#there is no culture without art

[empress-lotus]

In the Light of the Moon

visual artist: Jen Fuller

[tanookitalez]

what replaying undertale in 2024 feels like

[elissastillstands]

Never even in death will you lose your fame, but you will be in men’s thoughts, your name ever immortal... (Theognis 245-246, trans. Gerber 1999).

Sometimes, the niche crossover urge takes over. This is based on Greek red-figure vase paintings of kithara players (specifically the ones here and here). If you want to hear a little about how the kithara is played and a little sample of improvisation on the instrument, check out the video here!

[ink-the-artist]

holy shit I did NOT realize how popular my "I will remove my teeth, for I want to remain kind despite my anger" quote is. I just googled it for fun to see what would come up, a bunch of people are quoting it not knowing who its from, an artist called Kuma made an album titled that, so bizzare

[eyepatchoflove]

lestat being both french and italian explains everything, because there is actually nothing wrong with him, he's just like that.

[zivazivc]

For those of you wondering about Les's mysterious younger sibling. It's Hed, he's the little brother.

They share a mom who was a rock troll. Les's dad is funk, and Hed's dad is rock, but he lived in Vibe City since very young so he's also basically mixed genre like his bro.

In the second pic he's singing/rapping Tastes Just Like Chicken by Scatterbrain. I feel like this is the kind of music he would make when younger.

and bonus: meet the nominees for the worst parents award

[sea-jello]

hong kong miku,,,

[anglerflsh]

I haven't painted properly in a while, anyway, quick (one hour each) redraws of frames from the '78 film

[mickstart]

everyday I'm forced to see takes about how fanfic writers are the Only fan creators who should be doing things for The Love Of The Game and if those writers want to be paid for writing then they are 1) sellouts. 2) endangering all of us bc the corpse of anne rice will rise again if somebody gets a ko-fi tip. There are literally artist alleys at every major convention and nobody is willing to talk about the double standard bc the defense always shifts. One minute it's too dangerous, the next it's totally legal BUT karl marx will judge only the writers in hell not the artists and the asmrtists and the cosplayers.

[jessamine-rose]

*lovingly tackles Aine*

Read my Yandere! Pierro longfics first ♪( ´▽｀)

Last week, my beloved mutual @ainescribe surprised me with Savior! Darling fan art and AHAI9232@2-!/! CRYING SCREAMING I WANT TO LOOK AT THIS ART AND WORSHIP YOUR VERSION OF SAVIOR THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BLESSING ME WITH YOUR ART—

*clears throat* Anyway, now that I finally have the time to properly sit down and comment on the fan art, I’ll do just that. Feedback will be in the tags and it will be unhinged. Once again, thank you so much to Aine for drawing this <3

[fournets]

i dont even really go to marble hornets anymore but if yall put shipping discourse on my dash im blocking you without a second thought thog dont caare

[stardust-falling]

Anyway as much as I do appreciate westerners taking an interest in Chinese culture it sometimes feels like my culture is just viewed as an art piece. Chinese people and culture are not artworks on display for western viewers’ pleasure. We are very real people, with very real culture, and as someone who has been overseas and removed from my culture for a good portion of my life it sometimes hurts when CN culture is just viewed as surface level “pretty” or heaven forbid “aesthetic,” when it’s so much more than that.

[theaskew]

Zac Webb (American), Blue Dreams, 2023. Mixed media on canvas.

[zmeiso]

Winwin ★

Sylvanian families x NCT

[unhelpfulfemme]

...because in this, as with everything he did, there were layers of intent, moments when expected patterns would suddenly dissolve into something else.

This line is about a swordfight, but I feel like this sums up this entire book series, and Laurent's role in it, quite well. There is an internal logic, patterns and symmetries, to everything that's happening, but the moment you think you've grasped them they shift into something different (and as someone really fascinated with dynamic systems I love it). It's like that with the plot, it's like that with the romance, it's like that with the characterization, it's even like that with the worldbuilding through the power of Damen's very biased narration.

And what I particularly like is that it doesn't only get patterns, but it also gets dynamics, because things must be done in the right order, in the right moment, with the right intensity, to have an effect, and interpersonal relationships shift and change as a response to this constant back and forth. And this principle is everywhere: the battles, the politics, the swordfights, the sex, the chivalric tournaments.

He thought of Laurent's delicate, needling talk that that froze into icy rebuff if Damen pushed at it, but if he didn't - if he matched himself to its subtle pulses and undercurrents - continued, sweetly deepening, until he could only wonder if he knew, if they both knew, what they were doing.

^ Like that, for example. Or the way some things have to happen as a precondition to Laurent feeling safe, at first: on a micro level, there must be some token show of dominance on Laurent's part, to which Damen should respond sweetly and unintrisively, before he lets himself go, and on a macro level, the show of dominance before he lets himself go is the entire first half of book 1. You must always do something, which will then change the thing that you're acting upon, put it in the right position for you to do what you wanted to do all along. I love this.

Finally, I'm not a person who's very partial to symbolism. It tends to ruin my sense of immersion when the weather is dreary because the character is sad and the curtains are blue because they symbolize the sadness of the scene, because it always makes me feel like the world is small and unreal and like the writer perceives the world in a deeply egocentric way (I hate antropomorphising; if you have to project yourself onto something to appreciate it, you're not appreciating it. real appreciation requires accomodation, not assimilation). But man the symbolism in this, and the way it intertwines the cultural and the personal, makes me go feral.

The intricate crisscrossing laces of Veretian clothing paralleling the tangled threads of Laurent's mind, both of which require skill and patience to unravel, both of which have both a protective and a stymying purpose, and how they contrast with Damen's straightforward nature, because he is a man who sees beauty in simplicity and seeks to achieve it. The intricate lacing of Veretian clothing also reflecting the intricate, overly complicated way they do everything, which is also reflected in their intricate, overly complicated architecture, and Damen's immediate reaction to all of it. The Akielon philosophy of appreciating things for what they are - striving for measured simplicity in order to appreciate the quality of the fabric, the stone, the body, and how it makes Damen receptive to how artless Laurent gets when he's vulnerable. The man who is an unbeaten champion of the okton, a sport where you have to have the strength and precision and self-control necessary to ace a spear throw while dodging other people's spears flying by you while riding a horse, being the one who knows the right move to make at the right time regarding the saw trap that is Laurent's personality. The man who enjoys having spears thrown at him for fun taking on Laurent's prickliness in a spirit of sportsmanlike challenge.

[banefort]

This doesn’t really need to be said but a Valyria spinoff show just Wouldn’t work I’m surprised I still see so many people asking for it. There’s such little detail about it in the texts that the show runners would have to build the entire empire’s history, arts, political and economic systems from scratch, all while marrying it in a satisfying way to the main ASOIAF plot. Besides a scant few Valyrians and dragons, the general culture doesn’t have enough/any presence in the main series for a show based in Valyria to feel familiar or gratifying at all.

Not to mention, I cant see a Valyrian-centered show having the confidence to unpack the politics and machinations of a slave-based empire, let alone frame the ruling Valyrians in any critical light