#in fact it needs more diversity in other areas first i think.
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Rant in tags do not clown
#boom- gay#ok. ill say it. steddie doesnt have any chemistry at all. i legit can not see it. it feels like the newest mash too hot guys together ship.#if you like it thats cool and i hope you have fun with it but what???? they have like q handful of conversations and none of them seem like#'flirting' like everyone in the tag is saying. stg we have to take the word queer bating away from u people bc youll use it anytime a ship#isnt canon that you like. sherlock? queer bating for sure. stranger things??? u have robin but shes wlw so no one cares much beyond#complesionist shipping ronance. the top ships in this fandom (aside from byler which isnt queer bating its queercoding will jesus christ)#are like steveXbilly and steveXeddie aka the hot guys everyone wants to fck for thier own weird gratification. what if it was murry and hop#huh?? two middle aged traditionally unattractive men who had arcs abt being gay? what if it was lucas who came ojt and realized he loved#like idk some random kid at school it kinda feels like the love for solangelo but worse bc stedi not even together and have satisfying arcs#im just tired of shipping culture and the wierd gaze fans have towards hot white boys who they can put in mlm ships. i want ugly gays. i#want a well crafted story like wills where its obvious he's figuring himself out. i dont want steve and eddie to out of nowhere in a time#and place where theyve never even taken time to think over or adress thier sexuality to like make out in a situation#wherw thier main focus is to look after thier very-young-child-friends. it would not be a well crafted or#compelling narritive for anyone. i hate#i hate straight ppl writing in queer ships for fetishistic gazes. you want well written queer rep in stranger things#we have robin and will- will whos arc this season was abt tackling his feelings for mike through body acting and subtlety- smthng#yall cant handle i guess#and robins queerness is adressed this season as well very very openly multiple times. stranger things is not abt queer life but it tries to#be respectfully inclusive. not every show can faithfully and respectfully be heartstopper or ofmd and st has never had that intention.#in fact it needs more diversity in other areas first i think.#anyways if ypu like stedi fr fun thats fine but some ppl have been so fuckin insane abt it that its made u lose your minds!!! i get it i#ship byler and elmax (potential ellumax) but im not expecting them to beome canon bc the show is truing to explore other things at the mome#nt. that is not queer baiting and the duffers are not evil for having a different plan for thier show#idk i only got q few hours of sleep cut me some slack for being ungraceful.#tldr: have fun shipping but dont be like thatTM when you know that youre blowing things out of proportion#sending the duffer brothers fucking threats for queer baiting will make them not want to be inclusive for fear of the tumblrrnas sherlockin#shit up#personal
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Weird question but do you think its possible to become a zookeeper without a degree? I'm 29 and don't have the time, energy, or money to go back to college and fear I've missed my chance at my dream career. I'm not sure how to get experience or what I could possibly do to help my resume.
It’s definitely possible! Not super common, but possible - and much more so than it would have been a couple of years ago.
When I was in college (early 2010s) and wanting to enter the field, there was a pretty clear pipeline: four year degree, unpaid summer internships, then apply for a part-time or temp position somewhere, and volunteer somewhere until you get a first job. This is still somewhat of the way it’s done at bigger AZA facilities.
But, interestingly enough, things are changing. There’s two things really driving that. The first is the massive push for increased DEAI efforts in the zoo industry. After the big commitments AZA and many individual zoos made during the BLM protests in 2020, one of the big conversations that started was how inequitable zoo hiring and especially internship programs are. Requiring four years degrees and large amounts of unpaid labor before getting a job - and paying poverty wages once someone gets that job - biases success entering and staying in the zoo field towards people with generational wealth. I honestly didn’t think the advocacy that stemmed from those discussions would do much, and I’ve been very pleasantly surprised to see that I was wrong! There’s a been a lot of real movement towards creating paid internships and making hiring requirements more equitable. It isn’t happening everywhere, but I know it’s becoming more and more common (and last year there was a ton of presentations about this on the AZA annual meeting schedule, which is a huge deal). The other thing that’s happening is less formal, but equally fascinating. I’ve been present for a lot of discussions about how there’s a disconnect between what zoos are hiring for (formal education, complex resumes) and what skills the job actually requires. It seems like it’s easier to train people to work with animals and learn their behavior than it is to teach people practical skills like how to do manual labor without hurting themselves and operate heavy machinery. I’ve seen some discussions of how some of their most successful new staff have come from adjacent industries or even just other “blue-collar” jobs that involve similar types of work, regardless of what their academic background is. Which is great! Because that adds to equity and diversity of staff across the industry.
To start off the rest of my answer, there has to be a disclaimer that I’m not in hiring, so I can’t say for sure what will get you a job (and while I’ve volunteered and interned, I have never been formally hired as staff by a zoological facility). So my advice for the rest of this comes from watching and listening to a whole ton of industry folk for the past decade or so, and from what I’ve seen my friends do that’s been successful to get jobs in the field.
In terms of experience, the best thing you can do - and I hate to say this, because it does require a level of privilege to be able to do - is volunteer somewhere. It doesn’t have to be at a zoo. Anything that will give you some animal experience for a resume and references will be valuable: shelters, vet offices, riding barns, farms, even 4H. You need to be able to demonstrate that you’ve worked around a variety of species (even if they’re all domestic) and have people who can speak to the fact that you’re diligent, attentive to detail, and have common sense about things like safety protocols. If you can’t volunteer, try to find a job in any of these areas with similar skills. Or where you can learn them! Say you can’t get an animal care job, but you’re good at phones and people - you could get a desk job at an animal shelter, and help out with cleaning and animal enrichment when possible. Boom! Experience!
It’s also important to learn how to shape your current job experience to an application, which is something I can talk more about and maybe pull in advice from folk actually in hiring for. There’s a ton that can be applicable to animal jobs. Office work? You can probably speak to experience with proprietary software systems and record-keeping (which is a bigger deal than you’d think). Construction / landscaping / similar physical labor jobs? You know how to work hard in a range of weather conditions, keep a project on spec, have experience with complex project planning, and probably know a thing or two about basic safety stuff (don’t store heavy things above your head, lift with your legs, etc). You’re basically looking to communicate “I haven’t worked in this field, but here’s all the skills I have that will translate to this job.”
Realistically, if you’re coming in without a degree or a ton of animal experience, you’re much more likely to be able to get a job at smaller, non-AZA facilities to start (they might not even be zoos - there’s sanctuaries and petting zoos and all sorts of other professional animal care gigs). And this is fine and good! There’s lots of good ones out there. You can always use experience gained there to move up in the field, if it’s your dream to work at an AZA facility specifically. And a lot of people do that - you’ll hear some places talk about how they know they’re training zoos, because their staff get a foot in the door and then consistently leave for other facilities after a couple years. But there’s also a lot of reasons to stay with some of the smaller facilities. They’re often in areas with cheaper cost of living, and so a zookeeping salary will go farther. I’ve also seen that a lot of the smaller facilities - ones where like, staff know and interact with the zoo director frequently - tend to take better care of their staff. They may not be able to increase salary, but I’ve seen some of those facilities go the extra mile for their people in other ways when it’s possible. It’s a very different experience than being a small cog in the giant machines that are many AZA zoos. It’s the sort of thing you have to vet carefully, but when you find a small facility that really invests in it’s people, it can be very worthwhile.
You also have to think about the fact that you don’t have to start in zookeeping to get an animal care job! I’ve seen a lot of people start in education or in summer camp staff, and then use the relationship with the facility and their track record in those jobs to transition into animal care. Especially education, if you’ve got the skill-set, because you’re often working with ambassador animals or in collaboration with the teams that care for them. I’ve seen some people start in facilities or ground crew, too, but I think that’s less common. Getting your foot in the door somehow and building relationships is one of the biggest parts of getting a job in the field if you’re not following the traditional pipeline.
If you’re near enough to a smaller facility that you can visit regularly, do. Learn as much as you can about the zoo and what they do and what they’re involved in, to show that you’re interested and invested, and then go talk to someone there. Tell them exactly what you told me: this is a dream, and you’re really interested in their facility specifically, and you’re wondering what you should do to build a resume to apply for a job there. At worst, you’ll get some advice. At best, they might take a chance on you. I’ve heard of it happening. (The hardest part of this is, honestly, figuring out who to talk to - it’s not the sort of thing where you can just ask a keeper while they’re cleaning. But you can find opportunities, and then ask if there’s someone in management who might have time to answer a couple questions.)
So in short: yes. It’ll take some work and time, and probably some free labor, but it’s doable. More so now than any other time recently. Good luck!
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re: Trek: I was hit with a lot of the same feelings when I finally went and watched TOS a couple of years ago. There's a brand of Star Trek fan who really believe in what the show wants or at least claims it wants to be--a progressive vision of the future--but are incapable of seeing it for what it was lest they cede ground to the fans on the reactionary end of the spectrum who like it for pew pew guns and sexy green ladies. For what it's worth, the Federation isn't portrayed as a post-scarcity post-money society until TNG but it's not something they do more than pay lip service to
I think this gets into the limitations with individual character representation as a metric for “good” politics in a show. It has a comparatively diverse cast and that is historically significant, I understand that it’s groundbreaking, and I’m not downplaying that or saying those things don’t matter or had no impact culturally. but those individual representations are imbedded within the undergirding logic of the show, which is that the Enterprise is a ship meant to make contact with “new” “undiscovered” civilisations, measure their “development” on a singular scale that is premised on settler colonial ideas of land development & capitalist logics of expansion and growth, and then force those societies to fit into that particularly colonial mould. Multiple times the resolution to the plot of an episode is destroying any unique aspects of a culture that cannot be captured by those development metrics, and this is unambiguously presented as a good thing. This show is deeply invested in the maintenance of racial hierarchy and western hegemony, and its diversity and progressive elements must always be placed within that context. It’s racially progressive in some ways yes, but only narrowly, and in fact the necessity for good racial representation is the fault of those undergirding logics! We wouldn’t need good racial representation in the first place if those systems did not exist. “Good intentions” on the part of the writers do not negate the fact that the final product uncritically reproduces a western vision of culture, one that sees the west as manager, mother, teacher, and policeman to the rest of humanity.
I think Said’s discussion of Orientalism is once again very instructive: it’s not just that the show might be individually racist or sexist to particular characters or groups of people in a given episode. These things are bad yes, but they are surface level bad, and focusing only on them obscures the larger issue at hand. The deeper problem is that it operates on an orientalist epistemology, a way of knowing and seeing the world, one that necessarily excludes the basic conclusion that, like, the measure of a civilisation does not need to be premised on economic growth or European cultural modes, & in fact the idea that you can “measure” a culture unilaterally is itself a western construction. that scale is a tool of colonial development, one that is backed by a system of racial hierarchy that must be violently enforced to be realised in the world. Star Trek is by no means unique or special in this regard; this is the state of western media in total. I’m just uncomfortable with how uncritically fawning people are about it.
I’m also not privy to the discourse around this show, I’m an outsider encountering Star Trek for the first time as an adult and I’m largely ignorant of the 8-odd decades of discussion about it. But like, you don’t have to allow the reactionary crowd to control your understanding of the show! Saying it’s a fundamentally colonial narrative does not dismiss or diminish claims about racial diversity or representation in other areas, nor does it mean a reactionary interpretation of the show holds more weight. Those people are not worth considering, they have nothing of value to contribute to the discussion of the show’s politics. Like you can accuse me of having high standards or that my demands are ridiculous given the show is old, but I’m being bombarded (and have been bombarded) with claims that Star Trek is socialist, is progressive, is better than Star Wars politically, etc. and I don’t think those claims stand up to basic scrutiny unless you are willing to downplay or dismiss how deeply racist, ableist, misogynist, etc the show is, and further you have to ignore the basic fact that the show does not work if you reject or take umbridge with its imperial framework
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🎤 Lando at the Drivers' Press Conference before the Bahrain GP:
(This video isn't mine, I'm in the UK so I can't access F1 TV sadly 😔 This video was uploaded on YouTube but has since been removed. Also only the first few Journalist Questions were shown in the video, so although they weren't shown, Lando did answer some questions, they're in the transcript)
Transcript
Interviewer: So, Lando, you're closest to me, so you'll start off. Um, obviously, we've had a bit of a break since, uh, the testing, and McLaren last year made such a rapid rate of development. Where are you at ahead of the first race? What are your thoughts and feelings?
Lando: Uh... good question.
Interviewer: Come on, Carlos (Carlos arrives late)
Lando: (Laughs) Uh... yes, it's a question I think everyone's asking. I think we kind of have a rough idea of where we're at, but, um... we don't actually really know where we stand comparing to a few other teams. I think it's clear - the top two, then there's a bit of a bunch behind, which is Mercedes, Aston, us, kind of thing. But in terms of just how the pre-season test went, it was a lot better than last year, and we're in a much better position than last year, so that's the most important thing.
Interviewer: Okay, brilliant.
Journalist Questions:
Q1: (Andrew Benson - BBC Sport) This is for Lewis, Lando, and Fernando. F1 as a sport has said it's making efforts to improve diversity. What's your reaction to the fact that someone accused of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague has been left in his role and been given a platform in official press conferences while an investigation into those allegations was still ongoing?
Lando: I think it's got nothing to do with us for the time being that investigations underway, things are happening. And something I'd prefer to stay out of for now, so simple as that.
Q2 (Niharika Ghorpade - Sportskeeda): To Lando, you seem to be pessimistic after the test. Is there any area of performance you're worried about?
Lando: It's just the honest answer of, I think, where we stand. I think until we get to Friday, we get to Qualifying, it's tricky to know where we're going to stand against some other teams. I think it's pretty close with several. I think there's a lot of expectation for us as a team just because of how well we progressed last year. Certain races, we were the closest to Red Bull and definitely not far away. Certain other races we were still a long way off, you know, easily behind Mercedes, easily behind Ferrari, easily behind Red Bull and at times fighting with the teams behind that. So we were still just very inconsistent.
Bahrain has never been a good circuit for us. We've never had one of our strongest races ever in Bahrain. So I think it's way too quick to judge and just say, "okay, we're not going to be great here in Bahrain. That's the end of the season for us". I think for everyone, because everyone's so up and down, you have to give us 2 or 3, 4 or 5 races to get the first, I think, honest review of where everyone stands against one another and not just judge it off of the performance that we're going to see here in Bahrain.
A combination of things, stuff that we still need to tackle if we want to make sure we've taken a step forward, which I think we have. We've made the car quicker and that's very clear from all the data we've got. But certain things haven't allowed us to progress as much as what I would have liked and I think as we all would have liked as a team. And also some of those issues are just highlighted a lot here in Bahrain, just because of the nature of the circuit.
So I'm still confident when we go to certain circuits. We were very fast at last year, like, going back to Suzuka and things like that. I'm confident we can still be one of the best cars. But Bahrain has just not suited our car ever, necessarily. And exactly for that reason, I think that's why we're going to struggle a bit more here. But I'm confident we can turn it around later down the line.
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What do you like about Marie and Jordan individually and what do you like about them as a pair?
Thank you for the ask! ❤️
For Marie, I just love her so much. First of all, I am always happy to see a black girl lead in any kind of diverse, non-stereotypical, non-sassy-side character role like this.
But I also appreciated how realistic she was. Like, I understood almost every choice she made. I saw people get mad at her at the start for not always doing the altruistic, "right thing", but for most people, self-preservation comes first. She didn't owe those other characters anything (especially after how they treated her) and I loved that she had a back bone and would actually talk back to people. But at her core, she is still a good person despite everything that has happened to her and still chooses not to be corrupted by Vought's influence once she understands the true material cost.
For Jordan, they're just such a nuanced character. One, I always have a soft-spot for the Lancer character archetype. The highly capable, second best, who can never quite out-do the main character (e.i. bakugo, reki (from sk8), Ron from HP (fuck jkr, but no other examples are coming to me atm)), and Jordan is just that. Like, yeah, they were kind of a bitch at the start, but it's so clear that they are secretly a softie and the world and their experiences have forced them to have a tough shell. Also, their powers as an allegory for gender identity, yes, it's on the nose (although, as someone who grew up reading 90s/2000s manga like Ranma 1/2, not that unheard of), but I think the show handled questions of their identity really well.
And finally for Limoreau...
idk where to start. tbh, as someone who has been hyper fixating on characters and ships since high school, I never really have a clear explanation of why I ship the characters I do. I either like it or I don't. But Limoreau is such a pleasant surprise because the chemistry was there from the start, but it felt like one of those queer dynamics that the writers would be too scared to pursue (think Arthur/merlin or Gojo/Geto). I think the fact that our MAIN PAIRING is a queer, interracial couple with no white people, shouldn't be as revolutionary as it is in 2023, but it is! I hope this is a positive direction for on-screen storytelling.
But also everyone loves a classic "enemies to lovers" (yes, I know they're not EtL in the true sense, but I consider Rivals-to-lovers as a subset of EtL, so I'm using it as an umbrella term). I think the reason people like EtL dynamics (Especially in het pairings) is that there is always an underlying respect beneath the "hatred". Like, to see someone as a threat, you have to see them as at least an equal.
It was clear from the start that Marie and Jordan were more alike than different and it was Vought and the corrupt nature of Godolkin pushing them to compete. They're both lonely in different ways, and I love the idea of them finding acceptance and a home with each other (Also all three actors are extremely attractive and have great chemistry, so that never hurts).
Do I wish their relationship had been paced out a bit more? Yes. But that was my issue with all of Gen V. I think the whole show would have benefitted from 12 eps, instead of 8, because development was needed in most areas.
I also just want to note, for all the people saying their relationship "came out of nowhere", I truly feel that if Marie looked like Erin Moriarty and Jordan looked like Chace Crawford, most people would have clocked the romance from the beginning, jus saying...
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Me: (looks at leaks) Okay, new characters! Can't wait for their storylines . . .
Genshin Twitter: WHY ARE THEY WHITE-PASSING AND PALE AND STEREOTYPICAL AAAAAAAAAAAAA-
Me: (looks at my roots and being a historical nut) (cracks knuckles)
In what may be one of my most controversial posts yet, I attempt to explain and process what the hell is up with the Sumeru leaks.
I do not expect to not be clowned for this.
Folks, you kinda jumped the gun on this one. Seriously. I have a few points to make on this and it may not be liked, but as a history enthusiast and someone who loves to learn, I have to clarify some things.
If I do get some things wrong, feel free to correct me on them! That's kind of the point here. I'm always ready to learn some more.
1.) Sumeru is somewhat based on the Abbasid Empire.
If people bothered to look at the content we've received about Sumeru so far and actually pay attention, you will be able to tell that there are Indian, Persian, and South Asian elements to the region as well as Middle Eastern. This is shown in the little bits of information that you can find here.
And if one looks at the reaches of Islamic empires throughout history, it will show that at some point, these elements have mixed, matched, or have come into contact with each other during the Islamic Age.
The picture below represents the reach of the Islamic Empire during its initial run from 622-750 CE under the Umayyads along with the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasids.
The regions that are shown here include Egypt, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Northern Africa, Central Asia, India, Turkey, Iberia, and Central Asia, but they do not do justice to the spread of their culture and Islam at the same time periods.
(Please note that while the empires did not reach these areas the places shown were heavily influenced by Islamic culture and religion, thus forth making them majority Muslim at the time.)
And as you can see, South Asia is right there.
Now look at these maps compared to a modern map of the same areas and tell me with a straight face that this region wasn't diverse enough to hold multiple cultures besides Egyptian and Arabic.
This would not only explain the different regions featured in Sumeru concerning the characters but also why they may or may not look different and dress as such. I'll go into the really gritty bits about the dress later.
2.) The Baghdad House of Wisdom definitively inspired the Dendro Archon's basis as the Archon of Wisdom and Sumeru Academia
This point speaks for itself, but just to be sure people get it, the Baghdad House of Wisdom was considered the height of knowledge and intellect for centuries during the Islamic Golden age.
As the crown jewel of the capital of the Abbasid Empire, every nation in the known world and their rivals wanted a piece of what was in that place! We got math, language, science, stories, art, music, and all sorts of stuff from them. In fact, we have them to thank for preserving a good chunk of human knowledge, even with its destruction in 1258 by the Mongols.
Now, wisdom is typically defined as the application of knowledge and intellect combined with practical experience, which Sumeru may or may not have a lack of at the moment if Lisa brings this point up once or twice with the state of Sumeru's intellectual elite. This may or may not be the hinting of inspiration from the Abbasid Empire's decline due to bureaucratic corruption, heavy taxes, social strife, civil war, and the impending Mongol invasion.
With this, it's no mistake that Sumeru Academia and the area surrounding it sounds a hell of a lot like that intellectual haven and that it may or may not serve as a tragic future plot point.
3.) Dori's design does take some checkmarks for orientalism, but for less reasons than you think.
Yeah, you guys need to look at this first. You need fresh eyes.
First of all, I'm going to tell you to completely banish Disney's Aladdin from your mind. It holds no bearing on what I'm about to say. None. It's a cheap copy. Don't even process it, because I'm going to bring up the real inspiration of One Thousand and One Nights.
Contrary to popular belief, the stories contained in One Thousand and One Nights is not based in just the Middle East. There's actually a lot of it based in Persia and Mesopotamia as well as in India, South Asia, and some of China.
If the time period of this is to be believed (the book itself was published around the same Islamic Golden Age I keep bringing up), the style of dress was vastly different from what people think, and speaking of their style of dress, I'd like to introduce you all to something called the shalwar kameez.
The shalwar kameez is popular in Central and South Asia (Pakistan, India, Afghanistan) and As you can see, the bagginess of the bottom is very accurate, and given the established fact of Sumeru's basis, this dress has some historical basis and concrete reasons for it to exist.
Now, let's talk about the lamp. There is real basis for this to be a thing, but I need to clarify some things first. This lamp is based on an oil lamp and to be fair, the basic design for it being made of metal and its look stay true to its purpose and sticks to the regions discussed here. Bronze oil lamps of this look were definitely around.
Now I will briefly touch on the djinn. Djinn are classified as beings of elemental energy and naturally inclined to pranks, harmful or playful as well as possessing an unholy amount of power and knowledge. Djinn in Islamic canon have been known possess people, produce offspring with them, and be described as a force of good or evil.
In the tales within the One Nights, however, they are typically trapped in small objects, typically a ring or a lamp. The rubbing of either of those things can summon them out. In the tale "The Fishermen and the Jinni", the jinni (djinn) is the one to grant the fishermen three wishes, while in the tale "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp", Aladdin acquires a djinn in a ring and a more powerful one in an oil lamp.
So the djinn in the lamp at its basis is not stereotypical at all as the idea of having an all-powerful being trapped by something relatively insignificant to its existence is common enough.
However, the overarching cry of what I believe the rest of the design is based on is something that I can see wholeheartedly. The 'dancer girl' top does not mesh at all with the time period described in detail and does indeed give to the stereotypical orientalism. This video goes more into length on that here.
So yes, there is issue with the dress and inspiration behind it, but it was not the egregious crime it was made out to be.
4.) I am personally terrified that appearances have such large precedence over personality with people in this fanbase.
We haven't met them. We don't know them. We have no idea what they're really like at all. And yet, despite this fact, everyone loses their shit once they aren't what they envisioned them to be based on what they look like. Even if they are pale as hell, why does it matter so much? Do I wish that they could consider that? Sure! Will it cripple my enjoyment? No!
As someone quite dark-skinned myself who has suffered constant mischaracterization and bullying at the hands of literally everyone around me for acting certain ways while looking the way I do, I find it puzzling and concerning that people are so quick to write people off because of the color of their skin as the very same thing has happened to me.
As a result, this point has to be made as controversial as it has become:
Culture does not equal looks and there is no difference between discriminating against skin colors because the basis of it is the same.
Let that sink in for a second.
People really call themselves 'not racist' and 'educated' and then they pull this kind of heinous shit in public discourse and pretend that it's completely okay because they looked white.
And I guarantee you that if they were dark-skinned, people would still call it racist for being 'the stereotype'. I've seen it happen and it will likely happen again. You can't please anyone anymore.
----
So those are my thoughts on the leaks and everyone's reactions to them. Feel free to agree, disagree, or do something in between because I don't care anymore. I'm tired of skin color determining everything here. It exhausts me.
Take the L and go.
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David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, 2021
This is not a review. It will probably be a bit of a ramble about my approach to reading history and thinking through why I bounced off this so many times. This is also about letting myself off the hook - I'm going to let this one remain unfinished. I don't need to finish reading it.
After I dropped out of grad school (highly recommended), it took me a good few years to be able to stomach picking up a history book again. But, I do really enjoy the discipline. There's a reason I wanted to do it as a career. I eventually found a way back in - from YouTube video essays, to a few podcasts, to reading history from outside my field. I had the most success with ancient/pre-modern histories; obligatory Tides of History plug as I've loved all the deep dives into genetic history and archaeology (and gotten quite a few great book recommendations). I don't have any particular knowledge in these fields, I don't have the language skills or context to interpret sources myself, I've never even taken an ancient history course. So reading these I have no option but to basically rely on the expertise of the historian, to see what they say about various topics and about each other. It's the opportunity to read history like a layperson, and hey, it's pretty interesting!
On the one hand, Dawn is engagingly written - I'd call it kind of magazine style? - and tells a compelling story. But, the whole time I'm wondering, but is any of it true?
My impulse when reading something from within my area of academic expertise is to go and take a look at some of the sources myself. It's always a useful sense-check; it's due diligence. History is by its nature kind of subjective. Historians don't just deal in lonely facts (to paraphrase someone whose name escapes me), but in interpretation and argumentation. Everything has been passed through several human filters before a historian even looks at it. So, in a room full of historians you respect, you can have a lively, contentious discussion where no two people have quite the same reading of the source. There's a skill you pick up after a while - you get a sense for the range of defensible interpretations of a particular piece of evidence. You'll feel more affinity for part of that range, based on the things you believe about how the world works, your particular axe to grind, other things you've read, niche academic beef, etc.
I'm confident I've read at least a few of the sources Dawn uses, and I've definitely read within adjacent bodies of sources. So, I have an incredibly strong need to go and take a look at the specific things they're basing their argument on. I trust my own judgement; I want to establish that range of defensible interpretations, I want to see what readings I'd pull out first, I want to see what the distance is between Dawn's point on that range and mine. The problem is that I can't. Even if I wanted to dive back into the archive, I literally don't have any of the institutional accesses that would allow me to. Also I really don't want to. So I'm constantly feeling this itch I can't scratch at the back of my mind while reading Graeber and Wengrow's work.
The broad version of Dawn's thesis is something like: 'humans have experimented with diverse ways to live and organise their societies across space and time, in ways that are not accommodated by the teleological models developed within the colonial context'. I'd say, yeah, I pretty much agree with that! (In fact it's a thesis I'd love to nail to the doors of many popular history writers.) But I get the same sense reading Dawn as I did reading various provocative works of global history (many of which I really like): the broad thesis is generally defensible, but it falls apart on the page-to-page level. Of course I can't actually confirm this since, well, I haven't done my due diligence!
#entering the grad school trauma zone for the sake of posting#anyway I'm open to suggestions for my next attempt at reading#though I think Weavers Scribes and Kings has been on my list for a while
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Madara vs Kunoichi/Medics
Did Alive!Madara take it easy when fighting kunoichi and medics back in the day?
I think he would have, even if I'm sure it can be assumed he has killed some of both groups before, when all everyone did during the Warring States Era was fight day in and day out. It was a much more cut throat period and surely more underhanded (strategic) tactics such as going after medics would have been employed.
Edo Madara derisively asked Ohnoki what adult would "go all out against mere children." Granted the Kage group he fought included 2 female "children" who he also beat the crap out of, but those two were different from the average kunoichi. One was Senju Tsunade, who was a Senju and a medic AND a Kage. But it was for her offense of being a Senju directly related to Hashirama that made Madara specifically say he'd kill her first. It had nothing to do with her status as a medic or a woman. In fact, Madara went so far as to say her healing capabilities were negligible against him.
That went for all other medics in the Shinobi Alliance too. They were so insignificant they were not even worth going after, at least until he decided to perform large AOE jutsus and squash everyone. But at that point, it wasn't like he was going after medics OR women in particular. Madara tended to just deal with whoever showed up against him. So if a kunoichi or medic attacked him, then he'd fight back.
The other notable kunoichi we saw him fighting in that battle was Mei, who was of course still a Kage. Besides Tsunade, I don't think he specifically had it out for any of them, even Ohnoki. Edo Madara had a point to make while he was spanking the Kage, to test the abilities of the current generation of Kage, then to show them know how far they were beneath him when he had seen enough. He didn't even bother killing them off definitively.
Madara doesn't enjoy beating up those weaker than him. During the 4th Ninja War, from his introduction fighting the Shinobi Alliance to his fight against the 5 Kage, even when he was going against the world with Obito and the Juubi...he just looked bored and/or disdainful. It wasn't until Hashirama's appearance that he showed true excitement. He never targeted any women (except Tsunade and Mei, for reasons as discussed) in his fights unless it was a large area attack meant to end everyone. He didn't target any nameless medics either despite acknowledging medics normally get taken out first. I vaguely recall him not even bothering with Sakura as well until he needed his Rinnegan back and she attacked him while being a 'diversion.'
As we see from the dynamics between 3-person squads in Konoha, women are often heavily protected in Naruto. Uchiha women were definitely also protected since they married within their clan and there were only so many Uchiha women to ensure the continuity of the bloodline. I like to believe the kinder part of Alive!Madara (which we know exists) extended this sentiment of cherishing women to those outside of his clan as well, which might have included mercy in battle.
What do you think?
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Finally done! Ever since I revamped my old fnaf ocs I've wanted to make nice looking refs for them, unfortunately life + other interests meant that they were all made months apart. Some of them are a little inconsistent cus of this, such as Star's mascot design not fitting the other mascots due to me designing her first; however I'm still happy with how all of these came out.
If you're interested in hearing quite a bit about the story of these guys then feel free to read below :)
The main setting is a theme park known as Mirror Creek! Mirror Creek acts as a fun getaway for children and their families while also sprinkling in some education about the animals living in the world around them. The park is split into 6 sections; three of them being an arctic environment with "large mountains" and a snowy atmosphere, a savanna environment that also hosts some of the most thrilling rides in the park, and the main plaza which is filled with the many "houses" that belong to the characters living in the park as a well as a grand stage for regular performances.
Speaking of characters, there's quite a few of them at the park. Mirror Creek has quite a diverse cast that can either be found wandering the different areas or at their own themed attractions, some of these characters include an old polar who tells stories and two loch ness monster styled siblings that take turns as the guides to a submarine ride. However the most popular characters are the main band that represent the park: Star the wolf, Spirit the bunny, Lissa the squirrel, and Astro the eagle!
Star is the guitarist of the band, however she will take the lead or duo in certain songs. While meeting guests, Star acts as the cool older sister type and encourages kids to be more active. Spirit is her best friend and the two can be found walking together.
Spirit is the lead singer of the band and has a very bubbly and extroverted personality. When talking to kids, she can easily match their energy and loves giving big hugs. She also like to blurt out random facts.
Lissa is the bassist of the band, giving back up vocals whenever needed. While she was never programmed to, when walking around to meet guests Lissa will commonly talk about engineering, while this does intrigue some kids, many end up a bit lost once she gets into more detail. Workers have started accompanying her when roaming in order to stop her in case she might reveal the robotics of all the characters to children.
Astro is the drummer of the band, he's also the least likely to add vocals during performances. He acts more relaxed when meeting guests and can give a quote to just about any book you can think of, as long as it's appropriate for children. He usually uses these quotes to try and give quick moral lessons to the kids he meets, as well as encouraging them to read more.
All of the main band perform twice a day, with special events having certain exceptions, such as holidays or guest stars. And unlike the other characters at the park, the band is not restricted to one specific area.
As you've probably noticed, the characters Satya and Carter are not part of the band. These two are siblings that are restricted to the savanna area of the park, where their themed ride is located. The two are pilots that travel around the world, Satya loves the thrill of adventure while Carter worries about staying away from danger. The two of them teach kids to be curious and how to be safe doing it.
This went on a bit longer than I thought so I'll leave the actual fnaf horror for another post. :)
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INTERVIEW: MUSE on ‘BLACK HOLES AND REVELATIONS’
— Ian Winterton interviewing Matt Bellamy for The Leeds Guide magazine in 2006.
It’s midday on a Friday and I’ve accidentally got drunk. Now, the floaty, vaguely tripped-out feeling may be down to the four pints I’ve just glugged down, but I’m more inclined to blame the fact that I’ve been locked in a bar in London’s Soho Hotel with a dozen journalists for the playback of Muse’s new album. It’s a fantastically weird mix of prog-rock, electro, metal and sci-fi noodlings Hawkwind would have been proud of. And, at the stipulation of the band’s management, we had to listen to it twice, “in case we missed something”.
So, yeah, I’m feeling a little odd when, in a suite upstairs, I get to meet the man behind the madness, Matt Bellamy. In contrast to myself, he turns out to be both sober and sane, not to mention thoroughly pleasant and polite. With his designer casual clothes, prominent cheekbones and scrunchy hair, you’d sooner imagine him folding up jumpers in a swanky clothes shop than fronting one of the UK’s most successful rock bands. Then again, Muse have never been associated with rock ‘n’ roll excess. I put it to him that the band’s clean living is one reason they’re still going strong a decade after their debut album.
“We’ve had some very good times on tour in the past,” he says a tad defensively. “And we were young guys and at one point we were all single, but I don’t think we need to tell everyone about it. We’ve always wanted to get attention for being good musicians and for making good music.”
And good music they most certainly do make, although it’s not to everyone’s taste. For some, it’s silly, pretentious and overblown. To those who’ve drunk from the cup, however, it’s silly, pretentious and overblown. AND THAT’S THE POINT. With Black Holes And Revelations, Bellamy and his fellow bandmates – Chris Wolstenholme (bass) and Dominic Howard (drums) – have really pulled out the stops. In between beers during the playback, I jot down the names of other bands that come to mind, producing a list that includes New Order, The Scissor Sisters, The Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Ennio Morricone and Spinal Tap.
In amongst the electro and the flamenco, it’s still the same old Muse: Bellamy’s falsetto vocals, pounding drums and loud ‘n’ fast rock guitar. For me, all the disparate elements of the album come together on the brilliantly titled closer Knights Of Cydonia. It begins with laser-guns and horses galloping.
“We really pushed that song to its limits,” says Bellamy. “We pushed the fantastical elements so far, maybe too far, so it sounds like a sci-fi film. Cydonia is the area of Mars where they think there’s that big-faced temple thing. Mars used to be the same distance from the Sun as we are now and so some people think that maybe there was a civilisation there. I find that idea quite appealing.”
“I think that’s a little far fetched,” he laughs, adding, “It’s a slippery slope. Once you start reading that stuff it takes you over a bit. I quite like alternative thinking. My girlfriend studies psychology and she’s working in a hospital in Milan where there are patients that actually believe the end of the world is nigh and that sort of thing. It’s interesting hearing about people who’ve been completely overtaken by these theories.”
How are they going to reproduce the sound of such a wilfully diverse and bonkers album live?
“With great difficulty!” Bellamy exclaims. “But we’ve actually got a fourth person in to do some of the electronic stuff for the first time. Morgan Nicholls, who’s actually in The Streets, took over on bass when Chris broke his wrist. It turns out he’s a really good keyboard player. We decided that next time we should give him a go.”
As thousands of fans can testify, Muse are awesome live – and, unlike most bands, they’re actually better playing huge gigs. Are they excited to be playing Leeds and Reading?
“Absolutely,” enthuses Bellamy. “Reading and Leeds are the biggest rock festivals you can play. When I was younger I remember seeing bands playing there – I saw Jeff Buckley, one of my all-time heroes, there in ’94 and I remember thinking if I could get up there it would be amazing. Also, it feels nice to be a band that can do a gig like Glastonbury but also do Reading and Leeds, which is more of a rock audience. It’s nice to be able to move between the two.”
Just look out for those giant lizards.
#Muse interviews#black holes and revelations#Matt Bellamy#He lives his life unbothered and has hopefully never looked back/read an old interview of his ever#Us fans we’ll suffer through it </3#muse band#matt bellamy#muse#muse interviews#2006#But also lol at Matt trying to deny that they led pretty normal/clean lifestyles for rockstars#Yeah some shenanigans here and there but as far as rock music industry troubles went they genuinely were one of the least#troubled bands out there like the music industry has broken people worse
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I think some people are being very stubborn about their hc and have a kneejerk reaction every time someone mentions race in period dramas. There are a lot of regions where the population in Europe is white. Just white. Do they even know where Auvergne is on the map of France? It's in the center of the country, slightly toward the south. It's landlocked. It's an agricultural region. And today in the 21st century, it's overwhelmingly white. I know, because I live there. I live in one of those little villages in the country, like Lestat's. I know because I have been stared at and ridiculed as a child enough times for being a dark skinned Muslim in a population that is completely white. I was and still am the only drop of melanin among their pasty faces on a range of 30km. And that's today, in the 21st century. And people are trying to tell me that yeah Nicky could have been plausibly black at the time? In this region, in the backwaters of France? And belong to a prosperous local family? That's bullshit. Of course there were poc in Europe in the past! It's obvious. But the proportion was so much smaller than it is today, and even today, France is majorly a white, catholic country. Had Lestat been from a village close to Marseille or Bordeaux or any other big port with economical ties all over the world, I would have jumped at the idea of having a non-white Nicky! In fact it would have been the perfect opportunity to explore the diversity that was found in those cities in the French Kingdom, the economical connection with the Maghreb and the transatlantic slave trade. If Nicky & Lestat were from Paris or Ile de France, again, a very cosmopolitan place, it would have been something I'd like to see. But they're from backwater France. I won't be gaslighted this part of the country isn't and hasn't been white, not with all the shit I had to endure over the years from their small minded everyone-must-be-french brains.
Nicky and Lestat's story is a perfect vehicle to explore class disparities at the end of the French Monarchy and the tensions that brought the French Revolution in the first place.
Thank you for sharing your experience, this is really important and interesting! I also come from a region in countryside with practically exclusively white people, which was very alienating as a child so i feel you
I think in iwtv's case there are several sides to the Nicki's casting that are all different questions, a) what is technically possible b) what is realistic/likely c) what people would like d) what is the best choice narratively and e) what are the writers actually going to do. I think the show is most likely going to keep Nicki as white (assuming they don't change his story so that he came from more metropolitan area different than Lestat). As you say, the population in that region was/is almost entirely white, but in history there are examples where even overwhelmingly homogenously white places has had some people of color, even if it's extremely rare. It's technically possible that Nicki would've been that one very rare person of the color in that region. I could imagine for example a backstory where his (white) father was born there, traveled to a bigger city, became an international merchant, had a child with some woman from a french colony, and chose to return home. It would maybe be very unlikely but technically possible. Some people may feel it would be unrealistic, but then again we can ask does 'realism' need to matter in a fantasy horror show, why would people of color existing in very white places somehow be more unbelievable than the existence vampires and witches and demons?
Then many people are understandably just headcanoning their favorite characters' races and there's nothing wrong with that, like i've myself headcanoning that Armand is a romani until proven otherwise lol, i know that probably won't be canon but it would make me so happy. Then the question 'should nicki's character stay white, what is the best and most compelling choice narratively speaking' i think is very complicated and doesn't have one right answer. Yesterday and today i've seen quite literally every possible opinion about this subject! When i made that poorly phrased mildly controversial post i thought it would make more sense not to change Nicki's race, but after reading people's comments who disagreed with me i get it isn't that simple and Nicki being a poc could actually be an interesting narrative choice if well-written. Like you I'm still leaning towards Nicki being white, but i can see how it would be cool if he wasn't
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A Brief Overview of Alpaca Farming in Australia
Originally posted at my blog: https://garaksapprentice.blogspot.com/2023/09/alpaca-in-australia.html
I went to the royal show on Monday, and I chatted up the rep at the Alpaca Association booth, and then I blogged about it. Enjoy.
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The Royal Show is on this week. Being in need of free entry civic minded, I volunteered to help man the spinner's and weaver's guild stall.
This gives me half a day to wander the showgrounds, and half a day where I stand at the booth, spindle spinning for the public, and blowing people's minds with random facts like "This is how people spun thread for most of human history, the treadle spinning wheel was only invented in the 1500s" and "It took longer to spin and weave the sails for a Viking longship than it did to build the ship itself". Kids in particular love to see how thread is made.
My first shift this time was a morning one (I only slightly regret that choice, being that I Am Not A Morning Person). So of course the first thing I did when I knocked off was go and talk to the alpaca breeders. (They were easier to find than the sheep.)
I must have arrived at a good time, because I had a great chat with the rep manning the Alpaca Association stall in the building. I have a keen interest in the local fibre industries, for obvious reasons. So I always take the time to talk to anyone involved with it, in any capacity.
So how are alpaca doing?
While alpaca have only been in the country for 30 years or so, herd numbers have been growing dramatically in the last half decade as farmers start to focus on fibre production (and to a lesser extent, meat) as well as genetics. The rep (I regret not getting his name now) reckons some sheep farmers, who have traditionally been resistant, will likely start switching over to alpaca in the next decade or so as they start to realise the advantages alpaca have. (Personally I think integrating alpaca alongside other things is the way to go - diversity creates stability, resilience, and higher yields.)
One of the reasons for his prediction is that alpaca are simply better suited to large chunks of the climate here than merino sheep. (Merino are, to put it politely, too overbred for wool production to cope.) They're softer footed, for one. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but Australia's soils are ancient. They were absolutely wrecked within fifty years of sheep, cattle, and other hard-hoofed animals being introduced. Returning to soft-footed grazers, in conjunction with regenerative pasture practices, would go a long way to fixing the damage and sequestering carbon back into the landscape.
Genetics, fleeces and microns, oh my!
Many farmers are focussing their breeding programs on two things - extending the amount of time their animals keep producing a low-micron fleece, and improving the consistency of micron count across the fleece as a whole.
In "unimproved" animals, the fleece will be coarser in some areas and finer in others. Think about human hair - different parts of our body have coarser or finer hair, too. In alpaca, the finest fleece is found on the saddle and neck. The belly and legs are coarser, and have more guard hairs (they're the tough, prickly ones). Breeders have been working to bring the fleece as a whole closer to the same fine-ness for a couple of decades.
(Please forgive my drawing skills. I couldn't find a better, copyright free image.)
Fleece quality changes as alpaca age, too. Unimproved animals usually give a year or two of fine fleeces, and then the wool gets coarser with each clip. The rep I talked to said that his herd's animals now hold their fleece consistency to about 5-6 years old. (He has one dam that has held her fleece for 8 years - he's really hoping those genetics can be passed on to her young!)
Why is this important? Because finer, more consistent fleeces are worth more. (There's a limit to how fine you want to go, though - commercial machinery doesn't like extremely fine fleece, so the ideal is 18-24 microns. That's still next-to-skin soft, for most people.)
Part of the complexity of raising commercial alpaca fibre is the range of colours (there's two dozen recognised in Australia), that you then have to sort and grade by micron count (there are four grades used by the industry), into 150kg bales for sale. Most farmers choose to breed either suri or huacaya, not both, because of that complexity.
(These are just four of the colours alpaca comes in. The top two fleeces I bought from different local fleece farmers. (The grey in the upper left is from dirt trapped between the fibres - the whole fleece is actually the same light, smoky grey.) The bottom two came from friends of friends who own hobby animals or livestock guardians - you can see how much dirtier the non-commercial fleeces are, compared to the commercial ones. (Yes, the bottom right fleece came off one animal - piebalds and spots are recognised alpaca colouring.))
Alpaca fleeces that only have two grades of fibre, or even one, are quicker and easier to sort at shearing time. That means less expense for the farmer, and a better profit margin.
Another way farmers cut the complexity is to focus on breeding specific colours, such as pure black, that are in high demand from the fashion industry.
Shearing and staples
Alpaca, like most sheep breeds, have lost the ability to naturally shed their fleeces. They must be sheared regularly to keep them healthy.
Shearing season in Australia is usually an annual event, due to cost. It starts about now (September) in the greater Adelaide region, has been going for a month or more up in Queensland, and the highlands here and in NSW/Victoria won't start until October or later. Every animal gets done at the same time, starting from about six weeks old. That way the animals are happier over summer, and it keeps their fleece quality higher.
Part of that fleece quality is the length of the wool, or staple. The ideal staple length for fleeces is 80-120mm - that's the sweet spot for both commercial processing machinery and handspinners. While handspinners definitely have the capacity to spin short fibres, most aren't interested in a fleece with less than 80mm staple. (I am an outlier in that if a fleece is nice, I don't care what staple length it has. I will find a use for its yarn.)
Another factor is the amount of VM (vegetable matter, such as grass seeds - clover burr is a particular problem) and dirt in the fleece. You can't do much about the dirt - alpaca *love* to roll, it helps to keep their coat healthy - but farmers do their best to keep VM low. Commercial buyers and handspinners alike appreciate it. (The example fleece the booth had out for touchies had too much VM in it to sell to handspinners. It didn't look like much to me, but again, I have lower standards than many of my kind.)
Personally, I love spinning alpaca. I find it easier to process than sheep since it doesn't need scouring. Dirt falls right out as you're spinning, and in the washing of the yarn (I spin it unwashed in the traditional Andean way). The natural colours are gorgeous, and it takes dyes well. The one downside for me is that it's so much warmer than sheep. Great for the being outside in the depths of winter, not so good for the rest of the year.
Overall I'm excited to see where the local alpaca industry heads over the next decade. I think there's great promise for improving the sustainability of our fibreshed, and for alpaca farming to be integrated into broader regenerative agriculture practices.
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Guerilla Gardening and Me – My Journey through this Beautiful Movement
I want to conclude my entries into this blog by talking about something that is quickly becoming near and dear to my heart. There are many different types of activists in the world, and I think all of them serve a purpose. There are those who are willing to put themselves in the crossfire, to tear down statues, to stand up to the “man” as it were and have a visceral impact with what they do. That was never my style, as someone who is violence-adverse and perhaps a little too cowardly to engage in such lion-hearted activities, I always preferred the pacifist route. What can I add to the world that will be positive? And my peace has always come from gardening. I think it was after the loss of someone close to me that I found solace in working the land, just as she did, the soil with its earthy richness grounding me somehow. I loved seeing how my labour would create beautiful life and even help feed my family and neighbours. So, imagine my surprise when I learned I could combine these two worlds through guerilla gardening, a practice that has become more and more commonplace here in the UK, but not something I had come across back home.
So what is it, what are it’s origins?
In fact we know that in the 1970s, communities in New York’s Lower East Side attempted to resist the ‘cleansing’ of plots of land by “clipping barbed wire fences or throwing ‘seed grenades’ over them. It was after these efforts that city authority “ultimately succumbed to the protest and legitimised many of the Green Guerillas’ plots into one of the country’s first community gardens, staking a claim for public green space before the onset of gentrification raised the value of the abandoned land and thus transformed the space into a landscape of power and profit.”(Adams & Hardman, 2013). I adore this idea of a community coming together to reclaim their space in a way that actually is useful to said community. Not only are you halting the efforts of greedy developers trying to buy up all the land and sell it back for exorbitant prices, but you are actually providing, feeding the people who live there. It’s such a beautiful idea that really creates change.
As noted in my project, spatial justice is a very intriguing concept to me. How without even realising it, our rights can be encroached on via methods of gentrification or letting spaces deliberately fall into disrepair so they can be sold off since ‘they serve no purpose to anyone.’ With our increasingly individualised society, it is becoming easier to weaken communities as no one feels supported enough to do anything that will enact real change. This needs to end if we ever hope to see improvements in our impoverished urban spaces.
Which is why I respect the efforts of one Ellen Miles, whose Tiktok account has exploded, so much so that I came across her through a Guardian article earlier this year. She is re-igniting the efforts by her predecessors such as Richard Reynolds and informing others on how they could also pick up a shovel and transform the space they live in. “So-called public spaces have been really privatised, and communities actually don’t get a chance to interact with them often. So I think we do have a right to do that in the places we put down our roots, where we live.” Miles stated this in that very article, and it set me down this path that I am currently on.
Should I continue to develop my project of Radical Botanicals, I would love to see it work to support this growing community. I was given much to think about after I presented my work, and I will definitely need to consider a few things as I work on tweaking its conception and design. For example, considering diverse voices in the space, consulting communities directly to see what they want, and finding the balance between guiding others through this legal grey area and ensuring people do not put themselves in danger as they carry out their activities. I want peace, as stated earlier, I am a pacifist at heart, and I would hate to see others get hurt because of something I created. I am a long way away from having this vision realised, but I thank this class for allowing me the opportunity to explore this idea and really put me in a position I have never been in before, and that is that of an activist. This journey will continue, even if it is just me throwing a seed bomb into a golf course under the cover of night.
Bibliography
Adams, D. and Hardman, M. (2013) ‘Observing guerrillas in the wild: Reinterpreting practices of Urban Guerrilla Gardening’, Urban Studies, 51(6), pp. 1103–1119. doi:10.1177/0042098013497410.
Gayle, D. (2023) ‘I call it botanarchy’: The Hackney Guerrilla Gardener bringing power to the people, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/i-call-it-botanarchy-the-hackney-guerrilla-gardener-bringing-power-to-the-people (Accessed: 12 December 2023).
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This panel tip toes in my head frequently so I wonder if ONE will ever go that route.
In a sense Saitama, as far as public perception goes, does not have anything to worry about. His internal struggle is yet the only thing alienating him.
He is, in a sense, getting it pretty easy.
Like yeah being considered a fraud is annoying, but it’s not like he cares much about that. He seems at times to care more about making connections, genuine connections; and other times he does seem to want to get some recognition of sorts. Maybe not fame per se, but people acknowledging him, to know that he in fact did help.
He seems conscientious. Looks carefully for cues not for his own flattery but to know when he does well to keep doing that, as reference. As he grew stronger, ironically but maybe not unintentionally, people stopped seeing less of his feats, so he stopped getting feedback on his performance. That could have accentuated his sense of alienation. As he is no longer getting these cues to validate what he is doing.
There seemed to be a shift in his ideals. Or at least from the perspective ONE is wanting Saitama to stress on or to try and convince himself about. From “protector of the earth” and “saving people” to being a “hero for fun”.
I’m not expert so I would like to get feedback on this but it seems like he tried switching up ideals the moment he become too strong and invincible, because that was the moment he became invisible, and thus stopped getting these cues, and this acknowledgment or validation of what he was doing. It’s like he stated thinking “fine I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing this for myself for my own amusement”. Feeling alienated from people often times makes you want to detach yourself from needing people or even considering them as motivation. I can’t find the panel but there was a chapter where he does think like this. His inner voice does say something along the lines of “no no, I was supposed to be doing this for fun right”, or something similar.
But I can’t help but be curious and add more spice to the equation. What would happen if he no longer became invisible, but people were actively afraid of him? It doesn’t seem to be too much of an idea in the OPM universe, seeing the diversity of entities that exist. Certainly I would think more than one person would be at least legit afraid of Tatsumaki. And yet it never seems to be an issue, or not that I know of. But it would certainly add more depth to the story if they delved into these grey areas of public perception, and what that would sway on the decisions made by the Hero Association for example.
We have gotten some pretty hardcore references to ethical dilemmas on bio politics with the Neo Heroes arc that’s for sure. ONE does present some heavy complex ideas on that, and the latest omake seems to be the first taste of what we will see in the manga, and yet public perception and the thing it does in the hero worlds goes mostly unnoticed. It’s way too instrumentalized for my taste. Too much of a plot armour to never have the impact the monsters have on the general population. Or how the general population truly does sway decisions made by the HA. Civilians are almost like a measly third grade character in the world of OPM, like it’s one entity separated into many extremities, each as unimportant as the next ala Marvel. So I would like to see more of how politics revolve around public opinion and how the HA and the hero world affect it, and how them being afraid of Saitama would play out in the future. Am I getting ahead of myself? Maybe. I’m way too fond of giving the main character a hard time. Maybe I’m forgetting ONE’s main focus on Saitama is his inner struggle, and I’m raging on up on a non issue for him.
But that’s exactly what I think. I think Saitama’s disconnection to people is in part source of his inner struggle. I can’t help but wonder how he would react to not being invisible anymore, but not like he would expect. It’s one thing being considered a fraud, to which he seems to hold not much of an opinion whatsoever, but it would be very different to be feared, and I think he would have an opinion on that.
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okay! i've finally finished the southern reach trilogy & want to thought dump bc thats what i do when i enjoy things 👍 im going to assume most people have not read this & explain as such
i'll be real i only picked this up bc i saw the movie based off the first book & was like "well huh" & then couldnt get the idea of an environment that just... refracts everything back and in on itself is just. so cool. it's such a cool idea. so when i saw in the credits it was based off a book i HAD to go read it the concept was too interesting i had to know what was in the book they couldnt translate to the movie
i got such a treat oh my god.
something that stood out to me pretty quickly, given im into a completely separate other series where none of the characters have public names, is that, iirc the movie DID give names but the whole first book theres no names. they each have a profession & are called as such. even as we get names in later books, only one of the og characters is ever named and the biologist thats one of the most important characters is simply that. the biologist. & it means absolutely nothing in terms of how impersonal or deep the character feels. because shes utterly complete and herself. respectable. i like that.
but most importantly the world, oh my god the world. the movie has its own not entirely off base take on it. different and yet similar enough. if u like fucked up worlds im recommending this 200% its just SO fascinating. its a little area cut off from the rest of the real world they call area x & it is protected by a sort of boundary but its. self refraction of things doesnt even begin to cover what its got going on. i dont even know how to describe it right. theres THINGS just so many unexplainable things, you think the area is out to get them but it ends up more like... the area's attempt at self preservation at the cost of the other, the intruders. like the whole thing is self aware.
the plants & terrain arent ever changing, not anymore than they would be with time, & not all of the animals are some fucked up threat out to get them. the area itself is the threat, impossible things in the sky, ocean, shadows weaving into the world & messing up whoever happens to come into contact with it. weird inexplicable things happening to those they send in to explore.
and at first it seems like a survivors came back wrong story. like whatever's in there, whatever fucked them up did so to such an extent none of the survivors even live long. which is fascinating in its own right like what is it that harms them to such an extent. & ur introduced to all the weird monsters & occurrences in a way thats like. well this things out to get them. & u need to know more.
& man the more the next 2 books give u is just so INTERESTING.
but first i have to say i hated the corporate mind games that took up 2/3 of the second book. hard to get through. johns such a man baby sometimes & its so frustrating seeing him just decide pieces of the puzzle are no use to him & getting rid of them. sick of his shit. i dont like him much in the 3rd book either but fine whatever.
the last 1/3 of the second book & like all of the third had the same "no what!?!? ur kidding!?!?" reaction as the first book had & was again interesting & easy to get through. LOTS of juicy secrets & info that ties things together & makes it make as much sense as it can & ends off in such a solid way, not without questions, but with a sense that even if those questions were answered, it wouldn't make any difference, would be maybe a trivia fact more than some grounding breakthrough.
also to whom it matters the cast is pretty diverse & natural about it, having them just be people in a situation & not relying on that to be a selling a point like i see in posts all the time here.
im going to get into spoilers here
the nature of area x is so interesting to me. the time paradox, the fact that time moves in a linear fashion and yet the area contains so much passage of time that just. doesnt match the outside world. the shock of grace saying she'd been there 3 years when it'd only been weeks and yet all the signs proved she wasnt lying. the way how suddenly all the decay & change in the area held just that much more weight to it. that things were even less what they seemed. that lended to knowing the biologist's 30 years in there vastly outweighed the real world's time. that part saying that people couldve lived there, lived out whole full lives between the time the border/area was created & when it was first explored because if the time difference just really hit me for some reason. its such a weird space.
and how the area handles people, not the book but the area, how it gets inside them, turns them into something else. learning that what came back from expeditions wasnt the originals. that the area got inside the people who went in & changed them into something completely unrecognizable. turned into a pig slug hybrid with only their face intact, into an owl, into some Thing writing in life itself on tunnel(tower) walls, into a giant fucking whale that can exist wherever it wants to. the fact that, initially, these are viewed as some fucked up creation recreated from who died there, only to be revealed that these forms ARE the original people and they ARE still alive, just in this new form, and while its implied they may not have the same frame of consciousness as people, its also not stated thats 100% the case- that no outsider can know for sure because people can only know people(or at least hope to know people). the whole concept that the originals have become part of the area living there or dying there in this new way, while the world creates copies of them, sends them back to the real world, fools everyone into thinking these copies are the originals, that something just happened to them and somethings not right anymore. that even when ones like the biologist's copy admits they arent the same person, no one believes them. thats so wild. & its framed that 3 people made it back for real, no copies involved, but the only one with any proof is the director. sure whitby & lowry have life spans unlike other "survivors" but at the same time, its also said theres no real way of knowing if the real or copy whitby lived, & iirc the footage seemed to imply lowry was different on the way back too although i guess that could be attributed to stress but its not like the things he says are very trustworthy either. anyway thats just to wild & intriguing to me, that while they're off living or fighting for life or dying, theres a copy of them they arent even aware of, creating a different truth of them to the outside world. neat concept.
the lighthouse keepers story, the way it all started, that kind of got to me. the way he was just doing his best at his job & the more and more u read u know its about to catch up, he about to be consumed by this & start its spread, and theres nothing anyone can do about it. and god the letter to him at the end. i came here to be fascinated and yet that final moment of human respect across people who were no longer people got to me & i ended up crying. which may be stupid of me. but i LOVE when a world can draw u in so thoroughly & then have characters to get caught up in & care about too.
& i love that the nature of this area is so bizarre that, even when things are stated as directly as possible , u think for a moment the narrator is hallucinating or or being vivid & only to moments later have it shoved it ur face that no, thats the reality, thats word for word whats happening. i had a LOT of "what in the actual fuck" moments & they were jarring of course, as they were meant to be for such a peculiar world, but jarring in the way that drew u in more, made u need to know more.
basically i had a good time & this is going to be constantly in my mind or at least in the back of it. a lot more going on then im saying here & if ur into fucked up world building then definitely give it a chance at least
#this isnt an analysis post this is more of a review if anything#there was one line like 'even a perfect copy cant truly become the real one' & i immediately went omg just like d-ne shuuenpro#theres a LOT of things in here that had me thinking of aru sekai too but that may be the nature of sci-fi stories#the third book had quite a few lines that really hit me.#the single sentence 'The uselessness of guilt'#the paragraph about shes always alone & no one will ever come to help & the only way is forward#etc. we like that.
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2023 Movie Journey #2: M3GAN
m3gan. absolutely nothing about this movie was what i expected, and i mean that in the best possible way. the trailer made it look bonkers and horrible, and i went to see it in an effort to challenge my horror wimpitude, figuring that if it was bad maybe i’d at least be amused by how bad it was. also, the starring actress was great in get out, and the fact that she was also producing this made me want to like it.
it was so good though! so good that they’re already planning on making a sequel! which i was both surprised by and genuinely excited about--i’ll definitely see it. but back to my expectations: the trailer made me think i was about to watch a movie in which a tech whiz makes a fancy AI doll for her daughter and then murder ensues. (many spoilers behind the cut.)
and i mean, murder does ensue, but the girl who also stars in m3gan isn’t her daughter, and the movie’s slow initial build up includes a tragic orphaning, a sudden (and terrible at it) new guardianship, a jerk boss and literal work meltdowns, a social worker therapist lady who manages to be the most rational person in the early story and simultaneously the first unsettling threat we feel to the movie’s central duo.
basically, what i love about this movie is that it stayed with me after i watched it. i just kept thinking about it, and remembering parts of it, and turning over its themes in my head and being really happy it exists. honestly because it’s a horror movie, and i can’t say i generally like a ton of horror movies, but this one isn’t the ‘evil robot kill kill kill’ i was expecting.
it’s exploring the dangers of extreme technology, sure, but while making it clear how central human error is to that eventuality. and digging into what makes a family, and what we need to feel loved and connected and deal with loss, and what value we get from that connection coming from other people even when it’s hard.
one of things that fascinated me was that this also wasn’t a story about an innately evil villain--this is a story about a villain literally created by those she’s eventually out to destroy. and it’s the WAY they created her that makes her a villain. gosh there’s so much there. as she evolves throughout the movie and becomes more dangerous, we also get to see her not only become self-aware, but kind of more human, in that she knows she’s not what she was meant to be but she doesn’t know what that makes her instead.
and while the two main characters are the above-mentioned white woman and girl, the rest of the cast was fun and diverse. i recognized the actor playing her jerk boss and he brought a really great ‘obnoxious but i’m still enjoying him’ energy to his screentime...otherwise i don’t think i knew any of the actors.
i made good use of my ‘i’m allowed to look away when i need to’ horror movie policy with this one, because literally the first two murders are bad areas for me: animal and elder abuse. i didn’t have trouble when she kills a kid later, despite how bad that sounds, because he was framed sooooo creepily as a predator in the making that i was like ‘yeah. makes sense.’
mostly though, i just loved how much this movie was centered on emotions and actual plot and relationships (and relatable work-life balance issues) rather than the gore i was anticipating. it was full of classic horror tropes, but in a way that i liked as a very basic horror viewer--it felt comfy and familiar; idk if bigger horror fans found it unimpressive instead. when the movie’s very last shot was the most predictable thing ever, i realized i was openly grinning at the screen, because instead of being like an eyeroll moment, it felt perfect and earned and like, yeah, this is a horror movie and this is what they do.
the soundtrack doesn’t distract too much from the movie so i remember it less than i do most things i’ve watched, but the songs they picked for m3gan were terrifying and fantastic. it took me almost 24 hours after seeing the film to make the connection that ‘titanium’ wasn’t just one of the songs she sings because it’s a pop song the kid likes, but she’s literally made of titanium and that’s why she’s so hard to kill later.
two other final notes: the trailer made m3gan look very ‘pretty little liars but make it silly’ and in reality it was a surprisingly serious movie. why are trailers lying to me so much lately? and also, i really enjoyed the role the child played in the conclusion. we got two final girls for the price of one and as m3gan was making it clear that she had unlimited ways to take out our heroine no matter how hard she fought back, it was great that her own earlier skills and her niece’s final choice were really what saved them all.
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