#my very important opinions

[several-spoons]

Notes for a post I intend to write some day on the way Vash redefines masculinity and transcends the gender binary

From a conversation on Discord that started as discussing each other’s drabbles:

lostjune: Yeah, the every cut worth a life is meant to refer to Vash's scars. But less about his guilt for the Fall, but his determination to sacrifice his own body to save another life. Like... it's hard to explain.. like, every time he takes the abuse and defends Rem’s beliefs he is proving Steve’s POV wrong? Trying to be not like him, abusive and aggressively dominant. But at the same time he has integrated a lot of his lesson, before his defenses were up. hurting himself, seldom opening up to others, being all self-sufficient and hiding his true emotions.

Me: Saving people is a way to be...powerful and in control, I guess...without being cruel like Steve. He's defining and proving an alternate view of strength, and perhaps masculinity, and that's cool af!

This is one of the things I love about Vash, too! Brilliant. Honestly, I wish more men were like him IRL.

lostjune:  YES YES YES!!!! That's one of the main points why I fell in love with Trigun again, because for ONCE we have in a gun-action-anime not only a great story, but a hero that is not a blueprint of toxic masculinity but defines it way differently. Like the scene when he strips to so solve the conflict non-violently? Totally unashamed und full of dignity. 

Branch #1: Implications for Slash

Me: It's also one of the things that pisses me off in most doujinshis and some fanfic and fanart, where Vash is a wibbly, blushy, shy uke stereotype. That whole seme-uke dynamic is a total misunderstanding of Vash's unique and amazing expression of gender, tbh.

Branch #2: How Vash treats women

lostjune: That's one reason his creepy behaviour towards women in the anime makes me so sad.�� I mean, look at his role models. But yeah, the "omg-embarrassed-moment" was like played for laughs and diversion. I mean, they continue to chat while he was sorta shirtless?

Me: perhaps that's one reason I choose to see the creepy behavior as a fake used deliberately to keep women away, because unlike those caught in toxic masculinity, he knows women hate it.

lostjune:  Yeah, good point. but it's still creepy and harmful. But well, no one is perfect. and to grow up with Steve and later on macho-Gunsmoke, it's a small miracle that he is as cool as he is

Me:  tbh, he doesn't have a lot of role models for the sort of person he wants to be. It seems like he's synthesized a lot of different images, combined them with his own personality...but how does he refresh it and remind himself when he's constantly surrounded by toxic macho bullshit and everyone is as convinced that that's necessary to survive as they're sure the suns will come up tomorrow?

lostjune:  Honestly, I think he's just a good observer. There are not only machos on Gunsmoke, they are also the kind people of July, Lina and her grandmother, other women for example, men that are not shitty. People helping each other out and the sky people taking him in. 

I feel because he is so kind, he is able to see kindness.

^ That’s an interesting point in itself that probably needs its own post to unpack.

[severalspoons]

Fanfic Tropes Tier List

Finally, a chance to show your Very Important Opinions on most common fanfic tropes and a few less common ones. Great way to start a discussion -- or argument. 

Please, make your own here. 

Here’s mine:

S = Favorite/Love it

Missing scenes, fix it fic, canon divergence, gen, fluff, humor, friends to lovers, mutual pining

A = Like It

crack fic, crossover, angst, established relationship, slow burn, in vino veritas, sharing a bed, miscommunication

B = Good but don’t usually seek it out

unrequited love, unhappy ending, pwp, hurt/comfort, first kiss, major character death, enemies to lovers, historical AU

C = Don’t like

fake relationship, love triangle, huddle for warmth, coffee shop au, college au, dark fic, body swap, arranged marriage, magic au, fairy tale au, royalty au (wtf is that?)

D = Hate or Squick

ABO, baby fic, soulmate au, pregnancy fic, high school au, time loop, amnesia, sex pollen, bang or die

[snarwin]

Very Brief Thoughts About The Southern Reach Trilogy

Annihilation was fantastic, and its protagonist, the biologist, is the most unique and memorable character in the series. Authority was less impressive, but still good. Acceptance was a letdown. The nihilism of the ending is at least intentional (though that doesn't make it any less unsatisfying), but the solution to the mystery of Area X is so disappointing that I'd rather it was never revealed at all.

Annihilation is still worth reading on its own, and I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a little weirdness in their fiction. If you want to know how the story ends, though, you may be better off just googling for spoilers.

[ifwerefree]

dw christmas special wasnt that good tbh

[sadboybrigade]

so i should probs talk about what I thought of TDKR now

OK FIRST I FOUND THE PLOT REALLY CONFUSING because I'm a dumb-tard and anything more complicated than Star Trek is beyond my scope of comprehension. I think this might have something to do with the fact that I'm a cinematography dork, so I'm usually too busy looking at the distribution of shadows and color within the frame to pay full attention to the dialogue. Erm.

Mostly, I just don't get why Bane removed the nuclear core so it would explode in five months. (And also, that's not how fusion reactors would work anyway? But. Whatever.) Why would he want to destroy the "new society" he's created? That just made no sense to me.

There was some wonderful dialogue in this. And the cinematography was wonderful as well. As a result, I'm fully expecting beautiful graphics with poignant quotes from tumblr once the spoiler moratorium ends.

ALFREDDDDD. oh my poor heart. They done broke it good.

I liked Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle more than I thought I would, though I still feel like I didn't get a good handle on who she was. Her whole past was still left very vague... I never quite understood why she was trying to erase her past in the first place. She seemed kind of self-satisfied for someone who didn't actually want to be a criminal.

SHAMEFUL ADMISSION TIME: After Talia explained her origins and she and Bane looked at each other meaningfully... I swear, in that moment, I shipped it. And then of course I was like NONONONON BAD SELF HE LOVED HER LIKE A FATHER DAMN YOU, but I can't deny it happened. But then I always just really like it when bad guys cry, man.

ROBIN. ROBIN, ROBIN, ROBIN. I CALLED THAT SHIT. I TOTALLY CALLED IT. BOOYAH. CAN WE HAVE JGL MOVIES NOW PLZ?????

[severalspoons]

As in, the arts blurring into "entertainment", story-telling and music-making becoming businesses, etc.

Ah, that makes more sense.

So, I don’t think that money necessarily, inherently, corrupts art, although it can certainly introduce pressure and censorship. I mean, look at the Medicis. ::waits for Tumblr to show up with the guillotine::

I *do* think in the USA in my lifetime at least, we’ve created a culture in which no new art is being created and we’re not being exposed much to the art of the past in school, either. In fact, education schools actively teach that we don’t *need* to be. I’ve lived through at least twenty years where almost every blockbuster movie--almost every movie, period--was a sequel. 

Few people are exposed to art or even original ideas, and so they don’t even know what they’re missing. I think it’s setting us up for shallow thinking, polarization, lack of empathy, and the inability to think for ourselves or engage with meaning in life. 

I realize that sounds like a vast overexaggeration, but, I say this because I was exposed to good writing, a lot of it, and it changed my life. Not just literature, either. Philosophy, science writing, mythology, self help, Hell, even the Bible. I could write forever about literature, and about other books that inspired me--Jane Goodall and E.O. Wilson’s books; the Dorling Kindersley picture books about dinosaurs and Bob Bakker’s Dinosaur Heresies that gave me a sense of wonder and geological time; Flow; Pronoia; Women Who Run with the Wolves; and more. 

But most of all, I am who I am today because of autistic bloggers, like Amanda Forest Vivian, Julia Bascom, Lynne Soraya, Mel Baggs/formerly Amanda Baggs (RIP), Alyssa Hillary, and others, who I watched actively creating language to describe experiences and build a community. I followed in their footsteps for a while, and someday, will do so again.

I’ve wanted to be a writer on and off since high school, but have always dismissed it because having to hustle to make the work other people want, on their timetable, would ruin it for me. And I’d rather not ruin what gives my life meaning.

TBH, anything I could possibly say about what we’re losing due to the commodification of art, James Baldwin said better, so here you go.

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” ― James Baldwin

“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone...” —from “An interview with James Baldwin” (1961)

“literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even but a millimeter the way people look at reality, then you can change it.” ― James Baldwin

How about you?

[severalspoons]

When I first watched Trigun I thought it was realistic how the world was so awful that the only way you could survive without killing anyone was to be literally superhuman.

2020 is not changing my mind about this.

[snarwin]

Very Brief Thoughts About The Northern Caves

Strengths: characters that come to life on the page; a pitch-perfect rendition of the early-oughts online fan-forum experience. Weaknesses: none that stood out to me at a macro level. Unlike Floornight, this is a well-rounded piece that I could see myself recommending to just about anyone. If you came of age on the internet or enjoyed Homestuck, I highly encourage you to give TNC a look.

Link: The Northern Caves, by nostalgebraist on AO3

[snarwin]

Very Brief Thoughts About Floornight

Strengths: two pounds of worldbuilding in a one-pound bag. Lots of thought-experimenty stuff for philosophy nerds and rationalist-types to chew on. Weaknesses: flat characters (huehuehue), erratic pacing, not much of an ending. This reminded me a lot of Sam Hughes' fiction, which I enjoy, but which definitely is not for everyone. If the phrase "eigensoul decomposition" makes your mouth water, this is for you.

Link: Floornight, by nostalgebraist on AO3