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vincent-g-writer · 3 years

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The Silver Screen Savant, pt 2- the Meh, the Bad and The yikes.

Hello Writers!

Last time here on Starry Starry Write, I talked a little about Autism in the media and my personal experiences therein. Today, I’d like to go a little broader, and tackle the topic from a macro perspective.

In recent times, you’ve probably heard “Representation Matters” oft repeated. Especially in prominent talking spaces like social media. But what does that mean, exactly?

Why “Representation Matters,” and how.

The short answer:

Diverse representation in media tells us that everyone has a place in the world. That everyone’s story matters.

The long answer:

It’s no secret that we begin engaging with media at a young age. When I was growing up in the 90’s and 00’s, TV and video games were often the babysitters of my peers. I was one of the few kids in my neighborhood whose parents weren’t divorced. The kids I knew? Not so much. Most of them were raised by single parents, grandparents and of course-the boob tube. I personally prefered books, when my mom wasn’t yelling “it’s too nice out to be holed up in that dark bedroom!”

Now, don’t mistake my preference for some kind of intellectual superiority. I watched plenty of TV too. Besides, books aren’t magically out of the equation. Printed material is our oldest form of media. And- often just as problematic. Though I will say- I saw a much broader range of people on covers adoring library shelves than I ever did titles on a TV roster. But, I digress. The point is: for many of us, consuming media begins at an early time of our life. And that’s where the problem starts. Even in my childhood, where The Magic School Bus, Hey Arnold, and Sesame Street showed people of all kinds, I can point to many that did not. Especially not people like me. Which did me a grave disservice. I didn’t know I was on the spectrum for a long time, and when I finally found out, I was horrified, thanks to what I had seen on TV.

Because media is not only a wonderful way to learn about people that don’t look, act or sound like us. It also informs our ideas of who we are, and what we can be. Whether we like it or not: it shapes how we understand the world. And it doesn’t stop with Childhood.

Time Changes Much, but not all.

Things are better now. Well, a little bit, anyway.

As an adult, I see more people like me on the screen nowadays. Which is nice.

Ish.

Why “ish?” Well…

Frequently, these “noticeably different” characters (read: Autistically coded) are branded “NOT AUTISTIC!” You heard it here first, folks! That one character (insert your favorite) is Totally Not Autistic. Despite being written in a way that gives every indication otherwise.

*Facepalm*

Now for some examples, which we’ll call the “Meh,” “The Bad” and the “Yikes.” For “fun,” we’ll also go into the off-air perceptions of the characters.

The “Meh.”

First on the list is Dr. Spencer Reid, from CBS’s “Criminal Minds.”

Dr. Reid is the youngest member of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, having joined at the age of 22. He holds three B.A degrees in Sociology, Psychology and Philosophy, as well as three Ph.D’s in Engineering, Chemistry, and Mathematics.

He also has the social skills of a limp dishrag. Wait, what’s that? High Intelligence + Low Social Awareness? Hmmm…Then there’s his restrictive behavioral patterns, obsessive interests, and general “quirkiness!” that we could talk about. But let’s hear a quote from the actor who plays him, Matthew Gray Gubler:

“..an eccentric genius, with hints of schizophrenia and minor autism, Asperger’s Syndrome. Reid is 24, 25 years old with three PH.D.s and one can’t usually achieve that without some form of autism.”

Hoooo-boy. I could go into all the things wrong with this, including why the term “Asperger’s” is both horrific (TW: Eugenics,Ableism, N*zis) and harmful. However, today we’ll simply leave it with the fact that this term is no longer applicable, having been reclassified in 2013 as part of Autism Spectrum disorder.

The “Bad.”

Next up, we have Will Graham, from NBC’s Hannibal.

Like our first example, Will works for the FBI. He’s a gifted criminal profiler with “special” abilities, namely hyper empathy, which allows him to reconstruct the actions and fantasies of the killers he hunts. He’s intellectually gifted, hates eye contact, socializing, and prefers to spend…most of his time…alone.

Oh dear. Haven’t we been here before? But, I mean, he doesn’t have Autism! The show runner says so!

For Will Graham, there’s a line in the pilot about him being on the spectrum of autism or Asperger’s, and he’s neither of those things. He actually has an empathy disorder where he feels way too much and that’s relatable in some way. There’s something about people who connect more to animals than they do to other people because it’s too intense for whatever reason.

You can’t see me right now, but I’m cringing. A lot. This is just…ugh. I mean, for starters, I know a handful of autistic people who struggle with hyper empathy, which can make social situations overwhelming and hard to navigate. In fact, I happen to be one of them. Plus, there’s a cool little thing about how, frequently, people on the spectrum more readily identify with animals. But, y’know. Who am I to say? I’m just someone, one of many, who’s dealt with this my whole life.

Now, onto the “Yikes.”

*sigh*

And finally, we have BBC’s Sherlock, a modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s renowned “consulting” detective, and probably the most famous fictional character of all time.

Now, I’ll start by saying that the BBC incarnation is not the first to be Spectrum labeled. In fact, Sherlock was my childhood hero, and the first “person” I saw referred to this way. My aunt, an avid reader herself, casually remarked to a friend “I’ve always wondered if Holmes is Autistic,” after I came yammering on about how fantastic the books were. Had I not been champing at the bit to get back to my reading, I might have asked her what that meant.

I also believe this fandom driven speculation is why many detective type characters (see above) are often coded as Autistic, intentionally or otherwise.

In this New York Times article, Lisa Sanders, M.D. describes Holmes traits:

He appears oblivious to the rhythms and courtesies of normal social intercourse — he doesn’t converse so much as lecture. His interests and knowledge are deep but narrow. He is strangely “coldblooded,” and perhaps as a consequence, he is also alone in the world.

Now, before we go any father, let me take a moment to defend his creator. During the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first created his most famous work, Autism was not known. That isn’t to say it didn’t exist. We’ve always existed. In fact, it’s now believed that the Changeling Myth, a common European folk story, was a way to explain Autism. In one telling (there are a few) children displaying “intelligence beyond their years” and “uncanny knowledge” were imposters, traded out by Fae creatures for offspring of their own. Children believed to be “Changlings,�� regretfully, often came to a bad end. A chilling reminder that the stories we tell impact our real lives.

So while Autism was at least somewhat recognized, it did not become its own official diagnosis until 1943.

Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes was first published in 1892. Now, as a writer who often draws from my personal reality, I imagine Doyle probably “wrote what he knew,” which is to say, acquainted with one or more Autistic people, he used them as inspiration.

On the other hand…

BBC’s Sherlock first aired in 2010. And while one might argue that the writers simply capitalized on the Autistic fan-theory, or took already available traits and exaggerated them for their version… they left a lot to be desired. Autism aside, this new Sherlock is…well…an asshole. Narcissistic, abusive and egocentric (to name a few) he sweeps his caustic behavior under the rug of “high functioning sociopath,” and blytly ignores the consequences.

Which is a major problem. Because while doing this, he’s still “obviously” (at least in the Hollywood sense) Autistic. In my previous post, where I said some characters are “too smart™, and logical© to ever have feelings, friends or empathy,” this is what I meant.

This is bad. We’re looping right back to Representation Matters. Bad representation, and the navigating of such, is just as important for writers to think about as good representation. Maybe even moreso. Because bad representation paints real people into cardboard, stereotyped people-shaped things. It otherizes. And it’s harmful. You would not believe the people I’ve met assume I’m not Autistic because I’m not an egotistical jerk. Why? Because they watched, you guessed it, BBC Sherlock.

Confession time:

Now here’s my little secret:

I love all of these characters. They are some of my favorite on tv. Why? Because for good or ill, I recognize myself in them. Finally, I can turn on the TV, and see myself. Or, somewhat, anyway.

My favorite character out of this list? Loath though I am to admit it… Is Sherlock. See, what those well meaning folks didn’t know (the ones who say I’m I’m “too nice,” to be Autistic) is… well, if we’re being honest, I wasn’t always nice. A few years ago, I was that guy. I was a jerk because I thought I was the smartest person in the room. Which is really not a good look. In fact, sitting down and watching the first season of sherlock, (around three or four years after it came out) made me realize how much of a jerk I actually was.

There are other things there too. Things that tie me to all these characters, that I didn’t list. But that’s for another today.

For now, I’d like to add a caveat or two:

1) I’ve watched all the shows listed above, and adore them. As I mentioned, Sherlock is my favorite. He’s also the one I’ve watched the most (Repeatedly, in fact. Whoops.) and I recognize it’s not all bad. In the end, he learned to treat people better (somewhat) and certainly became more human over time. And, there are other deeply problematic elements of the show I’d like to tackle, eventually.

*cough* Queerbating! *cough*

2) I’m well aware that the above cases are all thin, white, able bodied, “straight” males. But I chose these characters for a couple of reasons. One, they’re the most prominent type on TV. Again, we loop back around to representation, and why we need more positive, diverse examples of it.

And finally-

3) In my last post, I mentioned I’d give some “good” instances of Hollywood Autism trope. But I didn’t exactly do that. Partially, because half way through, I thought…perhaps…I’m not the best to judge what might be a good Autistic character. I mean, I’m sure someone will read this and think my current aforementioned characters are fine. Heck! They might even argue my perception here, and say the characters are just fine. I accept that. In my life, both on and off the page, I recognize that I cannot, should not (and don’t want to) speak for an entire community.

Because of this, I cannot tell you how to write a “good” Autistic character, or what media is “acceptable.” I can’t even really tell you what a bad character is. Sure, I have a lot of opinions about it. But- if you’re on the spectrum and like and identify with the above? That’s fine. I mean, even with all the problems I noted (and some I didn’t) I certainly do.

On the other hand, if you’re a writer, and you want to write a character from this (or any, for that matter) community you aren’t part of, I caution you.

Do your research. Preferably from multiple credible sources.

Talk to people on the spectrum about what it’s really like. (Though try to steer clear of asking for emotional labor.You could, say, hop on reddit and ask the community there, for instance, which is a no pressure way to obtain potentially decent info.)

Finally, whatever you do, remember this-

Autistic people can look like anyone. We can act, and think and be different, like anyone. We are real, living, breathing people. Not robots, not sob stories, not tropes. People. So if you write about us, write us like people. And your work will be all the better for it.

-Your Loving Vincent

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sharkfish · 4 years

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ps i loved this one

(rereading bookmarks edition part 2)

(part 1)

i’ve been rereading stories from my bookmarks as a comfort thing. i’m getting real deep in there to stuff i haven’t (re)read for years, and damn do i have good taste. the ones i’ve read recently that you should, too:

(under the cut so i’m not that asshole that makes you scroll past an endless post)

Best Laid Plans by Persephoneshadow

Things are going well for Dean: he's landed the biggest design job of his architectural career and is about to get final approval on the project despite how difficult the development company, personified by Castiel Novak, has made it. It's not bad for a moody omega...except things are also going terribly for Dean because he has to get in a plane and fly to a meeting, and course ends up in heat a few hours before. Luckily, Castiel is there to help and both men discover the good that can come when nothing goes quite as intended.

i don’t know why i’m such a ho for stories where dean thinks cas hates him, but cas secretly adores him and is just a little “rusty” on his “people skills.” i’m also a ho for stories where dean is a gd skilled genius but his dumb ass still thinks his work sucks and/or anything good is due to other people instead of himself. and also, heat boning.

Confessions of a Cam Boy by MsCaptainWinchester (rons_pigwidgeon)

Dean runs a cam show to pay his way through marketing school, but he's about to start an internship that he doesn't know will change his life. Watching Dean's show is Castiel's favorite way to wind down after a stressful day at Sandover Bridge & Iron. When Cas comes to work one day and finds his favorite cam boy setting coffee on his desk, he is completely thrown. Will Dean finish his internship without knowing his favorite viewer is his new boss, or will he be able to see through Cas' non-existent poker face and figure it out?

omg poor cas is soooo awkward and dean is weirded out about how much his new boss seems to dislike him and then it’s super sexy >:)

For Science by shiphitsthefan

“Think of it like an experiment," says Dean. "You’re testing a hypothesis as to whether or not a desirable response can be achieved through the stimulation of the anus via the application of a willing volunteer’s muscular hydrostat.”

Cas raises an eyebrow. “Are you actually trying to use the scientific method to talk me into letting you lick my asshole?”

everyone is such adorable nerds in this one. it’s a fic about rimming, but it’s also about love and discovering yourself and acceptance. it explores cas’s realization through his connection with dean that he’s not straight up ace but more grey/demi - and that doesn’t mean he was “faking” being ace up until he met dean.

Friends with Benefits with Tentacles by andimeantittosting (Saylee)

Dean's never been embarrassed about his porn collection before, but that was before he found Cas holding his prized copy of Sweet Princess Asuka and the Tentacles of Pleasure. Dean finds himself sweating bullets—because this is Cas, sweet, nerdy Cas. Cas, his friend. Cas, his roommate. Cas, his—only slightly out-of-control—crush.

Cas, with his big, blue eyes and muscular arms and perpetual sex hair.

Cas, with his tentacles.

The last thing he expects is for Cas to suggest they experiment together.

there are not enough tentacle fics out there and i 100000% approve of this addition to the tag. i love that dean is out there legitimately studying porn, and the tentacles are obviously super fun, and there were parts where my heart hurt so bad, all around a damn fine fic.

Grown-Ups Making Grown-Up Choices by Carrieosity

Dean is a grown-ass man - he can take perfectly good care of himself, thank you very much. Except that sometimes the easier or more fun choices aren't always the right or best ones, and, all right, maybe thinking ahead and working the long game isn't his strongest suit. It's fine! He's fine.

When he meets Castiel, he realizes that flying by the seat of his pants may not be the best way to attract the super-serious (gorgeous, funny, genius) Alpha. Dean's shrink has been telling him he needs to start making "grown-up choices," and if that's what he has to think about in order to make Cas fall for him, then he'll give it a whirl.

i LOVE this fic (series). i feel so hard for dean feeling like he’s too old for his life to still be a mess, but i also felt sad for him that he thought he had to make all these hardcore changes - basically turn himself into a different person - to be worthy of cas’s attentions. i fucking adore cas in this, and i nearly cried just thinking about all the damn peppers they eat, and i want to read it again right now.

If I Run by Anonymous

"Dean Winchester is a red-blooded American male. He lifts all the things. He aims for functional strength. He counts his macros and makes fun of curlbros. He is not a member of the Tarahumara tribe and he will not read Born to Run, no matter how many times Sam tells him to, because Starting Strength is the only book Dean will ever fucking need."

***

Wherein a friendly competition with the mysterious ThursdaysAngel turns into a sexy selfie-trading spree that motivates Dean Winchester to train for his first marathon.

i really really love this fic and reread it pretty often tbh. it only became “anonymous” pretty recently and i’m so curious about why!! regardless, this fic is a really great time!!!

It's Always More Than Once (Before It Takes) by squeemonster

The first time it happens, it's because of boredom. Or, at least that's what Dean tells himself to justify it. Boredom and Dean Winchester are a dangerous combination, especially when you factor in beer, a raging libido, and laziness.

dean: my dudes, is it gay to do sexy stuff with your male bff? cuz i’m totally straight. but also, having sex with my male bff.

I Wanna Get Outside (Of Me) by emwebb17

Dean is a novice in the dom/sub world asked by his employer as a desperate last resort to be a sub for his recluse of a brother, Castiel. Castiel is a diagnosed OCD suffering from PTSD and agoraphobia, mysophobia, and dystychiphobia. Needless to say—he’s a mess who hasn’t stepped out of his home in literally seven years. The only times Gabriel can see traces of the way his brother used to be is when he feels in control—specifically when he has control over a sub. However, due to his idiosyncrasies and paranoia, keeping a sub around has been impossible. Enter Dean, who’s not a very traditional submissive, to try his hand at subbing for the hermit.

you know how sometimes you read a fic, and it takes ages to get yourself out of that world? even though you’re finished, you’re still right there with him? this is one of those fics. i reread it a couple weeks ago and fell asleep thinking about it last night. i cry a lot reading this one.

Living in Agony by ChasingRabbits

Dean Winchester's life is... well, it's not great. He's a gym teacher, he's in his thirties, and he can't seem to keep any part of his life straight. When the aftermath of a one-night stand goes awry, Dean is dragged kicking and screaming out of his cozy little closet and into the harsh light of reality.

Enter: Castiel Novak, the new history teacher, who knows full well that life gets crappy when you don't allow yourself to live it in the way it needs to be lived.

there aren’t a lot of stories that deal with themes of mental illness, and a lot of them read like an episode of degrassi where everything wraps up in 30min to never be discussed again. this story is honest in that there’s no easy out. there’s medication and therapy and supportive people, but that’s not always enough. it’s a story about how you don’t have to be mentally ill to be fucked up, and while people can’t fix each other, they can help each other. content note: references to a pre-story suicide attempt.

Oddly Shaped Empty by jemariel

Dean grew up thinking -- knowing -- he'd be an alpha.

Until he failed to present. As a beta, he has no mating cycle, no noticeable pheromones, none of the physical markers that are so important in a world of alphas and omegas. He's out of place. How is he supposed to navigate his relationships and find love when he doesn't fit into the neatly-defined boxes he's used to?

By the time he meets his new roommate, Castiel, he's more or less given up on finding a mate. He wears his secondary gender like a chip on his shoulder. But you never know what the future holds, who will come into your life, and how they might change it forever.....

Queer themes, finding identity, reconciling the past, and a whole lot of smut.

y’all know @jemariel is a gd genius, but i’m particularly obsessed with their fics that use abo to explore queer identify & experiences. i hold my breath reading most of this fic and also cry.

Steal my Breath by Sincestiel

“Tighter, Dean, please,” Cas urges throwing his head back to rest on Dean’s shoulder. Dean squeezes. He doesn’t know why Cas wants this or even what the appeal is, but he always comes harder when he’s struggling to breathe.

what’s on the tin. a quick lil breathplay fic that is thoroughly enjoyable.

Unsolicited by Dangerousnotbroken

In which Dean Winchester gets an unsolicited dick pic from an unknown sender which is both totally not disappointing in that it's a really nice dick pic, and incredibly disappointing in that it's clearly a downloaded picture of his favorite porn star.

There's absolutely no way it's actually this porn star sending it to him, right?

Right?

this is a destiel classic and i feel like anyone who isn’t new here has probably read it. but here’s your reminder that this is a great fic and you should (re)read it.

Wordplay by Dangerousnotbroken @dangerousnotbroken

“I don’t understand why talking dirty is such a big deal for you humans,” Cas complains, apropos of nothing.

it’s a “cas learning about sex” and also dirty talk, which are both things i’m really into!! and DNB is a genius so that’s even better.

if you enjoy these fics (and you should), please give the writer some love via kudos and/or comments. <3

ps - as always, if i didn’t tag the writer and you know their tumblr, please tag in the comments. i don’t think there’s a writer alive who wouldn’t be happy to be on a rec list. :)

#sharklist #sharkrecs

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centrifuge-politics · 5 years

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Brick Club 5.4.1

Late late late! I would say something about this compelling illustration but it feels in bad taste. This maybe goes without saying, but TW for suicide and suicidal thoughts. I don’t talk in detail about that aspect, but it very much is the lens this chapter is presented through.

To start off with a mild observation, I don’t particularly picture the Seine as a rapidly flowing river, so I’m wondering what the geography of this area must have been like to create deadly rapids in the Seine.

“There had been a new thing, a revolution, a catastrophe in the depths of his being.” I just watched Hello Future Me’s very good video on redemption arcs and Javert is absolutely primed for the start of a redemption arc that we are tragically deprived of. (The video also just provides really good frameworks for thinking about contextual character growth from any starting point). In the video, Future Me identifies three interconnected aspects of a character’s being that, when altered, create the tension that drives a character to change. These are stakes, views of self, and views of the world. For Javert, these have been in harmony thus far; he must maintain order, he is irreproachable in his duty, and people will always act according to their roles, respectively. But one of these points changes when Valjean spares him; his view of the world is challenged. As a result, his view of himself is no longer compatible with how he sees the world. If this had happened halfway through the book we would possibly see all of these aspects change one after the other as Javert struggled with the new tension between these factors and subsequently changed as a character. But, alas.

Javert has blown past rigid morals and entered into complete prescriptive essentialism. “One thing had astonished him, that Jean Valjean had spared him,” not even because Valjean is ‘bad’ and therefore does ‘bad’ actions, but that taking revenge against Javert would have been justified and even right in Javert’s eyes. It’s a startling view into Javert’s thought process, that every person is so inherently defined by their social positions that they their actions should be 100% predictable at all times, like rational choice theory on steroids.

However, there’s also a really interesting individual element that complicates things. Javert has a personal sense of honor that he has seemingly developed entirely based on his assumptions about society which dictates his response to this situation. It’s like he’s a computer program that hasn’t coded for any exceptions and assumes that every other person is the very same. It has such a twisted Hegelian flair, “the rational alone is real.”

“One of his causes of anxiety was, that he was compelled to think.” Honestly, it’s likely Javert would have never been able to comprehend that he even had an individual sense of honor had it not, at this moment, diverged from the one straight line he’s been following his whole life. There’s suddenly a divide between societal regulations and individual morals that he didn’t even know existed. Of course, the purely rational course of action is to turn Valjean in; a good act doesn’t absolve you of past crimes (legally speaking, because only state sanctioned penalty can exonerate a violation against state law). But Javert has made the mistake of making this personal, he’s no longer objective! Or he never was and is only just now realizing it. Instead, he’s suddenly developing subject/object awareness. Mmm, yes, Hegel. “He had, he, Javert, thought good to decide, against all the regulations of the police, against the whole social and judicial organisation, against the entire code, in favour of a release; that had pleased him; he had substituted his own affairs for the public affairs; could this be characterised?” Yes, sometimes we aren’t mindless cogs in the machine. Imagine if the world were actually imperfect and imprecise. “Terrible situation! to be moved…to be obliged to acknowledge this: infallibility is not infallible.”

The most surprising thing about this crisis is that it took this long for Javert to have it. I would have thought his continual dealings with corrupt individuals with the police would have triggered this crossroads ages ago. In the musical, this maybe works better because Valjean is Javert’s personal obsession. In the book, he’s really just a particular felon that Javert happens to run into every decade or so. He’s not hunting Valjean, he’s not even overly fixated on him until the moment when Valjean does him, personally, an unexpected good turn by not killing Javert as expected. Ignoring the fact that, by everything Javert knows, Valjean has never ever been a violent criminal and his worst crime is breaking parole, this is merely the ‘good’ reversal of the corrupt cop.

Below the cut, more discussion about Javert and rationality.

It’s also notable that this is not a moral awakening, it’s entirely a dilemma of moral logic. “Javert’s ideal was not to be humane, not to be great, not to be sublime; it was to be irreproachable.” And also, something not identical but similar to this has happened to him before! “But how manage to send in his resignation to God?” What a fascinating way of thinking about this. Javert’s mindset truly exemplifies the concept of anomic suicide—which I’ve often linked Marius to as well—which, to review, is characterized by an intense disillusionment and disappointment due to an abrupt shift in circumstances. In Javert’s case, the norms and values he has predicated his entire life on have been violently contested. He no longer feels able to fit into the societal niche he filled, he can’t be a police officer, he can’t be an agent of order, he can’t be a just man. Unlike Marius, Javert’s dilemma has very little to do with emotion and interpersonal conflict and everything to do with established rules and logic.

Javert is an interesting study of how macro structures perpetuate in micro cases, because it’s clear that he’s internalized the strictures of society into a personal ethic, but without any of the context that those strictures were created within. Society says ‘justice’ but what they actually mean is ‘rule of law.’ If Javert simply followed the letter of the law, he could turn Valjean in without reservation, but Javert genuinely believes in the spirit of the law and, well, the two are simply inherently incompatible in a corrupt system. Not to say Javert is a secret advocate of social justice, he definitely still has some screwed up ideas about the worth of poor people and oppressed ethnic groups and, I’m sure, women that definitely influence his idea of what is punishable. But his priorities show in what is functionally his last will and testament. He doesn’t show anything that could be called compassion or empathy for the prisoners he mentions—remember, he isn’t humane—but many of his observations would be a benefit to the prison population and restrictive for the guards. He’s a creature motivated by impartial reason and just exchange built on a questionable moral foundation.

So much of the imagery on the last page is adapted really beautifully in ‘Javert’s Suicide’ and this scene recalls Valjean’s initial epiphany years ago in Digne just as Javert’s melody is reprised from ‘Valjean’s Soliloquy,’ “Immensity seemed open there. What was beneath was not water, it was chasm. The wall of the quai, abrupt, confused, mingled with vapour, suddenly lost to sight, seemed like an escarpment of the infinite…the swollen river guessed at rather than perceived, the tragical whispering of the flood, the dismal vastness of the arches of the bridge, the imaginable fall into that gloomy void, all that shadow full of horror.” Javert, in the end, chose the unknown of death over the unknown of life which, in my opinion, if the core tragedy of his character.

#brickclub #les mis #les miserables #5.4.1 #i cannot get into hegel bc itll become obvious how little i understand hegel #we (subjects) live in a society (object)#i just want to tell javert...one thing is not like every other thing #long post

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vntcniv · 5 years

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&&. announcing her royal highness, ( antonia ives ), the ( 33 ) year old ( princess ) of ( england ). she is often confused with ( katie mcgrath ). some say that she is ( stubborn & distrusting ), but she is actually ( principled & generous ).

antonia grew up in limehouse, east london and was raised by her mum and her grandmother. making ends meet was definitely a task for her mother and once antonia grasped the concept of money, the family’s financial situation stressed her out as well. even though she was a kid. she was the kind of person who felt bad when they had to buy her a new school uniform or a sports kit.

the year she turned 16, she took advantage of every job opportunity that was thrown her way.

university... she studied hard and with her grades and other merits she scored herself a spot in london school economics. money... well, it had always interested her since she had never really had it. antonia was and is an opportunist and she believed she was made for the cut throat world of finance.

her first years at uni however... well they made realize that she didn’t quite fit in. compared to most of the people at the school, she was practically a communist compared to the bourgeoisie kids. antonia had views that were pretty much straight from a brochure for social democratic welfare states, such views didn’t fit in well in a school where people had come to learn how to make money.

she considered switching to macro economics during her third year but she was already so far along with her studies that... it didn’t seem worth it, the change would have added about a year to her studies and she didn’t want to pay for it.

social liberalism, a stingy attitude... throw in an east-london accent and she stuck out like a sore thumb. her friend group was small but tight --- it mainly consisted of people like her, and she didn’t complain.

but what’s really important about her is that she’s the oldest ( known lol ) child of arthur’s. she did not know she had five (is it five i’ve lost count lol) siblings until her mother dropped the bomb on her. she was 23 ( so... 2009. ) at the time, and needless to say it changed her life completely.

at first she was not interested in the crown at all. she did not need a big family, she did not need a father — she had been doing well the last two decades without one, so why should she care? if anything she hated the man. spineless weasel. what she was interested in was money. money, money, money, and the opportunity to be debt free. her student loans were the first thing that got taken care of once king arthur legitimized her.

she did not get very involved in the royal affairs, she just concentrated on finishing her studies at lse and getting a job at a good bank. she got more and more interested in her father’s associates when she realized how willing everyone were to suck up to her as the princess of england. it wasn’t very difficult to land a good job after graduation with friends in high places.

she’s an investment banker at barclays

the more she watched her father muck up and disgrace himself, the less she wanted to have anything to do with the royals — she had already milked what she wanted. he was just doing such a poor job in her eyes. the house of lords had always been filled with people she detested, and it annoyed her to no end that it was her father really fit in with the crowd.

but then one day she was having a beer with her friends — her more liberal friends who mused how absolutely outdated the monarchy was. antonia started wondering what would england be like if it were a republic. what started out as a private joke, grew into an actual idea. if kings such as arthur were a thing, was monarchy truly the best option for a country?

what really bothers her is that, especially among royals, politicians have a degree in politics. in her opinion, such degree is just a poor combination of other degrees and in the end people with the degree don’t have much in-depth knowledge of a specific field. all they are skilled in is using whatever rhetoric that supports their case.

so she started entertaining the idea of abolishing the monarchy if she ever got the crown. and that was how she decided to enter the race for the throne. she was the oldest child — that was a good start. she was educated, well-spoken and had stayed out of the spotlight.

she wasn’t very invested in the competition, not even when she entered it, but with time it has more or less become an obsession for her. the outcome doesn’t worry her too much though, she has enough faith in her siblings. they aren’t all bad. and no matter how things end, she won’t be terribly disappointed since she has a life outside of politics. she can just go back to staring at investments and graphs. but it’s a game, and winning a game is always fun, isn’t it?

personality wise antonia is rather mature. she’s over thirty so she isn’t into partying and/or unnecessary drama. for example if she knew the details of gionat, she would probably find the intensity of the situation adorably amusing. which brings me to my next point, she is condescending. can’t help it. she has never seen royals as anything else except children with too much money and power, and she never forgets to make it known. she has her principles and tends to be pretty adamant about them. i mean, she wouldn’t be in the race if she didn’t have something she believed in. since she never really got into the royal life, she is relatively down-to-earth.

#i added some stuff but she's essentially the same #hshqintro #also sobs i had to remove all mentions of reha #rip jo

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babywhereyougone · 5 years

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[Translation] The Television 2019-01 - Wild Sexy (Part 2 - 20 Questions) (original scans: nsnsns_mmm@twitter)

1. When’s your birthday? Ryo: October 30, 2000 Mizuki: October 31, 2000 Yuto: November 15, 1999 Soya: September 20, 2002 Ryuto: September 30, 2002

2. Where’s your hometown? Ryo: Kangawa Prefecture Mizuki: Kanagawa Prefecture Yuto: Kanagawa Prefecture Soya: Tokyo Ryuto: Kanagawa Prefecture

3. What’s your blood type? Ryo: O Mizuki: AB Yuto: A Soya: A Ryuto: O 4.What’s your hobby/special skill? Ryo: My hobby is billiards. I have been playing it for about a year and have gotten pretty good. My special skill is talking with people I’ve never met before. Zero shyness. Mizuki: My hobby is shopping. My special skill is eliminating my presence. No matter the circumstance, I can disappear with ease and have people wondering where I went (laughs). Yuto: Baseball. I played it from second grade to my first year of high school. I also love watching it. Soya: To debate and talk about the world news and topics. Ryuto: Playing the ukulele is a recent hobby. I bought it when I was abroad, and I got really into it after I played it as a break from the test studying period. My special skills is turning things I hate into things I like. Such an example is acrobatics! 5. On average, how many hours of sleep do you get a night? Ryo: 6 hours. I sleep at midnight and wake up at 6 in the morning. Mizuki: About 7 hours. Today was 6 hours. Yuto: 8 hours. Today was about 8 hours, but the ideal is 24 hours. I can sleep all day! Soya: 6 hours. I got 11 hours today so I’m super content. Ryuto: 7.5 hours. It was about 6 hours today. 6. What’s your favorite thing to eat lately? Ryo: Beef tongue. I buy a block of beef tongue, cook it in sesame oil, and mix it with some spring onions. Eating it like that is the best. Mizuki: The smell of truffle. (Iwahashi) Genki went to this place and had truffle french fries that were super good and now obsessed with, but I haven’t had the chance to try yet (laughs). Yuto: Convenience store oden. I must have daikon and sometimes I’ll also buy egg and kon’nyaku, too. Soya: Cream croquette. Crispy on the outside and soft, melty center inside. Ryuto: Convenience store kalbi bento. 7. What did you eat today? Ryo: For breakfast, I had yesterday’s leftover yakiniku. For lunch, I had curry. Mizuki: Bacon cheeseburger. Yuto: Kimchi. I wasn’t feeling too well this morning, but I felt better after eating kimchi. Soya: For breakfast ad lunch, I had beef tongue rice my mother made. Ryuto: For breakfast I had cereal. I was studying for tests during lunch so I didn’t get a chance to eat… When I’m immersed in something, my appetite takes a break. 8. How many texts do you send in a day? Ryo: About 50. I have about 10 people I talk with regularly. I call in my downtime, so I don’t text much. Mizuki: Almost zero. I immediately reply when I get something, but I rarely send anything myself. Yuto: About 50. Soya: I don’t answer my phone when I’m busy so zero. I usually only text my family, the group members, senpais, and some other people, so maybe about 4 a day. Ryuto: About 3. I call more than text. 9. Who in Johnny’s did you message most recently? Ryo: Shime-chan (Shimekake Ryuya) texted me, “Why didn’t you come to the stage show,?” and I replied, “Because of work and tests.” I want to go if I could~ Mizuki: Nishimura Takuya of Kansai Johnny’s Jr. When I have time, I’d ask him how he is and he sends back a nice reply. Yuto: 7MEN Samurai’s Sasaki Taiko and I entered the company at the same time, so he’s always being cheeky with me. For instance, he saw the TV show I appeared on recently, “Everyone looked amazing …except for Yuto” (laughs). Soya: Tanaka Juri-kun. He gave me advice on the rap I did for “The Shounen Club.” Ryuto: (Sasaki) Taiko. He wants to get something simple across but can’t find the right words for it so the text comes off as angry (laughs). 10. What’s your favorite emoji? Ryo: Cute, funny faces emojis. Mizuki: LINE stamp of the white, round character with his thumbs up. Yuto: Stamps of my favorite anime character. I use the “OK” and “Thank You” ones a lot. Soya: Surreal character stamp of a slim kid. The one where he’s bowing going, “G’mornnnnn!!” is convenient so I use it a lot. Ryuto: Grinning and laughing white bear. I like the relaxed, half-baked ones. 11. What’s on your homescreen? Ryo: A picture taken at Disneyland of JUNIOR 5, including Saku-chan. Mizuki: It’s completely white. I can see the icons easier this way. Yuto: A picture of Mount Fuji I took outside of the hotel window on a family trip. Soya: It’s a photo of a single red rose I purchased. The photo quality on my phone is really good so the red is so vivid and beautiful. Ryuto: The view of the ocean at sunset. Around the summer, it was of Yuto’s expression upon taking a photo with Matsumoto Jun-kun in the dressing room. 12. What’s the most recent photo you took? Ryo: Of my own hair. Just dyed it black. Mizuki: Choreo video. Yuto: A picture of Matsumoto Jun-kun during his concert. The pose he was during while wearing pink gloves was really cool so I took a picture of it without thinking about it when I saw it in a magazine or something. Soya: A picture with friends taken in front of the emergency stairwell on the day of the school culture festival. But we took it with the light the wrong direction so it was a big fail (laughs). Ryuto: Taiko holding a ukulele. 13. What sort of pictures do you have the most in your camera roll? Ryo: Pictures with friends. When we go out, we ask people nearby to take photos for us. Mizuki: I don’t really take photos, they’re pretty much all choreography videos. Yuto: Photos of the members’ selfies when they steal my phone. I dunno what kind of faces Hashimoto-kun makes, Saku-chan’s photos are of eyes wide open, etc. (laughs). Soya: Family. My older sister loves photos so there’s a lot of everyone. I’m like cut off to the side. Ryuto: Of the members. I turn my camera towards the members in between rehearsals. I have a lot of good faces from Yuto. 14. What do you always have in your bag? Ryo: Breath mints. Mizuki: Mask and tissues. And a train character chewing gum. I loved that gum since I was kid so I always have it. Yuto: Perfume. I’m into scents, and I’ve been into jasmine lately. Soya: Hand wipes. I use it when there isn’t any hand soap when I’m out. Ryuto: A ballpoint ben. It’s the kind with both black and red ink together and it fits into my wallet. 15. What’s your most recent purchase? Ryo: Hawaiian jewelry. I bought something that has “strength” associated with it. Mizuki: A red smartphone case. (Takahashi) Kaito gave me a case that has a built-in battery that I’ve been using, but the color faded… so I went and bought the same color and style! Yuto: Hawaiian ring. Soya: Five rings from Hawaii. My fingers look pretty when I put them on. Ryuto: Mobile battery. 16. What do you want the most right now? Ryo: Motorcycle. I want to ride one during a concert! I have to get a license first, though. Mizuki: I want to try living on my own so I want a one bedroom apartment (laughs). Yuto: White sneakers or boots. I surprisingly like white, even the wristwatch I’m wearing now is white. Soya: A super amazing massage chair for when I’m tense. I never experienced it before, but I want to experience the first class cabin of an airplane. Ryuto: Macro lens for an SLR camera. 17. What type of girls do you like? Ryo: A girl who looks good with short, brown hair. Mizuki: A girl who supports and doesn’t reject my opinions. Yuto: Someone who isn’t clingy, a girl who is a bit of a tomboy. Soya: A bit of a dreamer who says funny, innocent things at times. Ryuto: Someone who talks for me. I don’t hate conversation, but I’m bad at bringing up topics… 18. If you were a girl, which member do you want to go out with? Ryo: None! I know too much about them all so it would be bad (laughs). If it’s any other group, then (Yoshizawa) Shizuya-kun. He’s so nice. Mizuki: Sakuma! Since he wouldn’t be disagreeable with me (laughs). Yuto: None (laughs). But, if Saku-chan was my boyfriend, it would be pleasantly fun. Soya: Hard pass on all (laughs). But if I had to choose someone, the person that fits the answer to the last question the most would be Sakuma. Ryuto: I guess Mizuki-kun. If I were his girlfriend, I’d probably fuss a bit over if he’s sleepy. 19. When do you feel the most happy? Ryo: When I’m talking with my friends at school about how we’re graduating soon. It’s a bit sad though—that only have a little bit of time left together with my classmates. Mizuki: When I hit the snooze button. And, when I eat yummy foods! Yuto: That feeling when I realize that so many different people love me now than ever before. Soya: Shampoo (hair wash) at the beauty salon. Ryuto: When I can relate to a book I’m reading. 20. What’s one thing you want to say to yourself about this past year? Ryo: You’ve grown up a lot! You now like black costumes more than the sparkly ones, you now have an interest in cars and motorcycles, your tone suddenly changed. Mizuki: Blossom. It’s your final year of high school, and it feels like it was spent brilliantly blossoming. Yuto: It was an incredible, spectacular year! Soya: You worked hard! Deserving of praise! Ryuto: You worked hard! You gave everything you had in all the work opportunities given this year.

#hihi jets #hashimoto ryo #inoue mizuki #takahashi yuto #igari soya #sakuma ryuto #magazine #translation #*

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fiti-vation · 6 years

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Hi i am following your tumblr for few days and I’m obsessed. I scrolled through your tumblr for hours! Do you have any eating/food tips for losing a little weight?

Aww thank youdear for the love and support!I’d like toapologize for the late reply.Youdon’t need to go on a fad diet to lose fat and restrict yourself from eatingcolorful delicious foods. Eatinghealthy shouldn’t be about restriction and abstention from the food that you lovethe most. It should be about making informed choices, exercising in moderationand enacting gradual positive changes.Thebest way to lose fat is to get the right mix of nutrients and energy your bodyneeds. Keep in mind that there is one major requirement to loosing fat… a caloric deficit; a caloric deficit is what happenswhen you consume less calories than your body needs to burn for energyperforming all of the tasks it needs to perform over the course of the day (move, breathe, pump blood, digestfood, etc.).Whenthat caloric deficit is present, your body is forced to find some alternativesource of energy on your body to burn instead. Ideally, this would ONLY be yourugly stored body fat. However, it can also be your pretty lean muscle tissue –so make sure to consume nutritious protein foods.Here are some nutrition tips forlosing fat in a healthy way:

Calorie Control

As mentioned above, thebiggest factor in a diet is calories in versus calories out; your totalcalories will determine if you lose or gain weight. Eating too many calorieswill lead to fat gain. But if you don’t eat enough calories you will not gainlean muscle. Setting a target calorie intake and counting the number ofcalories you eat each day is vital to losing fat and gaining lean muscle.

Tackle hunger with fiber and protein. Don’t wait until you are sohungry that it gets hard to make smart food choices. Instead, when you start tofeel hungry, eat a small snack that combines a protein with a food that’s highin fiber, such as a whole-grain cracker with low-fat cheese. These are fillingbut not packed with calories.

That said, I’d like to point out here that I have never personallybelieved in counting calories. My philosophy is “if you eat healthy you don’thave to worry about counting calories”. Take time to prepare healthy, colorful andnutritious meals. Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize asfood. Here are some articles that elaborate on this philosophy:

Forget about counting calories, just eat healthy & right [X]

Wantto Lose Weight? You Should Stop Counting Calories [X]

TheKey to Weight Loss Is Diet Quality, Not Quantity, a New Study Finds [X]

5Reasons To Never Count Another Calorie [X]

7tips for eating healthy when you can’t count calories [X]

Here’sWhy Counting Calories Really Isn’t Necessary for Weight Loss [X]

TheMYTH of the calorie. And why I don’t count them [X]

Once I realized that my eating is aboutmy health and getting all the nutrients my body needs and not about losingweight I started ordering healthy food not because I am trying to reducecalories but because I am trying to add nutrients.

Quality Control (Stay away from processed foods)

Choose fresh, wholesomefoods over prepackaged, processed foods. Packaged foods are loaded withpreservatives, especially sodium and saturated fats, and often have highamounts of sugars, such as high fructose corn syrup.

You will be amazed at how fast you can lose fat just by packing mealsfrom home rather than purchasing fast food or packaged foods. You also willsave a lot of money!

Limitfast food meals. Studies show that the more fast food you eat each week, thegreater the risk of gaining extra weight. So, try to limit fast food meals toonce a week or less.

Eatfewer sweets and unhealthy snacks. Candy, cookies, and cakes often have a lotof sugar and fat and not many nutrients. Learn about treats that are deliciousand nutritious.

Foodis our friend, and when we enjoy how food is meant to be enjoyed, whole, pureand unadulterated — food is our best friend. It all starts in the kitchen.“Poor nutrition is the single greatest driver of chronic ill health. Untilwe recognize that, [Medicine] will be unable to reverse the crippling burden ofchronic ill health caused by these nutritionally based diseases. Humans are theonly mammals that suffer from chronic ill health. One critic suggests it’sbecause we are the only animals clever enough to manufacture our own food andstupid enough to eat it.”- Tim Noakes on Nutrition and the damage of processed foods and poor diet.Beforemoving to the next section, I’d like to point out here a healthy diet is veryimportant for your body and skin. Your skin needs fresh air, exercise, a properdiet, minerals and vitamins.

Here are a few eating tips I’ve been gathering:

Macronutrient Manipulation

While your total caloricintake is the most important diet factor, the ratio of protein to carbs to fatcan dictate whether the weight you gain/lose is muscle or fat. A diet thatcontains 80% of calories from carbs, 10% from protein, and 10% from fat willproduce different results than a diet containing 40% of calories from carbs,40% from protein, and 20% from fat. I have posted a lot of posts about macro onmy blog over the years. Here are a few:

What Does 2,500 Calories Look Like? [X]

Figuring macros [X]

Just in caseyou are wondering what macros are:

Stay Hydrated

You should drink plenty ofwater every day. Try to drink at least eight glasses (or 64 oz.) of water perday. The benefits drinking water provides are optimal hydration as well as afeeling of “fullness” without added calories. Sometimes people will mistakethirst for hunger. Because of this, staying hydrated can also preventovereating.

Avoid sugary drinks. Try not to drink a lot of sugary sodas, energy drinks, andsports drinks. They can add a lot of calories. (There are about 10 packets ofsugar in 12 ounces of soda.) Also try not to drink a lot of fruit juice. Wateris a great choice instead. Add a piece of lemon or a splash of juice for moreflavor.

Insulin ControlInsulin is the “storage”hormone. When it is secreted fat burning is blunted. By controlling insulinsecretion by choosing low GI carbs you can decrease fat gain/increase fat loss.Stable blood sugar levels also improve energy levels and one’s mood.Essential FatsEssential fatty acids (EFAs)are vital to the proper functioning on your body. Dietary fats got a bad rapdue to the diet fads of the 80’s and 90’s, which promoted eating as little fatas possible, but in reality EFAs are needed by the body and are part of ahealthy diet. Eating fats does not equate to getting fat. In fact, most EFAshelp support the fat burning process and maintaining a lean body. Do not bescared to eat good fats. EFAs are not the enemy. Also, be sure to supplement witha QUALITY EFA product.

Adequate Protein

As mentioned above in order to maintain lean muscle whilecutting down you need to eat enough protein. You may not be used to eating enoughprotein on a daily basis, but once you get into the groove you should not haveany problems and will enjoy how full and satisfied you feel. Take a look at those amazing protein shakes I posted a while ago on my blog [X].

Final word

All that said, I could not conclude this post withoutemphasizing on How not to lose fat. Itcan be tempting to look for a quick fix if you need to lose fat. Remember,though, that if something sounds toogood to be true, it probably is. Keep these tips in mind:

Avoid fad diets. Fad diets often allow only a few types of food. That meansyou are not getting all the nutrients you need. And these diets may cause youto lose weight for a short time, but then you likely will gain it back quickly.Learn more about faddiets .

Avoid weight-loss pills and other quick-loss products. Most weight-loss pills, drinks,supplements, and other products you can buy without a prescription have notbeen shown to work. And they can actually be very dangerous. If you arethinking about taking weight-loss pills or similar products, talk to yourdoctor first.

Don’t eat too little. Your body needs fuel to grow and be healthy. If you eatfewer than 1,600 calories each day, you may not get the nutrients you need. Anddon’t skip breakfast. Some research suggests that teens who skip breakfast aremore likely to be overweight.

Don’t try to get rid of food you eat. Some people think they can lose weightby making themselves vomit or taking laxatives (pills that make you go to thebathroom). These are very dangerous steps and signs of eatingdisorders. Your body is too precious to treatthis way, so get help if you think you may have an eating disorder.

Don’t expect to lose weight quickly. Losing about one to two pounds a weekis a healthy rate of weight loss. If you are taking extreme steps to loseweight faster, you will probably gain most or all of it back.

I hope this will be helpful.

Cheers,Steph 🤗

#me #reply #replies #Fitblog #fitblr #healthy eating #Nutrition #nutrition tips

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brostateexam · 6 years

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Abdication

2018 is truly the year of realizing things.

Last night, I realized that the narrative I had constructed around self-care and being a workaholic was incomplete. It’s not like I have heretofore lived a life of struggling to reheat takeout food while sitting in front of my computer surrounded by clutter and filth.

It also doesn’t explain why it’s genuinely hard for me to do things like take care of myself. Now that I’m home I usually do a 2-3 hour clean of the kitchen at minimum once per week and daily cleans of the common areas of about 20 to 40 minutes. In my own room, however, I struggle to spend more than 5 minutes cleaning even though I hate dirt or clutter and it drives me to distraction.

When trying to think about the feelings that underpin this particular inconsistency, I came up with two things:

Caring for myself doesn’t feel important

“Taking care of myself” has been repeatedly misappropriated in the past for some pretty ugly behaviors.

I feel like I’ve talked about point 1 before in the context of work/school taking precedence over my own needs, but I hadn’t considered point 2.

Because there have absolutely been periods of my life where my room was clean, and I ate vegetables every day and practiced good sleep hygiene so I could get to sleep every night. It’s just that, not-so-coincidentally, these are the times in my life when I was engaging in pretty disordered behaviors around eating and/or exercising.

Essentially, there were 3 periods in my life where I was “practicing good self-care” on the surface, but under a shallow layer of self-care top soil it was basically the same neurotic perfectionist drive that’s usually applied to work and school, just to my health and well being instead. As with any perfectionist drive, it quickly became self-defeating and ugly.

I still can’t work out in a gym without having a panic attack -- I think about how many workouts “I’ve missed” since last time and I try to start counting them, then I can’t breathe and black out. The few times I’ve been able to establish a routine of going two or three times per week all I think about every day I’m not working out is why I’m not doing it. When I am working out, I’m just trying to beat some kind of metric (calories burnt, distance ran, distance per minute, number of reps, amount of weight lifted, etc) to the point where that’s all I can think about. Same thing happens with dieting. I write stuff down in a food journal and I get obsessed with daily/weekly calorie intakes or macro splits. Every week has to be “better” than the last or I get completely upset with myself.

I don’t even feel good when I “beat my record,” though. I just briefly don’t feel bad, then start planning for how to beat my record in the next session. Is it any wonder I eventually ended up working out 6 times per week and eating 1200 calories per day? I was mad at myself for not doing 7 times per week and eating 1000 calories per day, by the way -- that was the “goal.”

So I guess it’s small wonder that I gave up on caring for myself. It’s not just that work and school deprioritized it to an unhealthy degree, it’s that I actively have an aversion to doing so since my last bout with really disordered eating and exercise.

I’m trying to get over this. I am in week two of establishing a healthy routine. It’s not perfect, but so far so good. I bought a scale. I am practicing weighing myself and seeing the number without thinking or feeling anything. Once I really feel like it’s just data, I am going to t r y a food journal because I think food is linked pretty intensely to my mood and I want to try and get to the bottom of that, but. Baby steps.

#*eating disorder #///please don't reblog this thanks

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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How Patty Jenkins Steered the Wonder Woman 1984 Ship

https://ift.tt/37yG4ON

If you ask the cast of Wonder Woman 1984 pretty much any question about the film, they will find a way to gush about how much they love working with Patty Jenkins. Did Pedro Pascal bring any of his past characters into his new role as Max Lord? No, but it took a new level of vulnerability that Patty supported him through. Has Kristin Wiig always wanted to play a villain? Yes, and almost no one has asked her—except for Patty, apparently.

“[Patty is] like a Japanese sword,” says Wonder Woman 1984 star and producer Gal Gadot to Den of Geek and other outlets during a 2018 set visit. “No, really. It’s the same wonderful creative rule of hard smarts, see the bigger picture and the macro and the micro and everything. She has all the same qualities but now everything is quicker. She’s been there, she knows how it works. She has the same clues that worked with us in the previous one, and it’s just like this very smooth process.”

“Once Patty lands on an idea, it seems like it’s fully formed and she knows everything about it,” adds Chris Pine. “Since I’ve met her — she pitched me the first story — I’ve never met someone more self assured and more knowing about what she wants, how she’s going to do it, why she’s doing it. She is a machine. She is just a glorious machine to behold. A samurai sword is a good allegory.”

Even though Jenkins was not signed on to direct a sequel when she was making Wonder Woman, she still discussed prospective narrative plans with Gadot and Pine, starting about halfway through production.

“We were fantasizing about the next one if the first one would succeed,” recalls Gadot. “Then, we already started to talk about the story of this one. With Patty, it’s just a different work process. She’s very, she’s engaged. She’s very much engaging with all of us. And we all have a lot of say, into our character. Of course, the big broad vision is Patty’s. But she gives a lot of liberties and we do what we believe is right for the character. So I’m very, very lucky to work with her again.”

Jenkins wanted to do a second film in the franchise so that she could tell a Wonder Woman story past the origin tale of the character.

“She’s only Wonder Woman in the last scene of the [first] movie,” says Jenkins during a recent Wonder Woman 1984 press conference. “So I found myself really craving doing a movie about Wonder Woman, now full-blown Wonder Woman. And then I started reflecting on what I felt was going on in our world and what Wonder Woman would want to say to the world. And the story came out of that.”

Unlike the first film, Jenkins wrote the screenplay for WW84, along with Dave Callaham and Geoff Johns, the latter of whom also worked on the story with Jenkins. She ultimately found her way in with a compelling question.

“The last one was [Wonder Woman’s] discovery of humanity. Now, how does she live within humanity? And by the way, she’s not perfect either. So her own struggles and journey to do the right thing, which is so universal to all of us. Being a hero is not an easy thing, it’s actually a super difficult thing. So that I was really interested in too, of like, what does it feel like?”

Many critics who have screened the film already have commented on the broader themes, and how WW84 aligns so well with 2020. It’s impressive, considering how long ago it was written. Says Jenkins: “I found myself saying there was something about what the world wants to talk about right now, and she happens to have this lasso of truth, and truth ends up figuring in very large.”

And while Wonder Woman does exist within the larger DCEU, Jenkins and producer Chuck Roven have been clear that this is a standalone film. And while there might be some easter eggs, Jenkins said she and Geoff Johns were both really excited to tell this exact story.

“I’m not a huge fan of like doing chapter two of a seven chapter story. That’s just not my jam. I feel like that may happen in the way background, but every movie in my opinion that I want to make should be its own great movie,” Jenkins said on set. “So I have my own ideas about what her overreaching arc is, of the whole thing, but it’s the story first.”

No offense intended towards Superman, but do you feel like after this success of the first movie that Wonder Woman has become the new core of the DC universe now?

Fans and casual viewers might be excused for wondering if Diana Prince hasn’t eclipsed Clark Kent, in the DCEU if nowhere else. Certainly, a strategic advantage of both films taking place pre-2017 is that Jenkins and Gadot get to play with a pre-Justice League world.

Jenkins says, “I think that she planted her foot strong in the world. I mean I think that she’s a very strong core right now, and I think that there are lots of other great things that had been planted before and will be planted after. But I do I feel like she sort of landed and set her place in this world, and hopefully things are influenced by each other when they work in that way.”

In order to bring this new story to life, Jenkins wrote and directed a script for a much more complex film, logistically. Producer Charles Roven likewise glowed about Jenkins, calling her amazing to work with and sharing insight into the reality behind the scenes of a massive film like WW84.

“We expanded the global footprint of the places where we shot,” Roven said. “We shot in Virginia. Then we went to the UK and we also, after that, we went to Spain and then we went to the Canary Islands. So our global footprint really expanded significantly. And of course that makes it very, very complicated.”

Much will be made of Jenkins’s hiring of Cirque de Soleil performers and her decision to rely as much as possible on practical effects, and rightly so. The Amazons look powerful and natural because they’re really running, jumping, riding, and flipping through the air – the CGI is used to augment their natural abilities. In the case of Lily Apsell, who plays young Diana, she trained to run an obstacle course. CGI was used to add more dangerous elements that she doesn’t directly interact with that add to the suspense of the scene and maintained the actor’s safety.

As Pine put it, “That’s less about the hugeness of special effects, rather than making the special effects work for the realism of the film.”

For Jenkins, it’s important to carry the realism over to the characters too, especially villains. Without spoiling anything, there’s no moustache twirling in WW84. Pedro Pascal’s Max Lord and Kristin Wiig’s Barbara Minerva are on the more complicated end of the spectrum.

As Gadot puts it, “When I first read the script, I told Patty, ‘Wow, I like I like them as much as I like Diana and Steve.’ … I’m so tired of the obvious villain, the German soldier that you know from the get-go, okay he’s the bad guy — they’re like real people. Just like you, and you, and me. We can see ourselves in them. And they’re not bad people per se. But they just didn’t make the right choice at the right time. And I find it so interesting and so appealing, and I actually care about them.”

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While the script certainly helps, so much of that comes from the performances of Kristin Wiig and Pedro Pascal.

Pascal is quick to credit Jenkins: “I call it the Patty Jenkins experience. You can’t get away with something that is the typical. It has to be a complete and have all the risks, and all of the danger, and ultimately the humanity, no matter how dark of a character it is to make the experience as honest as possible.”

“I wasn’t surprised because of all of her films that I’ve seen before and the performances that are in these movies. But I definitely didn’t know if I would be able to get there and I owe it to my director. I completely owe it to my director, if it worked.”

Reader, it worked.

He’s certainly not alone in his sentiment.

Kristin Wiig shared, “The wardrobe and the costumes and all of that definitely helped, and again, like Pedro was saying, working with Patty and trying to figure out who she is with every stage. But I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“It was very scary because I could visualize what I didn’t want it to be more than what I did want it to be. But I felt very taken care of and it was an amazing, scary, but fun experience for me,” Wiig said. “I was really shocked and happy and of course felt extra pressure when [I] signed on and when I was talking to Patty about it. But yeah, and I’m superhero geek. I see all the movies, I’m at the theater, I’ve seen all of them. I was obsessed with the first one. So to know that I was going to be in it, and that I got a chance to be a villain, and that Patty believed that I could do it, it was an amazing life experience for me.

It’s not unusual for stars to applaud their director on a press tour, but Patty Jenkins’s cast takes just about every opportunity to do so (though Pascal gives a lot of compliments in general, to everyone.) Having seen the final product, Jenkins backs up her good process with a good movie. In an industry that is so unequal when it comes to gender representation and opportunity both in front of and in particular behind the camera, it’s gratifying to see, especially considering that Warner Brother executives were so slow to secure Jenkins for the sequel. Not only was Jenkins not locked into directing a possible sequel in her initial contract, but subsequent contract negotiations took longer than expected as Jenkins fought to be paid the same as any male director would expect to receive after such a box office success.

But, for the cast, it’s not just about making a good movie; it’s about having a good and competent boss, and a safe and supportive workplace (not that the two aren’t usually related). That, among other things, seems to be, as Pascal called it, “The Patty Jenkins experience.”

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“There’s something about working with a director that is completely there with you,” says Gadot. “For you, behind you, beside you, and to guide you. That gives us the freedom to really let go and take all the risks that one can be very frightened to take if you don’t have such a partner.”

The post How Patty Jenkins Steered the Wonder Woman 1984 Ship appeared first on Den of Geek.

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spaceorphan18 · 6 years

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TDB Rewatch: Never Been Kissed

Alright, guys, we’ve reached the beginning of something wonderful. It’s funny, though - because it’s really part of the second act of Kurt’s story. I mean, there’s an air of magic about this episode, but it’s not possible without everything Kurt has gone through before it. Season 1′s Kurt arc was fantastic. But this is one of those times that sequels are actually better - because you know the characters now and you can layer things on, and I just cannot gush enough about Kurt’s arc during season 2. It just gives me chills. Anyway...

Thoughts:

This episode is awkward in a lot of ways. The Kurt story is amazing. There are some interesting talking points in the Beiste portion, but a lot of it is executed so cringeworthy. The Puck stuff is downright awful. I feel like it’s a nice representation of how season 2 is as a whole. There are a lot of highs, a lot of lows, and a lot of things that are just awkward.

A thing kind of standing out to me on a macro level about the season is that, and this is done in season 1 to a lesser degree, there are so many things going on in the background, as little details, as an aside. And I think that’s one reason season 2 is so great - because there’s just so much going on in the peripheral that it’s a delight to go back and watch and catch all these things. Characters don’t have to be focused on to still be telling a story. I feel like the show loses this going into season 3 - where everything starts to be blunt, and too many things begin to be focused on. Okay, anyway -

I want to talk about Sam and Quinn for a second, and how ill-suited they are for each other. It just feels so glaring now. Quinn seems, I don’t know, almost seems to be using Sam to rehabilitate her image. I’m not really convinced she likes him all that much, but I’m not sure if she recognizes that either. However, man does she like to have control.

Meanwhile, Sam - being your average teenage boy - can’t yet differentiate between “hey i’m in a relationship because she’s hot” and “hey i’m in a relationship because I really like her.” He’ll get there. But not with Quinn.

Meanwhile, Tina and Mike. Do you ever get the feeling that Tina likes Mike’s abs more than Mike himself? Maybe it’s not so weird that they didn’t make it. I’ll have to keep watching this closely as the series progresses. Meanwhile in their story, I’m guessing they’ve had sex at this point.

Okay, so the Beiste stuff. You know - believe it or not, there are aspects to this story that I do think are relevant. Calling people out on using actual people to cool you off -- or just in general -- making fun of people - I’m glad that they went there. I think, as gross as it is - and it’s so gross, it’s a relevant conversation. I even don’t mind the awkward and awful way Will confronted her about it (in the teacher’s lounge) because it lets Beiste say how it is a personal thing, and how there are real people you can hurt in your actions.

However - the Will’s pity kiss? C’mon. No. Nope. That was kind of awful.

I think having two female virgins on the show at thirty and forty respectfully (Emma and Beiste) was a really interesting thing to present in such a sex obsessed world. I’m sad, though, that Glee really didn’t do either story very much justice.

The only thing I want to say about Sue is -- confetti cannons!!

The Puck/Artie thing is just awful. I can only really half tolerate when they give Puck a story line. But the thing that bugs me, more than anything, is how Santana and Brittany aren’t treated like actual characters - they’re treated like objects. And on top of that - the god awful advice that if you’re just mean to women, they’ll like you more. There’s nothing to refute it, either, in the episode. Nope - just stop, Glee. Stop!

I feel like Puck’s influence ends up rubbing of on Artie more than Artie’s influence on Puck.

I am glad Artie paid the waitress, though. Tip your servers people! They don’t get paid much.

There is one small thing related to the Puck story line that I did find interesting - during the just god awful acted scene with Puck and his probation officer - he mentions that no one cares about him. And I would like to argue that he’s probably right in some respect. Will has been doing a really shitty job being a good teacher to any of these kids (even if I give him props for telling Sam and Mike how wrong their actions were towards Beiste).

The girls vs boys feels like such an after thought. But the music is kinda fun. Rachel taking a back seat in the story isn’t always a bad thing.

EVERYTHING. ABOUT. KURT’S. STORY.

(As per usual - see Kurt meta for more gushing.)

Chris even nails the background moments when he’s just a part of the other stories. I can’t keep my eyes off him the whole episode. I just. Everything.

Teenage Dream is magical. I mean - it just pops out, it’so magical.

(I really cannot stress how much more meaningful all the Klaine stuff is within the original context. I realize people love watching the clips and gifs, and I do, too. But sometimes sitting down to read the entire book is worth getting the chills all over again)

The stuff with Karofsky is still frightening, even after all this time. It’s funny, because some people I’ve read still say Blainofsky is hard because of this episode. And I get that. But for me, I have a hard time with Kurt even being friends with him later on in the season/season 3 because of this.

After seven years of following Darren, maybe I can say this. There’s a lot of Darren(’s mannerisms) in early Blaine. It’s kinda amusing, tbh. It’ll eventually get phased out as Blaine develops - but I can’t help but notice it now.

They’re just so pretty in this episode. It’s a very aesthetically pleasing episode.

The ball is rolling - there’s no going back now!

#tdb rewatch

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kinetic-elaboration · 6 years

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March 2: (Not Quite) A Cleanse

So...I think I’m finally coming out of this bad mood that’s been trailing me for...a while. Maybe. It’s still tentative. But I’m feeling a little more ambitious and more capable of positive thinking.

I don’t want to get too much into self-analysis and planning because it’s boring, not as useful as it feels like it should be, and not really in the spirit of this project, either. I’m old enough and know myself well enough to understand the cycle of my moods by now and it’s not worth describing to myself how it goes.

But. One specific thing that’s been nagging me and that I would like to...tweak in my life. I’ve been thinking off and on for a while about the ways all of our brains have been fucked by the internet/smart phones/social media, and I read a fair number of articles and think pieces about it and blah blah blah. I know, I objectively know, that blue light distorts sleep and that social media is designed to make you constantly refresh and refresh, (apps too), and obsess over metrics, and that these habits are not only a time suck, they make us unhappier and, perhaps worst of all, turn us into pawns of social media developers who just want to exploit us for ad revenue--I KNOW all of this. Fuck, I remember a time when the internet had zero place in my life, and a time after that when it was basically finite: an hour or so and I got fucking bored.

And all of this bothers me. The thing is that I’m probably more reasonable in my internet and social media use than the average bear, and I am quite adamant on not backsliding from where I am, for sure. I don’t have a smart phone, I don’t have facebook or twitter accounts, I keep some parts of my day screen free...

But I’m not where I want to be at all. But I don’t know what to change. Utter purge as an experiment? More strict rules for myself? More ways to trick myself?

Two things have brought this to the fore of my mind recently. One is that, for whatever reason, during my bad mood, I did what I often do and started randomly obsessing about something as a distraction and in this case I picked AO3 kudos and my disdain for them. Which is probably a distraction from issues I have with writing--with, tbqh, balancing a second unpaid job on top of my actual job, which is, stress-wise, what it is sometimes. A second job I can’t quit because it’s like integral to my being. But I just felt myself going into this death spiral of annoyance, irrationality, and irritability over something dumb, something rather Beside the Point.

The second thing was this article about a tool to take the stats off of Twitter, and about what social media stats do to us more generally. I’m not on Twitter but it made me think I would love to take the stats off tumblr tbh. At least hide my follower count. I try not to look but, first, it’s right there, and second, there’s other info on the same drop down I do want: my queue, my likes. I know objectively that it doesn’t matter, first because it just doesn’t but second because the nature of my blog means I’ve probably reached my permanent high point of followers. I was gaining a bunch at the end of last year for some unknown reason but I think that’s done. I’m not strictly fandom, I’m not strictly a theme, I write but I’m not a Popular Writer... The number is meaningless but I’m just hardwired to Care about numbers and put value on them even though objectively I know I shouldn’t.

I want to...have a comfortable and healthy relationship with technology and the internet and tumblr/AO3. A part of me wants to Utterly Cleanse, like unplug for a week or something, but that’s short term and also probably not worth the trouble. So I’m trying to think of other, more realistic, stuff.

For a few weeks now, I’ve stopped looking at any screens before I get to work on weekdays, which was definitely a good decision. I’ve also blocked my fandom email on my laptop Monday-Thursday. I can still check it at work (and I do) and on the weekends.

This week, I’ve decided to block my fandom email from my laptop 24/7 and to try to check it at work less often (that’s hard because vague but I’m only human--but frankly my ability to refresh-refresh-refresh like a lab rat at work is limited what with actually having to work). I’ve also blocked my AO3 dashboard--which has my inbox on it--so I can’t look for comments there. And I’ve unsubscribed from getting kudos emails to teach myself to forget they exist. I’ve never thought of them as important or gotten any joy from receiving them so why do they clog up my inbox? That’s gone now.

As for tumblr...scrolling through my dash after work is how I unkink my mind and unwind, and since it’s hiatus and I don’t follow many blogs, it doesn’t even take that long. There’s also fairly little wank--again, hiatus, and I don’t follow blogs that become hubs of discourse. I don’t think there’s a time-suck issue here, or a too-much-rage-inducing-shit issue either. So I think there it’s just a question of keeping myself calm and detached and using this blog for the purpose it was always intended to have: to be a collection of stuff I like, and if other people want to see that, be my guest, but it doesn’t really matter.

And finally, I’m going to try to stress less about writing. I feel like it’s been rolling out of my hands recently in a way that’s hard to describe. Like I’m somehow subtly writing more for other people or caring more about what other people think or feeling this weird irrational obligation to other people. That needs to stop. I don’t know how, but I need to free myself from second guessing everything as I write and just enjoy putting the stories in my head down on paper. I can nitpick them later, as I edit. (This never used to be a problem for me but for the last several months I haven’t been able to shut the critical voice up, even when I’m in the zone.) (This are really two different problems: a macro and a micro problem. I don’t know if they’re related.)

So anyway it’s the weekend. There’s a lot I want to do... but it’s only two days. Right now I need to shower and then sleep soon. That will be a good start.

#the year 2018 #2018: rl #gosh this is long

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