#subgenre: prostitution

[xaharadesert]

7 More of My Favourite Horror (Adjacent) Movies and Why You Should Watch Them

(Not in any particular order or subgenre. TW are vague, spoiler free, and from my memory, but you should Google any of these before you watch them. Not all triggers are listed because it’s horror and stuff like death and murder is common)

Part 1 here!

1. Fractured

A man waits in a hospital for his daughter and wife to return from some tests, but they seem to have gone missing.

If you like being sad and also confused (like me), then this is a great film for you! Don’t worry, the end will clear things up, but until then you’ll have a hundred of your own theories developing. Definitely a movie that you have to pay attention to, but it’s not difficult once the mystery begins.

Scary: 1/10

Gore: 2/10

Disturbing: 4/10

Psychological: 9/10

Actual genre: psychological thriller

TW: insanity

2. The House

An animated anthology of three short films all centring around the same house.

Gorgeous animation, fast paced, and constantly off-putting. Each of the short films is vastly different, but they’re all very unsettling in their own way. The second was my personal favourite, but I’d say the first was the most disturbing. The third one is a nice way to ease you out of the absolute horror of the first two so you can go about your day without letting the film consume your thoughts.

Scary: 3/10, 3/10, 1/10

Gore: 0/10, 0/10, 0/10

Disturbing: 6/10, 5/10, 2/10

Psychological: 3/10, 4/10, 2/10

Actual genre: horror comedy

3. I Saw The Devil

After a man’s wife is brutally murdered, he puts his life on hold to hunt down the killer and make him suffer.

As far as non-horror movies go, this is by far one of the most disturbing. The murderer is one of the worst you’ll see play an extended part in the movie, which would be awful if it weren’t for the fact that most of the film is the protagonist purposely letting the killer get away just so he can hunt him down and attack him again. The protagonist isn’t an objectively good character either, but there is something very satisfying about watching him take out his extended revenge.

Scary: 3/10

Gore: 7/10

Disturbing: 7/10

Psychological: 3/10

Actual genre: action thriller

TW: rape, sexual assault, graphic gore, cannibalism

4. Hard Candy

A 14 year old girl decides to meet up alone with an older man she met on the internet and go to his house.

Elliott Page my beloved. One of his earlier works, but still amazing. I’m not sure if these one really qualifies as horror, as it’s definitely more of a revenge fantasy, but the first 20 or so minutes had me very worried. Definitely an unsettling atmosphere, but after the first little bit it’s absolutely amazing. Would recommend to anyone, but especially to women who are tired of seeing other women and girls victimized by the narrative.

Scary: 2/10

Gore: 2/10

Disturbing: 4/10

Psychological: 3/10

Actual genre: psychological thriller

TW: pedophilia, surgery, suicide

5. Last Night in Soho

A young girl rents a room while off at college and starts dreaming of the life of the girl who lived there before her in the 60s.

This movie made me cry more than once (but in a good way). I genuinely forgot it was a horror movie for the first 45 minutes or so, and then was very rudely reminded. Gives off the same vibes as Coraline, but in a more adult sense. Absolutely gorgeous cinematography and the character arcs make me feel so many emotions. Also it has Matt Smith, and that immediately sold me on it. Another movie I would recommend especially to women.

Scary: 3/10

Gore: 3/10

Disturbing: 6/10

Psychological: 8/10

Actual genre: psychological horror

TW: rape, prostitution, suicide, insanity

6. As the Gods Will

Every high schooler in Japan is abducted by aliens and made to compete in murder games to determine who is the most worthy.

Absolutely batshit insane movie with some of the weirdest… everything. Genuinely hilarious at times, but also immensely gory and occasionally heart touching. I urge you to go into this with zero expectations. Just have fun. Probably the type of movie to watch with your friends when you’re drunk, or alone at 3am when you’re sleep deprived.

Scary: 2/10

Gore: 6/10

Disturbing: 5/10

Psychological: 3/10

Actual genre: supernatural horror

7. Tusk

A podcaster visits an old man’s remotely located home to interview him.

OKAY HEAR ME OUT. I know this made the rounds on TikTok for being awful, but it’s seriously one of my favourite. Also batshit insane, but with a perfect blend of comedy, psychological horror, and really creepy practical effects. There’s no one to root for in this film; everyone is awful. But seriously, a great movie to watch if you have no expectations. I’ve seen it 3 times. Also, oddly specific, but I feel like if you like Angel’s of Death for the psychological aspects, then you’ll like this too.

Scary: 3/10

Gore: 2/10

Disturbing: 6/10

Psychological: 4/10

Actual genre: body horror comedy

[kdnss77]

August Underground (2001)

basic info: directed by Fred Vogel and co-written by Allen Peters. classified by the genres of horror, found footage and snuff.

overall ratings: imdb: 3,5/10 rotten tomatoes: 48% letterboxd: 2,1/5

plot summary: the plot itself revolves around a sociopathic duo: firstly - a gruesome, torture-loving serial killer and secondly - his loyal companion, capturing his monstrous acts within the eye of the camera. their endeavors, which include kidnapping and severely injuring a young woman, as well as slicing into pieces a body of a man killed by Peter (played by Fred Vogel, the director himself) or beating up a prostitute they came across, have found their place on a video tape in a conveniently chaotic style, proudly following the foundations of the infamous found footage convention.

my thoughts: but to get real. could the adjective "good" be ever found under the same label as the subgenre of snuff? it's rather quite self explainable, just as the subjectivity in terms of sympathy for sickening mixture of brutality, gore and shameless, sexual depravity. because in its own kind, this particular title (and the subsequent sequels) are in fact quite remarkable. the characters feel disturbingly real, just as their doings. both the obscene and surprisingly casual, such as getting a tattoo in terms of the second matter mentioned. i've seen reviews saying the movie lacks gore cuts and that they shouldve been more frequent throughout its full length, so as to make it more entertaining and even less humane. but for me personally it creates a well crafted balance. just two guys on a killing spree, having the best time of their lives. giggling uncontrollably and documenting things that are plainly unimaginable. and at the same time could be happening anywhere, anytime or even at this particular moment. although i have to agree, that - except for the realness of the protagonists - they themselves lack some initial depth that would enable a potential viewer to immerse oneself in this ordinary, yet horrible turn of events. all i managed to feel for both Peter and his bro was hatred, but only for the reason of their actions. no personality or motifs included. guess that would be the lacking piece of puzzle for me, regarding this part of the August Underground series in particular.

my rating (on a scale from 1 to 5): 2/5

favorite quote: "You know what I don't understand? I don't understand, you know, like, in, y'know, in the Bible, and y'know, the stories that you hear, y'know, they're always upset, and weeping, and crying and stuff like that. These people just have a stoned look on their face. Get it?"

the images used were found by me on the internet, credits to their original uploaders.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Lethal Panther (Ho, 1990)

This review contains mild spoilers.

If there's one thing I took away from Godfrey Ho's Lethal Panther, it's that John Woo's mix of moody gazes and balletic slow motion gunfights takes some actual talent and artistry to imbue with any emotional resonance. Because those things are in this movie in ample supply, but I rarely found myself more than mildly diverted by the proceedings. I do not know what the secret sauce is, but I'd wager it's a combination of Woo willing to invest the performances of his actors (and having better actors on hand; I don't think I have to make a case for the talents of Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, Ti Lung or Tony Leung here), and just stronger technical prowess and a better eye for striking images. There are plenty of fast paced shootouts here, but they didn't feel as visually coherent as even Ho's other action scenes. I found myself struggling at times to follow the action, which is not a problem I usually have with Hong Kong action movies.

This is a fully original movie by Ho, but might as well be one of his cut-and-paste joints given how loosely the story hangs together. You get two assassins, one of whom has a backstory involving the Vietnam War, and a CIA agent trying to crack a counterfeiting ring. The stories eventually converge, but not really, as the CIA agent crosses paths with the assassins briefly and then more or less leaves them alone until the ending. My guess is that Ho and co. thought up a bunch of cool scenes first, slowed them the fuck down when shooting, and then racked their brains for excuses for the characters to meet after. Which would be fine were the CIA agent not played by Sibelle Hu, who has a much stronger screen presence than the actresses playing the assassins.

One of the things I like about these girls with guns movies is that you get a different set of female archetypes than you often do in other action subgenres. In that sense, I was a little disappointed that we got two moody assassins, as we're losing out on another archetype. There is however a prostitute who, despite the presence of softcore-tinged sex scenes involving other characters (which for some reason were pixelated on the YouTube upload I watched), isn't used for titillation, but she also gets a pretty demeaning death scene (raped and then shot repeatedly at point blank range), so I guess it's a wash. I don't remember Princess Madam, another non-cut-and-paste girls with guns feature by Ho, necessarily being narratively sturdier, but I do remember it having much more forward momentum and making better use of its stars. Give that a look if you haven't already.

All that being said, I'm easy enough to please when it comes to these things, and there was enough action to keep me engaged. We also get a couple of memorable moments throughout, like when Hu and one of the assassins meet in a club while a bangin' electronic track plays and they shoot around each other, or when Hu interrogates a guy by crushing watermelons with a tractor, or when the two assassins bond by shooting at the same Coke can. And isn't that what female friendship is all about?

[digitalbizz12]

westerns?

Westerns are a captivating genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier during the period between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890. These tales often revolve around themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, and the national history and identity of the United States. Let’s explore some key characteristics of Westerns:

Stories and Characters:

The classic Western often presents a morality drama, highlighting the conflict between wilderness and civilization.

Male protagonists—drifters, cowboys, or gunslingers—ride horses, armed with revolvers and rifles. They wear iconic Stetson hats, neckerchief bandannas, vests, and cowboy boots with spurs.

Women typically play secondary roles as love interests or provide comic relief. Saloon girls, prostitutes, and pioneer wives also appear.

Recurring characters include Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese Americans, law enforcement officers, outlaws, bartenders, and settlers.

Locations:

Westerns emphasize the harshness of the wilderness. The action unfolds in arid, desolate landscapes—deserts and mountains.

The vastness of the terrain contributes to the genre’s mythic vision of the American West.

Music and Ambience:

Westerns are often punctuated by a distinctive music score, including American folk music and Spanish/Mexican folk tunes.

The genre popularized the Western lifestyle, country-Western music, and Western wear globally.

Subgenres and Evolution:

Some subgenres, like spaghetti Westerns, maintain standard settings and plots.

Others take Western themes into different supergenres, such as neo-Westerns or space Westerns.

Whether it’s a showdown at high noon or a cattle drive across the plains, Westerns continue to captivate audiences with their rugged spirit and timeless tales of the Old West!

[365days365movies]

January 25, 2021: The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

The disaster movie is, oddly enough, a subgenre of action, while also throwing in a splash of adventure. What I mean by that is, like adventure, focus is slightly shifted away from the characters acting against each other, and towards interactions between the characters and the environment around them. Essentially, an external environmental factor, outside of humans, is the antagonist, sometimes quite literally.

Now, obviously, humans can still be villains in disaster movies, but the conflict of the film always have to revolve around the disaster itself, with all other characters merely players in a large conflict. In other words, you got a main guy, shit explodes, and our main guy has to survive, sometimes with assholes getting in their way. Disaster movies in a nutshell, right there.

This movie trend began with 1970’s Airport, considered by most to be one of the crown jewels of the genre, especially at the time. They died in the mid-’70s, and the 1981 movie Airplane! (one of my favorite comedies) was the death knell for the genre...for about 13 years. I grew up in the reboot era of the disaster movie, with Independence Day, Twister, The Day After Tomorrow, War of the Worlds, Titanic, etc. 

But today, we’re looking at what’s said to be the best of the best: the 1972 Academy Award-winning Ronald Neame film The Poseidon Adventure. This is Titanic before Titanic, but also after A Night to Remember...and the actual Titanic, obviously. All I know going in is that the ship is GOING DOWN. Also, Mermaid-Man’s in it. Hi, Ernest Borgnine!

Let’s go! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

So, the opening text tells us RIGHT OFF that it’s New Years Eve, and that this ship, the S.S. Poseidon, is fucked. I’m impressed that we’re getting that out of the way immediately.

We cut to the ship, a cruise liner full of passengers during a storm. The Captain of the ship, Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen...LESLIE NIELSEN???)

From Airplane!? Wow! Never seen him in a dramatic role, so that’s awesome!

Anyway, things ain’t goin’ perfect. While a representative of the new owners of the ship forces them to go full speed (at considerable risk), the passengers include the disgruntled Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine) and his wife, Linda (Stella Stevens), the latter of which is going through a bout of seasickness. Other passengers include wide-eyed child Robin Shelby (Eric Shea) and his frustrated teenage sister Susan (Pamela Sue Martin); lonely runner James Martin (Red Buttons); married couple Betty and Manny Rosen (Shelley Winters and Jack “Grandpa Joe Who Could Walk The Whole Goddamn Time The Fuckin’ Faker” Albertson); “modern” preacher Reverend Frank Scott (Gene Hackman) and the more traditional Chaplain John (Arthur O’Connell); and singer Nonnie Parry (Carol Lynley), with her waiter admirer Acres (Roddy McDowall).

We’re introduced to these people in quick and efficient fashion, as well as their modus operandi. Rogo’s a detective-lieutenant, and his wife has a troubled past as a prostitute (and their relationship history is...complicated). The Shelby siblings are headed to see their parents overseas. James Martin’s a fitness-conscious bachelor and haberdasher who goes on morning runs. The Rosens have a son and 2-year old grandson in Israel that they’re going to visit, and are likely staying there. Frank Scott is an outspoken preacher, who believes that God only helps those who help themselves, and has been sent to Africa as a sort of punishment. And Nonnie Parry...well…

Well, she’s singing the song that won this movie the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Song. YEAH. THAT SONG. You’ve almost certainly heard it, and its fame has far surpassed this movie at this point. 

That night, the song is sung at a New Years Party, at which all of our players are assembled. The Captain leaves for the deck, and discovers that an earthquake has just taken place off the coast of Crete. And underwater earthquakes create tsunamis. And tsunamis...well...the ship’s in for some trouble. Batten down, people. The New Year begins with great bombast and celebration...as the wall of water approaches.

Party’s over.

The ship tips, as the wall of water hits, and EVERYBODY goes falling. And I mean FALLING, it’s one hell of a scene. The ship flips entirely upside down, and people holding on to tables quickly fall. The lights go out. And all is quiet.

As the passengers come to, we get an accounting...of the survivors. After all, no way everyone could’ve survived that. The Rogos, Rosens, Rev. Scott, Nonnie, Acres, Martin, and the Shelbys all survive, although some of them need to be a little rescued from the ceiling.

The ship is now upside down. I’m sure that’ll be an issue eventually. For now, with some argument, Reverend Scott leads everyone in an effort to get up to the former floor, where injured waiter Acres is waiting. They use a Christmas tree as a ladder, and begin to climb up to a doorway out. Although, not everyone is inclined to go. Nonnie is the only surviving member of her band, which included her brother, and is only convinced by Martin to go. 

The group of people that we’ve been following go, but literally everybody else stays behind. Sadly, this includes Chaplain John, who’s resigned himself and the other to their likely fatal end. He and Reverend Scott have a heart-to-heart, and Scott makes one last plea to the rest. However, the ship’s Purser (Byron Webster) insists that they must stay behind and wait for help, and the vast majority agree with him. And as soon as our group gets to safety…

This movie...this movie is fucking brutal. The throngs panic and try to climb to safety, but the tree falls...and everybody dies as the ship begins its descent. And the Reverend watches. And holy shit. I’m shook. Real talk, I am SHAKEN by this, about as much as the Reverend is. This is...whoof.

The group head towards the kitchen, and find a fire door sealed in place. The reverend tries to open it, despite Rogo’s very realistic and good warnings about flashover (the event during which fresh oxygen is introduced to an oxygen-starved fire, reigniting it violently and quickly). Despite this, Rogo helps him with the door, and the fire is luckily not a flashover. Rev. Scott goes in and makes it out, scouting a path through the fire (and the bodies).

They all make it through the kitchen, getting closer to the engine room. And that’s when the water starts coming in.

Once again, they all make it through, and begin traversing the next obstacle: a narrow tunnel that leads to a ventilation shaft with a ladder. Also, Linda (Rogo’s wife) is wearing VERY TALL high heels as she climbs up the ladder. Lady. DROP THE SHOES!!!! 

They continue to make it through the shaft...and then another explosion hits! We lose our first party member, as Acres loses his footing and falls. Rogo almost goes with him, and Nonnie’s paralyzed with fear until Martin helps her.

By the way, I realize that reading this might be a bit cumbersome, as there are a lot of names here. But when you WATCH the movie, all of these people are distinct enough that remembering them isn’t too bad. And now...there are even more people.

That’s right! There are more people, being led by the Ship’s Doctor (Jan Arvan)...in the wrong direction. They head towards the bow, towards the water, despite Scott’s warnings. Scott’s frustration, the loss of Acres, and Rogo’s stubbornness leads to a confrontation. This leads to Scott making a bet with Rogo. He’ll scout ahead for a path to the engine room, and if there isn’t one, they’ll also head toward the bow. Rogo agrees, and gives him 15 minutes. Scott leaves, with Susan Shelby (teenage sister, remember) following behind. The rest search for food and supplies in the rooms nearby.

To Scott’s great dismay, however, the main passage to the engine room is destroyed. With Susan’s help, they look for more passages, eventually finding a path covered in oil. The Rosens have their own heart-to-heart, with Belle resigned to death, and Manny clinging to hope. Martin and Nonnie go together, with Nonnie breaking down over her lost brother, and Martin comforting her as best he can. They eventually reconvene, with Scott returned from the engine room successfully. However...Robin is missing. 

Scott goes back to get him...and that’s when the water comes back.

They all once again make it...but the water’s now flooded the passageway to the engine room. Scott takes a rope and tries to swim through the passageway, with the rope being used to guide everyone else through once he makes it. But, of course, he gets stuck when a metal sheet collapses on top of him. But that’s when a surprising ringer steps up to help.

Belle Rosen, the down-on-herself, most resigned-to-death member of the party, also happens to be a former swimming champion. She makes it through, and saves Scott from drowning...and has a heart attack in the process. She gives Scott a pendant for her grandson...and dies.

And that’s when I start tearing up. Fuck. I mean it, her death really got me. Talk about a heroic sacrifice.

Rogo goes to find them, and discovers that Belle’s gone. Scott tells him to get the others, without telling Manny what happened. But Manny figures it out, diving into the water. The rest follow, although Nonnie can’t swim. Martin tells her that he won’t go without her, and they go together. Manny’s the first to make it to the other side...and he sees Belle.

And that’s when I tear up again. FUCK.

Manny initially won’t leave Belle, and Scott pleas with him to come with. He asks to stay with her a little longer, and Scott relents. He gives Belle one last kiss...and goes to join the others. Thank God. I need Manny Rosen to live, goddammit. In fact...I really don’t want to lose anyone else.

A harrowing climb to the engine room takes place, and we reach the final door. And then, of course...an explosion.

Linda dies. Goddammit. And Rogo lashes out at Scott, blaming him for her death. But there’s no time for that now. Explosions cause a steam pipe to explode, blocking the exit, prompting Scott to do his own lashing out: at God. He jumps to open a valve for the rest, despite the hot steam. He screams at God to take him, instead of another of their lives. And in the process, he shuts off the steam...and his plea is answered in turn.

As Scott dies, he asks Rogo to get the rest through. But Rogo’s listless, not responding at all. Martin reams him out, rousing him again and getting him up to lead the survivors. 6 people left...and only 5 minutes of movie to go. They get to the thinnest part of the hull, where they hear scraping from the outside. They bang on the hull with pipes, and banging responds. A torch cuts through the hull...BUT IT’S NOT A TORCH, IT’S AN EXPLOSION AND EVERYBODY DIES

Kidding, of course, as they get rescued! And as they mourn their fallen, it’s discovered that these 6...are the only survivors. In the entire ship, these six were the only ones to make it out.

And THAT...is The Poseidon Adventure. FUCK TITANIC. See you in the Epilogue.

[script-a-world]

I'm trying to build a wuxia world that's modern. But I'm having serious trouble with all the outdated ideas and lifestyles as well as modern understanding of science. All the mechanics as well as fighting are basically scientific, but extended and exaggerated to be made like it's magic. Problem is, modern science refutes all that. Especially about the readily known or secret everything is in the modern world. I could explain in more detail or specific ideas, but it's not easy in English.

Mod Note: The asker later sent an ask that they had found someone privately to help with their questions, but as Tex had already put the work into this response, and there may be others interested, we are still posting our reply.

Tex: Wuxia is inherently a genre of historical fantasy, so I understand the struggle with bringing it into a modern setting. Let me paste a short Wikipedia synopsis in to help orient me, with a Chinese version so you have something in a more navigable language.

The word "wǔxiá" is a compound composed of the elements wǔ (武, literally "martial", "military", or "armed") and xiá (俠, literally "chivalrous", "vigilante" or "hero"). A martial artist who follows the code of xia is often referred to as a xiákè (俠客, literally "follower of xia") or yóuxiá (遊俠, literally "wandering xia"). In some translations, the martial artist is referred to as a "swordsman" or "swordswoman" even though he or she may not necessarily wield a sword.

The heroes in wuxia fiction typically do not serve a lord, wield military power, or belong to the aristocratic class. They often originate from the lower social classes of ancient Chinese society. A code of chivalry usually requires wuxia heroes to right and redress wrongs, fight for righteousness, remove oppressors, and bring retribution for past misdeeds. Chinese xia traditions can be compared to martial codes from other cultures such as the Japanese samurai bushidō.

Source: Wikipedia in English

武侠文化是華人界特有的一種流行文化，體現於武俠類作品的盛行，乃至影響到小說、漫畫、影視、電子遊戲和音樂等各種娛樂媒介。武俠文化多以各式俠客為主角，神乎其神的武術技巧為特點，刻畫宣揚俠客精神。

Source: Wikipedia in Chinese

Both versions have a section on common elements and themes found in the wuxia genre. This is good, because it helps us break down the core of the genre, and how we can bring this out of the historical setting.

“Wu” encompasses the traditions of martial arts and its accompanying subculture. There are plenty of martial arts schools in China and other parts of the world, so it would be easy to research how they have adapted to the modern world.

“Xia” is a bit harder. The Chinese version stops at the definition that it is a Confucian value, whereas the English version breaks the definition down into more items. Let me copy down what the English version states in its “Code of xia” section:

The eight common attributes of the xia are listed as benevolence, justice, individualism, loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth, and desire for glory. Apart from individualism, these characteristics are similar to Confucian values such as ren (仁; "benevolence", "kindness"), zhong (忠; "loyalty"), yong (勇; "courage", "bravery") and yi (義; "righteousness").[11] The code of xia also emphasises the importance of repaying benefactors after having received deeds of en (恩; "grace", "favour") from others, as well as seeking chou (仇; "vengeance", "revenge") to bring villains to justice. However, the importance of vengeance is controversial, as a number of wuxia works stress Buddhist ideals, which include forgiveness, compassion and a prohibition on killing.

These attributes, as well as the mentioned Buddhist ones, can also be found in works set in modern times.

One core tenet, Jianghu, is emphasized in the Chinese version that it is an idea rather than a tangible location. Below is the original Chinese as well as the Google Translate version in English:

江湖不是一個實際存在的場所，在武俠文化中，江湖則是俠客們的活動範圍，「江湖」強調了它的變動性及危險性，「綠林」顯示了他的違法及不合理性，「武林」則限制了他屬於「武人」的屬性。

這個世界即使偶與歷史背景做結合，但虛構的成分仍然很濃厚，「這場域，自成一格，既模擬現實世界，又別闢蹊徑，擁有自足而完整的範疇、規律，與現實世界大相逕庭，基本上是由作者、讀者在某種默契下『虛構』而成。」

抽離歷史情境而虛構，從另一個角度而言，卻也等同於束縛的鬆綁，無論是經濟、政治、社會、法律的歷史實情如何，都無須顧慮，只須假借個虛擬的「古代」，作者只須擁有歷史常識（不是知識），即足以盡情馳 騁在此一想像的空間，將重心置放在英雄的江湖事業、兒女情長及恩怨讎報之中。

虛擬的「江湖世界」，除了存在「俠客」之外，也出現了大量的外來人物，「如文人社會中的書生、官吏、僚佐；宗教社會中的僧人、尼姑、道士；農村社會中的漁夫、樵子、農人；商人社會中的商賈、仕紳；其他如乞丐、妓女、兒童等。」這些三教九流的人物充實且豐富了新的江湖。經過了歷代小說家的改造，新的江湖走出了歷史，成為了一種虛擬但完整的社會型態。

江湖世界中的人物遵守正邪之分和實力至上的原則，同時也藐視世俗禮法，是自由���在的獨立個體，一般而言分為兩類：���是獨行俠，二是集團人物。前者獨來獨往，不受他人��束，後者統屬在某一具有成文或不成文規範下的「集團」，也就是所謂的「幫派」。

Google Translated English:

Jianghu is not an actual place. In the martial arts culture, Jianghu is the range of activities of the knights. "Jianghu" emphasizes its variability and danger. "Green Forest" shows his illegality and irrationality. "Wulin" "Restricts his attributes as "Martial Man".

Even if this world is combined with historical background, the fictitious component is still very strong. "This domain is self-contained. It not only simulates the real world, but also has no other way. It has a self-contained and complete category, law, and real world. Very different, basically made by authors and readers under some kind of tacit understanding."

From the historical context and fiction, from another point of view, it is also equivalent to loose bondage. No matter what the historical facts of the economy, politics, society, and law, there is no need to worry about, just fake a virtual "ancient", The author only needs to have historical common sense (not knowledge), which is enough to ride the space imagined here, and put the focus on the hero's cause and effect, the love of children and the complaint.

In addition to the existence of " knights ", there are also a large number of foreign characters in the virtual "Jianghu World", "such as scholars, officials, and bureaucrats in a literati society; monks, nuns, and priests in a religious society; and fishermen in a rural society. , Woodcutters, peasants; merchants, gentry in the merchant society; others such as beggars, prostitutes, children, etc." These three-religious figures have enriched and enriched the new rivers and lakes. After the transformation of novelists in the past, new rivers and lakes have gone out of history and become a virtual but complete social form.

The characters in the Jianghu world abide by the principles of righteousness and evil and the supremacy of power, and also despise the secular etiquette. They are free and independent individuals, generally divided into two categories: one is the lone traveler, and the other is the group characters. The former travels alone and is not bound by others, while the latter belongs to a "group" under written or unwritten norms, so-called " gangs ."

This reflects well the core definition of the wuxia genre, as well as highlighting that its historical format is not strictly necessary. A modern setting is quite possible!

There are more themes and concepts covered in the Wikipedia articles, but for now the main definition of the genre has been covered.

The issue of “scientific” versus “magical” is a complex one to tackle, specifically because many of the subgenres in martial arts films (or literature) rely upon a suspension of disbelief in some element or another. Usually this relates to either the plot - lending an element of the ridiculous - or the style of fighting - lending an element of skepticality.

This is usually because the goal of the story matters more. In wuxia and related genres, this is due to a moral compass being instilled in main characters, and functions as one of the main driving forces behind the plot. This is something popular of many action films, ranging from John Wick to Kill Bill to Kingsman. Morality is a popular element in storytelling, though admittedly popularity often rests on how visually appealing it is (something more difficult with text).

Because of this, it ultimately does not matter how realistic the fighting is or is not - so long as the main concepts are covered, then you have a wuxia story. That being said, martial arts often stretches the preconceived notions of what a human body can do; with sufficient training, things like high jumps (x, x) and triple kicks (x, x) are well within the realm of believability.

Ninja Assassin has realistic martial artistry, but it bends believability under the assumption that an audience’s preconceived scope of potential is very narrow. The same goes approximately for The Grandmaster (2013), albeit from a literally historical perspective while being set in the mid 20th century.

Some popular films that you could use as a reference for varying degrees of suspending disbelief are: Kung Fu Hustle (2004), The Night Comes for Us (2018), The Karate Kid (either version), and Fatal Contact (2006).

In terms of moving around the “fantasy” part of wuxia to something similar, The Matrix series accomplishes many wuxia themes, and some rather pointedly, while occupying a futuristic setting.

While I don’t know if this precisely answers your question, particularly in regards to the technical feasibility of martial arts as popularly demonstrated in wuxia, I would be more than happy to expand on my answer if you wish.

[feuilletoniste]

So obviously I disagree with this post, and I could have just left it alone, but I’m a cunt and I want to complain, so here we are.

First of all, I think it’s important to distinguish between a form or work, employment, activity, task, etc., and the industry controlling it. The Hollywood film industry is horribly exploitative, but that doesn’t mean that all filmmaking and cinematography should be thrown down the drain. The publishing industry is awful towards authors of a certain demographic, but that doesn’t mean we should do away with book-writing. It is possible to discuss the exploitative and harmful aspects of an industry while not claiming that everyone within that industry should not be allowed to do that job. In regards to sex work specifically, I absolutely think that the porn industry is horribly exploitative and abusive towards its “stars,” most of whom are younger women, most of whom will end up being physically or sexually abused in some way or another. I do not think the porn industry as it stands is a good thing. HOWEVER, that does not mean that no erotic material should ever be produced! I think increasing regulations that would protect sex workers would be a really good way to mitigate harm towards these women, for starters. I also think there’s definitely a market for amateur porn instead of professional studios, kind of like the indie subgenre of Hollywood-dominated cinema (no pun intended). In that regard, not all porn is created equal; assuming we’re taking “porn” to mean “visually erotic material created for the purpose of sexual fulfillment,” there’s a definite discrepancy between hardcore studio-filmed scenes featuring professional actors, amateur masturbation videos produced on a cell phone camera, and (the niche but still notable) fetish porn that does not include traditional sexual activity (such as feet pics, object-crushing videos, etc.). Not all pornography is equally exploitative, and it also worth bringing into the conversation the market for porn aimed at women -- I’ll be upfront here and say that yeah, I’ve watched porn before, and a lot of the professionally produced content makes me intensely uncomfortable. But watching a video of some amateur sex worker jerking himself off is not fungible with Interracial Breeding Anal Rape Gangbang #479 where the actress later admits that she was raped during filming. I also don’t think erotica of any type is a bad thing in and of itself -- sexuality is a normal aspect of human behavior, and masturbation is fun, to put it bluntly -- there will always be a market for pornography; the solution is controlling the industry so that the people involved in creating that material are harmed as little as possible, which should be the goal of every labor industry.

The second point concerns sex work specifically. To be entirely clear, sex work includes everything from traditional prostitution (exchanging sexual activity for money) to nudes (or even titillating pictures that don’t show anything), and even occasionally exotic dancing (such as stripping or pole-dancing). I also do not think sex work is a form of labor that should be set apart from other forms of labor; sex is a human activity, and it’s perfectly acceptable if someone wants to exchange their labor for payment. Sex work is not necessarily any more intimate or degrading that being a gynaecologist, a massage therapist, a retail worker, a life drawing model, a film actor, or a model. That said, no one should be forced into sex work against their wishes -- which also applies to every other form of work. But sex as an activity is not inherently any more special than anything else humans do, so it shouldn’t be put on some pedestal where exchanging sex for money is automatically abusive. Of course, trafficking victims who are forced into prostitution are not consenting sex workers, but much as the blame for the fact that some women are forced to turn to sex work for lack of a better option should be placed on the systemic lack of support in place instead of the work itself, the issue lies not with the fact that those women are being forced into sex work but rather that they are being forced into work -- full stop.

Kink is an entirely separate conversation altogether, because kink is an aspect of sexuality, not a transformation of it. It's easy to look at articles chronicling the increase in serious injuries resulting from men choking their girlfriends and put the blame on the choking* instead of the inexperienced, inept, and even sometimes abusive boyfriends who are hurting their partners. Abusers will use anything they can as a weapon; that doesn't mean that the thing they used is in and of itself BAD or even necessarily harmful. A man abusing his wife by comparing their relationship to the Joker and Harley Quinn is not the fault of DC Comics, it's the fault of the man who is abusing his wife.

(*The thing that rankles me about this argument is that choking in BDSM isn't actually cutting off the air supply. To choke someone properly, you pinch off the blood flow in either side of their neck, which causes a feeling of lightheadedness and a dizzy sensation similar to loss of oxygen, but without the same damage. This is not to say that choking isn't dangerous -- it's incredibly dangerous, and absolutely should not be attempted by beginners; even experienced practitioners will often only scene with other experienced people, to lower the risk of serious injury. There are hard limits on duration, pressure, intensity, etc., that apply to choking, breathplay, and really pretty much everything. Much how 50 Shades portrayed an abusive relationship under the label of "BDSM," the mainstream narrative of choking in kink is portrayed as something it's most certainly not, and the inaccurate depiction is manifestly dangerous. But that's a discussion for a different time.)

That's a lot of words for what is basically only one sentence, so let's move on. I can understand the argument that commercial pornography is not the same as sex in the same way that a filmed fight scene is not the same thing as an actual fight or a studio recording is not the same thing as open mic night at a karaoke bar, but in regards to sex work... well, it's even in the name; you're selling sex. I hate the argument that "selling your body" is a bad thing, because I don't think sex work is selling your body any more than working a physically demanding farm job is selling your body; you're selling your labor, in which your body takes part because that's how physical activity happens. And of course there's not really a viable way to separate kink from sex, since kink is sexual activity by itself, full stop.

Then, in the grand tradition of the internet, this person moves on to gatekeeping what sex is. Personally I'm a big fan of breaking down and deconstructing hard cultural boundaries when it comes to what defines sexual activity; it used to be that anal or oral sex were outlawed for being perverse and unnatural, but public opinion has (no pun intended) come around in that regard. There isn't an easy way to define sex, since it's different for everyone -- as is the case with literally everything, and I do mean "literally" in its original meaning. However, I think it's safe to say that sex work (which involves sex prominently) is under the same heading as sex, as is kink (which is a form of sexual activity). Gatekeeping sex by claiming the only way to have sex is by expressing "intimacy between two people" is a hilariously backwards take from someone who is, at least outwardly, a progressive leftist! (I removed the OP's name, but they're a relatively prominent left-wing blogger on this site.)

In case it wasn't already clear, I'll elaborate: sex can be a form of intimacy, yes, but it doesn't always have to be an intimate act; casual sex, one-night stands, friends with benefits, and anonymous sex are all valid forms of sexual expression (and pretty fun, in my experience). Each person is going to want, and get, something different out of sex, be it an intimately connected relationship or just an hour or two of fun. All of that is fine. There is no form of sex that is inherently "better" or "more correct" than any other form.

(I assume that everyone sees the problem with the "between two people" part without my having to point it out.)

The idea that sex "should be [...] at least fun and affectionate and done [with] passion and care" is perfectly fine on its own, but when said in connection with the previous statements (viz. that kink is not sexual activity), it rings pretty hollow. I hate to be the person who says "don't knock it till you try it," but just because you personally do not enjoy a certain form of sexual activity doesn't mean that it can't be fun, affectionate, passionate, or caring. Sometimes those things can be expressed differently; not everyone communicates their emotions identically (thank god). Someone tying up their partner can be just as true an expression of love as a couple having the most traditional vanilla sex in missionary position. It's going to look different for everyone.*

(*There is also something to be said about the ableism inherent in anti-kink rhetoric; certain conditions, such as autism, can result in typically gentle sensations feeling painful and typically painful sensations feeling pleasurable, i.e., someone might not enjoy light caresses which would trigger an unpleasant sensation but would instead get pleasure from being spanked or held down, etc. The same applies to other conditions, including OCD, ADHD, BPD, anxiety, and even your common-or-garden depression. I am happy to corroborate the benefits of kink in relation to disabled people's experiences with sex and sexuality.)

There's also this misconception that all kink is violent and misogynistic, which is laughably untrue. Certainly some expressions of kink are violent, and some are misogynistic, but to say that all kink is violent misogyny is not only incorrect, it also erases the history connecting queer and other marginalized spaces with the kink community. (Once again, I'll suggest reading some Magnus Hirschfeld.) A lesbian dominatrix and her submissive girlfriend are not going to have the same relationship dynamic as a heterosexual man choking his girlfriend until she loses consciousness.

Porn addiction is a real condition that can have harmful results on the addict, including loss of libido, increased depression or anxiety, numbed nerve sensations, and pretty much every symptom of addiction. I don't think anyone reasonable would argue that porn addiction isn't something that happens. However, as I touched on earlier (no pun intended), not all porn is created equal, so the assertion that any pornographic content "might be a rape" is a logical fallacy. Watching a video of your girlfriend masturbating when you want to jerk off is not on the same level as a porn addiction in the same way that rape roleplay is not on the same level as actual rape. And again, the issue here is that someone raped a woman, filmed it, uploaded it to the internet, and (evidently) evaded justice: the issue is not that people like to watch porn in general.

Cycling back to the kink discussion, "slapping someone and hurting them" is not always analagous to sex, that's correct, in the same way that pressing your mouth to something is not always kissing, or touching your genitals is not always masturbation. When in the context of a scene, however, (safely and consensually) slapping your partner is a form of sexual activity. Provided your partner asked for you to hurt them and enjoys when you hurt them, then hurting your partner (within reason, mind) is also a form of sexual activity. I feel like most people have heard of the SSC (Safe, Sane, Consensual) motto, which applies whether you're in a kink space or not. My wanting my partner to spank me because it turns me on* is not the same as my partner hitting me when I don't consent to it. There are some very real concerns that can be raised questioning whether or not women have been conditioned to view violence as a natural aspect of sexual activity due to, well, everything about everything, but there's not any reasonable way to dismantle centuries of patriarchal domination (no pun intended) prior to asking your boyfriend to slap you around a bit, so I don't think it's reasonable to expect women such as myself who genuinely enjoy those aspects of kink to abstain from it simply because someone else thinks we've been "brainwashed" or something.

*Notably, in my experience both personally and when in discussion with other kinky people, the reason(s) for wanting this sort of thing can vary immensely. Sometimes the pressure of being spanked is enjoyable; sometimes the pain of being spanked is enjoyable; sometimes the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness that goes along with being spanked is enjoyable; sometimes the "punishment" aspect of being spanked is enjoyable; sometimes the humiliation aspect of being spanked is enjoyable -- I'm sure you get the idea.

Look, this post is already really long, so I'll try to wrap up the last points quickly.

There's also this impression from non-sex workers that all sex work is essentially that if someone pays enough, he (let's be real) can do whatever he wants to you with no consequences. Even setting aside the fact that this is patently untrue (many sex workers do have the ability to reject prospective customers, cancel appointments, refuse services, retract offers, blacklist potential johns, etc.), the issue is once again not in the type of work but in the type of people who would exploit an already poorly regulated industry in an attempt to manipulate and harm women. The fault is not on the sex work itself! Women in any industry have similar stories of harassment, believe me.

And on that note, sex work is not, as I mentioned, selling your body but rather selling a form of your labor. Performing a blowjob on someone is in the same category as doing someone's nails or cutting their hair or giving them a massage or even providing medical services such as surgery. A huge part of the issue surrounding sex work is that we tend to treat sex as some activity that exists on a separate level from other activities that humans do, instead of -- as I said -- just another thing that humans do. People are not paying sex workers for access to their body any more than people are paying massage therapists for access to their bodies: people are paying for the service provided by those workers.

I don't think sex is sacred. I don't think sex is any more special than other normal human activities. My belief that sex work is a form of exchanging labor for wages does not contradict my belief that women should not be considered sexually available to anyone at any point, any more than stating that working retail doesn't mean you're automatically available to work on your days off. Believing that sex work is a form of exchanging labor for wages does not mean that rape is acceptable, that all women should be sex workers, that anyone should be forced into prostitution, or that there are no problems whatsoever with the sex work industry or porn industry. Nuance is important.

I'm not doing a TL;DR because this isn't an essay but rather a bitchfest, but I will say this: using "fucked-up freak" as an insult against a group of people is a pretty sure-fire way to get me to devalue your argument. In this context, that is not only ableist, but just plain shitty. When I think of groups who call people who have sex the "wrong" way things like "fucked-up freaks who pervert sex," I'm not usually thinking of people I'd like to spend time with. I'm usually thinking of right-wing conservatives, religious extremists, and -- to be frank -- Nazis.

[mermaidsirennikita]

books (in the time of corona)

PART I: ADULT EDITION

Let’s get real--we’re all going fucking insane.  

Therefore, I’m recommending some books with which you can kill time.  I’m breaking them into categories--the romance category including several subgenres but by and large covering books that focus more heavily on the romance than anything else.  These will all be adult books; I’m doing a separate page for YA recommendations.

I’ll be adding to this list as I finish books that I feel belong here.

ROMANCE

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux.  A young woman is abandoned by her scoundrel of a boyfriend, only to find a literal medieval knight in shining armor.  Pure 80′s cheese, a classic in the time travel subgenre long before Outlander ever happened.

The Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts.  Six sexy people, three men and three women in Roberts fashion, travel across time and parallel dimensions to fight an evil vampire and her undead army.  Come for three fun romances, stay in particular for the “virgin bookworm queen captures the heart of the formerly evil 1,000 Irish vampire” ship.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.  Rival coworkers who’ve always hated each other compete for the same job--until maybe?  They start?  Hooking up?

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata.  A down on her luck singles figure skater pairs up with the pairs champion she’s always despised... Unless they in fact, in a STUNNING TWIST, do not hate each other?

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa.  A BIT ON THE NOSE RIGHT NOW, but I promise that this tale of a hot virgin Horseman of the Apocalypse spreading his plague and the one woman brave enough to fuck him is WORTH IT.  As is the sequel, War.

My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curran.  A literal choose your own adventure novel, but the adventures bodice ripping Regency romance plots!!!

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.  A sweet and smart woman on the autism spectrum hires a male escort to teach her to be good at sex.  Shit goes DOWN from there.

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary.  She works days; he works nights.  She needs a cheap place to stay, and he needs a roommate.  So they share a flat and even a bed (sleeping on opposite sides and never at the same time) only communicating through post-it notes throughout the apartment.  What could go wrong?

Marriage for One by Ella Maise.  She can only get her inheritance if she’s married.  Good thing a glacial attorney has offered to marry her out of nowhere, only for paper purposes.  What could go wrong???

The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa.  Lina is a wedding planner who was left at the altar.  Max is the younger brother of the man who left her, and apparently convinced him to do the leaving.  What happens when they work together?

Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert.  Chloe suffers from a chronic illness, which means that she’s never had a life--and so she compiles a list that will help her get one.  On the list?  Meaningless sex.  Which she won’t have with her building’s superintendent, even though he’s really down to help her cross off all the other items, riiiight?

HISTORICAL FICTION

Passion by Jude Morgan.  The dramatic and intense height of Romantic England, told from the perspectives of Caroline Lamb, mistress of Lord Byron; August Leigh, his sister and lover; Mary Shelley; and Fanny Brawne, fiancee of John Keats.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.  Impoverished Griet becomes a maid in the household of the painter Vermeer, becoming his muse after he realizes that she has a natural eye--much to the dismay of his wife.

Snow Flower and The Secret Fan by Lisa See. In nineteenth century China, best friends Lily and Snow Flower follow each other through emotional and cultural revolutions, communicating through the secret language of fans.

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George.  Cleopatra recounts her life story, from her earliest memory, through her affairs with Caesar and Antony, and her end.

Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn.  In Domitian’s Rome, a Jewish girl rises from the position of lady’s slave to the emperor’s mistress through wiles and scheming.

The Tiger Queens by Stephanie Thornton.  The rise and fall of Genghis Khan’s empire, as told through the women of his family--from his favorite wife to a clever daughter-in-law.

At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen.  A socialite follows her incompetent to Scotland as he struggles to find the Loch Ness Monster and redeem his ancestor’s name--finding herself and questioning her life in the process.

A Year of Ravens.  A collection of short stories by different authors, all centering on Boudica’s rebellion through the eyes of her countrymen and her enemies.

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King.  A slave becomes a chef in the treacherous household of a social climber struggling to gain the favor or Caesar August.

Fatal Throne.  Six authors tell the stories of Henry VIII’s wives, all from their differing perspectives.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  The rise and fall of a 1970s rock band is charted through the recollections of its members--as they recall what drove them apart, and in particular the intense relationship between the leader singers.

THRILLERS

The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre.  A woman with murderous impulses locks herself in her apartment to keep the public safe, making a living as a camgirl.  She’s left torn between morals and impulse when she begins to suspect that one of her “fans” is dangerous.

Little Deaths by Emma Flint.  In 1960s America, a single mother finds her personal life and image called into question when she’s accused of murdering her two young children.

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.  A nurse covers up her beautiful sister’s murders, only to be caught between loyalties when the doctor she loves falls for said sister.

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine.  A plain “nobody” transforms herself in order to steal a high society housewife’s husband, only to deal with more than she bargained for.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.  A woman obsesses over her ex-husband’s new fiancee, leading her to disturbing lengths.

The Other Woman by Sandie Jones.  After meeting her ideal man, a woman must contend with his possessive mother, who will do anything to maintain her hold over him.

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman.  A couple on their dream honeymoon find something in the water that will change the course of their life together.

The Au Pair by Emma Rous.  The day Seraphine and her twin brother were born, their mother flung herself off a cliff and their nanny disappeared.  Decades later, Seraphine discovers a photo taken of her parents just before her mother’s death--with only one baby.  The only person who holds the key to the mystery?  The au pair.

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing.  A couple keeps the spark alive through murder.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager.  A young woman takes a job apartment-sitting in a high-end Manhattan building.  Shortly after she befriends another sitter, the girl goes missing--with everyone else acting like nothing is amiss.

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher.  Thursday is one of her husband’s three wives, though she’s never met the other two.  When she finally does meet the third wife, she discovers a woman far different from what she expected--and covered in bruises.

FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL/HORROR

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.  Sorcha is the youngest of seven children in medieval Ireland.  When her stepmother curses her six older brothers to live as swans, Sorcha agrees to weave them shirts of painful thistles, all the while remaining silent, to break the spell.

Black Pearls by Louise Hawes.  A collection of dark fairy tale retellings.

The Incarnations by Susan Barker.  A man receives letters from an anonymous source, detailing his supposed past lives throughout historical China.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust.  A dark Snow White retelling, with a stepmother whose goals extend far beyond the princess.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.  Alex Stern is discovered as the sole survivor of a brutal multiple murder, and is promptly scooped up by a group charged with monitoring the occult societies at Yale.  Now disguised as a university student, Alex must figure out who’s been murdering locals, while also hiding what happened the night she lived.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell.  A young widow in Victorian England is sent to her husband’s country estate to wait out her pregnancy, and is not alarmed to discover a “silent companion” (a painted wooden figure) in the house.  But when the figure’s eyes begin following her, she is sucked into a history beyond her imagination.

Circe by Madeline Miller.  The story of the woman who would seduce Odysseus, from her beginnings as a plain witch born of Helios and a mother who couldn’t care less.  A classic rise to power story.

CONTEMPORARY LIT

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal.  Down on her luck Nikki takes up a job as a creative writing class instructor for the Punjabi widows in her West London neighborhood.  It turns out that the widows thought she was there to teach them to write in English--which leads to the class becoming a place for them to share their stories orally instead.  And it turns out that they’re a bit... erotic.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.  Upwardly mobile newlyweds Celestina and Roy have their lives upended when Roy is falsely accused of a terrible crime and sent to prison for twelve years.  When he’s released early after five, he returns home to find that Celestina has changed completely, and their marriage is entirely unknown.

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo.  A young Nigerian couple has always been against polygamy; but after the wife fails to get pregnant, her in-laws show up on their doorstep with a second wife.

NON-FICTION/MEMOIR

Harem: The World Behind The Veil by Alev Lytle Croutier.  An examination of the Ottoman Empire’s harem culture, focusing on the women within.

Love For Sale: A World History of Prostitution by Nils Johan Ringal.  Not really a GLOBAL history of prostitution, but a good introduction starting with ancient times and going into the cases of more recent madams in America, with a strong case for legalization worldwide.

Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman.  A readable biography of the famously scandalous and tragic duchess, to be read while you kill time rewatching “The Duchess” starring Keira Knightley.

Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford.  A fair but none-too-precious assessment of one of Renaissance Italy’s most controversial women, and an analysis of her relationships with her father and brother.

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives.  While you’re quarantining, you might as well read the definitive Anne Boleyn biography, yes?  This one is responsible for much of the modern attitude on Anne.

Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber.  A fascinating analysis of Marie Antoinette’s political life through her clothes.

The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi.  An analysis of the infamous, unsolved “Monster of Florence” case.  One of the most gruesome serial killers in Italy’s history, the monster’s crimes were pinned on several different men, and even investigated by the prosecutor who botched the Amanda Knox case.

The Forger’s Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick.  An examination of the case of Han van Meegeren, a painter who forged and sold many Dutch master fakes, and the pretentious art world that let him get away with it for years.

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford.  A study of the women in Genghis Khan’s family, and in particular those that kept his empire from falling to ruin after his death.  A good companion read with Stephanie Thornton’s fiction novel Tiger Queens mentioned above.

Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino.  How did the Getty Museum end up with so many stolen artifacts?  This book aims to find out.

The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo.  A different kind of Anne Boleyn book, studying her portrayal in culture and fiction--complete with input from Natalie Dormer following her portrayal of Anne Boleyn on The Tudors.

Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood.  An examination of the women of the houses of Lancaster and York during their famous, long-running conflict--and how these women had an impact on battles and politics alike.

The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World’s Most Coveted Fish by Emily Voigt.  The author delves into why people are so obsessed with the arowana, a rare and exotic fish, to the point that they’ll commit murder--and becomes wrapped up in the fascination herself.

The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy.  Over the course of a month, Ariel Levy watches everything she held true in her life--her financial security, her career, her marriage, and her pregnancy--fall apart.  Levy must confront what it means to live an “unconventional” and “free” life, only for that to become meaningless, and pick up the pieces.

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to find The Good Death by Caitlin Doughty.  Doughty recounts her global travels to observe and study different funerary and death rituals, recounting and analyzing her experiences with respect and personality.

Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer.  A collection of female serial killers, analyzing why they did what they did and the cultural legacy they left behind.

Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found by Frances Larson.  A history of decapitated human heads, and what different cultures have done with them.

From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke.  Tembi Locke was never truly accepted by her husband’s Sicilian family, as a black American woman.  But when Saro dies young of cancer, she finds herself more deeply entwined her in-laws, as she works to pick up the pieces.  (Warning: one of the most achingly romantic books I’ve ever read; but it will destroy you.)

[blastoisemonster]

Chou Gals! Kotobuki Ran This other anime differs heaps from yesterday's subject matter, and quite some backstory is in order if I want to explain its context properly. So Gals! is an anime none of my usual friends knew about. Hell even after years later I never met anyone who ever watched it. >.> Before looking for further info online I was starting to think it was a fever dream of mine. The reason for this huge unpopularity is because it used to air on our second channel in the early afternoon, while most kids either were doing homeworks  or instead opting for the much more popular cartoon blocks proposed by the third or fourth channels. No one watched the second, therefore what was shown went completely under the radar, even content-wise, despite everything being translated into italian. Quite infact, the reason why I kept remembering this anime all these years was because it had ganguro characters (which I already knew what they were thanks to Jynx's origins, har har) and the protagonist made it a running joke to comment about their tanned skin... which even then, and in context, made me say "whoa dude, you're crossing a line". And yet it all went on national television. Let's take a few steps backwards. GALS! or "Gyaruzu!" is a shojo manga by Mihona Fujii originally serialized by the magazine Ribon ftom 1998 to 2002. It is a romanticized, at times too much comedic, but still interestingly precise chronicle on a social phenomenon that interested female (and at times even male) japanese teenagers during the second half of the 90s and well into the whole 00s: the various gyaru subcultures. Japanese gyarus (or kogals, but really they have many other names depending on their subgenre) were teens promoting fashion and lifestyle trends that heavily clashed with the previous decades, often resulting over the top or controversial. Supposedly inspired by an idealized version of american teenage life seen in movies and TV series, gals' main statements included dying their hair in vivid colours (or blonde, usually) making use of heavy, flashy-coloured make up, and living a life of constant fun and games usually in the entertaining districts of Shibuya and Ikebukuro. While seemingly harmless for the western culture (they will appear as simply fun-loving teens to most), most japanese adults were concerned by the trend, fearing that it would drift young adults away from the prospects of adulthood such as a work career or marriage. There's a lot of peculiarities in the gals subculture, ranging from their subgenres to their activities, fashions, and places, all enriched with unique, specific terms and a rich slang. Chou Gals showed it all, alternating the wacky adventures of protagonist Ran Kotobuki (self proclaimed number one gal of Shibuya) with interesting skits of reality, such as their street-life often entertwining with gang clashes and fights (Miyu, one of the co-protagonists, is shown to have a turbulent past as a street urchin), the conflict between gals and strict parents, the difficulty of getting part-time jobs due to negative prejudices against such demographics, and the subsequent choice of prostitution (seen as a disgrace in the gals subculture, but still sadly a popular phenomenon) in order to get further funds to spend into fashion objects or entertaining; in the very first episode, infact, Ran manages to convince Aya (the second and last co-protagonist) against resorting to the enjo kosai, therefore avoiding unpleasant encounters. The comic became one of the greatest manifestos for the gyaru subculture, so an anime adaptation was in order. 52 episodes aired on TV Tokyo from 2001 to 2002, and the following two Game Boy Color titles in these years were a natural consequence. In Italy, the manga got surprisingly translated in its entirety with all 10 volumes made available by Dynamic; the anime was a bit unlucky instead, with the translation only abruptly stopping at the 26th episode. However it must be said that the localization work was miracolously respecting of the original subject matter, filling in further explanation for some aspects of the subculture and even deciding to leave some terms in japanese, further tempting viewers to do actual research. The peculiar subject along with the thorough explanations, not to mention that finally a series was talking about a real life phenomenon instead of being centered on fictional fantasies, absolutely captured me and still finds me interested. I only caught a handful of episodes during their original broadcast but with Internet now readily available I managed to recently watch all italian episodes first and then the missing ones, subbed. Seems obvious that the reason for the translation's abrupt end was lack of proper audience and not censorship or poor localization effort. The gyaru subculture had already started showing decline at the end of the 00s and despite a manga sequel published in 2019, I'm pretty sure the trend has completely dwindled nowadays. Still I wonder if it ever had some kind of impact in western countries. As a teen, spending time having fun in one's own city downtown, buying cheap accessories, filling our notebooks and flip phones with stickers, and experimenting with different styles of fashion, hairdo and make up were normally accepted standards, so the idea of all this being controversial or viewed by adults as taboo didn't exist. Gals truly opened a window on another side of the planet, showing how our life would've been in the land of Nippon. Look at how much I have blabbed. Games' review tomorrow!

[dustedmagazine]

Gravesend — Methods of Human Disposal (20 Buck Spin)

Methods Of Human Disposal by Gravesend

Some nihilism with your deathgrind? That might sound like a redundancy in a subgenre that includes bands like Circle of Dead Children and Mortician (and, depending on how you define things, might also spill over into the significantly seedier territories of gore- and pornogrind — you’re on your own with that last one, kids…). Of course, the parameters and properties of all those subgenres are constantly debated, and some folks will argue that the vocals of the entity identified only as A (who also plays guitar and programs some synths for the band) aren’t sufficiently pitch-shifted for Gravesend to really count as a deathgrind act. Whatevs. The rest of the aesthetics are sure on target. Song titles like “Ashen Piles of the Incinerated” and “Unclaimed Remains” strike familiar, sour and malodorous notes. Under the lurid scrim of scum, the band has a penchant for effective wordplay: “Concrete Feet” has a fun rhyme to go along with its grim implication of execution-style drowning, and that image connects nicely with “Verrazano Floater,” which evokes the damp yuck of a thoroughly marinated body snagged on the end of a boathook in the New York Bay.

The reference to the bridge spanning NYC’s Lower Bay appropriately orients you in space. The guys in Gravesend take their band’s name from the Brooklyn neighborhood situated between Bensonhurst and Brighton Beach. As yet, that little chunk of NYC terrain has evaded the waves of gentrification that have transformed Red Hook, Gowanus and Bushwick (let’s not even talk about Williamsburg, please). The neighborhood remains accessible to the city’s working-class folks, who need places to live and eat and conduct the everyday business of life. Some of Gravesend’s songs seem to engage the specific rhythms of New York’s most obscure places, removed from the glitz and glitter of a mythic Manhattan: “Subterranean Solitude” evokes the hidden, semi-defensible spaces documented in Marc Singer’s remarkable Dark Days (2000), and “End of the Line” could address the ambiguous vibes felt while riding the F train deep into Brooklyn in the empty hours of the night. 

Those are relatively happy ways to pick up on what Gravesend is laying down. Deathgrind is unforgivingly heavy and unrelentingly violent in the sonically mediated abuse it metes out, and Methods of Human Disposal doesn’t skimp on the pounding or the grating, gnashing tones. The music’s confrontational qualities could represent the angry affect of people being displaced farther and farther out to the margins of the city, geographically and socially. “Methods of Human Disposal,” indeed. In its unpleasant way, a song like “Needle Park” gives word and symbolic shape to the existence of a marginalized, abject population. But the song and its accompanying video are ambivalent texts. It’s hard to know if Gravesend are pissed off or bummed out by the images in the video. Maybe the band is titillated by the images. Maybe they enjoy them. That would be of a piece with a lot of deathgrind’s rotten, repugnant ethos: to find pleasure in what is conventionally considered abhorrent. 

“Pleasure” is a loaded word to use here. The blurred images of prostitutes in the video for “Needle Park” might be apt, suggesting an aesthetic vanishing point between that which is pleasurable (the idea of sex, the body’s curves and heat, orgasm) and that which is not (the real work in sex work, a body that may be exploited and forced into fucking). It’s true that all of those things exist in New York, even as its post-Giuliani-Time surfaces want to celebrate perversely scaled wealth and gleaming plenitude. This reviewer is of an age that allows him to remember Times Square and the Lower East Side in the mid-1980s, spaces that had an energy now lost to us all. Excitement, misery and risk bled into one another, creating an objectively present and ambiguously powerful lived experience. Maybe that’s what Gravesend’s intense, livid music wants to pour into us, to make us feel. Maybe. 

Jonathan Shaw

[ilosttrackofthings]

Hi do you have any good book recs? I'm particularly in an enemies to lovers romance mood but I'd appreciate any recs you have. Thanks(:

Oh so so many, nonnie. This list got loooong.

Crown Duel - In all truthfulness I don’t remember a ton about this one but I love it enough that it’s been on my shelf since I was a teenager. Mostly what I remember is the political intrigue side of things. Our main characters are on opposite sides of the political aisle (of this magical kingdom) but find themselves working towards the same goals. And I don’t promise anything but I very vaguely remember some hiding of identity and life saving going on early into things.

Mara, Daughter of the Nile - This one’s for kids so it’s an easy read but it is SO GOOD. Mara is a slave who’s sent to be a spy in Egypt’s royal house. Only along the way there she winds up forced to spy for the other side. One of her two contacts is Sheftu, a noble fiercely devoted to seeing his king on the throne. There are plenty of sparks between the two of them and much drama not only from Mara’s (unavoidable) duplicity but because of all the politics going on.

Stolen Songbird - A young woman is sold to the trolls as a bride who will supposedly break the curse plaguing them just by marrying their prince. Only not so much - and now they’re stuck with her. There is much political drama (I do not know why all these books have political stuff going on) and much drama between our main couple, who do NOT want to be together and want even less to be bound by a magical spell that, if it’s not inspired by soulmate fic, I would be shocked. (Fair warning: I have not read the entire trilogy, just this first book, so I can’t necessarily recommend the whole thing but this one was really good.)

Angelfall - I typically stay far away from this particular subgenre of the whole supernatural creature romance genre, but this got great reviews when it came out and definitely deserved them. Penryn is trying to find her little sister in the middle of the apocalypse and her only help is a wingless angel who hates her as much as she hates him. It’s good stuff and worth the read even if the trilogy loses its spark over time. (#2 was good but I never even bothered to read 3, the reviews were terrible.)

North and South - Yeah, that North and South. It’s old and it’s long (so … so so long) but it’s like Pride and Prejudice all grown up. Margaret is in no way sheltered but when she’s thrown into the very different social structures of an industrial town, she discovers the world is even greyer than she thought. It would be easy to side with the struggling working class but Gaskell doesn’t allow the reader that luxury, showing that management’s struggles and compromises are just as real and difficult as those of the people their decisions most affect. Oh, and Margaret and the mill owner have a relationship so full of ust and mutual antagonism/pining that I probably should’ve put this at the top of the list.

But I do love P&P, don’t get me wrong, and if you’re looking for more of that, I highly recommend the William Darcy, Gentleman series. It’s P&P from Darcy’s perspective and is truly excellent.

Redeeming Love - This one’s a Christian romance but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Angel’s a prostitute during the gold rush, looking for a new life in the wilds of California, far from the man who made her who she is. Hosea is a farmer who literally hears God telling him to marry the beautiful prostitute he sees while visiting town. (Yes, this is a retelling of the biblical book of Hosea but Hosea is perfectly aware that it’s happening.) It’s not simple and it’s not pretty but there’s a reason it’s on basically every Christian book list.

A Matter of Class - This one’s kind of cheating but I promise it’s worth it. Our future lovebirds are on opposite sides of a social divide and a family feud, but when Annabelle tries to run off with the groom (not her groom, the groom with the horses; oh the shame), Reginald’s father sees his chance to lift the family’s social standing a little and give his spendthrift son a dose of responsibility. Thus two feuding fathers proceed to drag their unwilling children to the altar. Yes, it’s a traditional romance novel but it’s not porny.

Entreat Me - I’m currently reading this one. It’s a batb retelling with plenty of changes to make it fresh and interesting. The beast is a warlord cursed by his dying, vicious wife and Louvaen is a young widow demanding to stay in his castle to protect her sister’s virtue. Speaking of virtue, where the last book was very restrained, this one is not. There is much sex.

This list is getting ridiculous so here are a few enemies-to-lovers (or lovers-who-might-be-are-enemies)* romance novels, if that’s your thing:

Proof by Seduction

One Night of Passion

After Midnight

Unveiled

And some books that either aren’t romances or don’t have that enemies tension to them but which I must recommend:

Keturah and Lord Death

The Most Important Thing Happening

Till We Have Faces

If We Survive

Gallagher Girls

Landover series

Song in the Silence

Hopefully something here strikes your fancy, nonnie, and thanks for the ask!

edit: And please tell me if you do read any of them! That goes for anyone, not just this particular anon. I wanna know if anyone enjoys them.

[tolarianfic-blog]

So, this is one of those special fics, but it needs some context. asocialconstruct’s “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” takes place in the 4F Universe originated by stoatsandwich. The 4F ‘verse is an AU in which Steve Rogers does not take the serum and joins up as a kind of military prostitute. As the originator says in the linked analysis, the series started as an excuse for PWP but ended up being as much about the dehumanization of war as it is about sex. The 4F universe is not for everyone, but it’s a complex, tragic and thoughtful place. If you want to look into it, definitely read the tags carefully, though.

While “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” takes place in the 4F universe, it’s not nearly as dark as the more typical 4F fare. It’s a beautiful depiction of two strangers making a connection and, happily for us Thundershield shippers, those two strangers are pre-serum Steve Rogers and Thor. While the fic isn’t dark, it is melancholy (remind me to rec a fun, sweet Thundershield fic next week), but that melancholy comes hand in hand with delectable, restrained prose (a hallmark of asocialconstruct’s work) and a self-contained narrative that’s satisfying and sexy.

Pre-serum Steve with Thor is one of my favourite Thundershield subgenres: I only wish there was more of it (Another fic by asocialconstruct, the sun did not yet know, also features this. It’s an amazing fic and deserves a separate recommendation and some important caveats).  Here, Thor and Steve’s size difference receives beautiful attention, and, notably for the ship, the exchange is really even while still engaging in kink. What I mean is that there's a lot of give and take, both literally and metaphorically. 

Thundershield sometimes features a power imbalance between Thor and Steve, often pairing Steve being more emotionally vulnerable than Thor with Steve bottoming (and I do adore that) but this fic provides a great example of Steve and Thor feeling much more like equals. It’s a really deft piece of writing for a number of reasons, but my one of my favourite reasons is what neither the reader nor Steve know about Thor somehow adds focus on Steve choosing this experience on his own terms rather than taking away from his agency.

It’s not an emotionally charged encounter: that’s not really what this story is about. Instead, it’s about Steve enjoying some friendly, kinky sex and feeling good about the experience, and showing how powerful that kind of experience can be. Highly recommended. 

Tagging: @mandys444

Want to be added to the tags? Let me know!

[lycorogue]

Who Wants to Meet My OCs? (Part 2 - Gyateara)

First and foremost, I meant to have this whole series to be sort of churned out the same day/week as Part 1. Life.... didn’t let that happen. I then figured “okay, I’ll update the series every Sunday” and then yesterday came and went...

Regardless, from the NEXT POST onward, I’m aiming to update every Sunday. Now, back to the series itself.

Ever since at least November, I’ve wanted to do individual posts for each of my OCs so you could meet them all. Well, I’m finally getting off my butt and working on this massive project (we’ll ignore that I’m spending hours working on this instead of my ML fanfic.... >_>).

In Part 1, I gave a broad overview of this whole Meet My OCs series, as well as gave some generic IRL background to the two main worlds my OCs hail from:

1) Gyateara

2) Glitches

Well, in this part of the series, I’m going to stay IRL as I explain where each individual OC within the Gyateara universe came from. If this is interesting to you, feel free to check below the break.

If you’d rather just skip ahead to the character bios themselves, my first one about my Glitches character Willow should be up in two weeks (sorry for the wait).

If I’m talking about Gyateara characters, I should probably talk about the one that first birthed the world: 

Amara Yori

Amara was my first-ever D&D character. I had known of the game for ages since my father used to play it frequently (and apparently roped my mother into at least running the monsters so she’d be included; ignoring that she’d rather not be included XD). 

I really got interested in D&D when I was a teen and saw the gorgeously stylized covers for AD&D ver 3.5. My father had passed away before officially introducing me to the game (although we did used to play Dungeon all the time, so that was a start...), and none of my friends were going to touch that “nerd culture” with a 10ft pole, so I simply admired the books, but never actually played. Then I went to college and managed to Nerd Out.

Hubby (then boyfriend) offered to help me build my first-ever character, but in 2004 the D&D 3.5 expansions were so massive I had far too many choices to choose from.

So Hubby had me go through some of his extra minis, and let me pick out one that I really liked. With his help, I ended up with the 2003 version of the Wood Elf Skirmisher.

Based solely on this mini, I started building Amara.

Hubby suggested that I try out the Scout class for my first one, since I couldn’t choose between a Rogue, Ranger, or Druid, and Scout is sort of in between at least the Rogue and Ranger classes. For whatever reason - I can’t remember it now - I also decided I wanted to play a half-elf.

Upon reading the generic backstory description the D&D books had for the Scout class, I figured my character needed some sort of Tragic BackstoryTM that would explain her scouting skills. Things like trap finding and dismantling, masterful rope use skills, hiding and tracking skills, and connection to animals.

I was in a big The Vision of Escaflowne kick at the time - which shows up in a couple other characters’ backstories - and was fascinated with the history between Van Fanel’s parents. Van’s human father Goau stumbled upon Varie, a Draconian woman, in the woods one day. Draconians have the ability to manifest feathered wings which allow them flight. It was rare to see a Draconian, and her beauty - with her wings shimmering in the moonlight as she waded in a small pool of water - mesmerized Goau. He instantly fell in love and brought Varie home to be his wife. The duo seemed to love each other deeply. Amara’s parents, on the other hand....

I’ll get into more when I break down their actual bios, but I took the idea of “Human stumbles upon exotic non-human in the woods and instantly marries her” and twisted it slightly. Amara’s mother was very much emotionally, and possibly even physically (I haven’t confirmed this yet), abused by Amara’s father. Amara, being a half-elf, also had to deal with abuse at the hands of many of her fellow clansmen - both the human and the elven clans; pretty much exclusively because she was a “half-breed” (Yes, I was really into InuYasha then too).

As I kept building Amara, I kept adding more and more tragedy to her backstory. I do enjoy what I created, but, especially after reading a lot of posts here on Tumblr, I’m afraid her history is nothing but a giant knotted ball of cliches and tropes. For now, though, I’m running with it. Perhaps I can figure out work-arounds later....

I never did get to play more than a session or two with Amara before the game disbanded (which seems to be a repeat thing with my gaming group), but she still lives on in my mind, and eventually in Gyateara.

Natalie

As I mentioned above, The Vision of Escaflowne very much inspired me while I was working on the earliest bits of Gyateara. Therefore, Natalie is your basic Isekai protagonist.

For those who don’t know the term (I didn’t know an official genre term existed until about a year ago), Isekai refers to a subgenre of fantasy/speculative fiction where the main character is abruptly teleported from their world to a new one; usually one with a fantasy setting.

It’s a massive subgenre and includes most of the fantasy animes I’ve watched:

InuYasha

The Vision of Escaflowne

Fushigi Yuugi

The Devil is a Part-Timer

The Rise of the Shield-hero

The Saga of Tanya the Evil

The Familiar of Zero

How to NOT Summon a Demon Lord

Sword Art Online (technically)

.Hack//Sign (technically)

Digimon (first season, specifically)

Psyren (manga)

The list can go on, but that’s not the point of this post. Getting back to the actual point, I clearly enjoyed this genre without even realizing there was a term for it, and created my own Isekai story. Natalie is from our world, but is abruptly teleported to Gyateara’s main Northern Isle, where she must save the country from being destroyed by a power-hungry, put painfully charismatic, villain.

I had taken elements from Kagome (InuYasha), Hitomi (The Vision of Escaflowne), Miaka (Fushigi Yuugi), and I think I had Ariel (The Little Mermaid) in there as well at one point. She was - and still kind of is - just “Generic Isekai Female Protagonist”, which is one of the main reasons the story she was in failed so soon into NaNoWriMo back in... 2014, I think. Almost a solid decade after I started dreaming up her Isekai story. She definitely needs to go back to the drawing board a bit to be properly fleshed out.

Connor

He was from the same story as Natalie. Connor was a denizen of Gyateara’s Northern Isles, and became Natalie’s traveling companion as he helped her try to find a way home. Ya know, that old Isekai chestnut. I even leaned heavily into the cliche and had the two of them fall in love throughout their journey. Which would lead to a third-act twist of “Okay, we can defeat the villain, but then what? Could they stay together? Would Natalie stay on Gyateara? Will Connor instead try to go home to Earth with her?” Real original. I know. Add in that Connor was a sort of Frankenstein’s monster of a character. Grab a snack, this is going to take a minute...

Connor’s traits included:

The basic backstory and drive of the player character in the video game Fable, in which his father was killed, his mother and sister tortured (and presumed dead, only to be proven still alive and captured), his home village burnt down, and he was taken in by the local guild so the guild master could train Connor to become the hero the GM believed Connor was prophesied to be.

The half-demon traits of InuYasha (InuYasha), which transformed him into a sort of were-cat. His mother, a full-demon, could become a 15ft (4.57m) tall panther with split tails. Connor’s half-demon heritage was hidden from him, and he only transformed under extreme moments of stress.

Yes. The “love interest is the only one who can snap the protag back from a monstrous rage” trope was heavily evident throughout the story.

His overall look was inspired by Link (Legend of Zelda video game franchise). His basic fighting style - swordsmanship and expert archery - was a sort of tag-teamed “thieving” from Link as well as Van (The Vision of Escaflowne).

A highly resistant, and begrudging submission to become the Hero of Prophecy lifted off of Tamahome (Fushigi Yuugi).

I know he was much more influenced by Van from Escaflowne when I was first making him. I even used Van as a reference guide when I tried to create character head shots of him. I just can’t recall now what else I swiped from that character.

I feel like there are also other male anime/video game protags I swiped traits from, but I can’t recall them anymore. Regardless, I threw them in a blender, and poured out the mixture that became Connor.

Jolene Crisslebalm

Ah, the character whose last name I always have to look up, because I can’t recall how I spelled it. Good starting point, right?

I am a very reserved person. In particular, a very sexually reserved person. But I do enjoy sex, and I love the act of flirting, and the “thrill of the chase” when it comes to dating, so a part of me always wonders what I would be like if I had let go of my reservations and just enjoyed the carnal pleasures of life.

So, two characters in particular - Willow (from Glitches) and Jolene - are my exploration of that Path Not Traveled. 

A friend of mine was hosting a D&D campaign via Roll20.net, and wondered if I wanted in. I hadn’t been involved in a D&D game in a year or so at that point, and I’ve enjoyed playing a couple of one-offs with him DMing, so I leapt at the chance to join. I had almost always played a form of Rogue class (hence the internet persona) in previous D&D campaigns, so I decided to stay the course, but with a twist I hadn’t tried before.

I wanted Jolene to be a sort of reluctant adventurer, preferring instead to be a cat burgler, but I also wanted that sexual/sensual exploration of character. So, she was a traveling prostitute (not exactly legal without proper ties to a brothel; much like a Sex Trade Guild sort of thing), but she also used her “alone time with clients” to scope out the place to see if it’s worth robbing.

Fast forward about 3 years, and I end up watching the first episode of the Freeform Marvel series Cloak and Dagger... where I saw Tandy doing the same thing, but roofying her targets instead of sleeping with them first... Great minds, and all that?

Eh, Jolene figures “might as well make money off of them before coming back and robbing the rest... less to carry later...”

In the end, while Jolene had an.... interesting run... and one I actually did enjoy role playing, even if it did leave me a bit frustrated afterwards (a good frustrated?)... Jolene just didn’t fit the world the DM created, nor did she fit in quite as well as I would have hoped with the other players.

They were all AMAZING players, by the way. Some of the best role players I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, and such fantastic writers as well. BTW, we wrote out everything in the Roll20 chat log instead of verbally playing or using video-chat. I must admit, I was quite envious of their skills. It was just a tighter knit group, and I wasn’t able to feel out their play-style well enough to continue with the group. Eventually they all had to go their separate ways anyway when their schedules no longer lined up.

Still, I LOVED Jolene, and she was the D&D character I had the joy of running the longest, so she NEEDED to live on. She did, in my first NaNoWriMo “win”. I managed to hit those 50,000 words, but I still had about 3/5ths of her story to write. 

See, while coming up with Jolene’s jaded attitude towards love and her pull towards a more hedonistic lifestyle, I went with the good old cliche of Heartbreak Was The Culprit. (With so many cliches in my character builds, is it a wonder why I just stick with fanfiction... the characters are already created...)

Jolene had her heart broken five times between the ages of 13 and 21. She was the type who fell quick into love, and fell HARD into it, and always felt intensely betrayed by her lovers when they left her. To be fair... they did routinely leave her for a woman of better social standing, or - in her youth - someone more willing to put out, or just straight up abandon her without so much as a farewell note. Eventually, she gave up on trying to find love, and joined a brothel, and then the thieves guild, and then headed out on her own from there.

The DM thought it unlikely that she was a prostitute for the better part of 5 years without a single pregnancy, so he rolled for it, and Jolene had one miscarriage, one still born, and one healthy child she gave up for adoption. I was not expecting to include that in her backstory, but it actually worked fairly well.

And all of that was the subject of my NaNo project: Lost Loves and Paramours. Jolene’s full biography leading up to the campaign: every man she fell in love with, every person she slept with, the one client who tried to murder her to avoid a scandal of his lust getting the better of him, the pain of her miscarry, the devastation of her stillborn, the heart break of giving up her surviving child, the struggles against a stalker, and her over-all YOLO attitude.

(Bitmoji is a beautiful thing...)

Well, second long post of this series is now complete. Next week, I’ll talk about the IRL inspiration for my Glitches characters. Thank you so much for indulging me on these epic ramblings.

[miguelmarias]

VÍCTIMAS DEL PECADO

Despite its moralizing title, Victims of Sin is a magnificent, canonical Mexican melodrama (with several Cuban imports) of the ‘cabaretera’ subgenre, a daring, realistic and even cruelly dramatic tear-jerker thumbing its way through a series of disasters and injustices to what appears to be a really welcome happy ending, only to go on with further catastrophes until arriving, years later, at a (muted) happy conclusion. It is certainly not the most prestigious of Emilio Fernández’ films, and never will be, precisely because it is an unashamed melodrama, but it is arguably among the very best in his quite remarkable career.

A heroic and even saintly rhumba dancer at the Changoo, turned street prostitute for having adopted an abandoned (in the garbage can!) new-born child, the character of Violeta (Ninón Sevilla) is not a passive and powerless victim, but a real, outspoken, rebellious fighter, capable of furiously defending herself and hitting the despicable pimp-gangster mercilessly, played (with relish) by Rodolfo Acosta, deservedly sending him to jail and finally killing him. Which sends her to jail and separation from her adopted kid.

In the standard ninety minutes of a feature film, Fernández presents a series of events which could fill several seasons of any current Tv series, with an economy which at the time seemed quite normal, but today seems to be an outstanding feat, even a miracle. And he manages to integrate, functionally, several fantastic dance numbers, a song by the great Pedro Vargas (sitting at a table with an arm in a sling), and some mambo music by Pérez Prado and orchestra.

Neither cynical nor a simple commercial women’s picture, but a tale, like Mizoguchi’s work, the film has a sincere compassion and sympathy for the prostitutes, whom Fernández probably knew well and liked, as his other prostitution/brothel films suggest (from Las abandonadas, The Abandoned, 1945, to Zona Roja, 1975-1976).

Miguel Marías

Catálogo de Il Cinema Ritrovato XXXII edizione, 2018

[punk-chicken-radio]

favorite album friday

yayyyyyy it’s FRIDAY!!!!!

i don’t know why i am so excited, honestly. i have a ton of work to do this weekend lol.

but....for the time being i can pretend otherwise, and indulge in one of my most beloved recurring themes of ours, favorite album friday. when we first started this, i kind of thought ‘oh this might be hard...a whole album that i like pretty much every song on?”. but the more we do, the more i remember how many great albums are out there that i love pretty much all of. 

today is no exception for any of us, and any of us could have literally played any of these albums, as all three of us love all three of these. try saying that three times fast hahahahaha...

we will start with @theoldsmelly‘s superb pick, queens of the stone age’s ‘songs for the deaf’.

Songs for the Deaf is the third studio album by American rock band Queens of the Stone Age, released on August 27, 2002 by Interscope Records. The album features Foo Fighters and former Nirvana member Dave Grohl on drums, and was also the last studio album to feature Nick Oliveri on bass. Songs for the Deaf features a large number of guest musicians, much akin to the band's other releases, and is loosely considered a concept album, taking the listener on a drive through the California desert from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree while tuning into radio stations from towns along the way such as Banning and Chino Hills. Songs for the Deaf received critical acclaim upon its release, and earned the band their first gold certification in the United States. One million copies were sold in Europe, earning the band a platinum certification from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in 2008. Three singles were released from the album: "No One Knows", "Go with the Flow", and "First It Giveth". 

see....you may think smelly only likes synth and you’d be dead wrong.

next up we have my ( @loveaxiomatic ) pick, the velvet underground’s ‘the velvet underground and nico’.

The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album by American rock band the Velvet Underground, released in March 1967 by Verve Records. It was recorded in 1966 while the band were featured on Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable tour, which gained attention for its experimental performance sensibilities and controversial lyrical topics, including drug abuse, prostitution, sadomasochism and sexual deviancy. Though it was a commercial failure and mostly ignored by contemporary critics, The Velvet Underground & Nico became one of the most acclaimed and influential albums in popular music. In 2003, it ranked 13th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  It was added to the 2006 National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. Many subgenres of rock music and forms of alternative music were significantly informed by the album.

i have loved this album since i first discovered it in a library when i was about 10 years old. and much like it did for everyone else who heard it at an impressionable age, it led me to everything else.

and last but not least, we have @thepunkmummy‘s pick, the jam’s ‘in the city’.

In the City is the debut studio album by British mod revival band the Jam. Released in 1977 upon Polydor Records, the album reached No. 20 in the UK Albums Chart. Upon the album's release, In the City received all-round positive reviews. Phil McNeil from the NME stated Weller's songwriting "captures that entire teen frustration vibe with the melodic grace and dynamic aplomb of early Kinks and Who". Brian Harrigan of Melody Maker was equally impressed, proclaiming that "Weller composed songs are anything but an embarrassment, he has a deft touch that places his material on a much higher plateau". In the Record Mirror, Barry Cain opined: "Armed and extremely dangerous The Jam stalk the decrepit grooves. If you don't like them, hard luck they're gonna be around for a long time. It's been a long time since albums actually reflected pre-20 delusions and this one does".Weller's guitar style on the album is influenced by Pete Townshend and Wilko Johnson.

the pm loves her some paul weller, and all three of us love and cherish this band and album.

that’s about it.....a nice mix of decades and soundscapes that are actually all connected to each other through the timeline of musical development. we all hope you enjoy them!!

no one knows in the city i’ll be your mirror kisses,

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

love (i assumed she finally snapped after listening to kraftwerk one too many times) axiomatic, the punk (he finally got pinched) mummy and the old (coz it’s olden days) smelly

*album info courtesy of wikipedia

[saksthriftavenue]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: The Alienist Caleb Carr First Edition Hardcover Historical Fiction.