#when we say the struggles of the oppressed are all connected its not a metaphore we mean it quite literally

[blastdamage]

what really gets to me the most about the situation in armenia is that its all just for oil money. azerbaijan wants to put pipelines all over armenian land which they have no control over and theyre Big Mad about this so they propped up an absurdly elaborate apparatus of anti-armenian propaganda to justify invading and exterminating them. all of this just so that turkey and azerbaijan can fuck on an even bigger pile of oil money (and dead armenians). through reading about this "conflict" (for lack of a better word- it's a gross euphemism for what is actually happening) i've come to realize that when people say that the rich are in an oil-worshipping death cult, it is not an exaggeration. azerbaijan isn't just committing genocide, they're committing ecocide too and the international community is being bribed into accepting it- look up caviar diplomacy. it's grotesque, straight up vomit-inducing. sanction azerbaijan fucking yesterday.

[skyborn-reads]

🎆 Message From The Universe

“...for when you hear thunder, it's only the Universe clearing Its throat to drop more tea on you.”

Pictures source

Sky 1 — Pathways

Cards drawn: Eight of Swords, Four of Pentacles

There are mainly three groups who choose this pile. Some of you want to escape the current rhythms of life. Some of you want to stay. Some of you don't know whether you should stay or leave. You stand right where you are but your eyes are darting here and there. I hope this reading helps all of you in your quest, whichever way you wish to go or remain.

To people who want to break free from the past rhythms of life — no longer will you be bound to stagnancy. The worst has passed and you have bore witness to its trials and tribulations. Now the Universe is asking you if you dare to make that one choice to free yourself from the burden. Be aware, as the crossroad is nigh.

To the ones who want to stay — there's something you're holding onto. You won't want to leave because you still feel there's gold to be mined where you are, metaphorically speaking. You still see the benefits of staying where you are, and you're right, but it would take a struggle to mine the gold, and you won't always get what you want. The Universe trusts you to make the best decision for yourself. So whether to charge towards the next stop or lay low in wait, the choice is up to you, always up to you.

To people whose eyes are darting around looking lost — ask yourself what you want and what your priority is. You have many options and it seems like every path bears fruit, but there is one path that is meant for you, and you're the best person to decide which one it is. Good luck, because you might meet challenges on your path that will strengthen you and help you become stronger and wiser than you are now.

To all of you — the next months will be an eye-opening experience for you. You'll see the true face of many people, see your situation from different viewpoints. You'll understand the rhythm of things and even be able to predict how it would eventually lead. You're safe and guided. You'll land where you want to land, but first as already mentioned there will be tests, and fortunately luck will be at your side 🍀

Your journey will be easier if you know what to hold onto and what to let go. You seem to want to hold onto more than you can but some of those things no longer serve you. Do you see their true value? Do you know what's good for you and what will ultimately cause you more sorrow? Release them now. It will be painful, but it will be worth it in the long run. There is an end to everything. By releasing them you will see joy and freedom as never felt. I wish you guys a lot of love and a lot of happiness 💚🍀💚

Sky 2 — Gifts

Cards drawn: Ace of Wands (reversed), Page of Wands

You lose something, you gain something. You've recently let go of something, but you'll be a lot grounded from your experiences and will have an inner knowing of what's good for you and what's not. Imagine waking up from a restful sleep to a cool relaxing morning. You'll feel recharged, there's nothing in this world that you cannot accomplish. You'll gain true inner strength, my dears, but not overnight. The next coming months of your life will be one that your future self will look back to and smile, for you'll transform a lot, you're the mountain in the woods — grounded, serene and wise.

Also, some new opportunities are coming your way 💚 For some of you you'll meet new people who bring you fortune, some of you will receive money, or a new investment. For some of you, your future partner will be stepping into your life in the coming months 😁💕

You'll also have a new goal. This goal will make you feel hopeful and giddy. There's a lot of love vibes here so the goal can be in the romance apartment. Some of you will be going on a date! You'll find your heart overflowing with love and the ecstacy of new love 💖 Congratulations to you!!

For others of you, your heart will be a desert no more and the warmth of self love will flow through you. By showing love to yourself, you're manifesting your future lover into your life. Take it step by step and don't rush. They will enter your life surely, and if you practise self love you will be on your best state to welcome them.

Sky 3 — Blocks

Cards drawn: Eight of Swords, The Star

This pile shares the swords card with the first pile, but unlike the first pile which is active in their quest, there's a very oppressed and stagnant energy here. I hope you guys are okay. Someone doesn't want to move forward, I feel this someone is you. You might fall victim to your limiting beliefs, believing that you are restricted, but your current situation will not improve if you don't actively make a move. I hear “make a different choice”. If you feel stuck in the same situations over and over again, it's time to make a different choice. Stop being passive. Choosing the same doors every time won't bring you to new destinations. I feel you already know that, but there's no action from your part that affirms that you want a change.

I'm sorry to say that nobody will be able to help you if you choose to remain where you are. You must first make a move. When you do, even if the road ahead might be rocky, you'll encounter people who will help you. For some of you you have kept something in your heart for a long time. You want to say it but you fear what would happen if you do. Your current situation is what happens when you don't. You're called to make a decision — which way will you choose?

You might have also recently left a toxic part of your life, be it environment or people. Your heart has tears flowing, but the Universe congratulates you on your decision to leave this situation. Soon flowers will blossom from your tears, and you'll see that they lead you to a happier place, one where you'll feel you finally belong, one where happiness resides deep within your soul ❤️ Pile 3, are you ready to welcome this change into your life? Lick your wounds for however long you need. When you're ready, the stars will shine bright for you, and you'll know where to go.

“Be it rain or blizzard, my heart stays with you.” — someone who loves you.

Sky 4 — Pillows

Cards drawn: Death, Ten of Cups

You feel tired, dears, worn out. What you've been through must be rough. Please take a rest before you continue on your path, and don't argue with me. You need the rest.

You've seen lots over the past few months of your lives, things that made you question loyalty of people who you once loved. You are starting to have doubts whether you've made the right choices all along. You have, you're just going through setbacks but the sun still rises at the darkest times. Tomorrow we'll rise and try again, shall we?

The Universe advises you to spend time in solitude to reassess your life. Don't take everything in one go, try to adopt a slow and peaceful eye to your inner thoughts. Immerse yourself in your hobbies, this time not to make money or stress yourself out, but to take the time to enjoy them as only hobbies that are meant to bring you joy. They will make you feel so loved, and you'll start to see that there's warmth to every melting candle, there are things to appreciate in every low point in life. The Universe will be gifting you a change of perspective, my dears. Because in order to grow one must first see that there is more to life than how it used to be. Soon, you'll grow wiser in mind.

But a change of perspective isn't all that the Universe will offer you. You'll soon receive an offer, an invitation if you will to make a choice. This choice will pave the way to your future family, a loved one who will adore you like the diamond you are, and most importantly, true emotional connection. For some of you this person is a soulmate. Please note that this is only the beginning towards meeting them. This path will have its own challenges, challenges on you, on your future spouse, and on the connection between you two. So take my advice and rest up first my loves, you'll need it for what's next 💖💤💖

[kallypsowrites]

I get that Bardugo wanted to tell a story of corruption by power and Powerful Equals Bad, but I think she missed the fundamental point in her own world building that Grisha are not powerful. They have powers, but they’re not powerful. They’re hunted and abused and have no political influence. I’d get it if they came from a long background and history of being powerful nobles and rich politicians, but that’s just not true. Saying that Grisha power corrupts doesn’t really make sense, it’s like saying being a phenomenal artist or seamstress or even a very good shot corrupts you (most Grisha powers are actually useless in war except in a roundabout way like inventing things to help). So she’s trying to tell a story of corruption without setting up a real corrupting force.

The Grisha are depicted as high and mighty and power hungry and disconnected from the world in the Little Palace, all of them corrupted by their power to some degree, and the idea of ordinary folk and ordinary lives is glorified in Ruin and Rising, but it just don’t make sense. Alina’s messed up character arc, whatever the Darkling has going on… they are being “corrupted by their power” but they 👏 are 👏 not 👏 powerful! 👏 They are struggling against oppression and mistreatment for crying out loud! Maybe the author just didn’t like Grisha either 😏

Anyway sorry for ranting in your inbox, this got longer than I intended 😅 hope you have a good day!! 💛

Its exactly as you say. Leigh's world building conflicts with the story she is trying to tell. She could have easily made the Grisha a ruling class:

Like, imagine if they had the magic and power in Ravka and they called the shots. Maybe they send normies in the first army into the most dangerous battles as canon fodder while the second army is held in higher regard. Families wish for their children to turn out to be Grisha because it's their only chance for upward social mobility. And because most saints are Grisha who died, it would make sense to have Grisha as religious leaders as well, essentially spreading the doctrine that the Grisha are more "connected with the world" and therefore superior. And maybe the Darkling already is the tsar, ruling over Ravka with an iron grip.

What you have then is magic as an apt metaphor for people who are born into privilege and power and given more opportunities because of it. Alina is a member of the lower class but suddenly discovers she is actually a rare member of the upper class and she enters into a corrupted system and must fight between the world she knew and the draw of power within the system. THAT would be a power corrupts narrative. Do I stay in this world where the power is given to me and marry the hot powerful ruler, or do I fight to change the system. And the more she gets a taste of power, the more she could think of leaving her people behind.

But THAT'S not what we get, is it? We get a people that have been abused for centuries just because they are born with abilities. They don't choose to practice the small sciences. They are born with those innate abilities and hunted wherever they go unless they make themselves useful to the tsar. Non-grisha have nearly all the power except for the Darkling who has carved a sliver of safety/power for the Grisha. The power corrupts narrative just doesn't work when you are putting the Grisha in constant, desperate situations where they must fight to survive, now is it? They have magic power, sure. But they don't have social or political or economic power.

World building is not separate from plot and themes. The plot and themes should arise out of the world you have created. And Leigh did not create the right world to tackle the themes she tries to tackle in the grishaverse.

[sendmyresignation]

In Defense of Teenagers:

Ok so. There seems to be a general consensus that Teenagers doesn’t fit on the black parade or that it ruins the trajectory of the album or that the song order of bp needs to be changed to fit the b-sides and drop Teenagers, or it should have just been a single- basically any option other than its inclusion between Sleep and Disenchanted would have been better. now, i’m not here to tell anyone that they’re wrong- i just want to offer an alternative perspective because i truly believe Teenagers is right where it belongs and that its inclusion on that album is, in my opinion, completely necessary to the album’s narrative arc. I want to focus on the way Teenagers builds into the foundation of the Concept Record, the way it bridges the gap between Sleep and Disenchanted so as not to delegitimize Disenchanted’s impact, and the fact that no other available material fits into the struggle the Patient endures at the end of the narrative (sorry this got LONG here’s a read more)

So, before we get into the meat of Teenager’s narrative significance, i wanted to briefly mention the way it makes Black Parade a more cohesive whole in relation to the material it is mimicking. Like Black Parade as an album is structured very differently from Pink Floyd’s The Wall- but it takes a lot of the same beats and recontextualizes them for a new purpose. Both records use war and relationship troubles and school and drugs to create an atmosphere that leads to disillusionment. In The Wall, this is quite literally the protagonist, Pink, building up “bricks in the wall” that isolates him from the rest of society and lead to a downward spiral into cynicism and hate. But Black Parade uses the same tools that The Wall does to say something different- things, specifically the actions you've made or the trauma you've endured, haunts you and makes your life seem insignificant in the face of what happens to you and those regrets are what causes the Patient to fall into a cycle of damnation and cynicism. This is representative of the Patient's descent through the afterlife- each new "layer" of the Patient's exploration is equivalent to a brick in The Wall's metaphor. Additionally, in this new context, this song in particular takes The Wall’s discussions of adolescence and the vice-grip control older generations attempt to force on teens and the disillusionment with the future and retells it from a new perspective- both literally in the fact the song is now more reflective of the 2000s post-9/11 and post-columbine culture, but its also literally from the perspective of the Patient as an adult. Teenagers, as a result, becomes a necessary piece of that puzzle- it is the refraction of Another Brick in the Wall repurposed to mean something new entirely- it’s no longer about kids being forced into complacency by a cruel education system from their own perspective (the children’s choir allows them to speak for themselves) but about the ways in which adults see those kids and why they decide to enact actions similar to those within The Wall. I mean even the imagery used in the song’s music video is purposely almost plagiarizing The Wall- it feeds into a separate analysis of the video and song outside the narrative as well- which i don’t have time right now to get into, its just very interesting that the band is bodily removed from their instruments at the end of the video and the teenagers in the audience have rendered them incapacitated (“they’re looking for a rockstar to kill” anyone?) it's the metaphorical tearing down of the wall from a completely different perspective. Anyway, the work Teenagers does for the narrative is it fits the album into the Concept Record Cinematic Universe- it is a piece that evokes the material it is influenced by to build off of the old to create the new- without it, the connections to The Wall would still be there, sure, but it wouldn’t be as complete- you cannot recontextualize the album without the foundation of Teenagers.

Teenagers is also, at its core, a subtle subversion of genre- using the blueprint of a specific kind of song to center the song within the timeline/narrative. In this case, the same way I Don’t Love You mimics and exaggerates the emotive and plaintive 80s rock ballad, Teenagers twists the classic rock of a bygone era to specifically call back on the stadium rock anthem.  Black Parade, on the whole, does this quite frequently- most of its songs take pre-existing genre cues and subverts them in ways that play off of the expected tapestry of a concept record to create individual sounding songs that seamlessly transition into one another yet remain entirely separate. It maintains their presence as scenes in a larger tapestry- specifically the fabric of the Black Parade being a morality play. This serves two purposes, it allows for this exaggeration of genre to become a motif within the work (see mama, cancer, house of wolves, i don’t love you, wttbp -> they all play with a different, varied song type/structure that is distinct from each other) and it plays off of existing genre-stereotypes in ways that contribute to the songs overall function. I Don’t Love You, for example, undermines the fundamental purposes of sappy power ballads- to express one of the two dualities of love songs: the cheesy unconditional “i will love you forever” types or the plaintive, melancholic end-of-relationship song by instead focusing on the complexity of a not-quite-finished relationship. The ballad then shifts from an expression of love to one of human loss- and the loss is less about the individual speaking, but moreso about what the other character has become - it’s a mourning not for the relationship, but for the person themselves, who they used to be in a way. It shifts from the one-dimensional view of what a ballad can achieve and instead infuses the anger, the resignation, the drama, the transformation- it humanizes a very stock genre full of platitudes and uses our expectations to create something more interesting. Similarly, Teenagers takes a tired genre and utilizes the working mechanisms of its typical song structure to subvert and repurpose those into commentary- its literally a stadium rock song that devolves into a chant. Looking at the loud drumbeat that resonates in your chest, the all together now as a command that lures the listener into singing along, the addition of more chorus vocals at the end like a crowd is shouting along, the screaming and the solo on after another like the song is falling apart a little bit, all of these elements build into a song literally meant to be infectious and replicated by the audience. Herein lies one of the songs many interpretations- humans can be easily influenced by the media they consume, the perspectives they are fed. What happens when the view that we have of adolescence is cloaked in mistrust and violence? This aspect of the song is less about the band reconciling teenagers being moved to committing acts of violence and more in analyzing how an audience can be persuaded into believing the erroneous view of teens as fundamentally destructive- are you not repeating the chorus? do teenagers not “scare the shit out of you”? Obviously the band doesn’t want you to believe this but it does what you to think about why this perspective is so common. It's a cultural subliminal message that is present in songs and tv and books that we simply do not question- it is a chant we cannot help but join in on. Teenagers is a replication of that process, but is clearly just subversive enough (both as a piece of genre and just as a song in general terms) that the listener knows its commentary and not itself propagating that viewpoint. Every song on Black Parade does this kind of “genre-bending” to make a point in some way or another, so it's a significant reason Teenagers fits into the albums cohesion.

But,Teenagers isn’t just important to the album in its sound- it lyrically parallels Disenchanted in a way that effectively moves on from Sleep without losing the album’s emotional momentum. Sleep, conceptually and lyrically, is a very heavy track- its influence from the Dune soundtrack’s Final Dream turn a cinematic, swelling piece of instrumentation into an oppressive blanket of noise that bears down on the listener and the lyrics are referential to the patient believing themselves to be irredeemable and monstrous. It's also inspired directly from Gerard’s vivid and violent night terrors during his stay at the paramour- including a recording of Gerard’s recollection of those dreams, that mentions being choked, seeing loved ones die, burning alive, etc. To transition directly from such a dark, personal subject into a reflective acoustic number about the narrator’s adolescence would be tonally inappropriate and almost laughable- it would stop the progression in its tracks, while also doing a disservice to Disenchanted. Having a break is necessary! And it's even more appropriate for that break to be a song about teenagers considering Disenchanted is so nostalgic. Additionally, Teenagers brings up a really interesting narrative thread about the Patient becoming disenchanted with the youth that then directly transitions into a song about him losing faith in his values and sense of self- they are directly correlated conceptually. Looking deeper, Disenchanted is a punk song. sort of. more specifically, it is the foundation of a punk song that becomes a ballad through narrative framing- it takes punk cliches (running from the cops, the crowds, the imagery of guillotining traitorous rich celebrities) and turns them wistful and sad because the Patient is looking back at something they no longer understand or identify with, it allows the narrative to illustrate how the Patient feels like their life was worthless and didn’t amount to much and they’re just another stupid punk kid who grew up and didn’t achieve anything. and you can’t get to this point from Sleep because it would weaken Disenchanted’s impact, make it seem insignificant and petulant in the face of Sleep’s heavy and grand sorrow. Lyrically, you need Teenagers to bridge the gap between the war metaphors and the visualizations of hell and the all-encompassing nature of cancer in order to redirect the focus to the Patient and limit the scope of the narrative at the end of the album. Teenagers, within the story, then functions as the Patient reflecting on the nature of youth and, in the wake of Mama’s “we all go to hell” rhetoric, comes to the conclusion that teenagers are wholly violent, easily manipulated, and unsympathetic. It's another step in the Patient removing his own agency and viewing his life as predestined at the same time it allows the “plot” to focus back on the more nostalgic and mundane aspects of the patient’s life. Doing so makes Famous Last Words so much more significant because it forces the Patient to reconcile with his past before he can move forward (whether that's living or dying its still applicable). so, Teenagers is very important to the overall “plot” of Black Parade- it is fundamentally necessary for the pieces to fit together.

Another larger aspect of Teenagers' importance is that it introduces the fate versus free will internal debate central to the ending fourth of the record. The song lays the foundation for this thematic idea by being about the fated violence of the youth and how they cannot help but to respond to their world with anger and cruelty. This realization about adolescence by the Patient leads to him perceiving his own youth as destructive and worthless and in following the themes of guilt/regret and damnation it's this violence that began his path to hell or his current state of suffering.  In that vein, Teenagers leads into the idea that your life is predetermined or that there is a destiny that we all have (in the Patient’s case its the absence of a future, or “a lifelong wait for a hospital stay”) and no matter what, you cannot fight that. While Mama gives a blanket statement about how "we all go to hell", Disenchanted centers the Patient's specific destiny by saying his whole life has led up to his illness and, looking further, there is the implication that life before that was retrospectively pointless. So, as previously mentioned, Disenchanted begins, structurally and lyrically, as a punk song- this sort of expression of youthful existence that, in any other song or under another faster instrumentation, would fit on some basement demo from 1986. But it doesn't stay that way, instead it actively subverts the genre it's cliches are lifted from- thinking specifically about “we ran from the cops” and the “roar of the crowd” that is juxtaposed with the change in structure  or theme. Namely, punk songs (speaking generally here) aren’t wistful because there isn't really a sense of legacy in punk music. There's history yes, but most songs are about the immediacy of emotion, not existential questioning. The retrospective nature and the shift into a ballad structure are elements reflective of a change in the main character brought on by the disillusionment present in teenagers from a punk kid to a dying young man looking back on the banality of youth and the hypocrisy, the trauma and the lack of agency. It's so much easier to think that nothing matters and the perspective makes it so much easier to give up.

This build from Teenagers into Disenchanted regarding the Patient's fate allows Famous Last Words to become an even stronger end because it's in direct opposition to that perspective. Famous Last Words is a song that screams fuck fate and fuck the past- the only thing that matters is moving forward. The image of the Patient keeping on whether he’s walking into the afterlife or continuing to stay alive as long as possible becomes something difficult, something he had to fight to achieve - he had to struggle to find a new understanding. That he can't be "afraid to keep living" or "going home" and that these are concrete actions, a use of free will. And that free will is very specifically defiant. Regardless of how you view the Patient's end, he makes the conscious decision to accept the present and move forward. We are not fated to die alone, nor is life worthless. Black Parade proves that the opposite is true, that we must grow to accept the value of life, and it's so much stronger having the Patient actively reject nihilism and apathy. Ultimately, Teenagers introduces the main thread of the final songs and without it, those songs would be narrative incomplete.

So, Teenagers has a valued place on the album sonically and within the narrative whole, that much is clear. But another reason that the album order of Sleep, Teenagers and Disenchanted is important is that none of the other material written for the album comes close to filling its place. In this case, I am going to be specifically talking about the b-sides since the demos are incomplete and we have no idea what the final version would have sounded like (but I would contend they don’t fit either). Beginning with the easiest song to discard from the narrative- My Way Home Is Through You has its moments in the lyrics but it's completely out of place musically- plus the tone is a little too hopeful for this point in the album which does not gel with Disenchanted’s hopelessness. It's also incongruent with the album since Disenchanted is effective as the only “punk” song on a record that plays with and explores genre and having this come before it would ruin the previously mentioned motif of each of the songs being individual and unique in form. Also, it really adds nothing to the fate vs free will theme- meaning its placement would weaken the disenchanted/flw combo ending. Moving forward, Kill All Your Friends seems to fit, considering its cynicism and nostalgia, but the bridge (“you’ll never get me alive, you’ll never take me alive, do what it takes to survive and I'm still here") doesn’t fit the Patient’s slow decent into apathy at all and contradicts Disenchanted’s loss of faith in the idea of living- it's too hopeful and centers survival and resilience in a way that makes it an ineffective substitute for Teenagers as a bridge song. And finally, Heaven Help Us is too religiously centered- it would refocus the fate vs free will discussion in the context of god/angels when that isn’t a theme in the album up to this point (hell is the grounded point of the album- the protagonist has already accepted their fate by Mama- having a reconciliation with a lack of faith or the absence of God seems completely out of left field when its just not an established part of the narrative) Black Parade is actually one of the mcr albums with the least references to god/angels in the heavenly religious sense- more centered around the human struggle against determinism: the usage of damnation is Catholic inspired but divorced from the division of hell vs heaven and is instead about guilt and worthiness and agency. The presence of angels or god or any divinity would simply weaken the narrative by expanding the album's focus outside its own limitations. Also, the Patient isn't ever a martyred figure, if anything he is purposely pathetic. Including any comparison of the Patient to Christ ("give you all the nails you need") or a saint unravels the key feature of the Patient's character: that he is insignificant. His insignificance and his struggles with his past actions make him a character who must find the strength to live through the guilt and pain to prove that everyone is worthy of life. The overarching purpose of Black Parade is emphasizing that no matter what we've done and how dirty we feel, we can move forward and either accept our afterlife or we can find value in being alive. Because of this contradiction, Heaven Help Us destroys the central theme of the entire album if it is included. With all of this in mind, it seems to me that the b-sides are their own nebulous thing- they don’t tonally fit on Black Parade (though I do think they fit together and are interconnected thematically) but any of them would break the flow since they seem angrier and gritter in a way that is noticeably absent and would be at odds with from a lot of Parade’s resignation. They also just do not complete the narrative, they are simple not as good as Teenagers at bringing all the pieces together.

If I still haven’t convinced you, a bonus reason Teenagers is a valuable memeber of the Black Parade tracklist, Ray was the only one who believed in the song- he called it genius (x) so listen to mr chemical romance himself telling you the song is Good and Important :)

anyway now you should, at the very least respect teenagers based on a couple thematic ideas expressed here, if not also understand why it’s imperative to black parade as an album, as well as the narrative itself. <3

[lastcrystalwitch]

4/20/2021

Happy holidays!

Today I have secrets about the unuiverse to share. Findings from my own path, that I would encourage seekers, or those who are searching for learning energy work, talking to the divine energies of the universe, and a refresher of morals and ethics.

We all know, that you don't need an organized religion to tell you what to do, and rules to shape your own life. It helps. And catholosism is a great place to start, but consider this: Catholisism was created by men, for men, to rule men and women. Truth. Religion combined with church and state, to rule and bring together masses of people, but right now there is a huge shift. Women, and people of history of oppression, Irish, Turkish, Lebenease, Baltic, Russian, and more, are experiencing a shift.

Love is the strongest magic. It is the magic of my ancestors. You can always have good intent, but remember, never force anyone to do anything against their will. This means, if you don't have that person's permission to change the energy around them, don't do it.

The wiccan's have a good law, its called the three fold law. It means that what is sent out comes back. Intention and energy that you put out into the world, to help this world, comes back. Doing good is great. Fighting for what you believe in to help others is great. Protecting your friends from bullies is great. These are acts of love. Love and kindness are what helps babies grow. Being stern and heavy handed can teach hard moral lessons, so raise your babies to be strong people, but never forget love. This means giving your friend the bigger half of the cookie. Sharing. But also know your limitations.

As we are beings of energy, we can often get emotionally hurt, for which ever reason. But as long as we do what we can, and listen to the energies of the world around us, and let people know we love them and wish them the best when they choose thier own path, that can give them the drive, to know that we are there for them, and we are rooting for their success.

It important to understand these energies, and practice.

I highly recommend the books by Ann Moura, for someone who is seeking to be attuned with the earth's energies. If you only think and learn with logic, you will never find the answers that you are looking for. There are multiple different aspects of energy, layers, if you will; that make up a person's spirit, energy, soul, heart, fight and will. There are even more layers to this, and these are pointed at and directed by an unseen force.

I recommend looking through your history of your family.

There are older Goddesses and Gods, of every race's ancestor. These forces knew how to cultivate the land, heal the sick, and coexist with the energies of our planet.

It is impairative that we wake up and clean up our planet.

The earth is not dead like the Christians say, they just don't want us to tap into that energy. I say, meditate. Sink your energy into the ground like roots and connect with the energy of the world. Fight for what you believe in, and call to your ancient ancestors for help if you need to learn something.

And when talking to Goddesses and Gods, speak to those who you connect with. I was born cis female and pushed to fit into a mold by the Christian faith. I have changed to accept myself for who I am, as a bi-demi sexual female.

Now, please remember... history, was written by the victors. So history, like the Sagas, the Vedas, Enoch, The bible (all 37 versions {look up how many times the bible has been rewritten and restructured so a man could change the laws to benefit himself. I DARE you) Its not all bad.

Oracles, and diviners, shaman, healers, midwifes, earth workers, energy workers, are in every ancient race's culture.

Do some digging. If you're ready to learn, if you want an end goal, you have to put in the struggle and training. Everyone's path is different. We are all gifted with different strengths. We all have different metaphysical attributes that make us who we are. And I can point you in a direction if you tell me what is it that you are searching for.

But watch final fantasy X. Watch studio Ghibli films. Step away from Hollywood drama and explore cultures (and beliefs) of older cultures. America's land is contaminated with violence. From scarring the land when it was stolen from the great spirits that walked it.

Its time to heal ourselves, and it's time for those who are searching to find.

I stand next to my Goddesses and Gods, and look them in the eye, and revere them in adoration. But I do not bow to them. I ask them for guidance. It is an open communication. If you choose to initiate yourself to them, you'll realise that many many cultures have the same gods, just with different names. I sacrifice and give up things when I am in great need. If you can overcome something that is really bothering you, and ask them for courage, you can fight your battle with addiction, and they will lend you strength in exchange for equal trade.

Getting rid of old things clears out stagnant energy. and all objects that we touch have energy in them.

Everything has a spirit, even inanimate objects, trees, and rocks, and plants.

Animals are the natural children of the earth. They need to be protected.

Trees are very important to the health of everyone living on this planet. If we kill the trees, we kill ourselves. Always plant trees and plants when you can. And remember that gardens grow with love and magic and intent.

Learn to think in metaphors. I suggest picking up a few languages.

If someone asks you for help, always suggest equivalent exchange. Energy is always traded, so learn to accept gifts.

Watch XXX holic. Read everything you can. You will learn to differentiate between real things and bullshit. Learn to use love.

It is understood with science, that energy transforms and changes. It is always morphing. It is always recycling.

Go green and prove yourself to the energies of the universe through study, and learning to understand.

[elizabethan-memes]

Can you elaborate on Erusamus and the reformation please, or at least point me toward sources? Politics make more sense than philosophy to me, so I see the reformation through the lense of Henry VIII, or the Duke of Prussia who dissolved the teutonic order, or France siding with the protestants during the 30 Years War because Protestants > Hapsburgs

So sorry to take so long!

If you needed this answer for academic reasons, given that summer term is pretty much done I’m probably too late to help, but I hate to leave an ask unanswered.

HELLA LONG ESSAY BENEATH THE CUT SORRY I WROTE SELF-INDULGENTLY WITHOUT EDITING SO THERE IS WAY MORE EXPLANATION THAN YOU PROBABLY NEED

Certainly religion has been politicised, you need look no further than all the medieval kings having squabbles with the pope. Medieval kings were not as devastated by the prospect of excommunication as you’d expect they’d be in a super-devout world, it was kinda more of a nuisance (like, idk, the pope blocking you on tumblr)  than the “I’m damned forever! NOOOOOOO!” thing you’d expect. I’m not saying excommunication wasn’t a big deal, but certainly for Elizabeth I she was less bothered than the pope excommunicating her than the fact that he absolved her Catholic subjects of allegiance to her and promised paradise to her assassin (essentially declaring open season on her).

I think, however, in our secular world we forget that religion was important for its own sake. Historians since Gibbon have kind of looked down on religion as its own force, seeing it as more a catalyst for economic change (Weber) or a tool of the powerful. If all history is the history of class struggle, then religion becomes a weapon in class warfare rather than its own force with its own momentum. For example, historians have puzzled over conversion narratives, and why Protestantism became popular among artisans in particular. Protestantism can’t compete with Catholicism in terms of aesthetics or community rituals, it’s a much more interior kind of spirituality, and it involves complex theological ideas like predestination that can sound rather drastic, so why did certain people find it appealing?

(although OTOH transubstantiation is a more complex theological concept than the Protestant idea of “the bread and wine is just bread and wine, it’s a commemoration of the Last Supper not a re-enactment, it aint that deep fam”).

I’ve just finished an old but interesting article by Terrence M. Reynolds in Concordia Theological Quarterly vol. 41 no. 4 pp.18-35 “Was Erasmus responsible for Luther?” Erasmus in his lifetime was accused of being a closet Protestant, or “laying the egg that Luther hatched”. Erasmus replied to this by saying he might have laid the egg, but Luther hatched a different bird entirely. Erasmus did look rather proto Protestant because he was very interested in reforming the Church. He wanted more people to read the Bible, he had a rather idyllic dream of “ploughmen singing psalms as they ploughed their fields”. He criticised indulgences, the commercialisation of relics and pilgrimages and the fact that the Papacy was a political faction getting involved in wars. He was worried that the rituals of Catholicism meant that people were more mechanical in their religion than spiritual: they were memorising the words, doing the actions, paying the Church, blindly believing anything a poorly educated priest regurgitated to them. They were confessing their sins, doing their penances like chores and then going right back to their sins. They were connecting with the visuals, but not understanding and spiritually connecting with the spirit of Jesus’ message and his ideals of peace and love and charity and connecting with God. Erasmus translated the NT but being a Renaissance humanist, he went ad fontes (‘to the source’) and used Greek manuscripts, printing the Greek side by side with the Latin so that readers could compare and see the translation choices he made. His NT had a lot of self-admitted errors in it, but it was very popular with Prots as well as Caths. Caths like Thomas More were cool with him doing it, but it was also admired by Prots like Thomases and Cromwell and Cranmer and Tyndale himself. When coming across Greek words like presbyteros, Erasmus actually chose to leave it as a Greek word with its own meaning than use a Latin word that didn’t *quite* fit the meaning of the original.

However, he did disagree with Protestants on fundamental issues, especially the question of free will. For Luther, the essence was sole fide: salvation through faith alone. He took this from Paul’s letter to the Romans, where it says that through faith alone are we justified. Ie, humans are so fallen (because of the whole Eve, apple, original sin debacle) and so flawed and tainted by sin, and God is so perfect, that we ourselves will never be good enough. All the good works in the world will never reach God’s level of perfection and therefore we all deserve Hell, but we won’t go to hell because God and Jesus will save us from the Hell we so rightly deserve, by grace and by having faith in Jesus’ sacrifice, who will alone redeem us.  The opposite end of the free will/sola fide spectrum is something called Pelagianism, named after the guy who believed it, Pelagius, who lived centuries and centuries before the Ref, it’s the belief that humans can earn their salvation by themselves, by good works. Both Caths and Prots considered Pelagius a heretic. Caths like Erasmus believed in a half-way house: God reaches out his hand to save you through Jesus’ example and sacrifice, giving you grace, and you receive his grace, which makes you want to be a good person and do good works (good works being things like confession of sins, penances, the eucharist, charity, fasting, pilgrimages) and then doing the good works means you get more grace and you are finally saved, or at least you will go to purgatory after death AND THEN be saved and go to heaven, rather than going straight to Hell, which is what happens if you reject Jesus and do no good works and never repent your sins. If you don’t receive his grace and do good works, you won’t make the grade for ultimate salvation.

(This is why it’s important to look at the Ref as a theological as well as a political movement because if you only look at the political debates, Erasmus looks more Protestant than he actually was.)

There are several debates happening in the Reformation: the role of the priest (which is easily politicised) free will vs predestination, transubstantiation or no transubstantiation (is or isn’t the bread and wine transformed into the body and blood of Jesus by God acting through the priest serving communion) and the role of scripture. A key doctrine of Protestantism is sola scriptura. Basically: if it’s in the Bible, it’s the rules. If it’s not in the Bible, it’s not in the rules. No pope in the bible? No pope! No rosaries in the bible? No using rosaries! (prayer beads)

However, both Caths and Prots considered scripture v.v. important. Still, given that the Bible contains internal contradictions (being a collection of different books written in different languages at different times by different people) there was a hierarchy of authority when it came to scripture. As a general rule of thumb, both put the New T above the Old T in terms of authority. (This is partly why Jews and Muslims have customs like circumcision and no-eating-pig-derived-meats that Christians don’t have, even though the order of ‘birth’ as it were goes Judaism-Christianity-Islam. All 3 Abrahammic faiths use the OT, but only Christians use the NT.)

1.       The words of Jesus. Jesus said you gotta do it, you gotta do it. Jesus said monogamy, you gotta do monogamy. Jesus said no divorce, you gotta do no divorcing (annulment =/= divorce). Jesus said no moneylending with interest (usury), you gotta do no moneylending with interest (which is partly why European Jews did a lot of the banking. Unfortunately, disputes over money+religious hatred is a volatile combination, resulting in accusations of conspiracy and sedition, leading to hate-fuelled violence and oppression.) The trouble with the words of Jesus is that you can debate or retranslate what Jesus meant, especially  easily as Jesus often spoke in parables and with metaphors. When Jesus said “this is my body…this is my blood” at the Last Supper, is that or is that not support for transubstantiation? When Jesus called Peter the rock on which he would build the church, was that or was that not support for the apostolic succession that means Popes are the successor to St Peter, with Peter being first Pope? When the gospel writers said Jesus ‘did more things and said more things than are contained in this book’, does that or does that not invalidate the idea of sola scriptura?

2.       The other New Testament writers, especially St. Paul and the Relevation of St John the Divine. (Divine meaning like seer, divination, not a god or divinity). These are particularly relevant when it comes to discussing the role of priests and priesthood, only-male ordination, and whether women can preach and teach religion.

3.       The Old Testament, especially Genesis.

4.       The apocryphal or deuterocanonical works. These books are considered holy, but there’s question marks about their validity, so they’re not as authoritative as the testaments. I include this because the deuterocanonical book 2 Maccabees was used as scriptural justification for the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, but 2 Maccabees is the closest scipture really gets to mentioning any kind of purgatory. Protestants did not consider 2 Maccabees to be strong enough evidence to validate purgatory.

5.       The Church Fathers, eg. Origen, Augustine of Hippo. Arguably their authority often comes above apocryphal scripture. It’s from the Church Fathers that the concept of the Trinity (one god in 3 equal persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit) is developed because it’s not actually spelled out explicitly in the NT. Early modern Catholics and Protestants both adhered to the Trinity and considered Arianism’s interpretation of the NT (no trinity, God the Father is superior to Jesus as God the Son) to be heresy. Church Fathers were important to both Catholics and Protestants: Catholics because Catholics did not see scripture as the sole source of religious truth, so additions made by holy people are okay so long as they don’t *contradict* scripture, and so long as they are stamped with the church council seal of approval, Protestants because they believed that the recent medieval theologians and the papacy had corrupted and altered the original purity of Christianity. If they could show that Church Fathers from late antiquity like Augustine agreed with them, that therefore proved their point about Christianity being corrupted from its holy early days.

Eamon Duffy’s book Stripping of the Altars is useful because it questions the assumptions that the Reformation and Break with Rome was inevitable, or that the Roman Catholic Church was a corrupt relic of the past that had to be swept aside for Progress, or that most people even wanted the Ref in England to happen. Good history essays need to discuss different historians’ opinions and Duffy can be relied upon to have a different opinion than Protestant historians. Diarmaid MacCulloch’s works are good at explaining theological concepts, he is a big authority on church history and he’s won a whole bunch of prizes. He was actually ordained a deacon in the Church of England in the 1980s but stopped being a minister because he was angry with the institution for not tolerating the fact he had a boyfriend. The ODNB is a good source to access through your university if you want to read a quick biography on a particular theologian or philosopher, but it only covers British individuals. Except Erasmus, who has a page on ODNB despite being not British because he’s just that awesome and because his influence on English scholarship and culture was colossal. Peter Marshall also v good, esp on conversion. Euan Cameron wrote a mahoosive book called the European Reformation.“More versus Tyndale: a study of controversial technique” by Rainer Pineas is good for the key differences in translation of essential concepts between catholic and protestant thinkers. The Sixteenth Century Journal is a good source of essays as well.

[revlyncox]

Together In This Liminal Time

First Platform Address to the Washington Ethical Society by Interim Leader Lyn Cox, August 16, 2020

In today’s story [The Tale of the Sands, a Sufi Parable], the stream reaches a point where it must change, and is resistant to the idea of change. Now, this is clearly a poetic convention. Streams change all the time. They are constantly receiving water from rain and runoff, constantly losing water to evaporation and animals drinking, constantly flowing and shifting. Yet we imagine that there is, at some point, a stream, and at another point, it is not a stream. This is part of what makes the metaphor work, and why we might find some meaning in the poetry of this story.

I’m going to suggest that we can imagine both ourselves as individuals and our community as a whole to be like the stream. As individuals, we are constantly changing. The cells that make up our bodies are coming and going all the time. The thoughts in our minds are (one hopes) constantly in development. The times and places in which we find ourselves provide an ever-shifting context that lead us to change in response.

Similarly, communities are always changing. The story of every community is one of a constantly moving stream. Happily, there are new members every so often. At the same time, we hold the memories of those who have died. Sometimes, we have to say goodbye to people who move away, though that’s less often necessary in an age of online platforms and online deepening circles and so on. WES [Washington Ethical Society] is not the same as it was in 1944 or 1966 or 2006, yet there is a continuous stream of community, and we might find turning points in that story in retrospect.

As you heard earlier, I have just started as your Interim Leader. The interim period is an opportunity for us to work together, to help WES to find clarity of mission and self-understanding. Ideally, the self-examination and organizational change work you do during this time will help set up a long and fruitful relationship with your next long-term, appointed Leader. But even putting that aside, this is a turning point, and a chance to learn and grow as a congregation in a different way.

The Tale of the Sands is a useful metaphor for this turning point. For one thing, the stream has complicated feelings about change. It’s important to honor that, because even when change is unavoidable, even when change is in a positive direction and gets you closer to your goals, that doesn’t make it easy or comfortable. Another thing I notice about this story is that it can be viewed through the lens of the five Focus Points of transition, as defined by the Interim Ministry Network. You don’t need to write this down, because we’ll come back to it, but briefly, the five Focus Points are: heritage, leadership, mission, connections, and future. Finally, and I think most importantly, the stream does not transcend the obstacle alone. Encouragement, shared information, and teamwork are all necessary to help it reach its destination.

Like the stream in the story, people often have initially negative reactions to change. I know I can personally identify with the sentiment, “Can I not remain the same stream that I am today?” We cannot, in either case, remain so. We might have choices in shaping the change and how we respond to it.

In finding common ground, in creating institutional relationships, in working together when we don’t agree about every last detail, or in entering the uncertainty of discernment, we may indeed wonder about losing our individuality. Like the stream, when we encounter ideas that completely shift the paradigm, they might seem both threatening and impossible at first glance.

Truly, not every change is a positive change. We do need good judgment, in our individual lives and our community life, as we attempt to shape and respond and reframe the context of our choices. At the same time, my hope is that we can introduce a sense of curiosity and wonder when it comes to new ideas, new ways of doing things, new perspectives on this congregation’s mission and how you pursue it together. If, during this interim time, we feel in ourselves a visceral reaction to a new idea, let’s remember that the stream had an immediate, negative reaction to the idea that eventually brought it to its destination. So let’s slow down and practice deep listening when ideas or changes remind us of the stream’s initial response.

Getting back to the second useful thing about this story, it provides an illustration of the five Focus Points for transition. These five Focus Points were developed by the Interim Ministry Network, which is an interfaith association of clergy who practice transition as a specialty. The findings of the IMN form the basis of the training that those of us who are Unitarian Universalist Accredited Interim Ministers completed to receive our accreditation.

The five Focus Points are heritage, leadership, mission, connections, and future. I could do full platforms on each one, but I will try to be brief today and give you the overview. The Five Focus Points give us -- that is, you and me -- a place to start in terms of what to think about, even if we don’t yet know what we will conclude about these areas of study.

Heritage means that we will take some time to reflect on how the Washington Ethical Society has been shaped and formed over the years. I’ll ask you about your treasured memories, and we might talk about how you have coped as a community with challenges. In the story, the stream made a breakthrough when it remembered that there was a time that it, or some part of it, had been something else. It can happen that a person or a community, in retelling its history over and over, gets reduced to a single story. Sometimes the difficult parts are glossed over, and sometimes the difficult parts take on outsized importance. Reviewing the whole story makes it possible to evaluate whether adaptations made at one turning point are still a good fit for the next one. There may be complexities in your heritage that are half-remembered, and that bring wisdom for the new challenges of today.

Leadership has to do with reviewing what the community needs, and how you organize and develop lay leadership and volunteer skills among you. In the story, this is what I see happening as the stream, the sand, and the wind work together in the whole system of the water cycle. In our interim time together, some of the reflection on leadership will come with the Lay Leadership Development Committee, the Community Relations Council, and the Board. Your work on Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, and Multiculturalism within WES is an aspect of leadership. In addition, I’ll be curious about your volunteer experiences, your concept of how to collaborate with a clergy Leader, and about how you understand yourselves in relationship to each other.

Mission is the work through which you, as a congregation, define and re-define a sense of purpose and direction. We will examine together, not just your mission statement, but the glowing coal at the heart of what moves this congregation toward fulfilling its purpose. Mission is the driving force. Whatever changes are proposed or experiments are undertaken are measured in terms of mission. In the story, the stream feels that its destiny is on the other side of the desert. Its mission is to keep moving. It engages with the struggle of change because the mission is primary. Perhaps the stream refines its mission as it comes to a new understanding, and it incorporates movement in the clouds and the rain into its sense of purpose.

Connections are part of our interim work in that we will assess and develop the relationships that WES has with organizations, constituencies, partners, and institutions outside of itself. That includes the American Ethical Union, the Unitarian Universalist Association, coalition partners in justice and community organizing, neighbors in Shepherd Park, and perhaps others. We will endeavor to keep WES’s organizational and social justice partnerships active, and we will look at how the Leader and members work together to sustain those relationships.

Larger connections are subtle in the Tale of the Sands story, but I imagine that the context of the atmosphere, the sun that warms the air to create wind, the ocean where all water flows through eventually, and the other streams and rivers that feed into it are all related to the main character stream and have an impact on its journey. We are part of systems that are larger than ourselves.

Future is imagining what can come next. When we work on congregational financial stewardship, we are making way for the future. When we develop focus goals and work plans, we are making way for the future. The work we do to create room for new clergy Leadership and lay leadership that have not yet arrived is the work of the future.

The end of this version of the Tale of the Sands concludes that “the way in which the Stream of Life is to continue on its journey is written in the Sands.”  To me, this means that, somewhere in that water cycle system, there is a core of wisdom that has a sense of the direction of the story; someone can imagine what comes next. On the other hand, the poetry of that phrase, “written in the Sands,” reminds us that the story can always be changed. There is a future, it is unwritten, and we can flow into it with intention.

Before I close, I want to say a few words about collaboration. The stream does not transcend the obstacle of the desert alone. Encouragement, shared information, and teamwork are all necessary to help it reach its destination. The voice of the sand provides coaching and reflection, not to mention being part of the structure of the desert itself. The wind uplifts the water vapor and carries it, not all the way to the ocean, but to a place where the mist becomes rain. One of the things I find true about the metaphor of this story is the recognition that dramatic results come from a collective. To my mind, the best and truest stories have ensemble casts.

The work of the interim period is collaborative work. We will share ideas, certainly, and the work of the interim period goes beyond the world of ideas. There is praxis, there are details to implement, there are skills we can learn from each other. Your participation matters. I am curious about your thoughts and opinions and hopes and dreams. Your participation also means more practical things, like volunteering put into place the re-imagined versions of events and programs this community needs at this unique turning point in history. Your participation means making and accepting phone calls, writing blog posts, wearing something fabulous to the on-line auction, and other day-to-day practices of sustaining this community.

The good news is that collaboration is second nature to you. Building right relationship, working together, practicing your values in real-world situations, these are woven into the fabric of Ethical Culture. Though Ethical Culture has not been my home up to this point, I am familiar with it, and I am eager to learn more. Your commitment to shared praxis is immediately evident.

In his 1988 book, “The Humanist Way,” Edward Ericson wrote, “Ethical Humanism is a commitment to a way of life, to a creative relationship with others and thereby to ourselves, in which metaphysical and theological arguments are set aside.” I am particularly drawn to Ericson’s description of “creative relationship with others and thereby to ourselves,” echoing the commitment to eliciting the best in others and thereby in ourselves. It is a creative relationship, it is a shared art and science that brings something into being, something new that is the unique result of the contributions of multiple people in a particular context, brought together with intention.

Ericson went on to say that, “A notable feature of the creative ethical relationship that bears special notice is its character of openness. As Felix Adler interpreted the growth of the self, we enrich (and transform) our lives by first contributing to the creative growth of another.”

In other words, we need each other, and all of us are likely to change in some way if we are in mutually accountable, mutually supportive, ethical relationships. I would add that the community providing the context for those relationships will also, inevitably, change if the people involved are committed to that framework of support, accountability, and ethics.

We were reminded earlier that WES’s summer Platform theme is about being collaborators and co-conspirators within the community and with those working for justice in the world around us. It’s a good theme to keep in mind throughout this year. We will make mistakes. The line based on Rumi that’s missing from our opening song is, “Though you have broken your vows a thousand times.” Come, yet again, come. We will sometimes fail. And that’s part of the creative process. Let’s take the opportunity of this interim time to learn together.

Change is not easy or comfortable. Yet we can shape the change that we know will happen when we commit to ethical, accountable, supportive relationships. During this interim time, we might frame our opportunities for the community’s growth in terms of heritage, leadership, mission, connections, and future. Throughout our journey, let’s look for ways to be collaborative and creative together. So be it.

[kashif1550]

Post 1 - Multicultural America

 1.What is the subject of your film, program, or internet/social media selection? Provide a brief summary, describing your selection and how it relates to our course topics, readings, and screenings.

For the first post, I picked the movie District 9. District 9 is 2009 Sci-Fic action movie that is set in South Africa. The story starts off with a UFO, filled with aliens inside, touching base in a major city in South Africa.

Naturally, the entire world does not react well to the new arrivals. However, as the movie progresses, it becomes obvious that the aliens are a metaphor for a marginalized race. The location for the film couldn’t have been perfect enough, given the history of South Africa. Apartheid ended in 1994, a mere fifteen years before the start of this movie. It was not that long ago where segregation was a reality for South Africans. 

The reality for the aliens in the movie is not a far cry from the discrimination the South African government expelled on to their own citizens. Aliens aren’t allowed to enter certain areas, aren’t allowed to have intercourse with humans, aren’t allowed to eat in the same locations, and many other inhuman restrictions as well.

  The movie tries to end on a positive note, showing us there is a way for oppressors to understand the oppressed. Unfortunately, it was only because a human was mutating into an alien and subjected to the same discrimination. 

In a dark, pessimistic way, it is saying that perhaps we cannot see the true harm in the unfair power dynamic unless we’re no longer benefiting from it. It shows how things won’t change until those with the privilege step up and decide to dismantle the system they gain from.  

Comparing this movie to something from my reading, I would have to connect it to the Jim Crow laws in the United States. African Americans were faced with harsh treatment at every front. Obtaining a job was difficult, dating a white person could lead to being lynched and legal troubles, and the creation of a mixed-race child was a crime. 

Both the movie and the harsh factors of segregation show that the reason for their hatred, for their inhuman actions, and unjustifiable behavior came from ignorance. False narratives and stereotypes were used to justify the nature of the oppressive system they created, thinking that would bring order in their world. In the end, it only caused disorder until justice was served.  

2. Referring to related and appropriate readings and screenings from the course, describe how your selection represents racial and ethnic identities (and if applicable, intersectionality). In what ways does your selection for each of the journal entries generate a conversation regarding race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity?

For the movie I picked, you can see how it relates to racial and ethnic identities through the science fiction element of aliens. In their world, the grievances usually associated to immigrants and minorities is pigeonholed into one singular group: the new extraterrestrial life form. They are written off as violent, lazy, rampant in childbirth, and destructive in nature. The humans question their intelligence often, though ironically want the high-tech guns the aliens have brought along with them.

The way newcomers, arriving to the United States, have been treated throughout history has shown that it isn’t always pleasant. For Chinese immigrants, many faced push backs from gold miners, essentially forcing them into the laundry market because of the over taxation placed on the mines. A more comparable experience would be with indigenous people consider, for most of the plot of the movie, the South African government is trying to relocate the aliens to a new reservation. Similar to that outcome, Native Americans were also uprooted from their land and told to move to another plot of land. In the movie, the South Africans do not believe they can live in the same area as the aliens. And for President Andrew Jackson, he felt the exact same way about Native Americans.

“In Jackson’s view, Indians could not survive living within white society […] Drive by ‘feeling of justice,’ Jackson declared that he wanted ‘to preserve this much-injured race.’ He proposed a solution—the setting aside of a strict west of the Mississippi ‘to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it.” (Pg 81, Takaki) 

Andrew Jackson saw the relocation as essential for Native Americans for them to intergrade into American culture. He offered land for the Natives to farm on, believing that somehow that would encourage them to opt to a farming lifestyle like white settlers. What Andrew Jackson and the South Africans in this movie both struggle to grasp is this: consent.

No one asked Native Americans if they wanted to be uprooted from their homes and forced on to reservations. And same for those aliens, they were not given any say on their relocation. When it comes to the opinions of minorities and other marginalized groups, it’s common to see the trend of dehumanization and removing the ability of choice. 

When you strip a human from the ability to make choices on their own and use their voice, then do you even see them as an equal at all? No, of course not. People you make choices for are children, meaning that was what they saw in these individuals. They saw them as incapable, but not because they actually were, but because of ignorance and racism. For the movie, specism. 

3.How does your selection relate to the course readings, screenings and discussions?  Reflect upon the representation and circulation of racial and ethnic identities in popular visual culture. Your reflections should be attentive to the intersectionalities of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, socioeconomic class and gender.

As I have stated above, the movie District 9 connects to Jim Crow laws, segregation, and Native American removal. Aliens were limited from participating in activities humans were allowed to and prevented from prospering. They were negatively depicted in the media and rarely shown in a positive light. Media, as history has shown us, plays a vital role in perception.

In the earlier stages of Hollywood, the depiction of minorities was played by white actors, making a mockery of the ethnic group they were portraying. Due to years of boxing people of color into outrageous caricatures, it has left a lasting impression in media—even to this day. Some may brush off media as a fleeting set of pictures, unable to capture and captivate our lives, but one should not be so dismissive of the images that come their way. 

“People who have never interacted with a black family in their communities more easily embrace what the media tells them. […] In worst case scenarios, black boys and men actually internalize biases and stereotypes and, through their behavior, reinforce and even perpetuate the misrepresentations. They become victims of perception.” (Donaldson, The Guardian)

Naturally, since we were children, we internalize the images we see. There’s a great deal of impact on the content we consume. Because of redlining, it has made communities just as closed off to diversity as they were before. To this day, someone could live their life not truly being friends with someone from a particular ethnic or racial background. What exactly will that person think of said individual if all they have to learn about them are bad depictions from movies? The result is detrimental. That is why representation of all groups, races, religions should be embraced. When you show a narrow view on something, you are only hurting the viewers in the long run. 

For me, speaking as a Muslim, it’s surprises me how often people misrepresent my faith. It’s even more upsetting at how closely connected my own religion is to those who try to dismantle its existence. I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard my friends get shocked that I believe in Jesus, Abraham, and the same biblical stories they heard of growing up. The thing is, if they would only open their eyes and not accept the first negative thing they heard about us, then maybe they could see more similarities than differences. In the end, that is what everyone in a marginalized group hope for—acceptance and inclusion. 

Sources:

Page 81, Takaki

    A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

   Takaki, Ronald

The Guardian

    Donaldson, Leigh

    Title: When the media misrepresents black men, the effects are felt in the real world (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/12/media-misrepresents-black-men-effects-felt-real-world)

[semi-imaginary-place]

fe3h blogging 6 because organizational skills are for losers

oh hey yuri get to join chess club[3:24 PM]balthus DID go to the officers academy twice I’ve been trying to reconcile the route differences... it should be that everything that happens in a different route is also possible in the route you are looking at which ever one that may be. Now all there is is figuring out why those differences exist. or alternately to come up with a probability model to explain those differences. Let’s take the major difference of CF vs VW, AM, and SS. In CF unlike the other routes, Rhea is not captured, she organizes the knights and joins with Faerghus. In CF unlike other routes Byleth chooses to side with Edelgard and Rhea attacks them in the Holy Tomb, this is the only difference. Rhea is incredibly entitled when it comes to Byleth and so takes Byleth’s choice as a deep betrayal as the one who was supposed to be on her side chose not to be. In the battle of Garreg Mach, Rhea then also doesn’t entrust the Church to Byleth. Now how does this connect to Rhea avoiding capture in the battle? It could be she was more on guard after the Holy Tomb in BE, it could be that overall Rhea is likely captured but there is a chance she isn’t. Either way because she isn’t captured, she is there to rally and organize the knight’s of Seiros. In the other routes why didn’t Seteth do it? idk man. The Knights and Faerhgus together are better able to fend off the Empire and with the added security, keep Cornelia, the Agarthans, and Edelgard from framing Dimitri with assassination. Thus in CF Faerghus is in a more unified and powerful position with Rhea running the show. Never quite got why Garreg Mach was abandoned by all the sides given how much the characters talk about its strategic location etc. etc. In SS Rhea degenerates and causes the church to become a rampaging hivemind. Rhea is assumedly also in the palace in AM, but we do meet her in VW. This leads to a few possibilities, either she also dragon degenerated in those routes but the credits roll before we get to see that or she doesn’t. Either way she hold the potential to do so. This is probably the strongest probability argument in the game as we are shown no reason why she does in SS but does not in VW. Rhea is like a ticking time bomb. Maybe they should have blood minstrated like half the church. And then the Agarthans, are they just chilling around underground in AM? yeah, probably. They’re probably back to biding their time just like they have the past 1000 years.

I would like to talk about the three categories by which I evaluate how much I like a character in a series. 1. Personal preference: how much does the character's personality appeal to me on a personal level. Would I want to be friends with this person in real life. Do I just really wish they were real and want them in my life? 2.  Character writing: how well written is the character. How good is their character arc? What is the grade of execution? 3. Role in the story: what do they bring to the series as a whole. If they are a villain, are they a good villain? Comic relief. The Bro character. No matter the archetype, how well is it done. What is their narrative and thematic significance.

Let's look at the 3 Lords of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Please note that due to the branching story line and the ability of the player to choose the cast, I will not be focusing on a character's role in story as much as I usually do. Edelgard Personal preference: low. Her personality clashes with mine Character writing: high. Three Houses characters in general are well written. Edelgard feels like a person, her behavior is internally consistent, she's always herself. One of her main flaws explored in the game is how Edelgard will tunnel-vision and double down on a decision, a path even when it is no longer the best option. Role: high. In Crimson Flowers and to a lesser extent Silver Snow Edelgard acts as the central character, she drives the story. As the villain in 3/4 routes, Edelgard is incredibly interesting, acting as a counter point to the other Lords as well as to Byleth in Silver Snow.

Dimitri Personal preference: low. At first I didn't care, and then he was just annoying. He was solidly #2 on my to-punch-list in Azure Moon after Gilbert. Character writing: high. Dimitri has the easiest to notice character arc in the game as it is the main focus of Azure Moon. As such the most time is spent on his arc and it is very strong. The journey Dimitri goes on as he struggles with himself and his trauma is well written, its only weakness being that it hinges on the player (me) caring about him (which I do not). Role is the story: medium high. the overarching story of the rightful king reclaiming his throne nicely parallels the story of Dimitri reclaiming himself. Thus the external journey mirrors the internal one. Azure Moon most strongly brings the human element to Three Houses and this is both a strength and a weakness.

Claude Personal preference: very high. I wish I had a Claude in my life. His personality meshes well with mine and my life would be enhanced with the addition of his company. When I say Claude is my favorite, this is the category I am usually talking about. Character writing: high. Claude has the subtlest characterization and character arc of the Lords, this is further obscured due to mischaracterization by the English localization team and English voice actor. The characters in Three Houses in general are brilliant and Claude is no exception. He's complex and multifaceted as any real person is, and seeing him grow in to his own in Verdant Wind is a beautiful thing. Role in story: high. Claude's role in the Three Houses is also very interesting, his objectives especially in White Clouds turns the game into a mystery thriller which is breaking edge for a Fire Emblem Game. Claude's background is also a bit different from the others and so following along his story, you are able to gain perspective and see all of Fodlan for what it really is.

Jeralt personal preference: meh writing: good role: dad

wait. wait. so are the 4 apostles are called saints in the intro, but were they also children of the goddess?  so i can see indech and macuil dipping after the war of heroes and cethalenn went into a regenerative coma so that takes her and cihol out of the picture, but where were the 4 apostles during the war?  and why does balthus' pants have a specially colored patch for his crotch.  ... did balthus go to the academy twice?  dimitri really went “i’d be nice to just sink into the earth you know” huh. i just started cindered shadows so i can't really comment but... the whole "abyss is necessary for garreg mach" is such horse shit. like oooohhhhh we must have an oppressed underclass to maintain our standard of living.  why do the ashen wolves even exist. its not like there's a school down there and yet a bunch of people have uniforms.  its not like they took some of the officer's academy uniforms either. why waste resources making custom uniforms? oh hey yuri get to joisn chess club. balthus DID go to the officers academy twice. I wonder what happened to Constance. Also hello??? Intsys you have a kidnapping and torture as backstory problem, especially when its happening to female characters. Hapi get’s kidnapped, tortured and then imprisoned, no wonder the life has left her eyes. Also I don’t trust this Aelfric dude. He set up the ashen wolves “house”, but wouldn’t those resources be better spent on food and medicine. nepotism ho! your parent were good so you must be too

anyone else find Jeralt and Sitri's relationship a little weird. Hundreds of years old dude romances incredibly sheltered 19 year old with little life experience. and she and alfric idolized Jeralt when they were young. sitri was born in 1139 and died 1159 from childbirth.  I mean yeah Sitri's an adult and totally consenting and loving, and the relationship is pretty cute and sweet, but.... its kinda weird.... Like when you hear about a 30 year old dating a 60 year old, everyone's well into adulthood, they're consenting adults who can do whatever they want,  i have no objections,... but its still kinda weird. WHAT'S WORSE IS THAT THEY DEVS HAD LITERALLY NO REASON TO DO THIS they could have made her any age they wanted to. She could have been 35. but nooooo they didn't do that

the part that bothered me about maneula's writing. Is how the writers talk down on her for having emotions. You see this strongly in the hanneman+manuela paralogue. Where they make her do something impulsive which has negative consequences, which is fair. But then the game punishes her for being too emotional. "being too emotional" now where have i heard that critique before. This is especially in contrast to the game praising hanneman's intellectual rationality. how do i say this... whenever hanneman and manuela argue the game always takes hanneman's side and is overly harsh on manuela.  Oh hanneman is right that she should not have run off after a rumor about the death knight like that, but its the framing of the scene that bothers me.

the way people talk about the abyss reminds me of the goldfish bowl metaphor. the abyss provides sanctuary, but in it thye are also trapped. huh so edelgard doesn’t recognize dimitri. people sure do like aelfric, reminds me of a cult of personality, but it seems so genuine... A great rhea’s golems are back. they talk!! I was just joking about people’s souls being bound in there!!! aelfric is one of the cardinals!!!!! I've been trying to find these dude for months!!!!! you hear these lines going on and on about the cardinals. oh. he’s part of the seiros hivemind then. hey kids. if he’s a cardinal than the church probably already knows. this don’t tell the church stuff sounds like a trap. that letter is suspicious af. yuri clearly wants something, but what is he up to,,,

Yeah.. it really sounds like the 4 apostles were nabateans, but if that were so are constance, hapi, balthus, and yuri really descended from them? the 4 saints bloodlines in adrestia are from those gifted blood by the saints. yet i do believe the 4 apostles fled to different corners of fodlan, what remains in question is only if there in their new homes they gave blood (like rhea did to save jeralt), or actually did have kids.

i cant believe balthus got put on the bus via giant bird. ah so aelfric and yuri are cooperating with the agarthans. thats what they were up to. wow yuri really is fandom claude, i can still hear those idiots complaining that claude wasn’t up to anything and that he didn’t betray byleth. huh so yuri is struggling with split loyalty and the solution he came up with was to help aelfric but give byleth hints. 

constance calling the holy mausoleum a wretch hovel in on par with sylvain calling the dining hall filthy. huh so that was what yuri was planning. wasn’t expecting the double agent ploy.

so this does not take away from aelfric's decisions, but if rhea hadn't been a coward and just buried sitri instead of keeping her is storage where anyone could find her, this never would have happened. who know's maybe aelfric would have still made horrible decisions, but not this one horrible decision.

wait wait wait. rhea, what happened last time you used the chalice to try and resurrect sothis. what beast was created then? wait wait. nemesis dies and sothis’ heat and bones were retrieved in 91. the blood chalice ritual happened in 185. That’s enough time for rhea to have conducted her first experiment implanting the creststone into someone and having them live out their full life.

 prior to cindered shadows i thought claude had 2 given names much like many real world people of dual identity do (multiracial people, chinese americans, japanese americans, etc.), so claude is his name but he also has an almyran name. now though I am leaning towards the idea that claude is a name he took up upon entering fodlan given what he says to balthus at first and the presence of a claudia riegan in the past. from the feast of decadence: where is boramas? and i hope the bit about watching northern swordsmen ripped apart by wild animals at dinner was a play or something. why do books end up in the abyss anyways. why not burn them throughly. rhea certainly knows people have been living down there.  i wonder who built abyss. its older than garreg mach for sure.  real ironic how the blue lions idolize loog when he was an agarthan pawn not unlike edelgard.  rhea's choice contributed to the power imbalance between sreng and duscur compared to faerghus chevalier became village elder and gave everyone blood during wars. half got crests half turned into demonic beasts. that solves that. 1/4 down

i can’t believe aubin almost died in a ditch before yuri’s mom saved them. well that’s one more person with a really long life span

balthus: describing "bashbros" me: its called a life partner. "Balthus became son-in-law to the great commander, Nader" ... what. also why is the balthus yuri pairen ending the only one balthus ends up broke and on the street in. also where's my holst supports. scratch that. WHERE IS HOLST. oh yeah and you all were crying about byleth potentially outliving everyone, well yuri does too

ashen wolves supports that should have happened. Balthus: Manuela. Yuri: Mercedes. Hapi: Ignatz, Petra, Claude. Constance: Lorenz

Also let judith be a playable character. Claude and balthus already have like half a support with her.

why do feel like yuri and sylvain would be a disaster. and disaster in that they'd hurt each other's feelings

claude whenever balthus opens his mouth: shut up shut up shut up. shut up and go away. goddess. please. no. i enjoy seeing claude annoyed more than i probably should

me taking the fe3h developers by the shoulders and shaking them furiously: WHY DON'T CLAUDE AND HAPI GET A SUPPORT. THEY EVEN BOTH HAVE CELESTIAL MOTIFS!  claude would also empathize with hapi as an outsider of sorts, as well as both sharing a desire to explore the world.  i think the riegan crest and timotheus crest got mixed up in development. in tarot readings the moon is associated with darkness, an unclear mind, madness, creativity etc. it suits "dark dragon" far more than "star dragon". but that doesn't explain why claude gets the unique combat art Fallen Star me one again taking the fe3h developers by the shoulders and shaking them furiously: WHY DON'T YURI AND ASHE HAVE A SUPPORT!! THE APPARENTLY ALREADY KNOW EACH OTHER. THEY HAVE SIMILAR BACKGROUNDS. THEY'RE BOTH FROM FAERGHUS. THEIR BATTLE DIALOG SAYS MEANS THEY WANT TO BE FRIENDS

No bathus/manuela support either LET THEM MAKE POOR LIFE CHOICES TOGETHER. Balthus can have a little milf, as treat

...  yuri is very pretty in part 2

Edelgards biggest flaws are her desire for control and her stubborness or the way she will double down on a decision and refuse to budge. Claude's biggest flaws are his inability to trust, and showing his hand too late. A bit more on that last part. A large part of Claude's strategies involve downplaying his side and biding his time. This strategy is especially weak though to an aggressive opponent like Edelgard who can bulldoze him before he has time to play out his plan. Part of the problem is that Claude is very reactive but not very proactive (its one of the reasons I like pairing him with Edelgard and Petra). He won't just go for something the way Edelgard does, he's wait for the right opportunity. This difference you can also see in how the deal with the Church. Edelgard declares war on them because she thinks they are the root of Fodlan's social problems and need to be taken down. She makes a decision she believes in and readies herself for the consequences. Claude actually believes much of the same (The Church is the root of Fodlan's problems) but would much rather avoid those consequences (fall out with the Church). You see in Verdant Wind he will make use of the Church because the are useful. He's even willing to spout Church rhetoric and propaganda (Byleth as a Church symbol) if it suits his end goal of transferring power to an individual who will shape Fodlan's future to his liking (he does have an altruistic and humanitarian goal much like Edelgard). However in doing so he risks empowering the Church even more. In short Claude will put up a facade that he doesn't agree with on an ideals level and so is always in danger of that facade becoming real and failing his goals. yeah so claude character development has him learning to trust and being more proactive in his goals. so i like pairing him with characters that put him on a similar growth trajectory

wait how are the Fetters of Dromi (Aubin) and Vajra-Mushi (Chevalier) around simultaneously with Aubin and Chevalier. Aubin was last seen 20 years ago and the tales of elder giving blood don’t seem ancient, so were they recently killed?

ok if the vajra-mushi is a replica, what’s it a replica of? that implies an original. and its still able to turn people into demonic beasts. how????

unpopular opinion: I hate seteth. his face pisses me off and every time he opens his mouth I want to punch him. please die.

You know... i'd expected someone to have written a modern au of felix and sylvain being roommates with unresolved sexual tension.... but no its been 9 months and I haven't seen anything. Oh I've seen roommates where its like the new and uncomfortable experience of sharing space with someone you dont know and I've seen modern au where they are childhood friends. But i seriously have not seen the specific scenario where they are childhood friends AND roommates. Like... uuugh its just sylvain. But also uuggh its just sylvain?!? Maybe I'll just have to do it myself... but im no good at writing... 

What if glenn was 160cm but the kids never noticed (except sylvain) because they're so much younger

I want a spin off fighting game starring ferdinand and caspar. Honestly i just wanted to see ferdinand get into a fistfight with someone like in his support

On a fandom level I think the golden deer are the least popular for a number of reasons:

1. some of the characters only reveal their depth in supports and paralogues. Or in other words you must seek out these character to get to know them. Ex: Lorenz, Leonie, Ignatz. I mean without doing their supports you'd never know that Ignatz is the smoothest out of the Golden Deer the the most likely to get a date. If Sylvain is a poser, Ignatz is the real deal 2. Related to the above the writing sometimes relies too heavily on a character gimmick. Ex: Raphael, and Lysithea to a degree 3. Compared to other houses there are less established dynamics. Other characters (Linhardt and Caspar, BL childhood friend squad, etc.) can play off of each other and this can make them more emotionally accessible to a player. In the beginning especially the golden deer act more like co-workers than friends, they are the least cohesive as a house (which means their growth is that much more delicious). 4. the golden deer route in general is less popular and some characters don't appear in other routes so the sheer amount of exposure these characters get is less than other houses. a lot of people in the "fandom" have only played one or 2 routes and those usually include either azure moon or crimson flower/silver snow. people will also just delete or add things to characters.

OK Jp audio thoughts: tiny grandma sothis Alois is gravelier and yells a lot  I've been replaying the line where claude giggles in the jp audiio. How do i record audio ignatz is such a BABY in the japanese version. Like a small bunny Edelgard sounds more princessy Claude is more light hearted, less sassy more... boyish? like that one old school boy character trope that used to be a main character thing and is now more a side character thing eng dimitri more yell-y and feral.  jp dimitri is a lot more subdued and dead inside. but the delivery of the lines makes what he is saying all the more disturbing. dissonant serenity.

your path lies across my grave is such a raw line

Why did yuri get a different part 2 sprite.  he should age the same rate jeralt did. And in his paired ending with byleth? He apparently looks about the same after decades

Hilda and catherine would be EXCELLENT war masters if the devs weren't sexist

So almyra's big. We don't know how big. Fodlan is 2/3 of europe and almyra is bigger so i imagine there's a diverdity of biomes. I imagine the south coast is mediterranian. But that hinges on how subtropical adrestia is. Medditerranian climates are most common at 30-40 lattitude. The map of almyra we can see on the map is the same lattitude as faerhgus. This could be the greenest part of Almyra. I imagine almyra has both hot and cold deserts with a large plain covering the center. The rest would be scrubland/chaperral. All we know is that claude grew up somewhere with no big trees. I imagine that almyran government is more meriocratic than fodlan but that may vary region to region. I have an idea for both a centralized and decentralized almyra. Each regions leader is like the strongest most organized person around. A bit of nepotism may be involved. The exception would be the coast region which is more sedentary (some parts of almyra are semi nomadic) and may have a republic. Decentralized almyra would work kinda like the eu or us with seperate nations and a mediator for when almyra needs to act as a whole. That mediator aids negotions between regions and keeps things together. Mediator would be a council/appointed position. In a centralized almyra there still wouldn't be a monarachy. The king would choose a sucessor. So the king's kid would have a better chance than anyone but its no garuntee. I like the idea that like the 30 closeat relatives has a last one standing system as part of the selection system. This would allow for a dynastic style if ruling where there's a ruling clan but not direct line of descent 

Everyone keeps drawing older felix with long hair but I'm half convinced that 3 years post game he just lops,it off one day or gets a buzzcut

So a lot of people including me have long suspected Claude had an Almyran name and the validation right now just feels so great. Khalid!  Given his dialog in cindered shadows I think its more likely Khalid is the name his parents gave him and Claude is the name he took up upon coming to Fodlan

Things have never been easy for Claude, he says in his s support that he's going, to do it (the whole game/war) all over again. It's heavily implied that things to not end well for Claude outside of VW. i don't think the Almyrans would value a surrender to a fodlander tho. Claude in VW proves his competence as a military commander and leader by controlling all of fodlan. Its stated in some of his paired endings that the current king has some say in who the next king is as Claude had to earn his father's approval to ascend the throne. Don't forget that the general Almyran populace hates Claude. He has to prove himself by their standards before any respect is given and in SS/CF/AM he doesn't do that. Remember that the Fodland stereotype is of cowards and that Almyra values spectacles of strength/fighting prowess over tactical efficiency (invading fodlan's throat isn't for the purpose of gaining land/etc. its for the warriors to show off how strong they are), so they wouldn't value strategically weakening your nation (leicester) to stave off imperial invasion, to them that just looks like cowardice and incompetance. not only that he endangered and wasted Almyran soldiers in fighting a foreign war. Remember that no one really knows about Claude's plans outside of VW, he keeps his cards (too) close to his chest, and in non-VW routes the facade of weakness becomes a reality and all his schemes crumble. and he has little to show for his time in fodlan. Claude is less likely to experience character growth outside of VW, but I think there is potential for Claude's character growth outside of VW. One reason for this I'm just not a fan of Byleth's dating sim powers where everyone just falls head over heels for them. For every character and especially the lords, Byleth acts as a catalyst for the character's growth, but Claude (of the lords) is the least dependent on Byleth so I do believe he could have found some of the connections seen in VW if not to that extent. (also I'm a sucker for found family)[4:22 PM]But Byleth does act as the heart and glue of the golden deer so things wouldn't be that great for Claude and co 

So we cam see both turkic and persian influences in almyra but I've always wondered at the balance. From the turkic side we have the warrior culture and horse riding. This is also where my speculations on a nomadic society and non monarchy forms of government come from. Also note turkic (central asia, like the mongols) and not turkish (one of the turkic ethnicities). On the other side is ancient persia which was a center of science, technology and learning, a materially wealthy empire with imperial dynasties. These are very different and so balancing headcanons has always been challenging to honor both sides. You can see people are all over the spectrum in fandom.

Me shaking dorothea by the shoulders: YOU ARE VALID. I AM PROUD OF WHAT YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. EAT THE RICH

im a caught between the dual desires of seeing sylvain succeed at something and be really cool, and seeing sylvain publicly make a fool of himself. sylvain miserable for mundane reasons is such a good look. I pin Sylvain in a headlock and force 2 gallons of respect women juice down his throat

In any universe. Claude's weekly schedule would fill me with terror.

Leonie and dorothea both have "I know a guy" vibes

A while ago I complained that the fodlan calendar doesn’t make sense. Why does the year begin on month 4? Well I recently got around to reading through the abyss library and it confirms that fodlan used to be on the gregorian calendar with months 1-12 lining up with our january-december which in a lot of countries are just month/moon 1-12 and then seiros and the church brought in a new calendar system (imperial year and "___ Moon" naming system). so combined with the other hints from the agarthans (un symbol, ICBMs, etc.), pretty much confirms that fodlan is indeed a post apocalyptic modern world. So the weird calendar system DOES have an in universe justification!

[holden-norgorov]

Hey, it’s February 22nd 2019 and I feel like making another extremely long Sense8-related rant reminding all of you that:

#1. Kala was never in love with Rajan.

The narrative of her storyline is entirely focused on that almost in a heavy-handed way, to the point that I really struggle to believe than anyone could think otherwise. There is just a huge amount of facts supporting this, spreading from the pilot itself to the last episode of Season 02. In 1x01, she confesses to Ganesha that the only reasons she is agreeing to marry Rajan are: society’s (misguided) opinion on him and, most importantly, her parents’ happiness. In 1x05, she feels like she is metaphorically drowning (she is seen panting heavily) and going to prison by entering this marriage, hence the connection with Sun giving away her dog to her teacher and Wolfgang being literally underwater. In 1x06, Wolfgang reveals that Kala was actually calling for him hoping that he would stop her wedding because she didn’t want to go through with it; later she tries to trick Rajan avoiding the truth by acting like she was “undeserving” of being married after what happened and hiding her actual feelings about it. In 1x07, she literally says that the wedding’s interruption was a blessing from her God. In 1x11, Wolfgang clarifies the way she feels about her upcoming wedding: as something “inevitable” and “fated” to happen because of how her world works (something he says he can never understand, which is true because of his European perspective on it). In 1x12, Wolfgang decides to close the door on Kala and pushes her to dive into this unwanted marriage because it would be the safer choice for her. She marries to Rajan against her will. In 2x01, we can see that Kala is actually trying her best to make this marriage work despite not loving Rajan, to the point that she builds a “fake image” of herself just to please him – remember the way she dressed up and put make up on during her birthday night? A clear sign that she was actually hiding her real self under that – and agrees to have sex (that is unwanted from her) with him out of her marital duty. At this point she believes that a future with Wolfgang is impossible because of his rejection, so she is willing to try to make a life with Rajan because she feels like it’s the only choice she has left not to disappoint her family and society – hence why she actually shuts down Rajan when he addresses her lack of feelings towards him. In the snowball scene with Wolfgang, though, she opens up with him and confesses that she feels like a bad person because she can’t bring herself to love Rajan (“we have to change… become better people”). In 2x04, she realizes that not only is she incapable of loving him, but also that she doesn’t even enjoy the fancy life in society that he can provide to her: this becomes evident in the gallery, where she realizes how out-of-place her real self is – remember the awkward head tilt before quickly putting herself together? – and it’s also confessed to Wolfgang right after; she tells him that what would make her truly happy is not what society expects from her but “something else” and that she is “only pretending to be a good person”, addressing again how she built a fake image for her husband and society to see and for her to hide behind. In 2x05, she confesses to her dad that what would make her truly happy would disappoint her family and hurt her husband. In 2x06, she lets out that she considers her marriage a duty (“every-day rules”) and that her feelings for Wolfgang are so powerful that whenever she is with him, everything else fades away and she “can’t be trusted with her (real) thoughts”; Wolfgang calls her marriage a pretense (“pretending isn’t a life”), tying with what he discovered in 2x04 about her fake persona. In 2x08, she talks with Will about her marriage in a very detached and unemotional way – and Kala is someone who always emotes freely and intensely – taking it as a duty or job to perform; he reads her emotions and clarifies that her problem is that she doesn’t love her husband. In 2x09, she expresses disgust and serious discomfort to the idea of having children with Rajan. In 2x10, she decides to put her own happiness above everyone else’s for the first time and agrees to follow her feelings (Wolfgang) and telling Rajan the truth. In 2x11, she confesses her love to Wolfgang and states that she wants a new life (Paris) just for the two of them, before genuinely and freely smiling for probably the first time in the whole show. All of these are facts and, as you can see, are a lot. How anyone can claim that she genuinely loves her husband is actually beyond my comprehension and indicates a serious misunderstanding of her whole storyline.

This is also extremely clear aside from the narrative perspective and focusing only on the character itself. Kala’s attitude and behavior with both Wolfgang and Rajan is completely different throughout all the show, which testifies how differently she considers both men and, most importantly, how oppressed she feels by her culture. She spends two entire seasons avoiding any kind of confrontation with Rajan because of cultural indoctrination and a deep fear caused by her submissive position in the marriage (with Rajan being the beholder of the cultural power and authority, as I will address later on). She never speaks up about what she actually thinks or feels to him until the infamous expired-drugs episode in 2x07 – which not-so-casually happens after the conclusion of her bravery awakening arc in mid-Season 02, a case of excellent character writing and follow-through. The oppression she feels from her culture and its morality prevents her from dealing face-to-face with letting down a wealthy, rich and socially rewarded man who decided she had to be his conquest (prize) – this is evident in many occasions, mainly in the 1x02 balcony scene, the 1x06 conversation about their wedding (where Kala displays a serious inability to engage in a honest conversation with Rajan because of cultural dynamics), and many moments in the Christmas Special. Rajan’s cultural and social dominance is pivotal in understanding why Kala gets fearful and hesitant whenever she is with him, almost making it look like she is a weak person. But the viewers know she really isn’t, because they manage to experience the Other Kala – the real Kala – that shows up every time she is not around Rajan. This version of Kala is firey, combative, courageous; she easily makes a bomb out of kitchen supplies to kill several people (1x12), she lets a restaurant table on fire out of pure anger (2x08) and causes a car to explode out of bright intelligence (2x11); she proves to have exactly zero hesitance in making last-minute blockers while the man she loves is being held hostage (2x11). This is the real Kala, and she is brave and resourceful and always comes out whenever she is not with Rajan. Why? Because she feels and has always felt psychologically pressured by her culture and in a position of cultural submission towards him. Kala’s real enemy – the real obstacle she had to overcome to reach happiness and embrace her real self (i.e. destroy the fake persona she had to play in her marriage) – was always her culture and the effect that it had on her. It’s also worth pointing out the relationship Kala has with her temple, which is the only place where she can be herself freely (before developing her bond with Wolfgang), and this is not-casually because it’s also the only place where she is unreachable to Rajan (whose family is not only anti-religious but also actively trying to shut down that very same place – a fitting metaphor for Rajan shutting down the real Kala in her daily life throughout all the show). And the temple ends up being exactly the place where she becomes reachable to Wolfgang (alongside with her bedroom and her bathroom, all intimate places which are forbidden to Rajan up to Season 01 but that are naturally accessible to Wolfgang). Kala actually engages in a deep relationship with him, opening up about herself and having plenty of honest conversations about the real her – her festival experience and relationship with science and religion (1x07), her actual feelings and fears (2x04, 2x06, 2x11), her opinion on his violent methods (2x10): deep topics that help establishing a trust-based bond with Wolfgang that is meant to contrast with the sincerity and depth that her relationship with Rajan lacks. This was a case of gorgeous and complex storytelling that completely got lost with the finale. At last, it’s also worth noting that Kala normally emotes freely and naturally, especially when with Wolfgang, but suddenly always appears distant and shut-down with Rajan, a clear sign that she feels very differently for the two of them.

#2. Kala and Rajan had a toxic relationship.

I seriously don’t understand how this came to be completely unnoticed by a huge side of the fandom, but there is almost everything about Kala’s relationship with Rajan that is toxic and unhealthy. They embody exactly what a marriage shouldn’t be. This is extremely clear since the very first moment, according to how their relationship starts. Rajan (her boss) spots her, decides he wants her and fills her (i.e. his employee’s) office with a huge number of flowers for everyone else to see, putting her in an extremely unfair position – she can’t turn him down because of many reasons at this point: 1) she could lose her job and have serious damage on her career, which she personally values a lot; 2) she knows her parents want her to get married, so she would let them down as well by rejecting him; 3) he has a too solid reputation and is regarded as a way too influent member of his society; 4) she would likely encounter public shame from her co-workers and society as a whole by turning down such a big gesture by such a kind man. This is also India, not Europe or America, and mentality plays a huge role in this case. She gets trapped in this situation from the very beginning. Then, in 1x02, we discover more details about their relationship: Rajan reveals he knows Kala “never ever looked at me, not once” and “can feel her hesitation”, but decided he didn’t care about this and that his selfish desire to have her was too important – “the only life I want to live in is one where we can be together”. He exploits his cultural dominance to get what he wants, something that he has basically by default because of being a wealthy man, hence the “my father thought me that fortune favors the bold”. He basically pushes Kala on with this wedding despite already knowing that she doesn’t feel for him what he feels for her and just being okay with the idea that she will grow accustomed to him, highlighting how her feelings actually don’t matter to him at all. This is also the first sign we get that he is not interested in knowing Kala as a person, but just in owning her as a possession to show off, because he doesn’t take her feelings and opinions into account. This happens again in 1x06 after the fainting episode in the first wedding ceremony, when he completely dismisses what Kala has to say about it as non-important by shutting her down and imposing his own view over hers (“Kala, Kala, slow down… for me I loved what happened […] it was a part of the story, I just hope it is not the end of our story”). He keeps pushing despite knowing she doesn’t feel comfortable with what happened. In 1x11, he confesses that at first he wanted her because she wasn’t a suitable choice for his father, which seriously puts an even worse light on Rajan as a person, since Kala became the target of a conquest caused just by an act of rebellion – this speaks about how little he actually values women in general, including Kala, and finally makes us understand why he doesn’t even care about Kala’s inner self (opinions, feelings, thoughts). This new discovery, combined with our knowledge that he knows from the beginning that Kala doesn’t feel for him, ends up establishing him as a manipulative man who keeps exploiting his cultural power to psychologically pressure her in entering the marriage and, after that, not leaving it. He is a slimy, disgusting person whose outwardly pleasant behavior hides his inner desire to get Kala as his personal prize for society to see. This will be evident in many other occasions to come as well. In the Christmas Special, for instance, he shows he doesn’t care about having even actual conversations with her, because he goes asking her mother about her virginity, disrespecting her and (again) displaying the condition of ownership that he feels he has on her: he doesn’t treat her as a person with agency, but as an object. It’s worth noting his reaction when he gets called out on this: at first, he instinctively laughs it off as something completely superfluous (i.e. proving his spontaneous reaction to be careless about Kala’s agency as a woman), but as soon as he realizes that this is making her angry, he suddenly gets worried about a possible break in their marital status and readily apologizes in a completely moronic and unbothered way (“Kala, I’ve been an ass, please just forgive me”). This highlights that he doesn’t apologize out of sincere understanding of what he did wrong, but rather out of the fear that this could anger her enough to walk away from their marriage – which is exactly the same dynamic that happens again in 2x07, after the expired-drugs talk. Things later in the episode get ever worse because he bribes her into sex by throwing her a giant party and buying her an expensive necklace, showing that he actually didn’t care at all about the conversation they had before and that, once again, Kala’s feelings on this matter were completely unimportant to him: he just cares about getting what he wants from her. This is an extremely unhealthy and toxic dynamic: Kala ends up engaging in sex unwanted from her because she feels she has to repay him for her birthday celebration and because she feels responsible for his dick incident. This is not consensual. Going on with 2x04, we see how Rajan acts with Kala in a public place in society, the art gallery: he pushes her from behind as if she is unable to walk by herself and as if he wants to show off what he has, he doesn’t even introduce her with her name (he just calls her “my beautiful wife” when introducing her to someone she doesn’t know, which is extremely disrespectful and dehumanizing). Ajay even makes quite a sexist comment that Rajan unapologetically laughs at while Kala is shown to be quite disturbed by. In 2x05, Kala tries to talk to Rajan about work, but he once again completely shuts her down and talks to her in a very patronizing way, as if she was a child who can’t understand things. In 2x07, the confrontation between the two on the expired drugs issue happens and we get to know that the only reason why Kala was given a promotion is because Rajan could profit from her work to engage in illegal activities without her knowing. Kala is obviously furious and he once again acts very poorly. The same dynamic from 2x01 returns, but this time in an even more disgusting way (“Kala, you are even more beautiful when you are upset”). Rajan’s spontaneous reaction is the same as it was in the Christmas Special: careless, unapologetic and blind to the serious damage of his behavior. He realizes once again that he pissed her off (and really badly this time, because she actually walked away from him), so what does he do later? He buys her flowers and acts as if suddenly he was aware of how wrong his business practices were up to this moment – with entire years without even being bothered by the minimum thought of it? Please – and basically tries to manipulate her once again into not leaving their marriage. These are not sincere apologies on his misbehavior (for which he should honestly go to prison). This is just the ultimate attempt to win her back by exploiting her good-hearted nature and awake her pity – which he actually succeeds at, because Kala’s final look at him is one of pity. Once again: man fucks up, buys things, gets rewarded with pity and forgiveness, and it all gets repeated. This is a toxic relationship, it’s basically the cycle of abuse (more so knowing that she doesn’t even love him). At last, in 2x11 she is finally ready to talk things through with him, and for the umpteenth time he shuts her down and makes it about him (1x06 much? This is how he has always related to her). This marriage was a complete disaster up to 2x11, with many unresolved issues and unhealthy dynamics. These spouses were strangers to each other: Rajan never cared about knowing Kala as a person because he never loved her, but fell in love with the idea of owning her and showing her off; Kala never cared about developing a serious bond with Rajan because she never loved him and always considered her marriage as a duty to oblige to for her parents’ satisfaction. Rajan manipulated Kala for the entire show and constantly lied to her during all Season 02, Kala hid things from him – including an affair – for the entire show as well. Their relationship had problems such as sexism, objectification, lack of trust, lack of intimacy, lack of conversation, dishonesty, power imbalance, and none of them were resolved or clarified (let alone even addressed in the finale). Rajan was a terrible husband to Kala because he is a despicable person; Kala was a terrible wife to Rajan as well because she didn’t love him.

#3. The ending:

Pretended that their relationship was always healthy and almost unproblematic.

Depicted Kala as the only one in the couple held responsible for their relationship issues (“and I thought I was the one with the big secrets”). Sexist writing.

Completely erased Rajan’s 23-episodes-widespread misbehavior as if it never occurred, turning him suddenly in the best husband ever (ironically the way he was always depicted by his society).

Assassinated Kala’s whole personality and especially her bravery awakening arc in Season 02 which was the core of her whole character.

Turned Kala’s internal conflict with her culture into a love indecision between two men out of nowhere.

Depicted her as happy and willing to stay in a toxic relationship with a man she never loved out of gratitude and because he proved to be a “good guy”, despite this being the very exact reason why she could never fall for him since the beginning. Inconsistent writing.

Sold us the hysterical idea that someone as selfish, possessive and disrespectful of women as Rajan would agree to share his wife (which he considers a possession) with somebody else.

Completely destroyed Wolfgang’s whole personality and role in Kala’s growth and storyline, but this is not meant to be a post about him.

Hinted us many times – especially in the last half-hour – about Kala giving even more importance to Rajan than Wolfgang, which is completely incoherent with everything we learned about these three characters in the previous 23 episodes (and in the rest of this episode as well), to the point that it looked like she eventually kept him around just to spice things up in the bedroom with her husband, who she never even wanted to be touched by before. Wild writing.

So, I guess Kalagang fans have, in fact, every right to be grossed out by this resolution and complain about it without being laughed at and dismissed with the “it’s just a ship” comments. Kalagang was not “just a ship” happening between two characters in the background of their character arcs, as many other ships are: it was at the core of their character arcs. This was not a love story, but a love storyline. It was character-defining. Fucking up that destroyed both their characters. I think this post highlights that ours are not shallow complaints. What happened in the finale was offensive and extremely serious and problematic. Stop saying we should be grateful for it.

[dailyaudiobible]

09/08/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 1:1-2:22, 2 Corinthians 10:1-18, Psalms 52:1-9, Proverbs 22:26-27

Today is the 8th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we twist the knob and swing open the door on a fresh, shiny, sparkly, new week. Today is the 251st day of the year and we’re moving into some new territory. So, for a long time once we got to like first Samuel all the way through the books of Kings and Chronicles, we were following the story of King David, of King Saul, of all the different kings that lead Israel along the way up until their exile. And more recently, we switched gears and moved our way through some wisdom literature. So, the book of Job and the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Song of Solomon, which Jill and I read over the last couple of days and that's always fun. So, here add this shiny, sparkly, threshold of a new week we are moving into some new territory and beginning to hear some prophetic voices. We will begin with the book of Isaiah and will be…you know…Isaiah’s a longer book. So, we’ll be camping out in here for a little while. So, let’s kind of fly over its.

Introduction to the book of Isaiah:

Isaiah, like I just said, he was a prophet, so this is a prophetic book. It's part of the Old Testament major prophets and the major prophets also would include Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, and Ezekiel. And the fact that this is classified as one of the major prophets doesn't mean that it's like more important, like the major prophets are more important. There classified as major works because of the amount of material that are contained in the document. And, so, Isaiah contains 66 chapters, which makes it one of the longer books of the Bible. So, Isaiah, his name means “the Lord saves”. And as we'll see from his writings, he’s a very passionate Old Testament prophet and this is interesting, Isaiah is referred to and quoted often throughout the New Testament, even Jesus quoted from Isaiah eight times in the gospel narratives. Isaiah was such an important text that He recited from the book of Isaiah, the 61st chapter at the launch of His ministry, right, when He said, “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come.” Jesus was quoting Isaiah when He announced His own ministry. So, Isaiah obviously lived way before Jesus. He lived in that the second half of the eighth century BC, and it seems that he was at least a part of the upper-class, maybe the aristocracy because he had access to royalty and commoners didn't just have free access, but it appears that Isaiah did. And even though he lived in a time that was full of upheaval he was still able to deliver messages directly to kings over a long period of time. So, he wasn't just like some crazy peasant that was coming in from the countryside and demanding to see the king. It seems that he had access and he had access to five different kings. He prophesied during five different reigns- Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh. And then according to Jewish and for that matter Christian tradition Isaiah was martyred by being sawn in half at the order of King Manasseh. So, that's a tradition. It’s not explicitly referenced in the Bible. In the book of Hebrews saints are being described, the saints of old, and the book of Hebrews said some died by stoning and some were sawn in half and others were killed with the sword. So, maybe there's a slight reference. Anyway, it's one of the longer books in the Bible, as we already mentioned and it's kind of divided in half. So, like the first 39 chapters, which is the territory that we’re immediately gonna be heading into discuss God's judgment. So, it's a very sobering thing to read through. And then we get onto chapter 40, all the way through chapter 66, then the discussion changes to God's comfort and his restoration, which is very hopeful. And since we’re moving into the some of the prophetic voices, it's important understand that prophetic literature is full of metaphor and symbolism as well as allegory. And Isaiah is no different. So, just like we talked about when we started the Song of Solomon, there are some lenses that we can use to look through at these prophetic writings. And, so let's invite the Holy Spirit to lead us toward what we need to see as we begin the book of Isaiah. And we’ll read from the English Standard Version this week. Isaiah chapter 1 and 2.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us safely here to the threshold of this shiny new week that we’re living into. And as we step into this new week we invite Your Holy Spirit to be in our thoughts, words and deeds, everything about us, all of our interactions, all of our postures of heart, all of the conflicts that are in our lives that need to be sorted out, all of the things that are going on, we invite You. This week is stretching out before us and it's all fresh and waiting for us to live into. May we be telling Your story this week and not our own. Come, Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

Hey, something's going on around here, sort of. It’s my son Max's birthday today. So, happy birthday, Max.

And it's the first day of the week. So, we’re marching into some new territory together. And a good place to know and stay connected is dailyaudiobible.com. The Daily Audio Bible Shop is there, the Prayer Wall is there. All the different links to the different social media channels that we’re part of are there. So, stay connected any way you can.

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And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, this message is for Jasmine in New York, I believe, the intern who did not match into a categorical or I’m sorry into an advanced year. I am currently a third-year resident out in California. I know the struggle, I know what you’re going through. I just wanted to let you know that I’m thinking about you and praying for you as you ramp up for this next application cycle. You are a strong woman. I commend you for everything you’ve gone through with the previous match and now everything you’re about to endure with this upcoming match. I also wanted to say that I really appreciated the prayer you left on the line for the patients that you take care of. Your words were beautiful, and I’ve now adopted that prayer into my own practice. So, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how many interviews you do or don’t get, I just want to remind you to keep up the fight because…

Hi, it’s Nicola and I’m calling with a praise report and also a call for action. I’m calling from Scotland. I called a month ago, basically saying that I had to face my ex-employer who was emotionally and financially abusive and it was a situation where I felt like David facing Goliath and I called for strength and because I knew that God wanted me to go through this even though it was very frightening and scary. Anyways, I went through with it and it ended up having the best possible outcome. My employer kind of folded and agreed to give the full amount of money that she owed me for stealing and also paying all the fines. I did not expect…it was a lot more money than I expected and it’s a huge blessing considering I’m moving internationally and starting graduate school and I was floored, and I know that was because of you guys. So, the second part is, I want to ask, I think we need to all be donating more on a monthly basis to Daily Audio Bible. Think about what this community has done for you. And as we know, we cannot live on food alone. And think about how much money you spend on food every month and how much you spend on Daily Audio Bible every month. If we put our money where our mouth is then we should be spending more on Daily Audio Bible a month then we should be spending on our food and I say that as a graduate student. And, so, once I’m all settled I’m gonna start paying regularly every month again because this is very…there is very few places like this and if we don’t financially support it and take care of that then it won’t last forever…

Hello, you all this is Andrea the Strong and Brave Prayer Warrior, but this time asking for prayer for myself. We were on the way home and someone that was probably drunk almost hit us like five or six times within the course of about five minutes. It was pretty scary. Hopefully the guy driving me tried to call the police or something. Luckily, I’m fine, I’m safe and everything, but you guys, I thought I had mastered my mouth. I guess I need to be in the word more because let’s just say I said some things that weren’t very becoming. So, anyway you guys just pray for me. I thought that this…I pretty much had this anxiety thing under control and I probably do it’s just…it happened just today. So, anyway, all right, God bless you everybody. Brian and Jill thank you so much. God bless. Bye.

Hi DABbers, this is Lisa calling from East Tennessee and I have not called in in a very long time, but I have listened and do listen regularly for the last five years. I missed being at the reunion this year. My family and I did attend last year it was so wonderful and I’m certain it was wonderful again this year as well. Hope everyone had a blessed time. I just wanted to call with a brief prayer request for myself. I’m sitting in a parking garage outside of my work on my way home for the day and I just really need prayer and wisdom regarding work. I’ve worked in healthcare for 25 years just about and if you know anything about healthcare it’s really changed, and it’s just gotten to a point where it’s very difficult for me to wake up every day and still love my job. I love my patients, I love what I do, I worked hard for a degree as a therapist and have only ever wanted to do that but it’s come to a point in my life where I just, I don’t know where to go and where to turn and I just need some wisdom and really some prayer that the Lord will present me with some kind of an opportunity. Whether or not it’s healthcare, it really…at this point I’m open to anything. I work in a very difficult hospital environment with very, very sick patients and staff that’s burnt out and constant changes with management and other things. And I just really would like to be lifted up for that. I know so many of us are praying about work and jobs and the things that we need. So, I will keep all of you in my prayers for those same things for everyone….

[singing] In the eye of the storm you remain in control and in the in the middle of the war you guard my soul. You alone are the anchor when my sails are torn. Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm. [singing stops]. That song was written by Brian Fowler and Ryan Stevenson. This is Candace from Oregon. I want to tell you the lyrics at the end of this song. “The Lord is my shepherd”, this is…they are quoting Psalm 23. “I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid for you are close beside me.” This is, in particular, for I think it’s…is it Sue from Colorado. You called September 3rd and called before. You’ve ministered faithfully in Haiti and I would like everyone to join with me in prayer right now for Sue from Colorado. Lord, thank You for this dear servant. Thank You that all the lies of the enemy are really quite pitiful because You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And You surround this dear woman, this servant, You surround her in Your love. You have redeemed her. You came to earth and we claim all that You did on her behalf for her healing and just…

[wolfliving]

Garnet Hertz ponders Making

From: Garnet Hertz

This discussion is great - I just subscribed with Chris's message to me - it's nice to connect with like-minded people around this topic. I've obviously been hanging around the wrong places online (like Facebook).

"maker as a disconnection to class struggle" - I could talk about this for YEARS - or at least thousands of words (see below if you don't believe me):

In my view (and I know I'm preaching to the choir here) is that the maker movement was primarily an attempt to standardize, spread and commercialize what artists and hackers were already doing into a “Martha Stewart for Geeks” by Make magazine. The founders literally used "Martha Stewart for Geeks" as their vision - this isn't a metaphor. 

My book project, for example, looks to articulate one of the many strands of this scene that predated making — DIY electronics in art — and it reaches back nearly a hundred years. As many of you know, it has a totally fascinating history. 

Other strands include hacker culture since the 1970s, the free software movement since 1983, ubiquitous computing since 1991, open source hardware since 1997, the explosion of craft practices since Y2K, the Arduino platform since 2003, the FabLab movement since 2005, and the material turn of philosophy over the past several decades — all of these are maker movements, and most of them are more of a social movement than what Make has envisioned. 

The maker movement as articulated by Make lacks fuel of its own and offers little of unique cultural value beyond giving us the nondisciplinary label of the ‘maker’ in 2005. Make magazine organized, promoted and ‘platformed’ the maker movement as its brand, but the leadership of makers came from other sources (as noted above).

What is most interesting about the idea of making is not the term itself — it is the pieces of hacking, craft, DIY culture and electronic art that were left out of constructing the idea of the "maker" (at least in North America), which was largely carved out by Maker Media to serve its private business needs related to selling magazines and event tickets. Maker Media very clearly sanitized things from the hacker scene (maker = hacker - controversy) and from the art/DIY scene (Dorkbot, especially - which I ran in Los Angeles at the time). 

The newer understanding of ‘making’ is not really an all-encompassing term for all, but is focused on a specific subset of ideas, primarily exists in a limited geography of influence, has a limited ecosystem of tools, and follows a specific form for projects that are considerably different and more constrained than the ‘making’ that existed before. The scene envisioned by Maker Media was almost exclusively focused on producing work as a leisure pursuit, which is a total misunderstanding with how many hackers or artists work.

In retrospect, the maker scene rode two major waves: the Arduino and 3D printing. I see its death as partially a result of never being able to find a third wave. Maker Media was also constructed as a relatively financially heavy structure that needed a lot of fuel to survive -- it wasn't an artist collective. In terms of financial waves, the Arduino provided vital technological, social and ethical glue that massively helped Make magazine launch. The Ardunio technical platform provided an accessible and uniform venue for sharing project prototypes, and its open source hardware provided a novel and exciting blueprint for how physical electronic objects could be prototyped and distributed. The Arduino and Make had a symbiotic and intertwined relationship with each other, with Arduino providing the hardware, mindset and seed community for Make, and Make providing media coverage and scores of fresh users for the Arduino hardware platform.

A similarly intertwined relationship formed a few years later between consumer-level 3D printing and Make magazine and its affiliated Maker Faire. In hindsight, the 3D printing movement was synonymous with the maker movement between 2009 to 2013, and this impact is still felt today. Of the many projects and companies involved in the rapid expansion of inexpensive 3D printing after 2009, MakerBot was central — and Make magazine largely served as its promotional sidekick.

The maker movement is somewhat significant in that it highlights how alienated contemporary western culture has become from the manual craft of building your own objects, and how wholly absorbed it has been enveloped in consumer culture. The maker movement works counter this alienation, but does so with considerably broad strokes — almost to the extent that making anything qualifies as being part of the movement.

 Instead of looking at the maker movement as a large interdisciplinary endeavour, it can also be interpreted as a re-categorization of all manual fabrication under a single banner. Language typically expands into a rich lexicon of terms when a field grows, and the generality of ‘making’ is the polar opposite. Ceramicists, welders, sculptors, luthiers, amateur radio builders, furniture makers and inventors have been conflated into the singular category of makers, and the acceptance of this shift seems to indicate that any form of making is novel enough in popular culture that it is not worth discerning what is being built.

If looking at what typically constitutes a social movement, Make magazine’s maker movement never fit the bill. For example, Glasberg and Deric define social movements as “organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites.” If we ask what oppressed population Make magazine serves, it clearly doesn't have one.

 If looked at from an economic perspective, Make’s readership contains considerably more powerful and advantaged elites than the oppressed: the publication’s own statistics claim that its audience has a median household income of $125,000 USD, over double the national US median of $59,039. Make’s maker movement is primarily a pitch to sell empowerment to the already empowered — in a 2012 Intel-funded research study on makers, “empowerment” is identified as a key motivator for the affluent group, and Make primarily sustained itself by catering to this audience until it realized that 3D printing and the Arduino weren't everything they promised to be. Or maybe people finally realized that they had enough 3D printed Yoda heads and blinking LED Arduino projects -- and that building stuff of cultural or design value was actually quite difficult.

If anybody else is interested in reading a draft of my book, just fill this out:

https://forms.gle/1F8787aJqSSapjPW9

- I'll mail out about a dozen physical hardcopies in exchange for harsh feedback.

I'm also still collecting thoughts about a "Post-Making" type of organization here:

https://forms.gle/JBM6DDFT7436p43G9

Some of the responses are as follows:

* Model it after dorkbot but instead of having meetings it can be geared around smaller regional Faires

* I would run it as a non profit and make sure that there are people from all over the world representing. Not only so US focused.

* Focus on low tech and tech criticism...as much as possible far from western culture...let say the gambiara creative movement in LATAM (brazil) or Cuban style repair culture, guerilla, community envisioned and run publications/workshops/happenings without the 'red tape' so often discussed as part of the Maker Media legacy. 

So, no forced branding, no forced commonalities (other than perhaps a shared manifesto), no minimum number of participants or fundraising requirement for it to be a 'real' event of the community, and much less of a focus on attracting, and then satisfying, corporate sponsors.

* Should be about critical making, open source, skill sharing, critical thinking and more...

* I think the most important thing is to help local people meet up with each other in person. This should go far beyond people who already go to a hackerspace - this is something that Make did well by bringing together all sorts of people from children, university students, hackers, artists, etc. I don't think this has to be large scale.

* Member-run co-operative; leadership positions only for women; women-only days; focus on understanding biases built into technologies and imagining ways around this (critical technical practice)

And if anybody has made it this far down the page, I'm interested in talking to people working at universities that are working in this field.

--

Dr. Garnet Hertz Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts Emily Carr University of Art and Design 520 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada  V5T 0H2

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[androgyne-acolyte]

The “I” in Christ

Commissioning, Community, and Lessons From Hamilton

(My second sermon, for Confirmation Sunday. You can also listen on Soundcloud.)

This Sunday, a few of us are about to confirm our formal membership in this community of St. Andrew’s; we do this with a profession of faith, along with a promise to seek justice and resist evil. Not only does the process of confirmation ask the question of what it means to be part of a Christian community, but this passage from Luke (10:1-11,16-20) also poses the question of what it means to live out our own discipleship beyond the walls of the church — especially in an age where the image of door-to-door missionaries is something of a bad joke.

Perhaps Christianity’s best-kept secret is this: the actual gospel of Jesus is tremendously relatable to anyone else whose mission is also to seek justice and resist evil. These first disciples were instructed to bear one message: that “the Kingdom of God has come near” — or, to put it in more contemporary language, we might say “another world is possible”.

Jesus says to carry no extra gear, going out like lambs into the midst of wolves; greeting no one on the road, but traveling in pairs. This is a radically vulnerable commission — relying entirely on the generosity of strangers, who may not even care if you live or die — but it is also a commission of interdependence and reliance on one another. Sometimes, we might retreat by ourselves into the metaphorical desert for a while to figure things out. But when we go forth and proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, we’re not meant to go it alone. And so, from its earliest moments, Christianity is lived out in relationship.

We also see this in how the very early Christians came together in table fellowship — the root of our communion ritual. Jesus and the disciples had caught on to something that’s borne out by sociological science today (this is why we also had lunch as part of our confirmation classes): deep down, our brain associates “the people with whom you eat” with “family”. This becomes especially resonant when we consider that Jesus’ ministry seems to have been responding, at least in part, to the breakup and dispossession of families caused by Roman encroachment on Jewish ancestral farmlands.

So part of Jesus’ message to these seventy disciples is about going out and finding allies — and through that work, making new and cohesive communities in a time of tremendous social upheaval. Then and now, Christianity creates familial structures that counter the systems of injustice in the world with a message of radical community and genuine connection.

The New Testament, in the original Greek, calls this concept of community or fellowship koinonia, literally participation, partnership, or sharing, with emphasis on the element of relationship; a koinonos, used in the Epistles to describe the disciples’ relationship to Christ and to one another, is a sharer, partner, or companion; a joint participant. So, when we become part of the Body of Christ, we become partners, koinonoi, in acting out God’s intent, “on earth as it is in heaven”. As Jesus says when he is asked when the Kingdom will come (later on in the Gospel of Luke), “the Kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21).

So I suggest that we can look at koinonia — this radical companionship — as a concept that has four pillars. They are economic, interpersonal, internal, and political — and together, they answer a world of imperial domination and hierarchical, transactional relationships with the egalitarian, reciprocal relationships of a truly divine community.

Most of us grew up hearing the Gospel story of how a few loaves and fishes fed five thousand people. When Jesus says “give them something to eat”, the disciples respond with “but how can we possibly go out and buy enough bread for everybody?”. But Jesus had a plan — and we are told that “all ate and were filled” (Luke 9:10-17). This isn’t just a fanciful miracle story; in Jesus’ world, everybody gets enough. This is a total reimagining of our economic model. 

We see this principle carried out in the book of Acts, chapter 4: among the growing circle of disciples, it’s said that “there was not a needy person among them”, because people sold their possessions and shared the proceeds; “they laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:32-35).

“But that could never work!” we say, just like in the story of the loaves and fishes. I may not be an economic theorist, but my guess is that what gets in the way is our own self-interest; of course it won’t work if you assume that you and everyone else are just looking out for number one. The missing ingredient here is what the Bible calls lovingkindness, or what I call radical compassion — the key to the interpersonal aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Remember, Jesus’ program is about treating people like family. And what happens when people feel safe enough, trusting enough, to be able to treat each other as a functioning family? “You’re in need? That’s okay, I’ll cover you.” — “Whatever happens, you’re still my sibling in Christ.”

This ideal of the family of God doesn’t end at the steps of the church, by the way. This is what Buddhist teachings mean when they talk about widening the circle of compassion: Talk to your neighbours. Look a panhandler in the eye. Fall in love with the immigrant kids down the corridor who won’t stop bouncing off the walls. Invite that raggedy backpacker down on Spring Garden Road to brunch. But, Jesus cautions, don’t make a big deal out of it; this is just what we do.

But again, we worry, just like the disciples: what if there’s someone in this community who’s really needy, taking up all the available resources and emotional energy? Perhaps that’s where a community can do its best work: helping a person become self-sufficient. Finding them a therapist, even if it means emailing every private practice in [the immediate area]. Finding them meaningful work in the community, something that provides for them and reminds them that their life matters. Granted, that’s extremely hard to do under late capitalism — but maybe that’s a specific challenge for Christians today!

We don’t claim to offer miracle cures here, but we do offer compassion and grace and walking with someone on the road to healing. And if you’ve bought into the Christian message, you’re already imagining the possibility of becoming whole — recognizing the image of God within yourself — and if you know any trauma survivors, you already know that that’s half the battle.

And to support each other like this, we have to be comfortable with being vulnerable. Paradoxically, that’s very hard to do in our white, English, North American church culture! 

My childhood pastor used to say that a good church has to be so much more than just “a club for nice people” — part of that is because niceness and civility as we understand them involve building very specific walls around yourself, so that no one sees the mess and the struggle underneath your calm exterior. But when others see that you’re a flawed, messy human too, they respond in kind. 

The very best of my church relationships are the very few people to whom I can confess almost anything, and they can confess almost anything to me. We inevitably find ourselves going deep; we have long conversations that are intense and sometimes unsettling, but I always come away feeling more fulfilled, more whole than I was before. And what is salvation in the original Greek but a kind of healing, or “making whole”?

That leads us into the internal work of the Kingdom of God. The hardest lesson we can hope to learn is to give up our preconceived notions of how things ought to be and what others are like. This is where contemplation comes in; it’s about letting go of our hangups so that we can see the bigger picture. This process of self-emptying seems like such a bewildering thought, but it’s a fundamentally liberating process. Just ask our Buddhist neighbours.

So, Christian community calls us to break free from our own self-interest by living as members of one body; as a collective of voices working together in constant dialogue. One might say that there is no “I” in Christ. 

And here is where being political comes in. When we live together in lovingkindness, in partnership, when we let go of our attachments to see things as they really are — we begin to see that this is exactly the opposite of what the world wants, both then and now.

We’ve heard [St. Andrew’s lead minister] Russ [Daye] speak of “sin” not so much as an individual moral failing, but as the state of a society propelled by self-interest and operating through systemic inequality, oppression, and violence. And when we see the big picture, we start to see that that’s exactly what’s going on.

A fully realized Christian life, lived out according to the principles of radical community, makes the scales fall from our eyes and highlights the terrible workings of inhumane disconnection and self-interest that our society is based on. That, in the eyes of our world, makes us dangerous. 

I recently had an extraordinary online conversation with another queer ministry hopeful, who is not afraid to state point-blank that “love cannot exist [or cannot exist fully] in a space where we are complicit in our neighbours’ suffering and exploitation”. We both agreed that a lot of us moderate Christians aren’t politically active because we can’t truly fathom how deep-rooted these systems of oppression actually are, let alone have any idea of how to stand up to them. 

But I invite you to consider that the kind of strong support structure that a fully realized Christian community can provide can be a living “no” to the Caesars of this world, and can empower us to speak our truth to their face, no matter the consequences. “We know love by this,” says the epistle of 1 John, “that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 John 3:16).

Perhaps, then, there are many “I”s in Christ — together, we are the pillars that hold up God’s kingdom.

However we choose to confront the Caesars of our world, we must always centre our love for God and one another in our actions. This can mean letting our hearts break at the injustice all around us — remember, we are called to be vulnerable! — but it also means means finding and creating opportunities to speak out and stand up for justice; equipping one another with the skills to do so; and lifting each other up in support when those opportunities come.

Let me tell you a story about one such situation.

On June 15, only a few weeks ago, the Pride festival in Hamilton, Ontario was confronted by a group of right-wing agitators carrying giant banners with homophobic messages, shouting slurs, and threatening physical violence. Shamefully, many of these people had the gall to call themselves Christian, using our faith as justification for their hatred and aggression. 

Hamilton police, for their part, did very little to protect the Pride marchers. 

(By the way, I’ve tried to rely on firsthand accounts of this situation wherever possible.)

What did happen at Hamilton Pride was this: after a similar encounter a few weeks earlier in Dunville, Ontario, where homophobes and counter-demonstrators spent six whole hours trying to drown each other out, an affinity group formed in Hamilton with a new plan. They built a thirty-foot-wide, nine-foot-tall barrier out of black cloth, practiced moving it around as a team — and when the right-wing agitators showed up, the affinity group moved their barrier into position and physically blocked the agitators off from the rest of the festival. They intentionally did not raise their fists to strike at anyone.

But — they still got beat up. As the original members of the affinity group dragged themselves away from the fists and helmets of these right-wing bullies, they looked around to see people they didn’t even know rushing to the scene and keeping the barrier standing. The barrier, incredibly, remained intact until the police arrived a full hour later, escorting the troublemakers out of the park with their hateful signs in tatters. 

Community. We lay down our lives for one another.

When asked why the police didn’t get there sooner, an eyewitness reportedly heard the officer respond, “Don’t you remember we weren’t invited to Pride? We’re just going to stand here, not my problem”. [x]

There are, of course, many more layers to this story than I have time to get into here. But the ongoing aftermath of this situation is worth talking about. 

The queer community in Hamilton was furious and disappointed, if unsurprised. Remember that there is a decades-long history of criminalization and persecution of queer communities by police, and of police turning a blind eye to homophobic and transphobic violence. That tension doesn’t go away overnight, and it is still very much with us today.

A few days later, a local queer activist named Cedar Hopperton was arrested, purportedly because being present at Hamilton Pride had violated their parole conditions related to a previous act of civil disobedience. (Like me, Cedar goes by the pronouns “they” and “them”.)

But here’s the thing: according to eyewitnesses, Cedar wasn’t part of that incident at Pride. They had stayed at home, where their friends came to them for support and first aid following the confrontation. When Cedar got access to the paperwork associated with their case, it focused almost exclusively on a public speech they had given at City Hall in the wake of the events. 

And while they had been heavily critical of how Hamilton police have repeatedly let their community down, they framed their criticism with a prophetic statement: 

“...what I am interested in is building community around people who [have] a desire to build a shared idea of the world they actually want to live in. I feel like that’s a higher bar [which] is worth working towards.” [x]

That is what those seventy disciples were sent out to find: The Kingdom of Heaven is near. Another world is possible.

In response to this and what would become at least four other arrests of queer community members, along with frantic attempts to save face by the police and by City Hall, the local activist community decided to go straight to the mayor. In a wonderful example of non-violent protest, some twenty people “dressed in gay masquerade attire” showed up on the mayor’s front lawn early on a Friday morning, and spent fifteen minutes making a ridiculous racket while planting hot pink lawn signs that read “The Mayor Doesn’t Care About Queer People”. 

Within an hour, the same mayor who had largely refused to comment on the issue of right-wing agitators harassing and assaulting people at a Pride festival was in the news decrying the lawn sign action as a “violent attack”, and vowing that the perpetrators would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

That afternoon, one of the organizers of the lawn sign action found herself cornered by no less than eight police cars. After being brought in for questioning, she was escorted by officers with assault rifles to the central police station, where she was held overnight. 

Only one of the right-wing agitators has since been arrested. The mayor, in a stunningly oblivious move, concluded the day by issuing a boilerplate supportive statement about the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

The organizer who was arrested following the lawn sign action (who has chosen to remain anonymous) had some insightful words that I’d like to share with you. For me, they may as well have been spoken by an apostle in the first century. She said:

“[This is] about us as a community getting stronger — and them being afraid of that. We know [that] because within five hours they mobilized an investigation, manhunt and takedown. We know because they confront us with shaking hands and assault rifles. We know because they [subsequently] responded to a queer dance party with eighty officers on a Friday night. We see it when they make desperate arrests; [like] Cedar for a speech at city hall.” [x]

Because when we start to make a dent in the facade of unjust power, the mask slips, and the true cruelty and desperation of the people at the top gets revealed; just like the crucifixion of Jesus laid bare the horror that the Roman Empire was capable of. And yet, in ways that we do not yet fully understand, we are told that Jesus performed one last radical act of turning the tables; using that humiliating, commonplace death as a jumping-off point into the coldest, darkest reaches of the cosmos, where he sowed the love of God into the very ground of the universe.

Our anonymous lawn sign activist continues: 

“In that, we can also acknowledge something else; we are winning. They are afraid of us and what we can do. They are embarrassed. They are losing ground.”

This takes us right back to Holy Week — when the authorities start planning Jesus’ arrest in the wake of the non-violent protest march that we remember as Palm Sunday, because they’re afraid he’ll incite the people to rebellion. When we start to successfully seek justice and resist evil, the powers that be, propelled by self-interest and sustained by systems of cruel inequality, are terrified.

She concludes with this wonderful statement of commission — and I’d like to think it can be our commission too:

“So let’s keep this up. Let’s keep getting into ... public spaces. … Challenging the things that harm us — even when they are institutional and systemic. … Let’s build towards the world we want to see – and share and learn those skills together. … Not just every four years — [I would add, not just every Sunday] — but every single day”.

Amen. 

July 7, 2019 (Confirmation Sunday) — St. Andrew’s United Church, Halifax

Selected further reading:

Center for Action and Contemplation, “Consumed with Love”

Queer Theology podcast, “A Community of Care”

Rethinking Religion, “Buddhists Don’t Have to Be Nice: Avoiding Idiot Compassion”

[briangroth27]

Back to the MCU Part 2: The X-men

I’m absolutely looking forward to Dark Phoenix and New Mutants—I’ve loved or really liked all of the X-men movies except two and I’m sad to see the franchise end—but I’m also looking forward to the X-men joining the MCU. I was skeptical of the fan insistence that Spider-man would be inherently better just because Homecoming was part of the MCU and I was proven wrong, but I’m still not sure that the X-men going home will be a magical improvement. The Fox-films aren’t perfect, but they’re not the worthless dreck a lot of people make them out to be either and it’ll be a shame to lose all the good things about them (unfortunately along with The Gifted in all likelihood). Still, this is what’s happening and I’ll always be excited for new X-men adventures: they’re my favorite comics and I love seeing them brought to life! In a perfect world, we’d get a new X-men TV series (heck, both a live-action one and a new animated series) because there are just too many characters to explore over a trilogy or two of movies, but for these purposes, I’m going to assume they’ll only be doing X-films.

Full spoilers for the Fox-verse and MCU up to this point....

X-men Origins How should mutants appear in the MCU? This is super-simple: they just do.

There’s always been a handful around, like Xavier, Magneto (their ages and Erik’s Holocaust experience can be explained by saying they knew a mutant who could rejuvenate others), Apocalypse, Shadow King, etc., but mutants are just now starting to appear en masse. They’re a new and mysterious global phenomenon. Importantly, they’re a natural evolution and the most “cause” that should ever be given is the real-life explanation for evolutionary mutation: a reaction a hostile environment. Sure, you could say Thanos’ Snap created that type of environmental condition, but no one should be responsible for making mutation happen. This is something I strongly believe has to hold true: mutants can’t be created in a lab somewhere or Snapped back into existence “wrong” or have their X-genes turned on by Scarlet Witch or something. If anything like that happens, mutants automatically lose their “we’re natural, normal, and we’re supposed to be here” argument. It’s why the Inhumans aren’t really a great substitute for the mutants-as-minorities metaphor: even though the present-day Inhumans were born that way, they can still be traced back to experiments the Kree conducted on humans. Mutants, however, are completely normal and exactly what they’re supposed to be. Also, it’s that lack of an “explanation” that scares normal people and separates mutants from the other superheroes in the MCU. Bigots can write off a radioactive spider bite or a gamma accident as powers that happened to “those poor people,” but the X-men showing up and saying “this is who we are naturally, our powers come from the core of our being, and we’re the future?” That scares them and brings out the hate. That last point is just as much a source of fear as the others: just look at how white supremacists in real life scream about “being replaced” by Jewish people, Muslims, immigrants, etc.

I’ve been asked on Twitter how the common MCU people would be able to tell that the X-men are any different from the Avengers (Thor vs. Storm was the example I was given), and the answer’s in the characters. Storm and the rest of the team would absolutely self-identify as mutants, feeling they shouldn’t have to pass as aliens/accidents for an easier life (in addition to their stated goal of proving that mutants can be trusted). With that pride and the insistence that mutants are the future, bigoted reactions would mimic LGBTQIA hate: "Why should we cater to a minority? They should be committed/cured, not supported, coddled, and allowed to continue living in their delusions,” etc. People's kids being mysteriously powered is also a much scarier concept than an alien the public barely interacts with (Ragnarok having civilians know about Thor and Jane’s relationship status still rings false to me, unless Darcy’s been blogging). Thor's an external anomaly to the everyday MCU citizen and while the Avengers might accidentally wreck your town, mutants could be in your family and are an intimate threat to The Way Things Are.

I’ve also been asked how you square Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver with Magneto if the X-men just appear now rather than being rebooted into the history of the MCU, and that’s simple too. They aren’t his kids anymore in the comics, so you might not even need to explore that connection in the movies. If they do want to, he could be a secret parent they didn’t know about. They still don’t have to be mutants since their origin is tied to Loki’s scepter. Either way, Wanda’s continued presence in the MCU is not a continuity deal-breaker.

First Class While the idea I’ve seen tossed around of the team suddenly snapping into view after Xavier has been psychically hiding them from the world for years would be a cool reveal, I don’t think they’ll want to burn all the A-list X-men by introducing them as adults. IMO, the X-men are going to be the backbone of multiple future MCU phases since the big-name Avengers are winding done, so they’re going to want to cast X-teens who can grow with the MCU. They’ll also want to start at the beginning and (hopefully) really dig into the team finding its groove, learning as they go. I’ve enjoyed the Fox prequel trilogy immensely so far, but jumping 10 years between each film takes the wind out of proper development arcs. Showing the team’s learning curve as superheroes would also set them apart from the Avengers, who have personality conflicts but essentially came to the team as polished heroes.

Fox’s prequel X-team is a pretty perfect lineup in terms of characters, so I wouldn’t change the core roster much (though I do expect everyone to be recast). We’d meet the X-men as they’re recruited, allowing the film to both touch on the world mutants are living in and to show who these kids were outside the mansion. That’ll not only show the healing effect of having other kids like them in their orbit, but will also emphasize how important the school is as a safe haven (and found family) from the rest of the world. One area where Fox’s films have fallen short (and The Gifted has excelled) is showing what the common people’s reaction to mutants is, rather than just sticking with the military’s thoughts, and I hope the MCU follows that show’s lead.

While every teenager (and even every adult) can relate to the X-men’s outsider status, mutants are also (and most importantly) supposed to represent the oppressed in our society and the next cast should reflect that. So, I’d do a lot of race and sexual orientation switches. For example, Cyclops should be Native Alaskan. He’s closely tied to that region in the comics, Summers isn’t the real family name (it was chosen by an immigrant ancestor in the comics and here could be an example of his family trying to assimilate), and the pressure to be a “model minority” would mesh perfectly with Scott’s constant drive to be a straight-laced boy scout who thinks he’d be useless if he failed. I’d let the comics’ subtext about Storm being bi or pansexual be text here. I’d also stick closer to her having been a “goddess” as well as a thief; she should be the one mutant in history that ruled humans without fear or violence so she can be a voice of reason and experience on the team. Nightcrawler could be updated into a swashbuckling street performer who’s a little internet-famous (part of a growing mutant youth subculture) in addition to his religious struggles. He could also be a positive role model in how he embraces and celebrates his physical differences (like he did on X-men Evolution), no matter who calls him a demon. Kurt could be any race as long as he’s from Germany, though I kinda like the idea of one of the few white guys being blue the whole time. Rouge would definitely start out as a villain if I were writing it. She doesn’t necessarily need to be white and making her an African-American teen from Mississippi could grant her a whole new perspective on the mutants-as-minorities idea: her loss of memories and self could reflect the black American experience of not knowing where your ancestors came from or what their culture was. I also think her reaction to meeting a literal queen who’s also a black woman would be pretty great; Storm could be a role model for her once she starts to reform (and maybe punk Storm could come from interacting with Rogue’s more fun-loving persona). Those new aspects could potentially bolster the outsider feeling she’ll already have thanks to her powers acting like a disease that forbids her from making unencumbered contact with others, so she could be relatable on several fronts.

New Mutants Scott, Ororo, Kurt, and Rogue would be my core team throughout all the films, but there’d be room for others as well. Jean’s another favorite of mine and it’d be cool to see her without the Phoenix as a predetermined end-point in mind for a while. I’ve seen it pointed out on Twitter that one of her biggest assets is her empathy, so let her use that to promote human/mutant understanding and use her comic origin story to drive her towards not letting anyone die. Gambit would be a lot of fun (and, in keeping with making things more diverse, the movies could go through with an intended comic development that he’d be bi), but I would definitely not adapt his charm power: there’s just too much room for that to get rapey to even try including it (plus, he shouldn’t need a power to be charming). Being a roguish thief with a heart of gold would play well against both the X-men and the gruff Wolverine when he’s introduced. Jubilee is more than deserving of a larger, more active role after being a glorified cameo so many times; maybe she eventually becomes the PR face of the school? Iceman’s always been another favorite of mine and his deep-seated denial of his homosexuality would bring another realistic touch to the team. Polaris, X-23, Honey Badger, Eclipse, Quicksilver (who I guess is dead, though; it’s a shame we have to leave the superior cinematic one behind in the Fox-verse), Domino, Bishop, Beast, Firestar, Psylocke, Shadowcat, etc. …the list of great characters in this franchise goes on and on and they’d all be welcome; this is why there needs to be a show, not just films!

Logan, the Wolverine We should get to Wolverine at some point—he’s another one of my favorites and there’s no denying he’s the most popular mutant—and I’d play up the parallels between him and Scott rather than focus on the love triangle with Jean. But first, I want them to hold off on Logan and maybe not even introduce him until something like the third movie. Let the rest of the team breathe and become an ensemble before reintroducing a new Wolverine, who’ll instantly be saddled with comparisons to arguably the most iconic version of the character: Hugh Jackman’s. They’d spend most of their time justifying the new Logan and I worry that the rest of the characters would be sidelined again. Instead, let’s see all of them get the chance to be as fleshed-out and celebrated as Logan is, then add him in and watch as the franchise gets even bigger from there. Maybe a way around Logan stealing the X-spotlight is to do something unorthodox (yet with enough comic precedence to appease the fans) and introduce him in an Avengers movie first. Maybe the Avengers could take the place of Alpha Flight in the MCU (or maybe they’d do something totally unexpected and just make an Alpha Flight movie). Personally I’d like to see a Logan who was absolutely horrible in his past—an animal occasionally pointed in the right direction—who then had the mind-wipe truly make him a better person who’s out to atone for a life he doesn’t remember. I think that would be compelling and would make the mind-wipe matter. Edit: I thought it might work to make Logan a POC to reflect real-life atrocities and experimentation carried out against minorities, but “violent rage machine who becomes a hero after (probably white) scientists torture him and erase his identity” would be a terrible message since you could say it argues they improved him. If he were innocent before Weapon X it would be different (and possibly a comment on the damage white people have inflicted on just about everyone else); I guess it depends on what they want Logan's story to be and what effect Weapon X has on him (and there should be an effect, not that X-men Origins nonsense where he's essentially the same person on both sides of it). If he's an angry white guy who's improved by forgetting who he was/the society that made him that way, that could be an interesting comment on the white male rage we see so much of today too.

Dark Phoenix, Apocalypse (and other X-threats) I definitely don’t want to see Magneto right away (though he’s the best villain in fiction). On film, we need a break from him (though if they wanted to make him Xavier’s co-leader of the X-men for an extended period, I’d be interested). I genuinely liked Mystique’s character development into just that position in the prequel films, but when she returns in the MCU it should be as a villain first (and certainly as Kurt’s mom—or why not his dad, as originally planned?—and Rogue’s adoptive mother). Stryker, the Sentinels, and the Phoenix Saga should all be held off until far down the road as well.

I wish I could remember who on Twitter suggested it, but I love the idea of using conversion therapy as the basis for an X-men villain, so that’s how I’d open the series (let’s call these films The Uncanny X-men, for argument’s sake). Use Mesmero as one of two main villains, mind-controlling mutants into thinking that they don’t have powers to the point where they subconsciously shut down their access to them (like Iceman did to himself after House of M). Do this through Legion-esque twisty, mind-bending psychic sequences (so we can see each character’s inner fears and character traits), but mixed with real-world conversion therapy horrors. Once Mesmero’s phase is completed, the “cured” mutants are thrown into an elaborate deathtrap/maze to make sure they can’t access their powers anymore…this would be a Murderworld designed by an updated Arcade! That would provide the bombastic third act after the Mesmero stuff gives us some great character work. Xavier sends the team in to investigate this process (maybe it’s set on Genosha) and they meet Rogue there, who’s also undercover but for Mystique, out to kill everyone involved whereas the X-men want to expose the torture and shut it down peacefully to be a good example. You could start to argue whether the X-men being upstanding superheroes allows them to go far enough with a third party like Rogue/the Brotherhood.

My second movie would feature Mr. Sinister and his attempts to keep up with mutants by experimenting on himself to give himself powers. I’d make it a cultural appropriation metaphor, by having Sinister create agents for the government (the Freedom Force seems like an appropriate right-wing name and it looks like they might be needed to step in where the Avengers leave off after Endgame) who are heroes and celebrated by the public, whereas the X-men are still hated. The X-men would of course resent the popular “mutates” taking what made them special and being celebrated for it while they’re still hated. If the first movie is about the X-men fighting to prove they should be here, the second would be about mutants establishing their own culture (and the burgeoning mutant subculture would absolutely be a part of this). It’d also be about humans artificially clinging to relevance and fearing losing their status in society (extremely relevant to a huge problem with white society in America today), while larger sci-fi themes about moving toward the future of humanity via evolution are explored through Sinister. Sinister’s base would absolutely be in the Savage Land so we could see X-men vs. dinosaurs: in addition to just being fun and cool (and big business, if the Jurassic World movies are any indication), dinosaurs would metaphorically represent the human race. They’d be a constant reminder of the extinction and irrelevance Sinister is trying to outthink. Perhaps Sauron could be a minor villain in that setting. Since I wouldn’t want to do Phoenix yet, a Madelyne Prior story might be better for this new era (maybe she’s one of Sinister’s Freedom Force mutates). If they don’t want to do the Captain Marvel/Rogue animosity—and I’m not sure I want to see Carol lose her memories and herself again, though you could create a bond between the two of them over Carol being manipulated by the Kree and Rogue by Mystique (maybe that’s how they’d finally resolve their hatred?)—another of Sinister’s mutates being called Warbird and having flight/super-strength would be a fine substitute for Rogue to get her iconic powers and send her to the X-men for help.

As we get into Uncanny 3, I’d do Onslaught, but a more streamlined version that doesn’t involve the Heroes Reborn thing. I’d rather it be confined to the X-men, but since we’re in the MCU now it’d be a good opportunity for the teams to team up. My Onslaught wouldn’t be a Magneto/Xavier mind-meld, but a Xavier who finally lost hope in his dream and decided to force humans to accept mutants. I think Xavier screwing with the team, implanting false memories to manipulate them, sow discord, etc. would be a lot of fun…and a chance to have Rogue be the big damn hero because of her mental training to suss out her actual personality (in these films I’d dedicate time to the team actively helping her try to control her abilities and rediscover herself). A psychic threat would also be a nice bookend to the team’s first film and a response to “how impactful can the X-men be as true-blue heroes?,” while defeating Xavier would be a natural end to this chapter as the team goes on to new adventures under Scott and Ororo’s leadership.

Once we’ve explored new threats, I’m fully open to digging into Magneto, Apocalypse (hopefully maintaining his “I’m trying to save you all by forcing conflict to evolve you” delusion), Stryker, the Sentinels, Mystique, Shadow King, Juggernaut, Sabretooth, Omega Red (who hasn’t been used yet), etc. again. Whatever they do, I hope the MCU goes big and explores all facets of the X-universe, like Genosha, Asteroid M, the Morlocks, the Brood, Madripoor, Mojo, etc. The X-world is a rich one unto itself, so Disney should let it shine and really flesh out the MCU beyond the real-world boundaries they’ve lived in so far and are only just now starting to venture from (at least on Earth). When we do get to Phoenix again, I hope it’ll be a natural evolution and Jean’s quest to make the world better so no one has to die again, not a cosmic space bird trying on feelings or a secret evil split personality (as an early X3 idea pitched, my Jean would evolve into the comics’ cosmic force).

United I absolutely don’t want some sort of Avengers vs. X-men thing. Who wants the Avengers turned into the militant arm of a bigoted government or something? No matter how you slice it, the X-men represent minorities/PoC/the oppressed, so making the Avengers fight them just seems wrong and automatically tips them toward being agents of oppression. If you lean too far into “mutant powers really are dangerous” to justify the Avengers fighting them, the X-men lose their social relevance. At “best,” you’ll have the Avengers making an argument along the lines of “protests that cause property damage are just as bad as the racists/social inequality they’re protesting,” which is not a good look for anyone. Plus, I’m just sick of heroes fighting heroes.

I wouldn’t do House of M or X-men vs. Inhumans either: extinction events not perpetrated by bigots trying to pull off genocide undercut the metaphor of mutancy. The X-men represent oppressed minorities, not snow leopards.

Deadpool: The Last Stand While it would be absolutely crazy if Dark Phoenix ended with Jean re-creating the Fox-Earth into the MCU or something, I don’t think the Fox-verse will get that kind of send-off. Aside from Dark Phoenix, New Mutants (which looks very spooky-cool but who knows if it will be released in theaters or on Hulu), and The Gifted (which will almost certainly be cancelled, sadly) the big dangling thread of the Fox-verse is the still-popular Deadpool. Legion will be ending after Season 3 and I think it’s safe to say Gambit, Shadowcat, Multiple Man, etc. are dead at this point, and that’s probably for the best if Disney wants to create a unified vision and start fresh.

However, a Deadpool 3 (or X-Force) film should definitely still happen, and I have an idea to help the characters (and actors) we love from those movies make the jump to the MCU intact. I think DP3/X-Force should be an adventure on Mojoworld! Deadpool’s probably the only live-action property that would be willing to go all-in on Mojo, so they should be the one to take the dive (especially now that Shatterstar’s mentioned it exists). Everyone gets abducted and the writers can go extremely meta with it. They could structure it similarly to the first Mojo episode of the 90s X-men cartoon, but with jokes about Hollywood’s obsession with sequels, reboots, and the franchise wars (as well as society’s relationship with the media). They could also joke about fan fears about Disney making them PG-13 (though I think those fears are unfounded), via some Good Place-esque censorship. Mojo’s televised world could also allow for cameos galore from the Fox-films, including the much-desired Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds team-up. This isn’t how I’d prefer to see those actors together for the last time, but since it seems like the only option I’d take it. And at the end of this Mojoverse adventure? The Fox-verse is “cancelled,” leaving Wade and friends to be dumped into the MCU. You could cherry-pick the Fox timeline for favorites to save here: Wade, Domino, Negasonic, Colossus, Blind Al, Vanessa, Cable, Dopinder, both Yukios, and Laura/X-23 would all be welcome IMO (alternatively, I’ll take people like Zazie Beetz and Dafne Keen getting cast as Domino and Laura again in the MCU, just with new origins). If there’s a way to get The Gifted characters—especially Polaris and Eclipse—to the MCU too (if Blink’s season 2-ending portal doesn’t do it and make that group the MCU’s Exiles; seeing them come from a hardened anti-mutant world into an MCU where mutants are just starting to pop up in large numbers would be a really cool switch for them), I’m all for that as well. You could even give X-Force’s appearance in the MCU some narrative impact by forcing Xavier to accelerate his plan for the X-men to go public to counteract Deadpool’s team in the public eye, since Wade is not the guy you want at the center of the mutant rights effort.

Days of Future Past I realize most of this won’t happen (especially my ideas for the movies, but hey Disney, if you want some X-novels give me a call), but it’s a vision of the X-Franchise’s future I’d like to see. The big things are that mutants should just appear naturally, Disney should be open to casting and writing the characters more diversely than they’ve been in the comics (a consideration I’d extend to the franchise’s creators behind the scenes and soundtrack as well, though the main theme should absolutely be the 90s Animated Series theme!), and the MCU should take the time to dig into every aspect of the franchise rather than immediately hitting beats Fox has already covered. There are a lot of socially-relevant angles to tackle the X-men world with, and I want to see them all explored. The Disney/Fox deal is officially finalized on March 20, so we’ll soon see how the X-men will fit in. 

Whatever happens, I’m excited to see Dark Phoenix and I can’t wait to see more X-adventures in the MCU!

What do you think? What do you want to see from the X-men in the MCU?

Check out more of my theories, reviews, and original short stories here!

[wintriusbutsomeonetookmyoldurl]

Singularity: Interpretation of the lyrics

For army who are still confused about it. This might be a bit dry for some, so I’ll make a short conclusion in the end if you don’t want to read the interpretation of basically every sentence.

 First of all, I’d like to start with the connection to the highlight reels; this might seem random, but highlight reels aren’t called like that for nothing: they sum up the main massage of the correlating part of the ly series. The narration for this (the third) part:

 Looking back, I have already known it. That underneath the sparkling world before my eyes lay my deception. That everything was a dream to be crumbled away with a breath of wind. I turned away, eluded, closed my eyes. I was scared, scared of not being loved for who I am.

 This is exactly what is singularity about: the realisation that one is not loved for his true self but for the façade he put up for that love. Let’s start with what the lake symbolises:

 In the current state the lake is frozen, there is a thick layer of ice, creating a physical barrier. The imagery is the following: the lyrical self (ls from now on) true self is under the frozen ice (I dumped myself into the lake, I suddenly run to the lake there's my face in it), the ice preventing him from resurfacing: it is buried in lies, in the water. But the lyrical self can’t always hide the truth, and when he realises he’s acting untruthfully of himself he hears the sound of the ice breaking. It’s a reminder of reality that he’s lying even to himself. (Sound of the dream ice breaking, Today I hear that sound again -emphasis on again-this shows this is a repeated occurrence).

Now breaking down the lyrics sentence by sentence:

Verse1

A sound of something breaking I awake from sleep- The sound is the breakage of the ice (this is specified later on) so this is a realisation mentioned earlier, he catches himself lying. This makes him reflect on himself, makes him face reality. It wakes him up from the dream where everything is perfect. Sound full of unfamiliarity-This shows that reality seems weird after so much pretence. As if he is losing himself to his fake personality, making the real one seems distant and unknown. Try to cover my ears but I can’t go to sleep-He tries to remain in his current state, want to live in this ‘dream’ where everything works out well, so he tries to block out the sound, and thus, the truth. Unfortunately for him he can’t. This causes the dilemma, that even when he is trying to act like the façade was the reality he can’t really lie to himself.  

 Pre-Chorus 1

 The pain in my throat gets worse, try to cover it-the same way he covers his ears from hearing the truth he covers his-his true self’s- mouth from speaking the truth. The pain comes from the held back words he could never say out loud without showing his true self.  The ‘Try’ in the end is a cataphora, as it shows that this action is futile.

 I don’t have a voice-referring to his true self again. Saying again that he can’t speak the truth, can’t show his true self, the only one who is able to speak is the fake persona. Today I hear that sound again-even if he tries to hold back the sound-the ice breaking happens repeatedly. He can’t ignore the truth anymore. Chorus

It’s ringing again, that sound, a crack again on this frozen lake-This is very he specifies the sound as mentioned earlier. This has the same meaning as earlier. The use of the word ‘ringing’ can suggest that he hears this voice from inside, as to further show this is not a real sound. The lake is still frozen in this state, he is still lying. I dumped myself into the lake-he hid his true self in lies willingly I buried my voice for you-he stopped speaking his truth for the sake of gaining someone else’s love. This is where it’s first showed why is he lying. Over the winter lake I was thrown-He's caged his real self under the ice in lies.  What is interesting here is the ‘thrown', like it wasn't him who did this on purpose, yet earlier he said he did this to himself. He change himself on purpose but only because he felt like he won’t be loved otherwise. He felt if he wanted to be loved he had to hide and change who he was. Verse 2

A thick ice has formed in the dream I shortly went into-he is deep in pretences (=thick ice), they obscure the reality that it isn't him who is loved but the lie he created, but even like that it's a dream-seems happier than not being loved at all. My agonizing phantom pain is still the same-yet he is in pain, because deep down he knows the truth that's why he keeps hearing the sound of the ice breaking. Phantom pain here is the feeling when you don't know what makes you sad, when you aren’t even sure if the pain is real because it seems to have no reason-he  acts like he didn't know he was untrue to himself, and his true self wasn’t loved like he wished to,  that’s why he doesn't understand the pain the real him feels, and  that’s way tires to ignore the sound. HAVE I LOST MYSELF OR HAVE I GAINED YOU -okay this is literally the most important sentence. This clearly shows the two viewpoints that make him struggle: he is not being his real self and he has lost himself but this is the only way to gain the other persons love. He can't be true to himself and be loved too. Pre-Chorus 2

I suddenly run to the lake there's my face in it-Here he metaphorically faces himself, his true self he tried to ignore. He ‘suddenly runs’-he is in a hurry like he has no time, he’s struggling to hold back. ‘suddenly’ also shows its abrupt, he is not prepared for it. Chorus

Please don't say anything, reach my hand to cover the mouth-he doesn't want his real self to expose him he tries to cover his mouth so he won't be able to tell the truth, and he can still be loved. But in the end, spring will come someday the ice will melt and flow away-He is aware that he can't hide this forever that something will happen (spring is a common symbol for change. It works well with ice as a symbol for a change that will destroy this barrier that holds back the true self from showing. This has nothing to do with sping day, BTS used this kind of season symbolism in oher songs too, e.g. Dead Leaves.) that will expose his true self, that the truth he thrown in the lies will resurface. Tell me if my voice isn't real-he is asking himself if he is really lying, he starts to realise to feelings he oppressed in himself, he is starting to recognise he’s acting untrue to himself. If I shouldn't have thrown myself away-questioning his choice to put up a facade just to be loved when he know this isn't real. Tell me if this pain isn't real-This brings back the possibility that his pain is the lie and the love he receives is true-this expresses the self doubt he still has, he can't tell if being loved this way is worth it or not. This song doesn’t offer a solution to this dilemma only explains the reason behind it. Because the answer will be presented in the last part of the ly series as it was in the highlight reels. What was I supposed to do back then-this is a reference back to the time when he started to show a personality untrue to his own, the one he knew can't change without losing the love. It concludes the dilemma -would it be better now if I didn't change myself for your love?

 In conclusion:

This song asks what is worse: not being loved but being true to yourself or being loved but changing yourself for someone else. It doesn’t answer this question but shows that the lyrical self starts to question his choice of lying as he realises he can’t ignore who he really is and still feels the pain. Singularity is a very fitting title for the song as it is about the constant loneliness he felt either way-he is lonely when he is true to himself as no one lives him, and he is lonely when he's loved because no one really bothers to really know and understand him.

I won't dwell into the motives of the video (as I don’t think I could do it well enough), but a few are quite obvious:

·         The dreamlike background of roses represents the fake dream he is living in now-he looks down to the water that hides his true self. Only in these scenes does he wear the LOVED earring. An exception for this is the ending scene where he wears the mask.

·         Speaking of masks: it's the objectification of hiding one's true self.

·         We can see something similar to Turell’s End Around -end around means a solution to a problem that avoids the problem rather than dealing with it directly->instead of accepting he won't be loved someone if he is true to himself he changes himself so he will be loved

·         Taehyung holds the Smeraldo flower in the video whick means the truth I couldn't tell: can't tell he is lying because he won't be loved anymore

·         Taehyung is probably in the same room as Jimin were in Serendipity, as the rectangle shaped light patch seems similar

·         Just plenty of ice, that start to melt and this is shown as the video progresses. The awakening from the dream is shown by the burning of the roses.

·         This might be a far stretch, but I think the stone being showed on Taehyung’s leg has a purpose (other than giving people with foot-fetish what they want ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) It’s either an aquamarine or a light coloured sapphire. I was weird that it was just there so I checked the meanings:

§  Aquamarine: tone of enlightenment, spiritual awareness, and the ability to become attuned to your own emotions, work well with the water symbolism.

§  Sapphire: This crystal will work to preserve your honour, truth, and purity. You will not be able to lie or hold big secrets when you have the energies of this crystal surrounding you. There’s no need to pretend to be someone you’re not, and there’s no need to put on airs. This crystal will see through your facades.

           I think it’s a sapphire. (Source: meanings.crystalsandjewelry)

·         He wanted the other person’s love more than he loved himself that’s why he created the persona-exact opposite of the narcissus tale, what they write about in the Billboard article. I was a bit sad.

·         Bit heart-breaking because it could talk about how they think army loves them-now they talk about how they learned to love themselves and only now do they show us burn the stage I mean...

·         Other hr connections:

§  HR part 1: Some moments become more vivid with the passage of time. Many encounters and farewells existed for this moment. A moment that made me believe no matter which alley, which crossroad I walk through, it’ll lead to this place in the end

Serendipity:

-All this is no coincidence

Just, just I could feel that

-Maybe it’s the providence of the universe

It just had to be that, you know I know

-Since the creation of the universe

Everything was destined

§  HR part 2: In the abrupt silence, I realize how beautiful the world is. Just the fact that you are in it makes all the difference. Even if all of these moments are just a lie, I still want to remain here.

Euphoria:

- You are the cause of my euphoria

- When I'm with you I'm in utopia

HR part 2: Why is it that the happiest moments suddenly usher in great fear?

Euphoria:

-Even if the ground cracks

Even if someone shakes this world

Don't let go of the hand you're holding

Please don't wake up from the dream

- Perhaps I'm also in a dream….(but) My surroundings become more and more transparent

-also an euphoric state most of the time is not meant to last

[mara-the-cactupus]

[long post ahead - kind of meta, kind of philosophy; I might rewrite this later but feel free to reblog]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier just... resonates with me on some deeper level, like it’s addressing a hidden part of my subconscious. There’s a tension there, something that has existed under pressure for a long time, and sometimes I forget that exists but other times it feels like it’s just bottled up, boiling over, ready to explode.

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I think that’s why I love the main suite by Henry Jackman, the “Captain America” theme: it starts out quiet, gradually building, persistent and at times violent, breaking up into the harsh Winter Soldier theme but always keeping that forwards momentum, building up that the deep, theater-rumbling tones of helicarriers crashing into the sea and ideals shattering like shifting cracks in age-old ice, but also bringing in the higher, almost wistful strains of purity and hope, lone notes rising brightly only to die out slowly – and the human voices at the end, falling with achingly numb rawness.

It’s not an uplifting song, but I wouldn’t call it “sad” either. It feels like the rage and despair that I feel simmering under the surface, all the time, but at the same time each note feels drawn-out, allowed to cry out but then be held, suspended, until it fades away under the cries of other notes amid the ever-pressing underlying percussion. Like screaming into a void, without any of the relief.

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This to me embodies what I love so much about Steve Rogers’ characterization in this film: he is a man out of his time, struggling to adjust to the world around him, and uncertain whether he even belongs there at all.

Before, he had a mission – his whole life in the first movie was dedicated to fighting bullies, becoming a soldier, winning the war. He had ideals, and confidence in his side’s rightness. He had friends.

Coming out of that, and being thrust into the modern era with its high-tech spies and moral complexity, not being able to know for certain that the cause he was fighting for was right, or even respecting of him as an individual and not a pawn – and extending into his personal life, likely not even knowing for certain whether he wanted to continue living in this strange dream-universe of America, isolated from his friends and his sense of identity – that must have caused tremendous mental trauma, and it feels like Steve is still internalizing all of it, still struggling to pick up the pieces and catch up on all of the history and pop culture he’s missed, not really having any time or putting in any effort to make real human connections.

The way he brushes off Nat’s attempts to set him up on a date, the way he can’t trust his own team or his superior, the way he watches Peggy slowly fade away and shies away from Sam’s initial attempts to befriend him – he isn’t really grounded in the world.

He doesn’t have a place.

He seems cool on the outside, but you can hear all of the suppressed rawness at having been ripped out of his world and thrust into a new one through the music of the score.

The Winter Soldier’s theme is much more visceral, with metal screaming at the violation of his bodily autonomy and sense of humanity, at the state of his mind having been wiped and reprogrammed again and again; but Steve’s theme feels numb, drawn out in agonizing quietness, like the ice he was trapped in hasn’t completely thawed.

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I can empathize with Natasha, as someone watching another person’s struggle from the sidelines, wondering how or even if I can comfort him when I don’t have any of the answers myself. She’s had to come to terms with the nature of her job years before, and understands that the world is too complex to really get attached to a side or hold yourself to a moral standard every time.

I love Sam, who understands this too but chooses to make a difference by building connections with people like Steve, to be better than the system, rather than wallowing in alienation from it.

And I feel that duality of Steve’s numbness and Bucky’s viscerality sharply; they each fight with the instinctual need to survive, to have some sort of autonomy in that moment even though neither of them is really free in their own lives.

That terror that Bucky wears on his face, in his eyes, at not being in control, at being forced to hurt others and do things that he would regret if he could remember them afterwards – the feeling that if he could just remember, there was something important there but it’s floating in and out of view, the tip of an iceberg, and if he gets too close it might gash into his industrially-constructed shell and sink him, drowning under the horror of everything he’s done – although I can’t relate to his physical experiences, that expression of terror embodies the raw mixture of rage, fear, and shame that at times threaten to tear through my conscience, if I spend too much time thinking about the world’s injustices and my role in perpetuating them. I don’t feel in control; the problems are too big.

And even though I’m not actually committing such grave crimes as assassination, sometimes it feels like They are forcing me to drive a knife through the heart of my fellow humans, forcing me to gun down the oppressed people within our society and trigger bombs all over the face of mother earth as I watch from within, trapped inside my own body, not in control.

.

The world is filled with Alexander Pierces and Nick Furys. And like Steve, I really don’t know if we can trust either. There’s a law in social science that states that no matter how good-intentioned people are, all leaders or organizations will inevitably become corrupted into preserving their own power over continuing to prioritize the organization’s goals. I don’t know how true that is, but the reality is that the world today scares me, and sometimes it feels like you really can’t trust anyone.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the people around me, and their good values and kind hearts, when the institutions and stratification loom above us like skyscrapers, casting massive shadows. How do we change all of that, within our lifetimes? How can we stop these deep-rooted problems before they destroy us? Is it even possible?

.

I feel like Steve’s displacement is a metaphor for my mental shift from childhood to adulthood. As a kid, I had lots of stong-held hopes and ideals about how the world worked. I was caught in that “good-old-days” mentality of Steve’s 1940s, aware of some of the ground-level problems but still confident in the idea that we can win the war, and then come home, and at least that will be a victory.

But being thrust into the reality of today, and not just the recent problems but also the realization that these problems have been happening this whole time – like Hydra, present within the very system I thought was pure – and that the people around me, already adults, are numb to these issues and have moved on in accordance with them... that was soul-crushing.

And I started emulating them, building back the walls of my little bubble, alternating between reading the news and then hiding in a shelter of books and dreams: feeling at one moment like the world is beautiful, the ocean and the sun are beautiful, nothing can crush my unbridled happiness – and then feeling the stress of deadlines and my future looming over me the next, and beginning to unpack the problems in society and realize how they work and how they will continue, reeling with the ideas of a journal article still fresh in my head as I walk into a grocery store and am hit with the sheer amount of plastic, the food waste, the low prices that I know come from exploitation but also the pressure to save money in our capitalist society.

And suddenly the thought of the ocean and the sun feels like a distraction, because the ocean is filling with plastic and chemicals and I need to do something to prevent another oil spill, but I can’t, because They’re too powerful and wealthy and I’m still trying to grapple with student loans – and why am I even worrying about this, when we’re bombing the Middle East and no one knows why because they don’t teach us about that in school, because this is America, because our country is founded on that poisonous combination of individuality and go-go-go accumulation, and the way that you win is to exploit the land and the people and anything else that gets in your way, and we all know that deep down but it’s wrapped in that propaganda that says that hey, maybe I can be one of the winners, and we’ve dominated so much of this planet that I don’t know how any alternate system can hope to overcome.

And it’s just one long, drawn-out scream underlying everything I do. Internalized, numb. Like that rawness has been put on ice, hushed, and a glossed-over version has been put on display in an air-conditioned museum: the facts are glorified and the electricity pollutes, but I’m tired of thinking that way so I just embrace the numb Americana of it all. The carpet is muffling, in a comforting sort of way, and the air is cool and smells faintly of cologne. This is not my world, but it’s the ideal that they present to me. I can see through the veil but at the same time I don’t want to... and so I don’t. Until that underlying rage comes back into the picture, and threatens to boil over, and I feel the shriek of metal all over again.