#essays and criticism
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Lifestyle feminism ushered in the notion that there could be as many versions of feminism as there were women. Suddenly the politics was being slowly removed from feminism. And the assumption prevailed that no matter what a woman's politics, be she conservative or liberal, she too could fit feminism into her existing lifestyle. Obviously this way of thinking has made feminism more acceptable because its underlying assumption is that women can be feminists without fundamentally challenging and changing themselves or the culture.
— bell hooks, Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
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April 1 to Begin the New Year?
As we all know, January 1st is the traditional start of the New Year. However, this date has no scientific basis. In fact, the first day of the year has changed throughout history, and there are arguments to be made for why April 1st should be the new start of the year.
One main reason for this change is that April 1st is the start of the astronomical new year. The astronomical new year is based…
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Things I look for in history books:
🟩 Green flags - probably solid 🟩
Has the book been published recently? Old books can still be useful, but it's good to have more current scholarship when you can.
The author is either a historian (usually a professor somewhere), or in a closely related field. Or if not, they clearly state that they are not a historian, and encourage you to check out more scholarly sources as well.
The author cites their sources often. Not just in the bibliography, I mean footnotes/endnotes at least a few times per page, so you can tell where specific ideas came from. (Introductions and conclusions don't need so many citations.)
They include both ancient and recent sources.
They talk about archaeology, coins and other physical items, not just book sources.
They talk about the gaps in our knowledge, and where historians disagree.
They talk about how historians' views have evolved over time. Including biases like sexism, Eurocentrism, biased source materials, and how each generation's current events influenced their views of history.
The author clearly distinguishes between what's in the historical record, versus what the author thinks or speculates. You should be able to tell what's evidence, and what's just their opinion.
(I personally like authors who are opinionated, and self-aware enough to acknowledge when they're being biased, more than those who try to be perfectly objective. The book is usually more fun that way. But that's just my personal taste.)
Extra special green flag if the author talks about scholars who disagree with their perspective and shows the reader where they can read those other viewpoints.
There's a "further reading" section where they recommend books and articles to learn more.
🟨 Yellow flags - be cautious, and check the book against more reliable ones 🟨
No citations or references, or references only listed at the end of a chapter or book.
The author is not a historian, classicist or in a related field, and does not make this clear in the text.
When you look up the book, you don't find any other historians recommending or citing it, and it's not because the book is very new.
Ancient sources like Suetonius are taken at face value, without considering those sources' bias or historical context.
You spot errors the author or editor really should've caught.
🟥 Red flags - beware of propaganda or bullshit 🟥
The author has a politically charged career (e.g. controversial radio host, politician or activist) and historical figures in the book seem to fit the same political paradigm the author uses for current events.
Most historians think the book is crap.
Historical figures portrayed as entirely heroic or villainous.
Historical peoples are portrayed as generally stupid, dirty, or uncaring.
The author romanticizes history or argues there has been a "cultural decline" since then. Author may seem weirdly angry or bitter about modern culture considering that this is supposed to be a history book.
The author treats "moral decline" or "degeneracy" as actual cultural forces that shape history. These and the previous point are often reactionary dogwhistles.
The author attributes complex problems to a single bad group of people. This, too, is often a cover for conspiracy theories, xenophobia, antisemitism, or other reactionary thinking. It can happen with both left-wing and right-wing authors. Real history is the product of many interacting forces, even random chance.
The author attempts to justify awful things like genocide, imperialism, slavery, or rape. Explaining why they happened is fine, but trying to present them as good or "not that bad" is a problem.
Stereotypes for an entire nation or culture's personality and values. While some generalizations may be unavoidable when you have limited space to explain something, groups of people should not be treated as monoliths.
The author seems to project modern politics onto much earlier eras. Sometimes, mentioning a few similarities can help illustrate a point, but the author should also point out the limits of those parallels. Assigning historical figures to modern political ideologies is usually misleading, and at worst, it can be outright propaganda.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. "Big theory" books like Guns, Germs and Steel often resort to cherry-picking and making errors because it's incredibly hard for one author to understand all the relevant evidence. Others, like 1421, may attempt to overturn the historical consensus but end up misusing some very sparse or ambiguous data. Look up historians' reviews to see if there's anything in books like this, or if they've been discredited.
There are severe factual errors like Roman emperors being placed out of order, Cleopatra building the pyramids, or an army winning a battle it actually lost.
When in doubt, my favorite trick is to try to read two books on the same subject, by two authors with different views. By comparing where they agree and disagree, you can more easily overcome their biases, and get a fuller picture.
(Disclaimer - I'm not a historian or literary analyst; these are just my personal rules of thumb. But I figured they might be handy for others trying to evaluate books. Feel free to add points you think I missed or got wrong.)
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Getting whiplash going back to Armored Core VI after playing Starfield
Starfield trips over itself letting you know all of the quests are chill and good actually. The choices in dialogue range from doing a good deed to doing a good deed… for money😈. The only way to join the Space Pirates is to be offered the chance to go undercover first, making sure you see the Pirate but you’re a good guy option. If a persuasion check with someone fails, leaving you only with the prompt [Attack], your companion will say something to the effect of “woof, that was rough. But you did what you had to do.”
The most recent mission I finished in Starfield was for the United Colonies. You stand in front of a council of bureaucrats trying to convince them to hand over banned archival weapon data. This could help stop a small but growing danger to the galaxy. The council argues that it could also lead to that weapon falling into the wrong hands - It was locked away for a reason. It’s a great moment because it was the first time a character in starfield stood up and said to me No, you are in the wrong here, your research could lead to the weapon data leaking, civilians will be put it danger. ALERT. oh no. ALERT. Just as this conversation is happening an entirely contained but also extremely dire attack occurs. ALERT. You rush out and save the day. The threat is proven to be real and the data is necessary. No more questions about is it the right thing to do. Forget about all that other stuff we brought up, you were right. The whole council apologizes to you profusely. Here, take the nuclear launch codes, and here’s a thousand credits as an apology for insinuating that you weren’t the galaxy’s goodest bestest boy.
Mission 1 of Armored Core 6 is called “Illegal Entry”.
In mission 4 “Destroy the transport helicopters” the helicopters are just that. No weapons. Trying to run from you. The rubiconians who stand between you and the helicopters are defending their families. During the fight the enemies bark about you being the bad guy. After the mission your Dad calls you and says “It’s just a Job 621. All of it.” Throughout the entire game you are flooded with voicemails, calls, voices in your head, that all have an opinion on whether what you’re doing is good or bad or just a job.
Starfield is telling you not to think about it too hard. Armored Core is telling you to think about it. A lot. Screaming at you to think about it. What are you doing. It’s not just a job. The game is talking about your actions through all sorts of different lenses.
It’s stepping out of a lazy river and then immediately riding down Niagara Falls in a barrel. Sometimes literally. You see the same safe boring landing cutscene a million times in Starfield. Twice 621 has packed themselves into a barrel and yeeted it into danger.
#gaming#writing on games#armored core vi#starfield#games criticism#game design#fromsoft#Bethesda#621#writing#ac6#armored core 6#videogame essay
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returning to the arms of my lover (jstor) oh how i have missed her
#jstor save me…..#it’s kinda a toxic relationship bc we only ever interact when i need something (ideas for my essay)#and she tells me what to think and do and say (she shows me all the clever critical readings)#but it’s beautiful nevertheless
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its weird how as israelis, or even just as jews in general, as soon as you extend sympathy towards the people who were massacred on october 7th u immediately get blamed for "supporting israel" and "not holding your state accountable".
when its like. WE are the ones who have been fighting non-stop to make our government and military officials take responsibility for this. WE have been begging our leaders to take accountability while u guys are sitting there overseas typing out shit like "its actually okay to murder babies as long as theyre settler babies"
#like assuming we're not criticizing Israel just bc we're not doing it on here or not doing it in english is stupid#blogging is not activism and my anti-occupation activism will always be offline and with other israeli and palestinian leftists.#why would i want to write essays in english criticizing israel-#only for them to be spread among people who dont know the littlest thing about this situation#and dont have any meaningful thing to add to the conversation?#jumblr#ישראבלר
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have you put the pieces together yet, detective
#goro akechi#akechi goro#persona 5#persona 5 royal#p5 akechi#p5 spoilers#persona 5 fanart#jesst some art#i may have worked on this for... just under two weeks? i had like. so many fckgin thoughts i might make a process/concept breakdown post#it's honestly just for my own peace (haha piece) of mind because i overthought about. SosoooOoOo many motifs and symbols and i just wanna#idk PUT EM ALL somewhere........ maybe it'll become its own jessay of mine. god. who can say.#also DUDE tumblr rly does crunch up quality wow ouch#unironically a core thematic inspiration for this piece is a quote from the folding ideas' video 'the nostalgia critic and the wall'#'it doesn't all make sense or resolve or coalesce because we don't all make sense'#'everyone is the illusion of order constructed brick by brick out of chaos'#i've watched that video essay through at least. a dozen times at this point. everything about it. yeah. it's good.#this piece initially went many different directions and i have realized ah yes to fully explore just THESE themes that i'm interested in as#they relate to goro akechi i will need to draw. at least two more pieces. sdlfhsdlkfjsd
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Could someone take these mods aside and gently explain to them that they run a subreddit, they're not the king of the internet
#radblr#radical feminism#terfblr#gender critical#Can you imagine getting this wild over being a mod for a subreddit??#How little power do you have irl that you let this go to your head??#This is why people should be learning about Robespierre and Stalin in school#“Write me an essay on your SINS and you may be WELCOMED BACK INTO THE FOLD”#it's a cult
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temults ⚡️
#some headcanons abt imogen and liliana#their similarities and differences etc#before they’re hopefully reunited on the moon#the essays i could write about them#mother the car is here somebody leave the light on etc etc#anyway#imogen temult#liliana temult#critical role#cr#critical role fanart#bells hells#campaign 3#cr fanart#cr campaign 3#laura bailey#d&d#dungeons and dragons#dnd#fanart#digital art#procreate
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In this new Longreads essay, Megan Marz asks: why does the literary world still hold online writing at arm’s length?
While it’s become banal to observe that online life is fully enmeshed with the rest of the world, an imaginary curtain separates online writing from the rest of U.S. literature. It’s time to take that curtain down.
People like to say the internet speeds reading up, but a personal blog, read in real time, can slow a story’s pace down to the timescale of life; the thickest book in existence can be read in less calendar time. Not even the author knew when a blog would end, which is what made it feel so alive.
Read Megan Marz’s “Poets in the Machine” on Longreads.
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— bell hooks, Teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom
#she really said it all...... !!!!#bell hooks#teaching to transgress#critical pedagogy#essays and criticism
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Kpop and Books
November 4rd. The Trilogy of New York.
Reading books that Kpop idols have read. Being a bookworm and a kpop fan is so much fun. You can have the best of both worlds.
I will read one of their books and make reviews about them. I will try choosing books I have not read before or authors I would not normally read.
Jisoo book recommendations are pretty cool. I will link down the list of the books she finds interesting. The one that caught my attention is The Trilogy of New York. I bought the book yesterday and it is very different from the other books I have read. I have never read a book by this author before. The first fifty pages were perfect.
It is different from the other books I have read. It has so many themes like identity, reading, writing, and much more. It is not a simple book I will tell you guys that. If you have read this book before please tell me. What are your thoughts about it? I will try to make a review and a blog post after finishing the book.
#book#bookworm#books and reading#jisoo#blackpink#paul auster#book review#singer#kpop#kpop and books#essays and criticism#literature#writing
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Why Celebrate April Fool's Day?
April Fool’s Day is a day that has become synonymous with pranks and jokes. But is it really something we should be celebrating? It’s important to consider the potential negative effects of such a day, both to ourselves and to those around us.
For one, it can be quite hurtful to be on the receiving end of a prank or joke that wasn’t intended to be malicious. It can lead to feelings of…
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honestly i hate how that “maybe the curtains are just blue” post has become shorthand for anti-intellectualism and shit bc as someone who has an utter passion for media analysis now, I WAS THAT PERSON IN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH CLASS.
english class never taught me how to analyze stories, it taught me how to remember what things the teacher said were “symbolism” and how to take quizzes where we had to match a quote to the character who said it. i didn’t give a shit about any of it, bc literally why should i. it was bullshit.
there’s this idea online that people are forgetting or rejecting what they learned in english class when they’re bad at media analysis, and maybe that’s a little bit true, but i think the much bigger problem is they never learned it in the first place. cinemasins & “maybe the curtains are just blue” aren’t convincing people to abandon an intellectualism they already had, they’re filling a void.
when all you learn in high school is to write on the test “blue = depression”, why is it surprising that so many people don’t give a shit about the curtains.
#media analysis#i literally didn’t care about criticism until i started watching video essays in 2017#and they taught me that u could actually do interesting things with analysis#and i cannot fucking stand this shit that pretends people should all know better#also it’s not new; people who act like media literacy is getting worse are so fucking funny like#have u met an adult. have u spoken to say. an adult family member#ever in ur life#ur just on the internet now. ur seeing a million bad takes that used to be reserved for in-person conversations#or maybe writing into a paper or magazine#get real#get fucking real#1k
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"Stoker's Mrs. Harker personifies a certain kind of woman--one who simply is a New Woman, in Grand's sense of the term, without identifying as such. One self-confident enough to assume that anyone who comes to know her will learn to trust her competence and value her judgment; one who sees marriage as an equal partnership that will be enriched by her skills and contributions; one whose chosen partner is a man who respects her as a peer and friend--a New Man, in short.
The unremarkable unions of the Mina Murrays and the Jonathan Harkers are fruitful, Stoker shows. They might just "make the world a pleasanter place to live in."
-Winstead, K. (2020), Mrs. Harker and Dr. Van Helsing: Dracula, Fin-de-Siecle Feminisms, and the New Wo/Man.
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on one hand yeah this is the kitty cat book fandom where at least 95% of the people here are just here to draw funny cats or for nostalgia reasons and it's really not that deep, there is nothing wrong with taking a critical backseat on this one. but on the other, the amount of people in the fandom who seem to genuinely believe that children's literature and xenofiction are both somehow inherently unworthy of any form of criticism whatsoever, to the point where random tumblr posts casually identifying shit like.... themes.... and narrative trends... is looking into things way too deeply and makes you a bad or stupid person in some way because "they're just cats", gives the literature student in me such a headache
#im literally writing an academic essay on picturebooks rn you draw the line at warrior cats???#im sorry to tell you that any book ever is gonna have writing strategies and biases in it. and you can analyse em. it's how it goes!#if it helps stop reading critical posts in an accusatory tone towards your enjoyment of something specifically#i had 'steven universe critical blogs dni' in my about page when i was 13 i do remember what it's like
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