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triflesandparsnips · 8 months

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Good Omens Book Club

So I have, in other fandoms, talked about the importance of what an audience can actually see on the screen. Specifically: When a constrained format (like, say, between 45 to 56 minutes of a single visual/audio input) is telling a constrained story (like, say, something that must start, climax, and resolve within some kind of structure), it's useful for the audience to pay attention to what gets given the valuable real estate of camera/story time.

So when time is given and effort made to show the actual titles of actual books... well.

Figure 1. Local bookshelf weighted down by an over-abundance of literary allusions.

This is a screenshot from episode 3 of Good Omens's second season, as Jim is reshelving all the books in Aziraphale's book shop by the first letter of their first sentences. He's about to shelve Jane Austens's Pride and Prejudice ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.") and the red sideways book, that he is about to pick up, is Good Omens itself ("It was a nice day.").

But, unusually, we can see the title of almost every other book on the shelf. Several of them appeared in the advertising poster, too, as I outlined previously (if you click that link, be advised that I am very proud of several bits of that essay and also let's not talk about how my go-to for musical references is Middle English folk rather than, say, Buddy Holly). Anyway-- with this in mind, and the understanding that time, effort, and celluloid have been spent on getting this shot to the audience, it would behoove us, I think, to actually look at these books.

Figure 2. A pair of showrunners providing not-so-subtle ancillary notation suggesting the same thing, so really, this is a no-brainer in terms of meta fodder.

Okay, Trifles, so what about the book club

Technically, this isn't my idea. It's Neil's and Douglas's, so jot that down.

What I figure is, I can provide a list of the books shown, their first lines, and a VERY brief summary of each. Those are below. And as I rewatch the show, I may reblog this post with additions, but also...

I've read some of these, but not all of them, and not recently -- with at least one of them, though, I remember enough to know that the first line and summary do nothing to showcase the heartrending possibilities the book may be alluding to for the overall Good Omens narrative.

And further-- as I collected these summaries and first lines, I started noticing some compelling commonalities. Which I, for one, would like to confirm and dig into more deeply.

So while I'm going to start reading these, it might be a Nice Idea for other folks to do so as well. The more write-ups we can get, the greater the concordance of Interesting Insights might be available. (And if you tag me in your write up, or otherwise draw my attention, I will gladly link your essay up here for the edification of others omfg.)

ANYWAY

The "Jim Shelving" Book List

From right to left (which feels odd, but it's the actual alphabetical-by-letter arrangement), and summaries from various internet sources:

Herzog, by Saul Bellows

"If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog."

"Herzog is a 1964 novel by Saul Bellow, composed in part of letters from the protagonist [...] The novel follows five days in the life of Moses E. Herzog who, at the age of forty-seven, is having a midlife crisis following his second divorce."

A Series of Unfortunate Events, (series) by Lemony Snicket

"If you are interested in happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book."

The first book in the series, The Bad Beginning, "tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become orphans following a fire and are sent to live with Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance."

The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

"The novel details two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. [...] From what is implied to be a sanatorium, Holden, the narrator and protagonist, tells the story of his adventures before the previous Christmas."

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since."

"Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan."

The Bible, (anthology) by God et al.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

"25 And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying 'Where is the flaming sword that was given unto thee?'

26 And the Angel said, 'I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget my own head next.'

27 And the Lord did not ask him again."

The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler

"It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills."

"Private investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood to stop a blackmailer. Marlowe suspects that the old General is merely testing his caliber before trusting him with a bigger job, one involving Sternwood's two amoral daughters."

Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

"In George Orwell's iconic and prophetic masterpiece, 1984, a haunting vision of a dystopian future unfolds. Set in a world dominated by the all-seeing eye of Big Brother, the story follows Winston Smith, a lowly Party member whose very thoughts are scrutinized. As the Party manipulates history and suppresses truth, Winston's yearning for individuality and connection pushes him into a daring dance on the edge of rebellion."

[A title I cannot, unfortunately, read-- if anyone who HAPPENS to be familiar with the show and HAPPENS to perhaps also be on tumblr just HAPPENS to say what this book might be, that would be Very Much Appreciated]

"????"

[WOW I WISH I WAS A SUMMARY OH WELL]

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

"It was love at first sight."

"Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, Catch-22 is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never even met keep trying to kill him. Joseph Heller's bestselling novel is a hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's efforts to survive it."

Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez

"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love."

"The story, which treats the themes of love, aging, and death, takes place between the late 1870s and the early 1930s in a South American community troubled by wars and outbreaks of cholera. It is a tale of two lovers, artistic Florentino Ariza and wealthy Fermina Daza, who reunite after a lifetime apart."

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

"It was seven minutes after midnight."

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. [...] The novel is narrated in the first-person perspective by Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy who is described as "a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties" living in Swindon, Wiltshire. [...] Christopher sets out to solve the murder [of a neighbor's dog] in the style of his favourite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes."

The Crow Road, by Iain Banks

"It was the day my grandmother exploded."

A Scottish family drama about a perfect murder against the backdrop of the 1990s Gulf War. "This Bildungsroman is set in the fictional Argyll town of Gallanach, the real village of Lochgair, and in Glasgow, where the adult Prentice McHoan lives. Prentice's uncle Rory disappeared eight years previously while writing a book called The Crow Road. Prentice becomes obsessed with papers his uncle left behind and sets out to solve the mystery. Along the way he must cope with estrangement from his father, unrequited love, sibling rivalry, and failure at his studies."

No Woman No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley, by Rita Marley with Hettie James

"I was an ambitious girl child."

"Fans of reggae legend Bob Marley will welcome this no-nonsense biography from his wife, Rita, who was also his band member, business partner, musical collaborator and the only person to have witnessed firsthand his development from local Jamaican singer to international superstar."

I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

"I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love."

...and because I happen to know and love this book, I'm aware of the devastating last lines...

"Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you."

#good omens #good omens s2 #good omens book club

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silentsundown · 11 months

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I was tagged by @igotsnothing, yeah I think the tumblr algorithm may be playing a role, but I haven't been too active recently, either. Thank you for tagging though, I always appreciate being tagged and interacting with mutuals <33

1. What’s your favourite sims death? Hmmm I would say, the rare meteorite death. It was my favourite death to trigger with cheats back in TS4 muahahahaha, and I just love the idea of being killed by a meteorite anyway, then comes the flies

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match? I definitely prefer Maxis Match. I like my aesthetic to be at least somewhat coherent, and I'd rather not mess with too high poly objects unless absolutely necessary

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? Depends on how lazy I am to send them on a run lmao

4. Do you use move objects? Absolutely. I couldn't play without it.

5. Favorite mod? MCCC (duh), WickedWhims, and @chingyu1023vick's 100 CAS traits. I don't like the lack of diversity in personality traits that TS4 has, TS3 was muuuuuch better in this regard. Btw, I've got also a mod to add more traits.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? I don't remember, honestly.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? aLIVE. I think it's the most logical way to pronounce it.

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? I love them all! Although I must say Saule is my favourite, closely followed by Beatrice.

9. Have you made a simself? I did, but I never play with her. I don't like doing so anyway, playing as yourself in the sims? Nah, not my thing. Just for avatar purposes.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself? If going by only three traits: creative, loyal, loner. If adding more: creative, loyal, loner, cat lover, perfectionist.

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color? Black (not the one with blue undertones, the other one)

12. Favorite EA hair? Hmmm, the one from Island Living that Paka'a Uha wears. The sort of half-waterfall braid thing. I love this one. Also the braid from Cottage Living.

13. Favorite life stage? Young adult, of course. I like playing as kids/teens also.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? Both. Though more of a renovator than a builder, and more of a storyteller than a gamer.

15. Are you a CC creator? I'd kinda like to create some CC sometime, but I have no knowledge in 3D meshing or texturing. I think about drawing designs for graphic tees and uploading them though. Or recoloring things.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? Not really, but I have nice mutuals that I love very much. <3 Though it's difficult for me to consider someone a friend unless we know each other more closely, and given that I have some opinions that I think the majority of simblr would dislike (spoiler: nothing hateful, criminal or extreme, just some skepticism on my end, but many people get fired up super easily especially on tumblr and it's difficult to have a healthy discussion or agree to disagree), I'm not sure I can truly make friends here. I mean time will tell, but I'm reserved about the idea that it could happen. Maybe I'm too much on my guard, but I'll just see what happens.

17. What’s your favorite game? TS2 and TS4. I loved TS3 as well but it's so dreadfully badly optimized that I can't play it.

18. Do you have any sims merch? Nay

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims? Might make a casual one someday? idk

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? I tend to make sims of a certain ethnicity depending on which period/culture I'm interested in. So I had a bunch of Japanese sims back in 2017/18, then Indian, then I stopped playing, now some Kazakhs, a few Russians and one Mongolian, and I'll see how this goes, but I feel like making more Americans especially given that I play Strangerville. Even if America in itself isn't much my cup of tea. I didn't use reshades until I created my simblr because I was afraid it was going to crash my laptop, but turns out nope, it doesn't. Especially since I can toggle it on and off, which I didn't know was possible. I did use skinblends back in the day, but I had kind of a different aesthetic than now. Now, I prefer simple things that are way more Maxis Match and fit perfectly into the game's aesthetic. I consider it's not made that way for nothing.

21. What’s your Origin ID? BaronessWest, though there isn't much to see there

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator? @aharris00britney for hair, @sciophobis and @simmireen for poses, @sixamcc for other stuff... and others I don't have off the top of my head right now

23. How long have you had a simblr? I'm new here, kinda. I started at the end of March. I think that's how I met the person who tagged me heh

24. How do you edit your pictures? Reshade, for some pics I use my drawing software Clip Studio Paint, which perfectly does the trick. Though it's a bit shitty for texting edits, because they don't support emojis like you'd see on a phone...

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? Strangerville. Duh. Cottage Living, Seasons, Cats and Dogs, and the Paranormal stuff.

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? Hmm, why not High School Years? It's gonna come in handy when I'll tell Christie's teen years and I could use some Y2K stuff too.

I'm gonna tag a few of you now, if you've already done this or don't feel like responsing it's all ok though! @alinelie @alltimefail-sims, @folkbreeze, @olya-occult-lover and @aries-sims

#simblr #tag game #thank you for tagging me <3

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psi-scribe · 2 years

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"And yet that is not the weidest thong to happen to me today" with The Bastard aka Lucius

Ahhhh, I’m so sorry this is late! Real life got busy and I tried to keep the word count somewhat low but alas it got away from me and I had to end it somewhere:’D

Fandom: Warhammer 40k Character: Lucius the Eternal Prompt: "And yet, that is not the weirdest thing that's happened to me today." Word Count: 1727 Prompt List: Here

Saul gave him a confused look as soon as the door slide shut, “What did you do?”

“Beg your pardon?” Lucius asked as he paused from inspecting his blade.

“What did you do. Something happened, didn’t it? Eidolon never smiles at you or praises you. What did you do?” Saul said as he stepped closer and crossed his arms.

Lucius sighed; he could almost feel a headache creeping into his mind. “Nothing I swear. This whole day has been awful and weird. And yet, that is not the weirdest thing that's happened to me today."

Saul’s look of confusion only grew as his brows lifted and his eyes went wide, a grin appeared on his lips. “Seriously? Eidolon complimenting you is not the strangest? Lucius, what exactly have you doing today?”

Could he tell him? Could he tell Saul how surreal the day had been since he opened his eyes? It was Saul after all…

“Might as well pull up a chair, I still can’t believe it happened…”

-Earlier in the day-

The sun set upon the unremarkable world.

The colors he had seen a hundred different times on a hundred different worlds. Perhaps on another day he might have thought of them as pretty. He might have even recalled various poems and stories featuring great battles clashing at dawn or concluded at dusk. Either way, only carnage remained, smoke rising, and blood seeped into the ground, both a testament to one warrior’s skill and another’s failure.

But generally, all of it meant nothing to him.

No, let some artist draw inspiration from such trivial things. The colors, the symbolism of the sun and its movements were meant for lesser minds.

His inspiration was found in the most primal of moments, in the heat of battle. Where the most important thing at the present was living; to draw another breath, to feel the next pulse of the heart. In those moments every second counted. If misused, the results could be devastating. One action taken or hesitated upon could end the story of someone’s life. Yet, at the same time it meant the extension of another’s into the battle.

At those moments, he knew himself the best, every strength, and every flaw.

Those were the truest moments of life.

It infuriated him to no limit that he was denied those moments now.

No, his Primarch had chosen him to go elsewhere, to search for a stormbird that had stuck off-course due to malfunctions of all things! Several other vessels had shuck and swayed as they breached the planet’s atmosphere but only the one had fallen. Something that should not have happened, not when the legion had been so diligent in keeping their gear and crafts in top shape.

Regardless of the cause, the order had been given and so he had ridden out on a bike towards the ship’s estimated crash site.

Lucius had tried to argue someone else should have been sent. After all, the ship had carried initiates, their training master and a pilot, nothing more. There were others better suited-and tempered-to deal with those that were not yet full-brother, the fledglings.

But his Primarch had been firm and asked to help him inspire the initiates. “Show them what they can ascend too! We must lead by example, Lucius, show your younger brothers how a prime example of an Emperor’s Children acts; with words, blade, or bolter.”

Those words were enough to please the more prideful parts of his being. He doubted that any of his younger brothers would best him in a spar. They could only dream to do so! But he did understand his Primarch’s points. The legion needed ambition to carry it further.

Thus he allowed his mind to drift off as he trekked along the depths of forest, where the roots and trees became too thick for him to navigate drive the bike through. All the while, he monitored his HUD and the vox channel linked to the training master.

Every once and a while, he would send out a ping, expecting to eventually receive a reply or find a body linked it to. He didn’t particularly care if any of the stormbird’s crew were still alive, only that he was able to find them.

Until then, Lucius suffered the mind-numbing boredom that came with taking a long walk through a quiet forest. Nothing for him to be alert about, no predators, no harsher terrain that would warrant him drawing even his combat knife.

Boring, dull, annoying.

‘Why couldn’t Saul have been chosen?’ Lucius thought, sighing as he slapped a branch out of his path. Saul would have accepted the task gladly, vowing to look after the scouts if their mentor was no more. He wouldn’t have preened as they looked at him with awe and respect.

It would have been for the best but no, he had been chosen.

Slamming his foot down on a branch to break it, Lucius paused from his thoughts and tilted his head. The vox-chime of someone requesting to speak to him had pinged and a quick glance showed the missing training master’s rune. Perfect.

“Enjoy your little break?” Lucius sighed.

There was a pause before a voice-rough with the growth into adulthood-replied, “Captain Lucius? It is an honor, but I bring only bad news.”

The voice most definitely did not belong to the training master, Chiron, who he remembered as a rough and grizzled veteran who was fond of pinching cheeks to get recruits to focus.

“Where is your master?” He asked through the vox.

“Unconscious sir, along with our pilot. We’re not sure what happened-“

“Save the explanations for later, direct me to your location” He cut in. He didn’t have time to waste, the sooner missing squad was found, the better.

“Er-of course sir. Sending our location now. But Captain, there is something I need to inform you about-“

“Tell me when I get there.”

Honestly, what could be so concerning?

Fortunately or in hindsight, unfortunately, the crash site was not far, and the scouts greeted him. Not eagerly of course, few people ever were happy to see him heading their way. But with scouts he figured there would be a few wide eyes or gasps.

Instead, he was greeted with tense stances, frowns, scuffling feet, and hands rubbing the back of necks. The two scouts seemed less like astartes-in-the-making and more like the awkward adolescents they still were.

“What happened?” He repeated as he came to a stop in front of them, crossing his arms.

‘And why is there…music?’ Had the ship crashed near a festival or something? And who in their right mind would continue to celebrate after a ship crashed?

‘On second thought…I can name a few’ Lucius felt a brow twitch at the thought before he focused on the youth that the others had nudged forward.

“Sir” He spoke, “I am Zeuxis. We’re…not sure what happened but the engine failed as we were heading towards our assigned designation. The pilot, Milos, was able to lessen the crash but our mentor is knocked out. Laertes and Ajax are looking after him while we came to meet you. Milos is working on trying to figure out what went wrong and repair it.”

Straight to the point, good. That was good, made things so much easier for him.

“Take me to him then so that we may speak” Lucius ordered.

The other scout winced before Zeuxis spoke up again, “Wait! Sir, Captain Lucius there’s something you really need to know about where we crashed. The festival is-“

“-Is of no concern of mine or yours” He interrupted and waved the youth off. He failed to see how a festival could be of an importance or threat to either of them.

That was until he pushed back several bushes and froze.

It was a festival, similar yet different to many others he had witnessed. Colorful tents lined a vast clearing, stalls of goods were active as merchants sold their wares and called folks to them. Performers of all kinds danced and weaved their ways through the crowds or performed atop stages. All the while people walked along, uncaring or knowing about the arrival of the Emperor’s Children.

Yet, none of those things were what made Lucius’ mouth drop.

No, it was the other partiers and performers that drew his attention.

Bigger than any baseline human, bulkier as well and mouths full of large, sharp teeth. Orks, damnable orks.

He had killed more than his fair share of their lot and the instinct to rush forward, free his blade and slay them all. But he remained still, brow twitching and mouth moving as he tried to find the words to describe what he was seeing.

“We tried to tell you sir…” Zeuxis whispered behind him.

“Have you ever dealt with something like this before?” Another asked.

“Yes….but not like this” He replied, dumbfounded as his gaze swept over the festival entirely.

Killing the orks would have been straight forward and easy compared to the rest of the mess he had dealt with already. Would have was the keyword.

After all, Lucius doubted the people running the festival and the attendees would have enjoyed losing their key performers and other guests.

Lucius never thought he would see the day that orks were dressed as refined noblemen with tall hats and long coat, let alone in costumes. Each was detailed and extravagant with bright colors, masks of animals, stars, suns and moons, props held in their hands instead of weapons.

“…And you said the stormbird was on the opposite side of this?” He spoke, his gaze unmoving as he watched two orks stand on top of each other so that the one on top could point and argue with another that stood on stilts.

“Yes sir, we could go around but…going forward is quicker” The Scout replied.

As Lucius swept his gaze over the crowds once more he paused as he looked towards a far away stage and saw a particularly massive ork, dressed in a fine suit move to stand in the center. An ork skull clutched in one hand as it was lifted into the air and the ground shook as the ork spoke, it’s voice thunderous in nature.

“TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT’Z DA QUESTION!”

What had he gotten himself into now?

#Warhammer 40k #warhammer 40k fanfic #lucius the eternal #Lucius' no good very funny bad day #Lucius and his ducklings #Thank you for sending in a prompt!#Take a wild guess how this ends

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anextrapart · 2 years

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“Do I Need To Watch Breaking Bad to Enjoy Better Call Saul?”

This is for @actuallylorelaigilmore who I told I would compile a bit of info on BrBa for so that she could jump right into BCS without watching it, but I figured others might have the same interest so here it is.

Short answer is no, you do not. I don’t like BrBa at all (nobody @ me, it’s exhausting to watch and Walter White is trash) and BCS is my favorite show. My knowledge of BrBa has been compiled from the few episodes I watched, some general pop culture osmosis, and skim-watching for all of the Saul scenes in season two and on.

But if you want some basic Saul-specific knowledge so you’re on the same footing as the people who did watch BrBa, this should be enough (and much of this you may have known already just from how prevalent BrBa is in pop culture). It’s a great time to start BCS since the mid-season finale of the sixth and final season is tomorrow night- you’ll have time to catch up and can then suffer the back half of season six live with the rest of us.

BrBa spoilers obviously, but only in like a very loose and general way.

Saul Goodman (real name Jimmy McGill, although I think when BrBa was airing he only referenced “McGill” once and didn’t give a first name) is a defense attorney in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is a description of him in his first episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvlEqAjg8aU and that sums it up pretty well.

He makes low-budget commercials (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqnHtGgVAUE), wears brightly colored gaudy suits, has the dumbest haircut in the world (fun fact: that was Bob Odenkirk’s idea/fault), and is in a lot of ways the comedic relief on the show. The main characters Walt and Jesse are cooking and selling meth, and they hire Saul to be their lawyer and launder the money they make in the drug business (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhsUHDJ0BFM). He has a lot of shady contacts and is able to help them form some connections throughout the show, and is overall pretty down with doing scummy things. There is at least one point where Walt has done something horrible and Saul tries to back out of working for him anymore, but he effectively gets intimidated into continuing.

At the end of the series when it becomes clear that law enforcement has figured out where the meth money is going and that Saul is involved, he goes to one of his contacts known as “the disappearer”, who runs a vacuum cleaner repair business and provides false identities and relocation to people looking to escape the law. He sets Saul up with a fake ID and tells him he’ll be going to Nebraska, and that’s the last we see of him.

That’s... kind of it, really. There are a number of characters in BrBa that are going to show up in BCS, but most of them are in a “oh hey look who it is!” kind of way. So while it may go over your head, I don’t think it will diminish your enjoyment of BCS at all since BCS is a prequel.

Maybe one other thing to keep in mind about Saul in BrBa is that we never see his home or learn anything personal about him or about his life outside of work. One of the biggest mysteries as we move forward in BCS is the question of “where is Kim?” during the BrBa timeline, because she does not appear at all. Certain people will insist that this must mean she’s dead, but those of us with critical thinking skills recognize that since BrBa came first, the character of Kim had not even been invented yet*. And while part of the draw of BCS is seeing what exactly is leading Jimmy McGill into becoming Saul Goodman, I pretty firmly take the stance that Kim dying isn’t it. Frankly, the writing has always been better than that. The show might ultimately tear our still-beating hearts out of our chests, but I’m very confident that the way they do it will be extremely nuanced and well-written.

If anyone with more BrBa knowledge wants to add anything (or if I made a mistake!) drop a reply :)

*BCS wasn’t even in the cards until much later, the character of Saul was only intended to be in a few BrBa episodes in season two and then they extended it because everyone liked him so much

#actuallylorelaigilmore #better call saul

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incarnateirony · 1 year

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Hi, it's the "why do you think Bobo is on the Winchesters" anon again. I've gone back through your blog to try to figure out what your response meant but I hope you'll forgive me for needing a bit of clarification?

It seems like you're saying that Robbie drew Jensen a chart at some point, which is based on the chart that you linked me to in my last ask--I tried to look back on your blog to see where this info is from but I couldn't find anything. Where did you see/hear about Robbie drawing Jensen this chart?

And you're also saying that you gave this chart originally to Bobo (in public?) and that he must have given it to Robbie, and that's how it got to Robbie?

I promise I am actually trying to follow you but, I mean this in the nicest way, you are really hard to follow sometimes.

Robbie literally mentioned it in an interview.

The chart was given to Bobo, in public, new years eve, as I had older drafts (not the net 4 draft, I found that in public early February, as I've said many times) and saw what they were struggling over. Because, while bnfs like jus and charcubed refuse to peep about it now, or why they're doubling down so hard on the Chuck Won take complete with graphics right now, we'd had the same arguments in development for a month or two early 2021.

So I shoveled it to him, hell somewhere it's in my blog I just don't remember what I tagged it. I'd screenshot the convo again but you know, some uneducated buffoon sent william shatner and the trekkies at me to report bomb my account before Mark Pellegrino disappeared in a mist, cancelled 3 cons, and now has a gap until JULY on attendance. But that's totally unrelated. Nothing ever connects in these people's universes if the dots are inconvenient to connect. Either way, I can't pull my shit to source it to you. Sorry. If you wanna dig my blog to find the receipt that's fine.

Regardless, in an article, it was discussed that Jensen and Robbie were sitting in the car watching the filming of the prequel, and it was said, "we can't do it like this." (summarily, the linear post-15.18 bubble would leave us to either undo the finale entirely, which they didn't want to do, or make us watch dean die on a tack again literally.)

Robbie then, per the article, drew Jensen a chart on pathwork, which declared reshoots. Some were done on the spot since they were just kinda. There already, which is also why the pilot filming ran like 3+ weeks. Then, authors were brought in to craft out the rest of the series, at which point Bobo continued to be engaged, hence talking about Better Call Saul early May, when writing shit really starts moving. That's *why* Better Call Saul ended up evoked in later articles. Then, other reshoots were saved for fall when everybody was able to be back together again, hence visiting the graveyard again and stuff (because the angulature of Roxy was also nudged.)

This is *when* "Follow the Path of 1 Towards Heaven" integrated, as well as moving dean to the axis mundi liminally and going into the deeper perspective game imagination of it.

People *refusing to follow and onboard information does not remove the reality of it.* And frankly I don't feel compelled to dig through dozens of dozens of dozens of articles to find something I posted and pointed at half a year ago while nobody paid attention. I'm well past doing that level of emotional labor for people that are only asking a year late into the news cycle to deal with their own disillusionments. I'm a person, not a pez dispenser.

Congrats. THAT is the Truth. And fandom better start processing shit REAL fuckin quick.

youtube

I repeat. Jensen isn't the only one that can pull a long con.

amazing what you can accomplish if you listen first, understand second, and argue last if ever. Almost like I spent years building rapport with and trying to reinstate fandom's good faith in the authors for a reason, and always magically had insight about their intentions that was correct no matter how many Big Headed Idiot Consumers That Think They're ITK From M&Gs And Coffeerunners screamed at me for years. I listened. I saw. I understood the struggle. I updated the package. It changed the result. Berens openly talked about it but nobody listened.

Now everyone's plugging their ears in denial like it's gonna stop the train running them over. Or acting like how close Robbie and Bobo have been for years is an element you can hide, or their plot sharing, whether while they both worked in Carver era or Bobo carrying on Robbie's story elements as far as season 15, and people making confused monkey sounds that maybe Robbie and Bobo talk sometimes and share ideas, as normal human beings do. Because you forget they're human beings.

Robbie is, per their own words, the rose to bobo's jack. catch a FUCKING clue, numpties. Like Oh My God They Were Roommates besties. And you're just scratching your FUCKING heads because you can't compute the authors being real people might influence the stories they tell together.

like seriously dude. You're basically asking "HEY, BEYOND ALL THE STUFF IN PUBLIC OR IN ARTICLES, CAN YOU *PROVE* TO ME THAT THESE TWO BEST FRIENDS ACTUALLY TALK TO EACH OTHER?" who the FUCK are YOU. You want the answer? PAY THE FUCK ATTENTION.

Yes, I know you were being polite in this ask TECHNICALLY, but polite doesn't mean genuine. I'm fucking tired. I'm tired of people deleting the authenticity of the authors as people from the conversation, like they're some fucking primal force that exists only in the internet generating TV for you. A lot of this shit was perfectly public access information and I still need to apparently explain it over and over and over and over and over again, and the same dumb motherfuckers that screamed over me about these issues for 5 years while being proven wrong again and again have escalated to continuous doxxing attempts, but sure. Nothing's happening. Whatever.

Literally. You guys are fucking exhausting. There's a reason Robbie calls this shit revenge. Fucking pop off and rip this whole fandom a new asshole, king. Every fucking lane. I want this place to look like swiss cheese by the time you're done. Gaping dry-fucked ostiums for all.

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spongebobafettywap · 5 months

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Also quick question, wasn't it Abyss and Kiwi Black he also had a strong link to?

correct, it was probably tied to how they each had a power set slightly similar to his like abyss' which is tied to space alteration.

(while i was looking this up to be sure i read that abyss just got killed which is... sad because apparently it was the only way to solve an issue as he still couldn't control his powers. even after being on an island with other mutants and scientists for 3 years. dude is just unlucky)

Also a male writer being unfamiliar with female biology is par for the course in Marvel comics LOL.

oh believe me i know. but this just took every single one of the standard bad i was used to and blew it out of the water. like the panel where destiny is having nightcrawler... this now exists.

i- i don't even know where to start. the proportions are off (how long are destiny's femurs), the perspective is off (the must-wear-a-tie-on-the-job medical 'professional' they had is too far away from her to be of any help or see anything).

for the 22 hours this went on, they let her keep her glasses even tho she's blind and thus wouldn't need them in the first place as they serve no purpose and might become a nuisance real quick... (like the whole process makes you sweat and builds pressure on your head/face so glasses can get pretty uncomfortable). also they'd fall off/ slip from her face especially due to the labor position she's in...

because destiny is nearly sitting down on her hands and knees, slightly hunched over (instead of arched up), in actual pants while doing all of that. it becomes more jarring to see because fake-pregnant mystique next to her is in a more-practical-for-the occasion nightgown even tho she's not gonna deliver any baby any time soon

quick side note on the time taken here for the delivery : each pregnancy is different and complications do arise but destiny already had kids before so it should have gone smoother than what this story implies in both process and positioning besides the doc or mystique could have better advised her on the latter. (the writer might have accidentally leaned on the ' azazel's children are harder to deliver ' route too due to his poor knowledge on anything and in that case that's yet another common factor between nightcrawler and azazel's biological children...)

overall when you combine this panel with any medical knowledge you might have,

it just looks like nightcrawler came out of the wrong orifice okay ?

and if he supposedly came out of the right one, the only possible outcome to this poor attempt at that specific labor position is a dead baby nightcrawler as he would suffocate between destiny's legs before drawing his first breath... on the account of those damn pants

does destiny actually want this kid or is she deliberately dwindling his chances of survival before he's even out fr

Well you know they will have all important Street Brawls as part of the next Marvel Crossover event I'm sure. Marvel: Secret Street Brawls.

mystique just casually organizes encounters between specific heroes and villains after making a poll of "who do you wanna see fight" and "which street needs more wrecking" online then she films everything and updates it to cash in on some good old advert money. that's it, that's how the whole event should be about

It's like everything you're telling me gives me more reasons to never go back to reading Marvel. I felt like my tastes in story telling really matured after I started watching shows like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and reading and Watching Jojo's bizarre adventure. Maybe there's a reason why the best stories function with a beginning and an end and don't go on endlessly with too many cooks stirring the pot.

Like seriously wasting Abyss for what? Some storyline no one cares about? You know its interesting how you'll be one of the few people to point that out about how stupid the drawing of female anatomy is. Of course a lot of people just really like the "appearing progressive" angle that Marvel loves to do so they can sell a headline instead of putting thought into it, much like how they did when they decided Bobby should just be gay in such a contrived way like having Jean mindread him and tell him he's gay. Like they couldn't just have him explore his own sexuality? With his own feelings on how his relationships went and what genders he likes? Side note I really hate whenever someone criticises a story thats made to appear progressive gets lumped in with reactionary bigots as if whenever you write something with the intention of progressive you are absolutely free from criticism its just so childish really.

Honestly yeah they do need to just have Marvel Street Brawl be a thing and then they could also try to be deep about it like they did with AvX and pretend like there's this massive moral dilemma situation "Should we destroy this Street or not? That's a big problem and we need to answer it in 50 issues"

#Maz answers

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wolint · 5 months

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FRESH MANNA

BE SELF-AWARE

1 Timothy 4:16

We must be self-aware. But what is awareness? It is the conscious knowledge of one's character, emotions, desires, motivations and feelings, the ability to make an accurate assessment of our personality, strengths and weaknesses.

Who are you? Do you know yourself very well? Self-awareness allows us to know, understand and accept ourselves for who we are while acknowledging that we can’t be everything and everyone. Philippians 2:12 instructs us to work out our race with reverential fear and trembling, even as part of a group, our individuality is important.

We must know, acknowledge and accept our strengths and weaknesses, and learn to stay in our lane! Paul identified five foundational areas where we must be self-aware: speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity upon which we, as he told Timothy must build Christian and leadership credibility.

Unfortunately, there are so many people with proud and bad attitudes that wrongly assume that they are too important to support others, but instead of regarding ourselves as superior, self-awareness allows us to examine why we act the way we act and if it pleases God.

David could have acted all superior and holier than thou with his family in 1 Samuel 16, but he was self-aware enough to recognise the hand of God on him that made him go back to the wilderness until the appointed time to sit on the throne. In the same way, self-awareness didn’t allow him to depend on his strength, Saul’s armoury or Israel’s army when he faced Goliath in battle.

Self-awareness is a critical trait in understanding who we are, how we think, and how we operate, this is vital to know who we are and who God has called us to be.

The better we know ourselves and our tendencies toward certain sins, the clearer we can see where we need to grow as followers of Christ.

If people were to look at you, how would they judge you?

Your appearance? The way we look.

Your clothing? How we dress.

Your attitude? The way of thinking or feeling.

Your speech? The kind of words we use.

Some of us are so self-absorbed and only inward-focused.

How aware are we of the people and things around us?

How are we impacting our sphere of influence for the Lord through our character according to Galatians 5:22-23,

our speech, according to Colossians 4:6, clothing, according to 1 Timothy 2:9-10, attitude, according to Philippians 2:14, and appearance according to 1 Samuel 16:7?

Self-awareness helps us identify our weaknesses or blind spots yet not be threatened or intimidated by them ( how do we react to criticisms, corrections and suggestions?) even as it benefits us with the ability to discern other people’s emotions and reactions.

As ambassadors of Christ and carriers of the Holy Spirit, our self-awareness must be an extension of the Holy Spirit. Allow the Spirit to direct us in all things and not allow us to self-deny, which is the refusal to see life as it truly is and avoid making excuses for poor behaviour or buying our narratives and reputations.

Matthew 12:34 says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. How’s your language? What do you talk about? Are you that person who completely dominates the conversation, talking about their accomplishments and how brilliant they are, their influence and their importance?

We must be self-aware enough not to talk about ourselves only and dominate the conversation entirely.

We must give others room to express themselves and be part of the group.

Let’s learn to make Psalm 26:2 our daily motto and walk in self-awareness, entrusting the Lord with integrally building us.

PRAYER: Lord, may I draw near to you through your Word, so that I can be fully aware of my heart in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Shalom

WOMEN OF LIGHT INT. PRAYER MIN.

#spotify #devotional #christianpost #women's ministry #biblestudy #biblestudy christianpost women's ministry #biblestudy christianpost 'women's ministry #conference #family #prayer meeting

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kamreadsandrecs · 9 months

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We do not read the Bible as it is meant to be read. Theology always risks leading us astray by elaborating its own discourse, with the biblical texts merely as a point of departure. The presence of poetry in the Bible is the key to a more pertinent and more faithful reading.

There are many poems found in the Bible. We know this, vaguely and without giving it too much thought, but shouldn’t we be rather astonished by the role of poetry in a collection of books with such a pressing and salutary Word to express? And shouldn’t we ask ourselves if the presence of this writing—so much more self-conscious and desirous than is prose of a form it can make vibrate—affects the biblical “message” and changes its nature?

It is unsurprising that the Psalms are poems, given their liturgical purpose and the abyss of individual and collective emotion that they explore. At the heart of the Bible and yet also apart from it, they lay out, we might suppose, for both the individual and the community, the lived experience of religion that other biblical books have the task of defining. We can accept the Song of Songs as a love poem, Jeremiah’s Lamentations as a sequence of elegies, Job as a verse drama, and we discover without too much surprise a considerable number of poems in the historical books: the song of Moses and Miriam, for example, in Exodus 15; the canticle of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5; the lament of David for Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1. And yet when we think about the presence of all these poetic books in a work in which we expect to find doctrines, and about the turn to poetry in so many of the historical books of the Bible, it gives us reason to think again. And how should we react to Proverbs, in which wisdom itself is taught in a poetic form? Or to the prophetic books, where poetry is sovereign, where warnings of the greatest urgency, for us as well as for the writers’ contemporaries, come forth in verse?

Isn’t this curious? And poetry appears from the beginning. In the second chapter of Genesis (verse 23), Adam welcomes the creation of woman in this way:

Here at last the bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called woman, for she was drawn forth from man.

These are the very first human words reported; it is tempting and perhaps legitimate to draw some conclusions. By this point Adam has already named the animals, but the author only indicates this, without recording the spoken words; in the world of the beginning, from which the author knows himself as well as his readers to be excluded, he probably recognized that there must have existed an intimate relationship between language and the real, between words and things, that we are incapable of regaining. But when Adam does speak for the first time, he is given an “Edenic” language, one which our fallen languages can still attain in certain moments: thus Adam literally draws woman, ’ishah, from man, ’ish. Hebrew, thanks to the pleasure it takes in wordplay—in the ludic and deeply serious harmonies between the sounds of words and the beings, objects, ideas, and emotions to which they open themselves—is a language particularly and providentially skillful at suggesting what would be a cordial relation between our language and our world, and a meaningful relation among the presences of the real. It is skillful in affirming the gravity of the lightest among the figures of rhetoric: the pun. Most importantly, as soon as the first man opens his mouth, he speaks in verse. Did the author think that in the world of primitive wonder language was naturally poetic? Is this why Adam, immediately after eating the forbidden fruit, responds to God in prose: “I heard your steps in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10)? We cannot know, but that first brief, spontaneous poem of Adam, which we seem to hear from so far away and from so close, solicits our attention and calls for our thought. If language before the Fall was poetic, or produced poems at moments charged with meaning, does poetry represent for us the apogee of our fallen speaking—its beginning and its end, its nostalgia and its hope?

In paging through Genesis, a book of history and not a collection of poetry, we encounter an impressive number of poems. It is in poetry that God gives the law on murder and its punishment (Genesis 9:6), that Rebecca’s family blesses her (24:60), that Isaac prophesies the future of Esau (27:39–40), and that Jacob blesses the twelve tribes of Israel (49:2–27). Given the occasional difficulty of identifying which passages are in verse, it may be that others will be discovered. The Bible de Jérusalem (I am reading from a 2009 edition) presents God as speaking in poetry several times in the first three chapters, beginning with the creation of man, as the Word of God gives birth to the only creature endowed with speech:

God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him, man and woman he created them.

In approaching the Bible’s beginning, we must often change our listening, our rhythm, our mode of attention and of being, in order to understand and receive a different language.

There are fewer poems in the New Testament, but they give even more food for thought. The Gospel of Luke introduces, from its first chapters, three poems: the canticles of Mary, Zachariah, and Simeon. Thus the Savior’s life begins under the sign of poetry. The book of Revelation, at the end of the Bible, contains additional canticles, as well as lamentations on Babylon, in poetry that appeals to the visionary imagination. In the name of Christianity, it returns to the extravagant poetry of the prophets. The first letter of John develops its thought with such felicity of rhythmic phrasing and close-crafted form that the Jerusalem Bible translates it completely in verse. These same translators have Paul’s letter to the Romans begin and end in verse, thus using poetry to frame a doctrinal exposition animated by an inflamed but in principle “prosaic” process of reflection, analysis, and synthesis.

Jesus himself seems at certain moments to speak in verse, as in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5, Luke 6) and the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6, Luke 11). In the Jerusalem Bible, the Gospel of John, which begins with a long poem and in which John the Baptist on two occasions speaks in verse (1:30, 3:27–30), suggests that Jesus the teacher—or rather, the divine educator—addressed his listeners most often in poetry.

It is true that the border between verse and a cadenced prose is not easy to determine in either the Hebrew of the Old Testament or the Greek of the New: translators judge it differently. It may also be that the poems spoken by Jacob, Simeon, and many others come not from them but from the authors of the books in which they appear. The result is the same. We find ourselves constantly in the presence of writings that invite us into the joy of words, into a well-shaped language, in a form that demands from us the attention that we give to poetry and awakens us to expectation.

***

Certain scholars of the Bible have long known that the poetry is not there simply to add a dash of nobility, or sublimity, or emotive force to what the author could have said in prose. They learned from literary critics what the critics had learned from poets: poetry is in itself a way of thinking and of imagining the world; it discovers with precision what it had to say only by saying it; the meaning of a poem awaits us in its manner of being, and meaning in the customary sense of the word is not what is most important about it.

Should we not ask ourselves if the presence of so many poems changes not only the way in which the Bible speaks to us, but also the kind of message, announcement, or call that it conveys? How must faith perceive biblical speech? What does this continual turn to poetry imply about the very nature of Christianity?

We can start to respond to these questions by giving some thought to how we usually read poetry. We do not paraphrase poems, extracting a meaning and leaving aside the redundant form. It is the very being itself of the poem that matters, the sounds and the rhythms that animate it like a living thing, the relations that the words stitch among themselves through their memory and their history, and the connotations that they disseminate.

However, while we read a poem of Keats, or of Baudelaire or Ronsard, in this way, we easily forget our customary attention to the life of the poetic word when reading, for example, a Psalm, from which we want to draw a teaching, a lesson. We need to be reminded of two well-known pensées of Pascal: “Different arrangements of words make different meanings, and different arrangements of meanings produce different effects”; “The same meaning changes according to the words expressing it.” Indeed, the meaning changes, and not only in poetry: Pascal speaks here of prose. The second fragment continues: “Meanings are given dignity by words instead of conferring it upon them.” I know no better formula for suggesting the inseparability of words and meanings. And if it is important not to depart from a biblical text written in prose, all the more so should we remain as close as possible to a biblical poem, knowing that poetry, which does not permit paraphrase, also does not convey propositions—or it conveys them in a context that gives them their specificity. It seems to me that we do not have to draw doctrines from the Bible other than those that the biblical writers themselves found there, for we cannot touch bottom in these deep waters; the world that is revealed to us entirely exceeds us. We can understand only what God reveals to us. The intelligence that he has given us allows us to reflect on what we read, but any attempt to go further—above all, systematic theology, whether it results in the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas or the Institutes of the Christian Religion of Calvin—seems an error.

To believe in the Bible—or, rather, to believe the Bible, and to allow oneself to be convinced that it is the word of God, in whatever way one considers it—is to believe what it says, with a supernatural faith that resembles, at an infinite distance, the confidence with which we read a poem, accepting that its reality is found in it and not in our exegeses. This allows for adhering to the truth that is at once included in the words and liberated by them, whatever the difficulty posed by the Flood, for example, or the Tower of Babel. We do not necessarily know the exact nature of the truth that is revealed to us, but we know where to look for it, just as we do not necessarily understand a poem but we look for the answer to our questions in the poem itself, without adding or subtracting anything.

Poetry attracts our attention to language and to the mystery of words, to their capacity to create, almost by themselves, networks of meaning, unexpected emotions, rhythms and a music for the ear and for the mouth that spreads through the entire body and all one’s being. It acts similarly on the world, by finding, for the presences of the real, new names, and associations of words, of cadences, of sounds, that give to the most familiar beings and objects a certain strangeness that is both disturbing and joyous. It burns up appearances, it uncovers the invisible, it opens, like a little casement or a great window, onto the unknown, onto something else. The shade of trees that invites us in the midst of strong heat is transfigured when Racine’s Phèdre cries:

Dieux! que ne suis-je assise à l’ombre des forêts! (Gods! why am I not seated in the shade of forests!)

Reason or good sense might object that one cannot be seated in the shade “of forests,” but only in the shade of a tree, or, if one pictures it in the mind, in the shade of a forest, in the singular. These plural forests constitute a world seen anew, recreated by the imagination, a world of great beauty that is almost cerebral, but that at the same time in no way loses contact with reality. We are attracted by the grave sonority of “ombre,” which contrasts with the i sounds that precede it: “que ne suis-je assis …” The coolness of this shade, under forests that have become protecting and enveloping, creates for Phèdre an eminently desirable place, apt to save her from her burning unavowable love for Hippolyte and from the terrible gaze of the gods. The beneficial shadow trembles with a devastating passion; the imagined place is filled with human guilt.

The “meaning” of the famous verse depends on the imagination that inhabits it, and on the emotion that animates it, which would not be fully present without its grammar and without the sounds that it makes. The forests, real, surreal, and resonating with the character’s desire, shame, and aspiration, represent, in a sudden vision, the true world: loved, lost, possible. And I do not exclude the likelihood that these “forêts” are imposed on Racine by the necessity of rhyming them with “apprêts” at the end of the preceding line, and by the impossibility of writing the four syllables “de la forêt.” The arrival of poetry for a prosaic reason is not at all shocking: essential words and ideas frequently arrive in an oblique manner.

As Henri Brémond writes, poetry produces in us “a feeling of presence.” The world is there, not under its usual guise but in a language that alone can give it immediacy. The poetic act draws close to the real and, in order to go to the depth of things, it recreates them for us by welcoming them in sounds, rhythms, and unlimited ramifications of meanings, and places these recreations in the domain of the possible. In its own way, and without at all being supernatural, poetry too is a revelation. The Bible as revelation and as poetic speech gives equally and above all onto something else. Clearly, it does not develop exclusively in poems, but its writings often turn into verse, as if it tended toward poetry by supposing poetry to be the speech most appropriate to the strangeness, to the transcendence of what it manifests. And let us think again of the words of Jesus. He speaks quite often in parables, in order to present complex truths in the form of stories and within the life of a few characters, and in order to provoke his listeners—and us, his readers—to search, each time, for meaning in the multiple facets of a fiction. His affirmations in prose are equally poetic in that they are not understood right away; they ask that we receive them as we receive poetry, by becoming conscious of the mystery that accompanies them. For example, in hearing “The kingdom of heaven is very near,” or “This is my body,” or “I am the truth,” we feel, I believe, that they are something other than propositions, and we recognize behind these very simple words a sort of hinterland of meaning that we must explore as one explores the depths of a poem.

“I am the truth” escapes from all the modes of thinking in Western philosophy.

Jesus, who is the Word, speaks, indeed, and does not write. Everything he says follows from a particular situation, from a lived moment. And so many books of the Bible began by being spoken, or were destined, like the Psalms, to be said and sung, or they gather the words of an orator, like Ecclesiastes, or presuppose a dialogue, like Job or the Song of Songs. The Bible engages us constantly in listening, in becoming sensitive to their ways of writing, to images that do not explain, and, ideally, to the music of thought. It is true that most of us do not have access to the original texts, but wasn’t that foreseen? There are ways to understand, even at a distance, how Hebrew and Greek function, and it is up to us to seek, in a simple translation—on the condition that it is poetically faithful—the animation of the speech and the way and the life of the truth.

Reading the Bible is a “poetic” experience. It offers us a theology according only to the etymological sense of the word: speech concerning God. For the Bible, which puts us in front of something else, is itself other. Have we, in Europe, truly grasped the nature of Christianity? Haven’t we instead assimilated to our categories of thought and our habits of reading a religion that comes to us from the Middle East? Its Jewish origins in no way signify that Christianity lacks a universal bearing, but they must not be neglected. God chose to reveal himself first through a people that had, century after century, their own way of thinking and writing, and the religion they transmitted bears the marks of this genesis. The Bible asks us to recognize the strangeness, the foreignness of Christianity, and to put in question our European manner of approaching it. Recovering this Christianity that comes from elsewhere would change our reading of the Bible, and doubtless our way of proclaiming the Gospel.

#poetry #reading #religion

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kammartinez · 10 months

Text

Isn’t this curious? And poetry appears from the beginning. In the second chapter of Genesis (verse 23), Adam welcomes the creation of woman in this way:

Here at last the bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called woman, for she was drawn forth from man.

God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him, man and woman he created them.

In approaching the Bible’s beginning, we must often change our listening, our rhythm, our mode of attention and of being, in order to understand and receive a different language.

***

Dieux! que ne suis-je assise à l’ombre des forêts! (Gods! why am I not seated in the shade of forests!)

“I am the truth” escapes from all the modes of thinking in Western philosophy.

#poetry #religion #reading

0 notes

noeticprayer · 1 year

Text

SCRIPTURE READINGS for Sunday May 14th, 2023

Acts 11:19-26, 29-30

In those days, those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoeni'cia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyre'ne, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians. And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea; and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

John 4:5-42 (Gospel)

At that time, the Lord came to a city of Samar'ia, called Sy'char, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samar'ia to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samar'ia?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?" Jesus said to her, "Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, `I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly." The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, "What do you wish?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." So the disciples said to one another, "Has any one brought him food?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, `There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, `One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."

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mwolfgramm · 2 years

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Alan Fletcher Interview/Article Research

Reputations: Alan Fletcher

By: Rick Poynor

An interview with Pentagram’s ringmaster of paradox.

Rick Poynor: Why did you become a graphic designer?

Alan Fletcher: I always used to draw as a kid and when it came time to leave school, you were offered three options. You went to university, or you went into the army, or you worked for the bank. I didn’t fancy any of those and I learnt that if you went to art school you could get a grant. I studied illustration at Hammersmith art school for a year, then I discovered there were other art schools in London. Central School was very lively so I applied to go there.

RP: Colin Forbes was at Central; so were Derek Birdsall, Ken Garland and Terence Conran. Did you have a sense of almost evangelical mission towards design? Were you as a generation going to bring design to Britain?

AF: It was an evangelical mission, not necessarily to bring design to Britain, but to do design. It was that 1950s period which was fairly socialist-minded – hair-shirt and puritan. There wasn’t much work around and you would have been mad to become a designer if you weren’t passionate about it.

From Central I went to the Royal College of Art, where I managed to get a scholarship to Yale. Britain was very grey, boring place and America, from what I could see in the movies, was bright lights, Manhattan, Cary Grant and Doris Day.

RP: You seem to have had trouble making contact with inspirational people there – with Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Leo Lionni. Was that something you set out to do, or was it just a series of happy accidents?

AF: It was a bit of both. If you know the right people, you meet the right people. I happen to have been taught by pretty terrific people at most of the schools I went to – Anthony Froshaug, Henrion, Herbert Spencer, Herbert Matter, Josef Albers, Bradbury Thompson. When I was at Yale, Rand helped me by giving me the odd freelance from IBM and introduced me to other people. But you have to work at it. When I went to Los Angeles, I called Saul Bass from a public phone box and said “Sorry to bother you, sir. Can I come and see you and show you my portfolio?” I didn’t have any money, so he helped me by giving me freelance work.

RP: It seems as though you knew exactly where you wanted to go.

AF: Well, I think it’s the reverse. I couldn’t actually do anything else. I always thought I could design well as a student, but then I would find someone who could do it better. But it wasn’t so far off, it wasn’t unattainable, it was just difficult. So I was driven by my own inadequacy, probably. You’ve got to have an ego to be a designer. It’s a stupid job to have unless you’ve got that: undressing every day in front of some client who doesn’t necessarily share your enthusiasms.

RP: The American experience must have given you a headstart over people who had stayed in austerity in Britain.

AF: Everybody was still doing the same thing: little black and white jobs with eight point type. If it had a second colour it was red, or possibly blue. When I arrived back in London in the early 1960s it was with a portfolio of full colour jobs and ambitious hopes.

I had been back about six months when Bob Gill rang, saying he had been given my name by Aaron Burns in New York. We went out for supper and after about three months we decided we should start our own little design office with Colin Forbes. We didn’t get a single job for the first month. Then we got some Penguin book jackets. We used to go out to a café with the brief for one Penguin book jacket and do it over coffee, share the book jacket like a bone.

RP: At Pentagram you have the controlling influence on everything you do. The assistant designers support your vision. Do you think the best graphic design will always come from a single author?

AF: I think it depends on your personality. Art directors orchestrate other people to produce something that satisfies them. That’s OK. And then there are other people sawing away on their violin. I’m up the violin end. A John McConnell likes an orchestra and he does it very well. I couldn’t do that: it would be totally confusion after about three minutes. But in the end the result is the same.

RP: With Pentagram you co-operated in the setting of a partnership that would give you the freedom to pursue your own interests and a secure company framework within which to do it.

AF: I’m a split personality. I do quite large, complex corporate identity jobs. I enjoy that, but I also enjoy sitting round doing my own little things, which are invariably the ones that don’t pay. The clients who do pay give you an opportunity to extract time and money for your own indulgences. That’s important. I think a lot of clients come to Pentagram because of the uncommercial jobs we do – calendars, Christmas books, the Pentagram Papers and so on.

RP: What else have you gained from the Pentagram arrangements?

AF: You can’t get away with anything in here, because someone is going to pass by something on your desk and say exactly what he thinks. You have to listen to it, because you respect his opinion. You don’t necessarily agree, but you are uncapable to kid yourself that the job is good if it’s only 80 per cent. But it’s very easy, if you’re tired and you can’t think of anything else, to convince yourself that you’ve solved it. So the partnership acts as an irritating self-protection system.

RP: You once told me that up until five years ago you felt inhibited in your designing. You knew in advance what you would or wouldn’t like and this influenced the solutions you were prepared to attempt.

AF: What I meant was that you have to throw away the crutches. When you know that you do a certain thing quite well there’s a temptation to keep doing it in that way. You become a graphic cliché.

Most designers suffer from inhibition and wanting to please. I didn’t wake up one morning and say “I’ve got to change my life”. I just thought: I’ve got to be less inhibited. If I think the right answer is to walk over a piece of paper with muddy shoes, or pick a typeface that everybody loathes but try to do something with it – that’s what I mean by uninhibited. I think a lot of designers talk like that, but the work ends up looking the same, which means they haven’t totally let go. I haven’t either.

RP: Design as you practise it seems to involve reading between the lines. When you use visual puns and rebuses, or pay with ambiguous images, that’s what you are encouraging the viewer to do.

AF: That, to me, is what design is. The rest of it is just layout. I’m quite broad about ideas: putting certain colours together could be an idea, or an optical idea. Every job has to have an idea. Otherwise it would be like a novelist trying to write a book about something without really saying anything.

I also like ideas that have further jokes – private ideas or jokes. I think the Polaroid poster is quite a good one. We were asked to do something on a new colour film and I thought that idea of a Rorschach test with colours would look quite pretty. What I really liked about it, though, was when someone said to me, “But what does it mean, Alan?” I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled.

RP: You don’t mind if there are aspects of design that people fail to grasp?

AF: It’s the extra three or five per cent, if you like. You’ve solved the problem – that’s difficult enough – but it’s not enough. I think what separates the designer sheep from the designer goats is to push it to the edge. Most clients don’t realise it and couldn’t care less even if they did, but it people who have a sensitive intelligence spot it, then that’s what gives it extra buzz.

RP: That’s a view of design that would be foreign to people who regard it as an adjunct to marketing – people who see design’s function as fulfilling the client’s brief as effectively as possible and stopping there.

AF: I treat clients as raw material to do what I want to do, though I would never tell them that. I try to solve their problems, but in solving their problems take an opportunity to find that extra twist that adds the magic. The art posters I did for IBM are a good example. IBM asked me to design a placard for their new Paris headquarters, which said a painting would shortly arrive for the space on the wall occupied by the placard. In response I did a series of posters interpreting the word “art” as defined by author or artist, and I put the line about the paintings in 6pt along the bottom. If I had answered the brief, they would have got a straightforward placard.

RP: Why do you use your own handwriting so much in the posters?

AF: I like to reduce everything to its absolute essence, because that is a way to avoid getting trapped in a style. I only started writing instead of typesetting to save money, or maybe because I was inhibited before. You’ve got to keep on breaking down the barriers. Of course you could argue that I’m creating my own style and that’s a weakness and I should try harder. I think you would probably be right.

I always think of writing as drawing. Every letter is a symbol, so you can begin to play games. I don’t treat writing as calligraphy. The more controlled and raw it is, the more interesting it becomes

RP: What qualities of thought or sensibility make for a good graphic designer?

AF: There are elegant ways of doing something and inelegant ways. Sensitivity, though it sounds a bit fey. Thoughtfulness, I think you can look at a portfolio and see the obvious things: if they have idea or don’t have ideas, a sense of craft. Then there’s that quality … You hardly ever see it. You look at other designers’ work and you spot it, and they spot it, too: economy of thought, the oblique reference, charm and, above all, wit.

RP: Do you feel that the approach you and the other Pentagram partners have taken – avoiding the stock market, creaking an environment where you please yourselves rather than shareholders – has been vindicated by the recent upheavals in the British design business?

AF: It’s not a question of vindication. I think everyone should do what they want to do. Every Pentagram partner in his own way is a hands-on person. They are all small boys who want to be patted on the head and told what a nice job they’ve done. What turns people on here is being proud of the job, not how much money they earned for it. I can’t see a suit coming in from the City and saying, “Look, you can’t do this. You’ve got to do that.” They’d throw him out of the window.

RP: You’ve been working on a book about design for seven years. When will you publish it?

AF: It’s really a scrapbook. I wrote down some thoughts on a whole series of things like “taste”, “perception”, “imagination”, “visualisation” – pigeon-holes. I took all the quotes, clippings, observations and images I’d collected, including my notes, and put them in the pigeon-holes. There are lots of things written about the visual business that are not explained very clearly. I’m using words like pictures.

The rest of my life has lots of deadlines, so I’ve no intention of that happening to something I’m doing for myself. I’d like to see it published, because I think that would be an achievement, but if it isn’t, it isn’t going to kill me. I’m trying to learn something more about myself, actually. I’m not given to self-analysis, but I am given to insatiable curiosity

First published in Eye no. 2 vol. 1, 1991

Reference: https://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-alan-fletcher

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grad503-georgiamorrisrickard · 2 years

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Interview with Alan fletcher