#the color of distance

[estravens-tits]

I first picked up The Left Hand of Darkness because I saw someone on Goodreads call it a darker version of Amy Thomson’s The Color of Distance. I had never heard of it before then, despite tlhod being way more popular.

Now, having finished both books, I actually think The Left Hand of Darkness is the more optimistic of the two.

The Color of Distance posits that people from very disparate groups can never coexist without pain. That no matter how well they think they know each other they will always cause each other unintentional and sometimes irreparable harm.

The Left Hand of Darkness tells a similar story. We see Genly and Estraven hurt each other through mutual misunderstanding. Genly feels confused and betrayed for most of the book. Estraven gives up everything for Genly and cannot see why Genly so scornful of him. But that’s not where the story ends. Because after months of pain and frustration and loss, Genly and Estraven come to love each other. The pain doesn’t go away. They’re still in the objectively worst scenario possible: doing a suicide march across a desolate glacier in -50 F while starving. But they also find joy in the midst of that. Genly, stranded in time and space and far from his own language and culture, finds a profound self-sacrificial love not in those familiar to him, but in someone he cannot fully know. Estraven, cast out from his own hearth, finds acceptance and community with an alien. There’s something hugely optimistic in the idea that love can can exist between two people who can never fully understand each other.

[phenakistoskope]

the color of distance was exceptionally frustrating to read; its meat is in the retelling of the colonial encounter, but the themes of difference and harmony between humans and the tendu, and the tendu and the forest, completely obscured the possibility of meaningfully exploring the colonial encounter through science fiction in the mid-1990s, in the wake of a century of critical scholarship on colonialism. it's not a novel thematic for science fiction at all, the least the author could do is address it critically instead of apologetically. not to mention, that while “tendu” might sound appropriately alien to readers outside the subcontinent, my bidi is wrapped in tendu leaves!

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[foolsocracy]

he forgot about UV

[floatingfacedownintheocean]

That's what a wish is - a celestial body. For once, you lead and the Universe follows. Made two versions of this because I wanted to play around in After Effects! Mini-Sifs in the orbit and close-up on the fam below the cut!

[rushinintolove]

[mumblesplash]

as if he needed more ways to be everywhere at once

[i-lavabean]

Mall Goth GAIA Gang

[ballpitwitch]

KEANU REEVES as NEO The Matrix (1999)

[chickenoptyrx]

....I just wanted to draw gators :T at this point these 2 are more 'a representation of my last 2 brain cells' then they are actual characters 😅

[freaky-flawless]

It's black history month and I wanted to draw some black monsters, particularly ones that don't get enough love!

ID in alt!

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance Nightmare Bosses

[stickynotelovers-art]

TW and CW: Depictions of anxiety/panic, eyestraining colors (If ever someone thinks I should warn for something else, please let me know)

Donnie's going through it too, man. I didn't really emphasize in Chapter 1 what exactly Donnie is dealing with, but felt I should show it in some way. I think he'd deal with a lot of sensory issues, especially if he has just a sudden muscle spasm or pain flare up in his back. His back muscles would be especially sensitive to overactivity and that's why he's sitting through almost the entire comic.

I was originally going to have Morse code written out on the panels where Donnie and Mikey are tapping on Mikey's shell to each other, but decided to forgo it for a simpler communication. If Mikey shells himself, the others know to give him some taps and tell him what they are going to do. If Mikey doesn't verbally or somehow give a response they will wait/leave him alone for some time and then try again.

I think the 4 of them all have a specific person they go to for comfort for the really bad moments. Mikey will go to any of them depending on how upset he is because he definitely gets the most relief from physical comfort. However, on those especially bad days, when Mikey has hid away in his shell, Leo is the one that everyone knows to alert or directly give Mikey to for comfort.

Masterpost\Previous\Next

[grandquest]

Something REALLY intriguing abt that nurse joy over there

[silverskye13]

"I am unsure how long it has been. Perchance time passed slowly in my absence, and thus all tales familiar to me have not been lost completely in its passage. Prithee judge my words, and find them true. There was, in my time, tales of great weapons sealed in stone, or drowned in dark water, held, for a time, only to be found again in greatest need. The Fox, cunning Devourer, knows these tales too, glutted on them, as I did, when we were both young and simpler."

"The Fox knew, when I raised my sword against him, that Death was coming, and so he sought to seal his Death away, to drown it in time and dark water, that he might prey on the land as a lion. It is the Fox's great folly, that he forgot, or could not prevent, the hand of Fate, which always draws the sword from the stone. I only pray Fate did not tarry over long."

[lambnotincluded]

no promise of heaven will make me march with my final breath I deny the church