#on power

[stargir1z]

Control is not discipline. You do not confine people with a highway. But by making highways, you multiply the means of control. I am not saying this is the only aim of highways, but people can travel infinitely and "freely" without being confined while being perfectly controlled. That is our future.

gilles deleuze, “what is the creative act?” 

[draculovemp3]

— Jeff Lindsay, Dexter in the Dark

[roaawabaza]

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[angkapatidnikapayapaan]

on alina’s sainthood and her power

I think people really underestimate that Alina’s greatest strength is her resistance to her own power. 

She doesn’t run from it because she wants to be small, as the Darkling insists, or because of Mal, as Nikolai insists. Those things factor in, but the main reason is because she doesn’t want to follow the Darkling’s path. The climactic moment of the trilogy is when she realizes what the Third amplifier truly is and instead of killing Mal immediately, her solution is to look for another way. She has already slain two sacred creatures (or, at least in the case of the stag, been complicit in it’s death) because of her quest for power. 

Mal isn’t just the threshold because she loves him romantically, he is the threshold because he is her companion. Despite the divide created by her discovery as Grisha and his status as otkazat’sya, she still has the strength to resist her destiny for power when his life is on the line. 

As an unreliable narrator, it is unclear from the direct reading of the text if Alina stabbed Mal of her own volition. However, based on the events leading up to her killing him as the third amplifier, it’s fairly obvious that Alina’s thirst for power would not drive her to do that. Her thirst is not like the Darkling’s, who believes when he is ruler, he will make a better world for Grisha, will make Ravka unbeatable. Her thirst is for a way to rule that removes her from the picture, where she will not fall victim to the whims of politics the way the Darkling has, even though he is so sure that he is a revolutionary with the oppressed in mind. 

Alina is a mediator. Alina is the Christ figure of the Grishaverse trilogy, but her journey reinvents what it means to be a savior. Alina Starkov’s journey, eventual martyrdom, and legacy throughout the Grishaverse series reads similarly to the Virgin Mary’s journey, but challenges Jesus’ position as sole savior. 

(More on the parallels between Alina and the Virgin Mary later)

[mirthridatism]

Lyrics - King (2022), Florence + The Machine // Sculpture - Medea (1868), William Wetmore Story

[ceaselessbasher]

I swear to god one of these days were going to see a video of Amaury Guichon and he's going to be making some wings and they are going to look dope as hell, the detail of each feather will be breathtaking, he'll spray paint them to perfection, but as the video goes on, he's not building any sort of winged creature, just the wings. And then there's a human-sized harness (also made of chocolate, somehow, he can do it). And he's attaching the wings to the harness. And he's putting the harness on and he demonstrates how he can flap the wings. And then he'll be off. Out the window and up and up and up. And we'll be looking at the livestream (it's a livestream now) and we'll scream "No, Amaury, the sun! It's going to melt the wings!". But he knows this already. And he is free.

[spitblaze]

[guy who doesnt watch shows voice] yeah ive been meaning to watch that show

[louisegluckpdf]

i was talking to this guy yesterday and he said "i'm pretty sure i'm straight but i might be a little bicurious. there are definitely some guys i might hook up with. like samson." and i said "samson?" and he said "yeah. like from the bible"

[boxmakesart]

Eldritch Miku omgggg

[thatboreddrake]

So y’all know the classic edge trope of “my blade cannot be sheathed until it has tasted blood”? What if a magic sword that has that requirement, except it’s sort of inverted. A sword that, instead of being inhabited by an evil spirit which once awakened cannot be lulled back to sleep except by blood sacrifice, was inhabited by a benevolent spirit who would not allow the sword to be drawn unless bloodshed were the only possible solution. A sword whose power could never be misused because it would only allow itself to be used in situations where it was justified. What about a Paladin who spends their entire journey fighting with a sheathed sword, incapacitating but never killing or maiming. The party believes that the Paladin has taken an oath of no killing, until they face the big villain. And it is in that moment, and that moment alone, that the sword will allow itself to be drawn.

Idk, this image set my mindwheels a-turning.

But do y’all see the vision?

[sleepyyghostt]

inspired by the scariest words my dm has ever said to me and the subsequent coolest (AND SCARIEST) scene of my life

[stargir1z]

"Postmodernism and the Place of Nostalgia in Ingeborg Bachmann's Franza Fragment" by Heidi Schlipphacke

[draculovemp3]

Greatness brings no profit to people.

God indeed, when in anger, brings

Greater ruin to great men’s houses

— Euripides, Medea (transl. Rex Warner)

[reality-detective]

1963 Refrigerator 🤔

[elbiotipo]

Usamericans should be more anti-war actually. They should be straight up insulting marines and shutting down weapon factories, 60s anti-war protests kind of shit. I'm sorry for pontificating from down here but the US military-industrial complex is currently supplying a genocide, and this is not a new thing, the US has sold weapons to Saudi Arabia to starve millions of Yemenis, the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, these are within memory. And though some people think it's not the point, it Is also true that there are trillions upon trillions of dollars that could be spent in anything else that go to the black hole of corruption (and call it for what it is, corruption) that is the Pentagon. Any of those resources could be destined to literally any other activity and be better spent.

I'm talking full contempt here. You should outright be HATING the military. Instead of lining up to watch Top Gun you should see it as a glorification of a fucking killing machine that serves imperial interests, enriches megacorporations and supports genocides. For the love of God be more angry about it. Goddamn.