#the difference between economy of storytelling is INSANE

[stickandthorn]

I think tlovm is super impressive just for the fact it’s an adaptation. While it isn’t perfect, the show has to adapt a fucking gargantuan amount of highly detailed content. Literally hundreds of hours of story and tiny character interactions and lore and NPCs and move for move combats and every other thing, have to be turned into 12 or so ~20 minute episodes per season. That is a truly absurd amount of stuff to condense, and the show does so pretty damn successfully. Adaptations with far less ground to cover do a whole lot worse. Especially given that, while every switch between mediums is hard and requires some changes to the story, a story told through dnd has the game system woven into every aspect of the characters and the world, and that has to be mostly taken out in the show. Core metaphysics of the universe have to be changed, concepts on which huge story elements are built have to be fully replaced. It is an absolute beast of a thing to adapt. Just the fact that the show exists at all is incredible to me. 

[arecomicsevengood]

Self-Released Comics from 2020

A bunch of zines came out this year that I liked but haven’t written anything about because I’ve been working under the assumption that my liking the artists involved is unsurprising. But I might as well, I like them more than much of what’s offered by larger publishers and they’re probably doomed to some degree of obscurity. I should excerpt images but don’t feel like doing that. All of these would be in consideration for a theoretical “best of the year” list, but I generally get conservative with those and limit it to five books that are widely available as a concession to an imagined general audience.

Gonzales, by Matthew Thurber and Ric Royer, available through Matthew’s online shop

The parties involved in this comic’s creation would probably prefer I not mention that Ric, the writer, was “cancelled” and made a pariah in Baltimore (and I believe Providence too) due to his behavior in relationships, which had a marked pattern of manipulation and psychological abuse. I don’t know how many people outside these places, in the broader comics community, are aware of such things, but certainly some people are probably buying this comic not knowing anything about it who would be uncomfortable with the concept if they knew. I support Matthew’s willingness to support his friend as an artist by collaborating with him in a context where it’s unlikely women would come into his orbit (this isn’t to imply there aren’t women in comics, only that there aren’t festivals happening right now) but not so much so I can look the other way entirely. If I had to have hand-wringing conversations with Baltimore friends, you have to have them in your head: Heads up for those who don’t like it when authors are creeps.

The comic itself is pretty good! It’s a satire about the Satanic Panic of the 1980s that basically works as a kid’s comic, where a superhero named Gonzales teaches kids to overcome their parents’ fears. Thurber’s a great cartoonist, and I don’t think he loses too much working from a script here. There’s less improvisatory surrealism and more general storytelling economy.

Everglide by Carlos Gonzalez, available through Wasp Video Roadhouse

This kinda feels like Carlos’ eXistenZ, by which I mean it’s about humans “jacking in” to video game worlds where they can run around. Also I think eXistenZ is the best Cronenberg movie, and who knows how good this comic will turn out? I like the serialized minicomic format. I do feel like the ideal format for this would be typical comic proportions, sold in retail stores monthly, and Carlos’ thin line that delineates the shape of a figure but none of its weight or texture could confront readers with its seeming amateurism. But alas! No one can afford to put out black and white genre comics in stores regularly these days. As a minicomic with so many pages in each issue, the focus on the narrative, and each issue feels satisfying on those grounds, building out its world.

Detective Double Digest by Drew Lerman and Pete Faecke, available at The Stink Hole

Drew Lerman takes his Snake Creek characters out for a detective caper with gags about pissing and a plot about cryogenic freezing. Pete Faecke, who I’m unfamiliar with, but is in the new Bubbles writing about the horse sequence in Jimbo Adventures In Paradise, does a comic where multiple people huff gasoline. It’s great. There’s plenty of jokes, an interesting tone, but also a good deal of narrative space being covered in a short amount of pages. The contrast between art styles works to the advantage of each, with Faecke sort of approximating a stiff “golden age” style while Lerman works in a scribblier cartoonier form, closer to a comic strip like Barney Google. Faecke also did a similar format split with A.T. Pratt of western comics that looks pretty good too.

Whisnant by Max Huffman, available at Motion Goods

I loved reading this comic as pages would pop up on Max’s social media feed. Honestly considered buying a page of the original art to finance the printing of the minicomic version. Improvised goofball comedy, tells a story, interrupts that story, then comes back to it, the way the gags and callbacks work is insane in this. I kinda hope he continues with it but maybe it won’t work if it attempted to function like an ongoing comic and not just a stream of consciousness thing that’s disinterested in resolution. On any given page, it feels either like Huffman is going for some weird gag or he’s exploring the form and abstracted geometry of page layout and shape. The amount of panels per page is generally pretty low, so it makes for a breezy minicomic, but reading it online a page at a time I always imagined it at classic comic book size, feeling like part of the point was the subversion of expectations of a classic “teen” comic like Archie.

Hubert by Elijah Brubaker, available at his Patreon

Elijah put up a few issues of this for free as PDFs somewhere but that might’ve been a limited time thing, and it’s worth tossing him some small amount of money to get these. They’re comedies about being an obnoxious dumbass who’s dumb and horny, sorta sitcom-y, sorta weird indie movie vibe, but with a cartoon’s sense of freedom from consequences. Strange and likable, uncontrived, honest to its world of slackers. Would be a good alt-comic in the tradition of Hate or any number of forgotten Slave Labor comics. Hubert the character’s abstracted cartoon shape is kinda like Ben Jones’ Alfe but he ends up in a house full of women and there’s a flirtatious chemistry in his interactions as opposed to Jones’ sexless goofball shenanigans. Since Brubaker’s I think most known for his Wilhelm Reich bio-comic and is currently working on a Charles Manson thing, this feels more “accessible” to a certain alienated pandemic brain looking to live vicariously through fiction while maybe the other stuff is more saleable to libraries. That may sound more cynical than I intend, I mean this comic is fun and it would be nice to encounter it on someone’s coffee table when you’re at the house getting drunk and stoned in a different era. The artist is unemployed and currently only making money from his Patreon, he deserves people kicking in donations for this thing.

Dog Biscuits by Alex Graham, viewable at Instagram for the time being

For a fictionalized document of the pandemic times we’re living in, currently being serialized on Instagram, running in sequences of panels you click through, I like this better than Crisis Zone. It seems close to wrapping up, at which point Alex will collect it into a self-published book I think will make a worthwhile purchase. As time has gone on, and the strip’s moved away from discussing protests and the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone overtly, settling in with the romantic drama of its small cast as they try to find their way in a world where it feels like every stupid asshole might have exposed themselves to COVID already and now thinks nothing of exposing you as well feels fraught as any editorial cartooning, a sense of desperation to find joy underlies a multipage XXX sequence of characters boning. The Instagram comments are lit up with people seemingly familiar with only reading YA getting really emotionally invested and being extremely judgmental of the characters, with maybe the weirdest moment from my vantage point was someone asking the author what a character’s astrological breakdown was. These reactions do bring home how thought out, alive, and well-observed these characters feel.

[bigskydreaming]

But what does the economy of Faetown (or specifically the one Scott resides in as there are multiple similar settlements in the world) look like 🤔 These are all young adults who have up and relocated, running from home. Is there a bartering system, which makes sense since they're partly fey

What? Me, including the Fae folklore about their tendencies towards bartering and double-edged favors in almost everything I do? Pfft. What ever would give you that idea. Absurd!

LOL no, but yeah that’s definitely a thing, buuuuut because I do use that so often in so many things I wanted to make sure it was distinct from like….the barter magic system I used for that one Scackson, yknow? The tattoo magic thing.

So pretty much all the Changeling settlements operate off of some form of homegrown/naturally developing quid pro quo exchange. You need something from someone, you offer something in return. If you don’t have anything they need, you get it from someone else first in exchange for something you do have to offer, and so on and so on.

Precisely because most of these are young adults relocating with minimal resources and a lot of them only partway through schooling and such, its intentionally meant to be an unnecessarily, overcomplicated system at times. It differs from one Faetown to the next, but its never totally streamlined or the most efficient process because they’re literally making this stuff up as they go along. They haven’t figured out the most efficient ways to do things yet.

And in every Faetown there are those Changelings that anyone’s pretty much happy to give them whatever they need, for the most part. Kind of a “this person is always welcome to eat here for free” kinda thing, y’know? Because we’re talking about the Changelings who are basically built into the actual infrastructure of these Faetowns themselves, like part of the very reason they exist. So in Bordertown in SF, for instance that’d include Scott, but also the Ferryman, the Rose Garden, that one dragon Changeling and his Rider, etc. The ones whose magic is responsible for the protection and safety of the Faetowns, bringing Changelings to them in the first place, etc.

And then the rest of the Changelings in each settlement basically just put themselves out there and make themselves known as offering or available for whatever products or services their Changes make them best suited towards, in various ways. In Bordertown, there’s a central marketplace right smack dab in the center/most protected part of the town, near Rose’s Garden and the Aerie. But with some kind of Changeling-dug river that cuts straight through the town to it from the docks so the aquatic Changelings who live out there have easy access to it too. And they organically congregate in various clusters or ‘lanes’ of similar type of wares, so to speak.

So for instance, there’s a row of stalls or shops called something idk yet, but like, Answers Alley, something like that. And this is where the various Changelings who traffic in information can be found. 

The diviners, seers, prophets, like Boyd and Alicia…..or the ones that have access to various forms of esoteric or ‘valuable’ information, like that one kid, the Archivist, the one modeled after Aaron idk if you remember. He’s the one whose skin is covered with constantly changing, flowing script like tattoos….writing that appears on his body and is endlessly replaced with new writing day after day. And all of the writing is straight out of various sources of ‘lost’ or destroyed knowledge, like the books or tomes or scrolls destroyed in places like the Library at Alexandria and similar places throughout history. 

And also Lydia and her Whisper Lounge would be on this street, there’s a Changeling who specializes in memory retrieval and another whose Change lets them imbue physical objects with memories or feelings, like imprint them onto the object so anyone who touches it experiences that particular feeling or sees that memory. Etc, etc.

So basically, any Changeling who is looking for some form of information, be it a specific piece of knowledge, a way to check up on someone, finding someone or something that was lost, etc…..they go here and just start working their way down the lane til they find a Changeling who can help with what they need.

At one end of this street, it ends up at the warehouse that was converted into a lair for the dragon Changeling to live in, with the roof removed and replaced with a covering for when it rains but otherwise opens up to the air, so he can fly up and out as needed. But since he’s so huge and the city itself just isn’t really adapted to his needs, he really tends to stay put unless he’s needed somewhere for some reason, like to defend the town or do a warning fly-by overhead if for some reason they think outside forces are thinking of making some kind of attack or incursion. Plus, his metabolism is like, insane, and so he’s fairly sleepy and lethargic a lot of the time anyway, reserving most of his energy for spurts when he needs to be flying and fire-breathing and all that jazz.

Basically, his very presence is a deterrence to a lot of threats and he’s one of the primary defenders of the town, and that’s a contribution in and of itself the rest of the town tends to be very appreciative of. So they always make sure he has plenty to eat, but more than that, like, the big drawback to his size and shape is that he misses out on a lot of day-to-day activities and is limited in where he can go and what he can experience firsthand….his magic and that of his Rider sync up in such a way that like I’ve mentioned, they can see through each other’s eyes and kinda share experiences that way….but along with that, the one big thing about the dragon is that he’s actually fairly young, was early teens at the most when he was Changed, and he loves stories.

And so that’s the reason his lair is located along this particular street….because along with housing him, it ends up becoming like a central gathering place for storytelling and theater, performing arts, etc. Changelings flock here pretty much 24/7 (given that there are as many nocturnal Changelings as there are diurnal), and its basically like….the entertainment hotspot, sprung up around the Changeling who is most land-locked and who most benefits/is ‘compensated’ or appreciated via a constant revolving door of storytellers. Changelings just sharing personal stories or weaving tales out of their journey to Bordertown in the first place, or making up stories and kinda bringing back a resurgence of storytelling as an oral tradition, etc. 

And then pretty much anything related. Here’s where you’d find the Changelings who use illusion magic to make three dimensional movies, shapeshifters reenacting any number of plays, Changeling singers, bands made up of those whose music or art has nothing to do with their Changes, is just their own hobbies and interests separate of that, as well as the Changelings with actual magic that manifests via singing or music in some way.

Then on another street tentatively called Mercy Row, you have the healers. Isaac would eventually end up here once he was settled in, for instance, but also ones like Brett who can purify toxins and poisons, and part of the river/canal would cut across this street so the aquatic Changelings with healing powers could be found here as well. 

Because the aquatic Changelings have such variety and there are some who are just totally undersea 24/7 vs the ones who are more amphibious and can have a presence both underwater and above it, down in the adjacent sub-aquatic settlement by the docks where they all congregate, there’s a separate Market just for the always-underwater Changelings to go to. 

And occasionally there are Changelings here who never go above the surface but have specific Changes or magic that the surface Changelings might need or want to seek out. So for instance, there’s one Changeling in the surface market whose magic lets her produce these pearls…that when held or worn allow an air-breather to survive underwater until the pearl finishes magically dissolving. So between her and some others, there’s a few different ways that surface Changelings can take like, day trips to the underwater village.

At the very heart of the Market, the part that intersects/butts up against the Rose’s Garden, you have the various Changelings with nature magic or elemental Changes. So that’s where they go to trade for most food, with the Garden and its various flora-related Changelings able to grow year round pretty much any fruit or vegetable known to man and a number that aren’t. Plus stalls from the various Changelings who trade in food of various types made or obtained via other kinds of non-plant based magic. And then the various weather workers are gonna be situated here most days they’re at the Market, with them usually to be found up in the Aerie the rest of the time (given that the vast majority of the weather workers are flight capable as well).

And then scattered throughout the various streets and lanes specific to their kind of offerings or services, there are various Changelings whose magic creates or provides the stuff the town as a whole trades with either other settlements or with mainstream humanity - which has as much to do with people leaving them alone and there being no official responses to their presence/settlements as the threats/warning of weaponized Changeling magic acting as a deterrent.

So on one street, Kid Midas has his shop, the gold-skinned Changeling with ruby eyes, who can turn anything into some form of gem or precious metal with just a touch. And sure, there’s the occasional Changeling looking to make or give someone some kind of jewelry or gift, of course there’s a ‘demand’ for his talents in that respect, but honestly not that much of one. Changelings are still for the most part the same as they were before they were Changed, so its not like there’s not still a bunch of them who like jewelry and pretty things as much as anyone, but there’s not a hugely pressing need for those things due to the things that are most prioritized in Bordertown. And its just…not the direction the still forming, still young Changeling society is taking, even as its still being formed day by day. So yes, there’s still plenty of individual Changelings who like the things Kid Midas makes and are willing to trade for them, but nothing he can’t ‘fill to order’ on a day by day basis without breaking a sweat. 

But in contrast, the gems and metals he can make out of anything do still hold quite a bit of value in mainstream society, so he’s one of the primary figures in Faetown providing the various trades they offer people outside Bordertown in order to keep people off their backs. Like, there’s the idea ‘okay but why wouldn’t someone outside just try and have this particular Changeling kidnapped and thus have a constant source of free money’….but the thing is, when the various Changeling settlements first started springing up as central gathering places, and there were skirmishes, and efforts to abduct and exploit individual Changelings….like, the Changelings worldwide made sure to impress upon people that for every Changeling with a ‘valuable’, exploitable Change or magic….there were just as many whose magic was dangerous to others or outright fatal, and many of these Changelings had instinctive defense mechanisms they didn’t even need to be conscious to deploy. 

Like y’know with how the Rose’s skin is like smooth mahogany wood to anyone who touches her with her consent…..but any hand that touches her without permission or being invited to is inevitably going to find itself stabbed by poisonous thorns that can kill with a single prick of the thumb.

So…..there are plenty of Changelings any of the seedier elements of society would love to snatch up and exploit as their own personal golden geese, but there are just as many where anyone who tries that with them, they’re going to regret it. And due to the sheer breadth of Changeling appearances, and how so many of their appearances don’t directly or obviously correlate to their magic……good luck trying to figure out at a glance whose magic is ‘valuable’ and whose is going to kill you if you so much as look at them the wrong way, like the Basilisk and Devil-Eyed Johnny and assorted others. Or Lydia, if she so much as takes off her sunglasses in your vicinity, lol.

All of which means that anonymity is one of their greatest protections. As long as they’re safely within their particular Faetown, and they’re not directly associated with those who go to trade these various valuables with the outside world, some random criminal looking to kidnap the Changeling who makes precious gems and metals wouldn’t even know where to start even if they got someone within Bordertown itself and was able to hunt around looking for which Changeling that might be. Kid Midas is far from the only Changeling whose Change is related to precious minerals or kinda of artistic statuary, etc, and there’s several who look not too dissimilar to him but where touching their skin without permission is just as likely to turn you into a statue yourself.

So basically, as much as different people outside Bordertown gnash their teeth at not being able to just have direct access to any one particular Changeling on their terms, so long as they have something of a pipeline to the valuables they’re being offered in trade on the Changelings’ terms, its counter-productive and not worth the risk to most to possibly end up losing even that and gaining nothing to show for it, if they tried storming Bordertown and either accidentally killed the very Changeling they were looking for, or just ended up driving all of them further underground and into complete hiding instead. Doesn’t mean nobody’s ever tried or isn’t going to at some point, but for now, that status quo is holding.

And as such, even though what Kid Midas has to offer isn’t something that most of Bordertown is hugely interested in or in need of on an individual level, he’s still one of the more crucial Changelings in town, due to his role in keeping their emerging society the way it is and largely autonomous.

And then there are various Changelings whose magic lets them create artifacts or items with different kinds of imbued magic that can be utilized by others, plenty of potion-makers of different types, you’ve got that one Changeling with the magic tears and different kinds of teleporters/transportation magic, so on and so on.

Plus there’s also a thriving black market, since even within Bordertown and the various other Faetowns, there are divisions and internal strife…..plenty of Changelings are far from perfect angels, and as stated, there’s plenty of ways in which Changeling magic can be dark and dangerous and deadly, and there’s obviously a market for those things as well. But obviously none of the Faetowns really have distinct marketplaces or shops dedicated to these things, and its more sort of a ‘you have to know who to find/look for’ kinda thing. So for instance, within Bordertown, we’ve talked about how Theo is the largest presence in that kind of vein, and he has his group he’s gathered around him and they all operate out of that one restaurant he kinda called dibs on in the early days of Bordertown, so that’s where you go if you’re looking for something a bit more ‘frowned upon’ than the wares or services you’d find in the central market. 

I tend to picture Theo’s restaurant as being on the outskirts of what the Changelings have kinda claimed as officially within Bordertown’s borders, making it easy for him and his people to duck in and out of town and meet with people outside the settlement, because they know there’s definitely a market there for them and many of their skills and magic…and they feel pretty safe and confident in doing so, because trying to snatch up one of them just because they’re outside the safety of Bordertown is a bit like having a deathwish. These tend to be among the most deadly of the Changelings and most of them would be more than capable of protecting themselves anywhere….they come to various Faetowns for the community and so they don’t have to constantly fend off attacks, but its not remotely because they can’t. So a number of the Changelings Theo’s surrounded himself with are in high demand as assassins, poison-creators, etc. 

So among these you’ve got like, the Doppelganger, and Garrett with his autonomous shadow, and Tracy’s feathers that allow her to kill people in their dreams and Violet who’s a constantly shifting mix of human flesh and hallucinogenic cloud, almost impossible to keep your eyes on, let alone know where to even aim when trying to kill her or defend against her. 

And last but not least, each of the major living spaces throughout Bordertown have a large floor to ceiling painting in the main area of their home. So like, there’s one in the Aerie, Scott has one in his ‘sheriff’s station’, Lydia pulled some strings and arranged to get one in her bar, as did Theo in his restaurant….Danny’s got one painted in materials expressly meant to be protected from underwater damage, in the heart of the subaquatic village. There’s one in Rose’s Garden, about a dozen others in all, scattered throughout the town and kept in the homes/care of the Changelings who all in all are considered the most influential, well known, most-looked to, and well, powerful and dangerous. They’ve deliberately spaced themselves out throughout the town so there’s one for every several streets or blocks, meaning in an event of an emergency, one of them is in fairly close reach to any and all Changelings and no one has to go far or run for long before reaching one.

The significance of these paintings is they were each painted by a Changeling named Paul, whose magic makes each of them a permanent portal or doorway to the scene/landscape depicted by the painting. They look like ordinary, albeit beautiful paintings, but any Changeling who knows what they are knows that the second they touch it, their own magic will resonate with the Changeling magic imbued in the painting. Which in turn turns it from a two-dimensional image to something that magically gains depth and perspective as the surface of it becomes intangible while the Changeling walks through it, until they emerge out the other side and it becomes just a painting again. 

So each and every one of the paintings in question is an image of another Faetown, somewhere elsewhere in the world. And the unofficial leaders of Bordertown, basically everyone who has one of these paintings, offered the same in trade to any other Faetown that allowed them to paint one of their city/town. To be used as a last resort escape hatch should the Changelings in their town ever need to flee somewhere safe. 

And each of the other Faetowns agreed, and so in return they got their own paintings by Paul, paintings of Faetown….depicting the very rooms that each of these Bordertown residents kept their own paintings in. So that they too could use their own paintings to escape to Bordertown if they needed to instead. By mutual agreement, every Changeling in possession of one of these paintings, across all the various Faetowns that have one now, all agreed that they never change hands from the Changeling they were initially given to, without notifying all the others first. 

Thus, everyone who has one of these paintings acts not just as a guardian of it, ensuring the preservation and safe-keeping of a valuable escape hatch in case of emergency….but by the same token, they act as a first line of defense in case of anyone coming through a painting from the other side, that shouldn’t be. 

Like, just in case worst ever comes to worst, and a Faetown was overrun by hostile forces who somehow found out what the paintings truly were and how they worked, and forced a Changeling to touch one to open up the way to an adjoining Faetown….even if some enemy somehow managed to hijack a painting portal and use it themselves, they’d still be emerging right in full view of basically the very Changelings who are most capable of defending themselves and just destroying any attackers, the second they determined “this is not a Changeling who should be using this doorway.” 

Like, Lydia’s magic makes it pretty much impossible to catch her unaware, thanks to her constant retinue/crowd of Whispers, meaning anyone trying to coopt the portal leading to her bar is likely to find her already waiting for them, just standing there with her arms crossed and sighing because of how tedious this all is….before just taking off her sunglasses and annihilating them all with a look, lolol.

Also, being not just powerful but influential and in a leadership role in their Faetown’s society as well, the caretakers of each of the paintings are also the best positioned to immediately take charge of coordinating and helping Changeling refugees that suddenly start spilling out of the painting in their home without warning.

Anyway, so that’s the basics as of right now….with one addition. So going back to how I said the barter system as they have it right now is somewhat more complicated than it needs to be and can turn into a pretty intricate web of trades upon trades, even favors or debts made to one Changeling just to obtain something that they in turn can trade to the Changeling who has something they actually need?

Well, as I said, that has a lot to do with their ages and the fact that they’re just making this all up as they go along and don’t always have the best idea what they’re doing or anywhere to really look to for precedence.

But only part of it. There’s another way in which the very complexity of these arrangements is entirely intentional, as a kind of….test many of these Faetowns are conducting in concert.

See, like you suggested, it makes sense for the Changelings to naturally fall into a kind of barter system, given that they’re part Fae…..but that begets the chicken or the egg question.

Nobody knows why these particular kids were taken and Changed, let alone by whom or why, though Faeries is just as popular a theory as aliens. And the way so many Changelings seem predisposed to bargains and debts and trades is something others have noted and taken into account and added to their list of why they think Faeries have something to do with it, assuming that the things they can do now really are magic and not just Sufficiently Advanced Technology.

So nobody is oblivious to the possibility of Fae-involvement in this, least of all the Changelings themselves. I mean, there’s a reason Changelings so quickly became the most widely used slang to describe them.

But anyway, even noting they have that common personality trait among them, it still begs the question….which came first? The personality trait or the Change? Meaning….was the fact that they were all already predisposed to things like that, had a certain way of thinking along those lines, was that part of the reason why they in particular were taken and Changed in the first place? Was that part of the criteria for whomever took them, were they looking to Change individuals of certain mindsets, personality types, perhaps those with outlooks or perspectives or ways of thinking similar to the Fae folk of old? 

Or was it the other way around, and this tendency of theirs is an addition or alteration of their pre-existing outlooks and personalities, a Change every bit as much as their physical Changes and magical gifts? The end result of some forces trying to make them more like the Fae, in mind as well as body and magic?

The thing is, even the Changelings themselves don’t know….and they don’t like that. Many of them are constantly looking into their origins, trying to figure out what happened to them, who did it, and to what end, using their magic, combing through ancient lore from various cultures, etc. The one thing most all of them agree on is that they very much don’t like this blindspot hanging over them like a Sword of Damocles. There’s a lot of cynicism in various Faetowns, due to the circumstances that led most of them to run away or seek out a community like them rather than stay where they were in the first place. 

So the popular sentiment is that nobody tends to do things for free, and they’re wary of anyone who has the power to take them and Change them on such a massive scale, worldwide, imbue them with such vast powers themselves in a lot of individuals….without a clue who that anyone might have been and why they did this. What do they want out of the Changelings themselves, or want them to do, because….who knows if its something the Changelings are going to be on board with…or have the power to resist, given the likely power of whomever their unknown ‘benefactors’ might have been.

And in the very early days of the Changeling settlements, when they were first seeking others out and coming together in large numbers, sharing these concerns with each other….their tendencies towards making barters, trades, deals….that definitely was something they’d noticed by now, once they had enough other Changelings to compare and contrast themselves too. Most agreed that they didn’t feel that different in that regard than they had before their Changes, like they felt like the same person as always so they didn’t think it was some new trait transplanted to all their personalities….but they also agreed that with that said, there was a slightly more…intense nature to it now. Not just like they were naturally inclined to barter and make deals and take a quid pro quo outlook to life….but there was a vague….something underlying it now, like an additional instinct almost.

With them also noting to each other, on a related note, that they’d pretty much all universally disliked ever being in someone’s debt…owing someone something….but since they returned Change, there was an added intensity to that tendency of theirs too. It was almost like they each felt an instinctive…revulsion, to the idea of being in someone’s debt. It wasn’t a full on compulsion or anything, it didn’t override their decision making or anything like that….but it was just this gut feeling most of them had that for some reason, it felt unnatural to be in someone’s debt. To owe someone for something. On a bone-deep level, they all seemed to instinctively shy away from that, as though their bodies and minds were warning them for some reason that wasn’t good for them.

And this too matched up with a lot of lore about Fae in various cultures, that part of the whole reason behind Fae gifts was that the Fair Folk can’t stand being in a mortal’s debt, that its a form of powerlessness for them….debts unpaid held some sort of magical significance to them, not just cultural….so they would try and resist or refrain from being in another’s debt by any trickery or other means possible.

So when running through the various possibilities as to the origins of their Changes and who might have done it and why, and what they might want from the Changelings in the long run, like when building their various settlements around the world and birthing their own new and distinct societies….it was agreed this was one of the possibilities at the top of their lists for various reasons, and so they factored that in.

And so the overly complicated barter system and web of favors and bargains and debts they all developed some form of, became a kind of….longterm test and the foundation for a possible defense against their unknown benefactors trying to exert control over them at a later date. Just in case. With the Changelings leaning into offering each other favors, bargains, putting themselves in debt to each other as part of their barter system, just as often as they kept things simple and even one on one trades. 

Like, even though this defied their very instincts, that they all felt that instinctive revulsion each time they made a bargain, agreed they owed another Changeling a favor, bound themselves to another with a promise to come to their aid if they should ever need in the future, in exchange for the other doing this thing for them now….

This offered them two things:

First, it allowed them to use themselves as a kind of group experiment, a trial run testing out how far this dislike of longterm bargains and debts went with them, and what the potential longterm consequences were, of say, having a longstanding debt to another, a favor they’d let go years without paying in full, a promise with no real and definitive end date, etc. They figured they’d rather find out any potential consequences this held for them, by not following their instincts and shying away from these sort of arrangements….like, if anything was going to manifest further down the line as an actual consequence to things like being in someone’s debt or owing someone a favor or promise….

Well, it seemed to all of them it would at least be better to have the individual on the other end of that debt or favor or promise or oath be a member of their own community, in the same boat as them, with mutual understandings that it was in all of their best interests to not try and utilize these hypothetical consequences against them, or exert any power being in each other’s debts held over them, if it turned out to hold real, magical power over them in some fashion.

And secondly, again - they’d been discussing among themselves all along, what would be the potential endgame of their Changes, what would anyone stand to gain from just….bestowing them with all these various magical Changes and abilities, making some of them extraordinarily powerful, with magic that theoretically could be turned on the gift-givers themselves if they ever came calling and wanted something of them that the Changelings did not want to give.

With it occurring to some of them, in these hushed councils among themselves in those very early days post-Change….that suppose favors, bargains and such did hold magical significance for them now, thanks to their Changes and their own magic. Suppose that being in someone’s debt was something they instinctively felt resistant to, that it was best to shy away from if at all possible…..that like those stories about the Fae Folk, debts could be a kind of binding, that owing someone or something could turn into an obligation to see them paid back in full for whatever they’d given you first... 

That because they were in some way or to some degree part Fae themselves now, assuming that there was some connection between them and whatever beings were chronicled in these old legends and stories…..that their new Fae natures were the part of them that was trying to tell them body and mind that they absolutely did not want to be bound to anyone, be obligated, to owe anyone in some form...

Because, following that train of thought….if that were true to any degree, on any level….imagine some beings of some kind imbued you with great powers, magic and Changes that made you stand out as different, but also made it possible to find others like yourself, form communities of yourselves, pool your various magics to decisively protect yourselves from those who would seek to harm or exploit you because of your new gifts. Gifts which you in concert with others like you could use to further empower yourselves and build lives and communities for yourselves that left you vastly better off than you were before, or would be without them. Given that all of you that found yourselves Changed still only wound up having to leave home and seek out others like yourselves because your home was less than inviting to begin with, and actively hostile or apathetic after your Change was revealed.

Well, they concluded, if those beings were to then just sit back and wait while you utilized the gifts they’d given you to empower yourselves and enrich your own lives, build communities far more to your benefit than those which you came from…..

It seemed the longer those beings waited before revealing themselves, the more you became accustomed to using their gifts and becoming one with them, just as you became more accustomed to being one with your new communities….the more you felt grateful for being who you were now, post-Change, with your true potential revealed, with your magic making you autonomous, capable and powerful, with your community now one you couldn’t imagine being without….

The more in debt you would end up being to these mysterious gift-givers.

And once someone arrived at that conclusion, the mere possibility of it was unsettling to every single Changeling who heard it theorized. It wasn’t at all an implausible scenario, even if they certainly couldn’t prove it true or rule out other possibilities….but they pretty much all agreed it was a possibility they had to prepare for…..because if it did turn out to be realized, if being in these beings’ debt did end up binding them to them, making them obligated to them….well, how would they be able to fight or resist that? 

It wasn’t like they could pretend they hadn’t already been given great gifts via their new magic, or like they could just refuse to use these gifts, especially since many of them were needed in order to defend or protect themselves from those who viewed them as targets or prey because of their Changes, many of which weren’t easy to hide.

And so they eventually came up with their ‘overly complicated’ barter system with its sometimes completely unnecessary web of bargains, promises, favors and debts owed all throughout their communities, seemingly baffling in its complexity and intricacies…all while leaning into these natural or amped up tendencies towards barters and bargains and just with the spillage over into the unnatural debts and binding promises plausibly seeming to be just the unintentional results of their youth and lack of knowledge or experience with such matters.

While in reality….the Changelings have this whole time been using their barter system and promises and debts to each other to quietly test their own natures and possible ramifications these things had on their magic…..trying to little by little feel their way through the ins and outs of the ‘rules’ that might come with or govern the magic they’d been given without an actual manual to go along with it. Using themselves to test the limits of their magic-imbued bargains and how far they could stretch things….and to practice the trickery the Fae in all the old stories so often employed to try and weasel their way out of their debts or promises.

And underlying all else….their ultimate Hail Mary, should their mysterious benefactors ever appear at some point and try and exert power over them by ‘calling in their unpaid debts’ for the gifts given to them,’ cite that as proof the Changelings all owed them their allegiance or obedience and potentially back that up with magical compulsions or bindings….

Because should that day ever arrive, the Changelings of various Faetowns all across the world were prepared to fight anyone trying to claim they owed them anything, for gifts they’d never asked for and certainly hadn’t been offered guidance on how to make the most of, even while they’d been made targets just for having them….

And their weapon of choice for fighting any possible coercion later down the line, any claims towards owing mystical unpaid obligations….

Was to be prepared to have counterclaims in place to push back with….to weaken the hold initial and unasked for debts held over them….by drawing upon the strength of the bonds and favors, promises made and debts owed….

To each other. Members of their own communities. To their communities as a whole.

So at the end of the day, the barter system isn’t just their quid pro quo arrangement that acts as their own particular version of their economy.

Its also their protective armor of obligations they willingly and with full knowledge of what it meant, made to each other and their communities.

That they were prepared to uphold as more powerful, binding, and compelling than any other debts others tried to hold over their heads. Try and call in past favors we owe you all you want, they decided in regards to their mysterious ‘benefactors’ years ago. Guess we’ll see how much weight that holds compared to what we owe each other, who have been right here at our sides helping us, building with us, the whole time.

[dkyoungone]

The United States and the Paris Climate Agreement

Dalton Young

International Relations

Position Paper (Topic 3)

The Paris Climate Agreement is a program set up as a voluntary action program that some countries apart of the United Nations (UN) take part in. The agreement essentially lets countries set their own goals on reducing carbon emissions and reducing the effects of climate change. There has been a lot of debate regarding climate change as a whole, even though there have been numerous studies published supporting the arguments that predict our climate is indeed changing. One reason light has been shone on the Paris Agreement once again is the United States’ withdrawal from the Agreement in June of 2017. This act by the President sparked a debate within the United States between climate change advocates and climate change denialists. Climate change is a real issue and is supported by trusted scientific minds and its effects are felt all around the world despite opposing views on the issue. Thus, I would argue that the facts support REMAINING in the Paris Climate Agreement.

First, we must establish why climate change is an issue that is worthy of possible global cooperation. It has been talked about and labeled a major issue by well known and respected scientists, such as Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, and many others. In addition to these brilliant minds, many United States military officials also support that notion that climate change is an issue that must be dealt with. William Wanlund states, “U.S. military officials increasingly view climate change as a “threat multiplier,” a factor that can aggravate poverty, political instability and social tensions. That, in turn, could foster terrorism and other forms of global violence while impairing America's military effectiveness.” These are trusted United States officials that are saying this is an issue. This isn’t just about the United States, but in terms of the benefits to the United States, being able to keep coastal military bases on the coast instead of underwater would be a tremendous benefit. Wandlund also says, “Rising seas, due mainly to Arctic ice melting, already threaten Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, the world's largest naval base; dozens of other coastal installations also are at risk.” If our military installations are at risk, logically, a country that spends over 600 Billion dollars on its military every year would want to do something to protect coastal bases. 

In addition to outright denying climate change, there are people who don’t deny it is happening, however they deny that humans are the cause. Nicola Jones from Yale states, “Frighteningly, this modern rise of CO2 is also accelerating at an unusual rate. In the late 1950s, the annual rate of increase was about 0.7 ppm per year; from 2005-2014 it was about 2.1 ppm per year.” This increase in acceleration rate is scary, as we have already passed the threshold of 400 parts per million of CO2, which itself is a very dangerous amount in its own right. Since it has been increasing at an unusual rate, we can induce that the majority of climate change is very likely due to human action. This is a hard pill to swallow, but it is the most likely scenario, and since we live on this planet and our future (or current) children will be living on this planet, we must do everything we can in order to preserve it and keep it as a livable place for generations to come.

Thus far, climate change as a whole has only been discussed, however, we must also think about the option of rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement. This agreement allows us to set our own standards for reducing our carbon emissions and reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. There are a few reasons to support rejoining the Paris Agreement. First, there is the fact that many countries look to the United States as an example and as a world leader. Whether we like it or not, we will be scrutinized and observed in more ways than most other countries would ever imagine. Because of this, we have a responsibility to take charge and to lead the world into combating climate change. However you look at the International scene, this matters for one reason. We cannot be the greatest country in the world if there is no world with which to live upon. The only way we can cement ourselves as the greatest country of the modern era is to protect the only world that we have (as of right now). Secondly, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, to bolster our own economy in the green energy field of economy. If we do not engage ourselves in combating climate change as a government, then we cannot expect independent companies and corporations to go out of their ways to develop green technologies to replace coal and oil. The only time they will do so (if they have not already) is when the world inevitably runs out of coal and crude oil. Even if you don’t believe in climate change, despite the insane amounts of evidence that supports it, you should know that coal and oil are not infinite sources of fuel. This can be shown in your everyday life by looking at local petrol (or gasoline) prices at different stations in your area. Gas is much more expensive today than it was 50 years ago and that has to do with the supply of gas compared to the demand. Either way, this means that one way or another, the Paris Climate agreement would benefit the United States by providing incentive to create and produce greener and more sustainable energy providers.

In regards to counter arguments against remaining in the Paris Agreement, Wanlund states, “Some politicians and economists argue that the real danger to U.S. security lies in the erosion of jobs, trade and industrial productivity caused by the costs of unnecessary federal environmental regulations.” We must address the elephant in the room, one that I mentioned earlier. Military spending. The United States has the most expensive and funded military in the world at 649 Billion US Dollars in 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. That is almost 400 billion USD more than the next most expensive military (China, 250 bn.). Some would argue at least 100 Billion USD of that money being pumped into the US Military is a little unnecessary, so I personally do not buy the argument that it would be too much for the United States to shoulder that load financially. Even if it is a multi-billion dollar program, the Government could cut back on military spending to A. better the world, and B. bolster the United States’ green energy economy. Regarding the argument on speed of industry, the reason we pay so little for things in the United States is because of the cheap and borderline slave-like labor in developing countries. If  we sacrifice a little productivity to benefit the lives of our citizens and other citizens around the world, then that would be a noble reason for doing so. We should see it as granting basic human rights to those working and producing products internationally for the United States.

 There are areas in the United States that would benefit from an effort to cleaning up pollution in the air, water, and land. One of these areas in the US specifically is the state of Utah, specifically in the Salt Lake Valley. The most densely populated area in Utah has one of the worst air pollution situations in the United States. Natalie McGill says the following on Utah’s issue with pollution, “...the state has a tricky situation. Because of the state's geography, the air quality starts to dip when cold air is caught under warm air, trapping a hotbed of pollution throughout Utah's valleys.” When you compound this issue on top of the coal-based steel mills scattered throughout the Salt Lake Valley, that spells bad news for young children and elderly people all across the state. Utah is just one of the states that are affected by pollution and climate change, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement will allow the United States to set goals at the federal level, and/or state level to help each state individually reduce their footprint and keep their citizens healthy and happy.

In conclusion, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement would be vastly beneficial to the United States. This means we can show and prove ourselves as a real world leader in tough situations, like climate change. Economy, money, and jobs will not be an issue as taking away a fraction of the money from the military’s ridiculous budget would be more than enough to fund any climate project you could ever think of. I strongly urge you to consider rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement as we can not be the best country in the world, if there is no world with which to live upon.

Bibliograpy

Lam, Anita, and Matthew Tegelberg. "Witnessing glaciers melt: climate change and transmedia storytelling." JCOM: Journal of Science Communication, vol. 18, no. 2, 2019, p. 1F+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.greenriver.edu/apps/doc/A583145703/GPS?u=aubu98092&sid=GPS&xid=dd804a69.

Wanlund, W. (2017, September 22). Climate change and national security. CQ researcher, 27, 773-796. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/

“Scientific Consensus: Earth's Climate Is Warming.” NASA, NASA, 24 Apr. 2019, climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

Paris Climate Agreement UN Climate Change https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf

Jones, Nicola. “How the World Passed a Carbon Threshold and Why It Matters.” Yale E360, Yale, 16 Jan. 2016, e360.yale.edu/features/how-the-world-passed-a-carbon-threshold-400ppm-and-why-it-matters.

McGill, Natalie. "Utah partnership working to reduce air pollution in state." The Nation's Health, Oct. 2014, p. 19. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.greenriver.edu/apps/doc/A385999063/GPS?u=aubu98092&sid=GPS&xid=68818dea.

[joereid]

Top 10 Movies of 2016

I wrote about my favorites in movies and TV over at Decider last week, but here’s my straight-up Top 10 movies of the year. With apologies to movies I haven’t gotten to yet, most prominently Toni Erdmann, Fire at Sea, Aquarius, and The Love Witch. Also I ranked O.J.: Made in America as my #1 TV show of the year, so it felt redundant to put it here too. No judgments if you ranked it as a movie. Obviously. 

Runners-Up: I thought this turned out to be a GREAT year for movies, best exemplified by the fact that I had a bitch of a time keeping these 15 movies out of my top 10:

#25 The Lobster (director: Yorgos Lanthimos) #24 The Witch (director: Robert Eggers) #23 Kubo and the Two Strings (director: Travis Knight) #22 Everybody Wants Some!! (director: Richard Linklater) #21 La La Land (director: Damien Chazelle) #20 Hunt for the Wilderpeople (director: Taika Waititi) #19 Love & Friendship (director: Whit Stillman) #18 Sing Street (director: John Carney) #17 Lion (director: Garth Davis) #16 Other People (director: Chris Kelly) #15 Fences (director: Denzel Washington) #14 Julieta (director: Pedro Almodovar) #13 Certain Women (director: Kelly Reichardt) #12 Cameraperson (director: Kirsten Johnson) #11 Mountains May Depart (director: Zhangke Jia)

My Top 10 Movies of 2016

10. Jackie (director: Pablo Larrain) It took me a while to get into the headspace of Jackie, and what a strange little animal it seemed then. Natalie Portman's accent seemed insane, the scenes felt overly gauzy and frustratingly vague, the score felt overworked. But the more time I spent with Jackie, the more intoxicated I was by whatever fog the movie exists in. Portman's performance clicked, the specificity of Larrain's focus felt more and more revolutionary, and the whole enterprise felt an exhilarating experiment on memory, idolatry, and the spaces at which our politics and our myth-making converge. 9. The Invitation (director: Karyn Kusama) I write a lot about movies on Netflix for my job, but by FAR my favorite discovery of the year was the meticulously built suspense of The Invitation. From the opening credits winding ominously through the Hollywood Hills to the slowly dawning terror of the final moments, I haven't felt this tense through the entire run of a horror movie since The Strangers. Featuring some great performances (in particular Tammy Blanchard, Logan Marshall Green, and John Carroll Lynch), and a premise that draws upon every time someone at a party told you they just started seeing a new yoga instructor.

8. Silence (director: Martin Scorsese) A nearly three-hour, racially dubious meditation on faith from a director who's provided me with more peer-pressure guilt trips from film critics than actual movies I've enjoyed over the last decade was not adding up to something I figured I'd enjoy. But Silence is more than just the best Scorsese movie since ... The Aviator? Goodfellas? It's a committed, rigorous, and deceptively complex story about faith and imperialism, anchored by an Andrew Garfield performance of such thoughtful vulnerability that it makes you incredibly grateful that Marty took a break from Leonardo DiCaprio. Also Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is breathtaking.

7. Hail, Casear! (director: Joel and Ethan Coen) I like when the Coens are having fun. I know the knock on them is that they're supposed to be looking down their noses on their audience and having a laugh at their expense, but all I found in Hail Caesar! was an affection for people who dedicate their lives to something as silly and often contradictory as the movie business. Josh Brolin is probably doing better work than I give him credit for at the center, but I won't apologize for all of my attention going to Channing Tatum's dancing and Alden Ehrenreich's rope tricks. 

6. Manchester by the Sea (director: Kenneth Lonergan) When the narrative about this one got boiled down to a) it's unspeakably sad, and b) it's white-male feeeeeelings pornography, I was confused. Well, maybe not confused; I know how Twitter works. More dismayed. To me, Manchester by the Sea is Kenneth Lonergan at his finest, and that means so much more than simple grief or patriarchy or for Pete's sake "Oscar bait." Lonergan infuses his movie with so much more humor, so much more complexity, so much more recognizable feeling than you're expecting by the description. The relationship between Casey Affleck and Lucas Hedges's characters defies any kind of prescribed arc, instead presenting two characters who fit at impossibly odd angles.

5. Little Men (director: Ira Sachs) Ira Sachs has become so good at making movies about how the Big Things in life — love, family, fellowship, generosity, power, resentment �� are inextricable from the small things. In the movies, we tend to gloss over things like rent or income or expense. Making it work is a matter of will or serendipity, usually both. In Little Men, Greg Kinnear and Paulina Garcia are good people whose resentments would usually be overcome in a movie by a grand act of love or charity or luck. Sachs knows better, but he also knows that the sum of life and the beauty of lives isn't about it all working out. And that's only the groundwork in this lovely movie featuring a central friendship of boys that is as beautiful, sweet, and gently painful as anything this year.  

4. Moonlight (director: Barry Jenkins) Moonlight features such strong, simple storytelling, and that economy of language is all Barry Jenkins, and he deserves all the praise he's getting for it. But that's not the reason we're talking about this movie. There's something truly remarkable when strong filmmaking meets revelatory acting meets the kinds of stories and lives that we are STARVING for. There's sadness here, yes, and tragedy, but I can't help but feel an undercurrent of celebration just for the radical act of making poetry out of lives that are usually not even afforded prose. 

3. 20th Century Women (director: Mike Mills) What a difference it makes listening to Annette Bening narrate about the universe and mortality versus listening to Ewan McGregor talk about same. I could never latch onto Beginners, despite the fact that its subject matter was targeted right in my general direction. But in his follow-up, Mike Mills had me cast under a spell from moment one. Bening is superb, playing a woman who's both incredibly wise and incredibly aware of how much she doesn't know. Any shot of her silently reacting to another character is to be treasured forever. And my darling Greta Gerwig does such wonderful, beautiful work as a scene partner here, taking her moments when they come but also as supportive an ensemble player as she's ever been. But it's those moments of narration, where the plot of the movie gives way to the longview, and we get to ponder a bit about the long arcs of time, and it was so beautiful, I nearly melted into my seat.

2. American Honey (director: Andrea Arnold) Andrea Arnold's great big American road trip is sprawling and sweet, dangerous and and desirous. It doesn't work for everyone, and I think I get that. But even if Arnold isn't seeing America through a photorealistic lens, the version of America she's showing us feels true in its emotions and textures and jealousies and desperations and explorations. Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, and Riley Keough are standouts in the cast, but the movie truly comes alive in the group scenes, where the energy of a whole generation explodes into something visceral and charged.

1. Arrival (director: Denis Villeneuve) I first saw Arrival at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and I was blown away by its emotion and intelligence in service of a sci-fi story that became a story about language and bridging unbridgeable gaps. I next saw Arrival a few days after the election, when the film's ideas about facing fearsome and unknown futures and seeing the end from the beginning were all the more moving. What's beautiful about Arrival — besides the photography and the music and Amy Adams — is how our only salvation grows out of achieving complete and total empathy and nothing less. Thats what unlocks everything. It's a beautiful message in a movie that might normally have merely been an exquisitely crafted, deeply emotional sci-fi tale. I didn't see anything else that year that blew me away so thoroughly.

[brittanyinterviews]

Lyka Sethi, Director and Producer of “Moving In Place”

Lyka Sethi, director and producer of Moving In Place

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This interview was conducted via email in August 2018.

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Brittany: Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

Lyka: I’m a first gen Indian-American, born, raised, and educated in the Bay Area. After college I lived in NYC, where I spent five years learning how to be an adult. I said farewell to it earlier this year and am currently based in Germany. I pay the bills as a freelance editor and writer and am excited to be carrying out a lifelong dream of being a documentary director. My first film, set to be screened by the end of the year, is a feature doc called Moving In Place. It’s about the experiences of young Puerto Ricans as they navigate life on and off the island, amidst its ongoing crises and diaspora. Hurricane Maria ultimately plays a huge part in the film, as it intensified the ever-present question that young Puerto Ricans face: to stay on the island that they call home, or to leave in search of a more secure life? And once they make that decision, what does that mean for their futures and the future of Puerto Rico?

Brittany: How did you get into documentary filmmaking? Have you always been a fan of the genre?

Lyka: Funnily enough, I tend to skew more toward consuming fictional content, but I have seen a lot of gripping, emotionally-stirring docs that I think can be classified as works of art -- and entertainment. And I think that has actually worked in my favor. I keep a focus on storytelling and impact, in addition to sharing realities.

I always had documentary filmmaking in the back of my mind (see above re: lifelong dream), but honestly never thought it would happen. Not attending film school and not having any professional filmmaking experience made me feel like an imposter from day one!

More than anything, Moving In Place stemmed from a need to do something to spread awareness about Puerto Rican issues and experiences. As an Indian-American with my own set of identity crises, I felt drawn to the subject matter (which I discussed in more detail in my Medium post). I chose documentary as the platform, but fundamentally I just wanted to share stories to ensure that this slice of history is not forgotten, and it felt like the right medium. I did tons of research and had conversation upon conversation about everything from what format to shoot in, to how to build a crew, to how to consciously share Puerto Rican stories as an outsider and how to comprehend my role in this. It took months to get to a point where we felt ready to even discuss picking up a camera.

Brittany: Can you discuss the origin of the film's title, Moving In Place?

Lyka: So glad to be asked this question! We wanted the title to encapsulate the experience of being simultaneously stuck and in flux, having a choice but not really having a choice. This feeling came up throughout our conversations with everyone who is featured in the film.

In terms of identity and political status, for example: Puerto Ricans are US citizens, but are viewed as a separate class, are exposed to American culture and alienated from it at the same time, and while they feel a strong attachment to the island and to their own culture, they feel a pressure to be “American.” There’s a strong will to gain autonomy, but also a movement for statehood.

In terms of physical place: there’s a constant push and pull that the young Puerto Ricans we spoke to experience. Our subjects grapple with the decision of whether to stay on the island and work to make it a better place, or to migrate to the States in order to build stable careers and lives.

This is a bit of a simplification, but essentially the title is a reflection of these constant questions and obstacles, that in many ways are actually quite relatable: Who am I? Where am I and where am I supposed to be?

Brittany: According to the film's website, you fell in love with Puerto Rico when visiting in 2013. Can you share a memory that stands out most from your first time there?

Lyka: It’s hard to answer this knowing that the island looked and felt so different the last time I was there, two months after Hurricane Maria hit. The first time I visited, I was beginning to understand the complicated relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. I loved everyone who I met there, the spirit of the island, all of the little details. Having breakfast at Kasalta, a staple in the Ocean Park neighborhood of San Juan. Listening to the sound of the coquís, Puerto Rico’s native frogs. The list goes on.

When we were filming last December, I saw so much more of the island, talked to so many more people, and saw firsthand how resilient Puerto Ricans are -- and have always had to be. The subjects featured in our film opened up their lives and homes to us, even if their water wasn’t running or their electricity was out. Almost everyone who we approached on the island from Ponce to Salinas to San Juan was eager to share their perspective. The island’s beauty still shone through post-Maria, but was very much changed and with pockets of extreme desolation. The sorely lacking governmental response to the hurricane was apparent and visceral immediately upon leaving the airport; downed telephone poles, tangled wires, street closures, shuttered businesses, debris.

Brittany: Some of the issues Puerto Ricans face that are touched on in the trailer and the Medium post you mentioned include the region's status as a US territory, Hurricane Maria, and high rates of unemployment, all of which contribute to the larger Puerto Rican diaspora. Can you elaborate on this a bit more?

Lyka: There’s so much to say here. First off, the Puerto Rican diaspora certainly isn’t a new phenomenon. The island has been steadily losing residents over several decades, and most significantly since World War II. Puerto Rico’s status as a US territory plays a leading role in fueling its cyclic economic crises as the US has inflicted a series of damaging policy decisions on it.

Back in the late 1800s, Puerto Rico had a large, local, diversified agricultural economy. The United States came in and basically turned it into a cash crop economy, shifting production entirely to sugar cane. Eventually, this industry collapsed as it became highly competitive, leaving Puerto Rican farmers with, essentially, nothing. That’s not a great starting point, is it?

As I mentioned in the Medium post, Puerto Rican municipal bonds were deemed tax exempt by the US government in 1917, at the same time Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship. This has been attractive to investors, even as they realized PR likely would never be able to pay them back. If that wasn’t bad enough, the US-written constitution mandates that these bond obligations take precedence over funding social service programs like infrastructure, education, and healthcare.

American corporations also received major tax exemptions for setting up shop in Puerto Rico, which led to an economic boom on the island for several years. Ultimately those tax breaks were dismantled in 2006, which caused -- you guessed it -- an economic crisis. Poverty and unemployment skyrocketed. The island is still reeling from this, over a decade later. On top of that, the island’s own local government is riddled with corruption.

As a result of Puerto Rico’s mounting debt over the years, the government has had to slash funding for social services. There’s little job security for anyone in any field, really -- and notably much-needed professions like doctors and teachers. So, as you can imagine, people have been leaving the island in droves for a while. Hurricane Maria, of course, exacerbated all of these issues and created new ones. And now the island may lose even more of its population in record time.

Brittany: This film was a collaboration between yourself and your partner, Geoffrey Iwata. Both of you have varied backgrounds: you have a degree in business and have worked in branding, editing, and writing, while Geoff is an experimental physicist. Did you derive knowledge, skills, and experiences from these disciplines to create the film?

Lyka: Absolutely. My background lent itself well to developing a vision, figuring out how to best execute it, and building and organizing a team. Geoff picked up complicated technical know-how incredibly quickly, he’s a great budgeter, he has an eye for detail, and his analytical mindset helped us tackle difficult questions. We both have an affinity for storytelling, myself from a brand identity standpoint -- turning ideas and feelings into compelling narratives, and Geoff from an academic standpoint -- making sense of complex topics and making them digestible. We were luckily able to blend skill sets quite well.

(Fun fact: Geoff and I got married in the midst of the film’s production. Great timing, right? Thankfully we were both on board with having a City Hall wedding.)

Brittany: What were some of the biggest challenges you've faced as a first-time filmmaker? Did you receive any helpful advice on your filmmaking journey?

Lyka: One of the things I’m most glad that I did early on in the process was to attend a massive documentary festival called DOC NYC. There, I was able to get a sense of what being in the community actually feels like and learn things that people only understand after years of being in the field. I met awesome people of different backgrounds; some early career filmmakers, some more seasoned. It was basically a week of nonstop learning, watching films, and connecting with wonderful people (including some really inspiring female filmmakers). This experience helped me dodge a lot of bullets. The downside, though, was realizing that getting a film out there in this insanely competitive landscape is immensely challenging. There are so many different possible routes to success (and many actually end up in failure), and only a few really make it. That was hard to swallow.

I always say that every successive part of the process has felt harder and more mistake-ridden than the last.

When we were first developing the project, it seemed so daunting to imagine that this idea could become a real film. Setting up our initial meetings and pre-interviews felt surreal, truthfully.

Then, during production, challenges became more tangible. Navigating the daily struggles of scheduling, having only a 3-person crew, equipment management, media management (we shot most of the film in 4k, which is notoriously difficult to deal with due to large file sizes), power availability on the island, you name it. We actually were about to head from Florida to Puerto Rico the day before the hurricane hit, and had to cancel everything and turn back. Two months later, we luckily were able to head to PR, but for a much shorter stay. That meant that what we were originally planning to spread out over about eight days had to be squeezed into five. We just had to roll with the punches.

In post-production, staying on timeline was immensely difficult. Being overseas and far away from the rest of our team meant we did all of our editing remotely. It was kind of insane.

Now here we are with a finished film, trying to wrestle the ins and outs of getting the film out to people as soon as we can because of how time-sensitive these issues are. Right now, this feels like the hardest part. It’s all relative! Having wonderful, open-minded subjects and a team of resourceful, driven individuals who care so deeply about the project has made it all easier and more rewarding.

Brittany: How did you go about finding the crew for the film and the interviewees depicted?

Lyka: We were lucky to have a good network. One thing sort of led to another, it was a ripple effect. We knew some Puerto Ricans who had relocated to New York, who then introduced us to others who were in different places both on and off the island. We talked to everyone we could until we had a core group of subjects (who are all amazing people who we’ve become great friends with).

For the crew it was a similar process. One of our advisors at Columbia University, Dr. Frances Negrón-Muntaner, had a connection to the Director of Photography we eventually brought on, Indio Martinez. He then connected us to our editor, Dilila McDonagh, who later referred us to our Graphics Lead Katy. One of our subjects introduced us to our talented Puerto Rican composer Camilo Pentzke, and he eventually brought on our Sound Designer, Francisco Rios. Lots of serendipity and good timing were involved!

Brittany: What are some of the biggest takeaways you'd like viewers to get from the film?

Lyka: One of our biggest goals is to help build empathy toward members of the Puerto Rican diaspora. As people inevitably continue to move from the island to the States, we need to ensure that they are understood and welcomed. I also hope viewers walk away with a bit more of an understanding of Puerto Rico’s history and current situation, and a desire to learn more and speak out about America’s role in creating the island’s current crises. While these deep-rooted historical mistakes can’t be corrected, if we as citizens educate ourselves, we can pressure our politicians to do better, and we can make a difference.

We really feel that compassion is the root of change. So if people walk away feeling or thinking about any of the above, then we’ve made a contribution.

Brittany: How can readers keep up with the goings-on in Puerto Rico? Do you have any favorite news sources or important voices you'd like to highlight?

Lyka: David Begnaud of CBS News has done incredible work surrounding the island during and post-Maria. He is actually putting out a documentary as well sometime in September I believe… He’s one of the few reporters that has kept talking about Puerto Rico, long after the headlines faded. I’d even recommend following him on Twitter to get updates.

The book War Against All Puerto Ricans by Nelson Antonio Denis provides a solid understanding of everything the island has been through as a US colony, contextualized through the life of Pedro Albizu Campos who led the Puerto Rican independence movement from the ‘30s through the mid ‘60s.

Naomi Klein is an academic and writer who just put out a book called The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists, also about Hurricane Maria and its aftermath. It’s short and digestible but gives a clear overview of the challenges the island faces.

I’d also just like to mention here that all of our voices are powerful. Use your platforms not only to learn, but also to talk about Puerto Rico’s current situation. (We’re almost at the one-year anniversary of the hurricane and things are still looking bleak.) Even if you make just one person pay attention, you’ve helped spread the word.

Brittany: What can readers expect to see from you in the future? Do you have any documentary work on the horizon?

Lyka: I’m really focused on getting Moving In Place out into the world right now, since the message is so important and timely in this moment. We’re planning to host community screenings at least in NYC and on the island before the end of the year. If any readers have a desire to see the film screened in their communities, don’t hesitate to reach out!

I am currently in the super early stages of developing a documentary short. I can’t say too much about it yet, but it relates to my family history in India. I’m also working on some small personal projects to hone my craft. Hopefully I will be able to share more exciting updates soon!

The trailer for Moving In Place

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Photos provided by Lyka Sethi.

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Special thanks to Lyka for discussing her documentary with us. You can learn more about Moving In Place on their website (where you can sign up for their e-newsletter, which they send out sporadically with updates about the film), Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Feel free to reach out to their team directly at movinginplacefilm@gmail.com

[creativesage]

Compiled by Harold Jarche

Every second Friday I review what I’ve noted on social media and post a wrap-up of what caught my eye. I do this as a reflective thinking process and to put what I’ve learned on a platform I control: this blog. Here are what I consider the best of Friday’s Finds for 2016.

Quotes

@Tom_Peters: “Presidents rarely get good advice. Every ‘presenter’ presents a totally biased solution–often suppressing competing evidence.”

@atduskgreg – “Machine learning is automated bureaucracy. It spits back the systemic biases we feed it in feature vectors, training sets, reward functions.”

“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.” —H.L. Mencken, via @normsmusicjournal

@HughCards: “As the Internet makes everything cheaper, access to real networks (Harvard, Wall St., Silicon Valley, etc.) gets even more expensive.”

“Power not only corrupts, it addicts.” —Ursula Le Guin, via @ndcollaborative

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” —Marcus Aurelius — via @mickfealty

Learning

@DonaldClark: Unified theory of ‘learning’ emerges – and it’s mind blowing

“The idea is that learned behavior, and not just environment and genes, influences the direction and rate of the evolution of psychological and physical traits. The mind is a learning machine and it is the various aspects of this ability to ‘learn’ that may have had driven evolution and our success as a species. The Baldwin Effect places ‘learning’ on a larger theoretical canvas, lying at the heart of evolutionary theory. It is no longer just a cognitive ability, albeit a complex one, with many different systems of memory, but a feature that defines the very success of our species.”

A news literacy kit for a post-truth world by @JoyceValenza [excellent resource]

“News literacy is complicated. In our attempts to discern truth, we are confounded by a 24/7 news cycle. News hits us across media platforms and devices, in a landscape populated by all degrees of professional journalists and citizen journalists and satirists and hoaxers and folks paid or personally moved to write intentionally fake news. All of this is compounded by the glories and the drawbacks of user-generated content, citizen journalism, and a world of new news choices.”

Working

Employment (In)security and Shame: Working Hard on Soft Money – via @14prinsp

“My working class background, coupled with my long term history of precarious employment has left me feeling ashamed and guilty. I am angry at my own perceived childishness for investing in the seemingly naïve notion that hard work is always recognised and rewarded in due course. I am angry at myself. I am angry at being in this position yet again.”

This Is the 1 Thing That Worries Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield the Most: people – via @ChristineGeith

“The company has six core values, expressed in three sentences, Butterfield explains:

1. Empathy as expressed through courtesy

2. Craftsmanship tempered with playfulness (That’s where those funny Slack messages come from)

3. Thriving, both in ourselves and others (That means thriving not only as a team, but also making sure you’re personally thriving and doing this thing you’re meant to be doing with your whole heart, Butterfield explained)”

Note: compare the above with self-determination theory: relatedness, competence, autonomy.

Why Theater Majors Are Vital in the Digital Age via @CreatvEmergence

“The aptitude called ‘foresight’, which is the talent to envision many possible outcomes or possibilities, was present in all theater workers (playwrights, directors, designers, actors). When actors try out various line readings or interpretations of a scene, when they improvise or create backstory, they are using foresight … But foresight would be impossible without empathy. The actor’s ability to envision multiple outcomes or motivations in a play must be based on the character’s circumstances, not the actor’s.”

Welcome To The Post-Work Economy via @Daniel_Egger

“Today, the main contradiction in modern capitalism is between the possibility of free, abundant socially produced goods, and a system of monopolies, banks, and governments struggling to maintain control over power and information,” Mason says. “Everything is pervaded by a fight between network and hierarchy.” … The fact is that capitalism — with its tendency to income inequality, information monopolies, and financial power — is running out of steam.

Living

The end of walking in America – via @marshallk

“Jaywalking was once a semi-derogatory term referring to country bumpkins, or ‘jays’, who inefficiently meandered around American cities; by the 1920s, the term was being used to transfer blame for accidents from motorists to pedestrians. Making jaywalking illegal gave the supremacy of mobility to those sitting behind combustion engines. Once upon a time, the public roads belonged to everyone. But since the ingenious invention of jaywalking we’ve battered pedestrianism in one of those silent culture wars where the only losers are ourselves.”

Being Human – via @jerrymichalski

“Nearly 65 years ago, Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Player Piano was published, painting a picture of a post-war dystopian future where the machines have replaced workers and society has become stratified. At the top are well-paid engineers who invent new machines to replace more workers and tend to whatever small mechanical glitches arise. At the bottom are replaced workers, who have been given jobs at the Reconstruction and Reclamation Corps (“Reeks and Wrecks”) with a small salary as a kind of basic income. Their real purpose to consume whatever the main computer’s algorithm has decided must be consumed to keep the economy humming. Although the tech is vacuum tubes and the storytelling both relentlessly sexist and blithely racist, it is deflating to realize just how predictable our cutting-edge present seems to have been. There are smart homes and AI, hackers and drones. There is also an uprising …

… “What have you got against machines?” said Buck. “They’re slaves.”

“Well, what the heck,” said Buck. “I mean, they aren’t people. They don’t suffer. They don’t mind working.”

“No. But they compete with people.”

“That’s a pretty good thing, isn’t it—considering what a sloppy job most people do of anything?”

“Anybody that competes with slaves, becomes a slave,” said Harrison thickly, and he left.”…

—Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano, 1952

Brain Pickings: How the Invention of the Alphabet Usurped Female Power in Society and Sparked the Rise of Patriarchy in Human Culture

“There is one fact that can be established: the only phenomenon which, always and in all parts of the world, seems to be linked with the appearance of writing … is the establishment of hierarchical societies, consisting of masters and slaves, and where one part of the population is made to work for the other part.”

“Whenever a culture elevates the written word at the expense of the image, patriarchy dominates. When the importance of the image supersedes the written word, feminine values and egalitarianism flourish.”

Leadership

HBR: To Win the Civil War, Lincoln Had to Change His Leadership – via @MichelleBlanc

“Lincoln realized in early summer 1863 that he had two big challenges: reestablishing control over the Army and recapturing public opinion. With this realization, Lincoln made some bold choices. First, he got rid of some old beliefs that no longer worked. And second, he started leading in a completely new way. In retrospect we can see how his bold choices in the summer of 1863 helped him become one of the greatest leaders the U.S. has ever known.”

@LollyDaskal: Why the empathetic leader is the best leader

“Empathy gives insight. It’s important to remember that the story we tell in our minds is different from the story playing in the minds of others. It is only through listening intently to others that you can begin to understand these differences. When you listen you learn, and when you learn you gain insight. There is a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are. Empathy allows you to think before you judge and make assumptions.”

@NielsPflaeging: Bosses versus leaders: Companies Need Neither

“The notion of the leader is and has always been corrupt and despicable, just as the notion of bosses. Or put differently: If we think of leadership as depending on leaders & followers, or of leaders as ‘very special people’, then we haven´t advanced a bit from what Frederick W. Taylor told us about managing for the industrial age, 105 years ago, in his treatise Principles of Scientific Management.”

[Entire post — click on the title link to read it at Jarche.com.]