#I might post some art and literature here honestly

[drchucktingle]

Hello Dr Tingle! I wanted to ask you about that re: your post about how all your books are serious literature (hell yeah Love is real). How do you personally deal with the whole traditional publishing institution? It attracts a whole different level of coverage and it seems that they're very quick to try and box you and like turn you into a brand. Is it stiffling? Is it freeing? Does the attention help more people understand your trot? I don't know I've never been published but since you have experience in both traditional and self publishing I'm interested in knowing how that's feeling for you

well this is a pretty complex question with lots of different trots but i will try my best to answer. lets start with WHO I AM as buckaroo name of chuck

what i create has a very strong voice and my way is pretty recognizable. while buckaroos do not know what most authors look like, i REALLY stand out in a dang crowd with a big pink bag on my head. if you see 50 random author photos and mine is mixed in and then you ask 'which photo do you remember the most?' it is probably gonna be chuck. i also have a VERY UNIQUE STORY with what i create and my artistic sensibilities, not a lot of buds are out there making trans mothman erotica along with their big five traditional publishing bestsellers (SIDENOTE preorder BURY YOUR GAYS)

now if you were going to take 'CHUCK TINGLE' to a marketing department they would FALL OVER BACKWARDS IN THEIR DANG CHAIR with excitement. it is hard to think of an author with a stronger BRAND than i already have in the sense of 'instantly recognizable trot and specific unique style'. even in answering this you can tell that i dont even TALK like other dang authors.

what i am getting at is this: i am VERY VERY LUCKY because my existence just so happens to equate to what a company would see as GOOD BRANDING. it is not intentional on my part, it is just the hand of fate i guess. im out here expressing myself in a FULL ON WAY that is PRETTY DANG STRANGE TO SOME and it just so happens to work as mainstream branding too

on paper you might think 'what the heck no way chuck tingle will fly as a mainstream trot' but honestly the main thread of this timeline can be surprising sometimes. ive been saying the key ingredient for years and i will say it again: LOVE AND SINCERITY RESONATE. when you make art with this fuel, the timeline will feel it. when you stand up tall and shout with your whole chest THIS IS MY WAY AND I LOVE MYSELF. I AM THE WORLDS GREATEST AUTHOR TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, the timeline will listen

so all that said, i do not mind the idea of myself as 'brand' because i am not CHANGING myself to create this effect. what some might see as 'brand' i just see as another part of my art. i have always believed that art is THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE not just the painting but what is outside of the frame. WHO I AM is just as important as the books i write, and interacting with my way is a whole MULTIMEDIA experience that INCLUDES YOU TOO. it is the feeling when your friend shows you your first tingler cover, or the feeling when you realize that i am not playing a character. this is ALL a part of the tingleverse and it is all a part of my honest raw expression as a queer and neurodivergent buckaroo.

YOU ARE PART OF THIS ART TOO

it is my nature of have a PUNK ROCK trot. always has been. but to me that does not mean just angrily going against everything for the sake of going against everything. for me, this punk rock trot means fighting to EXPRESS MYSELF IN THE MOST HONEST AND PURE FORM POSSIBLE and to create the art that i want to make without any boundaries

somehow i have threaded the needle in this really interesting once-in-a-dang-lifetime kind of way. my pure punk rock self as an OUTERSIDER ARTIST just so happens to resonate with this larger system of brand and traditional publishing and popular culture. i COULD reject this, but rejecting it would be LESS HONEST.

this is just who i am. i LIKE pop culture. i LIKE joy. i LIKE dressing in all pink and wearing my custom suits. I LIKE PROVING LOVE IS REAL WHAT THE HECK ELSE EVEN IS THERE? i love being a queer outsider artist and using my small voice to shout at the big bad devils and i like that every time i shout a few more of you buckaroos join the chorus and together we are just getting louder and louder and louder and WHO KNOWS what comes next for us all trotting together.

when i post something like 'WHAT A GREAT DAY TO PROVE LOVE' it is not me sitting here in a bad mood thinkin 'well i gotta make todays post to keep up with my brand'. i am ACTUALLY FEELING THAT FEELING and i actually believe it with every fiber of my being. honestly, half the time i post about the beauty of this timeline i am probably over here literally crying tears of joy (chuck is an emotional bud i get riled over the joy of existence A LOT)

and heres the best part of this trot: because i really have this punk rock way it makes me very powerful. others can pretend not to care about success and brand and all that but I REALLY DO NO CARE. i would write tinglers whether buds were reading them or not, this is just my natural state, and that makes me incredibly strong. if some big corporation says 'YOU MUST DO THIS' and i dont want to do it i just say 'no thanks'. it is not some big debate about my career or anything like that because I REALLY DO NOT CARE IN THE SLIGHTEST. i care about the art

because of this, my relationship with my GIANT TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING MACHINE is great. we trot like equals and we get along really well. i tell them exactly what i want to do and they let me do it. i really do not have to answer to anyone and they deserve a huge amount of credit for respecting me in this way.

and heres the thing, THEY ALSO HAVE SOME GREAT IDEAS

SPECIFICALLY my imprint of NIGHTFIRE is very dang cool. yes, they are the head of a giant hydra of a BIG FIVE PUBLISHER, but nightfire is SO DANG ART-FOCUSED

there is no right or wrong way to be an artist, and my path is not the only one, but i can tell you what WORKS FOR ME. this is the advice i would give myself, and buckaroos can take it or leave it

here it is: never beg the big book publisher, or record label, or movie studio to pay attention to you

do not let it become a lotto ticket in your brain. do not think that you are some weak little creature and maybe if you trot just right they will scoop you up and take care of you. do not go to their door begging to be let in

LET THEM COME TO YOUR DOOR

create something so incredible and beautiful and honest and powerful and unique and important that they would be foolish to miss out. create a community or a system or a timeline or a world of imagination that thrives on its own and THEY SHOULD BE SO LUCKY TO BE A PART OF IT

then when you sit down at that board meeting it is not 'please brand me, ill do whatever you want'. instead, it is 'lets make a deal and see how much love we can prove together.'

now lets trot buckaroos

#buckaroo lifestyle #chuck tingle #tingleverse

[fairuzfan]

Hello! rly appreciating your posts, in particular the ones about GLAM... it made me curious if you or your followers happen to have any resources/literature to recommend on 2 areas of interest?:

1. Relating salvage anthropology to modern day ideas of trauma porn

2. Palestinian-led museums/archives/oral history projects/other collections or exhibitions of note. (Or if not literature, any names involved besides the few I know of like POHA/the nakba archive/the arab resource center for popular arts; the palestine museum; librarians & archivists with Palestine; activestills; forever our land; and art for gaza)

Anyway, again, thanks for all the time/work you’re putting into analysis and info dissemination <3

hello, thanks for sending this in. sooo i have like. no idea about the first one haha but i have so many for the second one.

The Institute for Palestine Studies has a bunch of scholarly articles and anaylsis about Palestine

Librarians and Archivists for Palestine is not completely Palestinian led but it's one that I'm a part of and really like, even though you already mention it.

The Palestine Museum Digital Archive is an AMAZING resource led by Palestinians in Palestine. I recommend scrolling through their intifada posters, downloading them, printing them, and hanging them around town.

The Palestinian Oral History Archive project in case people were wondering what POHA is.

The Museum of the Palestinian People in DC is really great and has a lot of digitized features.

The Palestine Museum US has a lot of books as well, based on Turtle Island.

The Arab American National Museum is not Palestinian led but I can vouch that they're a great group.

The Met has a lot of Palestinian clothing BUT.... warning in that it is very colonial in its arrangement and description and we dont super know how people got the material they have. If you want to look at the content feel free, though. Will say that Wafa Ghnaim, one of the leading experts on Tatreez in Turtle Island is working on recataloguing the Palestinian collection.

Visualizing Palestine is an infographic organization that might interest you.

The Nakba Archive for people wanting to check it out.

The Library of Congress is. Honestly it's pretty racist but it does have content if you wanna look at it.

Tirazain is a tatreez pattern library that's really cool.

There might be more that I'm forgetting but here are some just from me sitting here thinking for the past few minutes. If anyone else has any recommendations, feel free to add.

#palestine #archives

[1moreff-creator]

Hey guess who's still thinking about the David MV.

I'm here to talk to you about these symbols from around 3:39, after "I remain undefeated by the rain". I tried researching myself, though the best I can do is draw them in symbol recognizer websites which isn't great. Keep in mind they're not necessarily supposed to make sense, as yellow is literally just the letter w.

(Best image I could get for the blue ones :p)

Below the cut is what I've found about what these symbols could be. I only checked for Japanese (because that's the original language of the song) and Chinese (because footnote 13 is a Chinese character so at least there is a connection).

The blue symbol might be 䀫 flipped upside down, I think it looks quite similar. It's a Chinese character which, from what I could find, means something like... narrow and dim eyes, or having one eye smaller than the other? Or "one-eyed", which I guess could be connected to Xander. It may also be "wink of the eyelashes" or movement of eyelashes, whatever that means. But I think the most interesting one could be "sleepy, drowsy, dim, vage and hazy". You can connect it to the dead as being "sleepy" or David since he appears to have some trouble getting out of bed, probably due to depression.

EDIT: Actually it may be 哈 which is the equivalent of a “jaja” laugh in Mandarin, so that’s probably it. As accirax pointed out in the comments, they actually may all be laughs :v

As for the green one, to me, that just looks like the n-ary product symbol, which is ∏ (longer legs than pi, 𝝅, though it is just the capital letter pi). If you don't know, that's the symbol used when you have to multiply a sequence of things. But what does math have to do with this.

I guess you could say if green is related to Hu ("substance of the arts" line stays winning) then maybe it makes sense, since her profile states she dislikes math? But that ranks a solid 10 in the Literature Girl Insanity scale, so.

Wait, no! It could actually be the uppercase letter pi, because it's the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, and Hu has numeral 16! Yeah, sure, that works. Honestly the best I have for it.

The other option could be 丌, which I think is Chinese but I'm not sure. I didn't find anything conclusive about its meaning, and I didn't feel like researching too much because... it just doesn't really look like that. The MV's version doesn't have a little curl on the left leg.

I also tried flipping around the symbol a bit like I did with the blue one, but I didn't find anything in Japanese/Chinese symbol recognizers. Could be another language, or just a different non-language related symbol, but I don't care enough to research more.

Uppercase pi it is! Though that would mean green is actually Hu, unless I'm seeing wrong and that's mint, but I'm already kinda suspecting green is Hu anyways so.

Anyways, I'm open to different interpretations, if anyone has better ideas. Or if anyone actually knows Chinese and can properly tell me what the hell 䀫 means, because as you can see, there's quite a few things I found on the internet. Or, hell, maybe I'm stupid and that's not even Chinese, my language skill issues aren't exactly uncommon. Take care!

EDIT: Nope! It’s ㅋ which is jaja in Korean! Throw away the post everyone, they’re all laughs!

#drdt #danganronpa despair time #drdt theory #drdt mv #hu jing #still on my bullshit #again

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hey again TBSkyen! I just wanted two things: One to say that your channel has been very helpful to me. As a creative person i was so happy to see your designs, your takes and how they aligned (as how i want to be and what i believe respectively)

That being said if you can could you point out any tip in desining characters or point out to somewhere where i can get better at it? I seem to be having a problem with consistently making the concept aparent you know? Like both coming up and showing deeper meanings in designs

Sorry for the long ask

I wish I could help you here, but honestly I just don't know of a ton of good resources for discussions of character design as a craft. There are a few books out there, but they tend to be damn expensive and the ones I've read... weren't that great, tbh. I imagine it's a tough market to publish for, but... hoo boy.

The only book recommendations I really have are for works which are tangentially related, and which I have found helpful, although your mileage may very much vary.

I would recommend you read Scott McCloud's seminal work Understanding Comics, it's accessible and easy to understand, it's easy to get a hold of, and goes into some of the relevant philosophy of visual art.

The Animator's Survival by Richard Williams kit has a bunch of helpful information too, not so much specifically about character design, but it does help you think about movement and construction, and seeing a character in physical terms, all of which can be helpful for learning to design them.

If you're real deep into it, it might on a similar note unironically be useful to read (or watch some video essays about) Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation. It's some dry-ass post-modernist philosophy, but his discussions of signs and signifiers does have some relevance to character design as a craft, I think. There are some useful tools in there for thinking about it.

Anyway, that's about the best I got for literature. Anyone who knows about a good, structured piece of literature on the craft of character design, please do recommend it to me in replies.

#tb answers #character design

[pet-genius]

Too Deep for the Healing

I made this post because I witnessed a massively triggering reddit debate, but the mods at r/harrypotter wouldn't post it (I admit, I asked a friend to post it for me). Trigger warning: Sexual Assault.

So, did James commit sexual assault against Snape?

The opener is a trick question, because “sexual assault” is technically a term of art in law and in psychology. Wizards aren’t governed by any Muggle legal system and the Hogwarts library doesn’t carry the DSM. For that matter, wizards are also fictional and written by an author, so whether something falls under a technical definition from an entirely different semantic field (psychology and law… vs. YA fantasy literature) is meaningless.

With that said, in all fairness, if you apply the technical criteria, it definitely was sexual assault. 

From the England and Wales Rape Crisis website:

<<The Sexual Offences Act 2003 says that someone commits sexual assault if all of the following happens:

They intentionally touch another person (James declared intent)

The touching is sexual (if the very act of using Levicorpus on Snape wasn’t sexual in itself, the threat that followed surely was)

The other person does not consent to the touching (no brainer)

They do not reasonably believe that the other person consents (no brainer and kind of the point)

The touching can be with any part of the body or with anything else (let’s say that if the British legislator had had the foresight to include wizards, they would have added “wand”)>>

Also from that website:

<<There are many other ‘tactics’ that someone might use to sexually assault someone. For example:

bullying>>

So there you are.

Sure, some people view this as “pantsing,” a cutesy way to refer to the (perplexing) act of surprisingly taking off a person’s pants. When I (F) was about 8, a classmate (M) opened the door to my bathroom stall in front of other kids to poke fun at me, and I gotta say it never registered and still doesn’t register as a sexual assault because we were literal children. Shitty, it might have been, but… meh. James wasn’t 8, or 10. I just can’t imagine anyone old enough to shave, who doesn’t have serious developmental issues, not understanding that genitals aren’t just “funny”. But if one insists on classifying it as “pantsing,” they should refer to the Wikipedia entry, which speaks of a 5-second long process, not the culmination* of a protracted affair. Also from Wikipedia: “The United States legal system has prosecuted it as a form of sexual harassment of children.”

*I hope it was the culmination: we don’t see if it went that far so we obviously can’t know if it might have gone even further.

So if one were to be fair while applying strict technical terms to James’s action (assuming he went through with it), one would have to cede the point. The term “sexual assault” might be emotionally charged, but going by objective definitions, it applies.

But of course it’s the emotional charge that matters here, because again, IT’S A BOOK. So I suppose there’s no escaping asking ourselves if James went through with his threat*. It’s more likely than not, since the scene could have easily ended with James being interrupted, or even saying “just kidding, I don’t want to make everyone cry, his face is ugly enough.” His furious expression and the fade-to-black suggest that he did. Also, to feature nudity in a YA novel (in which James is, after all, intended as a positive character) would have been literally impossible. The implication is heavy enough. And honestly, I really would like to know who watches a sitcom where the characters start kissing, discuss having sex, and get as naked as the censors would allow before the scene is cut… and needs help figuring out what’s going on here. For James to catch himself on time and not follow through might have been a very compelling way to start his redemption arc, but as we know, that took another year+.

*If he didn’t, it’s mere sexual harassment. But then, to turn the James defenders’ argument against them… it’s one memory out of his entire life. Who’s to say he wasn’t even worse on other occasions? After all, the title “Snape’s Worst Memory” is, in retrospect, about Lily - not the bullying, which was very clearly business as usual.

If Snape had been a girl, it would have been a no brainer. If James had been Snape’s victim, let’s be real, it would have been a no brainer too.

We know what happened had because what happened traumatized Snape… and Harry. Immediately after he saw it, Harry wondered if his dad might have somehow forced his mom to marry him. In HBP he is still unable to tell Ron and Hermione what he had seen in the Pensieve, and doesn’t even say anything when he remembers Snape had called Lily a mudblood. Even in DH, two years after he had seen the memory, he looks away rather than watch the scene unfold again (and the phrasing - “But Harry kept his distance this time, because he knew what happened after James had hoisted Severus into the air and taunted him; he knew what had been done and said” - is highly suggestive). Also, since it's a book, here's the traditional end-of-book canonical voice of the author explaining to us how we ought to feel:

“I trust Severus Snape,” said Dumbledore simply. “But I forgot — another old man’s mistake — that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father — I was wrong.”

This is the same Dumbledore who had, a book earlier, expected Snape and Sirius to play nice, the same Dumbledore who can criticize a man who had just expired in front of his grieving godson, so if he says Snape could not overcome his feelings about James, he probably had good reason to.

We know Snape only bothered to hide very few memories in the Pensieve, presumably the highly volatile and top-secret ones, during the occlumency lessons. We know Snape was surprisingly okay with Harry infiltrating his embarrassing childhood memories, and it was only Harry viewing SWM that drove him over the edge, up to and including defying Dumbledore. We know that it was Harry’s attempt at Levicorpus that made Snape lose it during the HBP confrontation (and not Sectumsempra or even Crucio). In short, we know he’s traumatized. To insist that he’s not legitimately traumatized, but just bitter and petty about getting one-upped and defeated by James or whatever, is not only cruel but also exactly how people react to victims in real life. Minimization, victim-blaming, and denial. How damaging, to be a victim and see this shit, honestly.

Sure, you can interpret Snape as petty and bitter, and you would be right. But you gotta admit the hatred for James rivals all else. Easy - James got Lily*. It’s not Snape’s (valid) trauma, it’s his (incelly, entitled, invalid) jealousy. Except that Snape could have very easily attempted to use a love potion on Lily himself, or taken some measure - any measure - to alleviate his jealousy. And when others accuse him of jealousy, it’s never about Lily or romantic success in general - it’s about James’s Quidditch skills. JKR, however, supplements:

“James always suspected Snape harboured deeper feelings for Lily, which was a factor in James' behaviour to Snape."

Assuming she doesn’t mean “James thought Snape was morally in the wrong for having feelings for Lily,” the more viable interpretation was “James did not appreciate someone else having feelings for Lily.”

*Never mind that James got Lily long after Snape’s supposedly irrational hatred for James reared its head, so.

James intends the removal of Snape's underpants as an escalation of the verbal and physical violence. What's left, after that? Where do you escalate to, from physical violence? It's a reaction to being romantically rebuffed, and compared (unfavorably) to Snape. Jealousy drove James's behavior, not Snape's behavior, and accusing an assault victim of only acting this way because he's jealous of his assailant is... a choice. Especially when the assailant is dead, and so is the object of jealousy, and there's literally nothing and no one left to be jealous of anymore.

Jealousy explains few to none of Snape’s actions, and rather a lot of what James got up to.

Do we need to discuss what the Death Eaters did to the poor Muggle woman at the Quidditch World Cup? That Draco wasn't trying to be helpful in warning Hermione to run away, but rather was attempting to belittle her by alluding to her sexuality? Do we need to, really? Do we need to recall that Voldemort himself described the Death Eaters' behavior (which wasn't as atrocious as James's) as "Muggle Torture"?

How much do we need to be spoon-fed? “Sexual assault” is a charged term? Good. That scene is meant to be appalling. There’s a reason it’s one of the most detailed, graphic and harrowing scenes. It’s important for understanding these characters.

If JKR had wanted to write James as noble, if arrogant, and Snape as jealous and full of unjustified hatred  toward James, she could have. It’s Snape’s hatred toward poor Harry that’s invalid, as the text comments on.

If one feels that to call someone a “sexual assaulter” is to caricaturize them or unfairly malign them when they’re actually more nuanced and complex than that, I can only reply that they can take it up with the author who had made her character that way. If we want to believe a sexual assaulter can grow, change and atone, good on us for our optimism and compassion, although I hope we reserve some for the victims. If we want to believe James, specifically, did - it’s not my cup of tea, but knock yourselves out. But not calling a spade a spade is not the solution and is not helpful.

One last point. I’ve seen it argued that calling James a sex offender is somehow harmful to “real” victims, because it trivializes “real” sexual violence. Funny, that. Funny that feminists fought with tooth and nail for less exacting interpretations that would protect as many people as possible, and then here we are, resorting to (incorrect) technical classifications to avoid calling someone a sex offender, when being a sex offender is nearly his entire claim to fame. Funny, that suddenly gatekeeping is okay and even beneficial. Funny that we think that if we salvage someone from being considered a sex offender by the strictest definitions, it makes his actions remotely okay. Funny that we need to be reminded again, in 2022, that sexual violence is sometimes about sex, but always about power. That men can be and often are victim, That many people, including many “real victims” (in the sense that they are not fictional and are also victims) take great comfort in the representation of a believable survivor who is nevertheless a hero (and a cautionary tale).

This argument is ridiculous and borders on immoral. No one in their right mind would call Harry’s friends sex offenders as they exposed his form shamelessly while under the effect of Polyjuice Potion. That indeed would be trivializing, so no one does it. It’s especially ridiculous for a fandom that is so adept at understanding parallels and allusions to real life when they’re much less fitting, but instructive all the same, such as house-elf <> slave, lychanthropy <> other stigmatized conditions, and Death Eaters <> Nazis and other hate groups. What's trivializing is the idea that one can atone for and move on from the sexual assault they committed by being nice to some other people. What's trivializing is to maintain that there's a proper way to be a victim, complete with a timeline for healing (and that if you don't comply, you're probably not even a victim). For what it’s worth (and it should not be worth anything), I personally have all the authority and moral high ground I need to make this point.

Hate Snape all you want. He’s a bastard. Criticize his coping mechanisms, by all means. They’re inadequate and toxic - but let’s not tell ourselves he has no need for them. Love James if it makes you happy. Many beloved people are sex offenders and their unlovable victims are… just that, and pretending this isn’t so is helping no one.

#snape #severus snape

[johannestevans]

Come see me in Leeds this Friday!

Good morning, good morning!

Remember you can sign up to get this update directly as an email. Anything that I can't promote or post as per Patreon's more stringent guidelines will always still be in my regular email newsletters.

First things first, in the aftermath of the piece I submitted to Trans_Muted late last year, I'm going to be at an event at The Bookish Type, a queer bookshop, in Leeds this Friday evening! Tickets are sold out online, but there will be more tickets available on the door at the £0-£5 range depending on how much people can afford.

It's going to be a Q&A and discussion sort of night, with some readings as well - as well as me, there'll be Dalton Harrison, the founder of StandFast Productions, a collective for ex-offenders to share art and stories; there's Loren Lepton, who does all sorts of rocking art across different disciplines and has published poetry in Trans_Muted; and of course there's Dorian Rose, the founder of Trans_Muted!

Here's the piece I'll be discussing and potentially reading from:

Questions You Wish You Could Ask A Gay Transgender Man — A tongue-in-cheek take on cisgender people’s frequently asked questions.

Read here in Trans_Muted!

Also On Medium / / On Patreon.

There will be books and such forth available from us, as well as the fact that the Bookish Type is an excellent queer-run bookshop that will have all manner of wonders for you to peruse as ever.

Great news for those who enjoyed my Minotaur talk a while back - Romancing the Gothic have invited me back to do another talk as part of a charity event toward the end of March!

On March 16th 2024, Goths for Breakfast is going to centre a variety of talks about gothic literature to raise money for hungry kids, and mine is going to be a presentation and dive into Crimson Peak (2015, dir. Guillermo Del Toro) and its appeal as a modern gothic romance, with a bit of examination about people's hunger for ~problematic~ themes in the age of BookTok, book bans, and rising puritan values and opposition to nuance. Title is yet to drop, but in the meantime, go sign up for Romancing the Gothic and check out their other events!

My plan is to write more non-fiction in the next few months as honestly, I need the money - I'm settling well into the new place but I'm getting used to balancing all my bills against furnishing everything, and I'm currently in need of some dental care. I've talked about it at length here, and there's two polls here and here at the moment about particular essays or non-fiction people would be most eager to see and read, but please let me know if there's anything you'd really like me to write about!

I have a few media recs this week - I already mentioned that I've been playing Dragon Quest XI and I'm now replaying Final Fantasy XV again, but onto some movie recs! A few of these fucking rock, and I definitely plan to write a bit more about them at length.

The Holdovers (2023, dir. Alexander Payne) - This one was good, not a new favourite of mine or anything, but it's well-paced and has a lot of well-done slice-of-life and character study, which I know people who like my work will undoubtedly appreciate! It's a loving and sensitive film - I found it to be a bit bland for my taste, but for being this sort of film it's not at all too saccharine, and it definitely might be worth a watch if you like nasty old men or nasty young men! I'll be honest, though, none of the men in this are particularly to my taste - I did love Da'Vine Joy Randolph's performance though, she really makes the whole film.

Demon (2015, dir. Marcin Wrona) - This film has been criticised a lot by genre horror fans because they're upset that it doesn't meet genre horror conventions: it doesn't. This is a real fucking horror film delving into the reality of living on haunted, bloodied land, and it's a modern retelling of The Dybbuk - gentiles at a wedding become haunted by the ghost of a dead Jewish bride, and horrors unfold for them. This film is beautiful, and I don't think I've ever seen a film that depicts gentiles grappling so much with the violence that's been done by them and their community to Jewish people, and then making the decision to turn away from it. The haunting of the pogroms in this film is visceral, and it feels all the more salient at the moment given the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the historical-to-now experiences of Palestinians in the face of that colonial violence.

Minyan (2020, dir. Eric Steel) - This is a super gorgeous film as well - I've watched a lot of coming-of-age flicks about young queer men coming to terms with their sexuality, particularly set in the 80s, but I've never seen one that has such a loving depiction of a man's developing sexual identity at the same time as his developing religious one and the relationship he has with his Judaism and with worship and religion, and other queer men in his community and how many there are once he knows how to look for and find them. I really love the undercurrent of his relationship with James Baldwin's work, especially a contrast at one point of a fellow young Russian Jew saying he's going to join the IDF, and then immediately jump to work from Baldwin. I would recommend Baldwin's short open letter on Zionism, antisemitism, and Palestinian liberation from '79 in The Nation, which you can read here.

New Works Published

Serial Update: Powder and Feathers

Chapter Fifty-Four: Colm has a painful discussion with his granddaughter; Jean-Pierre bonds with his niece.

--

It seems to Aimé Deverell that there is very little point to life, except for what pleasures can be enjoyed before the grave. Life is short - thank God - but at least there's enough in the world to dull the senses in the meantime.

That philosophy shatters like glass when he meets Jean-Pierre, an angel.

Read on Medium / / Read on Ao3 / / Read on WorldAnvil

Erotic Short: Wine Barrel

The angel Jean-Pierre lets himself get caught by the all-too-friendly Dionysus.

Rated E, trans M/everyone at a party. Featuring object insertion, inflation with a womb filled up with wine, unsafe alcohol consumption, lactation, milking, public humiliation, voyeurism, transformation, very drunk sex, sadomasochism, free use, objectification, begging, multiple orgasms, overstimulation.

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon / / Read on SubscribeStar / / Read on Ao3

Erotic Short: Window Trap

Jean-Pierre makes an unwise decision, and gets caught amongst the wrong crowd.

Rated E, 3.9k, trans M angel gangbanged by Greek gods, mostly by Hermes (Aetos Talaria). Doros is also here — Doros and Jean-Pierre both being characters in Powder and Feathers.

Dubious to non consent here after some pure hubris, with a gangbang, large insertions, come inflation, deepthroating, spitroasting, predicament bondage with Jean-Pierre stuck in a wall, humiliation, degradation, dirty talk, masochism, stomach bulges.

Read on Medium / / Read on SubscribeStar / / Read on Ao3

Non-Fiction: My Top 6 Films of 2023

2023 had a few knock-out hits as far as the cinema goes — obviously, people were very excited about the respective releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer, but my top films of the year were a bit different.

One  thing I do think unites a lot of these — and a trend I hope to see from  more films in the next few years — is a trend toward more earnestness  and sincerity in scripts and plot lines, and I’m hoping that trend  continues!

Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon/ / Read on Tumblr

Woe, Boypussy Be Upon Ye: Transing Characters in Fanfic & Fanart

What’s the deal with envisioning your blorbos as transgender?

Read on Medium in Prism & Pen / / Read on Patreon/ / Read on Tumblr

Erotic TweetFic: Building Stamina

A new addition to a band of mercenaries struggles to keep pace with them - but no worries. They've another role in mind for him.

Read on Twitter

#musings #original fiction #trans author #writers on tumblr

[asimpledreamwanderer]

i'm a little ill right now and honestly don't have motivation to make sketches (i haven't posted my art here in a long ass time- and honestly good for me because i look back to those pictures and think damn, was that me??) so here's some little emily headcanon / backstory thing i came up with based on these facts about her on the ttte wiki and the official wikipedia page about her basis:

so without furder ado, my emily backstory headcanon(s):

so we all know that emily is the safety engine- and compared to the other members of the steam team, she doesn't get herself into very silly accidents or derails often- sure, sometimes she can't read the atmosphere or does gestures that aren't exactly helpful to a specific situation (such as getting mavis flowers when she was down), but she's very introspective, often being able to tell what's up with her friends and frankly, doing odd jobs until she becomes the safety engine- but also having a bit of a bossy attitude about her when it comes to such things, like bossing around thomas and percy following a storm, and becoming impatient when she feels as if the other engines have little regard for their work or her work- but the question remains- why?

it's known that emily's engine class faced issues with traction and staying smoothly on the rails- something that we see frequently in the model series, she lightly "rocks and rolls" on the track- additionally, her engine class got into two big derailment accidents- one where the engine derailed on broken rail, killing a passenger, and one where the removal of a speed restriction on the track caused the engine to derail and kill two people

additionally, only the first of the class is left preserved in the current day- i headcanon that in ttte, this engine was last minute bought by the fat controller to help out on the northwestern railway- something that emily remains thankful for, but unused to.

i headcanon that since most of her class was removed from service around the 1890's (just around when edward was born), emily has little to no experience about railways in the more recent times, and that emily remained pulling passenger trains on her former railway with an "engines are seen, not heard" attitude- similar to what duke says to peter sam and sir handel about his younger days. additionally, since emily was the first of her class, i would assume she would be subject to more experimentation and/or exposure of what actually happens to engines rather quickly, given her curious personality- she would probably spend a lot of time at the steamworks on the gnr, with the workers there adoring her curious personality and her desire to be learning new things- leading to them talking to her through any and every modification she might receive, any repairs she might receive, any repairs that other engines might receive- the works. the workers there treat her very humanly, almost as if she's purely a human without arms or legs- they let her smell and experience the texture of human food and drinks (receiving some funny reviews from her in the process), read the paper out loud to her, teach her how to do things such as mathematics and telling her about literature- you get the point. around when her class became decomissioned and the railway preparing to send the other engines for scrap, the workers talked to her about it- and her reaction was very very human. more human than most other workers had seen throughout their lifetime.

while emily was devastated over her siblings' deaths, she also remained confused- she had not officially been named by her controller at the time, and she experienced the same issues as the rest of her class did, but up until then was lucky to never have derailed or killed another being in the process. the engines on the gnr were given numbers after older locomotives- essentially taking their places on the railway as the older locomotives would soon be forgotten- making emily wonder "why? why do i deserve to stay and be preserved and restored to working order while all my siblings are sent for scrap?" this also made her feel queasy about being a new engine and/or about seeing new engines on the railway- she began to worry about how it was unfair, that older engines would be sent to scrap as newer ones came, but also terrifying her to realize that they didn't even stand some sort of protection in the process, and that the vast majority of steam locomotives would eventually face the same fate as their predecessors (additionally, i like to think the gnr had a "no-fraternizing-during-work" policy for the engines, and most of the engines would be too exhausted at the end of the day for deeper conversations with one another- also leading to emily panicking about who even are the engines she worked with, what are their likes/dislikes, etc- this also leads to why she got frustrated at thomas when he slept with her in the sheds in calling all engines but that's a point i'll get to later)- sure, she spoke to the engines while they worked, and in fact sometimes told them what was going on and tried to reassure them while she was in the works- but it was never enough to keep the guilt about her being chosen to be preserved and an engine's life cycle away.

due to all of these things- most of emily's relaxed conversation occuring with humans, the majority of her knowledge coming from humans and their perspective, and the lack of fraternizing with other engines while at work, emily became somewhat stunted developmentally- sure, she's older than edward by a good twenty years- but she doesn't even know how to act on a running railway anymore- after all, the times have changed. this leads to emily's occasional short temper with the other engines, and even leads to the events when we first meet her, where she takes thomas' coaches on accident- she was not used to asking, she simply did as she was told on her own railway- twisting her attempts at becoming friendly with the engines on sodor at first

when sir topham hatt first bought her, the workers at the steamworks were delighted that emily would not only be able to run again, but that she would be in a place that she would be cared for, that sir topham hatt would be able to put the time and energy into repairing her and taking care of her that the workers at the gnr were beginning to lose access to- this led to a little "going away" party for emily- many tears were shed, and many memories were shared- even if now most of the workers are gone, emily looks back at them fondly, probably telling the engines about her times with them, and her times on the gnr.

here's where emily's safety engine backstory comes through- remember how her engine class used to derail and "rock and roll" quite often? this led to her become a worrywart- not just about herself, but about the other engines and their safety as well- she was concerned about henry when his tubes were leaky, she stood up for salty against thomas and percy's teasing, she looks at james and thomas almost like her little brothers (because obviously, they get into some of the dumbest and most careless accidents- and in the earlier series, don't really learn from it)- the list goes on, but she essentially ends up worrying about herself and the other engines A LOT. however, deep down this is because of her revelation about scrapping while she was at the gnr- she herself does not want to be scrapped, but she doesn't want any of her new friends to be scrapped either- especially since many perfectly working steam locomotives would be sent to the scrapyard at alarming rates.

now this is where her probably not socializing with many other engines whilst working or resting during her time at the gnr comes in- remember when thomas sleep whistles, keeps chatting off to her, and snoring when they shared a shed together? and just how annoying she found it? i believe she was overstimulated by it, seeing that she was still a rather new engine at the time, and slept by herself at knapford sheds. secretly, she was probably scared thomas' sleep whistling might send her away, or distract her from her rest and cause issues tomorrow- when she realizes that that isn't the case, when thomas leaves she begins to feel lonely, having enjoyed the company of her friend and realizing that nothing was going to happen to either of them after all- and when she was invited to take a berth at tidmouth sheds, she was delighted- with some learning curves, obviously- after all, she's very new to this

i imagine that edward would take to her endearingly, realizing that she's probably having an inner conondrum she doesn't openly speak of, thus being easier on her- he would also probably wonder how he ended up being an engine younger than her by the years but older in personality, but chooses to not mention it- sometimes they get along talking about their days on their old railways, and it would imagine they can get into pretty deep philosophical conversations (do engines have philosophy?) if emily ever lets her guard down

similarly, henry would probably look to her for advice and learning how to stand up for himself, and being kinder- not only was he more of a cynical character in the early series, but he was also very very ill- and that combined with his desire to prove himself past all his ailments probably turned him into a very harsh person- something he originally couldn't really understand- and something that emily was able to help him through, talking about his feelings

obviously in the series she also has her bossy moments, being impatient when clearing up the rails from a storm and taking gordon's express- i imagine that it was taken control of by sir topham hatt in a much different manner, remembering how emily was at the gnr's steamworks- he speaks to her almost like a teenager about her actions, letting her bask and self reflect instead of immediately assigning her to other work until she can be trusted again- thus making her one of his more sensible engines

however, emily does have her own moments of not being so sensible- for example, when she wished to be streamlined like caitlin, admiring her (and victor was basically like nah you don't need that 💀)- insecurity from her old age and wishing to be something more than just an odd jobs engine probably made her a little bit insecure. another great example is when she's with whiff- obviously, she's not one for smells, but to go on and laugh at him and be frantic about being seen with him just because her peers laughed at him? clearly she had a moment of smokebox fog there.

i imagine that emily actually wouldnt have much prejudice towards diesels- sure, she got mad at him for taking the coaches when being ill, but that was because he was ill and pushing himself- it has nothing to do with him being a diesel (something i assume would surprise diesel, especially for such an old engine like emily)- i believe that she wouldn't even know what diesels actually are for a while, but she would see them as any useful engine, and that once she did learn about the steamie/diesel conflict she would try to calm her inner crisis about scrapping- sir topham hatt wouldn't do that, and they're only doing their purpose after all

additionally, emily probably doesn't take kindly to hearing about engines getting scrapped- in her younger days, she probably remained blissfully unaware of the mechanics of it, but as she got older and learned more about scrapping it probably terrifies her, and she believes that all engines can be useful and don't deserve to be damned to the scrapyard for any reason

back to thomas and james? yeah. she probably sees them as her "annoying little brothers" that she loves very dearly- which is confirmed for james in a magazine story- but it's definitely a much different relationship than what she had with younger engines at the steamworks, with her relationship with the two being more freeflowing. i assume james has some sort of insecurity about being a "failed prototype" and an experimental engine on his old railway, and emily manages to help him get through it while talking about the positives and the actual mechanics of it, and reaffirming that he still is a really useful and really good engine.

and as for thomas? playful banter. so much banter. sometimes they act silly and fight like actual human siblings would, but at the end of the day they do care for eachother deeply- think of her having to hold a metaphorical leash on him, at times 😭

back to emily's conondrums- this leads to her being a very safe engine- in fact, being one of the safest on sir topham hatt's railway- initially i imagine she wouldn't care much for not being numbered, as it soothed her inner panic of not taking a scrapped engine's place, but over time as she began to heal i imagine that she would desire it in some way- and experience such delight when she is numbered and given the position! she wears her number very proudly on the nwr and is very very proud of being the nwr's safety engine :)

sheesh, this was LONG- i'm taking some time away from the phone- if you managed to make it this far i hope you're having a lovely day :) (also can you tell i'm an older sister 💀💀)

#t&f #thomas the tank engine #ttte #thomas the train #ttte emily #ttte henry #ttte james #ttte edward #the railway series #thomas the tank engine and friends #i love emily so much you don't understand #she feels like the older sister representation i NEEDED when i got a younger sibling #emily my beloved

[system-of-a-feather]

New Pinned Post

I'm no longer in need of back up money, so commissions aren't needed, but if you ever want to commission me, I'm usually open. I also occasionally put some of my art on redbubble.

Anyways, hello everyone, I am too lazy to find my old crack DID pride flag (it'll come up some day and I'll link it here), and I figured I should slowly update some of my intro stuff for this blog after not touching it for a fucking minute.

You can call me Feathers - we're a 21+ year old Buddhist mixed-AAPI intersex nonbinary system (they/them) that is at late stage recovery and regularly floats between final fusion and functional multiplicity (in what we call Wishiwashi Recovery). As a result, we don't always tag which part is out and sometimes tag "alter: fei" which is a short hand for a state of final fusion. Sometimes we might tag which part is dominant, but it's all whatever.

We're diagnosed with DID, C-PTSD, autism, trichotillomania, OCD, and honestly a number of things cause complex-trauma life. We have some physical disabilities but nothing that typically causes too much obstruction in our day to day.

As a result of our state of recovery, we really don't have a set headcount, however we were / are polyfragmented.

Some fun things about us and things you'll see on this blog:

Due to the fact that DID is no longer really that much of an interesting topic / impactful part of our life, we only occasionally post about DID and our experiences with it. While it was the original purpose of this blog, as a depiction of our healing journey and what healing with DID can look like, we decided we would rather just post about whatever sparks joy in our life. As a result, rather than much content on DID, you will likely see things relating to the topics below. PLEASE feel free to send asks about ANY of the topics below. We love to talk about things.

We are Buddhist (primarily non-theistic; Zen) and we really enjoy it. We particularly like the philosophy and do practice it. Admittedly, we identify as being god awful Buddhists, but thats okay cause its part of the process.

We love research and plan to go into it when our ducks are better aligned. We particularly love research and literature around developmental psychopathology, trauma, dissociation, animal behavior, and the more abstract neuroscience topics (particularly consciousness research). We likely won't post much on it as overtly here because I don't enjoy talking science on tumblr much because most people (in my experience) don't actually want to talk about research as much as they want to prove their point. (For the moment, we have a psych degree and work fulltime with autistic children - FUCK ABA ALL MY HOMIES HATE ABA)

We are avid bird watchers and regularly document / photograph the birds we see and upload them to ebird. We really enjoy it as an activity and social engagement and really love sharing that joy and knowledge with people. We actually have a minor in Avian Science and have been tested on North American ID skills. We also know more than we need to about chicken biology as a result of said degree. If you want to send anything about birds, bird watching, or asking for a bird ID (even non North American), they are ALWAYS welcome and you are ALWAYS allowed to tag us in any bird related content.

We do a lot of creative work and have dedicated ourselves (withour writing partner) to a large story world project that we've been writing for over a decade now. We actually specifically started grinding our art skills in 2020 specifically just to help build that world up. Art is one of our largest self soothing coping mechanisms. We are going to turn that story world into a comic and a TTRPG system so please check out @thedevaaffliction.

Overall, we really just like thinking about a lot of topics and things as part of both our interest in research, philosophy, and as part of our Buddhist practice. We don't really find an interest in arguing discourse / syscourse because we really dislike and see very little benefit in debate. That said, we love to discuss experiences, thoughts, feelings and perspectives on complex topics and as long as the intent is to discuss and share rather than to "win" or "prove", we really enjoy that sort of enrichment in our life so we do welcome it. That said, we withhold the right to deem any conversation as more debate than discussion and to abandon it.

Additionally, related to the fifth point, we believe in being fully transparent about our past and admission that we were wrong as we think it is very important to be able to re-evaluate your beliefs and opinions and grow. In our mid teens we actually were pretty far into the alt-right pipeline and until about a year or so ago, we were staunch anti-endos. These days we are basically commies and very pro-endo. If anyone has any interest on how we pivoted so hard in our opinions on those topics, we are more than open to talk and discuss it as well as any insights we pulled from the experience.

Also we love martial arts - I forgot that cause I'm not particularly XIV brained rn but we REALLY enjoy martial arts.

We suck at being labeled and having labels. We're just very very queer.

--------------

DNI:

People who put on their socks/shoes in the order of Sock-Shoe-Sock-Shoe

That's about it. We liberally block, so we don't really worry about DNIs. If we don't like your content for any reason, we will remove it from our dash. Whether or not you want to interact with us is up to you past that point. Generally, we welcome anyone to follow as it can make for good conversation.

#pinned post #alter: fei #alter: riku

[oliviabutsmart]

[Bonus Physics Friday?] Plagiarism and Originality

So you (the reader) may have watched the recent HBomberGuy video. I have too! And it's honestly a great (yet long watch). I highly recommend you read it.

After reading the video, it inspired me to add my own comments onto what I think is important to keep in mind about plagiarism and it's relevancy to this blog.

Unintentional Plagiarism

You yourself may eventually have to write something in the future. Whether it be code, a school/university project, text/literature, or even an academic paper.

I'm certain you've had some anxiety in the past (usually in school) of "what if I wrote something that was plagiarised?" when submitting documents to your teachers.

This anxiety often arises because when you are doing an academic assignment, the subject matter has already been covered many times over, so many times you may end up stumbling your way into writing something that already exists.

It is, in fact, possible to unintentionally plagiarise. But it often comes in a different form.

As seen in his video, often times, creators end up sharing video techniques and ideas when creating new work. More broadly, a lot of our art or 'content' in-general is in some-form derivative.

Here's an example from my own posts, expressing a very common cycle in how we develop our opinions or knowledge on things:

You hear from someone, or in a video, or by reading in a book a particular opinion/fact/idea/expression

You keep the idea in your head but forget the source you found it from

Eventually, months to years later, you recall the idea you had and write it down in a public place

You don't credit the source of the idea because it's lost to your mind, you think you yourself came up with the idea

This gives the idea that your ideas are completely original, but are instead pulled from another source. This is what I mean by "unintentional plagiarism" - often you yourself don't even know it's happening.

After writing 16 Physics Friday posts, I can now at least recall a few times where this has happened to me. Usually by way of me re-watching a video or seeing a video on youtube after the fact, where I'm like:

"Hey, I remember watching this video ... Hey, this is where I got that idea from!"

There are two examples that I can list right now, in fact:

In post #8, the definition of "Energy is the capacity to do work" came from a video by 'Professor Dave Explains'' on youtube. I cannot recall which video I got it from, but I do know it was a debunk

The idea for post #9 came from a video by 'Answer in Progress' titled "how fahrenheit fails you"

In both examples, either small sentence-level statements or whole topic ideas effectively get "copied" by my mind. However there is a core distinction between what I have labelled as unintentional plagiarism, and real "you did a word crime" plagarism.

Our Textual Fingerprint

It is a fact that almost all of our ideas are copied from somewhere else. Teachers in high school, internet pundits, other posts on social media. These, combined with our cycle of forgetting the source, create an effect of "plagarism"

What's important is that all of these ideas amalgamate, and get filtered through our own brain. I might have gotten the "energy is the capacity to do work" definition from one guy, but it combines itself in my head with every other association and factoid about energy I know.

Not just that, but it filters through my own head and my own words into different explanations, different expressions, different language.

The way you yourself construct ideas in your head is why we can consider it okay to express an idea that is still somewhat derivative. Because our own words, our own expressions garble that idea into something that is distinctly our own.

And that's the core point about avoiding plagiarism, both unintentional and intentional.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to write it in your own words Source: every teacher in high school

Every person possesses a sort-of fingerprint. It exists in the way we write, the way we talk, even the way we communicate in other mediums like auditory (music, speech) or visual (performance, artistic, video) formats.

This fingerprint is detectable to most people. It's how you can tell when someone uses AI to write an article. Because ChatGPT has it's own literary footprint.

If my next Physics Friday post was written by someone else, you would be able to tell. Because the way I write is distinct. The errors, the mannerisms, the explanations are all constructed in a way that make the way I write unique to others.

Why does plagiarism happen?

I've seen plenty of examples of plagiarism in the past. In fact, I remember in Year 9, someone copied my entire essay on Australia's role in WWI, and I got off with a slap on the wrist for being so naive to share it with another student.

And with this experience, I've found that there are two main reasons why someone plagiarises, at least in the academic realm:

They have a lack of respect for the subject matter or their victim

Laziness or apathy

This is something the above video makes a point of as well, adding on a drive for success. Something which I wouldn't say is as common in academic media.

Really, the best way to stop yourself from stooping to the level of intentionally plagiarising is one of two things:

Force yourself to write something original, to write in your own words

Don't write it. Take a break or reconsider why you feel the need to do it

This is often why I end up writing opinion posts. I'd rather do that than be a piece of shit and copy a Veritasium video. Seriously, it's so tempting to just do a topic that Veritasium has already covered - he's a great creator and always picks all the good topics.

How it's relevant to Physics Friday (And how Wikipedia is actually a decent source)

All of my Physics Friday posts are written in my own words, usually all at once or in two seperate sessions on Friday. There is occasionally the odd quote from Wikipedia or other online sources. But the text is usually my own.

I mostly use other internet sources, like Wikipedia, or others, to effectively re-jog my memory. It helps remind me of what a particular mechanism is.

I don't cite them because usually I only read small sentences and then go "ah, now I recall the textbook's worth of information stored in my head". My external research never ends up becoming a real source in a proper sense.

The only exception is Wikipedia and my own lecture notes.

While my posts are not copy-paste descriptions from Wikipedia, the website does help guide me on particularly difficult-to-understand subjects. It helps me decide what exactly to talk about. Or check which ideas are often more common.

One example is the dark matter post (#4). I used it as my primary source for deciding on what was the most notable dark matter candidates to talk about. And the section headers are derived in some way from their article.

You can generally assume that for all of my physics posts, I have used Wikipedia in some way as a knowledge-check, to ensure I'm not spitting nonsense.

In fact, I recommend Wikipedia as further reading after looking at my post if interested. And to donate to their organisation, which I have done on several seperate occasions.

Definitions and Single-Sentence Quotes

Outside of images, the most common place where I directly quote from other sources are in the definitions I've used. I cannot actually remember if I've ever done it before on tumblr, but I've done it in the past for several academic writings.

Definitions are tricky. Because, especially with precise scientific definitions, there are only so many ways to construct a definition that:

Removes all ambiguity from the phenomenon

Perfectly describes all or most instances of the thing, and excludes any non-instance of the thing

If I'm not coming up with the definition myself, I generally aim to find the source of the definition. Something that already fails in some ways, as explained above.

The Easy Part: Citing a Source

When writing academic papers, sources are probably the most annoying part of it. Bibliography management is a pain.

When writing these Physics Friday posts, citing is the easiest thing I can do. There's no requirement to follow a strict standard like the APA.

Often giving the author's name or a link to the original content is enough information to credit the author.

This is why you see an image credit or video credit under each of my Physics Friday posts. Sometimes also on meme posts too!

Should we cite our memes?

This is an interesting question. No seriously. Take a second to think about this question properly.

A lot of our memes (and porn) come from artists on youtube, twitter, tumblr, etc. And I have found countless times where I'm like "huh, I like this guys' work ... where can I find more of it?" and just turn up nothing.

We appear to think that memes are not just public domain, but un-creditable public domain. Someone on youtube can copy a guy's voice-over of a meme, turn on ads for that video, and rake in cash. The original artist ends up getting none of the credit, or money.

For a lot of memes, it makes sense to copy it without credit. But the above paragraph applies to a certain subsection of memes, particularly the higher-effort ones.

Personally for me, when I have the capacity to share a meme I try to credit the original artist. Because I believe that person deserves the credit for making the funny.

At least for us, credit means we ourselves gain from it, we can look up the original and find more of the same.

My posts aren't trademarked

It's obvious to say, but "Physics Friday" is not limited to me. My goal with these posts are to get other people into following on and making their own style of posts in physics. To generally bolster the community.

If you want to do the Physics Friday thing, you do not need to ask for permission. That's all I need to say.

Conclusion: Why did I write this?

I've just spent the last hour writing a tumblr post after watching a HBomberGuy video. And now I am just wondering why I did that.

I guess I had a lot of things to say about plagiarism and writing your own work.

Oh well.

Look out for next Friday where I'll probably do an opinion piece on tau vs pi!

#physics friday #plagarism #hbomberguy #Youtube

[annbourbon]

After reading What is...? by @creativepromptsforwriting (if you haven't read her blog or follow her WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?)

I decided to add some of my notes here too. Because it's on the little things I've been studying every night to get better at writing. So please consider this post as part/collab of "What is...?"

★Please keep in mind that this comes from someone whose first language it's not english, so, what for some might be obvious, for others it is not.

Blurb? is a short promotional description on your book. But can also be used to promote movies and other things.

Needs: Hook + Keywords (define an audience) + keep it short and leave them wanting for more.

* Remember to check for spelling and grammar mistakes.

Nowadays you can use quotes from your book as promo too. Pinterest is your best ally here. Make a bunch of attractive images with a colorful quotes and upload it on your social media! ^♡^

Honestly when it comes to promos you should exploit it all (meaning: create quotes, collage, your cover, promos, etc!) Be your own fan. Create a playlist, ambience, set the mood. Let your own world drag you into the woods, do not resist it.

If you love it, other will love it too.

W.I.P.? Means Work in Progress. So you have yet a lot to do to finish your story. it's okay, it takes time \^♡^/

Pathetic fallacy Vs Personification?

Pathetic fallacy

It's specifically about giving emotions to something non-human (objects, nature, or animals)

Writers use the pathetic fallacy to evoke a specific mood or feeling that usually reflects their own or a character's internal state. While I have seen some detractors of using this technique, think of Emily Brontë novel, Wuthering Heights, or Shakespeare in several of his works like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Or Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. So study it and use it carefully and you should be fine. Times change but you should write however you want too.

Personification

On the other hand, is giving any human attribute to an object.

Think of The Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, and Toy Story as great examples of what personification is.

Atmosphere?  is the way an author uses setting, objects, or internal thoughts of characters to create emotion, mood, or experiences for the reader.

For me Mary Shelley with Frankenstein is one of the most accurate examples I can give, but when I think about it, Robinson Crusoe, and Moby Dick, both feel tremendously claustrophobic and desperate to the reader, full of details, the time passes slowly and it's insufferable. Which in theory is not okay because the reader can drop the book but guess what? They're classic because you want to know what happens next. Which brings me to my next point, if you want to know more about the art of writing, you should try the following channels on YT:

Abbie Emmons

She has some interesting videos, but one crazy tip that will change your mind. It actually works. And don't worry, she keeps repeating it over and over so you learn it too. She also offers some courses and several activities like writing together (in case you're trying to write but can't, now you have a date!)

Ellie Dashwood

If you're into social dynamics, subtlety and want to get better writing period stories wether they are romantic or dramas, then she's your best bet. While she doesn't teach you how to write better she does teach you literature and history. And trust me, some of these things can be more than helpful. The way she analyzes and provides for clarification over social situations has made me understand not just Jane Austen but my own time in a different way.

Fiction Beast

This is showing me a lot of literature and making me read classics. Of course it wouldn't work if it wasn't because of Ellie but it's a must! because it does explains a lot.

Ana Neu

I just discovered her and Ellen so I can't say a lot of things but their videos have been really helpful with some of the things I've been working on especially with Fit or Die, so you should check out both of these girls.

Ellen Brock

and of course, he needs no introduction, but if you didn't know, he has several classes posted on his channel which have been helping me tremendously.

Brandon Sanderson

*Disclaimer: They're not paying me for doing promo. I just do this on my own account because I truly admire their work and effort put into it. Plus, I always do this for anyone if I truly admire the way they work. And I believe this is helpful for anyone with hopes of becoming an author. Even if it's just a hobby. Have fun~!

#annabourbon #danteann #faith dante #books #writers write #write #writer #writing #female writers #fiction writing #creative #creative writing #words #indie writer #writerscommunity #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writer problems #writing tips #help with writing #writing advice #writing a book #writing about writing #writing books #book blog #books and reading #writers and readers

[moorishflower]

hi!! im absolutely astounded at the amount of depth and heart thats in all your fics, and im also very floored at the amount at which you write—im at a cross between admiration and maybe jealously lol!! I wanted to ask, are there any fic of yours (sandman or not) that you think are underrated/deserves more attention?? super excited for everything you ever write!!

asdfg anon thank you <3 So I have a Problem where I have a lot of anxiety about what I create, and when that's writing, if I am not writing The Next Great Novel, then I need to sate the brain demons SOMEHOW, and writing a LOT is the easiest way to do that. I want very badly to please people, and fortunately it's not a hardship for me to write the amount that i do, though I AM trying to consciously like. Take breaks if I need? Take a night off? Keep it healthy looool. But that I'm able to write things that people are consistently finding value and meaning in is a continuous and beautiful marvel to me so thank you, thank you very much!!!

So I read your second part of the ask wrong at first and had gathered uh several fics which I think are underrated that are NOT mine

One Half of a Whole by @violetequus8 - Absolutely REMARKABLE post-apocalyptic literature. Equus captures an entire world and history in 4000 words. There are sentences in this fic that rewrote my brain chemistry.

The entire like this slumber that creeps to me series by @tobrokenstone - THIS. This is survival the way I fucking LOVE IT. Bleak, stark, hard decisions, lasting consequences, surprisingly tender cannibalism (this last may be...specific to me and a few select others lol)

Once again repping the point-set-triangulation series by therm0dynamics, which is singlehandedly the series that got me into Hob/The Corinthian (it's about MIRRORS it's about PARALLELS)

And at this point I realized that you'd asked about which of MY fics I think are underrated, and I was just so caught up in the thought of repping my friends that I lived in a world where I did not write for a moment loool

Salt and Rye is the result of a prompt on tumblr. I wanted to try and capture that feeling of recreating a parent or grandparent's recipe and failing, because it's SUCH a disheartening moment, but I wanted to make it lighter, because Hob has someone there to share the comedy of it with him.

Here there be dragons is my latest fic in the Siren AU and I do think that people who aren't into scifi in general will be more likely to give it a pass, but I'm very proud of it, and very proud of the emotions it evoked in ME, and I promise it's not hard scifi like The Martian or even really pervasive scifi like Star Trek! I just tried to think realistically about what our planet would look like and feel like in 1500 years, and how we might need to leave it. Also, Dream's still a carnivorous octopus man.

an act of faith is the vampire fever dream that struck me at like 3pm on a Saturday and I blacked out for like two hours and this was what I'd written during that time. I enjoy writing obscene levels of devotion and you can't really get much more obscene than "willing to tempt death year after year even though no one's asked you to in order to prove to YOURSELF that your lover loves you"

Honestly I don't think many of my fics are underrated! They're all written at different points in my development and my understanding of myself as a writer, and they range pretty widely in terms of theme and genre sometimes, so some, statistically, are going to be kind of niche! And that's okay! I guess the only thing I'd say is that even if you think something isn't your jam, unless the tags are specifically triggering you give it a try! The worst thing that'll happen is you get a paragraph in and then back out again. An extremely smart person (it was @xx-vergil-xx <3) recently said something along the lines that part of healthy interacting with art is also knowing when to put it down, but it's also important to give different things a chance so that you learn more about yourself and your preferences. I myself am trying to expose myself to and write more angst? Because it makes me deeply uncomfortable to do so! But that's a valuable feeling to know and recognize! Idk i just think we all get different stuff out of writing and it's just nice that I've been able to provide something to so many people <3

#ask response

[val-victory]

Meet the Trainer

You can call me Val, i am an Ace Trainer from Unova on my way to become Champ. i can beat some of the Elite-4 but i lack the consistency to beat all of them. (and i am scared of the Champ).

Btw my Partner is Piper @/justyouraveragepoketherapist they are the loveliest Person i know.

//CURRENT ARC: BITLEAKS (read them and every Post marked #lore)

Bitleaks File 01: Toxic Voltage

Bitleaks File 02: Paperwork

Bitleaks File 03: coming soon //

Here are my two Teams, featuring the cutest and friendliest little Mons you could possibly meet.

6v6 Team: Glassstorm

Every single Member is immune to Sandstorm which is my Main Strategy with them (bring your Goggles if you wanna fight)

Scizor - "Sense"

My beloved. Even though he lost a Part of his Pincer, he still packs a Bullet Punch. He is emotionally dependent on me and follows me everywhere.

"Torterra - "Cheli"

he is just a sweet little Boy who often forgets that he is no longer a small Turtwig. a real gentle Giant, unless he wants to play.

Magcargo - "Kratik"

She is slow, but she warms my Heart and my Home. Literally, she lives inside of my Cellar and gives off enough Excess Heat to keep my Home at a warm 20 degrees even in the Winter.

Tyranitar - "Dess"

The bringer of the Sandstorm. Do not get on her bad Side, otherwise you will have to sweep the Floor(from all the Sand).

Mawile - "Schkrinkel"

He is cute and knows it, he constantly demands to be pet otherwise he will nibble on you with his small Mouth. But don't worry he might bite you with his Big Maw too.(positive)

Gliscor - "Fledex"

Tried to teach him Flight. didn't work. He's well versed in Literature and Art but because he can't talk he just hangs upside down on the Ceiling. i like his Pincers :3

3v3 Team: "Lightning Polygon Team Star"

Porygon2 - "Bit"

It likes to digitize itself and lives in my Computer, i don't mind since it never corrupts anything. Also i won't evolve it, i am not giving a sweet little thing weird Data from another Dimension.

Vikavolt - "Don"

i honestly think that she is evil. But since she listens to my Commands i don't have to fear for my Life, but sometimes when i hear her flying around... those Wings are the sound of Death. She is larger than a typical Specimen of her Species, the Alolans called her a Totem.

Toxapex - "Quäli"

He is so sweet, i like him a lot and even though his poisonous Stings hurt a lot and for a long Time, i can't be mad at him, he is just trying to hug me. i think it's mostly on me when he attacks me, since i disturbed him in his Aquarium.

//HUGE BITCH ALERT. do not attempt Contact unless comfortable with being Called a Shithead.

mild rules.

if you don't want to be yelled at you have to write in an overly friendly tone, hype up Val's achievements or write something like "genuinely curious". Expect a rude answer otherwise.

Val is not an evil Villain, don't treat her like one. treat Val like a rude Person who just took your Bus Seat.

Pelipper Mail:open

Magic Anons: off(unless you think that your idea is like really good but i will probably delete anyway)

Musharna Mail: open

#rotumblr #first post #rotomblr #pokeblogging #pinned #pinned post

[anotherlesbiandad]

okay fuck it it's about time i make a pinned post

what you'll find on this blog:

- a Lot of reblogs for various fandoms. these fandoms include (but are not limited to) community, supernatural, dc comics, percy jackson/hoo, buffy the vampire slayer, firefly, seinfeld, project hail mary, the hunger games, sherlock holmes (mostly acd canon but the occasional bbc post), doctor who, marauders, zigverse!marauders (of which i am the founder), teenage mutant ninja turtles, and okay jesus the list is gonna keep going if i let it

- discussion of classic literature and mythology (mostly greco-roman) when i feel like it. please send me asks about this if you want to become my best friend

- poor formatting

- the occasional fic or fic rec

- reblog bait and ask games cause i'm lonely and want to feel connected to something

- a lot of random ass thoughts, mostly to do with something above or my mental issues

those of you who have been following me for a while probably know about zigverse, and when i make a zigverse master post (eventually) i'll link it here.

if you're here from one of my poetry sideblogs please i am begging you to be sworn to secrecy about what i write over there. i'm working off of the honor system here

i used to draw over on this account, but have since deleted like all of my fanart. from here. it still exists on my art sideblog, but i'm not comfortable linking it here, so you'll just have to trust me that you might see it at some point

DNI LIST: honestly just like. don't be a dick? if you're following me and you're a dick to me then i'm gonna block you, but other than that have at it.

except for you wincesties.

okay that's pretty much it idk bye

#pinned post #community #supernatural #spn #dc comics #batfamily #justice league #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #firefly #seinfeld #project hail mary #the hunger games #percy jackson #pjo #pjo hoo toa #acd canon sherlock holmes #bbc sherlock #doctor who #marauders #zigverse!marauders #tmnt #rottmnt #cass apocalyptic series #destiel #johnlock #percabeth #spuffy #everlark #casposting

[rollercoasterwords]

Ok so i just read ur post about criticizing fics about being unnecessary and about how u should just not criticize fanfics because it’s a hobby and not ur personal perfect story. While I completely agree with u and also think u should just leave authors alone and read what u like and skip what u don’t, I just wanted to ask: so in cases like ATYD where (as far as I’ve been informed it was corrected before I read it) there used to be like harmful racist Roma stereotypes. And in a case like this what do u do? Do u still just skip the hat u don’t like it do u inform the author about what u found maybe not wrong but like misleading or sth.? I’m honestly just curious about how to deal with situations like this cause I honestly don’t know.

so, i actually just recently answered that question abt atyd here and i also talk in this post abt what i personally think is the best way to address instances where ur concerned a fic might be genuinely perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

but. basically. if u come across something that seems like a harmful stereotype in a fic, and you are genuinely very worried that it could perpetuate misconceptions, the best approach is probably going to be reaching out to the fic writer directly and privately and politely explaining your concern. in most cases, the person is probably just misinformed and not intentionally trying to perpetuate anything harmful. however, u should keep in mind that you don't personally know who wrote this, what experiences they might have, or what groups they might be a part of, and u should be open to any response u might receive from the writer. it's possible that something u view as a harmful stereotype is something that another person views as important representation.

if the writer doesn't respond or u can't reach them, for whatever reason, u have 2 options.

1 - accept that a single individual posting fanfiction on the internet may have some internalized biases they need to work through, and may have made some misinformed decisions in their writing, and just....move on. in the grand scheme of things, even the most atrocious portrayal in a fanfic is not going to be egregiously harmful irl.

2 - if u are really, really concerned and can't sleep at night because ur worrying that random people might find and read this fic and not have the critical thought to draw their own conclusions + understandings abt it, then. sure. make a post. explain that this one aspect of x fic may be misinformed or misrepresented, and request that anyone who interacts with the fic educate themselves using sources outside this one fic to learn abt the community being misrepresented. don't try to "cancel" the fic or yell at people for reading it at all--that isn't productive, and it isn't going to encourage people to actually educate themselves.

at the end of the day, fanfiction, just like any form of literature or art, will sometimes be biased or misinformed. but we should be approaching fanfiction as a community space that exists outside any consumer economy. that means giving the fic writers u are in community with the benefit of the doubt that they either had a good reason for writing the way they did, or they're simply a bit misinformed and would be open to educating themselves. and it means giving the other fic readers u are in community with the benefit of the doubt that they are just as capable of critical thought as u are, and they aren't simply going to absorb every stereotype they come across uncritically. we should start by assuming the best in each other, not the worst.

#ask #ranting and raving

[gr0ssghost-b0y]

Intro!!!!!

Alright so this is a side blog so I won't be following back anyone, and don't try to go looking for my main it's my own personal hell space.

Pretty much whatever I feel like posting, some witchy stuff mixed in with punk and emo. Or honestly whatever I feel like at the time might post some art who knows

Now the basics:

- Max

- I'm 16 which for all you creeps and weirdos that means I'm a MINOR so go fuck off

- he/him

- I'm queer and trans

-i am mentally ill, I'm Autistic, have ADHD and bipolar(all are diagnosed), so be warned I can be unhinged

- I'm punk, emo, alternative whatever you want to call me, I'm not arguing over subcultures on here I don't have the mental energy for that

Interests:

-music!!! I love music so fucking much and can go on days long rants about the bands I love

-bones

-plants

-invader zim

-Dan Vs.

- tarot

-books!! I love a lot of literature and love to read contemporary and stuff that basically questions society and all that good stuff

-dinos

-art

Honestly there is so much and it constantly changes, plus my memory isn't the best at times so it's hard to list them all

Dni:

Ik your favorite part

- strictly NSFW blogs, I'm a MINOR and it's weird for you to follow me

- blogs that state minors dni, like why are you following me then, huh?

-bigots, there is no space for you, go drown in a lake or something

-and in general if you are a 40yr old fucking man creeping on some kids blog, fuck off

#intro post #blog intro

[onewomancitadel]

I was thinking (as you do) about the radical disparity between 'what the text is saying' and the way people in fandom interpret something. I've seen some people put forward fallacies such as the majority position is probably correct anyway (not true for 'finished' canon, certainly) or softer approaches which are sort of like, well ultimately a text is transformed in interpretation, and whatever fandom is thinking is more relevant. The first part of that assertion is not something I disagree with at all (transformation of text at the point of interpretation) but the conclusions drawn there tend to be pretty absurd, because delineating that point of transformation... is the point.

But it's also sort of distressing from the perspective of like, how is your artistic idea supposed to be heard? Do you even have a right to be offended? If you're in fandom surrounded by people who believe one thing, what defense do you have for believing another? I think it is grossly ignorant to not respect the fact that no matter how justified your position is, if the majority believe a completely different thing from you (that even makes you feel a bit crazy), it can be pretty disillusioning. For me personally, I avoid many fandoms for this very reason. I think that a lot of people who find fandom unpleasant in general (who are interested in text/literature/media) probably find it unpleasant for these reasons as well because fandom ends up so inoculated in its own opinions and echo chambers where mainstream opinion rules which is sometimes honestly - well - very silly. Even in fandoms of media which ostensibly requires a closer reading, there is the presence of orthodox and unorthodox opinion sometimes and often entirely counter to the text. Maybe you might say this is just a product of anything bordering on institution, which fandom online does emulate to a degree, as opposed to community, and maybe you might go even further to say that there is a real purpose to orthodox and by virtue unorthodox opinions. I do kind of believe that, and if I didn't I probably wouldn't be posting.

The position that art is reflective if not revealing is arguably the more tenable one. This is why I find the idea that art/media/literature ought to be morally responsible and convey the correct ideas we want individuals to cultivate in society overly naïve, mostly because I don't think that's how people interact with art at all. But that it may reflect or reveal already present attitudes at the point of interpretation, irrespective of the intent of the original text, basically explains where such a gulf emerges. When it comes to interactivity with community like fandom proper or other platforms of discourse, when you're talking about the thing, you're also evolving or interrogating your own position about the text as well as what you're bringing to the table. I don't really want to bring in another topic whilst I'm in the middle of another one, but that is where I think so-called 'problematic' media really flourishes and justifies itself. That being said, my focus here is not on the politics of fandom, but the hegemony of fandom belief. Now, certainly you can say modern Internet platforms contribute to it, and I've written about that before: people repeat and regurgitate whatever opinion currently passes as the most coolest, and that happens more swiftly online. I've interacted with people who haven't even seen the relevant volumes of R/WBY I'm discussing putting forth a thesis about the show being bad or having done something else, obviously because of what someone else has already told them. Pretty dangerous if you ask me. Maybe just don't speak on stuff you don't have material understanding of?

At a certain point, you do start wondering if everybody believes Opinion A, maybe Opinion A is true after all. The reason why I don't think this is true is because many different people are interacting with the story for many different reasons, and really the more interesting idea (and the one I tend to return to) is, well, what can you identify as motivating factors for Opinion A when it seems countertextual? Then you start psychoanalysing people you really have no business psychonanalysing. The real thesis of this post is just to return to that idea of a reflective text. It's out of your control (and it's especially out of the storyteller's control) but the intention should never be to make sure everybody leaves with the right message. If it's reflecting or revealing it's already doing something right, I think. This is where things like fanservice, storytelling as an amusement park ride, etc. really falter because it does presume a concrete conclusion about 'what people want to see' and what they ought to take away from it, even if it's a rather banal conclusion. Particularly because it doesn't feel like fanservice to me. It's not enjoyable to me. The idea that there is a fan who can be made happy with little teasing scraps and nods - in the case of R/WBY - embarrassed lampshading and 'self-awareness' is so profoundly stupid.

But when you get disillusioned it can sometimes be helpful to remember that at that point of reflection/reveal, it has a lot less to do with the text than it does with the baggage people approach a story with. Now, that in itself can perhaps be disillusioning (though sometimes you do have to appreciate that people engaging with the unreal are not viewing it through the lense of reality, meaning their conclusions might be far-off from real opinions; everybody's a utilitarian until they're actually in a scenario testing their moral ethics - that's the intended farce of the trolley problem) but on the other hand, I think for someone trying to figure out what a story is doing, it's not a good reason to discard other peoples' opinions - I'd not suggest that - but it is, however, a good reason to not fall prey to majority belief.

Some stories are even interesting priming the audience for one thing to treat them with another, and sometimes, yeah, that point of departure is intended. So I don't think I would ever suggest that everybody by necessity is required to be on the right page (even if rewarding that is joyful), and I don't think a point of departure is a failure. That is a previous topic I have also written about where personal insult is taken away from the classic plot twist or the entire point of narrative change, which is not in itself a modern phenomenon at all, but maybe worsened, again, by online discourse.

I definitely don't intend this post to come across as patting myself on the back: I think I'm in a pretty fraught position as it is (when it comes to textual assertions with R/WBY), and really all I'm trying to do here is sort out my frustration with assertions put forth in other fandoms I've lurked in that 'the majority rules' - and there's some implication of this in the R/WBY fandom too. I think about these things because I'm very classically someone who thrives off of fandom as a hobby. When fandom is predicated upon something like community, and you want that interactivity with a text, how are you supposed to cultivate that if it's almost by design explicitly hostile to that? Even the debate guys of the R/WBY fandom all hold pretty interchangeable and indistinguishable opinions coming from fundamentally similar angles, so it's not like their culture of constant challenge and 'criticism' actually stokes anything textually meaningful, and they tend to love their orthodoxy just as much. But then it's not like hugboxes are particularly nice either. So in a way, I think the idea of 'fandom' is untenable in some sense: really you are trying to find interesting people who have interesting things to say, who will hear you out, and that tends to happen at a personal level. A lot of popular posts go around saying 'my fandom is me and my five friends'.

And yes, I was thinking about this idea because of those posts I wrote recently about the complete failure of understanding Cinder in the fandom/fanon reception of her, and whether anything I say in response to that is worth something substantially, or if that actually says something about her canon character I ought to consider. I think that, like I have gestured to with the popularity of the 'feral woman' archetype on Tumblr, or 'femme fatale' in other circles which goes back a long way in pop culture, it is truly a matter of reflection. Maybe there is something to learn there and maybe there isn't. But overall I do think this approach is much more stable when it comes to understanding why fandom tends to believe the things it does (and no, the silly shippers are not the only ones responsible: I would put the fault of this as squarely at the feet of the dispassionate nonshipper who argues about powerlevels of characters like it's a video game).

#stirring the pot