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bogkeep · 3 months ago

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thoughts about the "it's ableist to demand people to create art without ai" argument

thankfully not an argument that shows up on my dash unless someone is dunking on it (though i prefer not to be exposed to it at all but what can you do), but i Do think it can be worth biting into the question of: Does True Art Require Effort?

like, if we just ignore the exploitative nature of generative AI for a moment, and the fact that it creates dogshit results and is probably not going to get much "better" than this.

the thing i tend to harp on is that i don't find it particularly meaningful to discuss back and forth whether or not ai generated pictures counts as Real Art or not, because we do not have a meaningful consensus on how to define art in a way that includes everything we personally think is art and excludes everything we don't think is art. it's an interesting discussion! but it's a distraction from, well, The Exploitation. i personally think ai generated pictures can be art - it just tends to be Bad Art. it's uninspired, boring, and makes a mockery of the craft - but that's something you can say about many artworks that's been crafted by real human hands, as well.

so technically i have already answered the question, but it's not what i wanted to talk about. what i wanted to look at was the relationship between Art and Effort, or as some may put it, Suffering. because there is a point where i agree- i don't think there's a necessary Effort Threshold something needs to pass to be considered Art. i don't think one has to suffer to create. and it is true that for some people, the act creation requires far more effort or sacrifice than it requires of others, be it because of disability, time restraints, a lack of resources... we have different situations! this is real! i myself have struggled with tendonitis, severely limiting my ability to draw, and it's not something you can just keep drawing your way through the pain for, lest you fuck it up even worse.

the first question is this: is Creation a human right? well, self actualization IS on the maslow's pyramid of needs, on the tippy top. i have no idea if the pyramid theory is considered Super Legit or not, but it makes sense to me. i think humans DO have a creative need that we express in a myriad of forms - not just writing and drawing! i think our brains yearn to Make Thing for the sake of Making Thing. i think it is very very sad that techbros are dabbling in the act of creation by writing prompts to feed ai generators, and i pity them for not having discovered a more fulfilling way to feed that impulse. i do actually think all humans should have time and tools for creative expressions, but that's an extremely broad sentence for me to say.

(a more adjacent topic is that art as a Product is more of a luxury than a Human Need, like it's not food or shelter. but also art is so deeply embedded in human civilization, and i do think it's a shame how often people consider it superfluous or even hedonistic. *i* think it's important to feed the soul with beauty and stories and expression, but i have no authority to make such a claim for all humankind.)

here is the thing. we have made many tools that have made creating art easier. we live in an age of photography and audio recording and digital art programs. the last one especially can give us a MYRIAD of shortcuts when it comes to creating visual art! nobody would consider it "cheating" to use the paint bucket tool instead of painstakingly filling in every area with a brush tool. we have increasingly more access to 3d models and various assets. *is* there a point where we draw a line in the sand and say, "you're not spending enough time to make this, therefore it is void"? i, personally, wouldn't. i wouldn't know where to draw that line. i have been reading webcomics for a long time, and i have seen how webtoon as a platform has slowly gentrified the medium and is forcing creators to create pages at an unsustainable, breakneck speed - it's no wonder artists are plopping 3D assets directly into their art to even make that schedule viable.

like, ultimately, generative ai doesn't make anything new we have never seen before - we've had photo manipulation for as long as photography has existed, what we consider "slop" has been churned out by greedy corporations for as long as it's been a way to make money - it just makes it much faster, and, crucially, without intention or creative input.

like, i think that's the big thing. whether or not Art can be created without Intent is a whole another discussion, actually. there was an article about someone leaving their glasses on the floor at a gallery, and people started treating it as part of the exhibition. your cat can take a random, unintended photo and you can call it art. once again, a very big and interesting discussion to have! but i think the throughline is that even if human intent was not involved in creating the art, human intent placed it in a context to make it art. art is a social construct! but! i do think intent can be the line between Good art and Bad art. unfortunately, this is another extremely complex discussion to have, because can we objectively call any art Good or Bad? what does Good or Bad even *mean*! do we even have time to delve into that!!

but what we can say for absolutely 100% certain is that generative ai has no intent, no purpose, no thoughts. it is an algorithm, it does not have the ability to think or mean anything of its own. if it has a bias, it's because the people who programmed it have a bias, or because there is an implicit bias in the content fed to it. now, i don't want to go down the path of talking about how Real Art has a ~*Soul*~ or always has some kind of deep meaning. i don't think the millions of Cool Anime Eyes sketched in math notebooks have a deeper meaning. we create art for lots and lots of purposes - for fun, for practice, to make money, to tell our most vulnerable of truths in the only way we know how, and so on. it can be hard to tell how much of what we create is imbued with ~*intent*~, or even how much we are aware of it - i don't know if a 12 year old trying to draw the coolest edgiest sword wielding OC is thinking too hard about like, the contextual implications of design tropes... but they're making an effort to make their OC look ras as hell with the knowledge and tools at their tiny hand. when they are 24 they may look back at what they drew and redraw it with all the experience they have gained since!!

an AI can't replace a human doing creative work professionally because the skills and knowledge they are using is far more than just "picture look pretty" or "this text vaguely sounds like it was written by a human and isn't that super impressive". at best, or worst really, it replaces extremely overworked and over-exploited professionals who are not given time, resources and compensation to do their job *well*, such as ghost writers forced to write slop.

creation is more than the effort it takes to make it. it is *knowing* how to shape your clay, your words, your lines, to make them into what you want them to be and what you want them to do. it is knowing how (and when) to rewrite your draft, to pick out the best sketch, to make coherent thumbnails, tighten up the narrative, to evoke a mood, to play on themes. it is to build your skill with everything you make.

generative AI is a randomizer button. the one thing i feel fairly certain about is that it's very difficult to say *you* created something if all you did was write a prompt and a machine spat out a product at you. like that one seems fairly cut and dry to me. another thing i've seen a lot is people claiming to use genAI as a starting point, and then editing the thing to make it what you want it to be - and i can see the merit in that, sure! though i also think that the amount of editing and tweaking you need to do to make the thing workable is so substantial and grueling that you may as well make your thing from scratch, and now we've just looped back around to the Demanding Effort Is Ableism problem again.

using generative AI is giving up your autonomy in the process of creation. there are ways to spin art out of that (gestures at marina abramovíc's famous performance art where she just let the audience do whatever they wanted to her while she remained unresponsive) - but for the question of Creating Art As A Human Right And Need: why would you want to? what creative fulfilment do you get out of relinquishing all creative control? you're not... you're not *making* anything. maybe you came up with an idea - great start! - and then threw it out the window in the hopes that the wind would pick it up and take it somewhere exciting. god, even that sounds more like an artistic project than using generative AI. literally any metaphor i could make about this sounds more artistic and interesting than what generative AI is doing these days. i miss the time when AI generated pictures were incomprehensible and strange. i miss secret horses. i miss the time where i naively hoped computers dreaming up images would be like, artistically interesting.

most importantly, as many, many other people have said: disabled people are *already* making art. when my tendonitis was bad, i drastically reduced my drawing time and switched to only using tools that were gentle on my hands, and planned my drawings and drawing time accordingly. i think of my disabled writer friends using speech-to-text software. i think of sir terry pratchett, diagnosed with alzheimers, creating his last books by dictating to his assistant and making audio notes for himself. i'm thinking of the many, many creatives who have collaborated to create amazing things together. i'm not going to come out here and say that ~*Anything Is Possible If You Only Put Your Mind To It*~ or some other platitude that disregards your disability, i don't know you, maybe you will never have the ability or resources to work on the One beautiful creative project that lives in your heart. but i am nearly completely certain that generative AI is not your only option.

#too long for twitter #i need a better tag for these posts but eh. ah. whatever.#art history student brain: activated #i am tentatively leaving this post rebloggable but if it gets Annoying Traction i WILL be turning that off

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dduane · 8 months ago

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I just read the part where Kirk experiences the Enterprise's point of view in The Wounded Sky to someone else, where she sees the crew as children she is training up to the Great Desire of exploration for exploration's sake, especially Jim. His reaction, essentially: "That was really pretty. ....And then he blows her up."

I hadn't thought about that before! I checked the copyright date, and it looks like The Wounded Sky came out a year before The Search for Spock, so you were writing without knowing that sacrifice would eventually happen.

How did you feel about that? Do you wish that writing decision had been made differently? (If, as a Trek writer, you're allowed to comment on other Trek writers' choices!)

You know, I tend not to think a whole lot about such issues. First of all, because (in the long run) it gets you nowhere in particular that's useful. And secondly, because it's not a thing that, as a Trek writer in any medium except film, you have the slightest power to change.

Now, at this end of time I think we can safely say that no one's going to hire me on to write a Trek film. And also that no one at that end of the creative spectrum is going to pay the slightest attention to anything I say, either. Both of those situations are just What's So, and neither of them bothers me. (Since I have universes of my own to manage at the moment, and that's where my attention properly lies.) So as regards my opinions about other writers' work, I'm pretty much off the hook.

If I had been on screenwriting duty for that film, would there be things I'd have wanted to do differently? Hell yeah. From the premise up. But the important thing here is: would those things necessarily have worked better on the screen / with the audience? Impossible to tell. And speaking as someone repeatedly given permission to work in someone's universe, the main thing to be aware of is the expectation that your chief responsibility is to do what best serves the characters and the IP of which they're part. (There's a post over at Out of Ambit with a lot more of my thoughts on the subject:)

The other thing to remember is that, though I've worn the Canonical Hat in my time, novel work is by definition non-canonical. Doing it, you are at all times working with the understanding that the licensor rarely views your work as anything better than a corporate side hustle—a way for the IP to make some cash on the side—and will ignore you and the stuff you've created unless given pressing reasons to do otherwise. (Such as when they might make some unexpected money off it... at which point you remind yourself as forcibly as necessary that what you did is Work For Hire; they own it, lock, stock and barrel, and you should not realistically expect to be given any credit.)

And, if you understand the rules and enjoy the work enough, all of this is okay. The reward is not in making a lot of money doing it, or even in having aspects of your work openly assumed into canon. The reward lies in being allowed to contribute to a given universe in public (and, yeah, getting paid for it by the licensor). It's not payback: it's payforward. And you're left an astonishing amount of freedom to bring your vision to that universe. (Sometimes... as one colleague has McCoy say... you have to be "very, very careful" to get away with it. But it can be done.)

The truth is that even in the 1980s, I was sharing this level of playing-in-a-universe with a goodish cohort of editors and writers: a big roomful at least. Now I'm sharing it (retroactively speaking) with hundreds of them. With the best will in the world, even in the 80's the licensors (as regarded film) couldn't have realistically polled/listened to all of us regarding our creative opinions about the screenplay end of things. As for what that'd look like nowadays... I'll leave you to your own deductions. 😏

Anyway, thanks for the question. It's always nice to know that there are people who want to know what you think. 😊

#Star Trek #Star Trek novels #Star Trek: The Search for Spock #canonicity #screenwriting

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burnt-by-marigolds · 26 days ago

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When Monsters Become People,

or the Fear of the “Other”

Every time their gazes tug down, They think us monsters, then men, Predators, then persons again, Beasts, then beings, Horrors & then humans. – Amanda Gorman, “Lucent”

One of the reasons why Baldur’s Gate 3 so quickly became one of my favourite games is because it does an excellent job in going against the expectations. Today I want to talk a little about how it handles picturing monsters in its narrative. Prepare to read about goblins and other creatures, and then – inevitably – about Astarion and vampire spawns.

A lot of games (be it D&D or other titles, tabletop or video games) draw a neat, clean line between the protagonists and antagonists. So much we usually don’t even bat an eye when the “good guys’” bodycount gets ridiculously high. We’re used to the idea that cutting through the swathes of thugs, goblins or demons is part of the convention. And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it: after all, we’re talking about a form of entertainment. It’s just my personal preference that I especially enjoy titles that subvert this trope (because BG3 isn’t, of course, the only medium that does this).

The humanisation I want to talk about starts with a very simple thing: giving a name. When a creature gets a name, it stops being an anonymous part of a crowd (or a pack, or a swarm). To give something or someone a name is to make it familiar, to tame it a little. We can observe it in everyday life: we name pets, plants, possessions. And sometimes we decide to change our own names to better reflect who we are or who we have become. Names have power and significance.

Imagine how delighted I was when in Act 1 I discovered goblins, and many other monsters have names. Even better, they have distinct personalities (sic!) and individual quirks. They aren’t just scripted combat encounters. Crusher perfumes his feet and adorns his toes with jewelry; he wants to feel important, and possibly to overthrow Minthara and other high ranking Absolutists. Piddle likes reading, even if some words cause him difficulties. Among this ragtag gang I think my favourite is Klagga. The poor lad loves poetry and nice clothes (let’s just agree, for the sake of this post, that pants looted from a dead dwarf count as nice), but he keeps it a secret because he doesn’t want other goblins to see him as soft. He writes love letters to Minthara, which are dreadful, and by that – all the more endearing. I could go on for a long time, but let me conclude the thought with this: when I spared Fezzerk and Racha in Moonrise Towers, I really hoped to meet those little ruffians again (or, at the very least, to hear from or about them).

Tracker Klagga: Some of these words are real pretty. But if the lads find out how much I enjoy it, they'll stick ME on the spit.

Similarly, you can chat with ogres, hobgoblins, even some gnolls. And the dialogue options aren’t limited to the good old “Prepare to die, you beast”. I especially like how you can free “Timothy”, “Barnabus” and “Tomelia” from mental thrall, and they’ll side with you later. Compared to slaughtering your way through the entire gnoll stronghold in Baldur’s Gate 1, it really feels fresh.

And when I thought we can’t go any further than that (I know, I’m going a bit anachronically, forgive me), I was elated to find out we can meet non-hostile illithids. Again, this isn’t something that happens during your average D&D session – and I’d wager it’s even more rare to be able to ally yourself with one, not to mention to romance one.

Now, in the light of all of the above, let’s talk about Astarion and what makes him the most developed example of humanising monsters.

His case is more complex, but also less immediately obvious – at least in the wider context of the popular culture. Vampires have a long history of being portrayed as hungry beasts – and almost just as long a history of being used as a mirror to examine our own humanity. They occupy a unique niche: they’re neither dead, nor alive; no longer mortal, but not beasts entirely. They’re a perfect narrative tool if you want to discuss the themes of what it means to be a human, how to reconcile morality with predatory instincts, whether there are possibilities of redemption etc. It has been done before and in this sense, Astarion’s story isn’t doing anything new.

So when I first learned he was a vampire, the “revelation” was almost lost on me. First, because it was quite obvious (purposefully, I think), and second, because I’m so used to vampire characters being protagonists in various media, I took his true identity in stride.

But when I took a step back to think about it from the setting’s point of view, I realised he actually belonged with all the goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, gnolls and illithids, not with the player character and other companions.

His place was in the Monster Manual. In the bestiary. In the book that tells you what kind of creatures to throw against a party of adventurers, so they can earn their experience points and advance a level.

And, realistically, that’s what should happen in the game. The moment Tav/Durge and the rest of the companions learn of Astarion’s true identity, they should grab a pitchfork, skewer the bloodsucking abomination, then pat themselves on the shoulders and call it a day, right?

(Which, ironically, BG3 actually allows: we can stake Astarion and, if I recall correctly, we’re not able to bring him back afterwards. And the indifferent reactions of the rest of the party really make you think, especially when you're aware how much they learn to care for Astarion if he's spared.)

Still, the game gives us the unique chance to get to know the monster (and not just as an NPC, but as a full-fledged companion): to become familiar with him, to learn about him, his needs, his views, his experiences, what shaped him. To engage on a very intimate level, and I don’t mean physicality here. To gentle him and to build a relationship with him. And once we go through this process, we may realise he was never a monster in the first place. Or maybe he is – by the bestiary’s standards – but in the long run, that label proves meaningless. We can even observe how he himself struggles with this dilemma, how he tries to figure out his own identity, to decide where he fits in the world.

When Bram Stoker wrote Dracula, he made vampires the metaphor for the fears of the contemporary age: they represented barbarism, animalistic forces and sinful sexuality. They were the dangerous “other” that came literally at night to overturn the social order and disrupt the civilised world.

Here, we’re invited to bond with this “other”, and to recognise a person behind the mask of the beast. He doesn’t have to be a monster. He doesn’t have to be an enemy. We don’t have to give in to the fear of the unknown. It is our decision how we perceive and label him.

And once we had the chance to show Astarion kindness and understanding, the game raises the stakes: what if there’s more creatures like him? If you can see humanity in one vampire spawn, can you see it in seven? And we’re introduced to his siblings: Petras, Dalyria, Leon, Aurelia, Violet, Yousen. They all have names. They all have distinct personalities (though not all are explored equally). We learn a little bit about their pasts, their hopes, what’s important to them.

And then the game asks: what if there’s more still? Not just seven, but let’s say, seven thousand?

You know how huge numbers are just too abstract for our brains to process and they become a statistic? One could ask: why seven thousand specifically? Why not just seventy? That’s still a lot, but easier to digest. But I think the choice was deliberate: to give the player a number that it’s hard to wrap their head around. To show the mechanism: you can come to care about one spawn or even seven, but seven thousand suddenly proves troublesome to imagine. Just how much is that? It’s a small town.

So we have this crowd that may become a blur in our minds; at this point, it might be tempting to dehumanise the victims simply because of the sheer number. It’s almost as if the game is testing our resolve. But we do meet some of them: the shy Sebastian or the little Chessa, to name only two. The crowd, even if mostly anonymous, isn’t entirely faceless.

But even that isn’t the end of the story. If we decide to spare Cazador’s victims and free them, after they get to the Underdark and start a community there, we learn one more very important thing in the game’s epilogue. The Gur, the people who killed Astarion in the first place, and who dedicated their lives to eradicating monsters like him (it’s worth noting the bitter irony here: apparently killing him once wasn’t enough), learn compassion. This illustrates an important principle: the best way to accept the “other”, that unfamiliar stranger who instills fear in us, may be through exposure. The Gur never tried to befriend their quarry – and as I imagine, the said quarry never gave them a chance or a reason to do so. But once their own children turned into vampire spawns, the tragedy sprouted an opportunity to finally see a different side of things.

The letter from the Gur; read the full text here

I’ve been thinking a lot about all of this recently. How our brains are built to avoid the unfamiliar, and therefore how easy it is to accuse “the other” of being a threat, a monster. How we perceive differences as danger. Sure, on the fundamental level, we don’t see the goblins change – they remain unrepentant and prone to violence (it’s stated they have become more organised only because of the Absolute’s influence). But Astarion and the freed spawns are a different story. Their fundamental nature doesn't change either – I don't even think it would be fair to demand such a change – but they are willing to learn to coexist, if only the other side shows the same willingness. And to see this story through, we need to throw the “common sense” to the wind, to let the fearsome stranger in, and to look for similarities rather than differences.

To let the stranger change and challenge us.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #bg3 astarion #astarion ancunin #bg3 goblins #bg3 spoilers #bg3 vampire spawns #humanity vs monstrosity #the other #the fear of the other #this has been sitting in my drafts forever and a day

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jocelynscrazyideas · 1 year ago

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Kiss it better | Jack Hughes x Reader

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

Warning: smut, language, surgery?

Summary: Jack demands you cook him a lunch after his surgery, but he’s supposed to be healed. As the “best” girlfriend in the world you fix up a salad and share with Jack. Jack decides he wants more to eat, but not food.

A:N- AGH first time writing for a summer blurb!! Also it’s really short bc I had lots of hw recently!! (Sorry!)

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

It’s off season. Jack and I are in Michigan, Jack has been watching Quinn play, and I’ve been tanning. I called Luke to check in and he said that it’s been stressful, playing with older guys, specially ones who’ve played in worlds before.

“Baby?” Jack hollers for me.

“Coming!” I reply, I throw my Jean shorts from American Eagle in the clean pile of clothes I’ve gathered, and run upstairs. Jack and I live in the basement, and Jack likes to spend his time upstairs on the main floor watching the TV.

Normally the guys spend time downstairs playing pool, and I watch Dance Moms on the TV next to the pool table. Jack is doing well with his recovery after his surgery.

“I’m hungry, I know. It’s a lot to ask for but could you make me some avocado toast with chicken parm salad?” Jack seems like he’s on his monthly period cravings. I mean it sounds good.

“Of course, only if you help me.” I say, and Jack throws his gaming controller to his blanket on the side. He gets up, rolls his shoulders out and cracks his neck. He stands behind me when I been down to grab the chicken.

I stand up and see him towering over me. I lean in for a kiss after setting down the ingredients. I pull back to grab a bowl from a cabinet, I pull out a fork to distract myself from the man that stares at me like I’m the only girl in the world.

“You’re so cute.” Jack says, disrupting the noise of tension between us. “I know.” I say giving him a stare. Right now we’re home alone, but I’m sure Ellen and Jim are heading back from Target.

“Mom will be home soon.” Jack says. I’m sure he’s inferring that we need to hurry up if we’re gonna do stuff.

I make it known I feel the same, but before I can say anything to stop me from going in for more kisses, Ellen walks in from the garage door.

“Hey mama bear!” I rant out, I push Jack away. I pour the lettuce into the bowl and stir in a salad dressing I made last night. I cut in boiled eggs from last night and stuff them in the salad, I microwave the chicken, just because I didn’t feel like cooking. I chop the warmed meat and lose the chicken into the bowl. Done!

“Here, your salad.” I saw shoving the bowl into Jacks reach. I toasted up some toast and slice the avocados. I grab some seasoning and seasoned the toast, I spread some avocados and took a bite of my work, delicious. I hand the rest to Jack and I walk back downstairs to to finish my laundry.

“I’m coming baby.” Jack informs me as he runs down the stairs.

“Yeah you will.” I say as I throw all of my folded clothes off into a hamper, ruining all of my work. Jacks eyes glow when he talks to me, his beard needs to be shaved.

“You look so edible.” Jack says as he pulls me into his arms. Hands in my hips, he slides his head into my neck. My perfume wraps him into my chest, he’s stuck in this love bliss.

“I cant get enough of you. You look so yummy.” Jack whispers into my ear. He licks under my ear, and I feel his hot breath on my cheeks.

gross.

“That’s icky.” I say. I love to make him mad.

“Shut the fuck up.” Jack says as he lets go of me. He sits on our bed and watches me fold the laundry that I threw.

“I cant believe you did that. Y/n I need you, I haven’t felt actually love in forever.” Jack implying on my “turn off” of words.

“Sorry.” I holler back, knowing I don’t fully mean it. His medium toned hair sits right under his ears, he plays with his wristbands as I walk over to him.

“Can you sit back please?” I request. He does as I say, not making me having to push him back, which would have been easier.

I hop onto jacks legs as I straddle him. “You feel so warm. I’m freezing.” I wiggle out of my mouth as I start to rock my hips. I grab into jacks shoulder and start to whisper in his ears.

“Take everything off.” I imply.

“We could take it to the hot tub.” I suggested. “No, wr can start here and end on the boat.” Jack responded within seconds.

“Sure.”

I feed into jacks neck and leave a mark. He’s bruised from my bites. Jack groans intensely as I start to make my way to his cargo shorts. I unzip everything and pull it off.

“You’re already so big.” I let out a sigh and take his boxers off. “Only for you.” Jack caressed my check and pulled my hair behind my ears.

I start jerking him and his head leans all the way back. Jack lifts his hips up when he feels he’s going to cum.

“Are you ready?” He asked me. His eyes glimmering up ast me. I pull down my leggings. I keep my shirt on and I lay on our bed. Jack spreads my legs as he goes down.

“You look wet already.” Jack insisting to start our activity. He pushes two fingers into my hole and he starts to pump. I feel erratic, my moaning screams out.

“Quiet down.” Jack deadly stared at me, and he pushed his tounge down my throat, I moan as he massaged my tounge into his. I feel our saliva mixing. I pushed his fingers farther in and I feel I’m going to cum. He lets go of my mouth.

He takes his fingers out as i jerk up from my release. Jack shoved one finger into his mouth licked it clean, and the other into mine. I suck kn it until he leans into me, I feel his hard cock pressed up against me.

He gets up as we try to finish what we started until we heard, “Jack! Help me clean up the yard! Your shoulder should be fine now!”

Jim and Ellen are having people over and apparently Jack needs to help him fix up the yard.

“We’ll finish later. I promise.” Jack smiled at me as he zips his cargo shorts on and pulled on his shirt. He leaves the room, and up the stairs as I hear him wash his hands upstairs.

I’m left alone in our room and I’m forced to do my laundry.

#jocelynscrazyideas #hockey #nhl #jack hughes #new jersey devils #hockey blurb #nhl fic #small blurb #jack rowden hughes #jack hughes x reader #🍇🍇🍇#nj devils

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mysticstronomy · 9 months ago

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WHAT IS 'NEGATIVE TIME'??

Blog#443

Wednesday, October 9th, 2024.

Welcome back,

Negative time may sound like the last committee meeting you attended that should have been an email, but researchers from the University of Toronto and Griffith University have reported that photons — particles of light — can spend a “negative” amount of time exciting atoms as they pass through a medium. Published in the pre-print server arXiv, the researchers report this strange phenomenon, confirmed by experiments and theory, challenges traditional views of light-matter interaction and sheds new light on the concept of negative time in quantum systems.

The study, which investigates the group delay experienced by photons, also suggests that this negative time has more physical meaning than previously thought and could have implications for quantum technology, such as quantum computing.

At the heart of the research is the concept of group delay. When light passes through a material, its speed is affected, causing a delay in how long it takes to travel from one point to another. Normally, this delay is positive, meaning that the light slows down as it interacts with the atoms in the material. However, in certain cases, especially when the light is tuned to specific frequencies near the material’s atomic resonance, something strange happens: the group delay becomes negative.

This means the light appears to exit the material before it should, creating a paradox that has puzzled physicists. Essentially, it’s as if the photon caused an effect, like making the atom excited, before it even arrived — something that can happen in the quantum world but doesn’t make sense in our everyday experience of time. (Welcome to the weird, wonderful world of quantum mechanics.)

To better understand this phenomenon, the research team set out to answer a fundamental question: Does this negative group delay correspond to the time photons spend as atomic excitations? The answer, as it turns out, is yes. By using a method called the cross-Kerr effect, the researchers were able to probe the degree of atomic excitation caused by transmitted photons, even when the group delay was negative.

The results showed that the time spent by the photons as atomic excitations was directly related to the group delay, suggesting that the negative time observed in the group delay has real physical significance.

Another fundamental question the researchers sought to answer was: how much time do atoms spend in an excited state when a photon is transmitted through a medium?

“We define the average time that the atoms spend in the excited state (τ0), or average atomic excitation time, as the time integral of the expectation value of the number of atoms in the excited state,” the researchers write.

They further explored the quantum nature of this interaction, asking how this time changes when photons are transmitted rather than scattered.

The idea that photons can cause atomic excitations for a negative amount of time may seem counterintuitive, but it fits within the framework of quantum mechanics. In classical physics, time is always positive—a particle moves forward in time as it travels. However, in the quantum world, time can behave differently. When the researchers tuned their light pulses to specific frequencies close to the atomic resonance of rubidium-85 atoms, they observed that the group delay of the transmitted photons became negative. This implies that the peak of the light pulse exited the medium before it logically should have, based on when it entered.

To explain this, the team used quantum theory and the concept of “weak values,” a formalism that allows certain measurements in quantum mechanics to take on values outside the normal expected range. In this case, the weak value of the atomic excitation time was found to be negative, corresponding to the negative group delay observed. Essentially, the photons were interacting with the atoms in such a way that the atoms were excited before the light even arrived—at least, from the perspective of the group delay measurement.

This strange behavior was measured using the cross-Kerr effect, which allowed the team to detect tiny phase shifts in a secondary beam of light (the probe) caused by the atomic excitations from the transmitted photons. By carefully synchronizing their measurements and using post-selection techniques to focus only on the transmitted photons, the researchers were able to directly measure the atomic excitation time and compare it to the group delay.

Originally published on https://thequantuminsider.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, October 12th, 2024)

"DO MICRO BLACK HOLES EXIST??"

#astronomy #outer space #alternate universe #astrophysics #universe #spacecraft #white universe #space #parallel universe #astrophotography

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yellow-yarrow · 9 months ago

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(copied from the Summer Eternal website for better readability:)

Summer Eternal Manifesto

On this day the 11th of October 2024, we announce SUMMER ETERNAL. We recognize we are writing the opening words of our story at a time of apocalyptic material conditions for game creators across the world.

Our art has been dressed down into an industry, and this industry has been pilfered by corrupt executives, by the vulgar profiteering of corporate bodies moving like leviathans in the dark, burning human fuel in their insatiable lust for money.

It is not pencil-pushers and moneylenders who make games. It is the relentless passion of the workers that creates an art form capable of saying something true.

As creators and game makers, we have too long been led away from the truth, away from the right to define ourselves as artists in service of the definitive art form of the future, one that has made us dream since we were children.

Instead, the disposability culture operating at the ruthless core of this industry wants us to think of ourselves as cogs in the machine: rudimentary craftsmen, disposable career workers, inert producers of made-to-order marketing-driven "content" — empty calories leaving the soul hungry.

The Profiteer knows that by keeping your dignity low, he will keep you crawling on the treadmill of passion until he lays you off for the sake of the red number in his book.

We make games because we have to. It is our calling. Because we have no choice but to see the transformative potential of this youngest medium of human interaction. You can't turn away once you've seen the light, Or it will always feel like everyone else in the world is doing something without you, there in the light you try to abandon but can't, because — oh, the horror — it comes from inside you.

All art is communication — dialogue across time, space and thought. In its rawest, it is one mind’s ability to provoke emotion in another. Large language models — simulacra, cold comfort, real-doll pocket-pussy, cyberspace freezer of an abandoned IM-chat — which are today passed off for “artificial intelligence”, will never be able to offer a dialogue with the vision of another human being.

Machine-generated works will never satisfy or substitute the human desire for art, as our desire for art is in its core a desire for communication with another, with a talent who speaks to us across worlds and ages to remind us of our all-encompassing human universality. There is no one to connect to in a large language model. The phone line is open but there’s no one on the other side.

The peddlers who aim to get rich quick from this scheme will always PLAY THE FOOL to any ethical or artistic argument. This is why we must push back against Big Tech's encroachment on the territory of our art, against increasing corporatization and alienation of game creators from their work, against the robbery of rights from workers, performers, artists and all contributors to this complicated and MULTI-FACETED medium.

Our mission is to unite world-class artists and creatives in a truly independent game studio which will always prioritize artistic integrity over personal comfort, profit margin, short term interests and Big Tech profit-bubbles.

There we will be able to embark on that treacherous road of building a cultural megaproject, a Role Playing Game with complexity and ambition worthy to rival our wretched and wonderful world.

In this we are committed to pursue the highest caliber of literary quality.

Here we stand, bound by our love for games and devotion to our craft, ready to bleed and weep and ride the cavalry into machine gun fire one more time.

For this we will need all the support and help from you, our readers, colleagues and future visionaries. Come walk the desert with us.

We will not take any of your support for granted. We have seen the suffering wrought by the hunger for power, the terror of greed and envy, the complicity of the averted eye. We have also seen the triumph of the human spirit, of solidarity in the striving, of making something never before seen and seeing its miracle unfold in the world. We have seen poverty, and we have seen plenty. We will make mistakes, we will win and we will fail, but we will never forget what we are doing this for. Yours in every season,

SUMMER ETERNAL

#summer eternal #za/um #disco elysium

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christelightlavo · 28 days ago

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Fandom hot takes, because I fear we are entering the apocalypse :

Comic books as a medium have been here before most of us, like they are as old as our grandparents. Dick Grayson HAS absolutely cheated on Kori, Barbara and a lot of his female partners and has absolutely been a piece of shit to them verbally. So if someone writes him like that, they are being faithful to his character. That being said, Him being the loyal golden retriever who is a goody two shoes and makes puns is ALSO a valid take because, Different writers write him differently and he is 80 years old as a character.

"For a Hokage, the whole village is family" is actually a pretty huge thing to say to a 12 year old and Boruto had a valid reason to feel the way he did in the beginning of the series. Was he being a brat? Absolutely. Does he deserve the hate? Nope. Because it was a valid crash out. If my dad told me he felt like every one of his students was like his own child, I would be cranky about it. Because I love my dad and so does Boruto. That's why he wanted Naruto to be around. Not only for him but for his sister and mother too.

Dazai is NOT the most complex character in Bsd, everyone is as complex as him, heck some are even more but they just don't get enough attention. RANPO is absolutely more complex than Dazai and is shown to be smarter too.

Draco Malfoy is not misunderstood. He was a bully throughout multiple books and has done ABSOLUTELY bad stuff. Yes it's because of his upbringing but the malfoys do love Draco. He was a spoiled brat, a bully, a bad guy. But that's what made his redemption (by the end) work. Cursed child showed that he worked on himself for his son and that works.

Who made me a princess treated Athanasia and Jennette like they were Claude's love interests.

Shouto Todoroki deserves better.

Alison's mood and personality changes makes sense to me. She was a teenager, that had shit going around her and she acted on it.

Akutagawa is not a women beater. He beats everyone. Literally.

Jennette just wanted a family and everyone in the fandom hated her for it and I hate them. (Heck Athy would have hated you guys for hating on Jennette)

Rashta and Navier, both are valid in their feelings and both don't deserve to be inside this misogynist manhwa, which disguises itself as a feminist power story.

on the same note, Diana from "for my derelict favourite" is what Navier would be like if the story was from Rashta's POV, with Rashta as the Fmc.

People who are against Jon kent Superman and Jon Kent being Bisexual need to understand that Comics are Comics and Wacky shit will always happen. Grow up.

On the same note, Tim Drake has two hands. Bernard is baby, stop trying to make Tim cheat on him with Conner. Poly relationships are a thing. And Bernard is totally Conner's type.

Chuuya is only 2 years older than Akutagawa and 4 years older than Atsushi. He is no parental figure, if he is in your fic. That is a personal head cannon and please keep it that way. He is no mother. Same actually goes for him being portrayed as a brother figure, if that's in your fic it's great but it's not canon. It's not. Stop forcing your head canon's down other people's throats

DekuOcha makes more sense than Bakudeku. Bakudeku is a good ship but it works for me more as a brotp.

Sarasumi is the ultimate ship, you guys are just blind.

I might update this later. Idk. Feel free to give your hot takes.

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himegureisu · 1 year ago

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Hiii! Just got home from a horrifying midterm exam. It went horrible, none of the questions were even in the lesson plan. Although it did give me an idea for this request :')

It's practically universal knowledge that Snape is a 'terror prof' (iykyk) at Hogwarts — his standards are high, he's very particular with essays and it's practically expected that every major exam, tears will be shed in and out the classroom with the amount of curveballs he throws at you.

(I'd feel like he'd be the type to have a True or False exam with choices like: True, Partially True, Partially False, False, and if none is applicable write the correct answer and all of it is situational)

He's married to the reader and they're both teachers, so they help each other on their loads. Much more efficient that way. One night after a particularly hard-hitting major exam in the semester, reader encounters tear stains and snot and a few drops of blood from a nosebleed on one of the exams (witnesses this once lol) and decided to confront him husband about it. Thank you! I hope this isn't too specific ;w;

Questions and Answers

Pairing: Severus Snape x Reader

A/N: I'm sorry you had a horrible exam day and thank you for preventing me from pulling my hair out of frustration because my Notion page was not cooperating when this request came through. I hope you enjoy this! 💖

——————————— 🪄———————————

“Severus, darling, why do your exam papers have at least two different types of fluids on them?” your fingers flip through the unfinished stack, your eyes scanning them.

This was the thirty-fifth test paper from his pile that you graded. His second-year tests were stained by a range of substances you curiously identified through a spell.

Did he truly not notice them?

“There’s a combination of either snot, sweat, tears, or,” you paused, taking one of the papers you already graded, to present to him. His dark eyes highlighted by the round reading glasses made for a rather attractive sight but focus, “On the rare occasion, blood,”

“Oh,” he simply said, looking up at you, “And?”

“Is that all you can say?” you frustratedly run a hand through your forehead as you sit on the edge of his desk causing him to stop, “What are these questions even? It’s a major exam for second years, not OWLs or NEWTs, Severus. My head hurts not only from the answers but also the questions,”

“If they can’t answer then they’re not competent enough to proceed to the…” his sentence undone by the beginning of your ramble, an attempt to explain why his methods were not feasible.

“Can you imagine the physical, mental, and emotional drain that major exams cause to students? You can reminisce on your time as one if it helps but it’s not good and then to be brought to this level of inquiry as if they were taking a mastery,” you explained, “There isn’t even a 50-50 chance to get the answer right only 25 because you decided that it would be better if there would be four very similar but distinct answers to the multiple choice questions and not a chance of redemption for those who don’t know the question if the said answer is one they needed to correct. I can better understand your students’ frustrations from this version of your exams,”

“To adjust the exam would mean that there would be a lower level of understanding…”

“That’s the point though since they’re just building the foundation of what they know for potions!” you exclaimed, “If it were a muggle game, Severus, it should be easy, medium, and then hard but your exams are hard, hard, and then hard on every level. Do you understand?”

“Yes, but…”

“Sev, imagine this,” you sit on his lap, cupping his cheeks for him to focus on you as you say, “Imagine a child, our child, a little boy or girl coming home to us in tears because of a similar test that they’d taken on that day,”

“It would be different. They would be ours,” he grumbled, pulling you in closer to bask in your warmth, “We wouldn’t teach them to be like that,”

“Sev, just imagine!” you sighed exasperatedly, his face buried beneath your chin, “Your little girl coming home in tears crying for us wanting a hug because of an awful exam day,”

His breathing was in sync with yours, trying to understand your reasoning. His imagination slowly conjures a little girl in your image. Her face was stained with big fat crocodile tears, a snot-filled nose, and books slung defeatedly on her arm. His heart tightened at the image of it, protectiveness surging from within.

No one was allowed to make either of you cry.

“Can you imagine?” you softly asked, running a hand through his hair, as he mumbled, “Yes,”

“Can you change the way your tests are written?” you silently prayed that he would, he breathed in and faced you to answer, “Fine, and you’ll help me,”

“I expect as much,” you smiled.

As you were about to get off his lap, his arms quickly pulled you back and in doing so, caused the chair to stumble a bit from the force. His nose on your hair, breaths warm, and hug unwilling to let go.

“Sev?” you glance back to see his darkened gaze, “What is it?

“Do you want children?” he asked, it wasn’t something both of you discussed in depth before, “I realized that after four years of marriage, we didn’t elaborate on our expectations on that particular topic,”

“If we’re blessed with children, then I’m happy,” you informed, tracing the contours of his face. No matter how many times you’ve seen him it’s like there’s another new thing to catalog in your mind, “If not, then I’ll be happy having you all to myself,”

“I don’t know if I want children,” he admitted, and you kissed his cheek, “We’ll get there when we get there, Sev, for now, don’t think about it,”

#severus snape #severus snape x reader #hp #harry potter #severus snape fanfiction #snape #professor snape #hogwarts #fanfiction #snape x you #severus snape x you #harry potter fanfiction

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literaila · 2 years ago

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could you write something super domestic, like peter and reader baking together or something similar

i lauv ur writing btw

drive through

a/n: not what you were looking for i’m sure but it’s the only thing that struck a cord blah

“a number three” you whisper, leaning across the console to squint at the menu. “with… a coke.”

peter repeats your order, much louder than you might’ve thought possible, then opens his mouth, but not before—

“oh and one of those ice cream things”

he raises his eyebrow and turns to you. “a shake?”

“no, peter. that thingy you got last time with, like, the syrup and the—“

“you want a sundae?”

“i know what a sundae is.” you roll your eyes, but nod anyway.

peter quickly apologizes to the person unfortunate enough to be taking your order. “what size, bub?”

“how big are they?”

he holds two hands a couple of inches apart while shaking his head. “you want the same as what i got? it was medium.”

“okay.”

“and a medium sundae,” peter repeats. he waits a beat, and you watch him scratch his jaw while his eyes dart across the illuminated menu. “and then can i also get a number 6 combo, with extra sauce and a rootbeer?”

he looks over to you, then back to the speaker. “and can i add a large fry to that?”

a muffled voice answers pleasantly, naming the total and asking for his name, and then he’s driving you away from the speaker and you punch him in the shoulder.

“you’re not going to eat all that!”

peter frowns, his eyes darting towards you. “uh, yes i am.”

“no you’re not. we just ate, like, two hours ago.”

“i’ll share.”

you laugh. “with me?”

peter scoffs, and he’s finally stopped, so he looks at you with big brown eyes and glowing cheeks. “no. with larry a few doors down.”

“oh, i see how it is. you think larry’s going to let you be the little spoon?”

“for at least three minutes. before he puts on his c-pap machine and starts snoring.”

“that’s better than giving me some of your fries?”

peter pokes you in the shoulder. “better than being used as a space heater all night.”

“i don’t use you!”

“then how come i’m constantly pushing your cold feet off of my thighs?”

you cross your eyes. “maybe because someone likes to give death hugs in his sleep.”

peter’s mouth opens then closes. “i. do. not.”

you laugh at him. “yes you do—you hold on to me and when i tell you to let me go you just say ‘i won’t let you fall, i’m not’—“

“um. 17.46?”

both you and peter turn to look at the girl staring at the two of you with wide eyes.

peter coughs. “yeah, of course, let me just—“ me scrambled through the center console, dropping multiple things in your lap before grabbing his wallet. “just get my card, here.”

he hands it to the girl giving her a wide smile like he’s been waiting all day for this opportunity.

and when she’s gone, he turns to you with accusing eyes.

“what? i didn’t do anything.”

he leans closer to you. “they’re going to spit in our food.”

“the outside antibodies will probably be good for larry.”

and then peter laughs and pulls forward. but not before you give him a kiss on the cheek.

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elbiotipo · 1 year ago

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Question: he would the hair in cat ears work for catgirls? do they get the same hair covering the ears as the rest of the head or would it be shorter for the ears only? if a catgirl has long curly hair, is the hair covering the ears also long and curly?

I would have to research that, but given I have a research subject next to me (my cat) cats do seem to have shorter hair in their ears by default, which makes sense because ears are well, ears, and they need to be mobile and clear of obstructions.

You can see here that this cat (not mine, he went away as I was writing this) has medium-length fur but the hairs covering the ears are rather short. It makes sense it would be the same for catgirls.

Now, does this mean that cat-people hair would be the same as their fur? Do notice that cat fur has a very different length and texture from human hair in that human hair doesn't have that layered thing that makes most mammal fur, individual hairs are also much longer. Furthermore, humans are WEIRD, just plain WEIRD in our hair distribution. No other mammals are like us, there are certainly hairless mammals, for sure, but the human distribution of hair is very much unlike other primates, with our hairy heads, stomach/pubic areas, beard and armpits, while those are usually bald in other primates. There is still considerable debate on the evolution of hairlesness in humans, from endothermic regulation (better sweating) to sexual selection (which might explain the persistance of, well, hair and body hair instead of complete hairlessness). What's interesting is that genes for a full fur (hair, I guess) coat in humans are still there, just disabled into vellus hairs which are a lot less prominent. If you want more on the subject, I warn you, it's a deep dive, but you can start in Wikipedia.

BACK TO CATS THOUGH, something that people often forget is that whiskers are indeed another kind of fur, but not only that, they are active sensory organs that take a big part of brains in many mammals. One we also lack. Humans are strange. But while cats can live without whiskers, it's still something very important to them. So I think that is something we forget about felines and feline characters.

It would also be a real interesting thing if cat-people had different hair, as in the thing in top of our heads (which seems to have evolved to protect our stupid big brains from the sun) similar to cat fur. Perhaps a catgirl would look pretty much human, but from touching the hair, seeing her eyes, perhaps even whiskers, you would see different stuff (assuming a fantasy or such setting). Given our genetics, it's not exactly implausible to have people whose fur just sticks to their hair and tail. It's just, well, I really need to make a post on this sort of stuff one day.

For a VERY fun deep dive into cat coat and eye genetics, I found this site full of deep explanations and charts about cat genetics. Including HYPOTHETICAL cat coats:

Honestly, don't miss it if you're doing cat-like characters. This is way more fun that just sticking ears and a tail and be done with it. Put the cat in catgirls again, that's what I say.

#worldbuilding #nekomimi #catgirls #cats #again I would like to thank Argentina's public university system for allowing me to get a degree so I can talk about catgirl genetics #biotipo worldbuilding

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johannestevans · 6 months ago

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Directory of Work Updated!

Good evening, all!

Get these directly to your inbox from Buttondown.

I am unfortunately still basically bed-ridden with a some respiratory virus that’s been at me for a little over a week now - thus why I’ve not been publishing much. I do have several works that are awaiting attention that I’m quite excited about - some commissions and art trades in the wings, as well as some pieces that have been planned for a while.

Rest assured that once I’m able to actually write properly for any length of time without passing out again, a variety of delicious new works will be out to you.

Firstly, I’m just after updating my Directory of Work on Medium, which is a few hundred shorts strong now!

I’m now over to Bluesky virtually entirely - I will no longer be uploading to or posting to Twitter / X virtually at all. On the plus side, though, Bluesky has now introduced threading, and of the new works I have here, a few are threadfics on Bluesky!

With the current state of things in the USA and Patreon already being overly eager in regards to censorship and suppression of works it decides are too queer or sexual for its liking, I am increasingly anxious about the platform. I am increasingly making more of my eBooks available on different platforms, branching out most recently into publishing some on Ko-Fi and Itch.

I don’t want to stop using Patreon by any means, but I want to remind all readers that my works are always also available on Medium - without the same level of censorship Patreon employs - and that my regular updates are always available directly on Buttondown as well as Tumblr and social media in full.

SLAKE HOUSE, an erotic horror choose-your-own-ending anthology, is also growing close to publication - I believe we’re hoping for a release toward the end of this month, and of course, I’ll send out updates when that’s the case. I’m super excited about my contribution to this one, and I’m very much looking forward to readers being able to get a taste!

New Works Published

Short Story: Two Birds

Rated T, 3.2k. A priest of Aphrodite, secreted in a secluded fort for the benefit of his father, a politician, makes small talk with a new soldier. Adapted from a TweetFic.

On Medium / / On Patreon.

Serial Update: An Uncommon Betrothal

Alexos and Felice Garibaldi go back to his hotel room.

On WorldAnvil / / On Medium / / On Ao3.

New ThreadFic: To The Country

Some 1800s domesticity with a sex worker being brought out to the country after the gentleman he was nursing through his final days dies.

On Bluesky.

Dudes Rock: A Celebration of Queer Masculinity in Speculative Fiction — New Book Release on Amazon, published by The Circus Collective

What does masculinity mean to you? Whether the answer is "toxic" or something more aspirational, speculative fiction can help you find the language to talk about it. The stories in this anthology visualize all the different ways masculinity might look in a world different than our own, for better or worse. Imagine living in a universe where you'd feel safe telling your best friend you've always loved him, or where smoking hot demons exist to indulge all your worst impulses. From buff aliens to gender-affirming werewolf bites, Dudes Rock is about celebrating everything that queer masculinity can become beyond the confines of a single world, and we want you to rock with us. Featuring stories by Chase Anderson, Johannes T. Evans, Oliver Fosten, Jonathan Freeman, Rick Hollon, Sam Inverts, S. C. Mills, Franklyn S. Newton, Jay Kang Romanus, Aubrey Shaw, Simo Srinivas, Candy Tan, and Scott Vaughn.

Buy on Amazon / / Review on GoodReads / / Review on TheStoryGraph

Inside an Anthology: Dudes Rock ed. by Jay Kang Romanus

From LGBTQ Reads.

#musings #original fiction #fiction

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starmaniamania · 6 months ago

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just wondering, what's your honest opinion on the Starmania fandom ?

[This got long and I apologize, but also I'm not going to cut for once, because the main points are really at the end!]

Hi!

I've been thinking about this one, I think it arrived just before the last weekend of shows and I didn't really know how to answer it.

Firstly because I don't know how to define "fandom" here, as "Starmania fandom" seems so big and also so small at the same time.

There's thousands of people in France who'd probably define themselves as fans of Starmania, and I've met some of them in concert venues and my opinion of them is often not amazing 🤣 (Lots of people who are rude, impatient, entitled, who missed or forgot the message of the show and complain it is "too woke now," who try to treat the show as their personal nostalgic karaoke, who don't care about the artists on stage and only want to compare them to their 70s albums...) But to be fair it's probably true of most large groups of people who attend a show, and not specific to Starmania at all. I'm also annoyed at the people who believe that 1978 is SACRED and "No one will ever sing the SOS better than Balavoine or Monopolis better than France Gall" (who didn't even sing that w- that's a hot take for a DIFFERENT TIME🤣)

And need I mention the Mogador fanatics? 😅

But simultaneously, Starmania fandom as I've usually defined "fandom" (i.e., a community of fans who want to create, appreciate and discuss fanworks, whether that is meta, art, fic...) is TIIIINY. But it is a bunch of incredibly creative, talented, smart, funny people who I love a whole lot!

Honestly, my biggest "hot take" about Starmania fandom in the Tumblr/fanworks sense is the reason I've been going back and forth on how to answer this, because I don't want it to be taken the wrong way, but here goes... The truth is that I'm a little scared.

I see a lot of posts on wider Tumblr about how nowadays people move on from fandoms the second they end (usually talking about movies or tv shows.) The last episodes air, and a few weeks later the fandom suddenly dies because the critical mass of participants lose interest/find another new shiny object to focus on. This is usually paired with a comparison to "the olden days" when fandoms could survive for years after their canon was over, because enough fans kept producing enough new fanworks and having enough discussions to keep the thing alive even if a small-medium proportion of fans moved on.

And I worry that there's not enough of us to be able to do that, because we don't really have critical mass. For me personally, I worry that too many people are going to move on much sooner than I'm ready to let go (because I'm definitely not going anywhere for a while!), and that I'll go back to posting into the void.

I posted recently that this blog had reached its 100th follower but I consider a "hit" post to be around or over 8 notes. I think on AO3, we have 7 people who write semi-regularly, and the fics with the most kudos have 10. Those are starvation numbers in basically any other fandom, and they're our MOST POPULAR ones!! And it's not like we have, you know, that one author who just writes all day as a hobby and churns out 30k fics every other week, where everyone can just sit back and feel confident that new stuff is going to be coming no matter what.

(And that's why sometimes if I notice people discussing a fic in private, I'm like... I hope everyone involved in that discussion has let the author know they read the fic, because that could basically double the amount of feedback it got 😅😅)

So, yeah, basically, I just really hope that we collectively manage to support ourselves enough that it keeps feeling like a community, that it keeps living and maybe even growing. And that means everyone doing their share, me included, I'm definitely not saying I'm perfect here :p

And I know we all have busy lives and other things to do and fandom is a fun hobby and not a chore or homework. I'm not saying everyone needs to start making fanart (god knows I can't) or writing fic or posting essays or whatever, but let's make sure we interact with each other, with our fanworks, with discussion posts. Let's reply to each other!

And again, speaking personally (I hope this doesn't make it seem like I'm just using this post to whine haha) let's make sure to reblog, not just like posts. (FYI, it always takes me a little while to get to the posts I see, usually because I don't want to spam so I put things in the queue rather than rebloging them on sight, but they're going to come out eventually! Also feel free to send me things you think I missed!)

I'm not going to go into a(nother) rant about how "there is no algorithm on Tumblr" but you might not realize that every time someone reblogs one of the posts, I then see new usernames liking them! You guys have such an impact on spreading the Starmania lore/love -- I know I've gone into so many fandoms because I kept seeing a mutual post about them, and I would scroll past for weeks until one image hit me and I then *needed* to know where it was from, and sometimes that's how I found new fandoms!

So, yeah, I hope we can collectively bring in a few new people, and keep ourselves interested and happy for long enough that maybe we even bridge the "pause" and start getting new content again!!

So that's my answer. Congrats if you made it to the end, and tl;dr ILU ALL DON'T LEAVE OKAY? 😭

#admin #answering things #starmania fandom

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jennelikejennay · 8 months ago

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There's an experience a lot of aspec people have where they do like the idea of sex, just not of themselves participating in it. So they get off from porn, erotica, voyeurism, etc but they don't want to be touched sexually themselves. Everything is better second-hand.

I could go on and on about this: about what the appeal is, about why it's so frequently taken as problematic or fetishizing, about how a person who feels this way (cough, me) can have sex in ways that are satisfying to them and the people they love. I even wrote a fic about it (although normally, I'm writing fics because of it, not about it).

But today I just want to talk about the name.

See I mentioned it and somebody said "oh that's called aegosexual."

A: Greek for not

Ego: both Latin and Greek for I

Sexual: latinate suffix meaning, well, sexual. Generally used with reference to attraction.

Not-me-sexual.

I hate it SO MUCH. Not as an aspec person so much as as a classicist. Who is coining these things and have they even been peer-reviewed?!

First off, the a- Greek prefix becomes an- before a vowel, such as in anemia and anarchy. Putting a+e together makes a diphthong ae which is pronounced differently in ecclesiastical Latin (ā), classical Latin (ī), American English (usually ā) and British English (often ē). So faced with aegosexual I simply don't know how to pronounce it. Is this one of those words, like Latinx or m/m, that we readily use online but suddenly hang fire when we have to say it out loud? A word that works in only one medium is nonfunctional. So somebody better decide how we're all saying it or we'll be having a gif/gif debate forever.

Second, there's a general rule that we use Greek roots with other Greek roots and Latin with Latin. Hence why we say astronomy and not stellonomy, stethoscope and not thorascope. I will admit that we break this rule all the time: homosexual rather than similisexual or homoerotic, automobile rather than automaton or ipsemobile. Still, all things being equal I would prefer nonegosexual or perhaps sinegosexual (without-me-sex) just for the sake of smoothness. I'm discounting anegoerotic because of the two vowels in a row problem.

But then I start thinking, why are we defining this thing by what it's not? I don't mean I'm not attracted to myself (I think I'm cute, transporter clones please call me). I don't mean I will grudgingly accept sex so long as it doesn't involve me. I mean I actively am into sex that doesn't involve me. I tried calling it third-person sexuality but in English we can't compound with English roots really.

So let's go back to the drawing board!

The Greek pronouns for self and others are taken: autosexual means you're into yourself, allosexual means you're into other people (as opposed to ace). But the Latin ones are all wide open, and Latin is what I want, to go with sexual.

Latin has tons and tons of pronouns. SO MANY PRONOUNS. Nonbinary Romans would be looking at an absolute banquet. Along with our usual me, you, it, etc, we have a raft of pronouns which work well for distinguishing different subjects in their long-ass sentences. So you have hic, this, but you also have ipse, That, you know, The One, Himself, Her Upstairs. It's mildly emphatic. Then you have iste, which means something like "that over by you," but sometimes also kind of "that one, ugh." When a sentence begins Iste Caesar you know the author isn't a huge fan of Caesar. Like saying "your Caesar, not mine." But it could be more like istud poculum, hey can you pass that cup, the cup over by you? All of these are of course available in all three genders, two numbers, and five cases, giving us 30 forms to learn for each. Yay!

The one I want for this purpose is ille. It's the most general kind of that. Rather than "this by me" and "that by you," ille is "that over there, not near either of us."

So what about illesexual? Attracted to something over there in which neither you nor I am involved at all?

illesexual

What do you think, is it too late to make this happen?

#asexuality #aspec #aegosexual #illesexual #Latin and Greek roots #microlabels #not even getting into the question of the utility of microlabels #or whether they should be vitally identifying nouns rather than occasionally helpful adjectives #for an identifier i really think queer is enough for me

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genericpuff · 1 year ago

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I don't know the term for creators who became popular outside the traditional steps to "make it" in their profession; then when people started taking their work seriously and giving them criticism, these creators saw it as an attack because they are not used to mentors and studies.

Smythe's professional training is vague at best, being a folklorist. Then there's the creator of the popular hell cartoon that became her own executive producer and director in her 20s (I'm not going to say her name since it tends to attract her rabid fans) and becomes reactive to any kind of criticism on Twitter. Then there's that TikToker Devon Rodriguez, who became popular for sketching people on subways, and when an art critic gave a mild review to his art gallery, Devon unleashed his fans on him.

Like am I seeing a pattern here for artists? And I guess, what do you think we can learn from it.

Ah, so this is a very interesting (and broad) topic that we've touched on in discussions in ULO and other webtoon-related communities. So buckle up, it's time for an ✨essay✨

I think the best way I can sum up my thoughts on this issue is: the vast majority of people who become paid content creators don't seek out a job as content creators, a job in content creation is just something that happens to them.

I say "content creation" because this is something that applies to a lot of other platforms and online mediums as well, such as the examples you included (TikTok, Youtube, Twitch, etc.). And don't get me wrong, it's not like every successful content creator out there didn't work their asses off to get to where they are, but for many... it still involves an element of luck. People don't go to school for it, people don't "apply" to become influencers, and much of it relies entirely on just making stuff until it gets seen and propelled into success.

I think a lot of these issues arise with the creators themselves and how they view their own work. The reality is that many of us artists have been treated as the "rejects" of society, we constantly feel like we're misunderstood and have some deep inner pain that we express through our art, and instead of going to therapy, we come up with OC's. It's a lot more fun and it's a lot cheaper LOL Webcomics naturally wind up being the perfect lightning rod for people who feel that way, where we can pour ourselves into the characters, the world, the narrative, in a way that perfectly mixes our talents for art and our need to express our innermost thoughts and feelings about ourselves and the world around us. So when our art gets criticized or rejected ... it can be hard for a lot of artists to not feel like it's a criticism of the self, a rejection of our identities, an attack on our feelings and experiences, because we've tied so much of ourselves to our work. And this can make that transition very difficult for people who are trying to go pro, because being professional demands separating yourself from your work, at least enough that you can view it objectively, recognize its flaws, seek out pathways to improvement, and not take every bump in the road personally.

A lot of successful creators are people who just never made that transition. It's led to an abundance of professional creators who know how to film themselves or react to content or, in the case of webcomic artists, write stories about their OC's, but don't know how to actually navigate the industry at a professional level. They don't know how to read and negotiate contracts, they don't know what deals are actually good for them and which ones are better left on the table, they don't know how to manage teams of people, they don't know how to react to the attention, praise, and criticism of their audience - they're just doing what they've always done, but now they're making money doing it.

None of this is to speak ill in any way of the creators who've found success and are still just doing what they've always done for money. None of this is meant to be a slight on the creators who are using webcomics and art as an expression of their deeper selves (I do it myself, it's very cathartic!) because ultimately that's what makes your work your work, the fact that you made it, with all your good parts and bad. Many of these creators are capable of running their platform without any issues because they've learned how to play the game, or because their platform is made up of people just like them so their audience is more like just a social circle.

But many of them still also can't operate on a professional level and those are the ones we often see getting called out and held accountable when they do shit like, I dunno, scamming their audiences for money or making alt accounts to manipulate user reviews or plagiarizing from other people's work or just being really REALLY shitty to their own audience.

Often times these are people who are just doing what they'd normally do as a hobby, became well known for it, and managed to turn it into a living. But they never actually learned how to turn their hobby into a job, and themselves into professionals.

And artists especially are prone to this because, let's face it, a lot of us are just weebs having fun drawing our blorbos, so of course if we get a chance to monetize that, we're gonna! We should! We should want to be paid for our work and time and efforts!

But we also have to remember that it's a different ballgame, especially if you're turning your audience into customers. "I'm just a baby creator doing this for fun" doesn't and shouldn't apply anymore once you start signing contracts, selling your art as products, taking people's money to fund your projects, etc. because now it's not just your art, it's what you're expecting people to pay for so you can eat and pay your bills and live.

As much as our art is often personal and should be cherished as such, you can't expect people to want to pay for it if you're not setting a bar and meeting it, or if you're not treating your audience with any amount of dignity or respect.

I'm not saying you're not entitled to having feelings or still wanting to treat your art as art, but the line between art and products is there for a reason, it's to set people's expectations and ensure that both sides are having those expectations met. Webtoon creators suffer from the same thing that a lot of Youtube creators and other types of content creators suffer from in this transition, and I feel like HBomberGuy summed it up best:

"In current discourse, Youtubers simultaneously present as the forefront of a new medium, creative voices that need to be taken seriously as part of the 'next generation of media' - and also uwu smol beans little babies who shouldn't be taken seriously when they rip someone off and make tens of thousands of dollars doing it."

It's not gatekeeping a medium, it's not telling people they aren't allowed to have feelings or to want to still have that personal connection to their work in spite of the professional level it's achieved, it's simply just expecting people to actually live up to the label of 'professional' that they're using to make money.

And this especially goes for someone like Rachel, who claims to be a 'folklorist' despite all the contrary evidence that says otherwise. This is the same person who copy pasted the first result on Google as her source on a simple word definition:

There's a second part to that HBomberGuy quote that also actually applies to Rachel really well in this discussion, concerning how she labels herself a "folklorist" and how that's affected and influenced the greater discussion surrounding Greek myth:

"But on the opposite end, Youtubers who act like serious documentarians gain a shroud of professionalism which then masks the deeply unprofessional things they do. We just saw that with James. I think [James] partially got away with what he's doing for so long because he acts so professional about it, so people assume, 'there's no way he could just be stealing shit!' so they don't check. And on top of that, a lot of James' videos contain obvious mistakes and made-up facts... but because they're often presented next to well-researched stuff he stole, no one questions it. I've seen James repeat a lie in his videos, and then other people claim it's true, and link his video as the proof. He has helped to solidify misinformation by seeming like he's doing his diligence."

There's always going to be discourse over what's legitimate and what isn't when it comes to Greek myth, there are loads of things we still don't know simply due to the knowledge being lost to time. But there's something to be said about a white New Zealand woman using her self-insert romance comic and platform to build a veneer of professionalism and legitimacy around herself, as if she's the authority on the subject, while simultaneously relying on first result Google searches and citing works that have no real foothold in the way of scholarly or "folklorist" discussion.

All that's to say, you're right, her professional training is vague at best. She's never completed a longform comic prior to LO, she's not doing her due diligence in actually engaging with the media she's trying to "retell" and exposing herself to the voices of those from the culture that's tied to it, and she's not holding herself to any sort of standards when it comes not only to being a professional, but a professional who's been held on a pedestal for all these years. She's still operating the same way she was 5 years ago - drawing and writing whatever pops into her head and sending it to her editor for uploading, with next to no intervention or guidance. Except now it doesn't have the benefit of being new and having "potential", it's getting noticed and called out more now than ever because it's been 5 years of this shit and it's been getting worse on account of her clearly being burnt out (or just giving up/not caring) and the readers can't be sold on "potential" anymore.

And that's all I have to say on that.

#ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus #lo critical

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