#skravler

[quixoticanarchy]

hi instead of the real world today would anyone like to contemplate jellyfish with me for a minute

[ID: a short video clip of pacific sea nettle jellyfish in an aquarium /end ID]

[radioaktiv]

tagger

🌱 mine < alle mine egne poster

🌱 navigasjon < bloggens struktur og sånt

🌱 mine bilder < bilder som jeg tok

🌱 mine glosser < norsk glosser

🌱 tekst < meg som skravler

🌱 skoleangst < gruer meg til skolen/skolearbeid

☢️ reblog < selvforklarende

☢️ motiverende < studieinspo

☢️ ressurser < selvforklarende; resources

[nemusnail]

Glemmer at ditt baderom ikke ser ut som mitt,

at du ikke har tørketrommelen over vaskemaskinen

som gjør hele rommet varmt og deilig

med den nyvaska lukten og runde følelsen som får meg til å sette meg på gulvet og puste

Husker ikke alltid at du ikke har et smykke du holder fast i,

iskaldt eller litt for lunkent

som vekker hardt eller får alt til å bli rundt og havne litt på kanten, som en sakkosekk du ikke liker på ett råttent tregjerde

ved elven du ikke vet hvor er for den klukket ved mitt tredje hus, som jeg nå forstår du aldri så.

Visste ikke at du aldri var der.

men vet heller ikke om du har hatt det samme soverommet hele ditt liv,

om du hadde ett perfekt frokost måltid i en hel måned

som du en måned senere ikke kunne stå ut med,

som jeg hadde?

Om du noen gang skrev et brev du aldri viste til noen?

Om du hadde et hemmelig prosjekt du gjemte i skuffene?

Som jeg gjorde, da jeg nesten ville noen skulle ta meg i det?

Allikevel sa du at du alltid snakker i telefonen

når du sitter på baderomsgulvet

da du sa det åpnet det seg et vindu

fra under ditt baderomsteppe til mitt

som vann, speil og mennesker i samme handling

ja vi to,

vi sitter begge her og skravler

håper noen hører på

[quixoticanarchy]

There’s a Kris Kristofferson song about this called “The Circle” and it’s the only other reference to Layla Al-Attar that I’ve ever seen - he talks about the propensity to forget/erase the names of US victims and how important it is to remember who they were and remember their names  

[quixoticanarchy]

some people’s new years resolution needs to be to stop going out in public while horribly sick with infectious diseases

[quixoticanarchy]

once again thinking about this guy at the pigeon museum who was giving a little presentation about pigeon mating habits or something, and takes one look at me and my partner and immediately goes "oh and pigeons can be GAY, too!!!"

[quixoticanarchy]

"Questionnaire" - Wendell Berry

1. How much poison are you willing to eat for the success of the free market and global trade? Please name your preferred poisons. 2. For the sake of goodness, how much evil are you willing to do? Fill in the following blanks with the names of your favorite evils and acts of hatred. 3. What sacrifices are you prepared to make for culture and civilization? Please list the monuments, shrines, and works of art you would most willingly destroy. 4. In the name of patriotism and the flag, how much of our beloved land are you willing to desecrate? List in the following spaces the mountains, rivers, towns, farms you could most readily do without. 5. State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes, the energy sources, the kinds of security, for which you would kill a child. Name, please, the children whom you would be willing to kill.

[quixoticanarchy]

Oh boy sorry to go off about this but I can’t resist the chance to yell about government in Tolkien

Because yeah, monarchy in Arda comes off as just the natural order of things, but when you think about it, there’s little to no actual historical development to justify it socially or politically. The first Elves didn’t have kings at Cuiviénen, to all appearances - essentially Ingwë, Olwë, and Finwë agree to go see some shiny trees at the urging of the Valar, and in return, they get the right to rule forever over the rest of the Elves. That’s a hell of a vacation rewards package, and shouldn’t it stand to reason that somewhere along the way, it would occur to other Elves to question why seeing the light should equate to eternal rights to monarchy?  

It makes sense that the Noldor in exile would seek to establish their realms along the lines they were used to in Aman, with the various members of the Noldorin royalty setting up their own little kingdoms, but they’re doing so in lands that haven’t had all that time to become accustomed to the idea of kings (except in Doriath), so I have to imagine there would be some pushback. I like the idea that among the Avari and the Nandor, there would be lots of Elves who were just like “ehh we don’t buy this, you must be new here - we were doing just fine without kings actually” and just continue to be anarchists in the woods.

Among Men, the basis for monarchy is also a bit shaky - from what we can tell, they seem to be organized by family group (House of __), and travel in loose bands. In Beleriand, they’re vassals of the Elven kings, and might have rights to some lands but aren’t their own kings. Since Númenor is given to the Edain by the Valar, I guess that’s why they’d set up a monarchy there, as the proper Elvish thing to do, but there isn’t really a justification for not trying something else. (Bet they wished they had, by the end!)

Like. Oh, the Valar told us to do it is not a sound basis for government. Wouldn’t it be interesting if, when the Númenóreans get resentful of the Valar and the whole mortality thing, they decided to throw out all the Valar’s rules for social order entirely, and trust themselves and each other rather than kings who obsessively fear death? Questioning the Valar is only the start - why not extend that to questioning the political structure they arbitrarily bestowed on you?

I find myself once again befuddled by the elves’ philosophy of government

Under what framework were their claims to the throne legitimate? Why did anybody respect the claims of Finwë and the rest, let alone their grandchildren?

[quixoticanarchy]

being touch starved: bad

being touch starved but also you don’t actually like physical affection from other people: worse

being touched starved but you don’t like physical affection except from a specific person who is Not Here: hell

[quixoticanarchy]

when my grandfather moved to the us after living through wwii in occupied norway he said the most striking thing he noticed here was the waste. the wastefulness, the sheer amount of excess stuff and the fever for consumption and how blasé people were as they threw it all away. and despite nominal awareness of the issue since then and and sometimes-counterproductive efforts to recycle, overconsumption trends have only gotten worse. trash, like any other ‘flow’ of materials, goods, etc, has gone global, and accumulates unevenly between where it is produced and where its burdens fall

which is a tangible, material disaster for the people living next to incinerators and landfills (in environmental justice communities of the imperial core; or abroad, in the poor countries where the rich ones dump their waste), and for the people doing the also-toxic and dangerous work extracting all the materials and making the things that are destined for the landfill, and it’s also a psychological and paradigmatic disaster for the overconsumers: to be so disconnected from where your stuff comes from and what it really costs, to expect endless cheap varieties of food and consumer goods from all over the world, to think no further than the instant gratification of next-day-delivered fast fashion orders or a new phone every year, to not realize that what you throw out never really goes away. the ‘western consumer lifestyle’, wherever it’s practiced, depends on and enforces the willful ignorance of its consequences and the disinclination to see other people and places as real. and while most waste is industrial, not just your personal household trash, the finished products you throw out have an industrial history too, and are tied to far more waste than you’ll ever personally see. which is to say not just ‘we shouldn’t buy so many things’ or ‘we shouldn’t send our trash to be dumped in other people’s countries’ - true, but also most of these things should never even be made

[quixoticanarchy]

“This system of severity of exploitation of poor people of color at the bottom of global supply chains goes back centuries. Few people sitting for breakfast in England in the 1700s knew that their tea was sweetened by sugar harvested under brutal conditions by African slaves toiling in the West Indies. The slaves remained far removed from the British breakfast table until a band of abolitionists placed the true picture of slavery directly in front of the English people. Stakeholders fought to maintain the system. They told the British public not to trust what they were told. They espoused the great humanity of the slave trade—Africans were not suffering, they were being “saved” from the savagery of the dark continent. They argued that Africans worked in pleasing conditions on the islands. When those arguments failed, the slavers claimed they made changes that remedied the offenses taking place on the plantations. After all, who was going to go all the way to the West Indies and prove otherwise, and even if they did, who would believe them?

The truth, however, was this—but for the demand for sugar and the immense profits accrued through the sale of it, the entire slavery-for-sugar economy would not have existed. Furthermore, the inevitable outcome of stripping humans of their dignity, security, wages, and freedom can only be a system that results in the complete dehumanization of the people exploited at the bottom of the chain.

Today’s tech barons will tell you a similar tale about cobalt. They will tell you that they uphold international human rights norms and that their particular supply chains are clean. They will also assure you that conditions are not as bad as they seem and that they are bringing commerce, wages, education, and development to the poorest people of Africa (“saving” them). They will also assure you that they have implemented changes to remedy the problems on the ground, at least at the mines from which they say they buy cobalt. After all, who is going to go all the way to the Congo and prove otherwise, and even if they did, who would believe them?

The truth, however, is this—but for their demand for cobalt and the immense profits they accrue through the sale of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles, the entire blood-for-cobalt economy would not exist. Furthermore, the inevitable outcome of a lawless scramble for cobalt in an impoverished and war-torn country can only be the complete dehumanization of the people exploited at the bottom of the chain.

So much time has passed; so little has changed.”

— from Cobalt Red, Siddharth Kara

[quixoticanarchy]

being usamerican and visiting cities in other countries is just a constant internal chorus of “omg they have such nice public spaces! with ppl using them! theres places to sit there’s frequent and functional public transit there’s things to do that aren’t spending money” like you don’t realize how stupidly low the bar is until you see it so easily surpassed. why the fuck do we live like this and why do we believe we have to

[quixoticanarchy]

also it’s sort of funny how Manwë sends a messenger to be like “hey do NOT go into exile that will be BAD and end BADLY. oh except fëanor you’re exiled anyway bc of the oath. but yeah it’ll still end badly” like what did you expect him to do. obviously not mass murder, which fair, I also wouldn’t expect that per se, but “something rash bc he’s pretty short on options” should’ve been.. foreseeable? I know it’s said Manwë cannot understand evil but it seems he also cannot understand like. a cornered animal

[quixoticanarchy]

when today is over please know i will continue to be hitting you with my little paws

[quixoticanarchy]

got through the nirnaeth arnoediad chapter and uh. fingon is dead and gelmir is dead and haldir is dead and huor is dead and bór is dead and azaghâl is dead and a fuck ton of other people are dead and gwindor is captured and húrin is captured and me I feel also not so good

[quixoticanarchy]

Just realizing it’s kind of strange how the published Silmarillion leaves out Sauron actually finding out Beren and Finrod’s names. Like I’ve seen posts wondering when Sauron might find out and what if it’s not til the Third Age, but in the poetic Lay of Leithian he finds out in Tol-in-Gaurhoth because Finrod and Beren use each other’s real names and he overhears them. It’s already funny that the Nereb-and-Dungalef tactic works on Sauron but even funnier that it finally fails not because Sauron figures it out but because they give themselves away

And moreover, Sauron knowing Finrod’s identity is key to Finrod’s whole death: Sauron’s reaction to learning their names is to say the outlaw mortal’s life is worthless and he can die now, but Finrod will be kept and tortured long beyond what a Man could endure, until Sauron learns the secret of their errand. He also threatens to ransom Finrod back to Nargothrond if his people care enough about him – or suggests perhaps Celegorm will just keep the treasure and not bother. The published Silmarillion just says “…Sauron purposed to keep Felagund to the last, for he perceived that he was a Noldo of great might and wisdom, and he deemed that in him lay the secret of their errand.”

Whereas the poetic Lay has:

“’’Twere little loss if he were dead, the outlaw mortal. But the king, the Elf undying, many a thing no man could suffer may endure. Perchance, when what these walls immure of dreadful anguish thy folk learn, their king to ransom they will yearn with gold and gem and high hearts cowed; or maybe Celegorm the proud will deem a rival’s prison cheap, and crown and gold himself will keep. Perchance, the errand I shall know, ere all is done, that ye did go.’”

And it’s right after this that he sends the wolf to kill Beren. So Finrod essentially is not just keeping his oath to protect Beren but also responding to this threat he’s just received that Beren will be killed and he himself will be tortured to death afterwards. And the irony of course is Sauron could get the secret of their mission from either Finrod or Beren, and it’s Beren, who he wants to kill immediately (and who in the poetic version even says at one point that he’s willing to confess everything to try to trade for Finrod’s life), that the secret actually most matters to. But Sauron immediately discounts the mortal in favor of torturing the elf. Finrod has no stake in completing the Silmaril quest once Beren is dead so it’s a moot point by the time Sauron would discover it. But in dying, he denies Sauron the satisfaction of torturing him and the indignity of ransoming/failing to ransom him. And Beren, whose errand it is, stays alive a little longer. Finrod’s death protects Beren but critically it also denies Sauron what he wants - especially if he thinks only Finrod knew the secret he wants - and avoids a Maedhros-esque fate for himself.