#well the 'good' (read: western-aligned) ones anyway

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

The only thing funnier than the FOB We Didn't Start the Fire cover is libs handwringing over the "Shinzo Abe blown away" line as "tasteless" since a) it's literally just an update of the lyric "JFK blown away" and b) Shinzo Abe getting murked by a Fallout 4 contraption shotgun was one of the funniest and coolest things to happen in the last ten years and he 100% deserved it

[telomeke]

THE SIGN – CULTURAL REFERENCES, MYTHOLOGY AND META

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This post comes on the heels of the one by @respectthepetty about mythology and meta of The Sign, linked here. 😍👍 If you've not read it yet, I recommend you do before watching any more of this series, because it will help things make more sense (especially if you're not familiar with some of the cultural references thrumming in the background).

Anyway, I'd previously done some research on the legend(s) of the Garuda and the Naga in Southeast Asia, and so I'm writing this post to share what I've found because it does have relevance to at least some of what we're seeing onscreen in The Sign, and elaborates on @respectthepetty's post.

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The Garuda and the Naga are mythical beings with origins in Indian mythology that have been transposed into cultures across Southeast Asia.

In Hinduism, Garuda is a single deity, depicted in either full-bird form or part-bird and part-human, and is the king of birds and also a divine sun-bird (with physical attributes similar to an eagle's). His elder brother, Aruna, is the chariot driver for Surya the sun-god, while Garuda himself is the mount of Vishnu.

In Buddhist mythology, the garudas (sometimes also spelt garulas) are a society and race of gigantic predatory birds, sometimes also depicted as part-human in form. The garudas are intelligent, social and blessed with might and magical powers.

Thailand may be predominantly Buddhist, but it has also been strongly influenced by ancient Indian culture and Hinduism, and thus both the concept of a single deity Garuda and the race of garudas co-exist in Thai mythological beliefs.

The nagas on the other hand, are snake-like or dragon-like creatures, whose realm is the water world. (The word naga is derived from Sanskrit and is also etymologically related to the English word snake.)

In mythology nagas and garudas are perpetual enemies, although neither side is actually identified with good or evil – they are simply two groups eternally at war with each other (so occidental-leaning minds should dispel any preconception that the water serpents are necessarily the bad guys in The Sign, even though the narrative seems to be tilting in that direction).

When borrowed into popular culture (as has been done for The Sign) you may sometimes see influences of Chinese dragon and phoenix mythology (as Chinese cultural influence is also present in Thailand, and the dragon/phoenix motif of Sinitic culture nicely parallels the naga/garuda conflict pairing). And because of Garuda's association with the sun in Hinduism, and a parallel with the fiery phoenix of Western mythology, you may sometimes see garudas portrayed as aligned with the sun and/or flame as well.

There are some hints of these in The Sign. The naga that Phaya encounters while struggling underwater during the open sea training challenge in Ep.1 is very Thai in appearance (especially with the curved, forward-pointing crest, making it look much like the nagas that adorn Thai temple architecture). But the array of pronged, backward-pointing horns and trailing antennae appear to be a design nod at Chinese or Japanese dragons (East Asian dragons are also strongly identified with the watery realm, by the way). And in the graphics of the series (e.g., in the poster at the start of this post), the sky (the realm of Garuda) is suffused with sunlight and speckled with what look like drifting sparks, referencing sun and flame.

Because of the wings tattooed on his back and his time in the air force, Phaya is most likely the reincarnation of a garuda in human form (and this is why he struggled with the water challenge, as he was completely out of his element).

This is also possibly why we see him smoking early on in the series (because of the alignment of Garuda with the element of fire), and significantly he does this while Naga Tharn (irked by Yai's teasing at the dining table) seeks refuge in the washroom (which is ห้องน้ำ/hong naam in Thai, literally water room):

‌Billy also describes Phaya's character in the promo video for the series (linked here) as being "like fire, always hot and burning... quite hot-headed." 👍

Elsewhere in the same promo video (linked here), Tharn's good friend Chalothon is explicitly identified as the reincarnation of an important naga, which immediately signals that he and Phaya will be at odds in the series:

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The water deity that saves Phaya during the open sea challenge – Wansarat, whom he drew in his sketchbook – is not just Freen Sarocha in a fancy scuba suit. 😂

If you look at her arm and hand when she reaches out to save Phaya (before she turns into Tharn) the green scales meld into the skin of her human wrist – they're part of her natural covering, and she's really a nakhee/nagin/nagini, a female naga, appearing in human form to save Phaya.

The narrative has made it strongly obvious that Phaya is a reincarnated garuda, while Tharn is the reincarnation of Wansarat, from the lineage of the nagas. And the teaser-trailer (linked here) tells us that Phaya and Tharn/Wansarat are lovers bound to each other through time:

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However, the special promo video (released 24 November 2023) also tells us (in Heng's interview linked here) that Chalothon and Wansarat were lovers in past lives, even while it is Phaya and Wansarat (reincarnated as Tharn) who are paired by fate in The Sign.

And as the nagas and garudas are bitter enemies, the love story between Phaya and Tharn/Wansarat that transcends time and reincarnation cycles is also one that must have been (and will continue to be) forbidden by their respective naga and garuda tribes (especially since Tharn/Wansarat also used to be naga Chalothon's lover), and will undoubtedly be a source of conflict in the series. This is way beyond the Montagues and Capulets! 😍

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So with this as the base, I took a look at the characters' names, and those belonging to Phaya, Chalothon, Tharn and Wansarat especially also reflect their garuda/naga origins. 🤩

Phaya's name (พญา) means lord, king or leader. While it can be applied to the nagas (พญานาค/phaya naak refers to the King of the Nagas) it is also used for Garuda (the Thai national symbol) – พญาครุฑ/phaya khroot, or Lord Garuda (and is what his name references in The Sign).

(above) Billy Patchanon as Phaya

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Chalothon's name (ชโลทร) is rare, but it is derived from Pali/Sanskrit and means river, sea or body of water, reflecting the watery homeland of his naga persona.

(above) Heng Asavarid as Chalothon

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Tharn's name (ธาร) also has a connection to his water-dwelling naga roots. Tharn/ธาร is short for ลำธาร/lam thaan and means stream, brook or creek (and he is thus a naga nong to Chalothon's phi).

(above) Babe Tanatat as Tharn/Wansa

However, Tharn is his chue len. His formal name is Wansa, and is the same Wansa in Wansarat (which the narrative lets us know at Ep.1 [3‌/4] 9.35).

(above) Freen Sarocha as Wansarat

Now Wansarat is spelt วรรณษารัตน์ in the subtitles (at Ep.1 [3‌/4] 9.02), and I can't find any translation of it that makes sense in the context of The Sign's world-building.

But Wansarat's name is spelt differently elsewhere on the Internet (on Thai drama websites, and movie databases, etc. like thaimovie.org), and I assume they've all based it on official releases from Idol Factory because the spelling is consistent across these other sources – it's วรรษารัตน์ there.

And Wansa/Wansarat spelt this way also reflects the nagas' dominion over water, because วรรษา/wansa (an archaic word, referenced in an older dictionary but not newer ones) means rain or rainy season (from the Sanskrit varsha) – in Thailand the nagas are also associated with rain control, and prayers are offered to them for timely and abundant rainfall when it is needed. (The -rat part of Wansarat is a feminine ending meaning jewel or gemstone, and may echo with meaning for speakers of Indian and Sri Lankan languages, since it's derived from the Pali/Sanskrit ratna).

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Just out of interest (because nobody asked 😂) some of these naga/garuda elements were also present in the early episodes of KinnPorsche – the den of the Theerapanyakuls (nagas, wealthy beings of the underworld) was full of watery elements (e.g., the waterfall, the various pools, and Tankhun's carp – which in Chinese belief are the original, natal form of dragons). The -nak in Kinn's formal first name Anakin (which is not a traditional Thai name) is also a nod at the word naga. Porsche had the tattoo of a fiery phoenix on his back, and was out of his element whenever water was concerned (e.g., his failed pool challenge, the mermaid costume punishment, his misadventure with the sprinkler when he tried to smoke in the store room – water vanquishing the flame). Kinn was unable to make fire when they were trapped in the forest, despite claiming to be friends with the flame, while Porsche could immediately do it.

But I didn't see the KinnPorsche narrative taking the naga/garuda themes much further than these random nods in the earlier episodes. Maybe it did (like Kinn and Porsche could be seen acclimatizing to each other's realms more), but I just couldn't be bothered to look at the show more closely since it didn't really stand up to deeper scrutiny, and after the first few episodes I just went along for the exhilaration of the ride instead. 👍

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Anyway, I'm totally bedazzled by the level of world-building going on in The Sign and look forward to more from the series. If the first episode is anything to go by, I think Executive Producer Saint Suppapong may be on to something! 😍

[merlinmerlot]

damn that anons an asshole. what are your thoughts on d&d alignment id love to hear em

nothing would make me happier thank you anon o7

My original post addressing the anon was mostly in response to their comment about how 'd&d has alignments so it can't be black and white lol' (or at least that's what i Assume they meant. i can't say i'm too sorry if i misinterpret their words).

tl;dr i hate the alignment system and kind of think it sucks balls dick and ass.

i'll take the L for using the phrase 'black and white' fairly liberally but my general usage of it refers to things being painted into Specific Categories and there being no Fluidity between categories; Like fine d&d morality isn't black and white, its black, gray, and white. You're either good, evil, or 'ehhh can't i be both?' (neutral). You get three choices babey. (Yes, there's the lawful and chaotic sides, but imo that's another bag of beans to get into and they're Supposed to be just descriptors, not actual morality indicators. i also think the lawful/chaotic distinction sucks but ANYWAYSSS)

This is Especially heinous when previously, alignments were used to describe d&d races in their entirety. i don't think i need to explain why referring to all goblins or all drow or all orc as 'evil' is Really Bad. like Really Really Bad.

Anyways, even if the alignment system was more Fluid (like a line where the two ends are 'evil' and 'good' and you can place your character wherever you want on that line), defining a character's morality that one-dimensionally is useless at best and shitty at worst:

(As an aside: I've only taken like, basic college anthropology classes. this is using my Very Basic knowledge of cultural morality.)

Morality is Defined by your culture and society. What You might consider bad could be considered Fine in another culture. That doesn't mean your definition is wrong, or that theirs is wrong either; Just that everything, including your understanding of reality/morality, is relative. Cultural Relativism and all that.

Now, D&D's races, classes, regions, etc. all have their own specific cultures. The culture of githyanki is significantly more different then that of say, gnomes, and what is considered 'evil' in one culture might be 'good' in another. But, D&D does not take a cultural relative approach, and instead defines morality by the Faerun standard. (or, at the very least, the standards of the gods.)

This becomes very unfortunate, because what this means is that every culture, no matter how foreign, no matter if they're in a Completely different plane than Faerun (or whatever the default setting is at the time), is defined by what the 'good races' of the default setting think is 'good' or 'bad'. This is like if we were to force the american definition of morality on every other place on planet earth - ohhhh that's right, that actually happens. (DISCLAIMER: do i have to say this? well, just in case: this is not a defense of like, shitty morals. murder is bad. etc.)

And like, it gets worse, because morality is not even really an opinion that you can be ambiguous about in Faerun - There are literally Planes defined by being either Good Or Evil. The Upper Planes are Objectively, by the setting, Good, and the Lower Planes are, Objectively, Bad. What they say is the Truth of the matter, or as truthful as it gets, anyways (if I were to be kind to the setting, i would have to admit its actually a Little more complicated than that, but, i digress).

What I'm essentially getting at is because D&D was made by some white guys who based morality off of their own standards of it, that alignment in D&D is very western and eurocentric, like most of the game. Again, goblins/orcs/drows, typically seen as the Evil race, frequently were influenced by the cultures of non white pple (if you need an example, just read up on any d&d lore and look at how goblin/orc magic, religion, and social organization is described, compared to their human counterparts). Again, i don't think i need to explain how that's Sucks Balls.

Im realizing that i should probably bring this back to bg3 and why i think giving the companions 'alignments' isn't very helpful when it comes to describing them. like, take lae'zel; if we're using the Faerun definition of morality, she is lawful evil. Her society is evil by faerun standards and she follows their code entirely and she does like threatening and killing people. But like, really? From her perspective, she is just doing what is right/'good' for her people; and when she realizes that what is right for her people is different, she stops following Vlaakith and pledges herself to [SPOILERS]. maybe you could make a case that she 'changes' alignment upon this choice, but it's not as if her ideals are drastically different - she's still pretty chill with murder, and she continues to want the best for her people. And like, need I remind you that other characters that can be defined as lawful evil are like, Ketheric and shit, and d&d alignment puts them all into the same bag. So like, what now?

This became mostly rambles lol. But regardless, its not as if the D&D alignment system is Completely unsalvageable. But any usage of the alignment system must come with the caveat that it is Subjective.

[boogieboba]

!!! I KNOW WHATS BOTHERING ME ABOUT MANDO S3

rant below the cut. it’s critical of mando s3 sooooo don’t read it if u insist on having no negative feelings about this season

There has been a shift in genre, or at the very least, a shift in tone. The first season was very much a space western, full of the traditional masculine archetypes and lone traveler on a mission vibes. The second season was similar, although with less emphasis on the genre and more on the urgency of the plot. The tone was much more intense in the past two seasons, and I think that’s because the characters know what they’re fighting for. They have an end goal that aligns with the season finales - in s1, Din is being chased by Moff Gideon, and his goal is simple: keep the child safe. In s2, he’s still being chased by Gideon (although he doesn’t know that until halfway through) but his goal shifted to return Grogu to the Jedi.

Din’s goal in s3 seemed to be “become redeemed” but he accomplished that in ep2. It also could’ve been “reunite mandalore”, but… well… that’s now Bo’s goal. Six episodes in, and we’ve only had two offhand mentions that Moff Gideon is still fucking out there, and the main characters are none the wiser. This season has switched directions and pulled fast ones on us since the first episode. I have no idea what the plot is (where’s the cloning stuff??? how has no one aside from Pershing mentioned it when it’s a major part of the show???) and at this point, I don’t even know how they’re going to wrap up this season in a somewhat satisfying way.

Before anyone comes for me: yes, I know this show is not Andor. I know that. The Mandalorian is what got me into Star Wars in the first place. Also, I can recognize that these episodes are fun. I’m having fun! Lizzo and Jack Black in Star Wars? Lion and I had a good chuckle when we realized what was happening. I can enjoy what I’m watching and still be confused as fuck. These are not mutually exclusive.

This season would be so fucking good if it was longer. The 8-episode format is not lending itself well to these more complex storylines. There’s too much going on and they’re having (dare I say) too much fun with it in too little time. If this was a 12 ep season, or even 16, these silly little haha moments would be more justified. But right now, somehow, Bo-Katan has become the main character and got the darksaber and her fleet within five minutes (i have more thoughts on that hefty ass technicality but whatever). I’m not upset about Bo ending up with the Darksaber. I love women with swords! But I wish they’d done it differently.

Anyways, I think all this could’ve been avoided if Favreau wasn’t writing the entire season. We get it. This show is your baby. But please, just an ounce of diversity. Someone to go through and tell you when enough is enough.

[skopostheorie]

auhh I don't know exactly how to ask this, but I'm interested in your religion, and I was wondering where to start, I guess? Sorry, if this is odd

Not odd at all! A part of our religious obligations is to introduce others to Islam through our behaviour so it's always a good thing to receive stuff like this.

Allah tells us that He want "ease for you, not hardship" through the religion, so while we certainly have a lot of information, scholarship, mandatory acts of worship... to actually be Muslim all one has to do is sincerely, under no duress and in full knowledge, believe that there is one God and that Muhammad (PBUH) was His fina Messenger, and then attest to it verbally (the attestation is called شهادة or "testimony"). Not to say you should convert immediately right now unless you really really want to! Just saying this to get the point across that there's no to-do list, there's no point at which you know or have done enough to be Actually Muslim. Once you feel ready and that you truly believe it, you can just do it.

As for where to start... as in, learning about the faith. Masjid tours and chatting with the imaam is always an option and I think most people do that. If there's one in your area, all you need to do is show up and say you'd like to learn more about Islam (you can specify it's because you're considering becoming Muslim, or not - they'll be equally friendly either way, especially if you're in a Western country because we loooove when Western non Muslims are nice to us). The only issue with this is that they may say stuff that isn't right, or is specific to a certain sect, and not inform you that it is an issue that is not universal to all of us. Now, sect divisions are actually haraam but unfortunately politics is always going to be a thing and they exist anyway. This is to say that sect differences are not, in my view, so important that you should avoid any masjid claiming to belong to one, but it's always nice to know if this could affect how they speak. For instance an imaam might say the 5 daily prayers are conjoined into 3 separate blocks, which is only true of some sects, and might confuse you. For this reason I say go to a variety of masjids if you can, behaving each time as if this is your first and only time, to see a range of perspectives.

They might also say stuff you personally can't agree with, but that doesn't mean 1) you can't be Muslim or 2) there's no other Islamic scholarly discourse that aligns with your view. If you talk to an imaam and they say quite sincerely, for example, that (crazy example I'm fairly certain would never happen) chewing gum is haraam, and you're not too fond of that, you're still allowed to be Muslim. There might be schools of thought that say it's not haraam, or you can agree to just "sit with it" and wait for your heart to come around to the idea. (Let me be explicitly clear, chewing gum is not haraam.)

I obviously think reading the Qur'an is important. If you speak Arabic I'd say it's imperative you read the original, but translations are perfectly fine as well. If reading translations, again, choosing a variety of translations to compare and contrast (including commentary) is a good idea. The site I linked is good. It's also nice to have such commentaries and reflections to accompany you. I can't give you anything comprehensive - it is impossible to comprehensively analyse the Quran! - but I'm fond of 30 for 30. It's also worth trying one with commentaries that describe the situation. Many parts are, while important for general life guidance, are in relation to specific events which can seem a bit random without that knowledge. For instance once Aisha was accused of cheating and there were Qur'an revelations saying they were false. Very nice, but without that knowledge, that part might seem a bit strange. These context provisions help!

Knowing السيرة النبوية, "seera" (story of Muhammad (SAW)'s life), is also worth it, and I personally think it's important if you want the second part of the testimony to be sincere (how can you believe he was the final Messenger if you don't know who he is?). Again, there are plenty of ways of doing this - imagine being a historian for any major historical figure, really. There are long and short versions. This could also be something to ask an imaam about at a masjid, as they'll be able to read the atmosphere and figure out how much detail you want. If you're not into that, a book is always a good time. Karen Armstrong's are good.

Again I'll reiterate that there's no finish line. You could read one word of the Qur'an, be convinced, and convert straight away. So long as you're being sincere in your belief, you're Muslim. As with any decision I don't advocate such compulsion (being a convert can be really lonely if you don't form a connectionbase first), but what I'm saying is if you're feeling ready, there's nothing else that needs to be done.

[chaotic-hypnotic-erotic]

Fist Knox Architect Dream Text

Here’s the text of my dream, which I had on April 20, 2007, if you can’t be bothered with clicking onto a Dreamwidth link.

Text below the cut.

The dream began not long after my rescue by a benefactor, a very rich man, who pulled me out of a dire predicament which I can't remember - it was early in the dream, and the details are fuzzy, but for some reason I had no clothes, my rings and talisman were missing and I was only wearing what looked like a set of standard issue white socks, underpants and a vest. The man was immaculately dressed in a dark suit that looked like it cost him more than I get from benefits in a year. He sat in the back of a helicopter with me as we flew over this city, which looked like it went on forever. 'This is a Mega City,' I said. 'And you and your people are Megacitizens.' There were huge buildings looming over the rest of the buildings, including one incredibly thin, flat one. I told him 'You built that one along a north - south alignment.' He looked shocked, and I told him that since it was exactly noon, the light of the sun cast its thinnest shadow across the city from the building at that moment. I then said 'You've been to Australia.' And again, he didn't know why I'd say that; even less when I said 'It's marvellous, isn't it, the beauty of those structures; none of them built by human hand, yet erected with such precision.' Then he asked me how I knew about the structures in Australia - that I was talking about Compass or Magnetic Termites, insects that build these mounds twenty feet tall, like blades or fins, all aligned with magnetic north, or maybe like tombstones. My reply, as always with such things: 'The image of what you have seen is still in your mind.' I even freak people out in my dreams. So, anyway, we got into his limo; and we drove to the structure he'd built, like a giant glass fin, water cascading down the sides and all glass inside. Once inside the atrium of this immense structure, I got down on my hands and knees on the bare earth and began to erect the figures of Western Geomancy, casting the lots with the metal dice from my kit which he'd retrieved when he'd rescued me. I drew him a full geomantic shield, and showed him how his success was sadly going to be bought with blood; also, that 'blood' could also mean 'kin', and that either way, the sign meant 'thicker than water,' meaning that this was a tide which was going to be very hard to resist. I showed him a figure called the Reconciler, though, which read 'The Major Fortune,' which was an ultimate good sign, a beneficial final judgement. He'd sited this huge structure in the right place, and in the right alignment. But I urged caution, rather than haste, because his ambition would cost someone dear if this project was rushed, or costs were skimped or similar rash behaviour indulged in 'to prove a point'. I drew an I Ching hexagram in the ground, something like 'Ultimate Harmony', to signal that all would be well, and to quiet the earth which actually started trembling like a lover in orgasm. A panel fell from the roof, at this point. It was a big square, and it landed point first right on the spot where I'd drawn the hexagram. Sunlight came in and illuminated the square, 'like a diamond in the dirt, illumination surrounded by darkness.' I told the architect these exact words; he got a call in from a contact, saying that his contract for a geodesic dome in some other part of the world had gone through, and he had a green light on it. He turned to me, and as he did so, his contact said the exact same words over the mobile phone to the architect. Finally, as we arrived at the hotel where I'd been put up (one of his buildings - a vast edifice, with one huge plaza in front that'd take ten, fifteen minutes to cross at least), the architect shook my hand, and gave me a funny handshake. I told him that, to his surprise, I did not wear the apron - but that I'd honour those who did for their sense of solidarity and brotherhood. Then I told him it'd be raining before I got to the entrance of the hotel, so he shouldn't stay outside the limo for too long or he'd get drenched. I got out, finally retrieving the rest of my stuff - my rings, my talisman, my clothes - and, as I donned my (always slightly shabby) duty black shoes, trousers and sweater, the architect asked me: 'How can someone like you live so small?' I said the following. 'Consider the size of one of your largest buildings. The one you built like a glass needle in Tokyo, soaring so high into the sky nobody can see where it ends. Now see it in comparison to the magnetosphere of the Earth in all its glory. 'Now compare that to the magnetosphere of Jupiter - easily the largest phenomenon in the solar system, bigger even than the Sun. Now extend your perceptions outwards until you can see the whole of the solar system, right up to the Kuiper Belt and the Heliopause. 'Further, now; out past the local neighbourhood, to see the galaxy as a whole. Now further and further, until the galaxy itself is just a bright point, a mote of dust, in the local galactic supercluster, which itself becomes a tiny filament, a streak of light, a tiny thread, and gone, amidst the huge clouds of galaxies in our universe. 'Further still, until you run out of galaxies; and all you have is the universe itself, which shrinks all around you until all you can see of it is just a tiny, tiny black dot, surrounded by a blue - grey chaos. 'And now look at it again. You have been looking at the iris and pupil of my eye. We are back to where you started on this journey. 'I may look small, live smaller; but my eyes, my soul, encompass universes.' He followed me. And yes, before we had gone more than halfway across the plaza to reach shelter, it did begin to rain.

[rynnaaurelius]

There's no one-to-one hard, easy answer, but the TLDR is that sci-fi was an outgrowth of 'frontier' literature, essentially (think American westerns, Russian Caucasus-set stories, British exploration, etc etc). Exploration of the unknown meets reflection of anxieties of the time meets sudden growth and fascination of technology (hence why sci-fi seems to burst out in discrete time periods—aligning with early 20th c. tech and science discoveries, space race of the sixties, invention of the Internet).

This is also why there's no hard sci-fi "lineage"—the roots of sci-fi is typically imperialist, because that's what was/is often published for the English-speaking world, and what influences the next generation. Star Trek has colonialist and imperialist elements because it was heavily influenced by British exploration naval novels, as well as more contemporary speculative sci-fi—Roddenberry was open about being influenced by early hallmarks of sci-fi such as Space Beagle, a 1950s set of novels set as a pretty action-adventure space wars which helped influence space opera. He was also influenced by a lot of movies with the same thing—Westerns had been reborn and repackaged with the Moon and space as the frontier, which left a lot of creative space and, uh, projection. Hornblower In Space is a terribly apt way to describe TOS, and those are novels about a British Imperial Naval Captain during the Napoleonic wars.

As for earlier influences: A Princess of Mars, today, is a pretty obscure novel, but published in the 1920s by Edgar Rice Burroughs (more famous for writing Tarzan), about a Confederate soldier post-civil war who is accidentally transported to Mars, which is inhabited by a pair of fighting human empires and ostracized alien tribes, and is essentially gifted demigod status due to Mars's lesser gravity. It forms a lot of tropes that HEAVILY influenced later fantasy and sci-fi. The reason the Superman comics advertise him as "able to leap buildings in a single bound, faster than a speeding bullet", is because the writers read APoM and its sequels, where the hero COULD do that, and were using shorthand from Burroughs.

(they are, of course, INCREDIBLY racist and misogynistic per the time, but they're very fun historical curio to read if you're into that)

In more relevant stuff, H. G. Wells's stuff is famous for its social critique on progression of society, xenophobia, and class division in The Time Machine/War of the Worlds. He's the most famous for it, and the issue has evolved considerably, but "progression of society" is kinda the eternal question in sci-fi and what-ifs attract people—Soviet sci-fi spent decades relitigating the Nazis lol (to sometimes. Uh. Bad effect. Look up the Dulles Plan).

Asimov was very obsessed later on with the idea of history and the practice of historicity in the future, as chronicled through the collapse of empire in his Foundation novels from the sixties and seventies. Solaris (Sixties/seventies Polish novel, Soviet-Russian film. Ignore the Clooney film) reflected worried about human limitations in face of the unknowable unknown and efforts to quantitate it.

(I SUPER recommend the body of work of the director Tarkovsky to anyone interested in non-English sci-fi films)

In the opposite direction, you have Decolonial sci-fi, a movement conversant with Latin American magical realism and Indigenous Futurism, which are often more concerned with imagining a future and the trauma of the present (I am less knowledgeable here, apologies. I just know the short version. I have a reading list for myself that I can send people, if they want?). The past is much less-anxiety inducing, but by no means universal sentiment. The Rwandan musical film Neptune Frost is about an anti-colonialist hacker collective, and much more concerned with the past. Very surreal, very good.

Anyways. As for the Confederacy specifically. It's been around for a while! L. Neil Smith's The Probability Broach from the seventies is, I think, the earliest influential work to specifically use the Confederacy (as in, the 1794 confederation) as a state, and not just a reference a la Burroughs? It's set around the idea of the Confederacy as an, uh, libertarian state concerned with unanimous governance. Not obsessed with slavery, but rather a different thing, set around the idea of the Whiskey Rebellion succeeding and Washington is shot for treason after the word 'unanimous' was added to the Declaration of Independence back in 1776.

I really have no idea how to quantify those novels beyond weird and what you would expect from a libertarian thought experiment on weed. Slavery is abolished in 1820 peacefully by Jefferson, and central government is abolished, as other animals like primates, dolphins, and orcas, prove their sentience and are granted citizenship and rights.

From there, nativist backlash and worries about authoritarianism really began bubbling up through the 80s and 90s, and that's when you begin to see, uh, other things.

(also I think this is the second time I have been in your notifs, very sorry about that lol. Didn't realize until I checked the URL)

Ok I'm not sure if you are the right person to ask but, what's up with sci-fi and is confederacy apologia? Both British comic rogue trooper and Firefly has done it. And while I get a american doing confederacy apologia what's up with the Brits doing it too?

I’m not the right person to ask! I remember reading or hearing somewhere that sci-fi emerged as a form of imperial fiction but beyond that I don’t know very much about the history of the genre

[blackwoolncrown]

Hm this is a long shot but do u have any readings on the topic of spirituality in organizing? Or spirituality by another name, but the behavior u are getting at ig. Growing up the closest religion I had at hand was Catholicism thru my grandma, and my mother was ‘spiritual’ but used it to confirm her own biases in a weird way. These made me wary of religion (well like a type of christianity and white co-option of spiritual practice, but I didn’t realize that growing up) but I definitely think in “religious” ways like u described, however because I haven’t considered myself a spiritual person, I’ve left it unexamined which I’m sure is leading to problems. Got into organizing last year with a prisoner support group and it would be nice to develop a way to critique/understand our approach to the work in these terms but wouldn’t know where to start.Thank you and if this isn’t something that can rlly be learned thru reading like I kinda expect, no worries and no need to answer this ask! Have a good day!

Hmm.. Nothing wrong with a long shot. I'm a believer in high aim.

So the thing with this is yeah, you're right, you can't really learn this through reading. Largely bc what you need is to unlearn something and partially because it's very difficult to unlearn something in the same medium or framework you learned it.

FIrst off though let me say congrats on actually, like, following that thread of self-reflection. It's incredibly important to have that level of self-awareness and perspective especially when your aim is compassion and social work- if we are not aware of ourselves we continue to do harm to others even when we intend otherwise.

You're definitely not alone in your position. Two main points:

1. This is actually sort of the first step in the Ancestral work I mentioned, something largely left out of mainstream western culture because aside from patron saints and black church traditions, ancestor veneration is largely absent from this culture specifically due to the practice having been persecuted by xtianity in other cultures and also because the traumas of war and colonization lead to people not wanting to go back and learn their histories or not knowing, or only knwing hugely inaccurate sensationalized versions of who their ancestors were. Asking yourself "What beliefs and behaviors did I inherit from my parents?....and where did they get theirs from?...And where did my grandparents get theirs? (and on all accounts how did the lives they lived affect this, and how does that relate to me today..?)" is the very beginning Ancestral Work. This is how you find out about deeper layers of yourself in order to decide what to do with them. But I don't wanna say more on this bc it's a whole huge thing.

2. And here is my second biggest gripe with xtianity: Aside from the whole persecuting and killing people thing, and the upholding a separation between self and spirit (so fucking dangerous), the fact that xtianity caused so much damage and trauma has been sufficient to cause a significant number of people to become avoidant of not just religion, not just spirituality, but even belief in general.

This has robbed humanity of so much and caused so much violence.. ugh but that's another rant. Anyway it's the source of this really ironic but common thread of people who consider themselves Atheist or anti-religion when they're really anti-xtian, but in doing so cut themselves off from meaning-making and deeply human forms of connection and self empowerment. And this has wrecked culture and mental health and so on and so on.

So anyway to come back around, I would, as ever, point you to the work being done around decolonization. In my experience, which began from an agnostic scientific-philosophical lens, moved through buddhist practice and philosophy for years and grew all the way into reclaimed indigenous animist practices of my lineages, I find that decolonization is the most efficient and accurate key path, because knowing what, specifically, was imposed upon and persecuted out of various cultures and why will tell you precisely where, culturally, you got your preconceived notions from and- very importantly- what other meaningful notions or worldviews preceded them.

It's one thing to say "well I don't wanna be religious like my family" it's another thing entirely to actually replace that empty space with informed, personally aligned meaning. Nature abhors a vaccum and that space DOES get filled with shit if you don't organize it yourself.

Happy life journey.

[capricornsicle]

I have a feeling your ask box and I are going to be familiar. You might be hot-taked out after that killer Satomi discourse. But whenever you’ve got it in you, I’d sure love to hear what you think about Kira and her Jeff-deemed-absolutely-necessary departure.

Oh, definitely. And I do love content, so...

Kira Yukimura was done so dirty by the writers and Jeffrey “I’m not racist I’ll prove it by arguing to poc calling me out for it on twitter” Davis. Her treatment was racist, tokenizing, and it wasn’t even high-brow racism. It was sloppy and lazy. If you’re gonna write all your characters of color off the show, commit to it. She went to the desert like 5 times before she stayed. Cowards.

Kira was only meant to be on the show for the Nogitsune storyline in 3b. However, fans liked her so much that, as with Theo in season 6, she was brought back for more episodes. The difference is that Cody Christian is white-passing and male and Arden Cho is not. Female characters don’t exist on Teen Wolf without a relationship to a male character. Hayden existed for Liam. Tracy existed for Theo. Melissa existed for Scott and Argent. Allison existed for Scott. Lydia, the female character with the most screentime of all of them, spent a lot of her time existing in relationship to Jackson, Stiles, Parrish (shudder), and other male main characters. Women on the show were reduced to love interests and mothers more often than not, and Kira was the same.

I loved her character. I loved her arc. I loved Arden Cho, who in real life is as sweet and kind as her character. I enjoyed her parents, both Noshiko, who’s surprisingly funny and a total badass, and Ken, who’s the most wholesome man in the universe. The only straight man we stan. I love him.

Anyways, Kira was getting a fun arc outside of being Scott’s girlfriend, with her parents and her powers and all, and then wham, white-passing boy shows up and no more main character status for Kira. Guess there wasn’t enough room to keep the only interesting plot line of all the ones happening in s5. Personally, I would have chosen Kira over the Marrish garbage fire of underage relationships, but that’s just me.

Then. The Skinwalkers. I could write a whole essay about them, but this is a Kira post, so I’ll limit it to her. At least Luther got sent to the moon for a reason. Kira got sent to the desert for “rEaSoNs”. There was no indication that her power was out of control, but every indication it wasn’t. She was growing and learning. Then, suddenly, she was “too powerful” so she had to go to the desert and disappear for a few episodes and then go back and forth for a while before they wrapped up sending Theo to the upside down or wherever he went and she could finally go... hang out with the people who we were told could help her control her power but who only threw spears at her and gave her a season finale ex machina. Then back to the desert with you!

You can tell something was going on backstage in her treatment. Arden Cho wasn’t informed she was being cut, she had to be told by fans. Her departure was carried out as swiftly as possible, and not for any real reason. Kira would have been tremendously helpful against the hunters and in a lot of later scenes, against the Ghost Riders (and let me remind everyone that KIRA WAS THE ONE WHO TOLD LYDIA ABOUT THE WILD HUNT), against pretty much anything. Immune to electrocution? Don’t help with the hunters who love electrocuting people. Sloppy writing through and through.

And what’s more is that Kira was cut just in time for the Scalia thing, which was so fucking rushed oh my GOD nothing has ever been less natural- this is a Kira post, calm down capsicle. Anyways, Kira got replaced as Scott’s love interest and not much else by a white girl, no hate on Malia or Shelley but much on the writers. I loved Malia and Kira’s friendship, and if anyone should have gotten with Malia, it should have been Kira. (The first time I saw Malia I wondered if we were getting another ambiguously brown character, actually, but no, just Georgian and well-tanned. But I bet not all my followers knew Tracy was played by a Chinese and Cherokee actor. Or that Nolan was played by a Mexican and Caxcan actor. Or that Theo was played by a Penobscot Native actor. The list goes on of white-passing POC who got to stay marginally longer than Black or brown characters.) The “Scott ends up with a white girl he has no chemistry with” threw me for many loops, especially after I was surprised to find myself liking Scira, even though I’m usually bored by straight relationships because of their one-sided focus and nonexistent chemistry. Kira got to be a character outside of Scott, and I liked their romance better for it, and then desert for a thousand years!

TLDR on the canon end of things is that Kira and Arden were done dirty by a group of powerful white men who wanted to tell a cishet white story.

Now, on the fandom end of things, I’m stepping into the real hot water. It’s safe to say that Kira’s story was sloppy and Arden didn’t deserve that ending, but it’s less safe to say that this fandom doesn’t treat her that well either. Here’s the most popular x Scott ships on Ao3, under the Teen Wolf tag with no other filters.

Scott and Allison. Scott and Stiles. Scott and Isaac. Then Scott and Kira, in dead last. Scott and Malia don’t even make the top ships list, probably because of how rushed and sloppy it was, but I digress.

People love Scott and Allison a lot, and I get that. I liked her too. I was also sad when she died. But, unlike a lot of sentiment I see in this fandom, I don’t think she should have been brought back to fight the beast in season 5 and get back with Scott. Not only do I think bringing characters back to life without very good reason and explanation (which they wouldn’t have, come on) cheapens their death, and that bringing characters back to life is weak storytelling in general, but let’s recall that Scira is still a thing in season 5. They’re still madly in love when Kira leaves. Allison should not have come back and love-triangled so Kira could be written off for a different white girl or so the massive amount of young white girls in the fandom who love Allison would be angry at Kira for breaking up their OTP. That would have been the one thing that could have made season 5 worse. (Well, they could have made Marrish a thing or killed Mason, but Jeff Davis thought about it and a shiver went down his spine because the ghost of Christmas future hears my name in its nightmares.)

Even if people aren’t “bring Allison back” campers, they largely ignore Kira’s entire existence. People who post gifsets and posts about Allison or Lydia don’t give anywhere near the same amount of attention to Kira. I see more Malia posts, actually. And while all of them had more runtime than Kira, none of them paired with Scott quite as perfectly, or had such strong independent storylines. Lydia almost did, but it kept petering out and she kept going back to main plot only. I see lots of appreciation posts for Allison and Lydia and Malia and the men, obviously, but NOTHING for Kira or Arden Cho. We all know what happened backstage because we read the same post in 2016 or whenever and then we all stopped talking about it.

Even the racism in this fandom skips Kira. Scott antis, I’m looking (controversially) at you. I’m glad Kira isn’t the subject of a bunch of obvious racism (as much as “bring Allison back!” makes it subtle), but not because she’s a forgotten side character. Kira made the main credit sequence! She has a sword! What else could you all POSSIBLY want?

And here’s where I burn at the stake: Kira was written off her own damn “look Fun Japanese mythology” storyline half the time so it could center around Stiles. A white boy. There were numerous issues with the mythology before that — “Oni” means demon, not “firefly samurai ninja”, and it refers to a similar mythology as the western “fae”, a large collection of creatures benevolent, malevolent, and in between, with different traits and origins. Kitsunes are meant to be red or white, not gold, and they’re foxes, not cats, animation team. “Nogitsune” refers to the malevolent class of “low” Kitsune, or “wild” Kitsune, who didn’t align themselves with the goddess Inari and do divine and pious work. There are many of them and the most they really do is harass people at shrines, not murder indiscriminately for funsies. They’re only malevolent in that they like doing bad deeds, not that they’re serial killers. And they’re not one of the usual 13 low Kitsune, two of which are bad of their own accord! (Spirit and Air. Google it!) They are meant to be dealt with by Inari-aligned high Kitsune, not your average tricky fox. Among other things.

So Stiles. Outside of the Kira storyline, he’s used in a lot of fandom discourse about racism and sexism. And queerbaiting. Y’all love a scrawny white boy. Anyways, Stiles gets possessed by the Nogitsune (that’s NOT how that works but okay Jeffrey) and suddenly s3 is about him. Kira’s not evil, now let’s look at Stiles being tired and messy and killing people. Dylan #1 did a great job playing that part, no hate on him, but the fact that a white boy became the main character in a Japanese (or Korean, if you’re Jeff, same thing) girl’s storyline is. Hmm. How do you call it? Blatant racism. And erasure. Which is racism. YIKES, Jeff. There is so much wrong with Stiles being the Nogitsune and controlling the Oni and his whole story (and oh my god the other guy who got possessed was also a white boy instead of a Japanese character played by the same actress Jesus fucking Christ). I’m not going into that, because that’s its own essay.

Anyways, because of how much this fandom loves Stiles, it’s easy to ignore how Kira and Japanese characters were treated. People project onto Stiles with glee. He’s white. He’s awkward. He’s (supposedly) not super attractive. (Yikes.) He’s ditzy and bouncy and all that fun stuff, but he also always saves the day. He got written off for most of 6b and he still saved the stupid day. And hey, dark!Stiles (let’s not get into calling him dark instead of Nogitsune that’s just too much wine we’d have to crack open to say it) is a fun trope and people like posting and creating about him. Except that he’s the white boy who took Kira’s storyline. Her independent story about Kitsune and the like was all given over to him, not just by the show, but by the fandom. So now every post about Kitsune is a Stiles post, even if it started with Kira. And because it’s Stiles, and this fandom loves him, and is easily offended by people leaning too hard on the glass house around them and him, Kira gets forgotten and swept aside. Everyone would rather talk about Stiles. Who is incapable of bad. Or cultural appropriation. But if you attack him you’re being ableist because he has ADHD. This is why I relate to Nolan for anxiety feels instead.

TLDR on the fandom end, y’all don’t treat Kira better than the show did. I see a few posts here and there from some dedicated users — typically the same people posting about Boyd, Deaton, Morrell, yeah that’s it I’m the only one posting about Kali. (Un-fun fact: Kali was not played by an Indian actor, but by a half-Black actor. Jeff Davis, when called out on twitter, said “wow ok idiots we tried to find an Indian actress but it was hard actually SUPER hard so shut up and stop telling me how to write MY show”, which is paraphrasing with intent to make fun, but exactly what he said.) Y’all who know about Arden and Kira should diversify your blogs to include more POC, especially ones where the actor AND character were rudely sidelined for vague white people reasons. Post gifs of Kira along with Allison, Lydia, and Malia. Post ship stuff of Scira too. Post about kitsunes, the origin story of the Nogitsune, when you post about the white boy who became the main character of that arc. Call the show out. Call the fandom out. Stop making every bit and piece of her story about Czechoslovakia White Boy. Demand Kira in any future runs of the show, if season 7 or whatever does happen. Include her in your fanfictions, in your headcanons, in your art. You don’t have to love her, but you have to remember that she’s as there as any of the white characters are.

This take is very hot. If I receive racist asks and/or messages about this, I’m going to make fun of each and every sender.

[godsofhumanity]

GODHUNTER by AMY SUMIDA | REVIEW

okiee this was recommended to me by @inkleaves ^-^ uhmm so i have a LOT to say about this book. spoilers under cut.

OVERVIEW: “Godhunter” is the epithet given to a young woman named Vervain who uses witchcraft and magic to go around committing deicide in order to save humanity from gods who drain their energy to gain immortality and other godly attributes. However, when Vervain is recruited by the Norse god Thor, she finds herself in an alliance with the people she originally considered her enemies, as they work together to save the world from the maliciousness of the Aztec god, Huitzilopochtli.

RATING: 2/10. i’m giving it a low rating because it doesn’t really have too much to do with mythology, but i did like its general portrayal of most deities even though this book was insanely cringey and dumb.. now, even though under the cut, i’ve kinda bashed the book quite a bit, i still have to admit that i’d be lying if i said i didn’t have fun reading it. i stayed up to 1 AM trying to finish it because i had to find out what the protag’s next stupid decision would be,, all in all, if you like trash/cringe fiction- this is for you.

WARNING: even though this book is a YA novel, I’d say there’s a definite emphasis on the adult part of “young adult”... Certain scenes and themes are inappropriate for minors.

AVAILABLE ON: pdf link here ^-^ ((i think it downloads immediately if you click))

THINGS I LIKED:

the book is cringe.

great diversity in terms of the god cast. i learned about some new deities that i was previously unfamiliar with, so that was cool

Brahma (Hindu deity) wears a Gucci belt as part of his attire ^-^

whatever Estsanatlehi and Tsohanoai (Native American deities) had going on.... they were really cute and wholesome

THOR-HORUS BROTP AGENDA!!!!!!!! everyone who follows me already knows how keen i am about this idea of all the war deities hanging out together (fite club), and this novel served up exactly that. disappointing that Huitzilopochtli wasn’t a part of it, but i am settling for Thor and Horus’ several centuries old friendship.

Horus’ falcon tattoo detail.. i LOVE the idea of the gods having their sacred animals tattooed,, it’s so awesome!!!

Pan... i liked the way he still had his little horns, and he was kinda chaotic and fun.

in general, the descriptions of the gods were so pleasant and so cool.. i really liked the way that pretty much all the gods were beautiful,, this is very much in line with my own idea of how the gods look, and i think it makes sense, because they’re meant to be charismatic, compelling beings- beings that you worship, beings that you praise- why would they be anything but beautiful? and even if they were considered ugly by other gods, that’s only in comparison to other deities.. from a human perspective,, i just can’t see how any mortal could consider a god to be anything less than perfection,, idk

in particular- i really enjoyed the descriptions of Huitzilopochtli in his debut. i know he’s a piece of shit in the novel, but i LOVED the way he was described with his war-frenzy being triggered by blood, and the way, as god of the sun, his body almost glows, and heats up as though you’re looking into the sun itself, and the only way he can cool it down is by bathing in blood... WOWOWOWOW it’s just such a neat and fantastic visual description. his physical appearance really paid tribute to Huitzilopochtli’s original domain and attributes.

i also liked the linking between Huitzilopochtli being the Father of Vampires.. links between Aztec culture and vampirism is a trope that i didn’t originally suspect, but have become exposed to quite a bit as of late,, and i think that it’s quite a clever little plot. i liked that Huitzilopochtli also debunks superstitions about the sun, garlic, crosses, holy water etc.

Huitzilopochtli as the villain. the man makes a BRILLIANT villain- his motives are very clear and also, i thought, justified, albeit unoriginal. his presence is quite terrifying, and the reader does worry for Vervain’s safety whenever she’s with him- which is good! this means that he fills out his role as a villain well. tbh,, i did love Huitzilopochtli from the moment of his debut, but he got knocked out of my books during a certain temple scene and i have some thoughts about that in the next section.

when Vervain wakes up after the temple dream with Huitzilo, and she relaxes because it was just a dream, but then she looks into the mirror and sees bite marks on her neck!!! CHILLS! now THAT was good writing- it was unexpected, and served well to navigate into the next part of the plot.

Odin and Huitzilopochtli holding a ted talk on “how to create panic and discord among the humans”, and the gods having to bring certain meals depending on what the first letter of their names were.

Vervain’s pop-culture references, and her weaponry- especially the gloves that have blades in them that get released when she swings her hand downwards. very cool, i want them.

casual appearances from Vladimir Putin (yes, i said Vladimir Putin)... i couldn’t stop laughing when i read that Huitzilo was trying to kill Putin’s daughter to instigate a war...... asdhshajdhasdjfhjdhf insane

also i know Vervain was trying to mock Huitzilo when she nicknamed him “Blue”,, but like.. that’s a really cute name and it wasn’t even insulting.. yeah, that one backfired on you Vervain... if anything, that just made it seem like she actually had affections for him and i feel like probably in part is the reason why he felt encouraged to pursue her.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE/THINGS THAT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE AND/OR CONFUSED ME:

the book is cringe.

it reads like a 15 year old’s fantasy AU where she’s a humble young woman, unextraordinary- yet somehow, she is the muse of every man’s desire. handsome, ripped gods who never wear clothes are laying themselves down at her feet,, and she is just overwhelmed by the choices before her; and all the while, she has to balance a complicated love life with her duty to save the world (since she’s the only one who can).

Vervain as a protagonist. idk how old she’s meant to be, but since the book is in first-person, and the reader is exposed to her innermost thoughts,, i’ve gotta say- she’s incredibly immature. as a protagonist, i just feel like she’s rude, pretentious, snobby.. she has no idea what “respect” even means. in every scene, she’s either fighting someone, or lusting after them (when Teharon told her off for having lascivious thoughts about him, and she simply responded with “well stop being so sexy then” i wanted to die.... WHAT is wrong with her)

i hate the way she looks down on the gods- even if you didn’t worship them, or even believed in their existence, surely you wouldn’t have the gall to lecture Hades and Persephone on how to be a good couple (especially when your advice is shit). surely you wouldn’t have the gall to say to Thor what Vervain says to him on pg 227, 4th line from the bottom, that i will not repeat here. Vervain is just too self-absorbed. i don’t hate her, but i definitely think her character is a bit,,, iffy.

relating to Vervain as the protagonist- everything just seems to happen to her.. and i know that she’s the protag, and things are meant to happen to her, but it all happens to her one after the other in succession, no breaks. it’s so easy for her... oh? Huitzilopochtli is going to kill Putin’s daughter? no worries, Vervain can read Huitzilopochtli’s thoughts! oh? the gods have never been able to transform more than half their body into their animal form? no worries, Vervain is so powerful she can force a god to change against their will! oh? Vervain is being attacked by blood-thirsty wolves? no worries, she saved the life of one werewolf and now he’s indebted to her and will literally kill himself in order to protect her! everything is easy, and nothing is a problem.

the way every male deity ever sees Vervain once and immediately wants to take her to bed. why was that a necessary aspect of her character? and also, why are the gods portrayed as such lustful beings?? it really wasn’t necessary.

Horus throwing a fit about how December 25 is his birthday and that it was stolen from him by Jesus... to quote:

“No big deal?” Horus puffed up. “I was called the Lamb of God. I had twelve apostles, and my myths spoke of my crucifixion and consequent resurrection in three days. His stories were my stories first!”

it’s fine that Horus is angry about his birthday which was i think, historically celebrated around this date- but the rest of it isn’t even true???? Horus didn’t have 12 apostles, i’m pretty sure he was also not called “Lamb of God”, and he wasn’t crucified!!! aghhhh even Thor says “It’s been so long that even you don’t remember things accurately.”

anyways.. my beef with this is the way it’s phrased so as to imply that “oh christianity just stole everything from the pagans” when this is so incredibly false and sounds like something an ill-informed person would say. you can read more about christianity, paganism and christmas here

kinda related to the previous point- the jokes about Jesus’ skin colour. i quote:

“... when Christ first became a god, he looked Jewish because those were the people he chose to align himself with. However, the Jews didn’t want him, and when Christianity spread, the white people wanted Jesus to look more like them. With the change in belief, Christ’s appearance changed. ... We used to tease him about how he looked whiter every time we saw him... Kind of like Michael Jackson...”

what the FUCK??????? seems like Sumida doesn’t understand that various ethnic groups illustrate Jesus as appearing as the local people do. Yes, obviously in a Western country, Jesus is going to look European, he’s going to look white. If you go to Japan, you will see Jesus and the rest of the gang looking pretty fucking Japanese. the point of this is NOT to erase Jesus’ Jewish ethnicity, and it is certainly not because of something like “the Jews didn’t want him”- it is because it is a way for followers to better relate to the Divine. including Christ in this story isn’t the problem- i’ve seen others do it very well. the problem is how uneducated her writing comes across.

all the gods have human jobs so that they can earn money and stuff,, which is fine- Thor, for example, owns a line of boats, which makes sense. but Pan? his job is making p*rn. now even though it’s true that everyone associates Pan with sexuality and stuff,,, this isn’t his primary role, and making Pan out to be just a playboy who has his mind in the gutter 24/7 i think is a bit of a mockery. Pan is, first and foremost, a god of the Wild. why Sumida elected to make him a p*rn manufacturer and not a wildlife conservationist is beyond me... i’m not even pagan, and i thought this creative decision was distasteful and stupid, especially because his character is actually quite light-hearted and cool.

the temple scene with Huitzilopochtli and Vervain. as i said previously, i really really liked Huitzilo’s character. he made an excellent villain. but this part?? i understand why it was done, but i HATED that it had to happen... not just because it was horrible for Vervain, but Huitzilo seemed so powerful and godly right up to that point- after which he seemed pretty pathetic- going back after Vervain after she’s rejected him countless times. she is JUST a mortal!!! c’mon Huitzilo, give it up!!! you are degrading yourself at the expense of achieving one mortal’s “love”.. the fact that he had to hypnotise her to get what he wanted AND had to achieve it through her dreams (when’s she can’t protect herself) was sooooo pathetic and disgraceful.. IMO, he committed the worst sin any person could ever commit and i just... AGHHHHHHHHH SMH WHY?!

speaking of morons- Thor. Thor just comes across to me as extremely possessive, and over-protective,, and idk how Vervain was NOT creeped out by the fact that Thor had literally been stalking her for two years before she even met him. wtf? god or not- that’s creepy. actually, i think it’s creepier because he is a god. 

Sif. i am still waiting for good media representation of thunder god Thor and his beautiful golden-haired wife Sif- i want them to be HAPPY, and i want them to be in love the way they should be! 

Persephone. i like the idea of Persephone being sweet-tempered, and kind- but in this book, she’s such a wimp??????? she totally just lets Vervain be rude to her, a goddess who’s name means “Bringer of Destruction”. also- her relationship with Hades seems toxic.. i mean,, he like tracks her? she starts stuttering when she talks to him, and gets nervous when people so much as mention his name. not to mention the fact that Persephone says that when she does go back to him, all he demands from her is a certain horizontal dance so much so that she is “sore” (<- quoting from the book here) every time she returns??????? WHAT IS HAPPENING?????????? and no one even questions it. Vervain doesn’t even question it! instead she suggests that Persephone MOVES IN with Hades permanently???? and that Hades should just start verbally saying how much he loves Persephone instead of “showing” her how much he “loves” her.....??? there are SO many issues with this.. i can’t even- *screams*

the Aphrodite-is-madly-in-love-with-Huitzilopochtli side plot. it could have been really good, but then it ends so abruptly,,, i mean.. why’d Aphrodite get done so dirty like that? Also summary of Hephaestus’ first and final scenes:

Hephaestus, entering the room: Right, what’s all this then? Vervain: Your wife is cheating on you (again) Hephaestus: Aight, i’m out *leaves and never comes back for the rest of the book*

what the HECK was the ending with Trevor?? i hate Vervain so much i can’t... okay first of all- WHY did Trevor decide to have a wolf-marriage with Vervain?? he kept on going on about how she’s so beautiful, and kind, and caring... NO SHE ISN’T TREVOR!!! i’m so mad that he would pledge himself for all eternity to this girl who doesn’t even like him in that way!!! you played yourself son

also- Thor accepts the fact that Trevor is going to have to be close by to Vervain because the terms of the marriage state that Trevor will literally die without her touch, which is VERY GENEROUS of Thor... but Vervain?? ooooh i HATE her.. she has the audacity to look at Trevor with her lecherous eyes thinking about lustful things IN THOR’S OWN BED!!!!! and then she thinks to herself “oh whoops i shouldn’t be thinking that”- yeah you’re darn right you shouldn’t be thinking that!!!! whatttt is wrong with her............. 

also- where tf did Huitzilo go??? he just gave up on trying to instigate a war and vanished?? the plot was so unresolved?????? AGH!

[the-velveteen-victorian]

Hi Elle! I used to follow you on your old mega-popular tumblr. I really love your new one. :) I know that you've lived in a "super spiritual" community for several years now (not sure if you want me to publicly say the place). What is the community like? Is it more bad than good? What are some strengths and weaknesses of the place/people? Thank you! I've heard mixed things and really respect your insights.

Haha I knew I would get this question one day! If I could title my response, it would be, "Why I've Chosen to Keep My Distance from the New Age Community in the American Southwest." I info-dump and write novels, so get ready! =)

I think there is something to be said for defining things neutrally for yourself overall. Fortunately, I've been able to easily do that in this instance due to: 1. Being introverted and not "needing" a big community experience and 2. Having wonderful friends all over the globe that I am able to interact with all throughout my year. With that being said, if I am being 100% honest and real with you, I truly believe that the new age community where I am is more toxic than good. Here is why. I will have a positive note at the end.

A quick preface: I am not calling out any particular individual(s) and will not be naming names.... quite frankly, there are just too many and I'm not here to humiliate people. Secondly, these traits can take place in ANY community, spiritual or otherwise. But these are things that I feel a spiritual community should be more self-aware of... and sadly right now, they are not.

********ATTENTION: There is a big content and trigger warning here: There will be mentions of sui****, sexual *******, and gaslighting/narcissism, terfs, eating disorders, and other things that could be very upsetting. Proceed with caution and stop reading if you find yourself getting stressed, triggered, or deeply upset.*********

1. Malignant narcissism and community insulation from constructive criticism. I have never seen such a ubiquitous display of malignant narcissism in all my life in a collective, save for some conservative Christian environments in my growing up years. Go onto almost any youtube channel for the Sedona community and you will see very few negative comments… why? (And I have watched this for a long time) Almost ANY criticism of anyone’s channel or blog is instantly removed. There was a time when people who simply noted that some of these small “influencers” were saying toxic things were sent cease and desist letters. The community is very tight knit and displays many marks of a cult. One of these indicators is that they all protect each other and hype each other up on their channels and blogs, while labeling ANY criticism (healthy or not) as someone who is being “triggered.” The younger part of the community cares about looking perfect and having everyone worship them, but has very little spiritual substance. It’s always about who did the alien thing “before it was cool” or “who can do a backflip off of a steep cliff without breaking their neck because their synchronicity is on point.” One youtuber said once that she only wanted to hang out with “pretty” people because they were purer expressions of the divine. The older generation expresses narcissism by assuming they know more than everyone else. Good luck having a conversation on controversial topics with any of them. They are right, you are wrong. If you argue, you are “triggered” and “seeking for truth.” If you don't believe that there are reptilians on the moon with a secret base, you've drunk the kool-aid. Not a good environment to foster open sharing and knowledge. The men have a particular problem with this when it comes to topics of sex and intimacy. If you are a woman and don’t want to “surrender” to your partner (in a lot of vague and unclear ways), you are out of alignment with the divine feminine. Most of the men believe that they should be allowed to "hunt" (look for sexual partners/spiritual twin flames) and that women should do everything in their power to be softly feminine so that they can sync up and recognize each other's souls.

2. A full denial of science and medicine. Look, I get it. We all want to solve our own medical dilemmas and use herbs to cure all ills. I try to solve any (non life threatening) health issues I have the “natural” way first too… often, I have great success! The problem comes when the community rejects all western medicine, most science (that doesn’t affirm their beliefs) and any medical opinion that has… actually been to a real medical school. There is a strong anti-vaccination movement coupled with the belief in using yoni eggs religiously and doing colonics every week (though science tells us this isn’t a great idea overall). I used a different type of yoni egg for awhile to see what would happen, but trust me, your pelvic health is going to be better without them. You will be judged harshly for going to a “mainstream” doctor to get antibiotics for a serious infection and will most likely be gaslit into oblivion regarding “what you did to attract” your infection etc.

I have midwifed for many years now and have extensive “mainstream” training to be able to do this legally. Once, I was working with another midwife on a mother who was having her first baby. The laboring woman had an ideal birth in mind like most people do. Long story short, I discerned while she was laboring that the baby was in intense distress and that the mother was displaying very concerning signs of a life-threatening condition. When I insisted on calling an ambulance and getting the woman to the hospital, the other midwife said that I was interfering with nature. I explained simply that if we didn’t get said woman to a hospital, the baby would most certainly die and the mother’s life would hang in the balance. Her response was that: “Some babies don’t deserve to live and I shouldn’t invite karma by interfering with nature’s course.” I called an ambulance anyway and the mother was taken for an emergency c-section. The mother was very disappointed about not being able to follow her birth plan. However, after the birth (she and baby ended up being okay thank goodness) she sat down with me personally and thanked me for making the decision I did. She said that one of the doctors explained that if I had waited another hour, both she and the baby would be dead. Apparently, this other “midwife” had also had her license revoked a year before for endangering a different laboring person and child. This sounds like a stand-alone freak incident, but I can cite 15-20 other situations just like this one where life-threatening emergencies were viewed as opportunities for good karma and growth… and that western medical intervention would invite bad karma.

Regarding science, if you point to the fact that jade yoni eggs are likely to cause an infection, most of the new age community will scoff and say that they don’t trust science (the logic being that science once explained volcanos as angry gods or something and now cannot be trusted overall). If you don't wear blue-blocking glasses anytime you look at a screen, apparently you've already succumbed to mind control. You get my point… It’s so bad that the new age community is willing to endanger people’s lives and place the blame on the victims for being out of alignment with synchronicity. This one bullet point could be talked about for hours.

3. A lack of discernment and victim blaming. Many have heard about Bentinho Massaro and his crew from that time when they swept through Sedona a couple years ago. The core of the Sedona community started blindly following him… some of them wanted to boost their online platforms by being associated with a well-known figure. Others wanted a guru… and others were just curious and got sucked in by his charisma. All one had to do was google him. He has allegations of physically beating his followers, gaslighting people, torturing animals in his childhood, and ignoring the fact that an alarming number of his followers commit suicide. With all of this knowledge at our fingertips, the popular new age “influencers” went so far as to get in polyamorous relationships with him, validate his platform, and gaslight people who, sadly, committed sui**** because of certain things he said in his teachings. It was insane. Now, many of the people who followed him try to pretend it never happened or that they had no part in it. Many of them claim to have “gifts of the spirit” and to have stellar discernment.

One of the people who got into a polyamorous relationship with this person did an Instagram post where she basically said that if someone is being r*ped they should show their attacker love and surrender to what is happening so that they could experience unconditional love and come back to the "light." I honestly couldn’t believe what I was reading at first when I saw it. The part that was heartbreaking was when I read the comments and watched people (not just women and men) berate themselves for “fighting” while something terrible happened to them in the past. A few of them were teenagers. I made it a point to personally message the ones I was able to, and thankfully, a good number did respond positively. This exact issue has occurred on youtube channels, blogs, and in-person encounters. I’m just citing ONE online instance of this horrible, misaligned belief. Keep in mind that the person who did this post abandoned her disabled child with a family she barely knew to pursue a sexual relationship with Bentinho.

4. TERFS/anti-LGBTQ/anti-feminism. This falls under the categories of relationships, sex, autonomy, and social issues, but expands into much more overall.

A chain of videos came out a couple years ago where about 5 women in the new age community each did a presentation on what was wrong with the “divine feminine” these days. They were saying that women had been erased because they were not conforming to gender roles or seeking out conscious relationships. They all referenced that “women are angry” and basically said it was wrong for women to feel this way and that angry female energy was throwing our whole environment out of balance and even contributing to global warming somehow. They empathized with toxic people/men/known violent incels and said that women needed to get over their traumas and be more available for the divine masculine to show up. They dehumanized women by saying they shouldn’t be expressing anger, glossed over sexual a******, and blocked everyone in the comments who took a stand against what they were saying. The general consensus is that feminists are just angry women who need to get over their trauma.

Many people in the new age community also believe that if you incarnate in a particular body with certain biological parts, you incarnated that way for a reason. Changing it extensively is to erase “the spiritual lessons you were supposed to learn.” Basically, they stand against trans people, nonbinary people, gender nonconforming people… etc. I can go deeper with this if you want, but that is the gist of it without writing a novel within a novel.

Most of them take an active stance against intersectional feminism and use exclusive language to shut out anyone who doesn’t conform to the binary. A few of them are more passive-aggressive about how they do this: refusing to show any support for the LGBTQUIA+ community or mention social issues at all, even when someone is pointing out that they did something hurtful or offensive.

5. Appropriating Indigenous cultures and using past lives as an excuse. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a white new age person say that something is their “spirit animal” or seen one wear Native American/indigenous headdresses to tight-knit community events, citing that they were “Native American” in their past life and that they are entitled to use these symbols, items, and cultural lexicons because of it. (Not that this is the main point… but they tell trans people that they shouldn’t be trans or insinuate that people should conform to the gender binary because they incarnated in a body type for a reason… but make an exception for themselves culturally? Super hypocritical.)

A couple of “woke” guys from the new age community walked around for awhile saying that the Hopi had adopted them into their “tribe” and that the were given Hopi names. I spoke to a few Hopi people about what was happening and they were shell-shocked. That is not something that they do for one thing, and for another, they had never even heard of these people! Thankfully, the behavior stopped after the two men were confronted about it, but this kind of thing happens all the time in various ways. There is a new age store here with a racial slur in the title… bring it up to the owner and she’ll kick you out and launch a smear campaign. Tell one of the white new age women that just because she studies “different traditions” doesn’t mean it’s okay to do rain dances or perform indigenous rituals (Native American, Australian, and others) without permission and they’ll blacklist you. I think many of the new agers operate within this Trojan horse of “I want to accept and validate all cultures”, but do not actually care at all about indigenous voices, feelings, or opinions. Many of them talked a lot about collective trauma in our nation during Black Lives Matter, but wouldn’t actively support it in any way themselves.

6. Let’s talk about mental health. This could go under the science and medicine label, but I think it deserves its own paragraph. Boy is mental health stigmatized in the new age Sedona community…. Real mental health professionals are painted as people who just want to “drug” you and keep you controlled. People with mental health struggles are instantly blamed. “Hell is just a state of mind, you need to change your mind,” is a phrase I have heard more often than not. Ancestral healing, umbilical healing, and random reiki sessions are somehow supposed to take the place of a licensed counselor.

A huge chunk of the “spiritual” community supported a pseudo-therapist who (without any scientific basis) was preaching that any woman who wasn’t sure if she wanted to have children or not by the age of 25 was toxic and needed to be ostracized because “something is wrong there.” A bunch of people believed it and re-posted/shared the teaching.

Another instance occurred where an unlicensed “hypnotherapist” without so much as a bachelor’s degree in anything was using questionable methods to hypnotize clients. During one session a person experienced a severe PTSD flashback and panic attack. She was not brought out of the hypnotherapy session properly or cared for. She ended up having a mental breakdown and having to spend time in the hospital. The charlatan who was treating her said that the client was willfully unresponsive to treatment and refused to confront her demons…

Anyone who is on anxiety medication, anti-depressants or anything else to support their well-being and mental health will be judged aggressively and most likely verbally confronted at some point if they are open about being on medication. The charlatans will throw essential oils into your space saying that they can cure anything. Others will try to get someone to talk to a new age leader in the “inner circle” and attempt to persuade the client that western therapists/psychologists just want to drug people and ignore the spiritual cause of unrest. They’ll cite earthing, crystals, vaginal wands, special teas, dietary habits, and color therapy as causes and answers to everything…. All while regarding victims of sui**** as unfortunate souls and lost causes etc.

7. A summary. I need to sum up other issues here quite quickly or I’ll be typing all day. XD Many of the women here are terrified of gaining weight or looking older. They hide behind the thinning veil of “health and veganism” to justify their worrisome habits to feel sexually appealing to supposedly “woke” men. Disordered eating and terror of eating one granule of processed sugar permeates the consciousness. You can be judged for anything from buying pokemon cards to eating legumes…. of all things. Most of the men are sexual predators who prey on younger women, rely on narcissism as a personality type, and don’t let anyone get a word in edgewise when their opinions are challenged. Many of the women validate these behaviors and blame themselves when they get hurt citing “spiritual growth” as a silver lining to cure all traumas. I would say that 95%+ of the people in the community present a perfect picture of themselves online while having crumbling relationships and failing inner lives. You might see a post or video about “conscious uncoupling” of a spiritual "power couple" and then find out later that someone was in a relationship with a narcissistic predator or was experiencing physical abuse. Sadly, many of the victims gaslight themselves in the uncoupling announcement. Many people here are predators in other ways… they might launch a health business that uses essential oils to replace therapy. There are con artists all over the place who can range from simply overpricing their wares in alarming ways to trying to entrap people in “business contracts” that devastate their lives. I have had personal UFO experiences here and do personally think that extraterrestrial life exists, but I would NEVER try to manufacture a fake experience… One of the UFO tour guides was having people hide out in the desert and flash lights into the sky while people on the tour wore special glasses. Then she was charging an arm and a leg to channel “spiritual messages” from the e.t.s for her clients and saying that if they didn’t receive the message, something bad would happen to them. This is the fluffiest and lightest post I could possibly do to communicate how bad it is in the “spiritual community” here. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

The good news? Sedona is so much more than a toxic new age community. It is GORGEOUS and it does have many good, healthy/normal people here. =) I have had such a beautiful experience in this place and can’t say enough good things about it. I have easy access to healthy foods, endless nature to explore and bask in, and a growing community of people who call the new age community out on its toxicity. I read what I want, play Animal Crossing without blue-blocker glasses, regularly enjoy going to listen to goth music at my preferred venue (I’ve been demonized for this lol), and eat what makes me feel good. My partner and I have had a beautiful and successful relationship for nearly a decade now and create amazing memories every day. We have good friends all around the world… and I have a solid, BIG group of academic colleagues/friends locally who DO ethically cite their sources and contribute positively to science and higher learning. If you’re into paleontology like me, you are in fossil heaven! =D If you love astronomy or astrophysics, we’re in a dark sky city! There are so many cool things to do from playing in LOTR-worthy waterfalls, to sampling delicious vegan creations, to playing DnD on red rocks with your friends while a *real* UFO passes by overhead. Get yourself a smoothie and organic wrap from one of our incredible food trucks and drive out into the desert while listening to Nightvale with your love or your friends. =)

If you ever want a list of must-do’s while visiting, let me know. I’ve got your back! The point is that I just harped on the negative above, but the good news is that you can completely avoid all of the junk. Keep it or scrap it when it comes to the Sedona new age community? I say scrap it. But you can still pursue your spiritual interests in healthy ways here while enjoying all the yummy creature comforts that the Verde Valley has to offer. I hope this helps and if just one person comes here and has a safe experience because of my thoughts, then every moment I’ve spent writing this was worth it. =) <3

[fortheloveofluxuryxo]

Ikigai, manifesting thru gaming, scripting, and Neville Goddard

YOUTUBE EPISODE 3

Today's video I go over some excellent manifestation techniques: 1) Ikigai, 2) manifesting by gaming, 3) the concept of scripting, and one of my favorite manifestation authors, 4) Neville Goddard.

1) Ikigai, pronounced "eye-ka-guy" - take a shot everytime I pronounce it wrong as "icky-guy" because my brain won't remember the correct pronunciation HAHA! Anyway, Ikigai is the japanese concept of finding one's life purpose. It's a total balance. Within Passion, Profession, Vocation, and Mission you can arrange and align your life to create a lifestyle where 1) you do what you love, 2) what you are good at, 3) what pays you, 4) and something that the world needs - all in one. Now, you do not exactly need ALL PARTS of Ikigai to achieve happiness. It's absolutely possible to have a passion and career that doesn't yield you a lot of money, yet you are happy and vice versa. However, ideally, the goal is to find the combo of all the aspects! This is something that must be done individually; you cannot look outside yourself to find your Ikigai, it comes from within.

Note: this is considered a westernized version of the concept within a diagram, but as a good visual and all in all, it's a wonderful concept and it really helps when working on yourself!

2) Second concept I go over is manifesting by gaming. If you've seen my streams you'll know I play GTA V Online often with my friends. Simply because, it's LA Sims lol. Los Santos and Los Angeles are the same place lol. Everything I do in that game tends to reflect quite a lot here in this place. An example I mentioned in my video is my work within the cannabis industry and how much it feels like MC weed missions! I also recommend just playing The Sims in general to manifest. It's fun and you're creating the reality you want to see reflected here as it is within the game. Gaming as a whole helps a great deal because you can change your view on money. Everytime you score points while you're gaming, imagine your finances increasing at the same time. More points = more finances. The MORE FUN you have manifesting through whatever methods you choose, the EASIER it is to manifest!

3) Manifesting by gaming is practically a way to script! Scripting is the technique of basically scripting your life as if you are the character of your own story! You write your own story and create the reality you want. Whether the outer reality reflects immediately or not, we always know when we've watched a movie we've seen before where the character goes through turmoil before the good ending, we know it'll end well for that character no matter what. PROPHESIZE YOUR OWN LIFE! Have fun with it! You can choose whatever medium you see fit to script: writing, narrating out loud or in your head, gaming, full blown ACTING as if you were in a play/movie, honestly there are many ways this technique can be done!

4) Lastly, Neville Goddard is my absolute favorite manifestation author. He has a few techniques but my favorite technique by far is living in the end result. Even if I do not see my manifestations immediately, I know the things I desire are coming to me no matter what! The journey could be long, frustrating, and tiring at times, but the vision never goes away. I absolutely recommend some of his methods and two books: The Feeling is the Secret and The Power of Awareness.

All in all, the most important thing is to have fun when you are manifesting! Some days you will not be having fun and things do get frustrating, but training our minds to seek solutions rather than focus on problems and detaching when things aren't exactly manifested is the ultimate sauce to achieve your desires. Get creative and although you may read blogs, watch videos, and engage in discussion about manifestation, you need to look within yourself for the answers to what you want; no one else can do that for you!

[robhorninginternalexile]

story machine

In this piece on GPT-3, Stephen Marche suggests that using the AI-driven text generator could be likened to ancient invocations of the muse:

The oldest poems in the Western tradition, the Iliad and the Odyssey, begin with an invocation to the muse, a plea for a mysterious, unfathomable other to enter the artist, taking over, conjuring language. GPT-3 is a mysterious, unfathomable other, taking over, conjuring language. It is a muse you will be able to access for fifteen to twenty dollars per month.

The idea seems to be that all writing is at some level just channeling pre-existing bits of comprehended language anyway, so why not use a tool that gets us further along in the processes — instead of a blank page, a few parameters fed into the machine will generate a block of text we can then carve like a sculptor. As one of the entrepreneurs associated with GPT-3 puts it, "The writer’s job becomes as an editor almost ... deciding what’s good and executing on your taste, not as much the low-level work of pumping out word by word by word. You’re still editing lines and copy and making those words beautiful, but, as you move up in that chain, and you’re executing your taste, you have the potential to do a lot more."

It's interesting that writing is conceived here as an industrialized value chain that end users of GPT-3 move up while the people whose writing has been fed into it (not to mention the labor for all the energy that powers it) are driven further down into economic immiseration.

I'm not entirely convinced it would be less work to massage the machine to produce and rework text that aligns with your intentions than to just start writing your own words out of your own thoughts and experiences with language and how you like to use it. Trying to coax it into saying something you want to say would turn self-expression into an indirect, oracular project, sort of like trying to infer your own personality from what a platform's algorithms recommend to you.

GPT-3 produces text that it deems probable based on the collected corpus of English language texts; the more one depends on it, the more one is merely ventriloquizing or normalizing one's thoughts to how the model's interface characterizes or periodizes different kinds of writing. Perhaps eventually the billions of parameters it uses to calculate the next most probable word will be personalized, and there will be a billion parameters that offer what your most probable next utterance will be in an situation. But that sort of thing always seems self-negating to me — your digital double will insist you want to say one thing and you'll know to say something else if you want to continue to be a person and not an algorithmic function. (That's basically what Kevin Munger argues here.)

What GPT-3 seems good for is producing text no one wants to have to write (imagine it will be great for ad copy, as well as for student papers, as is often noted) or to produce surprising text that is fun to read precisely because it seems unintended. This Vice article details how the GPT-3 app AI Dungeon is used by lots of people to generate bespoke interactive porn. Marche imagines GPT-3 completing unfinished works by canonical authors.

"Sudowrite was relatively effective when I asked it to continue Charles Dickens’s unfinished novel “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” I assume it will be used by publishers to complete unfinished works like Jane Austen’s “Sanditon” or P. G. Wodehouse’s “Sunset at Blandings.”

Not only that, it will be able to produce endless versions of those novels, a million different possibilities. Combined with algorithmic personalization, it can create a completed version that's presumably perfect for you (which should mean that you will detest it for being so on the nose). The whole thing with GPT-3 is it dispense with the idea that any text has to be a particular way; it's all just probabilities, and processes that can be immediately executed again. But there are no novel possibilities here; just raw repetition. There won't be any new thoughts generated out of this processes, just millions of moments of recognition from millions of audiences consuming the surplus of text.

GPT-3 will like accelerate the turn away from text as a middlebrow artistic medium, much as photography made oil painting a recondite, elite practice for connoisseurs only. Most people won't bother being creative in text; they will continue to refine their video-creation skills, their podcasting voices, and so on. These will continue to appear as a much more saturated and direct way of conveying oneself.

[thevagueambition]

Another thing that I’ve been thinking about is how the way I see it, the specific ways Danish culture constructs masculinity still seems to follow Old Norse norms of masculinity fairly well (although in a less extreme manner), yet maybe that is me reading of the Old Norse context through the context of the Danish masculinity I’m used to? Is the similarity actually there or is my reading of the Old Norse context simply filtered through the current Danish one? It seems odd that it should stay quiet so coherent so I feel like I must be doing this to some extent.

The way I see it, the core tenets of Danish masculinity are toughness, assertiveness and willpower. Someone who is manly culturally speaking is someone who isn’t afraid to speak his mind and do what needs to be done and who doesn’t need to rely on others for emotional support. The toughness parameter is particularly emotional toughness in a contemporary context.

Most of the insults we have in Danish that essentially has the meaning of “you’re failing at being a man” are about not asserting yourself, not taking charge when you should be, being rendered passive by your own fear of or inability to act. And I would certainly say that this is particularly true of situations where you’re supposed to be protecting or speaking up for someone else.

To my mind, a lot of this matches up quite well with Norse concepts of honour. Hell, nidding (ON níðingr) still exists in contemporary Danish, although it is an archaic word. Anyway a nidding is also someone who doesn’t act when he’s supposed to. You could be a níðingr if you didn’t take revenge you were supposed to take or if you didn’t take part in defending something you were supposed to defend. Obviously these concepts no longer really relate to violence in the contemporary context but to me they seem to concern the same basic underlying ideas of virtue (ie “a man is someone who acts when he’s supposed to”).

For the record I’m unsure how close ideals of masculinity align with each other across cultures (particularly similar ones). I’m sure a lot of what I’ve outlined about what I think is the core of the cultural understanding of masculinity is in Danish culture is common to a lot of, particularly Western, cultural understandings of masculinity. Yet just from observing media and discussions from countries other than my own I would argue that there are at least some differences present. E.g. imo competitiveness isn’t really a big thing in contemporary Danish culture, but it’s my impression that it’s an aspect of masculinity in other cultures. Anyway depending on how much this differs between contemporary cultures, there is then also the argument that there are simply similarities between then and ancient times because masculinity itself has stayed a somewhat stable concept within Western culture, at least as it pertains to the core values encouraged by it. Which... I’m not sure I entirely buy, but then I don’t know, man.

Also, just a note: All is this is meant to be descriptive. I don’t think masculinity in and of itself is either good or bad, it is simply a cultural concept which can be employed to either end. This is not meant to valorise it as a concept, I’m simply pointing out what I think the virtues it’s interested in are.

[griftercricket]

Information on Kaz can be found under the cut! 

Biography

Roya Kazemi

Roya was born on the road. Both of her parents were professional scammers, spending their lives travelling. They made their own rules, living outside of the law and never remaining in one place long enough to get caught. Their specialty was small towns, the kind of places the Emperor and those who serve him cared so little for that they didn’t even bother investigating their crimes. Their only child, Roya, was born on the backseat of their car, pulled over on the side of the road. They were back on their way within the hour, heading towards their next target. 

For as long as she can remember, Roya has been adored. Her parents showered her with praise, constantly telling her how pretty she was, how clever she was, and granted her every request. Despite spending most of her childhood on the road, she never wanted for anything, and knew everything she owned was stolen. Her parents passed their trade on to her, positioning it like a game, and the thrill of taking what was not hers is a feeling as familiar as an old friend to Roya. 

As she grew under her parents tutelage, Roya grew greedy and entitled. She believed that if she could get away with taking something, she deserved to have it. However, petty theft and small-scale operations ceased to satisfy her like they used to. By the time she was in her late teens, newly an adult and unfamiliar with any other life but the one her family had shown her, she was already looking to something bigger and better. The only trouble was, building something bigger was hard to do when you had to start from scratch every few weeks. Just before her twentieth birthday, Roya bid goodbye to her parents, and set off for the first time on her own.

Mystic Roya

Her first few months in the city weren’t easy. She had never even seen an attempt at putting roots down, and had no clue how to do it for herself. That changed when her mark appeared. Every resourceful, Roya had always had a lucky streak. With her mark, her life-long bout of good fortune made all the more sense. Suddenly, the path ahead was clear. 

It was the biggest con of her life, setting up as “genuine” psychic. She assumed there would be a learning curve, a certain art to reading people that she would learn over time. For the most part, people were far less complicated than they liked to believe themselves to be. All it took was a few vague statements from Roya, blanket “predicitions” that could have applied to anybody. It wouldn’t have been enough on it’s own, but when combined with her talismans, created with her powers and sold to desperate believers, it was hard to deny the power of Mystic Roya. When she promised good luck, she delivered. When she promised love, it was found. She laughs about it behind closed doors, delighting in the games she plays with those who reach out to her for spiritual guidance, but at least she’s laughing all the way to the bank.

Casino Kaz

She loves what she does- really, she does, but Roya has never been very good at the monotonous life. Being in one place for so long is stifling enough, without succumbing to something as mundane as regularity. Roya was naturally restless to begin with, but the storm in which she grew up in only exaggerated this trait. The psychic fraud was fun, and she has no intention of giving it up, but the need for something more developed. Having spent her life chasing thrills, she’s never done well when the thrills disappear. 

Having done so well with her first cultivated persona, it made sense to add another deception to her bow. Mystic Roya was one aspect of who she was, not-quite her, but with enough of her in it to come naturally. The second side of the coin was easier still to slip into. Kaz. Unlike Mystic Roya, there was nothing spiritual about Kaz. They gambled, and cheated, and conned and lied, and loved every minute of it. 

The thrill has always faded quickly, but for Kaz, every day is different, every game is different. It’s enough to keep the excitement alive, and something about her double life keeps her even more exhilarated. Though she still chases excitement where she finds it, for the most part, she’s totally content, happy amassing her fortune and revelling in her success. 

Headcanons

Her mark, the Grifter Cricket, appeared on her lower back, to the left of her tailbone (think a typical tr*mp stamp). She doesn’t know how long it sat there before she noticed it. For her, the transition from human to Night Monster was slow and seamless, reflecting the more subtle nature of her powers. It would be very easy for Kaz to lay low, but her own ego forbids it. She’s always been the flashy type, and never one for laying low when she could be taking center stage. A reckless risk-taker, she never fully thinks of the consequences of her actions. She has luck on her side, though, and for her, that’s all the protection she needs. 

Like most things in her life, Kaz doesn’t take her status as a Night Monster too seriously. She knows the danger, but she simply doesn’t believe anything could happen to her. She knows that everything she has is a direct result of her powers, and isn’t shy about using them to get herself out of almost any situation. Though she doesn’t necessarily shout about her abilities (she’s dumb but she’s not stupid), she enjoys using them and is fairly proud of what she is, even if she can’t express that in the ways she wants to. 

Kaz had a good relationship with both of her parents, but never really stayed in one place long enough growing up to form bonds with anybody out of the family unit of three. Though she was loved, being an only child with no opportunity for friends was a lonely experience for a little girl. She more than makes up for it now, though. Kaz loves making friends, but isn’t the best at keeping them. She’s very much the type of person you’d have a blast with on the odd night out, but keeping up with her over long periods of time can be quite tiresome. For those who can, however, she’s quick to embrace them as found family and accept them as one of her own. 

Kaz has a taste for fine things, and wants nothing less than to surround herself with the best of everything. With the money she has gained, she bought a fancy apartment in the heart of the city. It’s not quite Empire Gardens, but the pace of life there suits her better, anyway. Though she paid for the apartment, she didn’t purchase anything in it. It came fully furnished, anyway, courtesy of the previous owner, and all of Kaz’s own additions have been stolen or swindled. 

Kaz is loyal to the Madhouse Renegades, but only because they best serve her interests. She doesn’t really care very much at all about their mission, nor the plight of the other Night Monsters. Her main concern is what is going on in the here and now, how it effects her, and ensuring her own prosperity. As a result of never settling anywhere any longer than two weeks, she doesn’t really realise the extent of the emperor’s tyranny, nor why what she’s doing matters. It’s all a bit of a game to her, and while she loves the thrill of it, she could easily switch sides if she saw enough benefit in it. She’s pledged her loyalty, but her actual commitment is flaky. 

Despite her success in amassing a small fortune, Kaz is terrible at math. Numbers and data are too objective, and hold very little interest for her, doing little but making her head hurt. She can’t tell you exactly how much she is worth- only that she wants more, and there’s no job too small to be below her consideration. 

Inspo

Pinterest

Character Tropes: Winds of Destiny, Change  Phony Psychic Karma Houdini Born Lucky Hard-Drinking Party Girl Money Fetish

Character Inspiration: Domino (Deadpool) Crickee (Mulan) Oda Mae Brown (Ghost) Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Lando Calrissian (Star Wars)  The Thénardiers (Les Mis)

Personality Type  ESTP

Alignment Chaotic Neutral

Enneagram Type 7 - The Enthusiast 

Western Astrology Leo Sun Aquarius Moon Gemini Rising

Deadly Sin Greed

Heavenly Virtue Gratitude

Connections

Paper Butterfly - Potential Victim

Cinder Fox - Frenemy

Demon Cat - Mutual intrigue

Carbon Caiman - Found Family

Night Eagle - Dumbass Duo

Sacred Maggot - Client

Ghost Moth - Stole her home/belongings

Cipher Mole - best friend

Severed Chimera - former assignment

[markwhitwell]

Does “Hathayoga” Really Mean Force? An Interview With Yoga Master Mark Whitwell

Mark Whitwell | Heart of Yoga

Mark Whitwell is a world-renowned yoga teacher of the old school, who for decades has been sharing the tools of body movement and breath and bearing witness to the madness of the yoga industrial complex with compassion. Sometimes seeming to have stepped directly out of a fourteenth-century Tantric temple, Mark teaches in the traditional way of transmission between teacher and student through non-hierarchical and sincere mutual friendship and affection.

We wanted to interview Mark as someone who does not just hold knowledge of Yoga but embodies it (as you will see if you spend some time with him) about whether “hathayoga” really means “the yoga of force,” as claimed in numerous books and articles. In a world where one study found Yoga to be more dangerous than all other sports COMBINED, and where yoga-related injuries are increasing rapidly, do we really want or need a practice whose very name indicates “force?”

Interview by: The Dirt Magazine, an independent online magazine featuring new writing on spirituality, embodiment, relationships and psychology.

The Dirt: Mark, let’s start with the big question: does haṭhayoga really mean yoga of force?

Mark Whitwell: Well, some have translated and interpreted it that way, and some certainly practice it that way, so maybe we have to say that to them, it does. But I would argue that no, it does not mean that, because if what you are doing is forceful, than it is not yoga.

I have to tell you, I am not an academic. I am not a scholar reading Sanskrit who can look back through the texts and tell you the meanings. But I am very interested in the findings of those who are doing that work, and how it aligns with what for all of us should be the main touchstone of truth, which is our own embodied experience. Not our opinions and impressions, because as we know they can be severely warped, but something deeper.

The Dirt: So could you give us a quick overview of that research, maybe some leads if people want to dig deeper?

Mark Whitwell: Well for the academics reading this, a good place to start is Jason Birch’s article, The Meaning of

Haṭha in Early Haṭhayoga, (Editor’s note: this is available on academia here.) I found this very interesting to hear about what is said in the Tantric and haṭhayoga texts of over a thousand years ago, in some cases.

For starters, it is very interesting to me that Jason Birch finds that all the early references seem to refer to something earlier and lost. So the truth is we don’t know the earliest roots and uses of the word. I believe it may go way way back to the time of the Vedas, but there is no textual evidence for that yet. But I also feel we should be careful not to impose the western academic paradigm of needing textual proof onto what is essentially an Indigenous knowledge system with its own systems of — not belief, that’s dismissive, something deeper — own ontologies, own ways of understanding reality, that should not be seen as less true than the ‘rational’ academic paradigm. Otherwise we’re just continuing the legacy of colonial cruelty, assuming the western paradigm is superior.

The Dirt: That’s very interesting. Could you give us an example of that?

Mark Whitwell: Sure, take for example Krishnamacharya’s text, the Yoga Rahasya. Krishnamacharya described how this was transmitted to him from his ancestor Nathamuni. This kind of thing is absolutely normal and completely dignified, serious and sincere within the Vedic traditions, the Tibetan traditions, the Yoga traditions… all across that ancient world there is a deep tradition of transmission of teachings beyond time and space. This is dismissed or seen as a quaint anthropological phenomenon by modern academic scholars, starting from the first European Indologists, who want to find out the ‘real’ story according to the known laws of western physics etc. “who actually wrote the piece” — that world actually reveal a lot, the assumption of the superiority or priority of their lens on reality. I recommend reading Charles Eisenstein’s essay, ‘The Feast of Whiteness’ for a really good explanation of the problem of imposing a western framework of “but what really happened” onto another culture’s ways of knowing, and suggestions for other ways of engaging.

The Dirt: I think we could have a whole other conversation about that subject alone. But let’s come back to the findings about what ancient texts say about haṭhayoga. Some people who don’t like the implications of ‘force’ use a translation of haṭha as meaning “sun and moon.” Is there a history of that, or is it a modern new age invention?

Mark Whitwell: Oh, there is absolutely a deep profund history of that. Ha and Tha, sun and moon, the union of opposites within and without. Strength receieving, male and female in perfect prior union. This is the essence of the Tantras, and as we now know, haṭhayoga comes to us from the tantric period, approximately 400–1500 CE.

Going back to Jason Birch’s research, he notes that modern books and practitioners have been drawn to the “sun and moon” definition to avoid the distastefulness of “force”. I mean people are using force, but they still don’t want it branded as that. He finds clear definitions of Yoga as the union of sun and moon in early Haṭha texts such as the Amṛtasiddhi (11th/12th century), and of the syllables ha and ṭha being used to indicate sun and moon, and inhale and exhale in earlier medieval Tantric texts. So this definition is valid, but it’s not widespread in the older texts to my understanding. We have the word haṭha in use before that definition is first found.

The Dirt: So what did it mean in those earlier contexts?

Mark Whitwell: Well I think we have to consider what is meant by force. Because there is very much a force we encounter in our yoga, which is the force of life. You know, one aspect of Christopher Tompkins’ excellent work has been pointing out that there are zero references in the tantric literature to a person raising their kundalini, in the sense of a coiled force at the base of the spine. There are references to a coiled force that may act upo0n you, descending down and then rising up your spine, but we don’t awaken kundalini, we are awakened by it. That sense of I the doer is dissolved. If anyone says to you “I awakened my kundalini” or “I had a kundalini awakening” something has gone very wrong, their identity structure has co-opted an experience of some kind and taken it on as an identity possession. Anyway, force is like this. It is something that acts upon us, something we join up with, something we are, not something “you” as a limited and separate self identity enact upon, to use Mary Oliver’s immortal phrase, that poor soft animal of your body. Your yoga is your participation in this force, this power, that you are. Not a manipulation of it, not trying to get to it. Abiding in it. This is how the ancient texts of our tradition speak about yoga, that energy may move forcefully, but not as an act of forceful volition.

Jason Birch has tracked it all down and finds the early Haṭha texts using the word “haṭhat” or forcibly, but only toward a movement of energy, not toward the body or into any movement or action. It has a sense of taking the normal downward movement in embodied life and turning it around, not violently. The implication is “that Haṭhayogic techniques have a forceful effect, rather than requiring forceful effort.” (Birch 2011). Force in the modern sense of pushing these poor old bodies into something that makes them sweat, shake, collapse, strain and sprain is absolutely not there. These are serious devotional practices we are talking about, from the Tantric cultures, one of the lost wonders of the world with their incredible insight that matter was not a degraded shackle pulling down our ethereal souls, but rather just on the spectrum of vibration of the whole cosmos. It’s a similar perspective to the understanding of modern physics that matter is just energy, not solid at all. This was radical, that the body could be a site of liberation, of deity abiding, not just a hindrance to be managed and bullied. The Christian legacy of anti-materiality is deep in the western psychology and has very much shaped the western approach to yoga. We are not that far on from self-flagellation and hair shirts.

The Dirt: So how could we summarise your interpretation of the word haṭha.

Mark Whitwell: I was always taught that asana and pranayama must be done carefully and within our breath capabilities, measured by the number of breaths and the ration of breaths. So I affirm the academic findings that haṭha can either mean the union of sun and moon — that’s accurate, and poetic and beautiful — or it can mean the great force of life, the energy of life that is moving through us, as us, and which our yoga enables us to feel and participate in. To be devoted to. A great force is moving the planets and oceans, the sun and moon, growing your hair. What is that force? What is the force that grows a seed? That force, that power. We don’t enact that, we recognise and abide in it.

As far as I know, looking at the translation work of Birch and Christopher Tompkins and others, “the word haṭha is never used in Haṭha texts to refer to violent means or forceful effort.” (Birch 2011). That matches my experience with Krishnamacharya and Desikachar, and their students such as Srivatsa Ramaswami. All emphasise that the key qualities to master asana were comfort, ease, and stability. Never force.

The Dirt: Could the association of yoga with the word force be to do with the association with tapasya, with ascetics?

Mark Whitwell: Yes, there has been great confusion in the last 500 years between ascetics and yogis. You might like to refer to the excellent article by Domagoj Orlić, “Why Yoga is Neither Physical Gymnastics.” Yoga became associated with obscene acts of self-torture, holding one’s arm in the air for years and years, a metal grate around one’s neck, and such extremes. Yet these extreme practices are not there in the Tantras, the Shastras, the Haṭha texts. They are not yoga. Mortification of the flesh is the opposite to realising the intrinsic union of the source and the seen. It was the early Europeans coming to India and trying to understand what they saw that really popularised an idea of yoga as force, as self-violence. Perhaps reflecting the internalised violence of their own culture. A kind of projection that the Yoga sutras warns us about. And getting confused with the fakirs and ascetics, and seeing it all as a suspicious kind of witchcraft. India internalised all of that British projection and judgement. By the time Krishnamacharya was teaching, yoga was not seen as a high or holy calling. This was a man with the equivalent of 6 or seven PhDs, yet he was teaching yoga, as a very serious undertaking, in a time when it was not taken seriously at all. He would do some kinds of “feats” at the Maharaj’s request, such as stopping his heart for doctors, that kind of thing. But he refused to teach this to his son when he begged him. He said it was just to get attention for yoga, to get the ball rolling so to speak.

The Dirt: So there was also a confusion between ascetiscism and yoga within India as well?

Mark Whitwell: Yes. It’s something Desikachar would often clarify. Krishnamacharya really stood apart from any of the traditions based on anti-body philosophies, dualistic transcendent schools that saw the body as a bag of rotting flesh, a meatsack, that needed to be bullied and purified and ideally gotten rid of altogether. That kind of school has denigrated asana and pranayama the way they denigrate the body itself. Krishnamacharya’s lineage came from the 10th century Ramanujacharya, who had declared that yoga was the means that the two became one, and that householders and ordinary people could practice this. He wasn’t from a monastic, man alone type tradition. Even his guru in the Himalayas, Ramamohan Brahmachari, lived there with his wife and children, in his accounts.

So Krishnamacharya really represented the coming together of these great traditions of Vedanta and Tantra, which belong together. They are branches from the same great tree and are now back together.

The Dirt: And finally, could you tell us what you have observed in terms of the impact of this misunderstanding on people’s yoga, and how to correct that.

Mark Whitwell. Thank you. Thanks for caring about all the people out there, sweating away and struggling and getting injured. I think the idea that the body, that the earth, that the feminine is less, something to be conquered and controlled, has done great harm. It is the basis of centuries of patriarchal culture. And that cultural split, between some sense of essence within, and a dead materiality without, has enabled humanity to use and abuse its Mother, the body of Nature, and our own bodies are part of that body. So the conditioning towards a forcefulness towards embodiment runs very deep. This is the same psychology in the earlier Indologists translating haṭha as simple “yoga of force” and in the bullies who rose to prominence in the yoga world. And then the same psychology in the western students, who had been conditioned to control themselves, restrain the body, who were beaten at school, who thought a good teacher hit you with a stick to help you get it right… who were hit by their parents… this is the western mind, the modern mind, the cultural framework criticised as “whiteness,” but I don’t think that is accurate enough, as it is not intrinsically tied to skin colour. Basically it is deeply in us to bully and force the body, and yoga is our way out of that, into reverence and ease, and yet it has been popularized as mere duplication of the same old hegemonic patterns of abuse.

Your body is tired. It’s been forced into so many things it didn’t want to do. Deprived of sleep, filled with comfort food, too much or too little, plucked and poisoned, whipped along in jobs it hated, squashed into uniforms and cubicles. Yoga is the freeing of our bodies from all of this, the freedom to be that soft animal, that embodiment of love, that piece of wild mother nature. Our yoga is careful, precise, different for each unique embodiment. Please, don’t throw yourself around in the circus gymnastics they’re calling yoga. It’s just simply not. It’s all made up. There is no precedent for this kind of insane forcefulness, this self-violence. Step out of it all and be free, live your life in the garden.

About:

Mark Whitwell was born in 1949 in Auckland, Aotearoa/ New Zealand. In 1973, he traveled to India and began a life-long study of yoga with Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) and his son, T.K.V. Desikachar (1938–2016). Mark Whitwell’s simple mission is to give people the principles of practice that came through Tirumalai Krishnamacharya to make their Yoga authentic, powerful, and effective. Mark Whitwell is the founder of the Heart of Yoga foundation and the Heart of Yoga Peace Project, an organization dedicated to developing yoga communities in conflict zones around the world. Mark Whitwell lives between New Zealand and Fiji.