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gravelilyaufgehoben · 26 days

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See there, how she cometh impatiently over the sea! Do ye not feel the thirst and the hot breath of her love? At the sea would she suck, and drink its depths to her height: now riseth the desire of the sea with its thousand breasts. Kissed and sucked would it be by the thirst of the sun; vapour would it become, and height, and path of light, and light itself!

thus sucked zarathurstra

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gravelilyaufgehoben · 4 months

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The Rules of This Blog

The rules are inscribed in the name.

Grave: in doubled meaning, that is, both serious and macabre. This stipulates tone and attitude. All posts here are to be sincere and handled respectfully.

Lily: all posts must be related to Yuri, whether this be directly or through the construction and coordination of means, themes and theory. The links through which the connection to Yuri is made may be vague and circuitous as per the author's discretion. Seasonal and vent postings are exempted.

Aufgehoben: in triple meaning, as is well known. This describes orientation regarding theory and style. Posts should be written in contradiction, and efforts should be made to go beyond, to skirt the lining, to turn around; to get inside and twist; that is — be not boring.

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The above are rules for the creation of posts on this blog. They do not apply to other parties, for example: reblogs, comments, direct messages, etc.

I do not reblog other posts here due to my obsession with aesthetic purity. Additionally, because I have nothing to reblog: when I started posting on Tumblr, I also stopped reading it. Consequently, this blog functions less like a social media account and more like a public diary.

Though not always, likes and follows have tended to be reserved for wartime — in support and solidarity where I arbitrarily deemed it necessary.

The purpose of this blog is to act as a lure for thinking, the gestation of those thoughts, and finally to get those thoughts out of me and well to bed. However, all are welcome to peek at my sleeping ones.

Posts here are infrequent: because I am otherwise busy and writing is difficult. And besides, the only things which get posted here are those few appropriate as per the above rules.

(Rule 4 is "Do no research.")

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gravelilyaufgehoben · 4 months

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I assume everything sacred from my youth is terrible. I assume Tokyo Ghoul is terrible — and it doesn't even pain me to say. I will not be going back to finish it, nor do I have any interest in rereading it. This does not stop it from having for me a certain traumatism appropriate to what is only the most holy — it is still among that which must not be touched. I have no interest in returning to it, nor perhaps could I. It would be too unwieldy, too cumbersome, too tiresome. I have lost those conditions on account of which the wound was smote, and I am not one for nostalgia. I am willing to let them all be as they are with me.

There remains, however, the wound. I do wish desperately to be rid of the terror which grips my heart at one or another esoteric suggestion. But, do I need to reread and finish Tokyo Ghoul to lay them to rest? — No, of course, the wound is much older than that. What, then, was in it that I saw in such terrible light? Mother! Mother! — yes, yes, I know.

I wonder if watching Yuru Yuri would devastate me?

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gravelilyaufgehoben · 4 months

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I am quite certain everything I have seen about Attack on Titan (though brief and through a glass darkly) is grossly distorted liberal mystification, but I have no interest in finishing the show at present (nor have I for a number of years — not enough yuri in it I suppose).

(In particular, I skimmed through an article a few years ago, and it was barely comprehensible with a scattering of only the most obvious and vulgar points).

Why can't everyone just already be smart and write good? — so I don't have to watch it myself?

In fact, I do not recall a single piece of written anime review which I did not hate. On the other hand, I have not read much written anime review — which I count among some of my finer qualities.

'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill Appear in writing or in judging ill; But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. Some few in that, but numbers err in this, Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss; A fool might once himself alone expose, Now one in verse makes many more in prose.

I don't even like the poem — I've only read the first stanza — of course the guy liked Aristotle.

Anime fans love fascism almost as much as the liberals among them don't understand it — I don't know what left-wing anime fans are like: again — I don't read!

#anime

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gravelilyaufgehoben · 4 months

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A visual novel is not just a book in flashy, digital skin. The act of clicking at once distinguishes it and crystallizes the entire pathos. The story does not move forward unless the reader progresses it themself by clicking the button. There is a rhythm in this interaction, that is, the user's clicks, which, not in spite of its minimalism (as indeed this is the only gameplay element), grants the visual novel distinct dynamics.

The heights of tension that can be achieved may be excruciating. At a death, for instance, the reader finds themself torn between a paralyzing dread and fatal progression — with a heart frozen by fear before a darkened door slightly ajar — but with the knowledge that one's own action must push the sequence forward. Or a killing, where the reader finds themself in a position of being forced to do something against which there whole being revolts, but which their finger feels as compulsion. And the feeling of responsibility is through the act of clicking. This kind of torsion, where one experiences oneself out and against oneself, is particular to the visual novel. It can much more easily focus its pathos on a particular point: though we can recognise other genres mimicking the effect with a kind of quick-time event: with the usual gameplay sequence being interrupted by a prompting to press a specified button at a particularly dramatic point. What other genres implement at special events, however, the visual novel has as its entire force of movement. The whole is determined by the sequence of clicks: the pacing and rhythm of every narrative sequence is a participation.

This is not, of course, to say that the visual novel is the supreme form of video game; however, as a distinct genre (and not merely a defective game or repackaged novel), its mode of interaction provides it with a special character and consequent effects.

Inadequate arguments to the contrary:

The clicking of the button is not the same as the turning of a page or the movement of the eyes. Concerning the latter, one still reads the text on the screen in any frame of a visual novel like one would words on a page, and one does not mistake this action for clicking; the former may be considered analogous, however, to argue for this kind of abstraction reduces everything to a mere action or interaction as such, and all becomes one and the same, i.e., a game, and one has lost one's object entirely, and any pretence of a serious inquiry.

#video games #visual novel #theory

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gravelilyaufgehoben · 5 months

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The essence of yuri is the contradiction between the fake or practise romance between girls in school and real, heterosexual love in the "adult" world. This is crystalized in the omnipresent line "But we're both girls!", or "It's impossible between girls!".

What I mean is that this is the principal contradiction of the entire genre which structures everything and conditions all of its tensions and motives. It comes from the prescription in Japanese society that "romance between school girls is practice for real romance." Every work in the yuri genre struggles with this contradiction and its possible solutions. The concrete political struggle here takes the form of the legalization of gay marriage in Japan, i.e., to make romance between girls not merely practise for "real" romance. This allows us to (maybe) say that the goal of yuri manga is its own abolition (because its principal contradiction and essence will no longer exist). Maybe the legalization of gay marriage is not radical enough, perhaps it just assimilates to heteronormativity, etc.

I wrote an essay-length version of this post, but I hate it. The point is not properly made here, but I don't mean that only the opposition to the love between girls in yuri is in this contradiction: the love itself is. This is a delicate and difficult point to make. It's because the positioning makes it unconditioned (and infinite) -- but to say only this is obscure. There's also a part about how this makes yuri tragedy in its structure... and based in a contradiction of world-historical significance... and so on.

It is possible to draw a distinction between yuri and stories which depict romance between women based on the above. This should be controversial (because it excludes some stories). The problem with defining yuri as simply "stories depicting romance between women" is that it's vacuous, i.e., maybe true (trivially), but stupid.

I don't even want to post this.

("Principal contradiction" refers to Mao Zedong's On Contradiction -- which is a concept I use as an axiom in literary analysis and criticism.)

#yuri

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gravelilyaufgehoben · 9 months

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The gradual transformation of "[v-tuber] tries her best in Super Mario" to "[v-tuber] does THIS...? and chat is HORNY! *panting*".

The cycle goes on — innocence lost — I start hitting the "do not recommend channel" button again...

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