#I am not that big on western verses BUT
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Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel are inconsistent in their origins, not just the world building
I want to post something I've been thinking about for a while, and I haven't seen it mentioned too much in the critical community.
The world of HB/HH is a mess, and I don't mean the worldbuilding of the shows.
Disclaimer/Info: I grew up in the Protestant church, specifically: Methodist, Southern Baptist, and Charismatic. I am very familiar with Protestant Christianity in the US, including the Evangelical church thanks to a family member. I am no longer religious, but not quite atheist, and I wanted to shout into the void.I will say that I do not particularly care about the inaccuracies. I grew up with so much media misconstruing mainstream beliefs, and now, I just don't care about what Vivziepop does in regards to whether something is accurate or not. This is more of a ramble about why the elements are clashing.
Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel pull from a long list of sources when it comes to world building and they all contribute to criticisms of the execution.
TLDR : Vivziepop pulls from varied, disparate sources, and does not integrate them in a logical way, making the world of Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel an even larger mess.
The main inspirations:
Dante's Inferno: This one is pretty obvious. The idea of rings of Hell come from Dante's Inferno specifically. Except, she isn't depicting the rings Dante described: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. (Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante))
Seven Deadly Sins: The concept of the deadly sins originated in the fourth century, and was revised in the sixth. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins)
Hell: This one is obvious. Vivziepop is depicting Christian Hell as a place where sinners are tormented for all eternity. Hell does not exist in the canon Bible, and not in the way churches preach about it. (Source: https://www.paulmclellan.com/blog/2019/4/9/hell-as-a-lake-of-fire-for-eternal-punishment-does-not-exist-in-the-bible). Lots of misconstrued verses lead to this idea, and I suggest looking more into it.
Okay, so Christian Hell, as taught by churches in let's say in mainstream Western Christianity (US caveat aside). That's perfectly fine!
But then we get Alastor.
Before I say anything else, I am white, and I fully acknowledge, appreciate, and defer to the criticisms of depicting a long-demonized religion.
Vivziepop declared Alastor mixed after she was criticized for using Vodou symbols in the pilot when it first aired. The problem with this? It's not canon. If it isn't depicted within the work, it shouldn't be considered gospel. It's like JK Rowling declaring Dumbledore gay. It does not matter if it isn't depicted.
Either way, we have a sinner associated with another religion in Hell... which means, to be consistent in this world, there would be sinners of EVERY SINGLE OTHER RELIGION. Because that is the Hell that churches teach! Anyone who does not believe in Christianity is sentenced to eternal suffering. So there should be a helluva (couldn't resist) lot of sinners that follow Hinduism, Islam, Judaism (yep, God's chosen people, but they would be sent to Hell in mainstream Christian doctrine), etc. But, Viv wouldn't dare to depict that (I am not saying she should). If one religion is depicted in Hell, then ALL religions must be depicted in Hell.
Onto the next big thing:
Demon Origins: So, we have mainstream depictions of Hell, and also Dante's inferno, and now we are adding in...
Demons from the Lesser Key of Solomon including Paimon and Stolas (Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Weyer; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_demons_in_the_Ars_Goetia).
Asmodeus from the Book of Tobit. This book is canon in the Eastern Orthodox, but not in the Jewish Orthodox, or the Protestant.. conglomeration (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Tobit).
The Seven Deadly Princes from Peter Binsfield (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_demons#Binsfeld's_classification_of_demons)
And then a few canon (as in Biblical canon), demons like Leviathan, Satan and Lucifer.
It's an interesting pull, a lot of demonology books popped up in the 16th century. But, it makes it cluttered. The Lesser Key of Solomon has 72 demons alone! It's plenty good for an afterlife depiction. So Vivziepop has mixed in many sources to depict many demons that don't actually go with the demons in Inferno (for further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malebranche_(Divine_Comedy)). Instead, she mixes the Seven Princes, with the Seven Deadly Sins, and makes those the rings.
And finally:
LILITH
Lilith is a fascinating figure that I really only learned more about recently. Lilith is not canonical in any orthodoxy that I am aware of. She appeared in the Alphabet of Sirach, a work from around 700-1000 CE. I haven't been able to find sources on if she was a part of Jewish culture prior to that time, but I will admit I'm not going SUPER in depth, and here is some further reading:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/alphabet-of-ben-sira
https://www.learnreligions.com/legend-of-lilith-origins-2076660
Lilith is not in Biblical canon, or in the books I previously mentioned. She was mentioned in a few works in the 1800s, as well as in one of Aleister Crowley's books. A quick overview of her figure is that she is thought to be Adam's first wife, who refused to be submissive (and in some teachings, refused to have sex in the Missionary position), and left the Garden of Eden. Some teachings say that she became the mother of demons.
Personal gripe, Lilith could have been incorporated more into Hazbin Hotel because like, give me a dominant woman, who is also a mother, and can fuck up all the demons.
So to tally, we have:
Rings of Hell, but not Dante's.
Seven deadly princes from one author in the 16th century, tied to the seven deadly sins from the fifth.
Ars Goetia, from another author in the 16th century.
Lucifer AND Satan (traditionally, these are considered the same beings, which would make sense for the Hell she is depicting)
Traditional church teachings of sinners being tormented for all eternity
Demons from the Bible, but also Lilith, who is not a canon part of any of the Abrahamic religions (as best as I can tell).
I could also go into how there are only cherubs (weak little guys in the show), and angels. When she could go hard with depicting the hierarchy of angels, after all, she's doing complex nonsense with the demons. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_angels)
All of this leads to a very confused and messy world. Sure, something like this could work! But it definitely doesn't in Vivziepop's world.
End of ramble, and for the amazing creative people that are doing rewrites, maybe some things mentioned here can help!
#helluva boss critical#hazbin hotel critical#helluvaboss critism#hazbin hotel criticism#vivziepop critical#vivziepop criticism#long post#tw: religion
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On modern Laikó, Bouzoukia and Vasilis Karras
Many difficult words, I know 🥹 I have talked before about some genres that are specific to Greek music; one of them is Laikó, which developed during the 50s-60s from rembétiko music. Laiko means "by or for the people" and it can roughly be translated as "popular music". At the time, however, it sounded nothing like what is known as pop in western music scene. It was called laiko because it wasn't chamber or classical upscale music - it was music addressed to everyday people whom it was expressing, their joys, their sufferings, their experience.
In the 80s, laiko music evolved more and diverged into what is now "modern laiko". We can safely say that classic laiko and modern laiko are now quite different genres, different enough that one can like one but not the other, but both express the feelings of everyday people. Modern laiko especially focused on love and heartbreak songs.
The popularity of modern laiko was established in Greek nightlife entertainment venues that are called "bouzoukia". Bouzoukia did develop around 50s-60s too, as taverns with musicians and dancers, however they morphed into their current form around the 80s like the modern laiko music. They go hand in hand.
Bouzoukia are now large venues with live music that open late at night and usually shut at dawn. People usually sit at tables and get drinks there, although some offer food as well. People also dress up to go there, especially women don glitzy dresses. Most bouzoukia have a music program featuring two singers or more. The quality of the singer and the music played depends on the shop and can vary greatly - from plain bad (which earned them the nickname σκυλάδικα - skyládika, dog places) to some of the most famous singers of the laiko / pop music scene. This can also be argued for modern laiko in general; it can vary from instant classics to cheap songs made purely for entertainment. The classic laiko, on the other hand, has way more consistent quality, if not guaranteed.
The way you show your enjoyment or appreciation for the music / singing in bouzoukia has become a well known trait of the Greeks. In bouzoukia Greeks open champagnes or other bottles of drinks and offer them to the singers, they break plates, they throw napkins or they buy disks with flowers - usually carnations or roses - with which they rain on the object of their appreciation; the singer, someone who dances, a person from their company etc
One of the most famous singers of modern laikó and one of the most emblematic figures of bouzoukia was Vasilis Karrás, who passed away a couple of days ago, but I thought of making this post after Christmas.
Vasilis Karras was also a composer and lyricist besides singer, however he was especially loved for his heavy, masculine voice which went well with his trad streetwise looks. He represented the old-school man, the brooding archetype with the good, honest heart . He was a person loved and respected by his peers, known for his generosity. He passed away at the age of 70 after COVID-19 complications and a long battle with cancer.
RIP Vasilis
An example of Greeks showing their love by throwing an entire flower field in Vasilis' feet.
And as a tribute song, even more so like the proper 90s child I am, what more appropriate choice than ΓΥΡΙΣΕ ( COME BACK). Fun fact: the song is also known by a verse in the chorus, Σπάει η φωνή μου σίδερα (Spai i foní mu síthera), which means "my voice bends iron" and, as you understand, it is one of the most memorable lyrics in Greek pop culture.
youtube
EDIT: It's trending now and I stumbled onto it; Unboxholics, popular YouTubers, made a tour video in Karras' farm and his collection of vintage cars two years ago - he was evidently a man who loved life and wanted others to enjoy it with him. I see why his fans call him "big guy", "lord" and "king".
youtube
❤️
#greece#music#songs#greek music#greek songs#greeks#greek people#greek culture#bouzoukia#vasilis karras#rip#Youtube#laiko
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what western media/music do u think the s62 would like ? (ur post abt izana liking mitski oh god help🥲🥲🥲)
I'll be merging these asks. Music taste anon, I hope you see this 😭
Western music that I think S62 might like, with artists (warning: self-indulgent, literally just projected my music taste on some characters but hopefully they still match)
*I might make a separate post for Western media hmm
IZANA
➼ Izana’s favorite music normally falls under the indie and rock umbrellas. He’s partial to 80s-90s rock and alternative rock but enjoys some modern indie artists from time to time. I see that he canonically listens to Queen (though I’m not sure if he does love the band or just one song), so there’s that. Other artists he might listen to are The Rolling Stones, Muse, The Strokes, Aerosmith, The Smashing Pumpkins, Arctic Monkeys (insists he likes their pre-AM music, would make a face if you tell him your favorite Arctic Monkeys song is “Do I Wanna Know”) ... and Mitski..... (you know why)
➼ His favorite Mitski album is Bury Me At Makeout Creek by the way.
Get a feel of his music taste: The View From The Afternoon - Arctic Monkeys, Tonight, Tonight - The Smashing Pumpkins, Angie - The Rolling Stones
RAN
➼ Somewhat your mom/dad’s music taste. Probably one of those people who say older music’s better than new music. He’s a New Wave guy. Likes a lot of 70s-80s pop hits; some funk, soul, and disco music; with some alt indie bands sprinkled in. He’s fond of shoegaze because of its floaty and ethereal sound which makes him feel nostalgic and at peace. He also appreciates mesmerizing vocals and orchestral instrumentals, so I think he’d like Florence and Lana if he heard them.
➼ Artists he would probably like: ABBA, Prince, The Cure, The Smiths, New Order, Cocteau Twins, Lady Gaga (I think she was big in Japan + her songs probably played a lot in clubs + she was always doing something shocking and Ran liked that)
Get a feel of his music taste: Lullaby - The Cure, Heart of Glass - Blondie, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! - ABBA
RINDO
➼ He’s into R&B, soul, 90s rap like Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, and Ice Cube. That’s what you’d usually hear playing in his room while he’s chilling. He’d listen to DJs too, of course, but maybe to the more underrated ones. (I don’t know that many DJs so I’m not giving names) He shares Ran’s taste for Prince. As for some newer artists, I think he’d like Joji and Childish Gambino.
➼ Likes EDM but frowns upon the EDM of the early 2010s. He has pretty strong feelings about it. Never play The Chainsmokers in his presence or die.
➼ His and Ran’s music tastes overlap when it comes to indie/alternative artists. Both brothers act like snobs over it. Rindo actually buys and collects records (as you can see, he has a CD and DVD shelf in his room), searching for rare versions of his favorites and everything.
Get a feel of his music taste: You Know How We Do It - Ice Cube, Redbone - Childish Gambino, Pony - Ginuwine
SHION
➼ Metal, metalcore, punk rock, emo. Anything that includes loudness and screaming. Because of Rindo’s influence, he also got into some 90s hip hop himself. I think he’d enjoy the way someone like Eminem raps. He could never get into chill R&B though, and most pop songs are either too “happy” or too “sappy” for him and he just wants something that screams in rage most of the time.
➼ He’d enjoy Deftones’ Around The Fur album, as well as My Chemical Romance’s stuff, some Evanescence here and there (he’s had a crush on Amy Lee at some point), Bring Me The Horizon, Three Days Grace, Slipknot, and old Metallica
Get a feel of his music taste: Around The Fur - Deftones, Master of Puppets - Metallica, Na Na Na - My Chemical Romance
MOCCHI
➼ He likes hip hop/rap like Rindo so they often bond over that. Mocchi listens to both male and female rappers and will not hesitate to rap extremely explicit verses if urged. Others’ music tastes easily rub off on him, so Izana’s alternative rock, Mucho’s oldies, Shion’s metal, and Ran’s disco pop have all found a place in his playlists.
➼ The type of guy to have a Taylor Swift (he likes Back to December) or Britney Spears CD hidden somewhere in his room. Also got into One Direction at one point. If anyone asks, he’ll says it’s his girl’s or mom’s.
➼ Okay, not Western, but he listens to Kpop and Jpop and stans girl groups.
Get a feel of his music taste: No Diggity - Blackstreet, Family Affair - Mary J. Blige, Dilemma - Nelly ft. Kelly Rowland
MUCHO
➼ If Ran’s got the music taste of your mom, then Mucho’s got the music taste of your grandparents. His taste in oldies is a lot similar to Ran’s but goes further back in time. He enjoys the “classy” feel of most of these songs and the way these singers sing. His favorite genres are funk, soul, R&B, and some oldies pop.
➼ You rarely hear music playing in his house. But if you do, it might be Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Bee Gees, The Carpenters, or Simon & Garfunkel.
➼ And as for some more modern artists: Coldplay, Hozier, and Silk Sonic. Would enjoy Lana del Rey’s style too, especially her Ultraviolence songs.
Get a feel of his music taste: How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees, Yesterday Once More - The Carpenters, Viva La Vida - Coldplay,
KAKUCHO
➼ Kakucho listens to music to relax. He usually likes to play music while he’s cooking, cleaning, or just idling around (though that’s rare). His taste is more of chill, easy listening. Izana and Rindo influenced him to like alt-indie, R&B, and rap as well.
➼ Kaku doesn’t “stan” artists. If you ask him who his favorite artist is, you would not get an answer. He’ll listen to anything that sounds good to him no matter what people think of it.
➼ That said, he’s the person Izana makes a face at for saying that his favorite Arctic Monkeys song is “Do I Wanna Know?”
Get a feel of his music taste: Tek It - Cafuné, Clouds - BØRNS, Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys
#answered#tenjikubaby#izana kurokawa#ran haitani#rindou haitani#shion madarame#kanji mochizuki#yasuhiro muto#kakucho
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@amadaans
satya thinks about that for a moment. the logic there is sound, and makes sense if one thinks about it. one becomes attracted to the more, the desire to see what one could get away with. she isn't well-versed in religion, certainly not anything so western. still, she can't help but question — "i was under the understanding that all sins are created equal. whether it is a big sin or a little sin, they all send you to hell."
certainly not something she believes in, but it is an interesting concept to learn about.
「 ༀ - i am unsure
if he meant it in terms of religion 」
the monk re-assured,
clearly understanding the contradiction
just as much as she was.
cut and dry judgement
where any sin leads to damnation...
not something he is quite a fan of
nor a subscriber to.
「 ༀ - although in some practices
redemption come from actions;
a way to show repentance.
and the act of repentance
changes for the sin
- even if all leads to oblivion. 」
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I expected the lyrics to go south the moment Jack Harlow was announced as the collaborator. The lyrics are just another Friday for Harlow and I am honestly desensitized to lyrics like these. It's not like you can expect much from mass media anyways. My problem is I am a huge rap fan and among hip hop fans Jack Harlow is a joke. His quality of music is ass. Who rhymes Jungkook with untook? I expected the collab to go south the moment he was announced as the collaborator. His verse is corny, lame and lacks conviction. Like a man talking big game without having any game.
Also why does it seem like Jungkook and his team have a completely wrong understanding of the western market and are going about his pop boy journey in a way that's bound to make him to not be taken seriously. And it's not like BTS haven't some amazing, tasteful and timeless pop classics before. With that being said the 2000s Justin Timberlake vibe suits him. Hope he pursues it seriously and with producers who can help him grow.
idk what else i can add to this that i haven't already said before and that you haven't articulated so nicely. yeah 💜
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Chapter 2, Route_A: Ascent
A Chapter of the 'SEER' or 'Spontaneous Edifice Emergence / Reification' Storyline. This is Route_A. For Route_B, and previous chapters, see my previous posts.
CW: Gore, Disturbing Content, Body Horror, Mutation, MURICA (Mocking it tho), General Horror and Surreal Content
Song Title: Jim's Favorite Sweets (I am not fucking kidding)
Lyrics: Started off kind of slow and annoying, like 'Oh Jim was a good lad, but he loved himself some sweets, and he'd do damn near anything to get himself some treats.' Not a joke, that was the opening lyric. It was like, country western sounding, sort of, but sterile and super… poppy, you know? Like shit designed by a fuckin' algorithm. Also, there were… like jingle bells? Like, it was country-western, but like, country western Christmas music.
Anyway, the lyrics went on to describe Jim's love of sweet shit some more, but gradually it took on a darker cast when Jim discovered 'sweet meat.' It wasn't really immediately clear what this meat was, but it was revealed in the next verse that this meat was first found on a kid named 'Jamie.' It was… the meat was Jamie. Jim ate him for days, apparently, slowly, and it went into really… extreme detail on how he kept him alive, and it compared him to a cow, like Jim was farming it, feeding him to make the meat sweeter.
It was… really fucking gross. Finally, Jim was too big???? And he had to eat a lot more. There was a ton of detail about all of it, about him finding more… meat, and like, raising all of it and stuff, it was. I don't know. It sounded, it kept comparing it to, it was… fuck. It was like factory farms, it sounded like.
The last line was about how Jim was like, going to expand, how he'd found his calling, selling the sweetest meat to other meat eaters.
I don't know. This place is already fucking getting to me.
J woke with a start as a rhythmic pounding rattled the doors. It took some time for xim to get xis head on straight, to get a handle on where xe even was.
Ultimart, but in the nightmare that somehow was actual real life. Xis neck hurt, for starters, and sitting up sent a few packs of cigarettes tumbling off of the cig wall and-
"Right. Great," xe muttered. Xe was still there indeed, still at the store, and the horrible throbbing from xis left hand told xim that none of it had been a nightmare, despite that all of it had felt like one.
Sighing, xe stood up slowly and rolled xis head, neck cracking enough times to be medically concerning. Tiredly, xe looked to the door, and saw that someone was standing there, pounding repeatedly on the glass - headbutting it, actually.
Piled up around the feet of this 'person' were dozens of other 'people' who looked to have bashed their heads on the doors until their skulls split open and their brains all spilled out, grotesque and gray and smashed under feet into a thick sort of paste splattered low down on the doors.
Sighing, xe stood up and looked around the store. There wasn't much different, really, except that it was-
"Oh, great," xe muttered, stepping slowly out from behind the counters. The isles used to run a good twelve feet back, with at least ten feet between them and the main counter. This open space was broken up by the presence of the island in the middle, coffee makers present on it, alongside creamer dispensers and the various accouterments used by tired construction workers.
They always looked around, furtively, as they put pumps of sweet flavored syrup, or ice, or sugar and cream or all of the above in their cups. J was used to meeting those gazes with a patient smile, one that xe tried to make sure gave off 'I'm not going to judge you for wanting a coffee flavored milkshake, dude' energy. After all, xe didn't give a shit what they wanted or didn't want, but masculinity amongst the red of neck was fragile and they seemed to fear little more than people seeing them not take their coffee black as ink.
J was of the opinion people should just get the fuck over it and drink their sweet tasty coffee. Xe sold it with a smile and not an ounce of comment. There was a fragile, tenuous trust between early morning patrons and the night worker, one J already missed in this fucking nightmare.
Walking, slowly, xe made xis way towards the back, past two brand new coffee islands largely similar to the first but with significant variation in coffee flavors and syrup varieties.
At the third island, xe stopped and stared at one of the flavors, trying to process the fact that the space between main counter and isles was now at least fifty feet.
Blonde roast, dark chocolate… and the creamers…
Sighing, xe set to work making a cup. Breakfast needed to happen. While the coffee brewed, xe walked into the overlong isles, glancing at the 'pastry' section. It used to occupy only two shelves, albeit with them stocked absolutely full to the gills.
Now, it stretched on for ten feet, with products, flavors and variations that xe had never seen stocked before. Bizarrely, some of the packaging had a smudged, unnatural sort of look that made the brand names, product names or other information unreadable.
Curious, J tugged a package off the shelf that was about a foot wide, three inches tall, and four inches deep. It was all brown cardboard, unadorned and with no wrapping to speak of. One word was emblazoned on it, in filigreed script.
Breakfast.
Uncertain, xe sat down crosslegged and opened the box gingerly, in case it bit. Instead of biting, the inside surfaces of the cardboard were coated in a white plastic without seams, as if the box had been built around it. The entire thing was divided into compartments, one full of yellow business labelled as eggs, another with small pancakes, another with hashbrowns, and a final one, bizarrely, with a small piece of chocolate cake - small, as if a tiny cake had been made, and then sliced.
With a sigh, xe took the breakfast into the back room, and shoved it in the microwave, following the instructions and removing the tiny cake slice first. In a mere few minutes, xe was sitting at the chair set up near the storage room's desk, wondering if the internet still worked on the training computer.
It did not, so xe just ate passable eggs and adequate pancakes in silence, staring at the screensaver. It made xim feel marginally more human to be fed, and a few snagged-on-the-way sports drinks took care of hydration. All told, it had been thoroughly acceptable.
The cake, however, xe had to admit, was the unquestionable star of the show - soft, moist, rich and with high quality frosting and little crunchy bits between the layers of cake. Tiny though it was, it was ridiculously filling.
Satisfied, xe returned to the main store, wandering the isles in vague confusion before stopping by the coffee bar and making another cup. Xe sipped it slowly, trying to decide what to do.
The answer was obvious.
"So, I have to get out of here," J murmured, quietly, to no one in particular, glancing to the doors. The glass was vibrating with each impact of the customer's head, and as xe watched, two more stumbled up. These newcomers were distorted, disquieting people-shaped shitshows. The one on the left had a brow ridge so overgrown and intense that there were no eyes beneath it just lumpy, blistered flesh.
The other one just ended at the neck, in terms of meat, the rest of its upper body being entirely fused bone. All told, it looked like a half-melted candle in the shape of a neck and skull. When they started bashing their heads against the door, the slams were hard and clacky. It only took a few impacts for J to be certain this sanctuary was safe no more.
Worse yet, beyond them, sluggishly stumbling past the gas pumps, were more deformed, distorted… 'customers.'
"Fuck," xe muttered, dropping the bottle of water. Leaving via the front was not an option, and leaving at all seemed really fucking bad. The dreamlike state brought on by what xe assumed was a mixture of trauma and sleeping sitting against a fucking wall of cigarettes was absolutely gone. Adrenaline and a bit of brekkie really was a hell of a drug. "Okay. Okay, supplies."
With the store extended, and strange shit all over, xe set to work. The first thing recovered was from the extended housewares isle. Past the usual flour and salt, sugar, pepper and salt, there was… merchandise. This section had, for an inexplicable reason, extended further than the others, all the way to the very back where the coolers took an architecturally unnerving right angle instead of remaining a flat wall of glass doors - it was as if someone had built the store just to accommodate this one impossible set of shelves.
All that mattered was the heavy duty backpacks, all heavily branded and ugly as fucking sin, but beggers couldn't be choosers and J wasn't in the mood to go slow with a fucking caveman with no eyes and Mr. Bonehead at the entry.
Bag in hand, xe took a left, feeling deeply unwilling to venture into the corridor of coolers forcibly (presumably) created by the hyperextension of the merchandise and housewares. This annoyance of a nonsensical floorplan meant that, at the far end of the store from the counter, xe was cut off totally from the front of the store to the right of xim, but…
That freaky old lady had brought a fully barcoded, priced knife to the register, and a knife sounded pretty damned...
Useful...
"What the shit?" xe asked, softly. Apparently, the store had extended front to back when xe wasn't looking, but only in the isles area. Previously, front to back, there had been four isles. Now, it was six, and the remaining sections had strange labels.
J started in the one labelled 'Knives and Survival Gear.'
Yeah, the store had a life bait cooler and some deer attractant and predator repellent, a bit of fishing shit, but… this…
Ten minutes of stuffing shit into the backpack later, J rushed to the end of the isle and watched the Bonehead slam its cranium into the glass again. A crack appeared. Those doors were old, and heavy, but they weren't going to hold much longer.
"Shit, shit, shit," xe muttered, a renewed sense of urgency leading xim down the isle marked 'America, Y'all' which was… out of place, to say the least, even if it was in the utterly unoffensive, completely plain font that the rest of the clear, high contrast signs in the damned place were. This isle didn't travel straight, but instead curved back and forth in shallow waves, every single product emblazoned with an American flag, or some heinous cartoonish depiction of a dead president, or Uncle Sam.
First, there were fireworks, which actually made a lot of sense, and then all manner of hot sauces, barbecue sauces, several sauces that insisted (in loud fonts, right on their front labels) that they were largely made of butter and corn syrup, and then several unrefrigerated bottles of 'Patriot Punch,' whose ingredients list-
"Really?" xe asked, staring. All one ingredient was, as far as the bottle said, pure red dye number three.
The cancer one.
Red dye number three, J was pretty sure, was the seriously dangerous cancer one.
Amused and not, at once, xe rushed onward down the wavy isle until reaching a section covered in weapons, all emblazoned in flags and expected bullshit. This section ended just past the crossbows in heavy stacks of bone extending from the ends, looking an awful lot like spinal columns. Meat grew from the ragged, jagged metal edges, twitching and slick, fibrous and shiny white in places with tendon and ligament.
J slipped trying to take a step, and landed in thick, sticky white liquid. For a moment, xe just laid there, trying very hard not to think about what, precisely, that thick liquid could be.
It also made some very uncomfortable suggestions about the wavy isle - and upon looking back, J noted that it curved the other direction, as if it had shifted smoothly and silently.
"Yeah, no, fuck this," xe muttered, returning to the crossbows and grabbing a garish sort of thing, a terrifically ugly flag pattern crossbow that looked pretty sturdy and modern, a quiver that had an actual cartoon George Washington on it, which didn't make any fucking sense.
What made even LESS sense was stupid American flag suit he wore. It wasn't even the CORRECT damned flag for when George 'Brutal Racist' Washington was fucking president.
It didn't matter. The telltale sound of glass cracking told xim that it was time to go. The isle ending in flesh, blood and spines was, at a glance, undulating fast enough for it to be visible now, and in a distinctly… crushing and mashing pattern, bringing the isle to narrow points and wider points that flowed from the counter side of the store to the drink coolers.
The word 'intestinal' rose bizarrely to mind.
It'd turn xim to paste, digestive style, and that was not J's idea of a good time.
So, xe ran, sprinting down the farthest isle and past the open dairy cooler before-
Xe stopped, turning to stare at the open, cold shelves and the jugs of milk and water, the cans of cold coffee, and the various familiar human heads set up in neat rows beneath plastic cloches. Coworkers.
They were all coworkers.
And each one of the coworker heads were represented multiple times, stacked back on an extra shelf that was forced in between the bottom one where the milk sat and the shelf above that where the packaged sandwiches still sat, pristine and overpriced. Smoothly, the sandwich shelf had been pushed upwards, stretching the entire open case right up to the drop-ceiling tiles.
A crash, the doors breaking, made xim pause, glancing that way. Bonehead staggered in. Flakes of oss drifted off of its jaw as it opened a mouth that had, previously, been fused shut.
"I WANT… SODA!" it howled, in a 'woodchipper being fed sheet metal and nearing total mechanical failure' sort of voice.
"Nah," xe muttered, rushing to the back door and finding it had been replaced with a solid brick wall.
Sparing ximself the second to mutter 'oh fuck,' xe silently turned and pushed into the back room, taking note of nothing save for the fact that xe couldn't see the wall to the right, which upon entering that room, would have previously been two feet away, roughly.
Grunting with the effort, xe dragged the nearest shelving unit in front of the door and then turned, facing the then distant far wall. Baffled, but panic-fuelled and unwilling to be pulled apart by freak fucking zombies…
Xe unplugged the standing freezer and dragged it out from the wall, watching the shelf covered in bottles of chemicals and drain cleaner tablets shudder under the impact of the 'customers' beyond. Thankfully, the standing freezer was on decent wheels, and it drifted smoothly ahead, until its enormous bulk was pressed against the chemical shelf. A few wheel-locks later, and at minimum, J had a few minutes to take stock.
There, xe found ximself walking behind the rolling racks of backstock, staring up into the darkness overhead. Every single shelf vanished into that black obscurity, some things far above in the black glowing softly in oddly organic patches…
And then, xe saw down the length of the shelves...
A potential route out of that hellhole.
Thump after thump set the impression of a timer in xis head, so xe ran to salvation and started climbing the red painted rungs of a roof access ladder that xe had never fucking seen before. All of the rolling racks were far away, far enough away that xe was able to, at very least, largely ignore the implications of shifting grub-like things nestled bio-luminescently alongside the stocking boxes.
Xe just had to hope Bonehad and Caveman, and their mutant compatriots, couldn't fucking climb.
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Okay first listen through of TTPD standard edition thoughts:
This is very sonically cohesive I think? I know some people were irritated she didn’t go in a new sound but honestly this album isn’t about the sound. It’s about the lyrics. Most of her albums find a balance of production and lyrics but I truly think that for this record more than any other the lyrics are supposed to shine. I really like it I think. We will see after a few more listens but there’s some high points and there’s some lows (tattooed golden retriever I’m looking you 🥴)
Fave 3:
Florida!!!
Down Bad
The Alchemy
Best 3:
But Daddy I Love Him
So Long, London
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
Fortnight
Functioning alcoholic?? Ma’am?? Im confused a little by the lyrics and the perspective here. Also, why are you’re so murderous Taylor?? It sounds nice though! Love Posty’s vocals in the background. This song is definitely going to be stuck in my head at random times. This would have been huge on Tumblr during 2014-2015. 7/10? I think this may be a grower for me.
The Tortured Poets Department
Okay drums! “Who uses a typewriter anyway” get his pretentious ass Taylor. Personally not loving that slip into a falsetto in “hold me” but I digress. The second verse (?) where the Puth and gold retriever line is? 🤨 “we’re crazy” a self aware queen… this is not my favorite? It’s not bad but I don’t think I will actively seek it out. 6/10
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
I really like this heavy dark synth in the background. I fear this is about J*e and RIP buddy. She’s the only person who could get away with “litany of reasons” in a song. Queen of Sandcastles?!?! The bridge is ruining me, girl was going through it. 8/10, I think.
Down Bad
I fear this one may let me down because I loved that stupid AI snippet that went viral on TikTok lmao. I wasn’t sure about the first verse but HOLY SHIT THIS CHORUS. “Fuck it” Ms. Swift I am scandalized (no I’m not you go queen). The gaylors are going to run wild with the “I lost my twin” bit 🙄. Love this one!! 9/10
So Long, London
Admittedly I hear a leak snippet of this one beforehand but I do love the production of this one. The intro is a bit jarring at first but it goes with the rest of the song well! Her voice sounds so fucking good here. The lyrics are ripping me apart. “All that youth for free” ouch ouch ouch ouch. This somehow sadder than Tolerate It???? Like they tried to soften the blow with the production but oh my god. 10/10
But Daddy, I Love Him
I’ve heard whisperings that there’s shade to the “SpeakUpNow” travesty that happened last May? Get them parasocial weirdos girl. Oh god yeah this is definitely in relation to Taylor Swift™️ and how people forget she’s an actual human fucking being. Honestly I love this and some of it reminds me of Fearless kind of?? But also girl is a little delulu here. Love the BRIDGE YES YES YES. big dictionary girl here. I feel like the last verse is more towards TK than matty but I could be wrong?? This is not a song I will reach for but it is really so so good. 9/10
Fresh Out the Slammer
The western twangy start? Interesting. Love her delivery and cadence here. Matty really wasn’t the only consistent guy on the roster huh? Good for you girl. Another song a little delulu but I forgive her. Another one I think the Gaylors are going to take and run with 🙄 this may be the first “filler” so far but it’s not really 7/10
Florida!!!
I’m so excited for this one personally. OH MY GOD THE CEREMONIALS INFLUENCE. FLORENCE!!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. Another hint at murder??? Oh she was PISSED. This song is going to make me get a speeding ticket. The BRIDGE!!!!!!!!!! The feeling of restlessness when you feel stuck I life and up and running to Florida, she’s just like me fr. 10/10 immaculate
Guilty as Sin?
Blue Nile? Oh this is about Matty. Loving the instrumental. This is such a “windows down cruising on the highway” song. The vibes are so good. Oh girl… you want him so bad. I love this one, it reminds me of something but I can’t put my finger on it. Also the religious references in this one? Wow. THE FINAL CHORUS?? Jack Antonoff they could never make me hate you. 9/10
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me
This is haunting. The lyrics are so dark but her delivery is almost smug? Excellent. “Whos afraid of little old me? You should be??” Again, a self aware queen. Also for some reason I’m getting Control by Halsey vibes?? She’s never beating the witchcraft allegations, sorry. She’s slowly loosing her mind over the course of this song and oh my god. “Sue you”????? Oh girl get them. This is one where I probably won’t reach for it but it is such a good good song holy fuck 9/10. Self written and self produced too?
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
I don’t know why people thought this is about Matty, this to me is so clearly about Joe I think. The outlaw imagery paired with the production is so interesting. The lyric change at the end? Love it. Overall this isn’t my fave? 6/10
Loml
Oh this one is going to hurt me isn’t it. It’s so clear that she really does value marriage and wanted that with her past partners, which makes Lavender Haze so heartbreaking in retrospect. The chorus is going to make me sob so thank you Taylor. Wait wait wait, “Mr. Steal Your Girl” ma’am???? Be serious. Well this is about Joe lol. I’m so glad she seems happier now because this was written from a place of deep hurt. 8/10
I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
Holy fucking vibe change from the last song lol. The haters are going to hate this one but it is the classic ironic song that people will love to shit on without using any critical thinking skills. Thematically this is actually kind of genius because the lyrics are depressing and the rhyme is kind of elementary but slapping this beat behind it paints this picture of you know a pop star who has to go out and preform even though everything is falling apart. This stripped down would be devastating. 8/10
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
The inhaled breath to start oh my god we’re crying again. She’s implying he’s poor isn’t she? Oh my god. I do think this one is about Joe again? Stabbed me with my push pins??? Oh girl. Sank in stoned oblivion?? See I don’t think she’d make that comment about an addict who’s clean now but she’s given us other songs where it alludes to the fact that Joe smokes (YOYOK, paper rings, etc). She’s so angry here and it makes me so sad for her because I feel like it’s a feeling most women understand. This hurts so so so bad. 10/10.
The Alchemy
Yes lower register!! Ohhh this is a love song 🥹 also is this about TK? The team references?? I love this one. Another that I can see with windows down, cruising on a highway. Okay wait maybe Matty? That heroin line sounds like a joke he would make lol but everything else is so TK coded so idk. This scratches my brain in such a nice. 9/10
Clara Bow
This is definitely going to be in the same category of The Lucky One and Nothing New isn’t it? STEVIE NICKS SHOUTOUT OH MY GOD!!!! Oh this is bittersweet. Oh my god that last bit about TS with edge? How hard it must be to be this self aware and yet still have to sort of accept that fate. 8/10.
Okay that’s the end of the standard edition!!!
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💡Lightbulb Moment💡
There comes a point where, if you've read enough of the comics by Lars Jansson, or even those handful where he collaborated with Tove as a writer for the "Jansson" phase of the comics (as I like to call it), you notice that the Inspector shows up suspiciously often for a cameo featuring dialog for one or two panels at the very least, and then you hilariously realized that the Inspector is quite possibly Lars' favorite non-main character.
It's so silly, this guy barely had a personality, he was like a different hemulen every comic along with every other police hemulen up until Club Life in Moominvalley where he's finally given his iconic scarf and obliviousness but not much else, and then Lars comes in and picks this guy up by the scruff and decided to make him one of the most queercoded guys in the comic.
I hear Lars had a big interest in detective novels and had experience translating them but I'm not as well-versed with the life stories of the Janssons as I am with their Moomin works so I could be missing something but my word does Lars' favoritism become apparent by the time you realize the first comic he made after the whole strip was given to him established some very major details about the police station's operations and it becomes difficult to name a strip thereafter that doesn't have atleast one panel featuring the Inspector in some capacity.
This isn't a criticism as much as it is an amusing observation because I myself am an Inspector enjoyer, I am glad Lars made him quite the character, he is charmingly silly, he goes against many hemulenish and police conventions of the time and he casually rebels against conventions of traditional western masculinity.
Possibly the first appearance of the Inspector we know was in Moomin and the Martians, where he is the second police Inspector to show up in the comic and is mostly irritated by being a walking lightbulb because of the alien device, then was followed adoringly by the Martian because he reminds him of his electric mother. When the effects of the device wore off, he greets the Martian enthusiastically but the Martian is upset and wants to go back to his mum, and despite learning that this small creature is the Martian that the police has been searching for through the entire comic, he does the kindness of trying to comfort him and takes him to the Moomins via blanketed basket, even calling the Martian a darling when speaking with Moominpappa. I would also like to note he's the first ever policeman who took his hat/helmet off in the whole comic strip.
The first real establishment of the Inspector's interest in roses was in Moomin Winter, where he mentions them as an excuse to not take in the Nibling in fear of any child's ability to ruin them, even insinuating that they're worse than criminals. He's also established as a sweet tooth, a fact that he is embarrassed to admit even to Moominmamma who seems to be a very close old friend according to an earlier comic, Club Life in Moominvalley. He also sneaks into Moominhouse's basement to play poker and drink home-distilled whiskey with Moominpappa and Wimsy whom are established as having very troublesome pasts.
Moomin's Lamp, Lars' first comic, established his "prisons" to be very homely, filled with frilly decorum and motivational quotes amidst the etched wall graffiti and traditional prison bed, and the Inspector would cook meals for the prisoners, and while Finland is currently known to have very humane prisons these days, this comic was published in 1960 when the idea of prisons being a place for rehabilitation wasn't a popular idea.
And this is only to mention the major points of his character development, there are many things to point out about the Inspector between and after these comics. There's points to be made about his taste in interior design, his fixation on roses even above his job, his consumption of detective novels, his less than dignified sweet tooth and tea parties with the other police officers, his minor-to-possibly-major crimes, his ownership of weapons (none of which are firearms), his straight up avoidance of duty in the winter, his status as a bachelor, his leniency, his relationship with Stinky and even the Moomins and his constables, his nephew, so many things about him as so fascinating for me to think about.
And to have all of this be watered down/straightwashed in the 90s series then straight up ignored in the 2019 series feels like a bummer to me. Most of what made his character feel so out of place yet right at home in Moominvalley is his queerness and otherwise general disinterest in his job, and while queer people have had a long history of practically being at war with the police and the law as a whole, I think the Police Inspector being the way he is reinforces the queer fantasy of the Moomins.
(You sound like you're concerned about him finding something in particular out, Mr. Inspector. Even Snorkmaiden is raising her eyebrow)
And to have this characterization coming from Lars' writing when he doesn't seem to put that much queerness into other things is something to consider I think.
Also I got off track from what I initially wanted to say about his almost customary cameos in the Lars comics but I keep laughing thinking about how Lars put what could likely be his grandparent in a time travel comic, the resemblance between them is uncanny despite the different uniform.
#moomins#moominvalley#moomin#lightbulb moment#moomin comics#lars jansson#lars comic#the inspector#moomin inspector#character analysis#long post
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can i say i think you might be blaming jk too much for this? jk's part is entirely problem-free. idk i honestly think the only problematic thing for jk himself is him not really getting that jack's part isn't just sexual, like he asked for him to make it, it's also problematic. in his interviews, he seems to view the song as being about 'wanting to be with someone you love'. i don't think his own perspective includes jack's, which involved fucking a whole lot of people and is just there to add more explicitness, as jk's own perspective involves dedication to just one person.
they would have to record the song, then ask harlow to write his verse and stick it in. they would have asked for him to be sexual, which is what his lyrics were. from my experience, someone from the east who learned about problematic stuff by interacting with western culture would honestly trust a western artist to not write something problematic.
jk in these songs is not doing anything unfeminist honestly. he's dedicated to pleasing one girl in both songs. both have consent involved, and the second one straight up says, "if you're ready, if you'll let me"
i'm sorry for saying all this in your asks, i just thought from your previous posts that you might get it when others might not.
like I agree but the meaning is pretty clear if you watch the music video? and did you see the tiktok(?) where jk and jack dance/act to that part and jungkook counts one, two, three four with his fingers. like I think if I put out a song in my name, in a language I'm not fluent in, I would want to know the meaning of the lyrics, instead of evading responsibility just because "I didnt know" right? like the music video is a big part of the problem for me. and that pretty much transcends language.
"from my experience, someone from the east who learned about problematic stuff by interacting with western culture would honestly trust a western artist to not write something problematic." im sorry but idk if I get what you mean by this? genuinely btw ofc! im not taking any offense to your ask just to be clear
yeah definitely agree that the lyrics from his side arent problematic they're just about sex and giving a girl an orgasm basically. but in the context of the mv and jack Harlows part I feel more icky about it. I dont know if you know this about me but I am a raging misandrist? so men in general are walking on a thin line with me. if theyre going to sing about sex (I prefer when they dont – in fact I prefer when people dont sing about sex like this in general, call me a prude I really dont care so. altho I do have many sexual songs on my "jungkook cover this" playlist but theyre mainly about well theyre different and usually by Kim Petras..) and especially (this is just a personal preference) idont like hearing about heterosexual sex. and like obviously this isnt problematic in its nature (or is it? I havent read enough feminist theory sorry) it's just personally im not gonna dig it like jungkook isnt doing anything wrong singing about these things obviously! im just being a hater on my own blog, not everything I say is valid criticism! just my own feelings about things! I think men should be castrated for less than this in general like those are just my feelings
that said I dislike the trend of jungkooks music in general and on a feminist level, wasnt his last mv about begging a girl to have sex with him? like yeah it was endearing because he was submissive about it the whole time but now this, i dont like it.
dont apologize its totally OK, thanks for the ask! im hard on him because my expectations are so high!
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Shadowrun could be the future of Silmarillion verse
Random thought that occurred to me today: the Shadowrun verse could be a future "age" of the Silmarillion verse.
The Silmarillion fandom has people from every generation. Certainly, some of the older fans and even some of the younger fans can be "Western medieval purists" when it comes to the Silmarillion and Tolkien's world in general. So, there is a resistance to futurism.
However, the very concept of Dagor Dagorath suggests that the world is not going to be "medieval" when Morgoth returns.
Now, in Shadowrun, the lore is that at some point, non-humans start to appear in the human world. The explanation in the Shadowrun verse is "unexplained genetic expression (UGE)". But that can be easily modified to a "return/reconnection".
If you think about the "last age of Arda" in Tolkien's verse, it stands to reason that the last age will be kicked off with the return of the dwarves. Technically, the dwarves are supposed to be still here but too deep underground for humans to reach. So reconnecting with the dwarves would be a big indication that the end is nigh!
Secondly, Morgoth is supposed to attack Aman first because that's still where the entrance into Arda from the everlasting darkness exists.
The implication/prophecy says this time around, the Valar and the elves will be wearied enough that Aman will be devastated. So you can see a situation where knowing what's to come, the Valar and Maia reembody every single elven fea that's ever been born, including Feanor and his sons, put them on boats and sends them to Middle Earth, i.e. to us, while they hold the line against Morgoth as long as possible.
However, the Valar and the Maia fail. They have wearied as the song of Arda has gone on. They no longer have the strength to win against Morgoth. They lose, and Aman becomes the staging ground for Morgoth's invasion of Middle-Earth.
So, the straight road becomes cursed because that's what Morgoth is using to send his minions to attack humans, elves, dwarves, and hobbits.
Also, Morgoth would absolutely love corporatism! He is totally someone who would use capitalism fully to just devastate nations and people. He wouldn't even have to trick people because short-termism is so baked into corporate culture that way too many corporate executives would totally side with him.
In the meantime, I could see the returned elves find places for themselves and found new nations and kingdoms. Valar can and have created land out of nothing. So, I think one of their last acts would be to create an elven continent in the Pacific Ocean so the elves don't have to go into a resource conflict with humans immediately.
The new continent, let's go with Mu which an established lost mythical continent. Unless New Zealanders are happy to share their country with elves because the continent of Zealandis is real and if raised would easily support New Zelanders (there is only like 5 million or so of them) + all elves (calculations say that elvish population at their height was around 3 million, throw in baby boom during the long peace and even then I can't see there being more then 10 million elves). Anyway, point is elves establish new nations in their new continent and begin preparation for war with Morgoth and war comes quickly. Any surviving Maia would also seek refuge among the elves.
I can totally see the reborn Feanor totally embracing technology and mixing tech with magic and just leaning really into "magiktech". Sons of Feanor too would just be a bunch of Deckers, Riggers and Celegrom would be a physical adept... am I unfair in how I think Celegrom is just a meathead? 🤔
In conclusion, I totally think that Shadowrun verse is fully compatible with Tolkien verse, and the world of Shadowrun may well be what the last age of Arda looks like because Shadowrun is what would happen if elves, dwarves and magic suddenly returned to our world of technology. While the concept of the final battle with Morgoth implies that magic and magical races like the elves will return to our world before the end...
But mostly, I just want to see the sons of Feanor + Fingon as Shadowrun archetypes!
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Movie Diary 2023
Now that the new year is in full swing I finally have the time to go over my personal stats :D
I've watched 145 movies this year (excluding rewatches) which is just 4 movies shy of my high of 149 movies from 2017 but I didn't even try that hard lol
Shoutout to the roosmav discord with which I've watched many Tom Cruise and Miles Teller movies and which definitely was part of the high number this year - love you guys!
Full list under the cut, my favorites are bold:
001 Legend
002 Emily the Criminal
003 The Banshees of Inisherin
004 The Swimmers
005 Cyrano
006 Thank You for Your Service
007 The Last Samurai
008 Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
009 Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
010 Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
011 National Theatre Live: No Man's Land
012 Strange World
013 21 & Over
014 All Quiet on the Western Front
015 National Theatre Live: Prima Facie
016 Teen Wolf: The Movie
017 Puss in Boots
018 Elivs
019 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
020 Rock of Ages
021 Causeway
022 The Quiet Girl
023 National Theatre Live: All About Eve
024 Triangle of Sadness
025 Minority Report
026 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
027 American Made
028 The Fabelmans
029 Fire of Love
030 The Fabelmans
031 EO
032 Get a Job
033 Cocktail
034 Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
035 Batman Begins
036 Knock at the Cabin
037 Taps
038 Spiderhead
039 A Few Good Men
040 The Whale
041 Apocalypse Now (The Final Cut)
042 Women Talking
043 Miss Americana
044 Devotion
045 Operation Fortune: Ruse due Guerre
046 Tetris
047 Field of Dreams
048 Knight and Day
049 Missing
050 Shazam! Fury of the Gods
051 Days of Thunder
052 65
053 After Yang
054 Suzume
055 Serial (Bad) Weddings 3
056 Vanilla Sky
057 Cocaine Bear
058 Ghosted
059 Eyes Wide Shut
060 Amsterdam
061 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
062 Renfield
063 New Gods: Yang Jian
064 I Am What I Am
065 Man on Wire
066 Independence Day
067 The Super Mario Bros. Movie
068 The Firm
069 Polite Society
070 Air
071 The Blue Caftan
072 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
073 Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy
074 Joyland
075 Anything's Possible
076 Murder on the Orient Express
077 Kinky Boots
078 Mission: Impossible II
079 Schwimmen
080 Firebird
081 Mission: Impossible III
082 4th Man Out
083 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
084 Bulldog
085 Cruel Intentions
086 John Wick: Chapter 4
087 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
088 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
089 Extraction 2
090 Nimona
091 Deep Sea
092 Barbie
093 Die Concorde - Absturz einer Legende
094 The Flash
095 Jumbo (2020)
096 Only the Brave
097 Joy Ride
098 Kill Boksoon
099 Oppenheimer
100 The 355
101 Legend (1985)
102 The Monkey King (2023)
103 Elemental
104 Wham!
105 Heart of Stone
106 Saint Omer
107 Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate
108 Past Lives
109 Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
110 A Million Miles Away
111 Theater Camp
112 Bottoms
113 They Cloned Tyrone
114 Asteroid City
115 Saw
116 Race to the Summit
117 The Last Voyage of the Demeter
118 No One Will Save You
119 Brightburn
120 The Skin I Live In
121 M3GAN
122 Event Horizon
123 Bones and All
124 When Evil Lurks
125 Gran Turismo
126 Knuckle Girl
127 Tom Cruise: The Last Movie Star
128 The Last Black Man in San Francisco
129 The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
130 Blue Beetle
131 The Creator
132 Napoleon
133 Mark Rothko - La peinture vous regarde
134 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
135 Linoleum
136 Wish
137 Quiz Lady
138 Pain Hustlers
139 Leo
140 Big
141 No Dogs or Italians Allowed
142 Violent NIght
143 Trading Places
144 Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire
145 Journey to the West (2021)
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The Greeks by Roderick Beaton: A Review
To read or not to read?
Recently I mentioned I was reading a book that I intended to make a post about. I had also said how it was brilliant in the beginning but I was keeping my expectations low for the next chapters, which tackled periods of the Greek history many foreigners like to view controversially as an MO.
We have talked about Roderick Beaton before in the blog. An anon had asked me what I thought of the way he viewed Greek identity, here's a link to my answer.
Should one read his book "The Greeks; A Global History"? Sure. Preferably a beginner in the later stages of Greek history. The truth is that a Greek or anybody well-versed in Byzantine and Modern Greek history is going to find the book lacking in those areas. But here's what you can expect from this book.
The big deal about it is that it is the first or most notable English attempt to fit all of Greek history (starting from the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations and ending with the Coronavirus) into about 500 pages. It is written in a very accessible manner and I would even say beautifully, except the beauty somehow progressively decreases a little, as if he was losing momentum chapter after chapter.
The curious thing is that Beaton is not another case of a classicist who worships Ancient Greeks and is grossed out by the existence of Modern Greeks. On the contrary, he is a unicorn, meaning a historian of Byzantine and Modern Greek history and he is not specialized in the ancient history which, for one, explains why he decided to follow a wholistic approach but on the other hand makes it odd that the early chapters are so much better than the later ones.
Now, a megamind here may say "well it's because ancient history is bEtTER dUh". No. This was not the root of the problem. I will explain but I have to describe first his mindset and intent for writing this book.
What I called "brilliant" about this book the other day and honestly the very highlight was, believe it or not, the prologue to the Greeks in the Greek edition. I am making this post because it single-handedly was the finest example of how a historian or any foreigner messing with other people's cultures and history should approach the descendants who have that heritage. There is a shitload of western Europeans and Americans who should be taking lessons from Beaton.
In the Greek edition, Beaton keeps the standard English prologue as well (so there are two prologues, one for all readers and the other for Greeks in specific) because he explains it is only fair that Greek readers should have an idea of how he introduces them to the rest of the world. I found this very considerate and thoughtful. It should be the obvious thing to do but we all know that too few (maybe only Beaton) have the quality of character it takes in order to think in this way.
The Greek prologue is in fact so good that I thought it should be included in the general English edition too because the way the author and historian addresses Greeks about his work and their history would be far more illuminating to other readers than some dry name- and event-dropping in the book's chapters.
In short, in the prologue he says that his intent is not that Greeks should be convinced that they need to read his book or adopt his perspective, he pays tribute to the Greek historians who attempted a similar wholistic approach but their works never became famous due to the language barrier and the prejudice of the west against Modern Greeks, which he confirms that it often reaches "vulgar extremes" and he exposes that very few historians in the west know or study the historical events and concepts of the Greek history that have given Modern Greeks a footing to claim historical continuity. Finally, he warns Greeks of how little of this is understood at all outside Greece and thus ultimately his intent is to present Greek history in a way that explains why the Greek civilization is so discussed, how it has influenced the world and simultaneously to suspend the knee-jerk reaction of scepticism the foreigners have by narrating the story in a low-profile, scientific and neutral way.
That prologue was a 100/5. His approach was totally fine with me. Besides, I too wanted an objective narration. His strategy was to narrate Greek history based on the history of the usage of the Greek language, which for me was the absolute obvious way to go about it and I found it odd that he sort of felt like explaining himself and that a few (only a few, I stress this) Greek readers took some mild issue with it. To me, it is obvious that the language is one of the biggest elements of ethnic heritage, let alone that for the Greeks it is the absolute hugest one since the borders of their existence and their influence have changed so much throughout the millenias. What will bring people that have been through four empires and hundreds other smaller political entities more together than the common language?! Nowadays, there is no ethnic group that speaks Greek as a mother tongue besides the Greeks. Therefore, the language is the ultimate factor for the Greek ethnic identity and I am baffled why this is viewed as a "novel approach". What else could it be in its stead? (Obviously, this doesn't mean that one cannot be Greek because they are 3rd gen Greek expat and do not know the language, I am just saying that it is typically the main factor, not the unique one.)
THE PROS
Apart from the prologue, Beaton tries, not very successfully (but it's the effort that matters), to dedicate roughly the same number of pages to all stages of Greek history. Most chapters are about 30 pages long, give or take, although the "give" ones are more frequent in the beginning and the "take" in the end.
Most importantly, he does not say anything critically different from whatever you will read in a Greek telling of history. Even though he sounds neutral, often critical and unimpressed, he almost never defies the Greek perspective of things. He certainly lacks one certain enthusiasm that in a Greek ethnic narrative would maybe cause scepticism to foreign readers but he never deviates from the very substance of what Greeks claim, therefore giving a somewhat cold, scientific affirmative nod to them. As an example, he treats the Ancient Macedonian royalty as evidently Greek and the Macedonian peasants as "para-Greeks" or fast hellenizing peoples and specifies that they spoke Greek dialects at least four centuries before Alexander. He talks about two types of Greek receptions towards Macedonians, the very opposing ones like that of Demosthenes and the very loving ones like that of Isocrates. That was a nice point to deepen in the reasons and motives behind each one's stance but he fails to go deeper. Regarding the name issue nowadays, he compares sarcastically the hatred Demosthenes had with the modern patriotism regarding the "Greekness" of Macedonia, however also clarifies how Slavic populations reached the area almost a millenium later so that any claim made to Macedonian heritage by them is absurd. Then, he is clear from the beginning of the medieval narrative that while Greeks called themselves Romans, the Eastern Roman was a new Greek culture with which Greeks reinvented themselves and it was ultimately not a real Roman empire. He calls it "Byzantine" to distinguish it and then he also occasionally calls Byzantines "Romans", always with those quote marks of disbelief. Despite sounding very distanced half of the time, he simultaneously gives various examples of Greeks identifying as Greeks (Hellenes) in various places in the world, from the mid era of the Byzantine empire up to the Ottoman era. Therefore, he largely agrees with the Greek perspective in those things, despite keeping a "scientific distance". All of his claims, evey single statement is always sourced in this book.
Some Greek readers complained that he speaks about Hellenized Greek speakers more than for Greeks. I personally consider this totally valid and expected from a study in the Greek - often imperial and often linked to liguistics - history. But it's not accurate that he talks more about Hellenized foreigners, he still talks about Greeks more.
He obviously treats Ancient, Koine and Modern Greek as one language, he doesn't even bargain on that and he seems to be equally fascinated by both ancient and modern forms of it. After all, it's the language he defines as the very essence of Greek identity.
MIXED / CONS
The images used were okay but surely there are better ones available.
I think my biggest issue with the book is that although I understood his approach thanks to the prologue, I still think that he failed a little in its execution. He just seems to be fascinated by some points in Greek history that do not agree at all with the points that I find most fascinating. This could be subjective or it could be that I view Greek history from an ethnic perspective like he said and he from a global perspective, however I felt very validated when a foreign reader in some reviews expressed his disappointment at the extremely rushed, totally cold presentation of the Greek Revolution, because this was the part he wished to learn about. Beaton makes it clear again and again that what interests and fascinates him the most is the ability Greeks had to spread and prosper in empires or other places in the world by accidentally or consciously spreading their culture. Based on this mindset, his disappointment that they were independent yet isolated in their own state compared to being influential despite unfree in the Ottoman empire is somewhat loud. He literally sounds more impressed by a Greek opening a shop in London in the 16th century than by the brutal, desparate battles of the Independence War or WWII, which he doesn't even mention except just the wars overall in passing. That was wild. And I am glad foreign readers were equally baffled. Beaton took so earnestly his intent to find points of convergence between the Greeks and the west or globalism that he ignores major events simply because they were affecting Greeks as an ethnos more. But it's questionable critical thinking in the end. The Greek revolution and the Greek contribution against the Axis powers, for example, did affect the rest of the world much more than a shop or two Greek generals in a French-British battle. He gives several interesting anecdotes but it's a really uneven and peculiar management of the events. Again, he's not being inaccurate (except in a couple of cases), he's just dedicating page space to the oddest of things.
Although he did his best to roughly dedicate equal number of pages to general big eras of Greek history, each of the chapters have an odd pattern of how they are managing their 30 pages. No matter what mindset he followed, there is not any logical way to explain how Greece since 1974 (where nothing big happens apart from the crisis) gets 30 pages when the Independence War gets... five. Five extremely lukewarm ones, where of all of the dozens of historical figures he could talk about, he talks only about three, the one solely because he was a pro-British politician and two other generally acknowledged as the most significant but famously anti-British, so they totally get the short end of his sympathy. There is where I also find the most unacceptable inaccuracy, when he says the "decent" (AKA the best) governor Kapodistrias was assassinated by two political adversaries. Now, that's just false. He was not killed by political adversaries. And he totally "forgets" to mention that both France and the UK have been accused of '''"indulging"''' his assassination. It became worse when I saw that even though he used international sources from historians and scientists for the rest of the book, he used.... the BRITISH AMBASSADOR for the Modern Greece chapters. Like wow. Not Greek but British input. And even if the ambassador is a historian himself, it still doesn't change that above all he is a politician serving his country's interests. Beaton does admit in a few instances faulty deeds from the west or the UK but it is always half-hearted.
Half-hearted are also all the references to the wrongdoings other nations have done to Greeks. In general, other nations are treated very indifferently while Greeks receive both all his fascination but also all his criticism. This makes some sense - it's a book about Greeks after all. But it gets a little odd at times again, like, there is a sentence almost going "thousands of Greeks were slaughtered, anyway" *changes subject* I mean, when you write a book only about the Greeks, I think the readers will allow you some empathy towards them without thinking you are biased from the get go. You can feel for them in other ways that don't always have to do with their "genious adaptability". In the end, despite the 500 pages dedicated to them I think there is too little to be learned about who the Greeks truly are as people (besides super skilled chameleons), their profile, their lifestyle, what makes them ick or smile. It does lack a human approach. And I honestly believe Beaton severely underestimated that foreign readers would in fact be interested in this; decoding their human side.
The other thing I found odd is that he stresses Homer never calls all of Greeks as Hellenes. This is false, right? I was pretty sure he calls all Greeks Hellenes a couple of times and there is even an instance of "Panhellenes" (= all Hellenes). Of course, it's much rarer than the use of Achaeans but it exists. I read the Iliad recently. Am I losing it here?
Much like it happens with the culture and the people, Beaton seems to love the Greek language as well. I read he has some specialty in linguistics. Since it is the foundation of his approach, I wished he had attempted to explain to readers who have zero exposure to Greek, what he finds fascinating in it and how he explains the tremendous grip this language historically had to others and how he justifies his conviction that even now Greek has the potential to keep influencing people in the future. I would appreciate a chapter solely about a linguistic analysis. Because this is what he seems to unequivocally love the most, so again it is like he was too afraid to be too emotional. I am not saying he should be sentimental to the point of being inaccurate, not at all. I welcomed the criticism, especially about the trademark Greek political stupidity throughout millenias. But I think he failed a little to make readers connect with Greeks in the way he so wanted.
THE TAKEAWAY
With all its flaws, it's probably still the best if not the only Western wholistic approach to Greek history. Despite the few hiccups here and there, the book is mostly very well sourced out and contains quite a few little known interesting facts. It is beautifully written. The Byzantine and especially the Modern chapters are underwhelming, however it is your best chance to make a first dive in the whole of the Greek civilization in one single book. I'd say, read it and if there is anything you found intriguing in those chapters, you can search more sources, even from a Greek perspective (as Beaton and his sources confirm that a sober Greek perspective doesn't deviate much from the neutral truth) and I guarantee you it will only get more interesting from there.
Rate: an overall 3.75 / 5, with its highlights deserving a 5 and its lowest moments deserving a 2.5.
*I just saw he also wrote a separate book specifically about Modern Greece. I am interested to see how his approach differs or is maintained there.
#greece#history#reading#the greeks#books#book rec#review#recommendation#roderick beaton#greeks#greek history#opinion
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How is Norse Mythology incompatible with the Elder Scrolls?
the elder scrolls cosmology is fundamentally one focused on life after death. afterlives, honor in death, great cosmic wars at the end of time. a lot of faiths, including norse faiths, share similar stories. but the fundamental difference is the elder scrolls cosmology is built upon stuff like gnosticism. there IS a higher power--even above gods--called the godhead and nothing else is REAL. or rather its just about as real as the godhead and all really interconnected (also kinda hinduism but im not as well versed in that and kirkbride who developed a lot of the deep lore is a self admitted gnostic. bigger difference is gnostism is most often christian so that will factor in more but he was also inspired by hinduism and other faiths).
that might not mean fucking much in the way i am explaining it bc i am sleep deprived. esp given dominant western culture is very christian focused which also puts heaven emphasis on the afterlife and moral rules and regulations to get into a good one or everlasting torment. and a lot of people assume norse faiths follow this formula--they have vahalla! surely that must be viking heaven, the ultimate paradise (and is what sovngarde is based on) but uhhhh no.
in the norse faith there is much more focus on the here and now. the afterlife you will spend doing what you already did on earth. folkvangr and vahalla were most like consolations to grieving families--if you died on a raid, they probably couldn't take your body back home for burial. but the average person did not want to take up the job of being a viking (and it was a job specifically) just to get into vahalla. there were still death rituals and veneration of ancestors but there was no focus on morality or "fighting in the great war of ragnarok" or anything. the gods were also more down to earth and the differences between "spirit", "god", "ancestor", and other categories was uhhhh very blurry to non-existent. for instance there are a lot of pieces of evidence that loki might have been a common hearth spirit before he was a god. or maybe he was always just a very popular one so prolific he is basically a god. maybe several gods or local spirits used to be someone's ancestor. hard to say. there is also no strict hierarchy and rules of practice as it was entirely non-centralized. even saying stuff like "odin is the god of wisdom" isn't accurate as the norse gods don't really have "domains" like we think of in the roman or greek sense.
so its really a bunch of things that make it really incompatible but god does TES lore really try to shove it in there. they take a lot of elements but in the pop-cultural and ultimately christian interpretation of them that does them a disservice. or does things like "well the nords are based on vikings and vikings are raiders obsessed with battle and are brutish uncivilized barbarians so... lets just give them a bunch of "uncivilized" things that don't really make sense interconnected like totems and face paint and unsophisticated leather clothes because they are brutish savages!" which is. all really racist ideas at their core. not even racist to norse ppl just racist against BIPOC who have had these stereotypes built from bastardizations of their cultures by colonizers. which is just. not great.
hence why the adaptation of alduin being based on nidhogg was so. rough. you need a big scary world ending dragon, but he cant JUST be akatosh. bc the ending of oblivion and other established lore. and it would be a cop out to just say "actually the nords were wrong and alduin/akatosh who would be the same person in this case are great" bc then you dont get scary evil world ending dragon like they wanted. so they gotta make alduin his son and don't think through why nidhogg is even a thing in norse mythos bc norse mythos is only being used for aesthetics in TES lore. which sucks bc i wish they would have kept the theme of rebirth and change and renewal which is so prevalent in norse stories. norse mythos is focused on the natural world and cycles after all, but why do that when you want big buff white men with axes wearing furs and killing elves (who are totally not ever going to be repurposed by white supremacists as stand ins for irl minorities. nope. never.)
if you are more interesting in norse mythology bc my explanation makes no sense i recommend @skaldish who has various resources and websites and blog posts that break it down in more understandable ways. without me inevitably butchering it bc i have too many ideas rattling around in my brain
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Art Theory: The Torso is a Clawfoot Bathtub
This is a bit of an experiment. This is a mirror of my most popular Ko-Fi post, now in full form here on Tumblr (though it does look better there with all the images properly sized and the text centered and etc etc). If it gets enough eyeballs I’ll mirror the other ones too.
Now, without further ado...
Due to the popular demand of like... a couple people, I will be going over how THE HUMAN TORSO IS LIKE A CLAWFOOT BATHTUB.
But first, a story.
When I was still just a wee babby artist I would wander into the local library and pick up art books and be confronted with all of the in-depth anatomy images and feel a bit, well... overwhelmed.
And it's not as if I'm a dumb person or anything. It just never really made any real sense, not in a way that was meaningful to me. I struggled to retain it, unlike with other subjects, which of course confused me even more.
In hindsight I see now that it was like trying to memorize the parts of a car engine, how they all looked visually, where they were placed spatially (in 3D nonetheless), without knowing how a car operates or how all the parts work together in motion.
Which is a bit ridiculous.
In any case, since I didn't have much interest in drawing western style comic superheros with musculature that looks like it's been vacuum sealed by their skin I spent a good amount of time just ignoring it and sneaking by, using a lot of shorthand and doing practices drawing from life. And, to be fair, I did learn a lot like that.
(Thanks for your contribution to the arts, Rob Liefield. I don't like feet either.)
Which brings us back to torsos. So when you look at a torso you can visually see there are features, like pecs and belly buttons, but their relationship to the internal structure is not immediately apparent.
(Me drawing in high school, probably.)
So what ends up happening there is you just end up sort of... putting stuff where you best guess it kind of belongs. And sure, sometimes it's a really educated guess, and can be hella convincing.
I tend to notice this most with collarbones. I can tell when an artists has learned largely through shorthand and idioms when their collarbones are just sort of floating around doing their own thing, basically acting as decoration on the chest without suggesting any greater purpose.
So what changed? And what does this have to do with bathtubs?
Well, I had a few paradigm shifts. To put it more simply, I realized I am a very conceptual and relational thinker. Anatomy never stuck with me because it never "clicked." So my success came from starting with big concepts and adding increasing levels of complication as I became ready for them. Pieces falling into place bit by bit.
Like a car, for instance, is a vehicle that runs on a series of explosions. Which is kind of badass. These explosions, in turn, are caused by pistons which rotate in time, which is kept going by... weird shaped gears and belts and pulleys... sparks... compression... well that's about it for my knowledge of engines.
*I have since been informed that it is the spark plugs that make the explosions and the explosions that power the movement of the pistons. I think it was clear by my diagram of a car that I am not well versed in automobiles.
So what is the bathtub about? This is literally all I came here for.
Ok, ok... So the bathtub is a conceptual metaphor that helps an artist understand the structure of the torso.
Cool.
So, to break that down... It's easy to think of the body in terms of a column. A series of objects supported by the object below. That makes sense, right? At heart we are, essentially, the Michelin man.
(★ ☆ ☆)
Except not at all. Unlike palm trees, pyramids, and economic class systems we are not, in fact, a series of parts dependent on the parts beneath them. And we knows this. I know this, you know this, we've all seen spooky skeletons before, but for some reason artists consistently fail to internalize it.
The issue being that we are still just mammals, just mammals that walk around funny. And Mammals are basically flesh tents. But... less horrifying than that phrase suggests.
(Like this but skin.)
Essentially your standard cat or dog is holding up its spine with its four legs and then its body is hanging from that support structure created by the spine. The body is not being held up from below by the legs. And that's a fairly crucial distinction as it turns out. The muscles of the legs connect to the spine(ish), and the ribcage hangs down from the spine, making a nice tidy sack to hold all the insides where they are supposed to be.
And humans? Well we're all evolved from previously four legged critters.
(We're really just some jumped up fancy rats.)
Which means we follow a very similar diagram - but with alterations to account for a bipedal stance.
WHICH BRINGS US TO BATHTUBS.
So, take this weird upright mammal and break it down into very basic blocks.
(I can draw better but I refuse.)
Got some hips, a spine, a ribcage, just like a cat but vertical. So, again, all the focus is on supporting the spine, specifically. Which is why our arm muscles still largely connect to our back (except, like, your pecs which are literally contracting and yanking your arm bones forward which is metal AF).
So, like an umbrella designed in hell, we are actually bags of meat hanging from our spines.
And that "decorative" collarbone? Literally holding up a ton of meat draped over it so we can continue to move our arms.
Which 🎉🎉🎉 BRINGS US TO THE BATHTUB🎉 🎉🎉
( F***in told you. )
It's not a perfect metaphor since usually the curtain rod is held up by other supports besides just the shower head (it's literally called a head this is such a great metaphor) but give me a little slack.
The ribcage is like the curtain, held up by the spine of the showerhead, and the hip bones are the bowl of the bathtub, within which are lovingly nestled... all the intestines. And stuff. This metaphor helps an artist conceptualize the human structure, so they can start applying further degrees of knowledge, like muscles and motion and afsGkljSAKjhgfajhs hands.
But I specifically said a clawfoot bathtub you say pedantically? Well...
I didn't stutter. It is a CLAWFOOT BATHTUB. Specifically.
And not just for some reason like "oh because it has feet."
(OK like maybe a little but not only, alright?)
So let's talk about hips.
Now muscles work by contracting, something I passingly mentioned before (didn't think that would be on the test, did ya?) so to create motion the better generally contracts a muscle that has ends tied to two bones.
(Hips. You might already see where I'm going here.)
That's why we don't resemble ball jointed dolls. Due to *insert complicated mechanical reason based on leverage, pulleys, walking, flexibility, and so on* we, again, aren't just objects stacked on top of each other like dishes.
(I only chose this image because it sounds like a band name.)
So, as it turns out, rather than balls and sticks and vague underwear shapes, there is another pretty stellar way to consider the leg hip connection area.
Excuse my atrocious rendition of it here, but I assume you get the jist. Two turkey drumsticks tagged onto Lego Bionicle pegs jammed into a pair of hipster undies, with some amorphous fleshy bits spackled in there.
( I am very serious right now. )
So, I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but this shape very much resembles...
And that, my dear friends
is why the human torso
is a clawfoot tub.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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#art tutorial#how to draw#art breakdown#art theory#art education#artists on tumblr#art how to#art resource#my art#anatomy#anatomy for artists
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TUT:
I was translating a few mobile game screenshots to joke with my friends when I realized that in both English and my language airplane tends to be a fusion (portmanteau?) Of different words. Is it the same in pinyin, and are there conclusions or misunderstandings Luo Binghe can take about the meaning of Airplane's complete name, especially since he did not see the characters, just heard SY speak the word?
(This is in reference to The Untold Tale ch3-4.)
DISCLAIMER
So keeping in mind that while I do speak Mandarin Chinese almost 24/7—and that I’m not well-versed in other Chinese dialects (Shanghai, Guangdong, Beijing, etc)—I do live outside Mainland China and do not consider my Chinese as good as those who live there. I am also not well-versed in traditional Chinese (there’s simplified characters and then there’s traditional characters, and then there’s pinyin). It is also somewhat difficult for me to explain the Chinese language to someone who doesn’t speak/ read it, but I will attempt to do my best to articulate my thoughts!
With that out of the way, it’s a bit difficult to say for sure. I’m going to have to defer to Chinese linguist experts but from my understanding as a modern Chinese woman, there is some potential uncertainty when it comes to Bingge hearing Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky’s name by ear only.
AIRPLANE SHOOTING TOWARDS THE SKY
Let’s examine the penname:
Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky
向天打飞机
Xiàng Tiān Dǎ Fēijī
Some context for those who are unaware, this is the equivalent of a dirty d*ck joke. It’s Chinese slang. It’s innuendo/ double-entendre. (I say this jokingly but Airplane was being a cheeky writer to choose this as his penname. It’s like if you used a double-entendre like “Giving You Blue Balls” just to be cheeky. Bad example, but you get the point. But considering his claim to fame is a “stallion novel” aka harem novel essentially—the best Western equivalent…hmm, think of all the trashy Harlequin romance novels, but the male protagonist gathers a harem—it’s a weirdly fitting name.)
Now let’s assume Luo Binghe is uncertain of the exact written Chinese characters. So, listening to Shen Yuan say “Xiàng Tiān Dǎ Fēijī” by ear, he hears (I’m going to give the literal translation first, followed by some approximate synonyms):
“Xiàng” (向) which literally means “to / towards/ (go) up/ ascend”
“Tiān” (天) which literally means “sky/ heaven”
*”Dǎ Fēijī” (打飞机) which literally means “jerking off” lol (slang)
But Luo Binghe being a protagonist of the xianxia fictional setting (ancient pseudo-historical fantasy China) is reasonably not going to know modern slang. So losing that connotation, if we look at “Dǎ” and “Fēijī” separately:
*“Dǎ” (打) which literally means “beat/ break/ hit”
**“Fēijī” (飞机) which literally means “airplane,” a word made up by combining the characters 飞 (fēi - fly) and 机 (jī - machine)
*Da is a homonym pronunciation-wise. Other similar pronunciations are, for example: 大 (dà - big) and 达 (dá - attain/ to reach).
**It might be because I’m a modern woman, but nothing immediately comes to mind for other homonyms for fēijī. Why? How is an ancient man going to know what an “airplane” is? Luo Binghe has never even seen an ✈️.
Jī means machine. So, how is he going to know what a machine is? I mean, *theoretically*, since this takes place in a known fictional setting, as a writer you can handwave it and say “yeah, they still totally say ‘machine’ in this world.” Other homonyms ji can be jí (and/ to reach), jǐ (to supply/ provide), and jí (namely/ that is), etc.
For fēi, I’d think he’d probably cotton on that it’s the character for “to fly.” Fei also has homonyms too (ex. fēi - to not be, fèi - to cost/ spend), and can also be a surname/ name.
And keep in mind that all these aren’t even ALL the similar sounding characters that I can list. There’s so many!
CONCLUSION
I’m going to bite the bullet and say a potential misunderstanding Bingge can come to, hearing the characters by itself only and not seeing the written characters: Go up to/ ascend to + the Heavens + Big / Older (indicative of his rank) + Feiji (his misassumption that this is Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky’s actual courtesy name). It’s a pretty long and lofty title + the actual name of the immortal deity who f*cked up his life starting even before Luo Binghe’s conception.
Feiji is a pretty…unusual “name,” if you think about smushing fei + ji together. I hope this answers your Ask, anon!
Any Chinese linguists 👇 sound off below in the Replies~! I was typing this at 10:20AM while I am carpooling on the freeway to get to work, haha, so I do have some brain fog.
*EDIT (9/10/22): It has been brought to my attention a similar sounding misassumption could be 肥雞 (féi jī - fat/ fatty/ thicc chicken). 🐓 I’m lmao-ing. (I’d personally use 胖雞 páng jī - fat chicken if I wanted to call someone a fat chicken, but 肥雞 (féi jī) works too! I’m gonna use this for something; thank you, Theia!
#svsss#scum villian self saving system#scum villain#airplane shooting towards the sky#luo binghe#phoenix talks#ask#answered#anon#the untold tale
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when I was in college I was very fond of tossing around the phrase “a good zombie movie is like a sonnet”. it sounded clever, made me feel like I’d figured out something profound about storytelling, and it sometimes made people curious enough to ask me to elaborate, which allowed me to get to my actual point, which is as follows: I think it’s silly at best and irresponsible or ignorant at worst to write off all works of a specific genre or medium as inherently bad or worthless.
there are specific genres and mediums that are more or less interesting than others depending on your individual tastes, of course, and there are specific genre ‘rules’ or accepted genre staples that either really work for you or really don’t, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to say all art that belongs to a specific genre or comes from a specific medium is bad or not worth someone’s time.
when I say a good zombie movie is like a sonnet, I’m actually focused more on what I like about sonnets than what I like about zombie movies: I love seeing how creative somebody can be within the confines of a specific genre, and how a good storyteller can utilize standard genre conventions to do something unique and compelling. I think any form of writing that follows a rigid structure and still manages to tell a unique and fascinating story or convey an engaging and compelling message is worth appreciating, even if it’s in a genre I’m not drawn to, and the more I explore new anime, film, western animation, and all other fictional narratives the more I realize that the genre of a thing really doesn’t determine if I’ll like it or not: I just have to be interested in the ideas it presents and how the characters react to and are affected by the narrative itself.
circling back, the reason I used to use zombie movies in this analogy is because I’d just exited my big zombie phase when I started college and had watched dozens of zombie movies, going back to my favorites and revisiting them over and over again, and appreciating how they all followed the exact same formula but the ones that I really enjoyed found ways to make the formula interesting or put a unique spin on it. if I were to have that realization now, I’d probably have to ‘modernize’ it and say that good superhero movies feel like sonnets to me—movies like Birds of Prey or Into the Spider-Verse are pieces of media that do extremely unique and interesting things with the same building blocks as movies like The Avengers or the original Suicide Squad, two movies I have no interest in ever watching again and don’t enjoy talking or thinking about.
I’m thinking about this as I examine my own taste in media and think about how sometimes I feel like I have to defend the movies I like most, because so many of the movies I really love are either from genres outsiders refuse to take seriously or are weird ‘bad’ movies that white cis guys on YouTube have been saying are cringey and childish for the last couple decades now. I think the reason my movie tastes are so weird but that I also throw myself wholeheartedly into adoring the movies that really do something for me is because ultimately I still most enjoy seeing the creativity that some artists almost magically seem to always find within a very rigid structure.
it takes sincerity and earnest intent to make a movie that follows and incorporates genre cliches in ways that feel earned and genuine and creative, rather than mocking or ‘deconstructive’ or ‘subversive’, and i just really respect that. admittedly it makes for really awkward conversations when I try to show somebody a movie I love and it’s something they think is really corny or childish or cliched, which is why I often don’t actively engage with fandoms or talk about the movies I love outside a few very close circles, but I am at least happy I’ve been able to identify where that love comes from. I’ve been really trying to embrace sincerity and earnestness more and more over the last decade or so and it’s lead to my enjoying so many more things I would’ve never given a chance to otherwise, so at the end of the day I’m glad for it, honestly.
#long post#daphne.txt#this is one long boring ramble and I’m sorry. it doesn’t have any sort of point#I’m just ruminating
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