#isn't it an allegory for fame?

[midnightfox450]

Fantasy High Junior Year Pre-Trailer Predictions for archival purposes

(In order of most likely to least likely)

They retcon Fabian and Aelwyn's whole thing. I love Fabian and think he is at his best when his development is focused on other things.

Official in-universe confirmation of Riz being ace &/or aro.

A nice, happy, normal prom scene in the epilogue.

Trackerbees breakup. It's definitely likely that they're going to have a falling out given the hints we got in Boys Night but I'm rooting for a full breakup. They don't get back together again. Don't get me wrong I love lesbians (I am lesbian!!!) but we all know this is the best course of action.

More Aelwyn please!! Aelwyn hireling maybe (if that's even a thing we're doing this season)? She's pretty powerful and her and Adaine have made up so it'd be nice to see her use her powers for good.

The old librarian at Aguefort dies and Ayda starts working at the school library in her place. I am pretty anti-Ayda-reconciling-with-her-dad-&-associating-with-his-school, so I wouldn't love this turn of events. But I have to admit it'd be a very plausible way of keeping her in Elmville and I'll take any excuse for her to show up more. Also I think she should have a crystal. She would have loved the internet.

Fig, newly an archdevil, becomes a warlock patron with her fans as her followers. Has to grapple with the consequences of fame and idolization. Maybe even Gilear takes her up as a patron and gets one level of warlock so he isn't completely useless. + second puberty allegory where Fig starts developing more archdevilish features like longer horns and a tail.

More information about Ayda's previous lives, as Brennan seems to at least have a vague notion of what they were like. Maybe a flashback scene with the previous Ayda and kid Garthy. Also i wanna know what was up with the relationship with Garthy and Jawbone. Maybe when Jawbone hooked up with Garthy he had met Ayda as a baby or even the previous Ayda? I think that'd be cool.

An "And Now For Something Completely Different"-type segment where the Bad Kids need The Seven Maidens' help for whatever reason so the cast switches to T7 for an episode. I want to see the girls again and I want to see their new personalities/developments reflected in the main canon. But it'd be kind of weird for them to go back to being npcs.

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #d20 #fhjy #fantasy high junior year #the bad kids #ayda aguefort #figueroth faeth #fig faeth #really only gonna tag those two because this post is the most focused on them

[dufferpuffer]

Malfoy Patronus headcannons

Lucius is a Peacock He values luxury, pride, beauty, fame and the family he keeps under his wing. He goes through metamorphosis by the end of the second war after his feathers were thoroughly dulled and his greatness underappreciated - but remains stubborn and true to those values, nevertheless. What he seeks is his own Nirvana, where he can nest and do what he pleases without others getting in the way. Like collect muggle shite.

Narcissa is an Arctic Fox. Resilience, perseverance, fortitude - even in the most harsh and cold of environments. Her thick prideful coat keeps her sheltered and camouflaged, she hides her true intentions in plain sight and slyly holds her cards close to her chest. She guards her den, her family, with tricks and schemes - she lied to the dark lords face, she went behind his back to save her son, she can always sniff out an opportunity through the snow. ((Also maybe I like the idea of all of the Blacks kinda getting a canine-esque patronus... even Tonks got one through Remus, after running away from her family like a hare))

Draco is an Ermine. A little brown ferret-like animal, whose coat turns pure white as winter comes around... apart from the one impurity of a black tail tip. Purity, Pride over its coat - though it only wears it a short while in its life. When the peaceful spring comes it turns back to brown. Ermines have long been skinned in their winter coat for the use of the rich and powerful. Farmed and taken at their most prideful and pure-looking only to be blatantly used... the kings crown has an ermine fur band and if that isn't a good enough allegory then idk what is tbh. But if they can survive the hunters and make it to spring, they are reborn. ((also calling an ermine a ferret would be a cute little insult.)) And ALL THREE OF THEM are animals known for their beautiful, pure and impressive fur/feathers - prized by royalty. They want to display the Malfoy's brilliance themselves... but they have stepped into someone else's shadow, and become their pet. If they aren't careful all of them will be skinned and plucked for someone else's coat...

#draco malfoy #lucius malfoy #narcissa malfoy #hp #headcannons

[the-monkey-ruler]

would you say macaque is something like a necessary evil in the novel?

I would say you are talking about the Six Eared Macaque right? There are a few Macaques in the story. I mean I wouldn't really say he is "necessary" as that isn't really the role he plays within the novel.

When I think "necessary evil" I think more like a force in society that is kept in order to keep the peace or to preserve other social forces that are considered more important to keep than to lose. A necessary evil is an evil that someone believes must be done or accepted because it is necessary to achieve a better outcome—especially because possible alternative courses of action or inaction are expected to be worse.

Which I do not believe the Six-Eared Macaque plays at all.

He is to play the role of the mirror to Sun Wukong. He is supposed to represent the absolute worse of what Wukong is capable of, not really being the opposite of Wukong but rather more of a foil to show Wukong what he could have been (I actually think another great foil character is Erlang Shen for different reasons). A version of Wukong that if he continued to be a warlord, continued to kill without regard for the value of life or consequences that the would turn into him.

The Six-Eared Macaque is not given a backstory so it's hard to say if they have similar backgrounds but rather it is that they are the same species and have the same drive that Wukong had at the start of the novel. Both being of immense power and, like Wukong, The Six Earred Macaque's greatest desire was to get fame and glory and to be recognized for it, despite the consequences.

Personally I believe that the Six-Eared Macaque was inspired by the Buddist saing “The dharma is not to be transmitted to the sixth ear" which means that there isn't a third person around to easdrop, usually between student and teacher. This is only used once when Wukong was speaking with Master Puti and this is where I think that the Six Earred Macaque learned the same skill that Wukong did.

Of course, this also means that he doesn't have a complete understanding. He would always be slightly off with his own teachings, always a step behind, and only be able to imitate what they were eavesdropping on as they were never told directly.

Kind of like how Wukong is supposed to be a master of transformation when he fought Erlang Shen and still lost the SIx Earred Macaque is supposed to discern and have knowledge but he is still just eavesdropping. He is never going to have the real thing.

Wukong is meant to represent Nothingness or emptiness, literally in his name meaning "Monkey Awakened to Emptiness" and how he and the Six Earred Macaque are meant to be of one mind but they are "two mind" that are fighting each other. One being one's natural impulsive thoughts and the other is the self-control people practice to think ahead. They are both inside a person's mind but only one can have full control of the body so to speak. I think a good western example of this would be like Ego vs ID but please don't take that as a one-to-one, it's not!

It is connected to how Wukong is the mind monkey and in order for him to reach his namesake that state of overcoming uncontrollable thought he needs to fight the worst version of himself, which is what I think the Six-Eared Macaque is supposed to represent. This actually goes with how I think Wukong and his connection with Bailong being the Horse of Will show how Wukong has gradually started to overcome his own thoughts and practice self-control though his dedicated willpower. (Bailong is an important allegory yet again.)

Long story short I think that the Six-Eared Macaque is to more represents Wukong's character growth. Rather than be a "necessary evil" he is another milestone to show that Wukong is about to look at the worst traits of himself and through fighting himself and wrestling with who he is, he is able to come to accept himself as well... and by defeating his doppelganger he shows that after battling himself he comes out the victor. Him moving on and changing throughout the journey shows him to be stronger and more sure of himself both mentally and spiritually.

#six eared macaque #sun wukong #jttw #journey to the west #xiyouji #sorry for any errors #I feel like I repeated some things but #ya know #get the idea #knowing you are able for great good but also great evil #the need to keep yourself in check else you start going down a dark path #Facing the reality that you are capable of horrid atrocities and need to hold yourself accountable #WUKONG HAD TO FACE HIS LEGIT WORST INNER TRAITS AND SAY 'im better than that' #AND HE IS #Wukong looking at himself the selfishmess the ruthlessness the lack of empathy #and he hates that about himself #but the only way to change it is to confront it head on and personally stop it #he always trying to do better #ask

[lord-squiggletits]

Pharma's place in a Functionist society (headcanon)

So I've talked in some previous posts about all the reasons that Pharma isn't a functionist because canon never showed him espousing functionist ideals + he's actually in a place to be a victim of functionism. And I've been working on a Pharma-centric oneshot that made me put into words the best metaphor I can think of for Pharma's relationship with Functionism:

He doesn't support Functionism, but is simultaneously a beneficiary of it and also marginalized by it, because his position of being forged both a doctor and a jet basically turns him into a "token minority" of sorts.

I know that sounds kind of silly or maybe like a clumsy political allegory, but hear me out. There are a couple facts about Pharma and the circumstances of his forging that put him at the crossroads between privilege and marginalization within Functionism:

Tyrest says that Pharma was "famous for being forged." Not famous for being a forged medic-- otherwise surely Ratchet would be just as noteworthy-- but famous for being FORGED. But also, note that this is an opinion that SOCIETY had about Pharma, not something that Pharma espouses about himself. (For the sake of an example, Pharma isn't Starscream, who has an explicit, deep-seated need for others' love and approval. Pharma himself doesn't express any opinions on his own popularity or convey that fame/adoration is something he wants.)

Functionism on Cybertron held that if someone was born with a certain alt-mode, they can/should only have certain jobs. For people born with flight alt-modes, those people were almost always regulated to military or transportation/courier jobs

SIMULTANEOUSLY, Pharma was forged with medic hands, which under a Functionist society were viewed as the peak of medical care and all the best doctors were forged or at least had a "special something" that non-forged hands lacked (according to Ratchet).

So taken in combination, this means that from the moment of Pharma's birth, he straddled a line of Functionism between two different "predestined" paths for him, where he was simultaneously forged to be a doctor and also forged to fly, fitting into BOTH of these categories despite norms of Functionism which say you're one or the other. And I speculate that the reason Pharma is "famous for being forged" is precisely because of those lines he straddles: his very existence is a contradiction, but he was also FORGED that way. The same creed that dictated the two different functions of "hands" and "alt-mode" also says that Pharma should be what he was born to be. What he was born to be was a forged medic jet.

In my opinion, I think that being "famous for being forged" is sort of like a token-minority situation for Pharma, where perhaps Pharma was seen as a curiosity or even something exotic, not just as a person. Maybe because he was a jet and people assumed jets were only soldiers/transportation, a lot of his achievements were put in the light of "Oh, he's a really amazing doctor, for a jet" or "It's crazy that he's a doctor AND a jet at the same time". The attention Pharma received for the unique circumstances of his birth WAS positive, but it would've likely been framed in a bit of a condescending way, as if Pharma is noteworthy and famous not for being a good doctor, but for being a good doctor despite being born a jet.

So I would say that as far as Pharma's personal experience with Functionism, he simultaneously experienced privilege and marginalization. He enjoyed the privileges of being a medic while avoiding the restrictions of being a flight frame. However, a lot of the idolization and attention he received would have also come from a place of tokenizing Pharma: he's "famous for being forged," because in this society he's defying expectations merely for existing as himself. That is to say, Pharma in a Functionist society wasn't treated as remarkable because of who he is as a person and how hard he worked to be a good doctor; he was treated as remarkable for the circumstances of his forging, something he had no control over and can't change, and apparently Pharma being a forged medic jet is such a noteworthy origin that he's "famous" for it.

The above paragraph is purely headcanon, of course, but I like to imagine that part of Pharma's reason for having a big ego isn't out of simple vanity or insecurity, but because of a sort of "gifted student" syndrome, in a sense. From the moment he was forged he was treated as a rarity and an incredible phenomenon, and he would have had to work incredibly hard to be seen as "an incredible doctor" in his own right rather than just "that forged medic jet." Maybe, as a jet, he also had something to prove; he had to show to a Functionist society that being a jet doesn't make him an inferior doctor and that his alt-mode has nothing to do with his skills at his profession.

That is to say, I don't think Pharma would have been openly anti-Functionist, or had many opinions about it at all. I actually lean towards the interpretation that Pharma basically saw himself as getting lucky with the way he was forged and being content with the fact that he'd managed to carve out a reputation for himself as being incredibly skilled. However, Pharma not getting involved politically in Functionism doesn't change the fact that he WOULD have had a very complicated relationship with Functionism, in that alt-mode discrimination would have had an effect on him even though he was in the scientific/medical class and supposedly privileged.

#mtmte #mtmte pharma #transformers idw #transformers meta #mtmte meta #squiggposting #pharma apologism #pharma doesn't fit neatly into categories of privileged or oppressed and that makes him especially interesting #tldr: pharma probably got microaggressioned a lot at work lmao #some med student: oh my gosh... a flight frame in medical school... how did you manage that? #omg pharma it's so craaazy that you can fly and you're also a doctor #wow pharma your hands are incredible it's a good reason you have them or they probably wouldn't have let you in #pharma smiling tightly with a drink in his hands: yeah. crazy. #pharma: anyways i'm gonna go perform a triple organ donation everyone fuck off i'm working #i think pharma never got political mainly because he comes off as the type who focuses on his job and nothing else #like he's experienced marginalization on account of being a forged medic JET but he kind of just went #well I overcame the odds and i'm the best doctor ever now and my position in society is comfortable that's all i wanted #but it's a far cry from fanon that decides to make him a full on card carrying functionist that's openly bigoted #i feel like i just repeated myself over and over again without saying much ah well

[guybitesatgames]

you know video games, and you know vampires, yeah? whats the best vampire in a video game in your opinion?

Pardon me while I take advantage of the fact that "best" is a nebulous adjective.

If we take "best" to mean "the most closely fit to an archetypal vampire"...

I gotta go with the obvious answer: Castlevania's Alucard.

Isn't he a dhampir? Shouldn't it be Dracula?

Paradoxically, Alucard's condition as a dhampir makes him closer to an archetypal vampire than Dracula. Vampires are often used as an allegory for liminal identities - an AB person who can neither fit into group A because of their B traits nor fit into group B because of their A traits. Being only part vampire doubles down on this trope, and we occasionally see Alucard grapple with this, whereas Dracula is far past the point where he's struggling with his separation from humanity.

Besides, can Dracula do this?

Further, it might just be because we're playing as him, but we get to see Alucard doing a lot more vampire-things than we see Dracula doing. He's got bat form, he's got wolf form, he's even got the oft-forgot mist form and he sleeps in a coffin. We can presume that he inherited those things from his father, but Dracula's more likely to take on a war form more commonly associated with werewolves than that of the humble bat.

/|\ ^._.^ /|\ .𖥔 ݁ ˖🦇 ݁˖ ݁𖥔 . /|\ ^._.^ /|\

If we take "best" to mean "doing the best at vampirism"...

that would have to be Sebastian LaCroix of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines fame.

Everyone else on this list plays nice- LaCroix treats people as playthings. As a character you are not meant to sympathize with, he's allowed to embrace the cutthroat-but-genteel nature of a vampire that protagonists can't. He's afforded the luxury of being a monster and that is a luxury he will indulge. Even though we don't see him drinking blood or flouncing around in a cape, he goes so overboard being a manipulative little leech that he has to take the top spot.

He's also the only one here to do the most vampiric thing of all - being undone by one's thirst.

/|\ ^._.^ /|\ .𖥔 ݁ ˖🦇 ݁˖ ݁𖥔 . /|\ ^._.^ /|\

If we take "best" to mean "my favorite, vampiric metrics be damned"...

I'd be remiss not to mention Valvatorez, best (and only?) vampire in the Disgaea series.

As one might expect from the Disgaea IP, he's a bit of a trope inversion; he's sworn off blood and he's only interested in power if it can be used to help those under his rule, but that's what makes him so lovable! The only king I stan is one who properly understands noblesse oblige. Instead of being the usual "powerful friend with a tragic cost", he's unflaggingly the friend who wants to make YOU powerful with the only drawback of probably having sardine breath. On all thematic points, he fails to live up to vampiric standards, but that reflects poorly on the standards, not on him. In a just world, all vampires would use their age as a source of wisdom to be shared and their strength as a means of helping up friends in need.

/|\ ^._.^ /|\ .𖥔 ݁ ˖🦇 ݁˖ ݁𖥔 . /|\ ^._.^ /|\

Honorable mention: myotismon in many of the Digimon games. Usually, he's a perfectly stand-up guy who just happens to have An Aesthetic that gives everyone the wrong idea and gets him in trouble.

Poor lad

#vampires #ask #Some Guy's Answers

[dreadsuitsamus]

Chicago | Renji Abarai x Reader |

part two

author's note: the song in this fic is called Chicago by Highly Suspect! very good song and very good band that i recommend 🫶 also, this is that other au i had thought of the other day haha

pairing: renji abarai x fem!reader

warnings: au, angst, lost love, renji-centric

A ring of smoke is pushed from Renji's lips as he leans against the balcony railing. He's home for once, and he remembered almost instantly why he hates it so much— too big, too empty, too quiet. It's the near polar opposite of his usual daily shenanigans, and the twinkle of one particular star, the one that shines brighter than all the rest, has his chest clutching a fierce vice over his heart.

"Baby, I met you in downtown Chicago." He sings quietly; he can't count the amount of times he lost a song this way, neglecting to write down what comes to his mind when inspiration surges. But this one has always been different, with each lyric stuck and a melody he's never cared to write branded ever since his downtrodden feelings and regrets guided his creativity to it in the first place.

He glances over his shoulder to his mansion, and he takes another puff from his smoke as he heads back inside from the cool, airy night. The piano in the foyer calls him, and who has he ever been but at the mercy of the music? There's an ashtray on the piano that he doesn't remember leaving behind, but it's convenient and he doesn't question it as he sets his cigarette down and ties his red hair up.

Renji's never been much of a social media user, usually leaving it to the band's team of publicists to make the majority of his posts— but he can't help but start a live video after setting his phone atop the piano, silently hoping you'll be watching.

Would you be? Do you even follow him, after all the years and the way he broke your heart?

"Why am I fucking up so bad?" He says to himself, staring blankly at the piano keys. "What am I even doing?"

She's not watching.

"When am I ever gonna learn what it is she already knows?"

And he hates the lump in his throat, despises the way his eyes blur for just a moment. He's on camera, self-imposed at that, and yet he wants to cry his eyes out for a love he lost through his own actions. It's all his fault, always was. It was never over the money or fame— no, those he could do without. But he had to follow the music, and it was just something you could never understand.

Before the pause gets too long and his agent could send a SWAT team to his house and intervene, Renji's fingers begin to move over the piano keys. It's not entirely confident and he's certainly playing with the melody for the first time, but he's able to find a stride in mere seconds. It's in his natural born talent and the skill of being a musician for so long, and he manages to find a sliver of pride for himself in all of this.

"Baby, I met you in downtown Chicago. But I, I had to drive away the very next day. So I flew your pretty ass to New York City. Then I… I left you in L.A."

The song isn't much more than him plainly spilling his truth and regrets, perhaps from the lack of actually writing it down and trying. And if that alone isn't an allegory for how he treated your relationship, then at the very least the irony isn't lost on him. He could've tried harder, could've walked away…

He said he'd lose himself if he didn't keep going. You said you'd lose yourself if you went with him. Maybe you were both selfish. Or maybe you were just smarter than him.

Yeah, you definitely are that.

Renji feels it but he can't brush away the tear on his face, and fuck he's gonna get some shit for this one. Unrehearsed song and it's clear, it's late at night and there's no way in hell you'd be watching, for fuck's sake it's about two a.m. in your time— if you're still in Chicago, anyway. And now he's crying on camera, his smoke has fizzled out and he's as sober as ever, no blaming any drugs on this one. It's too raw and it's too much and it's too fucking bad that nobody will ever understand his reasons.

He should've stayed in Chicago.

"So it's another late night out here in California. And I'm, I'm burying my pain into somebody else. And now you're back at home living with your mama, got my first record sitting on your shelf."

The somebody else left him sometime ago too, and he can't find it in him to blame her or even miss her. She knew as well as he did that she wasn't much of a replacement that could fill his heart. And all he did was laugh when he'd come home from a tour and the house had been wiped out of the pretty things. God, he's an asshole.

When the song's finally done and he can stop making a fool of himself, he picks his phone up and swiftly ends the live, chucking his phone into some direction and heading upstairs to bed with all the lights left on.

Renji's in Chicago again a few months later, on another tour and the band's genius, asshole agent whipped his vulnerability into a positive and now it's a single that he performs every goddamn night. Might as well go ahead and commercialize this pain too, he thinks to himself before each performance. Maybe one day it'll make it hurt less, and he'll be numb to it.

There's no fault in hoping, but he knows better than to truly believe that.

He's doing his best to be incognito as he walks around the city, with a hood up over his fiercely colored hair and sunglasses on his face despite the dreary, cloudy sky above him. There's a café with outdoor seating nearby, and he nearly breaks his expensive sunglasses when he sees the waitress tending to an elderly couple on the patio.

You're still here, and you're a waitress again.

His heart's in his throat and he wants to scream, to run for you and hold you again. His eyes burn with sudden tears and then fuck, you see him too. His legs are moving and then he's jogging, and you're tentative but you're moving towards him too—

"Baby!" His voice cracks and he reaches out his hand to you.

"Renji…" Oh he could cum right now at how sweet your voice sounds his name out.

There's so much to say and he wants to say it all… But there's those telltale screams again, the ones he tried to avoid. And you know them just as well as he does, and with that the moment's lost. You shake your head despite his drowned pleadings of "No, no, no!" and walk away as he's surrounded by adoring fans that are ecstatic he's come to their hometown, asking relentlessly for autographs and if he's performing Chicago tonight—

You spare him a merciful glance over your shoulder before you go back inside, and when you blow him that kiss…

Renji realizes you were watching him make a fool of himself on that night after all. And for just a second, he'd made you a hopeful fool again. But nothing about reality has changed.

He's gonna keep following the music, and his manager's gonna keep spinning the fruit of that painful decision into profit.

And you'll still be in Chicago, failing to forget him.

#renji abarai x you #renji abarai x reader #renji x you #renji x reader #renji abarai #renji bleach #bleach #fic #bleach imagine

[pepperish]

look -- I don't care whether people love or hate taylor swift or TTPD, but I am genuinely curious about people's takes and how the internet's obsession with problematizing everything seems to want to eradicate the creation of any art at all.

Argue all you want about the content and/or the artistic merits of Taylor's work, but saying "the irony of taylor naming an album Tortured Poets Department while there are wars going on and actual poets being tortured" is such a wild take. Do people do not understand what confessional art production means?

The argument that she couldn't use asylum or mental illness imagery for "Who's afraid of little old me?" also baffles me, because of course it isn't literal. I don't think anyone believes Taylor Swift's white upper middleclass upbringing is the madness she's referring to -- rather than, you know, having your private life turned into public spectacle from a very young age. Now, you can feel uncomfortable with the lyrics and not hear it, and you can even debate the position mega celebrities end up in when they chase fame but then resent the lack of privacy, but. These are figures of speech, metaphors and allegories. No one can say what kind of images artists can use to describe their experiences and produce art, for fucks sake.

Art should make us uncomfortable. Art can be polarizing. Art is oftentimes self-exploratory and controversial and confessional. It is not supposed to be sanitized. No one is forced to like it or agree with it. But for the love of god learn how to interact with art without the lens of what is or isn't "problematic" on the internet.

#this is sort of about #Taylor Swift #but really about art in general #I just really hate this imposing of “sanitized art” that the internet is obsessed with #it makes for scared artists and art that is afraid to do or say anything that would get them 'cancelled' #which is just boring #TTPD #the tortured poets department

[morgenlich]

it is always interesting to me when people on the internet claim that artemisia gentileschi is underrated when she has, in my experience at least, been pretty much accepted into the canon and has been for some time now. maybe she isn't known about as much by like, normies who don't know much about art or art history but honestly how many of those kinds of people could even name more than like three artists off the top of their head regardless of gender anyway?

i've also more than once seen people claim here on tumblr that gentileschi was erased by the men who wrote about art history, which is simply a lie. i will say that pre-1970s writing about her is pretty blatantly sexist (her work is almost always said to be lesser than her father's) and she was certainly not given the respect that she deserved, but it's not like she was deliberately erased from history. art historians have always known about her, if attribution of her works has been inaccurate.

it's not that her story is unimportant, of course, it very much is and i am glad that she is well known. but something that bothers me a little bit about her fame is that, like, there were other female artists in renaissance and baroque europe. a few of whom, like gentileschi, worked in various royal courts. can you name any of them? or had you thought that gentileschi was the sole exception?

additionally, on the topic of oppression in europe at the time, i never see the internet discuss how it was, in most places, forbidden for jews to learn painting (or really any trade at all). let's talk about that, too. let's talk about how jews weren't allowed to build our own synagogues or mikvehs or homes. let's talk about how there is jewish art from this time in spite of this. let's talk about how many renaissance works are blatantly antisemitic in nature; giotto's famous fresco cycle for example being blatant supersecessionism; the continued presence of synagoga as allegory; altarpieces depicting antisemitic folktales; judas wearing yellow, a color that many jews at the time were obligated to wear by law in order to distinguish themselves from their gentile neighbors. let's talk about this.

#kunstgeschichte

[soadghoniem]

Assignment 1

Khalik Allah is a visual artist who transitions between photography and cinema with equal ease. His aesthetic is very colorful, full of contrast and light, and it conveys a sense of urgency. According to Allah, who is self-taught in both media, "I didn't know that they were two separate things. I considered photography as a sort of filmmaking as well as the opposite.

Allah staked his photographic fame with the publication of Souls Against the Concrete. The book, which was released in 2017 by the University of Texas Press, includes personal and dramatic images of the New York City residents who frequent the area at night on or around the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. the light coming from stores and according to Allah in the book's preface, the portraits of "those who find themselves in the worst imaginable situation" pierce the souls with the omnipresent coloured lights of rescue vehicles. “But I recognize their invulnerability and I reflect it back to them. These are psychic x-rays. I consider my photographs energy charts. During my interaction with people, I measure frequencies of soul consciousness.” In addition, If the drama of a person can be seen behind his or her eyes, then the street serves as the stage for the "street opera" that Khalik Allah documents. Allah records the lives of his subjects, the majority of whom live on the streets of Harlem without a place to call home. These portraits act as a reflection of our greater society as well as an allegory for who these individuals are. The existence of so many people who are frequently ignored is visually told in Allah's images, and the voiceless are given a voice. In honor of Magnum Photos' 75th anniversary, Man Child by Khalik Allah was chosen from among these 31 pieces to take part in the third of a series of Square Print Sales that will examine the company's rich history from 1947 to the present. The Photographers' Gallery in London, which has invited 31 of the photographers it collaborates with to participate by submitting their own iconic photos, is the curator of the October sale. Allah and I recently got the chance to talk about this particular piece of art, its significance, and what it means for the artist to look into the souls of those we pass by on a daily basis.

KA: I call that picture Man Child because the child in this image really looks like he’s thinking like a full-grown man, even though he’s in a baby’s body. He got gold around his neck, a fresh pair of shoes, and a hat as if he dressed himself, and it just seems like, even at that young age, he has a level of maturity. I think that’s partially due to the reality that he’s faced with, his environment, and the circumstances that he will have to face growing up. When I see this child, I don’t just see an individual, I see the generations of men, women, and children that it took to create this child in an environment of so many struggles to face in order to even exist. Filmmaking and photography are merely mediums through which can be communicated the deeper spiritual ideas. Everything is actually light. Nowhere is there any darkness or shadows. You know, the way we view with our physical senses—especially our vision—isn't always reliable. Though all you'll see if you look through your heart is brightness. In terms of identifying the light, the inner light in other individuals, this is also a claim I'm making. By concentrating on the good in others, you strengthen your own inner goodness. My use of mathematics is essentially related to the idea that arithmetic is a language that everyone can understand. A scientific tool that deals with light in the form of an aperture is a camera's mechanism. Moreover, It can be difficult to gain someone's trust and permission to take their picture, but Khalik succeeds in doing so in a genuine and moving way that gives the viewer a window into the soul of lives that many people will never know. A few faces appear more than once, and most are taken in close-up. One visage that stands out is that of a homeless man going by the name of Frenchie.

Sources

[werewolfetone]

Hey!

I do reviews for Frev and Napoleonic communities. Are there any media pieces you can recommend? You seem to know a lot about England of the Napoleonic era.

Oh boy. Yes.

The Young Mr. Pitt is a wwii era propaganda film about William Pitt The Younger, the pm during the first bit of the Napoleonic Wars. It shamelessly uses him as a very obvious allegory for Winston Churchill and it's extremely entertaining. It's on youtube!

Prince Regent isn't exactly about the Napoleonic Wars, but it's about George iv, the man who was the crown prince and then the Prince Regent while the wars were going on. It also includes depictions of many prominent politicians of the day, including Fox, Pitt, Liverpool, and Grenville. It's also on youtube.

Peterloo 2018 is a movie about the period right after the wars, depicting, as the title suggests, the Peterloo massacre. It goes into some details about English radicalism of the era, which I find pretty interesting.

I cannot for the life of me find it online but there's a 1934 movie called The Iron Duke that's about Wellington and contains what might be the only screen depiction of Lord Castlereagh. I have a dvd in my possession and I'm planning on uploading it to youtube at some point so it's hopefully going to be more accessible soon.

I haven't read it yet but there's a historical fiction novel called Of Honest Fame that I'm pretty sure is about England's spy network during the war. By the same author there's also May 1812, which is about Perceval's assassination in 1812, which I have also not read.

It isn't really about Frev but Caleb Williams by William Godwin is a book set (and written) in 1790s England that illustrates some of the ideas shared by the Frev-inspired English radicals of the 1790s. It's like a mixture of political treatise and gothic novel and it's very interesting, especially if you know about the wider context.

In terms of books written at the time and about English Frev-inspired radicalism, there's also Maria: or, The Wrongs of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft. It's an early feminist work considered a Jacobin novel, though I have to warn you that it's incomplete and also not really about Frev.

#these are all very england-centric #i wish i could rec some things about ireland as well but i haven't looked into media about ireland at that time #i've just read nonfiction things so far #asks #mutuals #napoleonic wars #french revolution #frev

[sciencestyled]

Explosions of Genius: When Beakers Become Brushes

Imagine, if you will, a world where the periodic table is not just a sleep-inducing laminate on the classroom wall but a vibrant palette for the next viral art movement. This isn't your grandma's watercolor class; this is Chemical Art Forms, where safety goggles meet the avant-garde, and the only rule is that there are no rules, except for those pesky safety regulations.

Let's kick off with a scene: a lab that looks like Picasso and a mad scientist had a baby. In one corner, there's an experiment that resembles the aftermath of a unicorn sneeze—glittery, shimmering, and inexplicably sticky. This is the domain where science education and art not just hold hands but do the tango in zero gravity. The fusion of these fields is not merely interdisciplinary; it's an all-out, rave-inspired, glow-stick-fueled party where electrons and paint pigments drop it like it's hot.

Consider the classic elephant toothpaste demonstration, a favorite amongst both pyromaniac teens and weary chemistry teachers. It's not just a foamy spectacle; it's a metaphor for life's unpredictability, a visual sonnet about the chaos inherent in the human condition, presented with the pizzazz of a Broadway showstopper. This reaction, combining hydrogen peroxide with a catalyst, churns out an overflowing mass of bubbles in a display that could rival the finale of a fireworks show, teaching us that sometimes, things need to implode spectacularly to reveal their true beauty.

And then, there's the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, the chemical equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting coming to life. It’s a swirling, pulsating party of colors that refuses to settle down, like a rave where the beats never stop and the floor is a living entity. This reaction is the perfect allegory for the internet's attention span—constantly shifting, never resting, and absurdly mesmerizing. It teaches us the beauty of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, a term that sounds like it was coined by someone who enjoys complicating simple concepts for the sheer thrill of it.

But why stop there? Let's dive deeper into the rabbit hole with chemiluminescence, the science behind glow sticks. Break one, and you kickstart a rave in your hand—a silent disco for molecules excited by their own energetic dance. This is the chemical world's version of going viral: a sudden burst of fame and light, illuminating the night for a fleeting moment before fading into obscurity, a poignant reminder of our own quest for momentary glimmers of recognition in the vast darkness of the internet.

These experiments aren't just about awe-inspiring reactions; they're a subversive commentary on the educational system itself. They poke fun at the traditional, dry approach to science education, injecting humor and life into subjects that many had written off as terminally boring. It's like turning a Shakespearean tragedy into a meme-filled TikTok saga, complete with costume changes and unexpected plot twists.

Chemical Art Forms is a rebellion against the mundane, a manifesto written in bubbling beakers and exploding colors. It's where the left brain and right brain collide, resulting in a glorious explosion of creativity and logic. This fusion creates a spectacle that's not only visually arresting but intellectually stimulating, proving that learning can be a wildly entertaining adventure.

In this bizarre laboratory, the marriage of science education and art gives birth to creations that are as thought-provoking as they are beautiful. It's a place where you can witness firsthand the transformative power of combining knowledge with imagination, where scientific principles are not just understood but felt, in every shimmering color and unexpected reaction.

So, next time you find yourself yawning through a lecture on chemical reactions, remember: within those formulae lies the potential for the next great art movement, one that promises not just to illuminate the mind, but to set the soul on fire. In the end, Chemical Art Forms is more than just an educational curiosity; it's a vivid reminder that the world is a canvas, and science is just one of many brushes we can use to paint our masterpiece.

#science education #science #education #science art #art #chemistry

[multapohja966]

some fav things this year

Read

Detransition, baby - Torrey Peters' book. just adding a one more assurance that it is just as good as everyone says.

Shopping Star as a semiotechnical code modulating Greek femininity in pharmacopornographic capitalism - fun opulence of hard words discussing interesting things. (article utilising Preciado's analysis tools to discuss (post)recession Greece)

Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw - Rei Mikamoto's insane gory gross, hard to explain, manga about a girl with a chainsaw trying to kill the person responsible for turning her classmates into grotesque minions.

One Piece - caught up finally. yes, it is worth it.

67,292 Things Car Guys Can Teach Transsexuals by Adrian Glenn - part of the 2 Trans 2 Furious zine. as a car guy associate and transsexual i deeply loved this one.

The Shape of Premodern Nonbinarity: A Conversation with Leah DeVun - I'll never stop talking about this article.

Watched

Bronson - Tom Hardy movie, biography of "Britain's most violent prisoner " Charles Bronson. It doesn't completely highlight everything essential about his story (having a less than nuanced view on untreated mental illness and its relationship with incarceration) but it's such a good fucking movie!! And at least artistically very loyal to who it's depicting (insane and absurdist).

this video of jack harlow at a chiropractic appointment - we live such weird fucking times. like it isn't heartfelt but it isn't disgusting either it's just, w-what? eh?

Little chinese everywhere - vlogger Yan who travels though less tourist heavy provinces in China, really respectful look to everyday life in more rural communities. these have given me a lot of peace and joy. a lot of extremely intresting architecture as well.

Inflatables and the adults who love collecting them - by furry youtuber Ash Coyote. Truly a gem of respectful by fandom, of fandom documentaries. Touching and lovely!!

MerPeople - don't touch netflix anymore but this documentary of the mermaid community and industry is incredibly good.

this rose ramdin x html jones vid - the well read terminally online gen z musical artists who get their estrogen money from twitter shitposting are the modern greek philosphers. in the sense that i'd sit on a stone public square step and listen to a convo like this for the whole day.

A normal creepypasta retrospective - there's hope for youtube actually

Cat soup / Nekojiru-sou movie

Earth Maiden Arjuna - early 2000s environmentalist anime series lovers make some noicee. this one is sooo lovely and gorgeous. real hidden gem.

Gigs

Sabaton - as expected, bit of a weird vibe in the crowd demographic :--------D but show itself is an insane fucking spectacle I'm happy I saw. You can really sense these men are swedish, the "my country hasn't been in an active war for two centuries" theater kid energy is wild. Tank on stage.

Death Grips - I'm pretty sure this rebooted my whole brain. Went with close friend, pretty sure my biggest bruise came form her hands.

Antti Tuisku - Farewell gig of the best pop performer in finland. I do not understand how he doesn't pass out on stage with everything he's doing. The jesus allegory album is forever my favorite, it's so genious in how it discusses fame so well while staying funny and self-avare. Neck hurt for the next week due to headbanging.

Suistamon sähkö - small gig yet one of the absolute best this year. (i cried) You need to see these guys live, the vocal ability of the main singers is absurd, it doesn't come through fully in recordings. And they create a very special atmosphere and community within their gigs, literally joined hands and danced in a circle.

#feels like there wasn't much this year.. hmh #recommendations #my post

[celestles]

there are some replies to those eroda tweets that say '#VisitEroda, Stay For The Rest Of Your Life' like what the fuck

#isn't it an allegory for fame? #like after entering you can't actually leave #idk #celestuff

[crystalkleure]

🎵 Song rec

Nosaka Yuuma {Inazuma Eleven}

Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals

“We were neurophobic and perfect The day that we lost our souls Maybe we weren’t so human But if we cry, we will rust

[...]

You were my mechanical bride Phenobarbiedoll A manniqueen of depression With the face of a dead star

And I was a hand grenade That never stopped exploding You were automatic And as hollow as the “o” in God

I am never gonna be the one for you And I am never gonna save the world from you

They’ll never be good to you, bad to you They’ll never be anything, anything at all

[...]

This isn’t me, I’m not mechanical I’m just a boy, playing the suicide king”

#Inazuma Eleven #Inazuma Eleven Ares no Tenbin #Nosaka Yuuma #Playlist fodder #Hoo boy! The girl in this song is an allegory. This is about being enamored with the idea of Perfection even at the cost of your humanity. #You gotta be mechanical to be perfect. It becomes clear ''perfection'' is not worth it and the illusion isn't even possible to maintain. #''Perfect'' tragically is not real #Perfection is an empty promise that ultimately achieves and fulfils nothing. #It's specifically about the expectations put on you due to fame and how those expectations are horseshit and extremely damaging

[the-rolling-libero]

Here are some thoughts on MAG 184, with a large helping of Very Obvious allegory, vaguely connected images, and a dash of ant communsim.

this isn't the first time we've been ants in the face of the powers, and my feeling that we're supposed to be coming back to this image of helplessness, of ignorance of the full picture, is reinforced by this line:

which is referencing the idea central to the anthill image, that we can’t fully understand the powers, even as we glimpse them-- that our conceptualizations of them are a bit fundamentally ‘bull’. And ofc we have this bit, which is pretty explicit-- but it changes the meaning of the whole thing.

Not only are we seeing the anthill metaphor brought back and reminding us of humanity's ignorance in the face of the powers, but I would argue this line turns Leto's experience into an allegory for the avatars-- specifically, Jon.

If the ants are taken as human, Leto is placed above them as the stand in for the fears. This is the natural way of the apocalypse-scape, where the avatars are more than ever invested with real, tangible power over the general population. If we are ants, Avatars are the new kid with a kettle come to burn us away through the various domains of the apocalypse. But Leto isn't trying to kill the ants. He's trying to reduce all the harm he can-- but of course, he can't help but be what he is (what he’s been made by his placement in the anthill?).

This is not the behavior of the Avatars that we know-- none, of course, bar our good friend Jonathan Sims, of I’m-Doing-My-Best Fame. It's been a prevailing thread through his journey that he's tried to reduce all the harm he can-- sometimes poorly, sometimes incompletely-- but if you don't see Jon in "he holds his arms in close and tries not to move" idk what podcast you've been listening to.

Further, the way that Leto's experience as an “Avatar” in this passage is related repeatedly to Knowing.

Though there's a twist of corruption in there, this absolute knowledge, their senses attuned, connected as one-- this is where Jon is now, connected inexorably to every single person in the hellscape. He can see their thoughts, truly know them in every way. And of course there's this bad boy:

He can feel them and considers their fear and their pain; not exactly the absolute empathy that Jon is going through, but a state of heightened awareness that I would argue still connects with Jon’s experience. This is who Jon is at this moment; Leto is standing in for Jon. And I would be far from the first person to note the similarities of Jordan to Martin, with his quest for the Queen.

The endings for our two characters leave me thinking about the sort of ending a tragedy like tma might have-- the sort of ending they're leading us to expect, at least, with this episode.

For Jon: overwhelmed by his inability to act without destruction, trying to save people incapable of saving themselves, perhaps even tortured specifically by them (bc how else are we supposed to understand him being constantly aware of all the pain in a world ruled by fear?)

and for Martin, a bit longer--

Leaving the other behind on a quest that he knows, deep down, to be futile, defined and condemned by the hope that carries him on.

The fact that Jordan is chosen to become an Avatar of the eye by forces he cannot control in the end is also an interesting little tidbit hint for Martin-- maybe a divergence? A choice he’s currently facing, the two paths of torturer and tortured that he’s been refusing to really choose between the whole time? I don’t think this episode is showing us the future-- that would be a more obvious hand than the writers tend to play. I think it’s showing us some possibilities, setting up expectations for what ‘endings’ in this hellscape look like. I sure hope there’s a third option-- but Magnus Archives so far has been a story about no decision being right, a game you can’t win. It would take a fundamental upheaval of the whole system to change things.

In regards to that, I think there's something to the idea that since the ants are actually the avatars in this situation, despite the metaphor going the other way, the narrative might be hinting at the possibility of people subsuming the fears into themselves, maybe eventually toppling the powers (or simply changing them). Is there anything to this reversal, or is it just the device we need for the episode to work?

Really makes you think! :^)

#tma #the magnus archives #thots and opinions #tma spoilers #my secret conclusion here is that ants are fear communism #can the ants b communism if theyre still torturing tho like does democratizing the fear change it really fundamentally? #some allowances need to be made for thr necesseary structure of the ep #but also maybe for punishing specifically the old capitalist class? if both leto and jordan were avatars as is implied #but fear isnt the means of production it's the byproduct of living under capitalism #so i am not sure

[batrachois]

Art tag game!!

I was tagged by the lovely @sunny-day-sky , tysm💕💕💕

One insecurity

Animals! I hate drawing them cause i always go too comic-y or too realistic and i can't find a way to blend them with my style ><

Two fears

Failure: i hate when what i do flops and gets ignored/not seen. I perceive it as a failure and it makes me super self conscious

Being misunderstood: maybe part of the reason i am so scared of being misunderstood is the fact that i have to constantly speak a language that isn't Mine, but i am super scared. It has happened and it will happen again cause you cannot breathe without being severely judged on this site...

Three art turn ons

- Panneggio!!! Unf!!! I'm a sucker for a good ol panneggio

- Flowy hair!!!!!!! It makes the whole image so good!!!

- Allegories!!! I! Love! Allegories! I love subtext! i LOVE it!!! Everything means something else and i know this is very italian-reinassance of me, but U N F GIVE ME COLOR SUBTEXT GIVE ME METAPHORS GIVE ME MYTHOLOGY REFERENCESHSUHJS

Four life fandom/art goals

1. Being recongizable! Like having A Style that's mine! And a few things that get popular and that people recognize me for in certain fandoms! (I dont want fame, i want to be "the one who did this")

2. Creating good content people feel inspired by! Inspiring people is my goal, ive said it a thousand times and even if i know it sounds super pretentious cause i'm just a nobody with a 50€ tablet i WANT to help people and to give them SOMETHING that makes them feel better and feel like they can do stuff idk... art helps and if a small dumb drawing i so can make someone smile it's enough for me to feel fullfilled

3. Living off of my art. Or at least like... being successful enough i don't go months without a single commission... at least successful enough that i don't struggle with stuff and have a way to get a bit of weighr off my parents... does this count as a fandom/art goal idk djsbsjs

4. Being somehow of help to younger/less experienced artists. Tbf i dont know much, but i have 2 whole years of experience making commissions and like... posting on tumblr daily (or... not daily)

Five things i like doing

- hands!!! It sounds weird but lmao

- hair!!! Super lovely to work on

- eyes!! I have drawn so many eyes on literally every piece of paper i've ever stumeled across i'm.. i love drawing eyes

- flowers, though i dont do many

- storyboards! Someone hire me to do storyboards it's my life and i swear i'm good at it!!

Six weaknesses

- backgrounds

- feet

- shoes

- my eyes after 4 hours of looking at the screen!

- short hair from the back

- my wrist, that's a whole weakness

Seven things i love

- allegory again cause a bitch has a thing she really LOVES

- mythology drawings

- dragons but not when i draw them

- lines!!! I love doing lineart a LOT, it'a funnier than coloring for sure, it's also a bit less creatively challengig than sketching and i Love it

- drawing different faces (and ethnicities)

- world building is my life, my entire literal life

- designing different clothes that match different cultures to merge so i can put different meanings inside my characters without having to say everything out loud (i.e. Chike from sanctuary)

I'm not going to tag eight people cause i wouldn't know who to tag, hut if you want to do this please say i did tag you and tag me back!!!

#tag games #blablatag