#polynesian sexuality

[sohannabarberaesque]

Meanwhile, near a remote waterfall of almost mystical reverence in Polynesia Uncharted:

PETER POTAMUS, on another of his sojourns of fascination for such a fascinating and unspoiled people and culture (and, know, naked in deference to the local custom and folkways): Aaaaahhhh ... and what, my gal, could prove more interesting between you and me as the evening approaches? A NATIVE POLYNESIAN GAL, with some charm in her voice: For a native like myself as was actually born underwater, with a dolphin serving as a midwife of sorts to my mother--not to mention picking up quite a fascination for the water since birth--plenty. [Short pause] Have you ever tried lovemaking underwater, after the native manner? PETER POTAMUS, acting like a rather fascinated boy barely on the eve of his flowering and looking for an opportunity to sow his wild oats, more or less: Plenty of times, my gal; plenty of times!! And what a fascinating feeling that can get to be, especially when you're a) naked as Nature intended, and b) having some especially curious dolphins watching! A NATIVE POLYNESIAN GAL: Might it surprise you to know where we natives of these islands actually enjoy the sight of dolphins in sexual pleasure, as if teaching us a lesson that "sex should feel good"? PETER POTAMUS: For some reason, I've noticed many of times in my travels in these parts that such peoples like yourself still respect sex as a wondrous and most natural experience, undeserving of such being distorted the wrong way! A NATIVE POLYNESIAN GAL, going all "come hither" wearing of herself: Why not just--follow me? [Whereupon we find the two in the pond below the waterfall, waist-high to each other essentially, in a scene most magical and almost Blue Lagoon in its sacristy of closeness and friendship in a native manner]

[criphd]

At the outset of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898), Wells asks his English readers to compare the Martian invasion of Earth with the Europeans’ genocidal invasion of the Tasmanians, thus demanding that the colonizers imagine themselves as the colonized, or the about-to-be-colonized. But in Wells this reversal of perspective entails something more, because the analogy rests on the logic prevalent in contemporary anthropology that the indigenous, primitive other’s present is the colonizer’s own past. Wells’s Martians invading England are like Europeans in Tasmania not just because they are arrogant colonialists invading a technologically inferior civilization, but also because, with their hypertrophied brains and prosthetic machines, they are a version of the human race’s own future.

The confrontation of humans and Martians is thus a kind of anachronism, an incongruous co-habitation of the same moment by people and artifacts from different times. But this anachronism is the mark of anthropological difference, that is, the way late-nineteenth-century anthropology conceptualized the play of identity and difference between the scientific observer and the anthropological subject-both human, but inhabiting different moments in the history of civilization. As George Stocking puts it in his intellectual history of Victorian anthropology, Victorian anthropologists, while expressing shock at the devastating effects of European contact on the Tasmanians, were able to adopt an apologetic tone about it because they understood the Tasmanians as “living representatives of the early Stone Age,” and thus their “extinction was simply a matter of … placing the Tasmanians back into the dead prehistoric world where they belonged” (282-83). The trope of the savage as a remnant of the past unites such authoritative and influential works as Lewis Henry Morgan’s Ancient Society (1877), where the kinship structures of contemporaneous American Indians and Polynesian islanders are read as evidence of “our” past, with Sigmund Freud’s Totem and Taboo (1913), where the sexual practices of “primitive” societies are interpreted as developmental stages leading to the mature sexuality of the West. Johannes Fabian has argued that the repression or denial of the real contemporaneity of so-called savage cultures with that of Western explorers, colonizers, and settlers is one of the pervasive, foundational assumptions of modern anthropology in general. The way colonialism made space into time gave the globe a geography not just of climates and cultures but of stages of human development that could confront and evaluate one another.

The anachronistic structure of anthropological difference is one of the key features that links emergent science fiction to colonialism. The crucial point is the way it sets into motion a vacillation between fantastic desires and critical estrangement that corresponds to the double-edged effects of the exotic. Robert Stafford, in an excellent essay on “Scientific Exploration and Empire” in the Oxford History of the British Empire, writes that, by the last decades of the century, “absorption in overseas wilderness represented a form of time travel” for the British explorer and, more to the point, for the reading public who seized upon the primitive, abundant, unzoned spaces described in the narratives of exploration as a veritable “fiefdom, calling new worlds into being to redress the balance of the old” (313, 315). Thus when Verne, Wells, and others wrote of voyages underground, under the sea, and into the heavens for the readers of the age of imperialism, the otherworldliness of the colonies provided a new kind of legibility and significance to an ancient plot. Colonial commerce and imperial politics often turned the marvelous voyage into a fantasy of appropriation alluding to real objects and real effects that pervaded and transformed life in the homelands. At the same time, the strange destinations of such voyages now also referred to a centuries-old project of cognitive appropriation, a reading of the exotic other that made possible, and perhaps even necessary, a rereading of oneself.

John Rieder, Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction

[wizardpink]

I'm watching s1e1 and just got to the part where Louis says he's come to embrace his sexuality, and asks, "but you knew that Daniel, we met at a gay bar." And Daniel brushes it off as just something he did for drugs, so Louis presses, "you've been married?" And Daniel says "twice. But we're not here for me, are we?" So Louis pivots to asking about the best drug he ever had, and they go from there...

I always thought it seemed kind of oddly provocative and forward and even unnecessary for Louis to basically say, "of course I'm out now, but you knew that, since you're gay, right?" Like what is the point of breaking the flow of the story to talk about Daniel here?

Of course it could just be a directorial decision to break up the flashback sequences and remind the audience that this is taking place within the frame of the Dubai interview. But plot wise, I just...

I can't help thinking about Louis continuing, as the interview goes on, to try to open a dialogue with Daniel about his sexuality, his past lovers (specifically Alice, never the second wife), and becoming a vampire. I can't recall Louis ever asking personal questions about Daniel's daughters, and in fact when Louis is talking about Claudia, Daniel is the one who says, "I've got two," without Louis asking.

This could all be writing and directing choices made to underscore that this is a Love Story between Louis and Lestat, but it's also a story about Family, and to my recollection it's almost always Daniel who brings up his daughters, and Louis who brings up Alice and Polynesian Mary's.

So yes it's a wild stretch but... if you're someone who like me has entertained the theory that Louis is doing this interview not just because he regrets how badly it went the first time, not just because Daniel doesn't have much time left for them to wrap it up, not just because Louis wants to warn humanity of the impending Great Conversion, but that he is doing it for Armand...

Well, I'm just saying, the breadcrumbs are there.

[sohannabarberaesque]

Postcards from Snagglepuss

Peter Potamus, quite the adventurer indeed!

AT THE BASE CAMP OF PETER POTAMUS' MAGIC DIVERS NEAR LA JOLLA, CA: As if that Magic Balloon wasn't already quite the vehicle of Peter Potamus in his adventures of Polynesia Uncharted, that charmer can certainly regale you with many tales from such fascinating regions he's ever sworn to secrecy about, and For Reasons Obvious.

The which was evident the other evening sitting at the dock of the lagoon as leads into the near-shore dive practice area, and over a modest little fire with hot Dr Pepper laced with clove-studded lemons, he shared an experience he had with a native gal who had just given birth underwater to twins, and with the help of a dolphin assisting in the labour as well--"which, Snagglepuss, is quite an interesting phenom among such peoples who the dolphins actually see as close and yet mystical friends!"

"And I take it, Peter," said I between sips of hot Dr Pepper, "that such childbirth underwater is something of a habit among them."

"Habit--and tradition, Snag," Peter remarked. "Such fascinating specimens of natural Polynesian wonder, naked as Nature intended as well, see underwater births as an offering unto their gods to affirm such wonderful connexions they have unto the sea, and to pass such on to the new generation just born as well! And before long, those babies literally start swimming and diving towards their mothers, who more than likely will breast feed such underwater in the process!"

"I take it they enjoy such stimulation at the mother's breast."

"Snagglepuss ... how else would such newborns actually experience breastfeeding while getting some fascination for the water out of their system? Nothing, believe you me, fascinates such wonderfully natural natives more than to dive in the shallows just off their village and have their fill of mother's milk! And they CERTAINLY enjoy every last drop when they dive carefree and naked on the edges of the reef!"

"So I take it they also get some early diving experience as well...."

"Basically," Peter explained, "it's a sort of game these mothers and the wet nurses will enjoy playing, the better to get them to develop some swimming and diving skills early ... but what's even more amazing, and I've witnessed this several times, is that the mothers will gently prod their infants to explore the sheer fascination that is diving by gradually moving out a little further from shore week by week, in time incorporating into the breast feeding session some discovery of diving!"

"Heavens to Jacques Cousteau!"

"What's especially fascinating is where these youngsters will have some of their earliest dives to about three feet down, naked--and holding their breath as well, just gliding over some primal coral reefs and developing some early pelvic sensations for some reason or another! What could be more naturally Polynesian than to be diving literally from birth?!"

"So how exactly would the birth mother feel giving birth underwater with the help of a dolphin?"

"Rather comforting, Snagglepuss ... and the birthing pains are not as obvious, which can be put down to the warmth of the ocean waters, her obvious nakedness and the vibes, you might say, coming from the dolphin as it pokes its way close to her vagina ahead of delivery! How else could childbirth feel more delightful?"

"For such people who see sex as a natural source of fun ... when it winds up in pregnancy, how else could it feel?"

The two of us chuckled at the notion as the moon rose overhead.

*************

@warnerbrosentertainment @indigo-corvus @jellystone-enjoyer @joey-gatorman @funtasticworld @xdiver71 @archive-archives @thylordshipofbutts @screamingtoosoftly @thebigdingle @themineralyoucrave @warnerbros-blog1 @iheartgod175 @groovybribri @railguner34 @theweekenddigest @ultrakeencollectionbreadfan @warnerbrosent-blog

[sohannabarberaesque]

According to Peter Potamus, he certainly can't help but feel as fascinated as the natives of Polynesia Uncharted at the sight of such naturally wondrous love ... the sort serving as a reminder to such fascinated and yet fascinating peoples that sexuality is naturally enjoyable and can be very relaxing.

dolphins mating

[oldbutchdanielcraig]

daniel clocking armand at polynesian mary's as louis obvious partner, asking "so you just climb in it, close the lid, and bang?" and then immediately after asking, "so am i the first guy you've brought back here?" means two things to me:

he was desperately trying to figure out louis' and armand's sexual habits and behaviors for cough cough no reason. not so he could try to picture it in extreme detail later or anything like that

he thought it was baby's first night swinging and he was like. that's okay man i'll show you the way ❤️ i don't even mind your freaky coffin thing and in fact i like it. you can love me forever ❤️

[honeyhoku]

I personally dont think, or at least would like not to think, that the writers have any racist intent with the storylines. If only because I appreciate Lottie's casting so much as someone whose part Polynesian, and because I see Tai or Akilah's actresses having such vocal love and reactions to their characters. It lends to the idea that there has to be SOME kind of thoughtful care in action.

That being said,,, so many things just DO leave a sour taste in your mouth. Maybe not intentionally- because white characters like Natalie or Van have also had, in my opinion, a lot of plot holes or poor handling concerning their archs.

But after seeing the pitch for the show and seeing there being real reference to the characters identities/struggles regarding race (the comment about Lottie's white neighbor being violent, the character who was half japanese and half scottish or something?), it seems like the show has lost sight of yet another aspect that originally made it so compelling.

We acknowledge how all of the characters are "free" from society in the wilderness- how Tai and Van are free to embrace their sexualities, for example. But I have trouble with recalling anyone mentioning OTHER important social aspects.

Even more so, I saw someone comment on how race HAS to play a factor in Lottie's treatment post-rescue. It's hard to ignore that its her white father who has always been the quickest to shut her up and send her away. Obviously this could just have to do with her specific family dynamics, but when you compare her arch to Shauna- a white woman who by now we can all agree is not sane in the slightest, and how Shauna's actions are accepted and celebrated far more than Lottie's, there's that bad taste again.

Tai and Lottie are both shown to be mixed race. Tai's parents seem happy together in their brief scene- we know Lottie's arent. Did they ever bond over their shared experiences pre-crash? Clash over their different experiences? Like, Tai and Van are also an interracial couple. Thats another hurdle they'd have to face. Yeah its the mid-to-late 90's, but even now that's not exactly the easiest thing to navigate.

The show has so much space to make real commentary on these topics, and considering that many people fram Yellowjackets as an exploration of humaity/trauma- it seems ignorant to ignore how race plays a part.

Plus when you take that out of the equation, good intentions or not, it truly just leaves the door open for decisions to come across tone deaf. Tai leaving her wife and family for an old flame is a good example of self destruction, and I do love Van- but exiling her black family in favor of a white character, all while Shauna's family is left front and center? Again, bad taste.

[the-tortured-one]

About me (pjo):

Y’all this is the old intro and not as formatted as good so just check out the pinned post. Here is just now for more info. Love y’all

Name: αστρολουλουδα (astroloulouda, which means starflower) Yume σκοτάδι (skotádi)

Favorite nicknames: αστεριού (asterioú, which means star in Greek), Habibi/Habibti, Yume, αστέρι (astéri)

Type: demiprimordial (a demigod child of a primordial that is stronger than the rest of the primordial’s other demigod children and legacies) (demititans are stronger than most of the other children and legacies, especially if their a child of a titan, and demigod+legacies are your usual)

Child of Nyx

Blessed by Hestia and Nyx

Pronouns and gender orientation: he/she/they or we/us (usually only used by them and their head/bodymates), xenofluid/artemian

Sexual orientation: diamoric/aroace (they do experience romantic/sexual attraction, just only for one person only)

Partner: Isis Te Ario

Height: 6’8 ft aka 182.88 cm

Age: around 16-18 years old

Skin type: vitiligo

Ethnicity: Liberian, Ivorian (Ivory Coast), Hawaiian, Polynesian, Persian, Ålandic, Native American/Indigenous (Diné), and Greek

Languages they can speak: Spanish, Greek, Japanese, Hawaiian, French, Arabic, Khoisan, Russian, Irish, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Diné bizaad (Navajo language)

Birthday: Chinese New Year during a total eclipse (2007).

Powers: Umbrakinesis (power to control shadows), Umbraportation (power to teleport between shadows, basically shadow traveling but can go farther without getting as tired), Darkness solidification (that one explains itself), Pyrokinesis (the ability to control fire), Pyroportation (the ability to teleport through fire), and Fire breathing (that one explains itself). Because they are a demiprimordial, they were blessed with the ability to create and control/manipulate stars, which also allows them to know a lot of stars and be able read the stars easily. This is called χειραγώγηση δημιουργίας αστεριών (cheiragógisi dimiourgías asterión, meaning star creation manipulation in Greek) but is shortened down to αστέρι δημιουργία (astéri dimiourgía, meaning star create). They also gain telapathy

Powers (for those who don’t want to read through the explanation):

Umbrakinesis

Umbraportation

Darkness solidification

Pyrokinesis

Pyroportation

Fire breathing

Telapathy

χειραγώγηση δημιουργίας αστεριών (it would be good to check the explanation for this one)

Traits (things that come with being a demigod of ____): superhuman strength, senses, reflexes, speed, agility, endurance and durability in general, these traits are also enhanced during the night. Children of Nyx can absorb shadows to make them into a superhuman with strength that can rival that of Heracles. Also more powerful at night.

Fighting style: anything, can make it out of shadows and darkness. If that fails (they can’t get it to solidify), their hairstick can turn into any weapon they want.

Weapons: 416-C Carbine, khopesh, bow and arrow, trident, 4-Bore rifle (one bullet from it is about the size of a Campbell soup can)

Suffers from: Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, severe Depression, Anxiety, DID, OCD, Separation Anxiety, Enochlophobia, severe chronic Insomnia, minor colorblindness, suicidal thoughts and ideations, Atelophobia, Athazagoraphobia, Kakorrhaphiophobia, Kenophobia (associated with lore), Lethophobia (also associated with lore), Social Anxiety, Social Phobia, a very small bit of Hypnophobia, Pupaphobia (also associated with lore), Autophobia, Age Regression, eating disorder

Songs that represents them: Fire on Fire by Sam Smith, Boys Feel Sad Too by Rosendale, Stitches by Shawn Mendes, Born to Die by Lana Del Ray, The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives

Favorite songs: My R by Lollia, 2 Days Into College (nightcore) by Neko, Sailor Song by Gigi Perez

Fatal flaw: the issue to trust anyone except their half-siblings. This is because during a war, gods and goddesses talk to them to try to convince them to come to their side due to the power they have. αστεριού only trusts underworld deities and Hestia+Hephaestus+Dionysus

Current voice claims: Katniss from The Hunger Games, Lucy Gray Baird from The Hunger Games (https://youtu.be/xcpLoLRfUTw), Megan Thee Stallion

It’s basically Rachel Zegler with a hint of Megan Thee Stallion

Aesthetic:

Fun facts:

Zeus is scared of Nyx and her children, so he’s scared of them.

They have dyed hair and wear a crown made by Morpheus.

Nyx, her husband, and their children are protective of αστεριού because they’re the first mortal child (Nyx/Erebus)/sibling (the children). This also applies to any of the demigod children of them, like Morpheus, Aether, Hypnos, Thanatos, etc. because they are suicidal

They often smuggle in alcohol for Mr. D and his kids, because it is literal torture to keep a god from their domain.

They are close with anyone from the Hecate cabin.

The way they were conceived was the Fates took a bit of their mom’s DNA and put it into a child.

Can intimidate monsters into either leaving them alone or helping them, making them valuable to go on quests, though they only go on ones with a Dionysus camper

They have selective mutism

Are an agere (not often)

They have some tattoos (shown in the aesthetic)

Weird facts about children of Nyx:

Their eyes glow in the dark.

They are connected to the stars so when a child, legacy, or champion of Nyx dies, they become a constellation associated with that star. Only demigods, supernatural, and clearsighted people can see the constellation

Each child of Nyx is born under a star, and αστεριού was born under Polaris, signifying their power.

Chdlren of Nyx drink the blood of monsters.

Children of Nyx are affected by light and especially light pollution.

Children of Nyx have the ability to change their gender and reproductive organs, though it takes some time to adjust to the feeling of their organs shifting.

Hanahaki flower/s (if you were to get hanahaki for them, this would be the flower you cough up)

Starflower

Coral honeysuckle

Backstory/lore bits: the Fates took a bit of Nyx’s DNA and added it to αστεριού. Once they were born, they were put out on the streets because their parents were disgusted by them. A homeless Japanese woman found αστεριού and took them in, naming them Yume, which means dream in Japanese. αστεριού called the woman Auntie, and she single-handedly raised them. Eventually she got a job and sent αστεριού to school. She had already been teaching them English and Japanese, and when she noticed that they had a proficiency in reading Greek, she bought a Greek dictionary that included the alphabet. Well, one day, Auntie was visited by the Fates, who explained their parentage and powers (they hadn’t gotten the fire ones yet). Shortly after, she died. When αστεριού found out, she was given her will, which gave them everything. It also included a letter to them telling them where to go. So they packed up and umbraported to CHB. There they were claimed and Dionysus took them into his cabin temporarily since there was no Nyx or Erebus cabin that anyone knew of. They met a legacy of the 9th goddess, a minor goddess over Wendigos and Skinwalkers, from the Native American pantheon (they have L O R E), who just immediately adopted them due to their Native American blood. They are called Wīhtikow.

Cabin: Zeus, being his usual dick self, told them they didn’t have a cabin, so Mr. D took them in temporarily. NOW THEY HAVE A CABIN! It’s sits on the edge of the woods, far from the rest, so they didn’t see it at first

Looks like:

Favorite campers: Superbstarlightsheep and ravensonofdionysus

Friends (help me add to this list by commenting and saying what name you want):

@mrsunshine17: Daniel, a really nice guy

@maggiemelodies09: Maggie, a really cool girl!

@lady-of-the-hunt19: Lady Artemis! One of my favorite goddesses

@goddess-queen-of-not-cheating: Lady Hera! Blessed me and Isis’ union

@brutus-of-roma: this is my kid now

Family (help me add to this list by commenting and saying what name you want):

@superbstarlightsheep (Jaxson, really fun to hang out with in the fields growing stuff)

@ravensonofhypnos (Ray’s nice, he helped me get used to the camp and hierarchy. Kept me from punching Zeus after I found it out)

@originalerebus (My new dad [I’ve never had one])

@morker-kid (my half/step sibling!)

@yes-im-hades (hades, my mentor in umbrakinesis)

@yes-im-nyx (MOM)

@god-of-smithing-and-cozy-vibes (Hephaestus, helping me with my pyrokinesis)

@epochus-god-of-time (Epochus, my big brother!)

@onlymythologypersonincamp (my sibling, Eve)

@melatonin-addiction (Estelle, also my sibling from my mom. Really has to stop breaking into my stash of melatonin)

@alexis-child-of-the-night (Alexis, another sibling on my mom’s side)

@messenger-and-rainbows (my partner’s mom)

Appearance: black hair with dyed light blue tips, vitiligo, always has a little shadow monster they call the 9th goddess (they are a OC Native American minor goddess of skinwalkers and wendigoes) or Wīhtikow following them. They wear a crop top, shorts, leg warmers, and a crown made and gifted by Morpheus. If they tie up their hair, they use a hair stick made by Erebus as a sign of acceptance into the family (each one of their children has one).

How they were claimed: told a bellhound (from Time and Time again, a WEBTOON) to sit and it obeyed. Now that bellhound, σκοτάδι (skotádi) helps protect the camp along with Mrs. O’Leary

Death (how they would go out, includes last words): Bleeding heavily from gashes and other wounds from monsters. Last words: I’m sorry guys. Just please remember to take care of σκοτάδι and that I’m proud of you.

Face credits: Amy Deanne

Hair tip color and hairstick credits: unfortunately I lost it

Appearance in Gacha Club (the app I use to make my characters since I can’t draw for crap and it won’t be colored even if I did)

Drawn by @little-ghostgirl-31

In case anyone is confused or wants to do a fanart of my character, their shirt actually wraps around their chest and the light part is the vitiligo pattern. Here is a picture of them with al their vitiligo patterns revealed. Please also try to include our little shadow, Wīhtikow.

Vitiligo patterns:

Their playlist:

Their shirt (pretend it’s black [credits: lost it]):

OOC cut:

Name: Faerywheel (preferred name)

Age: minor

Pronouns: he/she/they/fae/xe/zir/any (just ask)

Gender: multigender (will sometimes switch between genderfluid and pangender), faegender

Therian type: Fae, Wendigo, Cat, Chimera

Pronoun and name list: https://pronouns.cc/@Multigendermultishipper

[familyabolisher]

At the outset of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds (1898), Wells asks his English readers to compare the Martian invasion of Earth with the Europeans' genocidal invasion of the Tasmanians, thus demanding that the colonizers imagine themselves as the colonized, or the about-to-be-colonized. But in Wells this reversal of perspective entails something more, because the analogy rests on the logic prevalent in contemporary anthropology that the indigenous, primitive other's present is the colonizer's own past. Wells's Martians invading England are like Europeans in Tasmania not just because they are arrogant colonialists invading a technologically inferior civilization, but also because, with their hypertrophied brains and prosthetic machines, they are a version of the human race's own future.

The confrontation of humans and Martians is thus a kind of anachronism, an incongruous co-habitation of the same moment by people and artifacts from different times. But this anachronism is the mark of anthropological difference, that is, the way late-nineteenth-century anthropology conceptualized the play of identity and difference between the scientific observer and the anthropological subject-both human, but inhabiting different moments in the history of civilization. As George Stocking puts it in his intellectual history of Victorian anthropology, Victorian anthropologists, while expressing shock at the devastating effects of European contact on the Tasmanians, were able to adopt an apologetic tone about it because they understood the Tasmanians as "living representatives of the early Stone Age," and thus their "extinction was simply a matter of … placing the Tasmanians back into the dead prehistoric world where they belonged" (282-83). The trope of the savage as a remnant of the past unites such authoritative and influential works as Lewis Henry Morgan's Ancient Society (1877), where the kinship structures of contemporaneous American Indians and Polynesian islanders are read as evidence of "our" past, with Sigmund Freud's Totem and Taboo (1913), where the sexual practices of "primitive" societies are interpreted as developmental stages leading to the mature sexuality of the West. Johannes Fabian has argued that the repression or denial of the real contemporaneity of so-called savage cultures with that of Western explorers, colonizers, and settlers is one of the pervasive, foundational assumptions of modern anthropology in general. The way colonialism made space into time gave the globe a geography not just of climates and cultures but of stages of human development that could confront and evaluate one another.

The anachronistic structure of anthropological difference is one of the key features that links emergent science fiction to colonialism. The crucial point is the way it sets into motion a vacillation between fantastic desires and critical estrangement that corresponds to the double-edged effects of the exotic. Robert Stafford, in an excellent essay on "Scientific Exploration and Empire" in the Oxford History of the British Empire, writes that, by the last decades of the century, "absorption in overseas wilderness represented a form of time travel" for the British explorer and, more to the point, for the reading public who seized upon the primitive, abundant, unzoned spaces described in the narratives of exploration as a veritable "fiefdom, calling new worlds into being to redress the balance of the old" (313, 315). Thus when Verne, Wells, and others wrote of voyages underground, under the sea, and into the heavens for the readers of the age of imperialism, the otherworldliness of the colonies provided a new kind of legibility and significance to an ancient plot. Colonial commerce and imperial politics often turned the marvelous voyage into a fantasy of appropriation alluding to real objects and real effects that pervaded and transformed life in the homelands. At the same time, the strange destinations of such voyages now also referred to a centuries-old project of cognitive appropriation, a reading of the exotic other that made possible, and perhaps even necessary, a rereading of oneself.

John Rieder, Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction

[lais-a-ramos]

i'm still gonna talk more spoiler-y and plot-related stuff on season 3 later, but i just saw a post saying that lottie is "abusing" tai, and that seems more important to discuss in terms of racism in the fandom and intesectionality

(season 3 spoilers under the cut)

it would be one thing if people said that lottie was abusing travis, because, in her attempts to use him to contact the wilderness now that she claims she can't hear it anymore, lottie has clearly been taking advantage of her position as spiritual leader to peer pressure travis into taking higher and higher doses of mushroom tea and that has clearly been taking a toll on him in these first 2 episodes

something that, if we remember that lottie was the one leading the sexual assault towards travis on doomcoming, but, at the same time, seems to be the only one who is accepting of his vulnerability and weirdest side after spending years dealing with her own family's psychophobia, it all makes it up for a pretty messed up dynamic (one that actually deserves its own post, because it's too complex)

however, lottie shoving taissa twice, one because she was charging against shauna when she realized shauna was talking to jackie's corpse in the freezer and lottie stood up for shauna in season 2, and the second, right after taissa shoved her in one of the sessions in which travis was going through a mental breakdown because of the shrooms in season 3, that doesn't count as abuse AT ALL, it was simply self-defense -- even though, of course, lottie is clearly in the wrong on the second situation.

which brings us to the deeper issue.

it seems like some ppl tend to want to pin lottie and taissa against each other bc of the debates about why the fandom overlooks taivan so much in favor of fanon ships like lottienat or jackieshauna, and, well, that's NOT the right way to deal with the problem

taissa and lottie are literally the only 2 women of color amongst the main characters.

and i guess maybe that happens bc the fandom rarely talks about it, which counts as a form of ethnic/racial erasure, but, let's make things clear here: lottie matthews is a WOMAN OF COLOR.

and that's not only because both simone kessell and courtney eaton are women of color -- simone is 1/2 Maori on her mother's side (link here) , and courtney is 1/4 Cook Island Maori and 1/4 Chinese also on her mother's side (links here and here)

it's also because, when the showrunners allowed simone kessell to incorporate a very specific form of Maori tradition, the traditional Maori tattoo art of ta moko, into the character's left arm tattoo in season 2, lottie was basically canon confirmed as Maori, even if the show never directly addresses her heritage in further details (another topic that deserves its own post tbh)

and pinning one against each other because of the anti-Black racism in the fandom is still reinforcing the racism in the fandom, and, what's worse, erasing the ways in which the fandom is also racist towards brown women of color, Indigenous women and particularly Polynesian women

we can't understand taissa or lottie, both in terms of the narrative structure and also the way the audience and fandom treat them, without each other

both are characters who are seemingly touched by the supernatural, except lottie seeks for this supposed connection all while taissa rejects it and runs away from it

not only that, but, dare i say, taissa is much more of a character foil to lottie than characters that sort of antagonized lottie in season 2 like shauna or nat, because it's quite easy to be a non-believer when you have little to no connection to any form of religion as those two, but taissa is actually implied to have been raised religious with a devout Catholic grandma in episode 1x03, and, yet, possibly because of the traumatic circumstances of her grandma's death (an undisclosed terminal illness), taissa avoids and shows discomfort towards spirituality ever since season 1

that's a fascinating contrast with lottie and how it seems like her contact with spirituality was the arguings between her skeptical father and her believer mother about whether or not lottie had some type of premonitions, which imply she was raised in one of those families that say they'll leave their kids free to choose when they get older

not only that, but we can't also understand the ways in which the fandom treats Black women in this show without understanding how the fandom treats brown and Asian women

while people in fandom usually shift between the sexual repulsion and the oversexualized "exotic beauty" stereotype with Black women, when it comes to brown and Asian women it usually tends to go with the "exotic beauty" alone

this means that, just because people don't show the same type of rejection for lottie as they do to taissa, it doesn't mean lottie isn't subjected to fandom racism as well

Black people know very well that white people finding us attractive doesn't mean that we are respected as humans and treated fairly.

it's clear to see when, for example, beyoncé is the biggest celebrity in the world and adored for her beauty and talent, or when we see white queer people drooling over ayo adebiri, but microaggressions and systemic aggressions happen every single day to us

and the fact that lottie is one of the most popular characters doesn't mean that she is treated the same way as the most popular characters who are white

the way people erase the fact that lottie is a person of color, the terrible stereotypes about her schizophrenia and mental illness in general, the way that she is oftenly treated as a mere love interest in fan works when she is literally one of the 6 main characters, the way people ignore her canon melancholia and her childhood family traumas in favor of tropes like the "sassy" or "spicy" brown woman etc, all these things show how much lottie isn't allowed to have the same complexity as the white characters, and this too is a form of racism

just because the ways in which racism affects other people of color/racialized groups are different, it doesn't mean that they aren't affected too

and, especially for brown Indigenous people, the marks of the brutality of colonization are oftenly connected to the ones that affect Black people, because they are part of the same worldwide social-economical system of Western colonialism

the opressions that Black people and brown Indigenous people endure are intertwined

character bashing lottie to elevate taissa won't help to combat the racism in the fandom

in fact, it will probably only make things worse, because then people who are fans of one or the other are gonna feel free to commit as much microaggressions as they possibly can

and the same goes for pinning taivan against ships involving lottie, especially ones with other extremely popular characters like shauna or nat

what really can help combating racism in fandom is understanding the different ways in which racism affects different groups of people of color, and talk about how these things influence the way that lottie, taissa and other characters of color are treated in the fandom

a bit of intersectionality goes a long way, my friends

[seriousfic]

Unironically, the fad a few years back where people were talking about "going goblin mode" and "being goblin-coded" was a lot closer to Tolkien and early D&D's conception of 'fantasy races' than the idea that JRR was using Orcs to slur the blacks (who, statistically speaking, he probably never even met)

Fantasy races were never meant to represent real world races, but to take a universal trait of humanity and exaggerate it for dramatic/humorous effect. We can all be goblin coded at one time or another--it's nothing racial or sexual or gendered, it's just a certain behavior we can all understand. It's not meant to be positive or negative. It's both.

Dwarves are industrious and ambitious. Those can be good things. But their drive can also cause them to be greedy and foolhardy.

Elves are proud and dignified. But that pride can also make them arrogant, smug, and dismissive.

Hobbits are humble and content and uninterested in the 'Game of Thrones' (as it were). But this simpleness can also make them set in their ways, xenophobic, and ineffectual. (Middle-Earth would certainly be worse off if Bilbo and Frodo have never gone on their quests).

People being silly and pretending to be goblins just for fun and to amuse their friends have way more understanding of how role-playing is supposed to work than those who insist that goblins have to be an ancient and noble race because they're 'really' Polynesians.

[userarmand]

one detail in louis' and armand's relationship that I think could be discussed more is them picking up guys at the cruise park???? Its interesting how open they were to that together and how it carried on alllll the way to polynesian marys (it ties with early paris era louis experiencing with his sexuality too, which I also think is worth discussing)

louis who wasn't looking for anything serious bedding down with armand de clingy who needs to feel like he belongs to someone to function even semi-normally 💀

i feel like louis probably did what he could to maintain some semblance of an open relationship in the paris era even if it was just them picking up other guys together + armand went along with it at first cuz it meant he still had louis but he was mostly over it by the time the 70s rolled around, hence him pieing daniel at the bar lol

[sohannabarberaesque]

Picture, if you will, Polynesia Uncharted in such a setting as here, with Peter Potamus and his love-interest of the moment in the surf under the full moon:

[ninja-muse]

So yeah, that happened… (Not as bad as it looks, though. The top half is books I own and read this month, not books I've acquired.)

November has been a month of highs and lows for me. Mostly lows, if I'm being honest. The US election kicked my brain back to 2020 for a couple days and I don't think I've really reset yet. (It's taken me three years and counting to reset from 2020 itself so I'm not surprised.) For any American reading this, I'm still very saddened for you and I wish there was something I could do beyond listening and sympathizing. I wish the world was a better place to live in.

And speaking of 2020 mode, I haven't been writing. I was at a crossroads at the end of October with a difficult scene, and even though I've fixed it so it's better, I still haven't continued. It's hard for me to write cheery, upbeat things when I'm scared and angry, and work's getting busier for the holidays, and both Bake Offs I follow were airing and that just seemed more important. At least this time, it's definitely writer's block rather than a terror of traumatizing people by writing diversely. (2020 was fun, y'all.)

And I also didn't write for five days because my mom and sister and I went to Disneyland. This was, of course, the high of the month! It was good to spend that time together, and do the rides and the whole experience, and see Disneyland as an adult. I'm especially glad we went when we did because I don't think I'm ever going to visit the States again.

It was also a fairly lukewarm reading month for me, which I don't think it helping the mental stuff. The best book I read was intense and heavy, a few of the others also dealt with dark stuff, and pretty much everything was "fine". No new favourites, though I've added the rest of Claudia Gray's Austenian mysteries to my TBR and I'm still thoroughly enjoying the Lady Trent novels. A couple of the other books (the Clarke, the Stearns) were ones I was hyped for but which didn't live up to expectations.

That said, for all that it's my lowest ranked book, The Price of the Stars was surprisingly fun. It's completely mindless, cliched space opera that reads like an off-brand Star Wars novel and I'm sure I'll have just as much fun with the sequel (also on my physical TBR). But I also recognize that the writing's on par with mediocre fanfiction or cult 1980s B-movies.

Books and otherwise, here's hoping for a better December.

And now, as always, here’s my list of everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

Submerged - Hillel Levin

A journalist dives into a 1990s murder case—the disappearance, the first suspect, the second investigation, the innocent man in jail, the family secrets…

8.5/10

warning: grooming, molestation, rape, victim blaming, failures of the justice system

reading copy

The Murder of Mr. Wickham - Claudia Gray

The Darcys, the Tilneys, and sundry other friends and relations are attending the Knightleys’ house party when Mr. Wickham (uninvited) is killed. The murderer’s still in the house but everyone had motive.

7/10

major autistic character

warning: homophobia

off my TBR

The Empress Letters - Linda Rogers

A mother in the 1920s writes her life story in a series of letters to the daughter she’s searching for in China.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bisexual), Jewish protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, gay), Jewish secondary characters, Chinese secondary characters, 🇨🇦,

warning: death of parent, sexual exposure, adult-teen relationship, anti-Chinese racism, fetal remains, homophobia

off my TBR

The Voyage of the Basilisk - Marie Brennan

To create a taxonomy of dragons, Isabella Camherst takes a voyage around the world—but as always, she runs afoul of politics, social mores, and other perils.

7/10

Middle Eastern-coded secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (third gender), Polynesian secondary characters

library book

The Secret History of Audrey James - Heather Marshall

In 1938 Berlin, piano student Audrey steps into danger when her Jewish hosts are arrested and she must turn housekeeper to Nazis to protect her best friend. In 2010, Kate takes a job at a hotel to restart her life after tragedy—and must convince Audrey, the owner, to let her stay.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), major Jewish secondary characters, secondary character with partial leg paralysis and a cane, 🇨🇦

warning: antisemitism, murder, police brutality, misogyny and sexism

library book

The Wood at Midwinter - Susanna Clarke

A young woman enters a midwinter wood alone and encounters a fox, a crow, and a bargain.

6.5/10

library ebook

Under a New and Brilliant Sky - R.E. Stearns

Elys, on the run from Republic authorities, is brought to Alyansa to fix a failure in their city’s AI. But the Republic knows where to find her, and she can’t quite trust that the Alyansans will keep her safe.

6/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), protagonist with auditory processing disorder, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (trans woman), brown-skinned secondary characters

warning: xenophobia, colonialism

digital reading copy/won

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble - Alexis Hall

Paris isn’t really sure why he’s on Bake Expectations and he definitely isn’t sure how he feels about the contestant he keeps flirting with, if you can call it flirting, oh god, how do you relationship when anxiety?

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), protagonist with anxiety disorder, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, sapphic), major Bangladeshi Muslim character, fat secondary character, Bangladeshi Muslim secondary characters, Chinese-British secondary character

warning: realistically depicts anxiety disorder and panic attacks

library ebook

Rivers of London Vol. 12: Stray Cat Blues - Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel with José María Beroy (Illustrator)

Abigail and the foxes are “hired” by a cat-woman to break her fellow hybrids out of a brothel. Easy, right? Out in December.

7/10

wajor Black British characters, disabled secondary character

warning: sex trafficking

purchased/off my TBR

The Price of the Stars - Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald

When Beka’s politician mother is assassinated, her father gives her his warship in exchange for her tracking the assassins down. Cue a pan-galactic adventure!

6/10

warning: sexual assault, gun violence

off my TBR

Currently reading

The Stardust Grail - Yume Kitasei

Maya’s put her thieving past aside to pursue academia, but when a chance to find the legendary stardust grail (and save her friend’s species) falls into her lap, she can’t help but be tempted—even if Earth wants to use it to save itself.

protagonist with Japanese heritage, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (achillean, nonbinary, alternate gender system)

library book

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 10 Yearly total: 116 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 0 Books by women: 6.5 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 2 Classics: 0 Off the TBR shelves: 4 Books hauled: 5 ARCs acquired: 2 ARCs unhauled: 2 DNFs: 0

January February March April May June July August September October

[mjrtaurus]

Alright…so like…basically…

PUT THE OC LORE IN THE BAG‼️‼️

AKA We the people politely request/demand the Black Pearl Reed version of this ⬇️ please and thank you ☺️

DBDJSISDID ALRIGHT LET’S GOOOO

1) Reed was born on July 17.

2) I’m still playing around with her age at the moment, I do want her to have her tail split by the time she meets Crocodile, so at least 30. That would make her a little older than Dragon. Late fifties to early sixties.

3) She’s fashionable enough, though she prefers to keep to practical clothing. She likes to accessorize with pearls, shells, and fruitwani scutes and teeth.

4) I don’t have a specific nationality tacked down for her, but she is definitely of Polynesian ethnicity.

5) Any even numbers.

6) Brine, with a citrus-y hint.

7) Blue, yellow, and black.

8) Anything shrimp or crab related.

9) Jellyfish.

10) “I need to get that order of Adam Wood drafted up later this evening.”

“I see the captain’s still alive and kicking, for better or worse…”

“I wonder if the Wani miss me.”

“I don’t know how Kokoro drinks this shit.”

“That Franky kid sure made it far, didn’t he?”

11) Daily. Twice if she’s tending the wani or patching up a ship.

12) AB

13) It’s hard to chew things with needles for teeth.

14) Not really, though she can swim circles around just about anyone.

15) She knows how to make a mean sea king ceviche.

16) She’s used to the day shift, rising with the dawn, retiring for the even with the sunset.

17) The aunt who’s really good at reading people’s intentions, and is unafraid to call somebody out on acting the fool.

18) Ribbon eel, I should hope.

19) She’s… somewhere in the mid six foot range. Stouter in build.

20) Fair, not enough to cause untoward ogling or back pain, though.

21) Compact from all the post-Crocodile years working aside Tom with Galley-La.

22) Gonna throw some cool ribbon eel biology in here. All of them are born male, and some transition into female as they mature. The blue pigmentation is directly tied to their testosterone levels, and eventually turn black as an added change of sexual characteristics. She still had a fair bit of blue to her when she was sailing with Crocodile, but by the time she met up with him again during Cross Guild, the blue has darkened to a cool black. She lost her right eye in the destruction of the Sobekneferu, and- true to her moniker- wears a black pearl as a false eye.

[sohannabarberaesque]

On the other hand, Peter Potamus can certainly relate plenty of tales about the laydeez of Polynesia Uncharted in their untrammelled romantic desire such as seems natural among the primitive, where sexuality is taught rather candidly and directly--hands on, even!

Untamed Women (1952)