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#its so sociologically boring!!!

pissywiser · 3 months

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my friends have been bugging me for so long and im about halfway through the secret history now. i am seized by a surprising but not entirely unwelcome desire to do my homework. i open my computer to do said homework. i go on tumblr instead.

#but im getting bored now so i thik ill do my sociology and then im going to paint soem band logos onto some white fabric adn make patches #for my jeans #and maybe do my art?#i need to do history and english as well #i had a glass of wine but its all worn off now

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batterygarden · 1 year

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armin & his crybaby gf

sfw but no minors on my page pls

cw: college au, condescending and toxic bf armin (in a hot way!), ft. creepy bully eren, armin pushes reader's hair from her face once, reader is slut shamed for wearing a skirt, & fic spoilers: implied nude sharing w eren which reader did not consent to, about 1.2 k words, thank u for helping me my love, @deliriovs

Armin loves the heavy weight of your head on his chest after you’ve had a hard day. He loves how his shirt gets damp with your tears and snot ‘cause you're incapable of self soothing—how you always need him to put you back together at the littlest inconvenience. But today he’s busy—he’s got his first medical licensing exam to study for and it’s annoying when you burst into his room crying. He’s mentally kicking himself the second he sees you in his peripheral; he should have set aside more free time today in case you needed him for something. It was stupid to assume you could make it through one night without him there to comfort you through whatever bothered you today.

“‘Min.” You whine after shutting his door behind you, finally unleashing a pent up sob now that you’re alone together. You freeze when you see his exhausted stare though, paired with a pile of papers and textbooks next to his laptop that he’d clearly been pouring over.

He slowly slides back his headphones and scrubs his palms in his eyes when he turns his chair to face you, sighing under his breath before opening his arms, motioning for you to come sit on his lap.

Of course you don’t hesitate, breathing out a shaky sigh of relief when you sit sideways over his legs, burying your face in his shoulder and curling your fingers around the neck of his sweater, trying not to choke on your own breath when another wave of tears takes over.

Armin thinks you’re a little pathetic sometimes—and it’s endearing, but today he’s overwhelmed. You’re just so needy. Still, he rubs his hands over your back gently, feeling your shuddered breaths begin to slow.

“Baby are you okay?” His sweet tone doesn’t meet his bored expression—not that you can see with your face buried like it is.

You nuzzle into him further, wishing you could dig a hole in his flesh and bury yourself inside—where it’s safe and warm and comforting.

You hum no with a shake of your head, trying one more deep, steadying breath before turning just enough to say,

“Today was terrible. You remember that guy who sits by me in sociology, Eren? We were talking and he started acting really creepy…”

Armin’s shoulders tense subtly and you peek to see him looking at the ceiling with a drained expression—the kind of face you think he’d make if you told him you spilled coffee in his backpack. You can read his mind before he has the chance to speak, so you scramble to cover for yourself,

“Wait, ‘Min, he talked to me first—please don’t be mad.”

“M’not mad. I’m disappointed you didn’t listen to me.”

Your heart starts to beat fast again when you hear the subtle change in his tone.

“Well, let me finish—”

“I told you not to talk to him. And now you’re coming in here crying cause you don’t know how to follow simple instructions. Almost sounds like I should let you handle whatever he did yourself.”

His hand doesn’t stop its careful circuit around your spine while he talks, and his tone isn’t especially scary—his words only come with an air of patience that reminds you of how your parents used to talk to you when you were a child. Like you’re a loved one throwing a tantrum. It’s demeaning and a bit harsh in your opinion—he’s being unfair. But when you turn your head to argue and show off your hurt expression, his eyes look kind and then he’s pushing hair out of your face with a touch so gentle it’s cruel.

Any defiance washes away then… ugh you’re exhausted.

“You’re right, I’m… so-sorry,” you say in a fragile voice, trying to breathe evenly so you don’t disappoint him. Armin always knows best—he was just looking out for you and now you’re being annoying. The thought brings fresh wetness to your eyes, another stifled sob to your throat.

Then you’re releasing his shirt to instead hook your arms behind his back, squeezing yourself into him like you can hide this way. You can’t see the resulting roll of his eyes, but you feel him wrap his other arm around you, pressing his cheek down into your neck and rocking you slightly.

His voice is feather-soft when he says, “Y’know I just want what’s best for you.” You notice it’s not a question but a statement. You nod, nuzzling your face further into his soft sweater, breathing in the comforting floral scent of his laundry detergent.

He sighs, finding your reactions to things absurd. My sensitive little baby. He hugs you a little tighter then and whispers, “So what’d he do?”

You wipe your eyes on his collar before mumbling a broken, barely coherent story into his neck. You detail how it made you feel when Eren wouldn’t get out of your personal space earlier, how mad you were when he called your favorite skirt slutty. He was being so mean even though you were going out of your way to help him with the homework!

Armin listens respectfully to the whole thing, nodding along and murmuring little mhm’s when necessary.

But when you finish talking and finally pull away to look at him, he’s staring past you at the wall with this cold, calculating face that sort of scares you—the kind of expression that emphasizes the lavender of his under eyes, reasserting how tired he must be right now.

When he doesn’t immediately say anything, you reach a shaky hand up to trace his dark circles, and his gaze finally flicks down to you again. He smiles a little.

“I mean he has a point about the skirt doesn’t he?”

His words pour gasoline on cooled ashes; you only huff and drop your head to his shoulder again.

“I guess, maybe.”

You play with the fabric of his button up that peaks beneath his sweater. Then you’re yawning and Armin chuckles light and sweet under his breath, ducking down to kiss your brow.

“There it is. You were just upset ‘cause you were tired, huh sleepyhead?”

Like a spell, suddenly you notice your eyelids do feel pretty heavy.

“Maybe.”

“Will you sleep now, my good listener? Let me get some more work done? Stop worrying about nobodies like Eren?”

You shut your eyes and nod, and then Armin’s sliding his headphones back into place, rocking you in his chair for a bit before carefully laying you on his bed.

Then he’s quick to pull out his phone, finding Eren’s contact and sending a text faster than the speed of light.

you’re weird as hell ren, why’d you have to scare her like that today?

LMAO she talked about me?

not sharing pics anymore if you do it again. fucking idiotic

i'm trying to talk to more armin fuckers.. pls hml 😏

#armin x reader #aot x reader #snk x reader #armin x you #armin fic #armin drabble #I CANT WATCH THE EP YET AHHHHHH

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olderthannetfic · 10 months

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I am not American so this an actual question: Why do people never use those American names in writing? Kayleigh, Keinleigh, or Lakesha, Shalissa? Saw those names on real people, but no one in America uses names like that in stories? And apparently for the latter names it's racist as well, but those names are actually names people have! So what gives?

People absolutely use those names in writing.

White Mormons writing boring het romance novels use ones like the first two all the time.

Really, I cannot emphasize enough how annoying romance novel names are to me. The reason I wouldn't name a character these names is that they look stupid.

I also associate them with demographics of white people I rarely write about.

In fic, you'll see the occasional OFC mary sue badfic with a lead with a name like this. It just depends on the author's own milieu and what names they consider normal.

The latter two sound like black people from the city. If you know enough to write black people from the city, great. Much of fanfic fandom is either too white or too suburban, and US media is not kind to such characters, so there's not a lot of incentive to use such names in fanfic.

Publishing overall is very racist and so are book-buying audiences, so a lead named Lakesha will not sell well unless positioned just right. Or at least that's the theory. But it's a theory that affects what mainstream US books you're probably hearing about.

When I've lived in places with black-focused bookstores, I've occasionally run across trashy fiction for a black, urban market, usually from small indie presses that cater to a black audience. Those authors know what they're talking about and will certainly name their characters names that make sense for the setting.

For me personally, it would be hard to tell the difference between an actual name and a racist parody name someone made up. I can tell when a name "sounds black", but that's not enough knowledge to pick a name correctly.

The black people I know offline mostly do not have names like this. I think it's because they're relatively rich, live in relatively non-black areas, and face a lot of pressure to pick names white people find more comfortable. Having a "whiter" name on job applications gets you interviews you will not get with a "black" name both because of racism and classism. A lot of it is probably also regional.

If I wanted to name a character, I'd do some research and choose a relatively common name with its most common spelling for safety. 'Lakesha' can be spelled that way or 'Lakeesha', 'Lakeisha', Lakisha, or Laquisha, among others. This one's, what, Arabic originally? That and Swahili seem to be the ultimate origins of a lot of names we associate with urban black communities. There are plenty of patterns here: I just don't know what they are.

Basically, naming characters requires a metric fuckton of sociological knowledge and just being American isn't enough to know about every demographic in the US.

Research is perfectly possible. People do it all the time for naming characters. It's just more work than picking a type of name you already know a lot about.

And on top of that, names sometimes tell you race, class, region, etc. and people may not be writing characters for whom these names make sense.

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formulinos · 1 year

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HYPERFIXATION CORNER | NOW, THAT'S WHAT I CALL LATE STAGE FORMULA 1!

theydies and gentlemen of f1blr, i regret to inform you guys that the rumours are true: we live in a society. liberty media's tenure with FOM has opened a can of worms that ushered in what i've been calling lately "late stage formula 1". But the thing is, what the fuck would that be, exactly? so, as a good scholar, i took it to myself to study more about late stage capitalism in order to truly understand the term and see if my application made any sense. in today's hyperfixation corner, we'll get deeper than necessary on the microcosm of capitalism that f1 has become. and then we will get depressed. but maybe, just maybe, we can figure this out.

note: this has 7k words AND at times gets quite dense in terms of sociological theory, but i truly did my best to make it palatable. still, this is not going to be everyone's cup of tea and might get boring. if you still believe this is your thing, i just ask you to please hang on tight and see it through to the end as i truly feel everything ties up together rather logically.

PART I: THE DAWN OF LATE STAGE FORMULA 1

the basics of late stage capitalism

the application in late stage formula 1

PART II: YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY - FORMULA 1 AND CAPITALIST REALISM

mark fisher's capitalist realism

the indycar situation

was there ever class consciousness in f1?

the illusion of abu dhabi

THE DAWN OF LATE STAGE FORMULA 1

1. The Basics of Late Stage Capitalism

For a term we see being used daily on several outlets, you'd be surprised to find out that there isn't a rigid definition. In fact, depending on who you talk to, you'll get widely different explanations, since there's basically "academia" late capitalism and "normie" late capitalism. I'll brush up those two for you guys real quick because, at this point, might as well.

The term was coined by a German scholar Werner Sombart. At the time, just at the start of the XX century, he was a HUGE Marx/Engels stan. He had all of their photocards, but beyond that, he also took to himself to write his lifetime's defining work, which is basically an expanded universe fanfic to what Marx and Engels wrote, tbh. In 1902, Sombart started to publish "Der moderne Kapitalismus" (Modern Capitalism), comprised of three volumes in which he discussed four stages of capitalism: proto-capitalism, related to the appearance of capitalist-like tendencies in feudal society until it became proper capitalism + early capitalism, which was basically seen pre-industrial revolution; high capitalism, which came in with the industrial revolution and ended with WWI; and at last, late capitalism, which was what they were living at the time of the third book release (1927), that is, post world wars world. That's all very chill, but given that later on Sombart drank the kool aid and became a Nazi, he can fuck off.

Thank God, two other dudes came in to take the expression from Sombart. Ernest Mandel and Fredric Jameson are two scholars who, although published their works in different times, were responsible for widespreading the term. Mandel published Late Capitalism in 1975, marking it as the era of economic expansion post WWII that, in his view, would reach its peak in the 70s since the economy was starting to have frequent crises. Jameson, however, dropped his book, Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, 16 years later, talking about the then-current world marked by globalisation and the expansion of capitalism to culture (arts, lifestyle, etc.).

All of this is to say that, today, if you ask an economist or a political scientist, they will most likely talk to you either about this time progression or straight out use Fredric Jameson's definition. Which, tbh, works, since in a way Jameson touches on the expansion of capitalism to daily life, something that goes in common with the contemporary POV on late capitalism.

We legit live in hell rn, no big deal

If you go on Reddit or watch corecore edits on tiktok, then there is a sense of dread and irony that's unique to the internet's definition of late capitalism. Since it's a relatively recent thing, there isn't a concrete way to define it, so I'll just use the one given by Ian Neves (Brazilian Historian) in his video about Capitalist Realism because I think it's the one that manages to summarise it the best: Late Stage Capitalism is the stage of capitalism in which the contradictions of capitalism are so evident that they become explicit to the population. That is, it is so in your face that it stops being campy. It's just tacky.

In the video, Neves further explains that one of the big deals about capitalism is that it sells itself as a contradiction-free system, but in our current time we aren't quite fooled anymore. A few examples of this would be multinationals like Amazon opening factories in underdeveloped places like Tijuana, under the guise of wanting to "help develop the country" but placing themselves close to a slum, clearly showing their intentions of exploitation; You can also think of the "art" market of NFTs, which are nothing more than numbers stored in a computer - capitalism touts itself as being a creator of value capable of meeting society's needs, yet there is no need met with NFTs besides value generation for the sake of value generation and pure speculation. Anyway, there are several examples and whatever you think is probably Late Stage Capitalism.

2. The Application in Late Stage Formula 1

Having done this deep dive, imagine my face when I realised that it turns out I didn't just pull "Late Stage F1" out of my ass. I was gooped! Gooped, I tell you. See, if late stage capitalism is now defined as the era in which capitalism's contradictions are explicit, then Late Stage F1 can be easily perceived as the stage of the sport in which its contradictions are no longer capable of being ignored by the fans either. In that sense, it does feel that this is the perfect way to synthesise the bitterness that a large part of the fandom tastes in their mouths.

note: I'm not stating that pre-Liberty Media Formula 1 was perfect. God forbid I become one of the purist fans talking about the good ole days. Bernie Ecclestone wasn't shit and in a way, some of our issues nowadays are inherited from his tenure as the head of FOM. But, at the same time, the sport managed to sell itself as a luxury hobby while still being satisfying and accessible, in a way or another, to the non-wealthy fans. You couldn't see as many contradictions as now because the image of the sport was more or less aligned with what you actually saw, good and bad.

The same, unfortunately, can't be said nowadays. To illustrate my point, let's take a look at FOM's Corporate Strategic plan, released in 2020. The idea, in their words, is "to deliver a more popular, more exciting, and sustainable sport, which pushes the boundaries whilst protecting our heritage.", supported by six axes:

Race – Increase competitiveness and unpredictability on track

Engage – Produce an amazing spectacle for fans on and off track

Perform – Generate value to our shareholders

Sustain – Deliver sustainable and efficient operations

Collaborate – Create win-win relationships with our partners

Empower – Build an engaged and high-performing workforce

Besides Perform and Collaborate, arguably the two most capitalistic inclined pillars, it's incredibly easy to find counter-arguments to illustrate how this is just corporate talk and doesn't actually reflect on the sport. [cracks fingers] So, let's get it:

✷ Increase competitiveness and unpredictability on track: Ok, sure, they try with this one as it is the core of the sport - after all, this is what the regulations' tweaks are for. But you just need a quick overview of the Andretti situation to see that competitiveness only serves the structure to a certain point. After all, although Andretti managed to get the backing of a manufacturer (General Motors, in the form of Cadillac) which, in theory is enough to make it a more legitimate entry less likely to Caterham levels of bankruptcy, the vibes are still somehow off from camp F1.

Michael and Mario Andretti on a pit wall during something that WASN'T a Formula 1 race

This all boils down to the revenue split at the end of the season between the teams and FOM: once you remove the bonuses that are thrown around, roughly 50% of what's left goes to FOM, and the other 50% are the championship prize money (don't quote me on these percentages actually, I'm not sure if it's exactly 50/50) . If Andretti gets in, then either the teams' share gets diluted as a consequence of an extra mouth to be fed, either FOM needs to adjust its own reward to increase the total prize money and make sure that all teams still get the same liquid value for positions 1-10.

Now, Andretti are willing to pay the 200 million dollars "anti-dillution" fee that's to be distributed to the already existing teams as a regulated "sorry we're gonna have to split the prize money in 11 from now on". Yet, instead of welcoming the bid, teams have lobbied for an increase to that fee to 600 millions, a cheap tactic to either get more money or to keep Andretti out. On one hand, Christian Horner has made it clear, from the teams' perspective it is about the money. On the other hand, Stefano Domenecali and FOM are hot and cold, stating that he's happy Andretti are interested but mad that they're calling out the bureaucracy of the process.

The key aspect here is that F1 no longer needs an American team to reinforce their position in the United States market as they did back in 2014 when Haas formalised their entrance. In fact, they don't even need Haas to assert themselves as American anymore as they have three GPs lined up regardless of the team's national fanbase. This way, in FOM's optics, they have nothing to gain from Andretti. In a way, the teams are basically doing what's expected of them, but bottomline is the fact that FOM is fucking mental in adopting the same perspective instead of planning how an extra entry of such magnitude as Andretti-Cadillac could pay itself with time.

✷ Produce an amazing spectacle for fans on and off track: See, I guess you can call me a bit of an old school fan, because when it comes to Formula 1, I WANT TO SEE THE FUCKING CARS RUN ON THE FUCKING TRACK. I suppose many of you are aligned with me on that one.

Using the 2021 numbers as reference since we didn't get the 2022 report yet, the average global audience is around 70.3 million. Given that the biggest venues can only hold 400k attendants tops, the rest of those 70m fans are watching the GPs from home. They are also most likely having to pay for it, since F1TV's dominion keeps increasing. While, all credit is due, F1TV offers a much better pay-per-view experience than many other sports have, with a very rich archive and incredible coverage of each race weekend, some of these prices per country are a legit effort for a fan to make.

From the Reddit post, an example of the price disparity between countries. F1TV is priced accordingly to the purchasing power that each country has.

Could be worse as many other fans are held hostage by Sky Sports, which is only available with a much more expensive £34.99 subscription to UK and Ireland fans, who don't even have F1TV as an alternative option. Given that Sky also has the airing rights in Germany and Italy, the fact is that F1's free to air presence has been lowering over the years (a problem that has been discussed in 2016 and represented a decrease in viewership at the time, mitigated by the Liberty Media efforts). But F1 really can't be arsed in considering a full return to free-to-air TV given the current times and so, the idea is to basically adapt to the pay TV market as much as possible and to retain free-to-air positions in specific markets. And if you, individually, don't have the money to pay for it and there is no free-to-air alternative for you, tough titties.

When it comes to actually attending a Grand Prix though, it's becoming equally harder to do it. The F1destinations 2023 rank shows that there has been an average 56% increase on the average 3-day ticket price in relation to 2019, costing roughly 508 dollars. In terms of affordability, these tickets can represent from under 10% to over 50% of the average monthly net wage for the countries hosting the GP. If it was just the tickets that would be easy peasy, but the fact is most of the times attendance includes the need for housing, transportation, food, etc. What this means is that it's fucking expensive, ok?

The GPs are getting more and more packed, but for how long?

Again, the sport has always been elitist, but there was for a good while a relative balance between your average fan who managed to save up and get a GA ticket with the rich wealthy fans at the paddock drinking their champagne. Nowadays, even people who were regular attendees of their home gps have tapped out due to being priced out. Plus, even the new GPs added to the calendar already come with a big disclaimer "FOR MONEY ONLY" as, for instance, the cheapest tickets for Las Vegas cost 500 bucks but the real average price for the three days is $1,667.

So, if they are in fact producing a great spectacle for fans, it's becoming more and more hard for said fans to actually be able to see it. Whatever.

✷ Deliver sustainable and efficient operations: F1 made a pledge in 2020 to improve their relationship to Mother Nature by 2030, which includes: Net Zero carbon, sustainably-fuelled, hybrid power units, efficient and low/zero carbon logistics & travel, 100% renewably powered facilities and credible carbon sequestration. The whole pdf has a bunch of lovely lines about their grandiose plans, but these are somewhat easily dragged to filth by anyone who understands just a tiny bit of eco-sustainability. One of these people is David Bott, chief innovation officer for the Society of Chemical Industry*.

Bott explains well the situation with the fuel. F1 cars currently use E10, which is a mix of gasoline (+ the likely additives that gasoline already has) with 10% ethanol, a sustainable fuel. The thing is, gasoline is more popular than ethanol for cars for a reason: if you take 1L of gasoline and 1L of ethanol, when you burn them, gasoline will give you way more energy. According to Bott, this means that the new E10 fuel is not as potent as gasoline would be, so you end up needing to use more of it anyway and in the grand scheme of emissions, that means fuck all.

F1's carbon footprint per sector. Does something feel funny to you?

Still, as F1 itself showed in their sustainability report back in 2020, the power unit emissions are less than 1% of the total emissions during a season. As you'd imagine, the thick of it really lies in logistics (45%, transportation of all equipment) and business travel (27,7%, transportation+hotels of f1 staff). Drivers and TPs carpooling with their private jets might help a little bit, but it's evident that F1 doesn't give a single shit about improving those numbers given that the calendar has expanded to 23 races, three of them in the same country but in completely different times of the year, which means that the back and forth of airplanes between continents will correspond to a 15% increase to emissions in relation to last year. According to Paolo Feser, If they were to at least organise the calendar in a sensible manner, they could cut these emissions by half, but such a calendar would go against their contracts with Bahrain and Abu Dhabi for the season's opener (till 2036) and finale (till 2030), respectively. When you consider the pledge's deadline of 2030, it's pretty evident that they'll say they made it because of the drop-in fuel in development, but logistics are far removed from the rest of it.

✷ Build an engaged, high-performing workforce: TALKING OF THE 23 RACE CALENDAR, the biggest impact is obviously on the workforce. Race weekends are gruelling enough for the drivers, who have stated through the GPDA their concerns of burnout. But then, you also have to consider the garage side, who are used to a minimum of 12-hour shifts during a race weekend, having to adapt to more frequent double and triple headers. As an anonymous mechanic said:

"Then, when you are coming home on a Monday morning or Monday evening, and you haven't slept properly in days, that then affects how you feel in your personal time. It means your relationships can suffer – either because you are agitated with your partners or you've got other things on your mind. And that's not fair on you nor them. You are not just mentally fatigued, you are physically drained as well. As the season wears on, there are a hell of a lot of injuries happening. The teams do have doctors and physios to help look after you, but the easiest solution is to pump you with painkillers to just keep you going. There is no way in a million years that a regular doctor would give you what we are given to keep us going."

The psychological strain adds to the anxiety of creating the perfect car and work culture has become increasingly tense. To add to the tension, the cost cap negatively reflected on the workforce as many teams, including RBR and Mercedes, had to fire people to adapt to it. Those who stay have to be reminded that they are "so lucky" to still have a job and if "they don't like it, they can go" (as Tost said in 2021) but the situation is overall so demotivating that yeah, people are quitting motorsports overall or changing categories. To sum up, the engagement and performance of the workforce isn't out of love for the sport, but fear and pressure.

To wrap this with a golden bow, I could never forget the #WeRaceAsOne initiative, still touted by F1 as a campaign that really wants to bring awareness and impact important problems in our society. When it was created in 2020, the main focuses were COVID-19 and social inequalities, but given that they banned T-shirts in podiums in 2020 after Lewis Hamilton protested the death of Breonna Taylor by the hands of US pigs, they clearly weren't comfortable in really tackling the inequality issue. Therefore, they changed the goals of the campaign for a very corporate "Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion & Community" axis, whatever the hell they mean with that. It's good that they can focus on it all they want, as the FIA has banned drivers from political statements during race weekend procedures. Moreover, while the boycott of the Russian Grand Prix is completely justifiable, it still feels empty once you consider they raced in Saudi Arabia while a factory mere miles away from the track was bombed, also as an act of war.

To sum up, the fact is that late stage Formula 1 is here to stay and we have to deal with all of the sport's contradictions. The same way that late capitalism does not mean that the end of capitalism is near, late stage f1 means nothing as its popularity has been rising more and more, and at the current rate, the abandonment of the older fans means jackshit as more people show up on social media and are willing to pay what's necessary to either watch it or attend races. The question that might linger, in fact, is if F1 has reached the point of inevitability at last?

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YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY - FORMULA 1 AND CAPITALIST REALISM

1. Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism

Even when we're faced with the existence of a late stage Formula 1, whether when it's concretely laid down or just a feeling deep down, many of us still continue to engage with it. As much as we complain about it, the current panorama does show an expansion of the sport, which can only happen as well because a good chunk of the old school fans remain. The question is, why do we insist on watching a sport when we know shit is that bad? Is it solely because of affectionate ties to a team, a driver or even f1 itself? Sure, these factors contribute to it, but what if I told you that it is also because current F1 has finally managed to sink into our collective consciousnesses as inevitable?

To understand what I'm trying to say here, we need to look first at the big picture. That is, if we have been treating F1 as a microcosm of capitalism up to this point, it's now necessary to step back and face Capital itself. In order to do this, I want to introduce to you guys the concept of capitalist realism.

Say hello to Mark Fisher (1968-2017), an incredible mind gone too soon

While, just like late stage capitalism, "capitalist realism" was an umbrella term used for a myriad of different meanings, we don't have to contextualise its timeline. Rather than that, we can jump straight to Mark Fisher's defining work, "Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?", published in 2009. In it, Fisher defines it as "the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it". Putting it in simpler terms, it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

With capital realism, Fisher no longer talks just about the influence of capitalism at a socio-economic level, but also how it bled into the cultural and psychological spheres (scary!!!!!!!). All of this culminates in apolitical attitude towards capitalism: since we can't escape the system because things are like this, all we can do, realistically, is to adapt to it and try to minimise its effects instead of actually fighting them.

Having that in mind, I ask you guys: can you imagine the demise of F1? We often hear about it separating from the FIA, but similarly to capitalist realism, Formula 1 losing its world championship status (as close to its end of the world as it gets) feels more likely that a massive restructuring of the category or it shutting down for good. Similarly, fans have adopted an "it is what it is" point of view towards the sport as we all know what FOM and the FIA are like and we don't have, supposedly, the power to change anything, we just have to suck on whatever they propose to us.

Stefano Domenicali (FOM CEO) and Mohammed bin Sulayem (president of the FIA), joined in unholy matrimony

Now, capitalist realism didn't show up out of the blue. According to Fisher, neoliberalism was the mother of capitalist realism. This is because its campaign in the 80s and 90s with regan and maggie thatcher (names in lowercase because I don't respect them) was successful in gaslighting people into thinking that it wasn't necessarily perfect, but it was the only approach of government rooted in reality. Once it was implemented, the next step was to consolidate it, which happened thanks to two factors: the end of the soviet union and the transition to post-fordism. I know this seems crackheaded and with no relation to F1, but give me a chance pls!

Trigger warning: the many faces of neoliberalism

During the Cold War, there was a concrete antagonist to capitalism in the shape of the USSR*. With its demise, this role of a real opposition to it was completely obliterated, allowing for capitalism to expand however it pleased without anything to contest it. Similarly, maybe F1's biggest triumph in these last two decades - and this is why I said at the top that Bernie wasn't shit and the problem about late stage F1 had its roots further back - is that it successfully managed to free itself from the sole category that threatened its popularity: Indy Car.

*note: by stating this, there is absolutely no value judgement. the statement is not about the ussr being a problematic fave or a communist hell that needed to be abolished. it was just a physical entity that asserted itself as a possible alternative to capitalism. by its physical existence, it allowed for public consciousness to understand that, if the ussr was a possible alternative to capitalism, then there might as well be plenty of others. kindly remember that the ussr was quite oppressive and countless people and countries suffered on their hands, while also understanding that for this particular purpose, it did its job.

2. The IndyCar Situation

The IndyCar World Series as we know it was established in 1979, with CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) as the governing body behind it. The similarities between F1 and IndyCar went beyond the cars (although the Indys were a tad less sophisticated than F1s): the creation of CART itself was based on Bernie's FOCA model (television rights, sponsorships, etc).

IndyCar's Indianapolis 500, 1992. Not bad in terms of attendance!

From the 80s, its popularity grew in America, with them even inheriting venues that originally held grand prix, like Long Beach. Still, no one was really intimidated by them as F1's presence in the US, albeit messy with several different events attempted, was constant during that period. However, shit went down in the next decade, when Formula 1 was shut down by the organisers of the US Grand Prix at Phoenix right in 1991. From that point, it would take 9 years for F1 to get back, at the heart of American racing, Indianapolis. Hold this information.

Once F1 disappeared from 'Murica, IndyCar thrived, at least for a while. CART had managed to join ACCUS (Automobile Competition Committee for the United States), who are affiliated to the FIA, which made it possible for drivers to race in Indy without losing their super licenses. Soon, there was a migration from foreign drivers to IndyCar, and that included people from F1, such as Emerson Fittipaldi. Once that happened, the sky became the limit for Indy and they started to race outside of the US. By 1993, Nigel Mansell had dropped F1 after a rift with Williams and decided to go drive for Newman/Haas at IndyCar instead.

Nigel Mansell and teammate Mario Andretti. Oh how I want Nigel, ngl.

note: the motherfucker demolished his competition, won IndyCar and is still the only person to be, technically, F1 and IndyCar champion at the same time.

At this point, some people will say Bernie Ecclestone wasn't bothered, but he hadn't even gotten over losing the Long Beach GP to CART back in 84. You know Bernie, I know Bernie, we all know Bernie. HE WAS MAD!!!! At the same time, NASCAR was rising in popularity like never before, causing a certain rivalry between the categories over who would take over the hearts of all the petrol head americans.

Enter Tony George, then head of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and chairman at CART. Tony believed that CART was getting lost in the game and ignoring Motorsport Traditions by racing in venues that weren't ovals. Since Georgy was annoying as fuck, CART booted him from the board of directors, which was one of the most stupid decisions given that he owned the track that literally gave the name to their championship. IndyCar's whole thing was the Indianapolis 500, right? "So fuck you too," Tony George cried while being thrown away from the CART offices by security "You don't want me? Then you don't get to race the Indy 500 anymore!".

Well, it didn't happen exactly like that. Instead, Tony George created a separate category called Indy Racing League that would be dedicated exclusively to ovals and get to be the owner of the Indy 500 from 96 onwards. The original IndyCar series changed its name to CART and Indy racing in America became fractured. Just to be clear, IRL did allow an 8 CART car limit to compete at Indy 500, but CART decided to boycott the event instead. This worked for some time, and CART still managed to make do with their reserves (they even offered to buy F1 in 1998) but soon these started to dry out as sponsors dropped the series and teams started breaking the boycott to race in Indy 500, eventually by the 2000s completely defecting to IRL. In 2004, CART filed for bankruptcy and got bought out, living as a zombie series until 2008 when IRL bought it and reunified them. At this point, the damage was done as NASCAR had taken over in popularity and F1 was back since 2000, racing the IMS.

Tony and Bernie, BFFs 5eva

Oh yeah, haven't you heard? 1998 also marked the year where it was announced by Bernie that F1 would come back to the United States, racing at the holy land of Indianapolis herself. Sounds sketchy? You're not the one to think that, as both Jacques Villeneuve (1995 IndyCar champion 1995) and Gordon Kirby (journalist, US correspondent for Autosport 1973-2004) have stated that Bernald, alongside NASCAR boss Bill France, basically whispered sweet nothings in Tony George's ear to get him to act a fool. Although it took several more years for F1 to finally sink its teeth into the United States in an effective manner, the main competition was out before they could even expand further.

It was up to Formula 1 then to expand without anything to stop it, as we can see in the many calendar changes we've had over the years. Even further, since there is no antagonist, this has also allowed F1 to turn its sights to the feeder system, creating its own "preferred" path that, with the super license points system basically make it harder for drivers who are outside of the F1 feeder series bubble to make it to F1 (as we've even seen recently with Colton Herta). Same thing is happening to the W Series, which for lack of funds wasn't able to finish their 2022 season even though they were promoted to an F1 support championship, racing. While Formula 1 did not offer to help them or tried to integrate them properly in the feeder series ladder, they have just recently announced F1 Academy, their own initiative for female drivers, placed officially just under Formula 3 with a direct link. That's great for the female drivers, but incredibly fucked up at the same time.

3. Was There Ever Class Consciousness in F1?

Yeah, so the whole lack of opposition didn't help on an external basis, but there is also an internal factor that cannot be ignored and it's linked to post-Fordist work structure. In Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher cites a study by Richard Sennett called "The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism". In it, Sennett states:

"Where formerly workers could acquire a single set of skills and expect to progress upwards through a rigid organizational hierarchy, now they are required to periodically re-skill as they move from institution to institution, from role to role. As the organization of work is decentralized, with lateral networks replacing pyramidal hierarchies, a premium is put on ‘flexibility’.[...] This flexibility was defined by a deregulation of Capital and labor, with the workforce being casualized (with an increasing number of workers employed on a temporary basis), and outsourced."

Translating this, instead of becoming a specialist on something, you become a jack of all trades without any job stability. In the F1 world, this is seen not only in drivers changing teams and getting sacked of the category altogether, but also in the poaching of talent between teams and the frequent internal restructurations. Ian Neves says that post-Fordism was key in the establishment of capital realism because its natural consequence is the individualisation of work, which leads to the weakening of trade unions and ultimately, the mining of class consciousness.

As one would expect, there isn't a trade union that looks after all F1 workers. Instead, most of the engineers, mechanics and other staff are subject to the unions of the countries the factories are located at (for instance, Alpine is protected by the "collective convention of metallurgical engineers and workers").Therefore, as much as the personnel is against work conditions and calendar expansion, it's much more difficult for them to unite and rally against it as they have been segmented.

Ferrari team photo, 2022. Together, but divided nevertheless

This is particularly fucky when you consider the existence of the GPDA. The Grand Prix Drivers' Association is a trade union that, historically, has made itself heard in delicate situations where drivers needed to claim their rights and fight for their safety. Unfortunately, this comes with a side effect that reinforces a difference between drivers from the rest of the F1 crew. While they are absolutely right and the GPDA should exist as a trade union regardless of the existence of a larger one encompassing all workers, the fact is that the illusion that drivers are in the status quo of the sport, and not subject to it, remains.

Look, as much as they are in a privileged spot and reap all its benefits, the fact is they do not own the cars they run - well, at least not most of the time [stares at the Strolls]. They still rely on the teams that own the structure and the backing of sponsors, that is, the means of production, to work. Most of the time, when they retire from F1, they still tend to race in other categories or find side quests. While I have no doubt that drivers are super passionate for racing and you can't completely quit it, how much are we sure that this is also not partially motivated by the desire to make sure they are still able to afford the lifestyle they had as Formula 1 drivers? Marx was clear, baby, the drivers are as much the proletariat as anyone else. By separating them from the rest of the structure and maintaining the post-fordist work structure for the rest of the teams, class consciousness inside the paddock is close to none and it helps to consolidate F1's status as an almighty being.

4. The Illusion of Abu Dhabi

Here's the thing: if "realism" is used as an argument for maintenance of the current state of affairs, by conforming to what's in theory "realistic", then the best way to threaten it, according to Fisher, is if you manage to expose the cracks of said "realism". This should be able to work because, get this, there is a difference between what's Real and what's reality.

Again, sorry but I'm gonna get theoretical here. However, when you consider that so much of what we're talking about here directly relates to a psychological sphere, you can't not add some psychiatric theory into this. When you look at it from the point of view of Jacques Lacan (French psychiatrist who spit some bars), reality is constituted not of what's actually Real, but of social conventions and symbolism. The Real itself is unrepresentable and even traumatic at times, and you can only perceive it when you look at the inconsistencies of reality, that aims to suppress it! What the fuck!!!!

It's super easy, you just have to show that the whole framework is inconsistent!

Except it never works that way.

Going back AGAIN to capitalist realism, take a look at the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. I don't understand much about the mechanisms of the economy (and I am right not to, as this is all made up by weird people), but even I know that the Lehman Brothers collapse resulted in a worldwide clusterfuck that saw many lose their lifetime of savings. After that point, the ripple effect was so severe that companies were falling like flies and it was up to State interventions to halt things. Maybe the greatest example of late stage capitalism, this was the key point to explicit the greatest contradiction of neoliberalism: they sell themselves as a system above the State, however they needed the State to save it, which means they don't really want to abolish State, just to occupy it to their own desires.

The absurd numbers of the financial crisis in the US.

So, you have your reality cracked, you can look at the Real and see the inconsistencies of capitalism laid bare in front of all of us. This should have been enough for neoliberalism/capitalism to go out of style completely right? As you can see if you look out the window, however, we're still living in a capitalist society. Then what happened? The crises ended up reinforcing the status of capitalism precisely through the bank bail-outs as the States doubled down on the whole "realistic" thing because they had no alternative and saw these companies as "too big to fail". What we see today, then, is an economical model that clearly fallible, yet remains because it's perceived as a default. Mark's words, not mine.

But this is in the field of Capital. It's not like, in the F1 bubble, anything of the genre has ever happened.

Yup.

I guess you could say there have been moments in Formula 1 that came close to exposing these inconsistencies but didn't, like crashgate, spygate or the whole 1989 championship debacle. Still, these didn't expose anything because:

1) F1 didn't sell itself at the time of those events the same way it does now

2) All of these could be easily pinned to individuals instead of the whole structure of F1 itself - even Senna put 1989 on the back of Balestre only, instead of the entire FIA.

Abu Dhabi, however, wasn't looked at the same way given that it's still such a controversial topic and was the point of rupture to many fans with the category.This is because the series of events that led to Abu Dhabi, touted as the biggest showdown since 1974 and followed it afterwards managed to create the circumstances to break the veil between the reality (F1 as the greatest, most spontaneous motorsport modality in the world) and showed the Real (the newfound need to push narratives, consequence of the transition from sport to entertainment encouraged by Liberty Media ran-FOM, enabled by the FIA and accelerated by Drive to Survive).

The animosity between TeamLH and the Orange Army lingers to this day. However, regardless of its peak at the time, the controversy of the actions taken at the Grand Prix did not provoke just an outcry amongst Hamilton fans, but to a good chunk of neutral parties as well. We're still here though, so how did Formula 1 manage to escape from it? Simple, they also reinforced their position by the immediate actions of the FIA, as Jean Todt demanded a review of what happened. In its swiftness to respond, the World Motor Sport Council, that is, the one institution that could bail-out F1, states they would take action to understand what happened and avoid any problems in the next season.

The bail-out, in this sense, isn't monetary, but institutional as they place their focus on the "relevant parties" instead of the major structure itself. From their side, FOM avoided taking responsibility for their role, as Domenecali said right after that "We have already spoken with the president [Mohammed bin Sulayem, who had just assumed his role] . We talked about the priorities he will have to face, and there are many.". This landed as well, as the common reaction was to demand the FIA changes and penalties, blaming Michael Masi for "trying to balance the need for spectacle with the rulebook" instead of addressing the root causes of the need for spectacle itself.

Masi had it coming, but he sure made it easy from the FIA and FOM

In that sense, the reinforcement also comes in the sense of self-criticism, since it leads to something called "interpassivity", a concept developed by Robert Pfaller: when the actors in Formula 1 take it to themselves to discuss and criticise the sport themselves, they are performing our opposite stance for the fans, who then are able to continue to consume it as they please. This is possible as well because we take a "cynical distance" from the sport and thus become passive spectators. This way, as long as we say to ourselves "oh, F1 is rotten nowadays", that's all we need as a cop-out to keep watching it. This is not just us being hypocrites, per se, but legit one of capitalist ideology as Zizek puts it that we overvalue our internal beliefs in detriment of our external actions - literally the "there is no ethical consumption in capitalism" of it all. It's inevitable we replicate this behaviour when it comes to watching Formula 1.

So, once we get all of the way, the question remains: is there anything that can be done to truly change Formula 1? It's not just a matter of direct action, as what we're talking about here is a result of a concealed mulit-layered internal organisation that acts on an abstract level. As much as we can bitch and moan, fan protests and team appeals are direct action and thus, easily countered by the FOM/FIA complex. Hell, these two fight all the time and yet any crisis is easily fixed, as just the mere possibility of F1 separating from the FIA was enough to get bin Sulayem to step away from day to day administration. On one hand, FOM doesn't want to truly separate from the FIA, they just want to occupy the FIA themselves. On the other hand, the FIA needs F1 to stay so that they can continue to assert themselves as the big dawgs in motorsports. This is how they manage to walk hand in hand and compromise over their own interests instead of the interests of the sport itself.

Maybe, this triumph of FOM is directly related to the biggest weapon of capital realism: the individualisation of the being, placing their responsibility and expectations solely on the self instead of the greater structure. This can be seen in situations such as the climate change approach, focused way more on our need to recycle than the large corporations' impact on the environment. Another example is the approach of mental health, that most of the times places on your brain alone the responsibility for your disorders instead of considering as well the influence of social conditions.

In the context of F1, the individualisation is exacerbated by the nature of the competition. Everyone is fighting for their own interests, and in a way, that has always been the goal. Still, the excessive encouragement of rivalries and toxicity - not only in the fandom, but in the paddock itself - serves the role of segmentation very well and helps FOM to continue pushing through F1 as they please. It all boils down to the lack of class consciousness between ALL the personnel, who could adopt strategic approaches that directly affect FOM's directives, turning what was abstract into a concrete issue and thus making it possible to take direct action. (tbh many of these issues can be addressed if capitalism itself is fought but then again, the impact of that on the vroom vrooms can be quite extreme and maybe that's asking too much of a sport dominated by car manufacturers and such).

In the role of fans, we both reflect the inner machinations of Formula 1 and feed it. Thus, the same way that all the staff should unite, so should we. While when it comes to track action many of us are rivals, and some of the drivers legit make it hard to stand with them, fact is the real enemy at the current date is FOM - even if Liberty Media sells it, the next administration will most likely double down on their approach. Our best hope isn't to boycott F1, but to encourage the union of its staff and show that while we welcome the technical evolutions, the main goal must be preserved. Food for thought, really. In the meantime, thank you for surviving till the end! As always, screw you guys, I'm going home!

In the role of fans, we both reflect the inner machinations of Formula 1 and feed it. Thus, the same way that all the staff should unite, so should we. While when it comes to track action many of us are rivals, and some of the drivers legit make it hard to stand with them, fact is the real enemy at the current date is FOM - even if Liberty Media sells it, the next administration will most likely double down on their approach. They were the ones that created the conditions for Abu Dhabi to happen, they are the ones that benefit the most from the rifts. Our best hope isn't to boycott F1, but to encourage the union of its staff and show that while we welcome the technical evolutions, the main goal must be preserved. Food for thought, really. In the meantime, thank you for surviving till the end! As always, screw you guys, I'm going home!

#hyperfixation corner #late stage capitalism #capitalist realism #cheers you guys good luck to those who read it #most normal ana formulinos write-up moment

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vampirepunks · 1 month

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Higgs Monaghan's MBTI + Enneagram Typology (pt. 2)

(disclaimer: this is my opinion based on deep character study, eight or so years of special interest in typology, and subjective interpretation. if you wanna argue, good luck finding my PDB. friendly debate is fine.)

MBTI: ENTP (Ne-Ti-Fe-Si)

Enneagram: 7w8

Instinctual Variant: sx/sp

Tritype: 782

(part one: mbti deep dive)

(Sam analysis)

As an ENTP, Higgs is right at home in enneagram 7. However, he's an interesting flavor of ENTP 7, due to his sexual instinctual variant, 8 wing + secondary fix, and emotional center in 2. Let's start with the basics.

Enneagram 7 Overview Basic Fear: Of being deprived and trapped in pain Basic Desire: To be happy, satisfied, to find fulfillment Fixation: Planning Trap: Idealism Passion: Gluttony

Deprived and trapped in pain, huh? Considering Higgs' backstory as an abused child locked away from the outside world, forcefully told there was no life outside the four walls of his home, denied the ability to explore and discover, punished for basic curiosity, this makes perfect sense. Higgs experienced extreme repression of his natural instincts, denial of his basic emotional and psychological needs, and had no means to escape the constant abuse he suffered. Remember, the common belief is that one's MBTI type is innate, while enneagram theory hinges on the acquisition of negative traits stemming from warped self-beliefs manifested by the impact of inevitable social oppression and possibly even trauma. The enneagram dips closer to psychology and sociology than MBTI (still pseudoscience tho, Naranjo was a hack and is very worthy of criticism) and thus is a lot more logical in its foundations. Hence, I strongly believe that any MBTI type can be any enneagram, due to the breadth of human experience, it's just a matter of conflicting cognition and instincts. Don't fight me on this one, y'all, I'm working on my sociology B.A., I can go back and forth all day about this stuff. I'm gonna get banned from PDB any day now for the arguments I get into.

It's not hard to understand why "be happy and fulfilled" became the crux of Higgs' pursuits. Enneagram 7 takes this most basic human desire, "be happy," and crafts it into an obsession. Until they overcome their fix and passion, 7 will never be satisfied. (cough cough, intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame... ahem. sorry, sorry, something stuck in my throat there. moving on.)

Enneagram 7 treats life as one grand stage, where anything can happen if you just want it badly enough. Thus, 7 is hedonistic, rebellious, undisciplined in one way or another, driven towards wish fulfillment, egotistical, persuasive, and extremely seductive, with some variants of 7 exhibiting charlatanism and fraudulence.

Sexual 7

Instinctual variants are the result of the enneagram type's passion invading an area of the social life and self, dominating its expression. There are three realms here: sexual (not always explicitly in the adult sense, this refers to one-on-one relationships, intimacy, etc), social, and self-preservation.

So, obviously sexual 7 is the result of gluttony + the sexual instinct. sx7 traits include: talkativeness, grandiosity and exaggeration, exhibitionism of personality and style, invasive tendencies, brazen audacity, obliviousness, magical thinking, relationship difficulties, self-indulgence, hypersensitivity, anti-hierarchical escapism, and intolerance for frustration.

Put simply, sx7 has their head in the clouds. Ichazo nicknamed this subtype "suggestibility." Although I really dislike Naranjo, he made an excellent point when he said, "The sexual seven is not earthly, but heavenly. He is not interested in the things of this world. It is the gluttony of the things of a higher and more advanced world. The sexual E7 is what we could call a dreamer[...] His passion is to dream, to go towards the sweetness of the imagined instead of contacting the ordinary and not so interesting reality."

Higgs is a showman. He paints everything in metaphor, in literature, in poetry, in history, in performances and masks and shadow theater. When captured in the literal view, Higgs' life is one tragedy after another, with no rhyme or reason, no grand answer to "why me," no satisfying conclusion to make an adoring audience cry for him. In the meta, fourth-wall breaking sense, the player becomes that for him. He looks us in the eye and asks, "Isn't this what you've been waiting for this whole time?" and prances around putting on a good show as we give him the attention and recognition he craves; we observe, we react, and a few of us see him. For a few moments, we live in his tragedy, we smile at his one-liners, we laugh at his bad behavior, and in those precious moments, he isn't alone. He's still at it, winking at the camera in the DS2 trailer when he quips about porters having to pull the trigger sometimes, a sly little, "I know what you did. You're not better than me. You get it."

But let's peel back that layer. Higgs is a mask. Let's talk about Peter.

Yeah, Peter, who was destroyed time and time again by his stubborn drive to believe, no matter how many times it got him hurt, nearly killed, even. Peter, who believed his way into stepping into a new world with a new sky. Peter, who believed his way into becoming a terrorist. Peter, who believed his way into Amelie's puppet master hands. Peter, who believed until the moment the carrot was snatched away and he met the stick face-first. Peter, the child whose only crime was being curious, became a grown man with his dreams shattered entire, with no innocence left to call his own, no one to save him, and no way out. So what was there to do but construct new dreams, nightmares made ideal, to build anew an image of himself as "the bridge that brings the extinction" in service of a greater power? Dreamer turned apostle, Saint Peter having the faith that he could walk on water. Except Amelie didn't pull him out when he sank. (Sam did, but that's a completely different conversation.)

Higgs built up a world of magic, because his real life was tragic, and in the end, Amelie forced him to bury the castle.

sx7 traps themselves in false hope, breezing through the world with witty speeches, talking, talking, talking, coasting by on charm and an energetic demeanor to mask their anxiety. This is right at home in the possibility-obsessed, silver-tongued ENTP, but the sensitivities of sx7 soften the ENTP personality quite a bit, amplifying their vulnerabilities and making them all too easy to manipulate. This is a personality that needs someone to protect them, and to teach them to protect themselves, which Higgs never had. Coffin tried, but fate had other ideas, and she became another loss upon his shoulders.

Self-Preservation 7 (secondary)

Now, on PDB, almost everyone has voted Higgs as sx/so, and I get why, but I believe Higgs is very social-blind and not countertype. The last instinct in a stack is a personality's blind spot, their weak point, the thing they struggle with, try to ignore, and overcompensate for. For Higgs, that's the social instinct. The self-pres and social instincts are conflated a lot in 7, due to this type’s inherent need for outward validation; their cool exterior conceals fear of inferiority and deprivation. 7 is arguably the most extroverted of the enneagram thus their self-preservation needs are heavily dependent on the presence of other people and having a clear role within a group. They often create family units and can appear similar to the so8 via their proclivity for creating a “tribe” for themselves, a group they nurture and in turn are protected by. Thus, sp7s are characterized as defenders in spite of their obvious self-interest. sx/sp 7s are often warm, charismatic people. Combined with an 8 fix, they're quite intense. In a well-read ENTP, this is a personality that could sell ice in the Arctic, and people gravitate towards their ability to sell their dream. "Together, we'll carry packages from sea to shining sea."

Many of Higgs’ deeper issues can be explained through the aforementioned developed Fe + social-blindness + a 2 fix in his emotional center. Having grown up completely isolated from the world, there’s no way he could be anything but soc-blind. His self-sacrifice is cognitive compensation for social deficiency and expression of a moral righteousness generated by his sx7-driven idealism, not an instinctual social egotism and rejection of gluttony. More on this when we get to his 2 fix. sp7 is the closest of the 7 variants to the literal definition of gluttony. They yearn for indulgence in every way.

Now, let's talk about that 8 wing and tritype secondary fix

Enneagram 8 is known for its aggression before all else, and it has a strong pull on any personality that has it in their wing or tritype. The 7w6 is flighty, much more risk-averse, and they work to satisfy their gluttony by seducing others into feeding their cravings for them, holding back to explore all possibilities, and they seek assurance that they're making the right choices, whereas 7w8 knows what they want and they'll take it if they have to. The 8 wing adds a heavy-handed, decisive edge to the 7 personality; 7w6 pushes back when the world closes in on them, 7w8 pushes forward against the world to make sure they're never restricted to begin with. Thus, the sx7 with an 8 wing displays much more sexual aggression (licking people!) and is inclined to show dominance. They're self-protective, they don't like to share their toys, and they won't let anyone take what's theirs. See: "gonna make [Sam] regret ever fucking with me and mine." This makes the 7w8 a powerful protector, a fierce enemy... and a nervous wreck prone to covering up fear with violence, anger, and provocation. This sort of aggression is a tendency in the standard 7w8, but with an 8 fix added to the tritype, it becomes a leading trait. This is particularly interesting in an ENTP, as they aren't typically aggressive by nature; they seek conflict for entertainment's sake, without malice, looking to test people and expand their own worldview through discourse. The ENTP 7w8 with an 8 tritype fix, on the other hand, takes up stronger convictions, greater stubbornness, and an impatience for people who won't bend to their whims. They often go looking to convince people they're right, getting frustrated when they aren't heard. ("You just don't get it, do you?") Further, when 8 invades the sexual instinct, secondary to a 7 fix, you get a personality that wants to possess the hearts and minds of their closest loved ones, fears abandonment, would die to protect one of their own, and knows better than to bite the hand that feeds.

Finally, the tertiary 2 fix

Enneagram 2 is a nurturer. 2 generously gives of themselves, constantly fixating on everyone else's needs. This is a personality that would give another person the shirt off their own back if they asked. Important thing to understand: their help isn't free. They might say it is, but 2 unconsciously expects to be rewarded and praised for helping others. Overall, this fits well with Higgs' secondary instinctual alignment in sp7. 7 fears being deprived, while 2 fears that no one appreciates them, and they mask this insecurity with a show of humility and an insistence that they were merely doing the right thing. They reason that if they meet everyone else's needs, their own needs will be taken care of in reciprocity. Meanwhile, they minimize those needs, making themselves as small and convenient as possible, denying they have needs at all. With an sx/sp alignment and a secondary 8 fix, this becomes a push-pull internal conflict between "I don't need anything, really" and "Give me what I need or else." I firmly believe that part of why Higgs' betrayal of Fragile was so malicious was a subconscious urge to punish her for not being... you guessed it... what he needed.

Let's go back to the point from post no. 1 about Higgs having highly developed Fe. In his youth, every time Higgs found himself in a new social situation, he responded with skepticism and instinctual aversion to social connection. It took time and persuasion for him to warm up to the idea of group politics; he’s only convinced when he realizes he’s needed and stands to have his own needs fulfilled in turn. Most people try to place Higgs' emotional center in enneagram 4 (which, when modulated by the sx-instinct and an 8 wing, can get downright nasty due to the fixation with envy and the aggression of 8) but frankly... I think that's lazy analysis.

Higgs’ initial reluctance to accept his DOOMS for what it was and subsequent secretiveness about killing to maintain it for his own survival screams 2. Higgs doesn’t self-victimize or wish to be special. Rather, he conceals his own needs and justifies his actions through a belief that he’s undertaking a selfless path. (“I’m an altruist now, I live to help other people[…] Community’s what it’s all about.”) He needs the world to need him and deteriorates when his role is threatened. In his time leading the West, people loved him and relied on him, but that wasn’t enough for him. Because he’s soc-blind and sx-dom, he only feels truly seen, fulfilled, and appreciated when he has attention and approval through a one-on-one relationship, such as with Coffin, Fragile, Amelie, etc., and he obsessively pursues the same recognition from Sam. (It’s worth acknowledging this is also indicative of disordered attachment, anxious-avoidant type.) When he fails, he falls back on the self-pres instinct, so… pizza, anyone?

Amelie initially lured him with the deceptive promise of enough power to create the better, freer, fairer world he was striving for. In his mind: save the world = save himself. Can’t save the world? Can’t save himself, time to take the whole thing down with him and call it mercy. That’s an unhealthy 2 heart center, believing he can only meet his own needs by rescuing everyone else, projecting his own turmoil onto others. He convinces himself he’s doing the right thing, giving the world what it needs. While his thirst for wide-scale justice is genuine, he exhibits an intense craving for attention, intimacy, and recognition, becoming suddenly naive and vulnerable when someone offers what he lacks. Conversely, he’s antagonistic, aloof, aggressive, and ego-defensive when his needs are denied or threatened.

Conclusion

Higgs' most basic of needs were denied from a young age, and as an ENTP, he's inherently driven to hedonism, has a need for an intellectual playmate/trustworthy equal, and craves a balance between novelty and safety, so he’s gluttonous towards intimate relationships and a sense of security. His sx7 alignment means he dreams big and loud, constructing kingdoms in his mind and a personal narrative where he's the hero in shining armor, free to explore the world as he wishes and save it while he's at it. His sp7 secondary means he thirsts for his own means of survival and the assurance of it, going out of his way to endear himself to others and become indispensable to guarantee that survival. His 8 fix means he's assertive, strong-willed, aggressively self-protective, and highly possessive of anything he views as "belonging" to him. His 2 fix means he needs others to need him, needs to feel important in his loved ones' lives, needs to have his efforts rewarded, needs a larger role to fulfill, and most of all, needs to know that he's allowed to need things. As an sx7, he's comfortable with wanting things, but that 2 fix means needs are unacceptable for him to express.

Becoming Higgs—embodying a self-righteous, pharaoh-inspired persona—was the only way he could cope with the injustice and deprivation he suffered. (Coffin: “There was such a fear in him, but beneath that a terrible anger[…] That poor boy…”)

Mature-but-unhealthy ENTP 782 at its finest. Feet on the ground, head in the clouds. In conclusion, I want to fuck him so bad it makes me look stupid. What a man.

#literally obsessed with the fact that he has the exact mirror of my personality type #intj: ni-te-fi-se. entp: ne-ti-fe-si. alter egos. he's 7w8 i'm 8w7. he's soc-blind and i'm soc-dom. so on so forth #i could fix him and he could make me worse <3 #to sum up: this is a horse girl movie and i imagine myself to be The Special Girl who's the only one that can ride (😏😏😏) the wild stallion #i'm delulu about it actually. very fun. highly recommend. but watch out it'll hurt your sanity forever and people will def look at u funny #:)))))))#✨✨self-awareness✨✨#mbti #enneagram #personality typology #character study #entp #higgs monaghan #death stranding #logan.txt

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nonbinarygamzee · 8 months

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i think it is very interesting how people pick and choose which characters to sympathize with on the basis of being reduced to plot devices or being in general captives to their narratives. and obviously you dont have to like or give a shit about every character to exist especially not in a work so simultaniously dense and flat as homestuck, but i have both an intense interest in sociology and too much experience with how this fandom treats people for liking the "wrong" fictional children not to be eternally preoccupied with what makes these distinctions. when the character is liked, they are allowed the grace of being kind of poorly written; its the fault of the author, or theres some significant nudging about of their story beats to recontextualize them into something more nuanced and whole. by contrast, if the character is generally agreed upon to be uncharismatic, their personality flaws are inflated and the flatness of their writing is either erased in preference of integrating those authorial decisions into the characters personality (regardless of how glaringly contradictory) or more concerningly becomes a means of shutting down criticism on the basis nobody should care about the unserious/unwritten ones anyways.

interestingly, with gamzee in particular, ive found that people tend to do one or the other moreso than both; dont get me wrong, theres still a plethora of moralizing over peoples sympathy for This particular fictional child going on, obviously, thats basically the reason i am trapped here. but because gamzee is accepted as not a character but a plot device or an obstacle, a lot of people arent invested enough in her potential personhood to insist that the (antithetical) ways that she behaves are proof of her being "iredeemable". but they still have a negative emotional response to people having investment in her character. it isnt relevant whether or not shes a bad person, or whether she is being puppeteered, because her functionality in the world she exists in is to propagate the story and stand in opposition to its protagonists.

however as interesting as i think that is and for all i do think it says about an individual persons approach to homestucks presentation, i also cant ignore that that dichotomy only really started to Exist once it became less in vogue to harrass people for their character allegiences. in the same way, it seems like we as a fandom cannot escape the trap of being really, really weird about tavros every couple of years. skirting around some of the more blatantly ridiculous stuff because i do actually value my sanity a little bit, he is definitely one of the characters i first noticed people using critique as a pretense for passing judgement on people who liked or cared about him. again basically coinciding wiyh when it stopped being generally socially acceptable to just openly laugh about what a pathetic loser the disabled kid being humorously abused onscreen was. when ableism started to become a topic people cared about and disabled people and fans who related to tavros began to provide more in depth critique of the writing choices, and of fans, namely fans who made very light of his disability or who had a general refusal to talk about vriska's(and others but you know why its about her here) ableism, there was a massive uptick in people feeling the need to talk unprompted about how boring and shitty tavros is, questioning how anybody could like him when hes so badly written, etc. all in ways that did not try very hard to hide the fact that the concern about character writing was disingenuous and only really served the purpose of shutting down critiques of ableism in the fandom and comic. obviously this all seems to stem from investment in canonicity but i do notice it informs even the choices of people who approach their engagement in a "my city now" type of way. because the presentation of these characters impacts the wider perception, which impacts the ways people will deconstruct them. and this is why the idea that "homestuck doesnt have a canon" is a lie being sold to you for the sake of shutting down investigations od authorial motivation. was not intended to be epilogue snark but thatd as good a way to end this nonsense as anything else.

#not rereading if i made a msitake or dont make sebse thats on you for not being psychically linked #its clown town #gamzee #tavros #meta

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thetypedwriter · 11 months

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Babel Book Review

Babel Book Review by R.F. Kuang

This book was so incredibly impressive in multiple ways. I was blown away by Kuang’s sheer amount of research in terms of history, etymology, linguistics, and sociology. There were so many aspects of this novel that required her to dig deeper into subjects and Babel is an incredible display of her hard work and effort (and PHD’s).

Babel tells the story of a young boy who is taken from his home in Canton and trained by Professor Lovell in England. Given a new name, Robin Swift, the best tutors, and a strict schedule that dominates his childhood, Robin is forced to forget his home and dead family in order to assimilate into White British society, a society that sees him as foreign and less than human, even as they rely on his Cantonese in order to power their city.

Blending realistic, brutal history of the British empire—bloody politics and colonialism included—with the magical element of silver bars and silver-working, Kuang creates a beautiful blend of accuracy and the fantastic. In this world she’s created, silver working is birthed through what is lost in translation, requiring different languages and people who deeply understand it.

The effects of this translation are magical bars that can be imbued with a variety of purposes like making carts go faster, ships sail smoother, and teapots stay hot—only if you can afford it, of course.

Robin’s childhood is stained with memories of Professor Lovell’s cold shoulder, violent temper, and reticence to admit that Robin is actually his son. With Lovell looming over him, Robin is relieved when he’s old enough to attend Oxford as a Babbler, a revered translator.

A good portion of the book details Robin’s stay at Oxford, including his studies with his other cohort members: Ramy, Victoire, and Letty.

I could argue that this section was a bit long, where we have chapters upon chapters of Robin attending classes, dreaded school functions, mundane translation work, or spending time with one of his friends but overall, I enjoyed it.

This is where Kuang focuses a lot of energy and pages to linguistics, building her world and magic system of silver bars, and developing the relationships between Robin and the others. These chapters are also steeped in history, with several of them almost coming across like a textbook.

Again, if this sounds boring, it wasn’t. I found the historical recounting of the British empire a fascinating subject when used in conjunction with the silver bars and Robin’s eventual epiphany of his own situation and latent childhood cruelty.

Some much needed spice came in the form of Griffin and the Hermes Society. Griffin, it turns out, is Robin’s half-older brother and also an unnamed heir of Professor Lovell.

He is a part of a rebel organization whose purpose is to destroy Babel, stop the pillaging of other languages for Britain’s greed and pleasure, and eventually, to change the course of history by dismantling war plans between China and England.

I could go on and on by summarizing the rest of the book (which would contain massive spoilers), but the ending focuses on Robin and his friends going to Canton themselves, witnessing the British trying to get the Chinese addicted to opium, a harsh death that leads Robin and his cohort to join the Hermes society, and then a fight against the empire itself as Robin and his rag-tag survivors destroy Babel within in order to bring Britain to its knees and leave Canton alone for good.

The plot of this book itself was solid. I don’t say fantastic because there was never at any point where I was truly shocked or blown away by a surprise twist or revelation. The characters you think will die, do die, and the characters that seem suspicious of betrayal, do in fact betray others.

This would be a criticism of obvious expectations, but I don’t think astonishing was what Kuang was going for. I think she was going for more of a streamlined story in which, yes, the white girl does feel slighted and must take action in order to save herself.

I did like the occasional separate POV’s that would explain a character’s backstory and motivation, but in general, Kuang was trying to tell a realistic story and she did, including adding historical footnotes, remarks on translation, and word definitions that I found fascinating, if a bit obtuse.

Setting wise, Oxford was brilliant. You can tell that Kuang is half in love with Oxford, which makes for very pleasurable reading. As I studied abroad there myself, it was very nostalgic and lovely to read about its cobblestone streets and spires glinting in the moonlight.

My biggest gripe with the book are its characters. They’re not bad, not by any stretch of

the imagination, but none of them felt very fleshed out either. The only character I found myself really understanding and relating to was Robin, as we spend the entire book in his head. I found Robin to be a sweet, tortured soul who took us on a riveting journey of self-discovery and eventual, brutal revolution.

All the remaining characters in the book were fine, but I never felt like I knew them on any grounds. It annoyed me when Kuang would have a paragraph or two every other chapter discussing how much Robin loved his cohort members and list off random things about them, like how Victoire preferred her tea or how Ramy acted in the morning. These idiosyncrasies should have been shown to me, not told.

The book would have been at least a third longer if Kuang had truly tried to develop the characters naturally in a way where their connections felt believable and organic, so I understand why she didn’t, but it comes at the cost of having shallow characters with little depth and minimal attachments to the reader. When several characters died, I didn’t bat an eye.

I teared up slightly when Robin was miserable in prison, but the deaths of others? Not a blink.

While I understand that Kuang’s focus was more on the history, sociology, and linguistics, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, by shafting the characters, it does make this a good book rather than an exceptional one.

For me, a very character-driven reader, no matter how stunning the research and backdrop of your novel, if you don’t have strong characters to pull the reader through, it will never amount to a book I would consider great.

However, that being said, I really enjoyed this book for what it was and the information it contained, even though we never learned Robin Swift’s real name. It was a very different read than the novels I’ve been ingesting lately, coming across as refreshing and informative.

I really enjoyed the book, despite not having attachments to characters, because of all that I learned and the lens of history it offered.

Recommendation: If you like history, revolution, languages, and magic, this is your book. If you wanted a different perspective on the fall of the British empire mixed in with fantastical silver bars, you will find nothing more polished or better explained than Babel. If history bores you, the world and characters will not be enough to pull you through to the end. But as a lover of history and different perspectives, I bolted down Babel and cherished how much I learned in the process.

“Language was always the companion of the empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.” —Antonio De Nebrija

Score: 7/10

#babel #rf kuang #oxford #translation #linguistics #historical fiction #book blog #book #book review #favorite books #books #Book Recommendations #book rec #book recs #Popular Books #popular fiction #book analysis #Book Aesthetic #7/10

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phanfictioncatalogue · 26 days

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Classroom Setting Masterlist

Bad Boys Don’t Smile (wattpad) - phanci

Summary: Phil Lester is sweet and cute; known for his kindness and enthusiasm. Dan Howell is a tough, cold outsider; known as the school’s stereotypical ‘bad boy’. But if he’s so bad, then why on earth did he rescue Phil Lester and give him a smile which would melt anyone’s heart?

Don’t Touch Me - awesomesockes

Summary: Dan has developed PTSD after being kidnapped two years ago. Phil knows how to deal with him tries to help him whenever he’s feeling bad.

Exposed - multifandomfanfics

Summary: Ridgewell High School is known for its fast spreading rumours. So when someone starts a blog dedicated to outing people’s secrets, everyone becomes paranoid that theirs will be next.

Grey Areas and Expectations (ao3) - celestialfics (orphan_account), danthrusts

Summary: When Mr. Howell and Mr. Lester both start their first years of teaching in America at the same time, the students notice their mutual British accents and immediately get to work snooping, observing, and theorizing. The curiosity of the students added to the constant "threat" of fellow teacher Ms. Christensen equals nothing short of a chaotic school year full of memes, plants, and maybe a little bit of needed privacy in the teachers’ lounge closet.

Heard It’s Good Luck - DontForgetToPanic

Summary: “Is it for luck,” Phil asks, “or does this constitute bribery?” Where Dan’s a uni student, Phil’s his TA from last semester, their old lecture hall is conveniently empty, and this is all just gratuitous PWP

Houseplants, Fairy Lights and You (ao3) - thatsthephan

Summary: Dan's a bored Sociology professor. His life gets a lot more interesting when a new Botany professor moves into the classroom next door. Plus, it's Valentine's Day, and the students sense love in the air.

I Wanna Sleep Next To You (but that's all i want to do right now) (ao3) - unshipping

Summary: There is nothing more in the entire world that Dan loves more than he loves Phil’s laugh. He adores hearing it echoing through the hallways of the high school they both work in, and he can’t help but smile every time he catches a whisper of it through their shared classroom wall. Even muffled, it radiates pure joy and energy. Phil is a ball of sunshine, and everyone who works with him, is taught by him, or interacts with him for more than a millisecond is acutely aware of that fact.

Life is Just a Classroom (ao3) - Emejig16

Summary: Phil is bad at math and Dan is more than a pastel color wearing genius, he just needs the right person to see that.

Promises (ao3) - pasteldanhowells

Summary: Phil Lester is in a relationship with his high school teacher and he finds out that he’s pregnant while he’s still in school. Dan and Phil have to figure out how to be together and raise the baby while still hiding their relationship from the public, but it’s not as easy as it used to be.

Risky Situations - jilliancares

Summary: Dan Howell and Phil Lester don’t like each other, but Dan had too much pride to turn down Phil’s dare, even if it was to masturbate during class.

Safe And Sound (ao3) - pasteldanhowells

Summary: Dan gets bullied in school for being gay and gets beat up constantly by Chris Kendall’s ‘gang’. It wasn’t until one day when Dan escapes from the boys and finds himself in the English classroom, and he’s surprised when he finds help from Mr. Lester, the English teacher.

That Bullet Won’t Hit You (fanfiction.net) - flamboyant-lester

Summary: (Phan) (Oneshot) Dan and Phil aren't together anymore. But when an a man with a gun breaks into their school and engages in open fire throughout the classroom. Phil finds that his only instinct is to protect Dan. Warnings: profanity, high school au, angst, violence, depression, slight fluff? i'm american?, what? oh yeah and bad boy Phil holla

Theatre Class (ao3) - Star4545

Summary: Dan Howell is the new drama teacher with a classroom the size of a jail cell, students who won’t stop singing Hamilton, and the English teacher who won’t stop giving him bedroom eyes.

The Partner Project - fakecouple

Summary: The AU in which Phil is the nerd, and Dan is the rebellious bad boy with witty quips.

#phanfictioncatalogue #phanfiction #phanfic #phan #masterlists #au #highschool #school #classroom #classroom masterlist

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tanadrin · 1 year

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Almea is interesting because, despite being fantasy--originally of a very classic mold; it seems to have started out as much of a place for Zompist to set D&D campaigns as anything else--its author is clearly concerned with the mechanics of history: although there is no simple 1:1 comparison (Verduria is not an allegory for France; Ctesifon was not Rome; Xurno is not Russia), the way the world is presented, and the way in which the author explores it, meshes well with the major trends of our own world and how we understand them. Almea is a world you can make historical atlases of; it is a world with its own history of colonialism and international relations and a similar technological arc. It is, in short, a set of fantasy starting conditions (”what if three million years ago aquatic elves and swamp orcs fought an apocalyptic war, and in the aftermath a new hominid civilization tried to re-run Earth history”) whose consequence are worked out in a fairly Earthlike way.

You might contrast this with Middle-Earth--for all that Tolkien had a pretty good head for history and language, he’s much more interested in exploring his fictional history through the framework of legendary narrative. Zompist has the Historical Atlas and the Almeopedia; but Tolkien’s big work is the Silmarillion, a work of history which is primarily concerned with telling that history in the epic mode. You can’t really make a historical atlas of Middle-Earth--for one, it’s not detailed enough. Corners of the world which fall out of the story, like the outer provinces of Arnor after the collapse of the northern kingdom, basically just disappear. There might be something in the big gaps in eastern Rhovanion and Rhun, but it’s clearly not relevant to the stories Tolkien wants to tell, so we have scant sense of what that is.

Comparing different approaches to worldbuilding is interesting to me, because once you start doing that, you really expose how shallow the imagination is of people who think of worldbuilding as, like, a secondary accessory to “real” storytelling. It is a fairly common position that worldbuilding is, I don’t know, basically a second-order activity, an indulgence at best, and that the real purpose of worldbuilding is to provide a good foundation for “proper” stories, which the ends of worldbuilding ought to serve. To me, though, worldbuilding has always been an interesting activity in its own right. Often a much more interesting activity, because how you design a world, the internal and external logic you approach it with, and how you present the results of that design, will not only, as a matter of inevitable consequence, cause certain stories to emerge from that world, in a way that feels as natural as breathing, but will give a strong scaffold, a supporting superstructure that helps those stories fit together in a way that transcends their individual arcs and themes.

For example, all stories that you might tell about Almea are part of an analytic history of a fantasy world that is About what it means to approach a fantasy setting with the tools of modern historiography, political analysis, and sociology, as much as they are About the individual themes of those stories. All stories you might tell about Middle-Earth are About reclaiming the epic mode for modern fantasy, and the possibility of redemption in a world marred by suffering, as they are the Silmarils or the One Ring. Bad worldbuilding often is merely an adjunct to storytelling--and that’s how you get shared settings that feel like a hodgepodge whose elements have no coherent relationship to one another, because the story someone wants to tell comes first, and, well, they’re going to force it to work in the setting whether it’s natural to it or not. And even good writers can build (or contribute to) lousy, boring worlds using this approach.

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 7 months

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https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-66981924.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16963221914273&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com

If I saw this on another site I would have thought it was satirical, but I don't think BBC News does Satire!

By: BBC News

Published: Oct 3, 2023

A degree in magic being offered in 2024 will be one of the first in the UK, the University of Exeter has said.

The "innovative" MA in Magic and Occult Science has been created following a "recent surge in interest in magic", the course leader said.

It would offering an opportunity to study the history and impact of witchcraft and magic around the world on society and science, bosses said.

The one-year programme starts in September 2024.

Academics with expertise in history, literature, philosophy, archaeology, sociology, psychology, drama, and religion will show the role of magic on the West and the East.

The university said it was one of the only postgraduate courses of its kind in the UK to combine the study of the history of magic with such a wide range of other subjects.

'Place of magic'

Prof Emily Selove, course leader, said: "A recent surge in interest in magic and the occult inside and outside of academia lies at the heart of the most urgent questions of our society.

"Decolonisation, the exploration of alternative epistemologies, feminism and anti-racism are at the core of this programme."

The course will be offered in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.

Prof Selove said: "This MA will allow people to re-examine the assumption that the West is the place of rationalism and science, while the rest of the world is a place of magic and superstition."

The university said the course could prepare students for careers in teaching, counselling, mentoring, heritage and museum work, work in libraries, tourism, arts organisations or the publishing industry, among other areas of work.

A choice of modules includes dragons in western literature and art, the legend of King Arthur, palaeography, Islamic thought, archaeological theory and practice and the depiction of women in the Middle Ages.

I mean, it could have been quite good, the history of magic; the effect on human imagination and storytelling; magic in literature and art; magic as metaphor for what we don't know, a stand-in for science; the evolution of societal perceptions of magic through the growth of the scientific method; the role of magic and revelation in early epistemological (truth claims) processes... this could have been a fascinating course.

Then they had to ruin it by stuffing it full of intersectional Gender Studies horseshit and making it ideologically corrupt and completely academically worthless. Except to piss off daddy, who's paying the bill.

This is the exact kind of luxury course that only bored, privileged, upper-middle class people with no real problems or ambition would take. If you take it, you have nothing better to do, and no ambition to better your future prospects. It's low-effort, academically shallow, fosters undeserved moral elitism, but still takes in tuition fees, so it's unsurprising that it exists.

You'd be getting loan forgiveness for it over my dead body, though.

#ask #Degree in Magic #Exeter University #gender studies #intersectionality #intersectional feminism #intersectional religion #religion is a mental illness

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cptdark · 10 months

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reviewing everything starring mads mikkelsen (ongoing)

Mild spoilers warning - I am vague but I do describe endings and progression as negative/positive, so if you don't like knowing what happens at all, beware.

Bleeder (1999)

His character in this is quite endearing. A young movie fanatic, a bit reserved and awkward. The other characters' stories are much more chaotic, so in comparison, watching his perspective feels more safe or peaceful. The ending was a pleasant payoff. Awkward, but sweet in a special way. I guess you could say this movie may have a message about testing your comfort zone in hopes of meeting better people to surround yourself with.

The Door (2009)

The first half of this movie is the better half, and the second half felt a bit absurd or boring for me. I enjoyed that he is a painter, and wish that was revisited more often. I really felt his fall into depression, and I enjoyed the motif of water and repetition of trauma. And then of course, the door is an interesting mechanic. My favorite part of this movie is when he meets himself. Horrific, shocking, amusing, and dramatic. Those were very memorable scenes.

The Hunt (2012)

The scenes involving other characters were hard to sit through, but I felt the discomfort was somewhat justifiably necessary for enforcing realism; it's not meant to be theatric or entertaining. The longer the movie goes on and the more the situation develops, the more it matures like wine, and his' turmoil grips you. All the action he takes are so enthralling. I love the convenience store scene and the church scene (picture above). The conclusion may be beautiful, but the ending is dreadful. I looked up the meaning/interpretation of it, and that rounded my appreciation for this film. It's sociological commentary. Very true message, whether you like it or not: Once trust is betrayed in a community, it can never be completely earned back. There will always be someone who remembers that rumor, and will try to exile you from society. I believe the title only makes sense after the film is over. You could see the rumor as a scar left on him, like a wounded animal, while other people notice it, and like wolves, they will freely decide to exclude him from their pack, leaving him to die alone.

A Royal Affair (2012)

You'll really watch this waiting for his character, and be thankful when he arrives. He ultimately influenced the world and people around him for the better. The development is very interesting, and the pacing feels full. You will suspect specific twists of drama or betrayal to happen, and everything that does happens is very realistic- since it is based on a true story- yet still just as interesting as if it were a fictional thriller. At the scene where the priest fidgets with this cross, I arrived to the same quiet realization soon after he did. The priest is praying for forgiveness in his heart, as well as the cross foreshadowing a crucifixion. I felt heavy even until the credits, though the last scene was fulfilling. I don't know anything about Denmark, but this was a great introduction to the 'most dramatic event' in its history.

Men and Chicken (2015)

This character is very unexpectedly different from his other roles. Regardless of whether the comedy fails my humor, seeing him acting like this is humorous in of itself. I'll write a review after I've finished it.

Doctor Strange (2016)

There's not a mountain of Mads content or his signature charm here, but it's very interesting to see him as a flat antagonist with not much depth at all. His darkness is sickness, like it makes you feel hopeless for him. Dark, as if he has surrendered himself to the drug of black magic. It kind of scared me. Also, the magic distorting and fracturing architecture is beautiful.

Arctic (2018)

This movie amazes me, despite its simplicity. It's pure survival. It's morbidly dreary, but then you see he has it figured out. His system of survival sets you up to believe in him and assume a vicarious spectatorship that is held and tested for a long duration. You're never sure if they'll make it, but you don't want them to give up. There is a lot of energy expended just to survive, which radiates a warmth, a sense of self-fulfilling purpose, with the risk of the cold biting it away into hopelessness and death. I really felt the twists and turns, the decisions and mistakes, all the way through.

Polar (2019)

It's simply satisfying to watch him do what he does, a classic toughguy trope. This is an adaptation of a comic, (which I haven't read) and I enjoy how the style is adapted. The female deuteragonist is precious. It feels as though the movie is split into two sides; a double life, blood versus quiet. Both of the characters can be found in this duality of mental states, trauma and seeking peace for it. They may be similar, yet they are almost polar opposites. I love them. I really enjoyed the twist, a bomb drop after all that painstaking effort to survive, and the conclusion tempts me to know what happens next in the comics (if there is more, that is...).

Death Stranding (2019)

It's been a while since I've sat down and watched through a playthrough, but with that being said, I love this game... because I treat it like a movie. I will say, I like stories that play with mortality and perception. It was very interesting to meet Cliff as a father figure in claustrophobic recordings, and then meet him again as an antagonist with immaculate symbolism and aesthetics. He is trapped in the battlefield, like a dead soldier, and/or a traumatized man. Stasis, incompleteness, and sacrifice would appear to be themes. I really love the nonlinear storytelling. I really enjoyed the twist/reveal. It probably gave me goosebumps when I first saw it.

Another Round (2020)

This is probably one of my favorites. I appreciate a story that serves a thesis to life. I can't say much of my thoughts because I literally just watched it, but I think it executed the idea well. There's a lot of moments of amazing payoff, but you know how much of it may become bad, yet the dread of knowledge doesn't nullify any of what you experience along the way. It also feels rare to see other characters surrounding his character to have such a bond and impact to him. The ending felt so out of key in the perfect way. It's a profound (philosophical) party movie.

Hannibal (2013-2015)

A few years ago, I had watched the first two seasons, and had basically zoned out halfway through S3, then stopped... for some reason that I've now forgotten, after experiencing the finale. It's stuck with me and may for some time. 3rd season is proper good, and gave clarity to the character of Hannibal, and conclusion to Will's relationship with him. It's as though on your first watch you are as blinded as Will, despite knowing as a viewer that Hannibal Lecter is obviously (or very likely) the 'Chesapeake Ripper' in the show. The veil is lifted from his eyes once, but there are still layers yet to peek through, the nebulosity of darkness shrouding the relationship, (for Hannibal intrinsically has a 'dark' mind; seemingly insane by all humane reason) and yet onward do they get to know each other... like any other relationship. Rewatching is very enjoyable, because you can now assume Hannibal's perspective after learning his patterns and values, stripping away the mystery and watching the characters trying to arrive to where you are in understanding. Plenty moments where all Mads gives is a seemingly empty glance, but after obtaining objective knowledge, there is infinite texture to it. Very humanizing, Hannibal almost becoming a bit more alike Mads' other roles, (that of which being protagonists) yet still an antagonist.

#mads mikkelsen #mild spoilers #hannibal #review

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none-shall-caricature-me · 2 years

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WHY POE IS FAR HOTTER THAN THE FANDOM THINKS HE IS

Poe is amazingly hot, a surprisingly independent bitch, and y'all are blind.

Tell me this isn't sexy -

● In an omake, when thinking up a suitable mystery that will safely house the ADA, he wants to goe all overboard into making it very impressive. Sure, he wants the world to recognise his talent, but his dedication proves that he works so hard purely for his love of imaginative, thrilling tales.

Most authors get away with writing basically embellished but simple autobiographies, basic as fuck human emotions and tragic nonfiction - and still achieve mass popularity.

But Poe ? He would never do that. His love is not for some relatable realism or feel - good fantasies that will earn bank with society - but for bizarre possibilities beyond our limited imagination. Look at how he subverts expectations. He's set a standard for himself - to craft something at the level of a universal Creator in its blend of probability and improbability.

He aims for the sublime and unthinkable. It's a near - impossible task but he's determined to do it, to push human intellect to new heights. He wants to explore concepts that nobody ever has. He's a pioneer of thought. It's sexy as hell.

● There's something so attractive about people who despite failures believe they're awesome too and will take the glory they want. Though Poe's extreme obsession with proving himself was mostly a colossal waste of his time and energy, we can all relate to this fire for glory. Nobody wants to accept that others are superior to them. This guy wants to be in charge, to have influence over people, to be admired by the crowd. He won't be swayed from this deep seeded hunger for dominance. He won't let anyone replace him as the genius.

Even after befriending Ranpo he keeps trying to outdo him. Because he won't defer to anyone, won't accept himself as less than even Ranpo.

This fire for supremacy, though illogical at times, is a great thing.

● His gothness and genius. He thinks up incredible futuristic crime stories, yet he's not very evil. But he's not some goody goody saccharine hearththrob either. He loves exploring the dark potential of humanity and the world, and sociology and psychology are sexy.

Also the manga implies that his futuristic technological vision in the Ranpo mystery is logically sound - which means he's a scientific visionary too.

● He helped take down the Guild, because it had become 'boring and barbaric.' He's not constrained by stupid loyalty ties to Fitzgerald's self - centred goals (hey I totally understand Fitz's attempt to bring back his daughter. But his actions don't benefit others). He stands up for what he wants. Whereas Louisa derives meaning from serving Fitz, Poe doesn't stick to people with unimaginative and possibly destructive goals just to 'belong' or feel 'useful and appreciated' or because he needs their power to feel better about his humiliation. He takes it upon himself to get what he deserves.

● He's unpredictable as hell. He betrayed the Guild and nobody saw it coming. He allied with the Agency, but in large part due to his affinity for Ranpo. But then he came back to help Louisa. He regularly gets taken advantage of by Ranpo but also would have ended the Agency had he wanted Ranpo dead. He hates the Guild's goals but helps Louisa, a staunch Guild loyalist, because he empathises with her.

This dude only does things that he wants to do. Nobody can force him. If he gets used by someone then it's only because he believes there are more pros than cons of obeying them - if he ever got really pissed at them they'd be finished.

● His maniacal laughter when he trapped Ranpo in his novel. His obvious nervousness. He's not some oh - so - sophisticated - and - cool fucking basic bitch. He's totally in tune with his emotions and displays them sincerely. Which isn't always the wise thing to do, but hell yeah does it make for a vibrant personality.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd opinions #bsd poe #bsd characters #bsd character analysis #bsd analysis #bsd meta #bsd edgar allan poe #poe bsd #my post

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beeseverywhen · 10 months

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Saw a post talking about how it's stupid that literary analysis is seen as this boring excruciating thing and yep. Couldn't agree more. But it got me thinking about how much I love how ppl on this site talk about ideas that were traditionally pretty inaccessible things, restricted only to an academic elite, so casually. Like yeah there's no running from how there are people here who are determined to be anti intellectual and those that have their head up their own arses and are determined to think that they are way more intellectual than they are lol but there are even more people just talking about these ideas casually and I just think that's so important and so cool and honestly that's what the internets all about??? Its about getting exposed to people and ideas you never would have gotten exposed to irl.

Like its so fun! I love that ppl talk about philosophy and sociology and literature analysis as these everyday things that you can joke about and make memes about. Yeah loads of you are wrong lol and tumblr is the home of net zero information, but acting like there aren't idiots spouting shit in every university worldwide is ridiculous. Sometimes people are wrong and they are really sure they are right! And part of the fun of learning is accepting that and reading between the lines. Being ready to challenge people and challenge your own ideas! Yeah I just love it tbh. I love getting to see ppl sharing this specialist knowledge like it's nothing. I've been introduced to so many fascinating ideas and texts through tumblr. I love to bump in to someone raving about their speciality and let what they've told me lead me in to a total wormhole of research and end up knowing way more about an idea I never would have even considered

#i think we should celebrate this more tbh #and allow less room for ppl assuming expertise based on what expensive bits of paper you hold #internet experts are my favourite kind of experts tbh.#and yeah a lot of them are wrong and overconfident and bad at listening but you find these ppl in academia too lol #i think it's great that some ppl dedicate their life to a certain area of academic study and get published and have multiple degrees #but there is a element of privilege to get to that stage that a lot of ppl don't consider. and there are ppl with 0 degrees that have a #outstanding level of understanding of their subject and some really interesting ideas that we just wouldnt get to hear from #without accessible spaces to talk about these things in. you can't read their ideas officially cause nobody is publishing the analysis of #the guy who drives your train. or the person cleaning the supermarket. but a lot of those ppl still have really really interesting ideas #especially when it comes to sociology. I'd argue that ppl who weren't able to go to uni often have an important perspective on #ideas around class & society that just don't get explored in academia cause the ppl in uni's aren't on 'the frontlines' so to say #with that stuff. even if they once were. anyway. keep at it tumblr. love to hear about philosophy from a guy with a public library card #access to philosophy academics online to discuss/ debate with. and 0 degrees. love you

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otakween · 5 months

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I'm Standing on a Million Lives - Volume 15

I'm impressed that this series has made it this far. Literally no one talks about it, but there are much dumber things being published, so I guess it deserves its spot. It's definitely a mixed bag of highs and lows, but I'm mostly enjoying the ride. Still have no clue how many volumes there's going to be. No end in sight yet.

Ch. 70

Iu is goin badass mode and I'm loving it. Kinda giving Joan of Arc vibes.

The disconnect between Iu casually chopping off someone's fingers in one panel and then freaking out because she killed someone in the next was pretty wacky. Like...girl...what did you think was going to happen? Either way, I guess she got over the shock pretty quick because by the end of the chapter she's just slaughtering everyone lol.

It's kind of surprising that it took the characters this long to be worshipped for their immortality/resurrection ability. Then again, I guess living long isn't as rare in this world since there are sorcerers and dragon bishops and what not.

Ch. 71

This chapter was 100% fantasy politics. It was a struggle reading through all those silly made up names, but there were some interesting nuggets here and there.

We're jumping from one hot button to the next, first was human trafficking as seen in...many places, and next was attacks on journalistic freedom which the characters compare to recent events in Hong Kong.

I hope they give the new girl more to do than be a genki background character. She's on the cover after all! I will say her singing Immigrant Song was pretty hilarious. Certified Shrek moment.

It's kinda funny how this world/game uses community service as its goal. It's not like a twisted death game where you have to kill the other players you just have to...contribute to society lol. I guess that's what makes it interesting because the challenges take a lot more brain/strategy than a death game or RPG-style game might.

Ch. 72

Eh, this chapter was kinda messy. Overall I enjoyed it, but why did they have to bring in a damn awkward narrator every two seconds!? The mangaka does this occasionally and it drives me nuts. This story does not need a narrator and it definitely doesn't need one spelling out exactly what's going on to the reader! It took me out of the story every time. :(

I did like Iu's internal struggle and her analysis of the tricky spot she's been put in. As I've said before, this mangaka is skilled at explaining difficult concepts (politics, sociology, war strategy etc.)

Thank God they sent Glen to help Iu and not Yusuke. This way it's a child asking an adult for help and not a "dumb" woman needing a man. Also, Iu needed Glen because she's emotionally intelligent (unlike Yusuke) and was good at calming her down and validating her choice.

Ch. 73

Okay, I kinda struggled to stay awake reading this one, it was a pretty boring info dump about the politics of the area Yusuke's in and how neither side is great.

Changing someone's entire political trajectory with one song? What is this, an idol anime!? (That scene was stupid lol)

The concept of force feeding someone monster meat to turn them into a berserker is pretty chilling. Fantasy human trafficking is even more brutal than irl trafficking I guess.

I continue to really dislike the made up names of this world. In this chapter it was the Sotaga vs. the Faida. IDK why but they just don't sound like real names to me, my brain rejects them. (IDK what magic makes some made up names sound good and others sound like you threw Scrabble letters at the wall...)

Ch. 74

This chapter was all about berserkers and how they relate to all of the ongoing storylines. I find this kind of fantasy slavery pretty interesting. Instead of IRL slavery where slaves were/are used for work, they're transformed into mindless weapons. Very dark, but I could see this kind of exploitation happening if monsters were real.

Of course the main big bad, president dude is wearing a turban...as this whole arc is a thinly veiled reference to extremists in the middle east. (Just feels weird to make this fantasy world so similar to the real world).

Some pretty brutal kills in this chapter, especially Ling getting curb stomped. I do enjoy that most of the gore is stake-less so it can get extreme like that. (Well I say "gore" but the player character deaths are actually bloodless).

Damn, dat fanservice at the end there. Overall this series hasn't been that fanservicey so it feels a little weird when it's tossed in like that. The art was decent, so I ain't mad.

The over-the-top evil all around (including Yotsuya's sociopathy) is a little eye-roll worthy. Verging into cringey edgy territory a bit.

#i'm standing on a million lives #manga #bookwalker #100 man no inochi no ue ni ore wa tatteiru

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