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thecurioustale · 2 months ago

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When I was younger I used to accept things like this as true, because deep down I have a hard time imagining that people would be deceptive or sloppy. But, having long since learned better, I went and looked to see how much of this meme is real.

First of all, I am happy to report that the poem being excerpted here is indeed real! There really was a poem about (and I paraphrase) "a butt that oppresses us both, me because I can't stop thinking about it and she because it tires her out to to lug around." Which makes me happy, because the only reason I bothered to fact-check this meme or am bothering now to write about it is that this kind of poetry absolutely sizzles! 🥵🥰

Yet this is the only part about this meme that's true. Everything else in that picture—everything else—is either a deliberate lie or negligently false.

First things first: The opening line, "She has an ass below a slender waist," isn't real. Fact-checking this specific line was a key secondary goal of mine because it triggered my "thinwashing" senses. There was a strong vein of fat admiration in Arab culture for many centuries, largely coincident with its era of enlightenment. (The cultural fat admiration arguably still survives in pockets of the Middle East today even though the Arab enlightenment has long since descended into a dark age.) I was suspicious of this line because "big butt, small waist" a very popular Western fad at this moment in time whereas the Arabs of a thousand years ago didn't tend to be that self-deceiving and more so just celebrated fatness openly when they saw fit to celebrate it at all. So I suspected that whomever translated this poem into English as was thinwashing it.

The true opening line of the poem makes a metaphor with a tree. A very literal translation from Google reads:

She walked like a branch bent by the breeze The breeze blows and it straightens up

I checked out the vocabulary word by word and, literally at least, I am confident that this is what the text actually says. What I can't attest to is the figurative depth of the text. I tried mightily to picture this metaphor in a way that might shed light on whether the poet had any deeper meaning in the line (which he almost certainly did). So I can't categorically rule out that there is something in this text that implies a slender waist. But it seems very unlikely, as evidenced by the following line:

She has a buttock that hangs in a gentle way That buttock us unjust to me and to her

My best effort to visualize this metaphor on the human body is that what the poet is saying is that this lady's butt is so fat that it bounces and sways as she walks, like a droopy tree (e.g. a willow) in the breeze.

If that reading is correct, it still doesn't categorically rule out a "slender waist," but it does make it exceedingly unlikely.

If I am honest, my single biggest purpose in writing this little essay is to call out the thinwashing that is likely occurring here: the perhaps-unintentional but nevertheless malicious erasure of one of history's relatively fewer examples of art that glorifies fatness and fat bodies. Big butts are hot in Western culture right now, but fatphobia is concomitantly so incredibly strong that most people fall over backwards to ensure that everyone knows they only like "big butts" and not "fat bodies"; they perform all kinds of horrible contortions to depict exaggerated, almost caricaturized female bodies that are completely thin except for a large butt (not "fat"; just "large" i.e. like a thin butt that is drawn physically bigger but with none of the characteristics that actually accompany a big butt). (And they usually add big breasts too). I say "almost" caricaturized because these bodies do naturally exist, and are valid; but they are very rare and the cultural celebration of big butts merely exploits this body type to celebrate fatness while simultaneously denying and erasing fatness.

Whomever did the translation that appears in this meme—assuming it was all done at the same time by one person; it's also possible the thinwashing was added later by somebody else—clearly decided that the poem would be better if it started by saying that the subject is thin. Maybe they didn't know what to make of the tree metaphor, or didn't believe that it landed effectively or upheld the core image of the poem. Maybe the tree metaphor does contain some insinuation of thinness that I am missing. Maybe they were just being horny on main and decided to intensify the sexual appeal by altering it to fit their own ideal of a skinny waist and a big butt. But in any case, I tend to frown on this kind of translation, translation that erases the original text (in this case the tree metaphor) and replaces it with something else. Even if there were no further harm caused, I think this does an injury to readers, because it obscures the original imagery. That's bad enough in general, but especially glaring in poetry. And of course in this case there is additional harm, the aforementioned thinwashing that occurs because of this alteration. And I would caution anyone who may find themselves translating stuff in the future to be better than the person who translated this.

If you're curious about the other lines, the literal translation from Google reads:

It tortures me when I think about it It tires her out when she gets up

So the meme is fundamentally correct that this is a poem about celebrating somebody who was some degree of fat, particularly in the butt.

We don't know how much or how little. Supersized people have always existed, albeit for most of history as a much smaller percentage of the population than today. But there were absolutely folks living a thousand years ago who weighed a quarter of a ton or more.

It isn't clear to me how literal versus how hyperbolic the poet was being. Maybe this beautiful lady of his was merely chubby, and the bit about her butt tiring her out when she stood up was purely a sexual exclamation point. Or maybe she was five hundred pounds and literally did struggle to stand up. Or anywhere in between.

Either way, the text is absolutely electric—both the literal Google translation of the original Arabic, and the edgier translated version in the meme. "An ass that oppresses us both" is an excellent translation, conveying the original artistic intent to our modern sensibilities much better than the original text does, without obscuring or erasing the original text whatsoever.

Anyway! Now that that gyatt's out of my system, let's continue the fact-checking. I mentioned that, other than the core premise of the poem, everything about this meme is false.

Let's start with the fact that the poem doesn't end there. This was hard to track down, but luckily there was some redditor a month ago who posted a link to the original poem in the comments. This is a website of Arab-language poetry:

Using Google Translate on that works a charm, and that's what I've been doing here.

The part of the poem we saw is just the beginning; the full poem actually goes on quite a bit longer: The speaker states that his love for this person is a torment, and compares her to gazelle, and apparently she killed some dude and is on the lam or otherwise fleeing (I'm not entirely clear), and there's lots of flowery language about love toward the end that I would classify as downright boring. Honestly, the poem kind of loses the thread of the plot; I can see why only the beginning part made it into the meme. The rest of the poem is just not memorable. Art is often like this, with moments of brilliance interspersed amid mundanity like diamonds in ore.

Finally, the last two ways in which the poem is false are that the author and the time period are both misstated. I'm a little more tenuous on this one, but it does seem that Ibn Amr Al-Aghmati—with "Amr" sometimes written in English as "Omar," and his full name being Abu Hafs Amr ibn Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Amr al-Sulami al-Aghmati—is the true author, not Abu Hasan al-Sari. Going by the artist's lifetime, then, this poem must have been composed in the 12th century, not the 10th. In my efforts to find out more, I discovered a comment on Reddit from just a few weeks ago. (I imagine the newness of all this discourse is because the meme is presently going viral.) This Redditor states that the person wrongly named in the meme, Abu Hasan al-Sari, actually compiled an anthology of poetry at some later point in the timeline, and his anthology included this poem. A pretty honest mistake!

I also found another Reddit comment in the same thread by someone who had bothered to track down the original and offer a translation, as well as a link to the Arab Wikipedia page for the poet.

Indeed, except for the thinwashing (which there is a sliver of a possibility that the tree metaphor actually somehow accommodates), there seems to be no bad faith in this meme. It looks to be more likely that it was just poorly researched.

One last thing before I go! Over on Twitter, someone got upset at the crassness of the English translation, and, in a rather unflatteringly gatekeepy way, nevertheless wrote his own, flowery translation.

Upon her slender frame doth rest a form ⠀⠀⠀most ample, fair yet bold, This sight beheld from aft doth prove a burden ⠀⠀⠀joint we both must hold, It haunts my thoughts with fervent fire, While she, to stand, doth strain and tire.

On one hand, his translation is pretty underwhelming. But on the other hand, and the reason I mention it, is that, 25 years ago, I would totally have been that person too. So I get it, and I do think the contrast between "an ass that oppresses us both" and "this sight beheld from aft doth prove a burden" offers a reminder that so much of poetry lies in the infinite possibilities of expressing the same ideas in different ways, thus fundamentally transforming our relationships with those ideas.

#Fat representation #Poetry #Arab poetry #Fact-checking #Ibn Amr Al-Aghmati #Big butts are the spice of life across all time and space!#And usually a big butt only comes with a big ol' fat waist to match.#So all you “But I only like big butts” folks need to get over yourselves and embrace the chub!#مشت كالغصن يثنيه النسيم

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thebrethrenpost · 2 years ago

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Desolation

arnings can oftentimes be taken as a threat. That's why most people ignore or even become aggressive when given to them. However, warnings are good because it gives us an indicator of what we should do to prepare for what's coming. There are a lot of warnings that can be found in recorded history but most commonly known are in the religious books. You can also find it in our modern experts, who have years of studying numerous fields, giving the conclusion that there are evidences that bad things are about to happen and we should be prepared when they come. In the Bible, there are 3 main warnings that have been consistent for giving us a heads up on what it’s about to come. That is, 1)Famine, 2)Sword and 3)Pestilence. Today, I want to share my understanding of how these warnings (in today’s vocabulary) or desolation (in ancient times, written in sacred scriptures) became similar patterns on what has happened before which will likely happen again.

Famine (Acts of Nature & Economic Downturn)

Throughout the years different events, though similar effects, have brought massive death due to the lack of food. This could either be through storms, fires or even pests that ate crops in the field causing a wide famine. In modern times, famine is likely caused by an economic downturn. Stagflation, disruptions in the global supply chain, and financial crises lead to a population struggling for lack of resources to survive. This will result in the second warning which is conflict within and between nations.

Sword (Conflict and Wars)

Wars have different kinds. Social, Politics, Business and Military wars. But they have almost the same purpose, to fight something (a cause), even if it’s worth dying for, and eliminate threats so they won’t become dangerous in the future. However, most of the time these bring harm as much as benefits. We have learned from history that wars are incredibly expensive, both in resources and human lives. When things are unfair and chaotic, Wars and Conflicts can become brutally deadly until both parties get tired from the losses from it.

Pestilence (Global Pandemic & Climate Change)

When there is no order and peace, an imbalance in the environment creates a struggle to sustain life such as plagues, climate shifts and even an actual reshaping of our world. This leads, to the third warning which is pestilence. Where the entire world, humans or other species, innocent or not, became affected by the earth’s scourge. Because of the deaths from wars, diseases will increase. Making everything that touches including plants, animals or humans become gravely sick. In Today’s world, the nuclear era, a nuclear war can create a winter that will cause to earth to go back to its Ice Age except this time will extreme radiation in the environment.

Now What?

Just because these are bound to happen doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do. Although these warnings may seem inevitable or probable, We can do our part by preparing ourselves including our family for the worst time. May I recommend two preparations; 1) have a survival plan (also known as a backup plan or 72-hour kit), and 2) have an exit plan (Having a safe place to stay when things go bad). These will vary depending on how capable you are to make them but it will be enough for you to become less stressed when these times arrive.

I live in a province called Bikol where the city is positioned near a volcano, next to the sea is the pacific ocean and a vulnerable region where earthquakes are probable. So you can frankly tell that I have been doing this kind of preparation throughout my life. Although these events don’t come frequently, they do come. And boy, it’s going to get messy when they do. So I hope you could see what I’m seeing and also make you a little bit more optimistic about the future. Prepare and be safe out there.

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meimae · 4 years ago

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Language Learning Through Immersion: One Year Japanese Update

11/03/2021

I did it, you guys! I’ve successfully reached my very first year of Japanese language immersion! I honestly thought that I would have given up by now, but this really has been a fun and ultimately rewarding endeavor.

Studying the language has been at the back of my mind for years since elementary school, I just never really knew how to go about it before, and I always thought that I could learn it in a classroom setting someday. That someday for me was in two elective courses in university, and while those were fun as well, it did not give me the same gains that I have achieved in this past year.

It’s probably easier to quantify learning a language in a classroom setting, especially when going through a program to earn a language degree. Learning through immersion, however, I had to really consider what my goals should be on my own. Eventually, I stumbled upon an article saying that for an English speaker, Japanese was exceptionally difficult to learn and that at least 2,200 hours must be spent with the language to reach a certain level of proficiency. So I said to myself, “well okay internet, if you say so!”, and set that as my long term goal going forward.

Spoiler Alert: I did not hit that goal in my first year. I am not crazy and will never listen to Japanese in my sleep regardless of what Khatzumoto (the creator of All Japanese All the Time) says.

I did, however, hit a total 1,226.65 active immersion hours in my first year, so I guess I’m still a bit nuts. That is 874.96 hours of active listening and 351.69 reading hours. I also did 270.59 hours of passive listening, also known as the time in the very beginning of my immersion where I was using Japanese subtitles (therefore not really concentrating on listening alone). That’s a cumulative 1,497.24 hours spent with Japanese. That’s more than halfway towards my goal!

To further break that down for curious animanga fans out there, that’s 973 episodes from 109 anime, 765 episodes from 33 dramas, 7 movies, and 967 chapters from 107 volumes of manga (21 series). Here’s my anilist and mydramalist to see what I’ve read/watched.

During all this, I was also doing my daily Anki reps and now I have a 530 day SRS streak (includes the time prior starting immersion and only doing RTK and some vocabulary cards) and a total 8,857 sentence cards. I’ve been averaging 406 cards daily (because I’m trying to cure my leeches) and I spend about an hour per day doing reps and learning new cards. I don’t really track my time on Anki, but I do have a set timer that goes off after 1-1:30 hours.

What I haven’t touched upon at all is output. I have not gone out of my way to find a tutor or a language partner. There’s still plenty of input out there to immerse in before I even consider outputting.

Graphs, stats, and more thoughts:

Here's my current card count in my main deck (minus the cards in my new/learning queue and leeches I've been relearning which are in separate decks):

That one day in 2019 where I did not do my cards because I was seriously doubting whether I can actually stick with language learning this time around will forever haunt and inspire me to keep going everyday.

Workflow and Tips

You might be wondering, how do I have a lot of time? I started this whole endeavor in the middle of a pandemic, which eliminated the option of me going to a language school, and a slew of other things I were considering doing last year became impossible (and if anything, very scary to do in a pandemic). All I can say is that, things work out eventually if it is His will, and if I can learn a skill before everything properly settles back down again, then why not?

I wake up at 5 in the morning everyday to either do my Anki reps or read until the time when I need to get up and I listen to compressed audio throughout the day. The biggest tip is to switch the time you spend watching/reading in your native language to your target language instead. Listen to a podcast during your commute, watch an episode during lunch break, read before going to bed, do your Anki reps in the bathroom if you have to.

But, if you’re feeling burnt out, there is no reason for you to not take a break! I have been watching a lot of Among Us streams before bed, and I chat with my friends from time to time. Language learning is not a race.

More Stats

Here are a couple of grids of the kanji characters that I have encountered at least once in my immersion and how well I have answered them in my vocabulary/sentence cards.

It's interesting that after almost 9000 words, I have yet to encounter every single character from the Remembering the Kanji 1 (RTK 1) book by James Heisig, which teaches you the most common use characters that are part of the 常用漢字. Which brings me to the question, was writing down every single character being taught in RTK worth it every time it came up in my reviews for the first 3-ish months I was reviewing them? Maybe, maybe not. It certainly removed my anxiety whenever looking at blocks of text in Japanese, but the longer I think about it, the more I feel I should have switched to Recognition RTK earlier. Still, being able to write in proper stroke order is cool I guess, and it also helps me when looking things up in the dictionary.

Here’s the same grid but in JLPT order:

I clearly need to grind those N2 and N1 level cards! Speaking of which, I have apparently almost covered every single character that could possibly appear in the JLPT (except for the N1 which I have only covered half of) in just a year's time. If the JLPT word frequency lists I’m using are accurate, I have about 2,000 words more to go to to cover most vocabulary that could appear in the test. This makes the "10,000 sentences/words to fluency" argument a reasonable milestone to aim for for Japanese learners if said aim is only to pass the test. That said, 10,000 words is just that, a milestone. It's more akin to a comfortable level of comprehension, but not my own concept of fluency which is being able to read with ease, speak articulately, and write comfortably.

READING IMMERSION GRAPHS

My biggest motivation for tracking my stats is for the purpose of seeing whether my reading speed is improving over time. Reading speed is also easier to measure than listening comprehension which is kind of subjective, so I had a lot of fun making these. What I found is that for the first volume or chapter of whatever it is I’m reading, I always take the time to get used to the writing style of the author. My speed really improves whenever I keep reading the same topic over and over again. On the other hand and quite obviously, looking up many new words in a row and trying to parse sentences slows me down.

Manga: Reading Speed Progression per Volume

I clearly love ちはやふる and I am not ashamed to admit it.

I need to start reading longer manga. When I do, I’ll probably split this graph into less than and greater than 20 volumes. Imagine if I start reading something ridiculously long as 名探偵コナン or ワンピース, these graphs will start breaching the bounds of time and space.

Novels: Time Spent Reading per Chapter

#neverforget the time I read chapter six of Norwegian Wood for 9 hours when it took me less than half that time in English RIP. Also, my interest in Kitchen plummeted LOL. Still planning to finish it don’t worry.

I also need to start branching away from manga and start reading more novels and light novels, too just so I can make more pretty graphs.

Visual Novels: Time Spent Reading and Daily Word Count

Also known as images that clearly show that I’ve already spent several days only reading the prologue of Island. I’m not sweating. 切那 needs to stop using words I don’t know in succession. More thoughts on this VN far into the future.

Thoughts on Immersion

I can’t really say anything else other that that it works for me, and needless to say if you’re considering this method, remember that the SRS is your friend but immersion should be your one true love.

Prior to all this, I couldn’t even read a sample paragraph from Genki without being confused to my very soul. Yes, I know, it’s embarrassing, but that’s the truth. I was way more scared of failing my Japanese classes than my actual thesis for my bachelors degree, I kid you not. I would quite literally spend all my free time in university trying to understand grammar, memorize vocabulary, and answer my workbook exercises with little to no success.

I tried so hard to get all the grammar “formulas” into my head for 1.5 years and it only brought me more confusion. I’m never going back to traditional classroom study for language learning, but I will still refer to grammar books when I need to, and not because I feel like I need to answer 4783342 different workbook exercises like my life depended on it.

I still can’t believe it, but with immersion this statement is actually true to a point, don’t try shadowing anime/or calling your boss anime language slurs, use your common sense:

study anime to understand Japanese > study Japanese to understand anime

Future Goals/Plans

2,200 immersion hours was my initial goal, but honestly I feel like that number could be much higher. There’s still a lot of stuff I don’t understand (news, politics, sciences, etc.), so I’ll make attempts to cover more of those things in my immersion.

I’ll continue reading more, because that’s a natural SRS in itself. Try to read longer manga, more novels, visual novels, and light novels, and maybe news articles.

I’ll try to mine as much “JLPT vocab” as I can before making any attempts at taking the JLPT. I noticed that a lot of the words I know don’t appear in the JLPT word lists as much, even though they appear a lot in media/daily conversation.

Continue mining all words I don’t know because all words are useful anyway. There is no such thing as useless words. I never really understood mining only “interesting words” or words that “pop up” in your immersion. As I said in my previous blog post, 美人局 is an interesting word and I certainly caught it being said in my immersion, but in the three languages I know, I wouldn’t know when I would be able to use such a word, as compared to something like ジャガイモ which is a significantly less interesting word, but is certainly useful to know.

I have managed to talk up a storm, but if you have any questions regarding my process or recommendations for new immersion material, please feel free to send an ask/reply to this post. I love hearing about other people’s language learning/immersion journeys.

See you on my next post!

#language learning #japanese language #language acquisition #study blog #langblr #studyblr #graphs #language immersion #japanese #visual novels #manga #novels #anime #dramas #movies #youtube #podcasts

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anamthelaptopninja · 4 years ago

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5 lessons I learned while reading the autobiography of Malcom X

One of the ways in which I’ve been able to measure my growth is by observing the types of books I now read as compared to what I was reading in my early 20’s. I didn’t realize at first but looking back on what kind of books I’ve been approaching recently made me realize that I’ve started preferring non-fiction where most of my life I’ve spent innumerable hours reading and indulging in fiction. I still enjoy the escapism of fiction books but as the years have gone by; an innate desire to access and absorb more and more knowledge, while being aware of not having enough time has pulled me towards non-fiction literature of all sorts.

One of the most recent books I read was the autobiography of Malcom X. Before reading his autobiography, I didn’t know much about him except that he was an activist who spoke about the injustices of the American system against Afro-Americans, and that he was a Muslim, who was assassinated for what he believed in. I’d heard good things about the book and his life seemed interesting and I wanted to know more about his journey towards Islam.

His book has been enlightening and inspiring. For me, it’s one of the most helpful books I’ve read and if you’ve read it, you know what I mean. You walk through his life with him and you feel and see him and his beliefs change as the book progresses. The Malcom from the beginning till the time of his death went through so many changes and you go through those changes with him. Here are some of the lessons I learned from reading the life of Malcom X.

1. Never be ashamed of the past and your journey.

The biggest lesson for me was to be grateful of the past because it shapes who we are today as individuals. Malcom X lived life on the streets selling drugs and committing crimes. He didn’t sugar coat these times in his book but looked at it in a practical way. His time on the streets allowed him to find his way towards Islam and to be better acquainted to the psychology of those who lived a troubling or difficult lifestyle which allowed him to reach out to them, and he acknowledges that in the book. As Muslims we all believe in Qadr, the divine Will of God, but to see it play out in someone’s life is a proof and affirmation of what we already know. No matter how hard times get or whatever we’re ashamed of in life, it was meant for us to be where we are today. It’s okay as long as we find our way back to God.

2. There’s isn’t anything that can benefit us more than self-learning.

I’ve always believed in self-learning. I’ve witnessed people with degrees; ignorant, arrogant and unsympathetic, while I’ve witnessed illiterate people with an abundance of knowledge, wisdom and compassion. Sure, a degree equips you with the tools for a professional life and teaches you many lessons that build character but to learn something for your own selfish reasons, is more beneficial and honest. When Malcom X went to prison, he could barely write, and he struggled to read. In prison, he would copy pages of dictionary to improve his writing and simultaneously increase his vocabulary. He read so much he needed glasses. He is the best example of self-learning building character because today we remember him for his eloquence in the way he spoke.

3. Allah gifts individuals in different and natural ways.

In the age of social media it’s impossible to not compare your life or skills to those of others, or feel like you’re lagging behind your peers. You watch your friends do incredible things in their fields and while you’re proud of them, you feel like you’re not doing enough yourself or maybe you’re not as gifted as they are. But everyone has an innate quality that only they possess. It’s their gift that comes to them naturally or it might be something they’ve accomplished with hard work and patience. Living a life that was all about survival, Malcom X didn’t get to complete his education or go to University even though he was a clever and sharp young boy. Despite this, he was gifted with the art of speaking and persuasion. He got to polish this art while he was in prison, where he took part in debates. He researched and read on the topics of discussion, he thought tactfully and how the opposition would attack and he would prepare accordingly. A gift that would help him later in life, again the Qadr of Allah and how He mysteriously works.

4. It’s okay to admit your mistakes.

I think this is the aspect of our lives that most of us struggle with. One of the reason why I gained so much respect for Malcom X was because he always admitted his mistakes. He learned from them and talked about them. He modified and changed his opinion on matters publicly on television and in newspaper articles. As a member of The Nation of Islam, he formerly believed that the white man was the devil and he publicly made his opinion known. He was accused of being a reverse racist and preaching hate. On his pilgrimage to Makkah he saw men and women of all colours and nationalities together. He was treated as a Muslim, equal to everyone there. His Hajj experience had a profound effect on him when he saw kindness he experience by those who were white. He came back with a changed mindset and came to the conclusion that “the white man is not inherently evil”.

5. Stand up for what you believe in.

Malcom X’s character from when he was a young man was a formidable one. He was unrelenting and he believed, truly believed in what he was preaching. Even when he was wrong (which he later admitted) he was informed enough on what he was preaching, that he managed to gather a staggering amount of followers for the Nation of Islam just by publicly speaking about what he thought was the truth. But alongside his confidence was the humbleness to admit his faults when he realized he was wrong. Admitting your mistakes when you’re wrong gives credibility to what you say when you’re speaking about something you’re passionate about. A young woman flew to New York from New England and came to Malcom X asking him what she, as a white woman, could do to help the Afro-American cause, to which he replied “nothing” and she went away crying. Malcom X regretted telling her that and that he wished he knew her name so he could tell her how she could help. Later on, he also said “Anger can blind human vision” referring to his former beliefs.

The autobiography of Malcom X or El Hajj Malik El Shabazz has been an enlightening one. He had a purpose in life which he spent most of his life working towards. In his last days, he knew he was going to be killed and he said that he wasn’t afraid to die but just afraid for his family. Hs life teaches countless lessons and I’d recommend every Muslim to read his autobiography as inspiration or just for admiration.

May Allah have mercy on his soul.

26th February 2021.

#Malcom X #mywords #My words #autobiography #books #book review #goodreads

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

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Survey #342

“in this farewell, there’s no blood, there’s no alibi / ‘cuz i’ve drawn regret from the truth of a thousand lies”

What’s your all-time favourite cartoon? Does anime count? In which case I'd say Fullmetal Alchemist, or the original Pokemon. If we're not including anime, then uhhhh Avatar: The Last Airbender, even though I have much more to go in the series. Have you ever taken dance lessons? What kind? Yeah, I've done a few for many years: jazz, clogging, modern, and hip hop. When did you last run and why? I literally couldn't tell you. I don't even know if I can run with the current state of my legs. My knees would probably crumple. Does your house/flat/whatever the hell you live in need cleaning? Not necessarily cleaning, but sorting. I still have boxes outside and inside my room of my stuff I need to put up somewhere... but whenever I prepare to do it, I just get so overwhelmed and shy away from it. Then there's the spare room, that's a total mess loaded with boxes and the like. Mom and I have just avoided it like the plague. Was your last relationship with a man or a woman? Woman. What do you think your next achievement will be? HOPEFULLY getting a job... Do you like mushrooms? NOOOOOOO. What dream do you remember most vividly? I'm not talking about it. Favorite kind of bread? Pumpernickel. Rabbits or hamsters? Rabbits. I've never met a nice hamster, and I just think rabbits are cuter. A movie you’ve never seen that it seems like every one else has? Harry Potter films. Favorite dog breed? I'm biased towards beagles. When was the last time you climbed a tree? Never, actually. Where I live, there aren't really many weighty trees with low branches. Just pine trees. Most common lie you tell? That I'm "fine" when I'm not. Ever seen your parents make out? Jc no, I'll take a hard pass there. Do you put your hair up a lot or down? It's too short to put up. Most of the time do you straighten or curl your hair? Neither. What piercing do you hate? I'm not a fan of cheek dermals at all, but you do you 100%. Were you raised in a religious house? Yes; I was raised Roman Catholic. Do your parents get mad when you're on the computer for hours? Mom used to for many years until I became an adult and she just realized it was in vain. I haven't lived with Dad since I was a teenager, but when my parents were together, he usually didn't say anything. Have you ever been asked for a nude picture? No, thankfully. I'd stop talking to the person immediately. What would you do if your parent hit you? I honestly feel like I'd slap them back and get the fuck out. Or just freeze in shock and cry. What's your most common mood? Stressed but distracted. Do you like poems? Yeah, usually. Ever kissed someone half-naked? Uh yeah. Have you ever been in a parade? No. Do you still play Pokémon? I play Pokemon GO, and I've actually been tempted to get out my DS and play one of the games I have (I can't remember which). I do find Pokemon games to be VERY grind-ey, though, so I can't play them for too long without getting bored. What is your favorite Pokémon? Ninetales. I also really love Espeon, though, and Charmander will always have my heart. Is there an animal you like that most people don't? Bats! :') Is there an animal that you think is overrated in terms of how it's liked? No animal is overrated. Have you ever "quit" a site and came back to it more than once? Uhhhh I don't think so. Do you have an "odd" fascination with anything? Most would probably consider "vulture culture" to be pretty weird, being drawn to dead animals and all... What's the hardest thing you've been through, & what did you learn from it? The breakup with Jason. I learned that some people make promises they aren't afraid to break, that someone can promise "forever" and not mean it, that the most unexpected can just snap their fingers and forget about you... I learned a lot. And most things, not positive. What are three "unrealistic" things you want most? 1.) To be able to financially support myself by just freelance nature photography; 2.) sooo many different kinds of pets; and 3.) to be totally rid of my mental illnesses. Do you take any daily vitamins? No, but I would if I was the one who bought groceries and stuff. I do however take Vitamin D once a week for my legs. Who are three of your favorite fictional characters of all time? JUST THREE??????? FUCK MAN idk. Uhhh well there's of course Darkiplier and Wilford Warfstache, then uhhh probably Pyramid Head. If you had to give the world a pre-existing mythological/fictional being, what would it be? Idk, I'd really need to be more educated on their lore before I made that decision. Do you have any desire to learn (a) foreign language(s)? Which? I both do and don't want to resume learning German. I got very good at it and could have basic conversations, but lack of application has slaughtered my vocabulary. Now it's like, it'd be nice to try again, but for what purpose? I don't think I'll ever actually apply it to my life, so it just seems like it'd be a load of wasted effort. But then on the other hand, I also feel that doing something you simply want to do isn't a waste of time. Idk. What is one of your firmest beliefs? Equality for all. No race, religion, whatthefuckever makes you more or less valuable than someone else. Do you have anything that keeps you from doing something you'd truly enjoy? Oh yes. Depression and anxiety, mostly. Do you work to fix your faults? Or at least, admit to them? I definitely try, and I'll certainly admit to them. How do you hope the world will change, if at all? I just want more compassion, less violence, more understanding... What is/are your view(s) on god, religion, spirituality, or relations to? In short, I believe that something sentient created the universe, and it/they/he/she/what-have-you just... let life play out from there, I think. I like to believe there's a plane of consciousness like an afterlife that exists, but if not, I don't really care. I hope the evil get what was coming to them, and the good get back what they gave, but maybe we're all better off without life after death. We'll all find out one day. Are you arachnophobic or scared of spiders in the least? Some, yes; others, not so much. This is very situational. Do you play WoW? What do you think of it either way? Haha, you're asking an avid player. I enjoy it, but not as much as I used to. At one point I was a Heroic raider, sometimes dabbling in Mythic, but now I'm just mostly a casual mount collector that likes chatting with my guildies and just doing dailies 'n shit. I owe a lot to the game, honestly; it helped me stay occupied throughout the breakup, and still today gives me something to do. What kind of computer do you have? Windows 7/Vista/XP/Other? I have an Acer Nitro with Windows 10. Are you taking any interesting classes in school/do you not attend? I'm no longer in school. If you don't attend, are you taking any "lessons" for anything? No, but I would like to join a photography course somewhere. A book/piece that has had an exceptional impact on your life? Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo just made me hate war more than I innately did. What genres of music are your favorite? Just metal as an umbrella term. Some heavy stuff, some less, some in the middle, some leaning towards other genres... but I just like metal. Do you think that fate plays a part in people's lives? No. Wouldn't "fate" just make it all... worthless? Like we're just storybook characters with a predetermined ending? What are your opinions on the media? One word: manipulative. What's a piece of technology you'd like to own? I REALLY want a PS4, especially lately. There's just a lot of games I REALLY want to play. Are you afraid of technology developing to where we're too reliant on it? We're already *too* reliant on it, which I do believe is a bad thing. I know, absolutely hysterical for me to be talking. What's your favorite odd ice cream flavor? I don't think I've ever had a truly odd ice cream flavor. There's this local place though that makes a kind that tastes JUST like s'mores, and I can fucking murder a cup of that. What's your opinion on stereotypes/labels? They're limiting and devalue uniqueness, imo. I know very, very few people who totally fit a certain stereotype, so why even bother. Like I don't care if you use them as adjectives to some extent, just don't put too much weight on them. Just be you. Do you believe that history repeats itself? It's not necessarily doomed to, but it happens sometimes, obviously. Would you rather learn from your mistakes or just undo them? Depends on the mistake. What was the most interesting class you had in school? Probably Mythology in high school. Do you write? If so, what? Yeah, meerkat role-play. And every now and again, poetry. Do you have a favorite culture? No; I'm not educated on nearly enough to pick one. Do you believe in global warming? Have you researched it? Lol no shit I do. I don't exactly think it takes much research to see with your own two eyes that it's factual. Do you prefer piercings or tattoos? Tattoos, if I had to pick. What comedy movie is your favorite? White Chicks. Have you ever meditated? Yes. Doesn't work for me. What comes to mind when you think of a great moment in your life? Realizing it was my choice to liberate myself and my happiness from my ex. He didn't and never should've carried it, because that's my right. What do you like about springtime? Aaaaall the flowers. <3 How have you handled having to stay in? It's not really different from my average day, so... How would your friends describe you? Quiet and overthinks literally everything. Have you ever hallucinated? When I was coming off a certain med in middle school, I saw black moving shadows. What (or who) is the best thing that ever happened to you? The partial hospitalization program I attended for two months following my suicide attempt. It's where I met my psychiatrist, who set my medication straight. Medicine besides though, I learned so many coping techniques and just how to deconstruct my trauma. As well as possible, anyway. What is the worst decision you ever made? Handing over the ability to make happiness for myself to another person. What is your favorite arcade game? Don't have one. Do you feel neglected? No. What school subject(s) are/were your best? English, Arts, Science. Are you allergic to pollen? Yep. What style of wedding dress do you like best? Probably ballgown. Are you over your first love? I probably never will be in complete totality. Do you always answer your phone? No. I only ever do if I recognize the number. Who was the last person you know to have a birthday? Today is actually my sister's birthday. What song is currently stuck in your head? I have Halocene's cover of "What I've Done" on a loop right now. It has me absolutely covered in goosebumps. Do you ever use coloring books? Not really anymore. Do you personally know anyone who is an author? Not to my knowledge, no. What’s your favorite kind of salsa/dip to go with tortilla chips? Just your normal, mildly hot salsa. Do you wash your car by hand or drive through a car wash? Mom's car hasn't been washed in... well, years, given its bumper. Mom worries that in a car wash, it'll be broken off (it is literally held on with a lot of zip ties and duct tape), and we ourselves don't want to wash it, so... Do you have any uncommon kitchen appliances, such as espresso machines, waffle irons, etc? I know we have one or two, but idk what they're called. What did your parents major/minor in in college, if they went? Dad never went to college. Mom changed her major a few times, but her latest was social work, I believe. Has either of their careers influenced what career you chose or want to pursue? Not at all. What kind of natural disaster is most common where you live? Hurricanes. Why is your least favorite season your least favorite? Because it's hot as fuck and humid. Have you ever had an animal get into your attic? No. When was the last time you started a “new chapter” of your life? I don't know. Hopefully I'll start one soon when I leave PHP and pursue a job... What room in your home do you spend the least amount of time in? I'm always in my room. Do you do anything to reduce the amount of electricity you use? I feel awful admitting I do quite the opposite... Being in the dark during the day affects my depression, so I'll have my lamp (or both) on even if it's just sort of shaded inside. Are you usually open to trying a new food that you aren’t familiar with? Eh, it depends on the food. I'm not very adventurous with foods though. Do you listen to Panic! At The Disco? I do. Have you ever had a kinky dream about a celebrity? ... It wasn't "kinky," but it was a dream lmao. Has anyone ever told you that they loved you, and you couldn’t say it back? That's how I ended the whole Joel childishness. Which friend do you confide in most? My mom. Do you wear a cross? No. What is your favorite doughnut? That's so hard. :( Krispy Kreme's normal glazed though probably takes the cake. I also love chocolate frosted and just totally plain, though. Do you have a hot tub? If so, where is it located? No. Did you read the Twilight series, or jump on the bandwagon after the movie? Neither. Do you or your parents rake your yard? Dad did growing up. Now nobody does or needs to. Who did you last go to the movies with? Dad, I think? What color was the last vehicle you were in? White. Do you have any family members in the military right now? No. Is there a ceiling fan in the room you’re in? Yeah. Have you ever heard voices? No. If you’re not straight, who was the first person you came out to? Sara. Do you remember the first time your first crush ever said hi to you? No. Do you ever go places with wet hair? Yeah, idc. Who is your favorite little girl? My nieces. What do you want the most in life? To feel like I made a difference, even a tiny one. If you could have anyone’s singing voice, whose would you choose? OBVIOUSLY Amy Lee's. What’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought that turned out to be a waste of money? *shrug* What’s something you’ve bought that turned out to be way more useful than you anticipated? Hm. Have you ever been on a ship? No. Would you ever date a disabled person? (Be honest) Yes. Would you rather adopt or have your own child? IF I wanted kids, which I absolutely do not, I'd rather have my own. I know I'd feel a deeper connection. What would you class as cheating on someone? As soon as you do/say something you don't want your s/o to know about, you're cheating. As far as earrings go, would you rather wear hoops or studs? Studs. Do you recycle? Yes. If someone dislikes you, what is most likely to be the reason? People have thought I don't try hard enough before. Do you put a line through your "7"s? Yes. ^ What about your "Z"s? Yes. What are you most known for? My art "skill," at least irl. How do you feel about shameless self-promoting? Depends on when, where, and how. As someone who's trying to be a freelance photographer, I get that it's sadly necessary, but there are some places it's just uncalled for.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''what i've done'' by linkin park

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solaroceans · 5 years ago

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No pressure, but how about some fluffy headcanons with Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke with a reader who's excessively smart? They often start ranting about things no one understands, listing off scientific facts like it's common knowledge; it's easy to see how passionate they are.

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Hi there! Thanks for requesting 💕 I had so much fun writing this! It’s really interesting looking at scientific facts that the reader may have known in the 1900’s.

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HC: Main Three x Smart!Reader

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Tanjiro Kamado

When you two met- woah.

he really admired the way you spoke? instead of speaking what most people would consider normal at that time, you spoke in big words that the main three would really only be able to figure out what the words meant out of context.

also not to mention the way you presented yourself, it was obvious that when you did open your mouth it’s not something that should be talked over.

so tanjiro, even when he first met you, felt obligated to listen to what you have to say. he usually doesn’t cut people off, but with you he just really made sure he didn’t. you just radiated intelligence, and amazing skills at your disposal that could be used if need be.

you also were really happy someone listened, someone cared and didn’t cut you off. you were used to being talked over, as most people sometimes didn’t understand you, or needed to take a step back to process what you said- in their language this time. but you also didn’t want to dumb yourself down.

I believe that’s what would make you attracted to tanjiro- because he listened. he didn’t just care about your looks like zenitsu immediately pointed out as soon as you met him. he also wasn’t all muscle and no brains like inosuke, he genuinely cared and wanted to know more.

I believe he would get attracted to the reader when they start taking to nezuko. it’s an extremely rare case, so I believe when you start taking a closer look at the little demon girl and not having had immediately judged her from the start, it’ll radiate a warm and fuzzy feeling within him.

when you treat her kindly and not like some freak of nature, oh woah, did he actually really feel so happy to have you around. not only were you smart, but you were kind. you were so intelligent, but you weren’t going to treat someone like a science experiment. you were genuinely interested in both nezuko’s case, and her as a person.

when you two are alone, omfg. you feel so comfy around him, he purposely asks you questions, daily fun facts, your predictions on scientific experiments or poisons, but also ask you how your day went. (since I’m guessing that reader likes science, they might be close to shinobu in producing poison.)

when you guys are dating, and you got confessions out the way, he’ll always make sure to have a lot of time to sit and listen to you. he might drift off and not understand a single word you’re saying, but just the way you sound and the way you get so excited and passionate, it warms him up. he could listen to your cute voice for hours.

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Zenitsu Agatsuma

When you met him- maN DID HE PISS YOU OFF.

Not only do I think you two would’ve been on a mission when you met, he probably would’ve been such a chicken the entire time and clinging onto you for dear life when he saw how tough you were.

And right when you were at your low, kinda injured, did he PASS OUT. The gods must’ve been mad at you and gave you the unfortunate luck of being stuck with a whimp who somehow survived being in the demon slayer corps.

But when he suddenly switched in the blink of an eye, and pull off an amazing move, and told you he’d protect you, did you actually think he could be redeemed. He killed the demon, and you were at such awe at his swordsmanship. He was so fast- so quick- so-

nope, wait fuck, there he goes.

When he switched back he freaked out and asked to stay by you and to marry him so you could protect him.

“Y/N PLEASE- YOU’RE MY ONLY CHANCE AT SURVIVAL , WITHOUT YOU I WONT LAST LONG.”

And man did you actually believe that last part.

When you two were back at the estate to heal, only then did you guys actually casually converse, with a lot of one sided flirting that I bet you can guess what side it was on. Although, something about how when he switched. You had it engraved into your mind.

Being the smarty pants you are, you were intrigued by this other side of zenitsu. Just for research. Just to see why he did that, how could he do that? Was it a disorder? Was it just sleepwalking? These theories all lead you to hanging around the blonde big baby.

Not only did you begin to get attached to Zenitsu, you began to worry about him and make sure he’s alright. You calmed him when he cried, listened to his worries, you were his shoulder to lean on. At first it was research, but it developed into a beautiful friendship where no matter what even if he was cowardly, you entrusted him with your life.

You saw other sides of him, signs of logic that sometimes surpasses that of Tanjiro’s. Signs of reasoning that inosuke could never have, and that just intrigued you even more. He wasn’t what you first thought he was. You saw that Zenitsu did in fact have a brain, and you saw that he’s really trying his best.

Then you started to fall for him- I mean what? Nah, it’s just research, totally, right? Yeah- no you were totally wrapped around his finger now.

Don’t fret though, because the more you listened and cared for him, the more you showed him you’d always be there, and the more he fell for you too.

95% of the time he had no idea what you were talking about. He had no idea what some words meant at first, but the more he listened, the more he started to learn and genuinely become interested. You expanded his own vocabulary. Sometimes he’d use words and phrases you use on accident.

What he did know though, is he could stare into your amazing eyes and sit there for hours. Your voice on its own gave him comfort, and that was enough for him.

Once you two confessed and began being in a relationship, he didn’t stop either. When in battle, he’d ask what you think, and maybe got a tiny bit more courageous. Especially when it came to you did he actually fall asleep a bit more and become a better version of himself, and on rare occasions act like that when he’s not asleep.

He also sometimes in the middle of your talking would give you little pecks on your lips and tell you how cute you are when you get all excited and passionate.

You’d blush but pout slightly that he interrupted your train of thought, because now you’re all jumbled up and flustered.

I guess the gods did decide to bless you with fortune, huh?

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Inosuke Hashibira

When you first met Inosuke, let’s say you were pretty indifferent. He was all muscle, no brains, you’ve met a lot of guys like him. All they wanted were to be the best of the best, and pretty reckless.

Except, when you snuck up on him due to your zero intent in wanting to harm him, it really startled him. It freaked him out a little. Although, when you offered to treat his wounds, speaking to him as you would anybody else, he looked at you blankly.

You sighed, just doing it anyway, and when you did he jumped. “THAT HURTS” He’ll yelp, trying to snatch his arm back.

“STOP MOVING, YOU’LL REOPEN IT.”

After much struggle, he’ll feel a little warm and fuzzy feeling for you being kind to him. When you spoke, he didn’t understand you since you spoke in big words and he’s never heard them before. Although, he did pay attention to your actions. They were all full of meaning, you didn’t do something just to do them. You were full of kindness, and confidence.

After that, he felt a little need to not be mean to you and challenge you. He did steal your food still, he did sometimes bother you. While you were taking notes, doing science experiments, testing methods, working with poison, he’d sometimes mess something up.

Imma be honest- when you were trying to write your letters he sometimes messed around with your pen like a cat and he wouldn’t shut up with questions.

When you realized he didn’t know how to read or write, that’s when you began actually acknowledging him. You held some sort of pity with him. Especially after hearing his backstory, you wanted to expand his brain a little more.

He didn’t really like it at first, he hated learning. He’d doze off, he’d forget so easily. That is, until-

“Seriously? You can’t even do this? There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to.”

That’s when he took up the challenge. He wanted to be the best of the best, and he began trying his best to learn to read or write.

When he learned to write his own name, that’s when you celebrated. You hugged him tightly, praised him, and that really boosted his ego.

You were so smart, and him knowing you were the most intellectual above most people, it drove him to do his best. Seeing how proud something so small made you, it made him want to make you even happier.

After every mission he’d make sure to spend sometime learning from you, small math equations, small science facts. When he realized everything was made of atoms- it blew his mind.

You began finding him attractive. His little success made you want to make him better, spend even more time with him, have him. Eventually, when he came to you asking why he felt the way he did, you explained to him what he was feeling was love.

Inosuke and you began having a relationship after that.

Now, you two spend some time reading children books with him cuddling up to you. You reminded him a bit of his elder guardian, you always gave him such an explosion of happy emotions.

When you went off on your tangent about science, complex math, screaming your cute little rants about literature, he got so happy to see you happy. He wanted to see you do those rants more.

Now he was working to make you happier than anyone else could.

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tanadrin · 6 years ago

Text

Of the many worlds

"There are some--and forgive me if this question seems a bit silly, perhaps you get it from new species all the time--but there are some who worry that with this discovery, with first contact, we humans will struggle in the future - that in understanding ourselves to no longer be alone, we also understand ourselves to no longer be special. Do you find that's often the case when a world discovers it's actually part of a greater interstellar community?"

Ambassador Molkudai cocked his head, putting on an almost quizzical expression; though the interviewer had been warned repeatedly that trying to read human expressions into the alien face was a recipe for misunderstanding. The Ambassador was not unexpressive--his long, narrow face had a kind of elegance, ended in soft lips that moved according to a fixed set of expressions that no doubt were of great significance to those who knew him well, and his large, bright eyes, though they were entirely inhuman in their particulars, nonetheless seemed to impart an electric, curious gaze at everything around him. He sat, awkwardly large, on the soft armchair across from the interviewer, his heavily-muscled, many-limbed body mostly statue-still, except when he made some small gesture for emphasis, though these seemed always to come at strange times and for strange reasons. Resting in one ear was a little electronic device which, the interviewer had been told, was a kind of translator. t was to this he now seemed to be listening.

Molkudai made another quick, fluid gesture. "I am afraid I find the question difficult," he said. His English was slow and heavily accented. Despite the translator, the interviewer was told, the Ambassador had had to learn English like everyone else. What was the point of the thing, then? But for eight weeks of study since first contact, he was doing remarkably well.

"Why do you fear you are lesser, for not being alone?"

"I suppose lesser isn't the word I would use," the interviewer said. "Not diminished in our capacities, only in our... rarity? Our value?"

The ambassador paused to listen to his translator again.

"I am not certain I understand. The concepts are a little strange to me, I think."

"We can move on to another question, if you'd prefer?" They'd already had to do this a few times. There were some questions people insisted on asking questions that even the interviewer--who was a journalist and a TV presenter, not a scientist--could have told them would just be confusing and frustrating for everyone involved. Religion, Earth politics, perceptions of Earth culture. I mean, honestly, they had landed less than three months ago--they barely had enough time to form an opinion on the weather, even *without* the language barrier. "Another issue of vocabulary, perhaps."

"No. Not at all," Molkudai said. "I mean, the question is perfectly intelligible to me. It is an issue of... values."

The interviewer perked up a little at this. The ambassador and his colleagues had been surprisingly cagey on their own values and beliefs in all their interactions with the humans so far--perhaps some kind of Prime Directive thing?

"You are creatures of rarity, yes? Creatures of loneliness-in-the-world?"

"I'm afraid I have to admit that this time I don't understand, Ambassador."

The ambassador fiddled with his translator for a moment.

"Scarcity economics?"

The interviewer raised an eyebrow. He knew what the aliens thought of their economic system, anyway.

"No, that is not the term. Infernal device!" The ambassador plucked the translator from his ear and slipped it into a pocket. "Useful for some things. Not others. Forgive me. It is... a help-of-memory, for words I do not know. We use them also to translate the things that are beyond language. Habits of the body, of the expression, of gesture. And for simulating the minds of aliens."

"Are we so strange?" the interviewer said, smiling.

"Yes and no. And this is what I mean. You are not so strange to me, an arnovate of the motile stage. Not much stranger than are most of my alien colleagues. Your body, your language, your psychology is that of a savannah-runner, a family-clan-maker, a gatherer, a live-young-birther, conditioned to life around your yellow sun, in a place where the trees fail and give way to grasses. You are not so far removed from that past that that is where your mind yet rests, just as I am not so far removed from the foggy swamps and the glowing nights of my ancient past--and where my most ancient kindred would have died of heatstroke and dehydration in an afternoon in your ancestral environment, yours would have succumbed instantly to the crushing pressure of mine. Yet even across bodies developed for such different places, and minds developed for such bodies, and cultures developed for such minds, we may speak. How very fortunate."

"With some help from technology."

"Less than we might hope."

The interviewer laughed. "Quite so, quite so. But this goes back to my question, I suppose: you and the other ambassadors have said that life out there"--gesturing vaguely up at the ceiling--"is very diverse. A dizzying array of species and worlds and cultures, many at very different stages of development. Cooperating, or at least not constantly fighting. In our own stories, we've often fancied ourselves unique, in some ways. Perhaps superior, at least in the narrow things we particularly prize. I guess we've had only other Earth animals to compare ourselves to. But I'd lay odds we must be quite average compared to the rest of the universe."

"Rarity, scarcity. Value in rarity, that is what I mean. Savannah-hunters, still! Mindset of fear of winter, fear of starvation, fear of loss. Must a thing be rare to have value? Is a star less brilliant for being part of a shoal of jewels in the night sky? I think not."

"Forgive me, but that seems a rather anemic platitude."

"Perlin noise."

"What?"

"Apologies. My mouth races ahead. Bear with an explanation, please.

"There are mathematical ways of generating pseudorandom noise; one such quick and easy method is called in English 'Perlin noise,' I believe. To the human or arnovate eye, the underlying mathematical formula is invisible. It is unpredictable, for we are, in the grand scheme of the universe, quite mathematically stupid, though perhaps if we were cleverer it would seem no more random than a list of the natural numbers, who next value can be quite easily inferred. Yet for all the randomness of such noise, it is not diverse. The pattern-recognition capacities of our brains, though very different in how they operate, would both be quickly bored by an endless sea of Perlin noise. No two regions would be quite alike--but none would be dissimilar enough from the others to justify our interest.

"You fear, maybe, that because the universe is filled with life, there will be nothing in the end to distinguish a human much. That here, on this world, are other savannah-hunters who give birth to a small number of live young; here on another world, city-builders struggling with the consequences of rapid industrialization; here, on another, and throughout our region of the galaxy, others unlike you in some details but like you in enough generalities that Earth must necessarily be nothing more than a footnote in the history of civilization.

"I wish to emphasize to you how utterly and entirely mistaken you are. Your error cuts to my heart like a spear of grief, for in it I see, I think, some of the ancient loneliness and privation of your kind. Out of it, you are accustomed to giving value to rarity, to prizing gold as much for its uncommon occurrence as for its shine. Alas! your view of the universe is too watery, too thin."

"It's not just about rarity, is it?" said the interviewer. "It may be a human value, but I don't think it's a foolish one, to want to feel like your life has purpose. What, in a vast, crowded cosmos, can any individual human hope to contribute in the way of math or science or art that hasn't already been done a million times before?"

The ambassador laughed--well, did whatever his version of laughing was. "Not at all a strictly human feeling. Yet I am delighted to inform you, you are still in error! Hmm, how to say..." He seemed to think for a long moment.

"I am no physicist, but my physicist friends inform me that, though often elegant and beautiful, the laws governing nature contain great depth and sophistication. And as you observe, the universe is vast--possibly infinite. Let us for argument’s sake restrict ourselves to a finite universe. A bounded one, even if it is in practical terms bounded only by the horizon of our best telescopes and the swiftest beams of light.

"For all the diversity of the configuration of matter and energy within this vast but finite universe, the term 'infinity' might still reasonably apply. For between the Big Bang and the death of the last star, no human, no arnovate, no machine intelligence of the highest order, could compute the total interesting configurations of matter and energy within that volume; to say nothing of the uninteresting ones as well.

"And even attending to the iron laws of physics, the merciless laws of physics, the tyrannical cruelty which requires our ships to limp at relativistic fractions across the voids between the stars, life may arise in an astounding variety of conditions. To be sure, chemistry favors some configurations over others. Worlds that teem with life are confined to a narrow band around long-lived, stable stars. Worlds on which that life masters steel and fire and interplanetary travel must have conditions which favor metallurgy and orbital flight. All true, all true. Constraints toward a common middle, perhaps. Limits on diversity.

"But oh, how foolish we are to suppose that even in that island in an island in an island of possibility there is in any practical sense a limit! Within those confines, the configuration space of environments, of biology, of evolutionary solutions to environmental problems, is still vast. Vast beyond reckoning! And of everything *else* that ensues--of minds which are built on these evolutionary substrates, of cultures and languages built on those minds--the scope of possibility blossoms outward yet again. Beyond exponential. Finite, maybe, in some austere and philosophical sense. Not in any practical one.

"You are thinking of the living worlds as banks of snow, yes? Fields of perlin noise. From far away, all the same. I shall tell you how we see the matter.

"Your sun was picked out as a candidate star for habitable exoplanets in the 102nd stellar survey from the star Daiamirra, and the presence of an oxygen-bearing world in the habitable zone confirmed two hundred and seven years later, when the first survey ships were able to get close enough to take careful readings. The instant this was confirmed--protocol at the time dictated at least five transits, though the scouts were overeager, and observed only three--a message was transmitted back to the Contact Institute to prepare a mission.

"When we received that message, every world around Daiamirra celebrated for seventy-four days. We declared the holiest of holidays, one that would be commemorated for all time. We sent word of our discovery to every inhabited star system within reach; even now, centuries since, I expect that that message is still winding its way from star to star, and I assure you, as certainly as I know that one and one is two, on every world that that message is received, the most solemn and the most joyous rituals are observed; the most abject thanks given to whatever gods are worshipped.

"And Earth is not unique in that respect. For each of the ten thousand living worlds, it has ever been the same. But even being one among ten thousand, it shall never be said Earth is not rare, or Earth is not beautiful. Its rarity and its beauty is utterly undiminished, though it is set against ten thousand planets equally rare and equally beautiful. And for each new world we find, our hearts are moved to joy and grief at once: joy, that we are so much less alone! Joy, that the universe contains such wonders in it! Grief, that they are so far away; that until our swift scouts and our alien gifts reach them, they shall believe themselves unknown, or forgotten.

"I know of no world even remotely like Earth. And I have studied thousands of worlds. I know of no world of brilliant blue skies where vast leviathans sing slow songs beneath the waves. I know of no world where the moon sometimes is framed by the sun as a burning ring, let alone where this event is so common that every tongue on the planet has a word for it. I know of no world of deep misty jungles where nonetheless ancient stone cities were raised, of no world where the silent can speak with their hands, of no world that burned two cities with nuclear fire then never used that terrible weapon again. I know of no world which, on visiting their satellite, left behind a message of peace, to whatever traveler might pass by in some distant day; I know of no world with your wars, and your sorrows, and your triumphs, for all these things are yours and yours alone, and I marvel, I revel, that I have lived to learn of them and see them.

"There is no world like yours. There is no people like yours. There is no world like Daiamir-Sho, with its towers that pierce the atmosphere; there is no world like Utashanna, whose forests are perpetually burning; there is no world like Farren, high above a deadly pulsar, whose people have never seen the sky; there is no world like Cairasten, all whose deserts are replaced by endless flowering meadows for one day every hundred years. And oh! You do not know of the lives of the saints of Irenost, the holiest martyrs in all the galaxy; you do not know of the joy of Ucaren, who redeemed a world from death; or of Palas, who bargained with the gods for the sake of all Creation, or of her sister, who crowned herself with the pains of hell to save her. You of course have your own tales and your own histories--but so does every world, and they are alike only in that they are as full of beauty and horror and triumph and ruin as yours.

"Earth is not a grain of sand on a beach. It is more like... a moment of time, within all the moments that make up a life. Nor do we, of the stars beyond, overlook its souls: for in microcosm, every soul is like a world. Like a world, a soul is vast, and full of things which are beautiful, and things profane.

"There is a ritual--once unique to the world of my home, but I have endeavored to commend it to others, and so I shall now commend it to you, and all who are listening. The ritual is thus: choose an arbitrary instant in time. Now, say, as my hand strikes the arm of this chair. In that moment, somewhere--on Earth, on Daiamir-Sho, on Utashanna or Cairasten, or somewhere yet unknown to us--a new soul has come into being. You do not know its name, its future, its family, or its condition. You know only that it exists. But that is holy. That is a thing of joy beyond all words. Hold that solemn and that joyful thought in your mind; carry it with you like a warm, comforting jewel. You may perform the inverse as well, of course, to mourn the dead whose names you do not know; to mourn the dead who will be forever forgotten. But you must remember, if you do, that they did live; and without all such lives, even the forgotten ones, we would not be here to seek one another out, to speak, to share our fates, to look up when the sun is hidden from view, and to observe the shining stars."

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Language of the birds..In mythology, medieval literature, occultism, mystical, perfect divine language, green language, Adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated.

YOUNG CHILDREN HAVE an uncanny ability to pick up new languages. Not only do they soak up vocabulary, they also construct new sentences of their own. This ability to use grammar is the essence of language. It’s not enough to know the meanings of words, you also have to understand the structures and rules by which words are put together.

The predominant view has been that humans are unique in this ability. But any time that we utter the words ‘uniquely human’, scientists seem to take it as a challenge to disprove this notion. And language is no exception. If you’re looking for the species that most closely matches our linguistic prowess, surprisingly, you won’t find it in the apes, the primates, or even in the mammals. You have to travel to a far more distant relative, all the way to a family of birds known as the songbirds.

The vocal life of a songbird is similar to ours in many ways. They learn songs by imitating their elders. Like human speech, these songs are passed down from one generation to the next. Songbirds are also best equipped to learn songs in their youth, and they have to practice to develop their ability. They can improvise and string together riffs into new songs, and over generations these modified songs can turn into new dialects. And like us, they come hard-wired with ‘speech-centers’ in their brain that are dedicated to language processing.

But languages are not just learned, they can also be invented. A striking example comes from the deaf community of Nicaragua in the 1970s. Back then, deaf people in Nicaragua were isolated both physically and through language. By the 1980s, the government set up schools for the deaf to teach them Spanish and how to lip-read. This turned out to be an unsuccessful endeavor. The teachers were growing increasingly frustrated as they were not getting through to the students.

However, things were quite different from the point of view of the students. For the first time, they were in contact with many other deaf people, and they started to exchange gestures that they had invented in isolation. At first the teachers thought this gesticulation was a kind of mime, but the reality was far more interesting. By getting together and pooling their ideas, these children had actually invented a new type of sign language, complete with its own grammatical structure. Here was proof that a new language could be born out of cultural isolation, a testament to our innate abilities to understand grammar. And in a few generations, users of this language were employing newer, more nuanced grammatical structures.And this re-invention of language has been mirrored in the songbirds. An experiment from 2009 by Fehér and colleagues took newly hatched songbirds of the zebra finch species and raised them in sound proof chambers. They did this during their critical period of language development. Much like the Nicaraguan children, these birds were raised in a world without song. What happened next is quite surprising.

Just like the children, this culturally isolated generation of birds began to develop their own songs. These songs were less musical than your typical songbird song – they had irregular rhythms, they would stutter their notes, and the notes would sound more noisy. But the researchers were curious where this would lead. They listened to the songs of the next few generations of pupils, the offspring of these children of silence. What they found was quite amazing. In just two generations, the songs started to change in unexpected ways – they were becoming more musical. In fact, they started to converge upon the song of the wild songbirds, even though none of these birds had ever heard the wild songs.

I find this a rather poetic thought – these songbirds are somehow carrying within them the songs of their ancestors. This study suggests, but does not prove, that songbirds must have an innate understanding of the structures of their language. In other words, they seem to have a built-in intuition about grammar. Over time, they may be using these intuitions to develop their phrasing and tone. n mythology, medieval literature and occultism, the language of the birds is postulated as a mystical, perfect divine language, green language, Adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated.The “language of birds” has many names; some call it the “Language of the Gods”, others the “Green language”. Michael Sells has referred to this “sacred language” as the “language of unsaying”, whereby the core of what needs to be said, is actually not said, though everyone understands what is being said. The “language of birds” is therefore the mystical language, by default an unpopular subject amongst scholars, specifically because of the apparent lack of “clarity”: a clear and distinct sense. The sense is inferred. And whereas this may be possible to map in extant languages, when it comes to extinct languages, or even extant languages the way they were spoken in the past, grasping this “undefined core sense” is not an easy task.

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The link with green – as in the Green Language – as the colour of alchemy is never far away, specifically as alchemy is equally “obscure” in its words. Alchemy is not so much obscure in what it tried to do; even when it is clear that the process described is chemical in nature, the substances themselves are difficult if not impossible to identify. Birds are also present in alchemy, specifically the phoenix that rises from its own ashes. But a peacock, the pelican, the white swan and the black crow all feature in alchemy. Birds in general represented the element air, but at the same time, their flight was identical to the ascension to heaven. The phoenix also incorporated the element fire, thus portraying the union of two elements and its transformative – regenerative – outcome. What is “bird language”? On first inspection, it would be the language that the birds use to communicate amongst themselves. It is a language the birds understand, but we humans do not. Largely, it is a system of human communication, which has been around for a very long time, but which is ill-understood. Then again: the ability not to be understood unless by those who were initiated into the language was actually its purpose. Fulcanelli stated that the alchemists had to resort to this means in order to obscure from one that which was to be disclosed to the other. To many, the language of birds is therefore nothing more or less than a series of secret codes and phrases, which pass by in daily conversation, except for those with ears that “hear”. The most famous example of this today are certain key words, learned amongst Masons. Each group and grade of Masons has their own specific keywords, which are largely unrecognisable when spoken in daily conversation. Some of these expressions have nevertheless become part of normal parlance. One Masonic expression is “to give someone the third degree”, referring to the strenuous initiation a third degree mason had to undergo. This, together with a series of handshakes and other signals, identify a person and his role – whereby a non-Mason sitting in on the conversation may be totally unaware of what is going on.

English is largely void of a “green nature”, whereas French seems to be full of it. The words “L’hasard” – coincidence – and “Lazare” – Lazarus – are pronounced identically. But in certain conversations, people will play with these two words, and ask whether it is “L’hasard” or “Lazare”, whereby it is interpreted that “Lazare” is no coincidence at all. Anyone not “in” on the conversation will be completely bewildered and will not understand.

In the final outcome, it is nevertheless clear that Masonic and the “green language” as present in French is more a system of codes than a specific “language”. If anything, they seem to be only remains of what was once perhaps a vast system of knowledge. Some have described the “language of birds” as “the tongue of Secret Wisdom. Its vocabulary is myth. Its grammar is symbolism.” They argue that the development of the written language and the language of birds go hand in hand. According to the Fables of Caius Juliius Hyginus, the god Mercury (the Greek Hermes) invented the alphabet by watching cranes, because “cranes make letters as they fly”. The Egyptian god of writing is Thoth, and his animal is actually a bird: the ibis. For the Egyptians, hieroglyphics therefore was the language of birds – and one often recurring hieroglyph is a bird itself.

Hieroglyphics is a symbolic system of writing. Some have argued that hieroglyphs were indeed the “sacred – secret – language” of the Gods, specifically because they were symbols – and the Egyptians only used them within a religious setting. Though they were an alphabet, it is felt that at some point, the symbol itself had a meaning, which is now lost. What Champollion was able to decode, was only the basest of its nature – and no-one has since been able to fathom its deepest meaning. The origin of the “bird language” may go back to primitive societies. When shamans enter a trance, they attempt to speak the language of nature; they are said to speak “the language of birds”. Historians of religion have documented this phenomenon around the entire world and depictions of shamans with wings or as a bird are common.

One biblical example is King Solomon. Solomon was told that he would “be able to understand the language of the birds and beasts… Then Solomon woke up from his dream. He wondered if God had really spoken to him or whether it had been a spirit beguiling him in his dreams. Then he heard the birds squawking and twittering to each other in his garden below. He heard one suddenly cry out, ‘Silly birds — stop all this noise! Don’t you know that the God has just given Solomon the ability to understand what we say and to make us do as he wishes!’” In these societies, bird language is usually learnt by eating snake or some other magical animal. These animals can reveal the secrets of the future because they are thought to be receptacles for the souls of the dead or epiphanies of the gods. The birds are psychopomps, as birds were believed to undertake the ecstatic journey to the sky and beyond; they made the voyage to the Otherworld. Equally, serpents were said to be able to understand the language of birds.

In Christian tradition, some saints are said to have communicated with the animals, whereas the exploits of St Patrick in Ireland, which involves both flight and snakes, clearly have the saint following in the footstep of the “Celtic shamans”. Still, Robert Temple has argued that this “language of birds” was in essence a large con, practiced by the oracles of the ancient world. He argues that the “language of birds” was in fact a form of communication: birds were used as messenger services, as they would be throughout history, until the advent of modern means of communication. The ancient Greek world would use them to dispatch information across the nation, whereby the oracles were the first to receive this information. Therefore, Temple claims, what they prophesized was not so much “Otherworldly”, but merely information from elsewhere in this world, dispatched by “express pigeon”, to give the oracles the semblance of psychic ability. Most authors, including Andrew Collins, in From the Ashes of Angels: The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race, argue that the origins of the association of the bird and the shaman should be sought within the anthropological realm. He and others have shown that shamans often dressed up as a bird, or used the feathers of a bird to resemble a bird. From a man dressed with feathers to an angel is a small step. Furthermore, the link between the shaman and the bird occurs specifically because in a trance, the shaman is said to be able to fly – like angels. But the connection goes beyond this. In the tenth Homiliarum in Ezcechielem, Gregory the Great compared the music of the angels, heard in the heavenly spheres, to birds’ singing. This was then encapsulated in the “Gregorian chants” that became famous throughout the Christian world – and which continue to lure people to churches.

Still, the angels were said not to speak; like birds, they articulated sounds in the air. At the same time, the sound that was produced was not their mode of communication; angels – like shamans – were believed to be psychic – they only required thoughts to communicate; there was no need for a “language” and the “music of the spheres” was merely the outcome; in short, music had to be dissociated from its lyrics, for in origin, music was either felt to be instrumental, or “Gregorian”. People who are fluent in several languages – including many autistic people – know that thinking often occurs in symbols. They will see an apple, but need to scan their brain for the word, sometimes in all languages, some only in a few. Learning to speak is exactly that: the process by which we associate words with shapes. “Apple.” “House.” “Car.” Words such as “altruistic” or “disingenuous” only come about at a much later state; not because they are more difficult, but because they themselves require a definition that is based on other words.

So where does this leave the language of birds? Some argue that modern languages are a diminutive form of an original, “non-linguistic language”, which is precisely the origin of the “language of birds”. It echoes the story of the Tower of Babel and the scattering of the tongues. It is therefore an interesting phenomenon to note that English, which is a very basic language when compared to other extinct and extant forms of verbal communication, is making major inroads in uniting the world once again in a common tongue. Some have even joked that we are getting God back on the Tower of Babel.

So where does this leave the language of birds? Was it indeed a communication of symbols – whereby the core needs to be divined, and remains elusive, unless “understood”? Does it underline the old distinction between “hearing” and “understanding”? Was hieroglyphics an attempt to bring down into the material world this “divine language”, whereby symbols were transformed into letters – whereby we are now no longer able to grasp their core meanings? Birds in the Egyptian alphabet include the Egyptian vulture, the owl and the quail chick. As such, each played a part in the divine utterances of the Egyptian gods, and their message to the nation. But it was the Bennu bird’s cry at the creation of the world that marked the beginning of time… for the Egyptians, the primeval scream was that of a bird… Language of the Birds as “the language which teaches the mystery of things and unveils the most hidden truths.” Often called the Green language or language of the gods, this sacred form of communication is believed to reveal the most perfect knowledge and secret wisdom to those initiated into its wonder.

Considering the different names applied to this hidden language may provide hints on how it is learned or re-discovered. The association of the language with the color green gives the impression the language is one which comes with new life or a reconnection. As mentioned, while discussing The Green Cross, the color green has been seen for centuries to signify rebirth. A possible indication a person who understands the mysterious green language may have been spiritually awakened.

Taking into account other clues, one may ponder the attributes of birds for their relation to the mysterious wisdom. Most notably are the bird’s songs. Music is well known to hold great power. If man is quiet enough, the beautiful sounds relax and uplift. A pastor friend, who has worked with terminally ill patients, shares the following comforting effects of song; “in knowing their time has come, prepared to go, but struggling to let go, I ask if they mind if I hum a song to ease them. Humming a tune and holding their hand, the soothing sound soon connects to something deep within and they peacefully pass.”

Although this account is one of sadness, it conveys the strong touching sense of harmonious song. Perhaps the Language of the Birds is a music which speaks straight to the soul. To know a connection to the Divine, here now on Earth, could bring a welcomed peace to the common demands and bustle of this world.

Fulcanelli stated it was through Jesus sending his Spirit to his Apostles that caused the green language to be revealed to them. One may wonder if the song of the Dove, symbol of the Spirit, may be of importance to understanding the secret language; or if there is a link to Psalms 40:1, “He puts a new song in my mouth.”

However, the Language of the Birds transcends systems and has been seen in various ways for thousands of years. During the founding of the city of Rome in 753 BC, Romulus and Remus are said to have settled an argument about which hill to build the first site, by use of Augury. Augury is a form of divination by birds. The flight formation, noises, or kinds of birds (a language of birds) were believed to reveal the will of the gods. Romulus, seeing more birds than Remus, claimed victory, and went on to build around Palatine Hill. From this myth, this language of the birds is recognized to communicate the Will from above.

In Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, there is mention of another parallel form of divination; the divining of the liver, called haruspicy. Most commonly used was that of a sheep liver, but sometimes the liver of poultry was known to be employed. The liver, seen as a life force, was regarded like a mirror of heaven. Different marks noticed on different sections would convey the will of the Gods to the sage.

This practice is identified with an ancient board game called the Royal Game of Ur or Game of Twenty Squares. Dating back to 2600BC, the game held deep spiritual significance. Like many ancient games, they have been discovered buried inside tombs and believed to aid in the afterlife. Played during life, possibly during rituals, they offered assurance of a life after death.

Found etched on a model of a sheep liver at excavations of Kamid el Loz was a board of Twenty Squares. This clay model is believed to have been used to teach and/or record the results of divination by the liver. The combination of game board and clay liver model, used for divination, attests the mutual importance of sacredness to both.

Curiously, on a cuneiform tablet written in 177 BC, rules for playing the game of Twenty Squares were inscribed and included names of five gaming pieces characterized as birds; Storm-bird, Rooster, Swallow, Raven, and Eagle. Although the tablet discloses directions for game playing (as translated by Irving Finkel), these ‘five flying game pieces’, portray birds which could signify the remnants of past divination beliefs. Here, the birds, moving across the board, recorded and revealed the will of the gods by spaces they landed on. The Language of Birds, seen again, to communicate knowledge from above with rolls of the dice.

On a brief side note, another interesting game board of Twenty Squares (of different design) was formed from the image of an entwining snake. Inside the coils were the spaces to land on. Where the head and tail of the snake met (similar to ouroborus), marked the position where the player’s piece was believed to have escaped the ‘board’.

Talking about games may seem to some as a distraction from discovering the meaning of the Language of the Birds. However, games have transcended and spread through all cultures. They are one of the first inventions of civilizations and often incorporate beliefs and visions of the time. Many symbolized and represented deeper meanings to life.

A 1283 AD manuscript, called Alfonso X’s Book of Games begins by saying games were created because “God wanted man to have every manner of happiness.” Games were said to give that delight. In the same manuscript, games are used to demonstrate crucial values of life. Playing the games gave awareness and experience to situations found outside of the game.

Presently, there is a game called Mad Gab which some people may like to see Fulcanelli and Henri Boudet play (if it were possible). Boudet was the author of The True Celtic Language and the Cromlech of Rennes-les-Bains. The game of Mad Gab shares one of the important concepts suggested by these two men; the play of words by sound. Fulcanelli connects it with the Language of the Birds.

An example of this coded language is shared within Gerard de Sede’s book, The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau. Sede writes, “But Boudet pretends, against all the evidence, that “Cayrolo” comes from three English words, namely “key”, “ear”, and “hole”.”

Reverse of the Mad Gab game, the sound of Cayrolo hid three words. In Mad Gab, the words are given, like “Pretty Share Weighs.” These need ‘sounded’ to provide the answer of “British Airways.” Players are encouraged to ‘listen’ in order to discover.

For many, the Maranatha puzzle or researching the mystery of Rennes le Chateau offers a playing field for which the game pieces move. Discovery of the language of the birds may be only one of the spaces or could offer the means to move onto another ‘space.’

To wonder what voice could accomplish Fulcanelli’s description of the Green Language in ability to reveal ‘the most hidden truths’, may lead some to feel it is none other than the first, green, voice; the Will of God. It’s possible that in order to hear it, one must be silent and listen.

Contents 1History 1.1Mythology 1.1.1Norse mythology 1.1.2Greek mythology 1.2Middle Eastern folklore 1.3Folklore 1.4Alchemy 1.5Literature and culture 2See also 3Notes 4Bibliography 5External links History[edit] In Indo-European religion, the behavior of birds has long been used for the purposes of divination by augurs. According to a suggestion by Walter Burkert, these customs may have their roots in the Paleolithic when, during the Ice Age, early humans looked for carrion by observing scavenging birds.[1]

There are also examples of contemporary bird-human communication and symbiosis. In North America, ravens have been known to lead wolves (and native hunters) to prey they otherwise would be unable to consume.[2][3] In Africa, the greater honeyguide is known to guide humans to beehives in the hope that the hive will be incapacitated and opened for them.

Dating to the Renaissance, birdsong was the inspiration for some magical engineered languages, in particular musical languages. Whistled languages based on spoken natural languages are also sometimes referred to as the language of the birds. Some language games are also referred to as the language of birds, such as in Oromo and Amharic of Ethiopia.[4]

Ukrainian language is known as "nightingale speech" amongst its speakers.[citation needed]

Mythology[edit] Norse mythology[edit] In Norse mythology, the power to understand the language of the birds was a sign of great wisdom. The god Odin had two ravens, called Hugin and Munin, who flew around the world and told Odin what happened among mortal men.

The legendary king of Sweden Dag the Wise was so wise that he could understand what birds said. He had a tame house sparrow which flew around and brought back news to him. Once, a farmer in Reidgotaland killed Dag’s sparrow, which brought on a terrible retribution from the Swedes.

In the Rígsþula, Konr was able to understand the speech of birds. When Konr was riding through the forest hunting and snaring birds, a crow spoke to him and suggested he would win more if he stopped hunting mere birds and rode to battle against foemen.

The ability could also be acquired by tasting dragon blood. According to the Poetic Edda and the Völsunga saga, Sigurd accidentally tasted dragon blood while roasting the heart of Fafnir. This gave him the ability to understand the language of birds, and his life was saved as the birds were discussing Regin’s plans to kill Sigurd. Through the same ability Áslaug, Sigurd’s daughter, found out the betrothment of her husband Ragnar Lodbrok, to another woman.

The 11th century Ramsund carving in Sweden depicts how Sigurd learnt the language of birds, in the Poetic Edda and the Völsunga saga The 11th century Ramsund carving in Sweden depicts how Sigurd learnt the language of birds, in the Poetic Edda and the Völsunga saga.

Sigurd is sitting naked in front of the fire preparing the dragon heart, from Fafnir, for his foster-father Regin, who is Fafnir’s brother. The heart is not finished yet, and when Sigurd touches it, he burns himself and sticks his finger into his mouth. As he has tasted dragon blood, he starts to understand the birds’ song. The birds say that Regin will not keep his promise of reconciliation and will try to kill Sigurd, which causes Sigurd to cut off Regin’s head. Regin is dead beside his own head, his smithing tools with which he reforged Sigurd’s sword Gram are scattered around him, and Regin’s horse is laden with the dragon’s treasure. is the previous event when Sigurd killed Fafnir, and shows Ótr from the saga’s beginning. In an eddic poem loosely connected with the Sigurd tradition which is named Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, the reason why a man named Atli once had the ability is not explained. Atli’s lord’s son Helgi would marry what was presumably Sigurd’s aunt, the Valkyrie Sváfa.

Greek mythology[edit] According to Apollonius Rhodius, the figurehead of Jason’s ship, the Argo, was built of oak from the sacred grove at Dodona and could speak the language of birds. Tiresias was also said to have been given the ability to understand the language of the birds by Athena. The language of birds in Greek mythology may be attained by magical means. Democritus, Anaximander, Apollonius of Tyana, Melampus and Aesopus were all said to have understood the birds.

The ‘birds’ are also mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey : "“[…] although I am no prophet really, and I do not know much about the meaning of birds. I tell you he will not long be absent from his dear native land, not if chains of iron hold him fast. He will find a way to get back, for he is never at a loss."[5]

Middle Eastern folklore[edit] In the Quran, Suleiman (Solomon) and David are said to have been taught the language of the birds.[6] Within Sufism, the language of birds is a mystical divine language. The Conference of the Birds is a mystical poem of 4647 verses by the 12th century Persian poet Attar of Nishapur.[7]

In the Jerusalem Talmud,[8] Solomon’s proverbial wisdom was due to his being granted understanding of the language of birds by God.

In Egyptian Arabic, hieroglyphic writing is called "the alphabet of the birds".[citation needed]

Folklore[edit] The concept is also known from many folk tales (including Welsh, Russian, German, Estonian, Greek, Romany), where usually the protagonist is granted the gift of understanding the language of the birds either by some magical transformation, or as a boon by the king of birds. The birds then inform or warn the hero about some danger or hidden treasure. One example is the Russian story The Language of the Birds.[citation needed]

Alchemy[edit] In Kabbalah, Renaissance magic, and alchemy, the language of the birds was considered a secret and perfect language and the key to perfect knowledge, sometimes also called the langue verte, or green language (Jean Julien Fulcanelli, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa de occulta philosophia, (Emmanuel-Yves Monin, Hieroglyphes Français Et Langue Des Oiseaux),[citation needed]

Literature and culture[edit] Compare also the rather comical and satirical Birds of Aristophanes and Parliament of Fowls by Chaucer.

In medieval France, the language of the birds (la langue des oiseaux) was a secret language of the Troubadours, connected with the Tarot, allegedly based on puns and symbolism drawn from homophony, e. g. an inn called au lion d’or ("the Golden Lion") is allegedly "code" for au lit on dort "in the bed one sleeps".[9]

René Guénon has written an article about the symbolism of the language of the birds.[10]

Chinese writer Pu Songling wrote about "The Bird Language" in his anthology Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio".

Hiéroglyphes Français Et La Langue Des Oiseaux, Editions du Point d’Eau by Emmanuel Yves-Monin is a systematic study on the subject but is only available in French.[citation needed]

The artificial language zaum of Russian Futurism was described as "language of the birds" by Velimir Khlebnikov.[citation needed]

The children’s book author Rafe Martin has written "The Language of Birds" as an adaptation of a Russian folk tale; it was made into a children’s opera by composer John Kennedy.[citation needed]

Melanesian creole Tok Pisin is sometimes called "language of the birds", because the word "pisin" has a double meaning (from English words "pidgin" and "pigeon"). Mian speakers, for example, refer to Tok Pisin as wan weng, literally "bird language".

See also[edit] Bird vocalization Confusion of tongues Glossolalia Musical language Notes[edit] ^ Marzluff, John M.; Tony Angell (2007). In the Company of Crows and Ravens. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 284–287. ISBN 0-300-12255-1. ^ McDougall, Len (2004). The Encyclopedia of Tracks and Scats. Globe Pequot. p. 296. ISBN 1-59228-070-6. ^ Tipton, Diane (2006-07-06). "Raven Myths May Be Real". Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Retrieved 2017-10-29. ^ Kebbede Hordofa and Peter Unseth. 1986. "Bird Talk" in Oromo. Quaderni di Studi Etiopici 6-7:74-83 ^ The Odyssey – Chapter 1 – What Went On in the House of Odysseus ^ 27:16 "And Solomon inherited David. He said, "O people, we have been taught the language of birds, and we have been given from all things. Indeed, this is evident bounty." ^ METmuseum.org ^ Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1909 ^ Letarot.com ^ René Guénon – Symbols of Sacred Science, Chapter 9 – The Language of birds Bibliography[edit]

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Animal Symbolism in Celtic Mythology, by Lars Noodén (1992) Davidson, H.R. Ellis. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, NY, US, 1988. Yves Monin (Emmanuel), Hiéroglyphes Français Et Langue Des Oiseaux, Editions du Point d’Eau. Richard Khaitzine, La Langue des Oiseaux – Quand ésotérisme et littérature se rencontrent, France-spiritualites.com René Guénon, The Language of the Birds, Australia’s Sufi Magazine "The Treasure" 2 (1998). Ormsby-Lennon, Hugh "Rosicrucian Linguistics: Twilight of a Renaissance Tradition," passim. Ed. Ingrid Merkel, Hermeticism and the Renaissance: Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe (1988), pp. 311 – 341. (in French) Le verland des oiseaux (The Verlan of the Birds) Collection "Pommes Pirates Papillons", Poèmes de Michel Besnier. Illustrations de Boiry, Editions Møtus

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_the_birds

Posted by bernawy hugues kossi huo on 2019-10-14 07:55:27

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spoiled-truth · 5 years ago

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A Lesson In Color Theory (A Response to Echo Gillette’s Video)

Am I a student majoring in art? Not at the moment. Do I have an art related job? Not yet. Can I still put in my two cents and provide a counterargument as to what someone says? Yes. And that’s what I’m here to do.

Echo Gillette is a YouTuber that I watch on occasion. She provides good content that I personally enjoy. However, with one of her most recent videos, “This is not BLUE (a lesson in color theory)”, I felt a seething rage watching the whole video. Why? Because she was wrong on so many levels.

Here’s a link to the video: https://youtu.be/NVhA18_dmg0

If you’re too lazy to click a link that takes you to another website, don’t worry. I gotcha!

The summary of the video is as follows: CMY are the only legit primary colors and other ones such as RBY and RBG are false. Also purple is a fake color. (Apparently).

Now I just want to clarify before delving into this post that I do not hate Echo with a burning passion. In fact, I do not hate her at all. I just want to debunk one of the most common art myths out there that Echo is spreading to the art community.

With that out of the way, lemme tell you the true fact and then I’ll get into all the gritty detail as to why Echo’s video is in fact false:

There are in fact 3 sets of primary colors. Not just 1.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Echo states (at around 0:51) that if you can make “these colors” out of “this” then you’re a freaking magician.

Not including the fact that all of the colors on the left are tints (aka lighter versions of their base value), green can be made with blue and yellow, magenta can be made with primarily red and a touch of blue, and cyan can be made with blue and a touch of yellow. For identical matches, all three would have to have a ton of white mixed in with them.

So call me a magician because I used basic color mixing to get the colors you asked for.

At around 1:20, she makes the bold claim that the RBY model is based on the tradition of passing down pure misinformation. I have yet to see sources of such realities in this case.

Moving on, at around 1:48, she says that printers use CMY(K) because the CMY set of colors are the true primary colors. Which is false. I’ll delve more into why this statement is false a little later.

The 2:20 mark is where things really go up a notch. Echo tries to “prove” that you can make blue, red, and green from cyan, magenta, and yellow.

At 2:30 exactly, she tries to prove that by mixing cyan and magenta, you can get blue.

Aaaaand she gets purple.

But not if she added so much blue--I mean, “cyan”--it canceled out what little magenta she added!

Ah, much better.

Here’s the thing. She takes a lighter blue (the paint is literally called Sky Blue) and just makes a slightly darker blue by barely adding any magenta to it. Cyan is not equal to a lighter blue, but she’s gotta sell her point, so let’s move on.

Now onto making red with yellow and magenta.

Aaaand that is pink, chief. Not red. Well, technically pink is red because pink is a tint of red, but that’s another story for another day.

However, she does say that it may be hard to see the actual color due to the camera. Like in this case here:

To me, the bottom swatch looks like a very vivid orange-red as opposed to an actual red. With paints it’s pink but with markers it’s orange-red. I’ll let the camera excuse slide.

Again, looks more orange-red than red. Depending on who you ask, magenta can actually be made with the RBY and RBG models. You make it with... red and blue. Shocker. You obviously add a lot more red than blue in these cases, but hey, don’t take it from me. Take it from this website here and this other website here. Because magenta is made with primarily red, when mixed with yellow, you’re gonna get an orange-y color, but not completely orange since there is still some blue in the mixture.

At 4:18, Echo says that because we believe that blue and yellow make green and not cyan and yellow, the blue and yellow mixture will always be more desaturated than the cyan and yellow mixture.

Can we all just agree at this point that the “cyan” Echo is using is literally a lighter blue? It’s called Sky Blue for fuck’s sake! Cyan is a mix of blue and green, not a tint of blue.

And on top of that, she chose a really dark blue, so of course the green on the top is gonna be darker and more desaturated than the one at the bottom.

At 4:40, Echo begins to literally contradict herself and it infuriates me to no end! She says, quote: “I think deep down we all know that the way we were taught color is wrong because so many people think that cyan and blue are the same color when they are vastly different hues.”

Cyan and blue are obviously not the same color, so why in the world did you treat a lighter shade of blue as cyan less than a minute ago? You are beginning to deconstruct your entire argument, Echo.

Moving on, at around 5:30, she brings up two different versions of the color wheel, the Munsell Wheel and the Triadic Color Wheel. One is science and the other one is tradition, therefore the Munsell Wheel is correct while the other one is completely false. Supposedly.

Well, if you go on the website, the site states that the Munsell Wheen is based on the RBG and CMY sets of primary colors, not the RBY set. They even state that the wheel is used for light and printing, not painting. (I have no clue why Tumblr ruined the image into an absolute blurry mess, here’s the website so you can read this yourself).

So in reality, the Munsell color wheel is for RBG and CMY while the Triadic color wheel is for RBY. Both are valid in this case, one isn’t fake while the other one’s real.

If you didn’t think I was mad before, go to 6:05 where Echo makes the outrageous claim:

“Purple is a lie. It literally doesn’t exist. It’s a color your brain makes up. That’s why purple is so rare in nature, because it’s not real.”

She literally says that. And then proceeds to debunk everything from that point on.

Also, blue is the rarest color in nature. Just saying. Not purple. All it takes is a simple Google search:

But here’s a link that goes into detail as to why this is the case.

At 6:25, Echo states that purple is the closest word in our vocabulary to magenta. So... purple and magenta are the same color? But they’re not. In the RBY and RGB sets, magenta is made via red and blue, the same two colors used to make purple. However, it’s with different ratios (a lot more red than blue). Therefore, purple and magenta aren’t the same color, they’re two different colors because they are made differently.

At 7:10, she talks about how colors are just waves of light that we perceive with our eyes. Yes, this is true. She literally says that at one end of the spectrum there’s red while at the other there’s purple. She goes on to say that every color can be assigned a number, except for magenta.

A) If purple can be assigned a color (its number is 400), that makes it a real color, correct? So why did you say it wasn’t a real color?

B) If magenta can’t be assigned a number, does it mean that it’s a color that we make up in our head and therefore isn’t a real color? Oh wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

At 7:16, she says, and I quote:

“Magenta is a color that doesn’t have a wavelength.”

So... it’s not real then? Your entire video is crumbling and it’s crumbling quickly.

For the next while, she goes on to explain RBG and eye cone science. All of it seems to add up. She quickly says that if your green and blue cones fire off, it ‘ll make cyan.

Okay, lemme get this straight. At the beginning of the video, you picked up a light shade of blue and called it cyan. Now you’re saying that cyan and blue are two different colors? Girl, make up your mind!

Echo then goes on to explain that magenta is made by your red and blue cones firing off, but green is in the middle and those cones aren’t firing off, so it makes up the color magenta.

Once again, lemme get this straight. At the beginning of the video, you were talking about how magenta is a real color and how it’s a primary color. Now you’re saying it’s not even a real color. Please, just make up your mind! Is CMY the only set of primary colors, or are we gonna actually tell the truth and say there’s more than one set of primary colors?

Now that I’ve completely debunked Echo’s video, it’s time for part 2 of this post.

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Remember how I said in the beginning that there are in fact 3 sets of primary colors, not just 1?

When people say CMY are primary colors, they are indeed right. The whole myth that CMY is the true set of primary colors is a lie based on twisting the truth.

We have 3 sets of primary colors:

RBY

RGB

and CMY

Each set of primary colors have their own uses and purposes. Let’s start with RBY, shall we?

RBY is used in traditional media and traditional media only. Paint, markers, crayons, etc. That is why we are taught this set of primary colors in elementary school. We’re coloring with crayons and paints. This primary color set is used by any artist who does traditional art, primarily painting, but any medium that is traditional, aka not digital or printed out.

However, many many artists use a different set of primary colors: RGB

RGB is used in digital media and digital media only. It’s light as opposed to pigment. Light, screens, digital drawing. All RGB. Whenever you make digital art, you use the RGB color wheel.

However, what if you plan on making merch of your art? Whether it’s stickers, clothing, pins, etc., if it’s being printed out, you use the CMY set of primary colors.

The CMY set is only used for printed media. Whether you’re printing out a picture or full colored document or if you’re having merch made. Either make your art CMY in your art program or you can use the RGB primary colors and then switch it afterward depending on the art program you use and if you can do that.

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In conclusion/TLDR: There isn’t one true set of primary colors that rule over. There are in fact 3 sets of primary colors that all coexist and are used in varying situations. And yes, purple is indeed a real color.

Please do not send any hate to Echo Gillette. I’m simply using her video as an example of a myth that I have seen being spread around like wildfire lately.

If you, for whatever reason, don’t want to believe what I said because I don’t have a profession in art and is so far just a hobby and passion of mine, here’s a post where someone who has gone through art school and has a degree in art debunks a post that spread the CMY myth around.

Thank you for reading. @echoisweird, if you’re reading this, thank you for reading this as well. I have the utmost respect for you, I just hate seeing you spread myths and lies about art.

#art #color theory #primary colors #rby #rgb #cmy #art myth #echo gillette #echo #youtube #youtuber #arttube

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asterinjapan · 5 years ago

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Museum day

Good evening again from a rainy Tokyo!

Well, I think it’s dry now, but it’s been raining for most of the day, I assume due to whatever remains of tropical depression ex-typhoon number 20 of this year. And of course, there is a very easy option to do on a rainy day: visiting museums! Or well, just the one today, haha.

On a rainy day and a national holiday, I for sure wasn’t the only one with that idea, but since Ueno Park houses a ton of museums and a zoo and what not, the crowds still spread out.

So, follow me into the Tokyo National Museum of Nature and Science today!

Actually, I’ve been sort of intending to visit this museum since my very first visit in 2010, when a trip via school let me see a glimpse of the giant blue whale statue (life size!) that marks the entrance. However, visiting a museum is never first on my list when I go to Japan, simply because I want to do so many things. With today’s weather, I didn’t think one of my planned side trips into the mountains was such a good idea, so it was finally time.

As it turns out, entrance for the permanent exhibitions (there was no special one at the moment) was free today! Today is the enthronement of the emperor, so it’s a national holiday, and apparently also a reason to call off entry prices, haha. Once inside, I did get myself a tablet with audio guide, because with this being a broad museum on eh, nature and science, I was already fairly sure my limited vocabulary wouldn’t save me here. The tablet (or plain audio device, you could pick) was 320 yen, and it was extensive. It also offered you guides through the complex, so I picked out the longest one that would lead me through all floors. This was my day plan, after all!

First, I visited the Theater 36◯ (yeah, a circle, not a zero, they’re too cool for a simple zero). True to its name, it’s a movie theater with a screen in 360 degrees all around. You get a free audio device here for languages other than Japanese, and since only 60 people can be inside at once, it’s a wait until you can get in. I killed time by checking the introduction movies on my tablet (featuring a very cute animated triceratops girl), and then I was allowed in.

You stand on a bridge that features glass on both sides, so you can watch underneath. The theater has rotating screenings, and for October, the movie clips are the deep sea and the mantle dynamics and evolution of the Earth. I was actually most excited for the former, but ended up being most impressed by the latter. I think the deep sea clip has been here for longer, because the quality was slightly pixelated at some points. The mantle dynamics movie took you to the center of the earth, and zoomed in and out to a degree that I suddenly understood the warnings that some people might feel light-headed or motion sick here, haha. It’s not that bad, but this screening definitely tricked my brain.

After that, it was time to explore the museum proper! Actually, it consists of two buildings: the global gallery, with 3 floors in the basement and 3 floors on top, and the Japan gallery, which has 3 floors with two wings each. The route I had picked sent me to the first floor of the global gallery first, going up and then starting back down on the third floor basement, and then leading me through the Japan gallery from top to bottom.

The first floor of the global gallery immediately featured the skeleton of an Allosaurus, the first dinosaur to ever be exhibited in Japan, back in 1964. This hall features the history of the planet since the very beginning until, well, now, so that’s a lot to cover and gives a starting point for the rest of the building. It showed off biodiversity, an interactive Tree of Life display where you could follow the lines to see which organisms were linked to each other, and the development of human kind starting with the very first primates to go bipedal. It was a lot, and I noticed my guide skipped some numbers here, but I quickly found out that was on purpose. If you want to listen to all the audio guide points, you need at least two full days here.

I made my way up following the guide to the third floor, where there was an absolutely massive exhibition of specimens of all kinds of mammals and birds, including the in the wild extinct Japanese wolf and tons of deer, bears, other predators, you name it. This was overwhelming and a bit creepy (these animals did die at some point, quite probably due to hunting), but very interesting and it was pretty cool to see these animals that close. There was a play corner around the, eh, corner, for which you need to make reservations in advance, and where kids can play in a climbing construction that seemed to be littered with specimens as well (I assume replicas), so they could get a hands-on approach.

The second floor was dedicated to Japanese inventions starting in the 1600s, and the interaction with other countries that brought this around. There were direct comparisons between Japanese and European measuring devices, which was very interesting, because similar museums back in Europe wouldn’t do something like that due to the distance. Also featured here were the first computers, a replica of the Himawari satellite, Japanese clocks (which are distinctly different, because the time during days and nights was measured at a different pace) and a Global Environment detector, featuring a giant screen that you could interact with to draw up measuring results on all kinds of topics, sometimes even being the actual measurements of that moment. It’s a pretty interactive museum, so there is a lot to see and do.

At this point I took a break, to find out I’d already been wandering around for two hours! And I was barely getting started, oops. So I quickly went down to the basement to find an exhibition on ‘exploring the structure of nature’, or ‘that part where I’m really happy I rented a tablet in English, because I barely even know these terms in English’, haha. It was super interesting though, showcasing a model of a particle accelerator, and a ‘cloud chamber’ in which you could observe cosmic radiation hitting earth, and actual moon rocks and the periodic table with all elements (except the radioactive ones) on display.

Another floor up is one of the more impressive ones, as it houses tons of skeletons of animals throughout the ages, including the biggest mammoth and the earliest human. They had some scarily realistic reconstructions of early humans, so lifelike that I was almost fooled into thinking they were actually people dressing up, haha.

One more floor up is one of the more popular floors, for a very easy reason: dinosaurs! There were quite a few on display, and I never fail to be impressed by the sheer size and variety of them. Not much to say here I guess, except me having a good time because dinosaurs, haha.

I made it back to the Japan gallery (the building I had started in) and after some latte, I carried myself to the third floor. I must confess I started rushing from now on, since it was already 3 PM, but this building is considerably smaller and the guide has fewer, if longer, audio spots. This building is, of course, more dedicated to the Japanese natural history, and guides you through the animals found in Japan’s waters until you find yourself facing a plesiosaurus, Futabasaurus, the first of its kind to be found in Japan. It’s reconstructed as if it’s swimming over your head, very impressive.

One floor down showcases the variety of animals found on the Japanese islands, and one of my favourites: Japanese people throughout the ages, starting in the Jomon period and ending in the Edo era (or the present, if you choose to go stand in the last spot, haha). These featured mannequins in daily life situations that were very realistic, I assume they used the same techniques as in wax museums, because I was seriously impressed, wow.

Near the end of this hall, a group of people had gathered to take pictures. You see, there was another very popular display: Hachiko. Yep, the same dog whose statue sits outside Shibuya station and of which I take a picture every time, so naturally I had to take a picture of the real deal. It’s almost weird to see him in white, his actual color, because the statue is cast in bronze. Hachiko is famous enough to get 2 plaques in English, rather than just a single line translated, haha.

On the first floor, you’ll find instruments from Japan used to throughout the ages to observe nature, including the very important ones of observing seismographic activity, rather vital in a country this active.

Finally, I was back in the basement, which has Foucault’s pendulum and uh, not much else, but I was kind of glad, because I was seriously tired and overwhelmed at this point. I learnt a whole lot today, and actually feel this is a museum you might want to visit in two trips rather than trying to stuff it all into one. I had a great time, though! I took a lot more pictures than I usually do in museums, there was just so much to see.

Of course there is a museum shop, and of course it has a special corner for Hachiko, and uh, now I have a plushie Hachiko, haha. He’s very soft and a very good boy!

It was almost 5 PM, though, so I rushed out and took a quick picture of the whale statue outside before making my way back to the station. The rain had stopped, so I walked from Ikebukuro station to Tokyu Hands to browse until dinner time, which meant I found their origami paper section, so I had a good time here, too, ahem.

Back at the hotel now, and time to go to bed, because it’ll be a long day tomorrow! It should be dry and even sunny, so fingers crossed, haha.

I’m not sure if I will update tomorrow, so for now good night and see you soon!

#report #report: japan 2019 #japan 2019

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catsafarithewriter · 6 years ago

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“Surely you must know - you must know it was all for you.”

A/N: So I ended up watching the third Mummy movie and kinda fell in love with the premise of the Zi Yuan/General Ming romance. If you remember that, you might know where this is going. If not… well, enjoy the ride.

[Note: Sorry for taking so long (I kept changing angles) and sorry for the length… (4K words?!) it was on the verge of becoming a whole fic, if I wasn’t careful!]

It is winter, the first time he meets her.

It is winter, and the air is frosty and the ground is icy and he can’t quite believe that the homely little cottage before him is home to a witch.

But still, he knocks, because he’s chased down more dead ends than he can count, and what difference would one more make? He knocks, and a young woman answers, as ordinary as the cottage she inhabits, except for the crow atop her shoulder, and he allows himself to think that this time, maybe this time, he’s finally found the answer he’s been looking for.

And he bows and introduces himself and he can tell the crow doesn’t like him, but she smiles when he explains his quest awkwardly in a language he has learnt from dusty books, and she doesn’t shut the door in his face so he has to hope it is a good sign.

“Immortality?” she echoes. “Why, that’s easy. Tell your king to eat healthily, exercise often, and mind his own business. Works wonders.”

And, in another time, another life, he might have smiled and thanked her and moved on to the next dead end, but this is this time and this life, so he smiles and thanks her and tells her of the tales that have brought him here. Of the woman who lives by herself in the mountains, who never ages and never sickens, and who knows the secret to eternal life.

“Life is quiet here,” she tells him in return. “People tell tall tales to keep themselves entertained in these cold months. There is nothing for you here. Go home.”

“I cannot,” he says, and she pauses in closing the door.

“You’ve lost your home?” she asks softly.

“Those the king sent out in pursuit of immortality cannot return until they are successful,” he says, and although he never intended it, he sees pity creep into her brown, glimmering eyes. Maybe the rumours are true. Maybe they’re not. But he cannot force anyone to answer to a king that is not their own. Will not. He tips his hat and steps away. “I’m sorry to have wasted your time, miss. Have a good day.”

“Haru.”

He hesitates. “What?”

She steps out from her house, and in the cold winter sunlight, her eyes seem to glimmer more than ever. “My name is Haru. I thought you should know that, if we’re to be travelling together.”

And he doesn’t question why she changed her mind, or if she even does hold the secret to immortality, although he suspects an answer to both. Instead, he tips his hat again, his shoulders dipping into a short bow.

“Baron.”

It is spring when he brings her to the king’s court.

They have travelled across the globe, through the winter, and the snowdrops and crocuses are just beginning to flower as they step back onto his home soil. The air is soft and the world is bright with freshly-grown green and it is a far cry from the snowy mountains of her country. From one island home to another, and she seems to shine in her nominal season.

She stands before his monarch - an ageing man sprawled back in an oversized, extravagant robe and an oversized, extravagant throne - and he translates as she promises immortality. She spins an explanation of elements and magic and the age trapped within those that are ageless, and other things he doesn’t fully understand, and neither does the king, but she speaks with knowledge and all the king cares about is his immortality.

In the autumn, she assures.

In the autumn, when the harvest moon comes, will she be able to administer the secret of immortality.

And so the king dismisses her with a wave of his hand and assigns her to the care of the man who found her.

Spring lingers, and so does Haru as she stands at the garden gate, while Baron returns to a home he hasn’t seen in nearly a decade. She sees the burden of his lost years weigh heavily on his shoulders as he hesitates, but he knocks anyway, just like he knocked at her door half a world away, and a woman opens it. She is their age, tall but not as tall as Baron, bundles of blonde almost-white hair bouncing around her face, and the world goes quiet for heartbeats.

Haru is sure she sees Baron hold his breath.

And then the woman squeals and throws her arms about Baron and draws him into a bone-crunching bear hug that seems at odds with her refined attire.

Baron freezes, and then his arms slowly find their way around the woman. He collapses into the embrace, his shoulders shaking and the resigned strength draining from his body, and Haru drops her gaze from the tearful reunion.

The woman drags Baron inside, calling to the rest of the household, and Haru watches as friends and family converge on their returning companion, and she can’t help but linger at the doorway.

Toto clings sharply to her shoulder, as if he knows the thoughts running through her head, and he’s known her for so long that maybe he does, and she wants to reassure him that he’s wrong, that his companionship is enough, but doesn’t know if that would be a lie. She watches the people of Baron’s life celebrate his return, and she grieves at the lonely existence of an immortal.

Spring passes, but Baron does not.

He has a lifetime to gather back together, a decade’s worth of normality to reclaim, but even so, he stays by her side. As she learns about the country she will call home for the next six months and the local knowledge she needs for her promised magic, she also learns of the occupants of the von Gikkingen household.

She learns of Louise, the woman that greeted them upon arrival and Baron’s twin sister. She is the reason Baron’s affairs are still in order, even after all those years. She speaks enough of Haru’s native tongue to converse, and quickly picks up more, her accent rough but her vocabulary natural and, when Baron isn’t around, Louise often is. Haru wonders if the two siblings are consciously sharing the duty of protecting her between them both.

She learns of Muta, the chef and Baron’s closest friend. He speaks none of her language, but that doesn’t stop him talking. He tries a few recipes from her home country and, although he doesn’t always get it right, he does try. He is blunt and coarse and Haru spends many days helping him work on his latest attempt at Nippon cuisine.

And then she learns of Baron.

She doesn’t mean to, but she does.

She learns his laughter and his smile and the secret amusement in his eyes as his sister tells stories from their childhood. She learns his good tea and his bad tea and the way it tells his quiet thoughts. She learns the sound of his walk, the tap-tap-tap of his cane and the purposeful beat of his strides, and she doesn’t know what to do with this information or why it matters, but it does.

She learns of family and friends and sometimes she wishes she had not.

It is summer when something unspoken changes between them.

It is summer, and the air is hot and heavy and the gardens ablaze with scent and colour, and Haru finds herself lingering longer in the outdoors with Baron, instead of inside with her research. They talk and they laugh and at some point during those sun-soaked hours something settles between them.

They don’t name it.

But it’s there.

It is summer, but no season lasts forever.

It is the end of summer when Baron realises a terrible truth.

He has been watching her work for months now, accumulating ingredients and researching volumes in his library, learning about his country and its people, and although she explains her work the best she can to him, something is amiss.

“I cannot simply use the same ingredients I would in my home country,” she explains when the king’s lackey visits to check up on her progress. “Every land has its own type of magic - I must use the innate magic of your kingdom to make this work. You believe that cats have nine lives, so an element of that must be included. You put stock into the agelessness of your trees, so that plays a part also. To make this magic work, I must know the folklore and beliefs of your people.”

And Baron dutiful translates, and he translates well for the king’s lackey asks little more, but the king’s lackey doesn’t know Haru enough to see the flickering lies in the corner of her mouth. Maybe it’s not all lies. It probably isn’t. But there’s just enough.

“Tell me truly,” he asks one day. “Are you making eternal life?”

She smiles, a wan smile that reminds him that he’s not dealing with a mortal, but someone, something far, far older. “Oh, immortality cannot be given. You are either born with it, or you are not.”

“So it is impossible.”

“The type your king wants, yes.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Watching.��

It is autumn when the king arrives.

He comes in pomp and circumstance, and it is still a month before the harvest moon, but still he comes and the quiet comfort of the von Gikkingen home is thrown into disarray.

Haru stands at Baron’s side and plays the part she is expected to perform, mute and dignified and oblivious to the way the king’s gaze roams over her. Something has changed in his attitude, and maybe it’s because the time is approaching and maybe it’s because the reality of what he asked has dawned, but there is a new interest in the way he looks at her.

There is an instinctive desire to move closer to Baron, but she sees how closely she is watched by the royal entourage and decides against it. Still, she can’t help but lean towards Baron as the king takes her hand and raises it to his lips, and her preference doesn’t go unnoticed by all.

“Baron, tell her how good she’s looking today,” the king drawls, and Baron hesitates at the command. He meets her gaze.

“The king wishes to compliment you on your appearance,” he says.

“Tell him how presumptuous he’s looking today,” Haru returns, and there’s only the slightest flicker of unease in Baron’s eyes at her echoing back a phrase in a language she claims ignorance on, but there’s also relief. However politely Baron is obligated to translate his monarch’s words, she won’t miss anything. Still, her reply won’t do quite yet. She gives a small shake of her head and amends, “Thank him for his words.”

Baron does so, but the king doesn’t move on. He keeps her hand in his own, and she pins down the fluttering sensation of a bird in a cage. She seals it away with a thin smile.

“I’ve been thinking,” the king says, and Baron doesn’t start to translate and she can feel he’s waiting as tightly as she is to hear where this is going, “that once I am immortal, I will need an immortal queen to rule alongside me.”

Baron inhales quietly, but sharply. “Sire…” he begins.

“Tell her that, as thanks for her work, she shall be married to me. It’s only fitting for the great service she’s done this kingdom.”

And Baron moves his gaze to hers, and she can see in his eyes that she knows what has been said and she knows the tone of a man who will not be moved, but still she must try.

“The king wishes to repay you for your efforts with his hand in marriage,” he relays anyway. His tone is light, but his eyes are not.

She bows, even as tightness fills her lungs. “Thank him, but tell him I do not do this for any reward.”

The king only smiles at her answer. “Tell her I insist.”

It is autumn, and the harvest moon is nearly upon them.

Baron lingers by her, her almost-constant companion since the king made his intentions known, and although the air is still warm from summer, it feels cold inside the von Gikkingen home.

“You should go,” he tells her.

“Go where?” she asks.

“Anywhere. As far from the King as you can get.”

“I do not fear the king,” she answers. “And I will not run.”

“You should. He is unaccustomed to not getting what he wants. I don’t know what he’ll do.”

“I am not another possession for him to add to his collection.”

“He does not know the difference. And he will not care. Haru, please–” His voice gives, and for a moment, there is nothing but a broken silence between them. “Why did you come?” he asks eventually. Quietly. “You never planned to give the King immortality, did you?”

“No,” she answers.

“Then why?”

And she looks to him with those eyes that have seen centuries pass and empires rise and fall, and she smiles. “I came because a tired, homesick man turned up on my doorstep, and I took pity. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.”

“And why stay?” he asks.

Something flickers over those eyes. A half-lie forms in the corner of her lips.

“To see this through.”

It is autumn, and the harvest moon is on the next moonrise.

Baron has tried to stay by her side, but even he can’t protect her against his king’s command, and so when the king requests an audience with Haru, he can do nothing but accept.

The king comes with a translator of his own - an elderly scholar and adviser, whose tired eyes and resigned tone betray a lifetime of dealing with his king’s fickle temper.

“So, Miss Haru, I hope you’ve had time to think over my offer,” he begins, and Haru doesn’t need to ask which offer, for there’s only one he could mean. She waits for the translator - Natori, he introduces himself - to finish converting his monarch’s words before responding.

She bows her head, slow enough to be respectful, but curt enough to not spend a moment too long letting the king out of her sight. “I have, and I thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty, but I am not interested in a throne.”

The king smirks at Natori’s uneasy translation. “Come now, babe, what chick doesn’t want a throne? You want to go back to that rural little backwater you came from? I’m offering you riches, clothes, jewellery. Luxury you could not begin to imagine.”

Natori stumbles a little in translating that. He doesn’t include the babe comment, Haru notices, and he softens his monarch’s sharp dismissal of her homeland. Still, she keeps her smile polite, and bows again.

“I have lived long enough to know that life is more than clothes and riches,” she says. “And I have no desire to rule anyone. Thank you for your offer, but I still must refuse.”

And that’s when the king’s smile flickers.

“Natori, please tell her that unless she wants harm to come to her nice host, she’d better rethink her answer.”

Her blood runs cold, and even Natori looks twice at his king.

“Your Majesty…” he begins.

“Just tell her.”

There’s an apology in his eyes, but Natori relays the king’s words, and even he cannot soften those words.

She meets the king’s mismatched eyes. “Why?”

“You are immortal, like I will be. Powerful. With a queen like you at my side, no one will be able to stop us.”

“You cannot earn my love with threats,” she says.

“I don’t need to. You will forget the baron in time, and you will have an eternity to learn to accept me.” He smiles, and it’s the smile of someone who has won. “So, what do you say?”

Something shifts inside Haru. She takes the offered hand.

“No harm will come to Baron,” she says.

“Of course,” the king replies, and he doesn’t realise it’s a promise, not a question.

It is autumn, and the harvest moon is upon them.

Haru does not tell Baron of the king’s threats, for she knows he would tell her to run, run despite the danger hanging over his own life, and she cannot do that.

Instead, she sits with him in the hours before the ceremony, a soft, gentle silence settled between them and she wishes it could stay this way forever.

But nothing lasts forever. Not even for an immortal.

“What are you going to do?” Baron asks, and it’s the first time he’s brought up the subject since her admission on the impossibilities of immortality. “The King expects eternal life. If you can’t deliver…”

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” she answers, and she thinks of the sleepless night she spent the evening before, pouring over her research and tweaking the enchantments she has crafted, and her heart breaks and hardens at the same time. She leans in and gently kisses him. “Everything is going to be fine. I promise.”

He looks to her like he wants to believe her. “No one can promise any such thing when it comes to the King.”

“He’s never dealt with me before.” She smiles and collects up the tea she’s made. “One last drink for luck,” she says, and she hopes he cannot taste the magic imbued into the liquid, nor see the plea for forgiveness in her eyes, and she kisses him one last time.

It is autumn.

She sets the potion before the king and steps back. He eyes the liquid with the first dredges of caution, and mutters something to Natori.

“The King wants you to know that if this harms him in anyway–”

“I know the consequences,” she says. “And he will not suffer by my hand.”

Natori gives her a strange look, and she wonders if his grasp of her language is enough to recognise the careful loophole she has left. If he does, he doesn’t convey it. He nods to his king and under the light of the harvest moon, the king drains the vial.

A glow runs inside the king’s skin, like magma beneath the Earth’s crust, and the onlookers of the court step back. Only Baron stays where he stands, close at her elbow. When the light fades, the king is smiling and there’s an energy to him that old age had once faded.

He meets Haru’s gaze and the smile sharpens.

“Guards. Seize the Baron Humbert von Gikkingen.”

Baron doesn’t move, but Haru does. She grabs the king’s arm and, in perfect Albion, says, “You promised.”

The king freezes at the clear words, but only for a moment. The smile almost holds begrudgingly respect at her little deceit. “I lied.”

There’s a pained gasp as Baron is dropped to his knees

Haru’s grip on the king’s arm tightens. She doesn’t look back to Baron, refuses to see the confusion and fear in his eyes. “I’ll say this once: If you do this, you’ll only bring ruin to yourself,” she warns.

The king laughs. “I don’t think you’re in any situation to threaten me. Now, stand aside. And don’t worry,” he adds with that same victorious smile. “You have an eternity to forget him.”

Guards pull her back when she doesn’t move, but she doesn’t fight back. She can only watch as the king approaches Baron. He takes a sword from a guard.

“Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, you have been found guilty of treason against your king and country. Any last words?”

“I never betrayed you, my king.”

“You threatened to take what was rightfully mine,” the king replies. “She will never truly belong to me while you still live.”

Baron’s gaze flickers from his monarch to Haru, and realisation dawns. “She will never belong to you,” he promises. His eyes stay on Haru, and there is an apology in them for leaving sooner than he had planned. “She will never belong to anyone but herself and she knows that.”

The king shrugs. “We’ll see.”

He runs the blade through Baron’s chest and there is a cry as two hearts break. Haru’s legs shake, but do not give way, and her breathing is sharp and her head is full and there is nothing but fury in her. The coldness that has lived within her since the king’s ultimatum takes form and she does not fall.

She brings her gaze up to the king’s.

“You should not have done that.”

The king smiles. “In time, you will see that it was necessary. He was nothing. But we… we will be so much more…” He takes a step towards Haru, and then stops. He frowns, and looks down to the front of his robe.

A dark red stain blossoms across his chest.

That smile slips.

“What…?”

There is movement from behind, and the king looks back to see Baron unsteadily rise to his feet. There is no blood where the sword pierces, and no blood on the blade as he pulls it free. Baron looks to Haru as his breathing changes, hollows, like wind through branches.

“Haru…?”

She smiles, but it is a tearful, remorseful smile, and she shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I only wanted to protect you, even if…” She swallows. “This was for you. You must know it was all for you.”

There is a roar, and she tears her gaze away to see the king collapse. “What have you done to me?” he bays, and the blood seeps out and his oversized, extravagant robe is red, red, red and he sinks to his knees in a mess of outrage and pain. “I was meant to be immortal! You said–”

“I lied.”

And she steps up to the king and the guards step back and there is something otherworldly about her as she kneels down before him. “I thought you might break your promise, but I wanted to give you a chance. I tied Baron’s life to yours - if you attempted to kill him, your blow would backfire onto you. I told you that you wouldn’t suffer by my hand, and I meant it.” She smiles without pity. “I did warn you.”

She rises back to her feet as the king falls and she steps over him to Baron. There is a magic spreading out from his wound, not the crackling glow of the king’s potion, but something else, something that leaves grain lines and fur in its wake, and Baron reaches out to Haru as she nears.

“What’s happening to me?” he asks, and his voice is already beginning to alter.

She curls her hands around his, and that same sorrowful smile tugs at her lips. “I made you immortal,” she whispers. “It was the only way to save you in the time I had. I’m so sorry.”

“I thought you said immortality was impossible.”

“The king wanted it without any consequences,” she says. She watches as Baron’s face changes shape, those emerald eyes growing angular and sharp. “And magic doesn’t work that way. This was the immortality I had planned for him before… before things changed. I never meant… but I couldn’t let you die.”

The magic settles down, and Baron extracts one hand and slowly passes it over his face. He feels the feline angles of his head and the thick ginger fur and the wooden skin running beneath it all, and she can see him recall the elements of the immortality spell she’d made. She sees the pieces slide into place.

He doesn’t speak, and Haru doesn’t expect him to.

“I can’t undo it,” she whispers. “I’m sorry. I would if I could, but–”

A gloved hand cups her cheek and brings her back around to face him. “You don’t need to apologise for saving me.”

“I cursed you.”

His gaze seeks hers out and she sees a gleam she knows so well in those feline eyes. “There are worse things than eternity.” He grins. “Even with the fur.”

“Eternity is a very long time.”

“Eternity isn’t long at all,” he promises, “when I’m with you.”

It is autumn, and everything has changed.

#Anon #replies #the cat returns #mummy 3 au #i'll think of a better name sometime #if anyone wants to suggest one i'm all ears #this probably isn't going to be continued because it's kind of a complete story #cat writes #tcr ficlet #also those last few lines are definitely borrowed from winnie the pooh #jsyk #holy s this hit 4K words #sorry this got out of hand #will have to post to ffnet at some point because this is far too long

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miraculous-french-learning · 7 years ago

Text

Getting started: A masterpost of French basics

Bonjour, mes chers miraculeurs! Are you interested in learning French, but you’ve never spoken a lick of it? Well then you’re in luck because this post has been specially made for you!

In this masterpost, you will be introduced to 4 concepts that you will need to start forming basic sentences in French. Included in it will be my basic rundowns, the nitty-gritty of what you need to know, along with links to videos and other resources that will explain things more in-depth. I highly advise looking through all the links, as there is a lot of nuance that my quick charts will not explain. So, those 4 concepts are:

Personal pronouns

Regular “-er” verbs

The verbs “être” and “avoir”

Definite and indefinite articles

Note that this post is subject to be edited if I decide that I want to further elaborate on anything, add more links and resources, or add more concepts.

Alors, commençons! So, let’s begin!

1. Personal pronouns

Before we can even look at verbs, we need to know our personal pronouns. In English, these would be things like I, you, he, she, we, & they.

In French, we have:

je - I tu - you (informal, singular) il/elle/on - he/she/one nous - we vous - you (formal or plural) ils/elles - they

Here is a video that explains the use of each of these.

Pay particular attention to the differentiation between tu and vous, as this is something that flat-out does not exist in modern English. If you ever took a foreign language class in school for another Romance or perhaps a Germanic language, you may already be familiar with the concept. It’s quite common, in fact, and is called the T-V distinction. Old and Middle English even used it to have it an extent! That’s your fun fact for the day.

One thing that this video does not discuss fully is the difference in usage between ils and elles to mean they. It says that “There are two words for they, since the things you’re referring to could be masculine or feminine.” There is, of course, a little bit more to it than that.

Let’s imagine a room full of 20 women. To refer to all of them, you would use elles, because all of them are feminine. If, however, one man walks in, you would now use ils to refer to the entire group. Elles can only be used when all things in the group are feminine!

This goes for non-humans as well. All nouns have grammatical gender, and it works the same way if you’re referring to a bunch of feminine nouns with one masculine noun mixed in. Some examples:

La coccinelle (the ladybug, feminine) et le chat (the cat, masculine), ils sont génials! (they are amazing!)

La table (the table, feminine) et la chaise (the chair, feminine), elles sont en bois. (they are wooden.)

Keep this in mind, as the same rules apply in many other aspects of grammar. But now that you know your personal pronouns, we can move on to the next concept!

2. Regular “-er” verbs

Regular “-er” verbs are the most common type of verbs in French. They are called regular because the conjugation follows a regular pattern no matter the verb. They’re called regular “-er” verbs because, in their infinitive form, they end in the letters “-er”.

Some examples of regular “-er” verbs are:

parler - to talk manger - to eat transformer - to transform aimer - to like or to love donner - to give jouer - to play

I’ll leave this video to do most of the explaining here, as it covers basically everything you need to know about conjugating regular “-er” verbs in the present tense. I really don’t have anything to add here, other than a little chart I made for you because I couldn’t find any online that had this two column layout, which is personally what I prefer because it’s what I was taught with and the setup makes sense, with the rows being 1st person, 2nd person, then 3rd person, and the columns being singular and plural.

There’s really no shortcut to learning conjugations, unfortunately. It’s really just a matter of drilling it over and over and over until it becomes second nature. This will take a while, especially as you’re trying to memorize a few irregular verbs as well… (this is a transition oooooh foreshadowing)

3. The verbs “être” and “avoir”

These verbs are your lifeline. Meet them, know them, befriend them, love them. They are the two main auxiliary verbs in French, and their present tense forms are used to form the perfect past tense, or passé composé. We’re not touching the passé composé here, but if you plan on continuing learning French, that lesson isn’t terribly far down the road.

Unfortunately, être and avoir are irregular verbs, meaning their conjugations don’t follow a nice pattern like our friends, the regular “-er” verbs up there. There is no rhyme or reason to their conjugation, and you have to memorize that whole chart for both of them. Except this time, each chart is only for one verb, not hundreds.

Here are your conjugation charts:

And a video demonstrating the pronunciation of the conjugations of être and avoir.

And I hate to be the breaker of bad news, but many of the most common verbs are also irregular. English is like this as well, as are many languages, in fact, as common verbs tend to stay erratic due to their frequency of use. So I’ve included a blank conjugation chart for you as well for you to have fun drilling with.

Or just grab a notebook and make your own chart and fill it out again and again and again until you can recite your conjugations in your sleep. Trust me on this. Test yourself by trying to fill it out without any reference. Try not to look at a chart when forming sentences. You see somebody walking by with a dog? Think of how you would say “He has a dog” in French without looking at the avoir chart. Try to exercise your brain on a daily basis like this, try to think simple sentences in French once you get the hang of a few verbs and nouns. This is exactly the sort of thing you’d be doing in a classroom, and it might suck at first because memorization isn’t exactly fun, but if you keep at it for long enough I promise that it will pay off.

Anyhow, after that little rant about “practice makes perfect” and what have you, let’s move on to the last concept. It’ll be shorter, I promise.

4. Definite and Indefinite articles

“What the heck is an article?” you may ask. My answer is that you just used both a definite and indefinite article in your question. An article is a part of speech that introduces a noun. The definite article in English is “the”, and the indefinite articles are “a” and “an”. What’s the difference? It’s exactly as their names say, “the” denotes a specific example of the noun. “A” or “an” denotes just any example of the noun.

If your friend has a bushel of apples, you can ask them for “an apple,” meaning any apple from the bushel. You might see a green apple and begin talking about it with your friend because you are such conversationalists, and then ask for “the apple,” implying the specific apple you were just talking about.

The definite articles in French are:

le - singular masculine la - singular feminine l’ - singular before a vowel sound les - plural, masculine or feminine

I will send you with Pascal here to explain further, although he goes into a bit about voiced and unvoiced Hs a bit more than I think necessary.

The indefinite articles in French are:

un - singular masculine une - singular feminine des - plural, masculine or feminine

Again, here’s Pascal, and again, he goes into a bit more complex things at around the 5:30 mark. For our purposes today, I’d skip the rest of the video after that, it’s more advanced than just learning the bare essentials.

I don’t have much more to say on the topic other than 1) start memorizing nouns’ genders and 2) note that French requires articles in a lot of places that English does not. Pascal gives the example of des voitures, which is the equivalent of just saying “cars” in English. English doesn’t require and article in this case, though you could say “some cars” if you felt like it and it would be the same. This is just a little something to keep in the back of your mind as you continue your learning.

So you made it to the end of this post. Félicitations! Congratulations! You can now form basic sentences, even if they are admittedly very simple. But the foundations have been set and now you can begin building on that, hopefully until you have a lovely sculpture of the French language dancing in your head, or on pages, or in the air. You should be proud of that! It’s really quite an accomplishment, even if it doesn’t seem like much. You took the first step in learning a new language, and that can be a very daunting task. Give yourself a pat on the back for that.

Anyway, I hope I can help you build up your beautiful lingual sculptures by providing vocabulary lists and general discussion of the language. Feel free to ask any questions you may have. I’m here to help and love doing so. And I’m Cool and Down With The Kids and am just as much of a nerd for this show as you are. And don’t forget to drill your conjugation charts! :p

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous: tales of ladybug and cat noir #miraculous: les aventures de ladybug et chat noir #langblr #masterpost #references #resources

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atariince · 7 years ago

Note

What actually prompted me to ask you about Finrod is your fic Anathema :) I liked very much his characterization bc he is also imo very complex and enigmatic. Could you elaborate why you find him quite creepy on his first meeting with Bëor’s people?

Oooh, thankyou very much! I’m glad you liked it 😊 As for yourquestion, I think the best thing to do is to look at the texts (it’s going tobe long…)

The Silmarillion, Chapter 17, Of the coming of Men into the west + Later Quenta Silmarillion,The War of the Jewels.

“Then Felagund,standing silent in the night-shadow of the trees, looked down in to the campand he beheld a strange people”

Everything’s cool, except for the “night-shadow” thing which, to me, foreshadows something that is not quite clear.

“[…] Long Felagundwatched them”

I do believe that It must have been very strange andfascinating to discover the Atani. But how long did he watch them exactly? I’dnot feel very comfortable to learn that my friend lurked around and watched “long”before introducing themselves.

“…And lovefor them stirred in his hear”.

I can understand the spiritual/intellectualattraction and the curiosity, so I’m fine with it.

“…But heremained hidden in the trees until they had fallen asleep. Then he went amongthe sleeping people…”

Wait, what?

That’s where it really becomes creepy… although I perfectly understand the fact thathe has to be cautious because the Men could be wary, I just feel very uneasy withthis image of a powerful being hiding in the trees and sneaking into the campwhen everybody’s asleep…

“… and satbeside their dying fire where none kept watch.”

“… and hetook a rude harp which Bëor had laid aside, and he played music upon such asthe ears of Men had not heard; for they had as yet no teachers in the art, saveonly the Dark-Elves in the wild lands”

Let’s try to ignore the contemptuouscomments of the narrator (Pengolodh btw) - yeah because only the Eldar know about arts andculture, and only they can teach what art is to other species…. Does it remindyou of something? - and go on.

“Now Menawoke and listened to Felagund as he harped and sang, and each thought that hewas in some fair dream”.

That’s where we must remember the power of music inTolkien’s world, and Finrod’s mastery (cf. the music fight with Sauron in The Layof Leithian); What sort of device can music be? Does music summon images? Howdoes it affect emotions and sentiments? “each thought he was in some fair dream”implies the idea of an illusion, doesn’t it?

“… until hesaw that his fellow was awake also beside him”

So, the power of music isstrong enough to prevent Men from acknowledging what’s happening around…?

“But theydid not speak or stir while Felagund still played, because of the beauty of themusic and the wonder of the song. Wisdom was in the words of the Elven-king,and the hearts grew wiser that hearkened to him”.

Pretty cool, right?

Yet,wisdom. Which wisdom? Is absolute wisdom a thing? Isn’t it supposed to berelative, related to your culture, environment, experiences, etc.? Hm. Here, weare talking about wisdom according to the Eldar, which ultimately discards the Atani’s wisdom and makes it meaningless, if not something that does not evenexist. /Lol/

“…for the thingsof which he sang, of the making of Arda,”

Which Felagund has never actuallywitnessed…

“…And thebliss of Aman beyond the shadows of the sea, came as clear visions before theireyes.”

I agree about Aman, it makes perfect sense. But how could he give them visionsof the Making if he never witnessed it? Did he get the same visions from theAinur? Or did he make them up? #noidea

“…and hisElvish speech was interpreted in each mind according to its measure.”

Okay,let’s repeat the last part: “according to its measure.” So, if I understandcorrectly, Felagund adapted his song and words and the visions he displayedaccording to what each individual was able to acknowledge. Although it isactually great to adapt your speech to your audience (you don’t speak to scholarsthe way you speak to high-school students), I cannot help wondering about themanipulative aspect of it. If there is no actual manipulation, it still showsthat Finrod would have been able to do it. Not only heis smart enough to realize how/when to do it, but his song is also powerfulenough for it, and he is skilled enough to modulate his songs and to use therequired rhetorical tools.

“…and theyloved him and took him for their lord and were ever after loyal to the House ofFinarfin.”

This sentence appears a conclusion of the passage, as a logical consequenceof the whole thing, as if it were but a natural outcome of the meeting between theMen and the Eldar. But hadn’t it been prepared by the whole narrativedevelopment? Think about it. When Finrod started to sing and revealed himselfto the Men, he had already watched them “long”, meaning that he had probablyunderstood/learned many things about them before he decided to show up. Wasn’tit the plan from the beginning, to make the Men acknowledge him as loremaster,as a teacher, as the voice of wisdom and consequently, as a lord? I do not doubtthat there is a genuine affection regarding Felagund’s relationship to the Men(obviously it is a thing), but I can’t help seeing some sort of purpose behindthe seemingly innocent display of knowledge, grace, beauty… and power.

“[…] Indeed,they believed at first Felagund was one of the Valar [“gods” in the LQS], ofwhom they had heard rumour that dwelt in the West, and this was (some say) thechief cause of their journey”

Although I am certain Finrod never pretended tobe an Ainur, and never even thought about it, there is something quiteambivalent in his first approach to men. What exactly did he expected them tothink of him?

“…ButFelagund dwelt among them and taught them true lore.”

Lol. True lore. TRUTH.Again, like wisdom, I don’t believe there is one universal, absolute truth.Especially in terms of lore. And it irks me to be told about “true lore”, “truewisdom”. QED

“…and Felagund discovered also that he couldread in the minds of Men such thoughts as they wished to reveal in speech sothat their words were easily interpreted”

The sentence is supposed to explainhow they communicate. Hence the emphasis on “as they wished to reveal”. But ifhe can read in their minds so easily, he would probably be able to discoverwhat they don’t want to reveal, wouldn’t he? Perhaps he did not try to, but itmust have been possible, right? So yeah. Creepy.

The Quenta Silmarillion,The Lost Road and Other Writings.

Here, wehave more or less the same narrative; the syntax and vocabulary are slightlydifferent but the meaning is the same (“Felagund drew nigh among the trees tothe camp of Bëor and he remained hidden until all had fallen asleep […] and hetook a rude harp […] and they marvelled, for wisdom was in that song as well asbeauty […] at first they deemed that Felagund was one of the gods […] butFelagund told them true lore […].) Which means that this meeting has alwaysfollowed the same narrative pattern, with no major change between the differentperiods of writing.

Now there aretwo more points that trouble me, which appear in the LQS and in the Lost Road…’sQS: While in the published Silmarillionwe have “in this way he got his name, Bëor, whereas his name before had beenBalan; for Bëor signified ‘Vassal” in the tongue of his people”, in the LQS wehave: “thus Bëor got his name, for it signified Vassal in their tongue, andeach of their chieftains after him bore this name as a title until the time ofBregolas and Barahir, and in QS: “thus Bëor the Vassal got his name among the Noldor".

Ok. A bitof intellectual honesty is required here; it is true that in medievalliterature vassalage was often seen as something very honorific, and Bëor’sloyalty to Finrod is given as something beautiful and honourable. And again, Ido believe that, on the question of sentiments between Finrod and Bëor, it wasgenuine. Yet, I can help feeling a bit uneasy about the whole thing, especiallyin the name-title which is inherited as a way to remind them of their place inthe hierarchy…. Or maybe I’m just paranoid. But. Yeah. Irks.

We alsohave something in both the LQS and in the QS:

“For Bëor and his folk laterlearned the language of the Eldar and forsook their own.”

Although it is greatfor them to be able to speak the Eldarin tongue, I’m quite uncomfortable withthe idea that they just dropped their own tongue… Ok, the Eldar wereinfluential lords and they were numerous and all, but still. To totally forsake one’slanguage under the influence of powerful lords (in a few generations only) isquite… disturbing. And Tolkien was a linguist, he knew the history of languages,he knew that a language doesn’t simply disappear because the people decided toforsake it. Proof is given in the Silmarillion:

“Men had long had dealings withthe Dark elves, east of the Mountains, and from them had learned much of theirspeech, and since all the languages of the Quendi were of one origin, thelanguage of Bëor and is folk resembled the Elven-tongue in many words anddevices”.

This makes sense, because languages influence one another, they mergethrough the contacts with other people, and that’s apparently the case betweenthe Atani and the Dark-Elves. Yet, when one language is totally forsaken to bereplaced by another one, it is much more… problematic? Or at least ambiguous, especiallysince the Eldar are very good at learning other languages.

A new wave ofintellectual honesty is required: It is true that Tolkien enriched this idea,through the character of Tuor, and it is given in the Lhammas:

“Naught is preservedof the most ancient speeches of Men, save of the tongue of the folk of Bëor andHaleth and Hador. Now the languages of these folks were greatly influenced bythe Green-Elves, and it was of old, named Taliska, and this tongue was knownstill to Tuor[…], and it was in part recorded by the wise men of Gondolin whereTuor for a while abode. Yet Tuor himself used this tongue no longer, foralready even in Gumlin’s day men in Beleriand forsook the daily use of theirown tongue and spoke and gave names unto their children children in the languageof the Gnomes.”

So, some mortals remembered the old tongue, but only the most literate apparently; whichconfirms the idea of one language –that of the vassals – being replaced by that of their lords who are supposed tobe keen on languages. Historically, the influence of a language is related tothe power of the people speaking it: Wealth -> big army (+ loads of manuscripts)-> influential language. So it makes sense in Beleriand. But language ispower, and even though the Men willingly adopted the Eldarin tongue, it seemsvery strange that they simply forsook their native tongue… Right?

Now, I have no definitive conclusion and I don’t try to prove anything since I don’t really know how to take it myself - I only find this whole passage weird. It isambiguous. Obviously,Finrod liked Bëor’s people and respected them. After all, he did help themsettle in Beleriand, he trusted them and was a good lord to them. But the more I thinkabout it, the more I read some elements as a manifestation of something that isa bit “imperialistic” (“helping the poor uncivilized men to climb theladder of civilisation”……………..) Maybe I’mwrong, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll eventually change my mind about this interpretationwhich is far from being the only possible reading. But I cannot unsee these problematicelements. In any case, I cling to my opinion that there’s something unclear,if only in the diegetic narrator’s intents.

#anonymous #each time i read the silm i read this passage several times to make sure it's not me misreading it.... each time it gets weirder..... idk #i have an irritating tendency to quesiton every narrative #academic quirks #headcanon #meta #sort of #ooc

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bestfriendforhire · 4 years ago

Text

Children of BFFH, Entry 77

“Since we’re sharing, I’ll drop the illusion.” stated Messy, her eyes changing from a natural brown color to a glowing gold.

“Wh-What?” I asked, staring at her.

“I know. Mom chides me when I do that, saying my normal eyes are beautiful, but many people can’t get over it. They’re just eyes, really.” claimed Messy without a hint of joking.

“They are beautiful, but… are they really glowing?” I questioned in disbelief.

Everything around us suddenly went dark, except the glowing gold of her eyes. Before I could say anything, the light was back.

“Yes, they glow, and they are beautiful.” stated Four with a smile. Realizing why I was still staring around, he said, “Sorry if I startled you, but quick demonstrations can often get the point across more easily. That was just a little trick I learned from Father.”

A few seconds after he was done speaking, I was still staring at him, enjoying those beautiful violet eyes of his. He was way too cute. “I’m not allowed to date yet.” I blurted, my cheeks heating a moment after I said it. What was wrong with me?

“You probably wouldn’t be interested anyway. What you’re feeling is a byproduct of my magic. Sorry. Father and I have a large aura that encourages people to like us. Can’t be helped.” he told me earnestly. “If you wish to escape it, I’m sure Mila won’t mind giving you a ride home.”

As I fumbled for a response, Rona begged “Please stay! We haven’t even done anything yet! Just give him a hug if you need to.” She demonstrated, making me feel a little jealous as I considered following her lead.

“Just remember to let him go. Gets awkward after a while.” claimed Damien, poking Rona. She was quick to hug him too.

“Mila has already taken your bags to your rooms, but we can show you where you’ll be sleeping tonight if you want.” suggested Aid into the brief silence. “Or would you like a general tour of the place?”

They all watched me, waiting for a reply. Some adults I didn’t know walked past us, waving at us without even stopping as some of the kids greeted them. The silence stretched as my eyes went up and up, taking in the twin stairways leading up to a balcony. The ceiling was so high, and engraved. There were chandeliers up there.

Rona’s voice brought me back to the rest of them as she said, “Let’s just get started with the gaming. You guys can show her around after our lunch break.”

I nodded. “Gaming sounds good. Dad said I didn’t need to bring my computer when I asked last night. He wasn’t wrong, was he?” I asked hopefully.

There were several laughs before Luce grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her with strength like my dad. “This way, Layla.” she told me, smiling as I matched her stride. “Our ballroom is used for gaming more often than dancing.” she informed me as we entered.

The room was large and had… eight sides… floor-to ceiling computer screens! Well, some of them were mirrors. I could see Ancient Tribes of Earth being played on them and had to resist the urge to go ask about what sort of gear they were using. These were people who had played for many years for sure.

“That’s Deo’s father over there.” she told me as she pointed. Then she pointed to others, saying, “And there’s Crazy’s mom, don’t call her a mother. Auntie Portentia, and… oh. Hello, Mother.”

Mrs. Somerset seemed to approach us in one step, crossing at least twenty feet in an instant. She looked identical to Mila! As she fondly brushed a hand over her daughter’s head, she smiled at me and said, “Nice to meet you, Layla. You may call me ‘Alma’. I apologize if my daughter was too rough with you. She’s just excited.”

Luce released my hand, looking sheepish. “I didn’t pull her that hard.” she insisted.

“Use a feather touch, dear. Anything more from you can be dangerous.” replied Alma, bending down to look Luce in the eye.

Luce looked like she was going to make some argument, but nodded instead. “Yes, Mother.” she stated obediently.

Straightening and looking at everyone else, she said, “Don’t be late for lunch this time, or I’ll ask Mila to put all of you on dish duty for a week.”

I frowned as I considered how many dishes a place this size might have, but several of the others snickered.

Alma smiled warmly as she said, “Off you go. Don’t want that monster to eat any of you. We’d have to raid it in revenge.”

In a whisper as we went down some stairs that were hidden by one of the enormous mirrors, Luce said, “Dishes only take a minute, since they let us use magic. Mother was just teasing us.”

“Then why are you whispering?” I asked in a whisper.

“To sound like we’re conspiring. Mother can easily hear us from back there. She’d hear us several rooms away through the soundproofing if she’s paying attention.” replied Luce, still whispering.

Whispering loudly, Aspy said, “Don’t we need something to conspire about if we’re conspiring? I’m not missing some coded message, am I?” He actually sounded worried that he was.

“What are we even talking about again? Why would we be using a coded message? Sorry. Trying not to forget Layla’s expression when the doors opened.” asked Ella as she whispered too. She really sounded confused!

“Huh? My expression?” I asked, wondering how far down these stairs went. We had already passed another floor.

Someone behind me laughed, and I recognized one of the quadruplets saying, “You did look a bit surprised!”

“Sorry if we startled you.” came the same voice from a slightly different direction.

Then the voice moved again, saying, “We don’t get visitors often.”

“Other than you and Rona, we haven’t had any kids our age show up here. Some people find our home intimidating.” asserted Four, sounding amused by the idea.

“You’re leaving out Alaric.” pointed out one of the quadruplets.

“Sorry. Him too.” stated Four in a resigned tone. “I’m betting we’ll be seeing Marisha here eventually as well.”

Luce seemed to tense slightly, and then she had a smile that made me take a step back, stumbling on the stairs before she caught me with a lightning fast hand. “Will she really?” she asked in a tone that was far more innocent than her expression.

“Probably.” stated Four without seeming to notice his sister’s expression. “Marisha’s father might see me as an ideal match for her, so he’ll encourage her to come visit or something. Father mentioned it, but I assure you that girl won’t be your sister-in-law.”

“No, she won’t.” stated Messy in a quiet voice.

I didn’t see her expression as I was too startled by… something… There had been a motion around us as she spoke, but I didn’t catch what had happened.

“Easy there, Messy. Don’t want to make a mess right now.” stated Crazy teasingly.

“Who’s Marisha?” I asked, getting the idea she was someone to avoid.

“The child of the guy who rules Russia and a few other countries behind the scenes. She made the mistake of attacking Luce and Ella.” replied Deo. “Crazy broke her dad’s arm.”

“Not on purpose! I really thought he’d be… sturdier.” she insisted, her wide blue eyes looking sincere.

“Behind the scenes? Huh?” I asked, not sure what he meant by that, but I couldn’t ignore the other part either. “What do you mean she broke his arm?”

“I just playfully bumped him. Not my fault he broke.” argued Crazy as she seemed to study the wall.

“If you weren’t trying to help me, Mother would have scolded you. You know you need to hold back more than that against people who aren’t trying to kill someone.” insisted Luce.

I didn’t even know what to say. This whole conversation was weird and… Was the tiny girl really that strong!? Crazy was easily the smallest one here.

“Ignore all that, Layla. The point they were trying to make was that we’re really happy you could come today.” asserted Damien. “Righty, guys?”

There was general agreement very quickly.

“My apologies.” stated Luce. “The idea of getting a chance to fight Marisha without her father interfering is a bit exciting to me. I want to really see what she can do.”

“Do you guys fight all the time?” I asked, startled by the idea.

“More or less.” replied Four to my shock. “We have daily martial arts and magic training as part of our lessons. Don’t worry. Our fights are supervised and perfectly safe. You’d have to be completely obliterated to not come out perfectly fine, and most of us are careful not to injure the others.” He looked significantly at Crazy.

“What!?” she exclaimed. “I mainly injure myself, and that’s only when it’s helpful! I still don’t get why you worry about some cuts and bruises.”

There were a number of groans from the others, but I was now stuck on the words “completely obliterated”.

“I don’t recommend diving into one of their snowball fights. They take fights really serious here.” insisted Rona, squeezing my arm from behind for emphasis.

“Lucky for me, the snow’s all gone.” I told her with a smile.

“That doesn’t have to be the case. We can have a yard of snow in midsummer if we feel like it.” stated Luce as she opened a door. “We’ll be in here today, Layla. Half the others are going to be in the next room down.”

“Sorry. The adults get the upper levels.” apologized Aspy. “They’re all really the same though.”

Other than the perfectly black ceiling and floor, the room looked like the ballroom above us. I could hardly believe I’d be gaming on a screen that big. The chairs looked comfortable too.

“Oh! Don’t do the chair tutorial.” stated Crazy, appearing right next to me, despite having walked in the opposite direction. “Grandma writes tutorials that are… long. Very informative, but often unnecessarily convoluted.”

“Hold old are you?” I asked, still struggling to wrap my head around the idea that this tiny, adorable girl used words like “convoluted” and could break an adult’s arm.

“I turned nine last month. Why?” she asked, her wide eyes staring up at me curiously.

“Nothing. You have quite the vocabulary.” I told her, despite being shocked by her age. She didn’t look nine. Even at nine, who talks like that?

“Depends on the language. Messy still speaks at least a dozen I haven’t bothered learning yet.” she told me with a shrug.

Messy could speak a dozen languages!? I really, really needed to ask my cousin some questions about this place. I sighed and took a seat, almost forgetting my questions as the giant screen illuminated immediately.

Mila’s voice came out of the chair, sounding amused as she asked “Would you like to try the chair’s tutorial, or should I teach you the basic features before we log you into the game?”

“Basics, please.” I told her, deciding to take the nine-year-old’s advice.

The chair had all sorts of adjustments I could do, but Mila had various parts slide around to fit my size even better for me. Then she explained how the keyboard and mouse system worked. Not feeling keys move would take some adjustment, but I thought I’d manage, though she did offer to get me physical ones if this proved too odd. In no time, I was staring up at the giant screen in anticipation. The game was about to continue.

#Children of BFFH #Children #of #BFFH #Jovial Times #Jovial #Times #Fantasy #Fiction #Story

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