morannon

[morannon]

[morannon]

'but whyyy would tolkien shoehorn sam into a romantic relationship with rosie when it's so obvious that frodo's the most important person in his life?'

hear me out, what if...and this is a long shot...tolkien had lived through some deeply harrowing experiences that emphasised that people can love each other in different ways and they're all equally important? and that the strongest bonds you form aren't always explicitly romantic? what if everything in tolkien's work (eowyn's different loves for faramir and aragorn, boromir having no interest in romantic relationships and putting everything into his love for his city) fairly dripped with the idea that romance isn't the only important sort of love? what then?

#Tolkien

[morannon]

absolutely despise how every single social media platform has intrusive annoying “performance” shit baked into it now. You can’t just be online to post for fun, talk to friends, share stuff to whoever happens upon it.

Everything has a score now. Notifications that say “your post reached 1000 accounts” on insta. View counts on every tweet, so you know exactly how relevant or irrelevant your every thought or drawing is. Every app asking you over and over to turn push notifications on. 1 to 10 self-ratings on YouTube. Get twitter blue for a performance boost. give tumblr your money for a Blaze. Get an Instagram business account. Buy views. Constant scoring. Constant reminders to monetize your every waking moment.

[morannon]

#i have this #and i'm fucking with retinoids now #so it's an accurate portrayal of female skincare shit

[morannon]

So that Rey film....

[morannon]

When a character is assured enough in their own power that they are completely relaxed in dangerous situations??? When that same character becomes tense and uncomfortable in the mundane because they don't have a framework for peace?????? When they help navigate violence for another character and in return that character helps them navigate softness??????????? That's all, your honour

#oh wow way to hit me in the throat like that #this post is obviously about Maul

[morannon]

A bird explaining to a hedgehog crossing so it doesn’t die.

[morannon]

Maggie Smith, from “What I Carried”, Good Bones

[morannon]

guys shut the fuck up this is the only thing im gonna talk about for the rest of all time 

(publicly shared video of a sweetheart’s dance from Rodney Stanger on fb)

[morannon]

#still burns

[morannon]

JSTOR is a nonprofit

Hi all, just a reminder that JSTOR is a nonprofit with a mission to expand access to knowledge and education around the world.

This is not an empty statement. For example:

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You can read JSTOR online for free

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In addition, we are continuously working towards making and adding more open content. You can even search for free content only!

#KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL #i love jstor #it's one of the main pillars of the academic community the world over #JSTOR

[morannon]

The fact that the porn bots are rapidly losing features like bios, emojis, and now they even seem to be giving up their naming convention, means that u can only go off the URL which makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish between pornhots and tiktok migrants with no content . like you have to make a judgement call on whether this nice young lady is real or fake personally I've been reporting and blocking indiscriminately if theres no content in the blog so basically tumblr is turning me into a misogynist

[morannon]

[morannon]

With The English, Chaske Spencer Redefines the Classic Western by Iman Sultan

#Chaske Spencer #Eli Whipp #The English #please take the time to read the interview

[morannon]

Reading one of the latest interviews with Chaske really confirmed this for me. It’s one thing to observe something, it’s another for him to say it. If you observe indigenous film at large or indigenous actors and the roles they can most commonly be found in, the patterns are obvious and frankly quite painful. All of this talk of “diversity” is mostly hollow and only covers whatever the speaker identifies as. And that way nothing in the status quo changes at all because the people who really come from truly small community go as overlooked in media representation as in legislative representation.

And yet, landing roles remained an uphill battle for Spencer because of the limited visibility of Native American actors in the media. A 2020 UCLA study on diversity in Hollywood found representation of Native Americans amounted to a scant 0.5 percent in film and was virtually nonexistent in TV between 2018 and 2019 alone. In the early aughts, when Hollywood cast non-Native actors in lead roles for major commercial franchises like The Lone Ranger and Twilight, it’s safe to assume the state of Native American representation was even lower than that. (source)

My impression so far is that the only kind of media produced by larger production companies with more money and reach featuring indigenous stories, characters or actors still generally falls into the historical/western categories, be it an actual western, horror or historical drama. In such productions the indigenous characters still often act as an exoticized decoration around the main plotline involving white and occasionally black characters. On top of that there’s a shameful tradition of employing white or even eurasian actors to play indigenous roles (honestly it doesn’t matter if Johnny Depp thinks he is 1/32 Cherokee or something, the term ‘pretendian’ exists for a reason, and there is a reason that self-identification is somewhat problematic). 

But there’s a whole separate set of problems when it comes to indigenous-driven film projects. I’ve noticed that most indigenous-led projects from the past 20 years or so tend to focus on the difficulties and resulting social issues faced by most indigenous groups to this day. It’s important for a community to be able to portray that. On the other hand it’s something that rarely reaches the GA. And I think and important thing to notice here is the absolutely massive void between those two types of projects and the roles that are available to indigenous actors thorugh them. Of course it’s possible to audition for roles that aren’t written to be indigenous in particular, but this is something that is greatly influenced by stereotypes and expectations and associations that pop and media culture permeates. 

And there’s something else I wasn’t sure if I wanted to bring up, because I found it really intrusive when others were talking about it at the time. In part because I’m firmly of the belief that it’s actually none of my business. But it may be relevant to this. So after the Star Wars sequel trilogy came out and Adam Driver was suddenly everywhere (as is only right). People naturally got to digging around to discover more about his personal life and along with other stuff people found evidence to suggest that his biological father is Native American. Now, what annoyed me was that people were immediately claiming him as representation (for the record, I didn’t see anyone who themselves was indigenous do that), some went full 180 from calling him a creepy shooter type to praising him as POC representation. Adam himself never commented on it publicly, the only sort-of-confirmation to support this is Terry Gilliam mentioning in an interview that Adam had said so when Gilliam had asked him.

First of all, it’s not anyone’s business. Secondly, it’s wildly offensive if random strangers on the internets start labelling people against their own wishes, claiming them as reprsentation without really knowing or actually being from the ethnic group that a person is being attached to (because this also comes back to pretendianism in a way) etc. But I also remembered about this when reading this interviews with Chaske because somehow being indigenous in America is something that’s somehow still attached to stereotypes or images of a culture caricaturized that goes beyond other kinds of racial stereotyping or colorism. Or at least it seems to me that while people are becoming more aware of acts or beliefs which perpetuate racist views, even if they seem kind of ambiguous compared to overt racism... there’s something about being indigenous that seems to be a blind spot. And I wondered if Adam also saw that in his experience and chose to keep it to himself because of what it would mean to him as an actor, despite his talent, ability and suitability for any roles. Something that isn’t an option for someone who is very obviously indigenous or for whom it’s important to carry that aspect over into any work they do.

Obviously this issue isn’t limited to the US, but it’s the context that is represented in film like no other and is also what got me started thinking about this. There’s a long way to go. I myself do not belong in the demographic but even so I always feel Chaske is being unduly generous about the situation. 

I wanted to expand my knowldege of 19th century United States before I start writing. But this inevitably also includes familiarizing myself with the way it’s been depicted previously which in turn leads to seeing the state of depictions of and involvement of indigenous people in film in general. And this, despite the many differences both politically and culturally, also extends beyond Northern America. Yes there are many countries with a vibrant film culture of their own that is inwardly focused and addresses particular aspects of local issues and cultural dynamis, but it’s impossible to underestimate the colonizing prowess of English-language media and the way it has exported stereotypes and depictions of particular groups of people. And I suspect the impact this has had remains largely invisible or misdiagnosed to those who can’t observe the effect it has had on a cultural system that remains out of reach for those who only speak English.

I don’t even know what’s the most frightening part of this, but from an observer’s POV I feel that Chaske was being supremely generous, describing the change he’s seen during his career. I am personally a very eclectic watcher or things, so seeing Wild Indian when it came out last year wasn’t ncessarily describing the state of things by itself. It starts telling a different story when viewed within the context of indigenous-led projects and among films with indigenous-dominant casts however. 

It would be unfair to say that it isn’t talked about, because it is. But it looks to me that these conversations mostly take place within the communities this affects the most and less so where the conversation ought to take place to facilitate necessary change. I’m really hoping that The English signals more good things to come, but it is by no means a guarantee, and it’s not enough.

[morannon]

“Nebraska had at no point in time seemed farther away than it did now, beyond a horizon more distant and empty than ever. Dust and tears had formed a crust around his eyes that he couldn't lift his hand to clear. Clutching the reins and clenching his jaw he let his horse carry him further into the vast emptiness of loss. It had been a goodbye he could never make peace with, Eli already knew that.”

#i'm stringing words together #somehow they make sentances #is this called writing #idk

[morannon]

My people lived here over two thousand years. No need for sticks.

chaske spencer as eli whipp // The English (2022)

#Eli Whipp #highkey weak for Chaske #*sobs*