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nightsky-wonderer · 5 years

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The Curious Case of Comets

Comets. Fascinating dirty snowballs in space. The apparent symbol for the Dark Kingdom, suspected hidden power source of Varian’s, and possible origin of the Dark Kingdom’s opal. Here, I share some cool info about why these celestial bodies are so interesting, as well as a fun, personal insight how our favourite alchemist may parallel them in some ways; possible support for the Comet!Varian Theory?

(Whoever came up with this theory first, I wish to credit you!)

UPDATE 1.1 few fixes and new thoughts. Probably more after tent-pole episode

Part 1: The Science (Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

- Comets are small celestial bodies composed of ice, dust and rock. Also contains multiple forms of organic compounds and gasses (e.g. carbon dioxide, amino acids, methane, ammonia, etc.)

- Observational studies, such as the splitting of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, and space missions (e.g. Deep Impact, Rosetta), help suggest that comets are very fragile objects! Some of the suspected mechanisms behind splitting nuclei include tidal splitting, direct impact, thermal stress, and internal gas pressure (more about splitting mechanisms here). The internal structure, however, is a topic still left up for debate.

- Comets start out dark and frozen in deep space. Upon reaching the inner solar system, they begin to heat up, outgas, and brighten. The sublimated gasses form an ‘atmosphere’ around the nucleus called the Coma. Eventually, the comet forms two tails. The Ion (or Gas) Tail is a result of ionized (removal of electrons) molecules from the coma, and is pulled away by solar wind along magnetic field lines. They appear narrow and blue in colour, and always point straight, away from the sun. The Dust Tail appears long and curved, and also is influenced by solar wind.

- If the Coma is mostly composed of Cyanogen (CN) and/or Diatomic Carbon (C2), UV Radiation will cause these gasses in the Coma to glow green or teal (blue-green). Examples of comets that appeared this way: Comet Hyakutake (1996), 109P/Swift-Tuttle, 2P/Encke, C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy.

- Some observers use the teal/green colour as an indicator that the comet is in an active phase, where experiencing outbursts are high, and that parts of its nucleus is more vulnerable to splitting apart! Such events, however, are rare.

- There are currently 3,564 comets observed and named, but only a small fraction become naked eye visibility, with even less receiving the title of Great Comet (Those that become exceptionally bright! e.g. Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997). There are possibly trillions beyond the orbit of Neptune waiting to be discovered!

- Comets travel in highly elliptical orbits, each one varying in time to make one revolution. Short Period comets (e.g. Halley’s Comet) originate from the Kuiper belt, and are guaranteed to return within 200 years. Long Period comets (e.g. Hale-Bopp) take much longer and may not return for thousands of years! They sometimes appear as the most spectacular to view, due to its abundance of volatiles from their minimal visits to the solar system. Can be found in the Oort Cloud. Sungrazers get very close to the sun upon perihelion (closest distance from sun). They usually evaporate away if they have a small mass. However, there are a rare few that actually survive the trip.

- More frequent visits to the solar system results in more of the comet’s volatiles and contents getting lost, eventually leaving a rocky core behind!

- Scientific theories portray comets as both the destroyers (e.g. younger dryas), and the creators of life (e.g. emergence of life billions of years ago).

Part 2: Legends and Superstitions (Sources: 1, 2)

- Due to their unpredictable natures and appearances, many ancient cultures saw comets as a message from their gods, and an omen for impending disasters and negative superstitions.

- Ancient legends also helped fuel this negative association with comets (e.g. The Babylonian “Epic of Gilgamesh” describing about floods and fire once a comet arrives).

- They were also blamed for some of history’s darkest moments (e.g. Julius Caesar’s death, the Black Death in England)

- Cause of scares: When Halley’s Comet returned in 1910, a rumour spread about a poisonous gas being emitted from the comet. People rushed to grab gas masks and other innovative objects, such as ‘anti-comet’ umbrellas, to help them avoid the supposed danger.

- Natal chart superstition: If comets are present within a person’s natal chart at birth, the person “could be an innovative thinker, and could be associated with shocks, too. These people may carry out actions to release or may have an overwhelming influence over large groups. Their attitude and traits may be unpredictable.”(Rod Chang, 2014)

Fun Facts:

- The word, Comet, comes from the Greek word, komētēs, meaning “long-haired (star)”. The Icelandic word, halastjarna, translates as “tail star”, which the Chinese referring to them “long-tailed pheasant stars”, “broom stars,” and “vile stars”.

- Asteroid 2015 TB145, theorized to be an extinct comet, looks just like a skull!

- Just for fun - Colour Scheme: Black nucleus, Blue ion tail, Grey/Yellowish-White dust tail, sometimes Teal/Green Coma.

- Debris left behind by comets are responsible for some of Earth’s annual meteor showers! (e.g. Perseids, Orionids, Leonids)

Connections/Parallels with Varian

Now finally, for the fun part.

First of all, the Moon theory, created by @ghosta-r , is great! Really well-analysed and has strong evidence (also, please read @nyxglitch ‘s post, it’s very well-done!). However, there is still that feeling where Canon appears to be bringing lunar symbolism towards a different direction, or a different character. Assuming the hints from “Vigor the Visionary” are pointing towards the Dark Prince theory (created by @forever-tangledup), it may be the crew wish to present the sun/moon relationship in a more romantic direction. There is a chance, however, one or two theories end up being true, or none at all in the end, but it does not stop the fun of speculation before they’re officially debunked!

Keep note, these are just my opinions, and fun personal take on Varian’s potential comet parallels, and you are free to disagree with them.

1. Omens for disaster:

A.) This one, I felt, was pretty obvious. Varian has been labeled “a dangerous wizard” in “What the hair”, and in the second half of season 1, was being labelled as “dangerous” in general. It seems that both Varian and comets are the go-to things to place blame for negative superstition. However, Varian did rightfully earn his first title for his unpredictable experiments-gone-wrong.

B.) Interestingly, this negative reputation shares a similar parallel with opals being associated with “bad luck” and other superstitions.

2. Colour palette:

A.) From the colours identified, I feel that a majority, more specifically, ¾ colours match up with Varian (Blue, Black, Teal). I do admit, however, that the colours of his shirt and hair stripe can be very tricky to the eyes sometimes. In some scenes, it appears blue, while in others, it appears greener; I even had trouble deciding which colours to use while making my cosplay. On the other hand, I think it may be safe to say that the colours are more in the blue-green region.

B.) The yellowish-white colours appear more prominently when the comet has released enough gas and dust to reflect the sun’s light, usually when it is getting close to perihelion. This tends to dull out the teal colours of the coma most times.

C.) Most of us would probably not be familiar with green comets; Most of the Great Comets talked about in the news are white and bright, and this is due to its close approach to the sun and/or the size of its nucleus (with the exception of Hyakutake, which was small, but made a very close approach to earth). A majority of comets are much fainter, and barely make it to impressive naked eye visibility, thus don’t make the headlines as much.

3. Messenger of the gods: Ok, deities are not really presented, nor do they play much of a role in the series, so this may be a weak point. However, the first thing that came into my mind was Varian’s appearances in Rapunzel’s nightmares. More specifically, the one where Varian delivers the message to “face [her] destiny” or all will be lost. I suppose in a metaphorical sense, the rocks (the gods) send Varian (the messenger/comet) to deliver Rapunzel an important message.

4. Elliptical orbits (one that will be difficult to explain :p):

A.) @mycove has mentioned in a recent post that the comet’s elliptical orbit describes Varian’s relationship with Rapunzel and her friends: sometimes far, sometimes close. Everyone started out as friends in the beginning, but as season 1 came to an end, Varian became very cold and distant from the group.

B.) Comets remain dark and invisible until they reach a certain distance within the inner solar system, where they increasingly receive solar energy to finally shine. This is similar to what @nyxglitch described Varian and the Moon in their post: “small and insignificant… also cold and duels in the night, yet needs the sun in order to shine, otherwise it is eclipsed and left in the dark.” Almost every object in the solar system needs the sun to shine light on them in order to make a noticeable appearance in the night sky. In terms of plot, Varian’s biggest relevance and actions, being a plot device, occur when he is more involved with Rapunzel (the sun).

C.) Assuming the comet’s brightness can also symbolize Varian’s actions and influence, the more he interacted with Rapunzel, the more said actions and influence became more noticeable and felt in Corona. Just like how as a comet became brighter, the more noticeable it became to display both its beauty and its horrors upon mankind.

D.) As comets lose more of themselves with each return to the inner solar system, Varian appears to be losing more of himself (his sanity) with each progressing encounter with Rapunzel, notably in the second half of season 1.

5. Fragile Nucleus

A.) It’s no surprise that Varian is fragile, being presented to be very prone to accidents and injuries. He even suffered a mental breakdown by SOTSD.

B.) Comets release more gas and dust, and become brighter as it approaches the sun. But at what cost? Comets experience outbursts that may contribute to self-fragmentation; some end up evaporating completely if they get too close to the sun, and all sorts of other things happen to them that result in the comet losing its volatiles, weakening its structure, and even end up being destroyed completely. Similar to point D for Elliptical Orbit, Varian’s actions in Corona progressively became very noticeable and felt as he continued to react to Rapunzel’s light, but at the same time, the price of doing so results in his own self-destruction.

6. Natal Chart Superstition: I feel as if these words described Varian very well. Even though natal charts have no involvement in the series, it’s fun to think if his personality is playing along the lines or referencing this superstition.

7. What the hair?! *Literally*

A.) In the Moon Theory, Varian’s hair stripe can be seen as a crescent moon on one side. In terms of this theory, it could also be seen as a teal-coloured comet streaming across the night sky. The pointiest part of the stripe is the nucleus, then the rest left/upward from it curves and streams out like it’s tail!

B.) Comets appear to have their longest and curviest tails around perihelion, aka the point they’re most vulnerable to evaporate. This could be visual foreshadowing (get too close to the sun, and you’ll burn!).

Overall, I am excited to see how the series concludes regardless of whatever theory is confirmed; I’m sure whatever the crew has up their sleeves, it will be satisfying.

#rapunzel's tangled adventure #tangled the series #tangled rapunzel #varian tangled #tangled theory #an opinion #food for thought

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Symbiote Spider-Man #1 Thoughts

Tl:dr version: Screw Ahmed’s ASM annual, THIS is a black costume story done right!

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect with this book.

In spite of the back pages from editor Devin Lewis (who I am shocked to discover is about my age...Jesus) this is a title clearly existing because

a) Venom had a movie last year

b) Mysterio will be in a movie this year

c) Venom is perennially popular

d) The black suit is perennially popular

e) There is an event coming up centred around those who were hosts to symbiotes, Spider-Man being the most famous

And as a side note the Spider Office/Peter David himself seem keen to maintain a PAD led title of some sort. No complaints from me, older creators shouldn’t be thrown away, especially one as talented as PAD.

However in this issue PAD has delivered quite frankly his best Spider-Man work in YEARS, possibly a whole decade. His 2099 book? This blows it out the water. His Scarlet Spider work, lol please.

I attribute this to 3 key factors:

a) PAD is writing a character he honestly likes which wasn’t the case with Ben Reilly

b) PAD is writing the character in the status quo he’d obviously prefer which wasn’t the case for 2099

c) This being an untold tale series that’s also a mini, this title cannot be derailed by crossovers which was the case in...pretty much everything Spider related he’s written since 2005

This issue was magnificent.

It is essentially Peter David doing Untold Tales of Spider-Man but set in the Alien Costume Saga.

Untold Tales’ writing intended to evoke a bygone era (coincidentally 30+ years before its publication, just like this series) but with a dash of modernity.

This series is much the same.

The dialogue is mostly modern but leans a bit more towards the past, is happy to use editorial captions for comic references (something most modern comics are afraid to do for some reason) and is doesn’t feel all that out of place with the stories of 1984!

The same cannot be said for the art which is obviously nothing like what Frenz and (to a less extent) Leonardi were doing back then.

However even then, maybe I just didn’t notice but the art honestly seemed...okay. Considering this is Greg Land this surprised me. Maybe someone will do a breakdown to prove me wrong but I didn’t notice anything that wrong with it.

Well that is until Felicia turned up then you realize he was obviously tracing. She looked a little like Pamela Anderson to me but god knows who he was ‘basing’ her on.

The only REAL art problem I noticed was the miscolouring of Felicia’s hair. She was a regular blonde as opposed to the platinum blonde she is supposed to be, but you could just say that was artistic licence.

Though it becomes harder to ignore since she’s supposed to resemble another blonde woman earlier in the story. I guess she was platinum blonde too?????

ANYWAY, the story itself is solid.

It’s a Mysterio character piece first and foremost and you can tell PAD loves this character a lot. I was worried it was going to be another origin for Mysterio contradicting his canon one but it wasn’t. It honestly felt very much like a story we might’ve gotten from back in the 80s had anyone been that interested in Mysterio.

It brings up the good point that, IIRC is entirely true, that (at least at this point in time) Mysterio never killed anyone and has him have a crisis when he inadvertently leads to a woman dying.

Honestly the main problems with this story were the woman arguably getting fridged and how maybe lame the set up for it was. She was literally introduced, established as having a family and axed within the same scene. Okay that scene plus Felicia concluding the costume was alive. I guess you can No. Prize it away but it seems kinda weird that neither Peter nor Felicia brought up how she called it right that day. Maybe they just forgot. Also maybe it was a bit of a continuity error that Felicia calls out Peter for being angry that she doesn’t accept his normal life. Then again I think you could massage continuity to make it fit.

Speaking of Felicia PAD likes the character, PAD likes this era for her and for the series (no shit, this was around the time he began writing Spider-Man so he’s very much at home here) and along with Spencer and Marvel over all he seems to be throwing Felicia much love now Slott is done abusing her.

Unlike in Ahmed’s shitty ass Annual last year Felicia is on point here and entirely within character (love her flirtation) with PAD throwing us a moment that I’m sure must’ve happened off panel at some point but we never get to see it.

Felicia basically confronting the ghost of Uncle Ben. PAD nails the tension between the Peter/Spidey/Felicia love triangle but does it correctly. Too often people oversimplify that she simply wholesale rejected his life as Peter Parker when the truth is whilst that was Felicia’s initial reaction, she did TRY to accept that side of Peter.

Going to Ben’s grave formally meeting Aunt May (she’d previously done so in costume) does that. She likes Aunt May, she’s sympathetic towards Peter (she lost her Dad too remember).

This is good drama no one ever milked!

Plus it, along with many other moments in the issue were just funny, you could tell PAD was having a good time and he’s a witty writer in general.

I think a key component of this issue’s success is that it’s well researched. I’d somewhat forgive PAD for not re-reading the Alien Costume saga since it was around the time he was working on Spider-Man, but apparently he re-read both trades collecting the Alien Costume Saga and you can tell.

Unlike Ahmed who clearly didn’t read these issues because he made blatantly obvious mistakes, apart from the teeny tiny nitpicks I mentioned NOTHING in this issue is out of place.

And I know because I double checked!

Numerous times I thought I’d spotted an error.

- Aunt May knowing Peter dropped out of college

- The Human Fly being alive

- Spider-Man’s aggression which I thought was being implied to be the symbiote’s fault

Nope. Nope. Nope.

PAD danced between the raindrops of continuity expertly. Aunt May found out Peter dropped out in ASM #253 DURING the Alien Costume Saga. The Human Fly was in fact alive, seen in a story shortly before Peter went to Battleworld. Peter’s aggression has an entirely different and logical explanation.

It was a job worthy of Busieck. Much kudos to PAD! Much shame on Ahmed.

Okay now let’s talk about the elephant in the room, or rather the twin set of elephants.

Yeah in this story...the Twin Towers are just fine.

There is a very interesting explanation at the back of the issue as to why this was.

Essentially PAD and Marvel were in two minds (ironically) about including the Towers for obvious reasons, PAD even having an alternately written scene in mind.

Now from a reader point of view it was a shock, I felt something so that’s good. And PAD being in New York when it happened I think lends him a certain degree of licence to touch on the tragedy. He actually already has in his 2099 book, a character revealed as a latent Inhuman comments that her life was shaped by the tragedy. That was maybe the first time ever since the ASM tribute issue that I recall a Marvel title using 9/11 as a piece of history as a story element much as they use WWII all the time.

The rationale behind doing it at all was that it was more immersive in the period, because obviously in 1984 the Twin Towers were still there. Although I wasn’t sure if PAD’s implication was that if you backtracked from this point in Spider-Man’s life to the point when he had the black suit that the Towers would still have been there. Because the latter would not be true since at most Peter would’ve been 17-18 and that’s if you accept he’s 35 NOW!

Regardless I think it worked well, I think Marvel handled it tastefully and I respect that they made the effort to justify it as opposed to just throwing it out there.

It’s also very much in line with the ethos of Untold Tales because IIRC whilst the stories were not EXACTLY set in the 1960s they were effectively set in the 1960s and had the same fashions.* Along with the Towers PAD also throws out references to the Muppet Babies and Power Pack who were huge in the 1980s.

All in all I can’t recommend this title highly enough.

BUY IT!

P.S. the only other complaint I have is that we’re apparently getting the Spot later and the Spot didn’t show up until after the Saga. So...we’ll see what happens there.

*Even though nobody in the actual 1960s looked or talked much like Stan Lee wrote Peter and the gang to but you catch my drift.

#Spider-Man #Symbiote Spider-Man #Peter David #peter parker #alien costume saga #Mysterio #Greg Land #Quentin Beck #Felicia Hardy #black cat #the black cat #Kurt Busiek #Aunt may #may parker

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andorknuckles · 5 years

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An analysis of the 3 Smash Brothers Leaks and their credibility.

First, I wanna share this image

This is a simplified version of my initial analysis of the leaks, with the claims broken down, and ordered from when they were first posted. Of these three leaks, only the first came from before Joker’s reveal, with the second one coming mere days after the fact, while the third one came a little over a week later. I do want to stress that even if I make a perfect case for destroying a rumor’s credibility, that doesn’t mean I 100% believe it will be false. Credibility doesn’t equal probability.

4Chan Leak

This one won’t take long. I don’t think this one has any real credibility, and it’s really only getting attention because they happened to get a lucky guess. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily wrong, but there’s almost nothing one can use to gauge its veracity. On top of that, all of the choices are rooted heavily in pre-existing speculation.

Joker is the most out-there of the five listed here, but Sakurai did state an enjoyment of Persona 5. Realistically, though, if enough people make fake leaks, then at least one person is going to get one thing right, so I’m chalking this up to coincidence.

Infamous leaker Vergeben frequently discussed how Square was getting a character in the Fighter Pass. I’ll be discussing this more down the line.

Microsoft had some suspect things to say, describing themselves as ‘third parties’ at E3 2018, leading to considerable discussion regarding a number of their characters.

Edelgard has been speculated as an obvious choice for a cross-promotion.

Sylux has been built up as an upcoming villain/chaotic-neutral in the Metroid series for some time, and so cross-promotion with a theoretical appearance in Metroid Prime 4 would seem logical.

As such, these five characters really just seem like safe picks, with Joker as the possible exception. Other than listing the names of the characters, they do say one other interesting thing, that incomplete character models exist, which I think segues into an important bit of speculation I have regarding the Fighter Pass and how it’s being developed.

Intermission: Important Speculation

Smash 4′s DLC development cycle seemed a little improvised and unstructured, with each phase of development seemingly existing as a self-contained run through 3 or 4 characters, with one of those characters receiving a bit of a head start. In Smash Ultimate’s case, however, I have little doubt that the entire run of characters has at least entered the planning stages, and that the development model is something far more graceful than Smash 4′s.

The (presumed) process model used for Smash 4 was to create characters in batches, spreading the team out across a small number of characters, making sure that there’s enough for everyone to be working on something. In many ways this model seemed to work, but there are certain problems it must have created. Namely, balance testers can’t adjust attack properties until designers are done working on hitboxes. Designers can’t work on hitbox and hurtbox placement until the animators are done animating. Animators can’t animate until the Modelers are done modelling and rigging, etc.

This is why, for the Fighters Pass, a pipeline style of development is ideal. A pipeline model would consist of something like Team A, Team B, Team C, etc.

Team A finishes the first parts of Character 1′s development, then passes them on to Team B as they start on Character 2. Now Team B can finish that part of Character 1, and pass that on to Team C. This continues, until you eventually have Team A working on Character 3, Team B working on Character 2, Team C on Character 1, etc. This way no one’s time is ever wasted, and character releases can happen on a near constant basis.

I may go into further detail on why I think this is the case at a later date, but for now the evidence largely comes from how the two characters have been released so close together, and yet always one at a time.

5Channel Leak 1

So, here it is, the big one. The leak that seems to have gained the most traction. It’s a common misconception that it and the second 5Channel leak are one-and-the-same, but the two contain very different levels of information, with very different levels of credibility. Erdrick, Hayabusa, Steve?, and Doomslayer. A mix of a character from a series hugely popular in Japan, an NES character who had a brief resurgence in the 00s, a rep from arguably the most popular game of all time, and a character from the most influential and most ported FPS of all time.

This one also gets some points for predicting P5R would be coming in 2019, but then loses them again for getting the specifics wrong, neither mentioning its full title, nor getting the general time frame of its release right. Normally just getting the official abbreviation of an announced game right gives a lot of credibility, but that information had already leaked from an official website registration.

So, the character this and the next leak both include, as well as the one the former leak has a Square Enix-shaped opening for... Erdrick.

This is the character that tends to grant a lot of credibility to these leaks, as the character was rumored here well before a certain datamining incident occurred. In the code of Smash Ultimate, there previously existed data for three then-unreleased characters. However, the data for two of those characters did not reference those characters by name, but instead gave them codenames. Specifically, Joker was referenced as ‘Jack’, while the other character was given the name ‘Brave’.

While speculation is open as to what the name ‘Brave’ could mean, such as an equivalent to NATO code, where a word sharing the first letter of the character’s name is used, or perhaps a reference to the game Bravely Default, the most common interpretation is that this refers to the Japanese name of the Dragon Quest main character’s title, which literally translates to brave.

The fact that all three leaks match the datamine in implying the character after Joker is Erdrick is part of what makes them so credible. However, in the case of this leak, it all comes crumbling down thanks to what it says about E3.

“Doom Guy and Steve? will be announced at E3 2019.”

Hoo nelly, I smell a contradiction, or at the very least, a bit of an unlikely scenario.

So, a part of me thinks this person expected Erdrick to be out before E3. That Joker and Erdrick (and maybe Piranha Plant) would be released at roughly the same time, just because of how Smash 4′s DLC went down.

But that rides on the assumption that this leaker actually meant the characters would be coming in the order they posted, and that Erdrick isn’t coming in May or something. But let’s go with that, let’s run with those premises.

Premise 1) Erdrick isn’t next

This Premise is a bit dead-on-arrival, since it means that ‘Brave’ has to either refer to a different character, or that data from the fourth or fifth character slipped in next to the first one. But for the sake of argument, we’ll say that ‘Brave’ actually means ‘Steve?’ due to the similar lettering.

In this scenario, we get both classic and relatively modern reps for Smash, both of which are very well known globally and, while a bit too ‘obvious’ for some, are definitely worthy of inclusion. If there’s ever going to be a time when the Fighters Pass reveals more than one character at a time, it’s going to be E3. If that does happen, I’d assume one would be released on the day, while the other would be for release down the line. Either way, we’re left with one big problem:

The only two characters left to reveal are incredibly Japan-centric. Japanese fans are pretty fond of these characters, but the global appeal of Dragon Quest, while not terrible has never been particularly high, while Ninja Gaiden’s declining sales in the US are part of why the franchise’s brief resurgence in the 00s eventually died off.

All-in-all, these are just two characters that wouldn’t really bring much fanfare if they were all that July 2019-February 2020 had to offer. While Erdrick might work as the final curtain call, it would ultimately mean ending Smash Ultimate off on a spark, rather than a bang. 8 months is a long time to announce nothing but a pair of niche characters.

Premise 2) Erdrick is next

After that last breakdown, having THREE at E3 would really just push the problem even further. Unless Nintendo is secretly publishing a Ninja Gaiden game that’s intended to be the next Breath of the Wild in terms of its magnitude, Ryu Hayabusa simply cannot work as the only character to be announced in all of the second half of 2019.

Unless you want to believe that there’s a second Fighters Pass coming (and that it will be filling out the rest of the space before February 2020), this is a scenario of different factors pushing at each other until something has to give, and that something is the announcement of Doomslayer and Steve? at E3, and if that’s breaking, then this leak breaks down even further.

Oh, and the idea that Steve? was moved from base game to DLC? I find that idea rather suspect. You can’t really change something like that so late in development without making a footprint on your game. Perhaps they scrubbed the files very effectively, with the only remnants being the Microsoft/Rare Spirit data people found, and the extra development time the removal of Steve? created going to Echo Fighter development. Maybe that’s why Isabelle is half-derivative, half-original? Probably not, though.

5Channel Leak 2

When you actually leak something that couldn’t have been reasonably guessed beforehand, you immediately start off on the right foot. Of course, some people have leaked things like this before, and had the other parts of their leak turn out false. In those scenarios, it can be because a person had inside information, and added their own made up information to it for one reason or another (trolling, not wanting to be caught, etc.), and in other scenarios, it’s because they get their information from multiple sources, and one or more of them turn out to be wrong.

However, most of the rest of their Smash leaks have proven to be correct, or are thus-far indeterminate. Joker’s stage was Mementos, and Nintendo has been making a suspiciously big push for the new Dragon Quest games. The only mistake in the leak was that of Jack Frost’s appearance ‘as a skill’ on the Mementos stage.

The details regarding Joker are things I would consider a safe assumption. Mementos just makes sense as a Persona 5 stage, while Jack Frost is a mascot for the superseries, as well as Atlus in general. That he would appear as a stage Easter Egg or in Joker’s moveset is a reasonable expectation. It’s possible that the Leaker (or their source) saw Morgana and thought he was Jack Frost due to a lack of familiarity, or that a Jack Frost cameo was planned but eventually removed.

Another possibility is that this person knew of the datamine information ahead of the general public, learning of the Mementos stage, and used the codename Jack to further spurn on their expectations regarding a Jack Frost appearance.

But that’s a narrative that really can’t be proven, and requires further narrative to explain why they know what they know about the Dragon Quest promotion, or the Granblue game.

So... this leak passes the test. The Erdrick stuff lines up with Vergeben’s generally accurate Smash leak portfolio, Mementos was accurate, and Brave definitely lines up with Erdrick. Personally, I’d rather almost any other character to Erdrick, but I’ll at least take having the remaining three characters still being a mystery.

#Smash Leaks #smash brothers

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niteshade925 · 5 years

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EMH and House of Leaves Pt.1: References/Details/Parallels

WARNING: If you haven’t at least seen the Night Mind summaries of EMH or read HoL, and don’t want spoilers, then please stop reading now. I won’t be spending a lot of time explaining HoL either (too long), so it would be best if you already read HoL.

************MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**************

(I’m probably just reading too deep into it. If I sound like I’m talking nonsense, that’s probably true.)

Not a lot of people have touched on the many, many references to House of Leaves (HoL) within the series, so I’m going to just point out all the connections I can catch.

And just to clarify, while I do think there are connections and parallels, I think the parallels only apply to a degree: just to some characters, some aspects. When you look at them both as a whole and try to compare them, then it doesn’t really make sense.

Meaning of House:

It’s pretty well established now that the “Leaves” in the title of HoL can refer to paper, making the “House” the book itself. In “Bridge to Nowhere” (Tribetwelve), HABIT’s sarcastic “let’s run from him (HABIT) in his own house” can very well be interpreted the same way, but with this “house” being the EMH show. However, I do not think the “house” here is truly his, and I will come back to this later.

The Growing and Shifting of the House/ Impossible Geometry:

In HoL, the House on Ash Tree Lane contains an impossible dark maze that changes its layout constantly (presumably based on the changing mindset of the person trapped within). In EMH we experience this first hand in the video “The property”, where Vinny goes to different houses just by walking through them, as if the house was changing its own layout and appearances.

The METAness of “Authorship”:

Self-explanatory. Either way you look at the theories in HoL, they all theorize that Zampano, Johnny Truant, or Pelafina is the author of the entire book, when in fact it is Mark Z. Danielewski who is the actual author in the real world. EMH is the same, except as of the latest video, the possibility that HABIT is the editor and director in-universe is being called into question.

Iterations and Mazes:

Everyone knows how the iterations work in EMH so I’ll skip to HoL. In HoL, there’s no iterations, but there are mazes. And what’s more, the maze IS the house. Remember that the book is the house? “a=b=c, therefore a=c”. The book is also the maze. The entire fiction is the maze where the characters wander about, progressing their story. EMH is the same. The iterations repeat, always ending in Hamlet-esque tragedy (“everyone dies, the end”), like a tragic play production performing over and over again, with small bits tweaked here and there each time, except the characters are trapped inside. The EMH series, the EMH “house”, is a maze. It’s also a maze with ash-colored walls. Which brings us to………..

Ashes, Ashes everywhere:

Oh boy is it everywhere. In EMH there's Ashen wasteland (presumed to be Centralia after the mine fire disaster), Ashland (an actual town just south of Centralia), and “half acre of ash” (first brought up by Stephanie and now the title of a video).

In HoL there's Ashtree lane (where the house is), there's the ash-colored hallways of the ever-changing maze within the house, and there's the Yggdrasil mentioned at the very end, which is an ash tree. Personally, I believe the “ashes” in EMH is more of a clue that we should look to HoL for direction, but nothing more, since it does not have the connections to ash trees like HoL does.

Found Footage/ Cinema Vérité:

Page 4 of The Navidson Record (TNR) in HoL:

“The Navidson Record did not first appear as it does today. Nearly seven years ago what surfaced was ‘The Five and a Half Minute Hallway’--a five and a half minute optical illusion barely exceeding the abilities of any NYU film school graduate. The problem, of course, was the accompanying statement that claimed all of it was true.”

That is basically a description of the found footage horror genre. Read the beginning of House of Leaves and you will find that its description of TNR is stunningly similar to EMH. To quote bits from the first chapter:

“Where one might expect horror, the supernatural, or traditional paroxysms of dread and fear, one discovers disturbing sadness, a sequence of radioactive isotopes, or even laughter over a Simpsons episode” (HoL page 3)

“The structure of ‘Exploration #4’ is highly discontinuous, jarring, and as evidenced by many poor edits, even hurried. The first shot catches Navidson mid-phrase.” (HoL page 5)

“There are several more shots. Trees in winter. Blood on the kitchen floor. One shot of a child (Daisy) crying.” (HoL page 5)

So, jarring structure. Sometimes continuous shots. Sometimes all jump cuts. Very documentary-like to give a realistic quality. Home video-esque feel. Disregarding the different plot/story, stylistically EMH is practically TNR brought to life. And when you add in the ARG element of EMH, it becomes more interesting: perhaps EMH is just like TNR of the book. And I will be expanding on this idea in my theory.

Fictional Sources

This is more of a META aspect thing. The Navidson Record in the HoL world was said to be nonexistent, 100% fiction. The characters, the interviews of the characters in TNR…...also pure fiction in the HoL world. Now think about the Corenthal papers, the articles…...they are a part of the ARG, and therefore also 100% fiction.

Unreliable Narrators

Also self-explanatory. In EMH, neither HABIT nor Vinny are completely honest with the audience in their videos. And in HoL there are three: Johnny (lies, mental illness), Zampano (if he’s the author), and Pelafina (mental illness, and if she’s the author).

L’esprit de L’escalier

It’s a French phrase for “spirit of the staircase”, meaning thinking of the perfect response but it’s already too late. In the EMH episode titled with this phrase, Evan met Vinny as himself (temporarily released by HABIT) for the first time after the killing spree happened. In HoL, the phrase comes in page 72 of TNR, in Johnny’s footnotes:

“Now though, I realize what I should of said--in the spirit of the dark; in the spirit of the staircase--

‘Known some call is air am’

Which is to say --

‘I am not what I used to be’”

This quote comes right after Johnny’s account of his first major panic attack from fear, where he accidentally made a mess at the tattoo shop he worked at because of his panic episode. Curiously, something (presumably the monster whose presence he felt) also put a long bloody scratch on the back of his neck. When asked, he said nothing, but the above quote was what he think he should have said, in retrospect. This matches up exactly with the meaning of the phrase.

The phrase also appeared in page 618 in original French, but I can't see any connection there in terms of plot or meaning.

And although the phrase didn’t make a lot of sense to me as the title of the EMH episode, it does now. The connection here is the line “I am not what I used to be”. That was the whole gist of what Evan wanted to tell Vinny. At the time of the episode, Evan has now become the “danger” due to being HABIT’s favorite human puppet, has already committed atrocities under HABIT’s control, and received the healing factor that made him unable to die. Evan is not what he used to be.

Guns, Rifles, and Insanity

I don't think I've seen HABIT actually use a gun except that clip where he pointed one at the back of Vinny's neck. HABIT’s thing has always been about blades: knives, saws, chainsaws, etc. But now a gun is becoming relevant. Two characters in HoL also resorted to guns as their sanity deteriorated: Holloway and Johnny. The former accidentally shot and killed one of his two companions before he killed himself with it, and the latter’s fate is unknown. There are two theories: Johnny died, though not by the gun; and Johnny lived because he’s finally freed from the burden of putting the book together.

The North Star.

North Star has become prominent in the latest videos of EMH. And it is also present in the book. The cover of the book has a red and yellow symbol (probably a compass rose) that looks like a North Star. Page 29 mentions the North Star by name, calling the lamp in the children's room the North Star. Vinny found the North Star drawing within Fairmount, where the Mining Town Four spent their iteration as kids.

Page 545 of the book has a more alarming message, however:

“Stars to live by. Stars to steer by. Stars to die by.”

And by “all good things”, this has been confirmed. HABIT and Vinny both died in this iteration by the knife and gun with the North Star branded on them.

So is it a coincidence that the EverymanHYBRID symbol looks like a North Star? I don’t think so. The EMH story was meant to end in tragedy all along.

The Radiation Detector

Yes, in TNR, Navidson also had a radiation detector that ticked . And the following quote:

“Navidson turns to the time telling tick of radioactive isotopes to deny the darkness eviscerating him from within” (HoL page 381)

Evan doesn’t really try to “deny” the darkness (HABIT) within him in “Sigma”, but of course, there’s still purple duct tape on his bandage.

The Quote Jeff Circled

“Why did god create a dual universe?

So he might say,

‘Be not like me, I am alone.’

And it might be heard” (HoL page 45)

This quote, by itself, is confusing as hell. One has to put it in context of the chapter to make any sense of it, just for the book alone. The chapter it appears in, nicknamed the “Echoes chapter”, is one of the most important chapters of HoL. Basically it explores the concept of echoes, what it is, what it implies, in various different aspects. Echoing is indicative of a closed, finite space, and there are no echoes in infinite space. Echoing can also create a sort of illusion that someone is there, repeating your words. So the quote above can mean the loneliness of god, the duality that comes with echoes, the universal need for social interaction, the universal need to be individuals,.........etc etc.

The “be not like me, I am alone” part also came up on Steph’s blog.

This quote, I haven’t quite figured out what it really means in the context of EMH, but I have a guess.

Leaning Against a Tree

Just an interesting bit I’ve noticed that might have some significance. In the end of HoL, if you believe Johnny died, then he died leaning against an ash tree. Holloway also died leaning against the ash-en walls of the maze, by gun, although it was suicide (the book also talks about Holloway suffering for a minute after he shot himself). Both HABIT and Vinny died leaning against a tree in “All good things”. Hmm.

Apartment 3103 and the abyss

In the climax of TNR, Navidson is trapped within the endless abyss of the maze, where the ashen walls and floor disappear gradually until he’s on a small platform, with only a book to keep him company. Navidson was literally in an endless isolation chamber. Sounds very much like Vinny when he was trapped in Apartment 3103 for two years.

Can You See The Words

This one has been covered by the EMH wikia. CYSTW does have a formatting style similar to HoL.

Water, Drowning, and Insanity

In earlier videos (hidden videos), Evan has been shown to be drowning in water. There were also clips of flooding. In HoL, the person who talks about drowning and the hopelessness of it is Johnny. As Johnny spirals downward mentally, both the number of times he mentions drowning go up, each time with greater detail. Water here is symbolic of madness.

Interestingly, water is also crossed out in CYSTW, similar to passages about the Minotaur in HoL. The Minotaur is the imaginary monster in the house/maze. This gives weight to the theory that HABIT was just Evan’s insane alter ego.

Falsity of Images

Page 527 of HoL has the following quote:

“they (images) may be heartwarming but what they imply rings false.”

As of “All good things”, this quote becomes very interesting when applied to Vinny.

CYSTW and The Whalestoe Letters

Steph’s blog is very reminiscent of The Whalestoe Letters section in HoL. The cryptic messages, the way her character feels like Pelafina.

Finding Fairmount/ Finding Whalestoe

Johnny’s journey to find Whalestoe (HoL pages 503-504) is very similar to Vinny’s journey to find Fairmount. Whalestoe was a mental institute, where Johnny’s mother, Pelafina, use to live. When Johnny got there, however, the institute has long been abandoned, with graffiti on the walls. Just like Fairmount.

“This is no longer their game. Consider yourself marked.”

This message could only be found by tilting the screen while looking at Steph’s blog. In HoL, at least one of Pelafina’s letters are entirely in code, and one letter leaves decoding instructions.

And finally, a note on the META aspect

In HoL, TNR is discussed among scholars who wrote works after works arguing over details in the film. Taking into account that EMH is like TNR…..and everyone who took part in the ARG or discussed EMH theories, including me and this post, also becomes part of the story. It’s pretty crazy.

#emh #house of leaves #part 1

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flashlighto · 6 years

Text

The format of Hito Steyerl’s Lovely Andrea (29’43”, 2007), a short film commissioned for Documenta 12, ostensibly falls under the umbrella of the essay documentary genre. In that space, the work indeed documents an interview-based research process from the perspective of a tangible and bodied subjectivity, but it is perhaps better playfully described by one of its interview subjects, the editor of Sanwa Erotica, Matsumoto Yutaka, upon hearing the basic premise: “That’s a nice mystery novel. It’s mysterious, it sounds good.” In the film, Steyerl introduces her search for a published photo series of herself as a Shibari bondage S/M model taken in 1987 while studying as a film student in Tokyo. This central goal drives her research forward, but despite that apparent clarity and objective-based approach, the film both begins and ends with her as interview subject being asked “What is your film about?” The audience is repeatedly prodded to answer this question, arriving at a place that considers the broader paradigms of global power (reference appendix images A, B), through which bondage pornography might merely reveal some libidinal echoes of an underlying ideological infrastructure that bleeds out into global deployments of Imperialist Capitalism.

Steyerl’s archived images are the subject of the search, but the film’s central figure is Asagi Ageha, Steyerl’s translator as the search moves from Germany to Japan and also a bondage performer with her performance partner, Osada Steve. Steyerl and Asagi follow a trail from fetish studio to fetish studio, connecting the dots between a seemingly small community of male ropemasters that were active in S/M publishing in the 80s, they slowly narrow down the possibilities of the photographer and magazine in which it might have appeared. In a twist on the typical role of “translator as invisible intermediary,” their search is repeatedly put on hold as Asagi is directly addressed by members of the studio. A studio assistant at their first destination, Sanwa Erotica, asks, “Aren’t you a model, Ageha?” The ropemaster offers, “If you want a bondage picture of yourself, I will tie you up.” Asagi replies, “It’s maybe a good idea!” as the whole studio laughs. The film breaks into a montage of Asagi taking her shirt off and being bound by the ropemaster.

In the midst of the search, various editors describe the psychological space of S/M as it functions for both performer and studio. From one editor, Japanese S/M is described as being based on submissiveness, on offering the performer an opportunity to experience shame. Another German editor explains that some of his performers would tell you that they like to see rope marks on their skin, while others would say they enjoy the feeling of floating as they are suspended above the ground, “Only when being roped I feel free.” This sentiment seems to be a motif in BDSM, and parallels a line from Pauline Reage’s 1954 Story of O, “The chains and the silence, which should have bound her deep within herself, which should have smothered her, strangled her, on the contrary freed her from herself.“

Within these descriptions, Ropemaster Nureki Chimuo explains the relationship of these studios to the Japanese legislature while voicing over a photoshoot of a woman with her arms tied behind her back in chic business woman garb, “Back then there were lots of restrictions… It was best when [the police] were extremely bothersome.” Nureki explains that they ought to operate as if they always have these same restrictions but never quite clarifies if this is because those conditions forced the studios to be more creative in their operations, or if it was the illicit nature of the media that increased their audience’s desire for the media. Something to note here: through the description of the studio’s relationship with the state, the audience finds the studio manager describing a power dynamic that becomes a direct projection of the internal dynamic that is roleplayed in front of the camera lens. In this echoed restriction, the studios enjoy being dominated by the police. Through that description, a fractal structure of power is constructed, submission echos from the micro to the macro with an implication of recursiveness ad infinitum. Within that structure, as Nureki says, “The more restrictions the better.” (Reference appendix image C).

This theoretical fractal structure is reinforced with a series of playful associative video transitions that imply a much broader presence of explicit and implicit domination in a global setting. Inclusions of Depeche Mode’s 1984 single Master and Servant (one of many ‘70s and ‘80s punk and pop singles that populate Lovely Andrea’s soundtrack) leads to a chorus with corresponding title cards that exclaim, Let’s play master and servant; it’s a lot like life! This simple libidinal request becomes a central theme that is rearticulated throughout the film. In conversation, Asagi asks Ropemaster Osada to clarify a point about S/M, “You mean in a normal society, everything is bondage?” Osada responds by describing the web that he imagines connecting and binding everyone in “society” before the audience returns to transitions between footage from the 1960s animated Spiderman and the 2002 live-action Spiderman with scenes which depict broad webs stretching between buildings and collecting various vehicles and people. With repeated insertions of pop media as soundtrack and transition, there is an implication that pop media of this sort may also be a function of domination in a global setting.

There are multiple threads that emerge at this point in the theoretical structure that Steyerl develops. With the inclusion of imagery from the 2002 Spiderman (reference appendix image E), she briefly sketches out a connection across forms of censorship, jumping between the censorship of bondage imagery in 1987 Japan and the censorship of Spiderman promotional images in 2001 that depicted a web capturing a helicopter between the Twin Towers in Manhattan. Between these images, is it just the visible knotting and harnessing that becomes illicit here? That visible knotting might remind the public of the quotidian power dynamics in which they play a part? With tongue planted firmly in cheek, it becomes unclear if censorship is caused by the visible inclusion of the web in both of these images, or, more likely, a distinctly moralist protection from pornography and a separate statist repression of imagery that reminds a public of a global political landscape.

When Steyerl and Asagi ultimately locate the images of Steyerl in the Fuzoku Shiryokan Sex Archive and are able to arrange a meeting with the photographer, Tanaka Kinichi, a description of the industry in the ‘80s complicates the research up that point. Tanaka notes the number of women that were lied to about the kind of shoot that would be happening and how in some cases, they wound up being paid in freedom rather than in the agreed upon sum of money. In this moment in which roleplay and real power blurs, a collapse occurs in the theoretical space that has been developed when a variety of scenes depicting Abu Ghraib bound victims, Guantanamo Bay prisoners, Terror Advisory Charts, and Spiderman are inserted into a monitor in the scene (reference appendix images A, F, G). At this point, Asagi clarifies to an interview subject that the name in “Lovely Andrea” that Steyerl used in 1987 was borrowed from her friend Andrea Wolf, who would later join the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and, labeled a terrorist, be murdered by the Turkish State. (Reference appendix image D).

In adopting Andrea’s name, the photoset in the 1987 issue of S/M Sniper travels and disseminates in a manner not so different from the way Andrea Wolf’s actual image was reproduced and consecrated by fellow PKK insurgents after her death. Some differences: the 1987 image of “Andrea” shows a bound, stripped woman, wrists tied together, bent over, with large, male hands directing her posture, printed in glossy color on cheap paper, bound between covers, while the image of Andrea in Turkey after her death features a soft, kind face looking away from the camera’s gaze contentedly, and is printed in cheap black and white and is surrounded by a green laurel. The ambiguous relationship between these two image-based “Andreas” raises a question: What exactly is the relationship between the images of the martyr Andrea and the images of the sex object “Andrea?” Thinking through the lives of images, do they coexist primarily through their distinction from the real lives of the two subjects that are imaged? Where the life of the martyr Andrea becomes completely isolated from her experience as an insurgent, and similarly for “Andrea,” the “sex slave”? Alternatively, does 1987 “Andrea” function more purely as an icon for life in a neoliberal global landscape derived from the effects of colonialism? Perhaps the term “roleplay” becomes key for thinking through the power dynamics inherent in that global landscape.

In one of the final scenes, Asagi explains that she no longer performs as a typical bondage model, but rather as a “self-suspension performer” (reference appendix image H). This shift in terminology places Osada Steve in the assistant role as she binds her body and suspends herself through the use of a rope and pulley system. The distinction does not eliminate the role of being bound nor does it eliminate the imagery of bound bodies, but rather locates agency within that role. A montage of her performance plays as title cards alternate --- “WORK IS BONDAGE”/”BONDAGE IS WORK” --- and music plays as found footage of women working in a restaurant cuts in and out.

Strangely, it is in moments of such explicit attribution of meaning that make the inclusion of topics with ambiguous or multiple dimensions of relevance so generative in Lovely Andrea. With the ideological origins of the PKK in Marxism-Leninism, a reading of this associative collage through the filter of labor gestures towards Imperialist-Capitalist extraction of capital as ubiquitous bondage, a metaphor that becomes concretized when applied to the police tactics that strip bare the pop-culture surface of such systems.

But in returning to the repeated question pointed at Steyerl, “What is your film about?”, one final moment illuminates Steyerl’s sensibility of a feminist read. Noticing her image on the monitor, Steyerl exclaims, “I should get some Botox, I think.” Immediately, she is asked, “But you consider yourself a feminist?”, to which she responds, “Yes, definitely.” In this brief exchange, Steyerl foregrounds her own libidinal objectives and autonomy over self. In a familiar feminist read, the existence of cosmetic surgery as iconic symptom of feminine bondage to feminine body idealization is a problem, but her exclamation reads as sympathetic towards bondage and clarifies the ways in which that desire is not mutually exclusive with feminism. An adjacent text of Steyerl’s illuminates this thinking beyond the broad understanding of her and Asagi’s own autonomies, “The feminist movement, until quite recently (and for a number of reasons), worked toward claiming autonomy and full subjecthood. But as the struggle to become a subject became mired in its own contradictions, a different possibility emerged. How about siding with the object for a change? Why not affirm it? Why not be a thing? An object without a subject? A thing among other things?” The implications of such a claim towards an objecthood without subjecthood interfaces with Asagi’s notion of self-suspension neatly, but this also remains fairly theoretical in the way that her interest in Botox is not.

Katherine Behar addresses a similar question in her collection of texts, Object-Oriented Feminism, as she navigates the issue of the body-self-object in service of navigating a sound non-anthropocentric philosophy. In this work, implicating the self as object is sought in order to escape the anthropocentrist approach, which she describes as a liability in a variety of arenas, “[from] the ecological to the epistemological to the ethical.” Identifying the problem of animism in some supposedly non-anthropocentric philosophies as vivophilia, she advocates for necrophilia,

“It is a question of perspective. Vivophilia says that most things in the world are, in some significant way, as alive as I am. Necrophilia says that I am, in some significant way, as dead as are most things in the world.”

Behar identifies this (very specific) notion of necrophilia as the generative central tenet of the feminist body-art that has developed since the 1960s. “Denouncing the fetishization of lively integrity in body objects, body art foregrounds the self not only as a deadly object to be killed off but also as the scene of the crime.” In this dialogue, Behar claims administration of Botox as an ideal method for achieving that objective on a more quotidian timeline, through the use of the same toxin found in botulism, OnabotulinumtoxinA, via direct injection.

Within this space, there is better ground for understanding how the more overt elements of this film (the unethical practices of the Japanese black market porn industry in the ‘80s vs. Asagi’s agency in self-suspension) fit with the more opaque elements (the relationship between Andrea and “Andrea” as images, the role of censorship, the question of global power, how to reckon Botox ethics). The repetition of the line “What is your movie about?” remains useful because it gestures towards the simultaneity of mutual dependence that these threads rely upon for support.

In architecture, a “reciprocal frame” is a class of self-supporting structure made of three or more beams which requires no center support to support roofs, bridges or similar structures (reference appendix image I). This model of the reciprocal frame provides a useful illustration for the way in which Steyerl’s threads seem to support each other: leaning on each other in a sort of pinwheel formation, without need for a central column to support the resulting structure. In that model as illustration, Steyerl and her relationship with Andrea becomes the absent center support; instead, the audience encounters Asagi as surrogate for a younger Steyerl, the images of Steyerl that circulated throughout Japan, the images of the real Andrea that circulated throughout Turkey, the censorship that occurs under any state government, the real tactics of domination that state governments impose on their citizens and on other countries, and the roleplay of sexualized objects. If an audience pulls out the threads of Steyerl’s criticality, bondage functions as a useful distillation of much broader power dynamics. Despite this analysis of “bondage as theatre”/”bondage as business”/”work as bondage”, the brief reference to/absence of Andrea Wolf’s relationship to Steyerl and her images reveals that this work is founded in sentiment and a self-reflexive gaze in spite of such an ostensibly goal-oriented, critically-minded approach.

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deathlessathanasia · 2 years

Text

“Whenever there is a discussion of Orphica, or whenever we label anything “Orphic,” underlying this designation are three interrelated topics: (a) a legend, (b) a set of ritual practices, and (c) a literary tradition.

(a) First, the legend is about the singer and musician Orpheus who appears in mainstream Greek mythology. This is the Orpheus whose music enchanted the animals and trees, who joined Jason and the Argonauts on their adventure and was able to out-sing the Sirens, and who used music to make his way through the underworld in an attempt to bring back his wife, Eurydice. The Orpheus of legend was known for his music since at least the sixth century bc, when the lyric poet Ibycus referred to him as “famous-named Orpheus.” While the legend of Orpheus the Argonaut had early roots, the earliest evidence of his katabasis does not appear until the fifth century, in a brief passage of Euripides’ Alcestis (962–966). In this passage, Orpheus is successful in bringing his wife back from the dead, but in other early versions of his katabasis, such as the one mentioned in Plato’s Symposium, he fails to do this for one reason or another. Because of the mystical quality of his music and because of his experiences in the underworld, by the fifth century the legendary figure of Orpheus was considered an appropriate culture hero for the foundation of mystery cults.

(b) The role of Orpheus as a culture hero in Greek legend is the focus of the second topic labeled “Orphic,” which consists of the cult practices he was believed to have founded. Here he is the subject of a debate that has continued for nearly two centuries about the nature and existence of what earlier scholars called “Orphism”—that is, a group of religious communities who practised a reformed version of Greek religion that they believed to have been founded by Orpheus, and to have used Orphic texts as scriptures. Despite the opinions of earlier scholars, it is now generally believed that this type of Orphism never existed as a definable institution or religious community. More skeptical scholars prefer to speak only of an Orphic literary tradition, but recently it has also become acceptable to speak of “Orphics” in the sense of ritual practitioners who used Orphic texts or adhered to Orphic doctrines. The Orphics were neither a distinct, coherent sect nor authors in a strictly literary tradition but, as the shifting debates have gradually been making clear, they were something in between. Whatever conclusions we may draw about the nature of “Orphism,” one of its most important distinguishing features, if indeed it existed, might have been the use of texts in ritual.

(c) The third component of a discussion of Orphica is about those very texts. Certain literary works were ascribed to Orpheus as a way of attaching prophetic authority to the texts, and they featured certain mythical themes that differed somewhat from the mainstream tradition. While the idea of an Orphic religious community has long been debated, the existence of a tradition of Orphic texts is indisputable. Some of the texts are extant, such as the eighty-seven Orphic Hymns addressed to a wide variety of deities (possibly from the second century ad) and the Orphic Argonautica, a 1,400-line hexameter poem in which Orpheus tells his own story (fourth century ad). But most of the Orphic literary tradition exists now only in fragments, including theogonic poetry ranging from the Derveni Papyrus (fourth century bc) to the Orphic Rhapsodies (first century bc/ad); a series of gold tablets inscribed with eschatological material and found in graves (fourth century bc to second century ad); other Orphic works known to us by little more than their titles, such as the Krater, Net, and Robe; and a katabasis of Orpheus that is believed to have been circulating by the fifth century bc. Most of the theogonic fragments are contained in commentaries of Platonic texts, written by Neoplatonic philosophers (fourth to sixth centuries ad) who certainly did not identify themselves as “Orphic,” nor were they members of a sect called “Orphism,” but they made frequent references to hexametric poetry about the gods, and they said that the author of these poems was Orpheus, in the same way that they referred to Homeric poetry and said the author was Homer. These authors applied allegorical interpretations to the texts in ways that supported their own philosophical views, so it is often difficult to disentangle one of their allegorical interpretations from the text that stood behind it, but it is because of the Neoplatonists that most of our fragments of Orphic literature have been preserved.”

- Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods, Dwayne A. Meisner

#orphism #excerpts #quotes

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spletch574 · 3 years

Photo

Mask art research

1. Gillian Wearing, Confess All On Video. Don’t Worry You Will Be in Disguise. Intrigued? Call Gillian Version II, 1994

Confess All On Video. Don’t Worry You Will Be in Disguise. Intrigued? Call Gillian Version II is a colour video lasting slightly under thirty-six minutes that features ten scenes, each showing a disguised person telling a secret in an unedited monologue. All of the speakers are depicted from the shoulders upwards and are heavily lit, so that their strong shadow is projected onto a white wall behind them. In some cases they gaze directly at the camera, while in others they look away. The individuals’ disguises vary in character – some entirely cover their faces with masks, while others wear wigs and other accoutrements, such as sunglasses and a fake beard, but leave their faces wholly or partly visible. The costume elements look cheap and somewhat exaggerated, with the wigs generally being large and the masks sometimes appearing cartoon-like. The confessions vary in length and content and have loose structures, suggestive of improvisation. All relate to sexual acts, crimes or acts of revenge: for example, two speakers discuss experiences of sleeping with prostitutes and one talks about stealing a computer from a school. The voice of an interviewer is heard just once during the work, asking one of the speakers their age.

This is the second version of a work of the same name that was originally produced by the British artist Gillian Wearing in London in 1994. Wearing began the project by placing an advertisement in the magazine Time Out that contained the text that makes up its title (minus the appended ‘Version II’). When respondents met Wearing, she supplied them with a range of costume elements, allowing them to construct a disguise. She then filmed them relating a secret in whatever way they chose. Originally shot in Betacam format, the video was edited and then transferred onto VHS tape. In 1997 Wearing re-edited the work to produce this second version, partly because the sound had deteriorated during the transfer to VHS and partly because during the initial edit she had cut down two of the confessions and she subsequently decided to feature them all at full length, with the result being that the second version is approximately six minutes longer than the first. This later version is considered ‘unique’ in that it was not released as part of an edition, and Tate also owns one copy of the 1994 original, which was produced in an edition of ten. When exhibited, the work must be shown on a television monitor in a relatively small space measuring approximately 3 x 3 metres, with some form of seating provided, preferably a sofa.

The title of this work primarily makes reference to the advertisement Wearing used to attract participants, emphasising the fact that the speakers actively chose to contact the artist and appear in her video.

The curator Russell Ferguson has argued that this work simultaneously involves an ‘uncomfortable’ level of intimacy and a feeling that ‘we have heard nothing we can be sure of’, since the speakers could be performing for the camera or simply lying (Russell Ferguson, ‘Show Your Emotions’, in De Salvo, Wearing, Ferguson and others 1999, p.36). Regarding the possibility that the speakers might somehow be performing in this work, Wearing stated in 1997 that ‘I noticed that they had taken time to mull over what they were going to say. One or two actually brought pieces of paper to prompt themselves. Things were set up, and it was ... ambiguous – that is where the art or the fiction came in’ (Wearing in Turner 1998, accessed 2 June 2015).

Further reading Grady T. Turner, ‘Gillian Wearing’, Bomb, no.63, Spring 1998, http://bombmagazine.org/article/2129/gillian-wearing, accessed 2 June 2015.

2., 3., 4., 5. Cindy Sherman, Untitled A, B, C, D, 1975

Untitled A, B, C and D belong to a more extensive series of photographs Sherman made while she was studying art at the State University College at Buffalo, New York (1972-6). She selected five images from the series and arbitrarily labelled them A to E. They were enlarged and reprinted in editions of ten. Sherman has explained the origins of this Untitled series:

These images were from a series of head shots that I made to show the process of turning one character into another. At that time I was merely interested in the use of make-up on a face as paint used on a blank canvas. I was experimenting with several types of characters – i.e. starting with an old person who then gradually became a drag queen. While the original series showed the entire process (about fifty 3” x 5” photos), later I chose a smaller group to make into slightly larger separate pieces. I unintentionally shot them with a very narrow depth of field, leaving only certain parts of the face in focus, which gives some of the features [a] malleable quality.

(Quoted in Contemporary Art, p.98.)

Sherman initially studied painting at Buffalo, making self-portraits and realistic copies of images she found in magazines and photographs. She began using photography after being introduced to Conceptual art by a teacher who inspired her to bring her childhood activities and obsessions into her work. She has said that as a child she was introverted, adding that ‘as a girl I used to always enjoy dressing up and being made-up. A lot of girls might like to look like their moms, but I would try to look like a monster or an old lady. Maybe I could have been an actress.’ (Quoted in Paul Taylor, ‘Cindy Sherman’, Flash Art, no.124, Oct. – Nov. 1985, p.78.) In this series of images Sherman combined painting (on her face) with photographic portraiture, assuming the personae of three female characters of different ages and one male. Variations in hairstyle and the use of hats in two of the photographs are the only props used. Below the chin the artist is bare. Two pale lines running down from either side of her neck, the result of being in the sun in a halterneck top, are clearly visible in each image and emphasise the theatricality of the work. The character in Untitled A wears a crocheted hat and has the most obvious make-up. Her dark eye-liner and lipstick, accompanied by heavy rouge just under her cheekbones to thin her face, suggest a woman in her thirties. Her submissive smile and the angle at which her head is tilted convey the sense of someone shy and anxious to please. The character in Untitled B, who is male, has joined-up eyebrows, and darkening under his eyes and chin and between his nose and mouth. For this image Sherman wore a cloth cap and pulled her chin into her neck to give the character a genial, comic air. The character in Untitled C has the least facial darkening. Her makeup mainly consists of thick mascara on her eyelashes, contributing to the wide-eyed innocent look she aims at the viewer from under her fringe. She appears only marginally older than the character in Untitled D, whose hair is held back with a pair of butterfly grips. For this pose Sherman darkened her face between the eyes, under the chin and in a line between her nose and the edges of her mouth. In all the images, Sherman has combined evident staging with the successful portrayal of a character type. This was later to become the artist’s signature technique, permitting her to evoke a wide range of emotional and thematic registers. Bus Riders 1976 is a series of photographs Sherman made shortly after leaving college, before she moved to New York and made her famous series of Untitled Film Stills 1977-80.

6. René Magritte, The Future of Statues, 1937

This work is made from a plaster copy of the death mask of the French Emperor Napoleon. A death mask is made by placing a mixture of plaster or wax over a person's face once they have died to create a mould. Magritte painted at least five of these casts, each with sky and clouds. The artist’s friend the surrealist poet Paul Nougé suggested an association between death, dreams and the depth of the sky. He commented: ‘a patch of sky traversed by clouds and dreams [can] transfigure the very face of death in a totally unexpected way’.

7., 8. John Stezaker, Mask XIII and Mask XIV, 2006

Mask XIII is a collage created by superimposing a postcard on a black and white photograph. The photograph is a film publicity portrait of an unidentifiable actress taken during the 1940s or 1950s. The postcard is a colour print mounted upside down over the actress’s face. It shows an image of a ruined stone building partially surrounded by trees. Stezaker has positioned it so that the inverted building appears framed within the actress’s face: the edge of the building matches the actress’s hairline at the right side of her face and a tree trunk and branches continuing the line of her face’s left side. Dark areas of foliage either side of the building align with her dark hair. A second tree in front of the ruin extends down the image to connect with the woman’s hand which is raised to her chin emerging from a narrow section of sky at the top of the postcard. At the bottom of the postcard, which traverses the subject’s forehead, the inverted caption ‘Nîmes – Le Temple de Diane’ identifies the ruin as the temple of Diana at Nîmes in France. The form of the inverted temple and its positioning over the woman’s face have the effect of evoking a skull: three rounded arches leading into darker spaces suggesting eye and nose-sockets and the broken upper edge of the ruin drawing the line of a broken and toothless jaw.

Mask XIV is a collage created by superimposing a postcard on a black and white photograph. The photograph is a film publicity portrait of an unidentifiable actor taken during the 1940s or 1950s. The postcard is a colour image mounted over the actor’s face. It shows a rocky cavern in which a sandy track curves around a central pillar. On the bottom left the card is captioned ‘Zig zag path, Folkestone’. At this point it covers part of the actor’s signature on his portrait above his right shoulder. Part of his first name – ‘Barry’ – is visible on the print. The postcard photograph appears to have been taken from inside a cave or under a bridge looking out through two openings towards the light. Stezaker has positioned the card on the actor’s face so that the dark silhouette of the rocky openings and the curvature of the cavern line up with the contours of the actor’s face. This placement causes an anthropomorphic reading of the postcard image – the two openings to the light suggest eyes connected by the rocky central column which covers the actor’s face in the position of his nose. Initiated around 1980, the series of Mask collages developed from the Film Still collages, such as The Trial, The Oath and Insert. The Masks all follow a similar and deceptively simple format: a film publicity portrait of a star whose face is covered by a postcard – ostensibly a mask – which opens a window into another space, paradoxically suggesting a view behind the mask constituted by the actor’s face. Initially the postcards were images of bridges and caves which in some instances united two or more protagonists. Over the years Stezaker has extended his range of imagery to include tunnels, caverns, rock formations such as stalactites and stalagmites, railway tracks, historic ruins and monuments (as in Mask XIII, 2006), woodland clearings and paths, as well as streams, waterfalls (as in Mask XI, 2005), lakes and the sea. Stezaker began collecting film stills in 1973 but was not able to afford photographic portraits of film stars until the early 1980s when their price dropped. The first portraits the artist used were damaged or of forgotten film actors, unnamed and anonymous. He has commented:

The Masks were inspired by reading Elias Canetti’s essay on masks and unmasking in his wonderful book Crowds and Power which inspired so much of my work at this time ... I was also teaching a course on Bataille and the origins of art which focused on the mask as the origin and point of convergence of all the arts. Canetti’s idea of the mask as a covering of absence and, in its fixity, as a revelation of death, alongside my discovery of Blanchot’s Space of Literature, was an important turning point in my thinking and in my approach to my work. I usually think of the key dates being 1979 and 1980 as marking a yielding to pure image-fascination and as a release from any function societal or transgressive in the work. The Masks were a response in practice to the Canetti/Blanchot idea of the ‘death’s space’ of the image and consolidated the sense of pure fascination and the desire for ‘exile from life in the world of images’, an ideal I saw in the practice of Joseph Cornell.

(Letter to the author, 26 October 2007.)

Stezaker shares with Joseph Cornell (1903-72) the Surrealist technique of apparently irrational juxtaposition and the evocation of nostalgia through his focus on outdated imagery, collected and pondered over many years. While Stezaker’s use of film stills and publicity portraits of the 1940s and 1950s stems from his boyhood experience of encountering these images on the outside of cinemas advertising films from which he was excluded because of his youth (letter to the author, 26 October 2007), his choice of postcards tends towards the Romantic tradition of nature and the sublime. The image of the zig-zag path relates to the woodland path or holzweg, a path leading – in German folklore such as that published by the Brothers Grimm in the early years of the twentieth century – to possible danger and death. Stezaker became interested in the historical phenomenon of the holzweg through his reading of Landscape and Memory (published New York, 1995) by the British art historian, Simon Schama (born 1945). The artist’s juxtaposition and careful alignment of the postcard image with the publicity portrait create an effect related to the concept of the uncanny as described by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) in his 1925 essay, ‘The Uncanny’. Freud analysed the feeling of the uncanny aroused most forcefully by the fantastic stories of the Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822), in particular his tale The Sandman (first published in Nachtstücke, 1817). He relates the sense of horror experienced by the protagonist Nathaniel not only to the mechanical doll Olympia, who appears real, but more significantly to a fear of losing ones eyes which he connects to the Oedipal castration complex. In the Masks the subjects’ eyes are covered; the collage intervention substitutes blankness or holes – dark and empty or leading into other spaces – creating the disturbing sensation of seeing death beneath the features of a living being.

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pamphletstoinspire · 6 years

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THE PROPHECY OF OSEE - From The Douay-Rheims Bible - Latin Vulgate

Chapter 13

INTRODUCTION.

Osee, or Hosea, whose name signifies a saviour, was the first in the order of time among those who are commonly called lesser prophets, because their prophecies are short. He prophesied in the kingdom of Israel, (that is, of the ten tribes) about the same time that Isaias prophesied in the kingdom of Juda. Ch. --- The chronological order is not observed in any edition. The Sept. very from the rest. They place the less before the greater prophets, and read some of the names rather differently, as Prot. do also, though they have nothing but novelty to recommend the change. We shall here specify the Prot. names, (H.) in the order in which these prophets appeared: (C.) 1. Hosea, 2. Amos, 3. Jonah, 4. Micah, 5. Nahum, 6. Joel, 7. Zephaniah, 8. Habakkuk, 9. Obadiah, 10. Haggai, 11. Zechariah, 12. Malachi. H. --- It is not known who collected them into one volume. but the book of Ecclesiasticus (xlix. 12.) speaks of the twelve; and 4 Esd. i. 39. specifies them as they are found in the Sept. Osee, Amos, Micheas, Joel, Abdias, Jonas, Nahum, &c. as in the Vulg. C. --- Many other prophets appeared before these, (W.) but Osee is the first of the sixteen whose works are extant. He must have continued his ministry about eighty-five years, and lived above one hundred and ten, if the first verse speaks of him alone. But some take it to regard the whole collection, and may be added by another hand. C. --- The style of Osee is sententious and very hard to be understood, (S. Jer.) as but little is known of the last kings of Israel, in whose dominions he lived, and to whom he chiefly refers, though he speaks sometimes of Juda, &c. C. --- By taking a wife, and other parables, he shews their criminal conduct and chastisment, and foretells their future deliverance and the benefits to be conferred by Christ. We must observe that the prophets often style the kingdom of the two tribes, Juda, Benjamin, Jerusalem, or the house of David; and that of the ten tribes, Ephraim, Joseph, Samaria, Jezrahel, Bethel, or Bethaven; and often Israel or Jacob till after the captivity of these tribes, when the latter titles refer to Juda, who imitated the virtues of Jacob better than the other kingdom. W. --- Then all distinction of this nature was at an end. H.

The additional Notes in this Edition of the New Testament will be marked with the letter A. Such as are taken from various Interpreters and Commentators, will be marked as in the Old Testament. B. Bristow, C. Calmet, Ch. Challoner, D. Du Hamel, E. Estius, J. Jansenius, M. Menochius, Po. Polus, P. Pastorini, T. Tirinus, V. Bible de Vence, W. Worthington, Wi. Witham. — The names of other authors, who may be occasionally consulted, will be given at full length.

Verses are in English and Latin.

HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY

This Catholic commentary on the Old Testament, following the Douay-Rheims Bible text, was originally compiled by Catholic priest and biblical scholar Rev. George Leo Haydock (1774-1849). This transcription is based on Haydock's notes as they appear in the 1859 edition of Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary printed by Edward Dunigan and Brother, New York, New York.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Changes made to the original text for this transcription include the following:

Greek letters. The original text sometimes includes Greek expressions spelled out in Greek letters. In this transcription, those expressions have been transliterated from Greek letters to English letters, put in italics, and underlined. The following substitution scheme has been used: A for Alpha; B for Beta; G for Gamma; D for Delta; E for Epsilon; Z for Zeta; E for Eta; Th for Theta; I for Iota; K for Kappa; L for Lamda; M for Mu; N for Nu; X for Xi; O for Omicron; P for Pi; R for Rho; S for Sigma; T for Tau; U for Upsilon; Ph for Phi; Ch for Chi; Ps for Psi; O for Omega. For example, where the name, Jesus, is spelled out in the original text in Greek letters, Iota-eta-sigma-omicron-upsilon-sigma, it is transliterated in this transcription as, Iesous. Greek diacritical marks have not been represented in this transcription.

Footnotes. The original text indicates footnotes with special characters, including the astrisk (*) and printers' marks, such as the dagger mark, the double dagger mark, the section mark, the parallels mark, and the paragraph mark. In this transcription all these special characters have been replaced by numbers in square brackets, such as [1], [2], [3], etc.

Accent marks. The original text contains some English letters represented with accent marks. In this transcription, those letters have been rendered in this transcription without their accent marks.

Other special characters.

Solid horizontal lines of various lengths that appear in the original text have been represented as a series of consecutive hyphens of approximately the same length, such as ---.

Ligatures, single characters containing two letters united, in the original text in some Latin expressions have been represented in this transcription as separate letters. The ligature formed by uniting A and E is represented as Ae, that of a and e as ae, that of O and E as Oe, and that of o and e as oe.

Monetary sums in the original text represented with a preceding British pound sterling symbol (a stylized L, transected by a short horizontal line) are represented in this transcription with a following pound symbol, l.

The half symbol (1/2) and three-quarters symbol (3/4) in the original text have been represented in this transcription with their decimal equivalent, (.5) and (.75) respectively.

Unreadable text. Places where the transcriber's copy of the original text is unreadable have been indicated in this transcription by an empty set of square brackets, [].

Chapter 13

The judgments of God upon Israel for their sins. Christ shall one day redeem them.

[1] When Ephraim spoke, a horror seized Israel: and he sinned in Baal and died.

Loquente Ephraim, horror invasit Israel; et deliquit in Baal, et mortuus est.

[2] And now they have sinned more and more: and they have made to themselves a molten thing of their silver as the likeness of idols: the whole is the work of craftsmen: to these that say: Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves.

Et nunc addiderunt ad peccandum; feceruntque sibi conflatile de argento suo quasi similitudinem idolorum : factura artificum totum est : his ipsi dicunt : Immolate homines, vitulos adorantes.

[3] Therefore they shall be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the dust that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

Idcirco erunt quasi nubes matutina, et sicut ros matutinus praeteriens; sicut pulvis turbine raptus ex area, et sicut fumus de fumario.

[4] But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt know no God but me, and there is no saviour beside me.

Ego autem Dominus Deus tuus, ex terra Aegypti; et Deum absque me nescies, et salvator non est praeter me.

[5] I knew thee in the desert, in the land of the wilderness.

Ego cognovi te in deserto, in terra solitudinis.

[6] According to their pastures they were filled, and were made full: and they lifted up their heart, and have forgotten me.

Juxta pascua sua adimpleti sunt et saturati sunt; et levaverunt cor suum, et obliti sunt mei.

[7] And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians.

Et ego ero eis quasi leaena, sicut pardus in via Assyriorum.

[8] I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: and I will devour them there as a lion, the beast of the field shall tear them.

Occurram eis quasi ursa raptis catulis, et dirumpam interiora jecoris eorum, et consumam eos ibi quasi leo : bestia agri scindet eos.

[9] Destruction is thy own, O Israel: thy help is only in me.

Perditio tua, Israel : tantummodo in me auxilium tuum.

[10] Where is thy king? now especially let him save thee in all thy cities: and thy judges, of whom thou saidst: Give me kings and princes.

Ubi est rex tuus? maxime nunc salvet te in omnibus urbibus tuis; et judices tui, de quibus dixisti : Da mihi regem et principes.

[11] I will give thee a king in my wrath, and will take him away in my indignation.

Dabo tibi regem in furore meo, et auferam in indignatione mea.

[12] The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hidden.

Colligata est iniquitas Ephraim; absconditum peccatum ejus.

[13] The sorrows of a woman in labour shall come upon him, he is an unwise son: for now he shall not stand in the breach of the children.

Dolores parturientis venient ei : ipse filius non sapiens : nunc enim non stabit in contritione filiorum.

[14] I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes.

De manu mortis liberabo eos; de morte redimam eos. Ero mors tua, o mors! morsus tuus ero, inferne! consolatio abscondita est ab oculis meis.

[15] Because he shall make a separation between brothers: the Lord will bring a burning wind that shall rise from the desert, and it shall dry up his springs, and shall make his fountain desolate, and he shall carry off the treasure of every desirable vessel.

Quia ipse inter fratres dividet : adducet urentem ventum Dominus de deserto ascendentem, et siccabit venas ejus, et desolabit fontem ejus : et ipse diripiet thesaurum omnis vasis desiderabilis.

Commentary:

Ver. 1. Spoke. When Jeroboam proposed to erect the golden calves, people were seized with horror; yet they consented, and soon after Baal and other idols were worshipped. W. --- Ephraim was one of the greatest tribes, and by its example the rest were drawn into idolatry. Achab principally introduced the worship of Baal, which caused God to decree the misery of his people. 3 K. xvi. 31.

Ver. 2. Calves. A cutting reproach! Those who could stoop to adore a calf, might be so blind as to sacrifice men! Heb. "sacrifice, ye men who," &c. Jeroboam issues this edict. C. --- Sept. "immolate men; calves are wanting." H.

Ver. 3. Away. C. vi. 4. --- Chimney, or hole, at the side or top of the room. C. --- Heb. arubba, (H.) means also "a locust," as the Sept. render it, though here it affords no sense.

Ver. 5. Knew: treated thee with kindness, or tried thee. C.

Ver. 6. Pastures: the more they were indulged. H. Deut. xxxii. 15.

Ver. 7. Lioness. Sept. "panther." I will pursue them even in their captivity.

Ver. 8. Whelps; with the greatest fury. 2 K. xvii. 8. --- Inner. Heb. "what encloses the heart;" or, I will break their hard heart. C.

Ver. 9. Own. Evils are brought on by the sins of men, which God does not cause. W. --- Sept. "who will aid to prevent thy perdition, O Israel." H. --- God alone is the author of salvation. He also punishes, (Amos iii. 6.) but for man's amendment in life. W.

Ver. 10. Princes. It was on this pretext that a king was demanded. 1 K. viii. 20. Will any now save you? M.

Ver. 11. King; Saul, Jeroboam, or the Assyrian. --- Away. Osee, (C.) so that you shall have no more kings of Israel. H. --- Sept. alone have, "I took (C.) or had him in," &c. S. Jer.

Ver. 12. Hidden. He thinks to escape. H. --- But I keep it like pieces of silver, bound up in my treasury. S. Jer. C.

Ver. 13. Him. He shall be taken when he least expects it. His fruit shall come forth. Jer. iv. 31. --- Children. He shall have no share in the division of property, or shall not escape when the father shall bring his children to an account. The Chal. &c. insinuate, that the infant affords no help to come forth, as it would if it had sense. C.

Ver. 14. Death. This must be understood of eternal misery, from which the just are preserved. All must die, and many suffered a violent death from the Assyrians. W. --- After denouncing the severest judgments, the prophet promises redress and a sort of resurrection, which was a figure of the real sufferings and rising of Jesus Christ. The apostle applies this text to him, but follows not the Heb. or Sept. 1 Cor. xv. 55. C. --- Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? Prot. read, O grave, (marg. hell) instead of the latter death. Heb. ehi has been twice placed for aie, I will be instead of where? (H.) as the Gr. Arab. and Syr. versions, as wll as the context, evince. All the versions prove the same corruption to be. v. 10. Kennicott, Aquila, and the 5. edit. read where? Sym. I will be: (S. Jer.) so that the change probably took place between A. 130 and 200. Sept. "Where is thy cause gained, (in a lawsuit, or thy justice; dikh. H.) O death?" &c. - Eyes. I can find no consolation, (S. Jer.) because the people cause dissension by their perseverance in evil. Hebrew also, "repentance," &c. I will utterly destroy Ephraim; or rather, "vengeance...because he shall flourish," &c. If Ephraim would repent, this should not take place; but now, the Lord will bring Salmanasar, a burning wind. v. 15. C.

Ver. 15. Springs of death; or the sins which Christ, born of a virgin, shall destroy, and liberate the vessels of election from hell. S. Jer. H.

#prophecy of osee

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onenettvchannel · 4 years

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#OneNETnewsInvestigates: American Netizens & Bashers are Boycotting the Nintendo for Skipping All the Independent Games and Caring for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

KYOTO, JAPAN -- A partner showcase presentation of Nintendo Direct Mini was not in good shape for the bashers around last Thursday at 10am (Eastern local time) for skipping all the Indie Games (which affects the Undertale and Jackbox Games). Miko Kubota (Radyo Patrol #20's Veteran Reporter) was on the scene for our Investigation to OneNETnews.

In case you're wondering on both of these... What is Nintendo, Nintendo Direct & Indie Games? According to the information database from Wikipedia, "Nintendo Co. Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics & video game company headquartered in Kyoto City. The company was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Karuta by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company under the current company name, Nintendo distributed its first video game console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985".

On the other hand adds, "Nintendo Direct is a series of online presentation or live shows produced by Nintendo, where information regarding the company's content or franchises is presented, such as information about games and consoles. The presentations began in Japan and North America with the first edition on October 2011. While a shorter version of the main type of Nintendo Direct that showcases information about software and hardware across all Nintendo platforms. There is also a separate vertent of this type of Nintendo Direct, named Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase that feature games from Nintendo's developing and publishing partners".

And for the Independent Games however... "An independent video game or indie game is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most (triple-A) games".

#NintendoDirectMini: Partner Showcase | September 2020https://t.co/Nfzd8zXfzF

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 17, 2020

Just a few hours before the Partner Showcase, these bashers are deadly unhealthy. This happens before...

Yeah, I hate how nintendo fans begging for more newer nintendo games like Mario anniversary collection for example, than indie games and Third party games treatment which is don’t care about.

— Mat 💫 (@Iczer07) September 1, 2020

personally im skipping these partner showcases and staying uninformed about anything announced in them until Nintendo at least stops calling these streams Direct Minis

— snakehugz (@snakehugz) September 16, 2020

calling these filler streams "Direct Minis" tarnishes the reputation of the Nintendo Direct, please stop referring to it as if it is an actual Direct or Direct Mini

— snakehugz (@snakehugz) September 16, 2020

Nintendo fans thinking smash will be in the mini direct pic.twitter.com/tHiYRjbIhQ

— reyn time (@blackwidow2234) September 16, 2020

Really, Nintendo? Another partner showcase? If this is what you think of your fans, this is what I think of you. pic.twitter.com/QjYFG60Pql

— robothing (@MarioToenails) September 16, 2020

I'm not, and I'd say the same for indies who don't deserve the hate they've got in the last days. I'm just arguing that these last non-first party showcases had a bad timing. It doesn't help on anything with Nintendo's eternal silence.

— DoE (@DevilOfEdginess) August 27, 2020

i canot bleieve nbtendo didn’t give me my mario 64 remastered revengEan e at the indie game showcase!!!!!!!!!! fuck u nintendo idiot sitpid AAAAA AI HATE NINRENDOahahahaaaaaaa stipud idiot ocompany!!!!! pic.twitter.com/HJ5QxJ7qNU

— mindfloww (@mindfloww_) August 19, 2020

And after.

Example: Smashers LOVE to hate nintendo for every decision in any smash game. But then completely ignore or make fun of indie platform fighters. They'll go to great distances to play like....project m, or melee on an emulator. But won't touch Icons, Brawlout, or RoA.

— Jamison (@Ggjeed) July 22, 2020

>Nintendo indie direct >No smash announcement Wow Nintendo do you just like hate money or something? fuck you Nintendo, I'm never purchasing another game from you for the next 26 seconds you hate your fans and you just lost another one

— |VRG| Rusty! (@JohnExodiaWick) March 17, 2020

To be quite honest, I kinda hate watching #NintendoDirectMini and #NintendoDirect because it's usually filled with a lot of toxic fans who hate it even if it has FANTASTIC announcements because "Duh, no Smash means bad Direct, duh."

— Yaboichipsahoy (@YaBoiCh43658878) September 17, 2020

I'm unfollowing #Nintendo twitter. The past 6 months have been nothing but hate against Nintendo, and they had me convinced Nintendo was really doing us wrong. After today's #NintendoDirect, I know they just take their time and do it right.

— Tanishq Kancharla (@moonriseTK) September 3, 2020

STILL NO HOTEL MARIO ON SWITCH??? IM DONE FUCK YOU @NintendoAmerica #Nintendo #NintendoDirect I HATE YOU. THIS IS YOUR OWN FAULT I AM NEVER BUYING NINTENDO AGAIN NO ONE CARES ABOUT 3D MARIO!!!' pic.twitter.com/Xbp4pOuQfg

— lucia ⛓ (@GDDR6X) September 3, 2020

Just a thought, but gaming fans should either A. Appreciate the indie titles that get announced and find the ones that look fun to them OR B. STFU 🤷🏼‍♂️#NintendoDirect pic.twitter.com/VdPwJKP3XC

— 𝔻 𝕒 𝕧 𝕚 𝕕 𝔾 𝕚 𝕝 𝕥 𝕚 𝕟 𝕒 𝕟 (@DaGiltyMan) August 26, 2020

Another crappy showcase. Great job Nintendo. You're the king when it comes to crappy showcases

— Robyn Wolph (@LegendOfZelda77) September 17, 2020

Worst direct ever, there wasnt even a reveal for the rest of the smash dlc 2, botw 2, splatoon 3, super mario galaxy 3, not even smash dlc 3 and 4 😡😡

— Dnamssdup (@DnaDan6) September 17, 2020

THERE WILL NOT BE SMASH BROTHERS IN THIS DIRECT!

— Jaedon Daniels | SirPeelz (@JaedonDaniels1) September 17, 2020

Nintendo: We're going to showcase titles from our developing partners. Twitter: BOTW 2! Every Smash Reveal! PRIME 4!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's like you people can't read.

— Stormageddon222 (@Stormageddon222) September 17, 2020

Most of these reveals are old ones so that’s a bit shitty to do to us. 2.5/10

— Jaxon Skye (@WiiMusicDevil) September 17, 2020

These tweets are subject for boycotting with the honest shameless retards at the moment, in skipping all the Independent Games and caring for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

I hate indie games, leave that for Nintendo’s man!

— Jigen (@yesdimeji) September 16, 2020

Imagine being an indie game developer and working hard on your game for it to be released in the switch. And you have to deal with hate from nintendo fanboys just because you aren't a direct or new smash bros character. Atleast try their games out before assuming its bad. pic.twitter.com/8IqS6VH3RY

— 🖤Andrea Chan🖤 (@real_andreachan) August 31, 2020

I hate Nintendo fans. Count the indies & third parties in 2020 just like the 2017 image, or fuck off with your inaccurate comparison that you're posting just for clout. https://t.co/XTWYOrvL1n

— Billy (@Billybae10K) August 22, 2020

"WHERE WAS SMASH!?!?! I HATE NINTENDO!". Not everything has to be about Smash DLC and stuff like that. Just be happy with what we get. If you can't do that, then just don't watch the Indie and Third Party directs.

— Ruby (@ruby52986) August 26, 2020

YOU MEAN THERE ISNT GOING TO BE 10 NEW MARIO GAMES ANNOUNCED?!? WHAT ABOUT SMASH >:(((TYPICAL NINTENDO, TAKING THEIR TIME AS USUAL. GOD I HATE NINTENDO. I HAVE HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS DIRECT, AND THE FACT THEY MISSPELLED NINTENDO AS "INDIE" SHOWS THAT THIS DIRECT IS GONNA SUCK https://t.co/Aq7MUIUifG

— Cryptik (@PhantomCryptik) August 17, 2020

I understand why people are upset about the absence of a full #NintendoDirect but the Mini Partner Directs and the Indie Worlds are allowing the third party games to have room to flourish while Nintendo just relaxes and rides the #AnimalCrossingNewHorizions wave.

— Stephen C (@theday) August 26, 2020

You are funny. I imagine you do the same to every person you find that has a different opinion than you. I did not started this conversation to insult you nor boycott or call you a faggot. I just been incredibly underwhelmed with Nintendo recently.

— Hollowboy (@Koukunari) September 17, 2020

SHUT UP THE GAMES RUINED IM NOT BUYING IT BOYCOTT NINTENDO HHH!!!!1!!!1!!!!!

— sour (@sour_yoshi) September 16, 2020

How dare Nintendo draw a red circle around Mario's sexy mustache BOYCOTT THIS FUCKING GAME!!!!! https://t.co/ynnZk8BU3g

— Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος (@TheCutePyro) September 16, 2020

Sucks huh? Hahaha Nintendo fans should boycott this game and play Devil May Cry 2 (Now available on the Nintendo Switch) instead. pic.twitter.com/2n6b0pXzkT

— shhhh (@terukhoe) September 15, 2020

Mfw the entire internet tells me that Mario 3D All Stars is an absolute rip off with a stupid selling window and that I should boycott Nintendo for it pic.twitter.com/gACXQFJBHe

— Alek (@Trail_txt) September 13, 2020

#BoycottZelda #BoycottNintendo #STOPPERREO https://t.co/SUsGYyWNw9

— Маrshall [#AviciiForever ] ◢◤/⚫⚫⚫ #CowboyBebop20th (@MarshalAfterAll) September 11, 2020

Although this happens for Undertale & Jackbox Games are up for boycotting issue on Nintendo.

DON'T GET THE "UNDERTALE" OR "DELTARUNE" THEY WILL GIVE YOU THE COVID Their made by Toby "Radiation" Fox, yes you read that right, the same radiation as 5G!! BOYCOTT UNDERTALE NOW!

— Thomas (@thomasnet_mc) May 2, 2020

Why not cancel @tobyfox ? And boycott undertale while we are at it pic.twitter.com/Yq4sAeOyx1

— Angel Simp Ara (@karikoritene) August 29, 2019

were playing 1 of the jackbox games n i hate this 1

— 🍔 cheese 🌻 erasermic brainrot (@GargoyleHouse69) September 5, 2020

After however many months in quarantine I truly, from the bottom of my heart, hate Jackbox games. I cannot stress this enough.

— Katie Burke (@senicRTKate) July 24, 2020

ALL MY IRLS ARE BORING MEANING THERE IS NO WAY RHEY WOULD GET JACKBOX GAMES HATE IT HERE

— strawberry 🍓 ophie month (@loonacatgirIs) June 25, 2020

NOBODY EVER WANTS TO PLAY THE DRAWING JACKBOX GAMES AND I HATE IT

— Rinzy 🖌️🖋️ 💙 (@RinzyArt) March 25, 2020

The Jackbox games are fun. The Jackbox community is hot garbage. Your experience is a cut of the same cloth from every Jackbox stream I've seen. Inevitably, some shithead will drop in and ruin the fun for everyone. I hate people sometimes.

— G O Λ T S (@lordofgoats_) October 7, 2019

We speak with Justin Smith (@JBN029) on Twitter's Direct Message (a small affiliate from YouTube Gaming) told exclusively to OneNETnews for this response:

Basher tweets are close to unfair for boycotting all the Nintendo products and games with the Hate Speech in a political way. His private response that only handles for the Hardcore fans of Nintendo with the newest games today. That doesn't mean the company of Nintendo has no shame to do and forced to shut down originally in Japan and worldwide.

youtube

Nintendo does not have a comment to OneNETnews as unfornate but... No apologies was made for this controversy at the Nintendo Direct Mini's partner showcase except for the hidden voiceover to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, takes over to Monster Hunter Stories 2.

Special Thanks to DJ Unikitty (formerly ColeThePony from Canada) for sending us a news tip.

SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Direct https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvCod83ilJ3jwkkOxSS8yNw/about?disable_polymer=1 https://www.shacknews.com/article/120427/monster-hunter-stories-2-wings-of-ruin-will-let-us-befriend-rathalos-on-switch-in-2021

SEVERELY HONEST DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed from this news article are not necessarily those from the Nintendo Co. Ltd. Furthermore, the assumptions of this news article will NOT state, intervene or reflect those of our Radyo Patrol reporters. The station, management, interwebs and the network. Thanks for reading everypony!

-- OneNETnews Team

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caladblog · 6 years

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2017 The Year in Review

jesus h. fuck, we’re still doing this whole... “the passage of time” thing? really? ugh. okay. give me a moment.

*drags hands down face*

*sighs*

okay! it’s been another year! goddamn look at us go! welcome to my Second Annual Recap of New Fiction Stuff!!

(hark! a disclaimer: this features things that i experienced for the first time in 2017, not necessarily things that were released in 2017, because i live literally underneath a rock and it’s a bit out of step with the zeitgeist down here)

Books

Nominations: Neuromancer by William Gibson, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Winner: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Neuromancer was good but this fic did it better. The Fifth Season was excellent and beautiful-- if you’ve read Jemisin’s previous trilogy about gods, there were aspects and elements from those stories that were really brought into perfect focus here; it’s a testament to her growth as a writer and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next two books in the series.

But The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet takes home the title because it is pretty much everything I want in a space opera. Everything. A galactic civilization that isn’t just an echo of European colonization. Interspecies conflict that isn’t a thinly-veiled allegory for racism. Aliens that are truly alien, different from humans and different from each other, with societies and cultures and values that logically follow from these differences. Lush worldbuilding (universebuilding?) that never sacrifices the plot or the characters. An artificial intelligence who sidesteps or directly refutes every frustrating AI trope in the book. Three-dimensional characters! Found family! ‘Xe’ being used as the linguistically-normal gender-neutral pronoun! A lesbian relationship between a human and a reptilian!

it’s good is what i’m sayin

Movies

Nominations: Rogue One, Thor: Ragnarok, And Then There Were None

Winner: Thor: Ragnarok. Stop the fucking presses, I saw a movie less than a month after it was released. This has only happened, like... twice in the last decade. Literally.

Anyway. Rogue One was good, but I’m not a huge fan of the war stars universe. I’m even less a fan of the marvel cinematic universe, especially what it’s become since cap2, but Thor: Ragnarok just fucken blows everything out of the water. No contest. It’s hilarious, it’s epic, it’s the first movie to get Thor’s characterization right. It loses points for including B******t C*********h, but it gains more points for everything described in this post, especially the way it specifically called out the way that societies built on imperialism try to cover up or whitewash the shameful bloody parts of their history. (“Proud to HAVE it. Ashamed of how he GOT it!!”)

Video Games

Nominations: Space Pilgrim Saga, VA-11 Hall-A, Fallen London

Winner: Fallen London. Confession time: I played a lot of video james this year, kind of went wild at the steam summer sale, and it was really hard to narrow it down to three nominations. Ultimately, though, Space Pilgrim Saga was nominated for humor and space and an endgame relationship between a gray-ace woman and a bisexual woman. VA-11 Hall-A was nominated for design and good music and queer representation and me being super gay for Dana.

But Fallen London wins because I’ve never played something that so naturally and regularly validates my gender identity and queerness. Not only do you get to choose a nonbinary option when creating your character, you also get to choose how the game addresses you and change it whenever you want, however many times you want. It’s always there (being referred to as a ‘gentleperson’ or any one of several non-gendered titles) but it’s never the defining aspect of your character or the subject of scrutiny/ridicule/whatever by any NPCs. Similarly, every point at which a romance is ‘required’* provides you with a male and a female option (and, as far as I’ve seen, the option to romance them both at once, too) and your choice of these is never determined or impacted by your character’s gender. Despite the ‘historical’ setting.

*in scare quotes because it’s needed to advance some stories and unlock others, but you do have the option of just. not doing them. or seducing the character for money or social status or some other personal gain, and not love. i'd like it if there was a non-romance option to advance these storylines, but eh.

It’s also just really well-written and interesting and funny and free to play-- there are storylines that cost money, and I’ve got my eye on several, but you never have to spend anything to advance. Even just keeping to the free storylines, there’s a ridiculous variety of things to do for whatever sort of person you want to play as. Go sign up now! Beware of wells! Don’t go North!!

Comics

Nominations: Harrow County vol. 3 “Snake Doctor”, Bitch Planet vol. 2 “President Bitch”, Ms. Marvel arc “Mecca”

Winner: “Mecca”

Okay.

I don’t remember if I ever posted it anywhere, but when this arc was being released earlier this year I had a Debate(TM) with myself about escapist storytelling vs. storytelling that holds up a mirror during rough times--how can you write escapism when hiding from problems does nothing? how can you write realism when the world already does so much to grind us down?--and I eventually settled that we need both, to read and to be written. Realism to show us how to fight. Escapism to help us rest so we can get back up.

This arc is so real it hurts, especially when you can only read it in monthly installments, but it’s the same hurt as pressing on a sore muscle. It’s necessary. There’s not a single aspect of this story that isn’t directly related to what’s happened this year, and what will go on happening next year, and the difficulty of resisting it, and the importance of continuing to do so anyway.

Also G. Willow Wilson appears to be the only Marvel writer who remembers that hydra is literally a splinter group of fuckng nazis so like

Podcasts

Nominations: Archive 81, Wolf 359, The Magnus Archives

Winner: Archive 81. What can I say? It’s precisely my shit. In fact, it’s so much my shit that it’s kind of hard to believe I’ve only known about it for a few months. Time is fake? I’ve already written in depth about how much I like this podcast over here, so I’m not gonna repeat myself.

Has to be said though that The Magnus Archives was a very close second. Like, when I started writing this post a few weeks ago, I had most of the winners already chosen, but this one was a last-minute decision. Especially when episode 81 (*EXTREMELY LOUD TWILIGHT ZONE THEME SONG*) was released and marked the first time in my life I’ve ever related to a male main character. Maybe a main character, period? At some point I’ll post a list of sampler episodes you can listen to without being too spoiled for the main plot to see if you wanna invest in a thing that’s got 86 installments so far.

so there we go! that’s been a sample of my year’s experience in fiction. see you all on the other side of this arbitrary dividing line that’s only marginally related to physical reality!

#text posts #state of the caladblog #the year in review #long post #general fandom

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alexchristin · 7 years

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Design for Theorycrafting

Recently, Danny O’Dwyer and the team over at Noclip have done a documentary series, interviewing prominent independent developers (Derek Yu of Spelunky, Jim Crawford of Frog Fractions, and Jonathan Blow of The Witness), talking about the games that inspired them as children, discussing their own takes on the significance of mystery in games, and explaining how they weaved elements of it into their design fabrics. The documentary series is fittingly titled “Rediscovering Mystery,” and a solid must-watch.

It takes courage for a developer like From Software to even attempt to include such a vast, and totally missable areas such as the Painted World of Ariamis or Ash Lake in the original Dark Souls. And there’s no doubt, that the effort from Jonathan Blow and his team, to build an island full of mystery and surprising treats, elegantly placed on the fine line between obscurity and conspicuity is absolutely commendable. However, aside from being a big help when you need it, the Internet is also a land riddled with spoilers. People are always discussing, debating, and engaging in joint-efforts to unearth even the most obscure secrets of all in games. And often as a result, the easy and most logical answer from developers on how to retain the player’s interests in games is to keep expanding their worlds, and to include even more obscure secrets for them to find out.

I do believe that this approach is, not only costly for sure, but also fairly limited in its efficiency. Not to undermine developers’ effort and control over the experience, but there’s one thing that many designers I know will probably agree on: the most profound, interesting, valuable and effective drive of all stems from within people’s heads. And the most common manifestation of such drive that one can see, comes in the form of theorycrafting.

A spoiler-resistant design paradigm

According to Christopher A. Paul (2011), the word theorycraft originated from World of Warcraft, which describes “the search for the optimal set of strategies with which to play, by using statistical analysis and mathematical modeling.” In the broader context, theorycrafting refers to the practice of analyzing theoretical scenarios, speculating possibilities, performing statistical reports, planning strategies for unexpected events, or simply “connecting the dots.” All of these are done mostly off-game, or at least not within the context set up by the games they’re playing.

Take a look at almost any game, you’ll find a universal advice suggesting that starters do a “blind” playthrough first, then come back a second time with a strategy guide to “one-hundred-percent” the game. While there’s nothing wrong with avoiding spoilers before you can enjoy a good book or a good movie, I do think that the old method of adding depths and maintaining player’s interests no longer holds itself well. What if instead of discouraging players from communicating with others on discussion boards, or encouraging blind playthroughs, we can design games around the reality of gaming today?

Minimal handholding

While this is a popular mantra adopted by many modern designers and may seem ostensibly obvious, I’d still like to stress its importance. Instruction on basic controls and maneuvers is fine, but make it so that players will have to do their own homework in order to overcome bigger challenges (say, higher difficulties). They can take notes, read up, discuss with other people, or even come up with their own ideas and strategies. You may be told how to move around and perform various attacks in Dark Souls, but nowhere in the game will you find an explanation on how Poise works, or how sometimes having low-to-no Poise is actually beneficial. The user interface and functionality of Darkest Dungeon may imply that you should treat your units as precious and cure them of devastating mental afflictions, but you’ll have to learn for yourself that it’s really costly to maintain a sane army, and the path to victory involves treating your units as expendables.

I myself have spent about 1,500 hours on the Long War mod for XCOM 2012 by Firaxis, and tried to pinpoint exactly what about it that reeled me and thousands of others in, even during its development period, and how it had us all absolutely enthralled. XCOM 2012 was fine, but it certainly, most would agree, did not have much to keep people playing for hundreds of hours. And that’s where the mod steps in. In direct opposition to Sid Meier’s idea at GDC 2010, which is basically to occasionally “cheat” in favor of players so that they themselves won’t ironically feel cheated, Long War relieved XCOM of every last bit of its shackles. As a result, the game was significantly harder, but a majority of XCOM players found the honesty and transparency worth a lot more in the long run than the ocassional helping hand.

Ensure High Interactivity between Game Elements

The first thing that comes to mind when people start thinking about strategies is how different elements within a game will interact with one another. And good news is, you don’t have to make such complex network of interactions obvious. Human beings are good at noticing and distinguishing patterns, and we love playing the game of connecting dots. What would happen if I combine Element A with Element B, and then sacrifice Element C, which on its own is very beneficial, to go for Element D? Would I then have to change my playstyle now that this setup is in place? And how? These are amongst the questions players are going to ask themselves when they theorycraft. Try to think ahead of them, and leave footprints on the ground behind so that players will follow them.

Extra Credits’ episode on Depth vs. Complexity explores this particular topic further.

Encourage micro-and-meta strategies

To reiterate a point previously made: the higher the difficulty level (by which I mean the amount of depth the game can and may provide to the player) the more the game should require the player to think outside of the immediate in-context scenario being laid out in front of them and plan ahead for future possibilities. The player should have to not only care about major factors and decisions, but also minor details that at first may seem trivial, but will make a difference in specific scenarios. For example, a 5% hit chance boost may seem negligible—not a lot of difference between an 80% hit and an 85% hit. But in the specific scenario where the player’s hit chance is penaltied down to 0%, and the 5% boost will be applied after the penalties, then it becomes the difference between chance and no chance.

To do that, a game needs to require players to acquire more knowledge than it can offer explicitly inside itself (unless they decide to constantly break the 4th wall and rain down paragraphs after paragraphs on the player, which is a bad idea by the way.) Obviously, this requires the game to contain a lot more depth. People won’t have a lot to read up on or talk about if the game they’re playing is Flappy Bird!

Micromanagement in gaming is often referred to as tedious. However, I do think it can be interesting and sometimes deeply profound if the player can see that:

It matters. It’s not going to matter if your SPD stat gets a 25% boost if you’re already the fastest moving unit in a turn-based combat and others have no way to catch up, which is what a lot of old RPGs were guilty of.

Everybody else is doing it.

The game is designed around the fact that everybody is doing it.

I found immense joy in discussing strategies with other players in the XCOM Long War community, and to play around with various ideas and theoretical scenarios in my head whenever I was on break at work. That made me feel like I was improving even when I was away from the game, and the game also helped me learn to think and to plan things carefully, and deliberately.

Reduced Linearity

Just like minimal handholding, even though reduced linearity isn’t anything new to experienced designers, it is amongst the key qualities of games designed for theorycrafting. Naturally, if every scenario in a game is scripted, every puzzle has but one single solution, and nothing that the player can do will make any significant impact to its outcome, then that game’s resistance to spoilers is clearly low. Someone nonchalantly tells a player that maybe they can turn left at this juncture, and they can’t unlearn that! You want to make sure that problems almost always have more than one answer, and there is a moderate space in which the player’s theorized solution may go off-track.

Maintain control over gameplay

With that said, in certain games, even if they’re non-linear and designed to encourage theorycrafting, there is still the risk of the player figuring out the optimal play and sticking to it rigorously, ultimately ruining their own experience. Soren Johnson, one of the Civilization designers, wrote “Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game.” (2011)

The current most efficient ways to tackle this problem that we know of, is to introduce random elements, or in some context, procedural generation. The idea is to allow the computer to systematically and algorithmically generate environments or outcomes based on the player’s input and a dice roll. Randomness is not necessarily “lazy design,” but rather meant to serve as insurance against optimal play always producing the same results, making sure that no strategy is without its flaws. Allow people the freedom to metagaming and micromanagement, but at the same time try to mitigate certain-win strategies as much as possible. Work closely with testers and even the community.

Final Words

Designing a game that is challenging, complex, with a lot of depth, and which encourages strategizing, planning for possible scenarios, coming up with creative ways to solve problems, might seem to be an overwhelmingly difficult task. But I do think it is a good ideal to push towards. If people are going to read up on games before diving in and perhaps spoil it for themselves, let them do it as much as they want. Make it so that the challenges in your game can take that fact on the chin and still give them a hard time. And a good time.

Lastly, I’d like to leave you with a few words from Professor Brian Moriarty’s lecture back in GDC 2002, The Secret of Psalm 46.

“If super power is what people really want, why not just give it to them? Is our imagination so impoverished that we have to resort to marketing gimmicks to keep players interested in our games? Awesome things don’t hold anything back. Awesome things are rich and generous.

The treasure is right there.”

References

Christopher A. Paul (2011) Optimizing Play: How Theorycraft Changes Gameplay and Design. Retrieved from http://gamestudies.org/1102/articles/paul

Sid Meier (2010) The Psychology of Game Design (Everything You Know is Wrong). Available at https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012186/The-Psychology-of-Game-Design

TangledAxile (2016) Yes, XCOM2’s RNG cheats - in your favor. Here’s how. Message posted on Reddit. Available at https://www.reddit.com/r/XCOM2/comments/45u81x/yes_xcom_2s_rng_cheats_in_your_favor_heres_how/

Soren Johnson (2011), GD Column 17: Water Finds a Crack. Retrieved from https://www.designer-notes.com/?p=369

Brian Moriarty (2002) The Secret of Psalm 46. Available at http://ludix.com/moriarty/psalm46.html

Extra Credits (2013) Depth vs. Complexity - Why More Features Don’t Make a Better Game. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVL4st0blGU

#game design

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bluetapes · 7 years

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Blue Tapes is an algorithm

The long Q/A version of an interview I did with Kristoffer Patrick Cornils for the German magazine HHV on the thinking behind the Blue Tapes project.

What was your motivation to start the label back in 2012? What are you goals with the label?

Distracting myself from the doom, really. I think that’s all any creative endeavours are. I started the label as a visual art project to give myself something creative and positive to occupy my time with after I’d been knocked on my arse by a particularly nasty bout of depression. I think it was helpful to just have this little hobbyist project that involved going away and spending a lot of time thinking about colours and sounds. Before starting the label I had been a music journalist and I was sick of the sound of my own ‘voice’ and everyone else’s, really. Doing something small and simple and abstract and just for me was very rewarding. A few months into that, other people found it, and some of them liked it.

Stylistically, you don't seem to have any boundaries. What does a record have to bring to the table to be released through Blue Tapes, or what is the lowest common denominator between Katie Gately, accapella Death Metal and the keyboard improvisations of a 13-year-old?

Blue Tapes is an algorithm. There are three axes and the artists that score most highly along these axes are the ones I choose to work with. The axes could be labelled a) Is this something that people have heard before?; b) Do I like it?; and c) Will other people like it? That last one is the hardest to quantify. I’m never short of finding amazing, innovative music that I love, but I’ve lost so much money through doing the vinyl series in particular that I’ve had to face up to the fact that there’s not much point in releasing records that only a tiny proportion of humans will respond to.

(I mean, having said that, my next release IS a microtonal ambient black metal LP…)

Although there is a lot of musical diversity throughout the series I do put a huge amount of thought into why I might want to release something and it has been curated to make sense as a series, even if the only person that it ultimately makes sense to is me? From a marketing perspective it’s a nightmare, obviously.

How do you find the artists that release on Blue Tapes? Do you do your A&R work on the internet or do you rather use your personal connections?

For the early releases, I would often have an idea of the KIND of thing I would want to release - say an acapella death metal album - and then I’d go online and try and find somebody who with a bit of convincing and a bit of imagination could deliver that. Soundcloud was a pretty invaluable resource for this.

Some very good friends of mine started the 20 Jazz Funk Greats blog back in 2004. I started blogging for it more after starting the label and I found a few of the artists (Plains Druid, Unfollow, Trupa Trupa) through that.

Very rarely it might be somebody who contacts me (hi Benjamin Finger) but mostly it’s me trying to imagine the music I want to release and then finding the nearest thing to that sound in my head in real life. (Without me having to get my hands dirty and make it myself… because I suck at the music.)

In 2014, you have launched X-Ray Records, a vinyl sublabel to Blue Tapes. What was the idea behind that and how do you decide if a record's coming out on tape or vinyl?

This is part of the process that I’m still tinkering with and trying to get right, but mostly it just came down to whether it felt right to do so. I’d had the visual concept for the series in my head for a while, and it made sense to try and reissue some of the bigger tape releases on vinyl cos they’d had an impact and a lot of people had missed out. Mostly I just really wanted to own a copy of the Tashi Dorji album on see-through vinyl so I took out a bank loan to get one! Sort of a foolish enterprise, but I’m unrepentant.

People can subscribe to your tape or vinyl series and even Blue Tapes shirts. What was your idea behind that subscription service and how have people responded to it so far?

There’s a small coterie of subscribers who I guess are kind of at the heart of the BT/XR family.

The first germ of an idea relating to Blue Tapes was that I was really into making cyanotypes at the time and I wanted to find some kind of a purpose for them, to justify their existence, so I had a sort of mad idea to make a series of limited edition t-shirts with cyanotype prints on them, that you could subscribe to. I was quite excited by it as a concept but it probably wasn’t destined to register with the outside world very well! Somewhere down the line, instead of the art being a t-shirt, it became a tape with a piece of music or other sound on it and an image that could collectively be represented by a serial number, rather than a title.

I always thought the subscription element was important in a way, because I think the series does only make sense if you view it as a curated body of work rather than discrete entities, but admittedly that’s not actually how people consume or usually think about music.

Your artwork is very recognisable not only because it's, well, mostly blue. What's the concept behind that and how do you create those washed out effects?

So the process I mentioned before, cyanotype, is a pre-camera photographic technique that uses sunlight and water and chemicals to create images. It was originally developed for scientists and engineers to reproduce diagrams or other plans. Because the chemicals produce a blue-coloured print, they became known as ‘blueprints’.

I find analogue processes a lot more interesting to think about than digital processes, so cassette tapes and cyanotypes made very natural bedfellows for me.

Some of the images are created using other ‘alternative process’ photographic techniques - those very ‘washed out’ colours are done using a technique called transaquatype, where you use water to try and intentionally make the colours run - but I think the best ones are the cyanotypes, particularly the cyanotype abstracts.

The X-Ray series, as suggested by the name, takes a very different approach. Is that perhaps a reference to those literal X-Rays from the Soviet era on which people cut music because they lacked the ressources for vinyl?

The name is a reference to that, for sure. But it also links back to the cyanotypes. The first step in making a cyanotype using the modern method is to create an enlarged negative of your source image on acetate. These enlarged negatives are pretty cool objects in their own right, and I started to think they’d make really cool vinyl packaging. So, for instance, if you take the Tashi Dorji LP, the artwork is actually the negative of the original tape artwork.

Held up to the light it looks a little like an x-ray, so X-Ray Records. It could have been ‘Negative Records’ or something but that sounds way too much like a hardcore label! And, y’know, also the Soviet thing.

Some of the earlier releases lack pretty much any information, which can be quite confusing for people who don't neatly organise their collection like I do, I guess. How do the artists respond to this serialisation? I can imagine that some would see their work compromised if they had to name it after a catalogue number.

No one’s really complained about it, but you’re probably right. I think with this thing it was almost like starting a band or something, rather than joining someone else’s band. I was able to say, look, this is the concept, if you want to be a part of it then cool but if not then no worries. It IS confusing and I would never judge anyone for not wanting to get onboard with it!

But it was important to me to present the series as a process that was configured to output a singular piece of art every month, rather than as a ‘label’, which actually felt more dishonest - it’s not a business, it doesn’t make any money. The aesthetics of the label and its cataloguing were contrived that way to try and make the ‘art’ the physical rectangular object that you hold in your hand, and as a self-conscious attempt to get away from the idea of the ‘album’, which for a while I genuinely thought might be one of the most boring ways there is to present music.

Maybe I also thought that by starving the listener of as much context and extraneous information as possible I might help them to have a more honest/profound relationship with the music, in the same way that music always sounds better when you listen to it in the dark. (Note: This is wishful and possibly deluded thinking.)

The vinyl series has titles, though.

You've put out around 30 records so far, but what would you say is the most important one? Strictly personally speaking or in regards to the label.

In regards to the label the most important one was the Katie Gately tape. It’s also just an important piece of music, I think. It set a new bar.

I do think there is a common trait that unites a lot of Blue Tapes music, despite the disparities in genre, and I think it’s unique to us because I don’t hear it in that much other stuff that I listen to as a music fan, apart from some ancient musics like gagaku sometimes. It’s a quality rather than a sound - and often the releases that have the most of this quality, or ‘feeling’, are the ones I’m most fond of.

It’s entirely subjective and also very difficult to describe, but the way I experience it is like the sensation you might get when you’re really exhausted - like, exhausted to the ends of your nerves - but instead of it being a sick feeling, it’s euphoric. Your brain switches off, stops decoding things, and stimuli wash over you - but not in a passive, bored way, they seep into every nook and cranny of your consciousness and flood it with colour and sensation. Almost like a high, I guess, but a sober, unpsychedelic one. I’m not a religious person but that particular communion I have with this music is the closest I get to something spiritual in my life.

These feelings and ego-annihilating qualities seem to be more present in very minimal music - the Tashi Dorji, Library of Babel and Mats Gustafsson records are swarming with it - but I hear it in some very maximal music, too. I hear it in Jute Gyte.

I don’t know enough about Pauline Oliveros to know if this is what she was describing with ‘deep listening’, but you could reasonably apply the term to the sounds we’re presenting for you.

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the-dragongirl · 7 years

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Pod-Together Icebreaker, Day 1

It’s that time of year again, folks, when authors and podficcers get together to collaborate on new and innovative projects that are written to be heard, rather than just read. I am participating in four pod-togethers this year. @knight-tracer and I will be creating a sequel to last year’s Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme screen-play style story, and @lacefedora and @punsbulletsandpointythings and I will be creating another Star Wars story told through vignettes from vary varying points of view. However, I also have two projects with creators I haven’t worked with before: ladybrookeoflorien, and savvygambols. To that end, I’ll be posting the answers to the icebreaker prompts @pod-together is providing this week. So, without further ado, here are the answers for day 1:

1. If you could be any fannish character for a day, who would it be and why?

I am on major Star Wars kick these days, so I would have to say Leia Organa (though, probably EU version rather than current canon). Leia has been my fictional role model since I was three years old. I admired her competence and leadership, as well as her ability to give no fucks and get shit done. Fortunately, I get to live my dream at least a few times a month, when I appear as Princess Leia at events with the Rebel Legion.

2. Name as many books, movies, TV shows, animes, comics, celebrities, etc. that you can think of that you have felt or feel fannish about.

Okay, this list is rather huge, so I am going to sort it by category.

ANIME/MANGA (note that I am not really active in any of these fandoms anymore, and haven’t been since I was a teenager, ):

Cardcaptor Sakura; Fushigi Yuugi; Magicknight Rayearth; Naruto (in my my misguided youth); Sailor Moon; Saiyuki

BOOKS:

Jane Austen: all her books except Northanger Abbey (Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book ever); Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes; Monica Furlong: Wise Child and it’s sequel and prequel; Mercedes Lackey: Valdemar Series (we all go through that stage, right?), SERRated Edge Series, Bedlam’s Bard Series; Gregory Maguire: Wicked; Anne McCaffrey: the Pern book, the Rowan books, the Pegasus books; Seanan McGuire: October Daye series, Incryptids Series, Indexing; Lois McMaster Bujold: The Vorkosigan saga; Garth Nix: The Old Kingdom books; Tamora Pierce: Circle of Magic books, Song of the Lioness Books; J.K. Rowling: I love the Harry Potter books so much, though I am not particularly inclined to interact with most of that fandom; William Shakespeare: all his plays pretty much (The Winter’s Tale is my favorite); J.R.R.Tolkien: everything he ever wrote; Timothy Zahn: all of his Star Wars EU novels.

CELEBRITIES:

No. Just no. RPF of any kind squicks me out.

COMICS:

Check Please; Girl Genius; Marvel 616 (though I have mostly fallen out of the Marvel fandom these days)

MOVIES:

Anne of Green Gables (the Canadian miniseries); Assorted superhero movies (again, I have mostly fallen out of this fandom); The Chronicles of Narnia films (though not the books, oddly); Labyrinth; Ladyhawke; Pacific Rim; The Peter Jackson movie versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; STAR WARS

MUSICALS:

Pretty much all older musicals, especially Paint Your Wagon, and Wicked. I love Hamilton, but I don’t interact with that fandom at all.

TV SHOWS:

Avatar (Last Airbender only. I haven’t seen legend of Korra); BBC Musketeers; Doctor Who (before Moffat); Due South; The Grenada Sherlock Holmes; Highlander; Firefly; Once Upon a Time; Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Sense8, The Sentinel; Star Trek (especially Voyager)

3. List 5 things you enjoy in stories (e.g. a kind of trope, story line, kink, etc.). List 5 things that you do not enjoy in stories.

Not exactly five things, but here are the likes and dislikes copied from my standard Dear Creator letter:

Things I like: I love seeing greater inclusion of female, non-binary, and trans characters. I am a total sucker for healthy familial love and found families. I enjoy kidfic. I enjoy happy, consensual polyamory. Physical hurt comfort (that does not violate one of my squicks) is my favorite guilty pleasure. Beyond that, I enjoy world-building and fleshing out of minor characters.

Squicks: I will not consume fanworks which contain: incest, abuse (especially of children), rpf, on-screen sexual assault (references to past sexual assault are sometimes acceptable, provided it is non-graphic and is not trivialized or used as an h/c plot device), or extreme unmitigated power differences in relationships (such as large differences in mental/emotional maturity, or unnegotiated relationships between a person in guardian or supervisory position and their charge/ supervisee).

Dislikes: I really don’t like fanworks which erase or demonize existing female characters, or make non-villain characters in general super villainous (or, conversely, make villains poor misunderstood darlings without a great deal of explanation). I also generally dislike infidelity (note that i do not count consensual polyamory as infidelity.) While I don’t mind smut being part of a fic, I tend to get bored with PWP. I rarely enjoy modern AUs, coffee shop AUs, high school AUs, or anything in that genre. I usually don’t enjoy A/B/O either, unless it is subverted and used to question social views of gender and sexuality.

4. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

Looking at my icebreaker answers from a couple of years ago, I like the answer I gave then, so I will just repeat it: I think I would like telekinesis. It would be fun and useful, without introducing complex ethical quandaries.

5. If you were stuck on a deserted island, what 3 fanworks would you want with you?

Am I allowed to list series? Because if so, my list would be Sansukh by determamfidd, the Deeper Season series by lightgetsin, and Re-entry by deadcatwithaflamethrower. Embers by Vathara is a very close fourth.

What are 3 fun/interesting/not-commonly-known/etc. things about yourself (fannish or otherwise)?

Thing the first: I have two paid professional audiobook credits to my name. I don’t list titles, since they are published under my RL identity, but it still gives you an idea of how seriously I take narration.

Thing the second: Between the Saber Guild and the Rebel Legion (and, hopefully soon, the 501st), I am generally dressed up as a Star Wars character an average of once a week.

Thing the third: Yesterday, I bought almost thirty yards of fabric for $30, and that is pretty much the most exciting thing to happen in my life in months.

#pod together #icebreaker #podfic #I am so excited be getting started on all these projects!

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carolcooks2 · 4 years

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Welcome to this week’s edition of my weekly roundup of posts…I hope you are all staying safe and well…and social distancing…I know many of you are on further lockdowns once again as cases are on the rise again… a second phase…It really is not going away just yet, stay safe and strong peeps and observe all the do’s and don’ts…The quicker you do the quicker it will all disappear ( not) forever methinks…This virus is digging its heels in just like so many people are with regards to social distancing and masks…

Here’s something to take your mind of what’s going on…Take a pew and have a read… I hope you enjoy it!

Monday always starts with Climate change as there is always something new to discover…This week was no different…WELL, it was just a tad…The Story of Plastic 27th July 2020…

Whether we throw it away and it is burnt, just dumped or put into landfill it is a problem and all the cleanups and great ideas for repurposing and reusing are papering over the cracks…Manufacturing of single-use plastics and plastics which cannot be recycled within 5 years must cease and alternatives found.

It is time we stopped buying these… hit the manufacturers where it hurts… in their pockets…If we can have such strong feelings about mask-wearing, BLM..then channel your energies into this because if we don’t do something..we will be the losers, future generations will be the losers …Mother Nature will be the survivor…FACT!

https://carolcooks2.com/2020/07/27/the-story-of-plastic-27th-july/

Tuesday: Wake up It’s Tuesday…Thought for the Day!

Me…I am saying no more…This dear man puts it so much more eloquently than I could x

Wednesday: The Culinary Alphabet with a twist…The letter B(herB)

This is fun…Thank you Pete x… In 2 weeks it will be words ending in C…

This is taxing my culinary brain( in) a good way I have my list and as I read something which triggers a thought I am adding them I have also come across some things I didn’t know or know about so it’s a great learning curve/./challenge(Pete)..there are still some blank spaces but it is gradually filling up…

https://carolcooks2.com/2020/07/29/the-culinary-alphabet-with-a-twist-the-letter-bherb/

Thursday: Smorgasbord Health Column – Project 101 – Resilience – An opportunity to get fighting fit – Round-Up – Sally Cronin

Time for Sally to round up this fabulous series on health and wellbeing…Something to keep for future reference…#recommended read

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2020/07/28/smorgasbord-health-column-project-101-resilience-an-opportunity-to-get-fighting-fit-round-up-sally-cronin/

Friday: Travel, Traditions and Recipes…Go Bananas… with Fruity Fridays

Bananas are very plentiful here…They come ready-packaged and ready to eat…I am rerunning/updating some of my earlier Fruity Fridays posts with a few new fruits as well as some popular fruits…I hope you enjoy it!

https://carolcooks2.com/2020/07/31/travel-traditions-and-recipes-go-bananas-with-fruity-fridays/

Saturday Snippets:

It was National Mustard Day yesterday so of course, I had a recipe for homemade mustard tried and tested in my kitchen as well as some trivia and a great video from Mohammed Ali which is funny with a serious message…Also, some …beautiful water art some people are just so creative…

https://carolcooks2.com/2020/08/01/saturday-snippets-9/

I hope you have enjoyed this roundup…See you tomorrow with a further update on the Story of Plastic…

God bless you all in these turbulent times…be safe and stay well…

My hopes…for the future…

When this is all over my hope for the future is a cleaner world… I do want to see communities, and caring for your neighbour becoming the new norm…WORKING TOGETHER INSTEAD OF WORKING AGAINST EACH OTHER…Being kind to each other…Loving someone whatever their religion or skin colour…Can we make this happen? We have to but in the right way…Are we willing to make a stand? Personally, I would love to see lessons learnt ..realistically I have my doubts…

Thank you for reading be well and stay safe xxx

About Carol Taylor: Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and well being.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…Then, I will be happy!

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all stay safe and healthy xx

CarolCooks2…weekly roundup 26th July -1st August 2020…Climate Change, Recipes, Health, Whimsy, and Pretzel Bread…

CarolCooks2…weekly roundup 26th July -1st August 2020…Climate Change, Recipes, Health, Whimsy, and Pretzel Bread… Welcome to this week’s edition of my weekly roundup of posts…I hope you are all staying safe and well…and social distancing…I know many of you are on further lockdowns once again as cases are on the rise again...

#blogging #Health and Nutrition #Homemade Mustard Recipe #Humour #Music #Recipes

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gravitascivics · 4 years

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THOSE KIDS!

[Note: This posting is the fourth of a series of postings regarding adolescence. The reader is invited to click on the previous three postings – and any other postings – that lead to the content of this one.]

If one doubts the high jinx adolescents are apt to perform or indulge in, one can just pick up any copy of their local newspaper and read a story describing mayhem or near mayhem involving a teenager or group of them. It can be a petty crime, some altercation, or otherwise mischief causing harm to members of the community. Sometimes the acts can be attributed to drinking, recklessness, irresponsible driving, and/or drug use. All of it, by any consideration, can be considered risky behavior.

Then there are those unreported cases but can have long lasting consequences. Of course, common examples are derived from engaging in unprotected sex. Sex becomes a new source of intense drive among this age group. Beyond the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, many family stories have been shaped by an unexpected pregnancy and subsequent birth of a baby out of wedlock or one out of an ill-conceived marriage. Sometimes the results are happy, but sometimes, even often, they are not.

Unwanted births often lead to unwanted children or so defenders of abortion rights have argued. They have cited evidence tying legalized abortion to a drop in crime rates.[1] This indicates a social cost to unwanted pregnancies. Surely, this argument – associating abortion with the drop in crime – can be questioned, but it does reflect on how what is generally considered a private course of behavior can have meaningful consequences to a community or a nation. Add to this, the correlated potential of how unprotective sex has been associated with parental abuse and low rates of parental support.[2]

And that does not even consider the personal consequences such as an education being cut short because a mother takes care of a newborn without the help of the baby’s father. Or how such an event captures what should have been the rewarding years of a retired grandparent(s) – this writer has seen this development in more than one household.

Psychologically, one can ask: are adolescents more prone to engage in risk-taking behavior, as compared to adults? In line with this question is: are the cognitive and emotional processes similar or different from adults or are adolescents simply not as skilled in managing risk?

This last question brings up the argument that the only difference between adults and say teenagers is the goals and aims each group strives to attain. The difference is not what each member of said group attempts to do, but over what he/she is attempting to accomplish. The difference, it can be hypothesized, is over the aims not the processes or the physical elements of the brain.

There is evidence supporting this hypothesis and it is provided by a study guided by behavioral theory. That is, the study found that youngsters demonstrate that they give more importance to positive results – rewards – then do adults. Of heightened attraction are rewards one can categorize as social.[3] But this not a simple matter. Quoting Dustin Albert and Lawrence Steinberg in the cited article, “[s]tated simply, adolescent decision making is a complex and multiply [sic] determined phenomena.”[4]

This sort of findings seems to indicate that there is little or no difference in ways risks are seen and that the difference lies with what is valued. Different values lead to different conclusions as to what to do. And if one considers that behavior is the product of a long evolutionary process – one occupied by surviving in nomadic, scavenger groupings – this risk-taking proclivity might have served to attract sought after mates in more primitive settings.[5]

This mate choosing function can be one of many factors – such as impulsivity, peer presence, ability beliefs, desire for thrills, peer influences, competitiveness, and personal interests – that encourage a youngster to take a risk in performing some behavior.[6] These factors can take many forms.

For example, surviving risky situations adds to some young people’s confidence in their abilities and letting them and others believe they are ready to leave their parents’ protection or domicile. In a given group, having this more risk-taking members in their midst can balance out those who are more conservative; the first willing to try new things and ways of behaving, the second preserving the derived “wisdom” of what has gone before a given challenge makes its presence known.

The idea of wisdom will shortly be revisited, but first a word or two concerning inhibition or the lack of it. Researchers have investigated how adolescents are apt to fall into undesirable patterns of behavior if they are not continuously held accountable. Behavioralists call this extinction learning.

Most people know how the initial experiments in behavioral study – Pavlov’s using a bell to introduce food to a dog that has the dog salivate and after repetition having the dog salivate without the food – but might ask: what happens after repetition without the food? Eventually the dog stops salivating. This is called extinction learning. Apparently, teenagers are prone to readily ignore what they have learned especially if the lesson is distasteful.[7]

In turn, when the lesson to be learned has to do with risk, the inhibitions to performing the unwanted behavior can more readily reappear. At times, these behaviors can be associated, for example, with danger, and so a recurrence of it can have serious consequences. Behaviors such as unprotected sex or the use of illicit drugs can readily lead to serious trouble even if the youngster is not initially caught breaking the rules against such behaviors.[8] The challenge of parenting an adolescence can seem to never end.

And now a quick word on wisdom. To begin, wisdom is not intelligence, at least as intelligence is measured by IQ tests – without appropriate training, adolescents do not improve, relative to others, on those tests. But they can improve on their ability to conjure up insights and exhibit better judgments. Experience does help youngsters in doing these things better.[9]

And with that bit of information, this series on adolescence comes to an end. Hopefully, especially if he/she is a civics teacher, the reader can gain useful information that can be applied when dealing with that age group. Civic responsibilities call on a certain level of maturity and immature characteristic in students can be obstacles in getting those students to learn and appreciate what goes into being a good citizen.

Oh, as a parting shot, if a reader who would like to read (or see) a real world example of what these posting say about maturing or being immature (including extinction learning), a classic example is conveyed by an episode of Baseball, the Ken Burns’ series on PBS. That example is of the life of Babe Ruth. There is a man who set a slew of records while consuming not performance enhancing drugs, but consuming performance inhibiting drugs. He was made for baseball but exhibited repeatedly the types of behaviors one associates with adolescence.[10]

[1] Robert J. Barro, “Does abortion Lower the Crime Rate,” Business Week, September 7, 1999, 30, online cite accessed January 16, 2020, https://scholar.harvard.edu/barro/files/99_0927_crimerate_bw.pdf .

[2] Tom Luster and Stephen A. Small, “Factors Associated with Sexual Risk Taking Behaviors among Adolescents,” Journal of Marriage and Family, 46, 3, 622-632, online access to article accessed January 16, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/352873?origin=crossref&seq=1 . This article goes on to emphasize the occurrence of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases that have a personal toll and a toll on the community.

[3] Dustin Albert and Lawrence Steinberg, “Judgement and Decision Making in Adolescence,” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 1, 211-224, online cite accessed January 16, 2020, http://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=psych_pubs .

[4] Ibid., 4.

[5] Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (New York, NY: W. W. Norton and Company, 1997).

[6] David C. Miller and James P. Byrnes, “The Role of Contextual and Personal Factors in Children’s Risk Taking,” Developing Psychology, 33, 5, 814-823, online abstract accessed January 16, 2020, https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0012-1649.33.5.814 .

[7] Jessica McCullum, Jee Hyun Kim, and Rick Richardson, “Impaired Extinction Retention in Adolescent Rats: Effects of D-Cycloserine,” Neurosychopharmacolony, 35, 10 (September 2010), 2134-2142, online rendition accessed January 16, 2020, https://www.nature.com/articles/npp201092 . Yes, the title refers to rats. Teenagers are not rats, but this article informs one as follows: “The developmental trajectory of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in both rats and humans is nonlinear, with a notable decline in synaptic density during adolescence, potentially creating a ‘natural lesion' preparation at this age.” This condition leads to extinction learning in both adolescents and rats.

[8] Linda Patia Spear, “Adolescent Neurodevelopment,” Journal Adolescent Health, 52, 202 (February 2013), online rendition accessed January 16, 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3982854/ . Of note, this type of research (for example, this citation and the previous one) reverts to neurological factors and that fact diminishes the claim that teenagers and adults share the same basic brain physical (structural and chemical) elements.

[9] Moisha Pasupathi, Ursula M. Staudinger, and Paul B. Baltes, “Seeds of Wisdom: Adolescents’ Knowledge and Judgment about Difficult Life Problems,” Development Psychology, 37, 3, 351-361, abstract accessed January 16, 2020, https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0012-1649.37.3.351 .

[10] Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, Baseball: An Illustrated History (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994) AND Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, PBS Production, 1994.

#behavioralism #maturity #immaturity #unprotected sex #Ken Burns #civics education #social studies

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