01/09/2017 10:22:03 ¶ ●

02/09/2017 20:15:52 ¶ ●

strangeasanjles:

> mcclaln:

> > uselessgaywhovian:

> > > organasrey:

> > > > organasrey:

> > > > > theres so many things wrong here i want to Scream hollywood is such a fuckjng mess

> > > > you all know why lord of the flies was written about little boys? golding very specifically believed that 1) he was not qualified to write about little girls as he had never experienced being one 2) he did not believe that the same events would transpire if it had been girls because he thought boys behaviour more likely to paint a picture of (male dominated) society and its problems. you can’t keep a female version of the story ‘faithful’ to the book because then it would be unfaithful to what the author was originally trying to portray. why dont you go and spit on goldings grave while you’re at it too.

> > > Wasn’t LOTF also written in response to an older book that kind of depicted British boys/men as the golden children of reason and civilization, and Golding, who taught at a boys’ school, was like “lol have you met any actual boys”

> > yes, lord of the flies was in part written as a response to the coral island: a tale of the pacific ocean by r.m. ballantyne, a book about three boys who get stranded on an island in the pacific ocean (that book was also racist af but ya know, it’s a robinsonade so), there is little actual conflict in the novel between the boys themselves, which is what golding found unrealistic

> > golding wrote lord of the flies based on what he thought real young boys would do in a similar situation, he implemented a lot of his experiences from his time in the british navy during world war ii into his fictional characters’ behaviours

> > so the story itself is very much a male story, and pretending as if all humans from all backgrounds would react the same in a similar situation ignores much of the novel’s narrative

> Unfortunately, men

03/09/2017 18:50:43 ¶ ●

visibilityofcolor:

> visibilityofcolor:

> > visibilityofcolor:

> > > I hate it when people are so against teaching young white kids to recognize their racism. Like people will literally say shit like “oh they’re too young to be taught about racism, that’s harmful!” but like children of color are never too young to face racism from white people who were never taught to recognize their racism as children. Start teaching white kids (boys AND girls) to recognize their racism; the problem starts when they’re young.

> > Sr because the butthurt white people took over this post again.

> Re blogging in light of this Charlottesville shit. Please teach your white kids to recognize racism so they don’t think this shit is okay or patriotism.

10/09/2017 00:21:39 ¶ ●

## What do you consider to be some interesting modern takes on classic fantasy races? Perhaps some you have some ideas yourself? I read in Elder Scrolls, High Elves are basically Nazi Germany.

prokopetz:

> sapphicseamonster:

> > prokopetz:

> > > shadow-daughter:

> > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > > themanwiththesuitcaseofflies:

> > > > > > > mymanherc:

> > > > > > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > > > > > ruteekatreya:

> > > > > > > > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > > > > > > > unsurpassedtravesty:

> > > > > > > > > > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > unsurpassedtravesty:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > thegreateyebrows:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > thegreateyebrows:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > nerdyzebradog:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > prokopetz:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - After unleashing one too many buried evils, the dwarves said “bugger this” and moved as far away from the Underdark as possible. Their entire civilisation now occupies a swarm of small space stations in high Earth orbit. 90% of them work in material science and telecommunications.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - Gnome society has become steadily more obsessed with concealment and illusions until, in the present day, most gnomes use illusory disguises full-time to masquerade as members of other races. Almost everyone knows at least one gnome; almost no-one is aware of it.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - Though halflings have a reputation as drugged-out savants, the truth of the matter is that their pharmacological science is incredibly advanced, particularly in the area of cognitive and empathic performance enhancement. At any given time, your average halfling is under the influence of a complex brew of brain-boosting drugs (which only work for halflings); there are fewer side effects than you’d think.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - Orcish culture’s preoccupation with violent spectacle has evolved into an unstoppable entertainment industry. The largest orcish nation is also the global centre of production for big-budget summer blockbusters; orcish martial arts musicals are particularly popular among other races. Most orcs at least casually practice some sort of performance art, though some resent the expectation that they should.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - Elves are hardcore gamers. All of them. It’s the cornerstone of their civilisation. Elvish video games tend to be unfathomably abstruse, unimaginably difficult, or both; being into “elf games” is regarded as a mark of refinement, though in truth most non-elves don’t really understand them.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Do you mind if I shamelessly rip this off? ‘Cause I really wanna shamelessly rip this off.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Knock yourself out. I do games about fairies - I’m never going to use any of this stuff myself.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I love the idea that younger elves love video games, but the older ones remember prefer the old fashioned games. These are not chess or Go, but are more like stupidly complex Euro boardgames or complex trading card games like Magic but worse.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > There’s a bit of that, yeah, though most old-timers were totally on board with the transition to electronic media. Elves don’t have the same relationship with physical artefacts that humans do. The real intergenerational pissing contest these days is about whether speed-running is a legitimate art form, or just screwing around.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > (It’s exacerbated by the fact that speed-running as an organised practice actually originated among humans, so a lot of older elves regard it with suspicion on that basis alone.)

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Elf streamer: Hey, this is Valuriagod420 with another any percent speed run of The Doom of Karum Dul Run. I know Entmaster beat my previous time but I’m gonna get it back. This game is mine!

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > [Several minutes later]

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Streamer: OK so we are still looking good to hit the 38 minute and 23 second mark right on schedule. Now here we can slip past a lot of dudes by back rolling into this corner 12 times and then using an orcish…

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Elf Dad (from upstairs): Are you speed running down there! I told you no son of the Everleaf house will partake in any of that nonsense! If you’re not in a 1v1 comp match by the time I get down there, then goddesses help me I’ll throw you out into the dark hallow to face the 5 trials by YOURSELF!

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Heh.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Since the notes seem to be stuck on the gaming thing, let’s expand on that:

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - The dwarven obsession with dating sims is proverbial. The orbital colonies are both the largest consumers of dating sims - dwarf-made or otherwise - and among the most prolific producers, playing host to several major publishers and a thriving indie scene. Dwarven dating sims typically feature complex crafting and engineering subgames alongside relationship-building gameplay; the two sides often share the same basic mechanics, thus framing relationship-building as a process of literal social engineering.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - Gnomish games, conversely, usually aren’t simulating anything at all, being purely abstract puzzle-solving affairs with a heavy emphasis on spatial manipulation and pattern matching. When gnomish gamers get into more mainstream titles, they tend not to recognise a distinction between “playing” and “breaking”; a gameplay video put together by a gnome is more likely to be a glitch exhibition or a thirty-five-minute lecture on the finer points of terrain collision detection than it is to be a demonstration of the game being played as intended.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - It’s perhaps unsurprising that halflings are often drawn to twitch games. Indeed, one of the latest controversies in competitive gaming revolves around whether halfling nootropics ought to be banned as performance-enhancing drugs. Critics point out that human gamers routinely compete while juiced up on caffeine; responses have ranged from insisting that it’s different (though one can quite agree how) to proposals to ban caffeine from competitive gaming as well. The latter have historically been poorly received.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > - Some might expect orcish video games to be plotless gore-fests. Those who do badly misunderstand orcish culture’s relationship with violence. Sure, it all comes down to ass-kicking in the end, but first the protagonist and the final boss are going to have a ten-minute conversation about their feelings in order to properly contextualise it. One of the most popular orcish video games in recent years concerns a young hero who achieves enlightenment and saves a lost kingdom by coming to the realisation that all communication is violence.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > Honestly my favorite part of this is the idea of Orcish culture evolving into the entertainment capital of the world. I picture that centuries ago there was some Dark Lord type or another who was overthrown not by a rag-tag band of adventurers of the more classically heroic races but by the orcs themselves, who were tired of being exploited and slaughtered meaninglessly, who then looked at one another when the rubble settled and wondered, collectively, “What now?”

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > And then apparently deciding that the answer to this was channeling a history of nonstop violence into art, sports and theater.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > Orcs killed their gods, then wrote a musical about it.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > (This is also a big part of the reason that most orcish polities are at least moderate socialists. “No gods, no masters” carries a lot more punch when you can physically point to the decapitated skull of your former chief deity on display in your legislative assembly’s foyer.)

> > > > > > > > > > > > So you’re telling me that orcs have a culture that channels violent aggression into art and that they’re socialists? I think I have a new favorite race.

> > > > > > > > > > > > I wonder if there’s a particular way in which their gods are ‘traditionally’ depicted in performance. Depending on the genre of the work I could see them as anything from aloof and inimical to bombastically awful to bumbling and self-important.

> > > > > > > > > > > > (Headcanon: one of the more influential early works had the chief of the gods portrayed by an actor standing on a high platform out of the view of the audience, with lighting above and behind him in such a way that he appears as a shadow cast on the backdrop, looming over the heroine of the piece.)

> > > > > > > > > > > And bringing it back around to video games, orcish CRPGs often depict the gods as controlling and abusive parental figures. There’s a popular meme where you describe an orcish CRPG as “the one where you kill God at the end”. The joke is that’s all of them.

> > > > > > > > > > I can’t believe Square-enix is actually run by orcs

> > > > > > > > > This world’s equivalent of Square-Enix is a collaboration between orcish and dwarven game developers, initially conceived of as an overture of cultural reconciliation. Opinions regarding the outcome are… mixed.

> > > > > > > > > Anyway, we’ve done elves and orcs - let’s do dwarves!

> > > > > > > > > - The reasons why the bulk of the dwarven population now lives in orbital habitats - or “habs”, as they’re colloquially known - are complex, ranging from resource exhaustion in ancestral delves to political tension with human neighbours, and only partly involve the increasing incidence of demons of shadow and flame from before the dawn of time. “We did it to get away from all the damn balrogs” lies somewhere between an oversimplification and a private joke.
> > > > > > > > > - (Incidentally, many dwarves will seriously side-eye any non-dwarf who brings up the balrog thing, even in jest, owing to the fact that dwarven greed being responsible for unleashing evil upon a previously pristine world is a once-popular racist canard. Elves in particular receive very little benefit of the doubt.)
> > > > > > > > > - One surprising factor behind the move, however, is biological: dwarven resistance to magic and poison also applies to cosmic rays. Most habs have no radiation shielding whatsoever, which enormously simplifies their construction compared to general-purpose space stations, at the cost of rendering them unsuitable for long-term residence by non-dwarves. This suits most dwarves just fine.
> > > > > > > > > - The move to orbit didn’t mean an end to mining: captured comets and asteroids are towed into high orbit for processing by specialised resource extraction habs. Bringing the whole asteroid home is much more convenient than trying to process it on-site, and unmanaged de-orbiting events almost never happen.
> > > > > > > > > - (Just don’t ask a dwarf about about what happened to their former terrestrial capital - it’s a touchy subject.)
> > > > > > > > > - Also, it turns out that about one in twenty asteroids contains unhatched space-demon eggs. This is widely regarded as proof of the dwarven cultural conviction that the universe is out to get them. (Thanks to @perfectly-ultimate-great-shoofle for this one!)
> > > > > > > > > - Apart from resource extraction, dwarven habs play many other roles, from solar power collection to telecommunications to zero-G manufacturing to research and development. Most habs are small enough - a few hundred residents at most - that they’re effectively single-function, and all dwarves hailing from habs with the same function are considered to be members of the same clan, even if their respective orbits are nowhere near each other.
> > > > > > > > > - Dwarven gamers who live on telecommunications habs enjoy fantastic ping, and are justly reviled for it by their terrestrial opponents.

> > > > > > > > WEEEEEEEEEE’ER DWAARVES IN SPAAACE

> > > > > > > Halflings tho. What if they are the one who make music and advertisements? They know a lot about every races minds, so they can make super emotional music that makes you really sad or happy and stuff. And the advertisments are super convincing. Most halfings that do advertise are rich and are hard to hire.

> > > > > > Sure, let’s talk about halflings.

> > > > > > - Halflings have few independent nations, with most integrated into human communities. Their living arrangements are often quite different, though. It’s a matter of debate whether it’s cultural or biological, but whatever the reason, most halflings prefer to have housemates. Lots of housemates.
> > > > > > - Their small size makes it easier than you might think: a human one-bedroom apartment, suitably refurbished, can comfortably accommodate 4-6 halflings, and a single-family dwelling can house well over a dozen.
> > > > > > - Members of a given household are typically unrelated, and membership can be very fluid; some halflings regularly cycle between households, while closely aligned households may frequently trade members. In spite of this, friction is rare, thanks in large part to the judicious use of empathy-enhancing drugs to promote rapid group bonding.
> > > > > > - The halfling penchant for doing things in groups extends to romantic pursuits. When two compatible households meet, double dates are not uncommon; nor are triple dates, quadruple dates, and occasionally duodecuple dates. A successful match may result in swapping members, though if they’re very well-aligned and suitable housing can be found, they may simply merge into a single, larger household instead.
> > > > > > - Such romances are not always restricted to tidy pair-bonds; at least as often, they result in non-Euclidean polyamorous tangles that make perfect sense to halflings and are utterly incomprehensible to everyone else. This contributes in no small part to the halfling stereotype as a bunch of free-loving stoners, even among those who should know better.
> > > > > > - The offspring of a household are expected to get together with their friends and strike out to found their own households once they come of age. Halflings regard this practice as essential to preventing households from becoming too insular. They still keep in touch with their natal households via social media, though; a typical halfling’s contact list may require more than three spatial dimensions to adequately model.
> > > > > > - None of this is to say that halfling introverts don’t exist, of course. Household-dwelling halflings are generally non-judgmental toward halflings who live alone, but there’s a definite expectation for them to be wildly eccentric. Many solitary halflings gleefully take advantage of the social latitude this expectation affords them.
> > > > > > - Halfling gaming parties are a sight to behold. A party game that only supports eight simultaneous players is scarcely worthy of the name; the latest generation of party fighters routinely support 32-player free-for-alls. It’s a matter of some conjecture whether it’s the brain-boosting drugs or simply long practice that allows halflings to keep track of what’s going on, because certainly nobody else can!

> > > > > It’s kind of annoying me that people keep reblogging the version of this post without halflings, so obviously the only way to fix that is to make it even more needlessly complicated.

> > > > > Gnomes!

> > > > > - As with the dwarves-versus-balrogs thing, the gnomes-in-disguise thing hovers somewhere between a stereotype and an oversimplification. The truth of the matter is that gnomish culture has very particular ideas about public versus private spaces, especially when it comes to identity.
> > > > > - As far as gnomes are concerned, one’s public identity should be distinct from, and - ideally - impossible to provably connect with, one’s private identity. Private identities are known only to family and close friends, and separation between the two spheres often runs in both directions; those who know a gnome in her private identity may well have no idea who she is in public.
> > > > > - Separation of identities is maintained by adopting not only a different name and persona in public, but a different physical appearance as well. Traditionally, this is achieved via loose, form-concealing clothing and fanciful masks, though an increasing number of gnomes are opting for full-body magical illusions instead. The latter are a recent development, depending on techniques developed only a few decades ago, and are regarded as suspiciously newfangled by many older gnomes.
> > > > > - The notion of “secret gnomes” arises from the fact that, while gnomes who favour illusons generally disguise themselves as a different gnome, many are of the opinion that, when dwelling in communities where gnomes are in the minority, even letting it be publicly known that you are a gnome can represent a breach between public and private spheres.
> > > > > - (This tactic may also be adopted in communities that make it illegal to go masked in public; that such laws often make exceptions for gnomes notwithstanding, it’s easier not to draw attention in the first place!)
> > > > > - If you think you recognise a gnomish friend in public, don’t call her by her private name. It’s awkward if you’ve guessed wrong and mortifying if you’ve guessed right, and she probably won’t acknowledge it either way.
> > > > > - Needless to say, gnomes took to social media and online gaming like ducks to water, developing a bewildering taxonomy of subtle gradations between the public and private spheres to reflect various online spaces, often maintaining a separate identity for each platform or community.
> > > > > - Accidentally posting to the wrong blog is a faux pas on a level that most non-gnomes can’t readily understand. If you happen to witness it, it’s best to pretend you didn’t see.
> > > > > - Some gnomes have remarked that humans who use online handles are appropriating gnomish culture, but they’re mostly joking. Mostly.

> > > > So, who plays Dwarf Fortress of these folks, and what’s it called? Is it still Dwarf Fortress?

> > > Picture a game that’s every bit as baroque and prone to strange failure modes as our own world’s Dwarf Fortress, except instead of a community-building sim it’s a text-based dating sim, set in a fictionalised version of a pre-exodus mining colony. It’s actually called something different in the original Dwarven, but its real title is an untranslateable idiom, so the Tradetongue localisation goes with the unimaginative but bluntly descriptive name we’re all familiar with.

> > > Patch notes for version 0.40.23:

> > > - Correctly end bonding events when both parties killed on same frame
> > > - Fix heterosexuality-related softlock when worldgen results in single-gender fortress
> > > - Apocalypses now interrupt weddings if any participant passes perception check (previously required all participants to pass)
> > > - Dwarves no longer accuse you of cheating on them with themselves
> > > - Adjusted value of hats

> > So are human videogames in this whole thing basically what they are irl or like slightly to the left of real life due to fantasy cultural influences? (I know humans are boring but I’m curious)

> Human video games labour under the seemingly contradictory stereotypes of being all about the Power of Friendship and being all about killing the protagonist off at the end. Most folks will tell you that the prototypical human-developed video game is one in which the hero bridges cultural divides, builds profound friendships, and brings the light of compassion to dark places, then promptly dies beautifully* and is elaborately mourned by their new family.

> * (Substitute “becomes trapped in purgatory”, “is forced to sever ties by cruel circumstance” or “turns out to be imaginary”, as appropriate.)

> Elven critics claim that this tendency is a reflection of humans’ ambivalence toward their own mortality. Orcish commentators insist that it’s more evidence of humanity’s collective messiah complex. The prevailing halfling opinion is that humans sublimate their dissatisfaction with their barren family lives into their art (but then, halflings think that about everyone). Dwarves quite like the relationship-building bits, for the most part, but they could do without all the dying - they’ve gotten quite enough of that in real life! - and gnomes didn’t notice the melodrama because they glitched past all the cutscene triggers.

> The truth? Humans are just huge drama llamas, mostly.

> (On the general gaming culture side, in addition to speed running, it’s generally agreed that humans also came up with the idle game. Between inventing the concept of spending as little time as possible actually playing the game and inventing the concept of a game that plays itself for you, many non-humans privately suspect that humans aren’t entirely clear on the whole concept.)

12/09/2017 11:30:29 ¶ ●

12/09/2017 11:53:28 ¶ ●

queerrobbiereyes:

> thewesterwoman:

> > disease-danger-darkness-silence:

> > > vetivervelvetviolet:

> > > > closet-keys:

> > > > > I hate Freud.
> > > > > His whole weird theory about penis envy and children being sexually attracted to their parents and secret desires and all that shit actually came straight out of an attempt to ally himself with wealthy and influential rapists and was a direct form of victim blaming.

> > > > > He had started the research looking into “hysteria” which at the time was really usually referring to women’s symptoms of PTSD. It turned out that the reason so many woman had these symptoms is because so many of them had experienced sexual violence– especially CSA and incest at the hands of their fathers.

> > > > > At first he was making real progress, and it was through working with these women that he discovered that talk therapy could be used to treat trauma. The symptoms of PTSD were lessened when women were able to safely speak about their experiences out loud and be believed.

> > > > > But it wasn’t the women who paid for the therapy. It was their fathers, husbands, the same men who were perpetuating the violence in the first place. And Freud didn’t want to validate his patients (the women) if it meant making his clients (the men) unhappy.

> > > > > So he came up with a new idea. These symptoms weren’t from trauma. The memories weren’t real. These women were just sexual beings as children and had penis envy and it made them lust for their fathers and fantasize about the rape that they had reported to him. That’s where the shittiest parts of Freud’s theories emerged.
> > > > > Another part of it besides just the monetary aspect, though, was that there was a feminist movement on the fringes starting up at the time and by publishing work about women’s CSA he would be aligning himself with it and therefore losing support, respect, funding, prestige from his male peers and from the psychological community at large. He literally made that gross victim blaming shit up to keep his own reputation with these fucks and to make sure he still got publication and fame.

> > > > > By coming up with fake theory about little girls fantasizing about incest he not only fucked over generations of women, the feminist movement that was arising, and the entire psychology field for years to come, but he also completely swept away any progress made in understanding trauma and so we didn’t have any clue why men coming back from war had “hysteria” like women during WWI.

> > > > > And our research on PTSD and trauma is still lacking to this day, especially because of the stigma that maybe traumatized people deserved it or wanted it or imagined it. People don’t want to believe it’s real. Perpetrators of traumatic violence want everyone to forget about it, not acknowledge it, or trivialize it.

> > > > > And they have Freud’s cultural legacy to help them.

> > > > Can you provide academic citations for this? This is really neat.

> > > http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353596062015

> > > http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959353596062015

> > > If you don’t have access bc paywall, here’s a decent summary on Wikipedia:

> > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Freudian_Coverup

> > > Some vague proof:’

> > > http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/24/science/freud-secret-documents-reveal-years-of-strife.html?pagewanted=all&mcubz=0

> > > An essay on the topic:

> > > http://socialistreview.org.uk/404/whats-wrong-sigmund-freud

> > > If you want some more, just google, “Sigmund Freud Seduction Theory Problematic.” There’s lots of academic and non-academic discussion on the topic, but TLDR Sigmund Freud is basically disregarded in almost all aspects of psychology by anyone who actually cares about their patients, so fuck that guy for holding psychology back.

> > Words cannot express how much I hate Freud. His theories have been entirely disproven by current psychological research, but using him to interpret literary texts is still a widely accepted technique in the field of literary study today.

> > English departments across the country will not bat an eye at tenured professors bringing Freud into lectures and citing him in scholarly articles and books. Doing a “Freudian reading” of a literary character or theme is regarded as a valid means of understanding and drawing meaning from works by authors as diverse as William Shakespeare, James Joyce, and C.S. Lewis. And it is based entirely on this guy’s unbelievably sexist, flat-out fraudulent, and thoroughly disproven research. It’s insane.

> I need people to listen to this, because although his methods might be of use, his entire theoretical work is just fucking lies and bullshit misogyny.

13/09/2017 13:55:21 ¶ ●

## OFF-THE-CUFF HOMESTUCK POSTS #6: THE TRAGEDY (AND SECRET TRIUMPH) OF JADE HARLEY, OR: THE GNOSTIC GARDENER

betweengenesisfrogs:

> DISCLAIMER FRAMEWORK

> [CHECK THE TAG FOR MORE THOUGHTS]

> [Note: Content warning for brief mention of sexual abuse and longer discussion of perceived suicide and associated thoughts.]

> Let’s talk about Jade Harley.

> A common feeling I’ve seen about the final chapters of Homestuck is that Jade Harley deserved better, that she suffered completely unfairly and arbitrarily in the final timeline.

> I actually completely agree. Jade *absolutely* deserved better. Where I disagree is with the argument that Jade’s suffering somehow shows Hussie is a bad writer.

> I think it’s important to recognize that good storytelling isn’t always the same thing as happy storytelling. Some stories or parts of stories are *about* suffering. They’re tragedy, a form of storytelling I’d define as an examination of a negative set of events: why they took place, why the characters involved couldn’t escape them. Done well, this can be as meaningful as any happy ending.

> I mean, there’s a reason a bunch of Greeks wanted to watch a series of plays about a guy who accidentally marries his mother and then stabs his eyes out.

> So when we’re talking about good storytelling in Homestuck, i.e.: whether character arcs reach meaningful catharsis, we have to bear in mind that the bad shit that happens to our characters is sometimes the very subject of the story.

> In other words, yes, Jade Harley deserved better.

> That’s the *entire point.*

> Now, that said, I actually think Jade does have a happy ending, and a damn cathartic one. But we need to understand the unfair suffering she went through to understand why. What I find fascinating about Jade’s arc is that she confronts the tragic, suffering-causing aspects of SBURB and the domain of Lord English more directly than any other character and finds a way to become free of them. It’s not that her suffering was in any way merited or right, it’s that by rejecting that unfairness, she finds incredible self-affirmation, freedom, and escape in a way that makes her the most direct manifestation of Homestuck’s Gnostic themes.

> In the causes of her suffering, and in how that suffering is overcome, Jade Harley is the key to the deeper meanings of Homestuck.

> Keep reading

14/09/2017 17:30:54 ¶ ●

florenceofalabia:

> yeinesomemdarre:

> > tikkunolamorgtfo:

> > > jewish-privilege:

> > > > brainstatic:

> > > > > “Don’t call Trump supporters nazis, it hurts their feelings.”

> > > > Yes, this is real (link to tweet). Yes, Tucker Carlson is literally repeating Nazi propaganda that aided the genocide of the Romani during the Holocaust. Yes, I am furious.

> > > > (Also, although there is a large population of Romani in Romania, they aren’t indigenous to Romania. They’re a diasporic group originally from northern India.)

> > > Romani and Jewish have been screaming at the top of their lungs for years about neo-fascism in Europe, and Americans were totally aloof.

> > > Then neo-fascism reared its head in America, but Roma and Jews were left out of the conversation in terms of people being impacted, because our oppression was “over.”

> > > Now Tucker Carlson is on live TV using slurs and Nazi propaganda about Romani people, and I’m 90% most people on the left are just going to ignore it.

> > It’s fucking starting y'all. It’s happening again.

> > If you’re not Jewish or Roma PLEASE BOOST THIS.

> Dear fellow artists and bohemians: this is why you don’t use the word g*psy. All your romantic notions of traveling and freedom and wearing colorful loose clothing spit in the face of real Romani people who aren’t allowed a lot of freedoms. You will face none of these drawbacks. Please stop using this word.

14/09/2017 17:31:23 ¶ ●

16/09/2017 13:18:43 ¶ ●

## Dear non-natives

meridok:

> magicusersresource:

> > dogbearspeaks:

> > > The Plains warbonnet is not a Cherokee thing. It is not a Navajo thing. It is not an Indian thing. It is a Plains thing.

> > > Stop calling every silly thing you draw that even vaguely resembles a native “Cherokee” or “Navajo” or “Aztec.”

> > > Stop drawing the warbonnet everywhere as the apparently definitive native thing. It isn’t part of all of our 600+ cultures.

> > > Same goes for the tipi, not part of every one of the 600+ indigenous cultures.

> > > Stop thinking that if a native person doesn’t have dark, “mahogany” skin, that their heritage is invalid. Even without admixture, we actually do have varying skin tones.

> > > Stop wearing crappy fake warbonnets.

> > > Stop wearing redface.

> > > Stop using us as your silly mascots. We are people.

> > > Stop saying “spirit animal.” It’s derived from a New Age bastardization of a something that actually exists in some of our cultures.

> > > Don’t smudge. Cleanse all you like, that’s fine, but don’t smudge.

> > > Don’t call us “Indians.” “Native American” isn’t great either, it is not our name, but it’s slightly better than “Indian.” “Indigenous” is also fine.

> > > Don’t use NDN/ndn. That is ours.

> > > Step off about our hair. If you meet a long-haired native, admire it if you like, maybe even ask them about it (RESPECTFULLY), but do not touch. The same applies for someone with short hair, but additionally for those with short hair, don’t say things like “oh you’d look more native/Indian/etc if your hair was long.” We didn’t all traditionally have long, flowing hair. Believe it or not, there are actually different haircuts existing in our various cultures, and aside from that ultimately it’s a personal choice, one does not need to have long hair if they don’t want to. Doesn’t make them any less native to have short hair.

> > > Don’t pray to our spirits/gods/energies. Native spiritualities are closed, they are not for outsiders.

> > > Don’t say “The Native Americans believed…” Firstly, the past tense is silly, we still exist and do things. Secondly, we are NOT A MONOLITH. As I mentioned before, there are upwards of 600 different Native American cultures.

> > > Don’t ask about someone’s “Indian name.” That’s not only insensitive, the name you are referring to in that instance is something sacred, and might not be something that person wants to share with you.

> > > Don’t call yourself silly crap like “howling wolf” or “flying eagle.” That’s also racist and insensitive.

> > > Regardless of whatever you might think you’re doing, or what your intentions may be, if a native person tells you that what you’re doing is disrespectful, STOP DOING IT.

> > > You aren’t honoring us. You’re just mocking us further, demonstrating your continued ability to treat us like shit and get away with it even now, centuries after our colonization began. Your feelings are not more important than our history and survival.

> > > To those doing your best as allies, thank you, keep doing what you do. HOWEVER, don’t let opportunities to educate others escape you. By letting them continue to be ignorant, you are failing. Spread the message.

> > > There will be no “please.” It’s been more than 500 years, and we still are made to be invisible in our homelands. Still we are treated like less. Some even think we all died long ago.

> > > We are still here

> > > We will still be here

> > > Treat us with respect.

> > Appropriation of Native cultures runs rampant in the pagan/witchcraft community. Remember, it’s just like kindergarten. Be kind, be respectful, and ask before touching something that does not belong to you.
> > -Bri

> Also @ pagans if you’re real set on not calling it cleansing or smoke cleansing, recaning is a perfectly valid Germanic term.

16/09/2017 13:53:18 ¶ ●

gayna-scully:

> prokopetz:

> > silkktheshocka:

> > > texasuberalles:

> > > > freyjapup:

> > > > > Its been NINE YEARS and i still dont think anyone knows exactly why teen titans was cancelled

> > > > Same reason Young Justice and Green Lantern The Animated Series were canceled: Girls liked it. Bruce Timm finally up an’ said it out loud in an interview a while back when he was asked why in the hell GL:TAS had been canceled when it was doing so well on every front; DC’s animation department has institutionally decided that feee-males don’t/can’t/shouldn’t like superheroes, so even if a show is drawing in great viewership numbers and has great toy sales, once they find out that it’s popular with women and girls, they pull the plug on it. Cartoon Network loved Teen Titans— two million viewers for new episodes will do that— and wanted a Season Six, and the production staff was already in the planning stages for it; they were going to have a big arc about Terra and why she was Living Normal, and do a lot more with the extended Titans team members.

> > > This is so fucked up.

> > To elaborate on this point a bit, the reason this happens is that modern television merchandising aims for total market segregation.

> > In a nutshell, it’s much more efficient to sell things to people if you can divide them up into tightly defined subcategories that have no interests in common; that way, you never risk accidentally competing with yourself.

> > This is why children’s toys (and toy sales channels) are actually much more strongly gendered these days than they were forty, thirty, even twenty years ago: one of the basic market segregation splits they’ve decided to use is “boys versus girls”.

> > Ever wonder why you see Avengers t-shirts that leave Black Widow out of the group shot, or Guardians of the Galaxy action figure lines with no Gamora? That’s market segregation in action.

> > The upshot is that shows with crossover appeal can actually be cancelled for being too popular with girls; they’re viewed as “stealing” the female market from the specifically girl-targeted media that rightfully “owns” it.

> > This is the sort of thing folks are talking about when they say gender roles are socially constructed, by the way. The gender split in media merchandising? It’s not just artificial, it’s deliberately imposed as a top-down marketing strategy. When folks try to justify it by saying “this is the ways it’s always been” or “this is just what the market wants”, they’re lying through their teeth - this is, in fact, the merchandisers dictating to the market what it wants in order to sell stuff more efficiently.

> > (Interestingly, the reverse isn’t always true: if a specifically girl-targeted show unexpectedly becomes popular with boys, sometimes rather than being cancelled, its merchandising will shift to court the male collector’s market. TV execs are so sexist, even their sexism is sexist.)

> It gets worse.

> Paul Dini, a writer/producer said this on a podcast:
> “ That’s the thing, you know I hate being Mr. Sour Grapes here, but I’ll just lay it on the line: that’s the thing that got us cancelled on Tower Prep, honest-to-God was, it’s like, ‘we need boys, but we need girls right there, right one step behind the boys’—this is the network talking—’one step behind the boys, not as smart as the boys, not as interesting as boys, but right there.’”

> Cartoon network and Warner brothers deliberately made the conscious decision to dumb down their female characters because they want to push female viewers away. In fact, Tower Prep was cancelled because it had too many female viewers because the writers made too many well written female characters.

> So shitty representation of girls isn’t something that just happens. It’s the result of deliberate planning just so the execs can make more money.

> And it’s not just cartoon network. I mean, why do you think Nick fucked over Korra so badly? Remember them telling Bryke they didn’t want a female Avatar? Why do you think there are no Korra figurines or action figures?

> Source: http://www.themarysue.com/warner-bros-animation-girl-market/

17/09/2017 13:30:22 ¶ ●

## more for the "Joey is a light player" pile, if you look at the picture beside Jude's bedroom door, she singles out one of the 3 monsters. The narration says "You've always been a bit creeped out by the monster in the water. It feels like the eye is following you...but only sometimes.". Rose and Vriska's denzien is Cetus, a mythological sea monster.

revolutionaryduelist:

> FUCK

I just assumed that was because Jude, being a paranoid fuck, had drilled himself a peephole. But there being a Cetus thing, and/or a Void thing (oceans and whatnot) also makes sense.

19/09/2017 20:00:43 ¶ ●

moclel:

> # hi puerto rico is dead

> IRMA JUST LEFT AND NOW MARIA IS ON HER WAY AND SHES GOING TO SLICE RIGHT THROUGH THE CENTER OF THE ISLAND AS A CAT3/4. We haven’t even gotten over the damages with irma yet and some people STILL dont have water or power and now we’re getting hit with something thats going to be even worse for us PLEASE PLEASE pray for puerto rico and the caribbean because this shit is serious

21/09/2017 01:10:53 ¶ ●

(hear us hear us hear us)

Here we stand, the people of Ikana Here we stand, the proudest in the land Here we stand, the people of Ikana Here we stand, the proudest in the land

(hear us hear us hear us)

This our world, land of the tower This our world, that’s set in stone This our world, land of the tower This our world that’s set in stone

We are the ones who would not join our hands We are the ones who could not understand We are the ones who would not join our hands We are the ones who could not understand

25/09/2017 11:09:05 ¶ ●

## optimisticDuelist is creating Video Criticism & Analysis | Patreon

sam-keeper:

> If you’re following Homestuck Explained, it’s $2 away from its first Patreon goal so now’s a good time to subscribe!

25/09/2017 23:35:22 ¶ ●

yourbrothershotfriend:

> foxy-mulder:

> > this is the most powerful image on the internet.. reblog to join the circle

> Reblog to destroy all evil energies in your life

26/09/2017 11:50:32 ¶ ●

## Hawaii Becomes the First State to Pass a Bill in Support of Universal Basic Income

valerie-volatile:

> thewightknight:

> > > Innovation and forward-thinking may be Hawaii’s two biggest exports in 2017. Earlier this month, the state earned the distinction of being the first in the U.S. to formally accept the provisions of the Paris Climate Agreement after President Donald Trump decided to withdraw the nation from it, and now, Hawaii is taking the lead in embracing yet another innovative idea: universal basic income (UBI).

> > > Today, Hawaii state representative Chris Lee wrote a Reddit post about House Concurrent Resolution 89, a bill he says he introduced in order to “start a conversation about our future.” According to Lee, “After much work and with the help of a few key colleagues, it passed both houses of the State Legislature unanimously.”

> > > The bill has two major provisions. First, it declares that all families in Hawaii are entitled to basic financial security. “As far as I’m told, it’s the first time any state has made such a pronouncement,” wrote Lee. The second provision establishes a number of government offices “to analyze our state’s economy and find ways to ensure all families have basic financial security, including an evaluation of different forms of a full or partial universal basic income.”

> Have to remember to reblog the good news posts. I hope this is a rock that starts an avalanche.

26/09/2017 12:00:31 ¶ ●

## BORN TO BE A STAR — JOEY CLAIRE, MAID OF LIGHT – optimisticDuelist – Medium

betweengenesisfrogs:

> revolutionaryduelist:

> > Here’s a post on Joey’s Hero Title–The MAID of LIGHT!–and how understanding it strengthens our reading of Joey’s struggles with neglect and loneliness, her STRIFES, her skills and abilities, and more! We even look at some interesting foreshadowing for where her arc may be going in the next Acts!

> > (Credit to @thricequeen and @dahniwitchoflight for providing key details that feed into my own speculation, btw! Thanks a ton, peeps)

> > Classpecting has so far been a hugely underappreciated part of Hiveswap’s narrative, and I’d like to change that. This post is also a focused introduction on Classpects in general, and should ideally be perfectly easy to follow if you’re a new Hiveswap fan with no exposure to the system from Homestuck!

> > I do have to warn, however, that there will be Homestuck Spoilers in this essay. So heads up about that! Now, on to some bad news. I have similar Classpect essays brainstormed for Xefros Tritoh and Jude Harley.
> > But alas, it may be a while before I can write those.

> > As excited as I am to post this, it comes with an announcement I wish I wasn’t making. If you enjoy this essay and want to know more about future content from me, please read on.

> > Keep reading

> This essay is a perfect example of everything that’s so excellent about revolutionaryduelist‘s Homestuck and Hiveswap work: in-depth research built on evidence taken directly from canon, new insights that catch me completely by surprise but make perfect, delightful sense, the best damn understanding of the classpect system I’ve ever seen, and the constant awareness that a huge part of what makes Homestuck great is its deep respect for its characters in their struggles with trauma, identity, and oppression. Highly, highly recommended, alongside all of RD’s other work.

> RD is having a tough time right now, and could really use your support. If you, like me, appreciate the insights they’ve brought to our understanding of Homestuck and the positive, enthusiastic Homestuck fan community they’ve been working incredibly hard to build, please consider supporting them on Patreon, if you’re financially able: https://www.patreon.com/optimisticDuelist#_=_ Even just a few dollars will help immensely.

> As fans and friends, our strength lies in the ways we work together and help each other. This is especially true for those of us who are queer or otherwise marginalized by society–an idea that, as RD has helped to make clear, is deeply embedded in the narrative of Homestuck. If you’re interested in supporting queer writers and creators, and in exploring queer stories of transcendence and triumph in modern media, I highly suggest supporting revolutionaryduelist. You’ll be supporting a great person, a creator, an excellent scholar of media, and a great friend–all of which would mean a lot to me personally.

> In any case, enjoy this excellent examination of why Joey Claire is most likely a Maid of Light. And…

> Keep rising.

> [Patreon]