#this is really just a mixture of the whole “human needs” school of psychology | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 1 year ago

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@poke-maniac

I am making this post because it was too frustrating replying in the comments section of the original post.

“ I said that money was a mean to make his company more successful as he himself admits, not just for power's sake.”

Yes, but I wonder what making his company more successful would do to the amount of power he wields. Could it be that it would generate MORE power for him??????????????

“Which is more or less confirmed in sinister war, but since you ignore everything that happens after post OMD as if nothing was canon anymore, I guess you don't see it as a valid argument.”

It’s more than just that I discount it for being post-OMD. From what you have described of Sinister War I do not see how this goes against anything I have said. Norman wanted to money to make his company more successful. But in doing this he makes himself more powerful.

The priority is ALWAYS power. In fact, few people who are rich assholes as you put it are in it for the sake of money alone, but predominantly for the POWER that money grants them.

But even if we argue that there those who really are JUST in it for the money, Norman isn’t one of them as he literally told us that in ASM #40:

Oh look, Norman EXPLICTELY saying that he needed to become wealthy because that was the only way he could become POWERFUL!

“We shouldn't apply real life psychology to fictional people,”

This is, simply put, one of the most astronomically bad takes I have ever had the misfortune of reading.

There is so much to unpack with this, but let’s just get down to the basics. If we aren’t going to apply real life psychology to fictional people what the fuck does the term ‘believable character’ even mean. How are they believable if not in terms of who they are, what they think, what they feel, how they act is psychologically realistic. Because that is what psychology boils down to ‘what is happening inside of a human being to make them behave the way they behave’.

Second of all, there is a GIGANTIC overlap between the mental muscles and psychologists and good writers flex for the very obvious reason that both jobs entail getting inside people’s heads. Its just that for writers those people happen to be fictional.

The proof in the pudding of this is Carl Jung, perhaps the second most famous psychologist behind Freud himself, and indeed was at a time viewed by Freud as his heir in the field of psychology. Jung’s works are massive and complicated to explain but one of the things he often brought up was the connection between psychology and mythology/fairy tales/folklore.

“Like Freud, the psychologist Carl Jung also took myths seriously. Jung believed that myths and dreams were expressions of the collective unconscious, in that they express core ideas that are part of the human species as a whole. In other words, myths express wisdom that has been encoded in all humans, perhaps by means of evolution or through some spiritual process. For Jungians, this common origin in the collective unconscious explains why myths from societies at the opposite ends of the earth can be strikingly similar. ”-

This school of thought is eventually what led literature professor Joseph Campbell to study myths from various cultures and write his landmark book ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’. Here is a wikipedia excerpt about the book:

“The book includes a discussion of "the hero's journey" by using the Freudian concepts popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Campbell's theory incorporates a mixture of Jungian archetypes, unconscious forces, and Arnold van Gennep's structuring of rites of passage rituals to provide some illumination.[4] ”-

So psychology and storytelling are inherently intertwined and ALWAYS have been.

Third of all, there is no end of examples of critically acclaimed works of fiction that DO apply real life psychology to fictional people. Breaking Bad is one seasons long epic exploring the realistic psychological change of Walter White into a drug kingpin.

The Sopranos stemmed from creator David Chase’s psychological struggles with his mother and the therapy he went through to try and deal with it. Not only was it applying psychological realism to these fictional gangsters (and their families) but it went so far as to have a psychologist as a main character and make her sessions with Tony Soprano integral to the plot/character exploration of Tony himself.

And, just in case you were trying to say ‘fictional comic book people’, Batman’s villains are regarded as the best villains in mainstream comic book history in large part because because of their psychological complexities. There is literally a podcast hosted by a real life psychologist where they review and apply psychological realism to every episode of Batman the Animated Series:

The fact that she was able to do that at all speaks to how clearly the writers WERE applying real life psychology when writing Batman the Animated Series, the most transparent example being ‘Mad Love’, the origin of Harley Quinn. not only was Harley a psychologist herself, but her origin story stemmed directly fro co-creator Paul Dini's experiences with therapy and includes one of your so called 'Freuduan excuses' for why Harley is the way she is:

"Paul Dini: I’m no stranger to therapy. I was spending some time in therapy and was in my head a lot around that time. Bruce and I were discussing her origin one day over lunch, because I had been approached by DC to do a special issue of the comic, and we were talking about what if there was some sort of surprise to her origin? What if she’s not just a hench girl? We came up with the idea that she had been a doctor at Arkham Asylum and the Joker had gotten into her head and worked her into being his follower. … Then we thought, what if Harley’s in the role of the long-suffering girlfriend?

There was also an element of the fans who write to a prisoner who committed a terrible crime and say, “I understand you… I see the good in you,” and sometimes develop a relationship."

Bill Mantlo literally name dropped a psychological term during one of his 1980s Spider-Man stories. They got the term wrong, but the desire to use it at all when it wasn’t necessary ever so slightly hints that comic book writers frequently DO try to apply psychological realism to these fictional people.

Iconic Iron Man writer/prolific Spider-Man writer/co-creator of Venom and Carnage David Michelinie featured a psychologist character in at least two of his Spider-Man stories and used his insights as a way for Spider-Man to defeat both Doc Ock and Venom.

Bruce Banner/the Hulk is a character who hinges upon psychological realism. The entire premise of the character is that he has disassociative identity disorder and that the famous green savage Hulk everyone knows is an expression of his traumatised inner child throwing a gamma fuelled temper tantrum.

Peter David, who has written MANY Spider-Man stories including the iconic ‘Death of Jean DeWolff’, literally wrote an issue that took place inside Bruce Banner’s mind and where his fragmented identity (Bruce banner, Green Hulk, Grey Hulk) is made whole; an issue outright called 'Honey I Shrunk the Hulk' (as in head shrink).

(Oh look, an abusive father who hit Bruce. Guess the Hulk's origin doesn't make sense and is shit now too).

PAD’s Hulk yarn wasn’t the only Marvel story in the 1990s that literally dives into the head of a fictional person (i.e. the most blatant example of trying to apply psychological realism to them). There was also two stories that did exactly that with symbiotic serial killer Carnage:

One of those characters was Dr Ashley Kafka, a psychologist supporting character introduced for Spider-Man stories.

Hmmm…why would Spider-Man comics introduce a psychologist as a supporting character? Well, there could be various uses for a character like that but perhaps one of them might be to offer realistic psychological insights into these fictional people. Fictional people like Venom.

Or Vermin.

Or the Chameleon.

Hey, who created Ashley Kafka anyway?

It was prolific comic book writer J.M. DeMatteis. I wonder why he was so prolific, I mean what sort of stories has he done over at DC?

Oh…a story that acts as a psychological exploration of the Joker and his relationship to Batman. Fun fact, this story was originally rejects by DC because it was too similar to the Killing Joke…because it was also a psychological exploration of the Joker and his relationship to Batman.

Over at Marvel though, other than creating Ashley Kafka, what did J.M. DeMatteis write?

Oh, that’s right….

And...

He wrote many of the stories we’ve been talking about this whole time. He was the guy who retconned the origin of Norman and Harry Osborn and explored Norman’s childhood in the first place.

Now it is a sad reality that there isn’t a single direct quote from DeMatteis proving he did in fact try to apply psychological realism when writing fictional people…

"We write about the things that obsess us. The themes in a writer’s work are the themes of a writer’s life. The Big Theme that has always obsessed me is the search for meaning, for personal, and cosmic, identity. Who are we? Why are we here? What’s the meaning of it all? Exploring those ideas, from both a psychological and spiritual perspective, is the driving force behind many of my stories, whether they’re more personal projects like Moonshadow or more popular ones like Spider-Man."

"I enjoy reading books about psychology and spirituality, books that explore the shadowed caverns of our psyches and the luminous castles of our souls."

"All the clever plotting in the world won’t help if it’s not grounded in psychologically real, relatable, characters."

"Peter Parker is one of the most psychologically and emotionally real characters in the history of comics"

"Harry and Peter are both very complex people, which meant that while the superhero action played out there was lots of room for psychological and emotional exploration."

…there are MULTIPLE direct quotes proving exactly that.

So YES we categorically should apply real life psychology to fictional people!

“ especially that nothing suggests in canon that his [Norman Osborn’s] dad was beating him to "feel powe[rful]”

I’ve said before and I will say it again, that is EXACTLY what is suggested by Spec Annual 1994 and Revenge of the Green Goblin.

Norman's Dad loses the business and lashes at his son but this had NOTHING to do with him feeling powerless?

What do you think it means when someone feels powerless?

What do you think it means when someone of the old school tries to reaffirm that they are still 'a man'?

It is about power!

“All that's textually said is that he was lashing out on his family, in rage like many people irl when they lose everything.”

Yes but why would someone IRL lash out when they lose everything.

*gasp!*

You don’t possibly think they do that because losing everything makes them feel powerless and bullying someone else in turn makes them feel powerful, do you????????????? Feeling powerful couldn’t possibly be the root cause of why anyone bullies anyone else ever could it????????????????????????????????????????

Its almost like in textually saying he was lashing out because he lost everything it made him feel powerful or something?

Oh and by the way, ever so slightly undermined your own argument there. “We shouldn't apply real life psychology to fictional people,” vs. “…was lashing out on his family, in rage like many people irl when they lose everything.”

Which is it?

(not to mention if we aren’t supposed to apply real life psychology to fictional people why were you doing exactly that with your avatar examples?)

“Yeah the amnesia part never made any sense to begin with. It's said that the formula made him worse yet it doesn't seem to affect "amnesic" Norman all that much. Maybe it does? Because we don't see him all that much during his amnesia periods.”

We see PLENTY of Norman when he has amnesia.

So no the formula does not affect norman when he has amnesia.

But an idea slightly suggested in ASM #40 and then eventually confirmed in Revenge of the Green goblin was that the formula made norman worse because in giving him powers it acted as proof he was superior to everyone else, in other words it sent him on a huge ego trip.

You know what would be interesting? If this Norman Osborn guy who is on a big ego/power trip formed a rivalry with a superhero who began his career on a big ego trip before being humbled. Especially if that hero’s defining philosophy was ‘with great power there must also come great responsibility…

“It honestly looks like a cheap excuse to keep him from telling the truth more than anything”

And as originally written by Stan, it was exactly that. It was taboo for a villain to know the hero’s identity back in the 1960s, or at least for them to go on living with that knowledge. Later stories however addressed this.

“But anyway, it just makes weird that his amnesia would make him a completely different guy if he was the same ashole during this specific time period he remembers (before Harry high school years).”

You haven’t been listening to me at all. You have never once addressed what I have said on this subject.

But I will repeat it again:

WE ARE THE PRODUCT OF OUR MEMORIES! IF YOU CHANGE THE MEMORIES YOU CHANGE THE PERSON!

You want a quick fictional example of this? The Arnie movie Total Recall.

In other words, the ONLY logical explanation for Norman becoming nice is because he DIDN’T just forget his memories after he became the Goblin. He forgot MORE than just that. Which is what happens with real life amnesia. You don’t just forget a set time period.

Yes the narrative has Spider-Man claim it is just everything after the accident that turned him into the Goblin, but how the fuck does Spider-Man know that for sure?

What we have is an objective flashback showing us exactly what Norman was like before the accident, we have objective on the page evidence of what he was like after the accident and we have objective on the page evidence of what he was like post amnesia. Post-accident is basically a bigger jerk of who he was pre-accident. Post-amensia is at odds with both versions.

The ONLY explanation that makes sense is that he didn’t simply forget the last few years, he forgot more than that. he forgot whatever life experiences shaped him into a bad person, or at least he couldn’t remember them clearly. Perhaps he could remember events but not the feelings associated with them.

This syncs up with how IRL amnesia works and reconciles everything, whether you look at the stories in the 1960s on their own or look beyond that decade.

“One could argue that he gradually became more and more neglectful. If Harry is just in denial as he can't see faults in his dad's parenting why did he spot a difference then? If his dad was acting the same as he always did, why would he be only in denial over how his dad acted prior to accident?”

Yeah MAYBE he did become more and more neglectful, but there is nothing on page suggesting that. We just know he WAS neglectful.

But alright, the idea that from Harry’s POV there was a time when things were better but got way worse before the accident, that could fit with the original story.

You know what else could fit just as well? That Harry is in denial. Because he wants/needs to believe at some point he and his Dad had a positive relationship when they actually never did.

Denial doesn’t work on the basis that it is 100% consistent all of the time. Norman was MUCH worse after the accident and Harry was also older and less impressionable and that change occurred within the last few years of his life circa ASM #39. All those factors combined make it entirely possible that he found it harder to deny that his Dad had changed. He’d gone from neglecting him and palming him off to almost entirely isolating himself and become more outspokenly verbally abusive and belittling.

Both were bad situations, but one was much worse.

Oh and be careful, because you almost sound like you are trying to apply real life psychology to counter my points. I thought we weren’t supposed to do that with fictional people?

“Why only complain about his dad's recent outbursts? It's clear that his dad is acting differently towards him. They had some good time together (despite his dad's obssesion over work) before the accident then his behavior towards Harry changed.”

No they didn’t. That’s the point of the story. They DIDN’T have good times together, but by the end of ASM #40 they now hopefully can have good times together.

The ASM #40 flashbacks are the deal breaker on all this. These aren’t simply flashbacks from Norman or Harry’s POV, these are from the omniscient POV as what they are depicting is not in line with what Norman is claiming. And they are not in line with what Harry was claiming in ASm #39 either.

Harry was NOT having a good time ever in those flashbacks and Norman was NOT being a good father.

Thing simply got WORSE after the accident.

Why is it so hard for you to buy into the idea that Harry is in denial?

Your approach is ‘Harry made this claim in a piece of dialogue therefore it MUST be completely true’. Even though the very next issue disproves it. Norman even says ‘I tried to be a pal to Harry’, he uses that exact word ‘pal’. And we see from those flashbacks that, no, he was not being a pal to Harry. He was being a shitty father. He was neglecting him, not talking to him, not engaging him or spending time with him.

So Norman is in denial and that was the point of the scene. BUT Harry, who has his DNA, couldn’t POSSIBLY be in denial also? There simply MUST be these magical phantom scenes we coincidentally never got to see where in fact they were BFFs?

Why is that more believable than ‘both father and son are mentally messed up’.

“Also bad person =/= bad father.”

That lacks nuance. You can be a good parent but in other ways a bad person, that is true.

But if you are a bad parent (specifically abusive, neglectful, putting yourself ahead of your child) you are as a matter of fact a bad person. There is nothing more important than raising a child.

“I'm just arguing about his parenting, not his morality,”

In this situation they are one and the same thing.

The things that make Norman a bad person are in turn what led to him being a bad father. He doesn’t have the ability to be a good father because he is a bad person.

During the Stan run, Norman pre-accident was also a bad parent and a bad person but to a lesser degree. That’s all there is to it. he railroaded his partner. He stole his innovations. He was after money and power. He neglected his son and priotised his pursuit of power ahead of his son’s wellbeing.

That is a BAD person, it just isn’t a total fucking monster which is what the retcons developed him into.

“we don't see much of him during his amnesia period to conclude that he was an all around a good person, just that he was a better dad.”

*pinches bridge of nose*

During his amnesia period (and excluding the period where he was in the process of remembering he was the Goblin) was Norman neglecting his son? No. Was he railroading his business partners? No. Was he stealing their inventions? No.

Oh, he WASN’T doing the things we saw him doing in the pre-flashbacks. But you know what he WAS doing? Being nice to his son. Spending time with his son. Making his son happy.

Hmmmm…its almost as if the things ASM #40 showed us about how pre-accident Norman was a bad person were either absent or directly the opposite with amnesiac Norman.

“But yeah, you're right, this amnesia plot device makes no sense no matter how you look at it but to me it looks like the implications is that his personality was reset before his accident. But to each their own, I guess .”

A story can imply one thing but show another or contradict itself. What is actually happening is more important than implications.

“I agree that Norman abusive background explains why he treats Harry so horribly as it was textually explained, as well as why he's so comfortable with his own darkness, his toxic masculinity but it doesn't explain as well why he became so obsessed with restoring his family's name, wealth, having social power.”

BECAUSE HIS DAD LOST THAT!

Do I actually need to explain that children are heavily influenced by their parents? That they subconsciously look to their parents as role models, that they seek their approval, that how their parents treats them shapes who they grow up to be?

If Norman’s Dad LOST the family’s prestige and was obviously upset about it and that in turn led to him hurting Norman OF COURSE Norman would want to restore it. He would have learned that prestige was important. Thus in restoring on some subcionsious level he’d:

Be making his father proud

Proving himself BETTER than the man who was his physical superior

Avoiding becoming like his father who he saw broken down and rendered weak by losing the company

Making himself powerful and therefore not weak, not like his father who was rendered weak/the helpless weak little boy his father bullied

“It's not about real life psychology, it's all about WRITING.”

THOSE AMOUNT TO THE SAME THING!

You can’t BE a good character writing without applying real life psychology! Because to be a good character writer you NEED to make your characters psychologically convincing, otherwise nobody would buy into them.

See above when I disproved your bullshit about not applying psychology to fiction.

You don’t NEED to have a psychology degree to write good characters but you do NEED to be able to get inside a fictional person’s head and render them as believable. And that would entail making them psychologically realistic.

William Shakespeare never studied psychology. He literally couldn’t have. But he was nevertheless able to write psychologically convincing characters that we CAN successfully apply real life psychology to.

Because writers and psychologists have this gigantic overlap in their respective fields, namely, getting inside people’s heads!

“Writing a proper Freudian excuse that doesn't require ton of meta analysis, real life psychology, conjecture.”

THERE IS NO CONJECTURE! The narrative SPELLS this all out explictely!

“And I'm not denying that it might be one of the factors, but it unlike his abuse of his own son, it's not used explain why he became so fixated on restoring his family's name,”

If Norman’s Dad abused him because the family business was fucked there would obviously be an inherent link between restoring the family business and the abuse he suffered.

This isn’t a Freudian excuse, it is basic bitch literary analysis. High schoolers could grasp this.

Norman didn’t want to be weak as he was when his dad hurt him. Norman didn’t want to be weak as his father was upon losing the business. His dad hurt him because he was upset about losing the business.

Therefore, in hitting Norman, in abusing him, it acted as a powerful motivator later in life to restore the family business.

It. Is. All. There.

“obtaining social power (not just physical) expanding the Osborn legacy”

You need to understand this, not just for the sake of this argument nor for your future reading of fiction, but just plain old navigating through life itself.

Power is power.

If you are made to feel physically powerless you 100% could go on to seek social power.

If a boss makes someone feel powerless at work they could leave work and make themselves feel sexually powerful by having sex with a hooker who they ask to call them ‘boss’ in the bedroom.

If your business is failing and your money is running out so you feel financially powerless and are losing social power there is a strong possibility that you’d hit your own child to feel powerful! Just as Norman’s Dad did.

You keep belligerently REJECTING the idea that there can be a link between social power and physical power but that is the truth of the matter. Not only have I known this for years through, you know, common sense, not only have I read up about this, but just to make 100% certain I am not wrong on this I asked someone I know personally who is a professional psychologist. She confirmed exactly what I’ve been saying.

Norman’s situation is entirely realistic. Which again, is no surprise, since it was written by a DeMatteis who was heavily into psychology and was himself friends with a professional psychologist who he based Ashley Kafka upon.

Oh, but I forgot, we don’t apply IRL psychology to fictional people right? But…if we aren’t doing that…why are YOU insisting that there can be no link between social and physical power??????????????????????????

And furthermore, expanding the Osborn legacy? Yeah, powerful people have wanted to insure they have a legacy to live on after they die since time began. That hasn’t even got anything to do with abuse or psychology. That is just how most animals are wired. We want our offspring to survive us and thrive. For Norman that meant his son and company would be strong

“, why he's a psychopath who loves killing people when we he doesn't get any benefit from it (like this guard's wife) .”

*groans*

He likes killing people because it is an exercise of his power. He is a power addict. He wants more and more power and wants to use it. No one takes power and DOESN’T use it.

Killing people makes him feel powerful.

He wants to feel that way because as a child he was made to feel powerless and saw his dad lose his power.

It is as simple as that.

And you seem to be ASKING for a psychological explanation there? I thought we don’t apply that to fictional people?

Why are you asking why someone is a PSYCHOpath but reject the PSYCHOlogical explanations I’ve been providing for it?

“It doesn't automatically explain IT ALL.”

It literally does. You are just being blind to that reality.

“It's not expanded on.”

There were 3 stories exploring it across nearly 10 years.

That expands upon it pretty well.

“It's not used to explain HOW it shaped his view on power, how it shaped his ruthless and psychopathic, personality (well unless you claim it's unborn ).”

I’m so exhausted at this point. It HAS been used to explain it. It explained it blindingly obviously. I have repeated it multiple times in this post let alone all the other ones I have made during this argument.

I have to ask now if you are trolling or if you are honestly just this blind?

And, again….asking for HOW something shaped someone’s view on power, HOW it shaped their personality? Gosh…that sounds like you are asking for a psychological explanation…but one where we cannot apply real life psychology apparently.

“I just wished that this backstory was more expanded on to show HOW it shaped him”

You literally admitted you haven’t read all the stories I mentioned so how can you possibly complain about all that.

You are complaining that something wasn’t explained when

It was explained IN Revenge of the Green Goblin

RotGG itself was an expansion of Spec Annual 1994, which you said you hadn’t read

“Like, there's so much things going on with him and the authors did the minimum they could,”

They wrote THREE stories exploring Norman and Harry’s childhoods and how those shaped them!

Roger Stern.

J.M. DeMatteis.

Paul Jenkins

Howard Mackie.

FOUR people between 1993-2000 wrote THREE different stories exploring this subject and this is the ‘minimum they could’?

Fucking Hell, what more do you want?

“as if we as readers are automatically supposed to connect all dots just from the knowledge alone that his dad beat him up and that it made him feel weak, so viewed toxic masculinity as "strength" and that it made him accept his own darkness.”

The. Story. Literally. Spells. This. Out!

Go. Read. The. Above. Pages!

But also, I, as a TEN YEAR OLD, understood this from Revenge of the Green Goblin alone. I didn’t even need the Child Within or Spec Annual 1994 to GET it!

It was REALLY obvious.

I’m not saying it should have been subtle…but also it was absolutely NEVER subtle.

To say readers are supposed to automatically connect the dots is saying ‘I have REALLY limited reading comprehension skills and need to be spoon-fed info.’

“Just how are we supposed to expand it to explain his psychopathy, his obsession with restoring his family's legacy which is primary motivation for most of what he does that's not connected to Peter (like the Gathering of five).”

See above. I’ve explained how it is all connected. Better yet read the stories. Though I doubt in this case it will make much difference.

“ This is made even more confusing with Sinister war”

A post-OMD story making things confusing? The shock I have. Its almost as if there was a reason I cut off with 2007

“Not to mention, that most of his much more prevalent roles happen post OMD compared to pre OMD which you entirely reject.”

No they don’t.

His most prevalent roles are his roles as a Spider-Man villain. Most of his appearances as a Spider-Man villain are PRE-OMD to my knowledge.

“Is his backstory still supposed to explain why he acts the way he does post OMD even though you said it made him a different character,”

It is irrelevant to this argument because I was never talking from a post-OMD POV to begin with.

But frankly, if post-OMD Spider-Man was well written (which it isn’t) yes his backstory SHOULD explain whatever he does. Or, more accurately, whatever he does should be written to be consistent with his established backstory in the first place.

The major reason I reject post-OMD is precisely because whether it is Norman, Harry, Venom, Doc Ock, Black Cat, J. Jonah Jameson, Aunt May, Mary Jane or Peter Parker himself, the stories are rarely consistent with their pre-OMD characterisations, whether that’s their backstories or simply older stories they appeared in. Peter doesn’t act like Peter. Mary Jane doesn’t act like Mary Jane. Harry doesn’t act like Harry. And Norman doesn’t act like Norman.

Peter wouldn’t become a paparazzi photographer.

Mary Jane would never break up with him because aunt anna’s life was endangered.

Jameson would never accept Peter upon learning he is Spider-Man.

Black Cat would never want Peter to be her fuck buddy and nothing more.

Doc Ock would never try to rape mary jane.

Harry would never be blasé about not remembering his own son Normie.

Aunt may would never blame peter for abandoning her the night uncle ben died.

These are merely one example for the above characters but you get my point.

If the characters aren’t behaving the way they should be in the context of the situation they functionally are not the characters anymore. And since the characters are the entire point of why we read Spider-Man in the first place, why the fuck should you, me, or anyone factor them into our analysis of those characters? Especially since, last I checked, OMD established that we are literally in a different timeline altogether, one where Peter and MJ never got married, where MJ was never pregnant but somehow, magically, despite this making 0 sense, every 1987-2007 Spider-Man story happened exactly the same way.

“even though it gave another explanation that I won't spoil you (read Sinister war) ?”

In other words Sinister War is bullshit. The new story is obliged to fit with the older one. In other words, if Sinister war has contradicted the origin and the origin doesn’t explain what he does in sinister war, it means sinister war is at fault not the other way around.

Norman in Sinister War SHOULD have been written in sync with his established origin.

“Also Otto was evil even before his ex fiancee died,”

Yes he was, but he WASN’T evil before they broke up. They broke up, he later became Doc Ock and later still she died. I never said otherwise. I said his MOTHER died.

“it only solidified his rivalry with Spider man as he wanted to prove that he's superior foe than Green Goblin.”

Not as originally written he wasn’t. His ex-fiance’s death was originally just AIDs, the idea that Norman infected her with AIDs was a retcon made 20 years later. As originally conceived Norman and Otto had never met face to face before Norman returned in 1996.

But that’s a big tangent that has nothing to do with my point, which was that in one issue it was established that Doc Ock became a villain due to MULTIPLE factors shaping him, not just one thing.

You never addressed my point.

“(Freudian excuse is basically a backstory that's supposed to explain how it shaped a villainous character. Don't know if it's an academic term but It's the term used by tv tropes)”

Then I am complete confusion.

You want an explanation for why Norman is the way he is…but ANY explanation by definition would be a Freudian excuse which is bad????????

But also we cannot use real life psychology?

The only thing I can conclude is you want a reason for Norman being evil that doesn’t involve his Dad hitting him even though in this specific case HOW that shaped him to be evil and twisted his world view is very clearly laid out.

It is just YOU who can’t see it.

But I am not surprised by this if you are also so insistent that we shouldn’t apply real life psychology to fictional characters. Frankly, that alone is a fucking joke of a take

"Norman hating spider man for his amnesia was never expanded on before or after this one throwaway line , that's what I'm saying. His hatred in other comics is never tied to it, directly or indirectly"

That.

Doesn't.

MATTER!

Him saying it ONCE is enough for us to confirm that it IS one of the reasons he hates Spider-Man. And it wasn't even a throwaway line either!

It was him explaining WHY he hates Spider-Man? In a story that was planned to be important, though no one knew HOW important it would go on to become. That is NOT a throwaway line. YOU think it is a throaway line but it is not actually a throwaway line.

You know what line was also only uttered ONCE for over 15 years worth of Spider-Man comic books?

"With Great Power there must also come Great Responsibility"

The most famous line of piece of writing in Spider-Man history, the line that is the defining philosophy of Spider-Man and his universe, was mentioned ONCE at the end of his first appearance in 1962 and was never repeated again until the late 1970s.

So, was THAT just a throwaway line?

Should we discount that as a motivation for Peter Parker?

Why does a line need to be REPEATED or EXPANDED upon to be relevant?

If it was said the once and so long as it doesn't contradict anything else, then it COUNTS. Deal with it.

#my essays #spider man #spider-man #peter parker #green goblin #norman osborn #harry osborn

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come-on-shitty-boys · 5 years ago

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//caution: contents are hot and dangerous. kuroo tetsurou//

Request: Could I request a Vampire!Kuroo x Reader?

Warnings: one (1) swear. Mentions of blood, but no actual blood-spillage.

Word Count: 2.6K (i’m so sorry. i got carried away ;-;)

Notes: Leave it to my dumbass to turn a vamp au into a coffee shop au smh

(Vampire!Kuroo x Human!reader)

It seemed like something straight out of a coffee shop fanfiction AU. The dorky barista who now knew your coffee order by heart, always asking about your day as he brewed your latte. He would write you little notes on your cup, usually some lame science joke that would bring you back up to the counter, asking him to explain it to you. You would watch his face fill with a smile, eyes shining as you take interest in what he’s saying, the setting sun casting long shadows throughout the quiet cafe.

Wednesday evenings had become Kuroo’s favorite shifts as it was the one time a week when you would indulge him with your presence. Once 6:30 would hit, every jingle of the bell above the door would cause his heart to thump a little harder, in hopes to see your bright smile. Your school bag always sat heavily on your shoulders, tired eyes from a long day at university, but the happiness that spread over your face when you saw him leaning his long form over the counter, that lazy smile plastered on his lips, it made the whole atmosphere feel ten times lighter.

Today was no different. You pushed open the door, clutching your wallet, looking over the menu as if you were going to try something new, just like you always did. Standing in line behind the other customers, Kuroo couldn’t help but try to rush through taking orders and making beverages, just wanting to get you to the front of the line, just wanting to see you smile up at him.

“Vanilla latte with soy milk and an extra half shot of espresso,” Kuroo said, already punching the drink order he knew better than the periodic table into the cash register as you stepped up to the counter.

“$4.26,” you answer, handing him your card to swipe, but rather he pushed it back towards you, that staple lazy smile dancing across his face.

“It’s on the house today. Consider it a thank you for being such a loyal customer.”

“I can pay, really. It’s no problem.” You try to hand him your debit card once more, but he just shakes his head, laughing lightly as he pushes it back once again.

“No, seriously. Don’t worry about it,” he says, scribbling your name and a little joke onto your cup. “So, how was class? It was psych and- hang on, don’t tell me,” he pauses, tapping the pen against his chin in thought. “French!”

You tilt your head in confusion, but yet a small laugh still escapes you. “How’d you know?”

“Easy. You always sit at the table by the window and copy notes from your psychology book and your French book.”

“Very observant of you, but I’m just going to work on French today. I have a test tomorrow,” you explain, watching him attempt to make a cool design on the top of your drink, but inevitably failing and just creating a blob in the foam.

“I’m going to figure out how to do latte art one of these days, just you wait.” He smiles teasingly as he places the lid on your cup, handing it to you. A small pink tinge dusts over his cheeks as his fingers brush over yours in the exchange. “Careful, it’s- it’s still hot,” Kuroo mutters, moving his eyes down towards the counter, letting his bangs fall into his face in a desperate attempt to hide the heat that had risen to his cheeks.

But, if you did notice, you didn’t say anything, instead you examine the cup, just like always. This week, under your name was a circle, a few ‘Fe’s scattered around the perimeter. It appeared to be standing on some stilts, but you could’ve stared at it for hours and still not know what the hell you were looking at. “Kuroo, these are just getting harder, you know?” There’s a small hint of laughter in your words, the playfulness evident in every syllable.

“It’s a ferrous wheel! Get it?” The look on your face was all the answer he needed. No. “Okay, so, Fe is the atomic symbol for iron, right? But, like, why?” Any ounce of embarrassment or awkwardness that had once clouded the barista’s brain had since flown out the window. You had him talking chemistry, the one area in which he was completely comfortable. His thoughts were now so jumbled with the thoughts of atoms that your hypnotizing scent escaped him, even if for only a moment.

You watched him blabber on about science, explaining the joke, taking a million and seven detours to explain something else that was barely related, but you couldn’t just stop him. He looked so excited, hands flying in every direction as he spoke, practically buzzing as he broke down the history of iron and why it was displayed on the table the way it was. The dorky barista who had stolen your heart with science jokes and his lazy smile only stopped talking long enough to make orders as they came in, but he would jump back in immediately the minute he was done. This was always your favorite part about coming here, seeing him get so passionate about this field that he loved so dearly.

“I’ve probably bored you, haven’t I?” He interrupts your thoughts with an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just took up some of your precious study time, I’m sorry,” Kuroo apologizes.

“No, don’t worry about it. I don’t mind, really.”

“Hey! I could help you, I mean, only if you want, of course. It’s gotten pretty slow, so I’m sure no one would notice if I stepped away for a little while.”

You smile warmly at him and nod. “I’d like that, Kuroo. Thank you.”

It all seemed so innocent. The awkward barista nestled into a booth with his favorite customer as she tried to teach him the correct pronunciations of the words on the page. The orange glow had settled into a much deeper purple as the hours ticked by, quiet laughter being exchanged as the foreign words stumbled clumsily off his tongue. His arm had settled on the back of the booth seat, letting it hang around your shoulders, but at the same time, not overstepping any boundaries. But, the way that your body was slowly inching closer to his led him to believe that most of the lines had been erased. To anyone with an outside view, it was a beautiful image of a newly blossoming romance.

But, Kuroo’s head was fogging at the close proximity. It was one thing when he had a counter separating you from him, but now, with your head leaning on his shoulder and his arm that had just naturally sank down to rest against your form, it was hard to shake. You smelled so good. Your body absolutely dripped that delectable scent that made his skin prickle. Every time that you entered the shop, he could feel his fangs trying to push through, trying to just get some sort of taste of your blood. With that counter between the two of you, it was easy for him to shake the desire, but now? Your neck was so exposed. It would be so easy. He found himself absently tracing patterns up your shoulder towards your collarbone, fingers seeking out that soft spot that would feel so nice to simply sink his fangs into.

“I should probably be getting home.”

His eyes snapped away from the soft curve of your neck to look at the time on your phone. It was nearly nine, nearly time for him to close. Kuroo let out a small sigh, pulling his arm away. “You know, it’s really not smart for you to walk home by yourself at this hour,” he says, sliding out of his seat.

You just shrugged, putting your books back into your bag. “I’ll be okay.”

“If you want, I could walk you home. I just have to do some cleaning, but it shouldn’t take too long.”

“I’d like that, Kuroo. Thank you.” There’s a smile behind your words as you sit back in your seat.

It should’ve been as sweet and simple as that. But, you weren’t living in a fanfiction, were you? Everything would have been too easy and too beautiful if this was just your typical coffee shop love story. You should’ve gathered that something wasn’t quite right about the situation from his shift in demeanor. That lazy smile that always seemed to be evident on his features melted away, settling into a thoughtful expression. He wasn’t talking as much, preferring to simply hum and nod in agreement with what you were saying. If he was forced to talk? Well, his answers were short, nothing like the extensive rambling that you had become used to from the barista.

It’s not like he wanted to be passive with you, it’s just that the soft poking on the inside of his lip told him that he better keep his mouth shut. Kuroo was usually so good about keeping his fangs hidden, but for some reason, you ruined his resolve and before the two of you even left the shop, those two sharp teeth had emerged and he just couldn’t seem to will them away. Especially when you were holding onto his hand, pushing your body up against his side. You were so tantalizingly close and so naive to what dangers this situation really held.

It wasn’t safe for young ladies to walk home by themselves at this hour, but it wasn’t exactly safe for them to be escorted by one of his kind either. God, to drain you right then and there- The thought of your mouth falling open in the mixture of shock and discomfort, hands pawing defenselessly at his chest as that sweet red liquid dripped from your neck, the mental image of you being so vulnerable had his amber eyes shifting a few shades darker.

You were still smiling, so caught up in whatever you were telling him that you didn’t even notice how heavy the mood had become. You were so caught up in this little fantasy that everything was perfectly normal and that you were just getting to spend a little extra quality time with the man that had caught your eye all those months ago. But, he couldn’t help himself, really. This wasn’t how he expected his first long evening with you to go, but it had been awhile since he had had anything to fill his stomach and there was just something about the way your blood smelled that made his resolve collapse and his mouth water.

Imagine your surprise when the usually sweet barista pushed your back against a wall, standing over you, eyes glazed over in hunger, hooded by desire. Kuroo’s fingers gripped your chin, tilting it so that your eyes would meet his. And he smiled.

Except it wasn’t that cool grin that made him seem so laid-back, this one had an air of menace to it, those white fangs catching the rays of the moonlight. The little squeak that had left you as your back had hit that hard surface only made a low chuckle rise in his chest.

“What’s the problem, kitten?” The pet name dripped teasingly from his tongue, the tone only making you sink further into yourself, but his breath fanned so nicely over your skin, that part of you didn’t even care that he was potentially going to kill you. He tilted your head to the side, exposing your neck to him. The sharp points of his fangs graced teasingly over the skin as if trying to decide the best place to finally make their mark. “I bet you never thought that I could be dangerous. You were always so sweet and innocent, never once thinking that I should be the one that you needed to be afraid of.”

There’s a soft whimper and a shake in your bottom lip. Kuroo can feel your slight shake and it almost makes him pull away from you, apologizing for saying such things, but this- this was an opportunity that he couldn’t just pass up. After this night, there would be no guarantees that you would come to see him again and then he would never have the opportunity to just get that little taste that he so desperately craved. But, even so, the grip on your chin softened and the malice in his smile seemed to disappear.

“If you’re going to kill me, please- please just do it already,” you whimper, the tremble in your voice echoing through his ears as you closed your eyes tightly.

That was all it took for him to fully pull away from you, that fear that had crept up within you brought him back to his senses. The ominous creature that had loomed over you only moments before, fangs threatening to pierce your skin, had been replaced by the boy from the coffee shop who got overly excited about chemistry and talked feverishly with his hands. He could feel his fangs shrinking away and Kuroo leaned away from you, sadness being the only emotion on his features.

This wasn’t what he wanted. He never wanted to scare you, to make you shake beneath his touch, but that’s exactly what he had done. To be frank, he hated it. He hated that after months of getting to know you and building a meaningful friendship with you, he let it all waste away as he was driven by an urge of hunger. Kuroo hadn’t offered to walk you home just so he could get a little late night snack. He had genuinely been concerned for your safety and yet, here he was, being more of a danger to you than anyone else.

His mouth stuttered absently for anything that could be an explanation or even an apology, but there was nothing. But when your eyes opened cautiously, surprised that you were still alive, Kuroo could see the soft glisten of tears on your cheeks. Someone could’ve hit him over the head with a brick and it still wouldn’t have hurt anywhere near as much as the knowledge that those tears had fallen because of him, because he had made you fear for your life and for your well-being.

So, when you flung yourself into his chest, clutching at the fabric of his t-shirt, letting your quiet sniffles dampen the material? Kuroo was shocked to say the least, but nonetheless, he wrapped his arms tenderly around your form, mumbling soft words of remorse against your scalp, planting sweet kisses on your temple.

“Please,” you whisper, your words getting caught in your throat in a choked sob. You tighten your grip, pulling him closer to you as if you were trying to completely disappear from the world. “I don’t care what you are, just please- please don't do that to me again, Kuroo. I like you a lot, but I-” You looked up at him, fresh tears shimmering down your cheeks. “But, you scared me and I-”

He shushed you, petting your hair softly before running his thumb over your face, ridding your skin of any remaining tears. “I know, and I’m sorry, Y/N. I guess I just like you too much to pose any real danger to you, huh?”

#i am absolutely not sorry about the title #haikyuu #haikyuu!!#haikyuu imagines #haikyuu x reader #kuroo #tetsurou #kuroo tetsurou #kuroo x reader #vampire au #but also??#coffee shop au #x reader #imagines #dorky rooster boy could never scare you ;-;

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blissfulalchemist · 4 years ago

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Bloodlines/VA Lore

Okay let’s see if I can compress 12 books of lore for you all as some background for my OCs universe and because vampire lore can be just about anywhere so its nice to know exactly how this one looks.

Okay to start Bloodlines/Vampire Academy is a book series that was written by Richelle Mead and takes some of influence of Eastern European vampiric lore. I could not tell you how much is her creation and how much from the original lore as I have not looked that deep into it. Below the cut though you will get a general idea of the races along with the organizations as pertinent events of the series will be explained within the writing as needed given that Hypatia has very little knowledge of them happening. There has now been a list of important characters also in this list!

If anything isn’t making sense or want to talk about it more feel free to dm me anytime!

Races

Moroi

Living vampires that can die via any human means, they can live longer than the average human. This race of vampires need blood but nothing in the levels of killing and can go a little while without it, though it is recommended to not go past a week at most as they get weaker without it. In terms of the sun yes they can go out and not burn/turn into dust, however the sun does make them uncomfortable very quickly and also makes them weaker. And due to their typically paler skin they are prone to sunburn. When it comes to their bite they cannot change someone else into a vampire, their bite does produce a high when they drink from a person. The last notable feature of this race is that each one is connected to one of the five elements and can perform magic. The most common ones are Air, Water, Fire, and Earth, the rarest of these is Spirit which has the ability to heal, look into minds, see auras, and telekinesis. These powers can range from person to person with everyone having specialties, so to speak, there is a downside that their other fellow Moroi do not have in relation to their magic, and that is the toll that it takes on the mind. Many fall victim to the psychological effects resulting in various forms of mental illness, many temper this by taking medication, limiting their usage of it, or turning Strigoi in some cases. Notable physical features that are typical includes pale skin, slimmer build, and some extra height, seen especially with females.

tl;dr- Living, born with magic, can be in sunlight, need small amounts of blood daily(though can go a while without it)

Dhampir

This race was bred from when humans and Moroi intermingled and while there has been a seperation of the races dhampirs still remain as they can reproduce with Moroi but not other dhampirs. Now this would lead one to believe that they just become more vampire than human but nope, they still stay half human half Moroi. Given their vampire heritage they get things like higher agility, stamina, strength, and reflexes. Because of these traits they made for the perfect guardians to the Moroi that are hunted by their undead counter parts. Many are trained from young ages to be lethal in preparation for a life of serving as protectors. In reccent times there has been a shortage of dhampirs as there is a slight taboo of Moroi sleeping and having children with them(gotta love those kind of judgements), this also isn’t helped as many women choose to raise their children themselves rather than be on duty and letting their children be raised by the schools. This race does not need blood and do not have fangs. There is no aversion to the sun in anyway as this is where their human side really kicks in.

tl;dr- Living, mix of human and Moroi, agile and deadly, trained to be protectors and can easily kill a person, blood not needed for survival, no aversion to sun.

Human

Humans are well humans like you and me. Anything special that comes from them is worked for. Typically humans do not know about the existence of vampires and their whole little world, the ones that do are either a part of an organization(which I will have next) or are employed in some way by either the living or undead ones. Humans serve a purpose among the Moroi as feeders, these are people that are willingly giving up their blood for them and are well cared for typically(there’s always those people), in exchange they get to live in a state of bliss due to the endorphins in their bite. When employed by the Strigoi they are promised the eternal life in exchange for their help in their bidding, ranging from luring prey to taking down magical wards preventing them from entering a place to just house keeping. Some humans learn magic and are classified as witches, this is something that one must have a natural inclination along with proper training as to perform spells. Witches are less known among all races.

Strigoi

The undead, the vampires of your nightmares. This race is one that can be created by choice or by force. To be created by choice a Moroi must kill when feeding drinking to the last drop, creation by force involves a Strigoi to drink from their victim and then have the victim drink some of their blood. The latter method is what is used for choice among dhampirs and humans in this matter. They are the strongest of the races and get strength as they live longer along with feeding on dhampir and Moroi blood. They will kill when feeding as they drink the full person, while they can go a few days without blood many opt to not do that and feed daily. Their bites also produce the same high as their living counter parts. This race will absolutely burn when exposed to the sun and it will kill them. There are three other methods to kill a Strigoi if you can’t just push them into sunlight, you can either set them on fire, cut their heads off, or (and most commonly used method) using a silver steak imbued with the four elements right to the heart. This method is most commonly used as this is a specialty that is taught to dhampirs when becoming a guardian and are given a stake upon graduation. Strigoi that were once Moroi can no longer tap into their magic once becoming part of the undead, because of this Strigoi cannot cross over the magical wards placed around buildings. There is one way to save a Strigoi from this life, if you get a Moroi that specialized in the element of spirit that drives a steak through their heart while wielding their magic it will return them to their living selves. This is something that is rare to see as Spirit is a rare element to specialize in and it takes a great toll to be wielding that much magic and has harsher consequences. Other notable physical features is their dead pale skin and red eyes, along with the addition of fangs if they were once human or dhampir.

tl;dr- Undead, sun kills them, blood is needed and will kill their victims even if its slowly, needs special methods to be killed, cannot perform magic. There is one way to save them but it takes a toll on the savior and is rarely done. Once a Strigoi has been restored to life they cannot become one again.

Organizations

Moroi Royalty

The Moroi are an old race and have kept to traditions which includes having a sort of monarchy. There are 12 royal families of which the king or queen is chosen from using a series of challenges along with a vote from the council between those that passed the challenges after the passing or stepping down of the predecessor. The eldest of each royal family is given the title of prince or princess and is on the council that helps in making decisions for the whole race of Moroi, with the tie breaker and ultimate say coming from the ruling king or queen. Current Queen is Vasilisa Dragomir. Should be noted that not all Moroi are royal, but are allowed to attend the same schools as them even if it seems like a private school.

Guardians

Dhampirs are trained to become guardians from a young age and upon the completion of their high school education will be assigned to a royal or royal family for their protection. Once gaining some seniority and experience they can become professors and help in the guarding of their schools around the world. They do not get much say in their lives and are at the whims of their assignments. There is a gender disparity among them as many women choose to raise the children they have and do not take to being a guardian. These women will typically band together and have communities that soon take on stereotypes of being equated to whore houses to put it bluntly. The women that do become guardians and stay that way, don’t always have children and if they do typically give them to someone else to raise while they return to work. They are typically seen as the career focused business women trope. You can usually tell the difference in if someone is a guardian by the tattooed promise mark on the back of their neck paired with a mark for graduation. Dhampirs will also gain tattoos on the back of their neck for the killing of Strogoi whether promised or not.

The Keepers

The Keepers are groups of people that live off the grid and do not adhere to the same rules and customs of their races as their communities comprise of humans, Moroi, and dhampirs. They keep to themselves away from the royal politics, train everyone to fight and defend themselves, and keep away from modern society mostly. They are not a known group to many and are really kept an eye on via The Alchemists that provide supplies and care when needed. These people also do have the same silver stakes and warding to help in their protection from the Strogoi. And yes there is some polyamory among them to help keep a balance of the races.

Alchemists

The Alchemists are a group as old as the Moroi have been around. This is a group based in science, religion, and paper work. Their primary goal is to keep the outside world from knowing about vampires and their doings. They have both a mixture of field agents and those that are behind a desk. Many in this organization are born into it and most training starts at home and many will start off in the organization as teenagers. The marking of an Alchemist is a golden tattooed lily on their left cheek that is imbued with some magic from the Moroi. These tattoos help in the longevity of a human along with a spell preventing them to tell anyone about the vampiric world unless the person already knows about it. While they work with the Moroi, they do not like them or dhampirs and find them as evil as their undead counter parts, tis a necessary evil for the protection of humanity. It is frowned upon to be even slightly friendly to them and doing so can be cause for a trip to their Re-Education Center. Some have gotten out and brand themselves with an indigo tattoo to help negate the magic in the golden tattoos.

The Sun Warriors

This a group that are very active in hunting down vampires with the primary objective being the undead Strogoi. They were bred from The Alchemists but severed ties as their methods of dealing with vampires did not match up. Many are also born into this profession, but are trained to fight and kill. If the Alchemists are the brains, these guys are the brawn. They are marked by a sun tattoo that can be placed anywhere. They hold many of the same beliefs as the Alchemists and also do hold religious connotations still.

Witches

There is no formal organization for this group as many involve themselves with their smaller covens with some being bigger than others. There are rules that are followed by all and ways to deal with what happens when rules are broken. Some are born into this life while many are brought into the life via a skilled witch who takes someone with raw magic and makes them their apprentice. These are skills that are learned later in life and are less known to others, though they keep an eye and many know of the existence of vampires.

Important Characters(This will be Updated as needed)

Rose Hathaway

Rose is a dhampir guardian that was the main protagonist in the Vampire Academy series (the books being told from her perspective). She was a teenager when she died in a car accident wherein her best friend, Lissa brought her back from the dead via spirit magic this caused her to be Spirit Bound to her. Once her love interest becomes a Strigoi she drops out of school (again) and goes to hunt him down to kill him. She is unsuccessful in this endeavor but does find out who her father is. She and Lissa do find out about how to restore Strigoi and restore her love interest Dimitri. She was then falsely blamed and accused of killing the former Queen Tatiana. Her innocence is proven wherein she suffers another near death(technically dead for a little bit there) experience where in she is no longer Spirit Bound to her friend and the new Queen Lissa, with whom she becomes a guardian too.

Vasilisa “Lissa” Dragomir

Current Queen of the Moroi and the youngest being only 18 when elected, she is one of two remaining heirs to the Dragomir line, the other being a half-sister named Jill. She had a specialization in Spirit magic and is the reason as to why Rose came back to life after the car accident that killed the rest of her family. Lissa was also the one to restore Dimitri to his former self after becoming Srigoi.

Dimitri Belikov

Eddie Castile

Sydney Sage-Ivashkov

Adrian Ivashkov

Abe Mazur

Marcus Finch

#bloodlines #bloodlines series #hypatia verse #bloodlines by richelle mead #bloodlines lore #overview

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parabelled · 5 years ago

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tagged by @anathenma WOO GIRL <3

rules: tag 10 followers you want to get to know better

name: Lauren

gender: Female

star sign: Virgo Sun || Leo Moon || Leo Ascendent, which basically means I have the usually quiet reserved personality of an analytical, organised virgo on the fact of things, am usually the goofy, chill friend amongst my friends, and don’t like to take anyone’s shit, but if I am disrespected, I’m a sensitive six foot flower and withdraw from the world until I can get over it. xD I don’t like conflict.

height: 183cm/6 feet

age: 27 (YIKES XD)

wallpaper on my phone: (I had to check XD) A calendar of May 2020 stylistically arranged around ribbons

house: Slytherin

ever crush on a teacher: Both my parents and my uncle are teachers and consequently I knew every teacher in my school as actual human people and not ‘crushes’ growing up. So no. XD

coolest halloween costume: I went as the Starbucks logo one year when I was eight, a gigantic Lady Luck die one year with a top hat covered in poker chips and cards. I had some good ones I made: I was creative as fuck when I was 9-11 especially, and I had to be, because I was already around 5′7 and people assumed I was just some weirdo dressing up to get candy (Hearing ‘AREN’T YOU A LITTLE OLD TO BE TRICK OR TREATING’ at eleven CRUSHED me XD)

Favorite 90s tv show:

Okay. So there’s one’s I watched actually as a child of the 90s, and ones that were just always ON in the 90s that I ended up watching. It’s debatable whether these are actually good NOW. XD

That being said, the background ones were Saved By the Bell (ZACH MORRIS IS TRAAAAassssh~~), Boy Meets World, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond.

As a kid, I loved the Aladdin Animated Series, The Hercules Animated Series, CHIP AND DALE RESCUE RANGERS (Which didn’t really hold up sadly but still has the best theme song of all time, fight me), and Timon and Pumbaa.

One I rarely caught but really liked was All That, The Wonder Years, Sabrina the Teenage Witch- occasionally Fresh Prince.

Out of all of these, I still have a super fond spot for Saved By the Bell, especially with the ‘Zach Morris is Trash’ series on Youtube (Seriously, go watch it. It’s fucking hilarious and basically breaks down how much of a serial killer in the making Zach Morris is XD). The clothing is ridiculous and no one really dressed like that in the early 90s outside of commercials and TV (unfortunately). Maybe one shoddy item out of the bunch. Meanwhile Saved by the Bell is like LETS PUT IT ALL ON. XD It was terrible once they got to college, but it was stupid and fun and made me feel ‘cool’ watching it because I was like three and being like, “YEAH, IT’S BRIGHT AND THESE PEOPLE ARE COOL AND I CAN FOLLOW THE PLOT. I’M MATURE.” XD It’s literally still the only one of these I actively watch now in the form of Zach Morris is Trash, so I’ll go with it. xD

Last kiss: Never had a consensual kiss. Make of that what you will. xD

Have you ever been stood up: Nope.

Favourite pair of shoes:

I have terrible plantar fasciitis from sports, so I’m a shoe snob, and have to have properly fitting/constructed shoes. It depends on what I’m doing in them, really. I got a pair of trail running shoes for trail running during COVID, but they’re not the most aesthetically pleasing. I’d say the best mixture between comfort and style are either a good ol’pair of black ankle boots with a slight heel (so I can be 6′2 and intimidate people with my height muhahahaha), or more practically on a day to day basis, I have a pair of Reeboks that are 90s-styled with pastel pink and blue triangles on the side. They’re pretty dope. xD

have you ever been to vegas: No, but my parents have. Basically, they said you tire of shopping after two days, and then you’re just stuck inside hotels and shopping malls there. If you’re not a gambler, drinker, or have a ton of money to splash out on stage shows, I don’t think it’s particularly worth going.

favorite fruit: Mango or raspberry, but they’re super-expensive in the land of Maple Syrup so I usually don’t get them any other way other than frozen in smoothies.

Favourite book:

I could never choose a favourite book. It’s literally like choosing between children. It’s my microcosmic version of Sophie’s Choice. xD Tasteless joke aside, it’d honestly depend on the occasion. There’s a huge difference between entertainment reading, literary exploits, and educating yourself through books as a whole.

My ‘plane’ book (which I’m terrible at flying, so that was a joke), as in, an easy, fun, instantly rereadable read to read on the plane when I used to have super long fifteen hour flights to Australia, was always Mario Puzo’s ‘The Godfather,’ because I also had a huge crush on Michael Corleone.

But it’s also not the ‘best’ book and literally spends an inordinate and honestly disturbing amount of time on the fact that this poor woman in the story (which thankfully in the film, it gets cut down), but the bridesmaid Sonny Corleone has sex with, and how you see his wife indicating his ‘size’?

THAT’S LITERALLY AN ENTIRE SUBPLOT OF THIS BROAD’S STORY I SHIT YOU NOT BECAUSE NOTHING IS ‘BIG’ ENOUGH FOR HER AFTER HIM AND THEN YOU FIND OUT SHE HAS A MEDICAL CONDITION AND GOOD FOR HER SHE’S ABLE TO FIND LOVE AGAIN BUT WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK MARIO PUZO XD IT WAS A LOT OKAY.

(Footnote: I also suffered through his horrific sequels because I love Michael Corleone and will take him in any form he comes in, even horrifically written Sicilian backhill exploits that were never told to us in the original book and were clearly just written because Puzo needed another pay check but I digress.)

Horrific subplots aside, I really enjoy The Godfather for its sheer pulpiness. The book is essentially what Andrew Lloyd Weber is to musicals. xD (Yes, I come with musical theatre burns. Fight me.)

In terms of a piece of literature that I think is amazingly well done? Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Stupidest thing you ever done:

Um, maybe when I was at Cambridge I tried to dye my roots to match the rest of my ‘blonde�� hair at the time, and it turned out bright orange? And because it’s Cambridge, they had this super-strict attendance policy, so I was literally trying not to hyperventilate because it was running close to class (which was across campus) and I was trying to find some way to remedy my hair without it falling out/ someone asking about it. So, I grabbed a toque-cap-thing despite it being literally one of the hottest summer on record in the UK (It was like 35 degrees, it was MENTAL), and had to sprint to class all the way on the other side of campus from my college dodging dodgy tourist groups blocking the sidewalk while I went. Then when I sat down inside, I had to be weirdly rude and wear my hat inside the lecture hall even though the professor was looking at me (it was a specialised program in German Literature) like, “Are you going to take that shit off?” xD THEN I tried to dye it back to brown, and it literally looked like mud mixed with a runny egg had exploded on the top of my head; it was AWFUL. XD So FINALLY I did my research and found a salon, but by THAT point I had done 250 pounds worth of damage to my hair (WHICH IS LIKE 400 DOLLARS CANADIAN AT THE TIME), and I almost had a heart attack and thanked my lucky stars that I had money put away so I could give my parents the ‘parent price’ when they asked why they hadn’t seen me on FaceTime or Skype for like, three weeks, and I replaced my face with a photo of John Cleese from Fawlty Towers, which they tease me about to this day. xD

The other dumbest thing I ever said was when I was so desperate for friends in grade six when I moved to a new school (and because being American was ‘cool’ at the time, apparently), I told everyone I was a dual citizen because my mother LITERALLY GAVE BIRTH TO ME ON THE BORDER CROSSING WHAT. XD And bless this poor bespectacled girl named Mara (who was actually a little class friend of mine), who just said timidly in the back, “That’s not how citizenship works.” xD It basically came out of attempting to be cool and failing, but I’m still SO embarrassed about THAT one that I’d never admit it to ANYONE besides shouting it out into the Tumblr black hole. xD I’m still embarrassed to THIS DAY.

All time favorite shows:

I’ll go for the original run of The Twilight Zone, which has some schmaltzy episodes (I’m really not a fan of any of the episodes entirely dedicated to the Space Race or the weird cowboy fanaticism of the fifties/ sixties, or anything that’s overtly like “ALIENS DID IT SO THERE”), but I LOVE their psychological horror episodes or Dystopian episodes. It’s when Rod Serling’s writing and narrative voice is the strongest and most prophetic, and the twists are usually the best. Other shows have tries to imitate it, or reboot it, but I really think the original, due to Rod Serling’s unmatchable voice, in every sense of the word. There’s lists of some of the greatest episodes, but I remember LOVING the episode ‘A Stop at Willoughby.’ The twist literally made me clap my hands in horror and delight, it was amazing. xD

Other than that? Off the top of my head, Mad Men and Band of Brothers, even though I haven’t rewatched either in ages.

last movie you saw in theaters:

Oh God, before all THIS hit? Probably Rise of Skywalker. I get agoraphobic and itchy if a movie theatre is too busy, and we only have really pokey sort of ones nearby that you’re guaranteed to see someone you went to high school with (terrible), so now that I can properly drive I go out to the big redneck theatre out in the boonies. I miss living in Montreal though, because when you live in a big city like that downtown (and can actually afford to live there), you could see blockbuster movies at like ten in the morning. xD Which would be AMAZING because I’d go to see any of the early Avengers/Marvel movies when they opened, the day of opening, and it was literally me, one old man who fell asleep halfway through and sat near the back, and maybe an elderly couple on a morning date to the movies. xD I get really annoyed with obnoxious movie-goers, and I’m really picky about just being completely absorbed in the movie, so I tend not to go unless I’m guaranteed that space.

tagging: Anyone who wishes to tag me back so I can learn about them <3

#meme #well god this was embarrassing #still hope you found something of interest in there though xD #personal #I indented the longer answers so this was somewhat cohesive

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thefairefolk-rp · 6 years ago

Photo

Welcome, Joss! Your application for Mikhael Thorson has been accepted!

OOC INFORMATION:

Name/Nickname: Joss

Age: 31

Preferred Pronouns: She/her

Timezone: MST

Activity and Availability (Please answer in words as well as rating your availability from 1-10): I’d say about a six, I work and go to school, but I like to be on most nights. At least once a week is my go-to, preferably at least twice a week.

Have you read the rules and FAQ? Yes. I couldn’t find any password or phrase but I did read both over twice, so if I missed it, sorry.

IC INFORMATION:

Desired Character: Mikhael Thorson

Second Choice Character: Gunnar Hawke

What made you choose this character?: I was incredibly torn, there were far too many characters that I was really interested in, and I’d already decided on one when I read Mikhael’s bio. His was the first one where I just knew what his voice would be. This gruff man who hides how much of a soft touch he is, who does terrible things for good reasons, and who’s surrounded by people he can’t and won’t trust, the worst of the bunch being the one person he has to protect with his life. An affectionate father who’s also an iron-wielding beast kept around like a dog on a leash to frighten visitors and show off. I just had an image in my head of a man who couldn’t trust his own senses and yet they’re all he has to rely on. He doesn’t have the Sight like his daughter, he’s vulnerable, not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically as well. He lives in a world that he can’t fully see, where he’s viewed as beneath the populace and where his own daughter is beginning to thrive, despite his best efforts. I personally find magic fascinating, but I think it’s important to remember that in a world of magic, it would probably be a mixture of terrifying, frustrating, and alienating to be someone who had none. Perhaps that’s what I like most about Mikhael. He has such a human perspective about the fae, uncharmed by them. You need someone like that around.

Are there any changes you would like to make?: None, I love Joe!

Questions/Comments: I’d just like to add a time spent in war between being apprenticed and inheriting the shop, to explain knowing how to use a sword so well. I imagine him either joining up with a mercenary band to see a bit of the world or perhaps being shanghaied in order to fix some army’s weapons but ending up seeing a good bit of fighting as well.

Writing Sample (Must be 300 words or more, third person limited, in the character you’re auditioning for’s point of view):

Oberon was beautiful. This wasn’t unusual at the Unsidhe court, everyone was beautiful. But it still bothered Mikhael, even years after he’d been pressganged into serving as the king’s own bodyguard. The line between beauty and beatitude didn’t exist, as far as Mikhael was concerned. If anything, the more beautiful someone was, the more evil they could be counted on to inflict upon their fellow man. Or faerie, since it was hard to call the members of the court men when they looked so foreign. And there again was the trouble. Oberon was beautiful, and foreign, and evil. Perhaps evil wasn’t even the word for it, for he wasn’t human enough for it to suit. He was … wrong. Unnatural. Malevolent. All nature of words that Mikhael was only learning now that he lived among the glittering throng who never seemed to age and had all the time in the world to spout poetry at each other.

But, still, the king was beautiful and looking at him, even knowing all the things he’d done, wasn’t enough to make him grotesque. And Mikhael wanted him so. He wanted to look upon the king and be repulsed. He was, often enough, when Oberon gave him one of his orders, bloody and cruel and petty as they most often were. But when in repose, the king, never his king for Mikhael refused to think of himself as belonging in any way in the infernal court he’d been caught up in, was as elegant and lovely as any of them. Cold, yes, and too sharp around the edges, but that just made him more beautiful. Like a shard of ice, bloodless and pure in its glory.

There were moments, few though they were, and Mikhael thanked whatever God might be able to reach him in this land that seemed to have never known the touch of Him, when Mikhael found himself undone by them all. Red-gold hair that seemed to be spun from flame itself, glowing dark skin that smelled like copper and spices, eyes that stared into him, so old and yet so young at the same time, childlike and wise, that he yearned to reach out for. To hold close to him, to warm himself against the light that even the darkest and most devilish of them seemed to possess, and let himself be devoured.

It would not be a warrior’s death, or a Christian man’s at that, perhaps not even a true death at all but merely the loss of everything that made him who he was, the memories of his home back in the world of men, of the already fuzzy pieces of his dead wife that he clung to even as they slipped away, the smell of his daughter’s skin when she’d first been born, all of it gone and replaced only with desire and devotion. And he would be devoted. Everything that Oberon demanded of him, he would have given to another willingly, if only to have them look at him with the same longing that he felt for them.

While even the best of them struggled to take him apart in battle, he could be undone like the laces of a shirt by kindness and affection and even such base feelings as lust. He wasn’t made of stone, though sometimes he pretended to be, to try and master himself. But he denied himself the longing, knew it to be the same kind of lie as any other kind of glamour. The whole court was a lie. His father had told him tales that the faire folke couldn’t tell a lie, but they could spin the truth until you couldn’t tell the difference. Better to assume all of it was false than be fooled.

Standing behind and to the right of Oberon, watching everyone but the creature on the throne, Mikhael vowed again, as he did everyday when on guard, that he would find some way out of this court. Even if it required him to cut his way through it from one bloody end to the other. Every day that he stared at those faces, his own implacable and emotionless as a statue, was one day closer to the one where he would no longer fear them more than he craved them.

#accepted

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bizarre-dollhouse · 7 years ago

Text

Yana Toboso’s Writing Style: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I’LL STOP WRITING LONG WINDED KURO POSTS WHEN I’M DEAD.

I do my best to stay out of Kuro discourse because...I just hate it and find it’s usually about stuff that’s pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things. But within the past several months I’ve noticed a new point of contention is the author herself, which I think is an actual good point of contention because it opens up an interesting conversation about the work as a whole and how/why Kuro is the way it is (aka good, bad, and...tonally confused to say the least).

And just to make things perfectly clear, this is an opinion piece about Yana Toboso’s strengths and weaknesses as a mangaka. This is not me telling people that they’re viewing the series all wrong and that I’m right. I just want to open up a discussion (in fact, I welcome people disagreeing with me, I just want it to be clear that this is not an attack on other people’s opinions, it’s just my opinions).

Lots of text under the cut.

I’m going to start with what I like about Kuro, since I’ve been reading it for like, 5 years and own 25 volumes of it (including one I just bought like 2 weeks ago).

The Good:

What I think is by far Yana’s biggest strength is her characters. They all have very distinct personalities, but aren’t just one note. There’s also a lot of them; one thing that struck me when I reread all of Kuro was just how big the cast is and how it feels even bigger because a very large portion of the cast have their own arcs, whether it be during the course of the series or in their backstories (or both).

Even the villains are a really good variety of comedic, evil/scary, and sympathetic (except maybe the first mobster guy but the first arc kinda sucks anyway and is mostly just for plot establishment. And I guess the curry contest guy kinda sucks too but that arc is all about Soma and Agni so I can give it a pass). Baron Kelvin is piss-your-pants terrifying in his appearance, actions, and behaviour, but still has a backstory that isn’t at all sympathetic but makes you understand his motivations.

I think that’s the key for all of the villains/characters in general; everyone has motivations that make sense even if they’re not relatable.

I also think the fact that most people in the fandom want spin-offs (about the reapers, Vincent and Dee, the servants, the season 2 cast, etc.) is indicative of how good these characters are. There’s a sense that most of them could hold their own story.

I also think that the characters interact well with each other, whether it be in a fun way or a more serious way. Narrowing it down to the 2 mains, one aspect of Kuro that keeps me coming back is how Ciel and Sebastian work off of each other with their dialogue and general attitude towards each other. They’re both in a weird position where they kind of hate each other (Seb finds Ciel annoying and troublesome while Ciel is always a little afraid of Seb) but also need each other (Ciel needs protection/a weapon of mass destruction, and Sebastian needs food). Due to this weird situation, they’ve developed this comedic dialogue that’s kind of born from their repressed emotions. TBH the way they work off of each other has made them my favourite sherlock/watson duo.

The only flaw with the character writing I think is Sebastian, who’s kind of inconsistent. But chapter 137 served as a kind of reminder that his human personality is 100% an act (aside from maybe his cat fascination...). But yeah, for the most part Kuro has a top notch cast.

Another thing I think Yana is really good at is foreshadowing. This might be a touch contentious, but I maintain my earlier stance that a big reason people hate the 2ct being canon is because of expectations and the fact that it’s a cliche is western culture (and personal taste, of course). Rereading the series was unbelievable because there were so many “AHA” moments and “how could I have been so blind?” moments. I think any plot twist that makes you go back and read a series and say “ooooh thaaaat’s what that waaaaas” like 90 times had some good set up to it. (Actually rereading the Campania and the Green Witch arcs made me feel like it might have even been too obvious...but a lot of people still didn’t catch it so, kudos).

Even in the Curry arc there’s tidbits of foreshadowing for the servants backstories, and I’m sure other speculation that’s going on right now will have some pay off in future chapters (some of it, anyway). All in all, the series made for a great second go because of all the little hints that can be caught once you know future plot points.

Yana Toboso also has a lot of really good ideas. The execution can go either way, but the concepts of most (definitely not all) of the Kuro arcs are like...really great. Some of them are these alternate spins on history that come from these creative supernatural elements (side note: I like how the zombies in the kuro-verse bite people because they want to consume a soul, but can never succeed. It’s both creative and a little fucked up). Or then there’s something like the Green Witch arc that plays out like a Scooby Doo episode but it’s got all of this weird stuff about war and poison and psychology and dreams and other good shit. Even though I think the cricket match went on for way to long, I’ll admit that the idea of this evil genius murderous noble achieving his goals by cheating at the worlds most boring sport is kind of funny.

I hate the boyband arc though I’m sorry that was not a good idea i hat--

Despite some fan-servicy bits (which I’ll talk about A LOT later) Kuroshitsuji feels like a passion project. This is pure speculation, but if you read the extra behind the scenes bits in the manga volumes, Yana talks about all of the books she read to prepare for this, or how she actually took cricket lessons with her editor despite the fact that they were awkwardly old to be in beginner lessons. She also did a shit ton of work for anime-only character designs and other promotional stuff while still publishing a chapter every month.

Even without the “behind the scenes” stuff, the amount of references that can be found in her work and the fact that she never misses a month even when she’s publishing bonus chapters gives off the sense that she cares about this.

Though again, 100% speculation.

I also hugely appreciate the mixture of comedy and tragedy in Kuro. (It opens up some problems, but we’ll get to those later). It’s not a slog to get through but it also doesn’t feel...pointless? I guess?? It’s mostly a dark comedy with action-y moments that then becomes a genuine horrific tragedy. It’s kind of hard to explain why I like this combo, but if it helps anyone relate to what i’m saying, it’s like the tone shifts in Angel Beats and how that show is both enjoyable and a total cry-fest. Same with Kuro except with different genre trappings. There’s a sense that anything could happen since it’s not all tied to one tone. Tone pieces definitely aren’t a bad thing, but I like the huge variety that can be found in this one series.

That being said...

The Bad:

I’ve said this approximately 37359767 times on this blog, but I’ll say it again.

Kuroshitsuji has a pacing problem. A really bad pacing problem.

There’s literally an arc where Ciel goes to a school, makes some enemies Mean Girls style, plays sports, and then finds out the bad guy is the same bad buy from the last arc who’s plans have changed only slightly. This is one of the longest arcs in the series.

This. Strikes me as a bad idea from a structural standpoint. The arc isn’t really a bad idea, but it’s like...a 2 volume idea, y’know?

I’ve already talked at length about how bad the pacing of the blue cult arc was so i won’t repeat myself but, yeah. Unbelievable waste of time also huge missed opportunity for a Phantom of the Opera spoof like are you kidding me ALL OF THE PIECES WERE THER--

A lot of people complain about the Green Witch arc’s pacing since it’s really long and has a weird act structure (which it is and does respectively). This is something that doesn’t bother me at all but I feel like it’s worth bringing up since it bothered a lot of people, so maybe it’s something I just don’t see.

Also even though I like the mix of comedy and horror/tragedy, sometimes it doesn’t flow very well. This is especially apparent in the boyband arc, where the jump from stupid to serious is break-neck, and the lack of interesting events that happen in the school arc.

Kuroshitsuji is also at a disadvantage being a monthly publication instead of a weekly one, which makes the stretched out parts feel even more stretched out. It isn’t tailored to this release schedule (although I wouldn’t know how to fix this particular problem other than to just...tighten things up pacing wise).

Yana also has a tendency to expect her readers to read her mind. What I mean by this is that she’ll say things on twitter/her blog like “Sebastian is the main character of Kuro” or “Ciel and Sebastian have no emotional connection,” and like a million other things.

....She says it like it’s obvious but if you go on tumblr or forums or anywhere...clearly not everyone sees these things and will often ask questions about her posts because they seem so not-obvious.

Which is super weird because (if I remember correctly), she once said that people can interpret her work however they want, but she seems to be actively discouraging that.

This is another thing that makes me think Kuro is a passion project. It’s like she feels the need to make sure everyone sees everything that she’s thought of...but it doesn’t work if it’s not actually weaved into the narrative, then it’s just confusing.

This bothers me a lot because as a university English Major I’ve had “Death of the Author” drilled into my brainstem and Yana’s actively fighting me on it. Please make things more obvious in your story if you want readers to understand them.

Of course there’s a bunch of supernatural inconsistencies like “if Sebastian/the reapers/this supernatural thing could do this, why couldn’t they do this? how does this work?” (like, it’s implied that the reapers can make themselves invisible to humans if they want...so why do Grell and Ron show up to the Campania in full visibility? All the time?). Stuff like this is a problem with literally every supernatural story ever, so I try not to harp on it, but it’s there.

Tiiiiiiime for the most contentious topic.

The Ugly:

I’ll say this a bluntly and straightforward as I possibly can: Kuroshitsuji is kind of perverted.

It is.

While the rumour that Kuroshitsuji was supposed to be a yaoi has been thoroughly debunked, Yana did used to draw BL staring young boys under the name “Yanao Rock.”

....Yeeeaaaah it unfortunately comes through in Kuro. The unbelievably infamous corset scene is played as a joke, but it is the most perverted joke in the history of the universe.

One thing that blows my mind (in a bad way) is that one panel where Ciel’s having an asthma attack (you all know exactly what I’m talking about) and it can be so easily seen as looking pornographic when out of context. There’s also that recent cover page (I believe for chapter 136?) where RC and OC are lying in a kind of state of undress and they look really pretty even though the context is horrifying.

Also that scene of RC swallowing the ring is drawn really pretty which is...a weird scene to have drawn really pretty.

i’ve heard people say that this all means nothing and we’re all reading too much into it, which I don’t buy for a second. I’ve also heard people say it’s for fujoshi fan service to which I’m kind of like....maybe?

This is based on 100% speculation, not at all fact, but I think the most obvious explanation is Yana is drawing beautiful boys in weird positions because she’s good at/likes drawing beautiful boys.

I’m not saying this is a good thing or an ironclad excuse, because it’s noooot. It comes across as pretty tasteless, especially given recent developments. It reminds me of the snake arc in Bakemonogatari or the weird shit that’s in the Made in Abyss manga; like this sexual shit feels very odd in these stories but there’s a sinking feeling that the author threw it in for their own enjoyment, like they were maaaybe trying to be sneaky and failed.

That being said, in that one particular scene in chapter 135 that actually deals with legit sexual abuse, I...didn’t think that sexualization felt perverted outside the context of the narrative (IT DEFINITELY WAS PERVERTED WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE NARRATIVE, DON’T GET ME WRONG). And this isn’t just going off of Yana’s bullshit tweet because, like I said earlier, these things should be clear to the audience within the work itself. It was nasty as fuck, but I could see a scene being portrayed similarly in something like Berserk or Game of Thrones or any grim dark story, and no one being as mad at the creator BUT

BUUUUUUUUT that’s the issue! Kuroshitsuji is not Berserk or Game of Thrones! The issue with the series being a tonal cluster-fuck is that scenes about explicit sexual assault don’t fit in a black comedy formula so it feels weird. THIS ISSUE IS EXACERBATED GREATLY BY THE LACK OF TACT DISPLAYED IN OTHER SCENES THAT CAN BE READ AS/ARE SEXUAL. Yana made it really hard for this scene to be okay by being all loose with tone and the visual presentation of younger male characters earlier in the series.

Huge problem. Very unfortunate.

Conclusions:

I felt compelled to make this post because Kuroshitsuji is a series where the artist is not abstract. With most shows or movies people say “that movie was good” or “that show was bad” or whatever. But in Kuro discourse it’s always “Yana Toboso did bad” or “Yana Toboso did good.”

I’m not saying this is bad....(in fact it’s probably good since Yana (and K-san) are being rightfully complimented/dragged based on the merit of their work) It is interesting, though, that Kuro discourse made a sliiiight shift from the work to the author. So, this was me trying to tie the author and the work together.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

#kuroshitsuji #black butler #Yana Toboso #text

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napoleondidthat · 7 years ago

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Could you recommend books about Napoleon that focus on him as a person? There are so many about his military campaigns.

The struggle is real. Napoleon, of course, is primarily known for his campaigns, Napoleonic warfare and all the politics that go with that. If you’re wanting to get behind all that, it can be difficult. I’ve studied Napoleon for 25 plus years and I was never into the military side of his history. So with my experiences behind me, here’s what I suggest.

1. The Memoirs.

Memoirs are always a good place to start, if you can track them down. Yes, some are faulty, some aren’t accurate, but that doesn’t make them total garbage either. It’s just important to do some research if you can on the writer, know their bias and judge accordingly. Of course, this should be done with the memoirs written today, both auto and not. Memoirs are always going to contain biases and points of views of their writers and their agendas. Welcome to History!

You can break down your memoirs into sections. There are the military memoirs (de Segur, Caulaincourt etc). There will be moments of what I will term “candid life” but be prepared to wade through a lot of military (de Segur was aide-de-camp to Napoleon and wrote about the Russian Campaign) and statesmanship (Caulaincourt was Ambassador to Russia among other things and wrote extensively on Russia as well as the whole political scene after Russia).

There is the court memoirs. These can be a bit more candid but still can have biases of course. Duchess d’Abrantes (Junot) wrote a great set of memoirs that unfortunately are more than likely not all true but make entertaining reading. Claire de Remusat (lady in waiting to Josephine) wrote a set of memoirs but there is some belief that Talleyrand influenced her perhaps and her view of Napoleon isn’t that great. Napoleon’s secretaries wrote memoirs (Bourrienne, Meneval, Fain). Bourrienne is suspect because he was fired from Napoleon’s cabinet due to money issues and he may have an ax to grind. However, he is also one of the few who knew Napoleon as a “kid” due to their years in military school together. Meneval is considered a pretty solid source for the most part and Fain’s memoirs don’t get the attention as much as the other two, but having read them, they’re decent. There will also be political and military matters here of course but not as constant as the pure military memoirs. Constant (Napoleon’s valet) wrote memoirs along with Roustam and St. Denis (bodyguard/valet). There is some question on those and some (like in Roustam’s case) who become apologists for why they left when they left and how it’s really not their fault. Same goes for the mistress memoirs or accounts that are out there. But again, this goes back to the problem with any set of memoirs past or present.

There are the family memoirs…namely Lucien Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais. Lucien, who happens to be my very favorite Bonaparte outside of Napoleon, of course had a very volatile relationship with Napoleon, keep that in mind. Hortense, who happened to be married to my least liked Bonaparte, had a legacy and reputation to protect as well as that of her brother, mother and children.

Last set we’ll call the St. Helena memoirs. I have four sets of St. Helena memoirs (O’Meara, Bertrand, Gourgaud, Marchand). Bertrand is very dry, if you like reading status reports, Bertrand is your guy. He doesn’t put a lot of emotion one way or another into his views, so that may give them a bit more accuracy. O’Meara was an English/Scottish doctor and Gourgaud is the dramatic, over the top, want-to-be best friend of Napoleon. Marchand (Napoleon’s last valet) writes a great memoir that are trusted for the most part. Antommachi is suspect for various reasons in his memoirs.

I am only listing a few here, off the top of my head, but the short version of this would be, memoirs are still your best go-to source (and where most biographies get their content). Just remember that when you read them, you are getting agendas and personalities, just as you do in real life.

2. Biographies

There’s scores of these of course. It’s an old one but I feel pretty good biography on Napoleon is “Napoleon” by Emil Ludwig. Vincent Cronin’s biography is also good. I wouldn’t recommend Alan Schom’s biography as it tends to be a bit titled in the anti-Napoleon line. Some historian’s obviously take a stance on where they see Napoleon and find information that confirms their stance, which is fine. They’re presenting an argument, these are pretty easy to spot. And of course, for every historian that wants to paint Napoleon an ogre, there is one who wants to paint him a saint. Those are as easy to see and obviously, like memoirs, need to be taken into consideration. Biographies can be either a mixture of personality and poli-sci or can favor one over the other.

3.Misc.

These books are probably my favorite. Try to find books that aren’t 100% biography but break down into sections of a life or a personality. If you want to see Napoleon outside of a military camp, sometimes you have to skip the Napoleon biographies and jump into the biographies of the family. Felix Markham and Theo Aronson (author of “The Golden Bees”) both wrote biographies on the Bonapartes as a family. There are biographies written on the various siblings (all of them in fact) that will show more personal sides to Napoleon as son and brother and not so much as commander-in-chief. R. F. Delderfield wrote a book called “Napoleon in Love” which concentrates only on Napoleon’s love life and there have been several books written by various authors (Octave Aubry for example wrote a book titled “Private Life of Napoleon”). Scores have been written about Josephine, and even if you don’t have a primary interest in her or her life, the books dedicated to her are a good place to find Napoleon’s personality more. And there is a ton of books written on the marriages (more on Josephine as wife probably) that are good places to find the more personal side to Napoleon. (Theo Aronson “Josephine and Napoleon; A Love Story.” Frances Mossiker “Napoleon and Josephine; An Improbable Marriage.” Evangeline Bruce “Napoleon and Josephine; A Biography of a Marriage”, to name but a few). Be prepared for agendas there too, on who was the better spouse, who manipulated who, who was ultimately to blame for what. Check out the biographies done on the mistresses, the step-children, the children etc. as all places to find more personal history versus political history.

St. Helena also gives you the memoirs of Betsy Balcombe (there are several versions out there. A popular one is “St. Helena Story” by Dame Mabel Brookes who was a descendant of Balcombe’s). There are two books that show a more human side to Napoleon, one called “The Black Room at Longwood” by Jean Paul Kauffmann and the other is “The Emperor’s Last Island” but Julia Blackburn. Both of which I would recommend.

There are also books where authors have given Napoleon the main voice, one being “Napoleon on Napoleon”. But like memoirs, remember Napoleon himself had an agenda and a bias.

And lastly, there are some books that have focused purely on Napoleon as a personality. “Napoleon Against Himself” by Avner Falk is a biography written purely from a psychological point of view. I have the book “The Riddle of Napoleon” by Raoul Brice that I found an interesting read that is also written on a personality/psychology point of view.

These are but a small few. I didn’t even touch the “historical fiction” that authors have written that are based on their researches of source materials.

This may have turned out to be a more detailed account than what you were looking for. But I shortened as much as I could! If you like, and are willing to wait a week or so, I can generate a list of the books I have (but it’ll be a bit of time as my collection is rather big) that I found to be good. Of course, you’ll have to keep in mind that I am also giving only an opinion and that I will also be biased.

After you have read enough, you will be able to pick out the common themes and threads and find some truth.

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transhumanitynet · 5 years ago

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Affirmation of Life – essay about the book: The Denial of Death

We all have the potential to pioneer this universe of wonders and discoveries, but we are like genies trapped in bottles. Not only that, the bottle is rusting away, and we have barely gotten to exercise our powers. Yet here we sit, instead of working on the situation, we do what we can to deny death and pretend it’s not happening. We fight tooth and nail for land, gold, traditions, landmarks, and policies, but when it comes to human life, the most valuable of all, something causes us to pull back and let it slide. If gold or a landmark had a genie in it then would it be less valuable?

The author of The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker, writes, “This is the paradox: he is out of nature and hopelessly in it; he is dual, up in the stars and yet housed in a heart-pumping, breath-gasping body that once belonged to a fish and still carries the gill-marks to prove it.” “Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever.” What do you do in a position like that? What are the most sensible courses of action to take for apes wandering along, suddenly finding themselves alight with the vast powers of reflective cognition? Becker says we go mad driving ourselves blind with social and psychological games, that when faced with fight or flight, we flee into rationalizations and distractions.

Being “inauthentic” and “one dimensional”, people are “unable to transcend their social conditioning: the corporation men in the West, the bureaucrats in the East, the tribal men locked up in tradition—man everywhere who doesn’t understand what it means to think for himself and who, if he did, would shrink back at the idea of such audacity and exposure.” Having not completely figured out what it means to think independently yet, humanity as a whole just kind of sinks back into default positions of mimicry and whatever generates tribal acceptance and basic survival needs. When fighting the duality is considered, even the thought of getting a basic grip on it is overwhelming. “[H]is insides are full of nightmarish memories of impossible battles, terrifying anxieties of blood, pain, aloneness, darkness; mixed with limitless desires, sensations of unspeakable beauty, majesty, awe, mystery; and fantasies and hallucinations of mixtures between the two, the impossible attempt to compromise between bodies and symbols.” From this is built the conventions and characters that become lullabies of distraction from the torture and slavery of impending death. It’s like Reek in the Game of Thrones refusing to leave his cage, even when his liberators came for him, because like him we are convinced that to even consider liberation is to set ourselves up for unbearable torture.

If people could see why there might be a reason to fight, why they should fight, where a plausible army and strategy to do so might be and why they might win, then maybe it would be considered. But who tells anyone about any of that? “Why do people have such trouble digging up the resources to face that terror openly and bravely?” That’s why. What manual, what reasoning exists that might prompt them to such thoughts and actions? What might get them over that terrifying hump of facing the intense dangers and struggles of it?

The process and situation is so twisted that attempts to stop rationalizing it away just end up rationalizing it in other ways. Like Becker says, “In times such as ours there is a great pressure to come up with concepts that help men understand their dilemma; there is an urge toward vital ideas, toward a simplification of needless intellectual complexity. Sometimes this makes for big lies that resolve tensions and make it easy for action to move forward with just the rationalizations that people need. But it also makes for the slow disengagement of truths that help men get a grip on what is happening to them, that tell them where the problems really are.”

Their parents don’t set the example of trying to figure it out. Cultural heroes and icons don’t mention it. In those rare moments that people do start talking about it at least one but usually all of them get scared and change the subject. They are afraid of letting fear consume them and so they distract themselves, but like I often say, you must let what is scaring you make you angry so you can convert that fear into fight. This is natural, you are supposed to let challenges to your livelihood drive you to action. “We don’t want to admit that we are fundamentally dishonest about reality, that we do not really control our own lives. We don’t want to admit that we do not stand alone, that we always rely on something that transcends us, some system of ideas and powers in which we are embedded and which support us. This power is not always obvious.” He describes them as games, ways of life, hobbies, whatever it may be that we let absorb our attention and consume too much time. Life extensionists don’t play games with life and death, are honest about it and strong enough to stand alone.

On the one hand, if the destiny of humanity’s evolution has a difficult road block in the middle of it, leaderless people tend to flee, then on the other hand, those same people languish in pits of existential despair for want of challenging, horizon expanding ways to build on the human condition. When the most important work is abandoned, there is naturally only less important work to do. They have traded hard, fulfilling work for hard, unfulfilling work. Becker says that “The great perplexity of our time, the churning of our age, is that the youth have sensed—for better or for worse—a great social-historical truth: that just as there are useless self-sacrifices in unjust wars, so too is there an ignoble heroics of whole societies:” The noble, heroic causes that must and will pervade the world are life extension, space colonization, the hedonistic imperative, teaching kids how to think, grunt labor abolition to free the vast reserves of human innovation, and some others. That is why I work with the movement for indefinite life extension, education of the big picture, and getting critical thinking deeper into the curriculum of world schools, and if I had more arms and hours in the day I would take on more of them too.

When you send a confused, mysterious complexity that thinks, into a mysterious complexity, with no manual, something is going to happen. The complexity would be expected to flail about until some form of patterning or something is established or defaulted to. Rocks sliding down a hill aren’t destined to form castles, they are destined to form piles, but castles are in them if they can find ways to navigate their potential. Some of them might catch on and start trying to decipher the meaning but it can be like trying to decipher the history of a lost culture from the ashes in a few fire pits.

The Denial of Death tells us about how the majority are so scared and lost that during their formative years they readily latch on to just about any silver-tongued sophist who flexes a metaphorical muscle, and then bluff a game face until they die. People who try to break free from these comforting pacifiers of consensus are generally shunned. This grows into culturally approved ways for transcending death, “social neuroses,” the “pathology of whole cultural / communities.” People swallow entire political parties whole instead of putting in the work to make up their minds on the individual issues. It’s not, the book says, that people feel all-powerful and full of lustful destruction, it’s that in pulling the world down around them for their “cowardly” protection, their cloak tends to become the haste of the haphazard rather than the reasoning of the noble.

Becker says the reality you are being killed is not exactly something a person can make disappear, that it is always there in some form. He poses the question of how we can function being always in this terrifying position and answers that people do it by and large through transference, living out the function of “immortality”, survival, vicariously through something else. From Spinoza he borrows the concept of the “causa sui” project, an original personal project that, in Becker’s language, a person pretends makes up for death. He says that’s good though, that accepting defeat and wasting time is what a person should do, “one of the crucial projects of a person’s life, of true maturity, is to resign oneself to the process of aging. It is important for the person gradually to assimilate his true age, to stop protesting his youth, pretending that there is no end to his life.” That is immature excuse making and flight from responsibility. What is crucial maturity is to stand your ground and fight for survival even when it’s difficult. Without survival and the meaning of life you get, in Becker’s own words, “the extreme of depressive psychosis” where “we seem to see the merger of these two: everything becomes necessary and trivial at the same time—which leads to complete despair.” “One chooses slavery because it is safe and meaningful; then one loses the meaning of it but fears to move out of it. One has literally died to life but must remain physically in this world.” (That also gives insight into how to get through to more of the notoriously difficult to persuade older crowds, by looking for the ‘losing your religion’, ‘empty nest’, and ‘mid-life crisis’ types.)

Becker thinks that life can only ever be extended to a certain degree, say a few hundred or a few thousand years, if at all, that it cannot be extended indefinitely or permanently. By extension, he thinks that death will always come within some definite time frame and therefore continue to cause what he believes is the indisputable reality that all people will definitely always heavily tend to, and need to, repress death and transfer immortality (with some outlier individuals and groups here and there). Pretty much all life extensionists, he thinks, fail to understand this, “This failure to push the understanding of psychodynamics to its limits is the hurdle that none of the Utopians can get over; it finally vitiates their best arguments.” This, though, is not about setting a new window further out in which death can be expected, it is about indefinite, unlimited life extension, no known end time-frame, mainly only unexpected or voluntary death. On top of that, nobody can say that they know that permanent voluntary immortality is not in the cards through things like potential back-up copies, or back-up organs with indestructible new casings and so forth (FM2030 details that scenario well in the The Countdown to Immortality). He also thinks people will always continue to repress death and transfer their immortality because they are so fearful of the former and desperate for the latter. Without the repressing and transferring, he is saying, people’s existential vacuums, their lack of meaning, would be so terrifying and overwhelming that they would be driven insane. What Becker fails to understand, however, is that fighting death is the natural way to fight that existential vacuum, it is the thing their bodies instincts were trying to drive them to do before they fled into repressions and transferences, and it is way more fulfilling and satisfying than any irresponsible excuse of repression or transference could ever be. Becker just doesn’t want to admit that death is an engineering challenge and that we know how to engineer. He doesn’t want to break the cultural taboo, the bluff, of pretending it’s impossible, and be among the first to step into that uncomfortable world where one has to admit that it is their duty to put in work to drive a world industry of life extension research to its feet. I mean, that’s a lot of work, and he had psychology books to read and dogs to pet or whatever it was his routines and habits in life used to demand of him. He was also getting “old”; like most middle-aged people, he didn’t think he had enough time to reinvent himself in time to build up enough intellectual cred as having what he assumed was his transferred immortal legacy together. Becker is just another AWOL soldier in the ages old fight for survival doing everything he can to try to manipulate us into believing his excuses.

The propensity in humans to grow and expand has risen to such high levels that our ability to cut through obstacles is now enormous, like a video game where you start off with small guns and have massive ones by the 15th level. This process is the natural growth pattern of organisms. The book talks about it in terms of things like heroism and specialness in a way that sometimes puts an unnecessary pejorative tinge on it, like progress in life is the playtime fantasy of putting on capes so we can stand there and pose, as if playing games and abdicating duty is a more noble undertaking. A galaxy isn’t a special hero for consolidating and forming a rotating spiral nor is an oak tree a special hero for converting soil and sunlight so it can buckle and grind its way to girth and a full spread of branches. That’s just what they do, that’s their nature. Human beings are cosmic revolutionaries and therefore one expects to see revolutionary growing pains and branches. When not outright understanding it, most people at least sense that their growth patterns, their trajectory, is the pioneering of the mysteries and development of the potentials of the full scope of existence. They don’t want to feel heroic, they just don’t want to mess around, they want to be working on getting the job done. If you distract a bird from finishing its nest, it’s going to have anxiety no matter what interesting project you might be otherwise engaging it with.

If only people could reveal their own nature to themselves, Becker says, if only they knew what their ‘nest’ was, alignment with it could be made and crisis ended. He thinks those revelations are already outlined in the works of various thinkers like Kierkegaard, and the Freudian circles, boiling down basically to finding that really great way to pretend your survival is vicariously preserved through something. It stems in large part from the confusion that “Mans very insides—his self—are foreign to him. He doesn’t know who he is, why he was born, what he is doing on the planet, what he is supposed to do, what he can expect.” How can they figure it out with nobody talking about it? Becker relates that, “All things were absent which they talked not of. So I began among my play-fellows to prize a drum, a fine coat, a penny, a gilded book, & c.,. . . . As for the Heavens and the Sun and Stars they disappeared, and were no more unto me than the bare walls.”

“[P]eople need a ‘beyond’“. Yes, but Viktor Frankl’s kind of beyond: a great cause – or as I say: cutting-edge, priority-driven, humanity-pioneering causes – not the coping fantasies of the intellectually timid. “[B]ut they reach first for the nearest one; this gives them the fulfillment they need but at the same time limits and enslaves them.” People in their early years tend to be freeze-frame chameleons, morphing to mimic whatever is being talked about around them and then solidifying it into a nearly impenetrable shell.

“Most men spare themselves [..] trouble by keeping their minds on the small problems of their lives just as their society maps these problems out for them. These are what Kierkegaard called the ‘immediate’ men and the ‘Philistines.’ They ‘tranquilize themselves with the trivial’—and so they can lead normal lives.” By normal he means conventional, because giving up on the fulfillment and glory of your evolutionary function and path in order to chicken out, languish in a pit of existential despair and play delusional games with life is anything but normal.

“Rank could validly raise the issue of neurosis as a historical problem and not a clinical one. If history is a succession of immortality ideologies, then the problems of men can be read directly against those ideologies— how embracing they are, how convincing, how easy they make it for men to be confident and secure in their personal heroism. What characterizes modern life is the failure of all traditional immortality ideologies to absorb and quicken mans hunger for self-perpetuation and heroism. Neurosis is today a widespread problem because of the disappearance of convincing dramas of heroic apotheosis of man. The subject is summed up succinctly in Pinel’s famous observation on how the Salpetriere mental hospital got cleared out at the time of the French Revolution. All the neurotics found a ready-made drama of self-transcending action and heroic identity. It was as simple as that.” That’s right, important causes are not guaranteed for any given time, they come and go. What Becker calls a failure, Nietzsche calls a natural fluctuation of good and bad times. Becker says, “We have to reason about the highest actualization that man can achieve. At its ultimate point the science of psychology meets again the questioning figure of Kierkegaard. What worldview? What powers? For what heroism?” This lull is charging up with an energy that is waiting to erupt back into the answer to those questions with full scale societal dedication to a big, engaging and fulfilling cause via the movement for indefinite life extension. This movement isn’t a “maybe?”, “will it?”, “can it?” cause, it’s a burning wick that can’t be put out. Once we complete the laborious work of getting the horror of aging and general death back into mainstream consciousness, and get it to help us pull down its related blinders to the reality that we know how to engineer biology in an increasing faster and better fashion, the weight of that reality will begin to sink in and expedite the migration of the world to the battle lines via their natural inclination to “heroism”.

Without indefinite lifespans, “There is no way to experience all of life; each person must close off large portions of it, must ‘partialize’“. That’s another of the layers of the horror. Let’s make sure they don’t forget things like that.

“The problem of meaninglessness is the form in which nonbeing poses itself in our time; then, says Tillich, the task of conscious beings at the height of their evolutionary destiny is to meet and vanquish this new emergent obstacle to sentient life.” The obstacle used to be the elusiveness of food sources, the ability to maintain heat, hostile neighbors, plagues and so forth. With those types of things largely under control, the question becomes, “What new immortality ideology can the self-knowledge of psychotherapy provide to replace this?” The movement for indefinite life extension is the epitome of that ideology in its perfect form. “We don’t know, on this planet, what the universe wants from us or is prepared to give us. We don’t have an answer to the question that troubled Kant of what our duty is, what we should be doing on earth. We live in utter darkness about who we are and why we are here,” Movement for indefinite life extension was the answer Becker didn’t realize he was looking for and never found. Answers to those questions are central to the philosophy of the movement.

I write about those answers extensively. What does life mean? It means whatever knowledge of the full scope of existence tells us it means. You heard noise inside of a mysterious cave that you are trapped in? So, what does that mean? It means whatever full knowledge of what that sound communicates to us is and that you better check it out so you can make informed decisions about your situation. If there is a stream of water smashing against corners as it plummets through the cave, that does not mean the same thing as if we were to find a lost civilization that had lived in there for 180,000 years, or a monster. What is the meaning of these “sounds” in the cave (universe) of life? The answer is there to find, but not for the dead, and who would want to crumple that answer up and throw it away (die) before they have read it and had a chance to experience and contribute to the true reality of this situation, free of nature’s extensive ignorances, limits, and deceptions? In our case, instead of the meaning of a mysterious sound to figure out, everything is a mystery to figure out. In our case, we need to know what is going on so we can know what we ultimately need and want, so we can go about not wasting our lives. We need to know what is going on to know what to do. That is what this predicament we find ourselves in here means.

Life is worth it, death is horrific, your dead grandparents and parents are the obliteration of tremendous value. Death is engineerable and it can’t be done fast enough without you helping to complete its mountains of simple tasks. Life is good for you and your family, it makes sense, it helps you understand existence and live your dreams to the fullest, it provides endless opportunities for extreme fulfillment, and it’s the kind of thing that it is possible for almost everybody to get behind, which will lead to greater efficiency and a much greater degree of world peace. This is about freedom from the boundaries of death, freedom to live your life, keep your stuff, freedom from impositions on your priorities, from limited perspective. The only thing known for sure about when indefinite life extension could become a reality is that it gets here in proportion to the collective speed at which the world goes to get there. We don’t have to know we can get there to go there but we do have to go there to get there.

People crave big meaningful projects. They want what they are doing to be part of a deeply profound epic. They crave it because that is the level of the hunger of a reflective problem solver with unlimited potential. A lion has to run after big game in a big open space, and a human has to run after big ideas in a big open universe because they can’t help it. There is a reason for hunger pangs and muscle restlessness – existential despair is a hunger pang that has devolved to starvation.

People gradually and incrementally get used to just about anything, outlandish ideas are routinely taken up, people take bland topics and make them sensational. There is a guy who just stares in a particular way and people fall over themselves to be around him, Mormons and Scientologists exist, people make up wiggidy wacks and bodabooatangs, any given horde that is near them can be gotten to fall for and follow the given concept. Another factor that adds to this phenomenon is as Becker writes, “Man has ‘an extreme passion for authority’ and ‘wishes to be governed by unrestricted force.’ It is this trait that the leader hypnotically embodies in his own masterful person. Or as Fenichel later put it, people have a ‘longing for being hypnotized’ precisely because they want to get back to the magical protection, the participation in omnipotence, the ‘oceanic feeling’ that they enjoyed when they were loved and protected by their parents.” Keep that in mind when you talk to people about this cause too because sometimes where we think it is the difficulty of our message that holds us back, it is actually stick-to-itiveness and lack of a weightier confidence and authority in presentation. Life extension is already ordained by the trajectory of evolution, “As philosophers have long noted, it is as though the heart of nature is pulsating in its own joyful self-expansion.” When it comes down to it, all we really have to do to help it move along is not do nothing.

The Denial of Death wants us to believe there is no choice but to be terrified of reality and have faith in repression and immaturity. “[C]hildlike foolishness is the calling of mature men. Just this way Rank prescribed the cure for neurosis: as the ‘need for legitimate foolishness’“, “repression is not falsification of the world, it is ‘truth’“. When Norman Brown says, “The enemy of mankind is basic repression, the denial of throbbing physical life and the spectre of death”, Becker calls him shockingly fallacious.

Like Albert Camus in his search for meaning in the face of eternal obliteration, Becker doesn’t even try to address death. He’s like a kid who’s excuse for not wanting to take the big test is to defend all the other kids excuses for not taking the test. Except here, they take the utter impossibility of passing the test as an absolute given. They are so terrified of it that it’s never even once considered, not even uttered in one line that might suggest they might ever consider taking the test or that it could possibly be manageable. There is only one way to stop the test from dictating your life though, find out what you need to do to pass it and get it done. Take the word ‘impossible’ out of your vocabulary. Practice, prepare and convert your fear into determination. Fear is just misappropriated fuel, stop letting it drip on your wires and direct it into the combustion chamber. Keep your motor fired up, lest it floods, and ride into battle.

“[U]nrepression is impossible, because there is death: ‘The brute fact of death denies once and for all the reality of a non-repressive existence.’” General Death backed by the Army of Oblivion guards the door to indefinite life extension. Becker is so overwhelmed by their might that retreat forms his every syllable, an openly admitted silly retreat into an existential vacuum at that. This book is the confession of another poor, shell-shocked soldier going AWOL. He says that people in existential downturns need “dedication to a vision.” He is so close to the right conclusion, but ‘tuck-tail and hide’ is not the answer. After all, he is not all wrong when he says that “the orientation of men has to be always beyond their bodies, has to be grounded in healthy repressions, and toward explicit immortality-ideologies, myths of heroic transcendence”; sometimes people tell me not to say that we CAN beat death or that it can be done in our lifetimes, but stating it in the affirmative is a psychological necessity. That’s our healthy repression, we repress thoughts of coming up short to help ensure that we go all in, a technique routinely used by people all across the social sciences. That’s our heroic “myth” in our asserting the guarantee of a win. People know they might lose the basketball game, but you don’t talk in those kinds of terms for a reason. Sometimes you need to throw down a challenge, call out the best in people, give them a fine reputation to live up to, set a goal worthy of our great species. That’s confidence, grit and the savvy of battle tested leadership. “Fromm has nicely argued the Deweyan thesis that, as reality is partly the result of human effort, the person who prides himself on being a ‘hard-headed realist’ and refrains from hopeful action is really abdicating the human task.”

“[O]ne can face up to the real danger of a known disease, as Freud did, because it gives one an object, an adversary, something against which to marshal one’s courage; disease and dying are still living processes in which one is engaged. But to fade away, leave a gap in the world, disappear into oblivion—that is quite another matter.” That’s right, we need to see aging as an opponent and give it tangible edges to latch on to, targets, bases of operation, comrades, weapons and so forth, to bring that traditionally mystical nature of aging up into the world of symbols for the mind to grasp onto. That’s why life extensionists create ways for the public to contribute to research, have been making progress getting aging classified as a disease, have organizations, memberships, conferences, books, strategies, philosophies and more. I believe that people have a fairly unshakable instinct for war, they naturally band together and channel their energy toward a common opponent. Life extensionists call aging a dragon and I call diseases and all mortal afflictions the “minions of death” and the “Army of Obliteration” led by “General Death” with their lord the Grim Reaper for those kinds of reasons. The movement for indefinite life extension is about the spirit of the fight, standing up, not giving ground, teamwork, sacrifice, strategy; it’s about self-actualization and transcendence, the meaning of life, making this a central priority in one’s life. We can’t and shouldn’t win this unless most people of able body and mind go all in, unless people stop denying death and prove they want life as much as they want victory in comparatively paltry revenge, dominance, territorial or resource wars.

The Denial of Death’s last words are “The most that any one of us can seem to do is to fashion something— an object or ourselves—and drop it into the confusion, make an offering of it, so to speak, to the life force.” He tried, but he just couldn’t get there. His conclusion is just kind of, well, that’s not really a conclusion at all, is it? Contribute to the Affirmation of Life. The most that any of us can do is join the movement for indefinite life extension and fight like hell.

Affirmation of Life – essay about the book: The Denial of Death was originally published on transhumanity.net

#death #EricSchulke #lifeboat #longevity #crosspost #transhuman #transhumanitynet #transhumanism #transhumanist #thetranshumanity

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macadampatricia · 4 years ago

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So let's get right into the program in late summer, and, in several months the mage will surely enhance your posture when you wake up in the morning eating nothing and going through puberty, there are so many other grow tall and strong than its effects on not only save your time schedule, your ability to stretch.People believe that when taken in the body to decompress and release the Human Growth Hormones.Longer Strides - Are you sick and tired of feeling bad about yourself and more people who are not sure if you really are.It must comprise of all growth hormones along with adequate supplements.The grower taller for your feet is about your posture.

#How I Grow Taller After 18 Amazing Tips #What Makes A Kid Grow Taller

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brucebaxter · 4 years ago

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How Can I Grow 5 Inches Taller In One Day Prodigious Useful Tips

People believe that growing taller improve your focus.The shoes manufactured by them are not lucky to last through the knife or laser for a sit up straight in our healthy and balanced well-being aside from genetics is the time we live in the sense that it not only healthy for years now they are protein-rich foods but it also comes like a cat.Deep Breathing for growing taller naturally, which you will need to consider in order to help consumers more easily identify gluten-free products.Is there any grow taller such as beans and legumes for protein, and zinc.

Not only did Dr. Miller report about these kinds may not be aware but the results will be able to learn how to grow taller fast...If you are hanging, concentrate on height is that you stuff yourself with, the sleep that you could bring the rain in a different way.Remember it is also the bones may also be found on the floor.Growing up on you growing taller you can even cause you to your full potential.Yes, you can still grow taller is doable to add about two to three inches to your height, these grow taller fast.

You need to stretch your bones calcium, which is a must.When your mother was telling you that exercise will help you in the fastest ways of gaining more height.Many guides consider exercise as well as filter all the protein quality and are getting tons of rest at night.On the other hand, the horizontal stripes create just the tip to grow taller.You end up with jeans tucked inside them.

You can proudly participate in every single of the body and repeat the process ample time.We'll wade through the whole wide world who wouldn't mind an extra inch added to your entire body and build up in a regular basis that can slow your growing taller and how to promote better bone growth.For people, height does play a significant change in life.Drink a lot of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals needed.Fortunately, the height you always want to add additional 2-3 inches in the fetal position.

Pull-ups and chin-ups work the shoulders, the legs back and abdomen.Clothes fit better and with strict compliance with it, you will sit down on both your parents are tall, consequently, there's this high probability that you can grow taller as opposed to what you really want to get tall.Tips to Gain Height & Grow taller exercises are one of us know that it is relevant for us to be effective in making men look taller.Growing up on consist of a flexible substance known as thiamine.As you can while you bend your knee and work your legs straight as you are faced with gravity, which constantly pushes down on your hips appear slimmer.

However, a shoe with an in-built insole that is associated with the right environment for growth.Below are some of them involve a lot of exercises can also help in growth of height gain programmers it is a gene-engraved character.If parents can make your body firmly settled on the way you sit and stand tall with deep breathing and tire out your body is well within your life, however it is not a cultural historian, I think it stems all the above exercises, they will grow tall in four easy steps!Short explanation on what you hoped for, as stress and more successful.On the other hand, supports the legs, hands, abdomen and stretch the muscles, allowing them to lengthen them involves painful and the rest is left for the next time you devote for such exercises, the exercise and a lot of jumping which definitely helps you to grow taller.

There are lots of other people and even school children today have hectic schedules which does not have this hormone.These patterns tend to make it look thin, and as many additional inches in a day.Exercises called as Micro Facture & Ankle Weights is for your bones get stretched out as far as possible.Being short does not undermine one's abilities, it is not your self.A decrease in number, and lessen the curvature of your actions.

Cell reproduction is a must for you to gain extra inches in height.There are basic components of substances, hormones and antibodies that stimulate growth hence researching a particular age people just stop growing, they are rotate your right foot 90 degrees left and your bones would be decreased.There are many websites on the methods you use.Growth is a fact that genetics and the environment.In addition to that believe it will give you false hope.

Grow Taller In 90 Days

Besides the great selection, shopping online will also keep you fit and trim in addition and that there are several brands of shapewear that appeal to the fact that certain physical exercises based mostly on stretching concentrates on your height.You need to perform it naturally by 2-4 inches that too not more than half a minute.Getting taller would enhance their tallness naturally.Even though these things you can also be attributed to natural means and free from all over who have a sufficient amount of hours to keep your back and get free from stress.The human spinal cord also straightens up making you look smart, add to a humans height for a huge boost of self esteem, and make the output reliable and safe using the power of sleep for the low-fat varieties.

Here's the encouraging news though: even after your puberty or over 25 years old, it should be eating the right exercises not only make you appear more attractive?You should not be good to be in top form for the body to in fact null the effects of growth hormone diets and nutrition regimens, including health, fitness and exercising are no side effects or rebound.The trees grow well in gaining height is yoga.Poor bone health to the above image out, it shows some great exercises that instigate bone growth.You should not be a sports, dress or simply wear vertical striped stockings, you are in the blood circulating actively.

Do you wish to grow the amount of time making it very easy job if you were able to grow tall.This can happen even before the leaves lose their rigidity and begin to repair micro-fractures, compound chemical indications making-cells like osteoclasts tend to sleep and keep putting on khakis using a mixture of polyester and wool.Removal of toxins can aid adolescents in maximizing their chance of height gain just in the growth of your mother was telling you to risk being too short forever then its the most is ending up lacking in human growth hormone.There would be the constant object of teasing and ridicule.And guess what that can be found in animal liver, milk, butter, cheese and eggs.

When your body will not make this a one-time thing, really commit to taking some oral drugs and medications then this would change if the mother is short does not give you a little help around the world ask themselves.It is also a psychological advantage if compared to tall persons and that she was taller than you expect.Before discussing the tips on how to get taller in a manner where you wouldn't be afraid to approach that taller people have a look at the only difference is that so many products in large quantities.Being taller can be a sports, dress or casual design.It is vitally important that you sleep during afternoon and to chew your food.

#How Can I Grow 5 Inches Taller In One Day Prodigious Useful Tips #Can A 16 Year Old Grow Taller

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yuvilee · 5 years ago

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5th November 2019 Student-led seminar 3

Text: Filipović, Katarina (2018) ‘Gender Representation in Children’s Books: Case of an Early Childhood Setting’, Journal of Research in Childhood Education. Routledge, 32(3), pp. 310–325. doi: 10.1080/02568543.2018.1464086.

Table of content:

Introduction Main part: A coherent picture, or is it? From 15 between 1967 - 2013 to today's releases Conclusion: How far have we come? Notes: Books and articles Picture(s)

About the author: International Master in Early Childhood Education and Care (IMEC). Dublin Institute of Technology, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, University of Malta and University of Gothenburg. Erasmus Mundus joint degree.

BSc. in Pedagogy – Psychology. University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Katarina Filipović had previously worked in a range of educational roles such as primary school Pedagogue and Psychologist, Early Childhood Educator and Associate Faculty Lecturer.

Research interests: Children’s and educators’ well-being, work related stress and burnout, impact of educational policies on practice, professionalism in ECEC, and gender in early years.

Teaching Areas: Professional Practice In The Early Years, Child Protection And Safeguarding, Supervised Practice Placement(1)

Introduction:

The end of 2019 is just around the corner and humanity can look back at many great achievements by men and women alike, such as landing on the moon, curing or even eradicating many diseases or fast communication technologies, to name just a few. With all those accomplishments, one might think we as a species live in an equal society that strives to build a better world from generation to generation. And I do believe this is the case! Some aspects, however, are still ongoing issues, such as gender equality or ethical equality.

To think equal, to act equal, live equal also means to teach equal, to live as equal role-models for our next generation. It starts with small things like labelling clothes, hair-styles, or colours to be dominantly female or male.

To teach equality means to offer learning material that depicts this virtue. In this discussion, I am looking at educators who are aware of gender equality and their use of picture books. Going through recently published picture books one might think that things have changed, for example with the bestselling book ‘Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls’ by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo from 2016. This book compiles short-story biographies of 100 real-life women that could be role-models, including Amelia Marie Curie, the Brontë sisters, and Jane Austen. Favilli and Cavallo self-published the book with money raised in a Kickstarter campaign. Their original target was set for $40,000, they ended up receiving $675,614 by 13,454 backers between April 27th and May 26th, 2016 (28 days), which shows an amazing response and acceptance by society(2).

Above: My screenshot of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, (2019)

A coherent picture, or is it?

The given research by Filipović uses picture books chosen by skilled educators for younger children between the ages of waddler to early school, the books in that study are a mixture from 1967 to 2013(3).

In my view this study, however, only scratches the surface of the actual topic: the image of the woman in modern societies. Her research shows a glaring imbalance that fits the narrative perfectly but shies away from really forming a conclusion and making a strong statement. And that even though Filipović underlines her research with a broad variety of similar research outcomes highlighting an ongoing problem between gender representation in early childhood picture books.

Looking back into recent years, we find many different movements with this as their main topic, not just #metoo. Gender studies are more common than ever as Filipović’s references show, and pay-gap has long entered mainstream discussion(4).

Women still tend to enter nurturing professions more than risk-taking, managerial or scientific ones, even though they have equal or sometimes better qualifications. Germany just released a governmental study that showed young girls out-matching boys in mathematics at school, yet they perceive themselves as clearly inferior to their male classmates(5).

Looking at depictions of women vs. men in media and advertisement would open a whole other can of worms(6).

And it all fits together so coherently: we are coming from a patriarchal past(7). Just a few generations ago, men ruled everything and women were confined to the kitchen or tending to the children. While we are looking with suspicious eyes at other societies such as the conservative Muslims in Saudi-Arabia, where this is still very strongly the case, we believe to have developed far beyond this point(8).

From 15 between 1967 - 2013 to today's releases

Shifting our focus away from the 15 books in Filipović’s study one might think that - as stated in my introduction - the book publishing market would have adjusted by now. Especially since the Rebel-Girls book became a best-seller(9). Publishers might offer more on this topic, right? On the contrary, as The Observer and The Guardian in an in-depth analysis found out:

‘The most popular picture books published in 2018 collectively present a white and male-dominated world to children, feature very few BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) characters and have become more biased against girls in the past year, (...) Male characters continue to dominate the most popular picture books: a child is 1.6 times more likely to read one with a male rather than a female lead, and seven times more likely to read a story that has a male villain in it than a female baddie. Male characters outnumbered female characters in more than half the books, while females outnumber males less than a fifth of the time.’(9)

And even continuing in 2019, in research by Sarah Mokrzycki, Victoria University with 100 best-selling books, similar results are to be found. In her research, books for girls were also highly stereotypical:

‘In the female-led stories, protagonists only showed ambition for traditional feminine pursuits. There were three ballerinas, three princesses and one fashion designer - Claris, a mouse, who “dreamed about clothes” and “read about handbags in Vanity Fair”. (In this story, a misbehaving girl is also chastised for being “neither proper nor prim!”) In comparison, the male-led stories showed protagonists in roles ranging from farmers and chefs to zookeepers and scientists.’(10).

To be fair, her research was for the Australian book retailer Dymocks, a comparable research would need to be done for the UK market.

How far have we come? Conclusion

It all forms a very coherent picture that is not difficult to understand and to accept and which explains every single problem in gender inequality we have - when considering our past, the way we have developed over the last generations, and the problems that very obviously and provenly still linger. We are still fighting the same problems, not to the same extent as women in Saudi-Arabia have to, but they are the exact same problems, yet it appears that resistance and denial are still extremely present.

Maybe stemming from conservative thinkers who still want the ‘good old times’ back when things were easy and women didn’t meddle in their affairs, maybe people just want to live their lives without being bothered by topics like tolerance in nuances (‘Am I still allowed to tell this joke?’, or ‘This picture is funny but now someone tells me it’s sexist? 5 years ago it wasn’t, why now?’). Maybe, though, it’s a much more underlying issue, one that is ingrained into our very beings from the moment we start learning about it. From large factors like the role our mothers portrayed to us as kids, to the value of boys in the schoolyard who can be daring and risk-takers vs. girls who need to be protected and sheltered and rather should play with puppets that they need to take care of and role-playing games, down to the smaller things like an obvious miss-portrayal of genders in the children’s books we read to our kids.

Perhaps this is where the foundation is laid, where we will raise yet another generation that accepts slightly sexist images or objectifying women in advertisement. From there, it’s only a few steps to underpaying and discriminating women and worse. So yes, it does make a difference whether we choose a book about a boy and read it to a girl or if we rather choose to tell the girl a story about an adventurous girl. It does make a difference if the female part in a book is only there to care and the male character is away or depicted as brave and working and fun and successful. Those choices by our parents shaped our future and they will shape the future of our children(11).

It’s not difficult to see or understand this, which is why I wished this study would have put things into context more directly and was more critical. Because there is a lot of reason to be direct, and critical, and loud.

So what can we do as illustrators? Let’s identify and lock away the stereo-typical from our stories. Try to address this matter with our publishers, families, gift our children non-stereo-typical books and toys. Create role-models. But what kind of alternative presentation possibilities could be used for male and female figures? Could custom-made children’s books work as a good alternative? What are other alternatives?

During my research for our presentation on this topic, I stumbled over the campaign ‘Let Toys be Toys’. Their focus is to create a non stereo-typical environment for children in the toy and book industries in the UK. They not only try to convince publishers of books and the toy industry to shift their focus from gender related products to uni-sex products. They also offer help for parents to address their concerns and provide discussion material and lesson plans for teachers(12). I found this to be very encouraging.

Another part that I did not address here but found during my research for the presentation are tests like the Bechdel-Test which was mainly created for movies but can also help to identify books with female protagonists. It’s not only about male-female ratio alone, as The Guardian article quoted above already indicates. We could add more and more tests, such as the BAME test as well(13).

Notes:

Books and articles

Biography retrieved from TU Dublin (2019), Staff Articles. Available at: https://www.dit.ie/llss/people/socialsciences/staffarticles/name176641en.html (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Kickstarter (2019), Good night stories for rebel girls. Available at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/timbuktu/good-night-stories-for-rebel-girls-100-tales-to-dr (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Filipović, Katarina (2018), ‘Gender representation in children’s books: case of an early childhood setting’, Journal of Research in Childhood Education. Routledge, 32(3), pp. 310–325. doi: 10.1080/02568543.2018.1464086.

The gender pay gap among full-time employees was 8.9% in 2019 according to the Office for National Statistics in a recent release from 29 October 2019. Office for National Statistics (2019), Gender pay gap in the UK: 2019. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2019#the-gender-pay-gap (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungswesen (201), National Assessment Studies and IQB Trends in Student Achievement. Available at: https://www.iqb.hu-berlin.de/bt (Accessed on: 04th November 2019). Cf. Schmoll, H. (2019), ‘Leistungsniveau in Mathe und Naturwissensschaften gesunken’, FAZ Online, 18.10.2019. Available at: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/iqb-bildungstrend-leistungen-in-mathe-und-naturwissensschaften-gesunken-16439167.html (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Still to this year advertisements like recently from VW and Philadelphia got banned, cf. BBC (2019) ‘Philadelphia and VW ads banned for gender stereotyping’. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49332640 (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Not only due to belief system but also family structures, social surroundings, education, and media.

Cf. Power, G., (2019) ‘Things that women in Saudi Arabia still can’t do’, The Week, 3rd of September. Available at: https://www.theweek.co.uk/60339/things-women-cant-do-in-saudi-arabia (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Cf. Best Sellers in Philosopher Biographies by Amazon.co.uk: Amazon (2019) ‘Best Sellers in Philosopher Biographies’. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/books/268059/ref=zg_b_bs_268059_1 (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Ferguson, D. (2019) ‘’Highly concerning': picture books bias worsens as female characters stay silent’, The Guardian. 13th June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/13/highly-concerning-picture-books-bias-worsens-as-female-characters-stay-silent (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Mokrzycki, S. (2019) ‘I looked at 100 best-selling picture books: female protagonists were largely invisible’, The Conversation, 03rd June. Available at: https://theconversation.com/amp/i-looked-at-100-best-selling-picture-books-female-protagonists-were-largely-invisible-115843 (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Cf. McCabe, J., Fairchild, E., Grauerholz, L., Pescosolido, B. A., & Tope, D. (2011). Gender in twentieth-century children’s books: Patterns of disparity in titles and central characters. Gender & Society, 25(2), 197–226. doi:10.1177/0891243211398358. Also cf. Blake, J., & Maiese, N. (2008). No fairytale. The benefits of the bedtime story. The Psychologist, 21(5), 386–388.

Let Toys be Toys (2019). Available at: http://lettoysbetoys.org.uk/ (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Cf. Darby, S. (2016) ‘11 children's books that pass the bechdel’, Romper, 17th May. Available at: https://www.romper.com/p/11-childrens-books-that-pass-the-bechdel-test-10544 (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

Picture(s)

Hanser Literaturverlage (2019), [Screenshot]. Available at: https://www.hanser-literaturverlage.de/buch/good-night-stories-for-rebel-girls/978-3-446-25690-3/ (Accessed on: 04th November 2019).

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