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lesbiansforboromir · 3 years

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I absolutely love your borodred thoughts, they are just *chefs kiss* so I have to ask how do you think Boromir and Theodred, who come off (to me at least) as very "expressing my true feeling??? In this economy???", get together? How do they start dating and get psuedo-married???

OH MAN ok so so- kajds FFF HANG ON hang on I’m actually... kinda writing this fic but I will never finish it so lemme try and summarise for you SO.

Important things to keep in mind: - Boromir and Theodred were friends as children, or rather they became friends after initially disliking each other because Theodred was foul mouthed and sharp tongued and Boromir was withdrawn and noble. Being so close in age, everyone agreed it would be a good thing for them to get to know each other as boys, since they would be interacting so much later on. This SEEMED to go badly initially, they quarrelled and tussled. But they both also... didn’t seem to want to NOT do those things. And eventually it became clear that Boromir really enjoyed having a friend he could be looser and more competitive around, whilst Theodred was quite eager for Boromir’s more quiet confidence that made him a calming presence. Everyone ALSO realised their arguments had turned to playing and they were thoroughly enjoying having a friend who was their absolute equal in social standing. Bullet points seem redundant now but I’m gonna continue with them.

- The pair actually found more than just a friend in this relationship, they got more confident and settled in their own positions too. Theodred’s manner allowed Boromir to feel more comfortable admitting when he was unsure or didn’t know things, where previously he’d considered that a weakness he couldn’t afford (due to his father’s image of never being wrong). Theodred on the other hand also felt more comfortable with the concept that Some Battles Aren’t Worth Fighting. He didn’t need to dignify every taunt with the validation of noticing it. Sometimes ignoring something is just as good as defying it. And much more! This all naturally turned into them discussing and comparing their experiences as princes and captains, which also naturally turned into them acknowledging struggles and frustrations surrounding those titles that they really never talked to anyone else about. (This isn’t entirely true, Grimbold and Theodred were very close and Boromir’s few tight friends he made and kept all know somewhat of these things, but they can’t quite understand it in the same way) The pertinent point to all this is they grew close and understood each other really well, you know those people it’s just SO easy to be around? Like you always thought you were speaking the same language as everyone else but then you find someone who ACTUALLY speaks your language and you feel perfectly understood suddenly? Yeah!

- God there’s so much to explain, this is gonna need a cut

- This development is also perfectly mirrored in their feelings about each other’s cultures. Boromir was initially fond but ignorant of Rohir ways, influenced by the Gondorian idea that they were all somewhat rugged and unsubtle. Theodred had the impression that Gondor was a very monodimensional country of just self-aggrandising scholars and dull melancholy. And then, just through sharing their interests with each other, spending time together as friends do, they’re really very much shown their misinterpretations. Theodred goes to see Boromir’s wrestling matches at times when he’s in Gondor. Boromir has a WAIL of a time watching Theodred flyting, they get into each other’s interests! Which is something that starts off unconscious, but eventually Boromir feels at home amongst the rohirrim because they are Theodred’s people. And Theodred reconnects with his Grandmother’s family still in Gondor because that’s his connection to Boromir- WE’RE GOING OFF MESSAGE BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT BACKGROUND.

- The basic point is they are both very very familiar with the other’s ‘no emotions in this ecomony’ manner and know all the ways the other avoids just such emotions whilst also being very privvy to the rare evidence that they do both, indeed, have emotions. They also RESPECT that need in the other, to be careful, it’s not pushy. Non-verbally they reach a point where emotions will be safe between them, they don’t get made too heavy, they don’t pry, Theodred just accepts that Boromir is exhausted from appearing like every victory was easy when they’re barely hanging on. Boromir just accepts that Theodred is furious and frustrated with all the scrutiny his character is under from every Thane when they have far more dire things to worry about. They both understand that they’re very very tired of grief, of losing people, of accepting that it was likely their fault, and then moving on immediately afterwards. And also OH OH ALSO!! Very important, they came to their understanding of this war they’re in together too. This sense of impending doom. I think, different from everything else, they admitted the fact that they did not believe they would live to see a new age only to each other. They always knew it, but they had the space to voice it all. Yes, it’s up to us, yes, we will likely fail, yes, we’re going to fight this fight anyway. OK SO THAT- SO JUST- KEEP ALL THAT IN MIND, that’s the foundation of where this all starts SO.

(WAIT ALSO- sorry fuck- also important.... pining. Boromir’s relationship to romantic thoughts is VERY different to Theodred’s, he has a much more like... positive idea of romantic love than Theodred does. Even if that’s not saying much. But the point is that means Boromir realised he was full on deeply ‘I hate when he walks out of a room because everything is more enjoyable when he’s around’ in love with him much earlier than Theodred did. Around 20. HOWEVER, Boromir also has a very ingrained cultural sense of ‘oh but the comradery of friendship is beautiful! I shall be content with this, Theodred deserves my respect so I won’t think of him sexually’ and he’s saying this after having had sexual relationships with men in the past AND THEN GOES ON to have romantic/sexual relationships with men during his pining which is kinda messing with him a little, especially because he ISN’T content- Boromir’s yearning and creating some cultural hurdles for himself later.

Theodred takes a while longer, in all things, he’s not content to accept that he’s exclusively attracted to men for a good long while. He gives relationships with women a go but he’s just having to try so hard for not much and it’s never sustainable. Not helped by my hc of Rohan having a kinda like... half ancient grecian concept of male homosexuality? Which is VERY muddled in with Gondorian sensibilities and creating a wild atmosphere of ‘men with men is just about sex and that’s ok, normal for soldiers sort of, something to tease about, but also don’t bottom and also don’t fall in love with a man, we all have a complex relationship to love in general as men, good luck navigating our impenetrable toxic masculine thicket’. SO Theodred accepts he’s pretty inescapably attracted to Boromir quite young. But when Theodred begins suspecting he has real serious feelings for Boromir it’s a much more frustrating discovery, he hasn’t DECIDED this is ok yet. But he still hates to see him go and prefers arguing with Boromir than drinking with anyone else and he can’t stop his mind drifting to him or missing him when he’s away. PINING, SEE? This ship has everything, anyway moving on)

((NO WAIT PPS, the fact of Boromir’s sexuality is a kind of unspoken thing between him and Theodred, everyone else chalks up his disinterest in women to Boromir being a good Gondorian but Theodred (quietly) knows better. The extent of their talking about it is in private moments when Theodred says something like ‘of course you won’t be doing that I suppose’ and it’s just a quiet chuckle and then moved on, neither of them want to tALK about it. But eventually Theodred can’t be bothered with the effort of pretence any longer. It’s not until later that Boromir notices changes in Theodred where he’s given up on trying for lovers, stopped pretending to laugh at all the jokes he hates and is acting differently around some riders that Boromir’s thoughts turn that way and he wonders. OH KAY. THERE.))

A lot… happens… between Boromir and Theodred before during and after Eomund’s death (so through their 23-24 yo years). What’s important to understand is that the ‘realising feelings’ part was not that difficult. They were very important friends for each other long before anything else. Boromir knew he was in love with Theodred early on, but Theodred realised he was loved back first. And there was about a year of time where they both silently, quietly, and with some sardonic bitterness, knew the other knew.

Because the issue they actually- ahsd damn fuck there is SO MUCH in this that you need to know, it’s tied to this sense they have of not being made for joy, they weren’t made to succeed, they were here to try, they are made to defy the undefiable and lose because no matter the end, their people and these living homes of theirs deserve to be fought for, it’s an understanding that silently connects them, that they both do accept and they find it deeply aggravating and exhausting for people to claim it is otherwise- it’s still all about love for them, it’s all true, they’re happy to do it, they would have chosen these roles if they could have but!! But that drives them into these personas and mindsets of self sacrifice and somewhat mmm young concepts of hopelessness and effort-

The point is that the difficult part was getting to the point of agreeing that this thing between them, that would be just for them, was worth pursuing, was possible and that such a thing was meant for them. Over the year and during Eomund’s death so much happens and there’s this undercurrent that specifically for Theodred is… a kind of slow angry grief, that he wants this but it would just be adding to their obstacles, that BOROMIR wants this- it’s hard for him.

BUT GETTING TO THE POINT, in midsummer of the following year Theodred comes to the festival at Minas Tirith at the Steward’s invitation (and Theoden’s encouragement, Eomer and Eowyn had to have his full attention and Theodred’s presence was as yet not a fully comfortable one for the two children) AND… Boromir had done this before, but Midsummer requires much more elaborate dress and Boromir had an outfit made for Theodred, in his colours, fitting him and his comfort, and he met him at Minas Tirith’s gates and they hadn’t seen each other a great deal since Eomund’s death and there’s a PAUSE to see each other that neither of them acknowledge and Boromir takes him up to Merethond and they get talking and Boromir shows him the garments he had made and Theodred tries them on and Boromir pulls on the waistband and collar to make sure it sits on him properly and Theodred has a look to him of withheld gutting frustration and-

And in that moment Boromir thinks to himself ‘I’m going to fix that’. Good decisions are easier to make when it’s for the both of them and there’s a right kind of defiance that he feels when he nears this decision, a galvanising excitement, and when Theodred asks him what he thinks to break the silence, Boromir tells him he is handsome in a tone he’s never used before.

Theodred turns to look at him and he can’t look at Boromir without being IN THEIR WORLD with him, in their language and the flow they have together and Boromir’s smiling at him, confident, so even if his smile’s still a little painful, he looks at Boromir in his own celebratory garb that he wears so confidently and tells him he’s handsome too. Which gives Boromir an expression that Theodred likes too much and that neither of them are turning away from, but Theodred’s still got a scowl in the silence before he breaks it.

“No longer ‘unspoken’ then.”

“It still is, in technicality.”

“I don’t see the difference.”

“Was it so different before?”

And Theodred can’t help the quirk of his lip and the hand he brings down onto Boromir’s chest that he doesn’t take back. “Glibness doesn’t suit you, be serious, we won’t walk away from this unscathed.”

“I am not intending too.”

And Theodred is caught by that, a small “Oh.” escapes him. Boromir waits but Theodred can’t get the words out he’s just… looking at him, trying to puzzle through Boromir’s mind. So Boromir takes in a breath and;

“I wanted to kiss you at the gates.”

He says with an ease born of relief, just to say it out loud, Theodred’s hand is still on his chest and his own covers it and holds it there.

“Am I allowed now?”

Theodred doesn’t quite reply before Boromir’s leans in. He’s not cautious, he tilts his head and pushes into Theodred’s space and his hand strokes up and over Theodred’s stubble like a man who’s been thinking about doing nothing else for a long long time. Theodred is still, partly on instinct and partly because he is too focused on seeking intent in Boromir’s eyes. But when Boromir pauses, their lips an inch apart, those instincts are gone. And all he can do is relax, mindless and focused, shaking his head in incremental disbelief as his hand on Boromir’s chest fists tighter into his coat.

“You- brave, reckless fool.” He barks in a release of nerves and laughter.

“Yes, finally,” Boromir says in an answering breathless laugh.

They meet in the middle. It is brief, awkward, they orientate, hands stuttering before finding strong, comfortable grips on one another, Theodred’s fingers find Boromir’s curls at long last, he’s been pining after them for too long to let go once they pull away for the first time.

The first rasped question that comes to mind is, “… Did you know… I would-?”

“No, not really.” Boromir answers.

“… Fuck.” Is really the only appropriate response.

“What do you think?” Is asked next.

And there is a great deal he should be thinking about, but all that’s filling his mind is Boromir’s voice saying ‘I wanted to kiss you at the gates’. And it might not be new and he might have thought it himself before, but it’s so meaningful for them both to admit a want. It’s so vulnerable. Theodred hears it with such love, he feels suddenly like he’s holding something precious and fragile, secret knowledge of a moment when Boromir wanted. He’s heard Boromir want before but those were different, this is just for them. And- god that really activates him in a vital and ferocious way, he wants to hear more, wants to want and admit it. It makes him feel positively ravenous for it, for more moments of Boromir wanting. So he says;

“That I’ve never wanted to think less. Not yet, come on-.”

This kiss is longer, exploratory, and something to easily get lost in. A relief. Eventually Boromir’s back is against a wall and both princes are dishevelled with wanting grasping hands. Theodred has to laugh, more confident, invigorated. This has tapped into his bitten, fierce determination, this dogged manner he has where if he’s grasped something then he’ll get it done. He suddenly has living, breathing energy.

“I feel so bloody young.” He grumbles, because he does. And he can’t remember the last time he felt this kind of nervous fluttering discovery.

“… We are young.” Boromir breathes eventually, between his near panting breaths.

That isn’t so funny, just too true, despite how false it feels. How it almost rankles them both to acknowledge, considering all they had seen and done and been. All the dead boys and men they’d shucked to become men that were needed. What on earth was young reckless action doing appearing to them now? And yet it’s also right because… their youth has always belonged to each other.

As a thought it sobers them enough to give everything space to breathe. BUT THAT’S ENOUGH!! Oh my god!! This isn’t even finished- fuck

#Anonymous #chats #borodred #it's been literal months if not nearly a year and I just needed it OUT of my drafts #HERE YOU ARE ANON.... criminally late but here #boromir #theodred #tolkien #erran vs tolkien

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seercayder · 3 years

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No but I feel as though artists are probably experiencing one of the most hostile years of posting art online that they’ve ever experienced for maybe forever. And I mean this for both amateur artists and professionals (with maybe a lil bit of bias since I also do The Art).

Tumblr’s nudity ban has crippled any piece that is either NSFW or uses nudity as artistic expression and it ultimately drove away both the artists themselves and a lot of their fans, which destroyed any remaining traction for the artists who managed to remain. Tumblr is no longer an artistic freedom-friendly site and it shows, which is a fucking shame bc they genuinely have one of the better tagging systems than other sites and I believe that most feedback on art there has been positive and friendly, which has now gone the way of the dinosaur much like Deviantart.

Twitter has problems with image compression but their biggest issue is toxic abuse, which I find to be the most damaging to artists out of all the other problems i’m listing here. Both the lure of anonymity and the mindset that ‘Speak Loud In Little Words To Make Point Means You Are Important And Right’ has fuelled the absolutely vile comments I have seen directed at artists on the site. Although it’s mainly aimed at fanartists and ship artists, I have noticed unwanted (even rude) criticism on immaculate, well-done art pieces, which is extremely belittling and insulting because the artist (although they may be open to criticism) if they haven’t asked for criticism then that means that they are not in the right mindset to receive any, and therefore it is not your place to throw disparaging comments at them.

But the biggest issue with abuse on Twitter is obviously aimed at fan-artists, especially those those that draw NSFW or “problematic” content. I could go into a whole spiel about how a drawing of a fictional character doesn’t affect reality but in short: If you find disturbing art of a non-existent character (or hey, even non-disturbing art, it’s just something you don’t like) then ignore it. Don’t go and fucking bully the artist you psychopath. If it is truly illegal then report the piece and then see if it gets taken down. Because 90% of the time it won’t be taken down because it doesn’t go against guidelines and you’re just trying to police the site like you’re the thought-police, monitoring other peoples art as if you have the god-given right to. And if you’re a minor stay the fuck out of 18+ accounts. Don’t comment, don’t follow, don’t even look. I am absolutely amazed by the mindset that some children have to waltz into a space not made for them and having the balls to insult the 18+ artist, who have specifically said “no minors”, for posting icky content. It gets even worse when you see how they abuse the Privatter or Curiouscat links the Twitter artists provide, made for anonymous feedback or for being the final barrier for an adult piece that says “hey this stuff is NSFW, don’t click if you are underage, last warning”. I’m gonna go into this more when I cover TikTok in the next few paragraphs. But ultimately, the artists on that site are having to be constantly vigilant against abuse, and it’s not unusual for them having to spend hours going through their 1K+ followers and having to block every underage follower who just didn’t fucking listen to their warnings. Imagine how exhausting and irritating and down-right uncomfortable that must be; having to monitor every fan that sees your work out of fear that they’re a minor seeing adult content or that they could throw abusive comments at you. Horrible.

Instagram is saturated with bots attempting to steal your work or advertise it on their own page and feedback isn’t really a ‘thing’ on there. Also, their algorithm (which may have also been implemented on Twitter, I believe that the Twitter algorithm now avoids promoting popular artist terms, but I can’t be certain bc the Twitter post that pointed this out is long-lost in the depths of my timeline, bc again, no tagging system) is based more around sharing than likes, which can be a huge barrier to artists. Sure, you may like someones art and even leave a nice comment on it, but do you really want to share every piece you come across, especially if it’s not something you would show dear Aunty Susan who follows you? It’s infuriating that a whole site dedicated for images is so difficult to use for artists, and with Instagram implementing features that are similar to Snapchats ‘stories’ it’s clear they’ve moving in a different direction, focusing on momentary attention-grabbing photos. This is simply because Instagram is advertising itself as more of a promotional influencer site nowadays, and anything that could sully their reputation has to be thrown into the algorithm trash. NSFW art or just plain ‘bad’ art? Trash. If you’re not gonna make money for them then why should they bother? You wanna promote your art? Pay for it because the algorithm will absolutely be working against you.

Now, the biggest fucking offender for worst art-sharing site of the year is TikTok (no surprise there), which is absolutely rampant with reposts and uncredited artwork and a gateway for abusive comments against artists. Like the Ouroboros snake, it goes through the same pattern every time; People (usually minors) find art on Twitter or Pinterest and repost it, usually without credit or going against the artist’s wishes about reposting. Then it either goes two-ways: Firstly, if the piece is SFW it will get about five-seconds of interest, a like for the reposter and people will then just move on. TikTok is built entirely around short bursts of satisfaction, feeding a a constant loop of serotonin for a few seconds before you move on. So ultimately, people rarely then hunt down the original artist, especially if their credit isn’t readily available, and usually the original artists doesn’t see any rise in likes, followers or popularity and are usually unaware that their art is even getting any attention on TikTok.

Or, if the art is NSFW, it can go down the second way. It is reposted and, as the majority of TikTok users are under-18, many users find the image uncomfortable, especially if it is a bit more ‘out-there’ or of a ship they don’t like. The reposters sometimes find the image off of Privatter, which is even worse since the piece has been posted to Privatter not just as a final barrier against minors, but also as a form of directing the piece to a specific and niche audience due to it’s... spicer than usual NSFW content. I’m talking really specific pieces with really specific kinks. Now that piece is floating around TikTok, widely seen by the general fans of a fandom, who again, are usually underage. The viewers grow uncomfortable, as the piece is not made for them, especially since sometimes the reposter only posted the piece for shock-value, and would even encourage insulting comments by only posting the credits for the purpose of getting fans to throw abuse at the artist (”The artist is ***** but they ship **** and are icky”) and so the viewers finally decide to make the effort to hunt down the original artist, only to throw insulting and bullying comments at them, made worse by the fact that they are children who don’t have the sense to hold back and have been fuelling their mindset in the echo-chamber that is TikTok.

And as a result of a lot of this hostile feedback for artists, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a space for amateur artists who are just starting out, since the art community is becoming a little bit scary. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that new (or not even new but recently promoted) sites such as Artstation are becoming a better place for professional artists only, but it is very intimidating for learner artists. That’s not necessarily a bad thing - I believe that part of the reason for Deviantarts decline was that the tagging system was horrible, so good art was being drowned out by amateur, fetish content, so more advanced artists were distancing themselves from the site, especially if they were trying to build a portfolio for employment. I also find that fanart usually gets far more likes than more original art pieces, even if the original piece is amazingly good, which isn’t a criticism against fanart but posting your original piece on a site more aimed at professional pieces may help you reach your target audience better and improve likes and interaction. However, that does mean that if you are an amateur, or hell, just an average artists who is still learning, your best bet for exposure is posting your piece across multiple sites and very, very regularly, braving any abusive comments if you try anything slightly “spicy”. Which, obviously, become a very potentially toxic atmosphere and it’s not uncommon for artists to feel burn-out or depressed at their lack of attention or the cyber-bullying they may receive.

I’m not trying to say that posting artwork has always been easy, but there is definitely a more aggressive culture surrounding it and I think artists have to be aware that chances are they will face insulting comments, reposters, frustrating algorithms, cyber-bullying, a lack of interaction and burn-out as they try and appeal to websites that would do the bare minimum for you in terms of promotion.

This isn’t meant to be a post to scare away artists, I just wanted to point out that there is a big fucking problem and it feels as though it’s getting worse. Nowadays, websites have become a bit too comfortable targeting creators rather than fans when it comes to monitoring content and artists have been put under more and more pressure as they face more and more abuse that is rarely addressed, especially by the sites themselves that host the content. Things that are a huge punch in the face for artists, such as NFT’s, are becoming more normalised and it’s honestly just sad.

#art #sorry for the long post but I get passionate about art #and I feel like every day i'm seeing more and more cyber abuse towards artists and it's honestly depressing #artists #twitter #instagram #tumblr #tagging is the best invention and i'm confused why Twitter doesn't even have a better system for it

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floraone · 4 years

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What do we mean when we say “sex positivity?”

With Smutember around the corner, and because this is SADLY nothing sex ed talks about consistently around the globe, I want to take a bit of time to about sex positivity if you’ll allow me. Specifically, what we mean when we use the term, and what it doesn’t. Does sex positivity mean you have to like having sex? (Spoiler, it doesn’t). Does sex positivity mean it’s wrong to not be open about doing certain practices? (Nope, it doesn’t either.) Does sex positivity mean I have to either love or hate porn, or erotic literature? (No, again.)

Since I’ll talk about this for a little longer, AND you because get to decide if you want this topic on your dash*, read ahead after the cut. (*and, while we’re at that, with smutember coming: all posts on this blog will be tagged with the hashtag #smutember2020 henceforth. If you don’t want to see this content, please feel free to block the hashtag.)

Forthose who don’t want a long post, here is the TL;DR:

Sex positivity is defined in many, many different ways, but ultimately spans attitudes regarding how we perceive sex and sexual conduct both for ourselves and others. It sees sex as a healthy expression of ourselves in which all consensual expressions of it are valid. In which shaming each other for sex or sex practices or shaming each other for the lack of experiencing sexual desire and having healthy sexual boundaries is not sex-positive. Sex positivity is about embracing all expressions of sex and sexuality (as long as they are between consenting people) as something positive that embraces open communication about personal limits and desires, and encourages exploration. Consent here is the most important prerequisite requirement: That all people involved are of an age and state of mind and consciousness where they are able to willingly consent, as well as have the perceived power to willingly consent to participate in the action.

So, to preface this shortly, this isn’t actually a term that is super easy to define. Which is why scholars (among them feminist, psychologist, social studies and sexual medicine scholars and many others) have not yet agreed on a universal definition. In fact, there are papers solely focusing on comparing definitions to find their common ground. It is, thus, definitely not something that goes without saying.

Before I can speak about what sex positivity is, we have to talk about the most important ingredient, though: Consent.

What is (and isn’t) consent?

Consent is the explicit agreement to participating in any action, and here, specificially, sex. It can be verbal and non-verbal, but it means everyone involved really wants to do all sexual actions that are being done, no exceptions. It means no one is being coerced against their will, no one’s concerns are being ignored, their desires and boundaries are known and being listened to and respected. It means no one is doing something they had no chance to reflect upon if they want it or not, and no one is doing something they don’t want out of obligation or a sense of duty. It means no one is having sexual contact with someone who isn’t able to consent in any form: be it because they can’t consent because of their age, or limited consciousness, or because of perceived verbal or nonverbal threats and/or consequences. The latter, in its most base terms, means (non-exhaustively) that people below the (culturally differing) ages of consent - meaning children and young teenagers - cannot consent, that people who are intoxicated, under the influence of drugs, asleep, in a state of trauma or shock, in a dissociated state of mind or any similar states cannot consent, and that people who feel they have no power to say no cannot conset - i.e. someone who fears consequences to their physical, social or psychological well-being (or those of others) if they say no, which can range from, say, an employee feeling like they can’t decline an employer’s physical advances that they don’t want without negative consequences in any form in their work-environment, or a person in a romantic relationship fearing a break-up if they don’t “deliver” sex even if they don’t want it, or a person who feels they have to “deliver” sex they don’t want in order to prove their personal worth or love or affection or to avoid ridicule. These are of course non-exhaustive. A person who says yes even though they don’t want to because they feel they can’t say no, as well as a person who is too young and/or unable to say no, isn’t consenting.

And because this is so important, here, have that brilliant Tea of Consent by Emmeline May, quoted and photographed off my copy of “More Orgasms Please: Why Female Pleasure Matters” by the Hotbed Collective.

What Sex Positivity Is

Most of us are very intuitive about what sex positivity is, but the fewest of us have ever discussed it at length in any way or form, and thus the edges are very often hazy!

First and foremost, sex positivity is a set of attitudes that forms personal beliefs regarding sexuality, how we perceive collectively shared sexual norms, and how we view sexual autonomy and sexual expression both in ourselves and others. So what does that all entail, and how does that look?

A basic view of this is: sex is good! Sex is, as long as it’s consensual, something healthy, and a valid and enjoyable way to express intimacy, affection, love and desire. It’s not just a means to an end (satisfaction, babies, etc.) and it should not be shrouded in shame or pain or discomfort, and instead be communicated about openly and respectfully. This is of course, in direct answer to sex-negativity: The belief that sex is bad, shameful, sinful, and having it makes you just as sinful.

Here is one of many scientific definitions for the term: “[Sex positivity is] the belief that all consensual expressions of sexuality are valid.” (p.289)

That means if you’re, say, really into having sex while wearing stockings (actually something that comes up very often when you ask people of their fantasies in surveys!) or maybe wanting to be tied up for it (also a VERY frequent fantasy) and do it ONLY with people who are into it, too, and not against their will, then it’s a healthy expression of your desire and no one (no parents, no society, no church or institution or anyone) is entitled to shame or sanction you for it.

As Justin Lehmiller, a social psychologist and sex researcher says, society (including its medical and psychological history and authorities, sadly!) has had a very narrow and restrictive view of what is “ok” to be desirable when it comes to sex in the past and sadly sometimes still the present, and that “they’ve pretty much told us that we shoudn’t do anything other than put penises in vaginas and even that, ideally, should only take place within the confines of a heterosexual, monogamous marriage).” (p.vi) Bringing with it the dogma of immorality and crime, among else.

Sex positivity aims to be the antithesis of this. It means all forms of consensual sexual expression are valid. Not one form is better than another. If you live and love monogamously or heteronormatively, it isn’t better or worse than living in any other form. From polyamory to kinks, or having any kind of consensual fetish that don’t hurt anyone else or their free sexual expression when sharing them with others, all of them are valid, none of them are better or worse than any other individual choice. It means celebrating and validating all forms of sexual expression (or lack thereof!) as well as all forms consensual practices, while having any form of sexual identity and any placement on the wide spectrum that is gender identity.

What Sex Positivity Isn’t

Because sometimes it is easier to thoroughly understand something by outlining what it DOESN’T include, this is more imporant than many might think. And because I’m obviously not the first person to think about this, there is this really great article by Everyday Feminism about what sex positivity isn’t that is written in a very clear and straight-forward way, that I’ll urge everyone to check out, but I’ll also outline some select few of the (more numerous) basics they’ve described here:

🚫 Sex positivity means liking sex

No. Just because someone really, really enjoys sex, that does not mean at all they are sex-positive by default. Sex positivity isn’t synonym with being overly enthusiastic about having sex or surrounding yourself with it. It can! But that’s not at all the point in the slightest. Someone who really likes sex can still be disrespecful about someone else’s sexual expression, or feel entitled to someone else’s sexual acts or interest in sexuality, or that they can judge someone’s sexual identity or form of expression. Sex positivity is about respecting others in all their forms of sexual expression, even if those forms don’t represent your own. Likewise, someone who does not themselves like or enjoy sex can still be respectful of other’s expression of it in any form and with any other person or persons, and see sexuality as a healthy form of self-expression even when it is their choice to not engage in it for any span of time or reasons.

🚫 Sex positivity means everyone should have and like sex because it’s healthy

No. There are uncountably many reasons why someone might be repulsed by sex or simply not interested it. All of them are valid. None of them are to be shamed. Sexual trauma, sexual exploitation, a lack of feeling sexually empowered, pain during sexual intercourse, lack of desire, internalized shame that prevents sex from being enjoyable, the feeling of being in an environment where your sexuality is coerced or objectified and not feeling comfortable with it, being touch-repulsed or simply feeling no inkling of “lust”. All of this is valid. Sex positiy means respecting boundaries in consentual sex. It does not mean you have to have sex if it is unpleasant for you for any number of reasons. Of course, if you want sex and are suffering under any number of reasons that make you not enjoy it even though you would intrinsincally WANT to enjoy it (Anything from pain to sexual trauma to shame), then there are professionals out there qualified to help and counsel you. But they, too, are not entitled to dictate sexual action for you. Only you decide if you want to have sex or not. No one else. You are the master of your sexual expression in any form and are entitled to decide how, when and if you (and only you) want it, and no one else. That is an expression of sex positivity.

🚫 Sex positivity means being open to all forms of sex

No. Being sex positive means you respect the healthy expression of your own and someone else’s sexuality, and this includes their boundaries. You can believe that sex is healthy and enjoyable and should not be shamed in the least, and still not like anal. It does mean however that you still respect someone and their sexual expression when they do like the shit out of anal (pun intended lol, thank you very much.) This person is not entitled for YOU to like anal or to get it from you if you don’t enjoy it, and you are not entitled for them to not desire it. And this of course goes for any sexual practice. Judging and shaming someone for enjoying giving blowjobs is not sex-positive, just like it isn’t sex-positive to expect someone to inherently WANT to give blowjobs. Sexual boundaries are very healthy, and an important form of self-reflection and the root of true informed consent. Knowing what you like and don’t like and that these things will most likely differ from others in their unique expression is an important path to a most healthy sexual expression.

🚫 Sex positivity means always being ready, available, and interested in sex, with anyone.

No. Sexual expectations wear heavily on people from any gender or sexual identity. Many queer or nonbinary people suffer, among else, under sexualisation and being made the stuff of fetishes or being ascribed heavily sexualized attributions. Many men, among else, suffer under normative stereotypes, myths and sexual scripts that say they always want sex and are unmanly when they don’t feel desire 24/7, that they’re always up for sex and never not in the mood. Likewise, the 70s brought women and their sexual freedom into a position heavily reinforced by porn scripts in which they are expected as ‘sexually freed’ beings to be sexually available, ready, interested, and orgasmic at all times, and if you are not, you are a prude, and if you do it too much, you are a slut. These are all (non-exhaustive) forms of sexual shaming and dictated sexual expectations. If you are generally enthusiastic about sex and enjoying it, you are allowed to have phases where you feel less desire. And whether you are someone with a generally smaller libido that sometimes spikes, or you’re someone who has never felt any sexual desire at all, or someone who wants sex a lot, you are sex positive when you respect other’s free expression of it, and this includes the frequency in which they want it or with whom they have it. You get to pick what sex you have and with whom or how many you have it, no one else. Anyone who tells you otherwise under the mantle of ‘sex positivity’ is, as everyday feminism so eloquently put, employing “sexual coercion cloaked in faux-progressive language. If someone is calling you a prude or sex-negative for not having sex with them, they’re violating your consent and their opinion of you is invalid. And just because you want to create a world in which everyone is empowered to make the sexual choices they want doesn’t mean that you personally have to be interested in casual sex.”

🚫 Sex positivity means sex is healthy, so that means I am entitled to sex.

No. It means you are entitled to WANT to have it, but not to have it. In sex as in every other need involving other people (from receiving oral, to boardgames, to conversations, to a hug or affection): Just because you are entitled to want something or even very validly need something, that does not mean someone else is obligated to give it to you. Just because someone needs comfort and company, you are not obligated to give it. Just because someone wants and needs attention, it is not your job to give it. Just because someone wants sex and feels they need it, even if they are your partner, you are not obligated to give it. This can be frustrating, of course. But NO: Just because you want sex, you are not entitled to have it. Ever. From anyone. No one owes you sex, not even if you’re married to them. Everyone has their own sexual agency, and everyone needs to respect it. In fact, feeling entitled to sex lies at the base of sexual aggressive behavior of all kind, and the idea that your own desire for sexual activity rates higher in priority than the individual needs of the person you’re coercing it from. It’s at the root of rape culture, and something we must all internalize to overcome it: Despite you wanting something and it being healthy to have it or to get this something, no one owes it to us or is obligated to give it to us.

🚫 Sex positivity means you have no problems with sex.

No. The term positivity of course often brings overtly positive connotations with it: something easy and happy. Of course, sex positivity doesn’t require you to have an easy or happy relationship with sex and sexuality. Sex can be traumatising, uncomfortable, regrettable, awkward, unpleasant, confusing, or plain boring and uninteresting to you. Even if it isn’t traumatising or painful, it can still be hell of a lot frustrating navigating it and your own desires. Body image issues or and religious restrictions that can be important to you or not, never having orgasmed but really really wanting to, the feelings of not ever having encountered sex that’s truly fun for you, all of these and many, many more are the giant maze that can arise when navigating sexuality in our lives. None of these means you aren’t sex positive. It’s here for survivors of sexual violence and aggression and those who want to reclaim their sexual agency, sexual empowerment and self-expression, just as it is here for asexuals, demisexuals, aromantics, or anyone else. It’s the belief that we have a right to a healthy sexuality without being shamed, violated, sanctioned or discriminated for it, and that we have a right to our boundaries as well as our fantasies.

So, I’m guessing most of you knew this intuitively all along. I’m preaching to the choir. However, seeing it written down often helps us in expressing ourselves, and in the way we confidently navigate our own sexual empowerment.

And, with smutember on the horizon again, when we once again try to incorporate sex positivity in our writing, too, it might serve as a good reminder that we help along the normalisation of sex positivity whenever we portray it in media in general, and fiction specifically! I hope one day we will take all this fully for granted, and everyone around us, too!

#smutember2020 #sex ed #on consent #on sex positivity #celebrating sex positivity together #long post #🍋

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jamestaylorswift · 4 years

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The Archer - Analysis

I was nudged to write out my thoughts about “The Archer” and I’m honestly glad for the push. This song is so beautiful yet haunting. I don’t see people appreciating it as much as I think it should be appreciated.

Standard disclaimer that this is my own personal reading of the song. You are free to disagree with any or all of what I say. There are many good interpretations of this song out there. It helps that it’s a very evocative track 5!

This analysis is not short. Sorry.

——

Combat, I’m ready for combat

I say I don’t want that, but what if I do?

‘Cause cruelty wins in the movies

I’ve got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you

——

Unlike other tracks on Lover, there’s no concrete imagery such as a garden gate or prom dress in this song. Taylor is sharing what only exists in her mind. This is a story told purely with metaphors. It’s important to lean into them.

The purpose of the first verse is to contextualize the rest of the song. She introduces the idea of being torn about wanting a fight. She would only want to fight someone if she has a really good reason to do so. Her driving force is “cruelty winning in the movies.” Her thrown-out speeches are the thing that would start the fight. Tossing the speeches implies that she is unsure not of the content of the speeches but of entering the fray of battle that would ensue after delivering them.

It’s very hard for me to see these speeches as anything but coming out speeches. Coming out (even as a non-celebrity) is often stressful. Cruelty winning in the movies is a nod to the fact that mainstream media depicts LGBTQ characters meeting tragic ends. Taylor, as a wildly famous celebrity, has cultural influence. Her coming out would impact the culture; it could change the endings of those movies. But her impact would only be measurable years in the future.

This verse is also where she first addresses the “you” in the song. I think the “you” is essentially a random observer/everyday Joe Schmoe. It’s nobody in particular because it could be anybody. The only thing remarkable about “you” is that she’s directly addressing them. That makes this story personal.

——

Easy they come, easy they go

I jump from the train, I ride off alone

I never grew up, it’s getting so old

Help me hold onto you

——

If the “you” in this song is a random person who has some benign preexisting opinion (whatever that may be, including a non-opinion) about Taylor Swift, then the “they” refers to arbitrary people who are on the fan/hate train. “They” come and go easily and represent flux in interest in her. I read the metaphor about a train with momentum as the implication that general interest in Taylor waxes and wanes but is inherently self-sustaining because of her celebrity. In this song, “they” aren’t necessarily the enemy like the public was, for example, in reputation. She just doesn’t concern herself with “them” anymore. It’s the “you” who has her full attention and who is sticking around to hear the story.

Finally, we get the first of many “help me hold onto you”s. This one is her articulating why she’s telling this story in the first place. It’s “I want you listen to this story and try to understand.” It’s “help me,” but in a chill way.

——

I’ve been the archer

I’ve been the prey

Who could ever leave me, darling?

But who could stay?

——

The archer is the zodiac symbol for Sagittarius, the centaur, Taylor’s astrological sign. Taylor exists in parts, just like a centaur: she is part her celebrity persona and part her real self, an amalgamation who is a Taylor different than either of the constituent halves. To the “you” it’s Taylor in her purest form. It’s impossible to completely separate her celebrity from her person at this point.

The chorus is about the duality of Taylor’s being, her actions, and others’ investment in any part of her. As the archer (hunter) she has aggressively exercised control over her public persona. As the prey (hunted) she has been a passive victim chewed up and spit out by the public/industry/etc. for things outside of her control. Sometimes it is her own actions that drive people away or attract people to her. Sometimes it is by individual choice that people board or leave the train.

The archer, Sagittarius, is also symbolic of a prophet who can predict fate. The prey is a victim of a terrible fate that, by nature, cannot be changed. I prefer to think of the archer/prey metaphor as commentary about the duality of fate rather than intense combat (for which a bow and arrow would probably be insufficient). This song is Taylor trying to reconcile the certainty of her future with distress about the unknown consequences of present-time decisions.

(Note that this first chorus is where the bass drum beat starts. It represents anxiety about the future. The first part of the song is exposition. The drum only comes in when she starts worrying about the “what ifs.”)

——

Dark side, I search for your dark side

But what if I’m alright, right, right, right here?

And I cut off my nose just to spite my face

Then I hate my reflection for years and years

——

Nobody Joe Schmoe has no obvious reason to hate Taylor for anything that she just said. But Taylor knows what comes next in the story. She’s anxious about Joe Schmoe’s reaction to what she’s about to say.

Taylor admits to doing self-destructive things. Because of the context she provided at the beginning of the song, I believe this is a reference to staying closeted. The “reflection” could be the literal reflection of her now-noseless face. Hating it is pure personal regret for self-destructive actions. The “reflection” could also be the mirror which her fans/the public hold up to her. Her self-destructive choices manifest in others’ toxicity. Hating what they’ve become starts with hating the ways she enables that behavior. (It’s really both “reflections.” The duality of man, yadda, yadda, yadda…)

More important than blaming herself for any (*cough*) past decisions, she articulates the pain of being in the closet in two simple lines. Burying a significant part of yourself by hiding behind a carefully constructed lie is exhausting. It’s sad. It also provides protection and safety and it’s unfortunately all too common. Cruelty wins in the movies, thus people are cruel to themselves.

——

I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost

The room is on fire, invisible smoke

And all of my heroes die all alone

Help me hold onto you

——

I think people consistently underestimate just how morbid “The Archer” is. Taylor reveals that her prophetic future is death—specifically, becoming a ghost, thus leaving an imperceptible trace of herself. She already feels suffocated by that possibility. Her suffering is invisible. She might just be left to die a slow, agonizing death via asphyxiation. Worse yet, what happens afterwards? Asphyxiation from invisible smoke would make it seem like she just dropped dead of her own accord. Or if the smoke somehow became visible….well, if you could see a ghost in the first place, a smoke-filled room would make that impossible. The implications are staggering and they’re all sad.

Few, if any, of Taylor’s heroes have literally died alone. I’m going to go out on a short limb here and say that Taylor probably sees parts of herself in her heroes. Therefore, the “heroes” in a song supposedly about the dilemma of coming out are other famous people who were/still are closeted. Taylor identifies herself as a potential role model for the younger generation like her heroes are for her. Her heroes’ lonely metaphorical deaths are exactly what she fears. Dying alone is being in the closet indefinitely. It’s being misunderstood and not having any way to rectify that situation. Perhaps this song is about the mortifying ordeal of remaining unknown.

As evidenced by the invisible smoke in the room, she thinks her metaphorical death is certain and imminent. The “help me hold onto you” is now “help me,” but in a very unchill way.

——

‘Cause they see right through me

Can you see right through me

I see right through me

——

As a reminder, “they” = random people in the public and “you” = nice, ordinary Joe Schmoe whom she wishes could understand her predicament. Being see-through is being seen without substance. Therefore, what the bridge is not saying is “don’t you see how obvious it is, isn’t it wild that people don’t pick up on me and/or my lover being loud in public?” It is saying “I am literally a ghost to ‘them’ because ‘they’ look at me and don’t see any of this pain, I’m basically dead to myself too because I feel like I’m already doomed, you’re my last hope so please say you see me.” Who cares about reaping the benefits (love, adoration) from the mortifying ordeal of being known? At this point she’s pleading simply to be seen as herself. “I see right through me” is her worst fear. This is why this line breaks out of the bridge and bleeds into the surrounding choruses.

(The bridge, to me, is where it becomes clear that treating the “you” as her lover with whom she could come out does a serious disservice to the rest of the song. Her lover as “you” inverts the meaning of the bridge. This makes the story inconsistent. I appreciate the gravity of the “help me hold onto you” line if it were spoken to a secret lover. However, being seen/understood is more intimately tethered to being out as an individual than being out with another person. In my mind, it makes more sense for this attitude to be an invariant of the song.)

——

All the king’s horses, all the king’s men

Couldn’t put me together again

‘Cause all of my enemies started out friends

Help me hold onto you

——

The Humpty Dumpty rhyme is basically “anthropomorphized egg sits on top of a high wall, anthropomorphized egg falls off the wall and shatters irreparably.” Taylor as Humpty Dumpty makes the wall she’s on top of the pedestal of fame/success. She’s saying that coming out would topple her from her pedestal. Her image as a woman who became famous for writing heterosexual love songs is as fragile as an eggshell. When it breaks, what is left behind?

“All the king’s horses, all the king’s men” might be a reference to her fans whom she once considered as friends but whom can also be incredibly toxic. I read it as a catch-all for anyone who isn’t Taylor. The key of this verse is her musing on why an eggshell can’t be repaired. It’s not for lack of manpower. It’s that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men—everyone, literally—are enemies and don’t want to reconstruct Humpty Dumpty. They simply don’t believe Humpty’s death is so tragic that they would spend effort to change his fate.

Taylor fears that darling Joe Schmoe, a friend to whom she is addressing this story, could become an enemy by conscious choice. She can give Joe Schmoe the truth and plead to be seen, but Joe Schmoe can still choose to see right through her anyways. It’s terribly frightening to be honest yet have that vulnerability go unacknowledged. Taylor coming out is her facing the prospect of instant confirmation that good people do not care. She could die a ghost despite efforts to be visible.

——

Who could stay?

You could stay

Combat, I’m ready for combat

——

Coming out is a choice but being gay is not—it is fate. She has no control over how others react to that. Taylor slowly acknowledges throughout the song that her future isn’t in her hands. She ultimately shifts away from the prophet/victim binary by reiterating that she’s sure of herself and that whatever happens, she’s not going down without a fight.

Lover the album isn’t just about romantic love. This song is not construing an inherently unequal and sometimes toxic relationship with fans/the public as love. “The Archer” romanticizes the possibility of someone reacting to honesty with kindness and understanding. Love is being seen.

#gaylor swift #kaylor #lover #music analysis #my post

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eurello · 4 years

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Media Diet, Week of April 19th

I am forever working on improving the quality of the deluge of culture I am taking in at all times. Lately, I’ve been especially rigorous about this, as I keep realizing exactly how much valuable time I am wasting slurping up really dumb stuff. In an attempt at accountability (and to make myself ashamed to spend too much time on anything purely dumb), I am going to try logging and posting about the culture I consume. I will analyze what attracts me to the trashier things, and attempt to train myself, little by little, day by day, into better habits.

Sunday, April 19th:

As I was getting ready and making breakfast, I listened to podcasts as usual — the end of Oh No, Ross & Carrie, and the beginning of Baby Geniuses. I enjoy both of these podcasts a lot, and I think they are good things to listen to, although this particular episode of ONRC went on for too long. I have gone through phases of listening to a lot of political podcasts, but I have recently admitted to myself that I’m not that interested in politics, and that is perfectly fine. I think it’s important for a citizen to remain up to date and aware of what is going on, but I have this sort of weird feeling that smart people are obsessed with politics? And I don’t know why I feel that way. There’s nothing especially noble or intelligent about political governance; quite the opposite most of the time. Politicians are often venal, and even if when they aren’t, the more time you spend paying attention to the largely broken processes they attempt to navigate and massage every day, the worse it probably is for your own sense of hope, and certainly for your own creativity. So I’ve let myself off the hook on this one, and now I mostly listen to humor podcasts and weird fictional things.

As I drank my breakfast (smoothie/coffee) and procrastinated at doing something more worthwhile, I spent probably two hours on Twitter, Instagram, and various websites. This is becoming a big problem for me. On Twitter, I follow mostly comedy writers, liberals, feminists, black Twitter, and weird Twitter (and intersections of all of the above), and some local political organizations. I tweeted a lot this morning, as well. On Instagram, I follow a lot of the same people I do on Twitter, plus a TON of visual artists. I am not a visual artist, but because Instagram is a visual medium, it’s nice to follow artists, and I sometimes find it inspiring — if not to create art myself, at least maybe to make my house look nicer (although I never do). I also follow some old school fashion and lifestyle bloggers who I’ve been following for like ten years, and although I do not find that kind of blogging interesting at all anymore, I am interested in these particular people, and invested in their lives at this point. I also embarrassingly have been paying a good bit of attention lately to a certain terrible influencer, who I won’t name because I don’t want to draw the wrong kind of attention here, but you probably know who she is. She is entirely boring, but people are interested in her for a variety of reasons, and they all have complicated explanations for why. I think it’s that she’s sort of the purest example of the sort of woman (blond, thin, pretty, performatively aspirational yet empty enough to be completely non-threatening to anyone) that middle-class Americans have always been culturally encouraged to admire and, if they are women, to emulate, and yet, it’s so apparent that there is no there there. I imagine most people who follow her are thinking, “I can’t believe I thought I needed to be this in high school!” For me personally, there’s something else to it, and after thinking about it so that I could write it down here, I think it is that I spend a lot of time mildly regretting that I had not been more intentional about pursuing my creative dreams in my 20s (I was sort of dabbling in comedy and performance and writing; I had some talent but little intelligence), but at the same time, when I look back over my work and writings from that time, I am horrified by how stupid I was without realizing it (and not just stupid for my age, because I was surrounded by far more intelligent and creative people who have gone on to do amazing things, and there are many preternaturally wise and hilarious babies who are creating right now). Had I had a bigger platform at the time, I fear I would have looked a lot like a less successful this girl. So, it’s a sort of cautionary tale that really just serves to make me feel better about having avoided exposure I’d now regret (albeit through laziness rather than foresight). And also, being able to realize this now is a reminder that I am at least smarter now than I used to be, so I have been growing in some way, even if it feels like I’ve just been atrophying intellectually and creatively ever since I got a real job. I think now that I’ve written this down, I’m ready to let go of paying attention to her. Also, though, I just feel bad for her, and I want to see what happens to her and if she ends up ok or not. Which possibly sounds nobler than it is — am I really just rubbernecking at an accident? I don’t think I wish her harm. Anyway, in non-shame scrolling, two of my favorite comics on Twitter and Instagram right now are Eva Victor and Alyssa Lamparis. They are both brilliantly hilarious.

The first few chapters of “Joshua”, while working on one of my blog posts about the Old Testament.

A chapter of The High Growth Handbook, for work, which I’m finding more interesting than most business books.

Moral Clarity by Susan Neiman, which I’m not really enjoying. This isn’t necessarily why I’m not enjoying it, but I gave some thought while reading this about why I find the left’s current backlash against “identity politics” to be disingenuous. I mean, other than the fact that it is only white people (and mostly white men) who argue that identity politics are a pointless distraction from real social change. And it’s that nobody — no matter how naive — thinks that we are going to transform all human systems overnight. Abrupt revolutions rarely happen in established societies, and even when they do, they never stick; no matter how you come about it, lasting social change always takes forever. So, eschewing identity politics as a mere distraction implies that those who unfairly have less power and influence under the current system should just be content with their marginalization until we have a new system altogether. And that those who are over-represented in the current system shouldn’t be criticized or made to lose anything in the interests of equity and social justice until we have a new system altogether. That this is the same old self-serving bullshit from a different direction seems so obvious to me, I don’t understand why so many smart people are buying into it. There is no getting around our historical legacy of racial oppression! There’s just no scenario in which white people are not going to have to deal with that first, before we can successfully build systems that are more just and more fair! You have to address both things at the same time, and no, just focusing on economic class is not going to cut it — especially not when so many people pretend that they don’t understand that poverty results from lack of access and limited options, and has little to do with whether you have much money at any given time (in reality, they understand this very well). And I can’t take any leader seriously (no matter how far left) who does not get that, and/or who won’t force their followers to acknowledge it.

“Where outrage itself is exhausted, even despair is impossible. The resulting inertia is not the result of an ideology, postmodern or otherwise. But anyone who wants to oppose it must oppose an ideology that makes inertia the most rational response.”

Finished Baby Geniuses and started listening to Get Rich Nick as I prepared for my run, and as I showered after my run. Nick V is a good pal of mine from Chicago — we came up through iO at the same time and were on a Harold team together for like a year. He’s hilarious and I enjoy his podcast, but I suspect I partly find it so funny because it’s just very…Nick.

I listen to the same Spotify playlist on every run. I made it for running and it’s all exactly what you’d expect someone like me would listen to while running.

I watched an episode of season 2 of “Big Little Lies” while I ate dinner. I thought the first season (while it had its faults) was perfectly cast and pretty impressively honest in how it dealt with domestic violence and rape. I wasn’t interested enough to seek out season 2, but I recently noticed HBO is streaming some shows for free right now on Amazon Prime (which I have finally, finally canceled because #morals but still have through August), so I started watching it, and I still love the cast. I will watch Laura Dern in absolutely anything, and it’s really fun to watch Reese Witherspoon play what I imagine is basically herself.

Listened to more Get Rich Nick while I cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for bed.

Finished the night off with The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty — she’s one of my faves and I’ve read two of these four collections multiple times, but right now am on The Wide Net which is new to me. Read the titular “The Wide Net” and really enjoyed it and then “A Still Moment,” which was boring but made me want to get my computer out and google Audubon. Then fell asleep reading this weird old novel I’m slowly working through called The Man Who Loved Children.

“‘She’s a lot smarter than her cousins in Beulah,’ said Virgil. ‘And especially Edna Earle, that never did get to be what you’d call a heavy thinker. Edna Earle could sit and ponder all day on how the little tail of the ‘C’ got through the ‘L’ in a Coca-Cola sign.’”

Monday, April 20th:

Instagram on the toilet, Get Rich Nick while I performed my ablutions and made coffee, and Instagram stories and Feedly for a bit while I drank it. I spend less time on this today, the awareness of accountability is already working! About Instagram stories — I usually ignore them altogether but every so often I go through phases of watching them. I find them mostly very boring, but because I mostly follow creatives on Instagram, there’s something inspiring about starting my day by watching a bunch of creative people all around the world making things. At least starting a day off this way (which today fortunately is); starting a work day this way makes me feel an intense despair. I also follow a few farmers, and it’s fun to see their daily lives. And also just a bunch of people who live in gorgeous places around the world. And ok, yeah, a couple of hate follows, which for me are people who I just find so unbelievably grating and irritating in every way that I can’t stop watching them — I just can’t believe they exist and yet aren’t entirely consumed with self-loathing. And I think for me it’s like, I find them so utterly obnoxious in every way, but they still all have lots of people in their lives who truly love them, and that’s affirming to me personally, because I often feel like I couldn’t ask anyone to tolerate me for very long unless/until I’ve attained perfection in every sphere, so it’s a nice reminder to me that that’s not really how people operate. In Feedly, I follow 3 Quarks Daily and The Morning News, some political digests, a number of old school bloggers I’ve been following forever (mostly funny ones), a handful of newsletters (mostly by people who used to be bloggers), and some sustainability bloggers to guilt me into making better choices. I probably spend about 90 minutes on all of this? Which is too much time!

More “Joshua.”

I poke around online and find and follow a handful more artists from around the world on Instagram and/or Twitter. These aren’t really very interesting ones, and so I’ll probably unfollow them soon, but they’re a bunch of diverse young people, and lately I feel out of touch with what young people are doing. One funny thing about young people is they have so much energy and so many interests, so all of them are doing like ten really shitty things — they’re making crappy art, they’re writing nonsense, they’re performing dopey shows, AND they’re in a shitty band. And then they get older and they realize that it takes an incredible amount of time and effort and research and angst to do even one thing semi-well, and at that point, they either disappear or focus. Anyway, I mostly stick to Twitter for these — I only follow artists on Instagram whose work I find genuinely appealing; Twitter is more for people I’m interested in hearing more about how they perceive the world, but am not necessarily interested in what they’re making. Also, for Twitter, I use TweetDeck and make lists, so it’s a lot easier to follow and unfollow groups of people than it is on Instagram. Like I’ll make a list of “possibly interesting” and watch it for awhile, and then I might move two people on it to a more permanent list and then just delete the whole list.

Listen to The Read while I make a smoothie.

Two short stories from an old issue of Salt Hill, both terrible.

A chapter of High Growth Handbook, and two of Moral Clarity.

Listened to The Read and Scam Goddess while gearing up for run, walking back from run showering, cooking dinner, and cleaning up the kitchen. Usual playlist on run.

Spent some lost time on Twitter and Instagram while crouching on the floor and shivering in my sweaty running clothes, and then again after dinner while sitting on the couch. I’m starting to realize that I look at social media when what my brain really wants to be doing is just….sitting and staring and not taking in anything.

Three Welty stories, “Asphodel” (enjoyable), “The Winds” (in which Welty is starting to find the voice she will master in The Golden Apples), and “The Purple Hat” (eh). Interrupted, I am embarrassed to admit, by looking at Twitter and my email and also reading some articles about Welty.

The Man Who Loved Children

Tuesday, April 21st:

There are two things I want to stop doing, and I did both today. First, after my alarm went off, I spent 90 minutes hitting the snooze button and also pursuing Twitter and Instagram in bed. My entire goal is to reserve as much time for myself in the evenings as possible, for doing what I want to be doing. And I waste a lot of that limited time in procrastinating what I don’t want to be doing. And this is the first place it happens — lounging in bed staring at my phone instead of getting up and going to work.

Finished Scam Goddess and started The High Low while I got ready, made coffee and my smoothie.

After work, I did the second thing I want to stop doing — I spent 90 minutes sitting on the couch looking at Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and rubbernecking at a long train wreck thread on NextDoor (people are wilding out at this point), procrastinating getting my running kit on and going out for my exercise. All together, this is THREE HOURS of wasted time that could go toward my evenings, where I get to do the stuff I want to do! I’m robbing myself of this valuable time.

I walked for most of my run because I was sore from some exercises I did, and I finished The High Low. When I got home, I listened to Office Ladies, which is not a very good podcast, but it’s just mindlessly comforting to listen to and I like thinking about The Office, which is mindlessly comforting to watch, as I took a shower, made dinner, and cleaned up the kitchen.

The Man Who Loved Children

Wednesday, April 22nd:

Well, I still hit the snooze for an hour but I DIDN’T browse Twitter before I got out of bed. Listened to Lady to Lady while I got ready and made a smoothie and coffee.

Couple of breaks during my workday, during which times I looked at Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram.

I worked later than usual and it was rainy out, so I didn’t go out for exercise, but I still spent TWO HOURS on the couch mindlessly scrolling (Twitter, Instagram, NextDoor train wreck). So, all told, I still wasted three hours on garbage today.

Listened to Lady to Lady and Your Favorite Band Sucks while I made dinner, ate it, cleaned up after it, and got ready for bed. Your Favorite Band Sucks takes down a lot of bands I genuinely like, and I truly do enjoy hearing people rip apart things that I enjoy for some reason (cultural masochism). This episode, though, is on Billy Joel, which I feel is low-hanging fruit, although it reminds me of when this guy I had a massive crush on in high school got super into Billy Joel (I know) and so I spent a few months listening to him and trying to convince myself I also thought he was brilliant. Listening to this podcast makes me realize how much time I spent trying to convince myself that I liked bands that guys I had a thing for worshipped. I don’t really listen to music very much (note absence of it from this entire week) since podcasts became a thing -- I just always vastly prefer narrative if I have a choice. Either music is too distracting from the thing I’m trying to do, or I have enough bandwidth to listen to a podcast while I’m doing the thing, which I prefer. There’s just very rarely any place in my day where music makes sense. You will never find me getting stoned or drunk and just sitting and listening to music -- I can’t fathom how people do that. Whenever I’ve tried it, I’ve just gotten so angry that I took away the mental capacity to read and am wasting all that excellent reading time just sitting there. I guess I don’t really like turning my brain off. Some people spend all their time trying to turn their brain off, but that actually causes stress in my case; fun for me is more taking a ton of adderall to really get it jumping. I don’t mean to imply by that that I’m smart or I use my brain for anything worthwhile, I really, really don’t. I just like the feeling of being alert and I like thinking my dumb thoughts and following along with narratives of whatever kind.

The Man Who Loved Children

Thursday, April 23rd:

Success! I hit snooze for 20 minutes only and then I got to work!

Listened to a new podcast by a comic I like while I got ready, and I won’t say which one, because it wasn’t very good, and I don’t want to slam the first episode (I’m sure it will get better).

Very brief Instagram/Twitter/Feedly breaks a couple times throughout the day.

Success again! After work, I only looked at Twitter for 20 minutes before heading out for my run. Usual playlist on run. On my walk back, I recorded an Instagram story.

Listened to old episodes of Sawbones and By the Book (both of which I’m trying to decide if I like or not) and You’re Wrong About while getting ready for run, showering, cooking dinner, cleaning up the kitchen, getting ready for bed. This episode of You’re Wrong About was about Marie Antoinette and was really fun, although I have a hard time with this podcast, because the voice of the woman who hosts it kind of traumatizes me. I do not like criticizing women’s voices and she can’t help her voice or how it affects me, but she has this sort of sarcastic, flat, patronizing tone that makes her sound like a cool girl of the intellectual cast of cool girls who thinks you are the stupidest little try-hard femme ever to be brought before her, and it gives me some unpleasant flashbacks to certain incidents in college. But I like the podcast overall (and her probably!) and so I just try to get over it.

Read “Livvie” by Eudora Welty, and then finished The Man Who Loved Children.

Friday, April 24th:

Hit snooze for a full hour, but then got up. Listened to another first episode of a new podcast by another comic I like that also was not very good while I got ready, etc. and also a bit later in the car as I made a grocery store run.

Couple very short Twitter/Feedly breaks throughout the day.

Usual music playlist on run. I’ve got a podcast playlist of weird fictional stuff that I’m mostly listening to old episodes of from the beginning and many are new to me and I’m trying to decide if I liked them. Today, during the usual periods of podcast listening, I went through episodes of Welcome to Night Vale and The Lost Cat Podcast, both of which I am enjoying, although I have trouble paying attention to Welcome to Night Vale and always realize after I finish an episode that I didn’t really hear any of it.

Watched 1.25 episodes of Big Little Lies while I ate takeout and spotted my friend Mike playing the marriage counselor in one of them! Having a background in performance makes for very weird TV and movie experiences now, because I’ll pretty often see someone I know well in something. Often, it’s a really happy surprise like this one, but sometimes it’s a really unpleasant one, like when you’re sitting around with your family and you see a guy who dumped you pretty brutally playing the dopey, amiable dad in a commercial and get plunged into despair and self-hatred in the midst of a bunch of oblivious people in your aunt’s living room and start to feel like you are living in a surreal world no one else is actually a part of and also like your personality is fragmenting in what is possibly a psychotic way.

Started The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. I’m really happy to be done with The Man Who Loved Children and on to a new book, and this one looks to be an easy, possibly dumb page-turner, which is well-timed.

Saturday, April 25th:

Snoozed for 40 minutes. Listened to Tanis while coffee etc. Bit of Instagram and Feedly.

While I cleaned the house and deep cleaned my office, I listened to The Bright Sessions, Within the Wires, The Box Podcast, Tracks, and Rabbits.

While I got ready for run, walked back from run, made dinner, cleaned up kitchen, put the laundry away, and got ready for bed, listened to Father Dagon, The Amelia Project, Glasgow Ghost Stories, Middle: Below, The Last Movie, The Van, Video Palace, Blackwood, Dreamboy, Caledonian Gothic, and The London Necropolis Railway. I went through a ton of podcasts today (but also these fiction ones are quite short).

Started to read “At the Landing” by Welty, but I fell asleep super early. I usually save fiction for a couple hours in bed before I go to sleep, because fiction is my favorite thing in the world, but I am so tired by the time I lie down that I often can’t really enjoy it, and fight to stay awake while I try to read and then just fall asleep. So I might need to rethink this timing.

Overall, I think this has been a successful first week of doing this! On Saturday, I had a day off, and I spent basically zero time procrastinating with garbage media! I can really see how my consumption of dumb stuff went down through the week.

#media diet

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sagara-megumi · 7 years

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SasuSaku Month - Day 17: War Torn || [Fanfic] Forgotten Tales from an Ancient Time - Chapter 1

Title: Forgotten Tales from an Ancient Time - Chapter 1

Rating: T/PG-13

Notes: As I answered in the questions (some in private), this story is going to be darker than the Omiai one. It’s the first time I write something like this, so I hope that you like it ^^ The inspiration came because of an episode of the Galileo jdrama whose plot and setting was related to Tengu. But also, there are lots of influences from a couple of anime and manga, so it’s a big mixture.

What is a Tengu? For those who don’t know, it’s a supernatural being in the Japanese mythology. To make it short, since I don’t want to bore anyone, I’ve seen it translated as “goblin” quite a few times. Nowadays, they are protectors of mountains and forests, though before they were well-known for their mischief and evil ways. They are normally represented in two ways: a human with a very long nose and red skin, or like human-like birds (usually crows -Karasu Tengu-, but before, they were depicted as birds of prey). For more information, I’ll leave here a couple of URLs that I used as a reference.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu https://www.tofugu.com/japan/tengu/

*There are other notes that I’ll leave for the end of the chapter, since I don’t want to explain/spoil (? ô__o) anything before your reading.*

The setting is going to come mostly out of my imagination, so it won’t be really accurate this time regarding locations, especially. I don’t know if this will change in the future.

Probably, the prompts will be in a different order from the one in the calendar, but since the SasuSaku Month already passed, I think it won’t have much importance. Also, I’ll be a bit irregular in the updates. I have an idea of what I want to do, but it’s not as clear as in the other story, so (as what happened with this chapter) it’s taking me more time to write it (and, as I told you, I’m unfamiliar with the genre, so I’m being extra-careful with everything ^^U)

Be aware that the rating is T/PG-13 for all the story. There are (and will be) depictions of violence and blood, and in this one (I don’t know the rest), a brief reference to sex.

Glossary:

-Obon: an annual Buddhist event for commemorating one’s ancestors. It is believed that each year during Obon, the ancestors’ spirits return to this world in order to visit their relatives.

-torii: a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the profane to sacred.

-Chimata-no-Kami: Gods of the crossroads, highways, byways, and footpaths. They help and protect their people and are honoured with roadside shrines.

As always, if there’s something wrong (spaces, brackets, words in another language…), please, tell me.

Words: 5553

FORGOTTEN TALES FROM AN ANCIENT TIME

Chapter 1

The Shadow entered one house after the other through the open windows, swiftly. The humans from those times were careless and sceptic, and that made their spirits weak to perceive the creatures that surrounded them. So many technological advances and knowledge had made them think they were invincible and disregard the beliefs of their ancestors, their respect for the things beyond their comprehension. It looked around as he slithered in the shadows around the street lamps, watching as the supernatural beings floated around the few individuals that still walked around when the moon was still in the sky or lurking in the darkness, waiting for a chance to possess them. If humans knew that they could be devoured by those entities whose existence they denied anytime they wanted, they would not be so proud believing there was not anything or anyone above them. A cruel smile drew across one of the several tentacle-like shapes It adopted as It slid between the narrow space between the floor and the door of a flat. They needed a Divine Punishment. However, that was a thing of the gods and the only interest he could have in it would be watching as those little beings suffered. It spilt on the wooden surface, invading everything given the lack of light in the place. Better leave the gods to their own matters and concentrate on Its.

A couple was having sex in that room and It stopped to watch briefly, especially after realising the nature of the man, as he sucked the vital energy out of the woman from her mouth. He looked at It for a moment, creasing his brow at having a voyeur, and the Shadow retreated quickly. Some youkai were so zealous of their own matters… However, mingling with humans to feed oneself was disgusting. It considered that Its methods were much more refined. First, finding the right prey. For the Shadow not all humans were acceptable, it was the inconvenient of being on that world so many centuries, that It had become a pleasure-seeker regarding Its food. Moreover, it was so exciting to hunt them and then, watch their agony as they withered away, their panic faces when they did not understand what was happening to them, and their futile struggle when they did, make them suffer as It fed on them… That was an ecstasy…

The Shadow knew that if, in that moment, It could shapeshift into a human form, It would lick its lips. Oh, yes, that was the best part… It was the moment when their fear took the best of them that their taste was exquisite.

The sky above started to tint in a lighter shade and the Shadow knew It had to look for a place to spend the day. It could not, by any means, stay out in the sun. Soon, he found it. As the Shadow dissolved in a small corner on the ground, It rejoiced in the trepidation that would continue once the darkness returned.

As most days, the alarm clock went off at exactly half past six in the morning. Reaching out a hand to it, Sakura opened one eye and looked at the ceiling of her small flat. It was bathed in the soft light of the first rays of sun, and the shadows of the curtain that moved slightly in the breeze, played games of hide-and-seek on it. Then, she closed it again, feeling drowsy. She had not slept well that night. The city was in the middle of a heat wave that summer and she had had to leave the window open in addition to turning on the electric fan. The noise of the cars and had kept her awake till the early hours of the morning, when she supposed she had finally fallen asleep from exhaustion. However, she could not afford to sleep anymore or she would be late for work. She stretched slowly, feeling the creak of her back and the slight roughness of the sheet under her on her skin. No matter how thin and short her nightgown was, she had ended up discarding it after it clung uncomfortably to her body because of the sweat. Absentmindedly, she put a hand on one of her breasts, sliding it to her stomach. She had never liked too much to sleep without clothes, it made her feel strangely defenceless. However, in cases like that, she preferred that sensation to the sticky one of the heat. Her head turned lazily to the alarm clock and she almost had a heart attack. Eleven minutes had already passed from the time she had supposedly had to get up and if she did not do it soon, she would miss her train. She sat down on the bed in a hurry and grabbed her nightgown, putting it on quickly before closing the curtain and turning off the electric fan. Grabbing a towel, she entered the shower.

Barely on time, she ran down the stairs of the station to enter quickly in the train just before the doors closed. She sighed, relieved, and looked around. The coach was almost empty, except for an old man who was reading the newspaper and a young one who had fallen asleep and whose head, leant back against the glass of the window, rolled from one side to the other with the swaying of the train. It was really different from work days, when she usually was squeezed between people as she fought to keep her balance while receiving one or two pushes from people who moved towards the doors. She sighed in content. Even though the day before had been her last day of work before the holidays, the library where she worked was preparing an exhibition related to Obon and one of her workmates in charge of it with her and other two, had asked her the favour of covering her. She had promised her children to take them to the amusement park that day, before the shifts of that month were assigned, and she did not want to disappoint them, especially her younger one, whose birthday was that day. She had promised her that she would cover for her on the day she had to go back, so she could have an extra-day in her holidays. Honestly, even without that agreement, Sakura would not have minded having to go to work on Sunday. She loved what she did, and the library was like her second home.

She took out a folder from her bag and pulled out some papers stapled together that showed defined pictures of the pages of an old book. She had found it while looking for materials for the exhibition. It was a compendium of old myths in the prefecture, some of them well-known by her, with the location and descriptions of those deities’ shrines, including a map for pilgrims. She knew that some people considered her fascination weird, but she could not help it. She had been brought up in a small Shinto shrine and her adoptive mother, Priestess Tsunade, had instilled in her the respect for the Gods and supernatural beings, and the thirst of knowledge about her cultural roots. She liked to take trips and visit sacred places, famous or forgotten, and was planning to dedicate one or two days of her holidays to that hobby of hers.

Minutes later, she got off the train and walked the too familiar road to her workplace, going over the content of the exhibition and its order in the display cabinets once more. When she turned at one of the corners, the library appeared in front of her eyes, at the top of a slope, a hill full of trees and bushes before the city development reached it, devoiding it from its natural beauty. It was a relatively modern building made of cream coloured stone, with seven floors and large windows on the first three. There were five steps that led to the main entrance, a big wooden gate with a classic European design. She went around it to enter through the back door. Immediately, her nose perceived the smell of books that she loved so much, and a huge smile drew across her lips.

“Good morning!”

The Shadow roamed around the city once more. After days of hunting, the hunger was starting to get unbearable and that made It slower. It paused to rest behind the fence that surrounded a building, between the lights of the street lamp and the entrance. It needed to find Its prey quick. If It did not, It could not carry out a much more important task, the one that really mattered. But for that, the Shadow needed the strength to shapeshift and be able to touch material things, and years and years of waiting for the perfect moment had weakened It. Now, It was merely that, a shadow.

Suddenly, a shudder went over It, like a wave. Near, Its prey was near. It could feel it. Gathering its strength, It slithered along the street to the end of it, and crawled the wall of a two-floor building, entering through the open window. It moved sinuously along the wall junctures and the shadows casted in the room with the most insignificant objects, anxiously. Finally, It reached Its target and, despite the overwhelming desperation, the Shadow looked at it for a moment, its rosy cheeks and slightly parted lips. It was so tender, so warm… As it slid under the prey’s back, It could feel the softness of its skin, as it wore few clothes because of the heat and It delighted with the sweet smell. A prey of such quality was not found every day…

The baby next door started to cry suddenly, and Sakura woke up with a start. The room was still in darkness only an occasional car’s lights disrupted the shadows in the ceiling. The electric fan was working, blowing air on her legs, and she lifted her nightgown just under her breasts to feel the cool on her stomach, damp from the heat. She had been having a strange dream where she walked alone along the dark streets of the city, but she did remember anything else. She looked at the alarm clock with half closed eyes and sighed. There were still two hours left from the time she had set it and she turned on her stomach to cool her back and hid her face in the pillow. She had planned a short trip for that day to a small village half an hour from the city by bus where there was an ancient shrine dedicated to an old forgotten mountain god and she needed all the rest she could get. After a few moments, though, feeling uncomfortable, she lifted her torso just enough to grab the nightgown and pull, letting it fall beside her. She sighed in content as the cool air fanned across her back, and little by little, she fell into a deep slumber again, not realising that she was not alone in the room anymore.

The Tengu landed on the tree after taking a surveillance flight of the mountain. It was one of the few things He still enjoyed doing in that life of His, too long now that He was alone. Not even humans came to the mountain anymore as they did before when it was one of the fastest ways to reach the capital, that it was not the capital anymore. Now, they rode those strange things with wheels that moved on their own. Only a few had ventured, laughing and making fun of legends; or beings with a skin of the colour of the milk who spoke strange languages in a loud voice, not minding the sacred place they were stepping on. They had got what they deserved, though, he remembered with a smirk. However, tricks were more fun when He did them with His brother and cousins. Now, it was more a way of releasing His anger against all that surrounded Him. He looked up and half closed His red and black eyes, leaning back on the trunk, watching the leaves move in the soft breeze. All that was deeply buried in old times, and He had stopped bothering or fighting against something He could not change. What only mattered to Him now was that everything was calm on His mountain.

Sakura got off the bus and looked around. The village where she had stopped, located at the foot of three mountains, one much bigger than the other two and clearly a place of worshiping, was really small, just a few houses in a line along the border of the forest which covered them, framing the torii that marked the entrance of a shrine dedicated to the god of the highest mountain, a famous one which appeared in quite a few legends. She entered the sacred place and made a pray for her safe journey. Then, she went to buy some food and took out the photographed pages of the book to be sure, once more, of the route she had to take.

The myth said that there was a very small sanctuary deep in the forest of the mountain on her right, the one with an average height, dedicated to an old forgotten mountain deity worshiped and feared by the travellers who had to cross the mountain to go to the old capital, a legendary creature famous for His mischief and rage against those who did not pay a proper homage to him. Then, she looked around, trying to orient herself. The path to the mountain had to be near there.

“Excuse me,” she asked, walking towards an old lady who was watering the road outside her house. “Sorry for bothering you, but could I ask you some questions, please?”

She had learned in her little trips that old people were the most willing to share information about local myths, but only if they were approached with respect and politeness. The old woman looked at her upside down and then straightened a bit her bent back.

She took out her map.

“Could you tell me the way to go to the mountain, please?”

She lifted her brows scornfully.

“There’s a small stand just next to the bus stop. Didn’t you see it?”

“Oh, yes I did” she smiled. “But I don’t want to climb that mountain, but that one” she said, pointing at the one behind the lady’s house, and she opened her eyes in surprise.

“This one? Why? Nobody goes there nowadays, Miss.”

“I’m a librarian, you see, and I’m interested in traditional legends” she smiled a bit; she had also learnt that to receive information, one had to give a little first. “Moreover, I grew up in a shrine and I’d like to visit the ones I hear people talk about, or read in books, and that are not so well-known.”

She eyed her, and Sakura had the impression that she was evaluating her, trying to see if she was lying or not.

“A few years ago, some stupid kids or a fool tourist came from time to time and went from one mountain to the other, behaving really poorly. But the gods punished them because they usually came back scared and saying things about rolling rocks that almost squashed them and a strange laughter in the air.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Our ancestors believed that a Tengu clan lived in that mountain.”

Sakura opened her eyes in surprise. That was not what the book said. She felt a bubbling excitement in her chest, as if she was going to open a present.

“There was a small shrine dedicated to Them and they went there once a year to make offerings so they wouldn’t fall victim of Their impishness. However, the legend says that They angered the gods and they exterminated Them, and it’s this the fourth generation since we don’t go up there. But some of us still leave a small offering on the path to said shrine. Even though They are not there anymore, we have to respect Their spirits. And to tell you the truth,” she beckoned her and lowered her voice, “no mischief had happened to those of us who do it… while I can’t say the same of those who don’t… so maybe there are still some of Them up there” she regarded to the young woman with a lifted brow. “Do you want to go up there yet?”

Sakura looked at the mountain pensively, and then, nodded.

“Oh, I see that you’re a stubborn one, Miss…” the old lady put her hands in her waist and looked at her once more, this time with a small smile. “Wait here.”

The woman came out a few minutes later, carrying a small parcel.

“Take this with you for your lunch” she said practically pushing it in her hands, and Sakura knew it better than to refuse, even if it was politely, or telling her that she had already bought food. “And this” she added putting another small bundle on her palm. “As an offering from myself. Don’t unwrap it under any circumstances. Only They can do it.”

“I’ll do it as you wish” she opened her backpack and put the things inside carefully. “And thank you for the lunch. I really appreciate it.”

The woman moved her hand, playing it down.

“Now, show me that map of yours” she said, pointing at the pages Sakura carried on her hand. “Oh, and one more thing,” she added after showing her the way. “Buy something to offer Them. That way, They won’t play pranks you on your trip.”

Sakura nodded again, adjusting her rucksack to her back and nodding politely. Then, she turned and started her journey.

“And don’t forget to pray to the Chimata-no-Kami before you go up!”

“Don’t worry!” she waved with a smile and turned at the corner the old woman had told her.

The lady shook her head with a sigh. Young girls those days…

After a brief prayer and an offering of a few coins, Sakura started the path that went up the mountain. At the beginning, it was wide and the trees, tall and proud, were well kept. However, as the slope started to get stipper, the track became narrower and there were fallen pieces of wood, already half decayed, here and there, which she had to get around. Big rocks covered with moss bordered her way for some time, and the roots of the trees nearer the trail had risen from the ground and twisted in disturbing shapes. The sun she could see among the crowns, now was barely visible, the branches twining over her head, making a green cave. She shivered slightly, feeling a mixture of reverence and unease in that quiet, uncanny atmosphere. It truly felt like the home of a deity from the past.

The Tengu startled, straightening on the branch and scanning his surroundings, frowning deeply. Someone had entered His territory. He stood up and unfolded His wings, taking off at a high speed and flying through the trees, not even brushing one with the tip of His feathers, as if they opened at His passing. The presence was near Him now, and He wrinkled his nose at the stench that humans always brought with them: smoke, sweat, impurity, deep-buried desires… However, there was something different about this one. The smell was not so strong as He had expected, but also, there was something hidden in it, a strange scent he could not name. He landed on a branch just above the ground just in time to see her approaching along the barely seen path with papers in her hands. She stopped a bit under the tree, looking around and then, she sighed, frustrated.

“I think I got lost…” she murmured softly, as she compared one of the pages, which was brownish and had something written in an intricate calligraphy, with the map depicted in the other one. “I should have turned to the right in this intersection…” she was talking to herself.

She sat down under the tree, and the Tengu observed her as she took out a bottle of water and took some sips, staring down at the papers she had put on her lap. He crouched a bit curious. The calligraphy seemed really old and He could barely make out most of the kanji, only a few that talked about the path across the mountain and something about the deity of the place. A deity. He smirked. Typical of stupid humans not being able to distinguish a goblin from a god…

He sat down on the branch. She seemed harmless, so he relaxed against the trunk and closed his eyes, letting one of his legs hang from the branch. A long, long time ago, He would have possessed her to tempt any stupid monk who dared to cross His mountain. In other circumstances, He would have, maybe, kidnapped her and left her in the middle of the forest just to amuse Himself seeing how she tried to find her way again. Or probably, He would have taken his anger on her for feeling alone, and forgotten by those who had to pay Him homage. But that was all in the past now and He did not feel like having fun.

Sakura reached the crossroads where she had strayed her way and took the other path. It was in a similar state to the other one, and she had, once more, to walk looking at the ground to avoid any roots or small rocks hidden by the fallen leaves. Then, she looked at her maps again. If the old one was correct, something that, in that moment, she was not so sure anymore, the shrine should be around that area. She walked slowly, paying attention to where she put her feet and her surroundings. Otherwise, she would not have seen the torii half hidden by two trees, one of them completely leaning on it, covering the top part with its branches. Through them, she could see the sign which marked the sanctuary, that filled her heart with a sincere feeling of happiness, and she smiled satisfied at having reached her goal.

Tengu

The Tengu snapped his eyes open, His pupils changing into a six-points star, cursing himself. So that human was looking for His clan’s sanctuary. He gritted His teeth, it had been too long since the last human stepped through His mountain and he had become careless. But He would not forgive those who dared to desecrate His land. He vanished.

The short paved road was cracked in several places and roots and plants grew between its stones. The small shrine was in shambles and the climbers had taken possession of the place. It seemed that it was true what the old lady said. Nobody came to pray there anymore. She felt sadness replace the happiness that she had been feeling until that moment. As her adoptive mother said, no creature, supernatural or from this world, should be forgotten because that meant a much worse death than the physical one. She clenched her jaw. Well, if there was not a single person who went there to show her respect, she, who had reached what many thought a figment of men from ancient times’ imagination, would do it.

The Tengu appeared on top of the torii and knelt, a rock materialising in His hand. A well-aimed throw to her back would not kill her, but she would learn not to mess with the goblins of that mountain. A few hours in the outdoors without being able to move and feeling the humidity of the summer heat in the air and the wild animals sounds would be a good scare for someone like her. Then, the girl turned to go where the old purification fountain was and He stopped His movement suddenly, frowning confused. She took the bottle from her backpack, that she left at her feet, again and performed the ritual with water from it.

Then, she returned to the shrine and clapped twice, bowing in respect and prayer. The Tengu closed his fingers around the rock, so strongly that it became dust, feeling something soft grow inside Him. It had been a long time since someone prayed at His clan’s shrine. He remembered the difference He had perceived when He had seen her, and now He knew what that was. Sincerity and respect for what was above her understanding.

Then, she went back to her backpack and took something from it.

“This is from an old lady who lives in the village at the foot of the mountain” she said, putting a small wrapping on top of the offering box after she pushed some wild ivy aside. “She told me to give it to you… But she didn’t tell me her name…”

The smell of the offering reached Him and He knew immediately who she was. She left offerings for Him every year at the start of the path, just after passing the Chimata-no-Kami stone. Before, she went higher, but He supposed that, with each passing year, her age weighed her down more and more. Also, she left some little things, like a riceball or some pickled radish, for him in her back garden sometimes. He knew because her prayers always reached Him.

“And this is from me. It’s store-bought and I didn’t think about offering it at the beginning, so I don’t know if it will mean anything.”

She bowed again and then, taking her things, went back to the forest.

There was a change in the air and the Tengu lifted His head sharply, taking out one of His swords from their sheath at His back. Looking around cautiously. He had not felt such an evil energy in the mountain for centuries. The last time had been when…

As soon as the girl put a foot outside the torii, energy cracked and she was suddenly surrounded by a black crackle and pushed forward, falling down the stairs with a panicked cry. After tumbling down the steps, she landed at the base of the steps, hitting her head on a rock by the trail, lying lifeless for a moment before her lips left out a weak pained moan. His pupils widened and He gritted His teeth. Such a pure soul attacked in His mountain, in His shrine, spilling her blood in His clan’s grounds. He was not going to allow it.

The Tengu looked around, angered, and His eyes changed again, three slits parting from His pupil, as His body brimmed with power, surrounding it in a dark blue aura that winded like a blaze, and His wings spread out. A fan made of feathers appeared in his hand. He perceived a sudden movement on his left and a spear of black power materialised out of thin air, aiming straight at her. He fanned towards it and the strong gust of wind made it disappear. However, it was not finished with just that. The whole atmosphere was still filled with darkness, and He kept up His guard, knowing there would be another attack, trying to perceive the direction from which it would come with the fast movement of His pupils. And then, in the tree on His right, a flash of crackle, louder than before, wrapped it around one of the branches. He moved the fan again and all trace of a magical presence suddenly vanished. However, the branch was already damaged and with a sickening crack, it broke off, just as the young woman, who had regained her consciousness was trying to lift herself from the ground, supporting herself on her elbows.

“Idiot, watch out!”

Sakura heard the words clear, very near, and afraid, she looked from one side to the other, not seeing anyone. When she twisted her body and looked up, she saw the branch coming to crush her in a slow motion. She tried to move, crawling with the help of her hands and feet but she was still dizzy from the injury on her head and a cut in her leg made her actions slow. She braced herself for the impact.

Suddenly, Sakura had the feeling that something, someone, was covering her.

The branch fell down on Him and the Tengu grunted, feeling something that was not really pain but that surged through all His body. He looked at the woman encased in His arms, her hands covering her head and her eyes closed tightly. She seemed fine and He smiled lightly, relieved. With his arm, He tossed the branch aside and then, tried to stand up. And then, it came. A lacerating burning surged from His back and He collapsed on top of the girl who he had just saved.

Sakura opened her lids slowly after a few moments of deafening silence after the noise of the branch hitting the ground that still resounded in her ears. She was still alive. And she was alone. Uncovering her head, she made a quick mental check of her state. Apart from the injuries from the fall, she did not feel any new wounds. Carefully, she sat down, cleaning with the back of one of her hands the blood that had run down the side of her face, and set her eyes briefly on the branch, that strangely was a few metres from her. Then, her pupils wandered her arm and her body, and then, stopped on her lap. There, lying lifeless, it was one of the most beautiful birds of prey she had ever seen. She was not sure about the name, but it was not very big, with long narrow wings and tail. It was brown, but in some parts of its body, it was a paler shade. Its legs ended in sharp claws. She gasped when her eyes fell on the big wood chip sticking near the joint between its back and wing.

“Hey, little one…”

With extreme care, she touched it with a finger. Its feathers were soft and she ran it along the shape of its chest, very slowly. Not obtaining any reaction, she took it in her hands, staining them with blood. The bird trembled once.

“No… Please, no…” she whispered, feeling her eyes fill with tears.

She frowned. It was not the time to cry, she had to make a decision, and quickly. But, she berateded herself, what decision was there to make… There was only one. Delicately, she wrapped the bird in one of the towels she had brought with her, and taking it in her arms, ignoring the searing pain in her head and leg, she started to go back along the path at the fastest pace she could muster.

Going down the steep was easier than when she had started her journey, apart from the fact that she remembered the places she had passed by before and in half the time she had taken to reach the shrine, she was already at the foot of the mountain. With a quick bow, still half running, she apologised the Chimata-no-Kami for not thanking them properly for their protection in her trip, making a mental note to ask for forgiveness later and make a more generous offering.

“Miss!” the old lady, who was at the corner, twisting her hands frantically and looking at the path, went to meet her as soon as she saw her, staring at her with wide eyes and a pale face. “I was very worried! There was wind coming down the mountain and a thundering sound-!”

“I need help!”

The other woman looked at her wounds and the blood that soaked part of her clothes anxiously, but she shook her head, playing it down, and she showed her the bundle in her arms. The woman startled letting a strangled cry leave her lips.

“This is…!”

“It needs a vet urgently. Is the bus here yet?!” Sakura interrupted her.

“It just departed-” she rummaged in the pocket of her apron. “Give me a moment!”

She took out an old mobile phone and dialled a number.

“Shoichirou, stop the bus now!” someone answered to her. “There’s an emergency with a girl!”

Not waiting for an answer, she hung up.

“Quickly” she said pushing her. “The bus is still down that path” she looked at the bird. “And please, take care of Him…”

She nodded curtly and started to run as fast as she could, not noticing that the old lady put her hands together, like in a prayer, and bowed deeply.

Sakura found the bus just after turning the sharp curve after leaving the village. The driver had got off the vehicle and was waiting for her, with his arms crossed on his chest and a mixture of annoyance and confusion on his face. However, seeing the state in which the young woman was, his expression changed to one of deep concern.

“Sorry” she said bowing first to him and then to the passengers who were looking at her through the windows with deep curiosity painted on their faces.

“Come on” he ushered her in, getting on after her. “You need to see a doctor immediately…”

She paid her ticket and then, sat down on the first free seat she saw, barely containing a gesture of pain as she took off her backpack. The bus started its journey again and as it went down the mountain, Sakura put the bird, who was losing its warmth little by little, against her chest.

“You can’t die…”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Extra-notes:

-I won’t call Sasuke by his name until probably the middle of next chapter because of reasons that I hope I’ll be able to explain properly in the story, so be patient, please ^^U

-Sasuke’s Complete Susanoo is a Tengu. In this story it's dark blue because that’s the colour it has in the original manga. There are a few fanarts which depict Sasuke with Susanoo’s armour. His Tengu form here is inspired by these ones:

http://jmbfanart.deviantart.com/art/Sasuke-Perfect-Susano-o-Armor-475753671 (I love it ♡)

http://tuanenam.deviantart.com/art/sasuke-vs-naruto-susanoo-armor-vs-bijuu-modo-357840182

-I’m still thinking if Sasuke’ll have black eyes at any moment in the story. I read somewhere that Tengu have red eyes, so Sasuke’s pupils will be the Sharingan. When he’s relaxed, he’s got the normal one, if he’s on guard, his eyes change to Mangekyou Sharingan, and in his Tengu form, Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. My descriptions regarding the Sharingan are not very good yet, but I promise I’ll get better at them.

#naruto #fanfic #ssm17 #ssm17d17 #sasusakumonth #uchiha sasuke #haruno sakura #sasusaku #otp

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honest-character-review · 7 years

Photo

(Hi there! Rindes is my newest character and I’m a tiny bit worried about her backstory being too edgy or whatever. That’s my main concern. She’s a character for an RPG or webcomic. Some basic info: T'ghed is a steampunk-esque city, which is very unique in my world. Nezerra is the protagonist of the story. Also, if the formatting is weird, please let me know so I can fix it! Thank you.)

(I will keep that in mind when I review, as I currently have an army of little edge lords myself. Mod Jibs will be reviewing in Bold Brackets)

Name Rindes Lyyn Pronounced Rin-dees Lin Nickname Rin, Rinny Titles The Desert Rose, Heiress of T'ghed

Age 17

Birthday 21 Emisp (21 July)

Occupation Heiress

Species Sun elf

Gender Female

Significant Other Nezerra (Possibly). The story is still in the works.

Family Alleun - Father (Deceased) Puella - Mother (Deceased) Ounie - Aunt (Means “Auntie”)

Physical Description Rindes has a slightly long, heart-shapted face with a small mouth and medium sized nose. Her eyes are round but have an almond shape to them. Her eyes are a green-teal color and she has very thick lower lashes. Three small scars marr the right side of her face, breaking her nuetral fair skin tone slightly.

(I wouldn’t call three small scars marring. I’d call more three large scars that disfigured her in someway marring. Sorry this is a small nitpick but these three scars wouldn’t subtract from her beauty overall.)

(Her ears are on the smaller side for elves, being more delicate than usual. Her hair is curly and a champagne blond. This leads her to put it up most of the time so it will not get away. Rindes is very lithe and petite, this being mostly due to the diet she’s on.She likes to wear blacks and golds.

(It’s interesting that your character is on a diet, is this by choice or necessity I wonder)

Personality Rindes, despite having magical abilities and about to inheirit one of the most famous cities in the world (T'ghed), has a talent for being utterly forgettable. Many people, even those who are close, did not believe her reign would bring anything interesting. Then, after her parents’ death when she was fifteen, many things switched.

Rindes was suddenly well-spoken and eloquent. She debated well with humans and other elves alike, and even managed to get a trading deal with indigenous groups on the islands surrounding T'ghed. That’s when she began to get praised as a genius.

(There better be a good reason for this sudden change. Nothing should ‘suddenly’ happen in a story. it’s cheap and cuts off important character growth.)

Rindes is generally intelligent, but does not speak often. She often comes across as cold and condescending, turning a lot of people off from her. As a result of that, it makes her seem like the weird loner kid. Once someone becomes friends with her, Rindes is still quiet, but she is quite compassionate and loyal to a fault. She clings to the friendships she has because she does not have many of them. She is also quite funny too, and has a quick wit and a clever tongue. Despite how smart she is, she is a terrible teacher. However, she is very passionate about knowledge and her friends are often content to listen to her talk about how machinery and magic work or astronomy.

(This is fine It seems balanced and I’m not finding any real faults with this. I would like her parents death to be explained more along with the impact it had on her.)

When Rindes is in love, she gets flustered easily. It’s very obvious, actually. She is also very shy about being new to love and does not quite know how to interact with her lover. Once she gets through the infatuation, however, she is very loyal and protective, if sometimes a bit of an over-worrier.

(Once again this is fine.)

Sexuality Bisexual

Home She lives in T'ghed’s palace.

Backstory Rindes was an heiress from the moment she was born and was trained by her parents for the role. Her parents were caring, and they were a fairly normal family. Rindes, however, turned out to be boring. She knew about nothing much outside of T'ghed and castle life.

(The word you are looking for is sheltered, not boring. She could think of herself as boring but growing up with little street knowledge is known as sheltered, just for clarity.)

Her parents were both killed in a mechanical incident when she was fifteen. As a result, Ounie began to take care of her. She hadn’t really been around Rindes before and was shocked that she was so plain. Concerned that the city’s reputation would suffer, she began to make Rindes learn and work on her skills day and night. After two months of Rindes not being at her standards, Ounie decided that if she wasn’t interesting, she could at least be pretty.

(This is an interesting dynamic with the aunt I’m liking it so far but be aware, you are writing abuse and you need to be respectful of the topic.)

Rindes got her breakfast and lunch halved and got no dinner. She knew what was happening and decided to work out of spite for her aunt.

(Hate to tell you this but if your carbs are being cut, the last thing you want to do is work out. This would harm your character more than make them stronger, causing further malnutrition.)

The two grew to really hate each other, with Ounie growing crueler in her curriculum and Rindes growing more open and well-spoken. She found a love for the stars and moon and would read about astronomy and sailors whenever she could.

(I don’t understand how she could talk to sailor’s if she never left the castle, did she begin to sneak out?)

When she was sixteen, a half-starved, exhausted Rindes met Jezebel and Cailum. The twins would eventually become her best friends.

(Where did she meet these two and who are they within the castle? Are they even apart of castle staff?)

They would sneak her out of the palace and let her see the common areas of T'ghed.

(Goes back to my question of the sailors, if she wasn’t sneaking out before, how did she talk to the sailors?)

Rindes was enchanted by the machinery and culture and grew a deep love for her city. As a result, she worked very hard for it and soon was being praised by many.

(Okay, this is fine, but she was already working hard. If she was shrugging off her lessons the best she could before, this would have more of an impact.)

As she inherits the city when she is 20, she is making her rounds through the world and securing alliances for her reign. When the story begins, she is in Zoslare, Jezebel’s kingdom.

Likes Rindes loves T'ghed, first and foremost. Everything about it, except her aunt. Other than that, she enjoys Jezebel, Cailum, astrology, reading, mathematics, sunrise, fancy jewelry, and plants of all kinds.

(This is fine.)

Dislikes She really doesn’t like Ounie. Other than that, she doesn’t like to practice her magic. Having the ability to influence others makes her feel dirty. Other than that, she doesn’t care for poetry and literature, fiction, most nobility, the snow elves in the north, the cold, night, or violence.

(I can understand this. your likes and dislikes seem like standard fair. If your character is racist towards the snow elves, I would like this expanded upon. Such as if this is common among sun elves and if this sort of dislike is generally accepted.)

Strengths Rindes is quite honest with people. She has a love of learning and never shies away from the truth, even if it may hurt her. She can be very funny if you’re on her good side and has excellent self-control if you’re not. She is also fair and loyal. Fighting Rindes can manipulate different types of metals with varying success. She works better with lighter metals, as heavy metals tire her out very quickly. She is also quick with a dagger, though she prefers not to use those.

(I’m having a bit of a problem with this. You keep saying that there is magic in this world without setting up boundaries or explaining how powerful it is and what allows people to use magic. So far she has two powers of metal bending and manipulation. I don’t know if the amount of magic she is using is common or not. Also, a character who hates violence but is good at fighting is a huge cliche that’s very tired at this point. A good way to work around it is to have her be a good commander instead, framing her as compassionate for her soldiers and well aware of the price of war.This is just a suggestion though.)

Weaknesses Rindes can be very ignorant of the outside world and, especially at first, does not understand why every city is not like hers. She is also withdrawn and mistrustful of others. At times, she views herself as worthless and is harsh with herself and others if a mistake is made. Also, very squeamish. She would not make a good soldier.

(She’s an heiress, no one is expecting her to hop on the front lines. this is an odd thing to put in her bio.)

Fighting Rindes has the ability to infuence the thoughts and emotions of others but absolutely refuses to do it, except in the most dire of situations. It disgusts her. Also, her ability to manipulate metals is not trained for combat.

(I still don’t understand the rules of magic in this world so I don’t know how powerful these abilities are. they seem fine, especially if the metal bending one is a common ability to her people.)

T'ghed has many machines and she is trained to interact with and fix those.

(Why though? She’s an heiress, she would be trained more in politics then mechanics. Explain this further as to why this would be a valuable skill to have from her aunts perspective, since she was in charge of schooling her.)

Other than being adequate with a dagger, she has no oher combat skills and is pretty much useless in a fight.

(I’m fine with this.)

Trivia -Many of the people in T'ghed affectionately call her their “Desert Rose.” -The reason she hates fiction is because she read a story that made her cry in front of a crowd when she was young. It embarrassed her. -She finds offensive jokes funny if they have some cleverness to them. -At one point in time, she had a crush on both Jezebel and Cailum. -She has a snort-laugh. -She gets chilly easily, being from the desert, and likes to curl up with blankets.

(Some of this trivia is unnecessary and doesn’t build on your character, please remember to cut the fact when you submit next time.)

(Overall, more world building needs to be done. I want the relationships between the city states explained, the different races and cultures and the magic. There is alot missing from this bio and not a lot to make your character stand out as the main focus for your story. I don’t see her driving a plot, instead I see her as a side character who occasionally shows up to offer advice or do something useful. Also, using boring to describe your character is a little bit of a death sentence right there. Find something that makes the readers think she is interesting but not necessarily the rest of the world.

Mod Jibs out.)

#oc review #submission

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angrycollectordaze-me-blog · 6 years

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Assignment代写：The aesthetic conception of photography art

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的assignment代写范文- The aesthetic conception of photography art，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了摄影艺术的审美意境。摄影艺术可以给人带来美的享受，但要想达到摄影艺术审美的高峰，摄影作品必须有自己独特的意境，也就是摄影师将自己的情感融入到摄影作品的画面内容中，做到情景交融才能够引起欣赏者的共鸣。

Photography brings beauty to people. In order to reach the peak of photography art aesthetics, photography must have its own unique artistic conception, that is, the photographer should integrate his emotions into the picture content of the photography works, and only when the scene is integrated can it arouse the audience's resonance. The core of the aesthetic artistic conception of photography is scene integration, which is the soul of photography works, permeating Chinese traditional culture and creating a multi-dimensional space for appreciation.

Artistic conception is a unique concept in Chinese traditional aesthetics. The meaning of artistic conception has always been different, but in general there are two aspects: "feeling" and "scene". Emotion is subjective, and it is the author's thoughts and feelings, life perception, aesthetic ideal, artistic experience, etc. The scene is objective, the image of the scene being photographed in objective reality. The feeling and the scene blend each other in the work, produced certain artistic conception.

The aesthetic artistic conception of photography refers to the photographer who, through creative work, integrates the real natural scenery and social phenomenon into the limited picture space through composition, light, and tone, and imparts the photographer's rich emotions in the picture content, so as to create a spiritual state of integration of scenes and artistic appeal.

The "feeling" and "scene" in the aesthetic conception of photography art are integrated and natural. The "scene" of photography works is the spatial form of the picture, which comes from reality and is the reflection and recognition of real life. The photographer reposes his "feelings" on the picture content. Scene is the foundation. If there is no scene, the author's emotional ideal has no foundation. The feeling is the soul, has the scene to be heartless, then the photography work becomes the simple record, must be tasteless, weak and tasteless. Only the combination of subjective feeling and objective reflection of the world can jointly constitute the aesthetic conception of photography art. Bresson, the famous master of photography in the history of photography, made a similar argument: the lines, tone and structure of pictures should be able to express our thoughts and feelings. The technology is good, but no thought, no content, just like a plate of fish bones without meat, can't make people get the real thing. Scene blending is the core of artistic conception.

Mr. Chen fuli, a famous photographer in China, integrated his love and love for the nature of the motherland into the objective reality, and the flowers and mountains and rivers he photographed are full of unique charm and rhythm. Its work or quiet quietly elegant, or magnificent, all infuse magnificent, magnificent artistic conception beauty. It was Chen fuli who captured the poetic beauty of nature, integrated emotions into the scene, and communicated emotions with the scene, making these natural images have strong subjective emotions. The photography works create the artistic impressiveness with the picture form and the picture content together, achieves the scene blend, the false and the actual union, produces the lingering charm which has not been exhausted, enables the appreciator to comprehend the infinite artistic implication from the limited artistic image.

Liu bannon, who laid the theoretical foundation of photography in China, once stated in his book "on shadow in the half of agriculture" that "artistic conception is different for everyone, and it is different at any time and place. But if you want to show it, you have to show it. What is sent is dead; But when the author submits it, it becomes alive.

The "feeling" in the artistic conception has two meanings: one is the photographer's own aesthetic taste and inner cultivation, the emotion he wants to express when he creates the photography, and the other is the emotion of the characters in the photography works. The two emotions interact and interact. Only when the photographer integrates his infinite love thoughts into the limited photographic images and makes the scene blend, can he inject soul into the photography works and make the photography works beyond the limited square inch have more profound connotation. The viewer is first infected by the subject in the picture, and then through his own emotional experience, finally feel the "feeling" in the image of the photographer.

This is the simplest portrait of a young Afghan girl, as captured in "Afghan girl" by famed war photographer carrey. But the girl's eyes are deep and scared out of her age. Knowing the background of the picture, we can feel the most direct and painful injury to human beings brought by the war through these eyes, which made this young girl who was still at the age of flowers to live a wandering life and endure the pain of bereavement. The photographer's intention was obvious: to oppose the war and call for peace. In this way, the feelings and sceneries of the photographs blend with each other. The artistic conception created by them not only infuses the soul of the work, but also shakes our hearts.

In Chinese traditional aesthetics, the origin of artistic conception is very deep. Zhang yanyuan, a painter in the tang dynasty, said, "a husband's image must be in shape". Gu kaizhi, a painter in the eastern jin dynasty, first proposed "writing god in shape". The artistic conception emphasizes the unity of heaven and man, the combination of god and form, the integration of scenes, the creation of the real and the real, the static and dynamic unity. It can be seen that Chinese painting theory put forward the incisive theory of "combination of form and spirit" very early. "Shape and god" correspond to "feeling and scene", pay attention to both shape and spirit, and give priority to god.

The photography art is deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese aesthetics. The early photography art inherits the early painting theory. The photography should be similar in shape and spirit, and the photographer's imagination and inspiration should be expressed through the picture content and "artistic conception". In terms of photography art, it is lang jingshan, an early photographic forerunner, who can bring the artistic conception in the sense of traditional aesthetics to the extreme. Mr. Lang is deeply influenced by traditional Chinese landscape painting, and his photographic works contain strong "Chinese style". For example, his masterpiece "xiao ji qing river", the picture shows the distant mountains looming, the river is rippling on the surface, the lightsome farm girl carries the wooden bucket that just filled with water home, a few branches and leaves are sparse nearby, the whole picture is like a fairyland. Distant mountains, clear rivers, branches, women carrying water constitute a unique Chinese ink painting. At the same time, the author's love for life, labor, landscape and traditional art of the motherland is deeply permeated in the photos, reaching the artistic realm of scene, scene and scene integration.

The artistic conception expressed by photographers in their works not only shows their subjective attitude towards social life, but also reflects their thinking of The Times, national emotions and even their deep understanding of the whole society and human beings. When appreciating photography works, the appreciators will give full play to their imagination and inspiration, combine their own aesthetic taste and cultivation, and communicate with the works to produce spiritual resonance, ideological and emotional exchanges, and finally produce the feeling of beauty. The artistic conception expressed by excellent photography will nourish the connoisseur's heart and make the connoisseur's heart moved. Touched including a variety of psychological feelings: happy, happy, sad, progressive........ Finally, the connoisseur experiences a variety of thoughts and feelings in the process of appreciation, and completes the spiritual sublimation.

For example, she won the first prize of art single picture in the 54th world press photography competition, "she is practicing playing cello". In the picture, there is a shabby market street, where people are dressed in ordinary clothes in a hurry. The street is full of scraps of paper and vegetable leaves. On the left side of the picture is an area surrounded by a blue plastic sheet. On the upper side is a trash can. There is some waste left on the ground. But down below, a woman sitting on a cheap plastic chair, looking at the cello on the instrument spectrum, reveling in her music world, as if she were playing a famous song for those who love music in Vienna's music hall, instead of a messy bazaar and secular crowd. Although material conditions are not very rich, this does not prevent women from pursuing music. However, in today's impetuous society, how valuable it is to be alone immersed in music in downtown area and to pursue and persist in the ideal.

Although photography reproduces content with images, photography is not a mechanical reproduction of objective things, but a combination of the photographer's subjective interest and aesthetic value, creating a multi-dimensional space through creative work. Multi-dimensional space not only includes the two-dimensional plane of photographic images and the three-dimensional space of real life, but also integrates the author's thoughts, feelings and subjective thoughts on society and life. In this way, various factors construct the multi-dimensional space of the photographic works.

For example, in Ernest Hemingway by youssef, the literary works of Hemingway often take the "tough man" as the main character, and he is also inspired by the spirit of "undefeated". When shooting Hemingway, karsh read a lot of information about Hemingway, and understood the characters' characters in detail. Cash managed to capture "the essential elements that made him great." Cash's choice of a headshot of Hemingway, with deep furrows on his forehead, a white beard and a closed lips, reveals a tough guy, but there is a hint of tenderness in his firm, powerful eyes. It was this tenderness cash found that made Hemingway "a great man." Hemingway's own achievement, life experience, euston's exploration of Hemingway's own construction of photography works of multi-dimensional space.

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nishantwap · 6 years

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Trump fundraiser sought to leverage access to Oval Office for fortune in contracts from Persian Gulf

New Post has been published on https://www.hsnews.us/trump-fundraiser-sought-to-leverage-access-to-oval-office-for-fortune-in-contracts-from-persian-gulf/

Trump fundraiser sought to leverage access to Oval Office for fortune in contracts from Persian Gulf

In a pursuit of money and influence that began at U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, two American businessmen sought to leverage connections that stretched from Persian Gulf palaces to the Oval Office into more than a billion dollars in contracts.

Elliott Broidy, one of Trump’s top fundraisers, and George Nader, a Lebanese-American adviser to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, advanced the agenda of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Their goal was to persuade Washington to crack down on Qatar, a small Gulf country that Saudi Arabia and the UAE accused of supporting terrorism — even though Qatar is a U.S. ally that hosts critical military assets.

At the same time, Broidy and Nader angled for lucrative intelligence and defence contracts from the UAE and the Saudis, passing messages purportedly from the crown princes in both countries to Trump, according to an Associated Press investigation.

The AP report is based on interviews with more than two dozen people and hundreds of pages of leaked emails between Broidy and Nader — including work summaries and contracting documents and proposals.

Saudi Arabia distances itself

Last week, Saudi Arabia distanced itself from Nader and Broidy, saying it had signed no contracts with either of them — though it acknowledged there had been discussions with Nader. A senior Saudi official said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered an end to “engagement with these people.”

“We would not be surprised if they were telling people that they had our ear,” said the official, who was not authorized to comment by name.

The UAE Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

The cache of emails also reveals a previously unreported meeting with the president and provides the most detailed account yet of the work of two Washington insiders who have been entangled in the turmoil surrounding the two criminal investigations closest to Trump — the special counsel’s Russia probe and federal prosecutors’ scrutiny of hush money payments by Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Broidy lawyer says docs ‘fraudulent’

Chris Clark, an attorney for Broidy, said the AP’s report “is based on fraudulent and fabricated documents obtained from entities with a known agenda to harm Mr. Broidy.”

“The public education efforts conducted by Mr. Broidy involved no direction being taken by any foreign principal,” Clark said in a statement.

Elliott Broidy is seen in New York in 2008. Broidy, a top fundraiser for Trump, worked throughout 2017 with a senior adviser to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to run a secretive campaign, trading lobbying against Qatar for hundreds of millions in defence contracts from the United Arab Emirates. (David Karp/Associated Press)

The AP provided 53 pages of leaked emails to Broidy’s lawyers. A second attorney, David Camel, listed one email as fraudulent and declined to elaborate. Neither lawyer provided evidence of fabrication.

Nader’s lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, declined comment.

The AP conducted an exhaustive review of the emails and documents, checking their content with dozens of sources, and determined that they tracked closely with real events, including efforts to cultivate the princes and lobby Congress and the White House against Qatar, which the partners called “the snake.”

Navigating ‘the swamp’

In Washington, lobbying in pursuit of personal gain is nothing new — Trump himself turned the incestuous culture into a rallying cry when he promised to “drain the swamp.” Broidy’s push to alter U.S. policy in the Middle East and reap a fortune for himself shows that one of the president’s top money men found the swamp as navigable as ever with Trump in office.

Broidy’s company ultimately won an intelligence contract with the UAE worth more than $200 million US that could be extended to $600 million, according to one email. Efforts to win an even larger contract from Saudi Arabia fell through.

Nader later drew the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller. His investigators confronted Nader in January hours after the plan with Broidy bore fruit — a $36-million wire transfer from the UAE. Nader is now co-operating with Mueller’s team.

While it is unclear if Mueller’s investigation is looking into the partners’ influence operation, Nader was a witness to a key moment of interest: a meeting in the Seychelles during Trump’s transition that included a Trump adviser and a businessman close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Broidy was ensnared in an investigation into Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer.

Trump, Broidy had same lawyer

After prosecutors in New York raided Cohen’s properties, it turned out that Cohen had represented Broidy as well as the president. He’d arranged for a $1.6-million payment to a Playboy Playmate who had an affair with Broidy.

The AP has previously reported that Broidy and Nader sought to get an anti-Qatar bill through Congress while obscuring the source of money behind their influence campaign — $2.5 million routed through an opaque Canadian company.

Neither Broidy nor Nader filed papers with the U.S. government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law intended to make lobbyists working for foreign governments disclose their ties and certain political activities.

George Nader poses backstage with Trump at a Republican fundraiser in Dallas Oct. 25, 2017. Nader’s business partner, Elliott Broidy, helped him secure this photo with the president. (Associated Press)

Broidy has maintained he was not required to register because his effort was not directed by a foreign client and came entirely at his own initiative. But documents show the lobbying was intertwined with the pursuit of contracts from the very start and involved specific political tasks for the crown princes — whose countries are listed as the “clients” for the lobbying campaign in a spreadsheet from Broidy’s company, Circinus, LLC.

Clark, one of Broidy’s attorneys, said his client had “complied with all relevant laws, including FARA.”

Passing messages from princes

Summaries written by Broidy of the two meetings he had with Trump report that he was passing Nader’s messages from the princes directly to the president.

By November, the Trump administration hadn’t swung as hard against Qatar as hoped. To pressure the White House and gin up more anti-Qatar opposition in Congress, Broidy claimed he’d arranged for a political operative to write a strategy memo to key Democrats attacking the Trump administration for being “soft” on Qatar’s alleged support of terrorist financing. That memo was leaked to the press.

“Strictly Confidential — I completely made this happen. Completely different tact to put the necessary pressure!” Broidy wrote Nader in an email dated Nov. 10.

“SUPER,” Nader replied.

“Just between principals and us,” wrote Broidy, referring to the crown princes. “We will crush the snake!”

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jasonheart1 · 6 years

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The princes, president and the fortune seekers

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a year spent carefully cultivating two princes from the Arabian Peninsula, Elliott Broidy, a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump, thought he was finally close to nailing more than $1 billion in business.

He had ingratiated himself with crown princes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who were seeking to alter U.S. foreign policy and punish Qatar, an archrival in the Gulf that he dubbed "the snake."

To do that, the California businessman had helped spearhead a secret campaign to influence the White House and Congress, flooding Washington with political donations.

Broidy and his business partner, Lebanese-American George Nader, pitched themselves to the crown princes as a backchannel to the White House, passing the princes' praise — and messaging — straight to the president's ears.

Now, in December 2017, Broidy was ready to be rewarded for all his hard work.

It was time to cash in.

In return for pushing anti-Qatar policies at the highest levels of America's government, Broidy and Nader expected huge consulting contracts from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to an Associated Press investigation based on interviews with more than two dozen people and hundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men. The emails reviewed by the AP included work summaries and contracting documents and proposals.

The AP has previously reported that Broidy and Nader sought to get an anti-Qatar bill through Congress while obscuring the source of the money behind their influence campaign. A new cache of emails obtained by the AP reveals an ambitious, secretive lobbying effort to isolate Qatar and undermine the Pentagon's longstanding relationship with the Gulf country.

A lawyer for Broidy, Chris Clark, contended the AP's reporting "is based on fraudulent and fabricated documents obtained from entities with a known agenda to harm Mr. Broidy."

"To be clear, Mr. Nader is a U.S. citizen, and there is no evidence suggesting that he directed Mr. Broidy's actions, let alone that he did so on behalf of a foreign entity," Clark said.

The cache also reveals a previously unreported meeting with the president and provides the most detailed account yet of the work of two Washington insiders who have been entangled in the turmoil surrounding the two criminal investigations closest to Trump.

Lobbying in pursuit of personal gain is nothing new in Washington — Trump himself, in fact, turned the incestuous culture into a rallying cry when he promised to "drain the swamp."

"I will Make Our Government Honest Again -- believe me," Trump tweeted before the election. "But first, I'm going to have to #DrainTheSwamp in DC."

Broidy's campaign to alter U.S. policy in the Middle East and reap a fortune for himself shows that one of the president's top money men found the swamp as navigable as ever with Trump in office.

Nader's lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, declined comment. A senior Saudi official confirmed that the government had discussions with Nader but said it had signed no contracts with either Nader or Broidy.

Neither Broidy nor Nader registered with the U.S. government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law intended to make lobbyists working for foreign governments disclose their ties and certain political activities. The law requires people to register even if they are not paid but merely directed by foreign interests with political tasks in mind.

Violating the federal law carries a maximum $10,000 fine or up to five years in prison.

Broidy has maintained he was not required to register because his anti-Qatar campaign was not directed by a foreign client and came entirely at his own initiative. But documents show the lobbying was intertwined with the pursuit of contracts from the very start, and involved specific political tasks carried out for the crown princes — whose countries are listed as the "clients" for the lobbying campaign in a spreadsheet from Broidy's company, Circinus LLC.

"I have represented Mr. Broidy for many years. He has complied with all relevant laws, including FARA," Clark, Broidy's attorney, said in a statement to the AP.

Summaries written by Broidy of two meetings he had with Trump — one of which has not been disclosed before — report that he was passing messages to the president from the two princes and that he told Trump he was seeking business with them.

By December of last year, the partners were riding a wave of success in their campaign to create an anti-Qatar drumbeat in Washington.

Saudi Arabia was finding a new ascendancy following Trump's election. Broidy sought to claim credit for it, emails show, and was keen to collect the first installment of $36 million for an intelligence-gathering contract with the UAE.

It all might have proceeded smoothly save for one factor: the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to look into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

'BELTWAY BANDITS'

In many ways, the partnership between Broidy, 60, and Nader, 59, embodies the insider influence that has given contractors in D.C. the nickname "beltway bandits."

Both of their careers were marked by high-rolling success and spectacular falls from grace — and criminal convictions. The onset of the Trump administration presented an opportunity: a return to glory.

Broidy, who made a fortune in investments, was finance chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2006 to 2008. But when a New York state pension fund decided to invest $250 million with him, investigators found that he had plied state officials with nearly $1 million in illegal gifts while collecting $18 million in management fees.

In 2009, Broidy pleaded guilty to a felony charge of rewarding official misconduct.

"In seeking investments from the New York State Common Retirement Fund, I made payments for the benefit of high-ranking officials at the Office of the New York State Comptroller, who had influence and decision-making authority over investment decisions," Broidy said in his plea and cooperation agreement.

Andrew Cuomo, then-New York attorney general, called it "an old-fashioned payoff."

"This is effectively bribery of state officials, and not just one," said Cuomo, who is now New York's governor.

Three years later, Broidy's conviction was knocked down to a misdemeanor after he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and pay back the $18 million to the state.

Nader's problem was pedophilia.

As a young Lebanese immigrant to the U.S. in the 1980s, he quickly established himself as a forceful independent operator, founding a policy magazine called Middle East Insight. By the '90s, he had risen as a behind-the-scenes player, setting up dinners for Israeli and Arab dignitaries with Washington power brokers and U.S. lawmakers.

But in May 2003, Nader was convicted in the Czech Republic of 10 counts of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term, the AP revealed in March.

He served his time in Prague, according to Czech authorities, then was expelled from the country.

That sordid past was no obstacle as Nader cultivated a formidable list of high-powered contacts.

After the 2003 Iraq war ended, he re-emerged there, as contractors were making a fortune helping the U.S. coalition and the post-Saddam Hussein government rebuild the country and arm its military.

Nader worked with a private military contractor from the U.S., Erik Prince, whose former company, Blackwater, became infamous after a shootout in Baghdad in 2007 left 14 civilians dead.

Nader has been living in the UAE, working as an adviser to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi crown prince known as MBZ.

It was Nader's connection to MBZ and Erik Prince that eventually caught the attention of U.S. investigators in the Russia probe.

Mueller's team was interested in two meetings that took place before Donald Trump's inauguration.

One was in the Seychelles, a tropical archipelago in the Indian Ocean, which drew scrutiny because it included Prince, an informal adviser to Trump, and Russian investor Kirill Dmitriev, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting has prompted questions about whether it was an attempt to establish a backchannel between Russia and the incoming Trump administration.

The other meeting was at Trump Tower in New York.

Nader and MBZ were at both.

'A TERRIFIC, MAGNIFICENT MEETING'

Just weeks after those meetings, Broidy and Nader met for the first time, during Trump's inauguration.

The two men were soon working out their budding partnership. Nader sent Broidy his private email address on the encrypted ProtonMail service.

From the start, the men had a two-track mission: to carry out a campaign against Qatar that would curry favor with the princes, and to then turn that success into millions of dollars in defense deals, documents show.

The two men barely knew each other. But Broidy had the ear of the president. Nader claimed he had the crown princes'.

On Feb. 7, 2017, Broidy wrote to a staffer for the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee about a bill aimed at sanctioning Qatar for alleged support of terrorist groups— part of what Nader called "hammering Qatar," emails show.

The next day, Broidy forwarded Nader questions about a potential contract with Saudi Arabia to train Arab troops to fight in the escalating war in Yemen.

The three-year civil war there has left thousands of civilians dead, millions displaced from their homes, and put the entire country on the cusp of famine in what is now the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. The war has drawn in myriad combatants, including a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and backed by the U.S.

Broidy and Nader proposed multiple plans to the princes for more than $1 billion of work. One pitch was to help create an all-Muslim fighting force of 5,000 troops. A second was aimed at helping the UAE gather intelligence. A third would strengthen Saudi maritime and border security. Still another was related to setting up counterterrorism centers in Saudi Arabia.

In a note to Broidy, Nader said the princes were very happy with the proposed contracts, particularly the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

But first, emails show, they had to focus on the lobbying campaign. They proposed a budget upward of $12 million to "expose and penalize" Qatar and get the U.S. to pressure it to "aid in coercive action against Iran," according to a March 2017 document.

The gist of their plan was to show evidence that Qatar was too close to Iran and supported Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Iran is Saudi's main regional rival and on the other side of the war in Yemen.

Ideally, Broidy and Nader would work to persuade the U.S. government to sanction Qatar and move a key military base from Qatar to another location in the Gulf. Broidy said he had a direct line to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

"Mnuchin is a close friend of mine (my wife and I are attending Sec. Mnuchin's wedding in Washington D.C. on June 24th)," Broidy wrote to Nader. "I can help in educating Mnuchin on the importance of the Treasury Department putting many Qatari individuals and organizations on the applicable sanctions lists."

The al-Udeid Air Base outside Doha is an important U.S. military asset in the Middle East. It's the forward operating base for U.S. Central Command and hosts some 10,000 U.S. troops — a geopolitical arrangement that Qatar's Gulf rivals would like to change. Amid the fissures in the Gulf, the base is key leverage for Qatar to maintain influence in Washington. Unlike other countries, Qatar imposes few restrictions on base operations and is even building new facilities for U.S. troops.

Getting the U.S. government to move its critical base in the Gulf was unlikely. And polishing up the image of the Saudis and Emiratis was a hard sell.

Saudi Arabia has a history of torture and human rights abuses. Many Americans still associate the country with the Sept. 11 attacks. Of the 19 attackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, and two were from the UAE.

The UAE's track record is no better. Last year, the AP revealed that the UAE was operating "black sites" in Yemen, where its soldiers have tortured prisoners - including, in some cases, tying them to a spit and roasting them over open fires.

Qatar has a troubled record as well. International human rights groups have dinged the country for its treatment of migrant workers preparing the country for the 2022 World Cup. Amnesty International, in a 2013 report, stated that migrants from southeast Asia worked in a state akin to slavery, "forced labour," and lived in "squalid" housing.

Despite the challenges of Saudi Arabia's human rights record, the partners' timing was good. Trump and many other Republicans in Washington viewed Saudi Arabia as a counterweight against Iran.

Broidy reported he was making progress, and Nader kept the "principals" briefed on their adventures, emails show. Broidy boasted that he had got the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, California Republican Rep. Ed Royce, to back an anti-Qatar bill.

"This is extremely positive," Broidy wrote. He claimed he had "shifted" Royce from being critical of Saudi Arabia to "being critical of Qatar." The AP reported in March that Broidy gave nearly $600,000 to GOP candidates and causes since the beginning of 2017. Royce got the maximum allowed.

Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, noted the congressman's record: Royce has long been critical of both countries. He said Royce has not changed his stance.

Broidy also bragged that he had "caused" Royce to praise a senior Saudi general, Ahmed Hassan Mohammad Assiri, in words that were then memorialized in the Congressional Record. Nader was thrilled: A U.S. congressman publicly flattered a Saudi official, who documents show was helping evaluate Broidy and Nader's contract proposals.

At the end of March, Nader wrote that he'd had "a terrific, magnificent meeting" with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Prospects for the billion-dollar contracts were good.

"He was very positive overall," Nader wrote. The prince even asked them to discuss their contracts with "General Ahmed."

The money for the lobbying was another matter.

At Nader's request, $2.5 million was channeled in two installments from his company in the UAE through a Canadian company called Xiemen Investments Limited, which someone familiar with the transaction said was run by one of Broidy's friends. The money was then routed to a Broidy account in Los Angeles.

The transaction had the effect of obfuscating that the money for the political work in Washington had come from Nader in the UAE. Some of the recipients of Broidy's spending in Washington said they had no idea that Nader was involved. Broidy previously told the AP that he did not think to question why the money was routed through a foreign entity.

At that point, Broidy might have realized the dangers of not registering as a foreign agent — it was all over the news.

Three Trump advisers registered retroactively as foreign agents: Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, who had done business for Turkey, and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, who did business for Ukraine.

Broidy was undeterred. Nader cheered on his anti-Qatar exploits and told him to "keep hammering the bastards."

AN 'EXTRAORDINARY' CAMPAIGN'

Armed with fresh cash, Broidy pitched Nader a media blitz that would put the fire to Qatar.

He'd persuaded an American think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to stage an anti-Qatar conference. Broidy wrote Nader that his plan included the commission of 200 articles assigned to the foundation and other think tanks. Mark Dubowitz, the foundation's CEO, later said that Broidy assured him the funding was not coming from a foreign government and that he had no contracts in the Gulf.

On April 21, 2017, Broidy sent Nader the draft of an Op-Ed to show the impact of his campaign. It was marked "Confidential."

Three days later, "The Two Faces of Qatar, a Dubious Mideast Ally" was published in The Wall Street Journal. The opinion piece, co-written by retired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, who had been the deputy head of U.S. European Command, called for moving U.S. military assets from the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. "The United Arab Emirates would be a logical destination," wrote Wald.

What readers did not know was that Wald was listed in company documents as a member of Broidy's Circinus team that was pitching contracts in Saudi Arabia.

Asked why he had not made his conflict clear in the Op-Ed piece, Wald denied he had ever worked for Broidy.

"I was not part of the team, period," Wald wrote. "I can't speak for his documentation."

A person familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said that Wald consulted with Broidy, but could not join a trip to pitch the contract in Saudi Arabia because of a scheduling conflict. Broidy's leaked emails refer to Wald's involvement almost four dozen times.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies conference was set for May 23 at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington. In a Circinus progress report from Broidy to Nader, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are listed as the clients, Maj. Gen. Assiri as a consultant, and Broidy and Nader are "leader/liaison" — raising questions about Broidy's contention to the AP that he was not working for a foreign government.

The conference also set off a flurry of more anti-Qatar stories in mainstream media, which Broidy catalogued for the crown princes.

The partners were jubilant when Trump made his first foreign trip not to his allies in Europe, but to Saudi Arabia.

Two weeks later, in a major escalation of tensions, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and regional allies launched a travel and trade embargo against Qatar.

It was hard to tell whose side the U.S. government was on.

One day after the UAE and Saudi Arabia began their blockade, Trump sent a series of tweets signaling support for the two countries' actions and embracing an anti-Qatar stance. He said his recent visit to Saudi Arabia was "already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to horror of terrorism!"

U.S. officials quickly tried to walk back Trump's comments, saying the U.S. was not taking sides in the dispute among its Gulf allies.

A week later, on June 16, the Trump administration completed a $12 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Qatar that had been approved earlier by Congress. The move was at odds with the president's rhetoric on Qatar, but it paled in comparison with the $110 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia that Trump had previously announced.

NADER OR VADER?

In late September, Broidy arranged for the most coveted meeting for any lobbyist in Washington: an audience for himself with the president in the Oval Office.

In advance of the meeting, Nader wrote Broidy a script, an email shows. There were several objectives: to sell the idea for a Muslim fighting force, to keep the president from intervening on Qatar and to arrange a discreet meeting between Trump and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

The princes "are counting on you to relate it blunt and straight," Nader wrote.

Nader told Broidy the meeting was potentially historic and to "take advantage of this priceless asset."

And there was one more thing. Nader asked Broidy to tell the president about his connections with the crown princes, using code names for all three.

"Appreciate how you would make sure to bring up my role to Chairman," Nader emailed. "How I work closely with Two Big Friends."

After the Oct. 6 meeting, Broidy reported back to Nader that he had passed along the messages and had urged the president to stay out of the dispute with Qatar. He also said he explained Circinus' plan to build a Muslim fighting force.

"President Trump was extremely enthusiastic," he wrote. Broidy said Trump asked what the next step would be and that he told the president he should meet with the crown prince from the UAE, adding, "President Trump agreed that a meeting with MBZ was a good idea."

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Despite that successful readout, Nader wanted more: He wanted a photo of himself with the president — a big request for a convicted pedophile.

Broidy was co-hosting a fundraiser for Trump and the Republican National Committee in Dallas on Oct. 25. The Secret Service had said Nader wouldn't be allowed to meet the president. It was not clear if the objections were related to his convictions for sexually abusing children.

Broidy drafted an email to Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, asking him to intervene on behalf of his friend, whom he oddly called "George Vader" — a misnomer that appears elsewhere in the emails.

"One of my companies does deep vetting for the US government," he wrote. "We ran all data bases including FBI and Interpol and found no issues with regard to Mr. Vader."

There was another issue. RNC officials had decreed there would be no photos with the president without payment. Broidy suggested that Nader meet the suggested threshold with a donation between $100,000 and $250,000.

It's unclear exactly how the two issues were resolved. Records from the Federal Election Commission show no donations from either George Nader or "George Vader," but on Nov. 30, Broidy gave $189,000 to the RNC — more than he had given to the RNC in over two decades of Republican fundraising.

The result: a picture of Nader and Trump grinning in front of the American flag.

A SPIRAL OF MISFORTUNE

It was time for Broidy to visit the UAE and nail down his first contract. He and Nader had already discussed sharing the profits and begun setting up a UAE subsidiary of Circinus, Broidy's company.

In late November, Broidy planned a visit to complete the contracts in the UAE, where MBZ was hosting a Formula One auto race.

But maybe that was too public.

"I think my friend not very wise for you to be seeing (sic) at this event," Nader wrote to Broidy. "Many journalists and people from Russia and other countries will be around."

Broidy met Trump once again on Dec. 2. He reported back to Nader that he'd told Trump the crown princes were "most favorably impressed by his leadership." He offered the crown princes' help in the Middle East peace plan being developed by Jared Kushner. He did not tell Trump that his partner had complete contempt for the plan — and for the president's son-in-law.

"You have to hear in private my Brother what Principals think of 'Clown prince's' efforts and his plan!" Nader wrote. "Nobody would even waste cup of coffee on him if it wasn't for who he is married to."

Days after Broidy's meeting with Trump, the UAE awarded Broidy the intelligence contract the partners had been seeking for up to $600 million over 5 years, according to a leaked email.

The Muslim fighting force contract would be even larger, potentially bringing their entire Gulf enterprise to more than $1 billion.

In January, Broidy was preparing for a third meeting with Trump, at Mar-a-Lago, during celebrations of the president's first year in office. Nader was supposed to join them, but the initial payment for the intelligence contract was late. He delayed his trip to the U.S. for a day to make sure it was wired.

On Jan. 17, Broidy reported that he had received the first installment — $36 million.

"Terrific!" Nader wrote before his flight. "First among many to go!"

Hours after that money transfer, Nader and Broidy discovered that, despite all their precautions, they had not escaped notice.

When Nader landed at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., a team of FBI agents working for Mueller was there to meet him. He was relieved of his electronic devices and later agreed to cooperate. It is unclear why Nader was detained, but he is a link between the Trump campaign and the Russian investor who attended the meeting in the Seychelles.

While there is no evidence that Mueller is interested in the lobbying effort, Nader's detention kicked off a spiral of misfortune for the two partners.

In February, the AP, The New York Times and other news organizations began receiving anonymously leaked batches of Broidy's emails and documents that had apparently been hacked. News stories linked him to plans to leverage his White House access for clients in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Broidy fought back. He sued Qatar and its lobbyists, alleging in a lawsuit filed in March that the hack was a smear campaign.

"We believe the evidence is clear that a nation state is waging a sophisticated disinformation campaign against me in order to silence me, including hacking emails, forging documents, and engaging in espionage and numerous other illegal activities," Broidy said in a statement at the time.

Qatar responded that it was Broidy who had engaged in a propaganda campaign.

Then, on April 9, another blow.

The FBI raided the premises of Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, seeking information on hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who said she'd had an affair with the president.

Broidy, it turned out, was also a Cohen client. He'd had an affair with Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard, who got pregnant and later had an abortion. Broidy agreed to pay her $1.6 million to help her out, so long as she never spoke about it.

"I acknowledge I had a consensual relationship with a Playboy Playmate," Broidy said in a statement the day the news broke. He apologized to his wife and resigned from the RNC. There is no indication Broidy is under investigation by Mueller's team.

In the end, Nader and Broidy's anti-Qatar operation lost its momentum. There has been no traction on the effort to get the base in Qatar moved to the UAE. In late April, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for an end to the bickering among Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar during a trip to the Gulf.

Last week, Saudi Arabia distanced itself from Nader and Broidy. A senior official said Crown Prince bin Salman ordered an end to "engagement with these people."

But Broidy's huge contract with the UAE?

It's good to go.

___

Read key documents in Broidy and Nader's correspondence at:

http://apne.ws/Uux7vo3

___

Follow Desmond Butler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/desmondbutler and Tom LoBianco at https://twitter.com/tomlobianco

___

Have a tip? Contact the authors securely at https://www.ap.org/tips

from Local News https://www.thedenverchannel.com/decodedc/politics/the-princes-the-president-and-the-fortune-seekers

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befoundonlinemarketing · 7 years

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Cozy Up With Your New Company: 7 Tips to Transition Into Your New Marketing Role

Think back to your first day of school (that you can remember), and take a moment to relive some of those feelings: excitement, worry, happiness, fear and maybe a little nausea. There were a lot of new faces and some familiar ones which helped ease the initial panic.

Now, fast forward to “adulthood”. You’re starting a new marketing position at a new company, and the “first day of school” feelings are resurfacing. Only this time, there are no familiar faces. It’s mentally and physically exhausting wondering if you’re going to fit in, wanting to make a great impression and also exciting because you have a lot to offer, you’re smart and your new company goals align with your career path.

This is exactly how I felt (almost) when I started my new marketing role at TopRank Marketing. Although, I don’t remember feeling nauseous. The excitement far outweighed the worry, and I was very happy to find a professional work environment that supported my personal goals and emphasized personal growth and company growth in tandem. I knew I could bring a lot to the role of marketing copywriter, and there was a lot of potential for growth and learning.

Even though there was enormous opportunity, being the “new kid” isn’t easy. I was nervous about how the transition was going to go, and knew I had to act quickly to understand the ins and outs of the brand, produce results and assimilate into the new company culture gracefully.

So, how do you successfully transition into your new marketing role and show your value?

To help answer this question, here’s a list of 8 tips that I’ve learned to get you accustomed to your new marketing role. Whether the specialty is in content marketing, digital advertising, social media or influencer marketing, you’re going to want to slip on your Snuggie and discover how to quickly get comfortable in your new company.

#1 – Research

Familiarizing yourself with as many aspects of the company, as quickly as you can, will have a huge impact on your transition. While any and all research is helpful, try to focus on the following three types of research at the beginning:

Company – Understanding the story behind the company, the types of customers it serves and the primary goals and objectives will help you get a better understanding of who you are representing and how your specific job duties fit into the grander scheme of things.

Culture – The environment in which you work in on a daily basis will dictate certain behaviors, processes and actions you will take in your new company. It’s important to identify what’s appropriate, how the team works together and understand where you fit into the mix.

Audience – As a professional marketer, you need to understand who the company is targeting. Researching detailed information about your ideal audience from a company perspective will help you provide value in your role.

All of this research should be done in a number of ways: talking to coworkers, reading the company website and seeing what other people are saying about the company, to name a few.

#2 – Become the Brand

Once you get a clear understanding of what your company stands for, how it provides solutions to your customers and day-to-day processes and procedures, you’ve got to immerse yourself in the brand and become an active participant. Share news, exciting updates and spread the word on social media. When you’re not at work, be open to opportunities to advocate for your brand in a respectful and appropriate way.

#3 – Find a Mentor

Making connections with coworkers isn’t easy, especially in the beginning. It takes time to get to know who someone is on a professional level, and weaving in bits of personal information takes skill and emotional intelligence. Remember, you don’t have to be best friends, but you do have to nurture a respectful professional relationship because you’re going to rely on these people to be successful in your role, and vice versa.

Finding a mentor is a great way to get advice and an outsider’s perspective on situations and experiences. This person could be inside or outside of your organization, and depending on which you choose (could be both), the relationship may vary:

Outside Your Company: Bounce ideas off of this person, get advice and sometimes, you’ll just use them as a sounding board. Be open to what they have to say because being removed from the situation allows them to offer you unbiased opinions and advice.

Inside Your Company: Learn, listen, pick their brain, ask questions and don’t forget to thank them. Keep it professional and use this as an opportunity to increase your knowledge and skills.

#4 – Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

While it feels safe to just sit back and slowly get acquainted with your new surroundings, team members and job duties, one way to quickly make an impression is by stepping outside of your comfort zone and taking initiative to make connections. If you are in a meeting and have questions, don’t be afraid to ask them, if one of your team members seems really interesting, strike up a conversation be friendly. Putting yourself out there (in a respectful way) will help your team get to know you better, and you’ll produce better work and results together.

#5 – Learn the Ropes

This might go without saying, but to successfully transition into your new marketing role, you must learn quickly. This includes any tools, software, processes and skills that are required. It’s important to take the lead and acquire as much information as you can (and retain it). Seeking out additional training opportunities (internal and external) and learning from your peers are great ways to speed up the process.

Also take this time to learn about yourself. In your new marketing role, think about time management, how you work best and what you can share with your coworkers to maximize productivity.

#6 – Voice Your Ideas

The biggest factor that often times gets in the way of voicing your ideas is the fear of the unknown: not knowing how others will interpret your ideas, not knowing if what you say will come out the way you intended and not knowing if your idea is “good”.

In any industry, especially marketing, creativity is necessary to thrive. Like any other skill, creativity requires practice. By overcoming your fear, you’ll be able to perform your job duties to the best of your abilities, and be a contributing member of the team. Not every idea is going to be amazing, and that’s okay. Just keep calm and carry on.

#7 – Be Yourself

Last, but definitely not least, be yourself. It’s tempting when you start a new job to hold back a little bit so you don’t embarrass yourself, and you might think it’s easier to “fit in”. But remember, you were hired for a reason and the brand sees the potential in you.

Staying true to yourself will help your co-workers get to know you, the real you. It creates genuine connections which will improve your collaboration and enable you to perform your best at all times.

Using these 7 tips, the transition into your new marketing position should be smooth sailing, however, don’t forget to account for some rough waters at times. It can’t all be sunshine and rainbows. Maybe bring a raincoat instead of a Snuggie. This is a learning experience for everyone involved, and taking initiative and being yourself will get you through even the toughest of times.

Ready to Make a Smooth Transition into a New Marketing Career?

TopRank Marketing is hiring! Check out our open positions below, join our amazing team and best of all, be yourself!

Digital Advertising Manager

Content Marketing Manager

Content Marketing Strategist

Social Media & Influencer Relations Specialist

Applying is easy! Simply email your resume to [email protected], and don’t forget to include additional details explaining why you’re excited about the position.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

The post Cozy Up With Your New Company: 7 Tips to Transition Into Your New Marketing Role appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

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christopheruearle · 7 years

Text

Cozy Up With Your New Company: 7 Tips to Transition Into Your New Marketing Role

So, how do you successfully transition into your new marketing role and show your value?

#1 – Research

All of this research should be done in a number of ways: talking to coworkers, reading the company website and seeing what other people are saying about the company, to name a few.

#2 – Become the Brand

#3 – Find a Mentor

Inside Your Company: Learn, listen, pick their brain, ask questions and don’t forget to thank them. Keep it professional and use this as an opportunity to increase your knowledge and skills.

#4 – Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

#5 – Learn the Ropes

Also take this time to learn about yourself. In your new marketing role, think about time management, how you work best and what you can share with your coworkers to maximize productivity.

#6 – Voice Your Ideas

#7 – Be Yourself

Ready to Make a Smooth Transition into a New Marketing Career?

TopRank Marketing is hiring! Check out our open positions below, join our amazing team and best of all, be yourself!

Digital Advertising Manager

Content Marketing Manager

Content Marketing Strategist

Social Media & Influencer Relations Specialist

Applying is easy! Simply email your resume to [email protected], and don’t forget to include additional details explaining why you’re excited about the position.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

The post Cozy Up With Your New Company: 7 Tips to Transition Into Your New Marketing Role appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

0 notes