God I want to relate Morshid and Marek to akhenaten/amenhotep the fourth and the sun disk god aten somehow but that's almost entirely because aten is my fav god and I just want to mesh my obsessions

@oveliagirlhaditright I'm putting my Missing Link thoughts in another post because it would be too long, and honestly I have SO MANY thoughts about why the basic premise of KHML was a bad idea (completely separate from my own distaste for the "Ephemer is Xehanort's ancestor" stuff that might be in it)

Because you're right to mention Pokemon Go and it really, REALLY feels to me like it's just trying to ride the hype from the mobile ARG boom that started with Pokemon Go a whole eight years ago. Because KHML as a concept doesn't even seem to be utilizing any of the unique features of an ARG that make them appealing

There's two real franchise-based mobile ARGs that I ever remember hearing about: Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite*. These two projects do make sense to me, as opposed to KHML because of the way that both franchises make use of the central concept of the augmented reality feature. They're additions to reality, which both series already played around with. HP takes place in our reality, but with a "what if magic was real and just hidden" premise, so it's insanely easy to make an ARG that's just "yeah, you're one of the people in on the secret magical society that always existed in the real world." Pokemon takes place in an alternate version of our world; every location in Pokemon is based on a real-world location. So that's also a natural progression for it, and it's easy to pretend that the "reality" you see in the ARG is just the Pokemon world. Other than location names and the presence of Pokemon, the Pokemon world is practically identical to reality

That is literally the central concept of an ARG. To make the game part of reality. And that just doesn't work with KH, a game about flying through space to reach Disney worlds. Sure, some of us might have wanted to pretend to be Keyblade wielders as kids, but did we want to be wielders in our small backyards? Not even imagining that they were another location, but the yards as they were? No! We wanted to be in the Disney worlds! Or Traverse Town! The central facet of ARG gameplay doesn't mesh with the functionality of a story-based canonical title. And so what do they do to force it to work? Complicate the lore with the Astral Planes, which completely take the "reality" out of Augmented Reality aside from... a map? Like, it might have worked with Quadratum depending on how much of "our reality" that ends up being, but that's not at all what they're doing

Additionally, ARGs are not conducive to story-heavy games! You're supposed to play them while walking around town, maybe stopping for a few minutes to take a break. Or you play them on work/school breaks. You need to be able to pick them up, play a bit for 10 minutes, and put them down. The typical gameplay cycle for most ARG players does not include 20 minutes just to watch cutscenes to get the Exclusive Lore before being able to do anything, and the people who like KH for the story aren't going to want to wait all the time for their mobile game energy to recharge before they can get their cutscenes (a thing that even KHUx did away with for story chapters after some time!)

The entire decision to make KHML an ARG, to me, feels like corporate checking off a box of "style of game that got popular in recent memory" and trying to copy it rather than thinking of the gameplay as a medium in and of itself to tell a story. Nothing about the ARG concept works with what KH is at its core, and I honestly feel like they unintentionally admitted that when it was announced that you'd be able to play it without leaving home. What is the point of making it an ARG at all if you're going to remove literally the only benefit that it has as a medium, as opposed to something that could benefit the story you're trying to tell? We are a long way from the days of TWEWY making revolutionary use of the DS technology to have its gameplay tell a significant part of its story

In an ideal world, I think that KHML should have been an MMO like we thought KHx was going to be back when it was announced. They wouldn't have to mess with the lore to make it work, other players running around would help to "populate" Scala ad Caelum in a natural way, people could form "families" with their friends to further the bloodlines narrative, and MMOs can function on the drip-fed narrative style that they wanted. It doesn't even have to be a big-budget MMO like FF14, because I actually do like KH3's artstyle and KHML's simpler usage of it (it manages to be distinctive and colorful, working in hallmarks of Nomura's hand-drawn style while still being more detailed than the PS2-era). It could just be... basically what it is now, but they add in new Disney worlds every couple of months to keep the story going

And now here we are, with a game that was supposed to be out by the end of 2023 still missing (lol) and only having had two betas by the near-midpoint of 2024 because they're having developmental issues that I would personally guess have to do with the game's self-defeating nature. I find it very frustrating

*Adding in, Wizards Unite literally ran for less than three years (June 2019 - Jan 2022) before shutting down so even being tied to a big-name franchise couldn't save it. I have a strong hunch that the Covid-19 lockdowns played a huge part in killing the ARG boom so it's doubly insane to me why Square Enix thought trying to bring it back was a good idea

Anyways. My overall point is that there are certain topics in the Fate series that are very heavy and I personally really do believe need to be treated with a certain sensitivity and not trivialized, incest and pedophilia being some of them, I do really believe that Fate is trying to make certain points about the cycles of abuse and how they manifest and what it does to survivors quite a bit. I think Fate also makes a point of showing how abuse can leave people in morally grey areas and also make them lash out against others (HF Sakura); or lead them to take actions that they would normally NEVER take (i.e. LB6 Morgan vs PHH Morgan). Fate also makes a lot of points about how even the most abusive people started out as innocent people who had things done to them and that abuse cycles Start somewhere (Kirei, Angra Mainyu, Zolken/Zouken) and that the environment and way people were raised often have a lot to do with it (Shinji) and the messages they were being sent also have a lot to do with it too. I think if you go through a lot of the messages that Fate is trying to say and you come out of it thinking "Wow so hot" about things like incest/pedophilic abuse I think, truly, you are missing the point, and Nasu wouldn't be bringing up Revolutionary Girl Utena and Evangelion as being series that explicitly influenced his work so much if he wasn't trying to Say something about the nature of abuse cycles. I enjoy having fun as much as the next person but I do really truly wish that we could break out of that weird otaku mindset of "it's okay if it's cute anime girls, it's not really and no one's REALLY looking at my incest pedophilia fanworks and going 'this is so awesome i want this in real life too'". because media and its impacts on psychological processes just simply don't work as simple like that lol (propaganda works on these same processes)

Wait, Anthy is Miki’s Stepmom? The Madonna-Whore Complex, The Kaoru Twins’ Complicated Dynamic, & Why Miki Sucks, Actually

This is strictly a personal interpretation of the events within Revolutionary Girl Utena, not a hard and fast set of hidden facts, so please read this with an open mind and the willingness to interrogate it

...Why does Anthy become Miki’s new mom?

I see this question bounced around a lot even by veteran viewers of the show: in a story where every choice that a character makes can betray so much about their inner world, where the position of a camera can both obscure and reveal horrifying information to the audience, and every color comes with its own localized set of symbology — why this moment?

I didn’t understand it myself until I started tying pins together with red yarn up on my mental cork board and saw potential connections between all the ways that Miki has interacted with the women in his life, which makes Anthy “becoming Miki’s mom” seem especially twisted... but in a delicious sort of way. Be warned, the essay is long and will touch upon many points about Miki’s potential psyche with a slight detour into Anthy’s magical powers before arriving at any sort of conclusion. Stick with me, this will hopefully make a good amount of sense in the end.

The first thing that we should establish is the theme of “innocence” in the show. Ikuhara has talked about this theme before, where the dilemma is choosing whether to grow up by abandoning your innocence, choosing to cling to it, or a third option.

In this sense, the power of revolution relies on transcending childhood and innocence. It means "you need to grow up or risk being caught in the same cycle of being taken advantage of by people who don't intend anything good for you over and over." Some characters think they’ve been able to break this cycle such as Touga or Juri, but those characters are for another essay.

Being innocent, in this framing, could mean multiple things but in cases like Miki, Tsuwabuki, and Shiori, it means remaining unaware (or trying to avoid awareness) of the “darker” aspects of life so that you may stay “yourself” — childlike and “innocent.”

That lack of awareness (or practiced ignorance) s baked right into Miki’s behavior and attitudes towards Kozue. Throughout the series, she’s seen as this feisty, precocious provocateur but with her brother, things clearly get murky. Viewers are quick to identify their interactions as incestuous but unlike Nanami who declares that her big brother is “the only man for her” and quite clearly expresses a naive romantic interest in him, Kozue and Miki’s expressions of desire are hesitant — a hand on the chest when Kozue is out of it, a begrudging yet entirely wanted kiss on the cheek goodnight, possessive or hesitant looks. The absence of comfort in their interactions betrays a yearning for something much more, but is it necessarily incestuous?

Kozue is active in that she wants to rile her brother up by antagonizing him and we see this at multiple points from her teasing Miki over what she was doing in the piano room to disregarding her broken ankle after he’s carried her home. However, in scenes where Kozue is not being sexual or openly stern with Miki, she is distant from him and seems conflicted when he offers childish comfort to her in the form of a midnight milkshake.

In the cases of incest presented in the show, the best foil to view Miki and Kozue’s relationship may be Touga and Nanami, both of which are pairings defined by their distance from each other. Nanami wants reciprocal affection but doesn’t realize that this isn’t what she wanted until she almost has it forced upon her.

Miki, I believe, is similar to Nanami in that he doesn’t seem to know what he wants from his relationship with Kozue. He insists that he feels regret over the recital from so long ago and that he misses her piano playing, but when we first see him face to face with his twin sister, he’s angry at her for no clear or immediate reason. He wants to get away from her and go play his piano alone as quickly as possible.

When Kozue breaks her ankle after trying to rescue a nest of birds, even when Kozue asks if Miki is worried about her, he only replies “don’t lean on me” more than once and apologizes to Utena and Anthy on Kozue’s behalf for the two having to carry their items. Afterwards, when they see that their mother is getting remarried, he is quick to scold Kozue for ‘badmouthing’ their parents, using their concern for the twins as evidence that they are beyond reproach, even when we see later that he is equally distressed to learn that his father is getting remarried. In these ways, one could say that he outwardly treats her like a child that he must be responsible for.

Kozue similarly thinks she just wants to get one over on Miki but when Kozue antagonizes Miki to fight harder by “stealing” Anthy right in front of him during the third duel, she's frustrated and disappointed in him when he loses. We can understand why she did this further by looking back at her interview in Nemuro Hall:

Since we were very little, he has treated me very fondly. Lately, even though he pretends there's nothing wrong... if something happens to sully me, he acts outwardly as if everything's okay. But in his heart, he's hurt and he obsesses over me. That's why I purposely go out with people that I know Miki would hate.

The way that Kozue frames her feelings of rejection and shame is especially interesting when placed side by side with how Kozue coerces him to duel for Anthy:

If everything around you is dirty, don't you have no choice but to get dirty too? You've got no choice but to get dirty and then get what you want.

Let’s zero in on the word choice here, where “sully” is translated from “kegare,” a term used to denote such violations as severe as spiritual defilement. The word that Kozue is using to describe herself is a religiously tinged choice which could betray a deeper sense of shame underneath her usual bravado. We then point to the translation from "dirty," which is "yogore," a term with more mild meaning akin to "corruption". The difference between how Kozue seems to describe her sexual experience and her view of how Miki should experience the world himself, I think, is a stark and revealing difference which could say a lot about how Kozue sees herself. But I digress.

Where once Miki was resolute in his desire to quit, Kozue’s framing immediately convinces him to act. Seeing that the two of them come from the same household (where children pick up on messaging and form their beliefs around what they see) and Kozue continually frames herself as “sullied” but frames Miki as someone residing in a landscape where everyone else is dirtied, we should keep this dirty/clean perspective in the back of our minds for later.

Apart from these moments, I think it’s useful to point out that Miki is by far the most benevolent and comforting presence in the show when we examine the male cast, especially compared to physically abusive Saionji, womanizing and psychologically manipulative Touga, and the architect of all the suffering in the show Akio. This may lend viewers more sympathy to Miki’s plight, however, Miki is not without problems of his own. His memory, for example, quite literally distorts reality in ways that hold others up to expectations that never existed in the first place. We see his view of the recital as a young boy and see Kozue as an entirely different person, a sweet girl with fluffy hair that eerily resembles Anthy. In Kozue’s own flashbacks, we see her more as herself. Similarly, Miki speaks highly of his piano teacher and wishes to introduce his friends to them, despite the knowledge we gain quickly after that the piano teacher may have been molesting Miki and had to be pushed down a flight of stairs by Kozue to keep him far away from his victim. If we put these two occurrences side by side with Miki’s reaction to the phone call where he realizes that Anthy has become his step-mommie, I would propose that he's not really willing to put words to the things that bother him, such as being made viscerally uncomfortable by an authority figure he wants to learn from or trying to grapple with a childhood memory no longer applying to the present day. Miki seems to compartmentalize various aspects of his existence such as dueling, performance, how he sees the Kozue of the past and how he conceptualizes his relationship with her in the present, how he feels about his predatory teacher, how he feels about Touga, and so on and so on. His is a character that seems tied up in ritual, productivity, and perfectionism to keep his mind away from the deeper thoughts about his family and his own desires that genuinely make him feel like he doesn’t have a lot of control over what happens around him.

And why not compartmentalize? Miki is a quiet, blushing, and polite young man with an idealistic view of the world. The way that he’s growing up, an unsuspecting adult may assume that his character growth will edge towards “good.” But growing up as a "gifted" kid like Miki comes with an immense pressure from the adults around you that make you feel like you have to grow up more quickly than others while simultaneously being stunted and preserved to keep from losing that “specialness” adults may find inherent in a gifted child. When a gifted child truly grows old and moves on from adolescence, they will likely feel some grief for that time period they didn't get to have where they could just fool around, learn lessons about relationships through experience, and come to understand what it means to care about people on their own time. When you are “gifted,” you are above the others and your potential must be preserved, which only makes the confusion and inner turmoil of a boy like Miki even worse because now there’s a complex based on merit hierarchy involved in this mess.

When we step back to better look at this mess, one could draw parallels between Miki and a boy version of the “not like other girls” phenomenon. The “not like other girls” phenomenon is an internal defense mechanism that girls of a certain age may develop when they reach adolescence and quickly became aware of how the people around them often degrade teenage girls in general; they respond to this dehumanization by defining themselves as the exactly what misogynistic rhetoric insists that normal women are not yet should be, which is virginal and studious. These girls don’t waste time on boys or makeup, they dress plainly and never date. They don’t like dieting or idly following the lives of their favorite celebrities, they are burying their nose in a book and insulting the girls around them who do enjoy such things, not even realizing that their reactionary actions are still molding themselves to please someone else.

In some ways, you can see that dichotomy in Miki and Kozue, especially in how they react to these societal expectations they find themselves in as “child prodigies.” Miki fully embraces these expectations as something as natural as breathing. Rather than embrace or weaponize a facet of himself that has been exploited or used to hurt him, Miki rejects his carnal desires and emotionality outright, instead basing his identity around conforming to the image of the studious boy genius -- although Miki may naturally be a quiet and polite young man with a passion for music, this image of Miki as someone who doesn’t have deep sexual desires or selfish motivations or feelings of deep, painful confusion around his parent’s divorce are all based on a performance that pleases the adults around him as someone too smart to be caught up in emotional whirlwinds. This is interesting in comparison to Kozue, who had built her relationships and adolescent identity around sexuality and the abstract concept that she is a “wild animal” — untamed, impulsive, alone, and (supposedly) unbothered by it.

Miki may probably strike too close to home for others for a myriad of reasons because of that. He is the child prodigy who got hyped up and rewarded for being simultaneously childish and unchildlike. He grew up too fast and while he likes to think he's an old soul full of knowledge and emotional insight, he's still a child who believes that his view of the world is "good" and “just”. Having his morals underpinned by these arbitrary concepts of good and bad function as psychic blockers so he doesn’t have to dig deeper to understand why he is acting on his respective motivations, or even consider if he these are actually his true motivations. These conflicts are so all-encompassing to Miki that how other people may feel about his thoughts, feelings, or decisions is not even a factor in his world: he never once talks to Anthy or Kozue about how he actually feels. Refusing to do so leaves him with nothing else to do but wait for someone else to give him clear instruction on what to do. Without someone else telling him how to think and feel — to mother him through these conflicting emotions — he is paralyzed in indecision.

In this sense, Miki is utterly uncurious of the people around him, only confused over his own internal landscape. He is probably greatly uncomfortable at the prospect of shattering the many illusions that prop up his ego and the idealistic view he has of how the world should be -- a sunlit garden that in reality, was just a bunch of stumps and weeds.

That kind of ambiguity or paralysis against doing anything short of perfection can’t exist as anything desirable or “good” in Miki’s world, and this obsession with perfection — both externalized and internalized — are hinted at by Miki’s remark about the piano being “out of tune” that, when challenged, becomes about him being “out of tune.” Something is wrong in Miki’s world and instead of investigating these feelings as a response to a stimuli, he sees them as indelible facts about the world around him that must be fixed like an out of tune piano.

This idea of purity Miki exhibits is something he sees as global, within his control, and yet utterly unexplainable beyond being “good” or “bad”, which is uniform across many boards. He sees music as a pure form of emotional expression and he sees his talent at school as mentally pure because no one has told them they are bad. He sees Kozue’s flirtations with people she doesn’t care about as impure and sees Utena’s “ownership” ie. the potential of her power over Anthy as impure because it reminds him that someone has dominion over her besides him. Most importantly, Miki sees his desire to "help" Anthy as emotionally pure bc he confuses his feelings for selflessness, a “good” thing. All of these categorizations that play out on his face are either purely pleased and approving or enraged and disapproving. There is hardly any curiosity about why things make him feel the way they do, just a lot of jumping to deliberate how he should gain control over the situation that is causing him so much distress. There's a lot in him to unpack in terms of sheer yikes.

In this regard, Miki’s motivations and actions towards Anthy in the two instances that he duels for her slightly edge towards the summary that "you make me feel good so you must be mine". He acts upon these feelings without fully digesting them probably because he projects his lost childhood (like the sunlit garden that never existed) onto Anthy bc he's like "fuck I may never feel like this again and since I’ve never felt it before, I have to hold onto this feeling whether Anthy likes it or not UH I MEAN I HAVE TO SAVE HER"

His logical brain may comprehend these emotions on their surface like this: "this abused young woman doesn’t deserve to be put in a proverbial cage and I think she’s special, I want to be a good presence in her life". But feelings aren’t thoughts and we can go to great lengths to deceive ourselves into believing that our actions are for others, especially when Miki’s selfish lizard heart knows better: "I need her existence so I can feel whole, I need her so I can feel this good all the time because absolutely nothing else in this small, small, confusing world can.”

And that fucks with that preexisting Madonna/whore complex Miki has against Kozue because now... they are not so different. All this time, Kozue has been in pain because the most reliable way to get Miki’s attention has been to date men that he doesn’t like and that gives her attention in the form of visible disapproval. Miki has placed himself at a high point where he judges her, but Anthy changes this in the sense that he is now smitten and desperate to get in with the school pariah. Now Miki's heart is the whore. Miki is the one chasing pleasure in another person with that scandalous hope that his affections may be returned. He doesn’t want to live with this whore heart, so what does he do? He jumps on his emotions and layers their internal contradiction with an added layer of self-delusion — that he’s actually fighting to gain ownership of Anthy to make her happy, never questioning if this would make her happy or if it would primarily make him happy to have her.

So many facets of the Kaoru twins also mirror Anthy and Akio's internal landscapes when we touch upon the issue of who is chosen and who is not. Kozue is someone who we see people oggle at, but in that car crash sort of fascination where you know something scandalous is happening but don’t want to get too close. We see this by the poolside where the girls are gasping at Kozue collecting another boyfriend and when she breaks her ankle trying to save a bird’s nest. This, I would argue, doesn’t quite display acceptance by the society around her but rather fascination, which in of itself can be a painful form of othering — a bit like a wild animal in a zoo exhibit. In this sense, Kozue and Anthy are both two young women at the outskirts of acceptance, with one being made an idle attraction of gawking and the other being made the eternal whipping girl everyone needs to feel better about themselves.

On the other hand, everyone knows how studious and impressive Miki is at the school. Girls like Yuko, Keiko, and Aiko will go out of their way to berate other girls for distracting or “slighting” him because they consider him someone who is not deserving of anything less than stellar treatment. Authority figures like the piano teacher and Mikage are actively trying to court his polite demeanor and impressive intellect. In short, Miki was valued and loved by the society the twins reside in, just like Akio is visibly praised and idolized by teachers and students alike. Miki is an aspirational figure within his sphere. Kozue is seen as a point of fascination outside of it. He was accepted. She was not. And in a big way, Kozue put herself in between one of these valued bonds that boosted Miki’s sterling reputation — the relationship between him and the predatory piano teacher — to protect him from being taken advantage of, even if it might bite her in the ass and put her in danger or ruin her reputation. This is somewhat like how Anthy got Dios to stay in the barn and chose to put herself between him and the villagers, at the risk of being hurt.

This leads to a dynamic between the twins where they both put their "former selves" on pedestals while seeking to reach out to their present counterpart as if they are that ideal self but just got lost in self righteous ego or perceived bad influences along the way.

The truth is, as with Akio and Anthy, they aren't seeing each other or other people, at all. They're seeing what they want to see and Kozue is the first to make this realization after Miki's final duel, where it becomes apparent to her that Miki is not willing to truly risk endangering his ego or his fantasies for what he claims to want: to her, in her own words, he is a coward. Just like Akio, Miki isn't really a genius or a gentleman or someone who was forced to "dirty" himself in the name of "protecting" another. He's always been a child clinging to the past, blind to his role as a cog helping to perpetuate a system that he is externally repulsed by, but internally indebted to.

Miki, like Ruka and Touga, is an extremely vital foil to Utena's "altrustic" approach to Anthy. He offers protective feelings and caring, but they are conditional based on what he might see or what amount of control he has when delivering these feelings. this shows that much like how Akio's conditional love — which is contingent upon sex and submission — is not a love worth sticking around for, utena can't just be content to accept the surface of anthy that Miki REALLY wants to believe is all that exists of her. This is not just because Miki may reject Anthy if he knew the real her but because throughout the show, when presented with opportunities to support and listen to his sister, Miki ignores them and only focuses on how he feels in the situation. Imagine going to someone who is romantically pursuing you without any signal that their advances were reciprocated, who can’t even exercise bedside manner when his twin sister breaks her ankle, and who won’t even dare to empathize with her about their parents’ divorce, and then trying to confide in this person that your oldest brother — your only family — has been raping you for years. Not to be harsh, but that’s not someone I can trust with such an enormous emotional weight.

Viewers were led right away to believe that Miki was the only member of the student council who was a true ally to Anthy and genuinely cared about her. However, there's a sense of betrayal in realizing that just like everyone else, he was projecting his own traumas onto her and wanted to possess her so he could use her to get ahead of his own head.

This reading does potentially return to the "innocent cruelty" theme remarked upon earlier in this series by Juri and in the essay itself — to be both willfully blind of what is taboo and to place oneself as above such matters of judgement, even though the taboo is what guides your eyes away. Utena herself is often marked by her oblivious nature and misses huge points of information due to being generally incurious about facets of her surroundings that don’t interest her and Anthy is a quietly perceptive, yet resentful and hands off sort of person who is already juggling a whole ball pit worth of traumas -- too much to really consider intervening in the inner conflict playing out in Miki's heart. In this sense, I think what Miki wanted out of Anthy is complicated because it is tied up in an ideal and a fantasy of Anthy that doesn’t exist. Not really. That fantasy is the complicated allure and painful curse of the Rose Bride, and all who occupy that place in society. She is everything you want, but only if you don’t look even an inch closer. She can give you everything that you want, but not really. She is on the surface what you think she is, but only there on the surface. It’s an empty and shallow existence that is inherently unfulfilling, something that Miki doesn’t bother himself with because he wants the fantasy and the feelings that come from it — the shining thing — not the young woman who inspires it. Based on the stilted way she behaves, I think it could be inferred from this dynamic that Anthy especially resents Miki for how he visibly wants more out of her but isn’t willing to pursue it, only to play a gentleman until the other person acts on his behalf.

If you notice in his first episode, almost 70% of everything Anthy says to him is an extremely brief response to some princely action he does for her, all with one sentiment: "thanks!" There's really no interaction between them that is ever initiated by Anthy, it's all in response to Miki and often, she closes her eyes against him when talking. Somehow, or perhaps precisely because he is getting and giving nothing meaningful in this exchange, this enthralls Miki! Every interaction he has with Anthy at this stage is totally chaste and yet always leaves him a blushing mess.

Miki can't easily work through the desire to be completely one with someone that he's pushed onto Kozue, which she keeps simultaneously teasing and rejecting in favor of expressing her individuality as a "wild animal." Because of this conflict, he chooses to work it out on someone... "safe." Someone who he thinks will not truly reject him in that deep, cutting way that someone might do when they’ve known you all of your life and someone who (in his mind) has a need for someone like him. A perfect blank slate for that pesky desire to be accepted without the mortifying ordeal of being completely known.

In that sense, it makes me believe that the desire between the Kaoru twins only appears sexual to others but isn’t actually a real sexual desire on either side, just a complicated emotional one. Both of them keep pushing each other away and refuse to acknowledge that they want to be in each other's lives on an emotionally intimate level — even this conflict of where they stand with respect to each other doesn’t seem to be firmly decided on by either twin in the end as they seem content to teach Tsuwabuki piano in the same room together after the “coward” incident. But on the other hand, hey, kids from divorce can have a hard time understanding what healthy emotional relationships and platonic intimacy look like. So naturally, sexual intimacy can be far more tangled up in confusion, especially if you have a lot of issues with purity and expectations in the same way as Miki and Kozue.

And here lies the core of the problem: these ideas of sex and chastity, good and evil, accepted and unaccepted as they apply to the Kaoru twins. The Madonna/whore complex is very contingent on seeing women in submissive and matronly roles where no sex = heavenly and sex = sin. The mother is a sexless role based on total service to others, and that is the foundation of Miki's infatuation for Anthy: she is (in his eyes) a sexless woman who he saw as being there to completely serve his needs while absorbing his concerns and anxieties as acceptable for their motivations, not by their actions, as he hoped all the while that she would read his mind and act on his secret affection or thank him for his good spirit the way a mother would praise her toddler for giving her a macaroni art piece. If Anthy becomes entangled with ideas of something immoral to lump together with sex and is not outwardly changed from that, it put Miki's psyche in a dark corner. In that dark place, he knows that she is still available as a safe, non-promiscuous woman who exists in a subservient role and gives him positive attention, but those things all by themselves now aren’t enough because it confirms that the thing he was after and didn’t want to admit to is now out of reach due to being suddenly immortal and too dirty to really consider. It is the grey area between a Madonna and a whore to be someone’s object of desire and quite literally their new mommy. You already wanted the safety and comfort of emotional intimacy between you and your sister, but what are you going to do now that you know the desire you have with your crush is all tangled up with a yearning for parental love and a repulsion against it?

And if you’re Anthy in this scenario? Then what better way to fuck with the head of someone who has a madonna/whore complex against you than literally becoming their new mom?

Dear Most Trendy Gamer in the World

| Repost: Originally posted by Rer on December 6, 2011

How's it going big man? Its been quite some time since we last had a chat. You know it always amazes me how cutting edge you are given your age, you always seem to have the newest technology or the latest toy craze in stock.

It seems like the holiday chain letters have started back up too, tis the season to be blogging!  So with that in mind, I too, would like to write you a quick little letter.  I know over the past few years I haven’t asked much from you, what with having younger siblings who needed your Christmas cheer much more than myself, so maybe this year I can kind of pool all of that unspent good-will?  Anyways here’s what I’d love to see from you Big Red.

1. To start, could you maybe help out the United States with some of our current woes?  What with the economy not doing so hot, Congress at each other’s throats, and bills like SOPA on the horizon, I think its about time for a refresher on the ideals of empathy, understanding, and all around good nature towards one’s fellow man. Its a tough first pick I know, so just do your best.  Now with that rather less than cheerful bit out of the way lets move onto some more game-centric wishes.

2. Can we please get some fresh blood into the AAA-MMO development cycle?  Surely by now someone must have thought of something awesome, or at least revolutionary (and I mean actually revolutionary not just ‘oh we’re gonna change or add one big feature’), to try out in an MMO.  Can you maybe swoosh by some CEO’s office and just leave him a note (after you’ve eaten his corporate milk and cookies) about how doing something risky and new might be a solid endeavor in 2012?

3.  As an addendum to wish #2, it’d be really awesome if you could make a small sidetrip to CCP’s headquarters when you do your Reykjavik run.  Just give all of developers, artists, programmers, Q&A folk, and other members of the CCP team a big thank you present on my behalf.  If I had to guess what they might want most it’d probably be a break to spend some time with their families, and given all of the hard work they pounded into Crucible I’d say they’ve earned it.  Its a good thing you make your rounds in December because if I was writing this in July I probably would have said to drop a giant mountain of coal on top of their office, but its cool, they’ve got their heads on straight and are finally back on the path of

4.  This one’s a bit more personal.  Do you think you could find a game that’s multiplayer, not time intensive, and is something both my sister and I would love to play?  We don’t hang out as often as I’d like, but looking through my Steam library its hard for me to find a game we can both play and enjoy together in the span of say, 30 minutes.  Not an MMO either, she’s low on funds, and I want to spend time with her.  Not her and one million other people.

5. Mass Effect 3 is going to feature a fully fleshed out Co-Op campaign.  Honestly, this more than anything else excites me for the game.  Could we maybe see other popular titles consider adding Co-Op play to their games as well?  I can only imagine how awesome it would be to have a friend helping me kill Templars in Assassins’ Creed, or having an actual buddy at my side in Skyrim instead of a lifeless NPC (Sorry Lydia but really you have no soul).  Just make it an optional thing, that way no one feels left out if they dig running around worlds unseen on their own.

6. Oh, oh, oh, and could 2012 finally be the year that developers bridge the gap between consoles and PCs?  That way no one feels remorse for buying a game on their PC only to be unable to hang out with friends who have it for the XBox 360 or PS3.  That would be super ballin’ Santa, work that Christmas magic!

That’s all I got Papa Noel, keep warm and be merry this month.  Hell maybe on the 26th you can take a break, sit down, and play some Skyrim, that game kicks ass!

5 Steps that will help to reduce belly fat and loss weight faster than ever.

If you're imposing massive restrictions on your diet and avoiding all your favorite foods just to lose some weight chances, are you're probably not going to stick to that plan for very long, and after over 12 years of working hands-on with people looking to lose weight both at my gyms in New Jersey and online. I found at the fastest way for people to lose weight is to take simple steps that are sustainable and the slowest way to lose weight is by going through the yo-yo dieting cycle. Where you lose the weight and then you regain it over and over again. And when people go through that cycle, it truly doesn't matter how fast you originally lost the weight. Because even if you lose 30 lb in a month with a restrictive no-carb diet. But you regain all of it the next month at the end of the month to you just lost nothing.

So the five simple methods that I'm about to go over are not going to be magical quick fixes or revolutionary breakthroughs and fat loss by any means.

But what I can tell you from experience that comes from actually working with real people is, if you implement these simple changes you will lose weight faster and it won't be as much of a day-to-day grind to do so which will allow you to keep the weight off.

So step number one:

Is to not be overly restrictive with your diet or at least not for too long. Now, why is this so important? why is this the very first step? well, your mind is one of the hardest things to control. Following a restricted plan can indeed be beneficial to beginning to break some bad eating habits reducing cravings for things like sugar and seeing some quick results. So that you feel motivated to want to keep going. However, this is so important guys if you don't switch away from that restrictive mindset you're setting yourself up for a binge.

If you love pastries and ice cream and chips and pasta and you tell yourself that I'm never eating any of these things again. All you'll be able to think about are those very things that you're restricting and you'll be thinking about them 10 times more than ever before. This is just how the mind works. When we're not allowed to do something that we want it becomes a battle. And I'm not saying that you can't win this battle for some time but if you try this restrictive approach for too long you're going to have at least one bad day and you're gonna binge. And by the time you get that bench under control you're going to be back to square one.

I’ve seen this over and over again. So for most people that aren't getting ready for a competition 4 to 6 weeks is the maximum amount of time that you want to be restricted for, and really you don't even have to be restricted at all.

You don't have to count every last one of your calories and you don't have to go to bed every night dying from Hunger.

So how does that work? how do you lose weight without the typical restrictive route?

Well, this is where Step 2 comes into play....

Step 2

And again guys this is very important to satisfy your hunger before satisfying your cravings. When you get hungry your mind will immediately wander off to thinking about foods that are Very calorically dense and easily accessible like donuts, ice cream, and potato chips.  When food has a high caloric density it just means that it has a lot of calories for its size. Or in other words for the amount of space that it'll ultimately take up in your stomach. For example, 1 cup of spinach only has seven Cal. Meanwhile, one cup of Eminem's has over 1,000 calories.

Which one do you think you're more likely to crave when you get hungry? This is why I crash diets that don't routinely satisfy your hunger. Usually, end in a giant bin session that includes tons of sweet and fattening processed foods based on how we evolved. It makes sense that we're wired to crave foods that are high in sugar and fats. Because those foods provide a quick large amount of calories all in a compact size. And before we had supermarkets modern Agriculture and refrigerators it was important to take in enough calories to refill your fat stores. Because there was no guarantee of easy access to food at all times. but the problem is that nowadays we have access to food 24/7. Continue Reading

This point of view is interesting, I never thought of it that way. What do you think about this? do you agree?

https://morilore.tumblr.com/post/168729544543/hot-take-on-revolutionary-girl-utena-utena

ok that was a long read and my brain kind of melted but like. Utena doesnt become the rose bride or the prince at the end of the series. she escapes the cycle just as she helps anthy do so, this is literally evidenced by the fact that she isnt remembered anymore, shes left ohtori, thats what happens to people who leave ohtori and dont have a reason to come back. happens with mikage too. of course the people that come back to ohtori like shiori or ruka never really left.

but utena leaves. and so does anthy. they break free. utena's "im sorry for playing prince" is literally her acknowledging that being a prince isnt real, its not a thing you can aspire to be because life isnt a fairytale and youll never be able to be a prince without falling back into patriarchal ideals, she acknowledges that she was wrong for trying to be a prince (something that can never exist) and frees anthy that way, and in the process frees herself.

also theres a part in that post that talks about dios hurting just as anthy does and like, no he never does. atleast to me dios was never real. he was only being given power by anthy and we see this again because shes literally the one to hold "his" sword. dios never hurt, dios could never hurt. dios only gave the illusion of saving princesses and maybe he never even did, in my opinion dios is just an idealized version of akio in his own head that never really existed because akio wasnt a good person even when he was dios, he was still playing into roles that really didnt help anyone and anthy had to stop him before he destroyed himself by trying to do too much. of course shes seen as a witch for destroying a "noble prince!", who wouldnt?

"It’s like Anthy knocks the Prince ideal to the ground, and then the Prince ideal comes back with a counterargument: “oh yeah, but what if the Prince is like, really really determined?  And what if the Prince is like, really really suffering but really puts the princess’s needs first, and really truly loves the princess and acknowledges the princess’s agency, and asks for her hand instead of taking it, and it’s because of the Princes’s honesty and goodness and self-sacrifice that the princess is motivated to save herself, and the Prince doesn’t even think she’s a Prince or that Princes are real?  What then?  Is it really so bad then?”  And then the story just ends on that point."

and this part of that post i dont really understand? because princes cant be that, like what theyre describing is no longer a prince? a prince in utena cant be anything other than the role given to him, a prince cannot be good... idk i just, utena rejects the princely ideals that theyre talking about. utena does not become a prince at the end because if she were she wouldnt have taken the swords of hatred wouldnt have saved anthy and actually she didnt even save anthy at the end, anthy walks out herself, if this were a prince and princess fairytale ending they would grab onto each other and walk out and push akio off the edge or something. but utena accepts that she can never save anthy on her own, she cant save anyone without them saving themselves, she can give them a push in the direction sure! but she cant save them, she cant be their prince on a white horse that saves them from everything bad, because princes dont exist.

anyway idk if any of that was understandable but i do like reading different utena takes even if to me theyre not right, but again death of the author and all that i think this is still an interesting post to read! (not mine, morilore 's) but again i do not think that utena continues the cycle, she leaves ohtori, anthy does too. and maybe in 10 years theyll have tea together. or they wont.

Hey!! The X-men are literally my favorite thing and I was wondering if you could elaborate on how Scott is a knight of doom

YES OF COURSE!!!! i'll put it under a cut since i tend to ramble a bit & i'm pulling a bunch of explanations from people smarter than i am

the knight weaponizes their aspect; they have an inherent understanding of their aspect that allows them to exploit it completely. doom is the aspect of systems, restrictions/limitations, sacrifices, and endings.

one of scott's core themes is reclaiming his restrictions in order to serve others/the greater good! he takes the possible liability that are his faulty powers and shifts them to become an advantage, largely through the strength of his restraint and discipline. his role as a tactician and the way he sees sacrifices (more on that later) also mesh EXTREMELY well with the knight of doom.

i feel like the Wh*don run (specifically astonishing x-men #22-23) really highlights how scott can turn a situation on its head through exploiting his disadvantages to the point where they become tactically advantageous!! like, let's count the ways:

the ship the x-men stole from kruun is obviously bugged, so his team won't be able to communicate without being overheard. he realizes this, and uses that restriction (being overheard) as an advantage, by falsifying their course of action.

he has been left "without his powers"—he presents a restriction that lowers the guard of his adversary and grants him entry to their home base. he then subverts this by exploding the shit out of everything when an opportune moment arrives

HE LITERALLY EXPLOITS DEATH...... HE EXPLOITS HIS OWN DEATH...................FOR THE GREATER GOOD..........DUDE???? someone get this man an advil

some more thoughts, followed by some examples by people smarter than me:

he exhibits a similar pattern of idolization/realization with xavier irt karkat/HICand dave/bro.... not sure if this by itself is a knight-y thing but i think the consistent disillusionment with their role in defending their aspect is interesting (aka knight burnout, more on that later)

he is def willing to sacrifice shit for the greater good of mutantkind. the shit in question sometimes being his closest friends and allies. the examples that stick out to me are how he allowed beast to get tortured (utopia era) while executing his plan to solve All His Problems At Once & also when he sent x-force to the future to defend hope knowing it was going to be a one-way trip

that entire issue revolving around just how GOOD scott is at self-repression😭😭😭 i'm pretty sure it's post-schism utopia era i don't remember the exact issue WAIT NVM i'm pretty sure it's uncanny #518

seeing phoenix!scott as an inversion to (rogue of) life is also an interesting concept (unchecked growth!)

the amount of responsibility he feels he has to take on (partially due to his idolization cycle w xavier/xavier's dream) is also both knight-y and doom-y

and of course the instinct to protect the people around him --> being expanded into the whole of mutantkind (which, in turn, expands his sense of obligation)

everything leading up to revolutionary cyclops is also very interesting through this framework because its reminiscent of the knights & doom players in hs! the "taking on an insane burden" (phoenix force, whatever whammied mituna) -> the "resignation to the fate handed to him by his aspect" (his stint in prison, dead daves, sollux in general) -> the "refusal to accept that fate" (prison break, dave not wanting to use time travel, sollux fucking off into the dreambubbles, karkat coming to terms w his relationship w leadership) --> experiencing knight burnout at the end of revolutionary era going into death of x

im not sure exactly how to put it into words but everything about his childhood/teenhood... like being surrounded by forces seeking to control him and use him for their own ends..... idk

(from @/land-of-classpects-and-analysis, sections highlighted red are of particular interest)

HIS GIANT STINKING MARTYR COMPLEX.....DUDE😭😭

side note & ive mentioned this before but scottjean is an interesting parallel to davejade in a way i cant verbalize

Then there are the ones who may accept [the fact of inevitable human suffering], and so choose to live in high alert of any danger - any threats - as well as living in fear of what harm may befall them and/or their loved ones. It is this third and final group of people that so deeply marks that of the Knight of Doom.

Now, this might cause a few eyebrows to become quirked. After all, a Knight? Being fearful of something - nevertheless that thing being related to their Aspect? Knights do often present themselves as ruthless and fearless warriors, yes, but that is only because their Aspects and the world around them raised and called them to act as such. 

... A key factor in the Knight’s life, specifically before their journey truly begins, is that they are already well equipped with their Aspect.

... The Knight of Doom is one where their Aspect being all around them is far more bittersweet than anything else.

... What is important to acknowledge is that the facade the Knight of Doom puts up is not only to hide the fear they have for their Aspect, but it is most definitely there to hide the grief and pain they have not yet completely finished going through. Whether it’s been weeks or years, the Knight of Doom is someone who would rather hide themself away from these feelings than find a way to truly mend and heal them ... they have built a false wall between them and their suffering strong and thick enough to partially block it from their memory. 

... Knights are known to become extremely stubborn whenever people try to order them around and pressure them into doing something, and the Knight of Doom is no different - especially if they believe what they are doing is for the greater good. 

(from @/dahniwitchoflight)

Dahni’s Explanantion: “Doom can be a negative force that rejects and harms, fostering a sense of hostility or sadness. But, it is also the idea that you can pull backwards and cautiously and wisely withdraw into your own self.  It can be the idea of Control taken from the sharp Black and White Restrictions that everything in the world gets sorted into. It understands community necessity and need, responsibly pulling back and lowering you down into its lap to help wind yourself down. Doom then is an ultimate gentle Equalizer, instilling its players with an internal sense of Acceptance and eventually true Wisdom.”

Knight of Doom: One who Exploits with Doom or Exploits Doom

Knights hide a fear of a perceived fundamental failure with their Aspect behind a shield of confidence and obsessive effort. Their challenge is to learn to take it down a notch and to understand that they are skilled enough

A Knight is very skilled with using the rules and limitations of any game or session to their advantage. They skillfully fulfill any responsibility or obligation required of them with ease. They might use their natural caution and pessimism to make realistic choices and endeavors. They use and exploit any rule or limit that they can to their advantage. They might also be very good at exploiting any sacrifices made or any obligation or responsibility that they are held to. They might be very good at avoiding any unnecessary thing or person and are very good at recognizing when something is too futile to even bother with.

Likewise they might only focus on the necessary things in their game or session so they are likely to not do much unless it’s absolutely necessary. They would very likely be very meticulous with themselves about following the rules properly and constantly restrict themselves, maybe thinking they aren’t following the rules properly enough or not following the right ones. They might sacrifice anything they consider unnecessary about themselves or the way they live, sometimes even going too far with it, in order to be considered or thought of as less useless. They’re always trying harder and holding themselves to extreme self-imposed standards.

They would likely wait for the opportune moment to strike, though they are slow to move or act, they always will when something necessary needs to happen. Out of all the Doom players, a Knight of Doom seems like the one most likely to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. A Knight of Doom can also expertly use and exploit fire, bombs and explosions to their advantage, maybe they create flashy distractions during fights. They might even use decaying or dying things to their advantage.

(from @/communistvriska)

Role in the Session: Rather like the Prince of Doom, this role’s title kinda has “edgelord” written all over it, but that’s not a set-in-stone character trait. The first thing that comes to mind re: what the Knight Class and the Aspect of Doom have in common is a strong sense of obligation. The Knight of Doom is bound to take their duties and responsibilities Extremely Seriously, perhaps rather too seriously at first ... Knights also tend to be very protective of both their Aspect as a concept, and of themselves and those close to them; while the Knight of Doom isn’t likely to be outwardly aggressive, given Doom’s reserved, slow-burn tendencies, woe betide those who try to deceive or confound the Knight or their allies. One of Doom’s internal contradictions (which I find personally fascinating) is that the aspect is associated both with cynical resignation and with a profound albeit restrained sense of passion and persistence. Doom is what’s left after everything else gets burnt away.

The Knight of Doom will likely be a very skilled combatant, as the Knight is a class strongly associated with Strife / battle, and Doom is one of the more overtly destructive Aspects. I’d put them in the Top 5 Roles to use a cool flamin sword, at least. They’re not going to be eager to fight, per se, but they’re not going to have much trouble scaling the echeladder when it comes to that either. Internally, they’re likely to struggle with a perceived (but largely imagined) inability to fulfill their duties, and they could well stumble once or twice in their quest to be perceived as reliable and stoic, or as someone who their friends can lean on. They’re probably doing more than enough already, but if they’re not careful they might overexert themselves and take on too heavy a burden, and they’re liable to be crushed by their own expectation that they face their challenges alone. This is going to factor into their capital-Q Quest and the environment of their planet, and will be the biggest obstacle in their path to Ascension. A Knight’s duty is to protect their co-players, but their co-players also have to support them.

The extra pages for chapter 139 seem to be pretty much finally out!

And they're a bunch panels relying on visual storytelling which need to be put in context by the reader/you need to maybe think about it for 10 seconds instead of 2, something I've learned the internet does not like in storytelling. (Or in general, considering how much misinformation is out there.)

I think Kunihiko Ikuhara's works were my first exposure to this element of the internet in full force; they're some of the lowest-rated stories in some of the typical websites where anime is discussed and they're all mostly very reliant on metaphor and visual storytelling.

I've seen 12 episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena and a little bit of Yurikuma Arashi and I think you really need to completely engage with those stories to get what is going on. Almost all of the dialog in those stories seems to matter and to need as much of the context as possible to understand.

And to me a story which asks you to engage and put things together for yourself is what I look for in art and I think is art.

The reason why I have yet to go back to those stories is because they are so very dense and you really just need to be in a certain mindset to watch them.

AoT Chapter 122 and now these new pages are 100% visual storytelling.

AoT Chapter 122 in particular is still one of my favourite manga chapters ever because of how it portrayed a character's perspective with very limited dialog.

The thing with AoT is that I think these moments of visual storytelling are like a less dense and complex version of Ikuhara's storytelling, but they have the same elements.

A lot of context-dependent information in relatively few panels is in 122 and 139, that's why I think people get the sense the story is excusing Eren, for example.

Most of those complaints I've felt are very bad faith, but if I believe in the good and intelligence of humanity for once, maybe it really is that awkward prose that confuses and offends people, not the desire to be morally superior over a comic.

In that sense I think people read the words "thank you" Armin says to Eren and nothing else around it or just find the phrasing to be strange.

They don't go to reread the previous chapter or arc just in case they might've missed something.

Months/years-long breaks between material also assist in not really considering anything else but that one chapter in that one month.

And it just so happens art is also a very individual emotional experience, so "monkey brain" just fully kicks in, too.

To me if you think about it, what the story is saying is pretty obvious the moment Eren became the antagonist. This shift happened in Marley, 40 chapters or so ago.

But this is just what *my* mind leads me to and makes connections with based on the information I have absorbed from the story.

And it's not just that, too. I make connections to what the story was trying to do with Reiner, Kenny, Bert, Erwin or Annie because they were also serial killers/murderers the story took effort in humanising.

The importance of individual perspective and what these characters individually think and how they view themselves seems to be one of the most important aspects of the story.

Because ultimately one of the most important thematic threads of the story seems to be understanding different perspectives.

So why is Eren any different than all of the other mass murderers in the cast?

Because all of the big murderers in the cast get empathy and moments where characters try to understand them, no?

To actually address the pages, here's the general points and my thoughts:

-The whole deal with Mikasa and OG Ymir is that I think Mikasa tries to again, find the good in OG Ymir's suffering.

Her having her children lead to the lives of many people, including hers to be born and Mikasa thanks her for that.

This is a parallel to Eren, whose actions at least gave his friends their lives back. This also ties into Armin's point in chapter 137 about living life for those good moments and Mikasa's promise in chapter 138 to remember Eren for all of the good he did for her.

-Mikasa having a family with probably Jean (which is probably implied with the small scene on the boat) is such a minor thing that I just find hard to care about it at all. The focus on Mikasa really wasn't with it the point to emphasize how she now has kids.

And Mikasa and Historia are still the only characters we see get kids. There really actually isn't anything with anyone else (the spoiler about Armin and Annie doesn't seem to be real at all).

-People visiting the tree is a much more limited panel than the initial leaked images lead on. It's not a tourist attraction, it's something I think the families of Eren's friends ended up visiting. So this also gives it a much more "selfish" vibe.

-Armin's talk with Eren and the scene on the boat with Pieck now gets some pretty nice additional context (makes sense considering Isayama considered it one of the bits to be clumsy himself) because of the panels of Paradis at war in the future.

Those panels don't necessarily say Paradis was completely destroyed by war (we see the black-haired kid), but the alternatives also make the same point: Eren's methods didn't really bring peace.

It sort of gives the promise Armin made to Eren and his words on the boat a more sadder tinge.

Armin tried so hard to make something good out of the mess Eren left everyone. He tried hard for diplomacy to triumph, but war still happened because that's how humanity works.

There's also the layer of violence begetting violence and extremism also hurting your own people. The Jaegerist movement Eren ended up creating probably caused this war on Paradis. I think that's the implied thing with Historia's speech.

The final layer to Eren's actions is the giant Titan tree that literally grew out of his grave: what he did just lead to more cycles and the whole mess might just start again.

But we don't really actually see that happen. It's only a possibility.

Will the kid go in there to get the power and save his people from misery or will he consider the past?

We don't know. It all depends on what he knows of the past and this tree, how his parents presented the past to him, how the world shaped his perspective and yes, also his nature, too.

But the point is, Eren's actions had some good, but mostly bad consequences.

Puts Annie's and Pieck's comments in a stronger perspective, too.

I still maintain this ending is good. Not my favourite material from AoT, but good.

And I'll repeat what I said before that repeating the story's point in more concrete ways gives satisfaction in its own right.

Great Albums is back! This week, we’ll take a look at one of the greatest electronic albums of all time, Kraftwerk’s The Man-Machine, and try to avoid getting sued by Ralf Huetter! Full transcript for the video can be found below the break. Enjoy!

Growing up, my main genre of choice was 80s synth-pop, and while the deep influence of Kraftwerk is as significant there as it is everywhere else in electronic music, I was one of those people who initially saw them as somewhat "intimidating." Today, moreso than ever, Kraftwerk are held up as one of those more high-brow or cerebral groups with a philosophy that transcends mere pop or dance music, which makes them seem respectable, a kind of “model minority” in the world of music outside rock. While I don’t buy into the judgmental quality of that sort of praise, which damns so many of Kraftwerk’s greatest fans and imitators, I did get the sense, as a child, that these hoity-toity Germans, working with primitive equipment way back in the 1970s, might not be what I was looking for in a new favourite band. That was before I heard The Man-Machine.

While it’s certainly true that Kraftwerk were a highly experimental band in their own time, they’re one of those acts whose ideas have deeply permeated contemporary music, to the point where their actual work is extremely approachable and listenable to today’s ears. Of all the fairly early electronic acts, who started making this kind of music before it began to become mainstream in the late 70s, Kraftwerk are almost certainly the ones people nowadays listen to for pleasure the most, and that’s no accident. While their earlier albums like Trans-Europe Express took more overt inspiration from classical music, The Man-Machine was their first great foray into the arena of pop, which I think is key to why it resonates with people. For evidence of that, look no further than the biggest mainstream hit of Kraftwerk’s career, “The Model.”

I think it’s easy to see why “The Model'' became a hit single. Sure, it may not have the most traditional pop song structure, let alone instrumentation, but unlike a lot of what Kraftwerk had done before, it’s got a lot of lyrics and a real sense of narrative. Plus, that narrative we get is about a person and not a machine--a good-looking person, in whom the narrator is sexually interested. It’s the perfect pop material. Of course, I would be remiss to mention that “The Model” didn’t achieve all of its success until the single was re-released in many markets in 1981, and in those few years, the idea of “synth-pop” advanced significantly in the charts and popular consciousness. By the time “The Model” was a hit, Kraftwerk admirers were already taking over: look no further than Gary Numan’s "Cars” or OMD’s "Enola Gay,” two synth-pop classics that, it must be said, are still about vehicles!

That aside, though, not everything on The Man-Machine sounds like “The Model”--in fact, it’s surrounded by tracks that have much more in common with Kraftwerk’s earlier LPs. Literally surrounded, in the track listing. I think that adds to this album’s appeal as an ideal entry point into their catalogue: it has some things that sound familiar, while also preparing you for what else you’ll encounter if you choose to probe deeper into the band. The Man-Machine has the least homogeneous profile of any Kraftwerk album. While most of their other classic albums are highly cohesive “song cycles” that almost blend into one long song when you listen to them in full, The Man-Machine doesn’t really have those repeated melodies and motifs that tie its tracks together. While many people, especially fans of psychedelic and progressive rock, really like those cohesive albums, I think this change is a welcome one. It gives the individual tracks a bit more room to breathe and express distinctive identities, and makes the album feel a bit more pop, even if the material itself isn’t always all that poppy. *The Man-Machine* actually only has six individual tracks; they range in length from the three-minute pop stylings of “The Model” to the urban sprawl of “Neon Lights,” which luxuriates in an almost nine-minute runtime.

Given that the average track length is around six minutes, I’m almost tempted to think of The Man-Machine as six tiny Kraftwerk albums, or at least, musical ideas that could have been expanded into full LPs in another universe. “Neon Lights” and “Spacelab” feel dreamy and easy-going, with floating melodies that draw from the “cosmic music” scene, one of the many emergent styles that began as something uniquely German and spread throughout the world--in this case, becoming an important forerunner to ambient electronic music through acts like Tangerine Dream. Meanwhile, the hard, tick-tocking rhythms of “Metropolis” and the title track point to the newfound focus on rhythm and the so-called motorik beat that made the music of Neu! so compelling.

The Man-Machine can serve not only as an introduction to Kraftwerk, but also as a sort of crash course in this entire period of electronic music, showcasing some of the most distinctive and influential features of the German scene, as well as the shape of synth-pop to come. It’s a complex and busy historical moment with huge ramifications for almost all of subsequent electronic music, and The Man-Machine really creates a microcosm of that whole environment. There’s also the fact that each side of the record has one track from each of my three broad groups, like an expertly-designed sushi platter or charcuterie board for us to sample from, and they both follow the same formula: a pop appetizer, a cosmic *entree,* and motorik for dessert.

*The Man-Machine* also has what is almost certainly the most iconic cover of any of Kraftwerk’s LPs. This is how lots of us still picture them in our minds, and it’s inspired tons of parodies and riffs over the years. I think all of that acclaim is deserved! Emil Schult’s graphic design for the album was heavily inspired by avant-garde Soviet artists of the 10s and 20s, chiefly El Lissitzky. These visual artists used their art to express their hope for a new world, defined by the promise of technology, and their literally revolutionary philosophy--so what could be a better match for Kraftwerk’s electronic revolution in music? Lissitzky used bright, primary colours, straight lines, and geometric shapes to convey the “built environment” of modern cities and man-made architecture, and you’ve got all the same sentiment on display here. The use of strong diagonals really draws the eye and lends this image a lot of continued visual interest. It’s also worth noting the extent to which Kraftwerk’s aesthetics inspired later electronic acts almost as powerfully as their sound. When you picture an electronic band, and get a mental image of stiff and stone-faced musicians behind synthesisers wearing shirts and ties, you can certainly thank Kraftwerk for that, as well.

I also love the title of The Man-Machine! The relationship between people and technology is one of, if not the, most central themes in Kraftwerk’s entire discography, which is full of references to anthropomorphic machines as well as mechanically-mediated humans. The particular choice of the phrase “man-machine,” as opposed to words like “android,” has a fun vintage flair to it, which matches the use of early 20th Century visual art quite nicely.

As might be expected from the album’s stylistic diversity, *The Man-Machine* would prove to be something of a transition point in Kraftwerk’s career. Their 1981 follow-up, Computer World, would return to the song cycle format, but with increasing emphasis on ideas from the pop sphere, championed by percussionist Karl Bartos. By the time of the last classic-lineup Kraftwerk LP, 1986’s Electric Cafe, they had not only amped up the pop, but also incorporated influence from the electronic dance music of the time. Ultimately, Bartos would leave the group, chiefly due to discontent with his treatment by founding members Ralf Huetter and Florian Schneider-Esleben, and their persistent lack of musical productivity.

On a somewhat lighter note, my personal favourite track on this album is its opener, “The Robots.” Per my typology from earlier, I classified this as a pop-oriented song, and it certainly is an approachable one that’s proven to be quite popular. But it’s got just enough more experimental touches to keep things quite interesting. From an ominous, dissonant intro, a slightly more pop form, hinting at a verse/chorus structure, soon emerges and contrasts. I love the groove of the rhythm and percussion here, as well as the very heavy vocoder, rich in texture and certainly a Kraftwerk staple.

While the lyrics can be read as sort of light and silly, I like to think that the robots in question might also be dangerous. The track “Metropolis” seems to reference the seminal 1927 silent film of the same name, which is famous for its portrayal of an evil, mechanical doppelganger. Likewise, the choice to translate the lyrics of the song’s interlude into Russian is likely inspired by another great work of art from this era: the stage play R.U.R.--Rossum’s Universal Robots. Written by Karel Čapek in 1922, it’s the progenitor of the “robot revolution” trope in science fiction, the source of the word “robot” for autonomous machines in almost every human language, and one of the first entries in the illustrious career of an author who helped make Czech a true literary language. While the titular robots take time to assure us that they’re programmed to do what we humans want, should we really trust them...?

Energy Update: 2021

So you think '21 is gonna be a good year...has anyone else been singing The Who for weeks now?  Or is that just me - it is certainly not generationally appropriate for me to know every line to Tommy but here I am...

2021 is going to be a very different year energetically from 2020 but there are some common elements.   For one thing, Saturn is going to play one of the starring rolls all year as it slowly makes its way through Aquarius and squares Uranus in Taurus a whooping 3x (almost four...it just barely misses a fourth exact conjunction).    It's safe to say that things aren't going to get easy anytime soon.

And...that's okay.   Easy wouldn't even make sense after the year that we have had.    We're still applying a lot of pressure to the cooker we call life but it has morphed quite a bit.

2021 is a 5 year numerologically - 5 years tend to be driven and energetic with perhaps a bit of frenetic thrown in for good measure.   Things happen fast in 5 years - they tend to herald great change.   Everything tends to move a little bit faster so it's a good year to schedule your downtime (and stick to it!), to watch how fast you are driving, and to watch out for mania or other symptoms of an overactive brain/nervous system.   Depending on your nervous system and temperament - you may jive well with 5 energy or feel really put off by it.   There's no "meh" in 5 energy - it's all love or hate. 

It's also a number very associated with breaking free from the structure of the "4" (2020 was a 4 year) - this is echoed with the astrology of the year.   In February alone, there will be six planets in the sign of Aquarius - including our heavy hitters Jupiter and Saturn - and Aquarius is the sign of the revolutionary.    Jupiter and Saturn will remain in Aquarius (basically) all year - as I've said before, 2021 is the Great Unbinding.

The overall theme of 2021 is resoundingly freedom, but at what cost?    This is an idea that we will have to experience as a global whole, as a culture, as individuals, and within our family and social groups.

Something has got to give - a lot of somethings, actually.   The big astrological weather of the year is that (as mentioned above) Saturn in Aquarius will square Uranus in Taurus 3x (2/17, 6/15, and 12/24) while coming close to a fourth conjunction for 12 days in September as well.    This is a clash of the titans - Saturn wants to create structure and Uranus' singular job is to break that structure down.

What is old, what is outdated, anything that does not serve the now, that does not serve the path forward has got to go.   

That sounds so easy when you write it down.  If only we all agreed on the future path and what has to go!  There will, unfortunately, be little compromise to be had when Taurus and Aquarius square off.  This isn't going to be the year to get others to see your way - your best bet is going to have to be to let them do what they are going to do and hope for the best.

I see the lesson in this - we're coming hard out of a year that was built around boundaries.   Saturn in Capricorn reigned hard on the message that we HAD to stay home and wear a mask.   But there was a deeper more subtle lesson - the only thing that you can control in your life is yourself.  The only thing that you can do is put on your own mask.   You can ask other people to do - but what they do is on them.    And the consequences - no matter how dire - need to be on them.

People get really stubborn when faced with Saturnian lessons that they don't want to face.   We are going to see a lot more of this - now that Saturn has entered Aquarius for good (of note - Saturn briefly entered Aquarius in March of 2020...you may see where I'm going here) - Saturn in Aquarius very much has the "but my freedoms" feel to it.   We can extrapolate on what that might mean globally or culturally as we continue to battle this pandemic but I want to talk about it as it might happen personally.

2021 is gonna be a year of "Don't Tell Me What To Do" - expect the people in your life (including yourself) to balk STRONGLY against perceived restrictions over the course of the year.   If you start to feel that way, you are right on time.   If you see it in others, try and cut them some slack - Aquarian energy wants and needs to come to its own conclusions, in its own time.  

This is going to be a year when you may need to let people in your life fall flat on their faces as they run into a wall of their own design.  This is really hard for perpetual "fixer" types, I know.  This is not a year where you are going to be able to fix other people - if you need to fix someone, you are gonna have to fix yourself.   If you try to course correct another during 2021, expect a full-on toddler level tantrum of "Don't tell me what to do!  Don't Tell me what to do!  Don't tell me what to do!!!!!!!"

Again, that is a Saturnian boundary - now of the Aquarian variety rather than Capricorn.    People don't learn from the mistakes that we don't let them make.  Read that one again twice.

I've probably given you a lot to chew on - verbosity is also a very Aquarian trait.  Of note, both our Mercury retrograde cycles and our eclipse cycles fall entirely in the air-fire signs in the coming year - if you've got a problem, 2021 would be a great year to write it out.  Start a journal.  Start a blog.  Hell, write a book if that's your jam!    Find the skills and a strategy for keeping yourself in your own business and out of other people's.   Even your partners/besties/parents/children.

There are going to be some major upsets - relationships, long term business partnerships, other long-term contractual agreements are going to come to an end.     If that is something that scares you in particular in relation to your own life - it's a sign that there's still some work to be done.  Remember: more freedom, not less.

You can support/follow me:  Kofi / Blog/ Insta

FF14 Write - ‘Crane’

In which Cwenthryth Sadler finds a round peg for her ro--

...

In which Cwenthryth Sadler finds a better fit.

Aislona Rymmahrwyn belongs to @catpella

People often compared Cwenthryth to a lizard. Mostly, they meant she was cold-blooded, or that there was something in the way she seemed to stare through you without blinking. The most apt comparison, though, was that Cwenthryth liked to get close to the sun. She liked to climb in general. There was a satisfaction to finding a way to scurry up from a back alley, finding footholds in weak limestone or windows. Where a more... uniformly built city, or even the nicer parts of Ul'dah, might have confined its citizens to the street, the slums encouraged movement as the crow flew. There was, for a time, peace. She watched the birds for a time, before closing her eyes, letting the sounds of the world melt away. She'd never have considered herself to meditate, and yet, in these little moments of quiet, she found the strength to keep going... A grunt, followed by frantic scrabbling at the rooftop, sheared through her peace. What. She opened her eyes and put a hand to her dagger, looking over at... the man from the alchemy shop. She craned her neck, this way and that, trying to figure out why he was here. Or, failing that, remember his name. "You're... agh... a hard woman to find, Cwen," the man wheezed. "Good." "Ah... ?" She closed her eyes again. "Didn't want to be found." Grunt. Scrabble. Scuff. "Well, I figured, since we-- nngh!" Cwenthryth sniffed. Her priorities changed. She looked back over. "You brought food?" "I thought... you might..." She unfolded briskly, and hoisted him over the lip. He was a lean, rangy highlander of a similar background, though a second-generation immigrant while she was first. He talked like a local, acted like one, too, but he'd definitely liked the sight of what he saw as a compatriot turning up on his storefront. Cwenthryth, for her part, liked the sight of shawarma. She took it up and gnawed at it, while looking inquisitively at Thelred as he tried to get his breath back. "You figured since we were what?" Cwenthryth asked, between bites. Thelred forced himself to sit up, looking up. Cwenthryth blocked out the sun. "It might be nice to spend time together." "We do spend time together. Did you want sex? It's too open here." She chewed on the shawarma some more. "Maybe time doing something a little different?" he tried. "Just talking." "I'm not good at talking." "Well... neither am I, but you've always been good at listening." He fidgeted as she ate, still looking down at him. "I'd like to think we could do more than just sleep with each other," he hinted. "That maybe we could become partners." "I don't know alchemy. That's why we met." "Not business partners," he said, desperately. "I meant... I wanted to see you as a girlfriend. Not as... whatever we were." Cwenthryth stared at him for a few seconds. It took some time to process. She quite liked what they already had going. Work was hard, she needed relief, she figured he needed relief, they rolled into bed and she was gone by dawn. The idea that someone wanted more... that someone might even want her? That was enticing. "I mean that--" "I know what you mean," she said. "Okay. We can try it. I mean, I'd like that."

Cwenthryth had a few simple rules as a debt collector. She wouldn't hurt peripherals, because that made people act irrationally. And she always made good on threats. The faster she could narrow someone down to making the right decision - that was to say, finding the hidden cache of money which always had a way of mysteriously appearing after some persuasion - the sooner she was out of there. Following these rules, her reputation had grown to the point where, by now, she usually didn't have to get her hands dirty anymore. This was useful. Blood stuck under the nails. She'd managed to get a decent return on her current job, a scion of a Monetarist family who was rich, but not so rich he couldn't bankrupt himself with gambling debts, it had turned out. It was a familiar story. Some genuinely did just wait for death, blowing through whatever they had left and praying their families would bail them out. They generally did, once Cwenthryth had sent them enough fingers. This one, she sensed, might have been of that vintage save for losing his nerve at the last moment. As she forced open the door and slipped inside, she saw, quickly, the telltale signs. Ruinously expensive grog, some tacky new art, and - her eyes lingered - a shape under the covers of a luxurious bed. But the window was open, letting in what could generously be called the atmosphere of Ul'dah. She went over to the window, scanned the area, but the only sign she saw was a distinct dent in the tree beneath. The covers shifted behind her. "Mmn, Alfric, where's my money..." Cwenthryth turned, saw the shape of legs - long, tight legs, her hindbrain noted - stretch out like a cat's, pulling down the covers to reveal a sharp, angular face, with the telltale 'hewn from purple-tinted stone' look of a roegadyn. Her eyes fluttered open, saw Cwenthryth, shut again, then opened wide. "Oh," she said. "He's gone," supplied the debt-collector. "Really? Damn." "You didn't ask for money in advance?" The roegadyn raised an eyebrow. "Generally, people don't dare stiff someone two feet taller than them. The ones who try aren't much of a bother. Are you going to kill him?" "Depends. He's in debt to two different people. Hiring escorts isn't a good look." Cwenthryth cocked her head, considering the other woman. "And you don't look cheap," she concluded. The roegadyn laughed. "Well, thank you! So friendly, for hired muscle. We've no quarrel, right?" "No, so you can stop reaching under the pillow for your knife." The roegadyn paused, then broke out into a laugh. "Can hardly blame me, under the circumstances. When an armed stranger breaks in, no matter how pretty..." Cwenthryth's heart skipped a beat. "Uh," she said. "Can I at least take some of his stuff? I can't imagine he'll ever pay me what he owes. And that was not an experience worth putting on the house, believe me." The roegadyn sniffed, and shifted upright in the bed. For a tantalising moment, it looked as though she wouldn't bother to keep the fabric pressed against her chest. "Asked you a question, darling," she reminded her with an outrageous wink. "Sorry to have distracted you." "Uh," said Cwenthryth again. Without twenty-six years of emotional suppression under her belt, she'd have turned red as falling Dalamud. "Take everything. He deserves it." She started to move back towards the door, but couldn't tear her eyes away from the escort. Because she was just... watching her back, for the only potential threat in the room. Yeah. "Ah, you are a treasure," said the roegadyn. "I'm sure we'll see each other around!"

"You should smile more." Cwenthryth's smile died on her lips. "Huh?" "You were smiling," said Thelred. "It's nice. I don't see it enough." "Thanks." Cwenthryth filed it away. She'd learned a lot about what girlfriends should do lately. It meant an end to going missing on rooftops. Odd phrasing, she'd thought. She knew where she was. Now her only time away was out working - and he disapproved of her work - or at home - and he was dropping hints even Cwenthryth could pick up on that they should soon share a home as well. "I was thinking about this woman I saw yesterday. She was..." She had been a lot of things. Cwenthryth settled on, "beautiful." "Oh? More beautiful than I am handsome?" "Yes." After a half-second's pause, Thelred laughed. "Oh, thank Rhalgr I've you to keep me humble." "Ha," Cwenthryth managed. They walked for a while down through the market stalls. Cwenthryth felt Thelred's fingers wrap around her hand, and decided to force a smile. "There's my girl," he said, and she tried to stifle her bile reaction. "You'll need to practice that smile, you know. When I get my shop, I'll need your help." She looked across, with rare surprise. "You're going to be a money-lender?" Thelred's burst of laughter quickly faded away. "No, no, I... Oh, you aren't joking." "I'm not good at jokes," she said earnestly. "Well, Fafarino's not getting any younger, and he's been... dropping hints, perhaps that he might leave me the place, when I'm ready. And I think that'll be soon. Then we're set, right? And you can finally quit your... uh, work, and settle down..." Some tiny warning bell rang in the deep recesses of Cwenthryth's brain. "Wouldn't that be nice?" he prompted, as they reached the front door of his house. "Yes. You'd like that," she said dutifully, accepted a kiss on the cheek, and weaved away through the streets.

That night, she found herself on the rooftops again, hugging herself in the cold. All her life, Cwenthryth had felt, or sometimes just been told, she didn't... fit right, in the world. That there was some agreed-upon ruleset she just didn't play well with. But she had to be doing something right, didn't she? She had a partner, and they had a plan together. Right? And he loved... her, maybe, or at least, loved who he thought she was, or perhaps who he thought she would become. She wasn't... unhappy. And it was a way out of the cycle of violence. It wasn't that she liked hurting people, she had to keep telling herself that, to keep her apart from the sadists and the madmen, she just happened to be good at holding her nose and getting the job done. She could make herself happy. And learn to smile and be happy behind a counter, and say the right things at the right times, and then at last she'd be the upstanding Ul'dahn woman her mother had wanted her to become, the life she'd been told her father - the fighter, the revolutionary, the martyr - would have wanted for her. But when she coiled up in her bed that night and closed her eyes, she dreamed of winking roegadyn.

I’ve Never Seen David Lynch and George Lucas in the Same Room at the Same Time…

The thematic parallels between David Lynch and George Lucas are something I keep coming back to again and again, but their careers and evolution have a lot of overlap too.  They were born in the earliest Boomer cohort (George Lucas in May 1944, David Lynch January 1946) and had experiences growing up that were colored by the idyllic 1950s, but shifted into a distrust of authority structures that was common for many of their age cohort in the 1960s. They both came of age wanting to do something physical with her hands that felt creative to them in large grimy spaces - fixing cars for Lucas, and painting and installations with a fascination with organic materials, industrial metal, and rot for Lynch. They both fell into film because they were looking for something that satisfied their artistic bent (although film was never a primary aspect of her life to that point).  They wound up making a handful of short films over a 3 year period, culminating in a longer short-film that would eventually get them noticed at roughly the same age (Electric Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB [1967] and the Grandmother [1970] for Lynch).

These films netted both of them a patron (Francis Ford Coppola for Lucas, the American Film Institute for Lynch) and started filming their first feature-length film two years after those films.  They both got their biggest name recognition bump by films released in 1977 and pulled away from the power of the studio system in roughly 1984. Famously, Lucas offered Lynch a chance to direct what would become Return of the Jedi in about 1981 ( I prefer the story where Lucas does this by picking him up in a Lamborghini - I’ve heard a phone call version too, but it’s not as perfect) and Lynch answered something like “it’s your movie George, you direct it.” They both spent the mid 80s in movie jail, and although they took very different paths in general after (I’ve been emphasizing the similarities) there are still things that jibe in the history - they both reminded people of what they liked about them with a late 80s movie, spent a lot of the 90s on TV projects, did one project around classic radio, returned to theatrical notice around the millennium, all the while generally keeping their own council and disappointing a lot of fans.

There’s obviously a world of difference. Lucas is a left brained technologist who equated freedom with an owning of the means of production.  Lynch is it right brained impressionist seeing freedom-as no one ever being able to tell you what to do, acting as a solo artist with collaborators who merge with his sensibilities.  Lynch is a production lone wolf, depending mostly on people believing in him and funding him, and losing out in the popular consciousness by making uncompromising art that may not be what the audience wants, meaning funding is sometimes hard to come by. Lucas is like the Democratic party controlling the Congress and presidency - having total power but unable to turn that into what he really wants to make, somehow. The idea of Lynch selling his body of work to Disney is absurd.

But the correspondences in this are telling and help to explain the thematic similarities and divergences.  Plus, the differences often relate to the similarities - Lucas identifies with corrupted controlling paternalistic power as a horror of inevitable capture of the individual by larger structures, while Lynch sees the corrupted masculine influence as an archetype, the call coming from inside the house, agency coopted by a collective taint in the universal pattern .  But on some level these are the same thing - what is this person I am capable of becoming seeing as I am in control but yet not, doing horrific things?  Lucas’ constant commentary on slavery is about hegemony and a systemic oppression he is complicit in, while Lynch has whole pantheons of beings that turn people into vessels that oblate the self and make them act on subconscious programming.  Neither probably think the word neoliberalism too much but tend to communicate similar things about it is almost diametrically opposed ways.  

The thematic similarities are rooted in a few areas that unpack in to a variety of subspaces which overlap – patriarchal structures as psychoanalytic dynamics (more Freudian father fixation for Lucas, Jung for Lynch), boomer generational failure as socio-first-but-economics-ultimately, the artist as in struggle with larger forces (largely of the self), and an eastern religious metaphysics that is American Christian in flavor.   The major line of difference running through this is gender/sex/desire, Lynch being on main with a lot of spiritual overtones of sin, guilt, and “the fall” and Lucas finding this kind of guilt and sin as a secondary phenomenon that is mostly actively suppressed and unconvincing when it shows up; yet both wind up often finding physical consummation at direct odds with art in a gendered creation way (that also links Eraserhead to Age of Ultron and the original Frankenstein). Try doing a psychosexual reading of Howard the Duck sometime.  

Lucas’ developmental through line is this: dude in love with 50’s culture but informed by 60s counterculture makes a movie where the young granola-ish revolutionaries win against the fascists in an effort to rewrite society but, having secured rights for “independent spirit” reasons now finds himself in control of something huge and immediately starts making art about boomer men becoming their controlling fathers and then moves on to movies where powerless freaks are the real focus.  After a creatively fallow period, he comes back to make a sequel/prequel trilogy that is one of the most misunderstood complicated statements about people becoming what they hate as an eternal cycle at the level of the personal, the societal, the political, the spiritual, the artistic, you name it!

Lynch’s developmental through line is this: dude in love with 50’s culture but informed by 60s outsider/art counterculture makes a movie where the young artist struggles with the idea of a regular life, initiated by fatherhood, which attempts to destroy the artistic spark, after which he enters the Hollywood system and makes an artist as freak movie and a movie about plucky rebels conquering space authoritarianism (that the future of is books about that ending in messianic authoritarianism) and then disavows that system.  He then proceeds to make art about subject and object as a supremely gendered thing, in a land that has fallen from grace, moving inexorably towards the idea of eternal cycle at the level of the personal, the societal, the political, the spiritual, you name it!

They both have an idea of the father-artist identified with the abject oppressed, under siege as figure, resentful from being kept from creation, over a career realizing that their “self” is the horrific villain of their own story.  For Lynch, this is psychosexual, then spiritual, with a resisted toxic masculine urge to control and overwhelm, often in a violent way.  It is the artist’s own urges that get in the way of making art, of desiring in the universe that has an unbalanced power structure from some far off echoes of an original symmetry breaking inherent to the archetypal gender dynamic. For Lucas, it is the realization that the artist in control has a tendency to become the controlling dad and sexual relations are inherently problematic in a political and spiritual way.  Real art seems impossible if the artist has control, identifying with the downtrodden is a bit of a lie, happy endings can’t happen not because of the happiness bit because of the ending bit.  For both, there is a fundamental flaw in the cycle, which is patriarchal in nature, but Lynch just approaches this much hornier.

The boomer part probably requires the most discussion, but the TLDR is that they are both are crawling out, through Vietnam, from the 50s social order, and grappling with how badly the 60s idealism failed.  Lucas does this in the prequels as a big canvas critique of how the social revolution was co-opted by the generation not being able to see its own flaws, of not seeing the system taking over again, an Empire calling itself a Republic.  An inability to look in the mirror and really see.  The wisest oldest hippie is the only one who sees what’s happening, but is powerless as his apprentices are inevitably spit out, and the next generation has to be raised not by a skeptic but a true believer in “liberal” “democracy” (cynic quotes theirs).

Lynch is interesting here in that he most directly addresses this only in Twin Peaks, but we see more naked reflections, divorced of contemporary politics, in his other works. In Twin Peaks, Ben Horn is the Palpatine figure, who winds up a sweet old man buying off the harm his life’s work and progeny have produced while ignoring the poor and next generation personally. Jacoby the neutered, fried Yoda that eventually slides into Alex Jones territory (the canonical Boomer ethos in a nutshell – “what me” neoliberalism and change the world ideology going crackpot).  All of Twin Peaks except for Fire Walk with Me is directly socioeconomically generational (Bobby Briggs becomes a young Republican in season 2, the mill, the trailer park), but the other works are full of class issues informed by Lynch’s age.  From Blue Velvet’s suburban kid exploring his darker side by going to the poor part of town through a career of classist low-life encoding (Bob is a denim jacket wearing homeless person, all the covered in grime by the dumpster/trailer park characters, Ronette as the factory floor version of Laura, etc), culminating in Inland Empire and Twin Peaks the Return chronicling the fall of man as partially an (generationally specific in TP) economic fall into a unequal class defined world of needing an opening and leaving the house to labor as where evil is born. TP OS is about how boomers turned out just as bad, the Return is about how we inhabit the world of their ideological blindness.

All filmmakers seem to, at least to a certain degree, bring the question of creation of art directly into their work via distant or close metaphor. In Eraserhead and Elephant Man, Lynch values the spark of art which the downtrodden protagonist is trying not to lose. In Dune, the visionary with a big project that seeks to upend the system (but that we know eventually become something even worse) is a project that fell apart due to studio interference.  Blue velvet is about the act of watching awakening something uncomfortable in us that is incompatible with normie life (it wouldn’t be weird to say it was about porn). Twin Peaks is about television, FWWM about movies, and all at least partially about closure being a death act in art.  Lost Highway is about the artist tortured by desire, Mulholland Drive about desire being central to be eaten alive by the Hollywood system.  Inland Empire is about filmmaking as a way into understanding the world on a deeper level (as is its unofficial sequel Inception) to cure its ills.  All of this is art’s struggle against power, with an element of the major powers being subconscious forces that control us leading to desires that ablate the artistic impulse.

Lucas' projects have over time been about a young upstart independent filmmaker, losing his soul by becoming successful, and becoming the system, man.  He then tries desperately to identify as really not the one in charge, until he admits to what he has become.  He consistently dips back into filmmaking as an adventure or a good fight, but he has to set these in a time period before his birth.  As in Lynch, having a child is equated with not being able to fulfill the kind of artistic destiny, but Lucas goes further in equating it to an excuse for why the powerful artist goes bad and needs redemption.  He had a naïve or-is-it canny motif focused on the short inhuman outsider, often related to music or primitive settings (often with wooden cages) as a recurring thing for a while.  These characters are often wise, or at least no filter tell-it, and are similar to the Elephant Man.  This is a trope, sure, the wise different wavelength other, but there is also an identification of the artist at knowing and right yet impotent and a clue to the author’s metaphysical system.

Lynch is the mainline protestant in upbringing and very much influenced by a kind of proto-eastern religion (you can just say the Vedas for shorthand).  Lucas is not very religious, but was brought up Christian, influenced by Christian symbolism and became interested in world religion as narrative via figures like Joseph Campbell.  Hence, they both gravitate towards some kind of Gnostic Proto Christian, So-Cal zen, Thomas Aquinas “gets” Plato kind of amalgam, which informs their work.  Lynch has veered towards an eternal cycle framework, and the very physics compatible idea of something in the past breaking and causing consciousness/suffering, through which we can achieve joy as a counter only through letting go of the self, and the recurrence of ruptures on all scales demonstrating a fractal pattern of hurt and redemption.  Lucas also sees a big cycle, but it is one more of human existence as narrative that has a tendency to return, with a little bit of Nietzsche and movie eastern spirituality thrown in. Both believe in a recurring pattern that plays itself out in a way that is terrible, but hopeful, as the struggle is where hope derives from.  Both have inherently Christian ideas and symbols in their work but lean back on non-Christian ideas that the Christian ideas have a history with. Lynch has his virgin Mary as the real Christ figure female angels that show up, while Lucas has turnt space Jesus.

Suffice it to say that the tree trial scene in the Empire Strikes Back and the lodge sequences in Twin Peaks are a very good place to start looking for how the two auteurs meet.  Compare Anakin/Luke Skywalker to Mr C, look at the 90s turn they both made, register their seeing the “sleeper must awaken” of fiction being terribly fraught, compare the force vs. the universal field, the way their relationship status and partners carve their work into eras, and their continued existence as mainstream experimental filmmakers. 

hey arden do you have any book suggestions? i don’t have any preference/specific genre i’m looking for but i just need something new to read while in quarantine :)

you’re in luck! i happen to be a massive nerd and i’m going to compile a gigantic list of recs for you. here we go.

the only classics worth reading: i want to preface this by saying i did not pick these books because they are written by women. they are just good and they happen to be by women. this reinforces my theory that only women can write.

emma by jane austen: better than pride and prejudice by a long shot. the characters are funny, the romance is swoon worthy (don’t think too hard about the age gap), it says very smart things about society, and i could write an essay on how it revolutionized fiction.

wuthering heights by emily bronte: my all time favourite book about how awful people are and how the cycle of abuse perpetuates itself. it’s absolutely exceptional in every respect. i won’t go into too much detail because i don’t want to give anything away, but you should definitely read this book.

jane eyre by charlotte bronte: i’m not saying i’m a bronte sister stan, i’m just saying i’m a bronte sister stan who can’t be bothered to take five seconds to copy the accent. anyway, i read this book when i was a wee lass and i stole it from an apartment in nice. the characters are genuinely amazing, and it’s an early feminist book, which i think is fantastic.

the handmaid’s tale by margaret atwood: you don’t get more feminist classic than this. set in a dystopian future where women are only valued for their ability to procreate, atwood examines gender roles and still delivers a brilliant adventure story. if you end up liking this, try the power by naomi alderman, which essentially tells of the opposite society.

the bell jar by sylvia plath: an introspective story about mental illness. it’s the type of writing that i feel hits hard at about any age, and i remember feeling really haunted after finishing the whole thing in a night. definitely high up on my list of amazing novels.

feel good books: sometimes, we need to read something that’s not revolutionary but still radical. don’t worry, i got you. here’s the lasagna of novels.

finding audrey by sophie kinsella: this book is funny, heartwarming, and makes you think. as someone with anxiety, i felt really represented by a lot of audrey’s behaviours. her mom is lowkey nuts, but i feel like that shouldn’t impede your enjoyment of the book.

the shadowhunters series by cassandra clare: LISTEN. objectively cassandra clare is a terrible person. objectively these books are not good. but they are amusing! they are comforting! they are interesting! also, there are a million of them. start with the infernal devices: clockwork angel, clockwork prince, and clockwork princess. set in old old london, this series features the only valid love triangle ever, girls who like to read and kick ass, and boys who are soft and play the violin. next, head to the mortal instruments, which is pretty much drinny fanfiction. don’t think too hard during these and you’ll have a good time. after that, read the short story collections the bane chronicles and tales of shadowhunter academy. if you got really into the lore (like me) these books are funny and a little captivating. finally, get to the highlight of this whole thing, the dark artifices. the one true love of my life, emma carstairs, stars in this brilliant trilogy about forbidden love. yes, it’s super corny, but all these books are super corny. if you can’t get enough of the universe (or accidentally got hooked) try out the collection ghosts of the shadow market. once you finish that, you can read the first books in the new series(es), red scrolls of magic and chain of gold. all of these books are jam packed with magic and vaguely plagarized demons. not brilliant, but a fun ride.

emma mills books: emma mills writes cute happy contemporary romances and i can’t recommend her enough! first & then tells the story of a jane austen obsessed nerd who crushes on a jock. which could actually be about me, and if you trust my judgement, you probably like me enough to read this book secretly written about me. foolish hearts gives theatre kids and boy band stans alike a chance to feel represented in what could be one of the sweetest (and funniest!) romances of all time. famous in a small town gives band kids and people who are clarinet-sized a chance to shine, and includes a country singer who struck me with her similarities to taylor swift. (our song is even referenced in the novel!) by far my favourite would have to be this adventure ends, which is hilarious and heartbreaking and talks about fanfiction without looking down on it. all of these books are definitely feel good and will make you believe in heterosexual romance.

mildly upsetting fantasy: just fantasy trilogies that will hurt you.

the poppy war by r.f. kuang: wonder what harry potter would be like if the magic system was complicated and the murder was high? no, like high on opium? and the plot was based on chinese military history? look no further than the brilliant work of art that is the poppy war. this book is by far the best fantasy out there, i cannot exaggerate that enough. also out is the equally compelling sequel the dragon republic, and the final book in the trilogy is set to hit shelves this year. please please please read this amazing book.

six of crows by leigh bardugo: six dysfunctional criminals try to steal from the most heavily guarded prison in the world. what could go wrong? this novel is intelligent and witty, and will keep you on the edge of your seat as you’re dragged into this scheming and brilliant world. in my opinion, this is the only valid book in the grishaverse. this and its equally well plotted sequel, crooked kingdom.

the gilded wolves by roshani choski: this one is definitely similar to six of crows in its funny and smart main cast. the magic system is super unique and the plot is endlessly enjoyable. it’s also set in old old paris! so france is always fun. there are also tons of mythology references and disaster bisexuals. and apparently the sequel (the silvered serpents) comes out july of this year.

scythe by neal shusterman: the first book on this list by a man, wow! i’m so inclusive. anyway, this genius trilogy is set in a world where humanity has solved almost every single problem, except overpopulation and corruption. an elite order called scythes are tasked with killing and managing the order of death. it’s like the hunger games went took a political science seminar. everything spirals out of control very quickly and the characters are so great. the sequels are called thunderhead and the toll respectively, and the overarching tale is gripping.

the cruel prince by holly black: i’m not kidding when i say this is the only faery book that matters. this book stars a human girl who grows up in the magical world and more violence than is statistically necessary. but it’s good! this is also a trilogy (every book on this list is the first one in a trilogy, i am the worst, i’m sorry) and the sequel the wicked king is quite possibly the best scheme-y magic politics thing i’ve ever read. and the final book, queen of nothing, doesn’t disappoint by a long shot.

contemporaries no one talks about

the boy who steals houses by cg drews: this book has autistic representation! and it’s written by book blogger paperfury, who is even more of a delight on the page than she is on the internet. be warned, this book includes heavy mentions of abuse and graphic violence that are unavoidable. but it will break your heart and stitch it back together again. also, waffles.

some boys by patty blount: this book deals very candidly with the aftermath of rape and public pressure. it is also one of my favourite books of all time for its treatment of ‘bro culture.’ and the heroine, grace, is incredibly strong. i read this book in maybe fourth grade? and it essentially inspired me to start giving a damn about social justice. so yeah, there’s that. (i also haven’t read it since fourth grade, so someone will have to tell me if it holds up).

emergency contact by mary choi: i’m rereading this for the second time right now and it’s still really awesome. it tells the story of an unlikely friendship, big dreams, and does it all through a really interesting narrative voice that manages to effectively capture two very different people. it is yet another romance, but it’s really wonderful and heartwarming. (unlike the other two books in this section).

children’s books that treat kids like people

a series of unfortunate events by lemony snicket: this is quite literally my favourite series of all time. it’s upsetting and kind of wrong once you think about it a lot, but it’s also maybe the best thing ever written. i literally cannot explain how much i love these books. there are thirteen books, so you’re definitely in for a good, long time.  

the mysterious benedict society by trenton lee stewart: three books about propaganda and smart kids and found family. i literally do not know what else you want out of a series. it’s fun and there’s only a little bit of kidnapping, so it’s very family appropriate compared to the other books on this list.

wuh luh wuh

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid: i KNOW no one shuts up about this book but you really should read it. like, there’s nothing that will ever top the narrative. the drama, the glamour, the girls who love girls, you know? all the components of a brilliant novel. it’s also got some truly poetic prose and genuinely beautiful moments. the reason everyone talks about this book is because it’s amazing. send tweet.

girls of paper and fire by natasha ngan:  (massive trigger warning for sexual violence)  haha! another violent fantasy book that’s part of a trilogy! thought you escaped that, didn’t you? this magic system is brilliant and the book is so good. it’s a breath of fresh air into young adult fiction. and did i mention it’s a wlw romance? i read this during a math class and had to go to the bathroom to cry when i finished it, because there was finally a heroine in a fantasy novel who i could see myself in. there’s also a sequel, girls of storm and shadow, that is equally amazing.

it’s not like it’s a secret by misa suigura: wlw girls with soft poetry vibes. complicated family lives. candidly dealing with racism, sexism, and homophobia. this book is really good. simply read this book.

i have even MORE book recs but i decided to cut myself off because this is the longest thing i’ve ever written for tumblr. hope you enjoy!

Aspect(s) of the Day 🌠

June 29th, 2020

Mercury rx ♋ sextile Uranus ♉

Situations that have been lacking in the equality, & making up for it by unconventional in the way that it operates. There may be a lack of opening up about these things, & it may be causing grief for someone. This is a situation (or commitment/relationship) that has been resisting to come to head, because there is manipulation involved that has allowed things to prolong. This is going to mark a major breakthrough when it comes to speaking the truth, or what has been on your mind to say to someone. This will allow revolutionary change that will start to influence emotional communication with someone (or even with yourself). This can be coming up as wanting to speak for others in an emotionally transformative way, but may have to focus that analysis inward. This is a situation where someone is binding themselves from healing, or is a negative cycle of ignorance, & obsession or addiction that is perpetuated because of the unwillingness to go through the pain. This has been a driving factor in how the situation/relationship has turned out, for better, or in most cases, for worse. There is a deeper transition needing to happen with someone who is wanting to keep control of a codependent or emotionally insecure relationship/person/situation, or others may feel like liberating themselves from one.

June 30th, 2020

Sun conjunct Mercury rx at 9° ♋

This energy may be causing people who are fearful of making conscious decisions regarding their relationships, to come to an understanding & realization that this way of thinking is not conducive or productive. There feels to be conflict surrounding families, or people you consider to be those you love, though with information of this coming up to the surface, it may be creating more emotional friction. Someone is not focused on their reality & is getting checked by the universe, but this is still causing a stubborn individual to lash out/internalize. The karma of a situation where the peace/serenity was unable to be obtained or focused on, is leading into thos conflict, which will require a stable, level-headed figure for mediation. There is someone feeling discouraged or hopeless about the ongoing battle that is being endured, & just wanting to feel free from its clutches. It is being illuminated that there is not a lot of positivity or trust coming from the situation at hand, & having to communicate this to people who are combative or uncompromising. The focus has been to free yourself, & whether you were aware of it or not, everything you've been shown was to trigger this desire in you. This energy is meant to help or hurt, which will lean on the initiative to speak on these issues you've been facing. Denial & delusion needs to be overcome before you can speak clearly on what is bothering you, or blocking you from feeling liberated.

Sun ♋ sextile Uranus ♉

Creating independence & freedom of oneself of unfit structures. This freedom can facilitate a push forward onto a new path for themselves from what isn't working, & this can be in regards to past influences (of family) for some. Others may be needing to free themselves from one relationship, which in most cases may be trading up one for another. It may have been an ideal strategy for someone for some time now, but it has been keep to themselves in an attempt to have a clean slate coming out of this attachment; for some of you, this is an affair, or relationship based on physical attraction. This person may be a soulmate, but the tower moment (which doesn't have to be external/internal destruction, but can pertain to a resolution/realization/epiphany) is going to help the situation be understood in what has lacked in stability/security in one aspect on another. Releasing from what isn't bringing you happiness or foundation that is not going to be holding up well in your life, is the first step to achieving what is generally desired for you, because with freedom comes independence. There is a denial, or sadness that is coming up for someone who isn't willing to work with others or is have cooperative issues with others, that may be feeling the need to lash out. Someone may be volatile toward those they feel have manipulated them or caused them a loss, while another may be trying to face antagonism or conflict head on in an attempt to break free from fears or bondage.

July 1st, 2020

Jupiter Rx conjunct Pluto Rx at 24° ♑

It may be a challenge to reverse a bad trend & take a risk away from situations that are meant to manipulate you into staying engaged. Someone is needing to take initiative toward creating a stable environment for their own personal control/power, & their successes are coming into focus to solidify. A relationship has hit a point of detachment or separation because of the unwillingness to allow something to go on from there. Trying to find the drive, passion, & determination to be more in balance & in tune with their life goals & their opportunities/dreams in order to achieve them is the focus coming up with this transit. Suffering from fear, insecurity & even anxiety is what is keeping one stuck in an 'out-of-touch' state from what is truly of one's desires. This sense of being held back or being stalled/stagnant is what needs to be overturned by an overflow of confidence & strength of self. This is a time for transformative self love & becoming more expressive about it, even if that means going against the grain. It may have been an ongoing battle in gaining some clarity about these feelings, but it can be achieved through developing a strong intuitive knowing about what you've been placed around. There may be a lot that someone wants to say, & is waiting on the right time to do so, but is also allowing fear to creep in & stall one's actions to this.

*this reading is intended for entertainment purposes only, energy is fluid not linear, roles are interchangeable, this can either be happening to you directly, or someone your connecting with (family, friends, etc.) take what resonates, leave the rest*

TAFAKKUR: Part 265

THE ESSENCE OF TIME: Part 2

RELATION OF TIME WITH THE ACT OF CREATION

Long before revolutionary changes in the view of physical time at the beginning of the twentieth century there were always metaphysical explanations for what time really is; one of these was that of René Descartes. In his meditation on God’s existence, he argues that God must and does continually recreate the world at each instant. Therefore, time is a divine process of recreation. There are two points in Descartes’ statement. One is that creation is a continuous act and the other is its relation with time. We are all aware that the continuity of creation is found in the teachings of the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an. It is not that God created the universe at the beginning and left it to evolve according to laws. When it comes to the relation of creation to the essence of time, Descartes view, at first, may be considered to be a metaphysical speculation. But it may also be an inspiration which Descartes received from a divine scripture.

Many Muslim scholars as well have taken Qur’anic verses on creation as references for their meditations on the nature of time. Ibn al-Arabi, in his Kitab Ayyam al-Sha’n writes about the structure of time and takes the Qur’anic verse Every day (yawm) He is in a new manifestation (sha’n) (Rahman 55:29) as a reference. The Arabic word “yawm” which means day is interpreted not as a time period that we call “day” but as a day in God’s Divine Presence. In Qur’an, the special word “sha’n” is used while talking about God’s acts to distinguish these from human acts. Besides sha’n (God's act of creation) is always associated with the smallest and finest of times that leads to the fact that His acts happen with an incredible speed. There are few Qur’anic verses about the incredible speed of creation. One is:

God creates whatever He wills; when He decrees a thing, He does but say to it “Be!” and it is (Al Imran 3:47).

And the other is:

Our commands are done within the blink of an eye (Qamar 54:50).

Both verses imply not only that God creates whatever He wills without any difficulty but also the speed which His acts and His commands are carried out. Therefore, most scholars interpreted verse 55:29 as “God is in a new manifestation or at an affair at each instant.”

Now going down to sub-atomic levels where we come closer to the recreation at each instant and reading the following lines from The Words by the Turkish Islamic scholar Said Nursi we are better able to understand the essence of time:

“Indeed, the transformations of particles are the motion and meaningful vibrations that proceed according to the dictation and principles of “The Clear Record” (Imam-i Mubin) which is a title of Divine Knowledge and Command and is the arrangement of the past origin and future progeny of everything in the World of the Unseen. They proceed by means of transcription from “The Clear Book” (Kitab-i Mubin), which is a title for Divine Power and Will and is formed of the present and the Manifest World and consists of the free disposal of that power and will in the creation of things. Thus, this motion and meaningful vibration proceed from the writing and drawing of the words of Power in ‘The Tablet of Effacement and Reaffirmation,’ which is a metaphorical page, and the reality of the stream of time.”

The terms Imam-i Mubin and Kitab-i Mubin are used in the Qur’an in the following verses respectively.

And we have vested (the knowledge and authority) of everything in the manifest record. (Ya Sin 36:12)

The unbelievers claim, “The Last Hour will not come upon us.” Say: “Nay, but, by my Lord, Who is the Knower of the unseen, it will most certainly come upon you.” Not an atom’s weight of whatever there is in the heavens or in the earth escapes Him, nor is there anything smaller than that, or greater, but it is recorded in a Manifest Book. (Saba 34:3)

The term Imam-i Mubin, which is interchangeably used with Lawh al-Mahfuz by many Islamic scholars, is associated with Divine Knowledge and Command. Since Divine Knowledge encompasses everything, the Imam-i Mubin includes the past, present and future as well as the world of unseen. Time from azal (eternity in past) to abad (eternity in future) are found in Imam-i Mubin. Kitab-i Mubin, however, embraces only the present. We understand from the above Qur’anic verse that, Kitab-i Mubin accommodates the inward (batin) meaning of creation as well as the outward (zahir). The passage of time lies in a close relationship between Imam-i Mubin and Kitab-i Mubin. Time passes when God’s command proceeds from the Sphere of Divine Knowledge to the Sphere of Divine Power. Since we are restricted in time and are only witnesses to the Book of the Universe, that is, Kitab-i Mubin, we see only the present, instant after instant. In a way, we witness recreation instant after instant, a creation that continues completely unnoticed due to the incredible speed of God’s commands from Imam-i Mubin to Kitab-i Mubin. The interpretation given by Ibn al-Arabi to the Qur’anic verse Nay, (although they admit that We were not so,) they are in a confused state of mind about a new creation (after destruction) (Qaf 50:15) is that: There is continuous renewal of creation in every instant. What people see in the first instant is not identical to what they saw in the previous instant. So people are in confusion about this. Actually, through the manifestation of His Names, God continuously creates, annihilates and re-creates the universe.

CREATION, TIME AND THE CONTINUITY OF PHYSICAL EVENTS

Keeping in mind the connection between Imam-i Mubin and Kitab-i Mubin and the renewal of creation at each instant, we can now contemplate on another puzzling issue: The continuity of physical events. Even before quantum mechanics revealed the discontinuous nature of sub-atomic particles, some philosophers argued that it is the mind’s apprehension of discrete events as being continuous that leads us to conclude that things around us are continuous. The best known macro scale examples are watching a motion picture in cinema which is actually seeing 60 images one after another in one second, and looking at a burning light bulb which is, in fact, light that is flickering many times. Even though these processes are discrete in nature, our mental snapshots one after another gives the impression that these processes are continuous. How about the discontinuity in the micro world? Professor Whitehead nicely explains the discreteness of the (motion of) electron in the following lines:

“It is not wrong to assume that an electron does not continuously traverse its path in space. The alternative notion as to its mode of existence is that it appears at a series of discrete positions in space which it occupies for successive durations of time. It is as though an automobile, moving at the average rate of thirty miles an hour along a road, did not traverse the road continuously, but appeared successively at the successive milestones remaining for two minutes at each milestone.”

At this point it is agreeable to look further down to the distances that are smaller than Plank length, the smallest physical arena we can think of, where physics meets metaphysics and the act of creation takes place. This locus may well be the realm of discontinuity as well, as it is at this locus that materialization takes place. At this locus we may be able to witness God’s repeated acts of creation and annihilation and re-creation again, if we were able to probe down so far. So at the sub-atomic level, the transformation of particles can all be viewed as the vibrations that occur while God’s command is carried out from Imam-i Mubin to Kitab-i Mubin and back to Imam-i Mubin. Hence, there is the continuous cycle of coming into existence and dying in the Book of the Universe, if we call not appearing in the universe for a fraction of a fraction of a second dying, of course.

Taking the Qur’anic verse 28:886 as a reference, Nursi says “Existence continuously comes from God and returns to and perishes in God’s Knowledge”7 and he claims that there is no absolute nothingness (‘adam) since nothing can escape from God’s Sphere of Knowledge. In other words, even if something ceases to exist in the physical universe, or something that has not been even created or seen yet has some mode of existence, as it exists in God’s Knowledge. Because in God the ideas of all things are fixed, Imam-i Mubin, the title of His Knowledge, is also associated with a’yan thabita, which means fixed prototypes, where the latent realities of things exist.

TIME VERSUS DAHR

Other than the term “zaman”, meaning time, the term “dahr” is also used in some Qur’anic verses (45/24).8 Scholars give different views on the use of the latter word; the widely accepted one is that “dahr” means a long period of time, an eon. Sadruddin Konevi calls God “Dahr-i Daim” meaning “everlasting dahr” and identifies this as the eternal time which does not have relative aspect but includes relative and temporal time (zaman). According to him, dahr is the essence of time. This helps us to understand the Prophetic saying: “Curse not dahr, for God is dahr.”

CONCLUSION

We have seen what physics has to say about time, but we will never know if science can grasp the whole truth. Moreover, science cannot tell anything about the nature of time for and smaller than “Plank era.” We either stop at that point and do not question further or break the tenets of positivism. Islamic scholars and intellectuals have always linked time to God’s act of creation. Said Nursi further linked the passage of time to the relation between Imam-i Mubin and Kitab-i Mubin. Being a creation in space-time we are bound to relative time and have only the perception of events in time. But it may well be that innermost essence of time lies not in the material world but in the Unseen.