#the challenge was keeping it to 20th century stuff

[arkon-z]

we brain rottin' and we ain' stoppin'. Time for some Voyager headcanons. Like, for example, when they were in orbit around Earth during the 20th century that one time, they probably got exposed to a lot of music. And maybe Tom Paris asked them to pick a favorite genre.

Tom: Mid Century rock. Beach Boys, The Beatles, Elvis, The Monkees; you know, 50's jukebox tunes.

Harry Kim: Jazz, duh. Every band nerd I've ever met thinks is the shit and I don't get it. But that's canon, so we'll be nice and say he's into Latin jazz.

B'Elanna: A contrarian at heart, B'Elanna likes metal and nu-metal from the turn of the millennium, claiming, "The start of the new millennium wasn't until 2001, so anything from 2000 is still 20th century." So she's into stuff like Mona Lisa Overdrive and Linkin Park and Green Day.

Chakotay: Likes more experimental stuff from the 70s, like Genesis, The Who, Cold Chisel; the kind of records with the really crazy album art. He enjoys that it's different enough to be interesting while not so far out as to be unfamiliar.

The Doctor: Opera, and big band swing. This stuff. Also, surprisingly, Queen. He's a sucker for Freddy Mercury.

Seven: folk music, with little instrumentation and clear vocals. And on the complete other end of the spectrum, techno and eurobeat. The more complicated the melody, the better. She likes parsing the complexities of the sounds.

Tuvok: likes the new age meditative music that is mostly single notes played slowly in the background at a spa or a crystal and tarot card store.

Janeway: we know she's into classical, but she's got a soft spot for 90's alternative rock, especially anything that tells a distinct story or is trying to convey a clear message. Stuff like Counting Crows or Sum 41, and one or two Saboton albums.

[tomato-bird-art]

SF ZINEFEST 2024! Some pictures from the San Francisco Zinefest last week! I had a wonderful time, and it was SUPER busy! thanks everyone who swung by to pick up prints and zines from me, I really appreciate it. It was really heartening to see people enjoy my art and remember me from over the years—I’ve had a very busy year and not as much time to “be an artist” as I’d like, so it was very invigorating to be around other queer artists again in a dedicated and enthusiastic space. When online a lot, you tend to forget how it is to be around art in person, and this was a great reminder of it—also every year, I’m always excited to see the beautiful outfits and fashion of the attendees! Someday I’ll dress up more special, but alas it’s just work and apron for me XD

I also finally got to meet longtime mutual and incredible artist @megamoth in person, and got a copy of their Devilman zine series here I contributed to some years ago! Here’s a pic with a cool itabag as well.

This year, I debuted a few new works:

“Fujo X-Ray Visions”

is a collection of personal comics from the past year I’ve been posting here and on Patreon, mostly about trying to balance life as a cartoonist and as someone pursuing some new career experiences in the healthcare field. Like “Voids and Visions” before it, there’s a bunch of personal stuff and angsting along with regular goofiness.

It’s available now both as a physical zine, as well as a digital download!

“If All The World Were Mine!”

My collection of artwork and comics I’ve done for my medieval rpf side account, @angevinyaoiz over the past couple years. It’s a mix of some serious historical illustrations, goofy cartoons, and nsfw works. It’s probably one of the most “niche” things I’ve ever made or gotten into as of late, but I’m happy for the audience who has appreciated my work over the past several months. It’s available currently as a physical zine purchase on storenvy, and I’m planning on making an expanded digital zine version available later—fill out this form to be notified!

“Best Yaoi Movies of 20th Century Hollywood”

In this collaborative project I did with my friend @titilvating, in the style of classic cut and paste, copied zines, we offer our takes on 19 movies made before the year 2000. Many are acclaimed classics; some are underrated gems.  We made this zine to both introduce folks to the richness possibilities of classic movies; whether longtime cinephiles familiar with queer subtexts,  or young fujos looking for more material to sink their yaoifangs into.  Our sample size caters to our personal tastes rather than “good representation” and reflects a fraction what’s out there, with a focus on western US/European media, but hopefully can serve as a fun introduction and celebration. Old movies are a lotta fun, who would’ve thought?

It’s available now as a free digital download, but contact me if you’re interested in a physical edition as well!”

Other Works:

My print version of “The Sons of God” was very well received! I realized sometimes giving little titles to print pieces make for great conversation starters, and I got to chat a lot about my inspirations for the respective pieces. Grab a physical print here!

Ending Thoughts

Overall, I’m glad I got to meet lots of people this year and also pick up lots of zines! I didn’t have a chance to really browse this time around since it was so busy, but I got to trade a lot with folks and also pick up some cool zines and stickers myself.

For those who’d like to keep up with what I’m doing, follow me here, on Patreon, either as a member or free-follower, since I tend to post my sketches/WIPs there first. For me now, it’s back to the grind of school and also continuing creative projects. I have a lot of stuff I dream of doing, and it’s always a challenge to balance that with what needs to get done. If I learned anything from this event, it’s how valuable it is to connect with people in the real world art space (Something I always learn and forget like every few months.)…also, always bring water and snacks—can never be TOO prepared!

Wishing you all a good autumn,

-Allie

[shichidikai]

my ass is so late to this but how about “so wie man denkt, so kommt es nie” for the wip game thing?!

*slides in on a rolling stool* no such thing as too late when i get to ramble about nonsense, thank you for yet another opportunity <3

this is the fic that came to me in a flash of lightning while i was standing in the beverage aisle in safeway (dead serious, it's the writer disease) and the most basic premise is "take Elisabeth das Musical (1992) and make it zosan"— for those who have no idea what i'm talking about, walk with me for a sec while i attempt to summarize and not to keep you here all day lmao

basics of basics that i'm just stealing from wikipedia: [The musical] portrays the life and death of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as "Sisi", the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, from her engagement and marriage in 1854 to her murder in 1898; it focuses on her growing obsession with death, as her marriage and the empire crumble around her just before the turn of the 20th century.

slightly less basics: elisabeth first encounters death at a young age and they have a constant pull of back-and-forth longing throughout her life as death tries to "court" her and she refuses (meanwhile a lot of Politics and Other Stuff is going on) (<- this is a horribly inaccurate summary but for the purposes of a 10-minute tumblr post it mostly gets the job done)

i still have a lot of ironing out to do with this one in terms of finer details/how to adapt specific plot points, but at the core will be sanji (sisi) and zoro (death), vinsmokes and charlottes, maybe law and some donquixotes, all delightful upbeat and fun stuff! (lying)

anyway this is all extra exciting because once you know anything about the musical, you know that it means this fic is gonna be 200% angst and suffering, which is quite a different foray for me (i like to write stuff laced with humor, eventual happy endings and smut and this is... none of the above lmao) but i feel like it'll be a really cool challenge (once i stop being scared of giving it a proper shot shkshjks)

and yes this may all be partly driven by my desire to envision zoro in some of the adaptations' outfits for death (i look directly at shirota yu)

p.s. for those who might want to listen, shirota yu and ramin karimloo recorded a japanese-version of "the shadows grow longer"- https://open.spotify.com/track/42RvBG8xtzpA72QeCm8NP9

more wip game »

[hesitationss]

this person who was posting both sides stuff bcuz their family is zionist or something keeps unfollowing me and refollowing me on ig. i know they're against the genocide but it feels so weird bcuz their stance is on the basis of racism for palestinians and racism toward resistance. i am sympathetic to the difficult convos people must have w their families, but if you are starting every statement against genocide "condemning hamas" or anything like that or making colonial terror about attacking jews (and what about the palestinian jews who have been exiled or brutalized by israel?), it is manufacturing consent for genocide, even if you say you oppose genocide on paper. it has also been evident that the creation of ethnostate has never been about protecting jewish ppl seeing as ethnostates only serve white supremacy and how they are not possible without genocide, and that america and the west have been tactically destabilizing the global south since well before ww2 and spent the entire 20th century carpet bombing asia for wanting to liberate themselves from their colonizers and move toward socialism and communism. sometimes i feel crazy knowing that war and genocide is about material interests like oil and military profiteering and enacting colonial projects because other people see it as "two groups not getting along so there is hate and discrimination"..... and i also thought we as communities were actually challenging our understanding of systemic oppression... and that the enemy of the world is USA and it's military allies...

[marzipanandminutiae]

I love all your CPeak stuff, but I particularly love In a Glass, Darkly -- the attention to detail, the characterization, the way that you were able to follow the overall plot while still tailoring it to fit the specific AU so it felt seamless...it was all brilliantly done, especially since you had to maintain it for over 50k words.

Thank you so much!

I really enjoyed writing Edith‘s point of view – she’s such an interesting character, and it was a fun challenge to see how someone who is ostensibly pretty normal could end up falling in love with a serial killer. Especially in the early 20th century, and when that serial killer had previously been fucking her brother.

I was impressed that I managed to keep it going for as long as I did, and it really gave me hope that I am in fact capable of writing and finishing very long stories. I actually have plans to rework it into a better novelization than the official version (you know, one that actually gets characters’ eye colors right and doesn’t feel the need to flatten Lucille into a one dimensional villain) just for personal entertainment. Maybe get that bound as well, in case the digital black hole ever takes the movie or something.

[lurkingteapot]

9 People You’d Like to Know More

Tagged by @shouldiusemyname and @recentadultburnout

Last song: Kenji Kawai - Utai IV Reawakening (Steve Aoki Remix), because I was watching this Street Dance of China performance:

Currently reading: I'm working my way through a thing I'm translating for a job, if that counts as reading? If we're just talking reading for pleasure: I just finished Yellowfever by R.F. Kuang and highly, highly recommend it. Content warnings out the wazoo (the narrator is an AWFUL person who doesn't come anywhere near realising how bad she is); I still couldn't put it down until I was finished. Next up is probably a few chapters of Queer Transfigurations and a whole lot of fanfic until Shelley Parker-Chan's He Who Drowned The World is released on the 24th.

Currently watching: Laws of Attraction, Be My Favorite, Tokyo in April is …, Not Me (re-watch for class purposes), SOTUS, Good Omens S2, and technically also 10 Years Ticket but I'm stalled on it

Next in line on my watchlist: I don't have a watch list as such, but I'd like to finish one of the shows I started but stalled on – other than 10 Years Ticket, maybe The Warp Effect?

Starting soon: Only Friends

Current obsession: gonna take a page out of @shouldiusemyname's book and try to narrow it down to just three:

in concrete fannish/fandom things, this is still Bad Buddy. I've watched and enjoyed other shows, but I keep coming back – to read fic, to analyse and speculate with friends and strangers, sometimes to write … and sometimes I go back and work through an episode or two in relation to 2.) or 3.).

slightly removed, there's Thai language and everything it connects to– I've dropped the ball on it a little for brickspace reasons, but I want to get back into it. Right now, the extent of my Thai practice is watching LoA without subs every week, preparing for and attending a class focussed around Not Me, and one 1-on-1 conversation class that's technically weekly but teacher and I have both been having life things happen, so it's not really been weekly for a while now. I wish I had the brainspace to challenge myself more, especially to speak. Feels hard to believe I had the spoons to do language exchange stuff daily and have regular convo classes for a while (u_u) I miss it.

and going into a slightly different direction again, BL academia/scholarship – I was fairly interested in this even back in university, but unfortunately it wasn't something I could pursue with the professors I had at the time, so I had to content myself with the classes and papers on gender studies, queer studies, and Japanese pop culture of the 20th century I could get, and reading whatever papers about BL "proper" I could get my hands on in my spare time. I'm glad to be getting back into it now, if a bit wistful.

I have no idea who has and hasn't done this because I've been pretty awol from tumblr for a while, but as an attempt: @dimplesandfierceeyes, @ephemeral-hiraeth, @fanonplussed, @galauvant, @isaksbestpillow, @liyazaki, @loveongsa, @plantsarepeopletoo, and @sixohsixoheightfourtwo, (if you already did this and I missed it, I'm sorry and will be happy for a pointer that way!) Obviously no pressure to do this at all :D

[better-grand-prairie-tx]

Contemporary Living

Visit Prairie Modern if you're looking for modern living spaces in Grand Prairie. Offering a range of 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom homes, Prairie Modern caters to diverse preferences and lifestyles. Residents enjoy convenient amenities such as elevators, ensuring easy access to their homes regardless of floor level. With the growing emphasis on sustainability, Prairie Modern provides EV charging stations, supporting environmentally friendly transportation options for residents with electric vehicles. Additionally, package lockers offer a secure and efficient way for residents to receive deliveries. For those seeking contemporary living spaces in Grand Prairie, Prairie Modern stands as a beacon of convenience, comfort, and modernity, promising a fulfilling living experience for all who call it home.

The History of Grand Prairie, Texas

The history of Grand Prairie, Texas, is rich and fascinating. Originally settled by Native American tribes, it later became a hub for farming and cattle ranching in the 1800s. As more people moved to the area, Grand Prairie grew into a bustling community with schools, churches, and businesses. In the 20th century, the discovery of oil brought even more growth and prosperity to the city. Over the years, Grand Prairie has faced challenges like natural disasters and economic changes, but its resilient spirit has always prevailed. Today, the city celebrates its diverse heritage through museums, festivals, and historic sites, ensuring that its past remains alive for future generations to learn and appreciate.

Traders Village Grand Prairie

Traders Village in Grand Prairie, Texas, is a huge outdoor marketplace filled with all sorts of treasures. From clothes to gadgets to tasty snacks, you can find almost anything here. It's like a giant flea market with hundreds of vendors selling cool stuff at great prices. You can stroll around and browse through the stalls, checking out unique items you won't find anywhere else. There's also live entertainment, like music and magic shows, to keep you entertained while you shop. When you get hungry, you can get a bite to eat from one of the many food stands serving delicious snacks and meals. With its lively atmosphere and endless shopping possibilities, Traders Village is a must-visit destination for the whole family.

Woman Accused of Killing Man in Drunk Driving Crash in Grand Prairie

Some people drink and drive even though they know it's dangerous because they might not fully understand the risks involved. They might think they're okay to drive after having a few drinks, but alcohol can impair judgment and reaction time, making them more likely to have an accident. Others might feel pressured to drive because they don't want to inconvenience others or admit they've had too much to drink. Some people also underestimate how much alcohol they've consumed or believe they're better drivers when they're drunk. Despite knowing the dangers, peer pressure, overconfidence, and lack of awareness can sometimes lead people to make risky choices. It's important to always plan for a safe ride home if you've been drinking to avoid putting yourself and others at risk.

Link to Map Driving Direction

Traders Village Grand Prairie 2602 Mayfield Rd, Grand Prairie, TX 75052, United States

Head east on Mayfield Rd 1.4 mi

Turn left onto S State Hwy 161 0.2 mi

Use the left lane to take the President George Bush Turnpike N ramp Toll road 0.2 mi

Merge onto President George Bush Tpke N Toll road 1.0 mi

Take the exit toward Marshall Dr/Dickey Rd/SW 14th St Toll road 0.2 mi

Merge onto S State Hwy 161 1.0 mi

Turn right onto Dickey Rd Destination will be on the left 0.1 mi

Prairie Modern Apartments 1175 State Hwy 161, Grand Prairie, TX 75051, United States

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

Day 23. I got a whole bunch of medical tape gunk smeared all over my fingerboard and strings. Awesome! (Not awesome.)

I was just so tired today I sat down for practice, which is kinda not ideal, you're supposed to practice in the position you'd perform in which in this case for solo stuff is standing. I just did not have the spoons for standing though. I suppose that does beg the question, however--is it realistic for me to expect to perform/record standing all the time? I don't have a good sense for the answer as of yet. Most of the time I've been practicing while standing, but I am only practicing one hour a day right now. That number's going to go up if I stick with it, and the potential for fatigue will also go up.

My intonation *ducks* look, I'm going to have to talk about this sometimes, because this shit is weird... my internal sense of pitch keeps rapidly shifting throughout one practice session. I notice that there's more times now where I'm playing sharp because I've overcompensated for assuming my sense of pitch was flat... is that progress towards adjusting my pitch memory? I dunno.

Finally picked a Rebel sonata, and well... it's easier to play, but I still sound like ass, LOL. And I have to decide all my own fingering, bowing, and ornamentation, so like, it's just a different set of challenges. Honestly, kind of tempted to just soup it up like the early 20th century masters and say fuck it on being any kind of historical for right now while I have my modern setup. I can always come back and be more historical with this later.

[xenofact]

Discomfort In Belief

In the sphere of mysticism and magic, one will find an emphasis on belief in many modern practices. Belief makes things happen, gods are created or sustained by belief, etc. This is not a modern idea by any extent, but I feel it’s more prominent today than I would expect, and I’ve been analyzing it now and then.

So yes, this column is not just an attempt to communicate, but organize my own thoughts. What can I say, I believe this will work.

Last pun, I promise.

I think the sheer prominence of emphasis on belief in mystical practices has been amplified by such believe-to-achieve stuff like “The Secret” and its related and origin documents. There’s been something about the 20th and 21st century that has emphasized the idea that we can just believe something and have it happen. It’s both highly individualistic and also very comforting to people - and that’s where I think this prominence gets “sticky.”

It’s comforting to think you can change your mind and change the world. It’s comforting to think your destiny is in your hands. It’s comforting to think that there are gods that just exist as you believe and there’s no one in charge but you. It’s comforting - until you think about how we really believe.

A lot of our beliefs are handed - or forced - on us by parents, society, friends, and our own poor choices. A lot of what we believe and have believed is not something we chose, and even if we “take control” are we that sure we’re making the right choices? A lot of what’s us has its origins outside of us.

This means a lot of beliefs are unconscious. We say we may believe something in a ritual or attempts to “focus out will,” but do we really? Are we believing something, just reflecting what’s already there, or is there something else crawling beneath our thoughts? If you’ve ever been to therapy you know how much stuff is just under the surface - and that’s not comforting.

Whatever power our beliefs do have (which I may, perhaps, write more about) they’re also working with - or conflicting with everyone else’s beliefs. Taking a materialist or mystical viewpoint, our beliefs - already quite complex - are forming a web with everyone else’s beliefs. It might not be the one we want.

Then, finally, there’s the idea that our beliefs shape supernatural - or supernatural-like powers. That may sound comforting to think you have power over the gods, but far less comforting when you think about the above. And all that is even less comforting if you have any concept of the gods and spirits being independent entities

So “belief affects reality? Yeah, probably, but it’s not comforting, it’s not a source of unlimited power, and it’s very complex.

Perhaps this is why the “believe to achieve” type quasi-mystical B.S. sells and keeps selling. It gives us hope of power and control - and when we don’t get what we want or confront the complexity of the universe, people buy more. It’s not comforting and is easily challenged, so for some people you buy another book or take another class.

Belief is just part of life. It has its role - and that role is not to make you feel better or in charge.

-Xenofact

[meiming-thinks]

things to do and tips at a symphony concert 🤍

sitting thru symphony concerts can be challenging at first bc theyre long, the music can be harder to easily understand than pop, and the etiquette can feel sort of arbitrary. so here are some tips for your first symphony concert

1. the audience expects you to be *silent* at these things. no coughing. no candy wrappers. no humming. why? well it kind of takes away from the experience of the live music for some people. do i agree? not really, i think you should be able to express your enjoyment a bit more, but nevertheless, you will get dirty looks if youre humming and banging your head, and tapping your feet.

2. there are pieces and then there are movements within the pieces. you only clap after pieces, not movements! at the end of a movement, there will be a little bit of silence. but, the conductor will not turn around, and the musicians will not set down their instruments. when the entire piece is finished, the conductor will turn around, the musicians will set down their instruments, the conductor will bow, and gesture to the musicians who did some really incredible stuff to stand for recognition.

and now, onto some fun things to watch!

1. keep track of themes and motifs! themes and motifs are these little bits of melody and such that get repeated and chances throughout the piece or movement. sometimes they go away and come back later, and they often mean something big, especially in pieces that tell a story, like ballets and suites. keeping track of these little bits and seeing how they interact with each other, and how they change, is fun and helps you really understand the story that the music is telling.

2. look for unique instruments! your basic symphony orchestra will have violins, violas, cellos, basses, french horns, trumpets, some type of low brass (tuba, euphonium, trombone), flute, oboe, clarinet, usually a bassoon, timpani, piano, cymbals, and other percussion that im not v familiar with. but sometimes, especially in american classical music and 20th century stuff, the music will contain other, less commonly seen instruments. you might find harp, saxophone, piccolo, funky percussion like tubular bells, and more! paying attention to these ones and picking out when they play can be fun.

3. watch the percussionists and brass. percussionists and brass sometimes do not have much to do for a while, and sometimes, they get up to some goofy antics while waiting during their 128 measure rest.

4. watch which sections flip pages the most and least. musicians in the same section will generally all flip their pages around the same time -note: an instrument can have multiple sections within it that have different music. the sections that flip pages most are playing the most often, and those that flip pages least get to play less. violins and cellos especially will be constantly flipping, because they are constantly playing. the poor tuba guy might have two pages of music total.

5. watch the conductor! the conductor does more than keep track of the beat. figuring out what each of their gestures is signaling to the orchestra is a fun puzzle, especially if youve personally never played in a band or orchestra yourself. the conductor will gesture for things like tempo (speed), dynamics (loudness), a section coming in, articulation (“smooth” or “choppy” sound), attack, how to stop a phrase (suddenly or slowly), and more. their gestures will include their baton (the little stick), hand shapes, arm and hand movements, posture, and facial expressions. in a way, its almost like a signed language, meant to communicate how to deliver the music.

overall, be proud of yourself for getting into something new! the classical music community is ~generally~ pretty chill, and going to concerts will become exponentially less intimidating the more you do it.

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Free Guy | Official Trailer | 20th Century Studios" on YouTube

It's a huge huge deal that he did this movie he's telling people get with it and his gear and use your gear and people still aren't and they're a bunch of fruitcakes we despise them for it we need to catch up with production if we don't need anything hard we're going to keep going or it's going to be dangerous for our people and that's true we need to get to the hard stuff and this game will help truthfully people who are doing this stuff are very arrogant about it and it won't be able to resist and they're going to do the tournament just like race cars and her son says we should go into racing and just force our way in and the others will be forced to use their cars that are fast and we want to see that and their manufacturing them somewhere people need to know that if they don't let us in we're going to cut them out of the racing circuits entirely and they won't have that so that's what we have to start doing right now this game is going to be extremely famous this is one of the games did you play in order to get into the master tournament and the master tournament has eternals Galactus and other characters that you choose as your avatar and character and a lot of you will be playing Galactus games that have eternals in them and other such Giants and her son is Galactus he has eternals but he plays Galactus and that's what he is and a lot of people want to see him in the tournament and he'll probably have gear that looks real in the future but he's not giant so he doesn't have any money at all so you can't do anything but you're going to be in the tournament saying that he's losing and all the babble and you're going to look foolish. As he has beaten some of you when you challenge him and they want to save face and they can't

I'm very excited about this idea it's an addition to it as other ideas were but really it's a compilation of everything into one humongous game and sure you have to have Pokemon and the characters look a little more heinous in the finale and towards it and they're more like the real occasion that they represent but that's what really Pokemon is Pokemon it's like child's Play the movie or the movie toys where they the toy soldiers attack people or and there's the army soldiers that are taking the house over and their toys it's more like that or to infinity and beyond but Tim Allen and they become something different and they become real characters and it's very dangerous infinity and beyond character becomes a space Marine from starcraft or Warcraft and he's in there and you can hear his voice it sounds like him and it's hell these people are in hell it's War so get ready because this is going to be the most intense 3D experience of your life everybody's going to want the rides they want the games at the entertainment centers and we're the ones who build them as a matter of fact we're going to start building a few cuz if we don't it won't happen

Thor Freya

When we build the entertainment centers and you can get your facility certified it will have a certified label. And the tournaments will be called something and it will be destiny 2 Masters tournament approved that will be what the label looks like and the tournament will be destiny 2 Masters tournament

We approve this message and the title and it's going to hold and everybody is saying it it's our destiny 2 he's always saying it's his and there's going to be a fight because of it

Olympus

[inventedworld]

WHAT I TRY TO REMEMBER

Amphidrome. It’s an obscure word describing a point in the ocean where there is no range between high and low tide; a neutral zone, so to speak. There are currents at an amphidromic point, but tidal forces are effectively zilch.

I’m not likely to visit one of these places on Earth, but then I’m also not likely to visit any of the Apollo landing zones on the Moon either. They exist; I am not there. But I like to know about them, just like events in history that I’ll never be able to visit either. (Think about that for a moment.)

The first and last note in a musical scale is called the tonic. Lemon juice will erode a marble kitchen counter if the marble isn’t properly sealed. Stare decisis not only means that legal precedent should matter, but it also cautions modern societies not to get stuck simply because things have always been done a particular way. 

These are things I remember, and things I also like to remember. But here’s what they are not, at least to me. They are not trivia. 

Trivia are like scraps of paper stuck amid books on a shelf. They amount to little, no matter how many scraps may get piled up. Random information rarely amounts to much beyond a means to win a bet, or the occasional surprise that solves an unexpected problem. The stuff I’m describing here concerns the muscles and mass that makes the world, from lowly springs that keep clothespin jaws tight to grand expressions of magnetic fusion containment systems to the way that painters mix egg yolk with pigments to achieve the unique glow that only tempera paint can provide.

I will not remember all of these things, or at least not all the details that make them live and breathe. I hang on to some, but most things continually feel at risk of disappearing into the gray mists of fading memory. I don’t need to share them with people; they are not for public display like a well-practiced bar trick. They are also not data I need to demonstrate erudition, or coolness, or even efficiency in recall.  They matter to me because they’re interesting, and having these bits of working knowledge empowers me to be more fully engaged. But often I discover they don’t last.

Nothing lasts.

Some of these things concern bits of information that simply interest me, or amuse me, or remind me of experiences and feelings. More meaningfully, some of these bits connect to other bits, and taken together their various components become greater than the sum of their parts. There’s a pleasure to understanding how the world interoperates. I enjoy a deeper appreciation for both ordinary things and extraordinary things when I can draw connections to provenance or even precedence. At a smaller scale, I derive a pleasing sense that approximates security coming from the knowledge of how to prepare the ground for planting tomatoes, or why newspaper copy written in the 20th century often ended with the number “30” before being sent off for typesetting. I like understanding why rocket trajectories tend to curve as they ascend to orbit, and I like understanding how single-point perspective creates the illusion of depth in renaissance paintings.

Language, especially in its ineffable way of absorbing phrases and expressions from other languages, presents extensive challenges and pleasures to pursue. I rarely refer to my rivals as bête noire, and the private story of my life hardly ever rings in my own ears as a bildungsroman. But when I see these terms in texts, I derive a richness in privately feeling more intimately part of the conversation when the terms resonate easily.

One of the reasons these fragments of disembodied data don’t last is that there are just more things to know than any one person can ever hope to remember. If memory is partially a function of repetition and association, it’s harder to access information that exists without much context, or at least regular use. Where a doctor may use the specialized nomenclature of blood chemistry every day, I generally do not, which means that kind of medical information doesn’t stick as easily. That’s obviously true for anything in the world, from the specialized language used in commercial aviation, to the arcane language of economic theory, to the strangely baroque argot of American football commentary (for which, I confess, I often need a translator if I’m obliged to watch for one reason or another). 

I’m aware that some of this information isn’t vitally important. It is entirely possible to go through an entire day, or even an entire lifetime, without knowing the music of Aleksandr Scriabin, or how a gear differential transmits equivalent power to two wheels that may be traveling different length paths. Taken to extremes, it’s possible to go through life without reading a book, even as it troubles me to know so many people who make just such a choice.

One might assert that art itself is not critically important to any given moment in life. It neither provides shelter, nor sustenance, nor companionship when the wolves begin to circle as night encroaches. But then perhaps that’s why art matters so much. It is the reason to preserve life in the first place, to fortify our shelters and our camp, to share sustenance with others around the fire. Art is the reason we exist. We exist to create; creation becomes the over arching beauty worth pursuing in a finite life; beauty is the reason to endure.

Which leads me back to trying to hang on to things that matter to me. While I am not suddenly compelled to listen intently to every piece of music Leoš Janáček composed, I value knowing how his moody musical ruminations influenced others. Stories about how Borscht Belt nightclubs influenced wider American culture not only make me smile, but make me nostalgic, even wistful that I cannot travel through time. I consider it vital to be able to cook a bunch of things without a cookbook, and I also consider it vital to be able to follow the big picture of endlessly dynamic global markets. While it’s unlikely I’ll be obliged to describe the difference between arabica and robusta coffee beans, I like knowing the difference when I brew a morning cup. (Although on this point, trust me: go with arabica every time.)

What matters to me is being in touch with the world, feeling it like a participant and not simply an observer.  That means appreciating that everything known was first learned by someone who spent the time and energy to learn it, to experience it for the first time, and to give it a name. When I’m gone in a few years, everything I’ve learned about everything they’ve learned will disappear with me, except for the very, very few traces of my life that might have just a microscopic chance of enduring for a few years beyond my time. Rather than convince me of my futility, that impermanence reminds me to stay engaged, to hang on, and try to remember. 

@michaelstarobin

facebook.com/michaelstarobin

[servantofclio]

12 and 17 for the book meme!

12: did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

I did! but also my experience of high school literature was... idiosyncratic.

We did American literature in my junior year. That fall we read a bunch of 19th-century stuff, mostly poetry and short stories, and I did enjoy the Edgar Allan Poe in particular. Then my English teacher came to me and offered me the option of doing an independent study in the spring semester. For context, I went to a very small high school -- there was only one section of the class and no honors track or anything like that -- so this was his way of offering me a more academically challenging experience. So he basically gave me a list of 20th-century American novels and my job was to hang out in the school library and read them, keep a journal, and periodically write papers. I did get to pick and choose from the list, so it wasn't entirely compulsory. But the list included a lot of the typical American lit canon. I liked The Great Gatsby a lot, I didn't care much for Catcher in the Rye, I had mixed feelings about Hemingway, and I'm kind of forgetting what else was on the list. But overall it was a pretty enjoyable way to experience literature in high school.

17: top 5 children’s books?

Hmmmmm, this one is a little tricky because i know there are a lot of great modern children's books that I'm not familiar with, and some of my childhood favorites have assorted issues. But I"m going to stick with some of my childhood favorites anyway.

(Also I started picking up sf/f from the adult section when I was like... 10 or so, so a certain amount of what I read in childhood were not strictly speaking "children's books.")

Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess (for all my tragic-orphan-fantasy needs)

Lloyd Alexander, The Prydain Chronicles (and also Westmark and its sequels, which are pretty brilliant)

Sydney Taylor, All-of-a-Kind Family and sequels (I was actually just thinking about these, they are really lovely books about a Jewish family in early-1900s New York, and closely based on the author's growing-up years)

Noel Streatfield, Ballet Shoes (about a trio of orphaned sisters at a theatrical school, there were also a string of others in this series)

Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising (still a favorite! and also the rest of the series, but this one was my personal favorite)

[creatingnikki]

What 2020 has taught me

1. Those things that seem like content for sci fi or pure fiction are actually things that can happen. To the entire world. Like a pandemic. And to you. Like a seizure.

2. Everyone is sad. Everyone is struggling. In different ways and in different measures. Makes no one special. But you still get to feel sad for yourself and be compassionate towards others. But it's also okay to draw boundaries because you're everyone too. Remember, not special? You're sad and trying to deal with it too.

3. Every job you have will not add value to your life. It will not teach you new things or give you people you'll want to stay in touch with. Sometimes some jobs will only be a season of your life. Even if the season lasts for over a year. It's okay.

4. You know how you thought picking a college and picking a major and picking your first job and picking a specific industry were all the career decisions you had to make? Yeah, no. It's never a one time thing. You could have a job as a marketing strategist for two years and then want nothing to do with it. And then you'll have to make another decision and work towards it. So I'd like to call it moves. It's like chess. You always have to make a move. And it always has to be strategic, yes. But the truth is in your 20s it probably won't. Even if you try. And as long as you're trying, you'll be fine.

5. You may have different sorts of friends like the one you only talk to about kdrama with or the one you met when you went book shopping alone and the friendship is all about books really. That's normal. But irrespective of why and how you became friends with them, if you consider them a friend then there has to be this basic sense of care, respect and empathy for each other. I don't care what people want to say. If you're faced with the worst trauma of your life, the least your friends can do is check up on you regularly. On text. And if they don't even do that then guess what? They aren't friends. They are acquaintances. Social media and quick promises make everyone seem like your friend. But they are not. They are just nice people who will be nice to you for specific periods and then wander away like you are a speck of dust floating in their journey.

6. You speak a lot and write and you express yourself and you’re emotionally mature but oh my god. You still hold in so much. You’ve known that at a subconscious level and over the last year people - experts - have told you that. You have also realized that you make your pain and sadness about pettier things because dealing with them, admitting about them, sharing that with your friends, is easier. You do that so that you don’t have to deal with the real stuff. Because it’s so damn painful. And you don’t know how to do it. Yet. Acknowledging is the first step anyway right? I know you’re confused about how exactly to let go of all this pain and sadness and feel lighter, and you know that talking to people really isn’t the solution, but I also know you’re smart enough to figure it out. 

7. Talking about being smart...you know you’re different than others. Better. Special. Smarter. None of these are the right words. And you never voiced this out until this year because you knew it would make you come across as narcissistic. Some would say it’s because you’re an INFJ. But my mother once said that this may be the first time we are consciously living life but our souls are old and so our instinct and the things we know but can’t explain are because this isn’t the first time for our souls. The connections we feel with certain people, the reason we are so different from our siblings who grew up in the exact same environment with the exact same opportunities, our sense of right and wrong...it’s all because our souls learn and grow with each time and that’s why we are who we are. I think that’s probably how I can explain what I have always felt. That I am living in a different universe than everybody but I have to pretend to be in this one and dumb my emotions and thoughts down. Maybe that’s because my soul has lived through thousands of years while most around me are living their 100th life. Or maybe I’m just narcissistic, who knows?

8. You shift between talking in first person and second person but that’s because that’s how you think in your head and talk to yourself and live your life. You ask yourself things and you accuse yourself of things and you apologize to yourself and you comfort yourself. I think that seeps into your writing and the changing of the voices. 

9. You always genuinely thought that you’d not be afraid of dying. And then what happened this October proved you shockingly wrong. I know it’s not so much being afraid of dying but the unbearable pain of knowing what that would mean to your family. So you have to be more prudent and less reckless with your life and the choices you make. 

10. Regret is not something that plagued you but this year the realisation and pain of giving away your favourite books from your own personal collection to people you care about as a show of affection and them turning out to be ass holes or losers has hit you so hard. So, yes. No more of that shit. I really fucking want my copy of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower back. UGH. With the childhood picture of me inside it! 

11. Sleeping at 5 am in the morning stops being fun or romanticised when you realise just how much harm it does to your body and mind. Literally every single disease and disorder can be traced back to a shitty fucking sleep schedule. It’s not just the hours you sleep but also the quality of sleep and the time you sleep at. So yes sleeping for 8 hours is healthy but not if that 8 hours is from 5 am to 12 pm. ‘Not a morning person’ is just another construct of capitalism and you don’t realise how many industries profit from having you believe that and staying up late or all night. Entertainment. Food. Alcohol. Pharma. Biologically and naturally you are a bloody morning person. And you don’t need 3 cups of coffee to begin your day or your phone notifications to get you to open your eyes and brain to wake up. 

12. Sometimes you really have to stop taking people so seriously. I know the idea of treating people as casual friends or entertainment makes you want to fight that concept but you know what? Some people like Pineapple are ever only going to be good for that. No matter how much they ‘grow and change’. So keep them in the background for whenever you want some entertainment or drama. But please don’t clear up your busy schedule to meet them or send them gifts on their birthday. 

13. If you don’t have the fruit juice or green juice within half an hour of making it then you are losing out on its most optimum health benefits. Or when you remove the white stringy stuff from oranges. That’s where all the actual nutrients are.

14. I am privileged and so are most of the people I interact with. The global pandemic has been hell for a lot of people around the world. Health wise. Financially. Losing people they care about. But I was blessed enough to be safe at home and have a job that I could smoothly do from home and not have a pay cut or 4-hour long Zoom meetings. So honestly when my friends tell me 2020 has been bad I have to stop and ask them why? Yes, the crippling uncertainty and anxiety is not something that can be undermined. But most people I know had very great positive life-changing milestones this year like moving away to another country for college or taking their first solo trip or getting married. So I have to ask them. Because I am not going to agree that everybody’s 2020 and pandemic narrative is the same. 

15. Money gets spent really quickly. When I left my job earlier this year because of personal issues, I thought I had enough savings to last me a year. Full disclosure - I mean to last my personal expenses because I live with my parents. But it didn’t even last me 3 months. And so to use money wisely and buy things that provide utility than instant gratification is something to follow. Also buying one pair of really expensive but quality shoes is better than buying 5 pairs of affordable but low quality shoes that will have a very short life and force you to buy more. I know that higher price doesn’t always mean better quality but sometimes it does. And as an adult now I want to do the whole quality > quantity thing even with things and not just people. 

16. Everyone in their 20s went through a crisis of what they should do with their lives and their careers and it’s not unique to the 21st century and the challenges of today. Whether it was Vincent Van Gogh in the 19th century or Sylvia Plath in the 20th, every single person, as brilliant as them went through the torture of making these decisions and living with their consequences. You may think I picked wrong examples for they both killed themselves but you know what? They were the people who really want to live more than anyone. They knew what life meant. And maybe if mental health help was more accessible back then their lives would be longer and more peaceful. 

17. Telling people everything is overrated. You don’t have to talk about every single thing that’s on your mind or that’s going on in your life. The good and the bad and the mediocre. You have to be mindful about how much of yourself you’re giving away. 

18. Re-watch Suits when people at work feel intimidating because the confidence + negotiation tactics that they show can actually work irl cos at the end of the day no matter in what position you’re dealing with people who have emotions and fears and insecurities and desires. You understand how to leverage that nobody can get the better of you. 

19. You belong to yourself. No matter how much you love someone or how much they have done for you or how much you owe them - you belong to yourself. You can’t live your life for someone else. Everyone belongs to themselves first. No relationship, no promise, no circumstance should make you feel like you have to give up your life and make it all about them. If and when the time comes to die for them, go ahead. Take a bullet. Donate that kidney. Write them in your will. But live your life for yourself. And let them live theirs. 

20. Twenty three was a challenging year. When it started you claimed the age 23 sounds boring and insignificant. Guess it proved you wrong. It hurt so much now. But that only means you’ll look back on it later and see how it added so much wisdom and resilience to your being. It doesn’t mean that it makes all the bad things that happened to you okay. Or that you should be grateful to them. Fuck no. It means that you should be kinder to yourself because at the end of the day, your mind and body find it in themselves to deal with whatever is thrown their way. They have your back. It’s time you learn to sit straight. 

[readinginthereadyroom]

let’s talk about 9-1-1 buddie headcanons:

- eddie gets rid of his truck. christopher is getting older and wants more independence so he gets something with better clearance. and I’ve decided that something is a dodge durango. eddie is actually really into it. can’t stop talking about the fold down seats and towing capabilities. buck teases him and calls it his soccer mom van. then immediately starts researching CP-friendly soccer leagues for chris.

- buck strikes me as a podcast kinda guy. I feel like a lot of his random facts probably start with information learned via podcast and then researched separately on google or wikipedia. 

- luddite eddie my beloved. but not like luddite luddite. eddie’s a millennial so I see him as okay with all the 20th century technology he grew up with and just not all the newfangled smart home/internet gaming stuff. 

- abuela gives eddie an old turntable and a box of records and he falls in love with it. likes to play spanish love songs while cleaning on the weekends.

- eddie breaks up with ana. he does it quietly and cordially a couple weeks after the sniper incident.

- buck and taylor date for a little while but never really take off. and it’s super important that it’s buck who makes the decision to break up. they both have very busy lives and different priorities. and taylor acknowledges she probably shouldn’t have kissed him in the first place. she just hated to see buck so broken and wanted to comfort him. they decide they are better as friends.

- bosko and eddie friendship rights! eddie actually apologizes to her and they become gym buddies. lena stops going to the junkyard fights and finds an MMA gym that she’ll take eddie to. during the pandemic they somehow find themselves doing socially distanced tai-chi in the park. they keep it up once the gyms reopen.

- side note: lena does in fact get a cat. he’s a huge floofy maine coon named sarge who absolutely adores eddie. rubs his head all over him and immediately worms his way into his lap when eddie visits. he hisses at buck tho and lena finds it endlessly hilarious.

- demisexual eddie! I like the idea of lena no-nonsense asking eddie if he’s ace one day and eddie just having an internal panic attack but not being able to figure out why. karen gently brings it up few months later and he’s just deny deny deny. then he overhears david telling michael that he gives off ace vibes and that’s the last straw. so eddie pulls a full buck and starts researching just to prove everyone wrong. except it’s like a lightbulb clicks on and yeah. maybe there’s something to this.

- eddie and karen have a book club every other week. usually novellas or a short story collection. queer theory and literary fiction. the occasional poetry book. at some point they invite david to join them. they also have a not-so-secret romance novel exchange because they are big saps.

- eddie is also a sucker for a really good cup of black coffee. has a favorite hole-in-the-wall cafe where he buys beans in bulk. buck calls it his diesel fuel drink and grimaces at the taste. he prefers simple oatmilk latte from the place near the station. and yet buck always seems to know what days eddie will be running late and rushing to work and has a cup from said hole-in-the-wall coffee waiting. despite it not being on buck’s route. 

- christopher loves buck’s loft. buck keeps a stash of toys and coloring books in his coffee table trunk for when he visits. chris sees the stairs as a fun challenge and will often ask to go up and sit on buck’s bed to watch the city. or sit on the patio while buck bbq’s dinner for the three of them. he thinks it’s the coolest house ever.

- buck actually rides his bike. it’s not just for show. especially after the pandemic hit. he likes to go out in the mornings. drives to a nearby trail on his days off and enjoys the scenery while the sun comes up. sometimes eddie and chris meet him there after his ride and they have a breakfast picnic.

- the diaz-buckley-han’s share one netflix account. it’s technically buck’s in that he pays for it, but when maddie moved to LA he set her up with her own profile. then logged into his account at eddie’s one day and never logged out. renamed the profile buck & eddie after he setup a kid’s profile specifically for chris. then after learning about maddie and chim’s not-dating buff-fridays, buck put both their names on her profile as a prank. and then it just stayed that way. jee-yun even has a profile despite being a literal infant that doesn’t watch tv. maddie cried when she saw it.

- buck takes the legal guardianship thing very seriously. he’s already really involved in essentially co-parenting chris but he starts getting really nervous about asking invasive questions about chris’ medical history. so eddie sits him down with chris and the three of them talk about it. eddie very specifically asks chris if he’s okay with sharing that kind of info with buck. because even tho christopher’s a kid eddie always wants him to have a say in his own health decisions. then he has a more in-depth convo with just buck about insurance and bills and doctor’s visits. makes sure buck has access to all of it. 

- chris played secret matchmaker. went to his old friend santa claus and asked if buck would stay forever. santa came thru, as always.

- also carla knows. buck starts spending more nights at the diaz house and one morning she lets herself in and sees buck coming out of eddie’s room in just a pair of sweatpants. she gives him a coy eyebrow raise and buck blushes. then she just laughs, pats his cheek affectionately, and says your secret’s safe with me buckaroo. when a bleary-eyed eddie wanders out a half hour later she pushes a cup of coffee into his hands, waits a few moments, looks eddie dead in the eyes, and points at buck. I see you took my advice. eddie chokes on his coffee.

- speaking of carla she is family. she and her husband are regular guests at the 118 get-togethers, holidays at the firehouse, and family meals. she occasionally takes on other clients, but she’s mostly exclusive to the diazes these days. esp as christopher gets older and wants more independence. she’s been around since he was 7 and he’s comfortable with her. she stays his home heath care aide until she retires. then she personally vets a new one. because not just anyone will do for her boy. they throw her a huge retirement party.

- gonna jump into the future because christopher absolutely names his daughter carla shannon buckley-diaz. there isn’t a dry eye in the house.

- and I don’t actually see chris calling buck pops or anything. he’s just his buck. tho I can see eddie asking christopher if he wants to hyphenate his last name when buck officially adopts him. buck’s his hero so chris is 100% onboard. 

- buck and eddie don’t have more kids. eddie never wanted more and buck is surrounded by the ever-expanding horde of firefam kids. they love their little trio.

- also eddie is hilariously terrible with other kids. he just. doesn’t know how to talk to them. he’s literally the best father ever with christopher, but any other kid and he’s all awkward hello small human. it’s also the reason the team sends buck to handle kid rescues. he knows how to speak to kids and they light up around his sunshine energy. but then there are certain kids who just glom onto eddie. usually the quiet ones. they find something about his calm dad presence very soothing so they just cling to him until buck can coax them around. 

- I do not see the buckley-diazes getting a pet. buck and eddie work long shifts and it’s not fair to put that kind of extra responsibility on carla when her job is to care for chris. however, as chris gets older he does get a mobility service dog to help with counterbalance. she’s a golden retriever named stella and she’s a very good girl. 

- buck proposes by accident. they’re at the park with christopher and marriage just sorta comes up during one of his infodumps. eddie is eating his sandwich, nodding along, and just casually says of course I want to marry you. buck stops talking. christopher giggles. eddie panics. but when he looks at buck he’s all puppy-eyed and hopeful. you do? eddie nods. chris chimes in with a stage whispered ask properly buck and say yes dad. so they do.

[booklindworm]

A rant against Karen Traviss' understanding of history and her FAQ answers

Did you base the Mandalorians on the Spartans?

<cite> No. I didn't. </cite> Fair enough.

<cite> I really wish history was taught properly - okay, taught at all - in schools these days, because history is the big storehouse that I plunder for fiction. It breaks my heart to hear from young readers who have no concept even of recent history - the last fifty years - and so can't see the parallels in my books. You don't have to be a historian to read my novels, but you'll get a lot more out of them if you explore history just a little more. Watch a history channel. Read a few books. Visit some museums. Because history is not "then" - it's "now." Everything we experience today is the product of what's happened before. </cite> Yeah, I do to. Please, Ms Traviss, go on, read some books. Might do you some good. And don't just trust the history channels. Their ideas about fact-checking differ wildly.

<cite> But back to Mandos. Not every military society is based on Sparta, strange as that may seem. In fact, the Mandos don't have much in common with the real Spartans at all. </cite> You mean apart from the absolute obsession with the military ["Agoge" by Stephen Hodkinson], fearsome reputation ["A Historical Commentary on Thucydides" by David Cartwright], their general-king ["Sparta" by Marcus Niebuhr Tod], the fact that they practically acted as mercenaries (like Clearch/Κλέαρχος), or the hyper-confidence ("the city is well-fortified that has a wall of men instead of brick" [Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus])...

<cite> A slightly anarchic, non-centralized, fightin' people? Sounded pretty Celtic to me. Since I went down that path, I've learned more about the Celts (especially the Picts), and the more I learn, the more I realise what a dead ringer for Mandos they are. But more of how that happened later... </cite>

The Celtic people are more than one people, more than one culture. Celtic is a language-family! In the last millennium BC nearly every European ethnic group was in some ways Celtic, and they were not one. Later, after the Germanic tribes (also not one people, or a singular group) moved westwards, the Celtic cultures were still counted in the hundreds. Not only Scotland was Celtic! Nearly all of Western Europe was (apart from the Greek and Phoenician settlers on the Mediterranean coasts). The word “Celts” was written down for the first time by Greek authors who later also used the word “Galatians”. The Romans called these people “Gauls”, and this word was used to describe a specific area, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the Cévennes and the Rhine: “Gaul”. So the Celts, the Galatians and the Gauls were all part of the same Celtic civilisation. "Celts, a name applied by ancient writers to a population group occupying lands mainly north of the Mediterranean region from Galicia in the west to Galatia in the east [] Their unity is recognizable by common speech and common artistic traditions" [Waldman & Mason 2006] Mirobrigenses qui Celtici cognominantur. Pliny the Elder, The Natural History; example: C(AIUS) PORCIUS SEVERUS MIROBRIGEN(SIS) CELT(ICUS) -> not just one culture "Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia and were in part absorbed into the Roman Empire as Britons, Gauls, Boii, Galatians, and Celtiberians. Linguistically they survive in the modern Celtic speakers of Ireland, Highland Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, and Brittany." [Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia. by John Koch] "[] the individual CELTIC COUNTRIES and their languages, []" James, Simon (1999). The Atlantic Celts – Ancient People Or Modern Invention. University of Wisconsin Press. "All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae live, another in which the Aquitani live, and the third are those who in their own tongue are called Celtae, in our language Galli." [Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico] <= I had to translate that in school. It's tedious political propaganda. Read also the Comentarii and maybe the paper "Caesar's perception of Gallic social structures" that can be found in "Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State," Cambridge University Press. The Celtic tribes and nations were diverse. They were pretty organized, with an academic system, roads, trade, and laws. They were not anarchic in any way. They were not warriors - they were mostly farmers. The Celts were first and foremost farmers and livestock breeders

The basic economy of the Celts was mixed farming, and, except in times of unrest, single farmsteads were usual. Owing to the wide variations in terrain and climate, cattle raising was more important than cereal cultivation in some regions.

Suetonius addressing his legionaries said "They are not soldiers—they're not even properly equipped. We've beaten them before." [not entirely sure, but I think that was in Tacitus' Annals]

Regarding the Picts, in particular, which part of their history is "anarchic"? Dál Riata? the Kingdom of Alba? Or are you referring to the warriors that inspired the Hadrian's Wall? Because no one really knows in our days who the fuck they were. The Picts’ name first appears in 297 AD. That is later. <cite> Celts are a good fit with the kind of indomitable, you-can't-kill-'em-off vibe of the Mandos. Reviled by Rome as ignorant savages with no culture or science, and only fit for slaughter or conquest, the Celts were in fact much more civilized than Rome even by modern standards. </cite> That's how the Romans looked at pretty much every culture that wasn't Greek, Roman, Phoenician, Egyptian, or from Mesopotamia (read, if you want, anything Roman or Greek about the Skyths, the Huns, Vandals, Garamantes...).

<cite> They also kicked Roman arse on the battlefield, and were very hard to keep in line, so Rome did what all lying, greedy superpowers do when challenged: they demonized and dehumanized the enemy. (They still used them in their army, of course, but that's only to be expected.) </cite> They were hard to keep in line, but they most definitely did not kick Roman arse on the battlefield. Roman arse was kicked along the borders of the Roman Empire, such as the Rhine, the Danube, the Atlas mountains, etc. And mostly by actually badly organized, slightly anarchic groups, such as the Goths or the Huns (BTW the Huns were not a Germanic people, even though early 20th century British propaganda likes to say so). Though they were also decisively stopped by the Parthians. Who were very organized. Ah well. <cite> While Rome was still leaving its unwanted babies to die on rubbish dumps - a perfectly acceptable form of family planning to this "civilisation" - and keeping women as chattels devoid of rights, the barbarian Celts had a long-standing legal system that not only gave women what we would think of as equal rights, but also protected the rights of the elderly, children, and the disabled. They had a road network across Europe and worldwide trade long before the Romans ever got their act together. And their science - well, their astronomical calculations were so sophisticated that it takes computers to do the same stuff today. </cite> See? You even say yourself that they weren't actually anarchic. Also you're not completely right: 1. women (of most Celtic cultures, with one notable exception being the Irish) were not allowed to become druids, e.g. scientists, physicians, priests, or any other kind of academics, so they did not have equal rights. Also, as in other Indo-European systems, the family was patriarchal. 2. the roads they had were more like paths, and did not span the entirety of Europe; the old roads that are still in use are nearly all of them Roman. Had the Celtic inhabitants of Gallia or Britannia built comparable roads, why would the Romans have invested in building a new system on top? 3. world-wide? Yeah, right. They traded with those who traded with others and so were able to trade with most of southern Eurasia and northern Africa, as well as few northern parts (Balticum, Rus), but that's (surprise) not the whole world. 4. most people use computers for those calculations you mention because its easier. It's not necessary. I can do those calculations - give me some time to study astronomy (I'm a math major, not physics) and some pencils and paper. 5. and - I nearly forgot - the kids didn't die. That was a polite fiction. The harsh truth is that most Roman slaves were Romans... <cite> So - not barbarians. Just a threat to the empire, a culture that wouldn't let the Pax Romana roll over it without a fight. (Except the French tribes, who did roll over, and were regarded by the Germanic Celts [...]) </cite> WTF Germanic Celts? What are you smoking, woman? Isn't it enough that you put every culture speaking a language from the Celtic family in one pot and act as if they were one people, now you have to mix in a different language-family as well? Shall we continue that trend? What about the Mongolian Celts, are they, too, proof that the Celts were badass warriors? I think at this point I just lost all leftover trust in your so-called knowledge. <cite> [...] as being as bad as the Romans. Suck on that, Asterix... </cite> Asterix was definitely a Celt, and unlike the British Celts, he was not a citizen of the Roman Empire.

<cite> Broad brush-stroke time; Celts were not a centralized society but more a network of townships and tribes, a loose alliance of clans who had their own internal spats, but when faced with some uppity outsider would come together to drive off the common threat. </cite> They might have tried, but they didn't. The first and only time a Celtic people really managed to drive off some uppity outsider would be 1922 following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921*. The fact that France, Spain, Portugal speak Romance languages and the British (or Irish) Isles nearly uniformly speak English should be proof enough.

*Unless you count Asterix. <cite> You couldn't defeat them by cutting off the head. There was no head to cut off. </cite> You mean unlike Boudica and Vercingetorix. Oh wait. Tacitus, in his Annals, said that Boudica's last fight cost 80,000 Britons and 400 Romans their lives. He was probably exaggerating. But it definitely stopped much of the British resistance in its tracks. <cite> To the centralized, formal, rather bureaucratic Romans, for whom the city of Rome was the focus of the whole empire, this was a big does-not-compute. The Celts were everything they didn't understand. And we fear what we don't understand, and we kill what we fear. </cite> While that is totally true, it's also completely off the mark. The Romans demonized the druids, not every Celt, and they were afraid of what was basically an academic network. That had nothing to do with war. <cite> Anyway, Mandos....once I took a single concept - in this case, the idea of clans that operated on a loose alliance system, like the Celts - the rest grew organically. I didn't plan it out in detail from the start. </cite> That's really obvious. Maybe looking at some numbers and remembering that you weren't planning a small, local, rural, medieval community would have helped, too. I mean lets have a look at, say, Scotland (since you specifically mentioned the Picts): they still have less than 6 mio. people all together, and that's today. Mandalore is a sector. A sector of Outer Space with at least 2000 inhabited planets. How do you think that translates? It doesn't. <cite> I just asked myself what a culture of nomadic warriors would value, how they would need to operate to survive, and it all grew inexorably by logical steps. The fact that Mandos ended up as very much like the Celts is proof that the technique of evolving a character or species - find the niche, then work out what fits it - works every time. It creates something very realistic, because that's how real people and real societies develop. </cite> Celtic people were usually not nomadic! And, once again, non of them were predominantly warriors! It's really hard to be a nomadic farmer. I believe the biggest mistake you made, Ms Traviss, is mixing up the Iron Age (and earlier) tribes that did indeed sack Rome and parts of Greece, and that one day would become the people the Romans conquered. And apart from the Picts they really were conquered. <cite> So all I can say about Mandos and Spartans is that the average Mando would probably tell a Spartan to go and put some clothes on, and stop looking like such a big jessie. </cite>

I'd really like to see a Mando – or anyone – wearing full plate without modern or Star Wars technology in Greece. Happy heatstroke. There is a reason they didn't wear a lot (look up the Battle of Hattîn, where crusaders who didn't wear full helmets and wore chainmail* still suffered badly from heat exhaustion). [Nicolle, David (1993), Hattin 1187: Saladin's Greatest Victory] *chainmail apparently can work like a heatsink CONCLUSION You're wrong. And I felt offended by your FAQ answers. QUESTION You're English. You're from England. A group - a nation - that was historically so warlike and so successful that by now we all speak English. A nation that definitely kicked arse against any Celtic nation trying to go against them (until 1921, and they really tried anyway). A nation that had arguably the largest Empire in history. A nation that still is barbaric and warlike enough that a lost football game has people honestly fearing for their lives.

Also, a Germanic group, since you seem to have trouble keeping language-families and cultures apart. If we were to talk about the family, we could add on the current most aggressively attacking nation (USA) plus the former most aggressively attacking nations (the second and third German Reich), also the people who killed off the Roman Empire for good (the Goths and Visigoth), the original berserkers (the Vikings) and claim at the very least the start of BOTH WORLD WARS. Why did you look further?

Some other sources:

Histoire de la vie privée by Georges Duby and Philippe Ariès, the first book  (about the antiquity) I read it translated, my French is ... bad to non-existent

The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire  (about the Huns) by Alessandro Barbero

If you speak Dutch or German, you might try

Helmut Birkhan: Kelten. Versuch einer Gesamtdarstellung ihrer Kultur, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien

Janssens, Ugo, De Oude Belgen. Geschiedenis, leefgewoontes, mythe en werkelijkheid van de Keltische stammen. Uitgeverij The House of Books

DISCLAIMER

I’m angry and I wrote this down in one session and thus probably made some mistakes. I’m sorry. Or maybe I’m not sorry. I’m still angry. She can’t know who reads her FAQ and at least two of her answers (on her professional website) were offensive to the reader.