#the alienated minority

[whetstonefires]

oh hang on so Oliver Twist as a book is largely about child labor, right.

like the commonality between the workhouse, the abusive apprenticeship, and the pickpocket gang is that Oliver is being exploited. for his labor. and Fagin's gang while crossing the line into illegality and therefore in some ways the most dangerous is also the most pleasant of the three.

and ofc which i have underconsidered until now, child labor was fully legal at the time and a major political issue--the 1833 Factory Act had only just recently outlawed employing under-nines on the factory floor, or working 9-13 year olds more than 9 hours a day, and 13-18 year olds more than 12.

it was a struggle to enforce and it was controversial.

so. Fagin's gang replicates that factory owner-child laborer relationship on a tiny, illicit scale, where the kids are taking all the risks and doing all the work and he's getting most of the profit, and it's not fair, but oh he's giving them food and a place to sleep and wouldn't they be worse off without him? (they would is the thing. but does that make it okay?)

with the goal of this being that next time Dickens' milquetoast middle-class readers encountered an argument for the benevolence of a guy employing child labor to maximize his profits they might go, hey! that's not true, he's just like that crook Fagin!

but of course this kind of political messaging works best when it can't be too readily clocked as such--if Fagin was obviously a stand-in for a respectable capitalist, a lot more of the readers would be comfortable excusing him.

which is why he's Jewish, and why the text belabors that point so obsessively--antisemitism is being used as a lever to discourage the public from identifying with Child Labor Exploiting Guy and to characterize his desire to accumulate wealth at the expense of others as greedy, selfish, and illegitimate.

i could never quite figure what the point of using that stock character in that context and so emphatically was. especially after learning that, having had it extensively explained that it was harmful to actual Jewish people to go so hard on this in such a popular novel, Dickens was like 'oh my bad' and walked it back a bit.

because in that case the antisemitism obviously wasn't an end in itself? but if it was incidental flavor, why so much?

but as a screen for his political agenda, it makes sense. using judaism to code an antagonist's profit motive as illegitimate had a long literary history already, but in this case Fagin was already manifestly a criminal so it was like. why.

anyway this isn't about justifying charles dickens' artistic choices that even he somewhat regretted. it's a bit about how easy it can be to fail to put together context even when you have all the pieces, especially at a remove from our own lived experience.

and a bit more about how the tools we use for political ends should be carefully inspected. no matter how ordinary and unremarkable they seem when we pick them up. because we might be missing different historical context due to being embedded in it.

[y4zurulvr]

never ask a queer person what happened to their white and black coded ship

[muppenthings]

HEYOO!!! Love your art and ocs btw. So may I ask if you can please make one shot where Gorm is saving someone from drowning? Ik this is weird but you gotta know that imma weirdo so..

I'm happy you like them! This was entertaining to draw. ;)

[ltsmoving]

starting testosterone, ive got some notes for whoever distributes it though i think it should turn me into a big fat dog man but thats just me

[v-afterhours]

That last artwork related ask was just perfection, so hot!

I did always wonder what a Cornukids young would do if it was inside a humans womb instead of their own kind, say if a breeding event occurred or someone gave someone a incorrect medication 😏

Veronica took the wrong medication on accident, leading to an unexpected pregnancy, but she's taking it as an opportunity to further her research!

[joltrify]

id sell my left soul and my lung for more disabled Ben 10 aliens please omg

<3

hope i did okay this time around; still getting back into the swing of things

[till-alnst]

i dont know why im here

i dont know why i decided to install this app, but whatever.

call me till, im the guy with the guitar in round 2.

feel free to send me whatever, just dont expect me to get back right away. i got better things to do with my time.

dms are open if you for some reason want to dm me.

while i am 21, management behind my account is done by a minor. dont send me anything weird or nsfw though in dms or asks. if you dont know if its weird or not, use your fucking common sense to determine if it is. if you do send weird shit, ill post it publicly to make fun of you or delete it. youll just be wasting both of our time.

if youre interested, i have a playlist you can check out here.

im bi but the men i kiss is none of your business, so dont even ask 👍

[fabriziocarminati]

Are you doing the Q'orl? They're kind of a mixed bag on major/minor. It's like if no story about our planet ever mentioned, like, India. Or Russia.

I drew them in the first bunch of the "(Minor) xenos of the galaxy series". Perhaps, I posted them here one year ago or more probably on my Twitter

[eldritch-spouse]

Remember this?

Here's a guy that's definitely not meant to be on Earth.

Somewhere, the forces that be botch a massive specimen transportation operation from planet A to planet B. A series of system failures occurs, and strangely shaped pods are ejected into the vast nothingness of space. One of said pods contains a lifeform belonging to a species that was meant to be studied in detail, except instead of landing safely where it should, this pod crashes directly into Earth, thankfully away from civilization.

The creature inside is largely very disoriented upon their arrival, more than that, it's dying. The atmosphere around it won't allow the lifeform to breathe properly, so it crawls and wheezes its way over to a river and stuffs its head in it, finally recovering. That's exactly how they're found too...

Held in a highly specialized infrastructure, while not exactly being badly mistreated, this extraterrestrial is being documented extensively. Some curious things have been found.

They're intelligent. Although an undeniable and difficult to circumvent language barrier is very much present, it's evident that the lifeform can reason in a similar manner to humans, displaying this early on by remaining calm and mostly pliant next to armed humans, understanding that these others could hurt them without needing many hints;

They're social. The lifeform has responded to attempts at social interaction with its own strategies, and seems to have two main methods of vocalizing, primarily through the cavities in its chest. The larger, top depressions seem to emit rough, branch-like noises, while the smaller orifices produce melodious signals, both of these combine to create a very peculiar and complex language;

He's a male. Observed when the specimen opened his own absurdly long slit, at the (slightly forceful) request of investigators, exposing a myriad of genital appendages particularly associated with males. Not all of them are capable of ejaculation, and some seem to be purely auxiliary to the task of mating, leading to a lot of speculation regaining the anatomy and practices of females of the species;

The filament on his head is a mood indicator that will glow a variety of hues at different intervals to transmit messages;

The buds on his pelvic area are erogenous zones;

The protrusions on his forearms are residual;

Although the lifeform doesn't display a demanding sex drive, when they find someone they deem compatible and attractive, the ensuing mating session tends to last several hours. It's theorized that, if left uninterrupted, the specimen would attempt to mate their partner for more than 24h;

Unfortunately, the concept of naming oneself isn't exactly something he can grasp very easily, so there's neither a title nor a preferred method of addressing the lifeform. Curiously, they tend to have an innate ability to tell when they're being talked to, talked about or even thought of;

He's been nicknamed "Tentatris" and "Tetrils" due to how wildly confusing it is for investigators to try and decipher his anatomy, likening it to the organism equivalent of a tetris puzzle.

[witchofthesouls]

Speaking of Fowler's office, I figured that since it hands blinds, I think it would make a good spot to catch the Bots doing something weird or funny when he decides to peep at them when they aren't looking.

It is.

The Cybertronians don't exactly realize just how much noise they exude, even attempting to quiet themselves.

Fowler could hear those assholes tip-toe across the goddamn base. The Autobots may have a habit of using their internal comms, but Fowler (and other Earth creatures) can feel the vibration of their steps and hear the constant whirs, churns, creaks, and shniks of their frames.

It doesn't help that one of them will plant themselves near the office like a sad critter waiting for its lost baby from an animal rescue because the sparklings want uninterrupted nap times. He can't put his finger on it, but he's betting his house that Cybertronians have emotional projections because his skin would prickle, back of his neck shivers, and get some vague sad feelings until one of the kids sleepily chirps out.

[tsukasageorge]

the 'rising star'

[buckevantommy]

i was tonight years old when i learned that brian thompson aka. captain gerrard has a storied career including the terminator, star trek, the xfiles, hercules, buffy, charmed, and more.

[dreadark]

was looking at vivinos's bilibili for some reason and noticed the round 1 and top 3 thumbnails were different... what does it mean...

"literally nothing" but what if...

so on youtube the round 1 thumbnail obviously matches with the teaser

but the bilibili channel doesn't seem to have any of the teasers, so if you put these two together...

sua's smile right before the scores tally up... is of course something still haunting mizi

[syppys-den]

This is unironically how I'd write Krypton

don't worry, this version is less idiotic and Dystopian

[crustyfloor]

not to be insane and massively self indulgent more than factual but

I was just listening to cure for the 1000th time, and after replaying Till’s part for the 4th time I was like “wow, these lyrics sync pretty well with the kiss scene?” Now of course it’s bound to be because even the beat is the kinda the same. And it could be total coincidence nothing to link here but—what if.... Yk?

I put the two together and tried to see how well they’d sync and I say hey, it’s pretty good (or it could be better if I was a better editor idk)

The rain is matched with the 'fallen stars" lyrics that I'd like to think are either linked to tears or, rain.

when the “On your icy lips” lyric comes up it is synced with the scene where Ivan gives Till one more kiss.

and the “Read my soul” lyric? That’s when Till and Ivan are looking at each other. Ivan is wordlessly asking Till to read him, understand why he is doing this and keep trying to survive, or is it Ivan who is trying to read what till is thinking? Does Till hate the kiss? Will he do anything about it now that Ivan has broken into his space, and pushed past boundaries? will the Till he knows come back?

and the "ooh" at the end matches with the exact moment Ivan is shot because it's "Oh. I can't read you. your book doesn't have the same writing from when we were kids" or just "oh I'm dead lmao"

[outlanderalien]

Hey did anyone else notice that when Bishop got impaled by the Xenomorph queen he clutched onto Ripley's shoulder for dear life? No? Just me?