at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"
like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.
"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."
... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.
and i'd still keep writing.
i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.
i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley
"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"
and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.
it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.
you create because you're greedy.
18K notes
·
View notes
made a flyer with information on how to donate to mona, who is distributing food and supplies throughout north gaza. i've been printing them out and putting them up all over and you can too! download it here
ID:
a flyer titled "food for north gaza." below that it says "mona abo hamda is distributing food throughout north gaza, which is facing famine. donating to her initiative is a concrete way to feed starving people. scan to learn how you can get involved!" below that there is a qr code that leads to mona's gofundme. below that it says "follow her on instagram! she uploads proof of donations there: @/monaa__e98." below that is an image of the palestinian flag.
/end ID
2K notes
·
View notes
happy new year Ego!!! Just wanted to let you know that I absolutely adore your twst fanart and the tags are just an absolute pleasure to read! You are my greatest inspiration for my personal twst art and I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful masterpieces <333 if possible, may I ask what are some of your headcanons for the diasomnia family? If not for diasomnia then any other characters are fine as well!
thank you, and happy new year! 💚💜💚 that is amazing to hear; it's always a little bewildering but super flattering that other people like my silly little doodles so much!
I don't think I really have any really solid headcanons and also canon keeps validating me left and right (FLUFFY DOMESTIC DIAFAM IS REAL). mostly just kind of...impressions and general thoughts, if that makes sense! lately though I've been kind of obsessed with thinking about Lilia's hair, and specifically when/why he ended up cutting it. (l-look, we're bouncing around the timeline and I gotta make decisions about these things when I draw, it's relevant) (I mean I would probably be weirdly fixated on this anyway, but.)
I think I've settled on the idea that he kept it long until he went to NRC, partly because 1) I like drawing The Ponytail, and 2) I think he thought of NRC as a chance to reinvent himself a bit! he gets to go and be a wacky carefree teenager for a few years and have fun! (officially he's there to keep an eye on Son #1, but how much trouble could he get into, really.) so he gave himself a Cool Teen Haircut to go with his fresh new Cool Teen Persona!
also maybe he had some reflection on his hair's troubled past with three kids...
...and had to weigh his vanity versus the fact that he was going off to be around hundreds of kids on a daily basis, and. the choice suddenly seemed obvious.
2K notes
·
View notes
If you haven't heard, otw (in other words ao3) have forced a volunteer to resign because they had "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" as their status on messaging platfrom slack, which otw use for communications.
They were denying that Israel is an apartheid settler state or that the genocide in Gaza is even happening.
This is unforgivable in my opinion, and I have sent a message to otw through their official contact form here, and I suggest you do the same. Below you'll see my message as well, in case you want to copy and paste, or just use it as a template of sorts.
I urge you also not to donate to otw anymore, unless the zionist volunteers and members of otw are removed from their positions and banned from otw.
"I am disgusted and enraged about the treatment of otw volunteer bjorn due to their pro-Palestine message status on slack, and even more so about the fact that zionists are allowed to run free amongst otw/ao3 volunteers, claiming that what Israel is doing in Gaza is not genocide, and claiming that Israel is not an apartheid settler state. As a person who has donated to the otw many times i wish I could revoke my money. But also as a donor I as well as many others demand the otw to resign fully, ban all zionist volunteers, have a written apology to bjorn and all users repudiating zionist actions in Gaza, donate to the Red Crescent to support Palestine, and reinstate bjorn as volunteer. If this is not done I as well as many others will no longer post on ao3, use it, volunteer for it and definitely not donate any more. You should be ashamed of yourselves. "
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. 🇵🇸
PS. If anyone decides to start talking about ao3 tagging systems or content allowed on the platform on this post you are getting blocked immediately. I dont care about your views on this, and you should think for 2 seconds before putting silly fanfic discourse on the same level as the murder of thousands.
1K notes
·
View notes
many subs are so worried about being perfect, while missing that they’re just supposed to be good; like the classic goon to my villainess. it’s fine to just go: “on it boss” and proceed to completely fuck things up, while I watch with a smile, thinking about how adorable they are, not in the least worried about the success of my villainous machinations, because all my plans already anticipate the clumsy bundle of anxious cuteness, that is my sub. reverence trumps performance. I don’t need you to excel past all expectations; I just need you to worship me.
2K notes
·
View notes