of Act 1 goofing off. Much of it follows him alone in his room, and once his journey through the house begins, he is often sidetracked. Even after the Sburb game begins, John and Rose spend some time messing around with game mechanics. This is not wrong for them to do. They are kids. It's not like we didn't behave the same way. Something that we need to understand in regards to Act 1 is that, for the most part, John's house is pretty much his whole world. Like, yeah, he presumably leaves his house to go to school and the store or something, but the core essence of John's life is within and around his home. Act 1 pays respect to that mindset and attitude and grants its telling to an acknowledgement that for John, crossing his house is an adventure. Every thing that he encounters relates to him and/or his "antagonist", that being his father. In order for this child to play his new game with his friends, he must venture through his house to find it.

It is important to note then, the role that absence plays in John's life. Yes, it is most definitely a good thing that John grows up in a safe home environment, has access to food and resources, and is able to live comfortably. However, he is still left with a consequence, that being that his childhood hasn't really meant much for him, and he has spent it finding numerous ways to pass the time. As a child, John lacks the power to make meaningful change to his own life as well as that of the world around him. He lacks the ability to do things that are exciting or interesting. Instead of any of that, John spends his days stuck in his home. He is HOMESTUCK (thank you I'll see myself out). Getting a video game from the mail and playing it is a challenge for him, and the same thing goes for Rose and getting the wi-fi she needs.

This is why so much of the media that children consume fulfills a fantasy. Wouldn't it be great to be an action hero or to venture below your bed to discover a magical world of monsters? Not all of John's media tastes are based in fantasy, but they do give him joy for a reason. We often criticize bad movies for not respecting the intelligence of their audience, but perhaps it is not always the bad movies which disrespect the audience, but those of us who criticize them for not adhering to our own mindsets. A lot of the bad films that I enjoyed as a kid weren't even concerned with my intelligence. They were concerned with allowing me space to imagine myself going on adventures I never could without concern for the boundaries of reality. John's tastes may not be "high end", but he knows what he likes, which is more than can be said about his father. John's father attempts to appeal to John. He makes the very reasonable assumption that John would like to spend the day eating cake. Reasonable, because kids supposedly love sweets, something that is usually true. However, he fails to notice that John has gotten very tired of cake very quickly. Similarly, he seems to assume that John also enjoys harlequins. He very clearly does not. John's life exists, for the most part, in his own little world (ha ha spoilers I don't understand yet ha ha). The only people who seem to have any actual understanding of him are his friends, as we see with Dave's gift of the stuffed rabbit, something John is genuinely excited to have. So, if John is currently stuck in his own world, what will draw him out?

Section 2: Teenagehood

John may be a kid, but that doesn't make him any less 13 in Act 1. The outer world begins to pierce the veil, allowing for light to shine in. John receives his name on his 13th birthday, and simultaneously receives his sylladex at the whim of nothing but the universe. Despite him just suddenly having this strange device, John is immediately expected by his peers (mainly Dave tbh) to fully understand its mechanisms and its function. Perhaps John has always had a sylladex, but it wasn't until his point of view broadened that he began to notice it, and therefore had to start thinking from the sylladex mindset. Regardless of when the sylladex appears, however, it is not until now that John actually utilizes it, realizes the flawed nature of the data structure it's based in, and is forced to be clever in order to use it effectively, despite its very impractical nature. One could even argue that understanding the sylladex is a major part of act 1 because it must be understood before the rest of the story can happen. It forgoes a portion of worldbuilding, though the time spent in Sburb is still critical. It puts forth its own system that our heroes must quickly unpack and unravel or else face the dire consequences. John must "learn the lingo" if he wishes to get through the path that lies before him.

Sburb, as an artifact, is inherently manipulative in its design. The only way to make progress in it at all is by effectively messing around and seeing what you can do. It is a game where you find the goal before you can think about achieving it. However, simultaneously, it is impossible to do so without unintentionally spawning a meteor that will destroy, if not you, a good portion of the world, and actively partake in the world's finale. The game is designed such that its players make an innocent decision which later turns out to have dire consequences.

A similar trick can be seen earlier in Act 1 when John sets up his strife deck. Dave tells John to set up the strife deck on account of it being able to hold extra items, framing it as though it is of immediate importance. He neglects, however, to mention that a strife deck can only be set up once until after John sets it up to place an object currently in his captchalogue, a hammer, something John is not especially proficient at using. Compare this to Rose and Dave, who set theirs up to something they know they can make good use of when they feel the time is right. John is given an instruction, which he follows, unaware that he has simultaneously made a long term decision about his life. Compare this to an aphorism (oh boy, it's time to utilize that light research I did!), particularly those of the philosopher, Francois de la Rochefoucauld, who I mention only because the Walt Whitman quote is actually his. Such phrases often take a format based in alluring the listener in, appealing to an existing understanding about the world or humanity before ending in a twist that shatters or damages the appealed notion. For the strife deck, John is having difficulty using his sylladex and the strife deck can make it momentarily easier, which comes with the price of it being unchangeable. As for Sburb, well, the allure is that Sburb is a new game coming out and video games are fun. The twist is that playing the game causes meteors to fall out of the sky and potentially kill you.

An even bigger example of this, however, is the promise of growing up in and of itself. Growing up comes with the ability to make one's own decisions, as well as the (supposed) maturity to do so. A desirable prospect for sure, but minimizing adulthood to its perks ignores its struggles. Growing up often puts a deeper responsibility in one's hands, not only for themself but for others, and on a grander scale, the universe. Growing up also requires one to face the darker sides of their reality. This is not to say that growing up and adulthood are bad. Only to note that it is easy to sell it as something that it is not, leading to the desire to rush into adulthood and say, try to lift a hammer that one cannot in a circumstance where success potentially spells one's doom.

Irony is a concept that is thrown around a lot in Homestuck, particularly by the characters themselves, especially Dave. Dave seeks to be cool. In order to be cool, he must associate himself with adulthood, which (theoretically) requires a more intellectual look at things. The act of enjoying something is called into question when doing so is so shallow that only a child would do so, but if you enjoy it ironically, then you are supposedly adding a layer of intellectual thought to said enjoyment. You see the bullshit of what you consume, which justifies its consumption. Even the wearing of sunglasses, the cliche "cool" act, requires a layer of intellectual battling in order to justify it. This is, all in all, a big waste of time, and I'll explain why in section three. For now though, notice how eager Dave is to rush into his ideal understanding of adulthood. While the other kids don't necessarily rush into adulthood, we see them rushing nonetheless, trying to get on with things without understanding quite what that entails. However, said rushing is an innocent act. As seen before, there is something missing from John's life, and the same likely goes for the other kids. Of course they're gonna rush to try and find whatever it is that is missing.

That is why Sburb is such a cruel trick.

Section 3: Adulthood

Homestuck as a work is very much based in point of view. Every protagonist has a different captchalogue, different interests, and think through things fundamentally differently. It is no surprise then that the work demonstrates key differences in how the protagonists see the world and how their parents do. The adults in this series tend to have a deep seated interest in a very specific subject, such as John's father and his interest in harlequins. Such interests are off putting to the younger main characters, whose interests are apparently much more detailed. The adults have a special knowledge that allows them a view through a particular way of thinking, such as say, business, but that way of thinking can only do so much when it's John's video game that's creating problems. The Homestuck adult's view of the world is developed, but it has become stagnant. It fails to comprehend of alternate paths through life or even the world itself. There is something to be said about the bubble of adulthood within the comic as being similar to the bubble of childhood in this way.

Another example is Gamebro Magazine's review of Sburb. The review criticizes Sburb for not having fights, though later, we come to find that there is fighting within the game. You just have to get through the opening section. However, to reiterate, getting through the opening section of the game requires causing destruction, which is something that many players are initially unaware of. Think of GG. She does not even know what Sburb is, yet is affected nonetheless by the meteors falling from the sky. It is her world that the game is actively destroying. Reality doesn't stop existing when you stop believing in it, but what if you don't even know what reality is? You're affected by it nonetheless and yet, it is not even something you consider. Sburb provides a theoretical way to completely circumvent this intellectual stagnation by forcing the player to think in new ways via the hellish scenarios it puts them in.

So, is adulthood within Homestuck simply being doomed to have a narrow view on reality that very well could be a total miss? It's important to remember that Homestuck is a narrative from the point of view of children, so possibly, though I doubt it's really implying this in any meaningful way about reality. Still though, there is certainly space for the reader to take a warning to allow themselves to be open to the people around them having different ways of looking at reality through their separate interests and ways of experiencing the universe, and who knows? Maybe one point of view will save the other. Going back to irony, it's important to remember that the adults in this series know what they like just as the kids do, even when their interests are "childish", such as that of harlequins or wizards. Possible intellectual explanations are put forth, but that does not guarantee their truth as much as it makes such interests enigmatic and strange. This is why irony is so pointless. One is going to be interested in what they're interested in regardless of what they do. Justifying those interests using irony makes one seem intelligent, but revokes the joy of simply enjoying something. There is a value in earnestly enjoying something, even if it is a bad movie. Complex knowledge and care about something can be useful in the right circumstance. Homestuck is simply one example of a circumstance like this.

Final Words

Homestuck Act 1 is the day that childhood dies. It is also the day that the very moment that reality becomes clearer at a dire cost. It is a nigh literal portrayal of the death of childhood, but demonstrates an intellectual death where other works might prioritize an emotional death. Just as the work begins to drag John and the other kids into a world of madness, so too does it begin to drag us, the reader into its way of thinking. We begin to think of the world with the captchalogue and Sburb's reality manipulation in mind. Act 1 is the tip of the iceberg, but it has no choice, but to be. Such is often the nature of the beginning of stories, but even then, the events of Act 1 are a kid running around his house trying to play his new game, playing his new game, then rushing to stop a meteor from crashing into his house with the help of a friend. What is gained from Act 1 is a deeper understanding of Homestuck's storytelling style and the type of logic the world operates on. This moment of transformation does merit a single act though, as the inciting incident is a pretty big deal. Such is the nature of the day when everything changes, and every consequence it carries.

Okay, so before I end this post, a little housekeeping. I think I'm going to do at least one more general reading post before getting to work on the Act 2 analysis. As stated before, Act 2 as a narrative eludes me, and I would like to better place it in the larger story. Plus, it's been a bit, and I just want to chill out and keep going before another large analysis. Secondly, at some point, I plan on putting together a masterpost so that all of these can be accessed in one place. The specifics of when for all posts is a little iffy. It depends on how things go in my life and what things I work on at what time. Homestuck is maddening and we all know it's going to get worse.

[zetecx]

Found this in a magazine (the heading says "The history about folklore, myths and adventures.")

First is Neils misquote of Chesterton and the following text reads:

"The problem is that Chesterton never said this. It's just a Neil Gaiman claim. But it's a good quote. And this is precisely how fairytales and stories work. They have a core of truth and are passed on by storytellers according to the cultural needs and wishes. Constantly changing but still staying the same. Understand how and why old folklore is so important to us, learn how fairytales and stories are collected and preserved and how what you think you know about our most beloved fairytales is far from the truth. Come to the magic land and see what was once upon a time..."

Every Version of that Chesterton Quotation about Fairy Tales and Slaying Dragons

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

~ G.K. Chesterton, writing the original lines, in Tremendous Trifles, Book XVII: The Red Angel (1909) ________________________

One of the great popular novelists of the early part of this century was G.K. Chesterton. Writing at a time when fairy tales were under attack for pretty much the same reason as books can now be covertly banned in some schools because they have the word ‘witch’ in the title, he said: “The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed.”

~ Terry Pratchett — getting the spirit of it right, but technically misquoting Chesterton — in When the Children Read Fantasy, published in SF2 Concatenation (1994) ________________________

“Fairy tales are more than true – not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.” - G.K. Chesterton, writer

~ Neil Gaiman (neil-gaiman) — getting the spirit of it right, but technically misquoting Chesterton — in Coraline (2002)

As Gaiman explains:

It’s my fault. When I started writing Coraline, I wrote my version of the quote [from] Tremendous Trifles, meaning to go back later and find the actual quote, as I didn’t own the book, and this was before the Internet. And then ten years went by before I finished the book, and in the meantime I had completely forgotten that the Chesterton quote was mine and not his.

________________________

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Fairy tales do not tell children dragons exist. Children already know the dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

~ Andi Bushell — getting the spirit of it right, but technically misquoting Chesterton — in Criminal Minds; Season 3, Episode 5, Seven Seconds (October 24th, 2007) ________________________

[prnlive]

Gary Null’s Newsletter Issue 066

In this week’s Gary Null’s Newsletter:

Beware the Agents of Chaos

Recipe for Vegetable Stock

Beware the Agents of Chaos

By Richard Gale and Gary Null, PhD

“It is possible to live only as long as life intoxicates us; once we are sober we cannot help seeing that it is all a delusion, a stupid delusion."  Leo Tolstoy

Not a day passes without Americans witnessing another debacle in the nation’s domestic and foreign policies that further grind down the last remaining threads of a sustainable, coherent and functioning nation. Instead of actual progress, we hear competing incantations of nonsense to “make America great again” and to “build back better.”  Both mantras represent opposite sides of the aisle’s affirmation that the nation is in serious disarray and degenerating rapidly. For Democrats it means throwing more money at the problems that too much money already spent has created. “Seize the opportunity,” declares Biden, “meet this moment in history and build the future we need.” Or, “we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” according to Elizabeth Warren, “to build back better and create a more equitable, inclusive and prosperous future for all Americans.”  And then there are the other voices in the echo chamber to make America great again.  There are Mitch McConnell’s sobs to “rebuild our military” and Ted Cruz’s “promoting American exceptionalism” around the globe.  This is all lunacy because there are no longer any adults or wise elders in the room to turn this political voodoo into a functioning reality. 

The German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt saw totalitarian leaders as agents of chaos who intentionally undermine the stability of society to destroy the foundations of democracy by creating fear and uncertainty. What is notably disturbing is the current administration’s obsession with deceiving themselves as a benevolent force for progress. Yet any sane person can glance at the decline in authentic, sustainable progress made in American culture for at least the past three decades and realize the nation has one foot in hospice. 

So, the question is:  how has all this rubbing of the Build Back Better and Make America Great Again genie lamps worked for you?  Are you feeling these mantras’ magic? Has the descent of optimism and hope alighting upon the crown of your head yet? Or maybe you have that high of genuine happiness and authentic well being oozing forth from your pores?  How does your bank account look?  Have your savings built back better so it is great again? Are you feeling Nancy Pelosi’s fuzzy warm assurance that “as Democrats… every American has the opportunity to succeed, that every voice is heard and that our country remains a beacon of hope and progress for generations to come”? Or, was that a misquote from Republican neocon Nikki Haley to assure us that “America remains a shining beacon of freedom and democracy.” Platitudes, blue and red, all sound the same because such clichés have been repeated incessantly for decades. And putting aside the so-called progress made in easier access to anti-anxiety and depression medications, and better suicide hotlines, how is the mental health of American youth fairing? Therefore, where has any genuine progress been achieved to improve the quality of human life?

Surely paying heed to Tolstoy’s above words are long overdue. We need to wake up and realize that to continue this imbecilic ritual of rubbing counterfeit lamps of feel-good propaganda is only making the public more delusional and stupid. It is high time we realize there are no longer any adults in the Oval Office and boardrooms of Washington, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. The agents of chaos govern us. Our culture of absolutism breeds the very conditions for violence and conflict that air nightly on the news. The detractors of absolutism’s tyrannies are perceived as enemies. The firm belief in absolutes is a condition leading people to justify egregious actions in the name of a greater good without considering the consequences.  Does this not accurately describe today’s cancel culture and the most militant wings of the LBGTQ community, critical theory racists, institutionalized atheist Skepticism and medical determinism?  Whether it is blind faith in the absolutism of Fauci’s “science”, Marjorie Taylor Green’s messianic return of Trump, Biden’s proclamation that “Transgender Americans shape our Nation’s soul,” Janice Yellin’s incoherent gibberish before a Congressional committee to account for the country’s economic malaise, or the neocons’ hysterical obsession in the State Department and Pentagon to throw away hundreds of billions of dollars and weapons into the ever-devouring black hole of Zelensky’s Ukraine, there are no signs of a return to stability. And this list of misadventures, inept decision-making and reckless blundering can be multiplied a hundred-fold. Together, all roads now lead towards a dire picture of America’s inevitable collapse. The US continues to sink in the murky, toxic waters in the middle of the Rubicon. Sadly, America has forgotten how to swim and is no longer capable of swimming back to shore. 

The hard, cold facts are that American exceptionalism only exists in the dream-like hallucinations of our politicians. The US’s global hegemonic military strength wanes daily. Reaching diversity quotas trumps talent and professional expertise. Colleges and universities have degenerated to Napoleonic era lunatic asylums that reward self-centered, hedonic individualism and manic rebellion. Remarkably, the mobs in the street are little more than bland reflections, a Jungian shadow, of the instability and disorder created by the agents of chaos who sit in the seats of power. “Just as the individual has a shadow,” wrote Jung, “so does society at large. And just as the individual must come to terms with his shadow so too must society if it is to be healthy and whole.” The rising confusion among our youth over their self-identity, gender, moral alienation and a lack of existential purpose in this technological driven materialistic society has reduced our youth to sentient robots screaming for self-expression.  This is one cause for today’s groupthink of social and political unrest and its destructive outcomes. Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell warned that “collective passions” have a penchant to inflame “hatred and rivalry directed towards other groups.” He was also acutely aware that “science is no substitute for virtue; the heart is as necessary for the good life as the head.”

Most Americans have now become so desensitized, so disconnected from perceiving reality, that they are incapable of realizing how the government adversely impacts every nick and cranny in their lives. Instead of running away from crises, we do everything to the contrary to magnify the problems. So if the environmental and social crises continue to spiral out of control, understand it is because America is only exceptionally pathetic. The nation has quenched its illusions and stupor far too long on Aldous Huxley's soma. Now its intoxicating effects are giving rise to an explosion of hatred, rage and self-serving narcissism in the streets, classrooms, corporate boardrooms, and the sitcoms staged in Congressional chambers.

Unfortunately, unless we identify the defining characteristics of American culture at this historical moment and its causes, the pathway to widespread social collapse will accelerate. 

Since the time of the Italian philosopher and jurist Giambattista Vico in the early 18th century, anthropologists, historians and philosophers have made efforts to discover patterns whereby nations and cultures undergo cycles of growth, decay and rebirth. Vico called these cyclic patterns in human history “ricorso” or stages of “recurrence” that are observed in histories of individual cultures and civilizations. Other important individuals who have attempted to map these historical and generational cycles and to identify their characteristics and causes include the Swiss anthropologist Johan Bachofen (d. 1887), Oswald Spenger (d. 1936), the historian Arnold Toynbee (d. 1975), Carroll Quigley (d. 1977), Strauss and Howe, Peter Turchin among others. However, perhaps most notable and long forgotten are the cyclic patterns leading to a cultural collapse articulated by Pitirim Sorokin.

Sorokin was a Russian-American intellectual and social visionary who co-founded Harvard University’s Sociology Department in 1931. Born and educated in Russia, Sorokin was arrested by the Soviet authorities for holding critical views of the Communist regime, but was released and fled to the US. Years later in 1929, he was kidnapped by Soviet agents in Paris. He was sentenced to a gulag labor camp but was again released and forced into permanent exile. Sorokin’s 1937 magnum opus Social and Cultural Dynamics was the culmination of twenty years research to identify the cycles nations and cultures undergo that eventually lead to critical crises and their ultimate collapse. 

By today’s college standards, Sorokin would never land a professorship at an American college or university. His theories have been almost categorically ignored by academia and criticized for being pessimistic. He upheld values that many today would call conservative and traditional, especially on his emphasizing higher moral and spiritual values. Consequently, Sorokin is out of step with today’s neoliberal intelligentsia and Critical Theory’s wokeism. Oddly his modern admirers happen to be the left-leaning transpersonal psychologist Richard Tarnas, ecologist Wendell Berry and political philosopher Charles Taylor. What they all share in common is a deep appreciation for the pivotal importance of higher moral and spiritual values in order to sustain a functioning and life-affirming culture wherein citizens can thrive.

If we take a panoramic view of America in 2023, Sorokin’s warnings of Western societies’ inevitable collapse are in plain sight. “The current crisis,” Sorokin wrote in his The Crisis of Our Age, “has been created by a false concept of progress, which identifies material growth with true progress and overlooks the fact that there is no real progress without spiritual and moral development.”  While we may pride ourselves in our culture’s technological ingenuity in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, robotics and pending transhumanism, for Sorokin, a society that only develops technologically is a “half-society” because humans are then simply reduced to “cogs in a vast machine, whose only purpose is to produce and consume goods.” For those throwing curses back and forth across the ideological political divide, both sides blindly serve more powerful interests who are eager to exploit them as a means to an end. Those who get caught up in this American charade reduce themselves to halfwits unwillingly creating a technocratic society based upon conformity and uniformity. True diversity and authentic individuality, which are motivated by higher principles, are technocratic tyranny’s obstacles that must be overcome and destroyed. 

According to Sorokin, who died in 1968, the US had reached its “sensate” stage of its social cycle. Clearly we have now reached the hyper-sensate level immediately before a rapid dissolution. In The Crisis of Our Age, all the signs in the nation for what he termed the “cataclysm of the sensate culture” were rapidly being assembled to culminate in the not too distant future: rampant consumerism and materialism, domination of individualism, self-gratification and indulgence, hedonism, moral weakness, the decay of traditional social bonds, and a collective social emptiness. The sensate stage’s climax is chaos, the breakdown of social order and national institutions. Sorokin’s chaotic stage is characterized by disorder, confusion, mental disorientation, a rise in crime and social unrest, and political instability. Redeeming moral values reach rock bottom. Only after this chaotic phase reaches its nadir does a new cultural synthesis emerge as people seek new ways to reestablish order and meaning in both their personal lives and collectively within the society. 

But Sorokin had another poignant insight. A predominant sensate culture is vulnerable to external threats, especially economic crises, conflicts and wars and even natural disasters. This so well describes today’s America now that its global economic and military hegemony is a growl with no bite.  American foreign diplomacy is deplorable as we watch nation after nation turning their backs on the US-led West for more amicable and neighborly partners such as China, Russia and India.  The reason for America’s fragility is that the nation has appallingly betrayed its moral and spiritual resources and therefore is unable to cope with adversity—internal and external—to meet and overcome its challenges. Neither is America internally resilient nor therefore it is unfit to adapt to the necessary changes underway to preserve its survival.  When all the causes and conditions for a final collapse are assembled, a nation’s fate is no longer negotiable. Only the time gap can be slowed or accelerated. 

Despite the original values of American liberalism, which were brought forth during the Age of Reason and the Renaissance’s flame of non-dogmatic rational inquiry, today’s liberals have perverted its own legacy and become unthinking adolescents that are every bit as intolerant and wrong-headed as the most zealous religious fundamentalist on the Right. Across woke culture – old and young – there is a plague of childish behavior to censor and ban any speech or thought that is contrary to their false illusions about themselves and their fragile self-identity. This “exclusivist humanism,” as the prominent cultural philosopher Charles Taylor has termed it, is a faux universalism. With myopic obeisance relies on the secular power structure in government that in turn acts on their behalf to marginalize and at times demonize alternative belief systems that do not embrace a secular universalism. Hence the new radical left, and even federal agencies, no longer tolerate diversity of traditional beliefs and worldviews. The FBI’s illegal surveillance activities on Twitter and the agency’s harassment of peaceful anti-abortion Catholics are just minor examples. More alarming is the murder of three children and three school staff in Nashville by mentally disturbed person with gender dysphoria who is being eulogized without a woke tear wept for the victims. Rather than read the works of history’s intellectual and literary giants, it is better to wipe away or rewrite the past altogether in order to please the neuroses of the most vocal and belligerent masses. However, Taylor offers an alternative --- “open humanism” – a more inclusive, pluralistic, values-driven dialogue and mutual respect towards the wide scope of human experiences. The debate is whether or not American society has already passed the tipping point of a fateful demise.  As events worsen America’s delirium escalates, we fear it has. 

And still the majority of the American citizenry willingly participates in and contributes to this Mummers’ charade in the halls of power. Our defining culture has succumbed to irrational hostility, collective emotional hysteria, or what Sorokin called  “cultural schizophrenia,” which is when individuals in a grossly materialistic society cling desperately to a false sense of individuality that is completely divorced from any deeper purpose in life. The result is social fragmentation, conflict and widespread confusion. At this moment, we witness both sides of the left-right political divide screaming about their victimhood while actively participating in society’s destruction. And yet there are no massive mobilized protests against the most destructive elements in our culture as if they are unimportant.  Renewable energy, access to healthy foods, banning toxic chemicals in everyday household products that are otherwise forbidden in other countries, government-sanctioned censorship, an illegal surveillance state, a justice system that indentures the poor, fifty million Americans living in poverty and a thoroughly corrupt medical system -- none of these seem important enough to warrant millions to march on Washington. Even humanity's survival is inconsequential. 

Today, American media is incapable of reporting on the true state of the country's domestic culture. The media can no longer create a believable story that reflects the actual economic and social conditions of average Americans because it has been unable to move beyond the harsh social divisions fuelled by animosity and distrust. Very earlier, Sorokin observed the media’s adverse trajectory. As early as 1941, he was warning about the consequences of the media’s sensationalism and entertainment, its focus on negative news that would breed social anxiety and fear. Sorokin also shared his deep concern about the media’s emphasis on materialism and consumerism and its impact on the social and mental development of young people. It is difficult to disagree with him now that both conservative and liberal media have neutered the intellects of their most loyal viewers.  The right suffers from pre-rational superstition and anti-intellectualism. The left suffers from a highbrow intellect and moral impoverishment. Neither is capable of serving as a revolutionary force to relieve suffering and fight on behalf of individual freedoms, peace and human rights outside of cultic groupthink. Moreover, our corporate media has succeeded in turning the US into a laughing stock among the vast majority of other countries. Rather a functional media would be honestly responsible for a balanced and meaningful view of the world, one that focuses on the positive as well as the negative and at the same time emphasizes constructive moral values. 

Unfortunately, American media is now beyond redemption.  For those who have retained a thread of philosophical and spiritual inquiry and values, there can be no support for the psychobabble of those who would drown out the voices of reason and human decency. It is left to those of us who have been cancelled and excluded from the national dialogue about our country’s deterioration to continue to probe more deeply into our own lives and build community with like-minded people. 

Finally we might take to heart the words of one of Tolstoy’s great admirers. "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous," wrote Martin Luther King, "than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." It is our deep ignorance about not knowing ourselves and appreciating our intrinsic interconnection with each other and the environment that perpetuates the suffering around us. Our true enemies are irrational, dogmatic beliefs and faux liberal values, which equally keep us enslaved to a system that only serves its own interests and dehumanizes us to collateral damage to the system’s failings. All imperial civilizations ultimately collapse. Despite the US’s rapid decline, it remains within each person’s means to not be a helpless victim when it sinks completely.  After the inferno completes its course, cools and simmers, we will then be most needed to rise from its ashes to return sanity, decency and the values of equanimity and selfless compassion to the severely emotionally wounded who participated or contributed to the conflagration.

Recipe for Vegetable Stock

About Gary Null

An internationally renowned expert in the field of health and nutrition, Gary Null, Ph.D is the author of over 70 best-selling books on healthy living and the director of over 100 critically acclaimed full-feature documentary films on natural health, self-empowerment and the environment. He is the host of ‘The Progressive Commentary Hour” and “The Gary Null Show”, the country’s longest running nationally syndicated health radio talk show which can be heard daily on here on the Progressive Radio Network.

Throughout his career, Gary Null has made hundreds of radio and television broadcasts throughout the country as an environmentalist, consumer advocate, investigative reporter and nutrition educator. More than 28 different Gary Null television specials have appeared on PBS stations throughout the nation, inspiring and motivating millions of viewers. He originated and completed more than one hundred major investigations on health issues resulting in the use of material by 20/20 and 60 Minutes. Dr. Null started this network to provide his followers with a media outlet for health and advocacy. For more of Dr. Null’s Work visit the Gary Null’s Work Section or Blog.GaryNull.com In addition to the Progressive Radio Network, Dr. Null has a full line of all-natural home and healthcare products that can be purchased at his Online Store.

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[yatescountyhistorycenter]

Chronicling the Chronicle-Express

By Jonathan Monfiletto

An apparently misquoted by often repeated quote from the late great Mark Twain goes like this: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” The actual quote, according to Mental Floss, is much less dramatic and catchy. But, that’s not my point; my point is, the reports of the death of The Chronicle-Express are greatly exaggerated.

Initially, I planned to write this article as an ode to a newspaper that had run – under different names and combinations – for all but one year of Yates County’s now 200-year existence, capturing the present and preserving the past. The Chronicle-Express was to publish its final edition on September 14, 2022; I aimed to publish this tribute to the newspaper whose origin dates back to 1824 – one year after Yates County’s formal establishment in 1823 – as the first article of this blog in the new year.

Instead, five days before that final edition was to come out – or, right now, in the moment just before I began working on this article – I happened upon an article, breaking news from The Chronicle-Express itself, that the newspaper has been purchased by Parsippany, New Jersey-based CherryRoad Media and will continue to cover the news of the Penn Yan and Yates County communities. This is just the latest development in the history of an institution almost as old as the county itself.

Now, as was the original intent of this article, let’s look at that history of that institution. And, let’s make a bit of a correction: Yates County is almost two years older than its longest running newspaper. While the New York State Legislature formally established Yates County on February 5, 1823, Edward J. Fowle published the first edition of the Yates County Republican on December 16, 1824.

The newspaper was initially located on the upper floor of a mercantile building on Head Street, now called North Avenue. In 1827, its location is described as “two doors west of Asa Cole’s Hotel,” which places it on the north side of North Avenue not far from Main Street. After a few years, B. Tyler & Co. took over the newspaper, then in 1831 John Renwick bought the paper and renamed it the Penn Yan Enquirer. However, only two years later, the newspaper suspended operations in March 1833, citing the difficulty of serving subscribers on the rural mail routes of the time.

In 1837, William Child started the Democratic Whig – considered the lineal descendant of the original Yates County Republican – and operated that newspaper until 1839, when Nicholas D. Suydam bought the newspaper and renamed it the Yates County Whig. Fowle was once again the owner, a role he filled for a year and a half until February 1843. Two years later, in February 1845, Rodney L. Adams purchased the newspaper; by that point, its offices had been located on Main Street.

In October 1851, a fire destroyed the Bradley Block where the newspaper was headquartered, but with new equipment acquired, the Whig published again in November 1851, just one month later. Locally renown newspaper editor Stafford Cleveland began his longtime association with the newspaper when he purchased the Whig, with John B. Look, in August 1852 and associated others in business with him over his nearly 30 years at the helm. Early in his tenure, Cleveland renamed the newspaper the Yates County Republican – its original name – and then the Yates County Chronicle – perhaps its most well-known name – eschewing all partisan affiliations in delivering the news of the community.

Cleveland sold his interest in the newspaper in April 1878 to Lewis B. Graham, while Cleveland continued on as editor and the office moved to the east side of Main Street to the Raymond Block. Three years later, Cleveland stepped down as editor in September 1881. At the point, a group called the Chronicle Publishing Company acquired the newspaper and went through a series of combinations and partnerships.

Samuel P. Burrill purchased the controlling interest in July 1886 then sold it to DeWitt C. Ayres in 1889; a firm called the Peerless Printing Company took over the newspaper in 1904. In the interim, the newspaper operations moved to what is still known as the Chronicle Building – a new building at the time – on April 1, 1890.

Perhaps the biggest development in the history of the newspaper – and the history of newspapers in Yates County – occurred on January 1, 1926. On this date, the newly incorporated Penn Yan Publishing Company published for the first time The Chronicle-Express, a combination of its two purchases of the Yates County Chronicle and the Penn Yan Express. The Express had started on March 31, 1866 as an independent newspaper formed out of the previous Penn Yan Democrat.

Yates County Historian Frank Swann’s genealogy of The Chronicle-Express ends here with a series of newspaper articles printed on February 18 and February 25, 1960. In the past 60-plus years since, as many people know, the newspaper has undergone several changes in ownership and editorship. These changes include a move to its current office at 138 Main St. in 1971 and, of course, its most recent change in ownership with John Christensen remaining at the helm as editor.

Next year, Yates County’s longest-running newspaper will celebrate its bicentennial, just as the county itself is doing this year. From the county’s History Center to the county’s news center, here’s a toast to the next 200 years of The Chronicle-Express.

[misquotedmtolympus]

Artemis: You don't have to dress a woman as a man to give her authority.

[distortquote]

On a treasure hunt:

Snow White: Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way!!

Hook: No. I want my fucking gold.

[princessselene126]

When Cinder is Kidnapping Kai

Kai: What are you even doing here?!

Cinder: What I'm doing here is saving your ass.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

for writing prompts, I've always been a sucker for character studies, and I thought the contrast between John's very reserved routine where he was just cooped up in Kenwood vs. Paul's "king of swinging london" lifestyle post-touring years was very influential in their dynamics later on (think this was discussed in the Rob Sheffield ep. of AKOM), and dunno if it's your preferred kind of writing style - but I always loved the inner voices you gave each of them in ILTY, so would love your take on it!

inspired by you calling Paul a king instead of prince, which is the word I've seen more often :) this didn't end up being about their dynamic exactly and I went sort of off the rails in terms of style lol, but I hope you still enjoy <3

Diarchy ~1.1k words

(from Greek δι-, di-, "double", and -αρχία, -arkhía, "ruled")

“One day, you four will be bigger than Elvis,” Brian told them.

John can still recall Paul’s chuckle.

“Sir, that’s very kind of you and we are sort of brilliant, but no need for false flattery.”

Brian Epstein, immediately taken with Macca’s charm, which the leather trousers and greased hair only superficially concealed, broke into a smile.

“Believe me, I am not in the business of false flattery.” Then he locked eyes with John, with a stare so disarming it reaches across time and space and sends shivers down his spine right now, as he lies in bed, searching for motivation to get up.

Bigger than the King —  every day, it’s getting harder to deny it, John realizes, as he pulls the covers up to his chin. Only, at some point, perhaps when he came face-to-face with Elvis himself, all of it – the money, the recognition, the power – became meaningless to him. Now, all he feels is the unimaginable weight of the crown, pulling him down and tightening around his brain, the burden of his medals squeezing his heart and making it ever more difficult to breathe.

Christ, does he want a cigarette right now.

Once again, his stubborn laziness has been defeated by a debilitating craving. John crawls off the king-sized mattress, so large that some nights he isn’t sure Cyn actually shares it with him. After putting on his glasses, he dons a dressing gown, which hangs off his shoulders like a royal mantle.

He is like Louis XIV, he thinks, slowly walking down the steps of Kenwood. He’s been reading a lot of history books lately, one of the only activities he still seems to enjoy, and the parallels haunt him. Here he is, in his closed-off palace, sequestered away from the capital and, whether intentionally or not, from life itself.

Here comes the Sun King, he thinks, floating into the kitchen, where Cyn sits at the table.

He is like Henry VIII, he thinks, rather off-handedly at first, simply in-keeping with the theme of over-indulgent regents — before falling into a minor spiral over what this comparison means for his current marriage.

He may have a son, but he is more and more becoming convinced that what he needs, his wife cannot provide.

He is like King Solomon, glued to his throne and writing his songs; apparently an authority on love and God even, appointed by birth, that is to say, by rotten luck. People come to him, seeking his wisdom, for they have dubbed him “the Smart One”, even whilst he spoils his sense of self, dropping acid and hallucinating three hundred concubines.

He is like Tutankhamun, the fallen Pharaoh; doomed young, buried in gold and treasure, the mask he wears remembered in lieu of his actual face.

How he longs for someone to finally open his crypt; how he fears for whomever might stumble upon it and suffer his curse.

*   *   *

Bigger than Jesus, Paul thinks, stepping through the gate at Cavendish Avenue. He doesn’t know why John’s misquoted words are in his head at this hour. It is so late that the street lanterns are dark and not a single fan is there to greet him.

As he comes down from the various highs of the evening – the party, the art, the coke – he finds himself contemplating the comparative.

“You’ve really gone and done it this time, haven’t you, John?” he remembers saying, his best friend half-smirking at him, in an attempt to cover up his profound fear of the disaster he had caused.

“Didn’t say ‘bigger’, did I? Wouldn’t’ve been wrong, though, if I had…”

Paul, unable to keep up his frustration for long, smiled.

“And what does that make us, then?”

John’s eyes glinted.

“Kings of King of kings.”

It’s overwhelming, Paul thinks, entering his quiet townhouse, while remembering his wild night — the celebrations may end, but the music playing in his head never does. Most moments, he is thankful for it, drinking up experiences and ideas alongside the free-flowing booze, but some dark minutes like this one, he wishes for peace; the kind he found so easily as a child, content to daydream on the back seat of a bus.

Everyone wants to speak with him now, everyone wants his consideration and stamp of approval, but the worst part: Paul wants everything, too. He’s not sure when it happened, but there is a looming sense that he’s walked past some point of no return, and he now feels a hunger inside him that will never be quelled.

Paul shakes the rain off his umbrella then hangs it up on his mahogany coat hanger, lifting it as if it were a sceptre. In the dim light, his silk shirt gleams like battle armour, like the glistening personality he has learned to put on when surrounded by crowds.

He is like King Arthur, he thinks, making his way toward the garden for one last smoke before bed; he’s been revisiting stories from his childhood as well as ones he never got around to, in an attempt to understand better. Although he tries desperately to re-distribute the reign he was bestowed with evenly across his Round Table, he will never not be the stand-out sovereign among his peers.

He draws a ciggie from his pack like the sword from the stone.

He is like Alexander the Great. He has built an empire atop another, once thought undefeatable, all before the humble age of thirty. He longs to herald in a new era of cultural sharing, and the fact he does indeed hold the power to do so is tantalizingly terrifying.

He is also plagued by a foreboding that the instant he gives in and lets himself relax, he will drop dead and with him his dominion disintegrate.

Although he tries to stop himself, Paul thinks he may be like the emperor from Andersen’s tale, clad in nothing before all his intimidated subjects. After all this time, he has never quite been able to shake the feeling that he is secretly embarrassing himself and, one day, a few words coming from the most ostensibly innocuous of sources will bring his entire kingdom down.

He is like Odysseus, King of Ithaca; so intoxicated with the thrill of adventure that he may never find his way home, all the while watching those around him give in to their fleeting desires or the whims of wily tricksters, only to pay the ultimate price.

And when it’s been this long, who at home might still be waiting for him to return? Who will grieve?

[masonxmurray]

Mason hadn't experienced Founder's Festival before but it had been brought up a handful of times in his marriage to Ari. Since she had grown up in Kismet, she had mentioned it enough that he had been looking forward to its activities despite the fact that he would not be experiencing them with the woman he once called his wife. Mason had stumbled upon people on stage, seemingly battling with each other but with words. Shakespeare's words. They were recognizable to him, but many of the lines were misquoted as he stood there. The guy standing next to him spoke and it drew his attention away from the stage, "It's hard to follow when they are mixing up the plays." Mason noted back in return with a softened laugh. @charliesxdavis

Today, Charlie was walking around the Founder's Festival event just trying to find something to do. He had no real plans today, but Chantel wanted him to go off and have some fun as she had Houston for a couple of hours. He didn't have a lot of ideas on what to do and didn't want to do anything too wild. As he was walking around, he started hearing some talking. Something he wasn't fully catching. He walked up to the Shakespearean showoff event and chuckled at the sight. "No wonder I didn't understand," he said more out loud than to anyone. @masonxmurray

[araekniarchive]

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you find all these quotes and images and lyrics? You do a really good job at finding ones that fit together perfectly

Oh ty! Generally, I start a web by looking at the work of other web weavers - for example, I'm currently making a web about learning to love yourself, so I whacked 'web weaving, self love' into the tumblr search. How much there is on each one varies from topic to topic, and I've recently started running into my own previous webs doing this, but it often gives me quotes and art to look into further which might well bear fruit. I also often go into the spilled ink tag, which is used for people's original poems and artwork, again with the topic of my web attached.

Next port of call is goodreads, entirely because of the quotes function; although there is a lot of crap irrelevant stuff that comes up - mostly YA novels, fake deep quotes, misattributions - it does have a pretty solid tag function that lets me go through a large catalog very fast, and half the time it'll even tell me which book something is from. If I'm particularly stumped by a topic, I'll often go to TV Tropes which often includes a wide range of examples with quotes and sources under each specific trope, which again gives me some great leads.

All the quotes I have then generally get run through a quick check that they're legit, and not misquotes or misattributions; some I will find that are attributed to the wrong person, but I'll still include them with the correct name. Other times, I can't find a source, or the sources I find aren't definitive - e.g., if the whole internet tells me that somebody called 'Michelle B' wrote a particular quote, but there is no actual original place of 'Michelle B' writing it (and to be honest, I'm not good enough to track down such a vague citation) then there's a non-zero chance that it's a misattribution that's just been repeated so many times that the original source has disappeared, but I will likely include the name anyway, just with (attrib.) next to it, as it's better to do that than slap it with 'unknown' (imo). Sources do sometimes turn up afterward, but generally if I fail to find it on my first search, I won't happen upon it afterwards.

Then, once I'm (relatively) sure who the author of something is, and where it's from, I turn to the Internet Archive. I started using it last year when I was stuck on at home, unable to go to the uni library, and writing my dissertation. It saved my life then, but even though I graduated, I have never gone back to life without it. It's a godsend, a miracle, perhaps the greatest tool you've never heard of. It lets you read books - FOR FREE - legally, as well as listen to audiobooks, look at old web domains, search metadata... it's genuinely amazing and I tell everybody about it. For the webs, I plug in the name of the book/author and 2 out of 3 times, I can find a scanned in copy of the book, which comes with a search function. As in, I can just type in a fragment of the text I'm looking for, and the archive finds exactly which page it's on for me. I then just screenshot the page, paste it onto Paint 3D, and crop it to my desired specifications. For those sources that aren't in the archive, I usually put them into google docs, put them in a nice font and screenshot again, once more turning to my good friend Paint 3D to smarten it up.

If I know of any film or TV shows that touch on the topic, or I think it would be a good addition, I generally look on YouTube for them first (and, you guessed it, screenshot and then move to Paint 3D where I add subtitles manually if they're not already included/look ugly) and if they aren't there I branch out into streaming services and, uh, other sites. That I turn my VPN on for. If I really have no idea what scenes would be relevant, I often look for those really basic, Buzzfeed or Ranker list articles for 'The Best Doomed Romances' or 'Ten Great Sisterly Relationships on Screen' - they're generally scalped from reddit, but they do have some fairly solid recommendations which I can then investigate further. I also do this with songs - there are so many lists of song rankings around - but often you can just search lyrics in Google and they’ll pop up.

There are other steps I use depending on the specific web, but these are pretty much the ones I use every time - I use TinEye and Google Image Reverse Search when I'm trying to find the name of a piece of art or the source of an image, and this often helps me source things that other people have marked as 'unknown'. It doesn't always work, but it gives results more often than not. And, of course, there are things I add that I know about from my own memory - I really should emphasize, however, that in a web of say ten different excerpts, maybe two are ones I know about beforehand. The main process of finding stuff to put in webs is simply searching in the right places, knowing how to spot a promising lead, not giving up, even if you're on like, the fifth page of the goodreads quotes tag and you feel like banging your head against the wall (the best quote is always, always on page six) and referencing as you go.

Web weaving is something I love to do because it's broadened my literary horizons so much, it makes me better at researching, and I find it super satisfying when a web is completed, but it's not something that you can only do if you have super advanced computer programs or technical knowledge or an eidetic memory - this laptop has been on the verge of death for some time, I regularly go to my fifty-nine year old mum for troubleshooting advice, and my memory is absolutely shot to shit. All you really need to do is stick at it, and it comes together.

[pridepages]

Unbury Your Gays: Harrow the Ninth

I just finished Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. I have some thoughts.

Here there be spoilers!

The plot of Harrow the Ninth is a labyrinth of insanity both literal and figurative. I think the best way to sum it up would be simply to borrow a misquotation: “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

It’s an irreverent and brilliant twist on the trope. For ages “bury your gays” has haunted modern media. It basically is formulated as: your character is allowed to come out and confess their love, but then they must be promptly killed. It’s like the sacrifice atones for the queer. 

For those of us left devastated by the events of volume one, Harrow the Ninth is here to remind us that you can’t keep a good space lesbian necromancer down! By making her lesbians literally able to defy the laws of death, Tamsyn Muir has given her gays the power to flip the script: put us in a tomb and we’ll backflip right out and flip you off for good measure. 

As auditors to Harrow’s grief at the end of volume one, we know that Harrow loves Gideon. Harrow loves Gideon desperately enough that she refuses to accept the reality of Gideon’s death. Harrow has chosen to self-inflict brain damage in the hopes that it will prevent her from destroying Gideon’s soul to ‘go full lyctor.’ There is such a terrible kind of hopefulness in this act: because Harrow cannot remember Gideon, there was every chance that she could never find a solution to their predicament. But she wanted to hold onto even the slimmest chance that Gideon could somehow be preserved...or even brought back.

Unfortunately, this means Gideon must remain an observer, watching the world through Harrow’s eyes. Too bad it doesn’t seem to give her better insight into Harrow’s heart. All Gideon can focus on is this freaky little twist: Harrow’s first crush, and the last point on the love triangle, is an actual corpse. The corpse of A.L., “Alecto,” the Emperor’s cavalier and a reputed monster. Harrow once confessed this crush to Gideon, and Gideon never forgot it: “She’s in love with the refrigerated museum piece in the Locked Tomb. You should’ve seen the look she had on when she told me about this ice-lolly bimbo. I knew the moment I saw it. I never made her look like that...She can’t love me, even if I’d wanted her to.”

It begs the question how Gideon cannot see love in Harrow’s sacrifice for her. But that mystery is solved by the fact that Gideon shows love through acts of service and believes she gave Harrow the ultimate one with the sacrifice of her life. Therefore, she reads Harrow’s refusal to accept that sacrifice as spitting on the gift: “You put me in a box and buried me rather than give up your own goddamned agenda. Harrowhark, I gave you my whole life and you didn’t even want it.”

On the contrary. Harrow wants Gideon’s life very desperately. Her very first words upon regaining her full memories are from the oath they swore: “‘If I forget you, let my right hand be forgotten. Add more also, if aught but death part me and thee.’ And then, unsteadily, ‘Griddle.’” 

But not for nothing is Harrowhark the greatest necromancer of her generation. As she prepares to re-enter her body, unsure what will become of either of their souls this time, Harrow observes “There’s a difference between keeping a shred of a dance card and saving the last dance.” Harrow has never been haunted by fear, regret, or any other ghost of Gideon’s death. Harrow has been quietly kindling hope, through her actions making and keeping the same oath that Gideon pledges to her: “Don’t worry, honey. I’ll keep the home fires burning.”

Tamsyn Muir is nothing if not unpredictable. It is impossible to know where the winding road beyond the grave is going to take us with the upcoming installment Nona the Ninth. But I do say a fervent Ninth House prayer that the stone on their tomb be rolled away, unburying these gays for good!