#shepherds impregnate that man or whatever

[sieglinde-freud]

fav niche little headcanon is that basilio becomes the self proclaimed grandparent to any kid olivia or lonqu has. like he RAISED those two (he didnt but he’ll take credit for it) hes GONNA get grandkids one way or another. fav thing ever is olivia!lucina recontexualizing the scene where lucina begs basilio not to go fight walhart because he literally helped raised her he was the best patty cake player on the entire continent… that is HER GRANDFATHER and he is GOING TO DIE like omfg. i know im pretty deep into the tharjabelle train on this blog but there was a time where i was super into lonqu/tharja (i still REALLY like them i just ended up liking tharja yuri better sue me) and basilio and noire was like. the cutest combo ever. yes this IS my coward little granddaughter but make her mad and she could rival all of ferox’s greatest warriors. he loves her so much

[johnjankovic]

DÚNEDAIN

Verily, verily I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 12:24

The adherence of Christianity to a codex of ethics dispensing with society’s monomania for classical hierarchies where the hapless were otherized came to fledge into the raison d’être for the many orphaned by their kith and kin. A compass of virtue assimilating mercy and peacemaking made manifest in the Beatitudes of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount would gainsay the narcissism of old with its attributes like glory or affluence. Pagans left alone in the wilds of polytheism thus began to find a truth wherein the universe was neither cold nor indifferent but rather warm and forgiving for what was otherwise a stark departure from past superstitions. Whatever omnipotent entity governed the cosmos it was anything but a passive timekeeper. Somewhere deep in the stuff of life there lived a God who commiserated with the lot of Creation insofar as He sent His Son into the world so that it might be saved through Him (3:17-8). Such heresy at the time unsettled a people who sought only power and celebrity. How could a God bleed? A harrowing death by Crucifixion betrays mortality which was atypical for the deities lionized by centuries of folklore. Lost on the layman however was the wisdom that a good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep (10:11); that God is not secluded in some gilded palace atop Mount Olympus but rather walks amongst us in rags.

Jesus epitomized a tribune for the masses not a warlord akin to Islam’s Mohammed. Martyrdom was to be the alchemy of saving souls through one’s own persecution devoid of retribution or hate rather than its perverse definition of having coitus with seventy-two virgins upon killing infidels for sport. A barbaric practice fit for barbarians. How is Jihad any different from the afterlife coveted by Vikings fetishizing feasts in Valhalla in a quid pro quo for rape and murder? Colonialism’s legacy is not the reason why Muslim countries in Africa and the Middle East are time capsules for the Stone Age. Singapore and Honk Kong would agree. If a culprit is to be sleuthed out a reflection in a looking glass might be the place to start. A doctrine breeding animus for anyone outside of one’s ilk does not conduce to discovery nor peace but only a cycle of bloodshed. The Quran reads like a wish list scribed by an autocrat as inconsistencies abound: the Surah An-Nisa (4:24) condones the enslavement and rape of women; the Surah Al-Baqarah (2:191-193) and the Surah At-Tawbah (9:5) agitate for murder; the Surah Al-Ma’idah (5:38) lauds the mutilation of thieves. Such poison is easier understood when its author’s own scruples made bedfellows with evil. What a paragon of virtue was Mohammed who impregnated his nine-year-old wife — quite the gentleman.

Observe what grace was showed to an adulteress when Jesus stood athwart of a rabid lynch mob in His full-throated diatribe exclaiming ‘He that is without sin amongst you let him first cast a stone at her’ (8:7). This message sits as the polar opposite to the death worship of Mohammed who commanded in the Surah An-Nur (24:2) that a promiscuous woman should be lashed a hundred times in a public spectacle. Ergo the epidemic of ‘honour killings’ in Islam uniquely flummoxes the ignorant not the critical thinkers who are privy to the fraud. It is a prodigious feat of mental gymnastics to reconcile a man of God with a penchant for pedophilia abreast of the rape and slaughter of innocents yet Islamists insist on whitewashing their pedigree. Whilst it may be true Jesus bristled at sin by overturning tables in an apoplectic rage whereupon the zeal for Father’s house had consumed Him He was nevertheless anything but vindictive (2:17). A paternal disciplinarian sympathetic to the duality of man colours the instruction stenographed in the Gospels. Albeit His threshold of patience might have been scarce on occasion in virtue of man’s stupidity much like the admonishment reserved for a child prone to tantrums the impetus of love was never lost. To wit grace is a far better instrument of edification than meting out punishment (1:17).

It is unsurprising that a Hammurabi code of an eye for an eye finds expression in the Quran when Mohammed was a prolific marshal of war himself. Casting aspersions on the snake oil he peddled is one thing but the warmonger should be credited for his territorial aggrandizement whose cadence would arouse even the jealousies of Napoleon. Six centuries after the birth of Christendom Mohammed founded a faith to butcher us with terrible efficiency. In a single decade Islam annexed the Arabian Peninsula. Within an abbreviated timeline the caliphate further arrogated the Middle East in toto, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula to its rule. Mohammed’s doctrine laid waste to the Holy Land and made apostates of our kinsmen who kowtowed to the ultimatum of conversion. Islam colonizes through the spectre of death not missionaries. 'Renounce thy faith heathen lest you should fall upon the sword' is quite the catchphrase for a religion of peace! The Surah At-Tawbah (9:29) explicitly calls for the persecution of infidels who resist such proselytization. It is no mystery why the carnage of rape, infanticide and immolation of entire families in Sderot next to Gaza was feted by satanists. Feigning victimhood under the guise of Islamophobia is the pièce de résistance peculiar to this faith just as it scapegoated the Crusades to explain away its provocations.

Today’s histrionics over Gaza likened to an ‘open air prison’ is a farce as mouth-breathers buy into its narrative: (1) the exodus in 2005 saw Israel unilaterally vacate that tract of land; (2) Gaza’s per capita wealth approximates $6.2k juxtaposed with Europe’s post-WWII reconstruction costs of $478 per capita from the Marshall Plan’s succour; (3) like a kleptocracy Hamas’ leadership class are all egregiously billionaires; (4) utilities remain gratis courtesy of Israel’s magnanimity; (5) work visas are liberally granted to Gazans analogous to North and South Korea’s Kaesong manufacturing park for the sake of rapprochement; (6) a marrow-deep deference for the Hippocratic oath was what excised the brain tumour that once beset the Hamas architect of the latest pogrom; (7) Gaza’s pecuniary resources are all ploughed into the labyrinth of tunnels whose entry points for terrorists lie beneath mosques; (8) Arabs account for a quarter of Israel’s demographics versus the Jewish extinction in Palestine; (9) it betrays ignorance to calumniate Jews with the misnomer of colonizer since they have inhabited the land for three millennia; (10) it was Roman Emperor Hadrian upon the Bar Kokhba Revolt who rechristened the landmass with the Palaestina nomenclature to make the Jewish identity verboten. How convenient it is to paper over history.

Israel should not escape criticism for its settlements in the West Bank nor should the community be immune to reproach about overwhelming Christendom with faux refugees via their NGOs. Nevertheless the half-baked hyperbole of Islamophobia needs to be retired. To wax lyrical about some coexistence of utopia with Islam is an exercise in futility. Christianity radiates a civilizing effect but upon a critical mass of Muslims the West’s legal traditions rooted in the Church will fall prey to the tyranny of Sharia Law. London, Paris and Milan portend this ominous future. History shall repeat itself. War informs Islam’s very DNA whereas the catechism of Christianity espouses unconditional and even unrequited love. Where the Quran vindicates violence the Gospels red-pill the masses into abstaining from it. ‘To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise (Luke 6:27-31)’. Our noblesse oblige exorcised slavery, misogyny and every other vile artifact proper to Satan from this world. Islam culls the opposite. No reconciliation can be had when one is the antithesis to the other.

[curious-wildflower]

About Silent Hill Part 2 of 2

Jennifer Carroll was the creator of ‘The Order’ (also known as ‘The Organization’,) a mixture of the indigenous religion of the Native Americans and the Christian beliefs of the immigrants (pretty much a doomsday cult), that took root in Silent Hill but also reached the neighboring town of Shepherd’s Glen, where a pact made by that Shepherd's Glens four foundering families ( Shepherd, Bartlett, Fitch and Holloway,) with the Order’s God, making the town built on the ritualistic human sacrifice of children. ((I’ll come back to this junk later hold up))

Their God is normally depicted as a female with pale skin, fiery hair, draped in crimson robes, and is known by many names: Creator of Paradise, Lord of Serpents and Reeds, the Holy Mother, Kwekwaxawe" (meaning The Raven/Raven). She’s a sun Goddess whose inner circle of the cult hold the Books of Memories that contain their truths.

While physically showing the signs of Christian influence she pulls a lot from the Native American, Mayan and Aztec influences – There's a Paradise

(Halo of the Sun – The Order’s symbol)  

According to the Order's beliefs humanity was immortal and existed before God in a nonlinear timeline and knew nothing but suffering, hatred and pain. They seeked salvation from the world a man offered a serpent to the sun and a woman offered a reed as she asked for joy. The universe taking pity on a world consumed by sadness, the pleas of these two people breathed life into God, and from them, She was born.

The first thing God did was establish a linear, measurable time, separating it into day and night. After this, She outlined to humanity the road to salvation and gave the world joy. She took away their immortality so the people could know the freedom and liberation of death. And when the time came that She believed she needed assistance in holding authority over humanity She created many lesser gods and angels. Within The Order there are 3 main sects and are thought to correspond to the 3 main deities: Sect of the Holy Woman, a faction centered around Priestess Dahlia Gillespie, believed in the resurrection of the god by impregnating a woman, who has concealed special powers, with the child god within her womb. (God)  

Sect of the Holy Mother, Claudia Wolf the High Priestess who show respect to the ‘Mother Stone' (which the natives called Nakheehona) as a holy entity, but by using their self-operated 'Wish House,' they brainwashed the children and raised a 'conjurer' to achieve the goal of resurrecting the god (= Holy Mother) (Yellow God)   Sect of Valtiel, centered around Jimmy Stone, a priest with an alias "Red Devil," was a faction that worshipped Valtiel as the one close to God and an executioner. (Red God)   The Sect of Valtiel was also responsible for the intermediation of the Sect of the Holy Woman and the Sect of the Holy Mother, which were in opposition to each other.

(The Order's paintings of God showing: Origin, Birth, Salvation, Creation, Promise, Faith)

Lobsel Vith- The Yellow God. Her name comes from the Mayan language as you said but it's broken down like Lob = bad/malicious/foul, Sel = vessel/circle/dish, Vee = flesh/meat, there's no like "th" sound in the Mayan language. So that's what makes the English translation "Bad Vessel of Flesh" or "A bad vessel made of flesh." While The Red God is thought to come from the man and his offering of the snake the Yeow God is thought to come from the Woman and her offering of reed.

Alessa, Cheryl and Heather are the incarnations of the Yellow God– Each a chosen ‘mother’ that was supposed to birth God upon the Earth and bring about Paradise only to birth something else twisted by the world views of the people in charge of the ceremonies, Dahila (1st) and Claudia (3rd)

The Red God - Xuchilbara, in Aztec broken down is Xuchil = Flower and Bara = Spear – ‘The Spear that Leads the Flower’ or otherwise more known as his incarnation of Valtiel: His name means 'attendant' by way of the French word 'valet'; his existence as an angel is derived from suffixing "-el" making Him 'Attendant of God', a title attributed to theological angels. As well as the name of Samael – Poison of God – It’s thought that he was inspired by God from the snake man offered to her - This loops back to the Christianity influence in the creation myth of The Order- An Angel of Evil (note not an evil angel pls)  

The symbol of the Red God is- Seal of Metatron or also known as the Seal, Talisman, Talisman of Metatron, Virun Seven Crest, and Circle Emblem or thought to be the Mark of Samael by Harry Mason while being deceived by Dahlia Gillespie (It’s said only to be given the name Metatron because of its difficulty to control. According to the Kabbalah ((Jewish interpretation of the Bible)), the angels Metatron and Samael originally shared the same existence.)  

He is God’s midwife/caretaker/attendant, capable of resurrecting the dead, He has direct control of the changing of the ‘Otherworld’ and Silent Hill, was worshiped as the one close to God and also as an executioner. There was a special sect was made in the honor of Valtiel (founded by Jimmy Stone) called the Valtiel Sect. In it, this angel is venerated to become closer to God. Pyramid Head wears similar ceremonial robes and gloves and appears to have cloth stitching, all in homage to this being showing the He (Pyramid Head) is also an incarnation of the Red God.  

(p.s- the Otherworld is called many things, fog/mist world, Otherside, Alternate World, Another World, Dark World, Nightmare World or Reverse Side whatever)

Fun Fact: In the game you can see on His shoulder where the Seal of Metatron is the words Flower Spear – linking back to Xuchilbara, also something horrifying about the series is that it's suggested that the while rebirth of God and paradise thing has been tried many times its never succeed – making me think the twist of it all is that God can never be born, and Paradise on Earth never can happen)    

Now looping ALL the way back to God, herself in the creation myth expound upon the idea of Paradise as being a gift to humanity from Her, these same myths say She died while attempting to create this place of eternal happiness. And though She had died, before Her death She made a promise that She would return one day. Certain members of the Order believe the return of God will mean the establishment of Paradise, hence why they are trying to ‘rebirth’ Her.

(Funny how they can only bring forward their new Paradise is strangely empathetic; they wish for a world without pain and suffering, one that can only be ushered in via extreme pain and suffering.)

[succubusflower]

Facts about succubi the alluring and misunderstood demon woman.

The succubus, a sensual female demon, is a paranormal entity with a history that dates back thousands of years. Every culture seems to possess a succubus myth. Succubi approach men in a variety of ways, usually while they are sleeping, then seduce them. Often men report that their experiences with succubi are positive and enjoyable, but just as often, they report that the pleasure had a thread of something evil running through it. According to succubus legends, sometimes these men come to bad ends after associating with demonic seductresses.

Stories about allegedly real-life succubi experiences have become much more common in recent years. There are numerous posts on Reddit and other websites detailing both pleasurable and frightening encounters with a succubus. These posts have become so common that it is well worth the effort to explore the historical background of the succubus, as well as learn about succubus experiences in the present day.

Photo: Unknown/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

In One Ancient Story, A Succubus Makes A Pope Prosperous

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Photo: Unknown/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

A medieval chronicler recorded a story concerning a young man who became involved with a succubus, and who later became Pope Sylvester II. According to the story, when this pope was a young student, he was called Gerbert of Aurillac. He fell in love with the beautiful daughter of a university dean. She considered him too far beneath her social station and rejected him.

Filled with passion and angst for the woman who turned him down, Gerbert became obsessed with lewd thoughts. It was then that he met a strange but beautiful young woman who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Her name was Meridiana, and she was quite keen to offer him all sorts of intimacy, esoteric knowledge, and even promised to make him rich. All of these stunning offers held one condition: he must remain faithful to her alone.

Gerbert readily complied. He was steadfast to Meridiana, and as their relationship continued, his prospects increased very quickly. In no time he was appointed archbishop of Rheims, a position far above that of the snobby university dean's daughter. Eventually he even became pope.

It is generally well known that Catholic clergy were charged with maintaining chastity, so Gerbert would have had to keep Meridiana a closely guarded secret. And she apparently maintained her loyalty as well, encouraging and creating his successes, and even once forgave him for cheating on her.

As the story goes, however, she did not fully forgive him because she later made the prediction that he would perish on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem while he was celebrating mass. Gerbert was terrified and immediately arranged a public confession of his lifetime of sensual sins. Had he not confessed and repented, he believed he surely would have perished and gone straight to hell. While he immediately canceled his planned trip to Jerusalem, he later passed in Rome, where it is said his tomb now appears covered in sweat just before the demise of a pope.

One Man Said He Was Visited By A Succubus While He Was In An Exhausted State

According to an alleged story from a young man named Ethan, a succubus visited him while he slept. The story says, Ethan arrived home late one evening in December 2012, the Bakersfield, California, and was beyond exhausted. He had spent a very long day studying and listening to lectures at school. He collapsed into bed, desiring sleep over all else. And yet he slept fitfully, with thoughts of dread and worry that someone or something was breaking into his home and approaching his bedroom door. Suddenly, whatever it was broke through his door, startling him from sleep.

The entity allegedly flew to the wall behind Ethan's bed and held his limbs down firmly. His ears began to vibrate, even to the point of pain. The young man cried out for help, cursing whatever was restraining him. But the entity only laughed at him in a frightening voice. Suddenly, the entity (which later Ethan determined to have been a succubus) cried out, "Soon!" and let go of the terrified young man. Heart pounding, Ethan dashed to turn on the lights, but nothing appeared amiss. The story reports that only his dogs seemed to understand what had happened as they barked and scratched at the door.

Ethan then wandered into the bathroom to have a look in the mirror and was apparently shocked to see that his eyes were bloodshot and red.

One Man Allegedly Encounter A Succubus In A Monastery

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Photo: Francisco de Zurbaran/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Over the centuries, some believed that a life of prayer and religious devotion provided protection from all evil spirits, including succubi. Such piety rarely seemed to help - in fact, in some cases, succubi appeared to be especially attracted to the devout.

The 19th-century French author J.K. Huysmans alleged that became the target of a succubus while he was sleeping in a monastery. Huysman said he was actually on a pilgrimage of sorts. He spent years of his life engaged in an exploration of the paranormal, and now his pilgrimage was intended to help him return to the Christian faith of his childhood. While his intentions were earnest, perhaps he was still subconsciously attracting the wrong sort of spiritual attention.

According to the story, while he slept in the monastic cell, he awoke suddenly and just glimpsed a succubus as she was vanishing. He was convinced it was no dream, since the bed he slept in held evidence the creature had been there. There was a belief at the time that such incidents took place when incubi (male demons) sought to impregnate their female targets.

One Man Allegedly Summoned A Succubus Into His Own Home

Some men are not only willing marks of a succubus, they actually research, plan, and summon the female demons.

An anonymous online poster claims he prayed to Lilith to send a succubus to him. And soon, that is what happened. He describes her as slender, tall, with fair skin and flaming, long red hair. He called her Aleera, and she stayed with the man for a number of days and nights.

But after a while, an evil presence also entered the man's life, pushing Aleera out. How he interacted with her changed as well. Sometimes he could only see her in his head, or hear her in his mind. Other times he would be out and about in public and suddenly she would appear to him. He speculated that perhaps that sort of activity was under the control of the more malevolent force.

One Man Describes Succubi As Masters Of Disguise

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Photo: Jean-Baptiste Huet/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

A purportedly true 16th-century succubus encounter was recorded by author Nicholas Remy. Apparently, a shepherd was hauled into court, tried, and convicted of witchcraft. When asked how he came to associate with witches, the young man claimed that some time before, he had been seduced by a succubus and she had most thoroughly corrupted him.

The shepherd went on to say that at some time after his first encounter with a succubus, he fell in love with a milkmaid. He felt so tenderly toward her, but she wanted nothing to do with him. Her rejection sent him into despair. One day he thought he saw his beloved milkmaid hiding behind a shrub. He was by her side in an instant, but she became frightened and pushed him away. Then she became extremely receptive to his advances. Encouraged, the shepherd continued, and the "milkmaid" made him promise to "acknowledged her as his Mistress, and behaved to her as though she were God Himself."

One Person Says A Succubus Completely Overwhelmed His Senses

Another anonymous Internet poster was eager to tell of his own personal succubus experience. Though he was raised a Christian, he was also overcoming an addiction to explicit content. In other words, the timing and circumstances were ripe for a visit from a succubus.

He says the experience began with the sensation of a gentle touch to his hand. At this point, he was fully conscious but wondering what was going on. He claims he could not see the succubus, but sensed her speaking to him. He also claimed he could smell its purfume.

She continued to morph throughout the time he shared with her, transforming her hair color, her eyes, her body, even her ethnicity.

One Man Claims A Succubus Took His Soul

Some experts argue that what humans perceive as an experience with a sensual demon is actually part of sleep paralysis. The inability to move and the sensation of being touched often go hand in hand. More and more people, however, are claiming that their experiences with succubi and/or incubi are real.

One man writing about his experience even mentions a feeling of paralysis. He attributes it to the succubus that was hovering over him. He wrote that he was completely in her grip and could not move.

She hovered over him, smiling. She asked him if he knew what succubi do and what they are for. Before he could reply, he described that her face turned demonic red and her beautiful teeth became fangs. She laughingly told him that succubi take the souls of their victims and that he would perish within three days. Then she disappeared. Apparently the man survived at least long enough to write of his encounter and post it online.

Succubi Come From Lilith

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Lilith is an ancient yet still thriving archetype of a fallen woman. She takes many forms - perhaps the most famous is Lilith, the Biblical Adam's first wife. (Things didn't work out, and she left him.) Over the ensuing centuries of Judeo-Christian culture, Lilith evolved as the ultimate symbol for succubi.

Men across cultures and ages claim to have been visited by Lilith in the form of a succubus. Sometimes she is invoked or invited. Other times, she sneaks in to unsuspecting males and takes what she wants from them.

[wvdownloder-blog]

The Two Christs of Detroit: “Robocop” and “The Crow”

https://www.my-projects.website/wordpress/?p=2648

In French, “le detroit” means simply “the strait” — a marker on Antoine Laumet de la Mothe’s map to signify the existence of a river that allows the waters of Lake St. Clair to drain into Lake Erie. He realized that, even in an unspoiled state, this spot would be a crucial choke point for trade and war. And so it was for several countries after he first ordered a settlement to be built there.

De la Mothe is widely considered by modern scholars to be one of the worst scoundrels ever to set foot in the New World. Even by 17th-century standards, he was way too enthusiastic an alcohol salesman to the indigenous people, to the point that the Jesuits in the turbulent French government eventually sent him to the Bastille for his greed.

As was common practice, De la Mothe, though noble by birth, had creatively expanded his aristocratic identity upon coming to the New World, declaring himself the “sire” of a small town near where he grew up in France: Cadillac. The first loose foundation stone placed in the loamy soil of the southern Lower Peninsula was a prophetic recognition of the future geopolitical importance of the region, but the prophet was little more than a conman.

As the American economic wave crested in the mid-twentieth century, Detroit was lifted by it and became an elemental force that drove it forward. But the complex social and political forces at play in Detroit proved ill-suited for the global capitapocalypse that enveloped the post-war automotive industry. From a high in 1950 of 1.8 million permanent residents, by 2010 less than 700,000 would remain.

At its peak (1991), crime in Detroit occurred on average 1.2 times per 10 people, and throughout modern history the city comfortably and consistently held a spot in the top four most dangerous cities in the U.S. In 2011, fully half of the city’s property taxes were unpaid, which, combined with monumental political corruption, resulted in Detroit becoming the largest American city ever to declare bankruptcy. An analysis done in 2014 showed 40% of Detroit streetlights to be non-functional.

Despite all this (or perhaps because of it) Detroit is America. Americans hold this dark picture of our former jeweled factory on the lake to our chests and weep because it represents the worst case scenario for every city, the sharpest decline from prosperity and promise to a grayfield, dystopian, urban desert.

This picture isn’t strictly supported by the facts, of course; evidence of Detroit’s renaissance mounts every day. But the trope of Detroit being the fallen gem from the crown of American utopianism has a permanent and undeniable dramatic appeal, not just as the grimy setting for some post-capitalist civic pain opera (no, we have New York City for that), but as the backdrop for tales of exactly the kind of rebirth that, even in our cynical hearts, we hope lies in the future for cities like Detroit.

8 Mile, Detroit Rock City, For Love of the Game, Real Steel, Gran Torino: the canon is full of films that evoke the collective emotional image of Detroit to show that redemption and ascension are possible even in the grimmest of circumstances. But there are two films which take this idea even further.

What if there was a man who could show us the way, who would by supernatural means transcend the bounds of death, and by doing so become a symbol of what is possible? A kind of living embodiment of the spirit of Detroit, a man destroyed by crime and corruption only to be resurrected, duty-bound to right the wrongs that led to this point, not weakened by his ordeal but strengthened by it, buoyed by the clarity of his purpose and the nobility of his ideals? His death and rebirth will begin the process of restoring balance to the city, and thus himself.

“That’s life in the big city.”

Murphy was not “chosen”; he was merely expedient. All saviors worth the name are reluctant, but Murphy is completely without choice. His resurrection is into not only a mostly new body but into a new perception of the world, a filtered “scanner darkly” that alienates him from humanity but brings him in closer communion with his higher power, the Law.

But it is not the Law as he knew it when he was merely a man. It is a twisted and idealized Law, mediated by the imperfect hands of the priests of OCP and unmitigated by the human crumple zones of nuance or context or circumstance. In this sense, the Robocop project was a smashing success: Detroit now has the purest imaginable expression of order, insuring the safe profitability of all citizens under his purview.

The problem (for OCP) arises when they, in their arrogance, attempt to encode the old power structures into the enforcement mechanisms of the new. This would have been a fatal mistake for the future of Detroit, had Murphy not been exactly the right savior at the right time. Part of the business of “saving” is understanding which power structures must be undermined or outright destroyed in order to do the saving. Robocop’s storming of OCP’s board room is nothing less than Jesus making a whip of cords and cleansing the temple of the moneychangers.

Sometimes a savior is a philosopher, sometimes he is a carpenter, sometimes he is a shepherd. Sometimes he is a wrathful hurricane of angelic swords, a cleansing burst from an Auto-9 that signals the unstoppable moral force of Lawful Good.

But in any of these incarnations, he only “works” as a savior if he operates from the proper moral high ground. We as the audience would not accept an automaton blindly carrying out silicon instructions to enforce the laws as written; we must buy into Robocop’s role not only as the arbiter of “justice” (whatever that means) but also of right and wrong. We must somehow be able to endow him with the moral authority necessary to take extraordinary actions on his way to upending the social order that has led Detroit to its current state.

Again here, Robocop follows the lead of history’s best saviors by being martyred in the most gruesome and oddly poetic way possible. “Goodnight, sweet prince,” says one of his killers, leaving him for dead, referencing one of the most intimate male-to-male farewells in the history of English literature. The relationship between the criminals and the man that would become Robocop is not that of antagonist-protagonist. There is an interlocking matrix of causes and effects whereby law and crime constantly create one another, a perpetual orgasm of dialectical action.

At the moment Murphy dies, he is impregnated by the sins of Detroit: in his death, its crime, and in his resurrection, its corporate greed. He takes unto himself these toxic forces, but because he is a good man, and because he is a Detroiter, they do not break him. Through these intrinsic forces, he reacquires access to his humanity despite these obstacles, and he is able to transmogrify the ugly disharmony that has been visited upon him and his city into a new force for lawful good.

Robocop is the story of a city so poisoned that it makes its own savior while pursuing the deepest ends of its own perdition. Saviors are born not through the desperate acts of good men and women, but by the evil acts themselves. The good news is that saviors are inevitable. The bad news is that their nature is not up to us, the bystanders in our own salvation. It is likely that we will consider being saved something of a monkey’s paw.

“What this place needs is a flood.”

The Detroit of The Crow is a much more abstract reality, a wet and colorless night without a dawn, ramshackle squats and concrete bars. The police exist only as a reminder that infrastructure exists, somewhere, somewhere else, and they’ll come to show concern over your brutal slaying but they won’t be able to do anything about it.

The Detroit we see is gothic in the original literary sense, pervaded by death and decay but, tragically, not devoid of hope. The architecture and decor could be call late period “dreary-chic.” “Crumblepunk.”

In this improbably interracial ghetto, we are thrust immediately into the resurrection itself. A man, mourned only by a child, buried in white, is ushered back (from Hell? he was a premarital fornicator…) by a black bird whose mythology is loosely handwaved by the voice of a virgin.

As the man stumbles along, he grazes for a new wardrobe, the city already showing itself to be intimately connected to him. He transforms his white clothing to dark, becoming soiled once again by the dirt of existence. And then, quicker and more lucidly than Murphy, he remembers what came before.

We do not witness Draven’s martyrdom in real time, through a camera’s quasi-objective eye. We only see it played back in the literally rose-colored lens of his memory. While Robocop experienced almost an entire act as a will-less puppet of the forces of his resurrection, the Crow is allowed to achieve self-determination almost at once by this sudden onrush of memory and violent motivation.

It is implied that Draven’s crow guide is the mechanism, or the conduit for the mechanism, that facilitates Draven’s transformation as well as the restoration of his memories. Who does the lowercase-c-crow work for? God? A secular natural force? If Eric has been resurrected by some supernatural force, does he have free will? (Or, at least, no less free will than when he was a man?) These are important questions that this film does not address directly.

Through paths of logic only intelligible by a traumatized and partially-decomposed brain, Eric arrives at the true purpose of his resurrection: to scourge the bizarre black metal mafia who has achieved logistical and financial control of some undefined portion of Detroit. He thinks he is avenging his and his fiance’s death, but doing so just happens to coincide with the best interests of Detroit.

Because, remember: the prime mover of all the events of The Crow is a crooked real estate development operation which Draven’s grassroots tenant organizing would have gotten in the way of. Unknowingly, Eric and his fiance died doing Detroit’s will. Perhaps this is what brought Eric to Detroit’s notice.

In any case, the nature of the divine justice that must be delivered is visited upon Eric via impressionistic yet somehow unmistakable means. And what is the first thing Eric does upon achieving this gnosis? He paints his face. Ostensibly in homage to the Pierrot mask that played some erotic role in his former life. Pierrot was a stock character of commedia del’arte who pines for (and sometimes kills) the fair Columbine (who usually prefers the black-masked Harlequin).

But there is another, more modern painted face that the Crow may be echoing:

In Godspell, Stephen Schwarz conceived of the character of Christ as wearing clown makeup as a continuation of lines of thought (such as from Cox’s Feast of Fools) which argued for a contemporary religious life which better embraced the imaginative whimsy and dream-oriented symbolism of the more ancient Christian orthodoxies.

Draven, having now fully become the Crow, is driven almost entirely by what might be called dreams: pink-hued recollections of his life, surveillance footage through the crow’s eyes, weird symbolic impulses like making bird shapes with lighter fluid (which helps Shelly how?)

And there is no doubt that the makeup improves his mood; as the Crow he cracks jokes, quotes Poe, even expresses some understanding of irony, as he goes out of his way to kill people with their own weapons. Eric Draven was a resurrected widower, wracked by trauma and devastated beyond even the capacity for rage. The Crow, on the other hand, created using Eric as raw material, is a dynamic, camera-friendly, fully-functioning humanoid who does more than just wreak vengeance like some common Rambo. He promotes nuclear families (through the cleansing of Sarah’s mother Darla), he discourages smoking, and he even goes out of his way to disincentivize petty larceny by destroying the crooked pawnbroker’s.

What I’m saying is that, regardless of how the causality flows, the makeup is the connection between Detroit and its savior. The makeup marks the point where Eric is elevated above his own personal trauma, to see (perhaps subconsciously) how he connects to the whole constellation of traumas being committed against the city that he loves. Because fundamentally, no matter what violence he may be capable of, it is the capacity for love which defines any savior.

“You’re gonna be a bad motherfucker.”

“Devil’s Night” is a real thing. Or it was until Detroiters decided not to take it anymore.

In 1984, more than 800 fires were set in the 3 days leading up to Halloween. This number is typical of the “holiday” throughout the ’80s and ’90s. On October 29, 1996, Detroit celebrated its first “Angels’ Night,” a three-day volunteer crime patrol of high-risk areas and abandoned structures, and the tradition has continued every year to the present. By 2009, the typical Devil’s Night tally was less than a hundred. In 2018, the number was 9.

Detroit is fundamentally resilient in a way that no other American city has to be, weathering a completely unique combination of racial and economic inequality, geographical peculiarity, historical legacy, and cultural significance. It doesn’t need a savior because it is its own savior. Its citizens are dedicated to the perseverance of the Motor City way of life as it is supposed to be: not synonymous with violence and decay, but with persistence and hope.

The flag of Detroit contains a quote from 18th-century Detroit priest Father Gabriel Richard. Translated from the Latin it reads, “We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes.” Resurrection is built into the DNA of the city, and that is why stories about men who are resurrected to restore the balance of civic civilization work so well there. The Crow and Robocop are symbols of the city itself: blown apart by violence, threatening to undo their essential being, but who through the power of their righteous love and inner baddassery that is the birthright of every Detroiter, they manage to transcend their limitations to achieve a better existence not only for themselves, but for their fellow citizens.

Rank The Crow (global rank: 1096) and RoboCop (global rank: #717) on Flickchart.

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[webittech]

New sci-fi and dream books to enable you to get away from this Christmas season

Prepare for aware bread, state-controlled enchantment, Moon heists, and djinn cities.It is the feared period of air terminal deferrals, family "fun," and long ends of the week went through in delightful areas with no phone gathering. That implies it's book perusing time! Regardless of whether you need to start up your mind or simply need to get away, we have a modest bunch of new discharges from 2017 in sci-fi and dream that should keep you diverted for whatever length of time that you require.

Sourdough, by Robin Sloan

In the event that you've at any point worked crazy hours at a tech work, not knowing in the case of anything you do will have any kind of effect, this novel is for you. Sloan is the creator of the hit Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, and his second novel Sourdough is similarly as delightful and abnormal. Lois spends throughout the day composing programming for mechanical arms at a startup, where she's start to get a handle on desensitized and discouraged. Every one of her partners are fixated on drinking Slurry, a Soylent-like nourishment substitute, however her exclusive satisfaction in life is requesting the "twofold hot" soup and sandwich from a nearby popup in her neighborhood. In the end the folks who run the popup skip town however leave Lois with their extraordinary, mystery (and conceivably aware) sourdough starter. Lois ends up interested with making her own bread, in the end joining an abnormal group of researcher gourmet specialists who request that her make bread with robot arms. Things get much more bizarro from that point, bringing us profound into the universe of yeast biohackers. All through everything we're floated by Sloane's interesting however now and again dull perceptions about the San Francisco tech scene.

Invalid States, by Malka Older

We adored Infomocracy, the main novel in Older's Centenal arrangement about a recently conceived worldwide majority rule government on the very edge of decimation. Invalid States, the continuation, just turned out. After a patriot party nearly wrecks the race, utilizing a blend of phony news purposeful publicity and focused on savagery, peace has been (somewhat) reestablished. Be that as it may, now the recently chose Supermajority must persuade the universe of its authenticity. Additionally the Google-like data organization that deals with the decisions must recuperate from inner defilement.

An Excess Male, by Maggie Shen King

This astonishing, irritating novel is set in not so distant future Shanghai, where the Chinese government is endeavoring to manage the skewed sexual orientation proportion made by their one-tyke arrangement. With men far dwarfing ladies, the administration licenses ladies to wed and have kids with up to three men. We take after the lives of one such extended family, where two spouses and a wife look for another husband to finish their family unit. The worldbuilding in this novel is splendid. Lord envisions a not so distant future China where unmarried "overabundance" men are compelled to join gaming squads to supplant the obligations of family, while men on the a mental imbalance range are banished from marriage for eternity. In the interim, the state puts families under observation to ensure each man gets his opportunity to impregnate the mutual spouse. Our hero May-ling, her two spouses, and their new life partner have numerous insider facts to cover up and should depend on frantic measures just to encounter a couple of snapshots of local euphoria. Lord, who experienced childhood in Taiwan and the US, offers a conceivable take a gander at a world where political control ventures into our most cozy lives.

New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Robinson, adored creator of the Mars set of three, is back with another novel that is set dubiously in the course of events of his current novel 2312 and the Mars set of three. As it were, it doesn't consummately connect up with those books, yet it's about a similar general issues of how people on Earth will in the long run change into a multi-planetary animal groups. Initially, we should figure out how to shepherd our own planet through environmental change. Robinson is getting it done while investigating both the science and verse of geo-building, and that is precisely what he's doing in New York 2140. The suffocating city is in any case still dynamic with life, as humankind adjusts on a tipping point amongst debacle and recovery.The Red Threads of Fortune and The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang

In the event that you adore dream hand to hand fighting motion pictures where individuals bounce fly over the housetops, these connected novellas will thump your booties off. JY Yang has composed two swashbuckling stories about twins on a different universe battling an against tech government administration... furthermore, monster nagas from the abandon. Red Threads takes after the agitated prophet and naga slayer Mokoya as she reveals an intrigue of alchemists called Tensors—and turns out to be perilously pulled in to a man from the weightless southern domains, who knows a risky and overlooked type of enchantment. Dark Tides takes after Mokoya's twin kin Akeha, a pioneer of the radical Machinists. They've progressed toward becoming foes of the state by testing the Protectorate's mystical Tensor elites with mechanical gadgets that could spare the world. Yang evokes a universe of enchantment and machines, wild creatures and modern developments, that you'll need to come back to over and over. Fortunately, Yang has different stories made arrangements for this universe!

The City of Brass, by S.A. Chakraborty

A dream epic set in eighteenth century Cairo, City of Brass takes after the insane enterprises of the famous swindler Nahri. She's bringing home the bacon in the city, deceiving rich Ottomans out of their money, until the point when she incidentally summons a genuine djinn. The mysterious animal draws her into the incredible city of metal, populated completely by djinn with their own particular expound social framework and (un)natural threats. There she should avoid court legislative issues, supernatural oppression, and beasts, while pulling off a perilous escapade. Extravagantly envisioned and brimming with sharp plans, this novel will keep you up late into the night, turning pages hotly to discover what occurs straightaway. It's the first in a set of three, so if the end abandons you needing more, you won't be baffled.

Spoonbenders, by Daryl Gregory

Daryl Gregory has composed a flawless, amusing, and despairing novel about families, extremely unordinary families—that will stay with you long after you've put it down. Spoonbenders starts with ESP tries in the 1960s, which unite Teddy and Maureen. The two are a superbly confounded combine: Teddy is a card shark, and Maureen is a genuine clairvoyant. With their three ESP-empowered kids, Teddy and Maureen progress toward becoming unscripted television stars... until the point when the children grow up and understand that mystic forces don't generally enable them to adapt to regular day to day existence. In spite of the fact that this is a tale about extraordinary endowments, its energy originates from Gregory's capacity to influence us to have faith in these characters as a reasonably harmed yet at the same time adoring family.