#the place without limits 1978

[elinordash]

EL LUGAR SIN LÍMITES | THE PLACE WITHOUT LIMITS (1978)

—A man must try everything once. Right? —Whenever you say.

[filmap]

El lugar sin límites / The Place Without Limits Arturo Ripstein. 1978

Gas Station Juárez Ote., 76776 Tequisquiapan, Qro., Mexico See in map

See in imdb

[romanceyourdemons]

halloween (1978) is of course a genre-defining piece of slasher horror, but its theme that fascinates me more than the standard sex and gender discourse is that of suburbia. cars and telephones are major motifs in the film; in the broad-lawned world of haddonfield, neighbors shut their blinds on fleeing final girls, and it is only with cars and phones that the characters can seek connection and help. cars in this film represent agency and place in society. the sheriff’s power is written on the hood of his lawfully issued car. the girls are granted limited agency and a caveated place in society when their parents allow them to borrow their cars; they are in a tenuous position where they must hide their adult behavior—smoking in the car, or having sex—lest their parents remove their conditional agency and place in society by no longer letting them borrow the car. the film’s huge emphasis on how little credence, freedom, and power children are given in suburban society raises the stakes of these teenagers potentially being socially reduced to children. and, finally, michael myers drives a stolen car with driving lessons he acquired in secret: he takes agency despite never having been granted it. michael’s motivations are an ultra-simplified rehash of norman bates’s; what he wants or does is not important, but it is important that he is able to do it without being granted agency or a place in society. he is a blank slate who has never existed in the world as an adult, and yet he is able to drive without permission, enter homes without permission, punch through doors as though they are not there. he approaches through the blurred background of shots, rather than appearing in the foreground like other characters do. the horror of michael myers is that he resists the rules and categorization suburban society lives and dies by, and so it is appropriate that he is only weakened enough to be chased away when first his father and later laurie pull off his mask, revealing his face and making him vulnerable to naming, categorization, and personalization. although most of the themes of halloween (1978) are extremely popular and well-trodden roads in the film world, its presentation of american suburbia and the horror it is weak to is well-conceived and well-executed

[kaleen-art]

Lupin Movie Marathon Analysis #1

The Mystery of Mamo (Lupin VS. The Clone)

Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo has been a long standing favorite Lupin movie of mine. When I originally watched it, I couldn’t stand it due to its adult content, but since then, I have not only grown to like it, but I think it’s one of my favorite pieces of Lupin media, period. However, it had been a long time since I watched the full movie by myself, so I decided to put on the Blu-ray and watch it again.

Mamo has always been a movie with a lot of complex themes I like to explore, but I noticed something new this time, as well as coming to new conclusions about previous realizations. So join me in my lengthy analysis/report on Mamo, the most insane masterpiece of a film ever made.

At face value Mamo is just a stupid silly Part 2-like romp. Released in 1978, it reflects a trend amongst Lupin media at the time to be closer to the original manga and Masaaki Osumi’s Part 1 work in tone. For this movie, they even got back a significant portion of the early Part 1 staff in order to bring back this grittier, less bubbly Lupin. His characterization here is notably close to the original manga. But where Mamo succeeds (and Part 2 fails, in my opinion) is the fact that there is depth to Lupin’s character. Unlike Part 2 which has very little stakes, we see Lupin pushed to his absolute limit as the film breaks him down as a person. In a way, the movie is a sort of character study on him. But in order to study Lupin as a person, we have to see how the people around him are affected by, and affect him. Primarily, Fujiko Mine.

Fujiko’s characterization in this movie is perfect. This movie captures something I find a majority of Lupin fails to understand. Fujiko is exactly like Lupin. She is just as calculated and manipulative as him, Lupin just has more practical skill in place of where Fujiko utilizes her beauty to get the things she wants. They don’t even listen to their partners in crime (Lupin with Jigen and Goemon, Fujiko with Mamo) as they lust after each other (while secretly planning to deceive them). They are both horrible people, and therefore are made for each other. The movie drives this point home when Lupin even says him and Fujiko are bound together and can’t be separated, to Mamo. But there’s another character Lupin is bound to.

Zenigata, as he usually does, serves as Lupin’s foil. While Mamo is the actual villain of the movie, Zenigata is always there behind Lupin. In a way, he’s kind of a parallel to Fujiko, because he’s the only other one who never leaves Lupin’s side. And as Delaney Jordan denotes in her amazing video essay on Mamo, in Lupin’s subconscious, the only people who appear are Zenigata and Fujiko. They are the only ones who truly stand to challenge him in comparison to his other partners, which is why he subconsciously holds them in such high esteem. To analogize it, Jigen and Goemon are there to catch Lupin when he falls, while Fujiko and Zenigata are the ones who pushed him off.

On the topic of Jigen and Goemon, they are also very important characters to Lupin in this movie, but in a way, they both serve the same plot purpose. They both act as a sort of conscience to Lupin, keeping him in check throughout the movie, and judging his actions. That is up until they leave (which is very unexpected, especially at the time when the movie came out. If you had been watching the weekly Part 2, it was common to hear Jigen and Goemon bitch about Fujiko, but to see them pushed so far to the limit that they abandon Lupin? It was plain unusual to see.) It’s not until they’re both away from Lupin that we get to see the true side of Lupin. One without refrain. And that’s a good thing for him, because that’s the only Lupin that could go against Mamo.

Mamo is a particularly interesting villain because he’s almost like the anti-Lupin. As one of my friends (@curleyclown) described it, Mamo is an unstoppable force to Lupin’s immovable object. While Mamo is constantly growing more and more intelligent and trying to change time itself, Lupin is a stubborn person opposed to change. And that might be Mamo’s most prevalent theme. The main cast’s refusal to change. The characters don’t grow or change as people, they don’t mature, they end the movie the exact same people they were when it started. And though Mamo tried to influence them through his actions, likely knowing Fujiko would pull Lupin, Jigen and Goemon apart, he was unsuccessful because these characters just aren’t capable of growth. Lupin even remarks this himself about Jigen when twice in the movie, once in the beginning and once near the end, he calls Jigen a unchanging classic. Even a line that seems just like a throwaway joke has depth in this film.

Another thing I love is the movie’s emphasis on Lupin’s subconscious. When Mamo enters the mind of Lupin, he’s stunned by Lupin not dreaming, but later on in the film, when Jigen is arguing with Lupin, Lupin says he had his dream stolen from him, and Jigen asks if he's referring to Fujiko. This is genius. The reason Mamo couldn’t see Lupin’s dream was because Mamo had taken it from him. This might be one of my favorite parts in the whole movie.

My favorite part about the theming in the movie though are the biblical parts. Mamo’s claim to be God isn’t just said through dialogue, the movie continually showcases this visually. Behind Mamo in this shot (see first image below paragraph) is Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Man”, which showcases God creating Adam, the first man. Many people have remarked that you can see the silhouette of a brain in the background shapes behind God (see second image below paragraph), and when Mamo reveals his true form at the end of the movie– (see third image below paragraph) Do you see what I’m getting at? It’s brilliant foreshadowing.

Furthermore, Mamo compares him and Fujiko to Adam and Eve many times which, as said in the Streamline dub, makes Lupin the snake.

Overall, The Mystery of Mamo has a really engaging plot with really good character writing and themimg. But it’s not just that I love about Mamo. The art is gorgeous, and in my opinion, is better than Cagliostro. While Cagliostro has smoother animation, Mamo’s limited animation works really well with the manga inspired artstyle, making it more distinctive, and because they saved time and money by using less character animation, they were able to put more into other aspects of the movie. The movie’s camera shots are really well done and always have a really interesting perspective to them. Additionally the meshing-together of live action materials and animation (such as the scene with Fujiko overlaid on top of a ton of breasts) is really unique, especially for its time. My final note is about the scene where Goemon chops Flinch’s head in 3 and the frame literally gets chopped. It is jaw-droppingly awesome and always impresses my friends when I show them the movie.

The music is also really good. It’s nothing too remarkable as a lot of the music is in Part 2, but its placement in the movie is very nice and I especially love some of the timed cues. The music cue in the scene where Lupin clicks on Fujiko’s nipple (that’s a sentence, alright) is hilarious to me. 

Now we get to another really long section. The voice acting. The voice acting in the Japanese version is absolutely fantastic, all the voice actors deliver a really great performance and you can just hear the psychoticness in Yasuo Yamada’s Lupin. Kou Nishimura’s Mamo is very distinctive and very fitting for the character. And of course the rest of the cast, as usual, deliver a great performance. But of course, I can’t mention Mamo and voice acting while not discussing the 4 English dubs.

Toho’s dub’s script is actually quite decent and it’s a competent dub given it was made in 1979 but the voice acting is rough and because it hasn’t been well preserved, the audio quality isn’t great. Overall, it’s a 5/10.

I adore Streamline’s dub. The script is accurate while simultaneously maintaining really good flow. The voice actors are also amazing and I love Bob Bergen’s performance as Lupin, as well as Edie Mirman’s Fujiko. They both have that perfect energy for their characters and I love their performances. Steve Bulen’s Jigen is also great, my friend (@theshmeepking) always describes him as sounding like a “weed dealer”. Ardwight Chamberlain’s Goemon and David Povall’s Zenigata are also fantastic. Overall, my favorite dub of the movie, 9/10. I just wish it maintained Lupin’s line about Fujiko being his dream. 

Manga’s dub is overall forgettable and the script is littered with out of place cursing. It’s an adult movie, sure, but it just feels tonally inappropriate in my opinion. Voice acting is decent, though I find Bill Dufris’s Lupin a little grating. Audio quality is better than Toho but still rough. Overall, I give it a Dyslexic Zenigata/10 (Zenigata actually says he’s dyslexic, I’m not kidding.)

And then we have the ever-popular Geneon dub. I don’t particularly care for the modern Tony Oliver cast, but I will say, their performances in this aren’t bad even if I don’t personally care for the voices. I find Michelle Ruff’s Fujiko a little unfitting for her depiction in Mamo though. My main problem is the script that deviates way too much from the Japanese original and adds in a ton of unfitting jokes. It’s a fine dub if you’re watching the movie as a fun “turn your brain off” romp, but personally, I don’t think it’s a good adaptation of the original Japanese version.

On that note, that’s about all my collected thoughts on The Mystery of Mamo. This is definitely one of my favorite Lupin films, and maybe just films in general. I don’t have much more to say, but overall I give it a solid 9.5/10. I'd like to give a special shoutout to Delaney Jordan, whose video essay on Mamo was a huge inspiration not only for this, but for my passion for Lupin analyses in general. I'd also like to thank @curleyclown and @eva-of-the-sea for reading my WIPs for this essay. And finally, join Cagliostro Central, the Lupin server I co-own. I usually post the WIPs in question there.

I hope you enjoyed reading this ramble-analysis! I’m doing a Lupin movie marathon, so next up is The Castle of Cagliostro! Stay tuned.

[bonewaryreblogs]

I know it's very soon after my last post, but I think I've mostly got a working timeline

There are more specifics I could get into, but I tried to limit the info in this particular timeline to what's super important and identifiable. Like, I have a whole other post I could make about the Justice Society of America and how it led to the creation of the Justice League, or how Amity Park was founded and by whom, but trying to put it all here would be too cumbersome.

My main sources for general info is whatever I can find on the DC Fandom Wiki, as well as my experiences watching various DCAU media growing up and my favorite Batman show, The Batman from 2004 (good god, I didn't realize it was that old). I tried to fit Young Justice in here too, but it actually conflicts with the first two timelines more than I thought it would, so I might just use it for story ideas for after Danny gets adopted. The Wayne Family Adventures webtoon mostly just supplied the template for how I want them to end up by the time Danny enters the picture, leaving the "how did we get here" up to me, which this timeline hopes to solve.

Also, I couldn't find a good source for it, but supposedly Danny Phantom might have taken place in 2014? Which would've been the future for when it came out in 2004. I considered going with that, but ultimately I decided that DP happens in 2004, taking Danny about a year to establish himself before he gets adopted by 2005.

A big part of why I made this timeline in the first place was to make sure I know how old everyone is when things happen, which is why I put their ages everywhere.

1920s - Martha Clark and Jonathan Kent are born sometime in this decade.

1939 - Alfred Pennyworth is born.

1940 - James “Jim” Corrigan (30) “died” and became the Spectre with Aztar, the Vengeance of God. The Justice Society of America is formed, though they are sometimes called the All-Star Squadron when working with those not formally inducted as members of the JSA (including those with and without superpowers).

1952 - The Kents (~30s) are told they cannot have children biologically. Shortly thereafter, they find the Kryptonian baby Kal-El, rename him Clark Kent after Martha’s maiden name, and adopt him as their own son.

1957 - Alfred (18) joins the British military.

1960 - Bruce Wayne is born. Vlad Masters is born.

1961 - Jack Fenton is born. (Google says his birthday is October 2, 1971, but that would make him like 10 when the Ghost Portal Prototype fails, so I’m just gonna set it back an extra decade lol)

1963 - Madeline Elliot is born. (Google says her birthday is March 16, 1973, so same deal as Jack)

1964 - After many misadventures in England, Alfred (25) takes over as the Wayne Family’s butler from his late father. (Bruce 4)

1968 - 8 year old Bruce’s parents are killed. (Alfred 29)

1970 - After 2 years of flailing, Bruce (10) decides to travel the world and learn martial arts, among other things.

1971 - Barbra Gordon is born.

1974 - Dick Greyson is born.

1977 - Jason Todd is born. Superman (25) debuts in Metropolis, inspiring Bruce (17) to change his plans to become a superhero rather than a crime boss. Obviously there were other superheroes around at this time, but none gripped Bruce like Superman did. He will never, ever admit this.

1978 - Superman (26) is quickly inducted into the Justice Society of America.

1980 - Stephanie Brown is born. Cassandra Cain is born. Bruce (20) returns to Gotham and starts his career as Batman. He begins cutting through red tape to regain control of Wayne Enterprises. Meanwhile, Vlad (20), Jack (19), and Maddie (17) are all at the University of Wisconsin and build the prototype Ghost Portal, which fails catastrophically, causing several important chain reactions; Vlad is blasted with Lazarus Water, the Ghost Zone comes into existence, Vlad falls ill, Amity Park’s Lazarus Pit dries up, Pariah enters the Ghost Zone and declares himself Ghost King, etc.

1981 - Tim Drake is born. Disenchanted with the JSA, Superman (29) starts figuring out how to create his own, international superhero team.

1982 - Bruce (22) adopts Dick Greyson (8) after his parents die publicly.

1983 - Vlad (23) discovers he has “ghost powers” and starts figuring out how to use them. Dick (9) discovers Bruce’s (23) secret and Bruce begins training him.

1984 - Bruce (24) finally lets Dick (10) join him on the streets as Robin. Batman and Superman (32) meet for the first time (which plays out similar to how they meet in “The Batman”).

1985 - Bruce takes over Wayne Enterprises just in time for his 25th birthday. With the company secured, Bruce no longer has to prove himself as responsible and plays up his image as a playboy philanthropist to throw off rumors that ditzy but well-meaning Brucie Wayne couldn’t possibly be the dark and brooding Batman.

1986 - Superman (34) approaches Bruce (26) with his plan for the Justice League, hoping Wayne Enterprise would agree to be the “secret” benefactor. Bruce says he’ll think about it. Barbra Gordon (15) takes the name Batgirl for the first time. (Alfred 47, Bruce 26, Dick 12)

1988 - Jasmine Fenton is born. Cass (8) kills someone for the first time, is horrified, and runs away from her assassin father.

1989 - Duke Thomas is born.

1990 - Daniel Fenton is born.

1991 - Jason Todd (14) tries to steal the Batmobile’s tires after his father is sentenced to prison time, putting him on Batman’s radar. (Alfred 52, Bruce 31, Dick 17, Barbra 20)

1992 - Dick (18) decides to strike out on his own as Nightwing. Jason Todd (15) catches the eye of Talia Al Ghul. Shortly after, Jason’s (step-)mom dies of a drug overdose while his father is still in prison so Bruce adopts him, making Jason the second Robin.

1993 - With Nightwing (19) established and able to take over many of Batman’s (33) responsibilities in Gotham, Bruce asks Clark Kent (41) if he’s still interested in his Justice League idea, which he’s now had 7 more years to refine. Global threats had become more common (which threatened Gotham vicariously and he wasn’t confidant he could take them on by himself) and the JSA had become too entangled with the USA government for anyone’s liking. Now was prime pickings for upcoming talent that had grown up with the idea of superheroes as a necessary force in the world that could see the limitations of government funded (and therefore government controlled) superhero teams.

1994 - Stephanie Brown (14) became Spoiler to “spoil” her father’s criminal career as Cluemaster. After his capture and imprisonment, Bruce (34) “convinced” Spoiler to “retire”, though Barbra (23) kept in contact, as did Dick (21) and Jason (17) to a lesser extent. Steph continued to train on her own, planning to rejoin the hero scene when she was a bit older. The Justice League debuts, led by Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman, along with half a dozen other members, though their ranks would quickly expand.

1995 - Jason dies at 18, after being Robin for 3 years. Talia Al Ghul seduces the grieving Bruce (35) to get Jason’s body, accidentally-on-purpose getting pregnant along the way. Jason had unfortunately been dead for a few months by then; however, he was too angry and stubborn for his spirit to move on, despite the lack of magic/ecto to turn him into a ghost, so it clung to his body as the only tether to the living plane, which allowed him to be revived via Lazarus Pit. He still came back pretty zombified, though, so Talia used magic to help restore the connection between his spirit and his body, and had him train with the League of Assassins to keep him sharp. Part of Bruce’s grief spiral was to throw himself into Justice League work. (Alfred 56, Dick 21, Barbra 24)

1996 - Bruce (36) is spiraling from his loss when Tim Drake (15) basically forces himself onto Batman as the third Robin.

1997 - Cassandra Cain (17) arrives in Gotham, trying to keep a low profile but couldn’t help but save Commissioner Gordon from her assassin father, putting her on Batman’s (37) radar. After Barbra (26) is paralyzed and forced to retire as Batgirl, she asked Bruce to offer Cass the title in her stead, taking on the role of “man in the chair” with the name Oracle. Barbra also pressures pretty much everyone to train with Steph (17), since she can’t anymore.

1998 - Jason (21) returns to Gotham as the Red Hood. (Alfred 59, Bruce 38, Dick 24, Barbra 27, Tim 17, Cass 18)

1999 - Cass (19) takes on the name Black Bat, giving the title Batgirl to Steph (19) as she (re)makes her superhero debut.

2000 - Settling into more of an anti-hero role after getting rid of (most of) his hatred for Bruce for not avenging him, Jason (23) has turned his sights on Crime Alley, doing whatever he feels is necessary to make it safer for the families (but especially the kids) that are forced to live there. He unknowingly is fulfilling Bruce’s original plan of becoming a crime boss and dissecting Gotham’s crime problem from the inside out. (Alfred 61, Bruce 40, Dick 26, Barbra 29, Tim 19, Cass 20, Steph 20)

2001 - I’m going to modify his story, but Duke Thomas (12) ends up on Bruce’s radar.

2004 - Danny Fenton (14) has an accident that gives him “ghost powers”. (Vlad 44, Jack 43, Maddie 41, Jazz 16)

2005 - Damian Wayne (10) becomes the fourth Robin, pushing Tim (24) to move out and become Red Robin instead. (Alfred 66, Bruce 45, Dick 31, Barbra 34, Cass 25, Jason 28, Steph 25, Duke 16, Danny 15, Jazz 17)

-

Damian’s first, big, world-ending crisis is barely a month or two after his arrival, when Cris Allen enlists the Batclan to help him fight Pariah Dark and they join Danny Phantom’s resistance.

I haven’t quite decided what will happen next but Batman figures out Danny isn’t fully dead like the rest of the inhabitants of the Ghost Zone and looks into it after Pariah is defeated. From here, I want it to take less than a year for Danny to be in Bruce’s custody. Duke (at 16) is recruited around the same time as Danny (still 15), so both of them begin training together. I’m sure Bruce wouldn’t mind pulling some strings to get Jazz (17) into a college in Gotham, potentially getting her to study under Barbra/Oracle.

[evilstalks]

FULL NAME. michael audrey myers NICKNAME. the boogeyman, the shape, evil on two legs, the babysitter killer ALIASES. none PRONOUNS. he/him, though he does not mind it/they SIZE. 6'9 AGE. 21 generally speaking. he's 21 in 1978 ZODIAC. libra SPOKEN LANGUAGES. english

𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒 ―

HAIR. a very light brown, almost dirty blonde. curly and to the nape of his neck FACIAL HAIR. none EYES. baby blue, although after facing off laurie, his left eye is a pale, scarred over white SKIN TONE. extremely pale BODY TYPE. tall and with a lot of lean muscle. he has very strong arms and his body is hard overall but he doesn't have a 6-pack, he's just very fit and very long VOICE. depends on which fc I'm using. if it's hayden then hayden is the vc and if it's asa then asa is the vc. DOMINANT HAND. right, though when it comes to using his knife, he can skillfully use both POSTURE. straight as a fucking ruler. michael does not slouch. his head is always held high or at a neutral stance and his spine is always straight. it's the stance of someone with confidence and also someone extremely stiff lol SCARS. the most noticeable one is the one over his left eye which has caused blindness in that eye. he has several small scars on his hands and fingers and multiple bullet wounds all over his torso and one on his right thigh, too. BIRTHMARKS. none besides a lil beauty mark on the left side of his chin MOST NOTABLE FEATURES. ummm his mask? lol but without his mask, he has a very intimidating and unsettling presence but he is also extremely beautiful. and SUPER TALL.

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃 ―

PLACE OF BIRTH. haddonfield, illinois HOMETOWN. haddonfield SIBLINGS. judith Myers (deceased) and laurie strode PARENTS. deborah Myers (deceased), unknown father, though he had a stepfather named steve

𝐀𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 ―

OCCUPATION. none, loser is unemployed CURRENT RESIDENCE. generally speaking, haddonfield FINANCIAL STATUS. he grew up lower middle class and well, he has never had a job or any source of income since he has been state property all his life, so his financial status is nonexistent pretty much. he's homeless and poor essentially lol DRIVER'S LICENSE. does not have one but he does know how to drive CRIMINAL RECORD. officially, one charge of first-degree murder against judith Myers VICES. none

𝐒𝐄𝐗 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ―

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. mostly aromantic/asexual, but he will experience attraction towards both men and female when the Right One comes along PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE. he wants to be dominant but he honestly falls more into a submissive role in relationships PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE. dominant for the most part TURN OFFS. he's a virgin so he doesn't really know, but uh, good people turn him off for sure lol. TURN ON'S. all the horrible shit you can think of for the most part (excluding certain body fluids). murdering, stalking, knifeplay, bloodplay, gore-- yeah...... LOVE LANGUAGE. quality time and gift giving. and yes "quality time" for him might just be standing near his partner in silence, watching them RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. UMMMMM well, Michael is... very unwell mentally. truly sick in the head and not normal in any sense of the word. he is extremely possessive. he gets jealous a lot too and if he gets jealous he will murder the person making him feel that way. he's also just a pretty terrible partner to have bc he doesn't speak, and even though he does use ASL in some verses a bit, it's limited and he does not really communicate how he feels or what he thinks, so being with him is a guessing game. he is also irritable and especially in dbd verse he will not hesitate to maim his partner if they get on his bad side. but he is also extremely loyal and will not betray them or let anybody hurt them, and he will find things important to them and gift it to them.

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐎𝐔𝐒 ―

CHARACTER'S THEME TUNE. stabbing in the dark by ice nine kills and Michael by rob zombie <3 HOBBIES TO PASS THE TIME. stalking, dissociating. murder. LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED. right? SELF-CONFIDENCE LEVEL. it's a strange thing because while he is confident in himself, he has never thought about his confidence. but he does not have any insecurities and knows he is a Force to reckon with. when it comes to his appearance he has no opinion at all about what he looks like. he has no idea how beautiful he is RIPPPPPP

[haggishlyhagging]

“Miriam Kramnick (1978) is one of the few commentators on Wollstonecraft who outlines the nature of the ridicule she was subjected to and the significance of this form of sexual harassment. Wollstonecraft was the recipient of 'barely printable insults', states Kramnick. ‘Her own contemporaries called her a shameless wanton, a "hyena in petticoats", a "philosophizing serpent" or wrote jibing epigrams in the Anti-Jacobin Review, like

For Mary verily would wear the breeches

God help poor silly men for such usurping b…..s

Twentieth-century readers have called her an archetypal castrating female, "God's angry woman", a man hater whose feminist crusade was inspired by nothing more than a hopeless, incurable affliction — penis envy’ (ibid., p. 7).

Even feminists have been careful about associating with her and: ‘The name "Wollstonecraft", once considered synonymous with the destruction of all sacred virtues, disowned by the feminist movement as it marched for votes or pressed for admission to universities, became an obscure reference indeed’ (ibid., p. 8). When women sought to convince men that they were honourable, respectable, and deserving of equal representation in the institutions men had created for themselves, there was little room for Wollstonecraft, who had challenged those institutions and who had gained a ‘reputation.’

Like many of the reviews of Aphra Behn, some of the reviews of Wollstonecraft's work and life, on her death, were vicious. Her work should be read, declared the Historical Magazine (1799), ‘with disgust by any female who has any pretensions to delicacy; with detestation by everyone attached to the interests of religion and morality, and with indignation by anyone who might feel any regard for the unhappy woman, whose frailties should have been buried in oblivion’ (vol. I, p. 34). This was about as far as critics could go in the pre-Freudian days, but once he had made his priceless contribution, the attack on women who did not conform to the precepts dictated by men assumed a new and greater ferocity.

‘Mary Wollstonecraft was an extreme neurotic of a compulsive type,' argue Ferdinand Lundberg and Marynia Farnham (1959) in Modern Woman: The Lost Sex. Out of her illness arose the ideology of feminism, which was to express the feelings of so many women in years to come. Unconsciously ... Mary and the feminists wanted ... to turn on men and injure them.... Underneath her aggressive writings, Mary was a masochist like her mother, as indeed all the leading feminist theorists were in fact.... By behaving as she did Mary indicated.... that she was unconsciously seeking to deprive the male of his power, to castrate him. It came out in her round scolding of men. The feminists have ever since symbolically slain their fathers by verbally consigning all men to perdition as monsters' (pp. 159-61). Really?

With the framework formulated by Freud, it again became easy to ridicule and harass women who developed any analysis of patriarchy, to dismiss them without having to refute their ideas. The scientific dogma took over from the religious dogma which had been seriously discredited (by women like Wollstonecraft) and both these male-decreed belief systems have been used ruthlessly against individual women and against women collectively. In her own day Mary Wollstonecraft was maligned for her moral sickness; with the advent of Freud it was her mental sickness. The principle is the same and it was a principle that Wollstonecraft herself identified and discredited - the principle that if women do not cheerfully confine themselves to the place to which men have relegated them, then there is something wrong with the women rather than the place they are expected to occupy. Mary Wollstonecraft understood that women would continue to be perceived as abnormal while the limited experience of men was treated as the sum total of human experience. One of her main protests was that men did not know how the world looked to women and, while they insisted that it looked no different from the way it looked to men, women were without space to discuss, share and confirm their feelings and ideas. And in this, Wollstonecraft is one of a long line of women who have come to understand the significance of male power to name the world and to say what is and what is not important, valuable, and ‘logical’.”

-Dale Spender, Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them

[dreamy625]

Total rock star - ficlet

Sometimes good things happen to Steve in January

Content: There’s one period-appropriate slur (not used aggressively)

Words: 985

-----------------------------

January 1978

Steve frowned at himself in the mirror over the sink, wishing he didn’t look as nervous as he felt. He’d cut himself twice while shaving, his hands were shaking that much. He patted at the one that was still bleeding with a piece of toilet paper. Great first impression that’ll be, blood all over the place! His hair was also a disaster; he’d washed it the night before, as it took so long to dry, but it had gone fluffy, and smooshed up on one side where he’d slept on it. The perm was great, just what he’d wanted, but it did tend to end up looking like a dandelion if he didn’t put the right stuff on it. He wet his hands and tried to smooth down the bump; how did girls manage this so much better, he wondered? He wiped his hands on his jeans then, regretting it, turned and craned his head to check he hadn’t got shaving foam or toothpaste or anything on them. Phew, all clean still. The jeans were newly washed, so he’d had to lie on the floor to get the zip done up. He hoped they’d loosen up a bit on the way into town so that he’d be able to sit down without wincing. 

The reminder of where he was going made his stomach lurch again, and he took a deep breath to quell the incipient nausea. NOT an audition, he reminded himself. Just a rehearsal, just hanging out. But still he’d practised those Zepp songs he planned to oh-so-casually trot out for hours every night this past week. He knew he was good. Quite good. Not bad. Fuck, what if I’m terrible and everybody laughs? Another deep breath. It’s fine, if it’s awful I’ll just leave. I don’t have to see any of them ever again. I’ll just never go in the common room, or the canteen, or the Limit, or the Wapentake… Stop it! Forcefully he pushed himself away from the sink and headed back to his room to finish getting dressed. 

He picked up the t-shirt laid out on the bed and pulled it carefully over his head, trying not to make the fluff situation any worse. From the three shirts he’d tried on - black, white, and the blue one with the Gibson logo on it - he’d eventually settled on the white one. It was the perfect fit, sitting just above the waist of the jeans. He’d rolled the sleeves, and carefully removed the size 10 label* (girls’ clothes being the only way he’d found to get that cropped length without taking the scissors to it, which just ended up in a frayed mess). Oh he’d nearly died of embarrassment sidling into the ladieswear department of BhS that first time. Rock stars like Bowie and Marc Bolan might wear women’s clothes, and that was probably fine down in London, but if anyone from the factory saw him within 50 feet of a dress shop he’d be branded a poofter for life. With long hair and minimal interest in football, he was on dangerous ground as it was. ‘It’s for my sister’ he’d mumbled unprompted to the disinterested cashier, who most likely didn’t give a toss what he did with it as long as he paid his £2.50.

Originally he’d planned on wearing his leather jacket, but when he’d put it on, it didn’t look right. It was a good jacket, and had been a generous present, all the grandparents clubbing together, for his sixteenth birthday. But it was brown and that was already starting to look a bit old-fashioned, a bit ‘too seventies’ even while they were still in that decade. If he ever made any money out of this music lark, the first thing he’d buy, no, the second, after a better guitar, would be a black leather jacket. The denim jacket was too small on purpose, but really too small even for that. That’s what happened when you bought things from the market without trying them on. With the oil stains from helping Dad fix the car, it had reached the perfect degree of scruffiness though.

He opened the wardrobe and examined the complete look, front and side, in the mirror on the back of the door. It had ended up sort of Thin Lizzy-meets-Status Quo-meets-The Ramones; he wasn’t sure that was a good thing, but it was the best he could manage on an apprentice’s wage. 

“Hullo, Steve Clark, pleased to meet you,” he greeted his reflection. Well that would work if I was meeting someone’s grandma. 

“Hi. Name’s Steve. I play guitar.” God, what a wanker!

“Hey, I’m Steve. Do I play? No, I just carried this all the way here for the exercise.” 

Fucksake, why can’t I just be normal? Better just keep my mouth shut unless someone asks me a question. He attempted a laid-back, friendly smile at the mirror. It came out more of a grimace.

“Stephen! You’re going to miss the bus if you don’t get a move on.”

“Just coming, Mam!” he called back.

Quickly, he added white socks to the ensemble; the finishing touch, white clogs, waited in the hall where he’d cleaned them last night. With a final desperate pull at his fringe, he turned his back on the mirror, picked up his guitar case, and dashed downstairs. 

“Oh Stephen, are you not putting a coat over that? You’ll catch your death.”

“Doesn’t go with the outfit. Don’t worry, I’ll be inside most of the time, I’ll be fine.”

“And don’t be too late back - remember you’re on earlies again tomorrow.” 

“I won’t. I’m sure the rest of the guys have to go to work too.”

“Have fun, love.”

“Thanks, Mam.”

The door banged shut behind him as he bounced down the steps and set off at a trot for the bus stop at the bottom of the hill.

-----------------------------

* A UK size 10 in 1978 would be approximately equivalent to a modern US size 4. He’s a skinny minnie! 

Author’s note: Everytime I hear Joe describe meeting Steve for the first time, I think of how nervous he must have been, and how much effort he would have put into that ‘total rock star’ look

[emptymanuscript]

You know, I just saw a post supporting the writer's strike and saying there are plenty of old shows to watch... and it occurred to me that it might be good to share some shows we love just in case people haven't seen them yet.

Places that make it easy to find where to watch things: Reelgood and JustWatch. Check both, they sometimes conflict, get it wrong, etc.

My Recs (in hopes others will add) (admittedly the low hanging fruit):

The X-Files, 1993, 11 Seasons, free on freevee, available on Hulu, can rent or buy other places. If you haven't seen X-Files, you're missing out. It was a smash hit in the 90's for a good reason. Two detectives, a believer and a skeptic, try to solve unsolvable mysteries in the midst of grand conspiracy. And find, somehow, that as much as they annoy each other, they need each other.

Babylon 5, 1993 / 1994, 5 Seasons, free on Roku and Tubi. An Epic Space Opera that never quite got the success it deserved. It is one of those things whose influence is written all over modern sci-fi and fantasy without much acknowledgement. This is the interplay of empires and mythology, double dealing and political cruelty.

SPACE: 1999, 1975, 2 seasons, free on Crackle, Peacock, Fubo, Pluto, Freevee, Plex, Shout, and Roku. I dare you to listen to the theme song and not feel the groove of this classic campy space opera. When Earth's moon is ejected from orbit to hurtle through the galaxy, the people of Moonbase Alpha have to confront new alien weirdness every week. Part of what makes it so good is that the show takes itself completely seriously, there's no wink and nod in here.

Kindred: The Embraced, 1996, 1 Season, available as a slime tutorial. It's Vampire: The Masquerade as a cheesy soap opera. There are constant reminders of what the clans are like in the most pointed, ridiculous dialogue you can imagine. Had the lead actor not died, this show might have found its place in a couple of more seasons, as it is, it is deliciously campy and dumb. Days of our LARP.

Profit, 1996, 1 Season, available as a slime tutorial. What if the Antagonist was the Main Character. Profit was ahead of its time. It would be right at home in the modern streaming era but it absolutely didn't fit in its own day and age. Profit is dark and twisted (For people who follow me, see if you can find an early inspirations for JJ) with mature and uncomfortable themes. One of its benefits is that it was network televison, so it couldn't show all the gratuitous violence and sex that it would be given if it was made today. It's psychological violence and murder off screen, which, if you let yourself get into it, can grow into worse things than can be shown. Profit is about power, greed, and ruthlessness and what happens when someone even more ruthless and immoral than you shows up.

Farscape, 1999, 4 seasons and a TV movie, available for free on crackle, peacock, popcornflix, shout, freevee, pluto, roku, and tubi. In spite of my picture, this is live action space opera, but it is looney tunes, literally in one episode. This is what happens when the Jim Henson company decides to make a space opera as far away from Star Trek as possible. It's zany, over the top, sometimes hilarious, often creepy, and there's only one human who is far out of his depth.

Blake's 7, 1978, 4 seasons, available on BritBox, and you should be able to find all of it with a little searching on youtube. Like Farscape, this show focuses on escaped prisoners but when they find an advanced spacecraft, they decide to become freedom fighters against their fascist regime instead of just trying to escape. Darker than most of what you could find on US tv until fairly recently. These are wounded people in hostile space.

The Outer Limits, 1995, 7 seasons. Free on Roku. This is a sci-fi anthology series. Some episodes are more interesting and thought provoking than others but overall a lot of good stories.

There are now 12 series with 44 seasons between them totaling up to 880 episodes of Star Trek. That's about 3 months straight of 24 hour programming if you ran it back to back with no pauses at all. That's a lot of show. Mostly on Paramount+ but it's probably not terribly difficult to find the material less officially. It may not all be your cup of earl grey but there's a lot to try out to see if you like it.

1899, 2022, 1 season (cancelled), available on Netflix or wherever else one finds shows. This is my only modern show because I know it didn't get a lot of viewership in spite of being brilliantly twisty. 1899 is one of those shows that it is very hard to talk about without spoilers. I think it is however immediately obvious that the cruise ship Kerebos, en route to New York, is not at all in the situation it appears to be in. It is magnificently multilingual with the ability to communicate when you can't speak each other's language front and center in the narrative. It's sadly cancelled and the creators are on record that they don't want to finish it in another medium so we'll never know exactly what happened but there is wonder to be had from this first season.

Magnum P.I., 1980, 8 seasons. Free on freevee and Roku. 1 season available with Amazon Prime, rest for rent or purchase. Mix a lovable goofball naval vet with PTSD and a very stiff necked British curmudgeon vet with PTSD and you get a fun mystery every week in paradise. Magnum shrugs off most of his work and pawns it on to his friends getting by on charm and some wit.

Murder, She Wrote, 1984, 12 seasons. All available for free on Roku. 6 seasons available for free on freevee. Note that one of the primary writers for Murder, She Wrote was J. Michael Straczynski, this is the job that got him the ability to make Babylon 5. Jessica Fletcher is a charming and clever lady who has retired to the placid sea side village of Cabot Cove to write mystery novels but somehow always ends up at murder scenes. It has been estimated that if Cabot Cove was real, it would be the murder capital of the US.

Tales from the Crypt, 1989, 7 seasons, available as a slime tutorial. To get it to lucky number 13, I present another great anthology show. Every episode a different tale of the macabre or horrific. The crypt keeper is a charmingly gruesome host and there are a few episodes that have stuck with me since I first saw them in the 90's.

Hopefully one among these number can fulfill your needs and if not, hopefully someone else will tack on a few more. I know I left out plenty of my own favorites. There's lots to see while your current faves are on hiatus. There might be a brand new fandom waiting for you.

[allyourgayfilms]

The Place Without Limits, dir. Arturo Ripstein, 1978

[buchbindung]

The Fantastic in Stephen King’s “The Boogeyman” - A literary analysis

! Spoilers ahead !

Originally published in the Cavalier issue of 1973, “The Boogeyman” is a short story by Stephen King that was included in the collection Night Shift from 1978.

King tells the story of Lester Billings, a young man in his late twenties, who reports the death of his three children to a psychologist, Dr Harper. The troubled man mentions the boogeyman whom he believes to have killed his children.

The main story is told by a 3rd person narrator who defines the protagonist Lester Billings as a 28-year-old divorced man working for an industrial firm in New York. However, the narrator is not omniscient since the information is drawn from a recording of Nurse Vickers. Within the main story, Billings’ account of himself and of his own past is narrated in first person:

We learn that he is not a Catholic, that he does not consider himself a freak or crazy, but he knows that other people would think that way. Therefore, the view on past events is subjective, limited, and unreliable.

The psychologist observes hints that Billings may be a disturbed alcoholic, that he has thin hair, pale skin, and looks old and worn out in general, which contributes to his troubled and nervous behaviour.

There are not any further facts about Dr Harper mentioned in the short story except that he is the one Billings wants to tell his story. However, it is obvious that he takes the role of a man of science and reason, trying to help the mentally distressed man.

This reasonable perspective is underlined by the fact that Dr Harper records the account with a tape recorder which can be later used as evidence of the truth. As a result, the reader gets the impression that the truth is told to a reliable man. Additionally, the story takes place in the psychologist’s office, a neutral, scientific place.

In contrast to that fact-based neutral side, Billings presents himself as a troubled, nervous, violent, conservative, and selfish man who believes in conspiracies and, at first, did not plan to have children with his wife. He occasionally beats his children if they put him under stress and is also tempted to hit his wife.

During Billings’ account, Dr Harper observes that the patient is not able to relax although he lies down. Furthermore, he promptly starts grinning without any apparent cause, moves his hands impatiently, and changes his mood abruptly. Billings seems to be unpredictable and unsteady in his behaviour and mentally ill, moving far from reality. He also appears to be afraid and suspicious of the closet in the room.

When the patient tells his story, it becomes obvious that he considers having children a burden for himself and that he does not think much of his wife. He embodies the hard and cold father who thinks that children have to deal with their fear themselves instead of being comforted by their parents as Denny starts crying one night. Billings and his wife do not know the cause of Denny’s distress, but the child mentions “the boogeyman” the first time. Billings does not believe in that and reacts rather angrily and fretfully. He even thinks of killing the child because of his annoying behaviour. Billings tells Dr Harper that it was a bad summer for him since he was tired all the time and drowsy the night Denny died. Only after the child’s death, Billings realises that he really loved him.

Billings is the only one to notice that the closet door stands open although he is convinced that he has closed it. This first hint introduces Billings’ hesitation and doubt about the happenings of that night. He cannot explain why the closet has been opened and is not able to unite his own thoughts with the apparent reality. He even attempts to reassure himself and the doctor that he closed the door by reacting aggressively.

The need to convince himself and his opposite is derived from Billings’ deteriorating perception he experiences because he is overtired, unhappy and stressed. On top of that, it irritates him that the open closet door could be linked to Denny’s death.

A discrepancy is also notable between Billings’ thoughts and actions. Alarmed by Denny’s death, he thinks of letting his daughter sleep in the parents’ bedroom but acts contrarily. When Harper replies to his explanation, Billings reacts rather maliciously and seems to feel attacked by his interruption. He emphasises that he wants to tell his own story in his own way. In doing so, he underlines his limited point of view, subjective perspective of the events, and his own troubled personality.

Additionally, Billings does not allow rational explanations given by Dr Harper in terms of his daughter’s word ‘craws’. Harper suggests that the child is not able to say closet properly and expresses ‘crawset’ instead. In doing so, Harper maintains the loophole of reality in Billings account. Billings, however, does not consider this rational observation because he does not think much of doctors and science.

Moreover, he seems to create his own laws and explanations, and wants to live in his own reality in which he believes that his daughter wanted to say ‘claws’. In this way, his story matches his own thoughts and ideas of a monster lurking in the closet. In fact, he transfers his own anxiety and thoughts onto his daughter and, consequently, tries to prove his story.

Nevertheless, Billings experiences moments of hesitation since his visual perception does not correspond to his expectations: he does not see anything in the closet, and only guesses that there is something that has killed his children. What contributes to this hesitation, is the fact that the ones who mention something, either the boogeyman or the danger in the closet, are both children. This suggests that the fear of a monster in the closet rather originates in the children’s minds and that their imagination plays tricks on them. Adult rationality and childlike imagination are opposed to uphold the loophole of reality.

However, Billings’ distressed and nervous behaviour challenges this possibility. Moreover, the children only mention the boogeyman in the presence of their father, which adds to the impression that all this could take place in Billings’ imagination because there are no witnesses except the unreliable children. It is also notable that the monster only visits the children when Billings himself puts his offspring into the crib or is alone with them. This suggests that the monster may be a part of Billings’ personality.

In this regard, Billings experiences the death of his daughter alone; there are not any witnesses like in the case of the first death. And again, he notices the accusation in his child’s eyes, contributing to his feeling of responsibility. After the dead body has been brought to the hospital, the father returns home alone because his wife had to be sedated and had to stay in the hospital. Billings’ temporary isolation serves as the basis for the encounter of Billings and the monster. He has to be alone to deal with the monster, with the “it”-part of himself.

Accordingly, during the following night, Billings dreams of the monster he is familiar with on account of the comic book Tales from the Crypt. He seems to be drawing the characteristics of the monster from that in the book. He explains that in the story a woman drowns her husband who comes back as a black-green monster with seaweed in his hair to kill her. Billings imagines the monster as something he has already seen in his childhood and lets it manifest itself as the sea monster.

Like the husband in the story, Billings considers himself the victim of his wife who decided for both of them to have kids and, therefore, has ended Billings’ happy life. He feels that his views and opinions are ignored, that is why he believes in the conspiracy that she lied in terms of the contraception device to get what she wants, namely a third child. He even is relieved that they have time for themselves without the compulsory care of a child after his daughter’s death. It is arguable that he has turned against his wife and, in order to hurt her, killed the unwanted children, projecting his own deeds and thoughts to an alter ego – the monster.

He also offers a possible explanation for this when he mentions the bags in the closet that could be responsible for a child’s death because of asphyxia. He briefly mentions the bags as an explanation for why he, for sure, had closed the door of the closet. Furthermore, he denies Dr Harper’s rational explanation he offers about the dependability of contraceptive devices. Billings seems to ignore the possible scientific explanation; he rather wants to believe in conspiracies and in his own truth.

One year after their third child’s birth, they move to another place since Billings connects the bad events and memories to their old house. He projects his negative memories onto the place and is convinced that moving away will improve his life. In doing so, he disengages from his probable responsibility for his children’s deaths and blames the dark place and its demonic vibrations for the tragic events. The improvement and happiness that follows is only momentary so that after a while his sorrows start again. Once more, he perceives the change in the house, not in himself. He avoids opening the closets since he is afraid that something could lurk in it.

On top of that, he starts thinking that he can hear noises proving that there is a black-green and wet monster in there. He hesitates about that and is not sure if he really hears something or if it is his mind playing a trick on him. Billings also extrapolates only from his hearing the nature and appearance of the monster, another hint that the monster may only exist in his imagination. Additionally, Billings contemplates about whether the monsters he knows from his childhood, the Wolfman, Frankenstein or the Mummy, are real. This ambiguity and hesitation destabilise the laws of reality and make him doubt the principles of nature in general. Apart from that, Billings questions reality since he believes that bad luck comes in threes: he rather acts self-destructively and wants their misfortune to come true, which can be described as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The third death is imminent when Rita has to leave the house to care for her sick mother. Billings is alone with his son and observes that the closet doors keep opening in the house. Again, contradicting thoughts and actions determine Billings’ behaviour: He does not want to bring the child to his own room, but lets him alone in the end because he is convinced that the monster wants to take the child, not him. He even smiles when telling Dr Harper about this.

The fact that there is no need for him to be afraid of the monster adds to the argument that the monster is not real, but only an alter ego of Billings who would not hurt himself. Like a maniac, he anticipates the death of his son and only witnesses the terrible event by sound. Additionally, the father acts conflictingly to a caring and mourning parent since he does not hurry to his son’s room, but leaves the house immediately and runs away without looking after him.

After placing an emergency call, he returns home and enters his son’s room. The mix of fear, guilt, and shock makes him look into his son’s eyes which seem to accuse him. However, he immediately notices that the closet door stands open, proving that the monster killed his son instead of him. Billings reports that the police believe him and do not accuse him of the murder of his children.

After Billings’ account, Dr Harper ends the therapy and offers his patient to meet regularly in order to work on his guilty feelings and on processing his experiences. They say goodbye and Billings leaves the room but returns since the information desk is empty. When he re-enters the room, Dr Harper is gone, and he finds himself vis-á-vis the monster, holding a mask of Dr Harpers face. The closet door is open, and the monster voices: “So nice”.

Throughout the story, both narrators, 1st person and 3rd person, used elements of terror to indicate the existence of a monster like strange noises or the constantly opening doors in the house. At the end of the short story, these elements change into the elements of horror by showing the monster explicitly. The voice of Billings’ 1st person narrator and that of the figural 3rd person narrator seem to fuse into one, and therefore adding to the ambiguity of a reliable narrating voice. Without any witnesses, Billing is the only one encountering the monster, which can be considered as a fantastic element, transgressing the boundaries of nature and reality.

On the other hand, the monster may also be a manifestation of Billings’ imagination, of his alter ego that he used to kill his children and the doctor in order to avoid taking responsibility. While telling his story, Billings seems to have opened up psychologically and is finally able to confront himself with his other half respectively the monster. He faces his illness, his inner monster that he imagines as the monster from the book and his dream. However, Billings initially says that he only wants to tell his story to control his guilt. Since he is not accused of murder, there is no need for him to rectify the events. Nevertheless, Billings’ behaviour contributes to the notion that he is a mentally distressed man, suffering from madness and hallucinations.

On top of that, the protagonist keeps repeating the same sentence, namely that the closet door was open, just a crack, as if to affirm his words, the truth, and himself in order to gain credibility. Apart from that, the initial absence of hesitation regarding the psychologist turns into questioning the man of science when he apparently turns into the monster masquerading as the doctor. The reader’s belief in the doctor’s reliability is destabilised.

Finally, the ending of the story does not give any rational explanation of the events and, unlike many gothic stories, the narrator does not mind restoring a god-given order. The constant fluctuations in Billings’ moods and behaviour reflect the recurring moments of hesitation that alternate with his forcefully looking for evidence that support his truth.

Using the fantastic element of the monster, King is able to transfer the protagonist’s inner conflict into the outside and visualises his distress by means of the monster. Accordingly, King employs the fantastic element in order to distort both the protagonist’s and the reader’s reality. 

[beardedmrbean]

Egypt has long played a role as a mediator in the conflict not just between Israel and the Palestinians, but also between the main Palestinian factions themselves.

It was the first Arab state to make peace with Israel back in 1978 - after fighting several wars with the Jewish state.

Now, the focus is on Egypt's control of one of the two land routes out of the Gaza Strip - the Rafah crossing.

Thousands of Palestinians are waiting on the Gaza side of the border, while hundreds of lorries carrying desperately needed aid are parked up on the Egyptian side. Many more aid convoys are also heading towards the border.

But there has still been no deal on opening the crossing, which has also reportedly been hit by several Israeli strikes in the past few days.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the BBC's Newshour programme that from Egypt's perspective, "the Rafah crossing on our side is officially open", but he blamed "aerial bombardments" for making the crossing "inaccessible" and unsafe for aid lorries to cross into Gaza.

But Cairo has kept tight restrictions on movement through the Rafah crossing for many years - to such an extent that many Palestinians have essentially accused Egypt of bolstering Israel's blockade of Gaza, which has been in place since Hamas took full power there in 2007.

What is the Rafah crossing and why is it Gaza's lifeline?

The restrictions have mostly been about security concerns in North Sinai where the Egyptian authorities have long been involved in a deadly conflict with jihadists linked to Al Qaeda.

But Egypt's apparent reluctance to open the crossing without clear conditions and guarantees may be more about trying to avoid a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza.

The UN's humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, says the Egyptian authorities fear a great influx of Gazans - for whom they would then be responsible, for an indefinite period.

In addition, Egypt does not want to play any role in what could amount to a permanent resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza.

It seems prepared to allow foreigners and Palestinians with dual nationality to leave, but it wants this to be dependent on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza.

A further stumbling block is that Israel seems to want pretty much the opposite - to allow more Palestinians to leave than Egypt is prepared to accept, while limiting the amount of aid that could go in.

Reflecting Egypt's position, Mr Shoukry told the BBC: "It's not a matter of transferring the responsibility to Egypt - it is a matter of maintaining the safety and well-being of Gazans on their own territory."

He has also said the Israeli government has not yet adopted a position that would allow the crossing to be opened.

Diplomatic efforts are intensifying to try to resolve the impasse, as aid agencies warn that the situation in Gaza is edging closer to a humanitarian catastrophe.

[obscuremarvelmuses]

Darkstar reread

Ok, gonna try to finish this storyline up tonight. Iron Man #11 confirms that these are indeed The Knights of Wundagore. Space fight shit happens. Laynia isn’t there so I don’t really read it. Laynia sends a message to Tony’s HQ, Madame Masque (who is normally bad guy but kinda not rn because she’s in love with Iron Man?) receives it and tells her that Tony is resting rn, because this is the era where Tony’s identity as Iron Man is secret, so Laynia doesn’t know that Iron Man is Tony. Laynia informs MM that the alien egg is about to hatch. Also despite not introducing themselves to each other, MM addresses Laynia as “Darkstar” and Laynia her as “Madame” so do they know each other from some adventure? This is her only appearance, the rest is alien shit and finding out how the High Evolutionary evolved the New Men on another planet after leaving earth. Perhaps Iron Man #112 will have more meat for my dear Darkstar! Let’s find out! While Iron Man and Jack of Hearts have more alien drama, the Russians continue to wait outside the egg. Vanguard complains about this passive approach, while Darkstar reminds him that they have their orders from Moscow. I find it interesting how Darkstar is simultaneously the most disobedient AND the most obedient of the lot. Like, she’s not unruly or rebellious at all in the way, say, Wolverine is, she’s very “let’s play by the rules and do as we’re told” and quite sensible and levelheaded typically. But we’ve also seen that her own moral compass will eventually steer her in other directions if there’s really good reason. Honestly, I like that. The “rebel” stock character who pushes back against authority just to do so, or because they “don’t like being told what to do” just tends to bore and annoy me. Laynia isn’t that. She’s a team player and doesn’t make waves unnecessarily or think she’s too cool to take orders…but she’s not thoughtlessly obedient either. Her rebellion is always done out of ethics and compassion, not contrarianism. I really like that. I also just like when characters go against type or avert cliches, like when the “rebel” isn’t who you’d expect. And this is in 1978, not a time I typically associate with averting cliche! Also she’s lounging on a bunch of moon rocks like it’s a couch and I just love that. Anyway, the egg opens up and a spaceman shoots out, rocketing past them, heading for Earth. Vanguard suggests she could catch it using her Darkforce, she says it might be a decoy to lure them away and “my place is here” and that the Earth has other heroes. Not sure what I think of this logic, tbh. Like really that seems an…odd rationale, especially for her? She’s shown that she does think very sensibly, so her thinking it could be a decoy doesn’t seem strange to me, but saying “Earth has other heroes” just doesn’t seem like a thing she’d reason. But I’m also not totally sure I’d say this is totally OOC either. Hmm. Something for me to chew on at last! Anyway, Iron Man shoots out after the alien,and immediately validates her decision by signaling to the Soviets to stay put while he goes after it, and Laynia concludes that the danger to Earth must be (1) great and (2) not limited to that sole alien. I guess it does make sense for her to take the “what is the greatest threat to the greatest amount of people” view. Then the Soviets catch sight of Jack of Hearts holding back loads of spacemen, and they at last get to join the fight that Vanguard was spoiling for. Vanguard is happy, and Laynia doesn’t hesitate either. She’s certainly not a coward. It ends up coming to a hilariously anti-climactic end when a representative of the alien’s government shows up and tells that aliens that they were attempting to colonize without authority, so the leader of this mission is now under arrest. Everyone goes home to their respective worlds, the end. Saved by bureaucracy! Anyway, while I didn’t learn terribly much new about Laynia, I did like going back to a story I’d forgotten and seeing why I had the impressions about her that I did—that she’s the least likely on her squad to leap to violence, that she will try to talk things out, that she’s not impulsive, that she thinks men are, etc. I also DID get a little surprise too there at the end that does give me something to ponder. So, worth the read! 

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.22 (1950-2000)

1963 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 290 kilometres (180 mi) north of Madeira, Portugal with the loss of 128 lives. 1964 – The first test flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird) takes place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, United States. 1965 – In the United Kingdom, a 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. 1968 – Cultural Revolution: People's Daily posted the instructions of Mao Zedong that "The intellectual youth must go to the country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty." 1971 – The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France. 1973 – A Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes near Tangier-Boukhalef Airport in Tangier, Morocco, killing 106. 1974 – Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration. 1974 – The house of former British Prime Minister Edward Heath is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA. 1975 – U.S. President Gerald Ford creates the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to the 1970s energy crisis. 1978 – The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform. 1984 – "Subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz shoots four would-be muggers on a 2 express train in Manhattan section of New York, United States. 1987 – In Zimbabwe, the political parties ZANU and ZAPU reach an agreement that ends the violence in the Matabeleland region known as the Gukurahundi. 1989 – Romanian Revolution: Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife Elena flee Bucharest in a helicopter as protesters erupt in cheers. 1989 – German reunification: Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany. 1990 – Lech Wałęsa is elected President of Poland. 1990 – Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship. 1992 – During approach to Tripoli International Airport, a Boeing 727 operating as Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103 collides in mid-air with a Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23, killing 157 people. 1996 – Airborne Express Flight 827 crashes in Narrows, Virginia, killing all six people on board. 1997 – Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces. 1997 – Somali Civil War: Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquishes the disputed title of President of Somalia by signing the Cairo Declaration, in Cairo, Egypt. It is the first major step towards reconciliation in Somalia since 1991. 1999 – Just after taking off from London Stansted Airport, Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 crashes into Hatfield Forest near Great Hallingbury, killing all four people on board.

[asaakim]

The Place Without Limits (Subtitled, 1978) dir. Arturo Ripstein

[sirenjose]

Missing Player-ID: 157716441

Main Story - Part 5

Main Story: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 6

Hidden Story: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Plot Analysis: Part 1 Part 2

Puzzle Solver Analysis

Detective later tells the mom to go find the safe. Don’t know the password and clues left by girl seem incomplete. Mom says there’s a note on the back of the same. The safe is the old kind you have to turn a knob to open.

Align the (red) flower in the card’s hand with the flower mark in the center of the circle. The Queen’s looking at the Gardener, who has pliers and a wrench on her page. Rotate counterclockwise to cover the 2 items at the same time.

Next person is the Clown. Cover the 2 items. Rotate as shown.

Next is doctor. Cover items. Rotate as shown.

Rotate the knob of the safe in the same way.

Counterclockwise 11. Counterclockwise 35. Clockwise 15. Safe opens. Folder with a bunch of files is in it. There’s a lot. Mom will send him some. Detective will also go to game for clues. Some of them are crumpled.

“On December 11, 1978, the disappearance of a 15-year old boy let to a string of psychopathic killings by John Wayne Gacy. Although the boy’s last interview was with his construction company before he disappeared, he denied seeing the boy when questioned by police. A police search accidentally uncovered his hidden underground “vault” and eventually found 35 bodies hidden in his house and yard…”

“As far as I know, there is no specific provision in criminal law for trafficking in goods (?), because this industry is still very limited in China. But this does not mean that criminal law cannot touch this area. On the contrary, although the period of strict crackdown has passed, once the incident occurs, the punishment they will face will be very severe. In contrast to…”

“The safety standards for cars are so high that there is basically no possibility of direct spontaneous combustion, even if the fuel tank has been hit. Even spark plugs, because they only use an electric arc, ignite the (oil-contaminated) gas mixture, not the gasoline fluid itself. Since…”

(Seems this may be related to the dad’s car accident?)

In the game, Detective asks 80129 how she knows things others don’t. He asks if the girl ran into 80129 by accident or if 80129 took the initiative. 80129 asks if he’s suspicious. He says he just finds it strange. 80129: “If I were you… I’d just talk about clues instead of just being skeptical without evidence.” Detective: “…” 80129: “Did I say something wrong?” Detective points out she didn’t know the girl for very long and asks why she’s willing to help her. 80129 says she met the girl by chance, and after the game she (the daughter) took the initiative to add her (80129).

80129 describes the girl as lovely but lonely, a bit eccentric, and has been through a very sad experience, but after talking for a long time, she realized she’s a very cute person. They’ve only ever chatted online. The girl said she likes cats and likes to roll on the ground like a cat. Detective comments they (the girl and mom) don’t have cats. 80129 mentions that 2 days ago the girl told her she went down to the basement, and because of a knee injury, she can’t walk well, and her head knocked into the basement beam.

Detective mentions he believes the girl opened a safe at home and took the info inside, but she encrypted the info and hid it again. 80129 says the girl rarely went online after that and stopped sharing news with 80129, and comments its like she changed. 80129 comments how at first they thought it was just a game but doesn’t think so anymore. Detective agrees. 80129 mentions a corresponding relationship between what’s in the game and reality.

80129 comments something new appeared in game. In the arsenal (Arms Factory) map, there are 5 clickable barrels. 80129 tells him she has a strange feeling. That someone is watching them. In all places. Clicking the barrels gives a letter.

Letter says “When her favorite character’s candle is lit, the box(?) will continue to give you guidance”. Combine this with what’s in the diary. (Her favorite character is the Prospector).

Place the flame from the transparent sheet over the candle. In the circles are the words: clown, hand, hold, baseball. Position the transparent baseball in the correct spot.

These circles include words like Doctor, blue, and medicine. Position the transparent page correctly. Next words include blind woman and her cane glowing. Position the transparent page. 

The words now include Red Butterfly, blood, dye, and mask. The circle now mentions Gardener, protect, and toolbox.

The last circle on Gardener’s page has “FIND” and a picture of a pin mark.

“FIND” the pin mark. It’s on this map. Turn it to the back. The words are: “Read the Big Blue Letters”.

Starting from there, read only the big blue letters. Answer: Unzip the Page and Use the Photos