#more about the themes of love and anti conformity

[willbyersabyss]

like obviously there’s already time fuckery going on but I’m not sure it’s actual TIME that stopped. The perception of time in the UD is stuck on the day Will went missing but does time actually stop in there? Nancy did say they were in the past but who knows. Vecna turned back a clock but he didn’t actually go back in time he just moved the hands…

Anyways, I don’t think they’ll do the going back and changing the past thing because time paradox stuff blah blah. I hope the time weirdness is just in the UD and can’t be manipulated by characters is what I’m saying. Maybe the time thing is more of a symbol? They need to reflect on the past but not physically go back.

[david-talks-sw]

The fact that Dave Filoni called Anakin “the greatest Jedi ever” is proof that he’s bias AF. His anti-Jedi rhetoric is bupkis.

I wonder if he means "the greatest" in terms of in-universe fame...?

Dunno if this is the case in Canon (then again Dave Filoni blatantly ignores any *non-motion* transmedia elements in Canon so meh), but in Legends he's:

"Anakin Skywalker, the Hero with no Fear™, handsome, dashing, the face of the Republic's army during the Clone War, the only Jedi who tried to resist the nefarious Order's coup and was treacherously murdered for it".

And I seem to remember that, in Canon, he's like the Jedi Temple's superstar anyway, every Jedi recognizes him on sight. I mean, that line from Baylon about "Anakin speaking highly of Ahsoka" must have some meaning beyond artificial personal stakes.

So from a fame and a "power level" standpoint... sure.

He's the greatest.

I'm giving Filoni the benefit of the doubt.

While I've talked about why Filoni's entire headcanon about the Jedi doesn't track with what George Lucas' intended narrative, I think it's worth acknowledging that Filoni's bias comes from part of his duties while directing The Clone Wars was.

One of the goals of TCW was humanizing Anakin, expanding upon his character make him go from "a character whose only purposes is to embody the themes presented in three movies based on the matinee serial format" to a relatable person, a good man, the hero Ben mentions to Luke in A New Hope.

I think it's normal that he'll see Anakin in a more positive light.

Also (and full disclosure this is just me theorizing I am no authority on any of this so if turns out I'm wrong just come right out and say so)...

I'm pretty sure that Filoni, Lesley Headland and most of the recent Star Wars authors are all Gen X, raised by baby boomers forced to conform to society, obey authority and have proper decorum (boys don't cry!) all of which they strove to rebel against. Add to that the corruption they witnessed growing up and coming out of high school, and you see a kind of jadedness emerge. "The rules aren't as black and white, the world is grey."

So while most of them and the boomers despised the Prequels upon release, a few of them projected a more individualistic headcanon onto those movies that fit with where their head was, at the time.

As such: Anakin isn't interpreted by them as a cautionary tale about what happens when you're greedy. He's a misunderstood rebel, a non-conformist who has his flaws but is ultimately good at heart. Which isn't entirely inaccurate, but it is very clearly an embellishment of a character who will one day become a space nazi.

The fact is... the Prequels were made by a boomer. One with very liberal values and who was himself a rebel, but a boomer all the same. The whole point of his story is...

"we all must come together and fight as one, if push comes to shove; we must all be compassionate and selfless if we are to survive; don't be greedy, let people go when it's their time to leave".

And then he makes the Jedi say that, making them beacons of truth and good and compassion in his fairy tale, now aimed at Gen Z kids.

Gen X-ers hear/read that and project all the boomer BS they had been told onto the Jedi...

"oh, so the Jedi are saying you shouldn't love yourself, you shouldn't be yourself, you should give up on what makes you an individual to fit in, you shouldn't feel any emotions"

Because nobody is that good, realistically, right?

This happened in other mediums. The one that comes to mind on the spot is the relationship between Mufasa and Scar.

In The Lion King, Mufasa is strong and noble, Scar is weak and conniving. Simple enough. Around that same time, in A Tale of Two Brothers, young Mufasa is shown to be pretty nice with Taka (Scar), who is framed as a spoiled brat to begin with.

Skip to the 2019 remake, and it's hinted Mufasa gave Scar his wound, and in The Lion Guard they explain that Scar got his nickname from Mufasa mocking him for a misadventure.

He went from being a noble king to a bully who had it coming, Scar is an underdog who got picked on. Because again: nobody is that pure, right? Fairytales be-damned.

Nothing is black and white, it's all grey.

So yeah, long story short I do think that Filoni being part of the generation that wasn't the target demographic but was old enough to retcon the crap out of the Prequels also plays a role into his view of Anakin.

[rabbidrabbitt]

Alright new ATSV discussion:

No Expectations

Alright so we all remember the infamous “No Expectations” graffiti done by Miles in the first movie, made to express his feelings about now growing up with everyone having these expectations of him.

That was a main theme of ITSV and continues into ATSV. Miles is expected to keep good grades at this new school, he is expected to be able to do big things, but also once he is bit, he is expecting himself to become a great hero in such little time, and those high expectations he gives himself are crushed by the low expectations of those around him (Gwen, Noir, Penni, etc). It’s not his own drive and expectations of himself, but the expectations of others that bring him down, the idea they had that he was just a kid, that he was not ready, but when it came down to it, he proved them wrong, he saved the day, he sent them all home.

Following this into the second movie. The expectations now of his parents wanting him to be this perfect kid, to do what they think is best for him even if he doesn’t think so. Miguel and the rest of the Spider Society having the expectation of Miles to listen and stand idly by whilst The Spot takes everything he loves. The expectation to be Spiderman, to make those big sacrifices, even as a kid.

But no, as he says, he’s going to do his own thing.

Now back to The Spot. Many people have pointed out that he looks eerily similar to the Graffiti in his final scene.

The crooked stance, the black and white figure with the colours all in the back. Only difference is the colours are darker, more dull, and scribbled over. It gives almost an anti feel to it all. As it’s stated in the art book, Miles and The Spot are characters meant to mirror each other. They are two halves of a whole and compliment one another.

The Spot is the expectations. And not just the expectation of Miles to be Spiderman, to push aside his youth and innocence for the sake of others, but also the expectations of himself to become nothing but a villain.

The Spot was isolated from society the moment he was merged with the dark matter, in his own words, his own family wouldn’t even look at him, he was shunned. It wasn’t his fault and he had no control over what happened. We also know from the art book that he wasn’t really taken seriously by his peers as a human either. He’s spent his whole life chasing approval and wanting to live up to peoples expectations. And now the only expectation he can achieve is his own to become Spider-Man’s nemesis, to finally be taken seriously, to be the only thing society has left him to become.

Miles represents growth and change, that freedom of making your own choice, of being who you want to be

The Spot is conformity, twisting himself into what he was forced to be.

I Hope this made sense, feel free to leave your thoughts!! :DD

[esther-dot]

What upsets me the most about the dumbass Sansa vs Arya thing (other than it only existing because antis hate Sansa that much) is that... what does it add to the story? This isn't fandom stuff, this is something antis genuinely want for the story, but what does it ADD? What is the POINT? What value does these 2 siblings fighting against each other would give to the story? To the message and theme? It's even more worthless than the boring Cleganebowl shit.

Sansa and Arya, two siblings from the main family of the series that the story centers on, fighting and hating each other is detrimental to literally EVERYTHING. ASOIAF is LOADED with family dynamics that are actually toxic and destructive to the members. We have the Targaryens, we have the Greyjoys, we have the LANNISTERS. Westeros is so bereft of families that love each other, making the ONE family that genuinely love each other and doing their best to reunite hate each other is so... just spit on GRRM and the effort he put into House Stark, why don't you?

I don't want to sound like a pretentious ass, but these people should not read a series like ASOIAF if they're gonna let their petty feelings and opinions impact the series as a whole. They can hate Sansa, but if they hate her to the point where it impacts their reading of the series, then put it down and go read something simpler. Or just stick to fanfics because their disturbing hate fantasy will never be canon, sorry antis

(about this ask)

I talked about this before and now can’t find the post, but Arya and Jon fans who hate Sansa are holding her responsible for the problems with society that Martin is criticizing. They are missing that society is being criticized from different angles to allow us to see all the ways it’s hurting people. Rather than realizing it isn’t the little girl who caused their pain, with them we are getting two critiques (coming from different directions) of their world. Jon is excluded, Arya is expected to conform.

Jon wants in, Arya wants out.

And of course, Sansa suffers as well. She may fulfill the ideal in a way that Arya cannot, but that doesn’t save her. We have Elia and Lyanna which is another picture of conformity/non-conformity —both of them die. There is a much larger part of the story here that is the driving force of what these characters suffer, it’s a shame to dismiss all of that in order to hate on Sansa.

I have no gatekeeping instinct. I’m happy to read different takes (within reason — absolutely no Sansa hate which is why I don’t do much with anyone beyond our corner), I have read and written Martin critical stuff, I don’t mind people coming away with different interpretations. I enjoy that (within reason), and that’s a part of who I am beyond fandom so that isn’t gonna change. I simply decide, “well, I certainly never want to hear from that blogger/that part of the fandom again,” but as far as I know, they’re an angry 13yo who will reread the series in a year or two and realize, oh, the Sansa and Arya conflict is created by external forces, and actually, they can understand the pressures Sansa struggled with as well. I’m a big fan of leaving room for growth, and literature has a special way of allowing us to see things in new ways and helping us evolve as I individuals. I’d never be in favor of taking it away from anyone no matter how much I think they misunderstand it. You never know what the future holds and if one day, they’ll get it.

Also, I don’t have a perfect grasp on what Martin is doing myself. The endgame of some of the characters strikes me as….uh, less realistic, and more, whimsical, so unless I’m gonna throw out my books, I’m not gonna pretend to be more deserving than any one else. I will filter and block though because when it comes to Sansa haters:

making the ONE family that genuinely love each other and doing their best to reunite hate each other is so... just spit on GRRM and the effort he put into House Stark, why don't you?

So, uh, not to annoy you further, anon, but I didn’t call what I had written “wish-fulfillment” for nothing. 😬 I definitely think expecting the Starks to kill each other is absurd, but as a Jonsa, I’m not sure how Arya would be able to accept that relationship, and I do wonder if it’s Martin’s way of allowing tension and conflict within the Starks even upon their reunion. Maybe I worry for nothing, but Jon is Arya’s person, he made her feel love and accepted, for him to be in love with Sansa…I worry that Arya would feel displaced, and how quickly Martin would find a resolution there.

Many others have previously looked at how Martin seems to have no problem writing brothers / guys having healthy relationships, but likes to have sisters at odds. There’s a dearth of healthy female relationships, so it’s an opportunity for him to break that pattern, and if Arya was accepting of it I suppose it could be a contrast to the Cat/LF/Lysa mess. That may be the goal he’s working towards, and to your point, that adds to the story in sadly lacking area. All the same, while I do think the Starks love and will be loyal to each other, I’m not sure how warm and cozy things will be on the page? I have some concerns about what he’s making room for. But that is the benefit of being in a fandom with so many emotionally mature fic writers who value and prioritize female relationships. I get to read healthy relationships either way!

[rametarin]

"Baldurs Gate 3 proves the west finds sexuality in Japanese games appalling"

No. You aren't really understanding what's happening here. It is not a matter of the west approving its own sexualization in media and disapproving of Japanese because it's Japanese, just Asian, or foreign. This is a misreading of the situation.

It's actually the opposite. Anime and Japanese game FANS that have always been fans, HAVE ALWAYS LOVED that Japanese works were ALLOWED to have subject matter and themes without some angry radical feminist picking them apart, either demanding the companies themselves adhere to THEIR social standards, or trying to get the peer groups to shame consumers of the product and ostracize them so the individuals self-censor and don't freely and openly exchange this bit of culture with one another.

We used to have this freedom in the US, but then radical feminists swarmed in, decided certain things had certain meaning in accordance with their ideological viewpoints, and that if you ran afoul of their principles, you were a thought criminal and enemy of women by your own refusal to obey their beliefs. And so, even simply having bare breasts in a movie meant that at any time, academic feminists could write the equivalent of academic vagueposts talking about how one director and writer's decision to feature shitty dialogue and porn tier story was tantamount to the anthropomorphic loa of SOCIETY rubber stamping making women second class citizens, because a fictional woman was used for fun and profit for a story.

So to deal with the braying and hysterical nattering of the grass roots that actually listened to these ideological friends, as if these negative views were, "just their friends opinions" (more like the views of their new religion) to keep the peace, writing changed a bit to avoid invoking the subjects that'd get the angry radfems screaming and pointing at things to rebuke them for their supposed crimes.

And we lost the innocence of boob jokes, nudity, the assumed harmlessness and benignity of liberal sex and body humor, and had to add that dogmatic baggage about all men being craven abusive manipulators into how they were depicted and the "proper" way men and women should relate in fiction.

You know, the exact things that were missing in our diet of mainstream media in the west, that we consumed Japanese media to get into our mental diets, because the sheer stupid harmless and innocent FUN had been gatekept and freeze dried out of our media over here with endless discourse and antagonism by slanted critics that hated a work because it didn't carry water for their ideological beliefs, or exist as a ruinous slag for its defiance to that totalitarian bullshit.

The only overt sexuality that the Capital P Progressives would tolerate, was sexuality that "subverted the status quo." AKA, sexuality that works and media dominated by THEIR ideological principles owned. Sexuality that was dominated by LGBT themes and subjects. Sexuality that translated and interpreted heterosexuality through a 'queer' lens. That was the only sexuality allowed in games, because it was the only sexuality that wasn't "harmful, anti-feminist, cisheteronormic patriarchy." And so they reserved the right to shit on any work with sexuality in it that didn't fit their views of what was good and right and moral and "progressive" in their particular way.

Baldur's Gate 3 and before it, Dragon Age and its sequels. They were constructed from the ground up to adhere to the sometimes arbitrary principles and absolutely biased interpretations ("Our sacred thing, their shit.")

It's not that the games are Japanese. It's not that they're from Asia or Asian developers. It's not that Baldur's Gate is western, American, or 'white.' These are easy detours to make but they misunderstand the crux and true sinister behavior at play here.

They hate Japanese games that feature Japanese sexuality in media, because that media does not conform to their very exacting views of what "proper" sexual representation is. They hate Japanese games and media, because unlike their power base in the west, imping and co-opting things ala Sweet Baby Inc runs interference to make games more, "diverse" and "inclusive," they have no power to make the creative decisions that alter the entire game, its tone, its themes, its writing, its casting, its world, or the makeup and formation of the companies, the unions, or the national policies that tie them and their values into the industry at the fundamental level.

They hate Japan and its industry and its culture and its media because they see an opportunity to move in and start dominating the industry, or natter and nag it and make it seem like the west is grassroots rejecting or criticizing it from the perspective of a westerner. It's not true.

These people have taken over games journalism and the representative voices of the medium and industry and are effectively astro turfing the consumer base with their own disgusting interpretations of shit, to make it SEEM like the consumer and fanbase doesn't like it or are complaining about Japanese media in this way. When in fact, it's just a much more well obfuscated version of when the Moral Majority of the right wing/religious members of society tried to co-opt comic books, rock music and set moral and ethical standards for content that could be depicted, and to what age group.

It's THEM that create entire stupid ratings systems for games based on how "inclusive and progressive" they are, deducting points for women not being lead characters, deducting points if a work of literature features sexual violence at all, deducting points if there's no queer people visibly queering queerly as part of the main story you have to interact with, preferably queerly. And THEM that are trying to simultaneously maintain an aire of, "white people shouldn't be allowed to criticize not-white/foreign cultures and literature," and "Japanese society and culture is patriarchal and shit and wrong tho."

These people exist in the west, but they do not REPRESENT the true opinions of the consumers and people of the west. But they're effectively a group of charlatans we can't get rid of or wrangle in. They were taught guerilla cultural warfare, subversion tactics, and conspire to get in on the ground floors and board rooms of entire industries before making themselves visible, with people acting as mycelium agents from inside other businesses clandestinely to make that association seem organic.

It's them causing this disturbance and shit. Not "the west." It's a conspiracy of assholes. It's them trying to be the gatekeepers that get to then put their guys into place as voice actors, markets, editors, and localizers, based on those principles.

So a real life woman in a Japanese game greenscreened, a sexy and conventionally attractive woman, gets called some sort of neotonous underaged oversexualized doll, while they deliberately try and go for the most androgynous to gender ambiguous depiction of femininity in the west on purpose, due to beliefs that will somehow "lower western expectations of femininity to be more realistic."

It's just unfortunate that Japan has to deal with this without really understanding just how bad it is a problem to deal with. We can't even really contend with it because proving these people are conspiring on an ideological basis is very difficult, even if they do slip up every once in a while.

[literaryxbones]

Goth History-Episode 2: Gothic Fashion

Welcome back to my Second Episode of Goth History. If you're new to the @literaryxbones blog, don't worry! You don't have to look at the previous episode to follow this one.

Today we'll be discussing the history of gothic fashion: it's historic origins, connection to music, and its modern evolutions. Consider this a more generalized overview of goth style. There are many different iterative substyles that could warrant future entries.

Before delving into the contemporary goth scene, we must not neglect modern fashion's original, archaic influences. Stylistic inspirations date back to the Romantic Period. At the tail-end of the eighteenth century, people became disillusioned with the Industrial Revolution. They attached a sentimentality to nature, beauty, and simplistic living. Corporate technologies had long been eroding this traditional way of life.

As a result, discontent transformed clothing conventions. Dresses, vests, suits, and pants began to don elaborate, ornate patterns. Laces and ruffles exemplified its flair. A more restrictive, darker color palette of black, scarlet, purple, and brown was worn. The writings and dress of Edgar Allan Poe helped popularize the aesthetic.

With the rise of the Victorian period, British nobility adopted the darkened elegance displayed by its counterculture. In 1861, Queen Victoria mourned her husband's passing. Ever since his death, she was only seen wearing black. With the public clad in funeral garb, the commonfolk and the royalty grieved together. The color black possessed a strengthened association with death.

In the late 1970's, a rebellious post-punk subculture emerged. An emphasis on individualism, non-conformity, and a dark appreciation pervaded in their fashion. Victorian touches remained in the jackets, fishnets, and expressive makeup worn by early post-punk bands. Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, and Bauhaus flaunted this style on their tours.

A sprinkle of Punk-designer Vivienne Westwood's carnival themes cultivated the angular trad-goth makeup look shared all over social media today.

Bauhaus often used bat symbolism in their song lyrics and outfits. These nocturnal creatures are loved by many goths alike. Bats also recall to mind the Bat Cave, a London club.

I couldn't write about the history of our subculture's fashion without mentioning DIY. "Do-It-Yourself" attitudes were embraced by multiple alternative fashion scenes. Oftentimes, people thrifted, upcycled, and sewed clothing out of necessity. Younger members couldn't afford the expensive outfits worn by celebrities and made by fashion designers. Before online-shopping, most alternative fashion was inaccessible.

DIY also allowed for more creativity. Creations became an extension of the person wearing them. Goths chose from a variety of chains, collars, charms, and rosaries as accessories. They could implement these decorations in infinite ways. Different methods of distressing, cutting up, and patching clothes gave each piece a unique quality. Upcycling became an avenue for self-expression. People made what they liked.

In more recent times, second-hand shops and the DIY ethos has been centered around anti-fast fashion movements. Fast-fashion is when big corporations mass-produce a vast catalogue of items. Production is usually outsourced to other countries with cheaper labor costs. In these places, there are little regulations protecting workers. Popular sites for sourcing alt fashion like Ali Express, Shein, and Amazon use Chinese sweatshop slavery to produce their clothes.

Overall, gothic fashion is catalyzed by scene artists, ethical dilemmas, and the creative spirit. Now, a ton of styling subgenres are gaining traction. Pastel Goth, Trad-Goth, Victorian Goth, and Cybergoth are just some of these newer terms.

It is important to remember that these styles are all goth, and that dressing to a certain aesthetic does not make you goth. Goth is in your heart. It's in the music you listen to. It's in the interests you find beauty in. You don't need to wear loud microtrends to have your identity recognized. Just have fun, wear what you want, and explore your own creativity.

Phew, that was a long post! Thank you for reading all of it. Maybe I could add in a prize for readers who read all the way to the bottom, like a hidden sticker or stamp you can use or something!

Sources:

A Fascinating Look at Gothic Fashion History and Its Roots – Midnight Hour

Gothic Fashion: Brooding, Forceful & All About the Black | FashionBeans

DIY Goth Battlevest Created by @Lord_Dagger on Reddit

Written by SORDID

[hunxi-after-hours]

Hi hunxi! In your post the other day about The Way Spring Arrives, you said in the tags that you’d put it on a list of required reading for people interested in danmei. I’m curious, is there anything else you’d recommend for people who want to learn more about the culture/context surrounding danmei? Thanks!!

oh goodness, I suppose I did say that somewhat flippantly but I do want to take a moment and reiterate that I am not qualified in the slightest to make a list of required reading, nor do I think that required reading is a thing that should necessarily exist, since we should all read whatever we'd like in our own free time; there is no moral directive on what someone should or should not read, we're all just here to have a good time!!

but! for those so inclined, I... don't think I have so much a reading list as a series of reading thought exercises?

first of all, some academic articles that I found deeply worthwhile:

Jin Feng's 2009 paper: “Addicted to Beauty: Consuming and Producing Web-based Chinese ‘Danmei’ Fiction at Jinjiang”

Tian Xiaofei's 2015 paper: “Slashing Three Kingdoms: A Case Study in Fan Production on the Chinese Web.”

Xi Tian's 2020 paper: “Homosexualizing Boys Love in China: Reflexivity, Genre Transformation, and Cultural Interaction”

Xi Tian's 2021 paper: “More than Conformity or Resistance: Chinese “Boys’ Love” Fandom in the Age of Internet Censorship”

Yang Ling & Xu Yanrui's 2017 paper: “The love that dare not speak its name: The fate of Chinese danmei communities in the 2014 anti-porn campaign”

Yang Ling & Xu Yanrui's 2013 paper, “Forbidden love: incest, generational conflict, and the erotics of power in Chinese BL fiction”

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories ed. Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang. I've already gushed about this elsewhere, so I shall leave this be for now

this is by no means a comprehensive list, merely the ones that have really stuck with me for various reasons. I compile a table of contents of my research booklets here, and @dulharpa has been kind enough to share their immense resources here

I'd like to stop short of compiling a list of danmei novels for people to read because folks have different genre and narrative tastes than I do. instead, I think what might be more interesting and customizable would be a kind of reading challenge, paired with thought exercises:

read works by three (or more!) danmei authors

what recurring themes, character traits, narrative tropes, or cultural aspects to you observe across works by different authors? what differences do you notice? do you think these similarities/differences are hallmarks of the genre, coincidental stylistic choices, authorial interests, or wider cultural trends? how do different authors address certain issues, or avoid them altogether? how do these choices affect the content and style of the text, as well as your perception of and/or response to these texts?

read two different danmei novels by the same author (if you can wrangle it, try to read novels in different genres)

what recurring themes, character traits, narrative tropes, or thematic commonalities do you observe across an author’s works? how do the different narrative or genre contexts of each novel affect characters and themes in each work? do you observe changes in an author’s perspective, views, or opinions on common themes and/or social issues from novel to novel?

read a danmei novel that is not wuxia, xianxia, or xuanhuan

how do aspects of worldbuilding differ across genres? what new aspects of culture, character, or language do you observe in a different genre setting? how much character or worldbuilding do you think is attributable to genre convention, and how much isn’t? what do you think readers find attractive about wuxia/xianxia/xuanhuan settings? what do you think readers find attractive about other genres?

read a danmei novel set in modern day China

how do the emotional and narrative stakes of novels change depending on time period? what were you surprised by? what similarities or resonances did you recognize between the text and your own life? how does the fabric of the setting in this novel differ from novels set in other time periods and settings? in what ways do class and power factor into character conflicts and relationships? how do these differ from the way class and power are addressed in historical novels? what is the role of tradition and history in this novel? do you find the text more realistic because it’s set in modern day? why or why not? how important do you think “realism” is to the text and the readers? why might this be? how important is “realism” to your reading experience? why might this be?

read a webnovel that was not serialized on JJWXC

there are many other Chinese internet literature platforms, such as 长佩文学 and 奇点文学网. explore one (or more!) of these literature platforms and note any observations about differences, similarities, or things you’re surprised by. how does this inform your understanding of the larger scope of Chinese web literature? in what ways are literature and genre organized differently from what you’re familiar with? compare and contrast your experience reading a non-JJWXC novel with a JJWXC novel. what was the same? what was different? do you think these similarities/differences are influenced by the different audiences of these websites or larger societal trends in media and culture, or something else entirely?

read a webnovel by a danmei author that is not danmei (i.e. 言情 / heterosexual romance, 无CP / no romance)

what similarities do you observe between this novel and a danmei novel written by the same author? what differences do you observe? how do narrative reflections of gender and character dynamics differ? what other themes, issues, or narrative aspects do you notice coming to the forefront when the focus has shifted away from male/male romance? what were you surprised by? what weren’t you surprised by? has your perception of the author’s views on gender/gender dynamics changed? if so, how? if not, why do you think this is?

read a danmei novel with 2+ adaptations into other forms of media (e.g. audiodrama, donghua, manhua, live action)

what do you think about this novel generates wider media attention and interest? how do the characters and narrative change from text to adaptation? why do you think this happened? how did the popularization via adaptation affect the original text, if at all? how did you come to discover this text, and how many platforms did it have to jump to get to you? why do you think this text received attention on the platform you first heard of it? in what ways beyond the content of the text itself did this novel draw wider attention?

read a danmei novel with no adaptations in other forms of media

why do you think this novel hasn’t been chosen for adaptation yet? in what ways would this novel be challenging to adapt? what medium do you think this novel would be best suited for? how would an adaptation of this novel change your perspective and experience of this text? what would you hope to see in an adaptation of this novel?

read a traditionally published work of Chinese speculative fiction

how does a traditionally published work of Chinese fiction differ stylistically and narratively from the web literature you’ve read? what does the wider field of Chinese speculative fiction look like? how do the imaginations and concerns of Chinese authors manifest in their worldbuilding, setting, characters, themes, and conflicts? how do subgenres of Chinese speculative fiction resemble and differ from genres you’re more familiar with? what did you like about this work? what puts you off about this work? did this work raise any questions or themes that you haven’t thought about before? what aspects of the novel seem rooted in contemporary Chinese society, and which themes seem more universal? if reading in translation, did you identify any moments where context was lost between languages? were there footnotes in the translation, and if so, how did they affect your reading experience? if not, did you ever wish there were footnotes? what kind of additional context did you wish you had? how do you think the translation influenced your reading experience? how high-profile is this work of Chinese speculative fiction, and why do you think this is?

read a novel written by a Chinese diaspora author

how do characters, themes, settings, and worldbuilding differ from the perspective of a diaspora writer? what aspects feel the same? how does translation on linguistic, cultural, or metafictional levels factor into the text? what is the role of tradition and reception in the narrative? what other influences can you spot in the text? what Chinese work would you put this text in conversation with, and why? how are different cultures portrayed in diaspora works vs. non-diaspora works? based on this text, have cultural values shifted in diasporic reception? what is the relationship presented in the text between identity and nationhood, tradition and ownership?

okay I had way too much fun coming up with those discussion questions, but I genuinely do think that these are interesting thought and reading experiments to pursue! I think there’s a lot you can learn about danmei, internet literature, and the wider cultural context of these phenomena simply by taking some time to sit back and reflect on these texts, or observing Chinese fandom interactions (there can of course be a language barrier in doing so, but I’ve learned so much from 弹幕 culture and I heartily encourage other people to do so).

and seriously, if anyone ends up trying this reading challenge, please let me know how it goes!! I’m still pushing myself to read outside of my comfort zone (a lot of these challenges are ones I’ve posed to myself), and would love to hear if other folks have thoughts on their reading journeys

[elatedandexasperated]

So RWRB was a movie with some discourse...

In all honesty, the discourse has bugged me more than any issues with the film itself. I get a film adaptation not living up to personal expectations set by a book is... a response that people have, but the fact some people have been trying to convince people it's not worth watching bothers me.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen all of the love for it too and I know the antis for the film are definitely in the minority. No one can control how anyone relates or who is allowed to enjoy a piece of media, but the sheer hatred I've seen from some of the people on here for the film hurts a bit to see. The arguments seem to be no deeper than "x character was removed" , "there's these plot holes" and "it's too formulaic" that last one of which I feel was kind of the point: it's a formulaic romcom so that queer people can have a fairy tale romance story like the straight ones that get shoved down our throats from a young age by companies like Disney. McQuiston, an NB writer, has gone on record stating that a huge reason why they write is to feature queer identities and make stories that people like them would have liked to read and feel represented by when they were younger.

If this was a straight Hallmark romcom (which tbf, it basically is in terms of story structure, and I low-key love it because of that) it wouldn't have made so much as a blip on most people's radars. But because it features queer characters the threshold for scrutiny seems to have been dropped to the floor (insert "Get Low" joke here). I can get having criticisms of the film, I have a few myself, but the attempt to convince people the film is bad and to disregard it as a whole because of them ignores the positive qualities, what the film means to people in the queer community, what its success can lead to in terms of representation for underrepresented people in the community (Ace, bi, NB, trans, etc.), and an understanding of intricacies that go into adaptation.

At the end of the day, this film was competently made (and in my opinion, well made) by a gay director with an inclusive team and a deep care for both the source material and an understanding of what the film would mean for millions of viewers. It featured experiences and themes that are common to many people in the community with several very poignant messages that actually have huge metatextual implications with the film (The "forced conformity of the closet" quote sticks out in particular to me: the number of op-eds speculating Nick and Taylor's sexualities and how they've been mum about them makes me think a lot of people missed that one; also looking at you, people that forced Kit Connor out of the closet 😒)

The film is a celebration of love featuring characters that people like me and others in the community can relate to. Is it formulaic? Yes. Did they remove some characters to try and create a tighter narrative focused on the main romantic pair? Yes. Is it overly cheesy and so unrealistically sweet that it will give me diabetes? Delightfully so.

So ending on a positive note, I just want to run down some things I've loved about it:

- An mlm story with an actual happy ending that features adult main leads! (Credit to youth stories, they're important, but as an adult it's hard to relate to teenage characters sometimes)

- The charisma both TZP and NG just radiate throughout the movie

- Sarah Shahi eating the absolute SHIT out of every scene she's in (Touch her and die)

- Same for Rachel Hilson

- Uma Thurman and Stephen Fry (enough said)

- The acting overall was fantastic

- The care and work put into intimate scenes and inclusion of an intimacy coordinator

- On a personal level, I loved seeing parallels between Alex and Henry's relationship and the relationship I have with my husband. For the first time in my 30 years I actually see a little of myself in an uplifting and happy piece of media and not portrayed as a dramatic tragedy, villain, or inconsequential background character.

Tl;Dr if you didn't like the movie, that's your opinion. I'm not here to try and convince you otherwise. But please stop trying to convince people it shouldn't be watched. Regardless of your opinion, this film means a lot to a lot of people, including the author of the original book! Just let us enjoy this imperfect, but tasty cheese with our w(h)ine ❤️

[wolfieloveswade]

an old formula that once made shows about the Supernatural so fun and interesting, the theme being a Universal God(let me explain folks)

too many shows about Angels and God these days seem to follow an anti Christian agenda which seems very much on purpose due to people's religious traumas but also some people are really just complete satanic assholes(but that's a topic for another discussion for another day lol, I digress), so anywho, most shows these days that deal with Angels and the Supernatural are very strange and twisted because their goal seems to be more of a mockery of Christianity which is so not cool

I totally understand if people have religious trauma, but that's not Jesus' fault, people shouldn't hate a certain group of people just because a few bad apples were buttholes to them

too many shows these days seem to have the same reoccurring message "God must be a villian, lucifer was framed", but that's a bunch of bullshit

I think what would be really helpful is if there were new tv shows that focused on using the theme of the story being this, a classic formula that once made so many shows so good and interesting and they had the power to open up people's hearts and minds about God and Angels and Spirituality instead of doing the opposite, that theme was the Universal God

as someone who is a Queer Christian, I do believe in a Universal God, that means that I believe in a God that predates man made religion, I believe in a Christ that predates Christianity, I believe that can use anyone to deliver a good message, I think Messengers and Messages are all around us everyday, we just have to know how to use our spiritual eyes instead of our human eyes, do you see where I'm going with this?

even good stories that have nothing do with Christianity can have Christians themes in them by accident or on purpose because if someone is a good person, the Universal God of Oneness is inside of them(the latest example I saw of this was in believe it or not, Deadpool and Wolverine, that's right, the 3rd Deadpool movie) because Super Hero movies are about doing the right thing, helping people and so on, accidental Christian Themes are bound to pop up, this is what I call everyday evidence of a Universal God, God isn't only associated with Christianity but also other religions and even no religion what so ever

to go far back, does anyone on here remember that tv show from the early 2000s called Joan of Arcadia? it was a Christian TV Drama but it featured themes of a Universal God, meaning, this portrayal of God in the show was an accurate God, God is not just a Christian figure, he/she has always been around and has always been a symbol of Love, God wasn't always a tyrant, this is a very harmful myth that fake Christians have used to hurt others who wouldn't conform to he catholic church and so on, but I digress

does anyone see the point I'm trying to make here?

pureflix doesn't turn people's hearts on fire for God, it only separates people from each other even further more

Super Hero Movies and TV Shows where everyone's perspectives come together and there are themes of a Universal God? now these are way more Christian than the God's not dead series(that series had good intentions at first but then become a joke of itself)

I think if more Christian content had themes of a Universal God than just repeating the same old junk content then we would see better tv shows about Angels, no more lucifer, no hazbin hotel(hopefully lol)

I have complaints about both Christian and Secular content, but I love when both sides can have a reoccurring theme of a Universal God

now that's a God that we can all get behind and it's a God that I 100 percent believe in

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

Carnival of Aros June 2023: My Future

This is a piece I wrote for the June 2023 Carnival of Aros, themed around being aromantic in an allonormative world.

CW: this piece will briefly discuss the fact that we live in a queerphobic world, and that anti-autistic ableism is a risk that autistic people may face when entering intimate relationships. It’s all only short mentions, but they’re there.

Carnival of Aros June 2023: My Future

At twenty years old, I will hopefully have a lot more life left to live. Presently, I am thinking about the sort of future I would like to build for myself. Where would I see myself in ten years time, twenty, or even thirty and beyond? Where would I end up? What sort of relationships would I find myself in?

I know roughly what sort of work I would like to try and do. The future is uncertain, but I do hope to fight and push for a better one. But then the question comes to where I see myself in my personal life. And then, that’s when I realise I don’t really have a very good answer. 

In my country, one can only apply for single home ownership once one reaches the age of thirty-five. If not, you can only apply for a home if you are doing it with your biological family, if you are widowed, if you are orphaned, or if you are married. The government is pushing more pro-natal policies in the hopes of bringing up the birth rate. And of course, to a conservative culture like this, that means encouraging as many young people to pair up and marry as soon as possible, and pump out as many children as possible (so long as you can afford it, they would caveat). 

Well, I guess that’s all fine and good, if that’s the life you would want. But, truthfully, it’s not a life for me. 

I don’t think it was ever easy for me to imagine myself as a wife. I’d thought about sex, and I’d thought about a wedding, and I’d entertained the thought of being a mother before. But being a wife? It just… doesn’t seem like a life for me. Since losing connection with the religiosity of my upbringing, connecting with my aromanticism, and thinking more and more about what I would like out of life. Marriage as a lifestyle, if I were to realistically think about it, seems less and less like something I would need out of my life. 

If I were to choose an ideal form of emotional support, one which I would like to give and receive, it would be in the form of a close, tight-knit network of many different friends. All of whom I’m emotionally close with, whom I get to fulfil different emotional needs with. It’s something that still doesn’t seem quite realistic in the world we currently live in though. Where would we all live? Would our families all approve? Would we be able to hold together as a group? Will I be able to find people who want the same things I do? Especially when so many people seem to desire a heterosexual, heteromantic, monogamous marriage. Who could dedicate the same level of emotional support one gives their family or their spouse to their unmarried friend? In the world we live in today, that doesn’t seem to be likely. 

And I could go a conventional route. Find a guy to marry out of convenience. Except… this doesn’t seem fair. There would be a certain type of love that I would be expected to return. A type of love which I fear I don’t have in me to feel or express to another. And it would be hard to find other aromantics. Queerness of any kind isn’t readily embraced by many of the people of this country. Few people would know about aromanticism. As an autistic woman, I already know how risky it is with entering a romantic relationship with someone who does not understand what you are. Someone who would expect you to conform to a certain image, and who may resent you for failing to fulfil that image. I’ve heard the stories, I know the fear. Aromanticism will inevitably complicate matters.

As it is, I nevertheless feel myself inevitably being pushed in the direction of some form of monogamous straight relationship. It may be the fear of being alone forever. It may be the fear of having no one to look after me, should anything happen to me in the future. It may be the fear of being perceived as immature. Mostly though, it may be because when so many forces of society wish for someone to be a certain way, sometimes they give up, and they take the path of least resistance. It’s a wimpy response, but it’s one I sometimes wonder if I will fall into. Sometimes, I wonder if I will really, truly, give up and settle.

It is difficult to push back against the tide, especially when it feels like you’re going at it alone. 

I don’t have very many hopeful thoughts pertaining to my future relationships, or of getting the sort of emotional intimacy I hope to get. Maybe I could fight. Maybe I could work towards a better future. For all queer people, for the next generation. Maybe things would be better for the people of the future.

But for now, it is what it is. I don’t know where my future is headed. But if there is a spark of hope I can hold onto, I certainly wish that that hope will find some way to materialise. 

[madtomedgar]

Books read in april:

The Angel of History, Rabih Alameddine: Truly amazing book. Big themes of self-erasure, colonial violence, grief. Digs into the ways in which USAmerican definitions of mentally healthy can encourage self-erasure, or amputation of grief and memory, draws parallels between the deliberate cultural amnesia around the AIDS epidemic and the current, immediate invisibilization of anti-Arab violent colonial projects. Beautiful writing. The author truly delights in words, and is flagrantly self-indulgent about it, and I loved that. More people should just throw around words like gelid and inanition. I also loved the experimental nature of the narrative, the non-linear trajectory, the back and forth between allegorical dreamscapes/hallucinations, the main character’s current narration, his journals, and his short stories. However, if you enjoy things like plot, you will not like this book because there is no plot. It is just a multi-layered portrait of this one man’s life. So, I loved it, but not for everyone.

The Black Tides of Heaven, Neon Yang: Mainly I think Yang should fire their publisher, because this book read like a fleshed out outline that, in a year or so, could be a really good fantasy novel. I liked the world building a lot, but everything was too rushed to have an emotional impact. There was no time to explore why the twins have so much hate and fear towards their mother, it’s just asserted that they do, and the reader is meant to just go with that perspective. The main character has a massive shift in perspective and values, and it happens over literally a page and a half. This makes it very hard to buy, because there is just no development of anything. This includes the two romances, and the gender angst (though the gender angst is the most fleshed out part of the book). I think I would have hated the gender angst less if it had been more developed. As it was, it read very... weirdly essentialist? In that the second the one twin starts identifying as a woman, her character suddenly becomes the most Stereotypical (straight) Girl Character ever, and once characters choose their binary gender, they are perfectly socially conforming. Also, I don’t really buy... worlds with reverse sexism (so, women are seen as Better, and it’s A Problem that the main character decides to be a Man) where a compelling case for how this developed isn’t made? In cases like this, where the story is told from a male point of view, it feels like an MRA fantasy rather than critiquing a thing by turning it on its head in fiction. The evil mom is very sexy and highly effective. I don’t know... this story felt very personal and self-indulgent in particular ways, and I think is probably tied up a lot in the author’s own journey, and I’m happy this story exists for people to whom its narrative speaks, but it rubbed me the wrong way.

Voices of the Matriarchs: Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women, Chava Weissler: Interesting close history of the devotional literature produced for, and sometimes by, Ashkenazi women between 1600 and 1900. I appreciate that the author was open about her personal struggles with this history as both a feminist scholar and a Jewish woman. I appreciate that she didn’t tie herself in knots trying to find something she could use to argue that actually, our foremothers were super badass and the idea that they were oppressed and suppressed is modern misogyny read backwards! but instead was rigorously faithful to the picture her sources painted about the religious lives of these women and how truly cut off from mysticism and the higher levels of religious practice they were because of systemic misogyny within Ashkenazi culture, and how they still managed to carve out a small slice of meaning within it for themselves, but the slice is very small. However, this is a book I think you need a background in Jewish studies to really appreciate, and I don’t have that background, so there were parts I know I didn’t get fully. I do think the insistence on standard (that is, English) terminology for everything in a book that conceptually requires a certain familiarity with Judaism was a little silly and jarring. I mainly mean the use of words like “Sabbath” instead of “Shabbat” or “tabernacle” instead of “Temple,” in that I really only see “sabbath” used in christian contexts, same with tabernacle. The part about Ashkenazic gender construction was very interesting, specifically the examination of the category of “Women and men who are like women in being ignorant (of Hebrew)” and how knowledge as the marker of masculinity for this culture (still is, but it’s a stark contrast to how especially modern western culture sees masculinity). She touches briefly on a shift in the late 1800s and early 1900s of the ideal for women going from working to support their husband’s Torah study to staying home and being good bourgeois wives while the husbands worked, and now I’m very curious about labor and economic earning dynamics in premodern Ashkenazi communities, how that shift went over with women, and how or if that had anything to do with the over-representation of Jewish women in American feminist movements.

[nozoditz]

Theory: Saki may be marrying someone else, but Mai is still in love with Saki.

(Disclaimer: I have nothing against and in fact support all the actual canon ships, and I'm okay with Takkun, even if he's deliberately a faceless nobody because the show is about the characters we already know. Please do not flood the notes with shipping discourse. The tag is full of that already.)

So when we meet Saki and Mai, they are both in relationships, but while Saki is engaged to Takkun, Mai and her boyfriend are on the outs. In her focus episode, Mai is encouraged, even by Saki, to talk things over and try and fix it, but when she gets dumped over text message, all Mai feels in the moment is relief. She immediately feels guilty over it, because shouldn't she be sad? Isn't she supposed to want to get and keep a boyfriend? Isn't she supposed to want it more than she wants to succeed in her career or reconnect with her friends or the other things she actually cares about? The others (save Rin) are all either happy in their relationships or putting in effort to save them, so why does Mai just feel relieved of a burden instead when she loses hers?

This, gentle readers, screams comphet. Not in the way that some Sakimai shippers are making the rest of us look bad by insisting that Saki's relationship with Takkun is straight-ironing on Toei's part (that's bi erasure, by the way, or have you forgotten Kazuya?), but in-universe societal pressure on Mai to not question who she is and conform as best she can. This isn't enforcing the idea that liking other girls is something you grow out of. Given the themes of the show, this is condemning it.

Think about it. The others each deal with their own complexes, from Nozomi being told she can't move heaven and earth to support a child's dreams to Rin caving to the pressure to ignore a Shadow and focus on saving her career, each coming to a head with the character trying to rationalize her failures and caving to what society told her to leave behind and grow out of by saying "things are different, I'm not a kid anymore." Mai, in this light, is dealing with the same thing. While, unlike with the others, she still can't transform after her focus episode because Saki still needs to deal with her issues, Mai moves forward learning that even if no one else understands, it's okay for her to be okay with not being with a man she didn't love anyway.

And speaking of Saki's focus episode, it's called "Their Bond." Saki and Mai are two of the few characters who stayed close their whole lives. They still go out a lot and talk to each other about their feelings, and when Saki isn't talking about hers, Mai starts to realize what's wrong. She's the one who makes Saki face that she has her own dreams that she's afraid to chase because they'll get in the way of the important people in her life.

And when Saki starts to worry about what studying abroad might do to her parents and her fiance, Mai says that if she were the one marrying Saki, she'd want Saki to be happy. She isn't saying this to try and steal Saki away, of course. Again, she does want Saki to be happy with the person she chose. But it's an interesting choice of words, especially considering that at this point, the creators had had to make a statement about Otonapre being "only a possible future" because of all the shipping discourse surrounding the show, particularly from Sakimai fans (Coconozo and other frequent targets of antis don't get nearly as much hate in Japan).

Most importantly, when Mai asks Saki to try to transform again? Saki breaks down and gives the same "I'm not a kid anymore" lines that the others had given, but specifically, she thinks of her engagement while telling Mai she's "not the same person." These two are close. Close enough that the people rioting over the sunken ship almost feel like they have a point. And while Saki had been among the people telling Mai to just patch it up with her now-ex-boyfriend, Saki is also the person most likely to know what Mai is feeling at any time, especially when Mai just told her "if it were me" like that.

It seems pretty clear that while Saki feels she's letting down her parents and her fiance, she also thinks she's letting down Mai because she's figured out in this moment that they don't feel the same way about each other. Can their bond really survive that? But just as her parents and fiance are fine with her decision and just want her to be happy, so does Mai, and their bond does survive that. Even if Mai knows how Saki feels, Saki is, as Mai says, still the same person. And that's when they can combine their powers again.

In conclusion, Karekuru and (if Hugtto and anniversary merch apply here) Nagihono aren't the only reasons that Otonapre isn't a sign of straight-ironing ahead. And also I'm surprised I haven't seen more people starting to ship Mai rebounding with Rin. Maybe once we finally see adult Hikari.

[narrativelysignificantturtleduck]

jeong jeong playlist! annotations under the cut:

this is an oddball playlist. there's a song on it from every decade 60s-present, it's got more men than women (unusual for me, and odd given that i headcanon jeong jeong as transfem), and it's very...political. i'm still not sure if it's trivializing and offensive to put these serious protest songs on a character playlist or if it simply makes sense. i mean, i'm looking for songs about a character who leaves the military for ideological reasons. how could it NOT get political, right?

1. i ain't marching anymore - phil ochs

call it peace or call it treason / call it love or call it reason / but i ain't marching anymore

case in point.

2. study war no more (down by the riverside) - pete seeger

i'm gonna talk with the prince of peace / down by the riverside / and study war no more

i mean like. i feel weird about including these songs but also you gotta wonder if maybe historical anti-war movements and songs informed the writing of a character who deserts the military. bc she quite literally is a ex-military pacifist by the riverside talking to her world's religious savior.

3. i was in a cult - teddy geiger

i was a soldier under the despot / born in the summer, all that I wanted / i am a child, I asked for the beating

found this while looking for songs by transfem artists for this playlist and was just kind of blown away. like, jeong jeong was a soldier, summer is the season of fire, and there's no way she had a happy childhood. a firebending prodigy, probably pushed very hard to succeed, plus being queer and autistic? in a country where the head of state abuses his son in front of a crowd? there's no way. it's a song about breaking free from any force telling you to conform, and that's certainly jeong jeong deserting the military.

4. empty square - sarah jarosz

i'm gettin' swallowed up by all my choices / i'll take a dive off your marble stairs / 'cause it's all crumbling down

i think jeong jeong's desertion was incredibly dramatic, bc she knew a high-ranking official loudly denouncing their power and privilege ("taking a dive off your marble stairs") would make a big statement. some random soldier quietly escapes and joins the earth kingdom? we'll track him down and say he died in battle, so tragic. an admiral stands up to give a speech in front of a huge crowd of soldiers and tells them that they're cruel savages and their empire will fall before disappearing in a ball of fire? well that's a fucking PR nightmare.

5. prayer in open d - emmylou harris

and the shadows filling up this land / are the ones i built with my own hand

GUILT. also river imagery. jeong jeong loves river imagery.

6. eve of destruction - barry mcguire

take a look around you, boy / it's bound to scare you, boy / and you tell me / over and over and over again, my friend / how you don't believe / we're on the eve of destruction

learned of this song via todd in the shadows, whose take on it is that it's kinda melodramatic but also totally understandable. like yeah, maybe the world isn't hopeless, but sometimes it sure feels that way. this growly voice singing to some "boy" about how he needs to understand the world is doomed reminds me of jeong jeong talking to aang, warning him of the danger of fire. you get where she's coming from, even if she's overly pessimistic.

7. man in the wilderness - styx

sometimes i feel like a man in the wilderness / i'm a soldier off to war / sent away to die / never quite knowing why

8. i'm on fire - bruce springsteen

this song is maybe a little more clueless than jeong jeong (she knows quite well why she was sent off to war, and she's not really a man) but living in the wilderness feeling lost is definitely fitting.

8. blindness - metric

i was a blindfold, never complained

the wartime imagery, plus this theme of being blind to what's going on. also the lines "i was the one with the world at my feet" and "you gave me a life i never chose" about jeong jeong's high rank and how much he never wanted that path

i got a bad desire / oh, oh, oh / i'm on fire

for jeong jeong this song isn't about lust & desire in the usual sense but about the desire for waterbending and femininity. wanting something to cool the burning feeling inside, that cooling element embodied in a girl whose father left her. a gender envy song, and a song very literally about firebending.

am i reading the song totally in a way it was not intended? yeah probably. do i care? no.

9. my body is a cage - arcade fire

i'm living in an age / whose name I don't know / though the fear keeps me moving / still my heart beats so slow

dysphoria and self-loathing and internalized homophobia and disillusionment with the world oh my

10. arsonist's lullabye - hozier

all you have is your fire / and the place you need to reach / don't you ever tame your demons / but always keep 'em on a leash

i hesitated for a while putting this on here because of the line about "my peace has always depended on all the ashes in my wake" - jeong jeong's firebending does not bring her peace. but if you take that line more metaphorically, you could say that deserting the military was destructive - she burned her old life down, so to speak. and any peace she has comes from those ashes.

the rest of the song is pretty on the nose, with the chorus counseling restraint and the verses indicating a close relationship with fire throughout her life. the wiki says she was a prodigy, which fits with what we see of her. if she had a close connection to fire, if she was praised for talent with it from a young age, the guilt of what she's done with it would hit that much harder.

11. the wolf - the crane wives

'cause I’m no good at being kind to myself / or anyone

very "razor's edge between humanity and savagery", all about this idea of teetering between human and animal because you feel you are inherently a destroyer.

12. ophelia - marika hackman

but did you hear the sun go down? / silent as the child i found / hiding in the midnight of my soul / i am ready now to let her go

trans jeong jeong coming out. the sun, the source of fire, goes down, and she feels her true self can emerge.

13. a burning hill - mitski

and i am the fire and i am the forest and i am the witness watching it

THE song for angsty firebenders trying to embrace peace. that you've been a victim and a perpetrator and a bystander and now you're just going to live a quiet live and love some littler things. zuko 🤝 azula 🤝 jeong jeong - this song.

[stefanemmanuel211]

illo 1: Design History

Dadaism: Adolf Hitler's Sri Lankan Doopleganger.

Topics of Interest:

Dadaism: Provocation, Anti-Art, Experimentation

Constructivism: Bright colours, Primary Contrast, New Knowledge

Art Deco: Linear Lines, angular, geometric, symmetry.

Chosen Topic:

Dadaism, mainly on its humourous and mockery towards politics and normal rules and elements has a surreal twist to it which really drew my interest.

Keywords: Surrealism, Narcissist, Mockery, Satirical

Art Movement:

For this week’s illo exploration, I selected the theme of DADAISM for my illustration. To give some context the art movement is called Dadaism or also known as Dada, dada art. An artist who evokes Dadaism is therefore called a Dadaist. The reason why I went with this was when researching about the movement I learnt it pokes fun with humorous and satirical purposeful jokes at art. It provokes and encourages the mockery of normal rules and elements and goes against the grain. To give some historical context the movement was formed during the breakout of WW1. Where artists joined forces to create the anti-art movement. The main purpose is to experiment with against conformity. It is an art form which evokes absurdity. You could compare it similar to surrealism where dreams and reality go hand in hand.

My Concept:

For my illo, I wanted to discuss the unfortunate economic crisis Sri Lanka had to undergo during covid era. So, I wanted to poke fun at politics using Dadaism and criticize the good fortune my beloved prime minister his excellency Mr. Mahinda Rajapaske aka “Myna” has done for his service to the people and nation of Sri Lanka. This is a shameless billionaire who robbed his own country for the past 20 years and has blindly fooled an entire nation to vote for him and his brother Gotabaya Rajapakse aka “Gota”. He isn’t the only one to be blamed but his family of Rajapakse’s. A tyrannical government under a dictation rule by a “Myna” and a “Gota” is indeed a true love story. One down but many more Rajapakse to go.

[savbeachy1]

Week 2 - Social Media & Social Relationships

The internet is a very interesting place... I find myself conflicted when it comes to thinking about the internet and all the different platforms and technologies it encompasses. I love the fact that the whole world is within my fingertips. A simple search on Google allows me to find anything and everything. I love being connected with family and friends through text messages and facetime. I love the capability the internet gives me to stay up to date with political affairs and world news. Furthermore, I love being able to look up symptoms on the internet to see if WebMD thinks I’m sick. Nevertheless, I sometimes hate the internet. 

            I have "older" parents then most young adults my age. My dad is in his 70s and my mom is in her late 60s. They were both born in time where the internet wasn’t yet invented. Therefore, I've grown up living and learning their values, which in most cases was anti-internet. Up until my senior year of high school my mom wouldn’t let us order anything online because she didn’t want our card information being stolen. Both my parents had flip phones, and we used our land line for communicating with others. Neither of my parents use any form of social media, and the words Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are completely foreign to them. I've spent hours trying to explain to them how to use my Netflix account. Whenever I show either of them a TikTok, their first response is "Do you know this person, how can you see this" and then "What station is this on". Despite that, they are the most hardworking, intelligent, and engaged people. They may not know a single thing about technology, but they instilled upon me the most desirable traits that kids nowadays don't have. I grew up without being dependent on the internet, I'm more socially aware, and I know how to act in certain situations without relying on technology. 

            My issues with the internet couldn’t be more aligned with the topics discussed in the video, We've Been Sneaking into Your Brains, by Max Stossel. Stossel talked about slot machines and variable rewards which connects to us and our phones. That being we have an infinite appetite for distraction and a subconscious need for instant gratification. Technology is designed to be addicting and distracting, which makes it incredibly easy to run away from ourselves and forget what really makes us who we are. The worst part about the internet and social media in my opinion is the influence to conform and compare myself to others. I know that not everything on the internet is real, and that things can be edited and morphed to appear perfect. But, it still puts pressure on me to want to be like or look like other people I see online. 

            I really enjoyed reading the article "Before the Internet", by Emma Rathbone. I found the overarching theme to be that before the internet we knew how to create our own fun. I resonated with the idea that the internet is a tether, holding us back from being our true selves. I laughed at the part where she said before the internet, we had to ask things like "is there a booklet on this shit". Now, we say things like "just ask Google, it knows everything". 

            All in all, the internet is a great thing, it provides us with information, means for communicating, and access to things we couldn’t once have. Though, we must remember to ask ourselves "Am I using technology, or is it using me"? We need to draw a line between the internet and the real world. I think it’s critical we learn to accept and know ourselves without basing everything off the internet. We need to set boundaries, engage ourselves into the real world, and protect our priorities. 

Thanks for reading!

What's your favorite and least favorite thing about the internet?

[oxyvisualanalysis-fa23]

Discussion Leader Presentation

Take Me to Church- Hozier

Take Me to Church is a song written and performed by the Irish musician Hozier. It is his most popular song that was released in 2013 and blew up with more than 2.2 billion streams. Hozier’s purpose of this song was to attack the idea of anti-homosexuality in the church, mainly talking about the Catholic Church. Hozier was interviewed by “The Cut” where he mentions that he does not condemn the church or religion on the whole, but just the policy (the anti-same-sex marriage policy) which he states seems so wrong to him. His intention when writing this song was to address policies that value rules and prejudice over love and acceptance. 

Friedrich Nietzsche

In Friedrich Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense” he notes that truth is a product of human interpretation and that it has the potential to be influenced by subjectivity and influenced over time. Hozier addresses a similar point by the emotional and personal truths that are related to desire. Take Me to Church explores the individuality of love and how personal emotions can contrast with religious and societal norms. Hozier stating that he does not condemn the anti-sex marriage policy in the church agrees with idea of Friedrich Nietzsche’s idea in the sense that they are established moral norms. Moral judgment can be influenced by the personal perspective and interpretations. The line “I’ll tell you my sins, and you can sharpen your knife” can be interpreted as the willingness to be open about their flaws and transgressions even in the face of judgment or condemnation even in the face of judgment. It shows the theme of personal authenticity and refusal to conform to social expectations.

Jean Baudrillard

Take Me to Church also covers the idea of Jean Baudrillard, “Simulacra and Simulations” by the hyperreality and simulation of reality. This is when the music video's portrayal of a homosexual relationship blurs the line between representation and reality and changing social norms. This is because of the influence of simulation on our own understanding of authentic experiences. A scene from the music video that would represent Jean Baudrillard’s idea of simulations and simulacra would be when the music video depicts homosexual couples and the struggles they were facing in a conservative society. The contrast of their love and the pressure from society can be seen as a representation of the hyperreal. Hozier’s message is powerful because it notes that the relationship can be seen as an authentic human connection that is often overshadowed by societal norms. Hozier also connects the concepts of simulation hyperreality as the video tends to explore how religious symbols and institutions often create a hyperreal world. He also covers the contrast between nature and the couple's love for the natural world. This is a representation of the authenticity of the couple's emotions against the artificial constructs of society. These examples are some ways that Take Me to Church can be interpreted in relation to Baudrillard’s ideas of blurring of reality and simulation.

Same Love- Macklemore

Explain the song: In the song Same Love, Macklemore describes a similar situation to what Hozier was arguing about in the sense that they are both challenging norms. They are both talking about the acceptance of same-sex relationships and evoking strong emotions about understanding, accepting, and changing. This music video came out 11 years ago and was a message from Macklemore to support civil rights.

 In the song Same Love the lyrics go,

 “And I can’t change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to.”

 This line addresses one’s identity including their sexuality stating that they cannot change who they are and it is part of who they are. This theme embraces similar ideas present in Take Me to Church by the way Hozier explores one’s desires and not being able to change or deny one’s true feelings. Both of the songs touch on the idea of authenticity and self-acceptance. 

I believe that it is important to understand the importance of Macklemore’s Same Love through the fact that people should be allowed to be themselves without having to be destroyed by the societies norms and what people think should be correct. Hoizer idea is similar in the sense that he believes that one's identity and desires should not be judged or punished through the church nor should the church have authenticity over someone's life decisions. His message is to express the idea that love, desire, and human emotion should not be conflicted with societal or religious expectations.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Consider the role of music videos in conveying powerful messages. How do the visuals in the music videos for these songs enhance the meaning and emotional impact of the lyrics?

How do you see the themes and messages of "Take Me to Church" and "Same Love" connecting with the experiences and challenges faced by individuals in today's society, especially in terms of acceptance, love, and equality?

How do you think music and art can help people understand and relate to complex social issues?