#there are elementals in a nebulous way but they are very distant and very very old

[impossible-rat-babies]

me taking whm stuff and sticking in othard to make lore for eyrie’s family like

[emmersreads]

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Review

4.5/5 stars

The best part of A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers isn’t the robot.

Allow me to explain.

Shortly before Christmas I went to my local independent bookstore to attempt to find a gift for my hard to shop for brother and inevitably ended up not doing that and instead buying myself a little treat. That little treat was A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (in my defence I had a lot of store credit). As I paid I got to talking with the bookstore’s owner (who knows me on account of building up all that store credit) about A Psalm for the Wild-Built.

I told him I’d bought the first book because of its beautiful cover design but it ended up being a lot more meaningful to me than I’d expected.

He replied, “I know! The way a robot teaches a human about life!”

“Oh,” I said. Then, trying not to pause so long it would be irredeemably rude to the man from whom I would be pre-ordering Alecto the Ninth, “That’s not what I took from it at all.”

Look, I’ve read a lot of scifi; I’ve watched Blade Runner. The idea that a robot might be used to explore humanity is not a new idea for me. It’s like telling a French chef that sauce tastes good with cream in it. No shit Sherlock.

The thing that was so great about A Psalm for the Wild-Built, that took it from a neat if dull little worldbuilding exercise about the post-scarcity future to one of my favourite books of the year (in the unenviable 7th place overall), was its exploration of ennui. To me the core of this novel is not the idea that a robot might be more human than humans. APWB has a different philosophical core: the question ‘if we have everything we need, and we are still existentially unsatisfied, what do we do about it?’ What happens to people who still feel unfulfilled in the post-scarcity future?

Protagonist Dex has nothing to feel bad about. Humanity has emerged into the bright light of the future and is doing pretty great actually. What resources are essential for survival and comfort are managed sustainable and the rest are returned to nature. Without competition, humanity lives in peace and happiness, reorienting society to prioritize comfort and quality of life over money and success. Dex has a loving family and friends and every opportunity for self-fulfilment that this utopia could offer and none of them help. Dex wakes up wondering why they can’t seem to stop feeling this nebulous sense of ennui.

The emotional aspect of this premise hits close to home for me. In 2022 I was living with my mum, who subsidized my rent in an otherwise very expensive city and also made me dinner. I had a part time job with an understanding boss and nice coworkers. I felt like I should be living my best your-unemployed-friend-on-a-tuesday-morning life. I felt like shit warmed over.

The existential need that Dex is trying to fulfil throughout the novella is something I can grok on a really intimate level. Like Dex, I got an awkwardly large vehicle and set a course for a location in the mountains that invoked distant memories of happiness, in pursuit of some sort of meaning.

This is, in my opinion, the most novel element of the story. I don’t really care about worldbuilding for its own sake because I’m a hater who is allergic to fun, which sets me at odds with a lot of the solarpunk genre. Here’s the rub: even intentionally low stakes stories ought to have more to say than ‘wouldn’t it be nice if things were just nice.’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built does. It does an admirable job of exploring what our problems would be once we solve all the big ones, and that philosophical question gives the story a depth that makes the worldbuilding worth exploring.

Of course, a nice philosophical idea doesn’t mean a whole lot unless it is implemented well, and that’s where I think A Psalm for the Wild-Built shines the most. In order to tackle the question of why we want when we have everything we need, the novella needs to develop the sense of nebulous and inarticulable emptiness. That’s a tough emotion to convey. I tend to find characters who are unaware of their emotions annoying and frustration (see above: I am a hater who is allergic to fun), but I really loved the way Chambers went about developing Dex here. The idea of setting new goals and doing hard things in the hope of feeling better resonates much more with me than wallowing in endless self-reflection. It’s not more effective either, for those worried about a conflictless story. Instead, Chambers is more interested in what you do when the thing you expect to work doesn’t. It makes for one of the most quietly touching climactic scenes I read in 2023. The depiction of the inarticulable depth of true person to person understanding is really beautiful.

The fact that one of those persons is a robot doesn’t really matter.

[seldaryne]

10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17 for durge~

10. What motivates your Dark Urge to either embrace or resist the tadpole?

Pragmatic though Velrith may be, consuming more tadpoles & utilizing their abilities seems to be a more favourable route. In her mind, there's obviously some sort of reason that she hasn't undergone the transformation yet--some sort of protection that's keeping the effects at bay. The tadpole itself is a parasite, and it does need her at least semi-alive as its host. There's also an element of wanting to know more about her current situation, and part of that desire means that someone has to be a guinea pig. Particularly in Act 1, her feelings about herself are pretty nebulous. She's not overly concerned for her personal safety, and actually finds it reassuring that she's surrounded by people both willing & capable of putting her down if she starts to turn into a mindflayer, so she thinks of it as a calculated risk. Also, interactions with the Cult of the Absolute go considerably smoother when she's not operating from a place of total darkness.

Basically, once she weighed the options, there were more benefits to be found from tapping into the tadpole over ignoring it entirely. The Astral Tadpole is a different story. At that point, she's started to lose trust in the Emperor (though she's still fine with working towards his goals, at least until she feels like she has a better grasp of the entire situation. Like the tadpole, he clearly needs her alive for something. It's a truce, for now), and she's more interested in keeping ownership over herself. The Astral Tadpole seems a step too far away from that desire, and she refuses to budge on that.

11. What motivates your Dark Urge to either embrace or resist the Urge?

Answered here.

12. How does your Dark Urge feel about being a bhaalspawn?

In a word?

Despair.

It's a very unique feeling of helplessness, of knowing that she was always more or less doomed to fail. Her own desires didn't matter. She was never expected to develop her own path. She's not even sure what the point of allowing her developmental years to be comparatively 'normal,' unless it was to perhaps cultivate resentment & make her eventual indoctrination more spiteful. She doesn't remember feeling any of that, though; just emptiness. A void where her core should have been, distant from the very idea of what it meant to be truly alive.

Now, since she was a child, she'd always been interested in finding out the way things worked. What makes the clock tick? How do the wheels of a carriage know how to turn? Even if she's not as obvious about it later on, she still retains the curiosity. As Bhaal's chosen, it manifests in a less-than-acceptable fashion. More detached than she'd ever been, she started cutting into bodies to see if they had something tangible that she didn't. Externally, they were the same. Bhaal hadn't made something physically deviant, at least. So maybe there was something inside, tucked away behind the ribs and lungs, threaded in amongst the viscera & woven around the nerves.

Her abhorrent butler was delighted, naturally, and assumed the dissection-turned-vivisection was motivated by torturous desires. She never bothered to mention how part of her longed to crawl inside the open chest cavities, wrapping herself up in the wet warmth, hoping she could somehow absorb a patchwork version of her ideal self in that way.

She understands, in retrospect, why she was doing this. But she doesn't know whether to be more angry at herself for seeing the habit as something both justified and necessary, or being put in a position where she ever had the opportunity to discover it in the first place.

15. What is your Dark Urge’s greatest fear?

To slip again, to lose herself to the Urge, to die as an animal lost to its instincts rather than herself.

She knows she's technically rejected it, but the fear lingers. She can't rest until she makes those in close proximity to her swear that they're willing to prevent her from hurting anyone, and it's one of the few topics you can see cracks of real, honest anxiety in her face & hear it in her voice. It's not so much the fear of hurting the people she's come to care about (that's definitely a portion of it, though), it's losing everything she's worked so hard for in the process.

When she finished Orin off and was subsequently punished for rejecting Bhaal (her father--creator, really) she knew she was dying. She didn't want to die, and resisted as much as she was physically capable of doing, but she knew it was happening anyway. Her vision flickered, fading in time with the numbness spreading from her chest. Someone may have been yelling in the distance, muffled and far, far away. Or maybe that was the sound of her own screaming. It was hard to tell.

Yet, she was somehow happy to do it.

She was dying, but she was aware of it, and it was her, not some abomination of Bhaal. Those last moments of fleeting consciousness belonged wholly and entirely to her, to Velrith, and all of the decisions she made that led to that point. And Bhaal could take her life, but he couldn't take away that fierce shock of pride at it being hers.

Should she fall, it has to be on her own terms. She's not eager to embrace death, but she has that requirement of it when it comes.

16. What is your Dark Urge’s greatest desire?

It's selfish, and she's not convinced she deserves it. But she wants to live.

She's been given a second chance when she knows she likely deserves no less than execution for her past actions. She's found a small group of people who care for her despite all evidence prior dictating she should be shunned at the absolute minimum. From that, she's even found what she recognizes to be happiness in a romantic partnership (she still finds confusing fascination in how quickly Astarion was able to accept her, and doesn't know if she'll ever understand--but she's endlessly grateful). There are strangers whose faces she doesn't recognize who see her as a hero, as someone they can trust to help with their problems.

She is happy. More dangerously, she is content. And it feels so unfair, somehow, that she can sit there, basking in all this warmth when her body has been the instrument of so much destruction. Why should her hands be held gently, when they were made & used for tearing apart soft flesh & crushing bones? She should be, at the very least, generally hated & scorned if she's allowed to walk free after that.

But she isn't. It doesn't seem to happen (at least, not in anyone she's encountered yet).

She wants to keep living like this. She won't let herself put down the burden of her past. It seems an added cruelty that she can't make herself participate in. But even carrying that, it doesn't change the fact that's she wants to live.

17. What is your Dark Urge’s greatest regret?

Is it perhaps too dramatic to say it might just be her entire creation?

Velrith has never really been able to properly make peace with her past. It's not something you can ask either, since there's no way anyone would have a proper frame of reference. Well, you weren't as bad as Orin. You weren't as bad as Gortash. Do those statements even carry meaning? What good is being the lesser of two evils when the scale is that vast to begin with? (Besides, she can't even say with any degree of certainty that she wasn't worse. Evidence seems to point in the other direction.)

She's done good things. She's helped people. She knows this; she's even seen some of it firsthand.

And yet, the couple who selflessly took her in would still be alive.

And yet, the blood of so many innocents who just happened to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time wouldn't have been spilled.

And yet, the city of Baldur's Gate likely wouldn't have been under this current threat if not for her past actions.

And yet, and yet, and yet.

So perhaps, on the whole, everyone would have been better off had she never been here in the first place.

durge asks.

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Design Thoughts 🤔

I have this in progress game thing (that will not be finished any time soon so) that tries to synthesize elements of Forged in the Dark, Belonging Outside Belonging/No Dice No Masters, and Apocalypse Keys into one thing.

So I love setting elements as a piece of tech from BoB stuff, but I always find it a little tricky to use them in play. In the sense that they're another level of layer to keep in mind while also keeping in mind everything else about the game! The upcoming game Brinkwood: Refuge handles this in a very cool way (but its also not out yet so I don't want to talk too much about it) and Wanderhome's Natures and Traits also are really good, and feel nice to use (so nice that they hugely inspired the world elements in Extracausal: Monolith). So Step One of this game-design-idea is how can I make something using setting elements that really clicks for me?

Forged in the Dark is one of my favorite "design engines" in general. I love position/effect, actions, rolling a bunch of d6s, consequences/resistance, factions, I could go on and on. There are a lot of very fun levers to pull once you dig into FitD design. I also wildly prefer the Action system compared to a Skill list system. It provides enough structure that players aren't floundering on what to do at a given moment, but not so restrictive or overwhelming that some skill list stuff can turn into. But one thing I always forget to do (both as a player and GM) is utilize Devil's Bargains to their full extent! So Step Two is working on a way to make Devil's Bargains more consistent.

Apocalypse Keys rules (full disclosure, I worked on system development and also contributed a mystery and in progress playbook). One of my favorite part (which is also present in the game Librete!) is how instead of stats, you have a shifting pool of tokens (similar to BoB styles) that you can spend to get bonuses to your 2d6 roll. There are specific triggers that naturally come up in play for each playbook that get you more tokens, and then you can't hoard them because if you get too many tokens at a time, there are Consequences. It creates a very satisfying loop for your characters! So Step Three is how can I emulate this token-loop?

What I've got so far;

To enact a Devil's Bargain you must play a Setting Element. Devil's Bargains are traditionally meant to inject complications into the scene, and often times, so can Setting Elements. Feels appropriate to link them here. This also gives a clear mechanical moment for when a setting element is brought into play (which for me, is really the tricky part in existing games).

You have no stats/attributes that numerically define how many dice you roll at a given time, instead you must spend tokens 1:1 to gain d6. By limiting how many dice you might have access to in a given moment, Devil's Bargains become even more appealing! Rolling dice is good, and so is injecting new complications.

Each playbook has a set of conditions that when met, net you more tokens. This is basically the same format as Apocalypse Keys.

What is still kind of nebulous;

What happens when you gain too many tokens?

Is the loop of "determine if tokens are gained -> spend tokens -> get dice -> roll dice" too clunky? Will probably need to do some actual playtesting to figure this bit out. On paper, its not too distant from the typical FitD "conversation" involving position/effect, but I also want to include position/effect on top of everything else.

Basically everything else about the game lmao.

We'll see how everything starts to shape up in the next few months. This is very much something I'm just poking at here and there, since I have some other projects that take precedence and I would like to get done first.

Anyways, thoughts? Recs for things you think I should look at? What's up?

[dustedmagazine]

IST — A More Attractive Way (Confront Recordings)

A More Attractive Way by IST

For whatever reason, we are still, and absolutely, unequipped to discuss timbre. Our homogenized Western European-based vocabulary seems relatively complete where all the rest of what we sloppily label “the musical elements” are concerned, so why the non-attention to what really differentiates one sound from another? In the most fruitful and inclusive senses, the trio IST is both precedent to and consequent of this lapse and the worlds it refuses to acknowledge. The group dances along the trajectories of timbre with the fluency of those still suffering tone tyranny, held prisoner by the note as accepted convention. From the first performances in 1996 to their last two decades later, it would be more than over general, but with a toe in truth and accuracy, to speak of distillation and concentration amidst an increase of space. These Protean characteristics are true but not the totality of what this five-disc set adds to the collaborative discography of the late bassist Simon H. Fell, cellist Mark Wastel and harpist Rhodhri Davies.  

For an overview of IST’s history and importance to the overlapping scenes the trio represents, there is Michael Rosenstein’s superb article on Confront’s site:

Rosenstein’s expert ability to encapsulate historical and musical developments is as comprehensive as his descriptions are rich. Given such context, it seems prudent only to examine moments in time, and through them to come to terms with the varying approaches, densities and totalities achieved by this unique string trio that embodied “chamber music” in its most inclusive guise. It is true, as Rosenstein observes, that the pivotal first performance involved much of the back and forth associated with what might be called Euro-Free improvisation of the atomistic variety. Just as important, however, are the sonic highways and byways, the trails blazed and pastoral paths trod by these intrepid explorers. One of the most fascinating and exciting elements is the way timbre impacts the rest of what we stodgily call musical parameters. In the first of the two miniatures from that formative 1996 concert, rhythm, timbre and pitch transcend their respective narrative boundaries. Like the characters in Joyce’s Nighttown episode from Ulysses, there is a blending of structure, form and purpose that enters the realms of magic, even of phantasmagoria. Melody is inextricably linked with the rhythmic sounds of the three string instruments, but, as with the Diamond Sutra, even to speak of melody, harmony and rhythm is both true and false, tearing away at the illusions on which those binaries are constructed. Be all that as it may, nearly two and a half minutes into the same piece, there is a lengthening of sounds, a decrease in density and an increase in relative space. There’s even some exquisite executed vibrato from Wastell, a harkening back to traditions this trio usually discards. As Wastell and Fell doff their hats toward the vocabulary of the “jazz” solo, Davies joins in, bending piquant pitches in the upper register as what I have no recourse but to call the tempo picks up again. In this way, in the space of a few brief minutes, the group presents its own history in astonishing distillation, dissolving boundaries in favor of new ones soon to be subjected to a similar fate.

At another extreme resides an extension of those flowing seed-moments of near-stasis in the trio’s powerful 1998 rendering of Intensitat, one of Stockhausen’s late 1960s text pieces. Obviously, via the rigors of recording, rehearsal and performance over the intervening two years, interaction is at an even higher level. It can happen in a moment, that communication that fosters elevation, and it’s palpable, as it is in this concert of compositions. Listen at 1:23 of the Stockhausen as Wastell microtonally alters his pitch, a shade separating tyranny from freedom. Similarly, at 2:46, Davies simply cuts off the ratcheting rhythms that had been bolstering the interaction, leaving a glorious bed of sustain and overtone in shifting dynamic planes. Here again and at other strategic points, vibrato is used but to an entirely different end. Is the trio employing it as a rhythmic device? Is Fell responsible for the emergent microtones at 2:22, whose gradual tempo increase eventually births the layering mini-cascades of vibrations in fluctuation we myopically call vibrato? The gorgeous miniature is rife with internal rhythms, imbuing the entire frequency spectrum with warmth, luminosity and, above all, a raw power, a vision of arising and somehow fastidious unity very rare in any chamber music. It is one of the most extraordinary occurrences in a set full of them, showing a group in the flux of development portended by that first concert and realized over the succeeding years. Yet, nothing anticipates, or can follow, the vast architectural drones, the huge swells as primal as ocean waves and as crystalline as spring water. The group’s atoms are elongated, saturated with the energy and life-blood only a shared performance experience affords. Again, pitch is only a consequence stemming from the timbres in vibration and mutation filling and elasticizing each moment. The applause is well deserved.

Rereading the above affirms that it cannot constitute anything close to a comprehensive review. For one thing, so many of this compendium’s wonderful performances are simply neglected. There is the occasion, the only one, of Simon Fell and violinist Phil Durrant performing together in a small group, caught in the Red Rose in February 1998. That beloved venue had a wonderful acoustic, especially evident on the two IST pieces opening the fourth disc. The initially sparse concluding track offers a precis of just how well the improvisers’ aesthetics meshed, matched only by John Butcher’s contributions to another Red Rose performance several months earlier. How one trills multiphonics in microtone I’ll never know, yet another nod to timbral intrigue, but you can hear Butcher doing just that as the combined portion of the concert begins, the trio supporting and leading in turn.  

Ultimately, when confronting music plumbing such sonic depths, nothing can replace first-hand observation. How, after all, does one review the musical equivalent of a thunderstorm, a birth, something as nebulous and inconclusive as a conclusion, especially when the language to discuss it has yet to be invented? It is the substance of those unfolding events as much as their attendant statistics that generate the power and lead toward reflection, and this box rewards that sort of listening. More than that, it pays tribute to a time of exploration, of interactive moments caught in the simple but precious and fleeting acts of presaging others, however distant, and to the environments bearing witness as sound travels between mind, heart and body. Beyond even these relationships, the set honors Fell. Only weeks before his death, a 25th anniversary IST concert was being planned. The box is dedicated to Fell, and his mentorship helped Wastell and Davies to enter the musical scene the trio would go a long way toward defining. The music here somewhat mitigates the harsh reality that they will not perform again, as do the accompanying booklet’s reminiscences, from those involved in the music and from those observing. Insightful, touching and sometimes humorous, they mirror the music’s multifaceted approach in a way many such endeavors fail to do. With mixed emotions channeled through a quiet but definite comprehension of the extraordinary nature of what transpired and is documented, the various accounts celebrate the music and the musicians responsible for it. No more can be asked than that we do the same.

Marc Medwin

[vivdunye]

present day, present time

and you don't seem to understand

fabled adages of science

so i was watching the snyder cut of justice league the other morning, i couldn't really begin to tell you why other than i needed 4 hours of background noise . but i tuned in at one point when the fictional super Israeli, wonder woman, narrated a scene explaining an alien technology "that was so advanced that it almost seemed like sorcery", and wouldn't yknow, that's a real concept actually, i recognized it immediately as clark's third law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

it's perhaps the most well known and oft quoted of the three, but i always felt like arthur c. clark's first 2 laws don't ever get quite enough love . i've been thinking heavily about the first law lately:

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

i've been thinking about it in relation to this one quote from wernher von braun that i always liked:

Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.

many people are afraid of death; of ceasing the awareness of life, because they don't know what will happen to themselves after, where do they go if anywhere? it's much more nebulous in the secular sense if you haven't a construct for the afterlife already . i've been thinking about death more and more often lately to a worrying degree . however, scientific thought for all its clinical detachment from all things spiritual has strangely enough always felt like the perfect module for contemplating the metaphysical . so i decided to do some research .

i want to recall right now thomas edison's first intended use for the phonograph . edison had originally envisioned the phonograph primarily as a means of preserving the voices of loved ones after death . he later went on to try and develop a "ghost box" or "spiritphone" . this device would allow humans to communicate directly with the dead . he was unsuccessful .

if hauntology has taught us anything, we technically do have ghost boxes now, but maybe not in the way edison intended or even predicted . we carry them everywhere and can check them anytime, channeling messages through them constantly . we actively become digital ghosts, online we are both present and absent . the present implodes with the past, we've over-documented everything so now we can experience an instant nostalgia . today's future becomes archaic, we live in the archive to try and remember what the future once was .

'haunted' and 'futuristic' become one and the same .

by this token i'm reminded also by transhumanism . as the technological singularity fast approaches, as progress charges forward at a constantly increasing speed, current estimates posit the 2040s as the point in which technological improvements will occur at a constantly self-replicating rate . in the time between now and then, transhumanism and the eventual merging of human consciousness with machinery are theorized outcomes of technological progress . one day we might be able to leave the shackles of our human bodies and transcend our physical forms as a joined digital consciousness .

and in relation to this i also think now of clark's second law

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

through the wired

this is the stage on which the anime Serial Experiments Lain is set . a story, that while constructed on the patchwork of fiction, is nevertheless symbolic of certain phenomena based in reality .

also i apologize if it wasn't apparent that this post was going to be about Lain . im lainposting boys

the first few episodes exist to misdirect the viewer right from the beginning . and only by returning to these episodes having thought through the rest of the show, does their purpose become clear . the first episode, aptly titled "Layer 01: Weird" , is meant to show us exactly one thing, that lain is fucking weird . we can't tell what she's thinking, we can't tell what she's doing, and that's exactly how everyone around her feels . lain is totally and completely disconnected, she doesn't keep up with current events at school, she doesn't communicate with her family, near as we can tell she has no actual interests besides her stuffed animals and totally phasing out of reality. the inciting incident of the series happens when someone tries to make a connection with lain, and that person happens to be dead...

or at least there body is dead, their consciousness seems to have escaped into the wired . lain's decision to pursue this connection is what lead's her to ask her father for a new navi (the series' name for a personal computer) and that's all that really happens in this episode . coming back to it from later episodes we know that lain is probably thinking a lot throughout this episode . the decision to not entreat us to any of her thoughts is intentional, it is to make us feel distant from her as viewers, the same way that the world around her is distant . as lain forms connections throughout the series, so too, will we form a connection with her .

we do not know how much time has passed since then and the second episode, but whatever has happened lain has already developed a significant presence in the wired . this episode is tricky in its presentation as it doesn't make us privy to which things lain is lying about and which things she's honest about . in it we have lain talking to someone on her navi, she types sporadically in an encrypted language, and someone who looks just like her appears late one night in a night club downtown . while lain won't admit it to her classmates it's apparent at the end of the episode that it was her at the club all along . the key to understanding her actions throughout the episode is to realize she is trying to keep her existence in the wired and her existence in reality as separate entities . the realization she has by the end of the episode, which she uses to terrify a gunmen into suicide is that there is no escape from the wired, no matter where you are you are always connected .

made in the late-90s, Lain was quite ahead of its time . it predicted not only how in the early 2000s the internet would be regarded as a separate world where anonymity and personas reigned—it also predicted how the internet would eventually and inevitably overlap with the real world, once people in the real world realized that the internet is the real world . people have a tendency to see one part of themselves as their "true selves", whereas the parts they show to others are personas, they think of these things as separate when in reality a person is an amalgamation of all of their personas . lain tries to change her personas by dressing and acting differently from when she's in the wired-mode and in normal-mode, but she doesn't realize how people have been doing this way before the wired existed . her classmates are all 15 but they all pass for adults when they've dolled up and hit the club . if the characters in the show seem a bit young for their attitudes then you may not have met enough tech-savvy teenagers before . the purpose of this episode is to ultimately to prove to lain that the so-called real world and the wired are merely two layers of one reality, which couldn't be more true of the world today .

let there be light300pMTK. .

in mythology, psyche was the mortal princess who fell in love with and, eventually, married the god cupid; in religion and classical philosophy, psyche came to mean the human soul, and in the modern, literate world, it retains that meaning as the human spirit; in freudian analysis, psyche refers to the totality of the human mind: the id, ego and superego .

every meaning of psyche is distinctly human: a human princess who achieves godhood, the soul or mind of an individual . if previous episodes introduced the blurring of the real world with the wired, then episode three; "Layer 03: Psyche" is the episode that starts to blur human identity online and offline . one doesn’t even have to venture into the wired to ask what is human .

by this point we know that lain is definitely up to something . at this stage it's hard to tell what, but all we get are little glimpses into her actions . she still seems to be hiding a lot from the world around her and from the viewer in turn . ironically, lain's blank-faced silence and response to the questions of those around her it's own incrimination . when a police officer tells her to speak up (regarding the gunman's suicide) even if she had nothing to do with it, he doesn't realize she's being silent precisely because she does have something to do with it . but her deer-in-the-headlights persona gets her out of it .

the lain of the wired and the lain of reality are slowly starting to mesh into one whole . it remains difficult to interpret the physical existence of "other lain" so to speak, and the show refuses to outright show her playing that character . at the least, we do get to see lain access the wired in all its chaotic glory and she does begin to take an active interest in expanding her knowledge as she learns about and installs the "Psyche drive", a computer circuit that lain procures in hopes of it enhancing her computer's processing power . on the smaller scale, when lain applies the psyche processor to her navi, she is installing a spirit or soul, an animating element, to her machine . notably, the psyche does not replace the main processor; psyche augments the main processor, interpreting the data that flows through it . the soul is not simply the brain, it is an elevated consciousness or meta-self. by this point in the series lines become blurred and the lains begin to merge (hehe) . all of this is set against the backdrop of lain trying to decide if she should remain in the physical world or fully integrate in the wired . she hears one voice telling her that death feels amazing, and god exists in the wired, that there is nothing left for lain in this world . however, lain begins to establish a connection with her classmate alice, saying her name out loud and commiting it to memory for the first time, alice asks why her friends are not more shaken up after watching someone shoot himself in the head the previous day . it's almost as though lain is clinging to alice as an excuse to stay in the physical world out of fear for changing over . this all sets the seeds for what eventually grows throughout the series .

i want to recall the final meaning of the word “psyche". that the word also meant “butterfly,” which is how the greeks imagined the soul to appear . no doubt the symbolism of a creature that begins as one thing and transforms into another is not lost on us here .

every event serves to emphasize the existence of one's own personal reality, and as individuals from all others, we desire a place to belong . however that too is an egotistical concept . in order for there to be a mutual understanding, it is necessary to recognize here and now, like the brain synapses, we are all—in a logical yet chaotic manner—connected .

each is seperate—yet they are one . by connecting, humanity gains first awareness of its function as a seed . and by connecting a human no longer remains a mere endpoint, a "terminus", but becomes a junction to another point, having won the right to continue itself . in a sense, the ability to connect is the ability to continue . this not only applies to the connection of axial coordinates but temporal coordinates as well . therefore, at the time when a conscious, intentional connection is made, surely the dead will rise from there intended place, appearing at the time coordinate of the connection's origin .

in that moment, the realization will dawn that the time in which we inhabit our physical bodies is but the starting point of the connection, and the very meaning of possessing a physical body might be questioned .

we recognize we are connected .

serialize thyself .

[loopy777]

I love your two Ursas analysis! If we ignore The Search and take the hints from canon, like her laughing at the siege of Ba Sing Se, do you have a HC for the night Azulon died/where she was all those years? I almost think it’s most plausible that she died or was otherwise incapacitated. And do you think she ever had a “the FN is evil” epiphany or it was limited to “you can’t kill Zuko”? Do you think Ozai abused her, or was just unloving? Maybe he saw no purpose to abusing her, unlike the kids

Ah, Ursa headcanons. Everyone’s got a set. For me, though, it was less about headcanon than it was about trying to solve the mystery I thought the AtLA cartoon had been setting up. Since ‘The Search’ revealed that there were no real answers to be had, I’ve speculated a bit on what I’d like to see, but I haven’t done much with those ideas since they by their nature contradict canon.

So, my Ursa...

A noble by birth, with her relation to Roku known but not discussed. Sozin and Azulon could have very easily made a pariah out of the family by simply ignoring them and allowing the rest of Fire Nation society antagonize them in a display of performative loyalty. However, Sozin instead reached out to Roku’s family, explaining that Roku was a traitor but surely his family is loyal to the crown and looking to prove it to avoid any unpleasantness. They agreed, and so Roku’s family became almost entirely dependent on the Fire Lord’s goodwill and protection. The one alliance they maintained for themselves was with the Fire Sages, as the family had been honored by them for producing the Avatar, even after Roku and Sozin had their falling out. Sozin had been politically pressuring the Sages throughout his life, trying to make them a tool of the crown, and the Sages in turn maintained good relations with Roku’s family to try to keep some independence. Quite a few of Roku’s family had even become Sages, over the decades.

(This didn’t really work, but it left enough ‘good’ Sages in the organization that when Zuko becomes Fire Lord, he doesn’t have to disband the whole organization, just purge the leadership who had been tools of his father. It very much helps that he’s a distant relation to a lot of these better sages, and that is one of the few smooth elements of his first few years in power.)

When Azulon suggested that the youngest daughter, however, would make a good match for Ozai instead of wasting her life in some dusty temple, they readily agreed and handed her over. Ursa herself was fine with this, as she appreciated the Royal Family’s protection as much as the rest of her clan, and preferred noble society anyway. Plus, back then Ozai made an effort to be charming. Ursa herself was happy as a Fire Nation heiress, and was known to argue passionately about the need to liberate the poor oppressed women of the Water Tribes, who were owned as property by their husbands! My Ursa was a Firebender, and had trained at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, but the strength of her flames was never matched by her skill or technique. She just never had the stomach for duels or fighting, hence leaning more towards a scholarly education and perhaps a future as a Sage. But getting to be a princess is even better, especially since the war would probably be over soon. She could help raise the Prince(ss) Governors who would rule over the colonies, influencing the world for the better. And she also found Ozai very attractive. Rawr!

Ozai himself I consider to have always been narcissistic jerk. When he was a kid and young teen, this was readily apparent. As he moved into adulthood, he learned how to hide it behind a facade, but more discerning folks could tell that he was just using friendliness and flattery to win allies. Ursa, sadly, was not that perceptive, so she rather liked Ozai, even into the first few years of the marriage.

Then Zuko came along.

Ozai was consistently disappointed in Zuko, and he blamed Ursa for that. He wasn’t a full-on monster to her, and never laid a hand on her, but he no longer went to the effort of charming her. Ursa managed to fool herself about this, making excuses for Ozai’s behavior even as their marriage cooled. She managed to stick it out long enough to produce Azula, which initially placated Ozai. Azula was everything Zuko was not. However, this did not save the marriage, because Ozai now had what he wanted, and saw no further need for Ursa. Again, he didn’t bully her, but he made no effort to hide his lack of real interest in her. The marriage was soon in name only, with little interaction between them. Ursa began to see Ozai for what he was, especially with his treatment of Zuko, and began to fear the influence he was having on Azula. This distance did help shield her as Ozai grew crueler and more of a bully as his efforts gain power were thwarted by his clumsiness. The palace and Caldera City are big enough that Ursa was able to avoid him most of the time, and they never shared a suite unless actively trying to have children, even early in the marriage.

However, there was little else Ursa could do. Ozai was not favored by Azulon, but challenging the authority of anyone in the Royal Family would have brought swift and terrible reprisal. Ursa tried to shield Zuko as best she could, and continued to play the part of Wife and Princess in official appearances like social gatherings or audiences with the Fire Lord. She sometimes went over the line in trying to protect her children, which Ozai would punish with cruelties, to the point of mental and emotional abuse, and sometimes physical intimidation, but he was too careful (so far) to risk his reputation by attacking his wife. For that, Iroh was indirectly the one to thank, as he had been a loving family man before the death of his wife, which Azulon approved of, and Ozai was trying to look better than his brother in the eyes of their father.

It all eventually came to a head in events portrayed in the flashbacks of ‘Zuko Alone.’ I headcanon that Ursa outright stabbed Azulon to death, to the point where she ruined a good set of her clothes with bloodstains. And then she confessed her crime to the Crimson Guard and Fire Sages. She should have been put to death for treason and murder, and she was prepared for that, but she and Ozai had concocted a better scheme. Ursa called in every favor her family had earned from the Sages to talk to the leadership in the middle of the night. She and Ozai pointed out that Iroh had taken a dim view of the corruption of the Sages and had battled them politically, and told them bluntly that Ozai was their best bet for surviving as an organization. They suggested the Sages should lie about Azulon’s last wishes and pronounce Ozai as the next Fire Lord. In exchange, Ozai would merely banish Ursa as failure of a wife and cover up her crime, so that her family would not have to suffer shame or even outright execution for producing a regicidal traitor. No one would speak of what had happened, no one would get in trouble, and Ozai would be Fire Lord and keep the current system running smoothly. Everyone agreed.

I always figured that Ursa had to have been banished, because in the scene where she says goodbye to Zuko, she’s wearing a dark hooded cloak. That’s universal visual language for “This character is fleeing into the night.”

I also assumed that everyone (important) knew Azulon had been murdered because of the fishy way Ozai was made Fire Lord by the Sages. Even if they believed Azulon had died of natural causes, where did it come from that he had named Ozai as the new crown prince shortly before his death? I doubt a forged note that no one had ever seen before the night of the guy’s death would be considered very reliable. So I thought there had to be a conspiracy that included the Sages; they were at least in on faking Ozai’s claim, and so why wouldn’t they also be in on the murder? And once all the people in power are perpetrating a conspiracy, the evidence doesn’t matter; the truth becomes whatever they want it to be.

Where Ursa goes after that, though, is a lot more nebulous. The way the cartoon finale had Zuko confront Ozai with, “Where- is- my- mother?” implies that Ozai might actually know, or at least have an idea where to start looking. I also think it would cheapen the power of that scene to have Ozai wiggle out of giving any information. So Ozai has to give Zuko something to go on there, but he also said, “Perhaps,” when Zuko asked during the Day of Black Sun if Ursa lives. So I figure Ursa had to have been banished from the Fire Nation, and Ozai knows either where she left from or her initial destination, but nothing else.

I never formed a solid headcanon about whether Ursa is still alive, though. This is the point where my interest ends, since the comics gave us a completely different Ursa character and mystery, and I expect many Avatar fans are interested in fic that outright contradicts canon. If she lives, I think it would be more interesting if she is indeed a typical Fire Nation imperialist, but I don’t think she would actively oppose Zuko’s agenda. It would simply inform their dynamic and create conflict between them. It would be a new challenge for Zuko to overcome in terms of his family. And it might even be a vector for Azula and Ursa to hash out their problems, with Ursa considering that she might almost prefer Azula to have become Fire Lord. But ultimately, Ursa could realize that Azula’s ways are only destructive, and see that the kindness she always liked in Zuko has to extend to all people of the world, not just the Fire Nation.

But there’s also a compelling story in Ursa being dead by the time Zuko tracks her down. Perhaps she died in the war, somehow. Whether Ursa is a racist or not doesn’t matter as much in this scenario. But It could fuel Zuko’s desire to somehow reconcile with Azula, since there’s nothing else from his past that he can save.

So that’s the stuff I came up with.

[enamouredfae]

My placements through the La Volasfera Degrees, translated by Sepharial.

Please note that this is not my writing, and I do not claim it as my original work. This is but a way for me to find this information all in one place.

29° Scorpio Ascendant | Leo Degree

A woman in trailing robes waving a wand around which is coiled a serpent.

It is the index of a nature that is both clever and cunning; capable of asserting its power over others by persuasion or fascination. To such will be given some lofty command or position of trust, and success will be achieved by personal charm and magnetic power. It is a degree of ATTRACTION.

17° Virgo Midheaven | Leo Degree

An old white-headed man surrounded by happy children.

It denotes to the native a long and happy life; an old age invested with the comforts of homely affection. It endows the native with a kind, benevolent and fatherly interest in his fellows, especially those of tender years. He will be much beloved and will end his days in prosperity and peace. It is a degree of GUARDIANSHIP.

12° Leo Sun | 10th House | Pisces Degree

A jutting rock, upon which some tufts of grass hold a thin, but certain existence.

It indicates a person of firm and steadfast character; one who will resolutely hold to his own beliefs and principles, though it is to his disadvantage. In some ways, the mind will be precocious and there will be some degree of self-assertion shown; but, whatever the native may determine upon as the right thing to do will assuredly be done if within the compass of resolute striving. It is a degree of CONSTANCY.

12° Libra Moon | 12th House | Pisces Degree

A pillar of black marble standing upon a rock, roughly hewn.

It denotes a person of peculiar and sometimes melancholy and misanthropic nature: apt to contract false or unprofitable relations with his fellows and with the opposite sex. The native will make a bad match and will be unfortunate in wedlock, with probable separation. The native, in centering his affections upon one object, will be liable to disappointment in life. It is a degree of SOLITARINESS.

25° Cancer Mercury | 9th House | Aries Degree

A meteor, or falling star.

It denotes a person of somewhat poetical or aesthetic nature, but wholly unsuited to the routine of daily life in its sterner and more prosaic aspects. Like the meteor, he has an eccentric path, and his appearances are spasmodic and evanescent, although bright. His position in life will be always subject to reversals and changes and his success will not be lasting. If he should attain to eminence he will be in danger of a fall. It is a degree of UNCERTAINTY.

27° Leo Venus | 10th House | Gemini Degree

Two hands linked in a close grip of friendship.

It denotes a person of a very amiable and sociable nature, filled with concord and goodwill towards his fellows. A rich, unselfish nature, care of those little greatnesses in daily life which make a man beloved, if not remarkable. It is probable that the native will be instrumental in forming some large associations for social cooperation, or intellectual improvement. The native is essentially constructive, harmonizing, and humane. It is a degree of SUSTAINING.

2° Leo Mars | 10th House | Taurus Degree

A wave-Line of nebulous light, obscured by a cloud in the midst.

It denotes a person of elastic and undeveloped mind, uncertain principles, liable to lead to license and moral turpitude. The native will lead a somewhat irregular life and will be generally inconsequent and unreliable in his actions. Much of the obscurity into which this person will be at from time to time will be due to the unfledged condition of the mind, and the misdirection, through ignorance, of the moral faculty. It is a degree of WANDERING.

6° Gemini Jupiter | 8th House | Virgo Degree

A peaceful valley; a lake on which a swan is floating. At the back rises a high mountain.

This indicates one of a generous, kind nature, full of contentment and quiet happiness. One who will suffer but few sorrows, and will ‘have peace in all his relations'. The mind will be passive, calm, and thoughtful; the manners courteous and graceful, and the body elegant. The native will have a strong memory and small imaginative power. This is a degree of PEACE.

29° Taurus Saturn | 7th House | Leo Degree

A dark man, richly appareled, and surrounded by servants and courtiers, reclines on a couch.

It indicates one whose tastes are luxurious but artistic, one who will have much wealth and influence, but whose love of ease will be his great fault and the cause of his worst misfortunes. He who would provide for a long journey must not carry water in his hands. It is a degree of LUXURY.

19° Aquarius Uranus R | 4th House | Libra Degree

A great tortoise.

This denotes one of patient and plodding disposition, disposed to rusticity of habit, endowed with great powers of endurance, an even disposition and contented mind. His position in life will always be secure, owing to his great prescience and providence, and he will create about him by slow and patient toil the means of his own security and well-being. His life is likely to extend to phenomenal years and his position in old age will be one of independence and security from all harm. Of rather solitary and retired nature, deeply philosophical, patient, and contented with simple ways of living, he will yet evince a kindly disposition and will live long to enjoy the fruits of his labors and the esteem of his fellows. It is a degree of PROVIDENCE.

4° Aquarius Neptune R | 4th House | Cancer Degree

A woman nude, looking at her reflection in a pool of water.

It is not necessary to say, perhaps, that this is a symbol indicative of extreme danger to the moral nature of the person born under this degree. There is an element of dalliance and self-love in the nature which will be liable to lead to serious complications and entanglements. It may be that this egotism will only veil a weakness which cannot withstand the temptations of the carnal nature. The nature will be sympathetic and to a large degree reflective of the immediate environment, in which, however, there will be too strong an accent of self. It is probable that the native may show artistic tastes and a marked ability for portrait painting or sculpture. It is a degree of EGOTISM.

10° Sagittarius Pluto R | 2nd House | Capricorn Degree

A tiger crouching as in the act of assault.

It denotes a character that is treacherous and aggressive, disposed to seek his ends with subtlety and to secure them by force. There is here a combination that is both diplomatic and assertive, and therefore to be treated with reserve and firmness. The native will attain many of his ambitions and will make many enemies in the course of his career. His projects will lead him into many dangers and may even bring about his premature end. It is a degree of STRATEGY.

23° Cancer North Node | 9th House | Aquarius Degree

A strong castle on a high rock, and upon the battlements of the castle of flag with a crown upon it is seen extended in the wind.

It denotes a strong, masterly character of great endurance, stability and daring; ambitious of honor and capable of withstanding his enemies while achieving greatness and fame for himself. It is a degree of MASTERY.

23° Capricorn South Node | 3rd House | Aquarius Degree

A tankard set upon a table.

This denotes a steadfast and capable person, whose life will be orderly and useful, whose mind will be open to the reception of truth and knowledge and whose passions will be well regulated. He will display a frank and even blunt nature, being free from all craftiness and subtlety; and his mind will have a sincere regard for all that is simple and natural in human nature, and a rooted distrust of the non-transparent. It is likely that he will be disposed to seek his livelihood in the vineyard or hostel, but in the highest capacity he can be, will aspire to become a teacher and purveyor of spiritual truths. In any case he is a man of the common walk and his sympathies are with the people. It Is a degree of SINCERITY.

29° Capricorn Part of Fortune | 3rd House | Leo Degree

An arrow in flight.

This symbol denotes an aspiring and ambitious nature, impelled by the strength of a force behind him to the attainment of a certain high or distant project. Gifted with extreme directness and celerity of action and endowed with remarkable powers of concentration, he will be in a fair way to attain his intentions and accomplish his ambitions. But everything will depend upon his start in life as to whether he will reach his goal. Heredity and training will count for more than usual in his case, for he is one of those who will follow his inherent impulses and has little or no individual power of direction and scarcely any adaptation. The breath of public opinion may carry him wide of his mark, and with the decline of his natural forces there will be a falling off of ambition and purpose. It is a degree of DECLINE.

11° Sagittarius Chiron R | 2nd House | Taurus Degree

A fair woman sporting herself on a couch.

It is the index of a mind that is give to the delights of the senses, voluptuous and sybaritic, selfindulgent and indolent, yet ambitious of the honors and wealth. The pleasures of the senses will prove to the native a delusion and a snare, leading him on from one indulgence to other until at length he will fall into a premature senility and ineptitude which he will not have strength enough to rouse himself from. Women under this degree should be carefully cherished and fore fended. It is a degree of SENSUSOUSNESS.

17° Capricorn Lilith | 3rd House | Leo Degree

Two men in fierce strife.

This symbol denotes one whose aggressive and quarrelsome nature will lead him into all sorts of difficulties and dangers, from which it is to be feared he will not escape unhurt. Contentious, reviling and unorthodox, his mind will be at war with prevailing opinions and popular beliefs. He will create discord wherever he goes, and be a sorry test to men of humane and benevolent dispositions. His nature is devoid of frankness and he does not admit the truth even to himself, but opposes all and evety one on whatever ground is open to debate. In a word, he is an Ishmaelite, and will finally be deserted and abandoned to the mercies of his mother Nature. It is a degree of STRIFE.

[warsofasoiaf]

If prince Valarr or Matarys survived the great spring sickness but Kiera of Tyrosh dies, who would they marry? Daenora Targeryen would help create a Stormland-Vale union that could secure the crown. Would Maekar push for one of his daughters or maybe a reacher house to suppress Blackfyre support?

That’s a tough question because it relies on a lot of unknowns. Daeron II either dies shortly before or shortly after Valarr or Matarys, and we have to deal with the problem of who is sitting the Iron Throne

With Valarr, this is a little easier. He’s old enough to have children which means he’s an adult. However, we have no idea of the type of person he is; the last we ever heard of him was in The Hedge Knight, and even then, we didn’t really experience him at all. He loaned his armor to his father, but what did he think of the Trial by Seven? How much of Baelor’s lessons did Valarr absorb and believe in, and what were the guiding principles of his self?

Matarys, this is harder because he is 14-15, which is that weird nebulous position where you could be considered an adult and you could not be. If he isn’t, it means a factional fight as different individuals attempt to control Matarys to set policy and direction for the short regency. Aerys isn’t going to take control as the senior male noble leader of House Targaryen, but Maekar certainly would try, as would Bloodraven. 

Then, you have to deal with the difficulties that faces Westeros at the time. The land is positively reeling from the Great Spring Sickness, and there’s going to be a lot to do to fix everything. The hostages in King’s Landing have died thanks to the Great Spring Sickness; there was very little that the Targaryen could do given the incredible virulence and lethality of the disease, but that’s still going to make a lot of people quite upset even if they don’t believe the plague was a curse sent by the Seven. 

I would imagine, since Kiera of Tyrosh was wed again, the leader of House Targaryen would again look to try to find ways to undermine the support of the distant Blackfyre faction. Whether that means another Archon’s daughter, making inroads to another Free City is unknown, we know so little about the geopolitical situation at the time. But given the two marriages, we can reasonably assume that the Tyroshi element of the Blackfyres was treated as a matter of serious concern for House Targaryen, probably meaning that another daughter of Tyrosh related to a powerful Tyroshi noble with the potential to become Archon would be the ideal choice.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[lyendith]

Ciconia no Naku Koro ni Phase 1 : To You, The Replaceable Ones

I had planned to write this… review? analysis? of Ciconia Phase 1 right after finishing the game about two weeks after its release, but since then I've had trouble organizing my thoughts. The reason is that this first installment alone tackles a lot of themes: war, nationalism, technoscientism, media consumption and manipulation, the blurring limits between physical and virtual reality, education systems, generational gaps induced by technology, artificial procreation, old people robbing the youth of their dreams, the meaning of family and interpersonal bonds, and even transidentity (albeit briefly). And it is quite remarkable that almost all of those themes are represented by one object: the Gauntlet and the idea of “parallel processing” associated with it.

It's gonna be a long and messy review, I'll probably forget to mention some aspects of the story or overlook others, and I won't talk about every single character, but I'll try to cover the essential parts. Not easy considering how densely-packed the story is, but let's go!

So to start, I should probably focus on this VN's protagonist, Mitake Miyao. On a surface level, he's a bit of what you'd call a “tsundere”: harsh, a little irritable and sarcastic with his pals, but always well-meaning and easy to befriend in the end. One of the running threads of the story so far is that he's too well-meaning in fact, idealistic to a fault, which contributes to his odd charisma but also makes the increasing realization of his powerlessness all the more depressing. You don't want to see this guy fail, but because of the way the story is framed, you know he inevitably will.

For a while, the narration and dialogue like to repeat that “youngsters are each generation's main characters”, but that's a sentiment I couldn't quite share − in our real world, youngsters may be the ones will all the dreams, but they sure as hell aren't the ones making the decisions. The climate change crisis, for example, wouldn't be left unaddressed if that was the case. And sure enough, Ciconia isn't so naïve as to ignore that reality. Every single step of the way, Miyao thinks he can use his power to overturn the situation. Every single step of the way, he's reminded that in the end he's just a pawn moving however his higher-ups or other nebulous forces wish him to. That's a really powerful and relatable theme in this day and age, which raises the question of how far you can oppose a system you're an essential part of.

One thing that makes Miyao special, at least compared to his pals from the AOU, is that he's “ciconia-born” − born from natural procreation. Which means that unlike Jayden or Gunhild, he has bilogical family bonds but also hasn't been subjected to a genetic selection that would predetermine his path in life. At least supposedly, but we gradually learn that that may not quite be the case. In fact, that biological link to Toujirou ends up acting as a tether that robs Miyao of even more control on his own life than he thought, leading to the final tragedy of this first Phase.

There also lies this story's commentary on technology and man's increasing dependence on it − technology makes the kids' life easier, but it's also their undoing. One technology prevented an apocalypse that another caused, and the loss of the former brings about a new apocalypse. Humans created the 8MS but only a handful of scientists have a full understanding of how it works, just like today's technology are only fully understood by a small elite of technicians. We are increasingly dependent on tools whose principles are increasingly out of our grasp. Again, the Gauntlet is another reflection of that.

But back to Miyao and the Gauntlet Knights. In retrospect, it is clear that the way both the characters and readers learn about most dramatic developments through disincarnated news reports (with a goofy “news flash” alert by the frog AI Keropoyo to make it worse) is meant to build up that feeling of powerlessness, and also of disconnect. We should be alarmed that war is approaching, that terrible things are happening… but it all feels distant. After all, do you cry or tremble in fear when you learn that an eathquake killed a thousand people on the other side of the globe? No, you'll think “it's terrible” for a minute and then move on, because what can you do about it? Reading the second half of Ciconia felt a lot like that. And while that's part of the message, it is also to the detriment of the reading experience a lot of the time.

For a while (around the 60-to-80% portion of the game, roughly) we get a lot of redundant dialogue about commenting the news and Miyao rambling on about how they're all COMRADES MAINTAINING THE WALLS OF PEACE, again and again and again, to the point it becomes annoying. That's my only real gripe with the game − the feeling that, at times, Ryukishi forgot he was writing a story and went into political or philosophical essays about its themes instead. Maybe a manga or anime adaptation could help make these parts more… show-don't-telly. But as it is, it could have used some serious trimming down. That's hardly something entirely new − who can forget Krauss' tangent about 1986 Japan's economic situation or Beatrice's explanation of Hempel's crow? But in Ciconia the narration doesn't seem to come from any specific point of view except that of the author (and even on that front, the opening disclaimer warns us that the views expressed don't necessarily reflect the author's opinions), so those parts become all the more conspicuous. Unless this all turns out to be part of a Witch's game, which wouldn't be surprising.

Where Ciconia shines however, is at weaving a web of connections between the characters, one by one, to make you care about some and suspicious of others, sometimes both, and deliberately confuse you about who really controls whom. First we have the kids, with Warcat and Grave Mole which instantly grew on me (the slice-of-life TIPS focused on them had some of my favorite scenes actually), then the other kette with their own quirky charms… then the “villains”, with Toujirou and Seshat, then the Three Kings and Jestress who has a delightful dynamic with Toujirou, and then Toujirou is revealed to be Miyao's father, etc... It's a testament to how well all of those characters are established that I could remember almost all of them very quickly despite their massive number. Save for the Cairo Squad maybe. They're just kinda there. The (mostly) gorgeous character designs certainly help, even if Ryukishi still has a somewhat loose grasp of body proportions and of the… number of fingers on human hands. There's some improvement even in that department though.

While Miyao is for the most part the center of the cast, at least on the kids' side, that doesn't mean the others aren't interesting in their own right. Jayden is your classic “best buddy dudebro” whose easygoingness lets him bounce off Miyao's more strait-laced personality in a fun way, but his relationship with Meow, Miyao's “little sister” who shares the same body, allows him to show more sensitivity and shyness he would otherwise have. Speaking of Meow, she brings about another interesting element of worldbuilding − the existence of “Congenital Parallel Processors”, or CPPs, i.e. people born with multiple personalities, who are not considered mentally ill but a full-fledged minority with its own issues and “coming outs”. Although that aspect isn't developped much (Meow herself kind of disappears from the radar in the second half), we do get other examples of how it can manifest, notably with the character of Naima, whose unnamed alter-ego is violently protective of her, or Rukshana who's prone to abrupt personality changes when she laughs. The way Jayden kinda walks on eggs but genuinely tris to to treat Meow as her as her own person while respecting her and Miyao's privacy is frankly adorable, and I almost wish we got more of that at least in the TIPs!

The kette I found the most interesting, though, was Grave Mole, composed of Chloe, Lilja and Koshka. While a lot of characters have issues, all three of these girls are complete mental wrecks to some degree. Koshka spends her time between grumpily taking part in Kizuna chat rooms and horrific body experiments (usually simultaneously) when she's not training, Lilja has to take drugs to pretend like she's a happy, cute and mischievous cat-girl for the sake of making Koshka a more-or-less functional human being, and Chloe has to constantly deal with unfair punishments and a constantly battered self-esteem. As comedic as Okonogi's angry rants and karate-chops are played (and as much as I like this version of Okonogi, strangely enough), that scene where she gleefully lets Lilja be killed in battle makes it clear that her mental state is just as unstable as the other two's.

On the antagonists' side, things are a lot more blurry: a lot of them utter the arc phrase “All is in the name of guiding humanity down the right path.” However, what the right path is seems to vary depending on who says it. That's where a lot of the mystery lies − be it with Jestress, Seshat or Toushirou, their goals seem contradictory, and Tak… I mean Vier Dreissig doesn't even seem to have a goal beyond SCIENCE. But a big part of Phase 1's hook is that constant uncertainty as to who is playing whom and for what purpose. Even the Three Kings, who seem like your bog standard Illuminati knock-offs, might not be as much in control as they seem − hell, one of the big catastrophes (the fatal damage to the atmospheric 8MS) happens completely outside of their control, in an almost comically sudden way.

Speaking of comical… let's get to what I found personally fascinating but what other readers might have gripes with: the brutal tonal shifts and dissonances throughout the story. A cheery scene to announce the big success of a plan for the Order of the Public Bath? Keropoyo pops up to gleefully announce… an avalanche of terrible news that make the success from a minute ago meaningless. A big conference for peace where World War IV will most certainly be stopped? All of its participant die in an “accidental” explosion. Not to mention characters that are walking balls of tone dissonance like Chloe (who has many comical scenes but is clearly broken beyond repair) or the Yeladot Shavit girls (who by the end are forced to spew out fanatical bullshit with the same sparkly smile they sport when gushing about yuri ships).

This is of course embodied by the incredible climax where all the Gauntlet Knights celebrate their comraderie together in a virtual room… while their real selves are busy killing each other lest they're court-martialed for treason. The moment where all of Miyao's ideals are brutally trashed and scattered in a battle we don't even know the purpose of. The moment where the kids' taent for “parallel processing” becomes their sole mean of escaping the horror of their situation. The moment where all the absurdity, all the unfairness explodes in a depressing flourish. The moment also where the thematic resonance with Umineko becomes fully apparent − how can we not be reminded of Sayo and Maria escaping their shitty lives through their magic? Though of course Rose Guns Days also constantly came to mind, with the focus on war and nationalism, Japan being divided between a union led by the US and one led by China, and two of Miyao's closest friends being the American Jayden and the Chinese Lingji; as well as Miyao being an idealistic and charismatic leader-by-circumstance whose dreams crash into a wall much like Rose's in RGD.

So…

All in all, Ciconia might not entirely be what I expected from a When They Cry game, but it is certainly what I expect from a 07th Expansion game: a thought-provoking experience. Again, I finished my reading shocked and confused. Although it might seem like it shows its cards more explicitly than the openers of Higurashi and Umineko, deception still plays a big part in the story, even if the interaction with the reader is less direct.

Now there might be no murder mystery for the reader to solve, but that won't stop me from speculating! The invisible turning point to me is the “Proof of a Program” chapter, where Blue Miyao tells Miyao that he'll show him someone's face, and that that will activate Miyao's murder program instantly. Miyao first laughs it off, but then the scene brutally cuts to something that might be a flashback, a flash-forward or a nightmare, maybe all of that at once… The most graphically horrifying scene of the entire game, to the point it's almost at odds with the rest. And then… it's never mentioned again. Not even when Miyao meets again with Blue Miyao. Like it never happened. My theory is that everything Miyao experiences from that point onward is some kind of simulation, and that's where the obligatory When They Cry time loop will come from this time. See you in May for the answer?

That is all for today, folks!

[nadziejastar]

Isa’s TRUE Personality: Pisces

Pisces Personality Traits

“Cool, collected, and mature beyond his age. He’s good friends with Lea.”

Saïx has a weapon called Twilight, which is shaped like a trident, the symbol of Neptune. Neptune is the ruling planet of the zodiac sign of Pisces. Pisces is the 12th, and last astrological sign in the zodiac. This means, it is one of the oldest and most wise signs. Pisces tend to be considered “old souls” and act much older than their age. The typical Pisces is an an extraordinary creature whose ideas and philosophies are wise beyond their years. Yet on the surface, like water in a lake, you'd never suspect how deep those waters run.

Driven by its strong connection to the spiritual world, this sign knows how to balance cold, hard reality with the warmth of love and understanding. Pisces feel a great deal, and they also feel misunderstood much of the time. They’re not quite pushovers, but they’re certainly sensitive. They are compassionate, easily feeling another’s pain.  

Joshua: “Imagine my surprise when I realized dreams take bodily form in this world. It struck me--by linking their dream pieces back together, maybe I could make them exist again. Maybe I could give them another chance.”

Riku: “It can't be that simple.”

Joshua: “Well, why can't it? By ourselves, we're no one. It's when other people look at us and see someone--that's the moment we each start to exist. All they needed was for someone to see them, connect with them.”

At times, however, Pisceans can have difficulty distinguishing fact from fantasy; they tend to get caught up in their ideals of how things should be. Pisces see the world through rose-tinted glasses. This perspective casts a dreamy gauziness on their words and actions that can be quite attractive to others. They place great weight on what they are feeling. Emotions define the Pisces zodiac sign, and it’s not uncommon for them to feel their own burdens (and joys) as well as those of others. The intuition of the Pisces-born is highly evolved. Many people associate Pisces with dreams and secrets, and it’s a fair association, since those born under this sign feel comfortable in an illusory world. 

Pisces: Twilight

“As the seasons converge and change, the last dregs of winter mix with the first blush of spring. Breath still curdles in the air, but pale green shoots start to unfold from the soil. This sense of “in-betweenness” is the essence of the Pisces star sign.

It’s the time of day when both the sun and moon are visible, the magic of twilight, and an unwavering trust in the Universe. As the last sign of the zodiac, you’re born with an innate sense of wisdom that takes the rest of us a lifetime—or lifetimes—to accumulate.”

Twilight is the time of day that Pisces is associated with symbolically. It's the last sign of the zodiac. It implies the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. Hence it has been said that it signifies ‘rebirth of matter after death’. It carries the same meaning as the waning crescent moon on Isa’s jacket, and the sunset of Twilight Town. Pisces denotes the final moment which contains within itself the beginning of the new cycle. It’s the time of being in-between.

Isa---“A quiet and cool-headed youth. Though he does come out of his shell when talking to his best friend Lea, toward others he is distant and untalkative.”

Pisces are generally gentle, easy-going folk, who are on the shy and reticent side. They are filled with so much compassion and empathy, they often put others’ needs before their own. The willingness of personal sacrifice is one of their major characteristics. They are remarkably wise and self-sacrificing when it comes to helping the vulnerable or those down on their luck. Hands down, they are the most selfless sign in the Zodiac. Ruled by Neptune, Pisces is intuitive and incredibly creative by nature. With a soul as deep and vast as the oceans, Pisces thrives in a world of fantasy, where its imagination can flow freely.  

Axel: “Go on, you just keep running. But I'll always be there to bring you back!”

On the down side, they get hurt and demoralized very easily. While it's very true that Pisces' can count kindness as one of their greatest assets, their desire to escape becomes prevalent when the going gets rough. Water, like any other element, is filled with power. Further, water can be calm and placid, or stormy and destructive. Pisces often embodies both these characteristics. Neptune also rules all forms of escapism. If Pisces can steer clear of the pull of escapism while embracing their inner truths, they'll be quite successful in life.

Even with all the talent and resources they possess, their low self-esteem becomes a hindrance in their path. Pisces tend to be oversensitive. They take everything to heart and become emotional in the extremes. They tend to look at the negative side more than the positive side of things. Cancer and Pisces are considered the top two most emotional zodiac signs. I think this capacity for such emotional extremes is why Isa was considered such a good potential vessel for one of the 13 Seekers of Darkness.

Pisces’ Color: Light Green

Naminé: “Some people think pain is something you can just wipe away--and sometimes, maybe, you can. But not all pain can be erased. The only way to deal with it is to accept it head-on. And if the hurt is too great for you to bear it alone--well, then you turn to a friend close to your heart.”

Sora: “Because the hurt will bring us closer together, and make us stronger.”

Unlike Saïx, Isa’s natural eye color is light green. The mystical and magical nature of Pisces is enhanced by the lightest tints of green. As the color of life, light green represents renewal and inspiration, encouraging the healing and rejuvenating energies that Pisces is known for. The softer the green, the more Piscean it becomes.

♆ is the symbol of the trident of Neptune, or Poseidon. Ψ is the Greek letter psi, which is used as a symbol for psychology, psychiatry and pharmacology. It’s also where the name Poseidon comes from. Our word “psyche” is derived from the Greek word “psuche”, a word beginning with the letter psi. Translated, it means “a person’s heart and/or soul”. And this weapon has a prominent Recusant’s Sigil on it. Isa definitely needed healing.

Pisces’ Symbol: The Fish

Axel: “Well, I think you can be inseparable, even if you’re apart. It’s like, if you feel really close to each other. Like best friends.”

The zodiac sign Pisces is embodied by two Fish, and its glyph represents an image of these Fish, linked together for eternity. It’s important to know that it is not just one Fish, but two. They are a representation of Pisces’ ability to exist simultaneously in both a conscious and subconscious world. As the last sign of the zodiac, Pisces is also connected to the idea of cycles – that every ending is a new beginning – which is represented by the two Fish swimming in opposite directions. 

There's a persistent rumor among astrologers that you can always spot Pisces' by their crossed legs, even if they're standing. Like many clichés this one has a grain of truth in it. Perhaps this is because Pisces' symbol, two fish tied by an invisible cord as they swim in opposite directions, is being expressed. 

Isa---“Often scolds Lea, who has an opposite (though complementary) personality.” 

The fact that two fish (as opposed to one) represent the members of this sign also speaks to the duality of Pisces, and their yin and yang sensibility. The last sign of the zodiac embodies the idea that the world is created by opposite energies that complement and balance one another. Pisces is the living embodiment of yin and yang.

The story behind the fish is that one day, Typhon happened to see Venus, the goddess of beauty and her son Cupid, the god of love on the banks of a river. To escape from his clutches, Venus and Cupid turned into fish and swam into the depths of the river. They had tied their tails together so they would not be separated. In the river, they were saved by other fish, who were later hung in the sky as a token of gratitude. This was done to commemorate the day when the goddess of beauty and god of love were saved from being destroyed.

Pisces’ Ruling Planet: Neptune

Yen Sid: “In the Sleeping Worlds, real time does not flow. Unless one restores the world by waking it from its slumber, it will stay locked in a dream forever.”

The Third Eye chakra, located on the forehead, is ruled by Neptune. Fantastical and dreamy Neptune rules over the zodiac sign Pisces. It is the planet of our subconscious minds, influencing our dreams and fantasies, our imaginations, hopes, beliefs and our connection to spirituality. Those of the Pisces horoscope sign alternate between reality and non-reality in keeping with their introspective natures; their voyage between consciousness and an unconscious dream state says much about their intuitive, almost psychic natures.

In Roman mythology Neptune is the God of the Sea, and the planet Neptune’s influence is just like the vast, flowing, nebulousness of the ocean. The currents of Neptune allow Pisces to swim through a neverending world of dreams, imagination and spirituality where anything is possible. Neptune represents the invisible web that supports us when we let go of control and trust that we cannot fall out of the universe. It’s like falling asleep or floating in water. 

Among the 12 Zodiac signs, there is one specific sign in which a planet functions at its optimum. This is called its sign of “Exaltation.” Venus exalted in Pisces. Venus signifies our aspiration to beauty and truth through which we can realize the power of infinite love beyond our senses and pleasure that is the love of God, or realization of the God within ourselves.

The Rabbit’s Personality

Mystery Gear: "A weapon that draws forth its wielder's personality." 

Pisces is a sign of self-sacrifice, giving oneself over to the larger whole. The Rabbit in the Chinese Zodiac is the equivalent to Pisces in the Western Zodiac. The Rabbit is associated with new beginnings, and symbolizes character traits such as creativity, compassion, and sensitivity. Their sensitive nature makes them shy away from aggressive or competitive situations. They keep a modest attitude and maintain a pleasant relationship to people around. Rabbits are introverts and emotional.  

While they enjoy the quiet life and artistic pursuits, they are also very cunning. You'd never guess that they were strong willed. They tend to get their way through kindness. They are friendly and easy to get along with. They rarely get into serious trouble. They are discreet and usually land on their feet. Rabbits may appear detached, but it is their way of protecting themselves from harm. They can be rather moody at times. They can be rather opportunistic, but are easy to take advantage of.

The Chinese Rabbit is popular and shy. Rabbits are compassionate and protective of their inner circle of family and friends. They are rather delicate, and in order to thrive they need a supportive base behind them. Without sufficient support, they tend to fall apart during times of conflict. Emotional disruptions can actually cause them to become physically ill. They don't like arguments and conflict. They may become pessimistic and depressed. The desire for remaining in safe, comfortable environments keeps Rabbits from taking risks which sometimes causes them to miss out on good opportunities. 

Isa---“A serene and self-possessed boy who always has time for a quick quip at his best friend Lea's expense.”

Rabbits usually have soft and tender personality traits, and their serene nature keeps them from becoming visibly upset. They will not be irritated easily, and they also avoid quarrels and conflict as much as possible. The Rabbit is intelligent and compassionate, but also can be timid and afraid of change. Everywhere they go they create peace for others, but compromise their own inner harmony with sudden mood changes and fear. Rabbits are full of heart and love to take care of the wounded body, heart and soul -- they are gentle and kind. Rabbits can speak eloquently and knowledgably about many things. Their interests are wide-ranging and global. They can be generous to a fault -- a Rabbit would give away his or her last penny to someone in need. Rabbits can be very successful as long as they keep their fears in check. 

They love everything and everyone, but self-love is a challenge for them. You may think you know a Rabbit, but it’s very hard to find out how they really feel, as they are so discreet about their true thoughts and feelings. They feel vulnerable when others know too much about their private life. If you have a Rabbit friend, make sure you honor his or her heart. Chinese Rabbits tend to move through life at their own pace, no matter what anyone else thinks. They are lucky and have long lives. They are very gracious and are natural diplomats. 

Those born in the year of the Chinese Rabbit tend to stifle their feelings inside. They are very loving and giving in relationships. Rabbits may have unrealistic views of how a relationship should be, and when one ends they can be devastated. It takes them a long time to recover. The need a partner who won't take advantage of them. When they find the right partner, the relationship is very strong. They love company and love having someone special even more. They are romantic, and prefer to act in more indirect methods.

Pisces’ Tarot Card: The Moon

Luna Diviner---“Second in command who longs for the heart he does not have. Only the moon breaks his icy calm.”

The Moon, in all its mystical and idealistic wonder, is the Tarot card of Pisces. The Moon card represents our ability to rely on our instincts and intuitions, while Pisces is known as the most intuitive sign of the zodiac. Just as we live by the cycles of the Moon, The Moon Tarot card encourages Pisces to go with the flow of nature, instead of swimming against its currents.

A sensitive Water sign, Pisces is represented by two Fish, earning the nickname, “the Fishes with wishes” because of their powerful imagination and creative spirit. If you’re looking for kindness and empathy, Pisces is THE most compassionate sign of the zodiac. Pisces rules the 12th House of Privacy, Escape, and Secrets. In addition to being a Water sign, Pisces is ruled by the planet Neptune, also known as the God of the Sea. The dreamy little fish are spiritual and intuitive, with Pisces being the most psychic sign of all.

The Moon is a symbol of dreams, intuition, higher consciousness, and spiritual wisdom. The dews represent human thoughts and also stand for peace and calmness. While the crayfish reflects emotional needs and desires, the pond symbolizes unconscious mind. The towers refer to the two sides of the brain, and the path in the middle with its twists and turns shows that the mind prefers being controlled by instincts rather than intellect. The wolf and the dog represent fear of the mind when facing an unknown situation.

Pisces and the Moon

Fairy Godmother: “Strong rays of sun create dark shadows. Light and dark go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other.”

Like Pisces, The Moon card is associated with the subconscious and often highlights idealism – suggesting that things are not as they may appear. The Moon card also represents our secretive side or “shadow self”. The dog and the wolf in this card represent how our wild side blends with our tame side. This recurring theme of unity can also be found in the towers. They symbolize the practical life that most of us lead, while the path between them reminds us of the more meaningful life that we desire.

This is very true to the nature of Pisces, who are always dreaming of something more fantastic than what is actually in front of them. The water on The Moon card symbolizes the subconscious. The crustacean emerging from the water represents “coming into consciousness” and the possession of psychic abilities, which is often true of those born under Pisces.

Neptune’s Tarot Card: The Hanged Man

Ansem: “So many are still waiting for their new beginning, their birth by sleep. Even me...and even you.”

Many decks associate The Hanged Man with the zodiac sign Pisces (a mutable Water sign), ruled by Neptune (planet of mystery, illusion, imagination, and mysticism). The card in Tarot symbolizes trial or meditation, selflessness, and sacrifice. When the Hanged Man card is upright in a Tarot reading, it symbolizes suspension, change, reversal, sacrifice, readjustment, improvement, and rebirth. The card means it is time to stop resisting and gain illumination. It is the time for reflection before moving on. No matter what's going on in your life, you can right the ship and keep moving forward.

Pisces is the 12th sign of the zodiac, and is known for being sensitive, compassionate, spiritual, and non-materialistic -- but also prone to confusion, alcohol and drug addiction, mental illness or breakdown, self-delusion, self-escapism through drugs, fantasy, and illusion. In The Hanged Man, unconditional love is needed to balance out intuition and sensitivity with discipline and logic. 

Axel: “Hey, Roxas. Bet you don't know why the sun sets red. You see, light is made up of lots of colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest.”

Pisces represents "loss to the outer world, solution, and handing over the results of one cycle to the following one.” Here we face "the things which we have not yet mastered and those whom we have failed to understand or who have failed to understand us.” The card is seen to represent "sacrifice, release, acceptance, temporary abeyance or pause, emotional losses, and ending attachments to worldly, material goods." When ill-dignified, The Hanged Man can suggest "meaningless sacrifice, rejection of spiritual values, and confusion caused by mental illness, especially severe depression." 

Through the process of suspension the Hanged Man turns his focus towards the unconscious and experiences Neptune rising out of his watery kingdom. Neptune reminds us that remaining attached to old patterns, habits, or addictions perpetuates the endless cycle of martyrdom and victimization. 

Pisces’ Ruling House: 12th House of Subconscious

Sora: “The light in the darkness. It was you. You’re the one who kept me from fading away.”

Kairi: “All I did was believe that you wouldn’t.”

The 12th House of Subconscious is ruled by Pisces, the 12th sign of the zodiac. The 12th house represents your connection to spirituality, the deep and personal emotions you feel, and the openness of your heart. It is the reposit of humanity's deepest fears and governs the primordial waters it swims in before the first breath of life. It is also the house of secrets. Pisces’ understanding of quiet contemplation and emotional speculation is heavily reflected in the 12th House of Subconscious. This house is all about taking time for healing and rejuvenation before beginning anew. 

Pisces’ Element: Water

Yen Sid: “He needs you to believe. You see, Ventus's heart hangs in the balance. It sleeps in the place between light and darkness. From all I can perceive, that means he will be looking for a friend--one who believes in him, to show him the way home. Just as long as you love him...then Ventus will be able to find you when he wakes. He can follow that love back to where he belongs-- the realm of light.”

The element of Water flows through Pisces as a wave of devoted empathy and intuition. The Water element is all about our emotions, and Pisces is known for its deeply sensitive and spiritual connection to its own feelings, and the feelings of others. As large as the ocean, Pisces' heart is capable of expressing infinite compassion and love toward all beings. Without a doubt, the Water element is the most sensitive and intuitive. 

This element is capable of nourishing our soul through a deep, psychic understanding of what makes us operate. The element of Water is in touch with the source of creation and can sense that we, too, are a part of this divine birthplace. Water signs are incredibly empathic and can feel the emotions of others. Water can also drown in another person’s emotional abyss if not careful because water has no boundaries. It soaks into us. The element of Water can conform to the elements around it. When mixed with fire it creates steam, with earth it creates mud and with air it creates rain.

[centrifuge-politics]

Brick Club 4.2.1

I started this chapter freshly annoyed with Marius but very quickly found myself realizing how blinded I’ve been by the authorial lens I’ve been peering through. I’m more annoyed now that it took me this long to strip away Hugo’s Romantic-colored glasses in regard to Marius. It was less what new information I gained and more I found the right combination of story elements, mixing the secret understanding-Marius-Pontmercy sauce.

The Gorbeau raid should have clarified some broader truths for Marius, even if it left him with a more numerous yet narrower set of questions than he had when he started. The thing is, he was happy with his nebulous fantasy of what could be, but when actually faced with real answers to real questions, he shuts down entirely. I was ready and able to castigate Marius for falling short of self-awareness yet again, but then Hugo kept talking.

“He had discontinued his work, and nothing is more dangerous than discontinued labour; it is habit lost. A habit easy to abandon, difficult to resume.” Hello, alienation. Actual physical distance from alienating labor makes you realize how mentally and emotionally distant you had already been from it. You were only doing it because you needed the money, the capitalist demands of productivity were killing any outside satisfaction you may have gleaned from it. Hugo then claims: “Thought is the labor of the intellect, reverie its pleasure. To replace thought by reverie is to confound poison with nourishment” and Marius is falling into such a trap. Ok, I’ll bite, I’ve criticized him for this very thing many times (and pointed out this is likely a byproduct of profound alienation and isolation). Hugo appears to agree, identifying reverie and labor as having an explicitly inverse correlation. But suddenly there’s a new flavor here, and it’s not working. Hugo not only claims correlation, but jumps to extrapolate causation: “Woe to the brain-worker who allows himself to fall entirely from thought into reverie!” An excess of reverie must cause a lack of labor (which can only result in suicide or crime and, oh, I’ll get to that). Except…no, that isn’t how systems work. Individuals don’t allow themselves to be alienated, it’s an inherent aspect of the society they exist in. Hugo has picked out a thread and declared himself done, but I intend to sit here and pull it. Let’s talk about capitalism and mental illness.

This is going to be a Long Post(tm) as I try to construct an appropriate lens to view this chapter through. Light content warning for discussion of suicide (mostly in an academic and historic context) and talk of mental illness.

His attempted example of Escousse and Lebras becomes its own counterexample with little effort. Victor Escousse and Auguste Lebras were poets and playwrights who committed suicide together after their play, Raymond, was a failure, declared guilty of an “excess of reverie” by Hugo. Honoré de Balzac said, “Escousse and Lebras have died, like many young people, from the disenchantment of their time. They died because they found nothing to do in this world, in the midst of this society, as the last forty years have done to us.” Well, that’s kind of right but for all the wrong reasons. They didn’t have “nothing to do,” both writers were actively doing labor. They were barely twenty years old and had produced multiple works each. They both had invested their sense of self so deeply in their labor, that’s its failure became a failure of their very beings. This is doubly crushing in a (capitalist) system that primarily values you for your labor! I’d be fucking disenchanted. The problem is both Hugo and Balzac have the entirely wrong idea of what is the cause and what is the effect. Reverie and disenchantment aren’t affecting people’s labor, the system of labor is so alienating and exploitative that people are turning to suicide or crime as their only answer to society.

I emphasize the connection to labor because Hugo does so, but there’s a host of other social influences we could consider in interpreting this vague notion of reverie. Emilie Durkheim’s Suicide categorizes the motivations for suicide by degrees of social integration and moral regulation, and if I wanted to lean entirely into that, I could say revolutionary France is a petri dish of anomie, a societal state of low moral regulation, meaning society lacks a foundational set of norms, often due to rapid change on a societal level, good or bad. Anomic suicides are characterized by a sense of alienation and a lack of purpose and are common in the wake of significant social upheaval.

So...I said I was talking about mental illness and..I haven’t really. I mean, I have but I’ve mostly talked around it, alienation and anomie and bullshit. I’ve rewritten this section multiple times now, trying to find a way to ground this to Marius and to me, honestly. There’s a balance that needs to be struck between the social and the individual and mileage will vary. Hugo treats reverie like an actual drug, an external indulgence that you either partake in or not. It’s characterized too much as an individual weakness of character. Yet at the same time, Durkheim’s interpretation is too reliant on broader social explanations. Hugo is pretty dismissive of class, but we know now that mental illness disproportionately affects the working class. But it’s also a product of individual brain chemistry, my seratonin whatever doesn’t give a shit about about societal moral regulation. Ugh, I just don’t know what the right balance is and it’s impossible to filter that past my own experiences with mental illness. Maybe I’ve successfully presented some contextual space to move around in.

With all of this in mind, let’s look back to Marius without the easy excuses of voluntary reverie or even labor clouding our perspective. Marius is way ahead of us, having sampled and discarded meaningless labor entirely. “He had lost the capability of work, and of moving firmly toward a definite end, but he was more clear-sighted and correct than ever…His judgement, almost detached from hope, soared and floated aloft.” Marius isn’t high on the drug of reverie, he’s dissociating. The Romantic glorification of ecstasy and melancholy—“The soul which loves and which suffers is in the sublime state”—is disguising the fact that Marius is profoundly depressed (likely has been for awhile) and, having lost his few coping mechanisms, is spiraling. His father was wrong about Thenardier, Ursula The Lark may not be the innocent girl he thought she was, the facts of his carefully balanced world of possibilities have been overturned. If I were inhabiting Durkheim, I would peg Marius as the poster child of anomic suicide. The possibilities before him are so unbounded that they’re overwhelming and he’s lost every set of foundational values he’s ever held on to. Even the value of transcending values has turned on him, his decision to stay neutral in the Gorbeau raid weighing on him just as heavily as the prospect of having chosen a side.

The clearest indication of this is the very end of the chapter. Grasping for anything to hold on to, Marius comes across the Field of the Lark and, through the desperate logic of a depressed mind, decides this is Ursula’s field and substitutes his daily walks in the Luxembourg Garden with visits to this obscure field. “The whole mind condenses abruptly around one idea, and ceases to be capable of any other perception.” In this state, he clings to the unfixed ideal of The Lark even more than before, needing a touchstone that can neither be confirmed nor denied. Schrodinger’s coping mechanism.

[literature-scienceandprogress]

Colson Whitehead and the how technology changed black culture:Blending of History and Fantasy.

A network of people. That was what made the creation of the Underground Railroad possible. 

Photo by

Tim Wildsmith

on

Unsplash

Established to enable enslaved people to escape safely, it used rail terminology to hide the secret rotes and safehouse that helped people along their way. This is why I praise Colson Whitehead for creating a novel that transforms and extends history “from a nebulous myth to turbulent fact.” His blending of history and fantastical events enables his book to be much more than a historical novel, he is giving hope to the idea of black freedom.

His use of speculative aesthetics extends the black experience that is being told; “Two steel rails ran the visible length of the tunnel, pinned into the dirt by wooden crossties. The steel ran south and north presumably, springing from some inconceivable source and shooting toward a miraculous terminus” (p.80).

By creating a real life Underground Railroad that ferries fugitives northward he asks us to question what is real and what is not, he draws attention to the fact that the very notion of black freedom is beyond imagination in the white supremacist context.

Photo by

Benjamin Wagner

on

Unsplash

He also reminds us, as Kathryn Schulz says in her New Yorker article; “that a metaphor never got anyone to freedom.” The visualisation of the journey to freedom further emphasise the lost voices, as well as allowing whitehead to make a poignant reminder to the reader that most slaves have never imagined being free in their lifetime; freedom is only likely in their dreams. The railroad signifies hope, kinship and a chance to have a family.

And a chance to have a home. It is clear from the start that Whitehead makes the idea of homelessness a central theme of the novel. He questions the idea of where home is and presents three ideas, the plantation where saves were born, the home of their ancestors in Africa or the unknown home that they seek through their journey on the underground railroad. The railroad connects all three and allows a new identity to be formed consisting of history yet to be written and old.

Colon Whitehead makes this novel a unique one, not only does he use technology of the railroad to represent freedom. But also he addresses the horrible price slaves had to pay if they got caught; “They call this the Freedom Trail now… The bodies go all the way into town” (p.183) Whitehead deliberately juxtaposes the idea of freedom with death, the two are encapsulated within the freedom trail and sends an obvious sign to those thinking of running. They must navigate an impossible choice between the brutality of slavery or risk everything, the entire system is flawed and is designed to make black people believe that they have no hope of rebellion.

But what happens if you are free? His inclusion of twentieth century scientific ideas also brings home the brutality of false hope; “The kind of mind that could conceive of and execute such a fantastic course! What if we performed adjustments to the n****** breeding patterns and removed those of melancholic tendency? Managed other attitudes, such as sexual aggression and violent natures?” (p.145). Although temporarily free, the book emphasises that slavery is an economic system and that their bodies belong to the state. Used for medical experiments and voyeuristic pleasure, slaves were viewed as subhuman, Cause after all; “All men are created equal, unless we decide you are not a man.” (p.219) This deliberate weaving of fantastical and ahistorical elements into the narrative structure makes the reader realise that slavery is not a relic of the distant past but a recent phenomenon that still affects the present. This is a total rejection of the demand that historical fiction realistically and accurately represents the past.

[ganymedesclock]

Since druids are relatively rare, do you think it's a possibility that haggar could be keith's mom or relative if your druid!keith theory turns out to be true?

Well, no.

Because we have Keith’s dad, and we know that Keith’s other parent is a Marmora member- Haggar’s entirely unaware of the Blade.

I also really don’t like the idea of... Keith being a galra and a druid makes perfect sense because it basically means all of Keith’s relevant worldbuilding and thematic elements come back to the galra- he’s connected to the Blade, and connected to the druids. Comparatively, Keith’s tie to Earth is a lot weaker- he’s the only character we’re aware of who doesn’t really have anything he’s aware of waiting for him back there (His dad is nebulously Out There Somewhere but that’s ambiguous) and this is an explicitly brought up point of conflict for him.

Tossing Haggar in there gives Keith this whole unrelated plot attached to Altea, and intimately to a major antagonist in a way that... it really makes a lot more sense, considering this is an ensemble show, they’re not going to put all their plot points in one basket.

In-universe there’s nothing to imply it. If Haggar had a child taken from her as recently as less than twenty years ago- an eyeblink to her considering she’s been alive for ten thousand- she’d still be furious and still be searching. In particular we’d expect her to use her formidable magic capabilities and direct connection to try and hunt that person down.

But beyond that, the plot threads that could be explored making that a thing could be better explored through other characters. Keith already has a fair amount going on with his history. Making Keith part Altean defeats the point that Keith is a perfectly decent person because the galra are not fundamentally malicious or evil at all- because it sends this message of oh Keith, Keith was Uniquely hero-caliber good because of his Altean side. It also takes significant plot away from Allura, and potential future plot away from Lotor.

We already have people who are in a very believable place to be connected to Haggar- and the idea that Haggar was Keith’s mom but in a distant way that never affected him is basically just appealing for shock value and maybe drama- it retreads exactly what was already explored about the revelation that Keith is a galra, in a weaker way.

I’ve talked before about the fact that Lotor may be a villainous counterpart to Lance, and that he’s very likely half-Altean but born long after Altea’s downfall- and that could be incredibly poignant if his situation is as I suspect it, and he’s a half-sibling to Allura. Because one of the most important things for Lance? Is his family. Imagine someone who has been living his entire life in a tangled and abusive mess of a family but keeps sticking with it even though he knows it’s awful because some part of him just desperately wants to belong and feel accepted and is convinced Zarkon and Haggar are the only people that can possibly give him that.

And imagine the conflict on both of their ends if Allura and Lotor are half-siblings- Allura dealing with not only betrayal but the idea that someone on the other side of the divide is actually trying to reach her- since it’s been a major element of Lotor’s character in past incarnations that he really, really doesn’t want to fight Allura. That depending on how Lotor is handled, Allura might have the prospect of actually finding and reconnecting with another fragment of Altea, which would stir things up even after she may have steeled herself to the idea that she may have to take Haggar down. 

This would be another window into what the heck happened with Altea, it’d be a way to get into how and why Haggar turned her back on her people and planet in the first place, 

We have so much to gain from giving that plot to them, and... basically nothing interesting from a writing perspective giving it to Keith. I mean, the plot in and of itself- orphan protagonist’s mysterious parents are evil/the main antagonists- is not remotely novel. It’s been done thousands of times. It can still be interesting and compelling depending on how it’s swung, but I can’t see a way to swing it for Keith that’s not... really bad.

[nickfanemusic]

Ranking the Rush Albums Pt. 3 (#10-#6)

10. Snakes and Arrows (2007)

This was the first album (of 2) that Rush put out that I purchased when it actually came out instead of years, usually decades, after the fact. My first reactions to it were fairly lukewarm, and that I felt it had some good songs while others were real sleepers. Upon revisiting it recently, though, my attitude has warmed up to it significantly. The band is balancing their heavier, more modern sound with more dynamic arrangements, featuring a lot of acoustic guitar and spacey synth sounds to create some interesting textures. Lyrically, Peart is exploring current events in a direct way, as there are many references throughout the album to the chaotic state of the world that the Bush years had helped instigate. In fact, one of the compelling elements of this album to me upon re-listening is how the lyrics help the listener track Peart’s ideology over time. A self described “bleeding heart Libertarian”, may of Rush’s early songs are inspired by his reading of Ayn Rand, such as Fly By Night’s “Anthem” and one of Rush’s most well-regarded works, “2112″, which is actually dedicated to “The Genius of Ayn Rand” as I was boldly reminded of upon receiving the album on vinyl as a gift recently.  I have my problems with this because I think Ayn Rand was misguided at best and a malicious agent of chaos at worst, but that’s beside the point. Snakes and Arrows shows Peart reflecting on some of these notions in his lyrics, such as the prechorus of “Far Cry”: “It’s a far cry from the world we thought we’d inherit; it’s a far cry from the way we thought we’d share it” seems to be an acknowledgement of the unfairness of our current situation. “A Larger Bowl” is another example. Written as a Pantoum, a style of verse that originates in Malaysia, the lyric begins with the potent question, “If we’re so much the same like I always hear, why such different fortunes and fate?” This isn’t me saying that this is evidence that Peart has changed his ideology or anything, but much like how Kurt Vonnegut poses ideological questions in his works but also has viable counter-arguments represented by other characters, Peart has never been one to propagandize in his lyrics. Overall, this one is a fun listen from start to finish mainly due to the variety of sonic avenues they travel down throughout its runtime; from the hard edge of “Far Cry” and “Armor and Sword” to the softer tracks like “Hope”, it’s a roller coaster and a damn good one.

9. Grace Under Pressure (1984)

Grace Under Pressure is sort of a curious exhibit  in the band’s catalogue, and contains what I would describe as “growing pains” in their expansion to a more synth-based and textured sound. Alex Lifeson often sounds like he doesn’t know what to do, and the synth textures aren’t as mature as on later albums. When it comes to their 80’s releases, though, I regard Grace Under Pressure very highly. There are some real burners on this album, from the opening cut “Distant Early Warning” to the driving “Afterimage” and the dark and industrial sounding “Red Sector A”. “The Enemy Within” actually has one of my favorite verse riffs in the Rush catalogue, and the album does a compelling job meshing darker themes with a new found funkiness. The B side isn’t as strong (the aforementioned songs make up the entire A side) but I would say there’s no sore thumbs across the album’s runtime. This is Rush’s first album in years without Terry Brown as producer, and as such I would say this is the album that marks the end of their classic period. Nonetheless, this one still makes for a great listen now.

8. Signals (1982)

The last album with Terry Brown as producer and the last in Rush’s classic era of releases, Signals is a fan favorite. Most known for the opening song (always with the opening songs being top tier!) “Subdivisions”, which is a bonafide classic and stands among Rush’s best songs, the album has plenty of synth to go around without drowning out the guitar or bass too much, as happens on some later albums. The song “New World Man” is also Rush’s highest-charting song in their career, peaking at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100. That song never really did it for me, but other songs on the album certainly do! “The Analog Kid” is an excellent song throughout, and the guitar solo is particularly excellent. “Digital Man” is among my favorites by the band as well. A slightly weaker B-side is at play here, but this one is definitely worth your time.

7. Vapor Trails (2003)

Vapor Trails has a bumpy history. The original release of the album was a notable casualty in the “loudness wars”, which saw mixing and mastering practices sacrificing overall sound quality in favor of pure volume. This meant that the album actually had digital distortion in its final mix, which is an inexcusable situation for an album of this caliber. The poster child for this practice is Metallica’s Death Magnetic (produced by Rick Rubin, who one might call the Charlemagne of the Loudness War), which was especially notable for one reviewer who recommended illegally downloading the Rock Band versions of the tracks since they were more deftly mixed. Fortunately, Vapor Trails got a much deserved remaster in recent years which helps to showcase to the world what I’ve felt for years: Vapor Trails is a top-tier Rush album. The first album since Caress of Steel to not feature any synthesizer, the power trio rages through the 67-minute run time with a ferocity that the band hadn’t displayed quite so well in years. Recorded after a long hiatus due to personal tragedies in Neil Peart’s life, the renewed band comes out swinging with maybe their heaviest track ever, “One Little Victory”, and doesn’t let up from there. Plenty of head bangers are present, with songs like “Nocturne” and "Vapor Trail” providing a more dynamic arrangement. Both of those are highly recommended, as are “Earthshine, “Sweet Miracle”, “Secret Touch” and “Ceiling Unlimited”. I honestly recommend the whole album, best listened in the car on a road trip, which I have a hunch is how Peart, and avid motorcyclist and author (as detailed in another great cut from the album, “Ghost Rider”) likely came up with many of the lyrics for the album, or at least the seeds for them. Peart spent years in a perpetual road trip after the death of his daughter and wife. I’m very thankful for him being able to recover from those tragedies to go on to make more music, as it has been among the most impactful for me. Vapor Trails is a big part of that. Not the biggest though.

6. 2112 (1976)

I know, I know. This one is probably unexpectedly low on the list. This is the album that began Rush’s classic period of releases, and it’s quite excellent. The A-side is the now-iconic title track, a 22-minute opus about an individual in a future dystopia where the arts are banned or at least heavily centrally regulated by some sort of political/religious organization. Person finds a guitar, shows it to the people at the top, they lose their shit and destroy it, guy dies from crippling depression, nebulous voice declares to all planets of the Solar Federation that they’ve assumed control. As previously mentioned, the lyric is basically a Libertarian fever dream, but that’s not the reason why I rank this album lower than one might expect. Politics of the title cut aside, it is without question the highlight of the album. Listening to Caress of Steel’s misguided “Fountain of Lamneth”, which was on the album that they just recorded, followed immediately by the more coherent, more refined and ultimately outstanding “2112″ suite shows just what sort of creative leap they made in that short time. In fact, the album never should have existed: Rush’s international label at the time, Mercury, had stated that if Rush didn’t produce a more radio-friendly album, they would be dropped. In the face of that, they decided to stick with their guns and made something truly brilliant, solidifying their entire decades-long career in the process. That artistic confidence is on full display on the title track. The album ranks a bit lower because of its B-side. While the songs are pretty good overall, they simply don’t match the brilliance of the A-side, and while they’re not necessarily forgettable, their other albums have better songs to match their headier, longer works. “A Passage to Bangkok” and “Something For Nothing” are my favorites of the short songs.

Next up, we dig into the Top 5!

[minyocs]

 Name: Abigail “Jett” Russo Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Age: 18 Birthday: January 1 Zodiac: Capricorn Occupation: Engineer Cadet Species: Human Gender: Female Significant Other: Keith Family: Sophie and Emma Russo (Adopted Moms; living), Jordan Russo (Adopted Older Brother; living) Physical Description: Long, dark red hair, kept in a tight bun while at the garrison (but a ponytail when casual). Dark brown eyes. Lean with fairly muscular build. On the taller side (approx. same height as Lance). Slightly angular facial features. Starting in Season 2, she has her hair buzzed on the left side. Personality: (following a 1-2-3 Model). Value - Perseverance. Flaws - Stubborn and blunt. Traits - Passionate, Fearless, and Creative. She is very gifted with mechanics and somewhat defines herself with that. She likes problem-solving. Sexuality: Bisexual Backstory: Parents died in a car accident when she was a little girl, and she was adopted by Sophie and Emma Russo when she was seven years old and has lived pretty happily with them. Note Sophie Russo is Italian (speaks the language fluently and taught it to her wife and children) and Emma nee Wager describes herself as a ‘mutt’, but her maiden name is German (she doesn’t speak it). Jett met Mason Harper when they were ten years old, and have been best friends ever since. Joined the garrison when she was old enough to, and became an engineer. She ended up being placed on Keith’s team as the engineer, with Mason working communications. Jett more or less strong-armed her way into being friends with Keith and met Shiro through him. The three of them ended up being very close as a result. When Shiro disappeared during the Kerberos mission and it was declared pilot error, Jett was very upset and refused to believe he was dead. Within the following year, Keith got expelled for behavioral issues, and a new pilot was assigned to their team. Jett was very distant towards the new pilot, and frequently snuck off-base to go see Keith and help him with the search he’d been conducting for the strange energy source. This does result in demerits on her record, but not enough to get her expelled before series events happen. She’s in the desert shack when Shiro’s ship crash lands, but doesn’t go with Keith because he doesn’t want her to get kicked out of the garrison as well (in case things go ass up). Long story short, she gets dragged halfway across the universe and basically fills the role as Coran’s assistant/protege in everything mechanical. Ongoing Story: In the series, as Coran’s assistant/protege for the most part. She’s primarily the mechanic/engineer for the castle, and also does maintenance on the Lions as she learns more about how they work. As a result, she ends up becoming close friends to Hunk and Pidge as well.  In between seasons 1 and 2, Jett gets caught by the Galra and tortured for information regarding the Paladins and anybody who might have helped them escape. During this time, she does lose mobility in her left hand, hearing in her left ear, and has burn damage on the left side of her head that causes her to lose her hair on that side. Thace ships her out in a pod secretly (and doesn’t get caught), with an encrypted SOS for Blade of Marmora members. Ulaz picks up on it, but doesn’t pick her up before talking to the paladins. He does give them her coordinates, and they pick her up at the end of that episode. She gets put in a pod so her burns heal and her hair grows to have a buzz on the left side. She still has no mobility in her left hand, and will work with Coran and Pidge to design a skeletal-like device that’ll attach to her skin and allow her use of her left hand. Still doesn’t have hearing in her left ear. Story progresses with her doing more awesome engineering with Coran, and growing closer to the team, but she’s also now more reserved after the trauma from Haggar. By the end of season 2, she and Keith are pretty much sure of each other’s feelings, but still haven’t had that conversation about what relationship they have/will have. Things get more complicated after Shiro goes missing again. They do start their relationship during Season 3.  Likes: Engineering, space Strengths:  Problem solving Weakness: Tact Extra: She’s left-handed. She and Keith aren’t dating at series start. They’ve been in that weird, nebulous ‘will they/won’t they’ thing for a few months by that time. Relationship talk gets pushed back in favor of intergalactic war.

Misc. Questions: Favorite color: Red Kind of clothing: When not in uniform, she loves just wearing jeans and a hoodie. Note that she always has no less than three hair ties on her wrist prior to her capture. That goes away afterwards because she no longer ties her hair up. What element would they be?: Earth Theme Song: “Sit Still, Look Pretty” by Daya Alignment: Chaotic Good Socioeconomic level: Middle Class Hobbies: Engineering, music Special skills/talents: Exceptionally good at engineering. Self-taught to play guitar. Patience level: Moderately high when trying to accomplish a difficult task. Role model: Her moms Weapon: None. She’s learned how to fire a gun, and some hand-to-hand combat in the garrison. But she doesn’t fight if she doesn’t have to. Least favorite color: Yellow-green (like a tennis ball. Hurts her eyes) Nationality: Predominantly Scottish heritage. Music they listen to: Very wide variety Religious and to what extent?: Not particularly. She calls herself agnostic. What kind of student were they in school?: She’s extremely hard-working. Although she is gifted in engineering, she doesn’t slack off in anything. If your character has a significant other, what would their song be?: “Something Beautiful” by NeedToBreathe What was your child like as a child?: Always very inquisitive. She was one of those kids who broke the toaster because she wanted to take it apart and figure out how it worked. Do they like the name they were given?: She doesn’t like to go by her birth name, or any nicknames derived from it. She likes being called Jett (a nickname given to her by Mason). Languages spoken: English, Italian Siblings: Older adopted brother, Jordan Russo Wears jewelry?: No. She doesn’t even have her ears pierce. Have they ever wanted to commit suicide: No, but she has suffered from depression-like symptoms when she was younger. Therapy helped her get it more under control. Close friends: Mason, Keith, Shiro. Later Lance, Hunk and Pidge. Wants to have kids/raise a family?: Not a high priority for her. If it happens at some points, great and she’ll be a good mom. If it doesn’t then she’s okay with that too. Passive, aggressive, or defensive?: Defensive Cat or dog person: Cat Person Sworn Enemy: Haggar Ranch or Italian Dressing?: Ranch. Sophie calls this treason (Emma and Jordan agree with Jett) Do they play any instruments?: Guitar. She taught herself how to play when she was younger. Coke or Pepsi?: Coke Hogwarts house: Gryffindor